Note · 2026-09-21
Do you need the Dataview plugin to run a TTRPG campaign in Obsidian?
No. Dataview turns a campaign dashboard's lists into auto-updating tables, but most of those tables can have a plain static fallback that works in a stock Obsidian install with zero plugins.
No — Dataview is optional for running a tabletop campaign in Obsidian, not a requirement. Obsidian's own linking and folders already do the core job (notes for sessions, NPCs, locations, and quests that link to each other); Dataview's only extra is turning a hand-maintained list into a query that updates itself.
What Dataview actually replaces
A campaign dashboard needs a handful of running lists: which quests are active, which NPCs live where, which sessions happened in what order, which hooks are still unresolved. Without Dataview, a GM keeps these as a short markdown list under the dashboard note and edits it by hand after each session — add a line, delete a line, done. With Dataview installed, the same information is expressed as a query block (for example, a TABLE query filtered to type = "quest" AND status = "active", sorted by name) that Obsidian re-renders whenever notes change, so the list never goes stale even if the GM forgets to update it.
The tradeoff in practice
| No Dataview | With Dataview | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Works immediately, zero plugins | One community plugin install |
| Upkeep | Edit the static list by hand — a couple of minutes after a session, by our own estimate | Nothing — the table re-renders on its own |
| Risk | A forgotten edit means the dashboard shows stale info | Silent omission: a mistyped frontmatter field just drops that row from the query, with no error shown |
| Mobile | Works everywhere Obsidian runs | Dataview currently supports Obsidian mobile too — worth confirming against the current plugin version on your device |
Neither path breaks anything the other one built — the underlying notes and frontmatter are identical either way. Installing Dataview later doesn't require restructuring anything; the query blocks are already written and waiting, they just render as plain code blocks until the plugin is present.
Why this design choice matters for buying a template
A campaign vault template that requires a specific plugin is fragile: if a future Obsidian update ever breaks plugin compatibility, the whole structure can stop working. A vault where a live table has a hand-maintained static twin doesn't have that failure mode for that table — worst case, a GM just goes back to editing a list, exactly as they would have if the plugin never existed.
Our <a href="/salt-crown-campaign-vault/">Salt Crown Campaign Vault</a> is built this way: the dashboard ships six Dataview query blocks (active quests, unpicked rumours, NPCs grouped by location, sessions newest-first, unresolved hooks, faction attitudes), and five of the six have a static fallback section with the same list written out by hand directly below. It also ships a full original starter campaign of filled-in example notes — sessions, NPCs, quests, items — alongside the blank templates, so nothing has to be built from an empty page.
Not affiliated with or endorsed by Obsidian or Dataview.