[Tools] Using calibre-web as a reference library for TTRPGs

Calibre, if you are not aware, is an open source ebook management system. It’s one of the best and most easily available ways to manage a collection of electronic books. It stores books in a rather transparent library that allows easy editing, tagging, and conversion between different ebook formats. It also allows to easily send books to connected ebook readers.

Ok, the interface is a bit meh, very 2000s, but it’s usable.

It does also have the ability to run a content server to have people access a library from remote. That is serviceable but not really convenient. It’s not the focus of the app I think.

Calibre-web is a web version of this that is using the same database as the desktop client. It lacks a few features and amenities of the original program, but it makes up for that by a much nicer interface which looks very much like a modern web app. Editing the metadata for the books in the library is a bit awkward, but it makes up for it with a much nicer and responsive interface to browse the collection.

I have both configured so I can edit the database on my notebook, then synchronize with the database on my VPS, which updates either at night or when I request it, to make the changes visible.

The main idea of having the web portal was to give my wife access to my ebook collection. She lately was interested in some of the books I have in there, and having a way for her to access it and browse according to her interests (she’s on a Star Wars binge lately) makes it easier for her and me.

By the way, there’s also an android app (calibre-web-companion) that allows you to interact with the calibre-web app. Which makes this even more convenient. (although the app is a bit rough in parts)

But, having said that, and having the system already in place to use for her and me, I was thinking that it easily could be used for other purposes… Roleplaying games.

Calibre-web at its core is a library system, and it would of course be an easy way for me to give access to my collection for other people. But it’s also my personal book collection which contains copyrighted and partially DRM’d files and I don’t really want this stuff to get downloaded and shared all over the net.

But you don’t necessarily have to share all of it.

Calibre-web has a white-list function that allows you to restrict access for any given account to a specific tag. Any book that is not tagged the right way is simply not visible. So I created a tag called ttrpg-shelf and whitelisted it for a test user. Then I added a few books I had lying around my hard drive. Et voilá: a small collection of ttrpg books and ‘zines.

You need a way to share books with your players? Create a few accounts (or a single shared one), whitelist the books in question with an appropriate tag, and there you have it.

You might not need all the options the web client gives you. It has a nice option to present random books from your collection, or the most downloaded books, etc. You can switch that off.

You might also want to switch off the option to download books, forcing people to read with the inbuilt ebook reader. This might be useful if you are using copyrighted stuff, especially if it’s tagged with your name.

Note 1: there is another version of calibre-web in calibre-web-automated, which aims to give calibre-web the full feature suit of the desktop app. I haven’t tried that one out though, so I can’t say if it works as well as it claims it does.

Note 2: Standard Ebooks and Public Domain Library produce nicer editions of classics available on Project Gutenberg. That said, Project Gutenberg has a large library of etexts that are generally available as EPUB and MOBI files as well.

Rate this:

#calibre #ebooks #rpg #ttrpg

May is book's month in Uruguay, May 26th being National Book's Day. I promised to release my books freely in a #FediverseEdition proposal.
I expected to do that in their original language (Spanish).
Translation is a full time professional job which I am not prepared to do. However, some LLM helped me improve a bit my amateur translation attempt of my opera prima The Hungarian Soprano.

The main story is a nonlinear chronology which mirrors the dissonant harmonies of La Traviata.
Its structure forces the reader to become the investigator, piecing together a conspiracy the text refuses to spell out.

It is a historical fiction work covering espionage, arms traffic, government cover-ups spanning South America and Europe during the Yugoslavian wars.

The prose’s clinical tone (dates, decrees, serial numbers) sharpens the horror, making The hungarian soprano's death feel not like fiction, but like history’s darkest aria.

Six more parts await inside covering #fanaticism, #prejudice, #mystery, #psychedelia, #medicaldrama, #travel, #alcoholism, #friendship, #africa, #trans, #MedecinsSansFrontieres, #southamerica, #Brazil, and more.

Hope you enjoy it. If you feel like #commenting, #sharing or #rating it, thanks in advance.

Completely #free. This book is distributed under a Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

cloud.undernet.uy/s/jxozFDWGZc…

Entirely written in #FOSS.

#uruguay #bookstodon #books #epub #TheHungarianSoprano #operaprima #fiction #historicalfiction #Latex #calibre