Looking for a visually immersive campaign management tool

[Sword of Spirit]

Hi everyone! I've determined that it might be useful for me to try out some good campaign management software. I'm not sure what's out there, but I'm pretty sure many of you are well aware of your favorite offerings. For any who wouldn't mind sharing, I'll list what my needs are in the software in rough order of importance.

Desirable:
D1) Visually appealing and immersive. This is essential. I don't want to feel like I'm looking at a spreadsheet; I don't want a feed scrolling by; I don't want any ads, etc. If it breaks me out of the mood I'm trying to create while running the session, I don't want to look at it. As an example, I actually liked the visual appearance of Dungeonscape, but Realm Works is iffy (though I'd give it a shot if it were free).
D2) Intuitive design. I ought to be able to figure out how to do all the basic functionality just by playing with the software for a few minutes, and maybe reading some quick start info. I'm fine with reading a manual for more detailed functionality, but after reading said manual the additional functionality should also seem intuitive, rather than something I have to keep looking up when I want to use it. A great example of software that falls within the right level of intuitiveness is Hexographer. It's not campaign management software, but it is an example of the sort of learning curve I find acceptable (though I'd love an even easier learning curve).
D3) Well-designed organization. I think this goes without saying, but it should not only be easy to use the software itself, the software should also either place information and functionality in an obvious and convenient organization system--or allow me to customize how it is organized.
D4) Easy-info entry. I'm not expecting perfection here, but if entering new information (such as details about an NPC I'm creating on the fly) directly into the software is significantly slower than just jotting it down on a notebook in front of me or typing it up into a document, I'm probably going to have a problem with the software. I'm a very improvisational GM, and I don't want to have to spend 30 minutes after every session entering the stuff I made up into the manager. I'd like to be able to do something like click "New Character" and then immediately start entering the info that I'm thinking. Of course, there might not be any software that pulls this off exactly to my expectations, but close does count.
D5) GM Restricted info. This is pretty standard, but I need to be able to keep some info where players can get to it and some where they can't. I like the fancy versions of this where you can just use a single click to select what is and isn't available for players to see, but that isn't required for me.
D6) Free. Right now I can't afford new software, so this is desirable. I may have to wait for a while until I can afford software in the likely event that I can't find what I want for free, so paid suggestions are still appreciated. The less expensive the software is the more upfront work I'm willing to do on layout and and organization to get it to do what I want, provided I can still get what I want out of it, and provided it doesn't involve scripting or designing my own website.

Undesirable:
U1) Subscription-based. I won't pay for an ongoing subscription. If there is an option for a one-time lifetime purchase on a normally subscription-based tool, that's a different case.
U2) Players required to pay. If everyone in the group has to buy their own client to play, it's off the consideration list.
U3) Inescapable complexity. I don't mind reading a simple manual, but it shouldn't require me to feel like I'm designing software when I'm using it or setting it up.
U4) Inescapable system-integration. I want something system-neutral. If there were something that does everything I want but is designed for 5e D&D, I could use it for my D&D games, so it would be worth knowing about. But I also need something that is more general; something that can support information management with no reference to any system whatsoever.

That's basically what I'm looking for. Is it out there? Anything close?

 

[Lawngnome4hire]

As far as I know there is nothing that comes close to what you're looking for.

These are the 3 best options that I'm aware of, there may be others that I haven't seen, but I've tried all 3 of these and can give some basic feedback.

• Realm Works While the feature list is impressive, it's a bit pricey at $49.99 for the GM, with a follow up subscription if you want to enable cloud service, and $9.99 for each player that wants to access player viewable info. While you can use it as a stand alone program, if you want your players to be able to access info you have to have an active subscription for cloud service.
  This program is also extremely complicated, and pretty unintuitive. I bought it and tried it out, and quickly discarded it in favor of OneNote because of how steep the learning curve is and how much work it was going to take in order to make the program useful. And while it might be better now, when I tried it out inititally the documentation was non existent so you had to figure everything out yourself.
• The Keep More reasonably priced at $34.95, the feature list isn't quite as impressive, but it is very intuitive, and far easier to use than Realm Works. It's very good at organizing your data, and has some nice features for exporting to various file formats(including epub). It also integrates well with their other software offerings like fractal mapper, character sheet designer, screen monkey, and inspiration pad pro, and has a built in dice roller. However it's really designed as a stand alone tool for the gm, although you could easily export the info you want to share to a pdf, epub or even a website if you wanted. I haven't tried it since they've released the new version 2.0, but version 1.10 was a bit slow running for my tastes, hopefully they've fixed that.
• OneNote At free, you can't beat the price, this is what I use despite the fact that I have paid for both Realm Works, and The Keep. It's not designed specifically for gaming, but it has all the features you need to keep your game info organized. It's very easy to use and intuitive, and the program runs nice and quick. It also has the added benefit of syncing to your OneDrive, and being accessible from any device with android or ios apps.

 

[Razjah]

Obsidian Portal can be a great help here. It is free, but if you want more features you "ascend" and pay a fee for a year or longer at a time so you don't have to worry too often about a subscription. Only the GM needs to "ascend" to get all the features.

It's a basic wiki for your campaign but it allows maps, items, characters, and other information to be created and tagged. Making a character takes about as much effort as a forum post. You can also save adventure logs or have the player create them from their perspective or their characters.

Additionally, Obsidian Portal has a "Campaign of the Month" and "Campaign of the Year" for people who do amazing work in making their site awesome.

Here is a sample campaign from my group: https://shadows-over-new-york.obsidianportal.com/ (I wasn't in Season 2, but I think life got in the way to keep it short).

 

[UselessTriviaMan]

I have everything I need for organizing my campaign, and I use the combination of OneNote (for myself) and Obsidian Portal (for my players). Seriously, these are just about as good as it gets.

 

[Hand of Evil]

OneNote or EverNote but you may also want to look at The Keep by NBOS (http://www.nbos.com/products/keep/keep.htm)

Obsidian Portal also.

 

[innerdude]

A buddy at work finally talked me into trying OneNote for various work-related things.

And it quickly became apparent that it truly was the "campaign manager" I'd been looking for all along.

Use OneNote for all of the GM prep side, then use Obsidian Portal for keeping a basic running log, and present material to players.

Both for the cost of nothing. In some cases, you can even just create a separate "Players Only" OneNote in OneNote online, and share it with them if you don't even want to bother with Obsidian Portal at all.

 

[pickin_grinnin]

Realm Works has a steep learning curve, and has yet to deliver on many key features that they promised early on. The ongoing development moves at a snail's pace. It showed great promise, but is very far from being worth it, monetarily or otherwise. I definitely regret the purchase.

 

[Janx]

I read the OP's requirements and criteria, and I think of the standard IT response:

Better, faster, Cheaper. pick 2.

You can't expect much if you want it absolutely free with no ads. Programming takes time which is money. Making it look good is more time. Making it easy to use takes more time. making it user customisable is even more time. Making it well designed internally so it can be expanded upon takes time.

You get what you pay for.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I've been taking at look at all the suggestions and I'll report back on how they look.

OneNote looked potentially promising, but I can't seem to find a version that will run on Windows XP, and that's the system I need it running on. Does anyone happen to know if there is download that still works on XP, or is it just completely incapable of running it now?

 

[Hand of Evil]

I've been taking at look at all the suggestions and I'll report back on how they look.

OneNote looked potentially promising, but I can't seem to find a version that will run on Windows XP, and that's the system I need it running on. Does anyone happen to know if there is download that still works on XP, or is it just completely incapable of running it now?

That would be OneNote 2003, check Amazon but do look at The Keep as it can run on XP and off a USB stick.