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mjlush
2013-02-09, 06:25 AM
Does anyone else use a campaign wiki?

I have one I use to host the campaign Chronicle, pages for all PC and NPC's, locations, history, maps, rules and timeline decorated with images looted from Google Image Search :smallsmile:.. Players are encouraged to edit the wiki with comment and even content (though I hold the right of review/modify any of the latter:).

I'm using Dokuwiki (https://www.dokuwiki.org/dokuwiki) because it was free and based on text files, so I could easily, bulk add content (I'm using the pre Saga TSR Marvel superheros and have created individual pages for all the superpowers which required a fair amount of work (both manual and scripted)).

I'm running it on a Raspberry Pi (http://www.raspberrypi.org/) on my home ADSL the only drawback is that its a bit slow uploading images. The big win for me is that I have complete control over my installation and access to the notes where ever I have internet.

What dokuwiki is not so good on it automatically indexing pages (thought there are probably plugins do do this)

I was wondering if anyone else was doing the same and what they were using etc

To anyone who isn't, I would highly recommend using a wiki to collect campaign notes if nothing else it makes the whole thing searchable

EccentricCircle
2013-02-09, 07:26 AM
http://aetherlight.wikispaces.com/

I've found wikispaces to be good. I started using a Wiki for my most recent campaign after playing in a different game where the DM did much the same thing. I posted a fair amount of information earlier in the game but found that keeping it up was too time consuming on top of all the other tasks DMing entails. So the setting information is incomplete, but still comes in handy as a reference when bringing new players into the game. Things like the chapter summeries get briefer over time and then trail off, I really need to put up some notes on the more recent sessions.

Kol Korran
2013-02-09, 10:06 AM
we use PBworks wiki since, well, it's the first one we found and we're comfortable with it? :smalltongue:

current campaign (http://neworld.pbworks.com/w/page/33710829/Welcome%20Page)
campaign on hold (http://witchlingisles.pbworks.com/w/page/50238619/FrontPage)
long ended campaign (http://frdnd.pbworks.com/w/page/4633888/FrontPage)

it's quite good. though nearly always mostly the DM uses it to post the rules and conditions for the specific campaign. I also keep session logs (If I have the time) and people put in info about their character.

HOWEVER, I also use the site as a DM, to keep notes not for the players on it. and it works quite nicely. the only trouble I found is that it's a bit of bugger to edit tables. they sometime have glitches, which is a bit annoying.

all in all a great help, but as have been said- quite time consuming, and not for everyone.

mjlush
2013-02-09, 02:02 PM
we use PBworks wiki since, well, it's the first one we found and we're comfortable with it? :smalltongue:


If your using a third party wiki its probably worth doing some contingency planning as to how you backup your content in case the site gets shut down/crashes/gets hacked. Loss of the wiki would be catastrophic to my campaign!

If the wiki does not offer a backup facility I'd be inclined to use wget which would allow you to make a static (ie html only) copy of the site. Here is a howto article (http://fosswire.com/post/2008/04/create-a-mirror-of-a-website-with-wget/) on the subject. I think its a bit UNIX centric but you can get a windows version of wget (http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/wget.htm)

EccentricCircle
2013-02-09, 02:23 PM
Good point, i've not backed mine up for ages actually. Luckly it does have a fairly easy backup system.

valadil
2013-02-09, 05:04 PM
I've only done mediawiki. It was the one I was already familiar with so I just went with it. I'm in no way attached to mediawiki, but I've seen no reason to change either.

When I need something bigger than a wiki, I go with drupal.

FreakyCheeseMan
2013-02-09, 11:42 PM
Hmm. I may have to switch over this... I've been putting together one for myself just using Google Docs.

Kol Korran
2013-02-10, 03:52 AM
If your using a third party wiki its probably worth doing some contingency planning as to how you backup your content in case the site gets shut down/crashes/gets hacked. Loss of the wiki would be catastrophic to my campaign
Oh, we back it up ourselves every so often. But it never went down for about 4 or more years now. Thanks for the advice!

mjlush
2013-02-10, 11:21 AM
Good point, i've not backed mine up for ages actually. Luckly it does have a fairly easy backup system.

I must confess I've just been inspired to automate the backup (I'm not nearly reliable enough)

prufock
2013-02-10, 04:44 PM
I have a campaign setting wiki for a new setting I developed called the Weird West (http://weird-west.wikispaces.com/). I also have a wiki for my 3.5 rebalancing project, Fulcrum (http://dndfulcrum.wikispaces.com/Fulcrum), which is in early development.

Back in the day we used Livejournal for campaign journals.

FreakyCheeseMan
2013-02-10, 04:48 PM
I have a campaign setting wiki for a new setting I developed called the Weird West (http://weird-west.wikispaces.com/). I also have a wiki for my 3.5 rebalancing project, Fulcrum (http://dndfulcrum.wikispaces.com/Fulcrum), which is in early development.

Back in the day we used Livejournal for campaign journals.

Just so you're aware, "Weird West" is already the name of the campaign setting for Deadlands.

supermonkeyjoe
2013-02-11, 10:41 AM
I used Obsidian Portal for my last campaign Nightmares of the Last War (http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/therealm), It seems to work pretty well for what I needed and the free version is absolutely fine.

prufock
2013-02-11, 01:38 PM
Just so you're aware, "Weird West" is already the name of the campaign setting for Deadlands.

Interesting. I knew "weird west" was a genre, and I was aware of the existence of Deadlands, but I didn't know that the setting was called that.

I suppose I could change it, but frankly it's a setting designed for my home games, not for widespread publishing or sale. I guess I could always set the wiki permissions to restricted.

Thanks for the info, either way.

TheThan
2013-02-11, 02:13 PM
I'm also using obsidian portal for my current Iron Kingdoms campaign Mechanika-n-Mayhem (http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/iron-kingdoms-mechanika-n-mayhem/adventure-log) You wreck 'em they Mech 'em.

One of my players has done some work for them, so we have a handful of additional perks others don't have. We've Only had three sessions thus far and they haven't posted anything about it. *sigh*.