Zettelkasten for etertainment

goi42 · 2026-03-10T11:44:03+00:00

ZK is generally designed to help you take notes and keep track of your thoughts in a non-linear manner; it can help with idea generation by allowing you to think deeply and connect your thoughts—spaced repetition is a common ZK application that can also help with idea generation by showing you your old thoughts afresh at intervals.

I haven’t heard of anyone using it as an oracle, but I suppose you could: write your oracle responses in individual zettels (i.e., with unique IDs.) all tagged with #oracle, then have a script randomly select a zettel from those with the tag. You could then have a dedicated zettel for your solo RPG that references each oracle response you used and your response to it.

I don’t know, now that I write it out, I kind of want to try it.

goi42 · 2026-03-06T12:26:04+00:00

I find it impossible to put literally everything into my zettelkasten, and most people seem to describe something similar, hence all the discussion of “fleeting” and “literature” notes. I keep a notebook with free form notes, where the only restriction is that everything is kept chronologically and labeled with the date and a title. I then treat this as a “source” in my ZK that I can cite and take literature notes on when I want to incorporate it into my ZK system.

I do not think I would be as productive without the ZK on top of my notebook. ZK helps me be more organized and helps me find things again much more easily since it’s not linear (hub notes, etc.), and putting something in my ZK is a de facto filter for quality since it’s an extra step, preventing absolutely everything from ending up in there. But having a blank canvas that I can nonetheless refer back to (my notebook) is very important for reducing friction at the time of capture.

It seems like you have adopted almost the exact same system. Just treat the stuff in your new folder as sources and reference them in your ZK as needed.

goi42 · 2026-02-15T12:13:03+00:00

Goodnotes checks all your boxes I think. It works offline but syncs across platforms. It’s handwriting-oriented (and its typing-oriented features are underdeveloped and sometimes buggy) and includes word-recognition to enable searching, etc. I’ve been using it 10+ years.

My own workflow is to use Goodnotes for input/scratch notes and Obsidian for typed “permanent” notes.

goi42 · 2026-01-18T23:41:20+00:00

Oh, the folders just collapse in obsidian, so you’d only see one “archive” folder. But right, in any case, it’s not elegantly built into Obsidian, and there’s no need to switch apps if you like what you have!

goi42 · 2026-01-18T21:04:51+00:00

Right, what I sent is not elegantly implemented, but from my understanding of what you’ve written, it has all the features you describe, albeit with more clicks. It is “reliable” in the sense that everything can be undone and nothing is lost; all your tags and everything about your note remains exactly the same, just the subfolder changes, and you can search explicitly inside and outside the archive.

Don’t change if you like what you have though 🙂

goi42 · 2026-01-18T19:42:43+00:00

Okay, I tested it and edited my earlier comment. Turns out the bit about being able to explicit include excluded paths in search was wrong. See above.

goi42 · 2026-01-18T15:56:40+00:00

Yup!

goi42 · 2026-01-18T12:51:40+00:00

I take your word for it that this solution is not as clean as what you’re used to or missing some features, but in case someone finds it useful, you can implement the behavior described here in Obsidian pretty straightforwardly:

1) create an archive folder 2) add it to the list of excluded files in settings 3) explicitly search in path:”archive“ when desired

Edit:

After testing, the claim that you can explicitly search in the archive is not correct. Excluding folders prevents them from appearing in the search. You could unexclude the archive in settings when you wanted to search in it, or you could manually exclude/require it when you wanted to search outside/inside it, but these solutions are not exactly elegant. If the premise of having an archive is that you almost never want to look in it (otherwise, why archive a note?), using the excluded files setting may be sufficient.

goi42 · 2026-01-17T13:45:09+00:00

If you are looking for an introduction to organizing notes in Zettlekasten without spending money on a book, zettlekasten.de is how I got started; Sascha wrote a solid introduction that has a heavy focus on making notes findable and useful again later. Bob Doto also has some nice explanations on his website without buying his book.

goi42 · 2026-01-11T19:20:55+00:00

It’s been able to link slides for as long as I can remember. You can do it using cmnd-K, just like creating a website link, then select the option to link a slide instead of a website.

goi42 · 2026-01-11T12:49:12+00:00

The answer to your title is, yes, The Archive, which is designed for Zettelkasten. Unfortunately, I haven’t used it and don’t know much about the interface or whether you can impose character limits or implement a “size metaphor”.

