How best to handle Game Templates and Handouts?

I'm gradually working through my game set-up and have begun to create some of the standard templates I use to manage my game. Which made me wonder how best to store them within my game set-up.

Some like the Date and Time Stamp are GM-only templates used to mark the passage of time during play. But others , like the 'Player introduction Form' are general-purpose guides for use by new players. I'm thinking of putting them in my Campaign wiki as a sub-section under my player guide on 'How to use Gamersplane?' but just wondered what other GMs are doing.Also 'Handouts'?I usually store these under 'Handouts' in the 'Campaign wiki' so that players can refer back to them if they need to. Does that sound sensible or is there a better way of doing it on GP?

I use player notes sheets (sometimes more than one), which include NPCs they've met, maps, a glossary, and other relevant information. This allows players to check things whilst they're writing their post, as it's just under the dice roller.

(The real sheet is bigger than this, but I've removed most of the NPCs to take a screenshot.)

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Here's an example with two player notes sheets.

In the Notes Sheet Adam mentions above, the items in [ snippets] and [ Abilities] tags appear in a dropdown at the top of the sheet (see '-- Glossary --' in the screenshot). These can be clicked to paste their contents, including formatting and tags, into the current post, so they could be useful for your date template, for instance.

Those Notes Sheets are a killer feature for sure. As we think about modest improvements to GP, I'd love to see them just a *little* easier for the GM to implement so that everyone at the table can see them. (No code required.)

^^ Snippets are very useful for repeated stuff! I use them to post my character's HP for other players to see, for example. It can also help if you use repeated BBcode formatting for specific things (like coloured underlined text for names of places, for example), as they can contain BBcode to quickly insert into the post.

If you make it a playerSheet and a gmSheet then everyone at the table can see it.

You too? I wrote that code and I like JSON, but I can never remember how to add the bloody things either and have to read the help or copy/paste/edit from another game.

Have you sought medical attention for that disorder? :)

I also quite like this 'hack' that I stole from someone else. I'm sorry I can't give credit to the correct person because I really don't remember who it was. It might have been @Falconloft. Shout out to you! :D
It creates a floating spoiler in the bottom right corner like this:


The downside is that you have to post it again on every page. But it looks so neat and is useful! Good for a handout you only want to be showing temporarily.

When opened it can look like this (there's an image pasted inside the spoiler):

Thank you!

I'll be quite honest, I've read through everyone's responses, and most of it has just gone straight over my head. I'm afraid I'm really not very techy when it comes to coding stuff.

I was hoping to get some feedback from other GMs explaining how they chose to structure their game management folders and store the templates and handouts they were using in their game. But I shall take another look at Adams' BBcode guide and see if I can work out what Note Fields are and what features they provide.

I haven't even thought about how to record all my NPCs yet, but usuallly I just treat them as characters with profiles and skills, so I was thinking for just creating a sub-set of character sheets (Perhaps slightly simplified) for each NPC as we did on TK.

I think the best way to do this is to check the homepage for active public games or use this page go into some of the forums and have a look around.

The structure in most cases is pretty easy to see. You won't need to glance at more than 10 pages per game I think.

The basic structure I've seen mostly is these threads:
- OOC chat
- Character creation (sometimes separate per player but not always)
- World creation (sometimes together with character creations)
- A thread with rules and/or tips & tricks
- A thread per chapter of the game (RP)
- Summary of events so far
- Handouts or valuable info (which can also be added to a shared character sheet)

Or a subset of those.

Your insistence on taking big-but-general bites out of the collected knowledge does not make that any easier. When you get to the stage of actually trying it, maybe people will still be willing to help you with the specifics.

Maybe make a game that people can help you with, make a sheet that you can try the Notes suggestions above in, ask specific questions about the code as you need to.
Maybe see the discussion on Feature Suggestion: Improved NPC selection as one way to do NPCs.

Learning a new environment can be daunting, I agree. If you haven't done so already, I recommend making a test game for yourself where you can play with the tools that GamersPlane offers. You could invite a friend/player to help you test features, too.

Yep, exactly what I do! Find a game where I know I did it, grab that code...

I've found my best practice is to add two sheets. The GM's Sheet, which I post from, which is private so it can have all sorts of GM notes, and a Resource Sheet which I make public with the code Adam references. I don't know quite what Chalry is on about, but I feel like I should fine out...

Used these for quite while and they are cool... but a hassle to maintain. This kind of thing or an easy to turn on reference sheet is what I mean by a GM Panel. A place to track party resources, metacurrency, time of day, progress clocks, all that good stuff...

Sounds like maybe you are doing what I suggested, I was just using the terminology from the dreaded code that no one remembers (gmSheets and playerSheets).

Agreed, it would be great if that feature was easier to set. I also always copy/paste it from another game because I don't remember the format.
This is what I'm talking about. I'd put that stuff in a playerSheet, so it's available for everyone under the quick reply box with an easy click. You have control of it but they can see it.

I have been trying to do this, but so far, the only games I've found have been quite new and haven't had much going on. I was hoping to get some feedback and advice from GMs who have been running proactive games on GP for a few years and have an established posting strategy.
I think I'm creating something similar.


Character Journals
You mentioned these I think.

But these are personal journals linked to each PCs Character Sheet, where the player can make a note of their characters history and also create entries describing important events, NPCs and information that their character has gathered during play.

One of my players actually created a Miro Board in their characters journal to try and map all the connections in the plot.

I was thinking of using personal sub-forums for each Character Journal gathered under a category sub-forum called 'Character Journals' just to keep them together and tidy, and then linked directly into each of the PC character sheets. So, the player can just click to open their character's journal and create or update their notes.

Unfortunately, I think we lost most of the character journals when TK shut down. So, hopefully, the players have good memories.

I'm in the process of trying to set-up a game at the moment, which is why I'm asking the questions.


But I understand that it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation. I'm just trying to avoid wasting my players' time by inviting them to join a game that O'm not yet ready or confident to run.
Thank's I'll take a look.

I'm in the process of trying to set-up a game at the moment, which is why I'm asking the questions.


But I understand that it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation. I'm just trying to avoid wasting my players' time by inviting them to join a game that O'm not yet ready or confident to run.
Thank's I'll take a look.
That's what I'm doing, hence all the questions.


It's a bit different to TK as you have to build everything from scratch, but I've made a start. It reminds me a bit of all the set-up work I had to do on Roll20 back in the day.

I was trying to find some sort of guide on 'How to Set-Up your Game.' but never found one. So, I was hoping to get some advice from other GMs.

Yeah, I don't think there is one. Even if there was, every GM has their own style anyway. I'm sure you can figure out what works for you and your players :)
This isn't your first rodeo, from what I gather in your posts.

Also, nothing is set in stone. A forum can be changed to keep what works and remove what doesn't. Even if it's not perfect from the get-go, would that be so bad? It's going to be a process either way.