u/DiamondNo3940

A few weeks ago, EC changed the set numbering used in its API slugs and image files. Suddenly, every spreadsheet, bot and database keyed on strings like 004-witch-b-s quietly caught fire.

Those slugs look like identifiers, but they’re assembled from mutable data: set number, card name, product and finish. Any of those can change, and now that I’m deeper into building my own tools, I don’t want to go through this again.

Yu-Gi-Oh has Konami passcodes. Magic has Scryfall IDs. So today I bring you:

Sorcery Registry
https://github.com/sadkinglabs/sorcery-registry

Every gameplay card receives a permanent codex_id, shared across all its reprints, our equivalent of an oracle ID. Every physical printing receives its own permanent printing_id.

The IDs never move or get reused. The database refuses attempts to change or delete them, and CI checks every update against the previous registry. Slugs, names and set numbers become what they should always have been: mutable attributes, not identities.

From now on, when a slug changes, if it ever does, its old value remains resolvable through slug_history. Ambiguous upstream changes are held for human review rather than guessed at.

The whole published registry is one deterministic JSON file on GitHub:

• No hosted service to disappear
• No prices or marketplace dependencies
• Official public API data, plus a small, transparent corrections file
• A documented schema and SHA-256 checksum
• A local MCP server so Claude, Cursor and other compatible tools can query it

The registry has little purpose sitting alone in its repository. Its value comes from people building on the IDs.

Use it. If you maintain a tool, bot, spreadsheet, collection manager or pricing tracker, key your records on these IDs. The next slug rename should become an ordinary metadata update, not a migration emergency.

Challenge it. Look through the data, query it and try to find mistakes or dangerous assumptions. If something is missing for your use case, open an issue and tell me.

Help maintain it. Corrections are accepted through pull requests, with the evidence and reason retained publicly. New-set syncs also land as reviewable PRs. More eyes on those changes means more confidence in the registry.

I made this for the community, but I can’t credibly maintain a community identity standard forever by myself. If you think the idea is worth pursuing, please get involved, even if that just means trying it, opening an issue, reviewing a sync or starring the repository to show there is interest.

And if, over time, trusted community members want to help maintain it directly, I would genuinely love for this to become shared infrastructure rather than one person’s project.

TCG companies have always tolerated a certain degree of fan involvement with their intellectual property. A thriving TCG ecosystem needs a community, and game designers are not always focused on building the tools that community wants. So leave it to the players: tutorials, simulators, whole gaming clients, deckbuilders, rulesets, you name it. If there is a gap, some avid fan is willing to put in the hours, literally work for free, and elevate the game where the developers wouldn't or couldn't.

I am one of those people. For the last 5 months I have been sinking stupid hours into a companion app for a not very well known TCG with a very keen community and a small team behind it. I just read about the frustration of having a sim taken down from the OPTCG sub and thought i'd drop a few words here

With the advent of AI tools we are seeing a flurry of fan-made apps and content for TCGs, built by people who love these games and by community leaders all over the place. The quality is not always there, plenty of it is very much boilerplate, but it is made with the game and its community at heart.

Businesses don't care about that. Fan content lives in a grey area, allowed to exist for exactly as long as it isn't a problem. That's the part that surprises people: the game itself is not protected. Copyright does not cover ideas, procedures, systems or methods of operation. The US Australia, the UK and the EU all land in the same place. So a rules engine, a legality checker, a probability calculator, a turn structure explainer: mechanically, all of that is yours to build

What is protected is everything else wrapped around the game. For example, the artwork, completely and without argument, which is where most fan apps live or die; the exact wording of the rulebook and the card text, though thinly. The rule is free but the sentence someone wrote to express it is not; the name and the logo, which are trademark rather than copyright - you are allowed to say your app is for a named game. You are not allowed to dress it up so it looks like they made it; even the the card frames and backs, potentially, as trade look. Weaker and harder to argue, but it is there.

So no, there is no clean legal footing for a fan app that displays official artwork. But let's not deceive ourselves in the other direction either. Nobody is going to litigate the copyrightability of your deckbuilder - unless you collected money or profited from the IP you are unlikely to be sued or anything like that. What actually happens is an email, or a quiet word with whoever hosts your app, and the cost of fighting that is already more than the project is worth to you. We get away with this because in turn we are working for free and lifting the ecosystem where the publisher won't. However, any of it can end any minute.

Our options are few:

1. Ask for permission. It is the highest value thing you can do, and small teams say yes more often than people expect. Get it in writing, even if the writing is a Discord message.
2. Minimise how much of their IP you actually use. If your app cannot deliver its core function without displaying their artwork, you are leaning on their property to exist. Lean on the mechanics instead, since those are free.
3. Never pass as official. Disclaimers and credit have to be clear and visible, and don't borrow the logo, the fonts or the look to get there. This is the trademark side, and it is the one that gets people in trouble fastest, because it is the one that costs the publisher something directly.
4. Never take money in relation to the project. No donations, no subscriptions, no Patreon. Money is what turns a harmless fan project into in a legal team's responsibility, and staying clear of it goes a long way - which usually means paying costs out of pocket.
5. The tricky one: do not substitute core parts of the game's ecosystem or business rationale. In-person play, marketplaces, virtual pack openings... The moment your project competes with how they make money, you stop being a nice-to-have and become a problem to solve.

