RPGCentric » Blog Archive » So who’s it for; me or my players?

So who’s it for; me or my players?

I keep a wiki for my campaign. You can see it if you click on the Campaign Wiki link above. Yesterday and today, I made a bunch of updates that took about three hours total to type up. This started me thinking; who’s the wiki really for? Is it for me or is it for my players?

It’s for me

One thing I’ve found over the years is that, if I write stuff down, I have an easier time remembering it in the future. I did this throughout college and it helped a lot. By typing stuff out in the wiki, I end up recalling people, places, and events easier than if I just read the material.

I also find it is a great reference tool for people, places, and events. I can quickly pull up information related to the campaign if asked about it during the game.

It’s for the players

It’s a great reference tool for the players as well. They, too, can pull up information and view data on cities they’ve been to and the surrounding areas.

They can each update the synopsis for each chapter with their own points of view on what’s going on in the game. Lately, however, they have not been doing it. In fact, some of the players don’t even read the wiki and I hear a lot of “I meant to update the wiki but didn’t get around to it” as well. I don’t harp on my players to update it, but I think they really want to do it and just end up forgetting.

And the answer is….

I think, at this point, the wiki is more for me than it is the players. While they can read it, I don’t think all of them take advantage of it the way I wish they would. Hopefully that will change going forward but, for now, it is simply me using it as a very useful tool to manage information about the campaign.

What about you? Do you have online information available to your players? Do they use it? Have you found it useful for yourself, your players, or both?

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12 Responses to “So who’s it for; me or my players?”

Sandie Law September 16th, 2008 at 12:12 PM

Well, now I feel bad for neglecting my point of views.

I’m off to update NOW.

reveal September 16th, 2008 at 12:17 PM

@Sandie – No need to feel bad, hun. Really, I’m just surprised people aren’t doing it more when they started off so excited about it. I just don’t want people to loose that excitement.

Czar September 16th, 2008 at 1:44 PM

I`ll be starting a new campaign soon and I’ve been wrestling with the idea of maintaining a blog. We already use a message board right now to recap the latest gaming session and post summaries and loot info..but i think a wiki would be a more functional method. Of course, I’d be concerned that I’d be writing it just for myself and my players would really care about it either way.

Yet, If I move the message board posting to the wiki, I would sort of railroad them in to visiting it. Muhaha.

K September 16th, 2008 at 2:00 PM

Not a member of your site (but a big fan).

I find the wiki good reading and very useful for the SoW campaign I’m starting next month.

reveal September 16th, 2008 at 2:08 PM

@Czar – We have a message board as well but I find the wiki to be better structured and easier to manage.

@Kon – Thanks!

Electrocuted September 16th, 2008 at 3:14 PM

Very Nice Wiki.

What do you use to do the town layouts?

Tomcat1066 September 16th, 2008 at 4:27 PM

My group has a forum, but we primarily use it just for administrative stuff and random discussion crap. It works well to keep the discussion stuff out of the games, since we can discuss on the message boards all week.

That said, I like the idea of a wiki. I’m just not sure I’d be up to updating it myself, so I won’t bother with it when I run The Burned Lands.

Tomcat1066s last blog post..Accurately Playing Heroism In RPGs.

tk342 September 17th, 2008 at 2:36 AM

I have a wiki for the campaign I run, and I find that the players don’t really use it. On the other hand, the campaign I play in has a wiki as well, and as a player I don’t really look at it that much. For me, it’s more about forgetfulness. The the others people I play with, I think it’s because they treat role-playing very casually. They don’t like to devote any time outside of session to the hobby. But you play with who you have around you.

Nimblegrund September 17th, 2008 at 3:06 PM

I do try to make use of it. I think part of what makes it hard is that I don’t really have any notes to work off of when chronicling Sylar’s exploits. I should try to take notes, but I usually forget.

d20Blonde September 18th, 2008 at 8:54 AM

We have a campaign Wiki… and I’ve never looked at it. I am full of shame.

d20Blondes last blog post..Natural 20s and Nostalgia

reveal September 18th, 2008 at 9:51 PM

@Electrocuted – What do you mean about the town layout?

Bossemeyer September 25th, 2008 at 3:12 AM

I would Update, but between going to class and Reading Assignments for Both my Art History Classes and my normal class load of art assignment and non-art classes homework, i barely have the time to update my PC sheets…

Also, missing one game of the first dungeon crawl (the middle game of 3 mind you) makes it hard for me to record my point of view of the events…

I plan to update more and make more content, just need to deal with classes first and foremost.

@Nimblegrund: As far as taking notes to record later? Blah, history doesn’t take notes and it does a great job telling the story of heroes : ]