Lazy GM note taking with Notion and Obsidian

Lazy GM prep doesn’t require choosing between analog and digital note-taking—it’s about building a workflow that stays fast, portable, and resilient. In a back-and-forth between Nicole van der Hoeven and Mike Shea (Sly Flourish), the core message lands on a practical middle ground: Notion can power a hyperlinked “Lazy DM” prep system, while Obsidian can replicate the same structure with deeper automation and local-first control. The payoff is less time wrestling tools and more time running games.

Shea’s path starts with Markdown text files and handwritten notes, then shifts during COVID to Notion after seeing a party notebook with rich hyperlinks and campaign detail. He turns that inspiration into a “Lazy GM” template that supports session planning and reduces repetitive work—like carrying forward monsters already flagged for a campaign so they automatically appear in the next session’s planning tab. Over time, the template mutates into a patchwork of subsystems: character lists with backgrounds, trained skills, passives, and languages; session planning tabs; and a monster database workflow that feeds the prep process.

Yet the most revealing detail isn’t the software—it’s how he uses it at the table. Even when prep happens digitally, he often copies text out of Notion and formats it into a Word document for printing on a single sheet (two-sided). He describes a deliberate “analog-first at the table” approach: no laptop, physical books, dice, and DM materials. When he returns to in-person play, he doesn’t feel “naked” without digital tools after building a compact “toolbox” of initiative cards, markers, and bookmarks. He also leans on the system-agnostic nature of his prep method: the same eight-step structure can be done with pen and paper or with advanced software.

Obsidian enters as the counterpoint. Shea shows an Obsidian setup built around macros that auto-create new session pages, increment session numbers, and pull in prior session summaries into recap sections. He highlights structured “scene” planning (secrets, clues, locations), an initiative tracker with custom statuses, and a combat log that records damage events—useful for auditing and tracking outcomes across a campaign. He also demonstrates a monster database approach using Open 5E data, queried via Dataview Query Language (DQL), and a Zotero-based workflow that can jump to specific PDF pages and even embed those pages locally.

The conversation broadens into a philosophy of tool loyalty. Shea argues against sunk-cost lock-in: switching platforms is costly, but exporting options and portability matter. Notion’s strengths—responsive pages and quick authoring—are weighed against Obsidian’s local-first model, plugin ecosystem, and image/PDF annotation workflows (including Excalidraw for map annotation). They also discuss AI-assisted formatting in Notion (including ChatGPT-driven statblock formatting) and practical friction points like mobile syncing and plugin compatibility.

Finally, the two connect note-taking infrastructure to publishing goals. Shea talks about structuring OGL-licensed material into reusable tables and generators, aiming for formats like HTML/Markdown/JSON rather than only PDFs. Nicole shows that she has already built large, nested table systems (including Vault of Magic tables) that can roll hundreds of items interactively—illustrating how structured data turns reference material into live tools for play.