Tools & Platforms
Obsidian
English
Free
Subscription
Obsidian is a free, locally-stored Markdown note-taking application that the TTRPG community has widely adopted as a campaign wiki, session planner, and lore database. Originally designed as a personal knowledge management tool, it stores everything as plain text files on your own machine with no subscription required.
Description
Unlike purpose-built platforms such as World Anvil, Obsidian was not designed with TTRPGs in mind, which means it arrives without templates, stat block support, or any TTRPG-specific structure out of the box. GMs who want those features need to install and configure community plugins themselves, which carries a steeper setup cost than dedicated alternatives. For those comfortable with that process, however, the result is a highly customizable system with no ongoing fees and no vendor lock-in. A thriving plugin ecosystem has filled most of the gaps, and the tool has become a genuine alternative to subscription-based worldbuilding platforms for technically comfortable Game Masters.
The plugin ecosystem extends well beyond what is listed here, with community tools covering everything from database-style note querying and cross-device sync to interactive maps and combat automation. A full directory is available at community plugins.