I’ve recently revisited my notes for Lost Mines of Phandelver. Here’s how they’ve changed over the years.
This adventure is so short that I felt it would be best to condense everything into single Tab, rather than have tabs for Locations and Characters like with longer modules.
Locations:
Instead, locations are sorted under their Chapters. They make use of the color-coded titles and sidebar layout tables.
Area descriptions have been reorganized from how they appear in the book, compartmentalized into Area Information, Creatures/NPCs, Traps and Hazards, Secrets, Developments, and Treasure. This is the system I’ve used in the two sample adventures, as I’ve found this makes it even easier for me to run a given area and any creatures inside.
Characters:
I only felt there were five characters who were important enough to the adventure to warrant having their own page (Gundred, Sildar, Glasstaff, Reidoth, and Nezznar). These pages now use the standard NPC layout I’ve settled (as seen in the Tomb of Annihilation). The rest are minor enough to the point where I only need to be reminded of their names and roles in the sidebar.
Bonus:
I’ve been experimenting more with emoji lately. Page names now make use of them to help categorize and differentiate these different chapters, making it easier for the eyes to sort each segments. The heavy minus sign ( ➖ ) in particular makes for a great divider!
Greetings,
How do you keep those icon (traps, treasure) like font based rather than picture based
Emoji! 🎭💀💥💎✒️⚔️📜
I just copy and paste from https://getemoji.com/. These things even work in Notepad.
How do I download the campaign specific onenote files? I want this one, the Phandelver one, but I only see a link on the right to the main 5ed SRD one.
I can not share the campaign books for legal reasons – I can only share the stuff that WotC have released for free (the SRD). I only post about my campaign notes to show people how I go about organizing the adventures.
What if we can prove we own it? 🙂
Still nope.
Hey Cyrid,
Do you think you could share your templates? Like one sheet of each type? Currently you’re only sharing backgrounds, but the layouts like you’re showing here would be SUPER helpful. Esoecially for those who are leaving realmworks due to recent bad news.
Cheers!
Hello, the SRD file pinned on the sidebar includes samples of location and character layouts which can be turned into page templates. They would have the same layout as what is used in this post.
I don’t know if it is too much to ask but it would be super helpful to see what you have under the “part 1”, “part 2” etc pages. Do you just have them blank and use them as separators?
They mostly contain any information the book uses to introduce that particular chapter, or my own notes to summarize it.
For example, “Part 1: Goblin Arrows” will contain everything on page six of the adventure up until the “Goblin Ambush” segment begins, while Part 3 contains just the first part of page 27 (up until the “Triboar Trail” segment begins).
In some cases they might just be left blank (which is the case for Part 4: Wave Echo Cave).
Thanks man, that was my first thought. I’m actually making this right now because I plan on running LMoP for some friends over the weekend.
I’m really struggling to make the Phandalin page into something that is quick and easy to reference, unlike the Cragmaw Hideout. Got any tips? Its just a lot of random information going around XD
Here’s an example from my page:
It is the same format of other pages. Simple lists let me know the names of the locals (and if they’re important enough to warrant their own pages), along with and points of interest. Area descriptions have had their information segmented in a way that lets me quickly parse the info I need from it.
OMG thanks man, I cannot believe I didn’t think about adding NPCs and quest information to the sidebar. Thanks XD.
By the way, I might be wrong because I downloaded the SRD a while ago. But I think you accidentally added some of the information from the chasme demon (all its special abilities) onto the dretch demon by accident. Im running v3.1 I think.
Hey Cryid!
Thanks for your sharing what’s working for you. I’m making progress on merging my use of Onenote and other software for session.
I asked this question a while ago but I’m curious if the answer is different now. Are you using roll20 to pull most of the campaign data/text for onenote or dndbeyond? I’m currently using fantasy grounds to transfer text from adventures but it’s a bit clunky due to the software being a bit slower on my computer.
Thanks!
DndBeyond tends to be quickest option since its content is laid out in a webpage format rather than broken into journal handouts.
Thanks for the reply! Yea – I figured DnDBeyond would be the fastest. I just already pay for books via FG and don’t wanna pay twice for the same thing. It’s good to know your process tho.
Thanks for your resources here. I’ve set up my own ideal DM Binder based off your templates and work and really appreciate you being willing to share
Can you delete my last name from my comment? I accidentally wrote it in full
What Emoji are you using for the chapters?
Fleur-de-lis ⚜️
Is the download link for LMoP gone? I’m struggling to fine it.
Hello. There was never a download/shared option for LMoP, as to the best of my knowledge there is no free, officially released document for this adventure.
Do you have the barebones Onenote of Lost Mines of Phandalin?