Inventing your own adventure can be one of the most rewarding aspects of DMing. But it can also be time consuming, hard to manage, and frustrating to your players. Here are some tips, pros, and cons for running your own homebrew adventure.

As a DM, keeping a list of names at hand is a must. We found an unlikely inspiration for generating that list.

The well-organized DM must keep track of a tremendous amount of information. Stats for players. Information on the environment. Descriptions of NPCs. Notes on history, lore, magic. Rules. Prices. Experience points. The list feels endless. And during gameplay, nothing disrupts the magic of the moment like taking a 15 minute detour through a stack of notebooks to locate a piece of relevant information. One tool I’ve found helpful is Microsoft OneNote.