Electronic support: Wikis

[Pbartender]

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.

I've used PBWiki in the past, and liked it.

The big problem I had was getting and keeping the players involved with the wiki... In general it'd end up with me doing all the work to edit it, and me being the only one who bothered to read it.

 

[Umbran]

The big problem I had was getting and keeping the players involved with the wiki... In general it'd end up with me doing all the work to edit it, and me being the only one who bothered to read it.

In my case, I expect the wiki to be mostly for my benefit. I have already asked the players what kinds of electronic support they'd want or use - and an e-mail list is about all they care for.

There is one player who has a character apt to chronicle her adventures (in-game she reports findings to an organization), and she might like a place to post such things for folks to read and/or use as a reminder. But so far that would be the only player-generated material I expect if I used a wiki.

 

[Insight]

In my case, I expect the wiki to be mostly for my benefit. I have already asked the players what kinds of electronic support they'd want or use - and an e-mail list is about all they care for.

There is one player who has a character apt to chronicle her adventures (in-game she reports findings to an organization), and she might like a place to post such things for folks to read and/or use as a reminder. But so far that would be the only player-generated material I expect if I used a wiki.

I think you'll likely find that the only players interested in editing the wiki or adding content are erstwhile DMs. In our group, only myself and the current DM have ever run games and he and I (not surprisingly) are the only ones providing content for the wiki.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I've used pbwiki for a while, mostly recording deaths of PCs. You can see mine here, FWIW (which isn't much!)

planesailing / FrontPage

 

[jmucchiello]

If you just need it for organizing your own data and don't expect to need anyone else to edit it, there is always Tiddly Wiki. It is a wiki in a file. You don't even need the internet to edit it. Just a web browser and access to the file.

 

[Haltherrion]

I use wikidot.

Guess I should add:

• You get both site and bottom of page forums/discussions in the free account
• It supports tag clouds for a low effort, simple "index"
• It is very full feature
• Documentation is good and user community is strong

 

[Edgewood]

Obsidian Portal is where I landed for my wiki. I tried wikidot but was not impressed with the functionality. Obsidian Portal is really easy to use.

Here's my site.

Morvia | Obsidian Portal

 

[Umbran]

If you just need it for organizing your own data and don't expect to need anyone else to edit it, there is always Tiddly Wiki. It is a wiki in a file. You don't even need the internet to edit it. Just a web browser and access to the file.

Well, that's a pretty cool idea. I wonder how much effective overlap it winds up having with MS OneNote.

 

[Reynard]

I decided to go with Obsidian Portal (see my sig for the link). Thanks a lot everyone for all the options, tho. I am hoping that having a campaign wiki will push me to get a lot of stuff out of my head and onto "paper".

 

[baradtgnome]

I use PMwiki from PmWiki | PmWiki / PmWiki

I am running an executable on my laptop so it is pretending to be a limited server & running the wiki only locally. I was a noob on owning a wiki, so I won't recommend my organization scheme which clearly has some drawbacks. (although I am an experienced IT guy so I should have known better ) It is a DM only wiki.

We have a party scribe and backup who take notes in Word. I compile the notes in an HTML file for easy search. Both are posted on our Yahoo groups private site. Also on the site are house rules, character and campaign background. We use the calendar for game scheduling and posts for between game communication.

It takes more time to put stuff in the wiki than in Word. Since I have a long running campaign and an even longer running world, I have loads of documents. Much, but not all is in the wiki. I find the wiki is not good for drafts and stream of consciousness stuff like making an adventure. I find it a godsend when I am trying to find a lost bit of information from years ago. I would not unequivocally recommend using a wiki; it has been a help to me but not without significant effort.