Answers to Question #1:

 

From SCA Bard: My game runs Thursdays, and every Monday I send out an email to all of my players. It usually includes info on dinner (we take turns cooking) and When Last We Left Our Heroes. In that, I summarize the events of the last game, which are still pretty fresh in my mind. I can glance over the email just before the game if I need a refresher, and it also provides an abbreviated game log of what happened when.

What it *doesn't* do is remind me to insert "Secret GM stuff" that's coming up but the player's didn't see in last week's game. I used to rely on my memory for that, but it's been slipping (lots of things to do/remember in RL at the moment), so I may have to resort to notes to myself.


From General Cracken: Great question! I start by keeping a pad and pen with me during the game and I take extensive notes during the session...who did what, what monsters/enemies encountered, who said what, who got what item, etc.

Sometime after the session (sometimes the next day, sometimes a few days later) I compose an e-mail from those notes that narrates the session and send it out to all of my players. After this I reformat the e-mail in MS-Word then save as an HTML file and post it as a Session Report on my web site, located at http://surrealm.org

This way the reports are always available on the off chance someone accidentally deletes the e-mail. This also makes it easy to do a quick reference on past sessions. Some of my players print out each session report (sometimes even reformatting it in fancy fonts) and keep them in binders for easy reference. Of course, I also have the privelage of having a group of players that keep excellent notes themselves! I have never had a group quite like these players when it comes to note taking!

Other things on my web site include maps the characters have found/bought, family histories, magic items/spells they have created, contracts they have entered into, etc. This makes all of this instantly available to all the players via the internet (and to other folks as well, who may want to modify them slightly for their own use). Hope that helps, Robert

From Bitterlemming: Here's what I put on my mental checklist and why:

1. The basics. There's the PHB, DMG, DM's screen and MM. More often than not, they're going to be important. If you've got one line of text from FR87X module, it's better to write it down than drag the whole book to the gaming session. You can always get back to the player later or just make something up. Your imagination is probably lighter than dragging 30 lbs of gaming books to the session. Take only what you absolutely think you need.

2. Dice. I own five or six sets of dice I had to buy because I left mine at home. A friend of mine keeps a spare in his bag. I took that lesson to heart, that way I could afford McDonald's while gaming.:)

3. The adventure. If you didn't write the adventure yourself, it's good to read over a pre-packaged module a few times to get a feel for it. You might even want to highlight the important stuff and/or make some notes. It might be helpful to keep an outline or an adventure synopsis in a separate notebook that stays with your gaming books at all times. If you forget the adventure, at least you can wing it from the outline. :)

4. Notebook. I actually carry a three-ring binder and a clipboard with a tote attached to it. I take a lot of notes during the session. At the very least it's good to write down where the party left off, party's wound levels, etc. A lot of DM's also take time to write out a brief synopsis of each character. I take down a list of initiative modifiers, search/spot/listen numbers and any other skill I want to roll for the player, AC, hit points, To-hit bonuses, saves and note certain items that the character will otherwise have to remind me of, anyway. It's also good to keep track of familiars and other animals this way as well. There's also a "Combat Tracker" in the DM's Screen as I recall. A notebook of some kind is always handy for passing notes to players, remembering the pizza order, or sketching a quick map of the environs. It's also a handy shield in case of dice pelting. :)

5. Maps, Miniatures and charts. If you have a lot of terrain specific travel issues, it's good to map it out. If you know a big battle is going to take place, it might be a good idea to have the locale mapped ahead of time. If you have miniatures, that helps. You can also cut counters out of a lot of sources, use coins, dice or buy a bag of chess men or wooden pawns to represent characters and creatures. Other than the world map, I use dry-erase board for a lot of maps on the fly. If you do this, Don't forget your markers! :)

6. Drinks and munchies or spare change for the vending machine. At the very least, keep a glass of water handy to keep your throat wet.

7. Now that you've gone through this list- don't forget to be on-time to the session. They miss you when you're late. Good luck! :)

 

 

Answers to Question #2:

 

From Umbratikus: The aging produced by a ghost's attack, at least IMC, is not actual aging, but the effect of aging.

This would have no direct effect on the unborn child. IM2eC, however, I would probably have the PC make a system shock roll or spontaneously abort.

Umbratikus

 

From Orkokhan: I have had something like this very thing happen in my campaign, about twelve years ago. I was DMing a group of female players and we had one PC who continually was getting pregnant due to her
promiscuity. She would ordinarily solve the problem with a trip to a
cleric or hedge witch (the character was chaotic neutral with evil
tendencies). While newly pregnant and unaware of her condition, she
went on an adventure and met up with several types of undead,
including a ghost, a spectre, and a vampire.

Since the fetus and the mother essentially share one biological
system at this point, with nutrient exchange, blood, immune system
interaction, etc., I ruled that her unborn child would have to make a
saving throw as per the mother to avoid the effects of the attacks.
This gave a possibility that the fetus would be affected, but also
drew on the the mother's innate ability to protect her unborn with
her own body (and who knows, perhaps the gods/fates were putting
their hand in the mix, as such beings are known to do).

In any case, I ruled that the fetus would have been killed by any
failed saving throw, due to the extreme strain on its undeveloped
body, except on a complete failure roll of 1 on d20. Then I would get
to make a creative decision as to just how the unborn child was
affected.

Guess what? She rolled a 1 versus both a shadow and a ghost. So,
after a little thought, I decided to impose the following:

Due to the shadow's strength-draining effect, I ruled that the child
would be extremely physically weak throughout its life, as its
strength had been in the development stage and was now permanently
damaged by the shadow's influence. However, I ruled that the
balancing effect would be that the child would have an extremely high
intelligence to compensate (much as blind children develop more
sensitive touch, hearing, smell, etc.).

As for the ghost's influence, I ruled that the child would mature
very quickly from a fetus to a baby, and continue to do so at a rate
of 25 times normal. I based this on the fact that the average aging
from a ghost's touch is 25 years (median of 10-40 years). This
resulted in the mother having to spend time in a temple, periodically
receiving healing and restorative magic to compensate for the strain
put on her body by the rapidly developing fetus.

When the child was born, it was sort of an intellectual superkid,
with a minimal strength (I ruled that the highest strength the
character could achieve would be 5 or 6, if he trained constantly,
otherwise 3 or 4). A player from another group I was running took
over the character once it reached puberty (after 6 months at its
accellerated aging rate) and ran the character with both his group
and the group of female players.

The character ended up as a magic-user, with psionic abilities, who
was obsessed with trying to find a way to counteract the magical
aging (which I ruled would kill him in 4.1 game years—death from
old age). This generated a lot of roleplaying threads, including emnity
between the son and the mother (her irresponsibility was, in his
mind, the cause of his affliction). Ultimately, the character did end
up dying of old age, as an 11th level magic-user, when the potions of
longevity he was chugging to stave off the rapid aging caught up with
him and reversed all at once.

Anyway, that was how I handled it, and it definitely added to the
enjoyment of my players and my campaign.