Memoir Children

Rantaro is all done!

OFFICIAL ART TUTORIAL ON MY DANGANRONPA AMINO ACCOUNT!!!!!!

The layout of my new campaign binder for my Curse of Strahd campaign! My players are around 9th level. They beat Strahd, the mists retreated, and now the whole of the demiplane of dread is open to them. 

Taking a lot of inspiration from @parisianqueen‘s DM style, I made custom stat pages in Photoshop for every aspect of the game: PC’s, NPC’s, Domains, random tables, background info, etc.

I also developed a brand new Tarokka Reading layout to account for new relics and new NPC’s in the lands beyond Barovia. 

This is the first time I’ve put this much effort into organizing and tracking a campaign before running it. As a lazy DM, I’m finding it a lot harder but also a lot more fulfilling. 

“My game stuff is no where near as organized or detailed! I wish I could run something like this. How did you make these pages? How does your system work?”

Here are the page templates I made:

The last page is specific to Curse of Strahd, but the rest can be used with any fantasy campaign. The city “stats” are based on this useful post. 

To the people opining that they could never run a game this organized, trust me, you can. Despite some evidence to the contrary, I am a notoriously lazy DM. I hardly ever prep for sessions for my online games longer than an hour. This kind of big organizational process is definitely not normal for me. 

But, it’s helpful, and it’s really rewarding so far. I encourage you to give it a try. It definitely makes roleplaying easier for me, because I now have consistent/simple notes to fall back on for NPCs.

I felt so bad the first time I knocked down Mothman…

After months of preparing, packing and planning, the day has come for you. You’re making the big move into Hope’s Peak Academy! Perhaps the trip over was a long voyage across the ocean, or perhaps it was a ten minute train ride from your home. Either way, school policy has landed you in a dormitory, and you’ve spent the day before school starts unpacking and fixing up your room to your liking. It’ll be yours for the next three years, so you’re careful to ensure it’s organized just how you want it You’re handed out your uniforms- and judging by the way the returning students seem to be dressed, those may be loosely enforced- and the private campus tour comes next. You’re seriously impressed that Hope’s Peak can afford a guide per student. You can’t help but glance out at the other first years being led around- will they be your classmates? What sort of memories will you be making together?

It’s the evening by the time you’re finished. The day has tuckered you out, and whether you’re phoning your parents to update them on how it went and wishing them a goodnight, posting on social media about the day or simply rolling into bed without another word, you get ready for bed. It’s going to be a big first day tomorrow!

…

And was it ever. You knew Hope’s Peak would have a heavy courseload, but this is getting ridiculous. You start full force on the first day, barely able to keep up with the amount of information being thrown at you at once by the flurry of teachers who rotate in and out of the classroom. Your notes are already a frantic mess, you’ve broken three pencils so far, and a few of the kids in your class fell asleep by ten in the morning- maybe you were one of them.

The end of the day is like returning from a war, a small army of bleak eyed first year students stumbling out of their respective classrooms with countless books in their arms. Your upperclassmen look on with a mixture of amusement and empathy- they’ve been there, too. Welcome to Hope’s Peak Academy, kids.

You tell yourself that things will change soon as you lay your exhausted body down on the bed that evening. But how soon will that be…?