Notebooks, Onenote

D&D Onenote

This is a personal project of mine, a OneNote Notebook. If you’re not familiar with OneNote, it is a free word processing program that creates its page to emulate an entire notebook in all of its non-linear glory (no files sitting in folders, no having to scroll through hundreds of other pages to open the one you want). This digital notebook is complete with tabs and section groups which make it very easy to organize as if it were an actual book. As an added bonus, it will sync with other devices allowing you to access your work anywhere. But what really sets it apart for me is how quick it is to find the exact page you’re looking for; as soon as you start typing in the search bar, results will appear and pages load instantly.

Since D&D is a note-heavy game, I began converting it to this format. Not only could I instantly locate a spell, monster, or the price of wine without having to pause the game to flip through a book, but I could rearrange this information however I wanted without being constrained to the size of a piece of paper. I could even append my own personal notes right on top of the notes from the book. This meant I could do things like list equipment descriptions on the very same table as the equipment stats, or edit in any official errata corrections. Below are some screenshots that show how my digital Notebook is organized. Scroll to the very bottom to download something similar (a notebook that features only the free/SRD content).

This is the first notebook: the core 5E Reference (rules, monsters, items, etc). A second notebook will feature the campaign-specific content.


The Book:
5e-line_800

Right away you can see how OneNote is laid out; with tabs and groups of tabs along the top, and the current tab’s various pages and sub-pages along the right. I wanted it to look more interesting and creatively inspiring than a white office document so I’ve updated every page (except for a few printouts) to include a new visual design that mimics fantasy themes.

I’ve tried to format the book in a way that visually separates lore (fluff) text from 5E-specific mechanics. Additional errata corrections and official ‘Sage Advice’ clarifications are listed directly on their appropriate pages for quick reference as well. Every single entry is page-sourced to as many sources as possible to help you cross reference with the books and supplemental pdfs (although the SRD pages can be a tad off due to the every changing nature of the SRD).

I’ve split the Notebook into as many individual pages as I could, whenever doing so made sense. This allows OneNote’s search feature (found in the top-right) to instantly find whatever entry I’m looking for instantly. This Notebook is essentially a database of conditions, spells, monsters, magical items, and more.

Spell Database. Spells are sorted alphabetically, and each spell is on its own page so that you can use the search tool to instantly find the spell you are looking for.  They are corrected with any errata and sage advice articles, and include the additional spells from the Elemental Evil companion and Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide. The public version contains around 358 spells – this means it is only missing 35 spells that can only be found in the official books.

Monster Database. The layout of the monster pages has since been updated to keep a stat block on the left, description in the middle, and image on the left. All monsters share this formatting. There’s also a combat tracker table now, which will be covered below. My private notes include every monster, image, and description so that I don’t have to carry the various books with me. The public version is limited to just the stat blocks from the free sources, but still has more than 360 free monsters.

Some people have asked about the statblocks and how I did them. The short answer is that they’re all tables with text. You can easily use the screenclipper tool to paste an image of a statblock to save time, but I wanted to use text so that I could easily update and modify the content if needed (such as if I wanted to add or create a new character and still have the same look and feel).

Magic Item Database. Magic items are also instantly searchable. The public version wont have any images, but still contains entries for at least 255 free magic items.

Races and Classes. This is one of the latter additions, and one I haven’t really been prioritizing. But for now it at least contains the races, classes, and backgrounds that can be found in the SRD and Elemental Evil companion. At some point I might change the layout to something better.


DM Tools:

While I usually track campaigns on another notebook (which I will show in another post), I’ve included a template calendar that can easily be pasted between books.

This simple table-based Calendar of Harptos comes in handy for tracking the progression of time over an adventure. For each day I create linked entries as I see fit. These entries can link to individual Adventure Log sub-pages that serve as a journal to track the player’s progress. If you’re interested in seeing more about how I’d lay out a campaign notebook, see my Curse of Strahd example.

The notebook now contains an optional combat tracking table as well.

Above: A combat tracking table is now included. Each monster page now features a container that can quickly be copied and pasted into the desired initiative slot, which will provide the default AC and HP values along with an instant link to the full statblock. The combat tracker and monster are always one-quick-click away from each other.

