Hey guys,
I'm getting a binder organized for my current Pathfinder game (I know, I know, I should have done this sooner, but better late than never eh?) and am curious if anyone else has done anything similar.
Right now, I have one section dedicated to a printed version of the Burnt Offerings pdf, another dedicated to a map of Varisia, and another dedicated to Sandpoint and its NPCs.
What do you guys have? Also, do you fellas have any suggestions for helping me organize an efficient pathfinder campaign binder?
Well, my Binder is in two sections - Pathfinder notes with general NPC and Monster details that I need to remember when running them as well as what has happened so far to these particulars / notes on the science church that has invaded my Golarion trying to erradicate the "clouded deific mindset" of its peoples. My PCs are agents of this organization and are trying to create good PR for the org by doing "good deeds" like helping out Sandpoint (so that they can set up a local chapter).
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Granted, mine is a bit different due to me using AD&D 2nd Edition to play. But here it goes:
1. The first section is a typed up "encounter by encounter" section detailing the mechanics of a scene in AD&D terms. AD&D stat blocks and notes on what I want to accomplish that encounter.
2. NPC's. Section 2 is devoted to notes and character sheets of notable NPC's.
3. 2nd Edition Stuff. This details various things like Spherewalkers as a 2nd Edition specialty priest, Martial Arts styles of Tian Xia (I made Tsuto a full thief but gave him martial art out of the Ninja handbook) and other edition specific stuff for a game set in Golarion.
4.Monstrous Manual. I do write-ups like the 2nd edition MM on each of the critter found in the back of Pathfinder.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32
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My Pathfinder notebook has one section for the current adventure. Behind it is another section for maps.
A third/fourth section is for notes I take during play and when brainstorming. Then once a chapter/adventure is finished, I organize the notes and stuff and place it in a *fourth* section, removing the stuff from the third section. (So this 3rd/4th section is revising itself continually.)
A fifth for new things: feats, equipment, alchemical goods, weapons, magic, spells, and house rules/changes that we have at the table (for example, the players wanted to use themselves as cover when moving through a threatened area - e.g. a PC can use an ally as cover when moving through that ally's space), etc.
A sixth is my monster area -- all the bestiary's published so far plus any favorites I've found or created. Also in this area are simple one-shot encounters (what i usually use when a significant number of players can't make it to the session).
So six sections. The note book will get larger as time rolls onward, so I imagine the house rules and monsters will get split off in the future into their own notebook.
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I'm a horrible note-taker (ie: I dont take notes), so my binder is pretty light on such things. But, it does have, in order:
1. on the cover: the Iconic-less Cover art of the current adventure we're on,
2. Maps of Sandpoint, Sandpoint Hinterlands, and varisia,in plastic sleves
3. spare blank character sheets in a folder
4. A party lineup sketch I made, OotS style
5. Printouts of Beistary Monsters and core monsters that will be cropping up in my game, as well as NPC statblocks
6. the varisia random encounter chart
7. a notebook, which is for the moment empty
8. Pathfinders #1 and #2 in heavy-duty folders
9. stuffed into the back pocket of the binder is a DM screen and printouts of The Maps I'm going to be using in the next few sessions
I intend to be doing more note-taking in the future, however.
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Binder.
1. Current character sheet(s) I need.
2. Maps, hand draw, print outs from sourcebooks, handouts.
3. Blank character sheets.
4. Other printouts.
5. Scrap paper; lined and lineless.
Everything is 3 hole bunched. I use Paper protectors as dividers with DM screen covers and the likes as the "fronts" with original character sheets (un-hole punched), paper battlegrids, and other stuff in all the protectors.
The last protector has dead characters or ones I'll probably not use again.
Before I begin I should say that I am still heavily involved in running Shackled City, and I do not yet know when my Pathfinder campaign will begin. I should also say that I am not 100% pleased with my current campaign and plan on using Pathfinder to get back to basics in a sense. I don't want to get too off topic, but I want to reel my players back in with this game.
