How to do D&D prep with Obsidian

D&D prep in Obsidian can be more than a place to store notes—it can become a working control panel for running a campaign, tracking continuity, and turning source material into session-ready story and mechanics. In this walkthrough, a Dungeon Master uses a structured “world page” plus templated “session notes” to review what happened last time, capture unresolved threads, and then generate a focused plan for the next session inside a single, searchable system.

The setup starts with a campaign “main world page” for Exandria (Wildemount in practice), including a customized map and a party roster for The Slayers Five. Each character entry is treated like a quick-reference sheet: Armor Class, passive perception, investigation, insight, and languages/tools are all captured so the DM can adjudicate quickly without hunting through documents. NPCs are listed with ownership (who plays them) and roles (bard, cleric, bladesinger), reflecting how the table actually runs.

Session continuity is handled through a templated session list. Each session can include a date, whether a long rest happened, and a processing tag (TVZ) to flag entries that still need to be summarized. Because the campaign is set in the Feywild—where time perception differs—the DM keeps a “fantasy calendar” date but also tracks whether the session’s timeline has been fully processed. The system also embeds recordings of sessions so the DM can refresh memory quickly.

When preparing the next game, the DM uses split-view planning: a longer “story recap” for context alongside a one-line “bare minimum” summary that gets pulled into the new session note. The new session note is created via a macro/template (“add new session”), automatically filling in housekeeping fields, embedding the prior recap, and leaving the location and fresh summary blank until the session is complete.

The practical payoff shows up in the planning content. After a month hiatus, the DM reviews the party’s arc through Wild Beyond the Witchlight—modified into a custom, higher-level campaign. The recap is detailed: the party killed Bavlorna Brightstraw, used messenger birds to send a trap message to Endelyn Moongrave, and leveraged Endelyn’s foretelling ability to create a fight that rewarded creative tactics. They also learned key lore in Thither, met unicorns, and obtained a horn to break stasis, setting up the Palace of Heart’s Desire.

For the next session, the plan is anchored to a specific location and encounter chain: the Court of Storms, the secret library, the hatches puzzle that teleports into the study, and the approach to the throne room battle. A major story beat is the frozen half-orc Sereas, whose name must be learned and then touched with a unicorn horn to remove the stasis spell. The DM anticipates using the rogue’s Soulknife telepathy (“Psychic Whispers”) to interrogate Sereas next session, and pre-builds a backstory and stakes: Sereas is tied to Hardrak and Xhorhas, and Endelyn Moongrave is pursuing a plan to create a rift between the Shadowfell and the Feywild to unleash hungry ghouls into the Prime Material Plane.

Obsidian also supports lore expansion on demand. When players request more about the Shadowfell, the DM creates a Moil page (city of haunted spires) and links it via Dataview queries, pulling it into the Shadowfell notes automatically. Secrets and loot are tracked as structured entries—such as Orthrog the Titan-Knuckle, Ruin’s Wake, and the Summer Queen’s gift—so the session plan can include both narrative twists and concrete rewards.

Overall, the workflow turns D&D prep into a repeatable pipeline: capture continuity, convert source material into campaign-specific facts, and generate a battle-ready agenda with minimal rework between sessions—especially helpful for a newer DM managing an ongoing, customized campaign.