Campaign Wikis are A lot of Work!

[Scribble]

Just for fun I started to put together a campaign wiki the other day.

We've been playing the campaign since 4e came out, but I also run a style of game where the PCs don't know a lot about the world around them... Mainly they know the closest points to where they start, and that's about it.

But still... There's a goodly amount of info to update in the thing.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I find it useful only to put up info that the PC's know, and build it as you go. You can insert broken links for things you plan on filling in later.

Campaign wikis are a lot of fun, and a good place to put "player handouts" if you play with a computer nearby. If anyone ever forgets the name of that NPC or that town, you can just fire up the wiki. Customizing with pictures and files is also solid.

They're work, but I'm wikifying FFZ right now, so my campaign wiki pales in comparison to THAT undertaking.

 

[Scribble]

I find it useful only to put up info that the PC's know, and build it as you go. You can insert broken links for things you plan on filling in later.

Campaign wikis are a lot of fun, and a good place to put "player handouts" if you play with a computer nearby. If anyone ever forgets the name of that NPC or that town, you can just fire up the wiki. Customizing with pictures and files is also solid.

They're work, but I'm wikifying FFZ right now, so my campaign wiki pales in comparison to THAT undertaking.

That's pretty much what I'm doing, just putting in stuff that the PCs know, plus a few other details that they "sort of know" or "don't know they know yet." (The DM view thing is a lot of help for that.)

It's just al the info that's already part of the campaign is more then I thought.

It's so far one of those "fun work" things.

My players seemed pretty interested in it, so hopefuly they start doing stuff with it as well.

 

[Imperialus]

I know how you feel. I've just started putting my first campaign wiki together too. Lots of work... I've got house rules, (lovingly ripped off from Rel) and a brief history writeup done. My current project is getting the gods sorted.

 

[kensanata]

These days I feel weird if a campaign does not have a campaign wiki.

 

[Grymar]

I agree, kensanata, I can't have a campaign without a wiki now.

What I have on the wiki:

• Each player maintains a character sheet (for reference and for those "I forgot my sheet" moments)
• A list of NPCs with a short few sentences on who they are, what they did
• A campaign timeline
• Maps/images/handouts
• Player posted recaps
• Character XP tracking
• Character build info (allowed books, house rules, etc)
• Players also use it to track and distribute loot

Two campaigns ago I tried using Google Groups, but once I found pbwiki.com, I've never looked back. I have a second wiki that I keep just for my DM info with each session getting its own folder and anywhere from 5 to 15 pages.

 

[Hussar]

Another vote for PB Wiki. Great stuff. Really easy to use.

Since I run online games, it's been a godsend.

 

[alleynbard]

Add another voice for PBwiki. I found it very useful and intuitive. My players, on the other hand, didn't seem to enjoy the wiki all that much. In fact, I had a player state she outright hated the things. So, I did a lot of work for not a lot of payoff. But if your players are interested, wikis are definitely the way to go.

 

[Kristian Serrano]

Twice I've tried to put in the effort to create a campaign wiki. The problem was that the players didn't care enough and dealing with the markup (at that time) wasn't of interest to anyone.

Really, it didn't add much to the game at all. In fact, for a fantasy RPG it made it feel less attached. Working with technology to archive or review notes and journals seemed to pull us away from the feel of the world.

I suppose in a modern or future game, it might have a different effect in that it would be almost like an extension of roleplaying.

 

[C_M2008]

I've got about 3/4 of my players interested in my wiki, which is about what I expected so that's great.

The problem is I started about 3 weeks ago with the campaign well in progress. I haven't been able to catch up yet, and each week I get further behind.

It's a fabulous resource though, Obsidian Portal is great.