dragnsteph
Hey there. New user to Obsidian Portal here, we're starting a new campaign this week and finally moving away from modules (I'm a relatively new DM so I wanted that crutch for a little while!) and I'm working on setting up the site so the players can have a reference and we can all do a better job of keeping track of all the details.
To that end, some of my players would like to keep in-character journals on the site. I'm not sure of the best place to implement this. Can all my players edit the wiki? Would it be simplest to just put a link from the wiki home page, by the names of the ones that want it, that just says "Journal" and let them go to town and keep it there? Or are the forums better suited? I'm not entirely clear on how the Adventure Log is different from the forums, however I had intended to use it as sort of a DM Summary area.
Still trying to wrap my head around all the options we have here! I signed up for Ascendant so I could have forums, those seem invaluable. Also, if someone has a minute or two to explain the "Dynamic" character sheet stuff, and if that's available to me (4E D&D campaign) that would be great - what exactly does that do for me?
Last question (for now) -- is there some way to import files from the WotC character builder or monster files? I saw Chainsaw's D&D Tools and those look great, but it looks as if I would need to create all the characters by hand, then level them by hand, is that accurate? If that's the best way to keep them on the site I will do it, but if there is another option I'd love to know :)
Thanks, sorry for all the questions - Still learning my way around and stumbling a bit.
Stephanie
My campaign: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/day-of-fates
Comments
Dynamic character sheets give you a pre-formatted, nice looking, fill in the blanks character sheet to use, assuming one has been created for your game system. As it happens, I just finished making the 4th Ed sheet, so you should be able to use that once it's approved. It will look something like "this":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/chainsawxiv-test-campaign/characters/sinruth-the-reformed when you fill it in (or rather, a lot simpler if you're not dealing with an epic character, but you get the idea).
As for the character builder files, at the moment there's not really any better option than doing it by hand. You can't currently upload non-image files to OP, and there's no integration of that kind with either the 4th Ed Dynamic Character Sheet, or my own tools. Another user here recently hooked me up with a file that should let me add some level of automatic import to my own tools, but I haven't actually had the chance to get that working yet (and have no ETA on it at this time). The DST looks better than what my tool makes anyhow, if I do say so myself. :p
Thanks a lot for your response! I'm going to be looking for the dynamic sheet when it's approved, nice looking work! :)
(lol at the notes on Sinruth, btw)
For organization, you can use tags in the adventure log, and then filter by tag. So, for example, just take each entry with the author's character's name, then view all the stuff with that character's tag to narrow it to just their entries, still in chronological order. Same as for wiki pages.
Another idea I got from Hardhead's "The Crucible":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/world-of-crucible/forum here at the Portal was to use the forums tab as a way to have periodic out of game opportunities to "role" play. So far I've only tried this out once but it seemed to be a real hit so I think we'll continue it as a way to supplement our regular game sessions.
Hope that helps, and best of wishes to you in branching out into your DM'ing your own original campaign. It is tough but rewarding work.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
I've been surfing around OP quite a bit since I joined and the people above have already given you all the other ideas that I have seen. Players can use the Adventure Log or Wiki and place tags on those entries with their character names to make it easy to find. You (or they) can also organize the wiki entries on to their character page so that they are all in one place and directly connected to the character. I've enjoyed the characters that I have checked out that have done this. It really adds to their "bio" to have some journal entries.
That said, I read more Adventure Logs than Characters so having them do a journal entry as a response to an Adventure Log would connect their thoughts directly with the days adventure. Adventure Logs are still wiki entries so those logs that players do respond on could still be linked on their character's bio if you wanted. The best of both worlds?
One thing that I will add to all the above is that you should probably offer some kind of reward for those players that do go to the "trouble" of making entries. From all the surfing that I have done, player entries seem to be few and far between. Unless you have a group that really enjoys writing, you will probably need to entice them a bit into getting more involved.
"Journals":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/govaga/adventure-log