My apologies if this has already been covered, but I searched the forums and didn't find a thread for it.
I want to create a WordPress site for my campaign. It would primarily be a Wiki of my campaign world (geography, history, people, governments, religions, homebrew stuff, etc.). I have a site already with WordPress installed, so this is not a hosting question. I've created half a dozen WordPress sites before (unrelated to D&D or gaming), so I have experience using themes and plugins, but no knowledge about creating themes or plugins.
I've been searching for WordPress themes and/or plugins suitable for creating a campaign site. Does anyone have recommendations about themes and/or plugins? As this is just a noncommercial hobby, my preference is for free themes and plugins, but I'm fine with paying a one-time purchase fee if it's reasonable and worthwhile. An ongoing subscription model wouldn't work for me, though.
No one responded, but just in case, I wanted to update my progress on this in case anyone else was looking to create a campaign website.
I tried out some Wiki themes that didn't really excite me. (Honestly, every WordPress theme I've ever used required me to put a lot of work into changing the appearance, so I shouldn't be surprised that I wasn't taken with the appearance right out of the gate, but I'm impatient!) WordPress' built-in functionality can do a good job as a Wiki, but after some searching, I found a free plugin called Yada Wiki that looks like it will work well.
Now to find a theme. I've searched for things like "fantasy" and "RPG" without finding anything that I'm happy with. Of course, lots of themes are so customizable that I should really think about the theme's functionality and the tweak the appearance, but I'm still searching. If anything has good theme recommendations, please let me know, preferably something that is easily customizable to a fantasy/medieval/RPG/DND feel.
I'm with you on all of this. I've tried various incarnations of my website and played with a few wiki plugins over the years, but nothing stuck. I always wound up going back to basic WP functionality and getting rid of the plugins.
And now that sites like GMBinder exist and use CSS to give GREAT looking PDF formatting, I figured someone would have created a theme with the right look for me, but no love. :(
Yeah, still stumbling around looking for an appropriate WP theme. Most likely I'll have to find one that's designed to easily customize fonts and appearance, and then do a lot of customization to get a look and feel I like.
I think the Yada Wiki plugin looks like it will work well. It will allow me to use a custom Wiki for the campaign world, and then I'll use normal posts as an adventure log. Since I don't need this site to do any eCommerce or be ad-supported, and it's not going to be the interface for actual game play, it greatly reduces the number of plugins I might otherwise use.
I use worldanvil. It's quite excellent. Really well organized, allows for public and private world-building and information. Categorization of articles, timeline management. You have options like making the site private (with a login) or public. CSS style sheet customization and you don't have to screw around with hosting, updates and all that stuff.
I was just looking into this too! After checking out Obsidian, I realized it’s basically a paid server service for $8/month. Honestly, why waste time messing with Obsidian’s CSS just to make it look decent, when you could spin up a WordPress site on AWS, Oracle, or Google Cloud — for FREE? You don’t even need much: just a tiny VPS instance with 1 GB of RAM and a 1-core processor. Totally enough for a campaign wiki.
I’m setting up WordPress with Bricks Builder as my theme, using the ACF plugin to automate my custom objects, and Core Framework to make the CSS part easier. Super straightforward once you get the hang of it. Not sure what your tech background is, but there are tons of YouTube videos that cover all five pieces (VPS setup, WordPress basics, Bricks Builder, ACF plugin, and Core Framework).
Bonus: you’ll actually have fun learning this stuff — and it’s like leveling up your character IRL. (Multi-classing into Dev/Builder subclass... and yes, you get extra proficiency in Cool Projects, lol.) 🎲 👾
EDIT: Just realized I should mention — I didn’t really factor in the cost because I already have licenses for the plugins I’m using. But you can absolutely do this for free too! WordPress itself is free, Core Framework for Gutenberg is completely free, ACF’s basic version is free (and more than enough for this project), and you can always just use the default Gutenberg editor if you don’t want to buy a builder like Bricks. Easy peasy!
I was just looking into this too! After checking out Obsidian, I realized it’s basically a paid server service for $8/month. Honestly, why waste time messing with Obsidian’s CSS just to make it look decent, when you could spin up a WordPress site on AWS, Oracle, or Google Cloud — for FREE? You don’t even need much: just a tiny VPS instance with 1 GB of RAM and a 1-core processor. Totally enough for a campaign wiki.
I’m setting up WordPress with Bricks Builder as my theme, using the ACF plugin to automate my custom objects, and Core Framework to make the CSS part easier. Super straightforward once you get the hang of it. Not sure what your tech background is, but there are tons of YouTube videos that cover all five pieces (VPS setup, WordPress basics, Bricks Builder, ACF plugin, and Core Framework).
Bonus: you’ll actually have fun learning this stuff — and it’s like leveling up your character IRL. (Multi-classing into Dev/Builder subclass... and yes, you get extra proficiency in Cool Projects, lol.) 🎲 👾
EDIT: Just realized I should mention — I didn’t really factor in the cost because I already have licenses for the plugins I’m using. But you can absolutely do this for free too! WordPress itself is free, Core Framework for Gutenberg is completely free, ACF’s basic version is free (and more than enough for this project), and you can always just use the default Gutenberg editor if you don’t want to buy a builder like Bricks. Easy peasy!