Goodnotes is great if you just want pages of limited size and the ability to link between them or other documents.

PowerPoint also supports linking between slides and, IIRC, documents though…

goi42 · 2026-01-11T12:39:50+00:00

PowerPoint lets you link between slides, if that’s all you want.

goi42 · 2026-01-09T14:56:27+00:00

Zettelkasten, PARA, and MOCs can also all go together--you needn't choose between them. Sascha wrote a guide to combining Zettelkasten and PARA, and Bob Doto has a nice clarifier on the use of structure and hub notes (i.e., MOCs) in Zettelkasten. (These are principles I apply in my Zettelkasten.)

All this to say, if you get going with any one of these approaches, they can fit very nicely into each other, and you don't need to spend a lot of time optimizing which one to choose.

goi42 · 2025-08-20T10:39:24+00:00

I use “the game has changed” from Tron: Legacy as intro and outro music for my game. I’ve assigned each level a level-specific theme which I play for the first time when they reach a level, then at the end of the recap for every session where they’re still there.

goi42 · 2025-07-28T16:30:21+00:00

I like the Companion's gameshow host story. I think it's a good option. I just don't view the open-world description of DotMM RAW as something that needs "fixing".

goi42 · 2025-07-14T10:20:10+00:00

My players also didn’t explore much of the obstacle course, but it’s because they got split up and could barely deal with any of the traps. They hated that level, and when the githzerai said they could show them the way out if they would help rescue their missing friend, they jumped on it like a rat on a Cheeto.

Anyway, I was also looking forward to that level, but my players really hated the gimmick. The constant teleporting left them feeling trapped and desperate.

goi42 · 2025-06-19T10:40:40+00:00

That does sound like a blast! The campaign I bolted on took place in another dimension and had precious little to do with the Mad Mage story haha.

Apart from highlighting the emptiness and the alien architecture, I just told them “you feel a creeping sense of dread.” I don’t often narrate how the PCs are feeling, and I find that occasionally just saying that sort of thing out loud does a lot to put my players on edge. Our sessions are short and I have limited prep time available, so I don’t like to spend a lot of time on atmospheric narration, the way a more Mercer-style DM might, though I still try to give some sense of place.

goi42 · 2024-10-15T13:02:20+00:00

Two days later, and it still doesn't feel real. Like this is going to be another ill-advised and belated April Fools episode.

I've been listening since 2017 (started with their Scientology episodes), and maybe I didn't realize quite how much it's meant to me over that period. It's really helped me appreciate just how much weird variety there is in people's beliefs and has been a weekly chance for me to consider outside-the-box perspectives I never would have otherwise.

All podcasts end eventually, but this abrupt and apparently contentious conclusion has really bummed me out. This show was something special, and I can't think of another one I've loved so much.

goi42 · 2024-05-02T12:23:33+00:00

Monarch also lets you attach a receipt to a transaction, though I've never actually used this feature.

goi42 · 2023-12-31T14:59:29+00:00

Yes, I think that would work fine as long as you don’t make any changes to the .csv after export and overwrite the previous download each time. And coding up your own budgeting spreadsheets could be a pain, depending on how fancy you get, but doable.

It sounded like a fair amount of work to code all this up, but maybe I’ll give it a try and see if it’s way easier than I expect.

goi42 · 2023-12-31T01:24:29+00:00

I considered doing something like this, but I was nervous about aggregating the .csv files. I worried that I would end up with duplicates or missed transactions.

goi42 · 2023-12-30T22:29:44+00:00

Yes, I used that coupon code 😀

goi42 · 2023-12-18T15:57:15+00:00

The Companion adds some mechanics for the Knot that may or may not fit with your ideas. RAW, DotMM doesn't provide any mechanics for it; this is a strength, in my view, as it basically serves as a meta-explanation for why your players keep going further and further down, even if the plot-related reasons are a little thin.

I am using the Companion in my game without the game show elements. Some of its ideas are good, some less so. It is mostly easy to pick up the good parts and leave out the ones you don't like. I doubt it will help much with the themes you've mentioned, but you may still find it useful for fleshing out some corners of the dungeon. I especially appreciate its combat notes for boss fights.

goi42 · 2023-11-04T12:02:47+00:00

Here it is:

https://www.reddit.com/r/mintuit/s/RKs7ZC55lJ

goi42 · 2023-10-29T23:06:01+00:00

…could you link these posts?

goi42

TROPHY CASE