Cloud Sync for Spellbooks

I'm stubborn sometimes. I'll admit it.

When I built 5e Spellbook Builder, I was adamant about keeping data on device and not needing people to sign in to build spellbooks, for a couple of reasons:

• I'm tired of enshittified web experiences that lock you in, take your data and track you
• I love low-friction experiences: dragging some spells into your spellbook and get playing and that's it

And maybe the most important reason of all for not building a sign-in cloud sync feature:

• It's more work

All this time I wasn't getting feedback that people actually wanted a cloud sync feature where they'd have to authenticate but then their spellbooks could live across devices. I thought players were happy having their spells on their devices, and swapping around files when need be.

I had nailed it.

That is until someone at my table lost his spellbook randomly.

The drawback of on-device data only

The big drawback of data only on device: your browser cache can be cleared, maybe an OS upgrade wipes your data, and of course if you buy a new phone or switch to a different computer: your Spellbooks won’t be there and you might lose everything.

Just like back when Wordle first came out (which had all its stats live on device), and players were devastated the times that they lost all their Wordle stats (eventually the New York Times bought it and plugged it into a user account and cloud sync feature to prevent this).

Of course 5e Spellbook Builder does allow you to export your data, or share spell books via URL (which was the way we found the lost spellbook, in our message history, which was pretty cool!). But not everyone is going to take the time to do that.

The solution

I've decided to finally put in the effort for a cloud sync. And even though I didn't receive feedback that anyone wanted this, when I released it the players at my table said "finally!".

It's an optional feature that you can turn on or off whenever you'd like. You can choose not to use it and remain entirely private if you wish. And it adheres as much as it can to my low-friction philosophy: you sign in with a third party account you probably already have, like Google, to sync (more are coming). No need to register an account and create a new password to manage.

Let me know what you think!