I also want to use Pathfinder as an opportunity to jazz up the game with some of Paizo's other products-like the Item Cards.
I created binders a couple of weeks ago for the players and one for myself.
My player binders contain:
- A sleeve for a character sheet (although I bought a bunch of copies of the character record oout of the online store today for 2 bucks each that I will probably substitute.
-A copy of the Players Guide
-Card Sleeves and some art I modified that show which items are equipped in which item slots.
-Some empty sleeves for handouts and sections of Pathfinder that I detemine are fit to give to the pc's. (Like the Running the Castle article eventually)
My DM binder will contain:
-Maps of Sandpoint and Varisia with a printout of the Sandpoint locations
- A Session Tracker spreadsheet I am implementing for this campaign. This has space to track PC Hit Points, record items of note during the session and I also made a box to track the accumulation of "Sin Points" for the game. This is supposed to help run the 5th adventure when it comes out
-Log sheets that match off with the Item cards to track which items are which.
-Printed copies of all of the monster entries from the issues
-Printed copies of the module art to hand to the players.
When this game gets run, I am hoping for a higher level of immersion in the game-with the only materials available to the players being their binders, dice, minis, and a copy of the PHB. With Pathfinder using only SRD/OGL materials I am taking all the builder/race books out of this campaign. I am pretty psyched to get this going, even to the point of Slaughtering the party in Shackled City!
Matt
I bought a nice new notebook and haven't used it as much as I should (too busy to take good notes) but it has mechanics for the significant continuing NPCs, some notes on the mechanics of Foxglove Manor, and, well, not much else yet. I wish I had worked out timelines for the events in Hook Mountain.
I had to detail the Temple of Sarenrae in Magnimar for #2 and have a couple of continuing NPCs from there, and I'm developing a couple more for #3. And of course there's Shalelu and the rangers (sounds like a rock band). I find I can't keep flipping pages in the modules to use their writeups, and also the module version of the rangers has no weapon stats (strange, if the PCs are expected to arm them before taking them into a fight!) so I had to add those.
I had all these cool ideas about taking really good notes this time around, but the path to Hell is paved with good intentions....
Mary
Recently I've added the Sanity: Variant Rules from UA now that I am running Hook Mountain Massacre. :3 It seem's to be working admirably with what I'm doing in my campaign. I took the "Those ogres ain't right" flavor that Nick provided and multiplied that by a few factors since we can't see the directors cut.
My players love it, and think Nick should be committed or at least kept on a leash.
So far, I just have a few notes:
Sample RotRL party
Dwarf Ranger (House-ruled Substitution Levels, House-ruled Crossbow Combat Style)
Half-Elf Druid (Aspect of Nature)
Human Rogue
Human Wizard (Battle Domain, Fighter Feats)
Dwarf Ranger Substitution Levels
HD-d10
1st-Earth Sense (RoS) replaces Wild Empathy, Dwarf Favored Enemy (+3 instead of +2 if Giants, Goblinoids, or Orcs are chosen)
4th-Pact of the Earthborn (Summon Earth Elemental 1x/day, HD = 1/2 ranger level, duration = 1/2 ranger level rounds) replaces Animal Companion
7th-meld into stone (as spell, 1x/day) replaces Woodland Stride
Crossbow Combat Style (I've changed this to be OGL)
2nd-Rapid Reload
6th-Dead-Eye Shot (crossbows only)
11th-Improved Dead-Eye Shot (crossbows only)
Dead-Eye Shot (feat)
Prerequisites-Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, +4 BAB
Benefit-As a standard action, you can make a single ranged attack at -2 to the roll that does +1d8 precision damage within 30 feet.
Improved Dead-Eye Shot (feat)
Prerequisites-Dead-Eye Shot, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, +8 BAB
Benefit-As Dead-Eye Shot, except you can make the attack at any penalty equal to your BAB. For each -2 to the roll, you get +1d8 precision damage within 30 feet.
I'm probably going to restrict the PCs to the SRD (except for psionics), the RotRL Player's Guide, and house rules using a 28-point buy.