The Last Tuesday with Nicole
All good things must come to an end. Today is our last Tuesday with Nicole. But weep not, fellow art fans! Nicole still exists and still does art AND you can still get her to do art for you. Details to follow after the video. The video! Let’s get right to it. Nicole finishes strong by sketching out a climatic scene from this month’s featured campaign Shadowrun – Into The Breach.
Yes, I can say that I’ve been there. But it involved a young red dragon and an infinite bucket of KFC. Don’t ask. Anyway, remember when I mentioned that you can still get her to do art for you? Here’s what she had to say on the subject:
Oh and I do take commissions- I have an estimate sheet on my blog on the side panels if you’re ever interested in character illustrations. I haven’t put up a price for a group shot, but I’m working on that too.
Nicole, our thanks go out to you. You shared your wonderful art with all of us and we hope that when you’re making it big you remember us fondly and don’t mind too much when folks say ‘I knew about her back back in the day when I saw her art on Obsidian Portal!’
We’ve been Nominated for a Second ENnie!
Last year we won our first Golden ENnie, and we owe that tremendous victory to you. You who are our users, our friends, our community, and our heroes. Help us make it two years in a row, won’t you? To vote for Obsidian Portal, please take the following steps:
How To Vote
- Go to http://www.ennie-awards.com/voting/ballot.asp
- Scroll down to 16. Best Website
- Select 1 from the drop down box next to Obsidian Portal
- Vote for your other favorite products (you don’t have to vote in any category you don’t want to)
- Scroll down to the bottom and click Submit my votes
That’s all there is to it. Thanks so much for being there for us over the last year and for helping us make Obsidian Portal the best Tabletop RPG Campaign Management Community in the world!
Forum Moderation and You
Hail Adventurers,
Obsidian Portal is looking for three new Forum Moderators. If you’re interested in being a Forum Moderator then you’ll have to meet the following prerequisites:
- You are a frequent user of our forums
- You can abide by the forum etiquette guidelines
- You are interested in keeping the Obsidian Portal forums a fun and unique
- You have ideas for/ are willing to run contests and promotions to keep your fellow forumites entertained
If you’re selected to be one of our new moderators, you’ll get a complimentary Ascendant Membership and a t-shirt! Interested? Send an email to dan(at)obsidianportal(dot)com with the subject Forum Moderator and remember to include your forum username in the body of the email.
Slurping your Google contacts (or not)
It’s been brought to my attention that people who are logging in with Google are now being asked to surrender their contacts. To be 100% clear: We are not spamming your friends! This is a bit of a misunderstanding, and we’re working to clear it up. Read on if you want more details.
We use a service called RPX (aka. JanRain Engage) to enable 3rd party login support. That’s why a couple months back we went from offering OpenID only login to offering Facebook, Twitter, Google, and all the others. RPX allows us to be largely ignorant of the underlying details. That’s a good thing, as we spend more time coding cool RPG-related features, and less time dealing with figuring out how to log you in.
Anyways, the 3rd party providers are constantly changing, especially Facebook. It seems like every week they come out with a change to their system that requires us to change something on our end. Luckily, RPX shields us from much of that. However, recently, Google made an update, and when we changed our settings to match, it started asking for people’s contacts as a requirement for logging in. We don’t need this information, we don’t want it, and we don’t use it. Unfortunately, we can’t figure out yet how to turn it off. We’ve emailed the RPX support, and we’ll just have to wait and see what they say.
Until then, please trust that we’re not up to anything nefarious. We respect your privacy and the privacy of your friends. The last thing we want is a reputation for spamming.
iPhone, Android, and other mobile support
I’ve been getting more and more curious about how people are using Obsidian Portal via their mobile devices. Being a technology luddite myself, I still use a cell phone that would be at home in the late 90s. However, I do recognize the potential that mobile devices represent at the game table. It would be incredibly handy to be able to reference your wiki or bring up a character sheet and have it actually be readable without needing to scroll or zoom (too much). With that in mind, I’m cautiously exploring what it would take to make Obsidian Portal more mobile friendly.
Fair warning
Before anyone gets too excited, let me lay out 2 important disclaimers:
1) This is a hypothetical discussion at this point. We may choose to work on it tomorrow, next year, or never.
2) We’re not going to make a dedicated iPhone app. Obsidian Portal is a web app and will stay that way for a while. I just want it to be usable for all you mobile gadgeteers.
The hypothetical plan
The most likely plan of attack would be to create a special stylesheet for mobile devices that repositions and realigns some elements to fit the reduced size of the screen. I’ve read a couple style guides, and the process is pretty straightforward, but usually involves cutting things out altogether. That’s by far the hardest part. For example, what about our sidebars? Could we lose them on a mobile version? They mostly display auxiliary information, but sometimes there are important controls there, like for editing a campaign or inviting new campaign members. I don’t really see these as things you would want to do while playing with the site via a mobile device, but who knows?
Your thoughts?
Since I’m mostly uneducated in these things, I’d like to hear what you have to say. What are the most frustrating parts about navigating Obsidian Portal with a mobile device? What are some things you could do without on the screen so it would clean things up? What are some examples of similar sites that do a good job of presenting a mobile version?
Free System Friday: Zoids – The Roleplaying Game
Every Friday, we introduce you to a new roleplaying game system. A free RPG system. This Friday is no different, Adventurers! This week we’re bringing you a special combo that’s close to my heart. Giant animal shaped robots, anime, and a wild and dangerous world. This week, it’s Zoids – The Roleplaying Game by Keith Foster.
Zoids are living mechanical organisms that can be piloted or roam free if let. Zoids can be either equipped with weapons or tools depending on the need. They’ve nearly replaced most vehicles on their home planet “Zi”. Zoids vary in shapes and sizes, always mimicking animals, whether they are actual, extinct, or mythical.
One night I got bored and actually designed a new Zoid in Hamapatch (A free 3D modeler). I named it the “Tracker Hound” and gave it a special ability to match its design. A week later I actually began writing rules for a role-playing game based on the Zoids universe and soon after I began bringing in my episode library so I could insert images from the series.
So this book is a result of boredom combined with an obsession. Due to copyright issues I cannot sell this book although I’d never want to. I’ve actually been offering it for free on my website for years. It’s just been recently that I’ve merged it all into one document so that I could put it up for download.
So what are you waiting for? Grab the rules, get your group together, and play Zoids – The Roleplaying Game today!
