Fantasy Friday: On Mind Mapping...

Good Afternoon, All:

For this Fantasy Friday, I wanted to talk about a GMing tool that I've recently discovered and started using for campaign and adventure development. It's called mind mapping. A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid to studying and organizing information, solving problems, making decisions, and writing. You can make them using pen and paper, or you can use software like FreeMind.

Mind mapping works best as a form of brainstorming. You are getting ideas out there as quickly as you can, using the branching lines to help you organize the ideas in some form of structure. You may not use all of the ideas you capture. However, in the early stages of campaign development or adventure design, getting everything out there is very important.

One possible use for mind maps might be to capture notes and thoughts on adventure ideas for individual PCs without your campaign. Simply create a new mind map for each character in the game, and spend 5-15 minutes reviewing the character's character sheet and backstory, making notes on adventure ideas as you do so. An hour's worth of your time may produce some great ideas for adventures and even campaign seeds that will give you many sessions of enjoyment. I think that's a great return on your investment.

If you'd like to know more, you might check out the following links:
http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/freemind-tips-for-game-masters/
http://blog.lemmi.at/?p=456

Hope This Helps,
Flynn