Wordpress is a fine tool for article structure, but if you're world building the categorization and organization of World Anvil as well as structured linking and reference, make it an excellent tool for creating and managing a setting long term. You can certainly do it with Wordpress but it depends on how much you value your time. For me personally dropping 50 bucks on a tool for a year that is going to save me countless hours is a well worthwhile investment. I mean 50 bucks is an hour or two worth of work hours , so yeah, if I save a couple of hours with a tool, I'm already in the plus column.
My apologies if this has already been covered, but I searched the forums and didn't find a thread for it.
I want to create a WordPress site for my campaign. It would primarily be a Wiki of my campaign world (geography, history, people, governments, religions, homebrew stuff, etc.). I have a site already with WordPress installed, so this is not a hosting question. I've created half a dozen WordPress sites before (unrelated to D&D or gaming), so I have experience using themes and plugins, but no knowledge about creating themes or plugins.
I've been searching for WordPress themes and/or plugins suitable for creating a campaign site. Does anyone have recommendations about themes and/or plugins? As this is just a noncommercial hobby, my preference is for free themes and plugins, but I'm fine with paying a one-time purchase fee if it's reasonable and worthwhile. An ongoing subscription model wouldn't work for me, though.
No one responded, but just in case, I wanted to update my progress on this in case anyone else was looking to create a campaign website.
I tried out some Wiki themes that didn't really excite me. (Honestly, every WordPress theme I've ever used required me to put a lot of work into changing the appearance, so I shouldn't be surprised that I wasn't taken with the appearance right out of the gate, but I'm impatient!) WordPress' built-in functionality can do a good job as a Wiki, but after some searching, I found a free plugin called Yada Wiki that looks like it will work well.
Now to find a theme. I've searched for things like "fantasy" and "RPG" without finding anything that I'm happy with. Of course, lots of themes are so customizable that I should really think about the theme's functionality and the tweak the appearance, but I'm still searching. If anything has good theme recommendations, please let me know, preferably something that is easily customizable to a fantasy/medieval/RPG/DND feel.
I'm with you on all of this. I've tried various incarnations of my website and played with a few wiki plugins over the years, but nothing stuck. I always wound up going back to basic WP functionality and getting rid of the plugins.
And now that sites like GMBinder exist and use CSS to give GREAT looking PDF formatting, I figured someone would have created a theme with the right look for me, but no love. :(
~MrLich
http://dragonbones.net
Love your artwork!
Yeah, still stumbling around looking for an appropriate WP theme. Most likely I'll have to find one that's designed to easily customize fonts and appearance, and then do a lot of customization to get a look and feel I like.
I think the Yada Wiki plugin looks like it will work well. It will allow me to use a custom Wiki for the campaign world, and then I'll use normal posts as an adventure log. Since I don't need this site to do any eCommerce or be ad-supported, and it's not going to be the interface for actual game play, it greatly reduces the number of plugins I might otherwise use.
any luck I just started my search.
I use worldanvil. It's quite excellent. Really well organized, allows for public and private world-building and information. Categorization of articles, timeline management. You have options like making the site private (with a login) or public. CSS style sheet customization and you don't have to screw around with hosting, updates and all that stuff.
Its far superior to wordpress.
I've used world anvil and use scabard.com now. I just liked the idea of having my own thing.
I was just looking into this too! After checking out Obsidian, I realized it’s basically a paid server service for $8/month. Honestly, why waste time messing with Obsidian’s CSS just to make it look decent, when you could spin up a WordPress site on AWS, Oracle, or Google Cloud — for FREE?
You don’t even need much: just a tiny VPS instance with 1 GB of RAM and a 1-core processor. Totally enough for a campaign wiki.
I’m setting up WordPress with Bricks Builder as my theme, using the ACF plugin to automate my custom objects, and Core Framework to make the CSS part easier. Super straightforward once you get the hang of it.
Not sure what your tech background is, but there are tons of YouTube videos that cover all five pieces (VPS setup, WordPress basics, Bricks Builder, ACF plugin, and Core Framework).
Bonus: you’ll actually have fun learning this stuff — and it’s like leveling up your character IRL. (Multi-classing into Dev/Builder subclass... and yes, you get extra proficiency in Cool Projects, lol.) 🎲 👾
EDIT:
Just realized I should mention — I didn’t really factor in the cost because I already have licenses for the plugins I’m using.
But you can absolutely do this for free too!
WordPress itself is free, Core Framework for Gutenberg is completely free, ACF’s basic version is free (and more than enough for this project), and you can always just use the default Gutenberg editor if you don’t want to buy a builder like Bricks. Easy peasy!
Wordpress is a fine tool for article structure, but if you're world building the categorization and organization of World Anvil as well as structured linking and reference, make it an excellent tool for creating and managing a setting long term. You can certainly do it with Wordpress but it depends on how much you value your time. For me personally dropping 50 bucks on a tool for a year that is going to save me countless hours is a well worthwhile investment. I mean 50 bucks is an hour or two worth of work hours , so yeah, if I save a couple of hours with a tool, I'm already in the plus column.
it's not superior if you don't own and control your own content. World Anil could close tomorrow.
Dungeon Master Running a Homebrew campaign currently for 5 players at lvl 3