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My Obsidian Setup for D&D


Updated 2024-04-04

It’s easy to get started with Obsidian but the organizational possibilities are endless. Let’s take a look “behind the screen” at my setup for Dungeons & Dragons. This is how I organize my world and campaigns within Obsidian.

One Vault to rule them all…

I started with two vaults: one for D&D and one for everything else (this blog, home projects, work, etc). Most of my time is spent working in the D&D vault. Eventually, I combined these into a single “main” vault for everything. It was easier than managing two vaults and my non-D&D stuff is pretty light. If you have a lot of extra stuff in your collection, you might consider making D&D its own separate vault. If not, things like the search function might get bogged down with irrelevant results. For more, consider the big picture on vaults.

Why One Vault for D&D

You can make the argument that a vault for each D&D campaign would be ideal. But I disagree. I have a number of “shared” notes that I would be referencing in each campaign. I don’t like to duplicate notes if I can help it. I run almost every campaign in a shared universal setting so I need to reference world lore (NPCs, locations, cosmology, etc) across games. Additionally, I keep some rules references in my vault that I reference in different games.

To recap, I have a folder for D&D and folders for non-D&D stuff. So far, my vault’s looking like this:

main-vault
└───dnd
└───Ω assets
└───Ω external
└───Ω utility
└───other-stuff

Now let’s just focus on the D&D stuff.

Dungeons & Dragons “Behind the Screen” Organization

My dnd folder changes over time. But here’s the main folder structure. Let’s break it down.

main-vault
└───dnd
    └───Atlas
    └───Campaigns
    └───Gamemaster Tools
    └───Items
    └───Life
    └───Lore

Atlas

The gazetteer of my connected settings.

I start with notes for my universal regions. Think “planes of existence.” For my universe, those are the Known World (the material plane and majority of the setting notes), Elder World, Dark World, Astral Dominion, and Elemental Chaos. Within the Known World, I separate out world regions into folders.

main-vault
└───dnd
    └───Atlas
	    └───The Known World
		    └───Aer 
		    └───Algoria
		    └───Dragonmir
		    └───Eldramir
		    └───Kandalur
		    └───Nentir Vale 
		    └───The Fold 
		    └───Xanthomir
	    │   Astral Dominion.md
	    │   Dark World.md
	    │   Elder World.md
	    │   Elemental Chaos.md
    └───Campaigns
    └───Gamemaster Tools
    └───Items
    └───Life
    └───Lore

At this level, we’re now looking at what I consider individual “settings” as a campaign will rarely span into more than one.

Individual Setting Gazetteer

My last campaign took place mostly in the world regions of The Fold and Kandalur. I have a folder for each with a note that contains an overview. The folder also contains all other notes for that setting that are relevant to locations: settlements, minor regions, geography, landmarks, etc.

Here’s a simple recap:

main-vault
└───dnd
    └───Atlas
	    └───The Known World
		    └───Kandalur
			    │   Kandalur.md (#region/world)
			    │   K'ndara Thaen.md (#settlement)
			    │   Jovita Valley.md (#region/minor)
			    │   The Gilded Notion.md (#landmark/inn)
			    │   Y'dora's Grove.md (#geography/grove)

I use two tools to organize all of these notes: overview notes and tags. For overview notes, think of an index. My Kandalur.md note has sections for Regions, Settlements, and Geography and links all important notes in an organized fashion. I also use tags and nested tags for each note that allow me to use Dataview queries easily. My main categories are #settlement, #region/*, #landmark/*, and #geography/* (see above for examples).

Campaigns

Campaign-specific notes for planning and logging.

To start, I have a folder for each campaign. Within a campaign, a section for player characters, session notes, adventure logs/recaps, and the world machine.

Player Characters contains a note for each player character in this campaign. I like to have a picture, passive ability scores, a list of trained skills, and any other information I want to keep track of for this PC. That might include destinies, dream sequences, allies, enemies, etc. I also iframe the character sheet into the note (if using digital) for easy access.

Session Notes contains a note for each session. If you’re curious about those, check out how I prepare for D&D.

The World Machine is where I keep notes for major campaign storylines. These represent ongoing threats and fronts. I document how they will evolve in the world if the player characters do not interfere or change their course. I generally like to have at least three major storylines evolving in the world machine for each campaign.

main-vault
└───dnd
    └───Atlas
    └───Campaigns
        └───Campaign 1
            └───Player Characters 
                │   player-character1.md
                │   player-character2.md
            └───Session Notes
                │   session1.md
                │   session2.md
            └───World Machine
                │   storyline1.md
                │   storyline2.md
                │   storyline3.md

DM Tools

Tools to make my DM life easier.

Every DM needs their trusty tools. This is where I keep mine. I’ll be honest in that the organization of this folder is almost nonexistent. It’s just a collection of tools I find useful. Someday soon, I’ll make it make sense. For now, here are a few things I have there:

Items

Magical and non-magical items of interest.

Magic and mundane items like books. I lean heavily into optional lore via books.

Life

All about the people.

This is everything related to the people of the shared universe. I have folders for Characters, Classes, Cultures, Organizations, and Origins.

Characters is my largest folder. Here you’ll find a note for every PC and NPC that’s introduced in a game along with a picture and details about them.

Classes contains notes on the classes available to play. I like to add information that ties each of these to the setting and call out anything that differs from published materials.

Cultures is a newer section that I use to detail any prominent cultures within the setting.

Organizations details the various organizations at play in the setting.

Origins (often called races or ancestries in D&D) provides notes for each origin in my setting.

Lore

Universal truths and systems that reach across settings.

This folder documents the histories and cosmology shared by the universal setting. I have notes for cosmology, creation myths, important events, legends, magic, and the divine pantheon.

That’s a quick overview of how I organize my Obsidian vault for Dungeons & Dragons.

Game on.