I've been asked a couple times what is the one easiest thing a GM can do to make their job a bit easier. My answer always seems a bit basic, but it hits at the fundamentals that many GMs often ignore- organization.

My answer? Use notecards. Pieces of paper are for green recruits, I say!

I find it amazing how preparation remains a major issue for even the most seasoned GMs. Most GM grognards simply do a couple minutes of preparation thinking that their years of experience are more than enough to get them ready for the game. Other GMs go the exact opposite route, worrying over the minor details and planning for hours on end- death by information overload.

While I admire the confidence of the seasoned GM grognard and the effort of the GM worrywart, they both have their pitfalls. For the grognard they often find themselves in over their head and have to take breaks, retcon, or repeatedly interrupt the flow of the game to give themselves time to work up stats or plan the next couple minutes of gametime. As a player… that stinks. For the worrywart the biggest problem is derailment (which always, alwayshappens). All the preparation in the world is not going to prepare you for when the player stays the GM directly in the eye, sneers, and says "No. I shoot the NPC." (GM: you what?!? ). Too much planning too often leads to the GM railroading the players- because the GM feels they have to put all those hours of planning to good use. Again, as a player, that sucks.

To strike the right balance in preparation for a game I found that using notecards is the best way to regulate myself. As physical objects they give the GM a good benchmark to see how much preparation they have. After a single game session the GM will have a good idea of how much game time each card represents in general terms and how prepared they are for the game. For me, if I go to a game table with less than three notecards worth of new information pertaining to the session at hand, then I know I am under prepared.

Using notecards forces the GM to keep information short, pithy and bite-sized- exactly what is useful at a gaming table. I have become a big believer that the GM should have the general idea of the campaign and npcs, and a couple specific pieces of information on hand about those elements of the game to make sure they have some life and individuality. Notecards are a great way to keep bullet points on each of those elements. Leaving room for each story element also allows the GM to update new information as it develops- absolutely key to keeping everything straight as the campaign unfolds. For example, say an NPC that was long forgotten suddenly becomes unexpectedly critical to the story. In a few seconds the GM can dig up the notecard on the NPC (properly labeled, hopefully) and is ready to roll with all the critical information on the table.

Notecards are easy to keep at the table on your body as you spend your day. I carry a backpack with me at just about all times. In that backpack there are always a number of unused notecards. They take up little space and are even able to fit in the front pocket of my jeans. That way, when a brainstorm hits me, it is an easy thing to dig out the notecard, write down the idea, pack it away for later and move on.

For the organizationally challenged (like me) notecards organize themselves. This is really important. By spending two dollars on a pack of notecards and maybe a few extra dollars to get one of those nifty plastic containers to keep them straight- you have all the utensils you need to develop the campaign short of pencils. Notecards are sturdier than paper- critical on tables filled with Cheetos and precariously balanced sodas- and are less likely to rip or tear. A small stack of notecards is easy to divide into types of story- plot elements, npcs (with critical stats), and objects of interest. I don't even use a plastic organizer, just have my stack of notecards divided into general points of interest. There are times I have woke up, gone to my pile of notecards, and wrote down my dream so that I could use it as the kernel for a later session and went right back to sleep. The next day I had the notecard with the kernel and a few bullet points later had the makings of a very exciting campaign.

It's a rare day that an idea written on a notecard does not spawn a spin-off notecard. Often a kernel of a campaign leads to me writing a few notecards on possible NPCs or items that might pop up. That way, I have the information on those story elements at hand so that when I am GMing and I see an opening, I drop a foreshadow in or introduce the NPC before they are central to the game. That way, when the NPC’s moment pops up in the campaign it looks to the players that I had been planning and scheming for some time to get the NPC involved- rather than the reality of doing it all off the cuff.

For reference, right now for my Call of Cthulhu campaign I have my precious notecards divided as follows:

• Plot elements (bullet points of what I want each story to look like and major events that should happen to lead to other events ... and other notecards)
• NPCs (a list of why they are important, things the players may know, personality quirks to remind me how to play them, and critical stats)
• Books, magic items, and objects with a history (I spend some time writing some critical information about the objects, what language they are written in, if they have any spells, general history about the object)
• PCs (I have a notecard on each PC with stuff I need to remember- as well as stuff I want to eventually do to that PC)

I also have a tendency to put the stuff I don't want the PCs to see on the back of my notecards. Nasty secrets about NPCs go right onto the back. It's kind of a right of passage for the players- if they are able to get to the secret they see me turn the NPC's notecard over- leading to the phrase "we’re on the back, guys."

In Summary:

This article has a dirty secret- its not actually about notecards. Notecards are my MacGuffin for moderation in organization and preparation. They really are useful, but the points their use makes about preparation are much more important than actually using them.

Hmm ... sometime I need to do an article on the proper use of MacGuffins ..