Wow.

[naamah_darling]

My big project over the past few days: sorting through and organizing some 15 years' worth of gaming notes and character sheets. Because I am proud of the feat and inordinately pleased by the presence of all my imaginary people in one place, I am making you look at the magnificent results:

Comments

[metalfatigue0]

Yeah. I'm almost always the GM, so I don't have that many PCs, but in my storage cube are many binders of notes and NPCs.

The real monument to my gaming life, though, wasn't my creation. It's the nine volumes of session notes one of the players in my 11.5 year Mage: the Ascension campaign kept.

Running a campaign that long was fun once.

edited to change icon

[naamah_darling]

BAHAHA icon lols! Very true.

NINE VOLUMES. OMFG. That is so KICKASS. I am impressed by the player's diligence!

[metalfatigue0]

I'm currently running two campaigns with him as a player, and he's logging both. He wrote custom game-logging software for himself so he wouldn't have to go back and try to decipher his hurriedly scrawled notes the way he did in the Mage game. I salute him for his efforts.

(I also salute myself for my efforts in logging one of the games I actually play in as opposed to run-I take audio recordings of each game, then play them back later to summarize them for the other players and post them to the web. It takes about 12 hours to summarize each 7-hour session, since I have to keep stopping and rewinding.)

[vick34]

See if you can't get an archive box from a library (along with acid free folders) that will help preserve everything.
P.S.- Happy Birthday Beautiful!

[naamah_darling]

Thank you! It was a good one!

Do they just . . . give those away at libraries?! :O Probably not. Heh. I should find a place to get them, when I have the money. Which will be who knows when? But it's a thing I do intend to do!

[vick34]

I worked in two separate archives as a student assistant in college.
Sometimes they sell off stuff (books, magazines, etc)
I am thinking like these http://www.gaylord.com/adblock.asp?abid=937
You could do artwork on the outside with those acid free gel pens.
Binders wear out and can do some NASTY stuff to paper.
BTW- remove any staples/paperclips too. They'll end up rusting over time and are a tetanus shot waiting to happen.
Get acid free/archival folders too maybe the labels or just use an acid free pen.
It'll keep everything nice and neat for when you need it

[ravan]

Holy organization, Batman!

I stuck mine in a 3 ring binder, in binder sheet covers, with tabs for the system. When we moved, I misplaced the binder.

[naamah_darling]

Oh, maaaaan. I'm so sorry. What a blow. D:

Even the dozen or so characters I'm missing really upset me. I can't imagine losing more or less everything. Serious heartbreak.

[capybyra]

The paper or parchment is a unique living medium. Scanning the "information" into the digital realms might be worth considering. As so doing grants that of what "can" be so captured it's own sort of immortality. For the present, I'd envisioned you crafting a "Pendaflex" emulation using long bones for the racking and creative folders of thin beaten leathers or skins.

I saw a few Steamfaire folks hacking at tintype processes for archiving their technical Grimoires and that might someday be another option. I'm wondering if you have considered parchments from the bone donors for your art media. Hehe..

My hide as the cover for a few truly unique printings of my last book? Yeah- you're one of the folks I expect to have a bittersweet smile over that. As opposed to those drooling in ghoulish anticipation. Seriously, I'd think it would take no small time to read all those works you have boxed there. And indexing them is a task to be proud of.

[liminalia]

That is a thing of OCD beauty. I salute you.

[naamah_darling]

Aaaaand index cards with names and dates (where known) COMPLETE!

*pants*

THIS SHIT'S BANANAS. I can't believe I'm doing this. Tomorrow: master list of characters whose dates are known.

I need to stop before I alphabetize the folders' contents, or arrange them chronologically. Too difficult when you have so many characters with more than one name, and more than one timeline. And would you arrange based on birth date or the date of the adventure, and if it's the latter, if there's more than one with the same character, do you do it based on the first adventure, or the latest? THESE QUESTIONS I DO NOT NEED TO CONSIDER SO CLOSE TO BEDTIME. AAAAGH.