How do you keep track of a whole world?

October 1, 2007 3:56 PM

Help me find a (hopefully free and easy to use) tool that could be used to create and organize a Fantasy world for a Paper and Pencil Role Playing Game. Something like a hypertext database that fiction writers might use.

I'm looking for something where Characters, Lore, Location maps, Politics, Godly affairs, Economic relations, Timelines and more can all become an interconnected tapestry that can also be easily updatable to account for Player Character's actions.

I am thinking some sort of Database where relations are dynamically created and altered and can be viewed visually (I am quite a visual thinker).

I am looking for something with a simple user interface as I will want to access and alter parts of the world on the fly while running games and keep a log of the Player's actions and how they are viewed by other characters in the world etc.

I know there are programs that screenplay and fiction writers use that have a hypertext database element, something like that might work but any ideas are welcome. Thanks in Advance.

posted by DetonatedManiac to technology (7 comments total)

Some kind of wiki seems the best choice. The ELotH:TES wiki looks like what you're trying to do.
posted by Memo at 4:05 PM on October 1, 2007

A wiki of some sort wold be your best options, but I don't know of any that have a real visual way to modify view/create/alter links & relations.
posted by juv3nal at 4:37 PM on October 1, 2007

I have a +5 dagger of spellchecking. Honest.
posted by juv3nal at 4:37 PM on October 1, 2007

I'm using pmwiki for my game.
posted by fings at 6:02 PM on October 1, 2007

I've been eyeing Scrivener for this purpose.
posted by majick at 8:21 PM on October 1, 2007

Thanks for the responses, but to clarify, I am hopelessly stuck to Windows, so Mac only software is not so helpful.
posted by DetonatedManiac at 2:49 PM on October 2, 2007

It's not updated anymore, but try maybe Keynote? I used it for awhile to keep track of notes for classes and stuff.

You really should look into a Mac. I think a combination of VoodooPad and OmniGraffle would get you what you need.
posted by lilac girl at 8:07 AM on October 17, 2007