Roleplaying Games
Wikify Your RPG Campaign
A wiki is a phenomenal collaboration tool for your gaming group. It collects all of the campaign information in one place and anyone in the group can add to it. Wikis also make it easy to correct things, from typos to established facts about the campaign world.
I have been using different wiki platforms for my campaigns for a long time and have participated in campaigns with their own wikis run by someone else. The ease of use keeps the threshold of joining in low. The openness lets you and your players use and update the wiki during play, making it the perfect reference site for the campaign. And especially with longer campaigns, there is a lot of lore and house rules that need to be referenced. A wiki will also make it easy for new players to learn the plot thus far and acquaint themselves with the characters and the world.
When you invite your players into your campaign wiki, you should tell them that it’s theirs too and that they can edit it as they want. If they’re keeping character diaries or game logs, they can help to keep the campaign timeline up to date. It may be a good idea to have one player keeping the official game log, to which those writing character diaries can add to.
The wiki can contain other game related material too. Players into visual arts can add character and location images, maps and inspirational art. Players with musical talents can link to songs, playlists or mixes they’ve made for the campaign. And even if a player feels they don’t have the time to create a lot of material outside of game, they can still add their own and help in editing.
As you start the campaign wiki, there are some topics and pages you will want to create first to guide your players and to remind yourself of the kinds of information you want to add. These topics are:
- an introduction to the campaign
- the campaign world
- a map page
- the characters
- the timeline
- the adventure logs
- the campaign log
- any house rules you want to use in the campaign.
You will want to have most of these linked onto the starting page. Remember to tag your pages so they can be easily found.
There are many wiki platforms available online. Some of them are ready-made and some require you to put them on your web page. One that is built for role-playing game use is ObsidianPortal.com. If you don’t have a campaign wiki, start one now!
