Electronic support: Wikis

[Umbran]

For a very long time, I was a pencil (not pen, specifically pencil) and paper GM. I eventually moved to writing my notes up in MS Word, because my handwriting isn't great when I write quickly, and I can type more quickly than I can write.

However, I'm not a luddite. I like to experiment with new tools, I just didn't do that with respect to gaming. As I'm starting up a new campaign, I'm looking at using new tools. Wikis are nowhere near new to me - I've used them at work for documentation for years. I've maintained them, even acted as application administrator for them. I simply haven't applied them to RPGs before.

So - my questions: for those of you who use wikis, what service do you use to host? What sorts of organization of your data has turned out to be useful? Do you use them mostly for yourself, or more as a tool to collaborate with your players?

 

[lobsterGun]

So - my questions: for those of you who use wikis, what service do you use to host? What sorts of organization of your data has turned out to be useful? Do you use them mostly for yourself, or more as a tool to collaborate with your players?

I use sites.google.com.

I suppose the only drawback is that anyone you want to be able to edit the site will need a gmail account.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I use Wikidot, but if you've got the druthers, Obsidian Portal does wonders.

sites.google.com is worth checking out.

I find that the hyperlink idea follows my logic when designing a campaign really well. I'll start with maybe a bit of a summary of the first adventure, with NPC's and locations and PC's all given their own pages, which will eventually contain their links to other things in the game.

Forex, if the adventurers meet at a tavern, to talk to a wizard, who tells them to go into the dungeon, and kill the kobold king, your wiki might have the tavern, the wizard, the dungeon, and the kobold king, with the general information about all of them. If your PC's hit on a barmaid or talk with the barkeep or get in a fight, these random NPC's can be added under the tavern's page. If the wizard mentions the Wizarding School he attended, that can be a new location. In the dungeon, maybe you put things the party fought. When the Kobold King surrenders and mentions the big bad goblin that put him up to this, you then add the goblin's name.

Essentially, proper nouns get pages.

Towns.
Buildings.
Dungeons.
Nations.
NPC's.
Critters.
PC's.

Depending on what gets mentioned at the table, add it to the wiki, either before (if you plan on using it), or after (if you introduced it spur of the moment in the game).

 

[Reynard]

I have been thinking of using a wiki for my campaign setting for some time, but I don't even know where to begin. What software do i need? Do i have to know how to code? How hard is it to maintain? What about images and PDFs -- can I upload those? Can I allow some people to edit/create some content, but lock other (GM specific, frex) content?

 

[Storminator]

I have been thinking of using a wiki for my campaign setting for some time, but I don't even know where to begin. What software do i need? Do i have to know how to code? How hard is it to maintain? What about images and PDFs -- can I upload those? Can I allow some people to edit/create some content, but lock other (GM specific, frex) content?

Think of a wiki as a multi-person blog. That's not exactly right, but it's in the ballpark. You need a browser, no coding skills, and you can upload most any file. Most wikis will display images in pages, tho other file types become links or icons (I imagine some wikis will let you play sounds). You can generally set permissions to hide stuff from users and the public.

PS

 

[Stormonu]

I use wikispaces to host my gameworld. It's primarily for myself, and anybody that happens to run across it on the web.

There's no special software to download, you can type or upload text directly into the browser to be hosted. There is plenty of help for advanced formatting, hyperlinking and such, it's pretty easy to use. I know you can store pictures, but I haven't tried PDFs - should work just as well. The main concern may be space, however.

On wikipages, you can lock content so only yourself or certain people you give permission can edit the pages. I assume most other wikis do the same - except for WotC's wikis, I believe.

My wiki, if you want to poke around a bit: http://amberos.wikispaces.com/

 

[Tharian]

I cast my lot with Obsidian Portal. It's definitely geared towards RPGs and if you've never used their site, they have a couple video tutorials that show how to accomplish things like adding NPCs, notes, etc.

 

[Haltherrion]

I have been thinking of using a wiki for my campaign setting for some time, but I don't even know where to begin. What software do i need? Do i have to know how to code? How hard is it to maintain? What about images and PDFs -- can I upload those? Can I allow some people to edit/create some content, but lock other (GM specific, frex) content?

I use wikidot. It's pretty easy to work with. No coding is required in general unless you want to customize a theme which isn't too complicated.

Most services will let you upload images with a total disk storage limit. Wikidot's limit on free accounts is 300MB which is pretty generous and hard to use unless you go crazy.

Maintenance of a wiki is pretty easy. Wikidot allows you to control access but only by site (you can have 5 sites per free account). You could have a GM editable-only site and a freely edited site at best. Others have mentioned some other services that are better for that type of control.

I must say I like wikidot; it's pretty easy to use. You can check out the link in my signature below for an example. There are other hosted campaign sites on wikidot that you canfind with a google.

THere was another thread similar to this a few weeks ago as well.

 

[wedgeski]

I use PBworks PBWiki, which has its foibles but does the job really well.

Editing pages is just like using a simple word processor; you can upload images and easily link them into your articles (or just link to an external URL). You can organise your pages into folders, determine permissions for your players... all standard stuff for a wiki.

 

[Insight]

My group uses Obsidian Portal and we even pay the $5/month subscription fee for them to host a forum for us. We try to keep the content fairly simple; it's mostly used for history and maps. Characters can be stored there, which is a nice feature.