I add metadata to every session so that I can query it later using the excellent Obsidian Dataview plugin, though I do this more often for the campaign I DM rather than the one I play in. Here’s what a fresh one looks like, in Edit mode: I love Obsidian templates! I use templates for things like inserting an HP tracker with all my party’s names, their max HP, healing surges (4e) a defense table to keep track of a creature’s defenses (again, 4e) and campaign-specific session log formats.Īt the beginning of the game, I’ll create a new page in the Session List, click into it, and insert a session log template (I have this hotkeyed to CMD+ ). I have my character’s stats sheet handy (which I need to do manually since I haven’t found a D&D Beyond-like service for 4e) and all the powers and abilities I need to refer to. Here’s what my workspace looks like for the 4e game that I play in:Īt the beginning of a game, I’ll create a new session page in the last pane, enter into it, and then stay in the workspace for the rest of the game. The workspace features lets me customize my dashboard. I also DM one campaign and play in another, and I have a workspace for each of them because I need different information available to me. This is useful because I use Obsidian for work as well as play, so I can set up the two workspaces differently. One of the best parts about Obsidian is that it allows me to save and load custom workspaces. This helps me keep the agenda clean and relevant.
I use the Obsidian Completed Area plugin so that hitting a CTRL + ENTER on a task automatically checks it and then moves that task to a separate Completed section at the bottom of the note. I group tasks by person and/or by location. I loosely follow the Getting Things Done methodology and divide this page into Next Actions and Waiting For.
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While the Quests and Questions page records unfinished business that my character is actively thinking about but may not quite know how to explore yet, my Agenda page is where I write down specific tasks. I organize them by location, and then by quest, so that it’s easy to follow a thread depending on where the party is or how much downtime we have. Some of them are critical quest or story arcs, and others are random tidbits of information that NPCs have mentioned. I like to play high-intelligence characters, so I like to keep track of unanswered questions and other adventure hooks my DM has dropped that the party hasn’t quite gotten around to resolving yet. Campaign-specific house rules that the DM has introduced.The list of all the sessions I’ve played for the campaign.A link to Open Loops (Quests and Questions and Agenda, as discussed below).
The player characters, and links to their individual pages with information about what my character knows or thinks of them.
My World page is the main jumping-off point for all my notes for a specific campaign, and each campaign gets one. That was six months ago, so I thought it was time for an update. Shortly after the latter post, however, I moved to Obsidian. I’ve previously written about how I use Obsidian for work, and I’ve also talked about how I use Roam Research for D&D.