Where your project brings something to the table, make sure it also respects the owners' original intent, credits the IP clearly, avoids passing as official, isn't monetised, and doesn't offer a substitute for what the game already sells.

Even following that, nothing changes, only your odds to get the polite "please take it down" message. But the moment you make or write a piece of fan work, be aware that you are at the mercy of the publishers and developers of the game. Build accordingly, and don't build anything you couldn't walk away from or be disappointed when the hours and hours of work banish as quickly as an email is read.

I'm a mid-career 35YO professional working in the arts. I have been happily employed but my line of work requires extensive touring and periods away from home and I am tired...

Since I had all this free time to myself whilst on tour, I decided to enrol in an Bachelor of IT through UNE. I managed to finish 4 subjects whilst working full time with an average of HD.

Here's the thing, the course materials were incredibly outdated. I understand that at the current pace, one month old is already giving outdated in the industry. I am aware of the importance of getting the fundamentals down, and I truly enjoy the scope of the degree, but it did not inspire me to keep going (I understand we have to learn how to use tkinter as a glance into UI dev, but holy shit, a vote counting app was about the most mind numbing project I've ever had to sit through).

So I deferred, and I started working on the side on an Android app for my main hobby, TCGs. The app is now in alpha, I'm testing via Firebase, collecting feedback on a dedicated discord, with about 50 testers, and am truly enjoy working with modern tools as an imposter full-stack developer.

This has kind of reignited my love for the degree, and really wanting to get the fundamentals down. So I am thinking of switching to a Bachelor of CS so I can attend in person (the collaborative aspect of software development is important to me as it relates to my current profession), and be more immersed.

I visualise that at some point, my current expertise in performing arts and a potential CS background will put me in a great position in my 40s to pivot out of touring and into tech.

How do you guys see this? I just need a sanity check. I'm taking these next six months to catch up on maths and finish my app, so I can start the degree at UTS in Feb. My wife supports me and we are financially responsible, I live near the Uni. I will continue with selfemployed work whilst studying PT.

My questions are CS vs IT. Degree yay or nay. UTS is good? I believe that prospective employers need to see a CS degree before even having a look at any actual projects. I do like studying and continuing ed.

Hi all,

I'm the dev behind Sorcery Compendium, a small suite of fan-made Android apps for Sorcery: Contested Realm. The first two, Lexicum (a codex helper) and Vitarum (a life tracker), are in beta and I'd love some help testing it.

The first app is Lexicum, a rules companion and personal knowledge base. The short version of what it does:

- Codex with the full rules as searchable, cross-linked entries, plus card search side by side.

- Cards with real element icons, threshold, cost, rarity, sets, and the official FAQs attached to each one.

- Two-way links: a rule shows the cards it mentions, and a card links back to the rules that govern it.

- Your own notes, highlights, and collections on any card or rule, plus a customisable Dashboard you can set up per deck or matchup.

- Fully offline, no account, no ads, no tracking. Everything stays on your device.

- Filter errata'd cards, official FAQs and more

+ My favourite feature is a fully customizable dashboard, so you can build your own quick reference guide, be it for studying the rules, judging an event or helping you in your next session with the most common codex entries/rules in your deck.

The second app is called Vitarum, a beautiful life tracker for the game. It features a match journal so you can track your w/l over time. Die rolls, match clock, max life changing (I'm looking at you, Hemogoblin), damage log... The design beautifully integrates with the game elements so as to remove the intrusiveness of a digital device amongst the stunning card art.

The principle behind this suite is that all apps are free, for the community, fully offline, and open, currently Android only (via Obtainium or a direct APK). They work well already, but it's a beta, so I'm after fresh eyes: bugs, confusing bits, missing rules or card data, and anything you wish it did... I was tired of stopping mid games to look for rules in curiosa and needing internet connection! The life tracker is just beautiful (if I may say so) - and it has features every power user will appreciate.

The third app of the suite will be beta released at some point next week, so jump in the server to stay updated. Arcanum is a fully offline deckbuilder with amazing data insights, w/l record, export/import to curiosa and many more features.

If you'd like to try the apps and help shape where the suite goes, come join the testing server. That's where the download links, bug reports, and feature chat all live:

👉 https://discord.gg/6MxjMbfZw2

Happy to answer any questions here too. Thanks, and happy summoning.

Not seeking donations or anything like that. All work I've done is from a place of deep admiration and respect for the game and the artists that make it possible.

Hey everyone!

​I’ve recently fallen down the rabbit hole with this game and I am officially obsessed. I’ve spent the last few weeks just fully infatuated with the mechanics and the art... I’m in deep!

I went searching for local players to actually get some games in and found the Aussie discord. heaps of players from Victoria, WA, SA... but there is almost no one from Sydney :/

​I’ve been told the Sydney scene mostly uses Facebook Messenger, but I’m not on Meta at all, sp since that video selfie verification thing, and I know a bunch of other new players aren't either and struggling to find players

If you’re like me and don't use Meta, how are you lot even finding the community?