Each monster page features a text container with a table that can quickly be copied and pasted into the desired initiative slot, which will provide the default AC and HP values for that monster along with an instant link to it’s full statblock. The combat tracker and monster are always one-quick-click away from each other. This also makes it easy when preparing encounters in advance, as I can just keep the pre-filled encounter blocks handy.

I’ll admit I don’t often use this as much since most of my games are run in Roll20, but if I were playing at an actual tabletop then this would help. Especially since you can use OneNote to automatically reorder the table based on the Init values.


Forgotten Realms Lore Database:

I’m still very new to The Realms, but I’ve liked the world so far that one of the latest additions to my notebook has been an effort to build a wiki-like database that keeps me informed. Currently its limited to some of the locations and entries that are found in the Sword Coast Adventure’s Guide, but I  plan on filling it out even more with other source books and wiki information.

onenote2_locations
Above: Location entries from the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide have been added. Not pictured: I’m currently working my way through a lot of the Underdark locations as well.
onenote2_religion
Above: A lot of the various gods are in. I still have some pantheon’s to create individual detailed entries for, such as the Dwarven gods.


Layout Example: A Sample Adventure

Last but not least, I converted the Curse of Strahd Introductory Example into a OneNote format to show how in can be done. Typically I would have actual campaigns separated into their own notebooks or groups rather than just floating around with the rest of the rules, so consider it more as a template for what it could look like.

Same Adventure: Death House


📎 Download:

5e-line_800

As you may have noticed, I’ve mentioned two notebooks; my private version and the public version. Please don’t email me asking for my private version; it doesn’t matter if you already own the books and can prove it,  it doesn’t matter if you ask real nice or offer money. It’s copyrighted material, and if I can’t even trust myself not to share it then I wouldn’t be able to trust anyone else not to. Instead, I’ve created:

The Public Notebook. This notebook is largely identical to what what shown above, although I’ve removed any content that can only be found in the official books (for example, the monster pages only feature the stat blocks from the SRD, not the descriptive text paragraphs and images). In an effort to make sure this version features all the content that WotC have released for free through various PDFs, I’ve combed through the Basic Player’s Rulebook, the Basic DM Rule Book, all the individual story line supplemental pdfs as they come out, and finally the 5E System Reference Document. This means that every single free monster, spell, and item has been aggregated into this one document for you. As a result it contains more than 357 spells, 255 magic items, and 360+ monster stat blocks (along with all the core basic rules).  It’s a shorter list to see what has been excluded, and I’ve compiled one here to help people who want to rebuild all the missing pieces.

You can download the SRD / Basic Rules edition of my OneNote notebook here:

.onepkg (requires an office subscription)

NEW: .zip file (see new method for importing, should work for free users!)

Last Updated: July 30th, 2020

Note: As far as I know, you need a subscription to MS Office in order to be able to open .onepkg files. There however a newer method for importing notebooks over Onedrive, which should now work for free users. So chances are you’ll want to use the second download link.

If all else fails, the notebook can still be shared directly through Onenote, which will require an email address to do so. 

43 thoughts on “D&D Onenote

  1. Hey, I just wanted to thank you for going through all the trouble of making this. It’s intuitive and a hell of a template. Do you have a patreon, or is there some way to give back to you?

    1. I’d give on patreon too, this is super helpful!!!! I want to give back but also, if you need help LMK.

  2. Hey There, I’m beginning the daunting task of following in your footsteps here. However the link to the list of things that have been excluded from your public notebook, doesn’t seem to work.

    1. Thanks. It was just a missing image from the post (I’ve re-added it). The Calendar itself is found in the “Lore” tab of the SRD notebook.

  3. What is your process for making the images transparent? It adds such a nice touch, however removing the whitespace from screencapture of scans seems like quite a daunting task. Is there a Photoshop plugin or process to help with this?

    1. For some of the images I lucked out and found pngs floating around on pinterest albums. Others I manually just loaded the image into photoshop and used the magic wand.

