Mercer's note-taking methodology did not emerge fully formed during the 2015 launch of Campaign 1. Over eleven years of public play, his organizational systems evolved from messy legal pads and loose character sheets into an industrial, cross-referenced documentation pipeline.
| Campaign Era | Binder & Screen Setup | Session Prep Methodology |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign 1: Vox Machina (2015, 2017) | Basic folding cardboard screens; physical legal pads; Pathfinder-to-5e conversion scribbles. | Long-form handwritten notes; heavy reliance on memory; frequent physical rulebook flipping. |
| Campaign 2: The Mighty Nein (2018, 2021) | Custom wood screens; standardized three-ring binder tabs; laminated combat tracking strips. | Standardized color-coded highlighters; regional faction dossiers; pre-printed stat blocks with custom adjustments. |
| Campaign 3 & Beyond (2021, 2026) | Integrated digital-physical hybrid; modular magnetic screen inserts; tablet reference alongside core binder. | Relational wiki cross-referencing (World Anvil/custom archives); bullet-point node design; modular combat matrices. |
The progression reflects a broader shift across tabletop RPG culture: away from rigid, linear scripts and toward modular reference toolkits. Mercer realized early in Campaign 1 that over-preparing rigid plot trajectories led to wasted prep hours whenever Vox Machina veered off-course. By Campaign 3, his binders functioned as dynamic reference encyclopedias rather than narrative rails.
