I wanted this week to talk about what is rapidly becoming one of my favorite web services. The funny part is, that I almost never visit the site. The service is called Jott, and if you are not familiar with the service, allow me to gush for a few minutes about what an awesome idea it is, and some of the ways I have put this site to good use, including one way that it patched one of my leaks in my GTD system.

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There was frost on the lawns this morning, a reminder that all the warm weather we have had here in Buffalo, is fading fast.  This October has been very warm here, and most of us were getting spoiled wearing only light shirts and even shorts as late as last month.  All that was ended, when last night we had to switch the thermostat from AC to heat.

But all in all it was a good weekend.   Sargon returned home this week from his Honeymoon, and with our gaming group reconstituted we got back to some gaming.  This week was Spenser’s new True20 campaign, based on The Dresden Files books.  We started with a round of 20 Questions, to flesh out our character backgrounds, and then jumped right into the first session.  Spenser wasted no time by pulling out an in media res opening, throwing us into combat in the opening moments of the campaign.  Overall the session went well, as the players got use to their characters, and learning the True20 system.

The rest of the weekend was spent getting some small projects done around the house, as well as getting this weeks blogs started. It is my writing week this week, for my Iron Heroes campaign, so I wanted to get a jump on my blogging, before I am buried in session notes and stat blocks.   I did get a little Dreamcast in as well, playing Gauntlet Legends.  The game is a lot of fun, but its better played with multiple players.

You may have noticed that yesterday, I posted a blog from my cell phone, via a web service called Jott.  I will be taking some time on Wednesday to talk about Jott, and how I use it to patch a leak in my GTD system.   On Friday, I am going to talk about using 20 Questions as a technique to kick off a campaign.   So make sure you stop by this week.

This is a test of me blogging on my cell phone to you at encoded(?) design. I just wanted to try out the jott service, which I will be talking about on Wednesday and so this is me again, jotting to you from my cellphone. listen

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Over the past two weeks, I have written about how I assemble my session notes. In the first segment, I talked about my writing cycle, where I mix imagination and productivity in order to produce my notes. Last week, I talked about the tools that I use in order to create my notes. This week, I want to discuss what goes into my session notes. Where the other two segments really focused on the productivity aspect of creating my notes, this segment is really about how my session notes help me to overcome my own shortcomings as a GM and to support my personal philosophy as a GM.

In the past I spent a lot of time tinkering with how I write my session notes. There are not a lot of articles about that subject. Most GMs whom I know, have evolved their own systems based on reading published modules and then applying parts of those structures to their own writing. I started by copying the structure of AD&D modules (for those of you younglings, that is D&D 1.0). Over time I experimented with different writing styles, templates, and formats, but never quite found what I was looking for. Along the way I learned some very important lessons at work in writing Business Requirements for software programs. So, I decided to put what I knew about business requirements to work for my gaming, specifically my session notes. I started to define what my real needs were from my session notes.

After some thought I came up with a short list of things that were true needs… things that I had to have in my notes to run my game effectively. That list of needs as well as how I addressed them is listed below…

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“The whole point of getting things done is knowing what to leave undone.” –Oswald Chambers

When people first learn the Getting Things Done (GTD) method of productivity, they think it is all about…well…getting thing done. On the surface, it is about doing stuff, cranking widgets, etc. But the real gem that lies beneath concepts like Ubiquitous Data Capture, In Box Processing, and the Weekly Review, is that GTD is as much about getting things done, as it is about not getting things done.

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Hello all.  Another busy weekend here at casa de DNAphil.  I had planned on painting my son’s new bedroom, but one wild toddler later, and that project was pushed off for another week.  Instead we spent some family time, and had some fun.  Having plans and to do lists are nice, but there are times when you have to scrap your plans because of things that have come up.   That is is something I am going to talk about on Wednesday, when I do my first Productivity article, about Not Getting Things Done, stop by and check it out on Wednesday.

There was no gaming for me this weekend, as Sargon is still out on his honeymoon.   I did do some work on a character for an upcoming True 20 game that Spenser is running, and I have continued my reading of Cyberpunk 2020 for Sargon’s campaign that will start next year.  This week is my Brainstorming week for my Iron Heroes game, so I will be doing a lot of thinking about what I will be writing next week.   Also, I am looking at Eden Studio’s Fields of Blood book for future use in my Iron Heroes game, and that will be taking some time.

If you look around there are some upgrades on the site, that I installed this weekend.  The most noticeable are the quick links for linking my RSS feed to you Google page/reader, MyYahoo, and a few other sites.   In addition, at the bottom of all stories are some quick links for linking an article to a few different social sites, including del.ici.ous.  I also put a preview feature in for comments, so you can see your what your comments will look like, before you post them.  Finally, I installed a contact form, so that you can send messages directly to me.   I will be putting in one or two more upgrades in the next few weeks, but I don’t want to bloat the site with all sorts of bells and whistles.

On Friday, I will post the final segment of my Session Notes series, where I talk about what goes into my session notes.  So stop by on Friday and check that out.