How do you run your game with the OP wiki?

Yax

Yax

I have yet to play a game using OP. Here's what I had in mind:

-Everything is GM only to get started. The players see absolutely nothing in the wiki.
-When they meet people, go places, I uncheck the "" box so they can see and edit the public info part of the page.
-Same thing for the NPCs.

And what if I want to share my GM only info with other GMs so they can borrow material from my wiki?

Yax

I meant the "Entire page GM only" box

onemadogre

I've decided that, really, my player's characters should have a fairly good working knowledge of the areas that they've come from. In that frame of mind, I've put post of my information on the wiki as player information. I figure that as you're traveling from space to space, the characters would talk about their homelands, their dreams, and thier aspirations. So if it's common knowledge to one player, I put it on the wiki.

Two reason really why I'm doing it this way. One, by placing it on the wiki I don't give away when it might be important to recall the information and I don't have to set the stage by saying things like, "Ron, you remember that Gnash is a really bad guy and he's the Ogre that once ate the arm off of a thief while he was strapped to a table." The players remember this for me. Makes it more organic, and if/when I mention Gnash, they all immediately know the story.

Two, by placing it on the wiki, my players are able to construct backstories that are much more in keeping with the general mood and flow of the story. They improve my world by adding thier own ideas.

Good luck with your story!

My campaign: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/moonsong

redstar

I think I'm somewhere between both positions, but perhaps closer to onemadogre. _Usually_ I'll put out information that may or may not be immediately connected to the current story. This helps side step the common phenomena of "Wait Redstar, I grew up and lived my whole life in the Dalelands, and I _never_ heard of the 20th level necromancer renowned for his cruelty who lives next to my village?"

On the other hand, while I would _love_ for my players to read my wiki, check up on the little details I post here and there about NPCs, and study the plot so that when I say "you see an ogre that reminds you of Gnash" my players jump in surprise and know exactly what I'm referring to... that hardly ever happens. This, of course, may just be the cynical DM in me that believes all DMing is in vain :) (see: "DM of the Rings":http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=612)

My campaign
"www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/fogdown":www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/fogdown

onemadogre

I've gone after that by helping the players that help me, and then when the other players ask why they don't have such interesting little side quests, or secret notes from the DM. (I LIVE for the secret note. Nothing like a a paranonia amongst good friends.) I tell them that they certainly could if they had understood more of the back story.

bevinflannery

My "campaign":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/rubies is on hiatus "in real time," as the members of our group rotate DMing/storytelling responsibilities every 3 or so months. In the interim, I've been doing short "interludes" on OP about things that have happened "off-screen" with various NPCs during the campaign. On a small-scale, it gives the players some idea of how their actions have affected particular NPCs, gives hints about what different NPCs might do in the future if/when they encounter the PCs, and gives them some insight into broader political/economic conflicts that might be coming up in the world.

I don't use a lot of "GM-only" material -- not that I don't have it (it's on my laptop, in my campaign notes), but most of what goes onto the OP site is accessible to my players. I could use the interludes as a way to mislead them, but have decided not to do that. I've told them that I have to trust them not to use in-character what they know only through this out-of-character venue. The only "reward" for them, currently, is simply having the added flavor of knowing, out-of-character, additional information that gives them context for what is happening in the world, both immediately around them and on the other side of the map.

I'm still struggling with one problem that arises out of that -- one of our members does not have Internet access, and due to vision problems can't really easily read print-outs of the material that I maintain in Word on my laptop.

redstar

bq. I’m still struggling with one problem that arises out of that—one of our members does not have Internet access, and due to vision problems can’t really easily read print-outs of the material that I maintain in Word on my laptop.

The lack of internet access is bummer. If he _did_ have it, he could change the size of fonts on any webpage (at least with firefox). On a mac its command + "+" or "-"

FemmeLegion

See...the "real" DM of my campaign is a bit technophobic (he can handle MMOs and email and that's about it). Since he's not inclined to archive his ongoing campaigns' secrets here, we use OP mostly to archive generic world info (the Encyclopedia Yggdraversica) and session notes (the Vale).

Mostly what I sold him on w/r/t ObsidianPortal was the idea that his ideas would be out there for other DMs to use as inspiration. I'm not sure there's enough out there right now to make sense to anyone but him and those who play with him (and thus have more context), but we'll get there. =)

Micah

I have hardly any GM-only info. I'm only about 1/1000th of a step ahead of the players in everything anyway, so I don't have a lot of secret info to worry about.

Not that I'm great at improvising, just that I'm lazy and spend most of my time improving this site rather than working on my game :)

Fivegears

In response to Micah's post - yeah, I'm in the same boat, at least about the only being 1/1000th of a step ahead.

sisren

My group is starting to use the wiki more and more. I have a strange mixture - on one page I might have a few notes the players should know about a building (Nentir Inn for example), but then I would list all the fun stuff they can learn about the people and place in the GM Only area.
For chronicling the campaign, we have made our own calendar, and the adventure log posts also get placed there. The players are writting in either a journal style, or a future biographer point of view.

I don't need to stay ahead of the players usually, I have so many options available that I can stall until I find the exact notes I want. :)
Being a Quality Technician working on many projects at once teaches you how to think on your feet...

I will start to keep more notes printed out, but they would be notes from OP.
~Sisren

ajb47

I'm hoping that at some point my players will add their characters thoughts and such into the log posts. There are six players and one GM in our group and that makes it tough to explore a character's background and motivations during our regular sessions. Of course, that's for games with the whole group playing. I have a much better ability to explore the characters a bit with the first campaign I have up on OP since there are only two players in it.

I use the wiki to put up background information that the players can read up on, things the characters would probably know. I use the GM Only area right now for lists of things I still want to detail about the info on the current page as well as for some information the characters still must uncover.

AJ

"Trouble in the Silver Marches":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/troublesilvermarches

Idless

Well we use it for keeping a log obviously.

I run a premade campaign, so I will make NPCs ahead of time, and reveal them when needed!

Also I will keep notes in the GM section - eg. I have an information broker... I need to know what they told him. So I keep the info there, in the secret part, under that NPC... pretty clever

Also, I have a person I want to make a mystery about... so I introduced him like "this":http://www.obsidianportal.com/character/tiran (its in danish, but says were they seen him, and what their reference are, but not who he is, hence the question mark for portrait... I got one ready, for the time they will face him). Well, that, and a page with the XP they didn't get last time :D

I have notes on the players personal quests here, and their destinies, as secret gm info.

Besides that; I have a page for house rules and table rules. I go reference sections, where the players get easy access to fan made contents that we use, official errata, and web freebeis. Also links for good character sheets, and where to find pics. A link page so to say, to save time...

We have a group presentation screen, mostly for the beginning were they didn't know eachothers charactes.

Then there is a Greenhouse, or growth house for home brew feats and talents, if the players wants to make stuff for the system, we can work with it there.


...Troels