Is there anything out there that helps with organizing worlds. I started running a campaign after a long hiatus as a DM, and its starting to get complicated to keep track of the different deities, cities, important characters, etc. Right now I am using the free oneNote version but the lack of links between articles is really tough. Any recommendations from more experienced DM creators will be appreciated.
Thanks guys. I did check out World Anvil but to be honest I think their free option is rather odd when it comes to publishing with the free subscription and I am definitely not going to use it as much as to benefit from the paid membership. I think I will end up just doing a website with google sites.
Have you checked out either the Obsidian Portal website or the CityofBrass website? Both have their strengths and weaknesses. OP allows you to build wiki style pages that let you link between articles. CityofBrass integrates world-building, campaign management, and adventure planning sites together.
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As for me, I choose to believe that an extinct thunder lizard is running a game of Dungeons & Dragons via Twitter!
I second @Auberginan on Obsidian Portal. It's been a while since I used it, but it was the best wiki-based option I found then. Worked quite OK, and if it's only one campaign, I think you'll manage fine with the free option.
If you have Dropbox, the paper-feature might work, I tried it when it was new, but didn't really get the hang of it (but it had some neat features concerning linking etc). It might have improved (don't know if it's available with a free account though).
Of course both those options requires internet...
It's also possible to set up a local host on your computer with a wiki, but that is time consuming, so don't do it unless you want to spend a lot of time as your own wiki-developer...
Right now I am using the free oneNote version but the lack of links between articles is really tough.
You can wrap these [[double brackets]] around some words and it will instantly create a page link to any existing page with that same name (if said page doesn't exist, it will create one for you). This is very handy for building a wiki-style collection of notes for NPCs, Locations, Spells, Gods, and anything else you'd want to quickly reference. Only downside is that it doesn't seem to like apostrophes very much.
You can also hit Ctrl+K and start typing the name of an existing page that you want to link to. This has a benefit that it also inserts the word for you, and can be pretty fast when you don't want to type out full names like "Mordenkainens Magnificent Mansion".
If the article is a paragraph rather than its own page, you'll have to right-click the paragraph and select "Copy Link to Paragraph", then paste that link in with Ctrl+K.
Wow, thanks again guys... will check them out. But I think I will give Google sites a try for now as I already started ;D It also gives me the chance to properly organize the pages as I want them to quickly get them as the adventure flows.
The major issue that I have with the paid subscription of the world building sites is that for someone like me they make no sense, I have no interest in monetizing my world but I do require either enough data or freedom to expand it. I personally think they are doing their marketing wrong as the limits they place is reducing their traffic and exposure for amateurs, but that's another story :)
I was leery of World Anvil and paying for it too but I have to say, even the lowest tier subscription gives me about everything I could possibly want. And it's such a nice tool run by a couple of amateurs that I don't mind giving them a few electrum pieces each month for their site.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
There are some good free options out there. Just do a google search. Also if you have photoshop or even gimp there are tons of assets online that are free. I just draw my maps/paint all my maps in Photoshop or do some photo edits with bits and pieces of images. Another thing you might want to consider is using a free website service They will offer far more space then something like world anvil with a paid account even. Just use a service that has a user friendly editor but it will help if you know something about web. Not needed however. What I have done with my game was create a website that has the world map on the main page. I then add links to the map for various locations. These go to other pages of coarse. You can get pretty detailed with it. Example... World/city/pub/cellar/hidden nest of something nasty. All my links are not actually visible with a few exceptions. I just place them over the map icons so when the icon is clicked on it opens the link up. Another example is you might have a forest on your world map and you can have a hidden button over it. When clicked on it takes you to the forest map. This makes for a very interactive world.
If you are willing to make a one-off payment, then Realm Works quite well for world building. It will auto-link your articles whenever the title appears in other articles.
It is a desktop app, rather than web based, so you don't need internet access to use it.
