D&D 5E Technology for making my world more accessible for my players?

[Lanliss]

I am slowly working up a fleshy world, but have no convenient way to get it to my players. I am not much of a tech guy, so I wouldn't know where or how to start on this sort of thing. Can anyone offer help on the matter? I have looked at Dropbox (too plain for my taste) and Google docs (don't have much experience with it, but only one of my players even uses it, so that wouldn't work out.).

One option I have seen that seems possible is a campaign wiki, but I haven't messed with wikis before. How do I start my own? Does it cost anything? Any design tips, so my wiki doesn't look plain and boring?

What other options might you recommend?

 

[MNblockhead]

Realm Works by Lone Wolf Development.

http://www.wolflair.com/realmworks

You can also check out the on-line wiki-like solutions, such as Obsidian Portal and City of Brass, but I have no direct experience with those services.

 

[Dualazi]

Well, hardly the revolutionary reveal, but roll20 is still pretty damn good for this sort of thing in my opinion, even if you don't use it to actually play. You can easily craft multiple handouts for individual regions/factions/NPCs etc, you can add character sheets for your characters so they're always up to date and at your disposal, and you can upload your own artwork or maps for any of these as you wish. Additionally, it makes it easy to add DM annotations that players can never see, so there's no risk of them learning too much before you're ready. It's free, too.

A wiki could work, though I couldn't assist in building it, and I think it'd be something of a sub-par option due to how your information will likely want to be presented. Wiki's, in my experience, are great for when you want to learn about one thing in particular. However, when you're trying to get large amounts of information to people, like a campaign overview, it leads to a lot of content being missed as players have to sift through sub-categories constantly.

 

[Lanliss]

Well, hardly the revolutionary reveal, but roll20 is still pretty damn good for this sort of thing in my opinion, even if you don't use it to actually play. You can easily craft multiple handouts for individual regions/factions/NPCs etc, you can add character sheets for your characters so they're always up to date and at your disposal, and you can upload your own artwork or maps for any of these as you wish. Additionally, it makes it easy to add DM annotations that players can never see, so there's no risk of them learning too much before you're ready. It's free, too.

A wiki could work, though I couldn't assist in building it, and I think it'd be something of a sub-par option due to how your information will likely want to be presented. Wiki's, in my experience, are great for when you want to learn about one thing in particular. However, when you're trying to get large amounts of information to people, like a campaign overview, it leads to a lot of content being missed as players have to sift through sub-categories constantly.

My thoughts on a wiki are just that. My players are not the sort to be interested in reading the full history of my world, or anything like that. I would just like a more convenient way of giving them the information they need than talking them through it. I would like to give them a link to the page on Kobolds, with information on disposition, biology, and all that stuff, rather than have to individually feed them the information when they pick their race. The ability to sift through sub-categories would probably fit them perfectly, because then they don't have to read through the entry on Dessert Kobolds if they are playing an Underground Kobold.

 

[Lanliss]

Realm Works by Lone Wolf Development.

http://www.wolflair.com/realmworks

You can also check out the on-line wiki-like solutions, such as Obsidian Portal and City of Brass, but I have no direct experience with those services.

I am going to wait on Realmworks, as I am not sure I am serious enough to pay for this sort of thing. That Obsidian portal is looking nice though, so thanks for that. Gonna check out Brass as well.

EDIT: Alas, city of Brass looks even more awesome, but costs actual money. Thanks for the recommendations.

 

[Lanliss]

Ah, just looked deeper into Obsidian Portal, and most of it costs money as well. Back to the drawing board.

Also, I understand that the people working on things like this deserve to get paid for their work. I just don't have a lot of money to put towards hobby things, so I cannot get in on the good stuff. I am not complaining, simply lamenting out loud...

 

[Nagol]

You might want to take a look at Obsidian Portal. Here's an example from a former member of the board (The Shaman): http://le-ballet-de-l-acier.obsidianportal.com/

 

[Nagol]

Ah, just looked deeper into Obsidian Portal, and most of it costs money as well. Back to the drawing board.

Also, I understand that the people working on things like this deserve to get paid for their work. I just don't have a lot of money to put towards hobby things, so I cannot get in on the good stuff. I am not complaining, simply lamenting out loud...

Well, most services will cost something either money or time.

There used to be a fair number of free wiki services, but they've been slowly dwindling; not enough traffic to specialty sites to drive advertising revenue.

The cheapest I can recommend would be setting up your own wiki on something like ourproject.org

 

[Waterbizkit]

I know you already ruled it out, but I just use Google Docs. It's easy, it's free and I can use it from my phone or my PC. It's made sharing information between my players and myself really easy. If I want to review their characters after a level-up but happen to be away from my computer for some reason, no problem because I'll just pull the sheets down to my phone.

It's just convenient. For me at any rate, everyone I know has a Gmail account and that's all you need. You might not even need that to download... maybe just upload, not overly sure. Anyway, good luck in finding something that will work for you.

 

[Oofta]

I use ObsidianPortal.com. Yes, it costs a little bit of money but it's handy to have my personal notes, my character's information and so on all in one place.

That or just set up a public shared folder in dropbox, skydrive or similar. Depends on how organized you are and how much you need the wiki / forum that something like obsidian is going to give you.