I can't believe it, but this Obsidian plugin is fantastic for playing D&D and other tabletop games

One of my favorite things is taking something that's not at all affiliated with tabletop roleplaying games and finding a way to shove one into it. For instance, there was that time I played D&D with ChatGPT and had a lot of fun doing so.

As you might imagine, when i got my mitts on Obsidian, I started thinking of cool ways I could use it to organise my TTRPG sessions. This was a lot easier and more useful than I originally thought. I mean, Obsidian is literally allm about taking notes, connecting them up, and keeping eevrything organised; it's practically begging to become my new favorite way to plan D&D sessions when I'm DMing.

So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that there's an addon within Obsidian that makes DMing and organising a game a ton easier? This is what the Solo RPG Toolkit does, and despite its name, it's great for people who are into all kinds of TTRPGs. So, let's check out how to get it running and what it can do for you.

It's really easy

If you want to give the Solo RPG Toolkit for Obsidian a try, you need to, surprise, surprise, install Obsidian. The Solo RPG Toolkit is a plugin for Obsidian, so go ahead and grab the main app before you continue.

Once you're done, you can grab the Solo RPG Toolkit in one of two ways. If you want to check out the source code and install it on your own terms, head over to the Solo RPG Toolkit GitHub page.

If you'd prefer an easier time installing the addon, first, open Obsidian. Click on the cog icon around the bottom left area to open the settings page, then click on "Community plugins." Click on "Turn on community plugins," then go back a screen. Click on "Browse," then search for "Solo RPG" and click on the Solo RPG Toolkit. Click "Install," then click "Enable" once it's done. You'll now see a little icosahedron icon on the left; clicking this will invoke the Solo RPG Toolkit.

How to use the Solo RPG Toolkit

Let's get DMing

As you can tell from the addon's name, the intended use for this toolkit is for people playing solo RPGs. If you've never heard of them before, solo RPGs are systems that allow someone to play a TTRPG by themselves. It'll give the player some randomly-selected traits to work with, and you figure out the story as you go.

However, you can use the Solo RPG Toolkit to help with your DM prep for multiplayer sessions. Because Obsidian is a notetaking app, anything that sparks an idea can be immediately noted for future consideration.

The Solo RPG Toolkit has four buttons. The lightbulb is the Ideas section, where you can use random generators to quickly draw up character and location names, plus quest hooks for an adventure. You can also add elements you want to pick from into a table and have the toolkit select one randomly. Especially good if you want to pick a character to appear in a specific scene, or decide where the players will go next.

The eyeball icon is the Oracle section, allowing you to quickly and easily decide if something in your game happens or not. By default, you'll have three buttons: Unlikely, Fair, and Likely. If the task you're thinking of is difficult and cannot be passed easily, click Unlikely; on the other hand, if it seems pretty easy with some room for failure, click Likely. The addon will automatically roll a die and check the result to see if the action succeeded. It can give a simple "Yes" and "No," but there are also "Yes, and" and "No, and" results to mix things up alongside "Extreme" results that really emphasise what happens. You can also pick different resolution decision systems via the drop-down if you're playing a solo RPG that uses one.

The deck icon lets you draw cards from a deck of cards, which some systems use as a method of randomization. You can use it either in a solo RPG setting or you can find a DM planning tool that uses a deck of cards to help you plot future stories. Finally, the dice icon lets you quickly roll specific dice and store their results.

Once you're done generating stuff, clicking the refresh button at the top left of the toolkit will wipe everything from the selected section.

Obsidian is a surprisingly good asset for a DM

As a DM, I need all the help I can get to prep my sessions. Hopefully, you now see just how handy Obsidian is and how the Solo RPG Toolkit can help, even if you're not a solo player.