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Is there anything out there that helps with organizing worlds. I started running a campaign after a long hiatus as a DM, and its starting to get complicated to keep track of the different deities, cities, important characters, etc. Right now I am using the free oneNote version but the lack of links between articles is really tough. Any recommendations from more experienced DM creators will be appreciated.
Try www.worldanvil.com. Seems to have everything you might want. I have just started using it, so can’t claim to be an expert yet.
Thanks guys. I did check out World Anvil but to be honest I think their free option is rather odd when it comes to publishing with the free subscription and I am definitely not going to use it as much as to benefit from the paid membership. I think I will end up just doing a website with google sites.
Have you checked out either the Obsidian Portal website or the CityofBrass website? Both have their strengths and weaknesses. OP allows you to build wiki style pages that let you link between articles. CityofBrass integrates world-building, campaign management, and adventure planning sites together.
As for me, I choose to believe that an extinct thunder lizard is running a game of Dungeons & Dragons via Twitter!
I second @Auberginan on Obsidian Portal. It's been a while since I used it, but it was the best wiki-based option I found then. Worked quite OK, and if it's only one campaign, I think you'll manage fine with the free option.
If you have Dropbox, the paper-feature might work, I tried it when it was new, but didn't really get the hang of it (but it had some neat features concerning linking etc). It might have improved (don't know if it's available with a free account though).
Of course both those options requires internet...
It's also possible to set up a local host on your computer with a wiki, but that is time consuming, so don't do it unless you want to spend a lot of time as your own wiki-developer...
Ludo ergo sum!
You can wrap these [[double brackets]] around some words and it will instantly create a page link to any existing page with that same name (if said page doesn't exist, it will create one for you). This is very handy for building a wiki-style collection of notes for NPCs, Locations, Spells, Gods, and anything else you'd want to quickly reference. Only downside is that it doesn't seem to like apostrophes very much.
You can also hit Ctrl+K and start typing the name of an existing page that you want to link to. This has a benefit that it also inserts the word for you, and can be pretty fast when you don't want to type out full names like "Mordenkainens Magnificent Mansion".
If the article is a paragraph rather than its own page, you'll have to right-click the paragraph and select "Copy Link to Paragraph", then paste that link in with Ctrl+K.
Wow, thanks again guys... will check them out. But I think I will give Google sites a try for now as I already started ;D
It also gives me the chance to properly organize the pages as I want them to quickly get them as the adventure flows.
The major issue that I have with the paid subscription of the world building sites is that for someone like me they make no sense, I have no interest in monetizing my world but I do require either enough data or freedom to expand it. I personally think they are doing their marketing wrong as the limits they place is reducing their traffic and exposure for amateurs, but that's another story :)
Thanks again guys!
Just for other people here is my site...
is quite easy to build and at least in my case it does the job:
https://sites.google.com/view/elorianrealms
I was leery of World Anvil and paying for it too but I have to say, even the lowest tier subscription gives me about everything I could possibly want. And it's such a nice tool run by a couple of amateurs that I don't mind giving them a few electrum pieces each month for their site.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
There are some good free options out there. Just do a google search. Also if you have photoshop or even gimp there are tons of assets online that are free. I just draw my maps/paint all my maps in Photoshop or do some photo edits with bits and pieces of images. Another thing you might want to consider is using a free website service They will offer far more space then something like world anvil with a paid account even. Just use a service that has a user friendly editor but it will help if you know something about web. Not needed however. What I have done with my game was create a website that has the world map on the main page. I then add links to the map for various locations. These go to other pages of coarse. You can get pretty detailed with it. Example... World/city/pub/cellar/hidden nest of something nasty. All my links are not actually visible with a few exceptions. I just place them over the map icons so when the icon is clicked on it opens the link up. Another example is you might have a forest on your world map and you can have a hidden button over it. When clicked on it takes you to the forest map. This makes for a very interactive world.
If you are willing to make a one-off payment, then Realm Works quite well for world building. It will auto-link your articles whenever the title appears in other articles.
It is a desktop app, rather than web based, so you don't need internet access to use it.