#dm notebook

[glassbottlepress]

Visit The Glass Bottle Press's Shop!

I've opened a shop. Come take a look!

New listings on my Ko-fi shop! I've also reduced the D&D notebooks all by about $10, so please take another look if you can!

[druidkestrel]

prepping for a new dnd campaign and making a map and HOW DO YOU MAKE TOWN NAMES SOUND DIFFERENT I KEEP USING THE SAME THREE SUFFIXES ACCIDENTALLY

[kallende-dnd]

World Information Time!

So it’s been awhile since I posted about my notebook. This is part of the “Campaign Calendar” section.

For the calendar section, I have pages 1-3 filled with information about the calendar itself.

Kallende culture values 7 as a powerful number, and each year, or Cycle, contains seven months, each with seven weeks of seven days. The months, in order, are Dawntide, Lightmoon, Latesun, Sundark, Harvestmoon, Dusktide, and Longdusk.

The start of a Cycle is also the start of the season of spring. Spring lasts through Dawntide until nearly the end of Lightmoon.

Summer begins towards the end of Lightmoon and finishes halfway through Sundark.

Autumn begins in the middle of Sundark and finishes in the start of Dusktide.

Winter begins in Dusktide and lasts through the end of Longdusk.

Also listed are Major Holidays on the calendar. The calendar also features smaller holidays such as deity feast days and birthdays of each current Circle member.

The remainder of the pages contain the actual calendar pages for the campaign. Since our campaign started in Harvestmoon, that is the first calendar page.

On each day, I have a brief note of where the party was or a significant event they performed. On the off chance that the campaign lasts more than a year in game, I’ll print out extra copies of the calendar and tape them over the current ones but allow for the top to flip back so I can see the past calendar.

I’ll try and get more posts up about Kallende and my notebook, but until then, happy gaming! As always, feel free to message me with questions/comments/etc.

- Covert/Jillian (DM)

[glassbottlepress]

Has your world been plunged into endless night, where crops are staring to wither and die, the world is starting to grow colder, and its people grow more sluggish, where monsters have come out of their shadows and roam without fear of the sunlight? Are your players the chosen champions of a moon god, tasked with preserving its silver light and eradicating its enemies? Or have you set your unsuspecting players up on a space-faring ship, heroes and scientists and explorers sent to figure out why a distant planet's moon has disappeared? Whatever it is you have in store, the cream bookcloth spine, shimmering gold bookmark ribbon, and gold foil debossed cover of this notebook will hold your secrets with elegance, grace, and the cold smile of the moon.

[glassbottlepress]

This is for the map-making DMs. The world-builders. The lore-lovers. It's simple, but eye-catching. Mesmerizing. The complex map on the cover mirrors your dedication to the game, to the world, to the story. The end pages are a white void--a representation of a story not yet started, a world not yet explored. A void brimming with potential. With the right tools, you could even create your own map here, if you so desired.

[glassbottlepress]

You are a DM who shoots for the stars and loves landing among their constellations. You guide your players to their (mostly) benevolent wheel of fate and fortune, to make sure their destiny is written above alongside the heroes they idolize, to give them the grand adventure of a lifetime. Don't be afraid to dream big, and don't be afraid to write a few new prophecies along the way.

[kallende-dnd]

More on the DM Notebook- this time, the Worldbuilding Section!

As I mentioned before, my notebook is divided up into several sections, each with a different focus and information, as well as sticky tabs so I can quickly get where I need to go.

The Worldbuilding section is for all my lovely worldbuilding purposes in Kallende, the realm where our campaign will (mostly) take place (I can never be sure about the group’s plans!).The first two pages are a very quick overview of the provinces in Kallende, which I will go into more extensive detail later on this blog (and if you really want to try reading the photographs, go for it!).

In a nutshell, Kallende is a region split into seven provinces, all converging on an island in the center of the realm, where the capital, Hellen, lies. Hellen is famed for its spellcasters and magic schools, and many spellcasters study there before spreading out into the world. The realm is overall ruled by seven spellcasters, with each ruling a specific province. Each province then has another means of further dividing the power, based on the ideas of the seven founders of the realm. These seven mages are called the Circle, and each mage typically trains a successor.

The third and fourth page of the Worldbuilding section is devoted to Historic Events- page 3 of the section has information on the founding of Kallende, while page 4 has yet to be fully fleshed out.

Pages 5 and 6 detail the deities worshiped in Kallende. We are using the deities of the Forgotten Realms, as well as the nonhuman deities and one I created called Naldya, the goddess of fate and chance.

Page 7 has the random generation tables from the DM’s handbook to create and flesh out settlements, and pages 8 & 9 (possibly 10) will contain important locations our heroes visit. Currently, the only settlement mentioned in this list is the city of Dwendolar, where the campaign will begin.

The remaining 10 pages of the Worldbuilding section will be devoted to fleshing out other aspects of the world, such as racial tensions, sacred sites, etc. I am still looking to find a mapmaker to create a more professional looking version of the map I have already drawn, so any suggestions are appreciated!

As always, feel free to send messages- the ask box is open!

Happy gaming!

- Jillian/Covert (@thestatuspoe)

[kallende-dnd]

Okay let's talk about my DM notebook. For other games, I usually keep literally everything on a GoogleDoc or elsewhere on my computer. For this campaign, I decided I needed something more portable and catered specifically to me and my game (I have the handbooks in PDF format and they are practically unsearchable, meaning I can't just type in a phrase and find it). The first section of my book is approximately 40 pages (20 pages front and back) long and is just for player characters. Each character has four dedicated pages, and there are five extra sections for possible characters that may need to be created in case of character death. In order to create these pages, I printed out the official character sheets and cut up each element in the page, reorganizing it to my preference. Page 1 includes all the big numbers stuff- HP, ability scores, skills, attacks, proficiencies, and class/race/level. Page 2 includes a list of all the features, and for spellcasters I included their spell lists, condensed into a flip book. Page 3 includes all equipment and treasure, personality, backstory, and appearance. Page 4 is going to be for my personal notes and plans. Since we haven't started yet, it's empty. You can also see on the sides that I have sticky tabs so I can easily pull to a character's page. Our campaign is using Roll20 for playing and keeping up with character sheets, so most of the deeper info will be there but I like having my own reference without needing to load up the website. Happy gaming! - Jillian/Covert (Aka @thestatuspoe)