Campaign Management Tools

[LordEntrails]

For players I have a Google site and just copy/paste from Obsidian.

I thought Obsidian allowed player access. Is their a drawback to using it that way?

 

[Reynard]

I discovered I had set up a World Anvil account way back in 2020, so I guess I'll use that!

 

[kigmatzomat]

I thought Obsidian allowed player access. Is their a drawback to using it that way?

I don't use their cloud sync as I already have dropbox syncing on all devices.

I could set up a second vault in Dropbox that is shared but none of the others are obsidian users.

g-site works because they've all got web browsers and had discord from covid-era gaming.

 

[Retros_x]

When playing digitally I use Notion, but recently they annoy me a lot with their AI pushiness, considering switching to Obsidian right now. For my at the table games I use pen and paper and have a ringfolder for all campaign related stuff - I take out the pages I need for the session and have the folder at hand if I need other pages. I like this the most for table games, I really dislike to have a laptop/tablet at the table. Additional benefit: pen and paper forces me to keep my notes brief and impactful, in digital notes its just too easy to copy and paste a lot and suffer from information overload.

 

[nyvinter]

When playing digitally I use Notion, but recently they annoy me a lot with their AI pushiness, considering switching to Obsidian right now.

I did this. I bounced off Obsidian the first time I tried it but the second it took. The databases work a bit differently though so that took a bit of learning.

But! And this is a big but! I love the vertical stacked tabs for when I play, it gives quick access to the notes that might be relevant. The Obsidian omnisearch plugin is also a monster as it can also if the PDF is compiled properly search through those.

Since it's not in the cloud like Notion you do need to pay for sync if you want it on the desktop and the phone, or use a way too fiddly gdrive plugin. (IPhone users can use iCloud think, and far easier.)

Stacked tabs.

Omnisearch

 

[Barner Cobblewood]

If this is off-topic I apologise to OP, but I'm not sure it is - while everyone knows that management doesn't do any work, we also know that work falls apart without it.

I really dislike to have a laptop/tablet at the table.

Agreed. I think this deserves a thread of its own. I'm not a luddite (e.g. I'm posting here), but IMO nothing kills table-culture like screens. I am always hoping for some kind of transcribing software with a mic, but that never seems to get up to usable tech.

Implicating a team in decision making (what I think @Reynard is asking about) takes time and effort. I personally try to have face-to-face "session-zero" meetings (getting together without play to talk about playing, tell stories, etc.) every couple of months. For the kind of game I'm looking for, good tables need people who are friends / friendly, not just players. That's tough to initiate through the internets.

 

[Reynard]

Implicating a team in decision making (what I think @Reynard is asking about)

Not really. I am looking for a solution to have a place where folks can look up campaign specific info and add to the Player Wiki, etc. Because it will be a sandbox game with not always the same players session to session, this should help keep folks up to speed.

 

[Barner Cobblewood]

I'm not sure I understand what new thing you need then. As I understand it the original campaign used email (Grand Experiments: West Marches (part 2), Sharing Info) and a physical map. Isn't a google group enough? It lets everyone involved use a browser, which almost everyone has access to.

 

[Reynard]

I'm not sure I understand what new thing you need then. As I understand it the original campaign used email (Grand Experiments: West Marches (part 2), Sharing Info) and a physical map. Isn't a google group enough? It lets everyone involved use a browser, which almost everyone has access to.

Im not sure what's hard to understand. I am asking folks for their experiences with various digital, shareable campaign management solutions.

 

[defiantrogue]

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.

Kanka and Obsidian-with-Bases are great shouts for the cross-linked side. For the map-pins-plus-players-contribute combo specifically — full disclosure, I build Threadfall (thread-fall.com): players join free and can post log entries and browse a shared Codex of NPCs/locations/factions/quests that auto-links as it grows, and there's an Atlas map with info pins for sandbox locations. AI recaps are optional, not required. Happy to answer questions if it's useful.