I am looking pretty hard at using Obsidian Portal for managing and presenting campaign notes and session reports. If I did this I would probably stop posting session reports on this blog. I guess the basic purpose of this post is to ask if anyone cares if this happens...?
I was surprised that my last few session reports got quite a lot of hits, even though they didn't generate any comments. The lack of comments makes it difficult to gauge if readers like these posts, or if they were just clicking through and yawning. I've traditionally shied away from writing many lengthy session reports on my blog because I figured they were mostly boring to people outside my game. When I've posted them in the past I've usually tried to attach some more general theme, observation, or anecdote. That being said, I have gotten numerous requests over the years to post more background and creative material on my blog - mostly from people that have played in my games at conventions.
So, my specific questions here are:
1. Have you used OP and do you like it? Is there something better?
2. Do you follow or browse others' campaigns on OP?
3. Do you have even the slightest interest in reading my campaign details and session reports?
4. If you are interested in my campaign material, would you ever bother linking over to OP to see what's going on?
Thanks!
1) No, No, No
ReplyDelete2) No
3) YEEEESSSSSSS
4) reluctantly I guess?
You have a campaign blog separate from your general gaming blog. This could be a decent intermediate model.
DeleteFirst a note on the nature of session reports: as a longtime scribbler of long-winded summaries, I find that they tend to develop a small but dedicated cadre of readers. They don't really lend themselves to comments, either. At least not until some sort of narrative inertia gets established, and then you'll get comments along the lines of "Wow, I can't believe so-and-so did such-and-such!"
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, I use OP for all my campaigns, mostly as an organizational tool (the wiki, the calendar, and the forums), but I've also used it for session reports. Sometimes those "reports" are fairly abstract, sometimes I've enlisted the players' help (to varying degrees of success), sometimes I've used it to post actual-play recordings, as well as in addition to the more traditional sort of updates.
I've browsed other folks' OP pages, but don't often find session reports woth keeping up with. I'd definitely follow yours, though!
Cool, it's helpful to hear from someone who uses OP. Thanks for the links - your OP site is impressive and is a fine model of what I would want to do.
DeleteA few of those click throughs were me, doing a bit of background research, Bob. As far as OP, I've heard a lot of people say they love it, though I've not used it myself. I does seem to offer nice tools - a place to have PCs and major NPCs detailed, maps, a wiki for info, session reports, etc. I should note here that I'm very unlikely to contribute session reports myself - as a grown-up with a job and family, there are just not enough hours in the day.
ReplyDeleteAs a player (soon anyway), I'd use such a thing to refresh my memory between sessions and as a reference library.
As merely a blog follower, I doubt I'd go looking for it, honestly. I find AP session reports very hit or miss, depending upon the writing style. they can be too long-winded, in which case I stop reading them, or very succinct and well-written, in which case I get a good read out of it, and may garner a tidbit of DMing advice or an idea or two. Yours have been pretty good, short and sweet, but also giving a good sense of the character of your campaign.
1. Have you used OP and do you like it? Is there something better?
ReplyDeleteNo, don't really know; I looked at it but wasn't interested.
2. Do you follow or browse others' campaigns on OP?
No
3. Do you have even the slightest interest in reading my campaign details and session reports?
Yes.
4. If you are interested in my campaign material, would you ever bother linking over to OP to see what's going on?
Honestly, probably not.
1. Have you used OP? No. Is there something better? I use my own campaign wiki.
ReplyDelete2. Do you follow or browse others' campaigns on OP? No.
3. Do you have even the slightest interest in reading my campaign details and session reports? No. I usually skip campaign details and session reports. I might read them if they are very outlandish or used to illustrate general points (rules, magic items, how to run a good game).
4. If you are interested in my campaign material, would you ever bother linking over to OP to see what's going on? Not sure what "linking" means in this context. If you link to a session report from a blog post of yours and say "go read this session report because of …" and the explanation makes me curious, I'll click.
A custom wiki would be great, but I'm not sure I would want to reinvent the wheel. OP seems to have a lot to offer over any kind of wiki I would cobble together. I especially like the Google Map interface for homemade maps.
Delete