Keeping Track: Hand-Written or Word-Processed

[Mithras]

I'm generating data. My world-building is coming on apace. I've downloaded some great forms from the game Stars Without Number. I have rules mods, I have a history, I have a list of factions, NPCs etc etc.

How do you collect this data?

I'm trying to create folders and Word documents. Building up asystematic, nice looking set of documents ready for printing 'when its all finished'.

But to be honest, ever since I was a wee lad, I've preferred handling stuff with hardcopy, pen and paper. My urge is to create blank forms (a la Stars Without Number) and handwrite everything as time permits. But there is the nagging thought that I want the whole lot on the web at some point.

So I have this dichotomy between handrwriting everything (anywhere) and word-processing everything. Which looks cool for the final product, but gee, I hate sitting at the computer all evening .........

What do you guys do with your campaign data?

 

[rust]

Depending on the quality of your handwriting, you could scan your hand-
written material and use an optical recognition software to turn it into a
computer text. I once did something like this with the free demo version
of such a software (could be used for a certain number of days only), and
it worked surprisingly well.

Apart from that one case, I have been using computer text for most of my
setting and campaign material for a couple of years now, mostly because
this enables me to copy the material easily and to send it to others with-
out any cost and delay.

 

[Jericho]

My heart says hand written because thats what I grew up doing, my head says computer generated because its so much easier to modify.

Funny thing is I still have bad habits from learning to type on an electric typewriter, I often delete rather than edit a spelling mistake as thats what I needed to do with those eraser tapes they had on the machines I learned on, guess I must be a creature of habit, though lately I've found myself trying to break the way habit.

I tried to type up my scenarios using my mothers manual typewriter when I was a teenager and just gave up because of my lack of accuracy.

I still take a notebook around with me to jot down ideas when I get a moment of inspiration in the pub or similar situation.

Even if its an electronic document I like to produce a hard copy as I prefer to run a game from print, I guess it must be my age.

 

[Sturn]

I make notes in pencil, but later put everything into a database or processing program. Everything. But, I started typing on an Apple IIe in junior high, am the son of a school secretary, and thus have been gifted with being able to type quicker then I can write*.

*But this is catching up to me in the form of carpal tunnel syndrome. I have to do wrist exercises before and after typing to remove the pain/numbness/itch and I fear surgery is still in my future.

 

[Sturn]

I have long disliked full-scale computers on the gaming table since they are forming a "silicon wall" between people.

Overall I agree, but I've used a laptop before in scifi RPGs. I don't use it in fantasy RPGs at all. When I have used a laptop I've created a website that appears like a ship's computer for the players. I add stuff to library entries, maps, news, etc to the website. Players can look at it between adventures and look up information during game as if they logged on to a computer. I DON'T use a computer to perform games tasks however.

I do look forward to table-top games benefitting from table-top computers someday. You can Google online for an example of D&D played on a touchscreen coffee table (Microsoft Surface). It really looks pretty awesome, covered with awesome sauce. You are still rolling dice, moving minis, etc so it doesn't take away from the fun of sitting around a table to play games. Please look at the link below, would be great to play Traveller on such a platform:

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/10/d-and-d-microsoft-surface/

 

[apoc527]

I haven't handwritten a single RPG note since probably 1999, which was before I got my first laptop. After computers, I never went back, but that's primarily because my handwriting is so bad that even I can't read it half the time.

Now I use an iPad with Bluetooth keyboard for full speed typing of notes when I'm at the table, but can easily pick up the iPad and pass it around to show people stuff. It's great. I fully predict that most of my group will have a tablet computer of some kind in the next 2-3 years.

 

[Mithras]

Typically I write ideas and flesh things out in a notebook I carry around. I get through 1 book/year that's full of gaming ideas, notes, developments etc.

Then I type it up into nice looking documents, illustrated for my own use with great art from the web. So I guess I get the best of both worlds.

Like I said though, I miss filling in the hex sheet by hand and all the rows of UPPs ...

We use a laptop at the table, but I have it 'away from me' so that everyone can see it, but it is just in reach. I did the same as Sturn in one campaign and create HTML pages like a ship's interface, linking to the Library Data pages on the net, the Imperial Atlas on the net and various other services (including sound effects and Andrew Boulton's Traveller movie that we used as a 'credits' clip at the start of every game).

 

[Gee4orce]

I like using Wikis - specifically desktop wiki applications (not web based) - and even more specifically VoodooPad on the Mac.

This app lets you just create a page and start writing - and insert images and graphics. Any time you need to create a separate page you can just link from any word, or automatically link from WordsWithInitCaps.

What you end up with is effectively a website of interlinked documents that has whatever structure you want, all interlinked however you like.

Even better, VoodooPad as an iOS companion reader app, so you can access all this data on your iPhone or iPad when you're running a game.

I'm sure there are similar apps for Windows too - but I don't know any specifics.

 

[simonh]

There's no simple answer because both methods have huge advantages and personal preference in a big factor, but while accurate that's a cop-out, so I'll try and do better.

I'd suggest doing both heavily. By that I mean you need to be able to move back-and-forth between electronic and paper.

Personaly I would start out on a computer and write up the outline of the setting, subsector map, etc perhaps with explicit space set aside on the pages for hand-written notes. I would then print it out and annotate it by hand if I want to update it and a computer isn't convenient. For me, updating an electronic document from annotated paper is a low-cost activity. The creative stuff has been done and now it's just typing, it doesn't take long. However it can also give you a second opportunity to revise your written notes. The time gap between writing it by hand and later typing it up gives your brain a chance to look at the idesa afresh and I often find myself significantly improving material by just reading it through and reworking it a little later.

We are heavily indoctrinated at school not to write or draw on printed material, except forms and even then to be obsessively neat. This is for good reason in context, but it forms a psychological barrier to annotating or glossing printed material. Nowadays with easy access to printers and easily updated electronic documents this taboo can be an obstacle to developing a fluid workflow.

Ultimately for the the electronic copy would be the 'master' copy and I'd want to update it as soon as is convenient, but for you that might not be the case. You might prefer to start with paper and then make it electronic. That's cool.

Finaly, if you don't like typing and drawing diagrams on a computer, don't. If you have a scanner, just keep scanned backups of your notes. The camera on my phone is good enough to snapshot a handwritten sheet of A4 that's perfectly legible and you can email those to players if they need it. Push back the move to typed text if you don't want to be bothered and do it as and when it becomes necessery.

Side note: The GM in a CoC game I'm in likes to keep the character sheets. Back in the day that was a problem (especialy when he forgets to bring someone's sheet), but now I just photograph the sheet every now and then so I have my own copy on my phone. If you're a GM and want reference copies of player's sheets that they keep, you could do the same.

Simon Hibbs

 

[IanBruntlett]

At the moment I am running home-brewed stuff while preparing for Crowded Hour's Windermann incident in my free time.

For home-brewed stuff I tend to write notes by hand. In fact I don't keep the notes because I don't have enough room for yet more notes.

 

[Matian]

I do both; I write the notes on planets and adventures out by hand, and then I type them and edit them. It means if I get behind on typing I can still run the game (I wrote all the information down, after all), and it means when I'm done typing I can print off a nice little booklet for the players to scribble all over.

I find I think best when I'm writing longhand, but I'm more technically minded when I'm typing. This approach is the best of both worlds for me.

 

[Sturn]

I find I think best when I'm writing longhand, but I'm more technically minded when I'm typing. This approach is the best of both worlds for me.

I would have to agree with this also.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Definitely not handwritten. Not anymore. I guess you can say I do a multidisciplinary approach. PDF's as base text, scanner when its not available in that format or the PDF is locked from copy/paste.

I use Microsoft Office. Whichever flavor of it gives me Word, Excel, and most importantly Access in the same package

-Excel for number crunching and generation (character, vehicle, what have you).

-Access Databases for storing compiled material, mass updates and reporting. For Traveller I have a Traveller DB built up with all CT material, including Forms based off of Supplement 11 - Forms and Charts! The utility for World UPP data is obvious. I even keep multiple versions of each star system, tied to a key with a table citing the original source, even de-canonized material. (let me see Asteroid, TL1 world?, sure there are a few!)
-Word is where I put the pretty flavor text together. I use Outlining and imbedded object to organize things together.

 

[Sturn]

Access is to weak for Traveller. Same for Word. To do justice to the game the system must be sturdier.

I could be way off, but the typical Traveller fan would spend money on what you listed....and still have to use Word and Access because that is what we actually know how to use.