More about index cards

I've been thinking about why I prefer index cards over my PDA for organizing my gaming notes, and there's one key piece that didn't occur to me yesterday. The "physical arrangement" aspect occurs on the card itself, as well as the card in relation to other cards.

For an NPC card, the character name goes in the upper-left corner. The upper-right corner is a very short phrase that describes the character's role in the story... a short-hand tag to jog my memory.

If the name on the left is "Buffy" the tag on the right is "vampire slayer." (These can correspond strongly to Theatrix traits, BTW.) If the name on the left is "Lord Dorregon" the tag on the right might be "evil high overlord". With minor supporting characters, the tag is usually a relationship... "Boron" may be "Dorregon's man-servant".

Under the name, on the first actual line of the card, comes the stronger secondary traits, which include abilities, race, relationships, etc... "Superb swordsman, Lord of All Jumania, father of [PC #3]". Boron's reads, "Hates Dorregon (secret), will help PC's."

In the lower-right corner, I write the "actor" that "plays" the character. This is a "visualization" technique I use to help me establish personalities and mannerisims and keep them straight. The wizard's apprentice Liru was "played by" Lennier from Babylon 5. Notice that he's not played by Bill Mumy, but by Bill Mumy playing Lennier. So when I play Liru, I try to move and talk like Lennier. Not necessarily sound like Bill Mumy, but to get the mannerisms and way of talking down. It gives me a solid, real-world reference point. Sometimes I do use an actor, when the actor is generally type-cast. "Clint Eastwood" works just fine. But "Sean Connery" doesn't... because I have to know if it's "James Bond" or "Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez" from Highlander that I'm working with. I might have a couple keywords here to help me remember what the character was like, or what movie I'm referencing. I'm more likely to write "Sean Connery in Highlander" than I am "Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez."

Important skills get listed up the lower-left side. After that, it gets more freeform. Keywords and bits of description, important equipment, etc. I do similar things with place and thing cards. Primary role in the story, keywords, etc. Sometimes there are circles and arrows... something the PDA doesn't lend itself to.

I think the place that it isn't obvious why the PDA doesn't do this well is how I actually fill out the cards. I often bounce around... I may be in the middle of writing key traits, and suddenly realize who ought to be playing the character, then get the inspiration that he should be related to the King, etc. I bounce around a lot.

The cards aren't just summaries of the larger amount of information on the computer... they're where I start when creating a character as well. A bit of a brainstorming tool, by having specific information go in specific places, I'm prompted to consider, "What is this character's intended role in the story? What are his relationships? How does he move and talk?" When I'm ready to get in-depth with detail, I'll start entering stuff in the computer.

(I don't always do this. I realized yesterday that I haven't been using cards at all for the current superhero campaign... and that the cards will be an immense help and I need to start using them again.)