Campaign Management Tools

[Reynard]

We have this thread every once in a while, but new tools (and EN World users!) appear all the time so i figured it did not hurt to ask:

What are you using for your campaign management tools? I am especially interested in tools that allow players to input info, from personal logs/journals to editing the campaign wiki to uploading their own drawings etc. Of course I also need a way to manage my own info and session notes, and I would REALLY love a map with information pins etc on it since I will be running a sandbox in something like the west marches style.

Thanks.

 

[SkidAce]

my campaign

Dashboard - Alfaysia

Nexus of Worlds ...

app.kanka.io

 

[TheAlkaizer]

I've always kept my notes and the player notes separate. Encouraged them to take their own, had my own notes. I used pen and paper for years. Several years ago, I dove into digital tools. Both because a torrent of new ones were appearing, and because part of my day job required me to explore knowledge organizational tools, so there was a lot of overlap.

I kept keeping mine and the players stuff separate, but for a while I used Notion for my notes. Its relational database proved very useful. I made a database for characters (non-player), locations, factions. I could take notes in them, and the important part was that writing "Steve" wasn't just a word on a page, it was a link to an existing object in a database. So all reference would point to one place where all notes about Steve were. More importantly, writing "Stvee" didn't link it and it became obvious.

Lately, a favorite tool of mine called Obsidian added a similar feature called Bases. Obsidian is note based. You create hierarchies of folders and tuck notes in them. Bases are basically a database that shows you every note that you have, and then you simply filter if: I want what's in this folder, I want only notes that have the "tag" NPC. It takes an hour or two of setting up at the start, but after that it's much more atomic and simple. In my experience, the simplest tools are often the best. I'm even spending more time with pen and paper lately.

I'm not uninterested in exploring having some common material between myself and the players, but I rarely see the value in how I run my games. But I've been preparing for bolder ideas for my next campaign and I might try some funky stuff, which could be a better match for a common ground.

 

[Reynard]

my campaign

Dashboard - Alfaysia

Nexus of Worlds ...

app.kanka.io

That is very cool. Is that a free service or is there a subscription fee?

 

[SkidAce]

Free with unlimited articles, sub adds css style fancy stuff.

 

[Agamon]

Legend Keeper for my wiki stuff for both my Daggerheart and Stonetop games.

In my Stonetop game, (and in most online ST games, I think) I use Miro, so all of the playbooks and maps are easily seeable and editable by everyone.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For my long-running campaign (2006 through today), I have a Mediawiki set up, but I do not recommend it, unless you are someone with an interest in keeping the software and hosting end up to date and monitored. It's a very powerful tool (it's the software that runs Wikipedia) and our campaign now has a vast number of interlocking pages created, but the web management part is kind of a pain in the butt.

For more recent campaigns, I've been just going with a hyperlinked Google Doc I share with my players and a secret one for me with the good stuff.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

Mediawiki set up

I used another Wiki options years and years ago. It seemed like a good idea. But these platforms have specific constraints, a syntax to follow and you end up spending so much time putting into form and getting comfortable with the workflow instead of focusing on gameable content.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I used another Wiki options years and years ago. It seemed like a good idea. But these platforms have specific constraints, a syntax to follow and you end up spending so much time putting into form and getting comfortable with the workflow instead of focusing on gameable content.

I am lucky that I have a huge rotating group of players (more than a dozen of them), so once everyone got used to adding pages and fleshing them out, and I stayed on top of adding stuff to the timeline page, it wasn't bad.

 

[Koloth]

Years ago, used the Blogger site. Surprisingly, all those blogs are still there.
KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid, is still good advice. If the tech is hard or time consuming for either the players or GM, it probably won't get used or will be quickly discarded.
Watch out for special requirements. Some players may not want to have a Google,Discord,Microsoft,etc account just to use the selected RPG play aid. Same for sites that are script heavy.
Make sure the benefits are worth the time costs. A game I am currently in is using Forge VTT as a play aid. I think the current usage is taking longer to play out then physical minis on a table map. Often 40+ minutes per init round with 7 PCs and 1 NPC.
Make a backup. Make several backups.