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DM screen & Campaign management using Trello [WIP]

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2021 12:38 pm
by GrimlinJoe
Hello Everyone,

Being a DM on the go and typically playing via play by post. There are times that I need to reference my DM notes and tools but don't always have access to toolkit. A lot of the time it is to look up certain tables or niche rulings (I know the common thing would to be make up a ruling on the spot and address it later). Being able to have those things at my disposal is very handy. I try to keep my DMs toolkit as organized as possible but needing to read through a PDF on the fly isn't always efficient.

I work in manufacturing so we tend to use a few different tools for maintaining productivity and live tracking of production and standard work. We use Trello a lot to keep projects organized and to help create action plans along with organizing standard work processes and keeping up with supply chain management.

Until just recently I never thought to use Trello for anything else outside of work, that is until I found out that a lot of DMs have started using it to organize their campaigns and yes use it as a DM screen. I found a few articles online along with a few public Trello Boards that are just that, a fully functioning DM screen for D&D 5e with all the quick reference rules a DM would need to manage their game sessions along with keeping your campaign organized. I have also found that a lot of people choose to use OneNote to keep their notes and campaigns organized but seeing as I am not all that familiar with OneNote I chose to stick with Trello.

So being the tech nerd that I am I set out on a task of creating a DM screen for Basic fantasy using a lot of the rules from the core rulebook and some of the resources from the Beginner Essentials PDF. Now this is a work in progress so it will most likely go through multiple iterations before it becomes more universally applicable to other DMs. I do currently have the board set to public for anyone to use or copy to their own Trello boards. If I am in some breach of content distribution please let me know and I will take it down.

TLDR- I made a DM Screen using Trello and wanted to see what you think.

https://trello.com/b/eXtjfNMW/basic-fantasy-dm-screen

Re: DM screen & Campaign management using Trello [WIP]

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2021 8:02 pm
by teaman
Thanks so much for posting this. I've been thinking about Trello as well so great to see someone implement it.

Re: DM screen & Campaign management using Trello [WIP]

Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2021 8:27 am
by PresGas
I am more used to jira for boards like this and I can't find some of the little filters you can implement in the cards/lanes. Do you have to sign up to see and manipulate those?

I think it is great! There is a good deal of side scrolling and not all devices do that so well; or maybe you want to look at a subset of those columns. Is there a way to fiddle with this?

Re: DM screen & Campaign management using Trello [WIP]

Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2021 9:22 am
by GrimlinJoe
PresGas wrote: Fri Mar 05, 2021 8:27 am I am more used to jira for boards like this and I can't find some of the little filters you can implement in the cards/lanes. Do you have to sign up to see and manipulate those?

I think it is great! There is a good deal of side scrolling and not all devices do that so well; or maybe you want to look at a subset of those columns. Is there a way to fiddle with this?
I currently have the board locked since it is public so others can't modify it for now. Trello is free to use so I do believe you may need an account to manipulate certain boards

Re: DM screen & Campaign management using Trello [WIP]

Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2021 9:25 am
by GrimlinJoe
teaman wrote: Thu Mar 04, 2021 8:02 pm Thanks so much for posting this. I've been thinking about Trello as well so great to see someone implement it.
Thanks. It is still much of a work in progress. If you have any suggestions that I could implement please let me know