Welcome to the first blog post at [car dealership commercial voice] REESE DOT BIZ. DOT BIZ. DOT BIZ. DOT BIZ.
What is this? Why, this is a highly professional blog about whatever I think is a good idea at the time, which is probably a terrible idea. It's written by me, Reese. I came up with the name for the website all by myself.
Today, I'm here to tell you about a couple of tools made to be used in conjunction with a TTRPG called Shadowdark:
- Torchfinder - Filterable content lookup including supplements, campaigns, rules, zines, etc.
- Torchtimer - Up to eight torches that can be shared and synchronized online in real-ish-time.
I built them in early 2026. Initially, I wasn't sure about the branding and hosting, so I hadn't publicized the apps in any meaningful way. Yet, people were finding and using them. Cloudflare indicated hits and worker invocations going up, right around when I decided that reese.biz would become their forever home. Well, here they are!
Here's some background on the apps...
Torchfinder
Torchfinder was inspired by Adventure Lookup, an app for locating D&D content new and old.
It was instructive for the design phase in terms of presentation and naming conventions. Torchfinder is, however, not a fork. It's a completely different codebase. What distinguishes it is the static, modular architecture. It lacks server-side code; there's no unwieldy database. The dataset is just structured text fed into the built app by automation. In this format, YAML, the data is sufficiently "human-readable" for, well, determined humans. This makes maintenance and contributions straightforward, while offloading infrastructural costs onto... sorry, GitHub.
Torchtimer
Torchtimer can synchronize torches among friends and not-friends alike. The timers can be randomized, hidden, and switched between time- and round-based modes. Sharing live or offline sessions is easy.
Live vs offline: A live session is what happens when someone clicks
Go Live. A connection is then established with the sync service (hopefully). Sharing the session viaCopy LinkorShow QRallows others to become viewers. The offline alternative produces (accurately initialized) timings, but without the synchronization, such as the host manually extinguishing a torch or adjusting time.
Yes, there are QR codes, and not for no reason. They're particularly helpful for keeping tabs on a session by phone.
Concluding Thoughts
I hope you enjoy my contributions to humanity. If you find problems with the apps, or have suggestions, they have links and information for reaching out. Furthermore, a disclaimer:
reese.biz is not affiliated with The Arcane Library, LLC. Shadowdark RPG © 2023 The Arcane Library, LLC.
Torchfinder and Torchtimer are not official projects. They're third-party, (ideally) collaborative projects. USE THEM NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW!