Looking for a visually immersive campaign management tool

[innerdude]

Actually, if you have a Microsoft OneDrive or Hotmail account, you get access to OneNote online for free as part of your account. It's included in the apps area.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Here is a sample campaign from my group: https://shadows-over-new-york.obsidianportal.com/ (I wasn't in Season 2, but I think life got in the way to keep it short).

Thanks for the sample! That did help demonstrate what it could do.

As far as I know there is nothing that comes close to what you're looking for.

How about with my revised list of must haves and deal-breakers? (In this post)

I read the OP's requirements and criteria, and I think of the standard IT response:

Better, faster, Cheaper. pick 2.

You can't expect much if you want it absolutely free with no ads. Programming takes time which is money. Making it look good is more time. Making it easy to use takes more time. making it user customisable is even more time. Making it well designed internally so it can be expanded upon takes time.

You get what you pay for.

The free option was lowest on the desirable list because it wasn't very likely. I have a shorter list in this post.

That would be OneNote 2003, check Amazon but do look at The Keep as it can run on XP and off a USB stick.

Thanks! At least now I know where I could get OneNote for XP.

Actually, if you have a Microsoft OneDrive or Hotmail account, you get access to OneNote online for free as part of your account. It's included in the apps area.

Thanks for the responses so far. I've taken a look at all the suggestions, but none of them are quite doing the job. In case anyone is still up for the challenge of matching GM with software, I'll give a briefer list of the true essentials I need (rather than just desirable and undesirable).

Must Haves
1) Themes/Skins, or the ability to mimic them with uploads or settings
2) Quick and easy data entry and editing

Deal-Breakers
A) Subscription-based without a one-time purchase option
B) Overly limited functionality

It doesn't have to be formal campaign management software. I could consider a wiki or anything else that met those requirements. I also don't need to be able to share it with players. That's one of the first desirable elements that I can jettison if it otherwise looks good.

So far, Realm Works and the Keep both are too visually cluttered for me. Obsidian Portal is the most promising, but it isn't functional without a subscription (2 MB storage?) OneNote online fails on both of my must haves, and from the screenshots OneNote 2003 does also (correct me if I'm wrong). Evernote appears to fail on both of the must haves, and it's subscription based (or ads).

I'd like to say I can't believe nobody has produced something that can meet those four simple requirements, but unfortunately I can believe it--I just hope it isn't true.

 

[Lwaxy]

I use Obsidian Portal for my new campaign and if you have a wqy to store some maps etc outside the site, the storage limit does not really matter.

 

[Lawngnome4hire]

I'd like to say I can't believe nobody has produced something that can meet those four simple requirements, but unfortunately I can believe it--I just hope it isn't true.

That's the thing, your four simple requirements aren't simple at all. You're not talking about notepad here, these are fairly complex pieces of software.

OneNote 2013 does have themes and backgrounds, but the selection is rather limited and it's not something you can customize yourself like with an SDK. The Keep, is about as visually cluttered as Windows Explorer, or Paint, so I can't help you there, any less "cluttered" and it would have no value.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I have been thinking this is the impossible dream. There have been a number of kickstarters but they never got funded, I really liked the look of Inkarnate-rpg-toolset but there does not appear to be interest in it.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Must Haves
1) Themes/Skins, or the ability to mimic them with uploads or settings
2) Quick and easy data entry and editing

Deal-Breakers
A) Subscription-based without a one-time purchase option
B) Overly limited functionalitye.

That's the thing, your four simple requirements aren't simple at all. You're not talking about notepad here, these are fairly complex pieces of software.

Seriously? Every single one of those is found in a variety of other software. But it is somehow a major ordeal to put them in the same piece of software?

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Thanks everyone! Since I can't seem to find exactly what I'm looking for I'll have to determine what I am going to use (even if the answer is "just keep using stand alone document files").

So I played around with some things and took a deeper look at some of the suggestions. Here is what I came up with so far.

