Last week I discussed my writing cycle, detailing how I organize my time and imagination to produce my session notes for an upcoming game. The cycle is an important aspect of how implementing the ideas of productivity can be used to create session notes. This week I wanted to discuss another area of productivity: the tools used to create the session notes. In this article I am going to outline the tools that I use when I am working on my session notes. Each tool has a specific use and an optimal way to be used. Through trial and error I have refined my list of tools down to this set. I find they are, for me, the most efficient tools to get the job done, and they fit seamlessly into my writing cycle.

Here are the tools….

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I got my first peek at RPGObject’s Modern20, by Charles Rice. Modern20 is a set of d20 rules, in a modern setting. It is based on the d20 Modern SRD, but Charles has put his own spin on the rules as well as introduced some new rules that add to the modern experience. I have not had a chance to really dig into it yet, but let me share some of my favorite changes between Modern20 and d20 Modern:

• 6 new core classes (no traits, everything is now class specific feats)
• Some new uses for Action Points (can you say Max Damage)
• Armor as DR
• Backgrounds as things you did before you were an adventurer, and Occupations for your “day job”.
• Wealth points, that do not require a roll. (You either have the points or not.)
• Hit Location built into the combat system (and easy to use, no extra dice needed).

The PDF is great looking as well. It is full of full color artwork that is top notch. The layout of the book is very nice and clean. It is nice to see a PDF publisher with such great attention to interior artwork and layout.

News on Charles’ blog has announced that there are three upcoming supplements: Martial Arts20 (no doubt a port of Charles’ Blood and Fist books), Magic20, and Vehicles20. That should round out the first round of supplements anyone would need to run most modern campaigns.

You can check out more about the book at the RPGObjects website….here.

Big weekend here at Encoded Designs.  Our good friend, Sargon (whom you will learn more about soon) was married on Saturday, and DNAphil was tapped as the Best Man.  So the beginning of the weekend was spent with the Rehearsal Dinner, an evening of hanging out with the groom, and then off to the wedding on Saturday afternoon.  It was a great time and Sargon and Mrs. Sargon are off to Hawaii for a 2 week honeymoon.  We wish them the best of luck to a long and happy marriage.

With Sargon away, our gaming group is taking a 2-week hiatus, as Sargon is a member in both of our current campaigns.  During the time off, one of our other players is going to demo a D&D game they are writing, should be a lot of fun.   With some downtime, I hopefully will do some maintenance on my own campaign, and get some neglected nuts and bolts stuff done, that I have been putting off.

I am also close to finishing the rules for Burning Empires.  When I am done, I will post my thoughts about the game.

I also picked up a few Dreamcast games this weekend, including Gauntlet Legends.  I am looking forward to some multi-player sessions of this game.  I should be getting Dead Or Alive 2 in the next day or so, so I am very psyched.

This week I am going to continue my discussion on my Writing Cycle and focus on the Tools of The Job, discussing some specific tools I use to keep my campaign organized.  Mid-week I will talk about my first impressions of Modern20, a new set of d20 Modern rules, by Charles Rice.

One of the core elements of Encoded Designs is the marriage of Productivity and Imagination. Writing session notes is one of the best examples of the blending of those elements. I have over the years tinkered with a lot of different ways to write my session notes. At first I only explored different media to on which to produce my notes such as journals, sketch books, word processing, wikis, etc. But about a year an a half ago, I started to apply some principles from my other passion, productivity, to the process to see if I could not come up with a better process for getting my notes written…..

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Last week, I mentioned that I was reviving my Sega Dreamcast and hooking it back up. Over last weekend, I got my VGA adapter for the Dreamcast, and it is sweet. I hooked my Dreamcast up to a 19″ Philips CRT monitor. The monitor has a really nice dot-pitch and very good colors. For audio, I hooked the Dreamcast up to my Logitech 5.1 surround sound speakers that are in my basement, which I use on Sunday’s for gaming.

The graphics of the games on the monitor are quite nice, and a step up from playing on the TV. Granted, I have had to give up some screen size, but for single play it is just fine. I played Soul Caliber and was quite impressed on how smooth the characters looked. Now this is not an upgrade or overhaul to the graphics system; its the same DS graphics, but the polygon edges are smoother and not so pronounced.

Since the weekend, I have been playing a lot of Soul Caliber and Power Stone. I have also played some Hydro Thunder, which is a blast with the subwoofer, right next t me. Last night, I had two of my friends over and we played some Armada. I have not played it in years, but our old characters were on the VMU’s so we dusted them off and got playing for a bit.

I am also on the lookout for more games, and have been going through eBay and Half.com looking for deals. I have had some successes and will be making some purcheses next week. My current list of must-have games are:

1. Gauntlet Legends
2. Marvel vs. Capcom
3. Marvel vs. Capcom 2
4. Dead or Alive 2
5. Power Stone 2

As you can see, I am a big fan of fighting games.

That’s all for now. Check the site out on Friday for an article on Gaming. Specifically, all about my Writing Cycle, and how it has helped me to get my session notes written for the past two years.

It has been another busy weekend for me.  Aside from a bunch of boring house and lawn work that I won’t bother you with, it was my week to run my Iron Heroes campaign, so I spent Friday night and Saturday finishing up my notes for the game.  The game went off great and it was a large rolling fight that dominated most of the evening.  In the end the heroes survived the fight and were able to complete their objective, but there were some tense moments around the table as the Demons kept up a large scale assault on the 4, 11th level characters.  I was not sure if I could pull off such a large fight, but it came out great.

I also received my Dreamcast VGA adapter on Saturday.  I had to wait until the late afternoon before I could hook it up, but it was well worth it.  I will write more about it later in the week, but it was fun to be playing the Dreamcast again.  I will be dedicating some extra time this week to playing a more.

While I was in my basement, putting the Dreamcast together, I also dug out my Cyberpunk 2020 rule books, as Sargon, one of the members of my gaming group, is planning on running a CP2020 game, in the near future.  I am psyched to play CP2020 again, as I have played it many times in the late 80’s and 90’s.  I love all things Cyberpunk, in general, from Gibson’s Neuromancer to Strange Days.  In my youth I even wrote a piece about the Cyberpunk movement, called Why Cyberpunk? (but that story is for another day).

Well its back to work this week.  As for what is going on at Encoded Designs, well here is a small preview.  Starting tonight, I will be tuning up the site a bit, adding in some new features and making some needed customizations.  I will post to tell you all about them.  Mid-week, I will talk more about my Dreamcast project, and how the VGA adapter worked out.   On Friday, I will talk about Gaming and Productivity together, as I talk about how I have set up my writing for my Campaign.

Have a good week.