This is a guest post from Rebecca Smith at Epic Words.

We have to thank Sam of RoleplayingPro.com for inviting us to write an article about our new site, www.EpicWords.com. It’s a site built by gamers, for gamers, that offers a suite of tools to help GMs and Players manage their table-top campaigns. We are relatively new to the scene, and just completed beta in November of 2008.

What makes Epic Words stand out among the plethora of blog and wiki sites, is our wide variety of RPG management tools, and the way they have been organized specifically for gamers. Even if some (or all) of your players are not prolific writers, Epic Words is a very convenient spot to keep your game data, and do your in-between-session-housekeeping. The site is kept genre-neutral, and is compatible with all RPG systems, so your Wednesday night, Friday night, and Sunday morning games can all be accessed under a single login.

How to get started:

First off, creating an account is FREE!

The GM will create a campaign, and invite players to join by providing them with the access code, so only they can get in. Players create characters (with as much or as little detail as they want), join the campaign, and away they go!

Here are the feature highlights for you. Take advantage of whatever works with your game-management style:

Character Blogs / Campaign Journal

Users can blog in-character and collectively write a campaign journal, chronicling their adventures. This is a fun way to get players involved in-between games, and avoid wasting precious game time on recapping last session. The GM might consider awarding bonuses for great posts.

Wikis for Gamers (no really – for gamers)

Wikis are a staple feature of course, but we take it a step further with the addition of a special “Reference Wiki”, for each campaign. When a reference is added on this wiki, anywhere else that name or phrase appears in the campaign, it will be underlined with a shortcut to the definition, and a little pop up tool tip. It’s handy for those times where the GM mentions an NPC that you haven’t run across in months, and answers the question, “who is that guy again?”

Private Campaign Forums

Each campaign also has its own private forum, for discussing whatever else you want. This includes the all important pizza-topping decision, as well as planning your attack for next session.

Loot Tracking

Loot tracking is a key housekeeping task of managing a campaign. Sometimes you just need to throw stuff in a bag and move on to the next fight, so the system is very good at tracking unclaimed loot as “Party Loot”. When it’s finally divvied up amongst the player characters, the system can reassign it. You can even purchase items out of cash reserves, and see total values of the group and its characters. There are a wide variety of standard and custom item classifications for easy sorting, notes about where and when an item was obtained, and a variable monetary system so that loot tracking is compatible with all RPG systems.

Experience Tracking

There is also a feature that tracks experience points. It’s a simple log that shows how many points where added, when, by who, and with some associated notes. In this way, the experience tracking feature is compatible with any kind of numeric reward your system uses, as characters progress.

File Storage

As an advanced paid feature (just $12 per year), file upload and storage is available so users have access to their character sheets, maps and handouts wherever there is an internet connection. GM’s can even choose to share their storage space with the players in their campaign.

Activity Logs

A user’s personal home page chronicles all the campaigns they are playing in or running, and the activity of those groups. GM’s can use this to see at-a-glance who’s been posting updates, and who has not.

Privacy Controls

Privacy controls lets users decide what information is public. For blogs, that means on a per-post basis, you can decide if you want to keep that entry just among friends. Wikis, Loot, XP, and Campaign forums are always private to the group. GM’s have additional control over what posts and wikis players can see, to keep the secret stuff secret. And when you don’t want the world to see a comment, compliment, or question you have for another user, send it with Private Message. (You can even ask to discuss tactics with that dude who came up with that brilliant use for a dead kobold.)

Notification Options

Campaign email notification is available, so users will know when a party member has made an update they should see. RSS feeds are also available for a campaign. You won’t miss a thing!

And those, folks, are the highlights! We hope you get a chance to check out www.EpicWords.com. If you have any questions, feel free to use the feedback feature, as that sends messages directly to the site’s administrator.

Have a great game, and don’t forget to record your glory.