Media Tome Database in Notion
Welcome back to Earthmote. We are continuing our discussion on how to create a campaign management system in Notion. Today, we continue our discussion of the Meta databases with the Media Tome database.
Being a skilled game master requires a lot of work. There are so many areas to focus and improve upon. Examples include: campaign design, character design, improvisation skills, organization and so on. It can feel daunting at times with how much you can focus on.
Thankfully, you as a game master are not alone. There are tons of game masters out there that share their own creations and thoughts. Companies and content creators will also sell products that can help you as a game master. Using these resources, we can borrow, and learn from one another. It can make you a better game master by learning from others. You can save yourself time outright by using adventures or worldbuilding from others.
When I find some valuable information for my own games or game mastering, I like to save it and keep track of it. I do that by using a Notion database. In this case, I named the database my Media Tome. I consume lots of different media that I wish to reference later (YouTube videos, Blog Posts, Reddit Posts, etc.). And that’s its main purpose. It serves as a repository for all the different third party information I reference and use.
Descriptive Properties
The Media Tome database contains several descriptive properties.
| Column | Property Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Title | The name of the article or content piece. |
| Revisit | Checkbox | An indicator for if I want to revisit the content in the near future. |
| Type | Select | The type of content I’m capturing in the database. Examples include: article, PDF, file, Book and YouTube Video. |
| Subtype | Select | A general subcategorization of the content. Examples include: Items, Maps, Monsters, Traps, DM Advice, Exploration and so on. |
| Status | Select | My status indicator for the content. Statuses include: In Progress, Ongoing, Next, Read/Complete, Reference and so on. |
| URL | URL | The website address to the content. |
| Cost | Number | The monetary cost of the content. |
| Short Notes | Text | Free form text. I use it give a high level summary of the content. |
Relational Properties
Media Tome ties to a few databases in my Notion system. They include:
- Creator. Who created the content?
- Items. Is the article about a specific item?
- Characters. Is the content about a specific NPC(s)?
- Factions. Which factions are the players members of?
- Knowledge Tome. Does the content belong to a large category?
- Locations. Is the content about a specific location for your game?
- Ideas & Notes. Did the content inspire a different idea or thought for your game?
- Sublocations. Is the content about a specific sublocation for your game?
- Traps & Puzzles. Does the content share specific traps or puzzles for your game?
When I put everything together, this is an example of what my Media Tome database looks like:
Notion Template for Media Tome
I don’t use any standard templates for the media tome. I capture most of the details in the table’s property columns. The URL link takes me directly to the source for further review. Despite not using a template. The Notion Clipper is essential for this type of database.
Capturing Media with the Notion Clipper
The Notion Clipper is a web browser extension. When you find a page you like, you can click on the clipper and select the database you want to add the entry into. In this case, I use the Media Tome. Once saved into your database, you can add in all the categorization properties to it.
It speeds up the process of adding new entries into the media database. By reducing that friction, you’ll actually add to the database. If I had to manually capture the information, my database would look sparse.
Next time, we will cover the Knowledge Tome database.
Further Reading on Notion:
PCs Database
Art Credit: Ede László
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