One effective way to organize digital RPG material is by making a directory structure of "RPGs", then by system, followed by publisher (if needed), and finally, by product. It should look something like this:
/RPGs/5e/Sly Flourish/lazy_dms_companion.pdf
Skip the publisher if there's only one publisher for the system.
/RPGs/Shadowdark/Shadowdark_RPG_V1.pdf
How do You Do It?
Often on the Sly Flourish Patreon I get asked how best to store digital materials — mostly PDFs of RPG products. I didn't have a very effective system so I put up a YouTube post on the topic to find out what systems others use to store digital files.
Many don't have an organized process, which can work just fine if you have a good desktop search (see below). A few mentioned the directory structure above and, after switching to it, I love it.
"RPGs", System, Publisher, Product
Create a set of directories starting with "RPGs", followed by game system, publisher, and product.
Here's an example:
- /RPGs/system/publisher/product.pdf
and here are some examples:
- /RPGs/5e/Kobold Press/scarlet_citadel.pdf
- /RPGs/13th Age/13th_age.pdf
- /RPGs/Numenera/weird_discoveries.pdf
- /RPGs/Independent Publishers/knave_1.0.pdf (for companies that produce basically one product)
You don't have to include a publisher subdirectory unless many different companies write for one system. This is only 5e for me. I also have a /RPGs/5e/DM's Guild/ directory holding all my single-publication DM's Guild products. Both my /RPGs/ directory and /RPGs/5e/ directories have "Independent Publisher" directories with PDFs of publishers who only produced a single product.
This system is flexible enough to hold lots of products and simple enough to help you find what you want when you want it.
One organizational trick is to sort directories by "last opened". You're more likely to look for the same files often and sorting by last opened means the files you need are often at the top.
I spent a few hours reorganizing my PDFs this way and love it, but it probably wasn't worth it. How come?
Because we can use our desktop search.
Use Your Desktop Search
Sorting through piles of files in a directory isn't ideal when we already know what we want. Instead, both Macs and PCs have a desktop search built in. I'm on a Mac so I use Spotlight for search. It never worked particularly well until I spent the time to learn some tricks for it.
It's definitely worth the time to learn how to customize the search tool of your computer. For example, you'll want to:
- Limit searches to just PDF. On a Mac, you do this by typing "kind:pdf" in your search query. In Windows 10, type "type:pdf" to limit the search to PDFs.
- Limit which directories your computer indexes. On a Mac, you can find this under your system settings for Spotlight and its privacy settings to turn off directories you don't want to search. In Windows 10, search for "indexing options" where you can limit indexed locations. Here's more on limiting directories on Windows
- Limit which types of files and data you want to search. On a Mac, this is under the system settings for Spotlight. Uncheck the stuff you don't want returned. The "indexing options" on Windows 10 described previously lets you limit which filetypes are indexed.
- Open the file's directory. Figure out how to open the directory containing the result instead of the result itself. On a Mac you do this by holding the command key down when you double-click the file. On a Windows machine, right-click on the file once you found it in search and click "open file location" in the context menu.
Spending a few minutes learning how to customize and use your desktop search tool saves a lot of time when hunting down RPG PDFs. It's worth the time to learn how.
Don't Overdo It
Don't spend too much time worrying about PDF organization. You can waste a lot of time renaming files, moving them around, and organizing stuff that really doesn't need to be organized. Keep your system simple. Keep it flexible. Focus your time on preparing and running awesome games for your friends.
More Sly Flourish Stuff
This week I posted a couple of YouTube videos on Designing Interactive Monuments and Prepping Scarlet Citadel Session 23.
Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics
Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs. Here are last week's topics with timestamped links to the YouTube video:
- Owen KC Stevens Bundles on DriveThruRPG
- Owlbear Rodel 2.0 Official Release in July
- Kobold Press Tales of the Valiant Monsters Playtest
- 2024 D&D Players Handbook Playtest 5
- Mass Effect Style Preludes and Wars
- Tuning the Lazy Encounter Bechmark
Patreon Questions and Answers
Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patreons. Here are last week's questions and answers:
- Chat GPT and AI For Adventure Generation
- Running Ship Battles in Light of Xaryxis
- Character Grabbing the Wrong Hook
RPG Tips
Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as D&D tips. Here are this week's tips:
- Monsters don't always behave optimally. Chaos affects both sides.
- Run waves of monsters in big boss fights.
- Run some super-hard battles and let the characters get away with lots of shenanigans.
- Let the characters (and players) get a glimpse of the environment in which they're going to engage in a big boss battle.
- Keep track of what magic items the characters have. Know who's due for another one.
- Give the characters their opportunity to shine when they've prepared something really fun.
- Think through the eyes of your villains. There's a time to fight and a time to run.
Related Articles
- Describe your GM Style
- Twenty Things to Do Instead of Checking Social Media
- Build from the Characters Outwards
- Converting Adventures Between Systems
- Identify Good D&D Adventures and Products
Get More from Sly Flourish
- Read more Sly Flourish articles
- Buy Sly Flourish's Books
- Watch Sly Flourish's YouTube videos
- Subscribe to Sly Flourish's Podcast
- Support Sly Flourish on Patreon
Buy Sly Flourish's Books
- Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
- The Lazy DM's Companion
- Lazy DM's Workbook
- Fantastic Lairs
- Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot
- Fantastic Adventures
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