First off, thanks so much for putting together Obsidian Portal. I've thought about doing a similar site a few times and I'm glad someone did it (especially since Wizards can't pull it off). I'm currently hosting all my games in a BaseCamp project, but I'll consider moving them here.
Every GM has a wish list of features (web based chat, game-specific character sheets and generators, ...), but there's one feature I'd really like to see and I'm tempted to do it myself, but I would rather see it as a feature of a site like this: a proper game database.
I'm talking about something like http://d20database.com, only done properly. I have a ton of books, some print, some PDF, but it's difficult for me as a GM to really have a sense for what I actually have available to me. Monsters, items, spells, and so on are scattered between books. And compendium books are really just bad databases. What I want is all that information online and searchable. So I can clearly see what I have available to me and so on.
A game database also offers a clear business model for the site. GMs get a basic "personal" database to start with, perhaps prepopulated with OGL content. But now publishers and other GMs could offer new modules that I could import into my database for free or for a cost. Modules might also include maps that would show up in my campaign, NPCs, etc. So now you've turned Obsidian Portal into a marketplace.
I know you aren't looking for actual help in developing the site (and I can appreciate your situation), but I am a Rails developer, so if you are someday looking for help, let me know. For this feature request, I would actually suggest using something like CouchDB or similar document servers.
Anyway, thanks again for Obsidian Portal and good luck.
Comments
Every GM has a wish list of features (web based chat, game-specific character sheets and generators, ...), but there's one feature I'd really like to see and I'm tempted to do it myself, but I would rather see it as a feature of a site like this: a proper game database.
I'm talking about something like http://d20database.com, only done properly. I have a ton of books, some print, some PDF, but it's difficult for me as a GM to really have a sense for what I actually have available to me. Monsters, items, spells, and so on are scattered between books. And compendium books are really just bad databases. What I want is all that information online and searchable. So I can clearly see what I have available to me and so on.
A game database also offers a clear business model for the site. GMs get a basic "personal" database to start with, perhaps prepopulated with OGL content. But now publishers and other GMs could offer new modules that I could import into my database for free or for a cost. Modules might also include maps that would show up in my campaign, NPCs, etc. So now you've turned Obsidian Portal into a marketplace.
I know you aren't looking for actual help in developing the site (and I can appreciate your situation), but I am a Rails developer, so if you are someday looking for help, let me know. For this feature request, I would actually suggest using something like CouchDB or similar document servers.
Anyway, thanks again for Obsidian Portal and good luck.