Author Archives: Micah

Two New Features: Campaign Backgrounds and Player Secrets

We wanted to open 2011 with a bang, so Ryan and I worked hard over the holiday break to get these two features ready to go. They’re both in need of a little polish, but that’s never stopped us from launching something before.

UPDATED: Donate to charity, get free Ascendant time

We’re a little behind in our fundraising efforts for Childs Play, so we’re going to go all-in. For the last day of 2010, we are offering free Ascendant time on Obsidian Portal for your charitable donations. All you have to do is open your wallet and help provide toys and games for sick kids stuck in hospitals around the world.

Update: It’s been a great day, and we’ve met our goal and then some. Thanks for all your help and generosity. If you’re still interested in an Ascendant subscription, check out our subscriptions page.

Looking for a Content Director – Be our voice on the Web

Dan, our beloved Content Director for the past year, is moving on and we need someone to step in and carry the torch. If you have a knack for writing and a passion for RPGs, you’re a great fit.

Put your money where your heart is.

<– Use the widget to donate!

Child’s Play, the annual charity brain-spawn of 2 of our beloved geeks Mike ‘Gabe’ Krahulik and Jerry ‘Tycho’ Holkins, has raised over a million dollars this year for bored sick children across the globe. Last year, we participated by creating the +1 Obsidian Portal Chest of Wonders, and it was GLORIOUS. It was also a huge trunk literally heaving with swag that I had to carry up a flight of stairs.

Dynamic Characters Sheets via the API

I know it’s a pain to write a DST. The dev kit is probably horribly out of date by now, plus you never really know how your DST will work until you upload it live and play with a real character. I try to encourage people from the start to get their code live on the site as soon as possible, but it’s still no fun to write and edit HTML (or any code) in a textarea. But, all that could change thanks to a recent update.

The ideal app

What if you could edit your DST files in your favorite text editor and never have to copy and paste it into the textarea? I’m imagining a desktop app where you select your HTML, CSS, and Javascript files on your local machine. Then, as you edit your DST locally, you can click a single button and the app syncs it to the server. Then, have a browser window open to a test character and you just refresh it. No more copy/paste, no more need to play with textareas. Smooth as silk.

Halfway there

Unfortunately, the ideal app doesn’t exist, at least not yet. But, I’ve taken the first step and added DSTs to the API. All the puzzle pieces are in place to make this a reality. They just need to be put together.

Can you do it?

I’ve got the API updated, but that’s about as far as I can take it. It’s been ages since I’ve done a desktop app, and I wouldn’t even know where to get started. Plus, I’ve got more features and bug fixes to work on than I want to think about. I need someone to step up, grab the reigns, and take it from here.

If you’re interested, or have a better idea, please come join the forum discussion. I’m really excited about the potentials of the API, and I think this app (or a better one!) would be a perfect fit.

Trash Bin FTW

We’re experimenting with a “trash bin” for your wiki pages (and soon, characters & items). This safety net will allow you to delete something, then bring it back later if you wish.

It’s not perfect, as certain aspects cannot be restored (like tags), so don’t go throwing things away without a little thought. However, you no longer need to fear that one of your players will spend an afternoon maliciously deleting your entire wiki.

The next logical step is to provide versioning history for your pages. That’s definitely on our TODO list, but I’m not sure when we’ll get to it.