After I wrote the article Blogging Your Game Sessions, another question came up, “How can a game master or player blog their game sessions if they don’t have a blog?” The answer to that question is Obsidian Portal, a website that helps you build and chronicle campaigns for Dungeons & Dragons and other roleplaying games.

Obsidian Portal provides game masters and players with tools to facilitate the storytelling of their campaigns. In a nutshell, it allows them to create a blog about their campaign, complete with a wiki, adventure logs, NPC tracker, maps, and comments from other Obsidian Portal users. There is a basic level of service for users which is completely free. It allows users to test out the system and see what it has to offer. There is also a subscription option for as little as $3.33 per month that allows you to post an unlimited number of campaigns, raises the limits on other features, and removes advertisements.

The Adventure Log section is where the user can create posts about their gaming sessions so they can track what has happened during the campaign. This is where the meat of the campaign is located. As time passes and you chronicle more of the adventures, you can really get a sense of how the campaign is progressing. It also provides a nice piece of nostalgia if the game master or players want to look back and see what has been accomplished.

The Wiki section allows you to input various items of note that pertain to the campaign. Examples of items that can be placed in the wiki are player character information, game master input, house rules the campaign is using, archives of past player characters, or pretty much anything else the game masters or players can think of.

The NPC Tracker section is a collection of notable or reoccurring NPCs in the campaign. It lets you enter information about NPCs that includes images, biography descriptions, level, game system, and whether or not the user wants to make the NPC public or visible. This information can be linked to from the Adventure Log sessions, bringing together some of the features offered at Obsidian Portal.

The Comments sections is one of the coolest features, I think, that Obsidian Portal provides for its users. Other users of the site can comment on a campaign. And since the vast majority of users that come to Obsidian Portal are there because they are either entering their own campaign information, or have come there for campaign information, everyone on the site is typically there for a like-minded reason. This is something that one might not get if they blog their game session on a traditional roleplaying blog.

Finally, there is also a dynamic Map section. Here the user is able to load different maps for the campaign. It also allows you to place markers on the map signifying noteworthy locations. Even more detailed information on that point of the map can be added, which essentially allows you to fully flesh-out any area in the campaign.

Obsidian Portal offers other features as well. If you are interested in more information about the site, I recommend that you go to it and take a look for yourself. I’m a big enthusiast of fan-generated sites like this because the information you will find here isn’t bland or watered down. It is from other game masters and players like you and me.

Go check it out Obsidian Portal, and if you have a campaign listed there place your campaign name in the comment thread here so other users can check it out!