Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Obsidian Portal

In my post yesterday about the campaign I'm brewing up, I mentioned setting up a Yahoo Group for the campaign. But I think that I need to get current with my technology, so to speak. So I think I will be creating a campaign page at Obsidian Portal instead.

Anyone else use this? I am exploring it now and it looks pretty cool. If anyone can share their experiences with OP, that would be appreciated.

I wanted to create the Yahoo Group in order to facilitate open communication with the group, as well as have a permanent home on the web for the campaign (which will be web/chat-based). But I also wanted to use the Yahoo Group in order to post images/maps and especially for sharing documents (in multiple formats but most likely PDFs). So far, I haven't seen a way to upload documents to Obsidian Portal. Is this possible?

5 comments:

  1. OP uses the wiki format for sharing info, so you shouldn't need to post attachments. I've played around with it, without a license, you are limited to one map, but you can get around that buy posting maps as portraits on the wiki pages. I like OP, but wanted something that facilitated the game online, not just a place to share info.

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  2. Might I suggest using another Blog instead? If desired, you can always give your players permission to post to the blog. You can make pages, have all the maps and pictures you want, etc. Files can be uploaded to Mediafire, or wherever and linked from the blog. I really can't think of anything that OP can do, which wouldn't be better handled by a blog, for me at least.

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  3. Thanks for the comments so far!

    John, what do you use instead of OP?

    James, thanks for the suggestion of using a blog. It might be a good way to go, since I'm already familiar with using them.

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  4. I've used OP but it is just basically a wiki for your campaign. The nice feature is that the pages can have sections that are only readable by the DM.

    For online play I've looked into RPG Tonight. It has a web-based gaming table but it seemed a bit clunky. Haven't use it yet though. http://rpgtonight.com/

    There's also Pen and Paper games where you can run your games on line. http://www.penandpapergames.com

    Finally, I do like James' suggestion of just using a Blog and handing out permissions.

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  5. Drance, I just recently started to use Fantasy Grounds II, a virtual tabeltop (VTT) for playing roleplaying games online. I've only played in one campaign so far to familiarize myself with the system, and have not yet built or run a campaign using it yet.

    That said, FG2 is not only a notebook for the DM/GM for collecting and sharing materials for his/her game, but also a virtual tabletop with a combat/initiative tracker, die roller and chat interface. Unlike OP, there isn't any forums for the indvidual game, nor can anyone just access that information.

    It is used mostly online, but with little effort, can also be used in the face to face mode if the DM has a second screen.

    I'd love to go into more, but probably am not the best person to describe what FG2 really is. I'd head over to the site and check it out @ www.fantasygrounds.com . If you decide to get a free trial license and want to see what it can do, drop me a line and I'll setup something simple to let you get a taste of it.

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