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I was thinking about this recently.

How do you guys organize your dm space behind the dm screen?

Over the years i have tried several things including note cards or little npc cards i printed and filled out. Small maps, big maps, stacks of books with book marks or tabs hanging out. Some of it works better or worse than others. I figure there might be something to be gained for vets and newbies alike in talking about dm space organization.

What do you do? Could you take a picture and share it?

I will try to take a picture of mine tomorrow to post. At work atm while thinking about this. Really interested to hear about others methods.

I didn´t have rigid order behind my screen. You have to know the scenario, npcs and rules by heart. That´s all.

I stopped using a screen awhile back. The Veterans know the stats of most monsters and the newbies don't know what they're looking at. I also roll the dice in the open. I have a notebook open on the table and I reference it if I need to, or need to write something.

I use to play with a group that took the "DM is the enemy" to excessive lengths. The screen was just a big kick me sign. Once I quit that group I built a new one with the understanding I'm not the enemy. I'm there to give you opportunities to be awesome. I just make it challenging. My current group has been playing together for 14 years.

Behind the screen is my notes, npc cards and the odd hand-out prop (because I'm still a hands-on prop kinda guy).

Generally, the *key points* they should endeavour to hit at some point in the timeline. It's flexible enough that I can adjust other events around their activities if they do something like kill the person they're supposed to talk to, for example.

That said, I haven't played or DM'd in about a decade. I was using a tablet in addition to p&p stuff even back then, though.

This included DMing different players if their characters had 'hidden' knowledge.
My preferred genre is near future cyberpunk stuff - so this all fits together.

I also make note cards for NPCs. For instance, I will take a note card for Goblin and include on it their search, diplomacy, bluff, intimidate, sneak etc... and combat information along with any weapons i intend for the goblins to have. Sword, Spear, Bow etc etc...

In that way, in a fight with 8 goblins I can have 1 card with all their information. I try to create a unique card for any planned NPCs and I make generic cards for each class/npc class. That way if the players do something I didn't anticipate and have to create a NPC on the spot I can pull out the generic card of the class that is most appropriate for the NPC and have some stats to work with.

I bought a bunch of index cards, hoping to start writing NPCs onto cards as I went, because I tend to improv NPCs quite often but then sometimes I forget names or mannerisms afterward. Never got round to it though!

I organise stuff in a text document usually, and keep a lot of it in my head. I print out adventures chapter by chapter and keep them inem in binders, along with all the maps and so on. I also tend to edit the maps from adventures or locations I am running to make them more easy to use. For example I recently ran the massive one level megadungeon Barromaze, and I made a colour coded map to I would know when the players crossed from one zone to another so I could flip to the correct chapter and take it out of my binder. This made running the dungeon a lot more fluid and straightforward, keeping the game moving.
Here is the map, spoilers of course!


I also tend to keep my minis organised in transparent jewelry boxes which are stackable, with little labels on them to keep them organised. I grab the trays I need for the dungeon level or wilderness area the players are in and keep them to hand so I can quickly pull minis for a combat. This has really sped up my use of miniatures in game and kept the pace up. Before, I just had them all bundled into a plastic bag or boxes, but now they are sorted nicely.

I have my DM screen for the relevant game (if one exists), then my notebook for keeping track of initiative, HP, monster groups, etc. I also have the pamphlet of "narrative information" I make ahead of time as well as my pile of dice, a water bottle (or beer), a pen and marker, and all of my books are either piled up next to the table (we play on a coffee table close to the ground) or stacked on an adjacent table to me. I simply grab the ones I need to reference.