1) Ironically, I could get pretty close to what I want working with my copy of Word 2003. Adjust to desired font, put a texture in the background, put it in web display mode and create a frame on the left with with a table of contents. I can click on entries in the left frame and jump to where they are in the right frame. And I know how to set up macros for preformatted entries. Of course, there is one insurmountable issue that makes it completely off the list: the table of contents doesn't update when the content does (you'd have to recreate the frame with the new content).
2) I tried out OneNote 2013 on my other system, and it actually was pretty darn close to what I'm looking for. I was able to adjust the font and colors, move things around, and generally make it look and behave fairly well for what I need. The way I could sync it on android and web would also increase its usefulness. Unfortunately, I really need it running on my other computer, which is an unsupported XP system. Neither the web version nor the older versions actually do what I need it to, so unless I get a new computer sometime soon it's off the table.
3) Obsidian Portal has a relatively attractive interface, but with the 2 mb storage limit I couldn't really use it for the complete deal. It would just be of use sharing info with my players. I'm not sure it justifies all the extra effort just to share selected info. If I just want to share a file or two, I have other means of doing that. The web-based nature of the service also doesn't keep my content close enough to home.
4) I downloaded the demo for the previous version of The Keep, and referred to what features have been added/changed to get an idea of what I'd be looking at currently. It looks decent and functional, but I'm not really excited about it for some reason. It also looks like it doesn't have a lot of ongoing development, and since I anticipate campaign management software becoming a bigger deal, I'm not sure if I want to spend money on something that isn't going that way.
5) I looked at the tutorials for Realm Works and am getting more interested in it than I was when I was just looking at screenshots and thinking "subscription." My initial reaction was that it was filled with stuff I was never going to use, but it looks like all of the basic functionality is actually useful to me. It still looks awfully cluttered up, and there are some oddly designed buttons and menus, but at least I can see what it actually does and it looks like something you can figure out with a bit of time. Unfortunately, there is no demo, so I'm relying on screenshots and tutorial videos. The fact that I can still use the software without the subscription is a big attraction, and the fact that the subscription portion actually looks good enough to justify paying for it makes me less philosophically opposed in this case. I have concerns now primarily based on the fact that I've heard criticism of it (on this thread and elsewhere).

What are the main issues with Realm Works? What sort of customization is present, and is there any sort of expected customization that just isn't there? What reasons (other than pricing) are there to avoid Realm Works?

 

[Hand of Evil]

What are the main issues with Realm Works? What sort of customization is present, and is there any sort of expected customization that just isn't there? What reasons (other than pricing) are there to avoid Realm Works?

At this time: No rule sets integrated into the system - this may not be a problem with some but it means a lot of data entry. The app allows for a lot of customization.

 

[tyrlaan]

Resurrecting this to selfishly see if folks have updated assessments on what's out there. Particularly thinking of the new City of Brass, but curious if other tools have surfaced in the past half year.

 

[the_redbeard]

I bit the bullet and got Realm Works.

My last campaign I used a combination of Obsidian Portal and Tree Pad (non-rpg specific but like the Keep in some ways). Obsidian Portal ended up being neglected because of the time to do double entry. And while each page had a DM only section, being online-only there was no way that it could be the only record of my campaign. Tree Pad was also a pain due to the clumsy method of making links. Edit: I also hated the change in Obsidian Portal post-kickstarter.

Realm Works.
Automatic linking: you type NPC's name in another NPC's data and it links automatically.
Relationship mapping: again, automatic
You can add more categories of many types of data to your topics, or you can hide the categories that you don't need.
You can fine tune how much info is only for you versus how much your players see, with one click instead of the clumsy DM page.

While the data is synced to the cloud and therefore on both my desktop and laptop, it's also stored on my local disk. If their cloud service dies in the future, I'll still be able to keep it between my computers on dropbox or something.

How long will it take so that Hero Lab (which if you purchase, is integrated into Realm Works) handles 5th edition? Inquiring minds want to know. Right now I'm not using Realm Works for room by room dungeon description (people do that!!!) but it is handling NPCs, factions, wilderness encounters and so much else very well.

Subscription cost: yeah, I agree that this sucks. But they aren't charging the subscription fee until they have more features. Silver lining to that incremental additions to functions.
Web Access: players will be able to view your campaign at no cost (when?) but that's only possible on Obsidian, not City of Brass.

It certainly isn't for everyone. You've got to like working and fiddling with your campaign. Not because it takes longer in Realm Works, but because it isn't worth it unless you've got the depth of your campaign to need it.