      Finally, a decent amount of the images are actually low quality jpgs with colored / non-transparent backgrounds to help keep the file sizes down. In more recent examples (like CoS/SKT/ToA) it isn’t as noticeable since it is usually white-on-white. In cases where non-transparent images are placed over a textured portion of the background I just place them inside a single-celled table to give it a nice border frame. In the case of the Rule notebook that had yellow stained pages, some of the images actually have the yellowish background color baked into them. I had a photoshop action that I would use to load an image and quickly do some adjustments while blending the yellow page color into it. All I had to do was press a button and occasionally paint over the edges with a soft brush.

  4. I know absolutely nothing about One Note and I cant seem to boot the files up the way you show on your screenshots. Do you have a simple tutorial for us One note rookies?

  5. First off, thank you from all of us DMs who tirelessly have to memorize/post-it page numbers and flip between multiple pages of multiple rule books! I seriously love how condensed ordered and elegant your OneNote notebook is!

    I have been using the online version as reference for my last few adventures. I’m only working off of the free version and am having issues trying to copy and paste tabs. I’ve been flipping back and forth between my own personal notebook and the online version of yours. I was hoping you could help me figure out how to make a copy so I can start using them as templates and not have to flip between windows. Basically I can’t get the book to pop up in my recently opened and it won’t let me copy and paste from the online version :/ Is there any work around you know about that could help me copy the relevant pages I want into my own notebook?

    1. If you want I can share the book through Onenote using your email address. This should let you open it offline (which alone is so much better/faster than the online version), and you should be able to copy the tabs from there.

  6. How do you actually open this file? I ask because I have made sure I have dropbox and onenote installed but I’m still unable to properly open this file.

    1. The .onepkg file requires the 2016 desktop version (not the windows 10 app), along with an Office subscription (which also gives you the ability to save notebooks anywhere, not just on Onedrive).

  7. Hiya,

    This looks awesome, but I’m using the free version of OneNote. Could you please share it with me via email?

    🙂 Thank you,

    Kendra

  8. Unfortunately your notebook will not open with the current (2019) version of OneNote, but only OneNote2016, and MS has not made any sort of conversion tool.

    1. Is this specifically for the .onepkg download? If so that is 2016 only, since the app version only supports notebooks saved to the cloud / Onedrive. The link should still work for 2019, as should sharing it through emails using Onenote itself.

  9. This has really blown me away! Thank you so much!
    The only thing I am missing from your free notebook is the parchment style background you use instead of the blue-ish SRD background. Is there any chance I could get access to it (perhaps by email)?
    I’m afraid I couldn’t check the Themes Selection you linked via dropbox as it is a onepkg file and I can’t open it.

    Thank you again for all your amazing work! 🙂

    1. The old style of background? I believe it can still be found on the “Calendar of Harptos” page. You can duplicate it, clear the contents, and turn it into a new template.

      1. Awesome, I completely overlooked it on there! It blends perfectly with the yellow paper background and I find it much nicer than the much cooler SRD template.
        Thank you so much for your answer!

  10. Hi! Thanks for making this available. I just started as a DM and this would be so helpful! I have the free version of OneNote. Would you be able to send me the notebook via email?

  11. I can’t tell you how amazing this all is. Like holy cow I thought it looked good but once I downloaded this… I’m bloody speechless, I had no idea OneNote could look like that. Thank you, thank you so much!

  12. Hey, this looks fantastic!

    Using the windows 10 app myself too, could I get it via Email as well?

    🙂

    Steve

  13. This looks like exactly the resource I need for my new SKT campaign 🙂 Could you share it through email? It’s amazing that you’re still putting time into helping people after all the time creating it!

  14. Hi im using the free version of onenote as well and wondered if I could get it shared through email?

  15. Hey, just wanted to say thank you so much for the mind-blowing effort!
    New DM, just finished running LMOP using my own OneNote approach and was literally about to make one of these myself.
    I’m about to run STK and this has made it (especially chapter 3) a little less daunting!

  16. Hi! Your work came to me highly recommended by a long time DM as a guide for me to get started. I’m looking forward to learning and using your system. Thanks for sharing!

    Could you send access to my email as well?

  17. Hi! I am really looking forward to using this in my campaign! I’m having trouble getting it into the Window 10 version – could you share via my email?

    Thanks!

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