Building a GM Journal

By Simon Retold, in Genesys

I've been running games for over thirty years now, starting about the time I was fourteen. Since that time, I've kept notes in a variety of ways, most of which have been somewhat disorganized, and few of which have been really successful. Last year I started using the Bullet Journal system in order to keep track of events, appointments, and other important notes in my personal life, and while it didn't last as long as I'd like, it wasn't due to the system not working well, but rather because I just got lazy about making regular updates.

This got me to thinking, if I could modify the Bullet Journal system to function specifically for gaming, it might be the one way for me to truly organize all my game- and campaign-related notes.

Do you use any sort of journal system when it comes to GMing? I know a lot of people like to use OneNote (or Evernote), but I'd be interested to see if anyone uses a codified system for journaling their GENESYS games.

On a related note, because I wanted to start doing this, I went a little nuts and had a custom cover made for a journal. What do you think?

genesysjournal.thumb.jpg.995a1dddb10abde8dc0cb16264b85344.jpg

Nice idea with Bulletjournal. I do a poor job of this, mostly because it's cumbersome to take these notes while I run a game, and when it's over I'm spent and I don't feel like sitting down to document things. Usually, I'll take a bulleted list in Scrivener, which I've repurposed as my GM Holocron. For me as well it is not a failing of the tool but a failing for me. I've tried Evernote for this as well as a handful of other things, but nothing ever really sticks.

I know Campaign Logger is a much-appreciated tool in the space but I kinda like to have all my tidbits in one place in my GM Holocron.

That custom journal is nice!