DnD NPC tracker online: a filled board you can share with your table

The big limit: there are no hidden DM notes

A board link on the free plan gives people the board as a whole, either to look at or to edit. It can't show one card to you and hide it from your players, and it can't hide a part of a card. Per-person permissions and invite-only boards are on Pro.

That shapes how to use it. Put on the board what the party could find out by asking around: who a person is, what they want, who they deal with, and what you plan to bring up next. Keep the true secret, the villain's plan and the twist somewhere your players can't open: a note in your own app, a paper notebook or a private page in one of the tools below.

If you need something that hides content from players, use a tool built for it: Kanka, World Anvil, LegendKeeper and dndcampaignplanner.com all say they can. See the better-choice section for what each says.

What this board is for, and what it isn't

The board is a set of lists and cards. A place is a list, a person is a card, and an arrow shows who leans on whom. You move things by hand. That makes it a good fit for one job: a cast of people you want to see all at once, where your players can look at the same board between sessions.

It isn't a campaign manager. It has no search, no links between pages, no map with pins, no dice and no rules content, and it doesn't hold stat blocks. If you're tracking a cast of a few dozen people by where to find them, that is enough. If you want a wiki, see below. For a cast of characters in a novel or a screenplay rather than a campaign, see the character relationship map.

How to set it up

1. 1Open the ready board above. Rename the lists to your places: towns, districts, dungeons, courts or ships. Replace the example people with yours.
2. 2Write two lines on each card. What they want, and what the party knows. Add a "Ties" line for who they deal with.
3. 3Put each group in the Factions list. A faction card names its members, so you can find them without scrolling every list.
4. 4Draw arrows between people who lean on each other. An arrow from one card to another shows who is leaning on whom.
5. 5Keep a Next session list. Start each card with "NEXT:", and delete it once you've used it.
6. 6Share the link. Set Share to "Anyone with the link can edit" only if you want players to write. Players open the link and read everything with no account; they sign in free if they want to add a note, an arrow or a caption of their own.

Keep the yellow "Start here" card until you've replaced the example town, then delete it.

The free-plan limits, before you build

Instaboard's free plan allows 5 boards and 150 items per account, with 3 pictures and 1 file per board. Each card and each list is one item; arrows and pen strokes don't count. The ready board has 30 cards and 6 lists, so it is 36 items. Pro is $5 a month billed yearly ($59.99), or $7.99 monthly.

Our own arithmetic: eight places with about twelve people each is 96 cards plus 8 lists, about 105 items before factions and session cards. That fits on one board. A second campaign board of the same size passes 150, because the limit counts all your boards together. A card that opens into its own board counts toward your 5, so keep a campaign on one board rather than one board per town.

A board someone opens from your link takes one of their own 5 free board slots. A card a player adds counts toward their own 150, not yours.

Maps and portraits: three pictures per board

The free plan allows 3 pictures per board, so the ready board has none: each person is a text card. A map is a picture, so it takes one of the 3. A link card that shows a picture preview, such as a link to a character page, also takes one. For maps with pins, Kanka and LegendKeeper are built for it (below).

When something else is the better choice

• You want a free wiki with no entry cap. Kanka's pricing page (read November 7, 2026) lists the free plan as unlimited entries and unlimited campaigns, with 3 MiB uploads. Its features page (same date) says you can control what each member sees, set a relation to private, and add maps with pins you can hide from players. A visual explorer for relations is listed under premium campaigns, and its Owlbear plan is $4.99 a month.
• You want secrets and a published world. World Anvil's pricing page (read November 7, 2026) lists a free plan with 2 worlds, and Master at $7 a month or $54 a year with private worlds and articles, secrets, whiteboards, 4 co-authors and 10 subscribers.
• You want search, maps and secrets in one wiki. LegendKeeper's features page (read November 7, 2026) lists full-text search, maps with pins, timelines, whiteboards, real-time collaboration, and granular permissions and secrets. Its pricing page (same date) says creating a project needs a subscription, $9 a month or $7.50 a month billed annually after a 14-day trial with no card, and guests join free.
• You want a campaign site with hidden content. dndcampaignplanner.com's home page (read November 7, 2026) lists network diagrams, hidden content for players and a GM screen. Its pricing page (same date) lists a free Basic plan with 1 campaign and 50 campaign items, and paid plans at $5, $10 and $15 a month.
• You want free, local notes you can link. Obsidian's pricing page (read November 7, 2026) says it is free with no sign-up, and its Sync add-on, $4 per user per month billed annually, lets people collaborate on shared vaults. In r/DMAcademy threads from 2023 and 2025, several game masters name it for linked NPC notes and a graph; those are their own views.
• You want an official printable sheet. D&D Beyond's Tracking Sheets page (read November 7, 2026) offers an NPC Tracker as a free PDF to download. Its fields include a stat block reference and a secret for each person, which this board doesn't have.

What the board doesn't do

• No hidden notes. Everyone with the link sees every card. Per-person permissions are on Pro.
• No search, no links between cards and no wiki pages.
• No maps with pins, no timeline and no calendar.
• No stat blocks, dice or rules content.
• No session scheduling or reminders.
• Writing needs a free sign-in.
• 3 pictures per board, 5 boards and 150 items on the free plan.

About the name

Instaboard is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast. "D&D" and "DnD" are used on this page only to name the game this board is meant for. The people, places and factions on the ready board are invented, and the board holds no rules content from any game.

Questions