Good program to keep track of your campaign?

[Jenks3]

First time poster on ENworld, but I could not think of a better place to put this.

Throughout my campaigns I have tried keeping tabs on npcs, items, etc. in many different ways. At first I used notecards, then text files, and even tried a website. Right now I am looking for a way to make a "codex" per se. A place where i can list information about important NPCs, Items, etc, and my players can readily view them. But, I'm hoping to find something a little more fluid to enter information than say a website or a wiki, since I like doing it in the middle of a game and doing so on a website can cause great pauses in game. Like a note taking program that allows shared access to notes, etc. But really I'm just interested in what everyone else thinks are the best programs/places to do this!

ALSO, something that lets me enter it on my iOS device and sync it over is a +, but not required.

TLDR: What do you use to help keep track of NPCs, items, etc in your campaigns that lets your players view them any time?

Thanks guys!

 

[ComradeGnull]

I've previously used MediaWiki (the software that runs Wikipedia) as my storage medium for campaign info. If you have webhosting you are already paying for, it is usually pretty easy to throw on a server and make selectively visible if you want to share things with your players. You can also upload photos and other media to it if you want to keep maps or PDF documents around. If you don't have web hosting available, I've used a little virtual machine running in VMWare on my laptop to store everything the same way. There are also one-page HTML-based wikis like TiddlyWiki that you can use without any network access- they aren't quite as full featured, but very easy to set up, move around, and use.

iOS apps- obviously anything that runs in a browser will be accessible over iOS. There are a couple apps I've used for other stuff- NotesPlus and Tapose- that offer functionality similar to a notebook- you can drag and drop images into them, use handwriting, draw, type, or whatever, and keep things grouped into notebooks.

There are some gaming-specific iPad apps on the store, but I've never tried any of them that offer campaign management-type features. I know there are some that have character sheets and the like, but I've mostly found it easiest to work on fillable PDF character sheets on my laptop/desktop and then throw them on the iPad using Dropbox or SugarSync or something so I can refer to them later.

 

[Trit One-Ear]

My personal program of choice is Masterplan. It can do all kinds of little things for you, but the Encyclopedia feature is what is use it for most. I believe there are ways to post it or allow players access to it (and it has a section to write DM only information) but my players have yet to take quite that much an interest in my world.

If Masterplan doesn't quite tickle your World-building fancy, there are other suggestions over on the 4E boards in this thread: http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4th-edition-discussion/327181-looking-good-campaign-organizer.html

Hope you find something that works for you!

Trit

 

[SteelDraco]

I use Evernote for this, but I don't use it to give info to the players. It's just for my reference. I'd use TiddlyWiki if I wanted the group to see it.

I also have an index card for important NPCs that I jot notes on. The front is displayed to the players while they're interacting with the PCs. It has a picture, name, and a blurb about that person's role - for example, "Richard Coulson, First Officer and Head of Security, The Fourth Estate". On the back it notes that the PCs helped him rescue a former adventuring companion of his from a kidnapping plot.

 

[Jenks3]

I'm currently trying out evernote, and it seems good but the usage limit worries me. As well it seems to have issues with crashing on iOS.

As for masterplan, it looks amazing but with one key fatal error I forgot to mention, I'm on a mac XD. But I will definitely suggest this to my friends.

Also, I do play 4e, but I also play other types of games, so more universal programs get a + as well.

Thanks for the replies!

 

[Hand of Evil]

Also looking at EverNotes - but just don't see it messing at this time with the material I want to share.

 

[amerigoV]

Obsidian Portal is very nice - web based.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Just some older threads on related subjects:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/288346-virtual-tabletop-software.html

http://www.enworld.org/forum/media-...topics/81852-programs-organize-campaigns.html

If cost is good, MS Office On-Line with Onenotes, could be a option.

 

[FreeXenon]

I love Oneone for campaign writing, but have not tried it for its sharing options.

 

[SkidAce]

I really dig Obsidian Portal. Now if you are a web designer/coder and have your own hosting...maybe you don't need it. But for everyone else I recommend it.

Bullet Points

- Has integrated forums so you could host Play by Post

- Wiki interface, add links to pages you have created by clicking a button.

- Can embed pictures.

- Characters and NPC pages (with custom sheets for many systems made by the community.

- Wiki pages can be filtered by tags.

- Dedicated map page with google map interface.

If you know CSS and HTML you can customize the daylights out of its appearance should you choose.


My method is to create pages in MS Onenote and paste the text into my portal page. But lately I have just been adding info direct.

Luckily you can download a backup file of your info that is online. And if you know what you're doing, you can view that backup offline (not recomended, but good for data loss).

Take a look and let me know what you think....

Unconquered Kingdoms | Obsidian Portal