# Obsidian - Patreon Vault - Upgraded Templates (2025) ![[images/Obsidian-Patreon-Vault-Upgraded-Templates-2025.webp]] [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UYLZH0c8f0) · 37:36 · Josh Plunkett · 2025-06-20 ## Outline ### 00:00 Intro - This video is for Patreon supporters and is explicitly **temporary**: about three hours after Josh released the new vault, Obsidian released **Bases** to Insiders (beta testers). The vault now supports both Dataview and Bases, which he admits will be confusing until Bases ships publicly and he re-does the video. ### 01:02 Download and Install - The upgraded vault is pinned on his Patreon (new "Fighter Jimmy" and "Wizard Jimmy" art). Buy it from the Patreon shop or via a monthly subscription, which can be cheaper depending on how long you stay. He has moved it off GitHub. - It's a zip: extract it, drag the inner **Obsidian TTRPG Vault** folder anywhere on your computer. ![[images/Obsidian-Patreon-Vault-Upgraded-Templates-2025-t0335.webp]] - In Obsidian, open the **Manage vaults** menu (bottom left) and choose **Open folder as vault**, then select that folder. - Common mistake: the hidden `.obsidian` folder must be **inside** the folder you select, because that's where all the plugins and settings live. Done right, Obsidian prompts you to turn off restricted mode and enable community plugins; then reload. ### 04:12 Vault Walk-Through - The vault is an upgrade of the old one. Josh disliked his old templates: heavy worldbuilding templates leave him "like a deer in the headlights," feeling he must fill in birthdays and relationships before he can prep. He wanted **quick, light templates** covering what he needs at the table (appearance, link to the party, where to find them, quests, loot), with room to go deeper later. - The **homepage** is cleaned up: editable quick links at the top (switch to source mode to change them), example notes you're welcome to delete, and **tabs** built on community member **Sailkite's** CSS. Tabs include Party (auto-updates with party members), Session Journals, Create New (where templates are triggered), Recently Modified, and a vault graph. - There are two homepages: notes ending in **-DV** use Dataview; those without use Bases, the future default. To get Bases early you need a **Catalyst license** (one-off $25 USD), which gives early beta access, community badges, and a VIP Discord channel. He warns beta builds can break. - To make new tabs open the Bases home, change the target in the **Default New Tab Page** plugin settings. - Bases' recently-modified view can filter by type (people, groups), which he finds really useful. The homepage content now lives in separate **embed files**, leaving the home note clean for your own notes. ### 10:32 Template Walk-Through - The big change: old templates were isolated; new ones are **designed to link together** as parent and child objects. Example notes are included (partly because empty folders didn't download before). ![[images/Obsidian-Patreon-Vault-Upgraded-Templates-2025-t1130.webp]] - Region example, **Island of Skulls** (a map he made years ago in Campaign Cartographer 3+): parent up top, map or picture on the left, tabs for general info, region details, and GM notes, then auto-updating lists of hubs, points of interest, groups, and quests. - Demo chain: **+Hub** creates "City of Slaves" with Island of Skulls as parent; inside it, a place, the "Inn of Drunks," categorised as nesting; then an NPC, "Fred the Frowny," who lives at the inn. ![[images/Obsidian-Patreon-Vault-Upgraded-Templates-2025-t1420.webp]] - Buildings in a hub use the **CAMPING** categories (commerce, agriculture, military, philosophy, industrial, nesting, government), something he found online. Place notes track NPCs who work there, GM notes, what they sell and buy, services, and rumours. A person note gets a stat block, GM notes, inventory, connections, and relationships. - Everything links back up. The city lists NPCs at its places through a Dataview query of notes linked to notes linked from it ("that was a fun one"). - A **Template Design** scratch note explains the hierarchy: region, then hub (town, city, even a huge spaceship), then places, plus points of interest (dungeon, encounter, swamp), groups (guilds, cults, religions, military), quests (large objectives), people feeding into all of them, and items assigned to people. No planet template yet. - **Create notes top-down**: region first, then hubs or points of interest, then places, then people. Otherwise new notes have nothing to link to. - The design goal is that everything a GM needs is on one screen, without forcing new users to learn the syntax. The top section (a **Meta Bind** parent picker in a callout, Sailkite tabs, an embedded **Leaflet** map) is generated; you just write plain **Markdown headings** at the bottom, and their content feeds up into the matching tabs. ### 20:26 Explore the Templates - The world-builder templates folder also holds **-Bases** versions. Insiders can switch buttons to them in **Meta Bind settings, Button templates**: edit a button's command to "Templater: create new note from template" and pick e.g. `place-bases`. After Bases releases, the vault will use it natively. ![[images/Obsidian-Patreon-Vault-Upgraded-Templates-2025-t2400.webp]] - **Person** (example "Flip the Famous," with several parent locations): image you can swap, name, alive or dead, species/ancestry, gender, **age range rather than exact age** (he hates numeric ages), a stat block you can change by name (e.g. to an orc), GM notes, inventory, connections to quests and groups, and an upgraded **relationship panel** with its own control panel. - **Point of interest**: like a place, with the **travel calculator**, linked quests (or plain checkboxes), Dataview queries to be replaced by Bases, and an encounters section, perhaps one heading per dungeon room. - **Quest**: quest info, start date, who gave it, backstory, planning, and linked people. - **Group** (e.g. a cult): parent and container, public and private goals, a hierarchy-based relationship chart, enemies and allies, services, membership and ranks (still being refined). - **Item**: included for people who don't use the 5e CLI or Pathfinder 2e exports, though Josh would replace it with the format of those imported items. No monster template, for the same reason. - Questions and ideas go to his **Discord**, where he hangs out daily. Tab names are easy to change; each tab must match a section of the same name below, and he uses note-in-note embeds with "no H1" cleanup. His version of Sailkite's tabbed sheets caps tab height so a scroll bar appears to match the picture. ### 31:01 Upgrade Existing Vault - Copy the **world builder templates** folder (under Z Templates) into the same spot in your vault. - Buttons are required. Copy Meta Bind's `data.json` from `.obsidian/plugins/obsidian-meta-bind-plugin/` over yours if you've never used Meta Bind templates. If you have, merge the button-template entries carefully, or use Meta Bind's **Edit templates, Copy to clipboard** and **Add template from clipboard** in the other vault. ![[images/Obsidian-Patreon-Vault-Upgraded-Templates-2025-t3345.webp]] - Copy the **CSS snippets** he has enabled: Sailkite tabs, max-height 480, supercharged links, plus an optional "Bases Dataview style" snippet that makes Bases look more like Dataview. - Also copy the home and embed files, and recreate his folder structure (the 2-World folder with groups, hubs, people, places, points of interest), which the templates assume. His advice: download it in isolation, play, then copy over what you like. ### 35:56 Outro - "Another super short video." He expects to redo it, and the vault, once Bases ships, stripping out much of the Dataview. He thanks supporters and invites everyone to Discord. ## Things mentioned ### Obsidian plugins, features, and snippets - **Obsidian Bases** (core; Insiders-only at the time), replacing much of Dataview - **Dataview** (community plugin), used by the -DV pages - **Meta Bind** (community plugin): parent pickers and buttons; button templates in its settings - **Templater** (community plugin): "create new note from template" command - **Default New Tab Page** (community plugin) - **Leaflet** (community plugin) for embedded maps - **Supercharged Links** CSS snippet - **Sailkite's tabbed sheets / tabs in Obsidian** CSS (community, free), modified by Josh - Josh's "Bases Dataview style" and max-height 480 snippets - Fantasy Statblocks-style stat blocks, travel calculator, and relationship panel inside the templates - Official docs: [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/) and [Bases help](https://help.obsidian.md/bases) ### Products and pricing - [Josh Plunkett's Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/JPlunkett): the upgraded vault ([post](https://www.patreon.com/posts/patreon-vault-131144103)), via shop purchase or monthly subscription (paid) - **Obsidian Catalyst license**: one-off $25 USD for early beta (Insider) access, badges, and a VIP Discord channel - Obsidian itself (free) - **Campaign Cartographer 3+** (paid mapping software) for the Island of Skulls map - [Obsidian TTRPG Tutorials](https://obsidianttrpgtutorials.com) (free site) - Josh's Discord server (free) ### TTRPG systems and tools - D&D 5e content imported via the **5e CLI tool** (free) - **Pathfinder 2e** export/extract method (free) - The **CAMPING** building categories for organising settlements - Example world: Island of Skulls, City of Slaves, Inn of Drunks, Fred the Frowny, Flip the Famous ## Bios ### Josh Plunkett An Australian game master and YouTuber behind Obsidian TTRPG Tutorials. He makes long-form guides to running tabletop RPGs in Obsidian, keeps a Patreon-funded TTRPG vault, and runs an active Discord community. ### Sailkite A member of the Obsidian community who made the tabbed-sheets CSS used across the vault's homepage and templates. The video gives no further biographical details. ### Obsidian developers The team behind Obsidian, who released Bases to Catalyst-license Insiders a few hours after this vault came out and later made it public.