I need a web app, something with all kinds of webappy features that can serve as my go to project when I’m writing about different technologies. I’ve actually needed this for a while, but have been struggling to come up with the concept.

I tried for a content management system. Then I thought about a customer management system. I thought about building out that online retailer system that I dreamed up back when I was an Amazon/Ebay seller. The main thing lacking in all these was a mature domain model, due to my lack of experience with the subjects.

Then, in a completely unrelated-to-this-topic search, I stumbled upon a complete database of the D20 System Reference Document (SRD). You would probably know it as something else, but I’m not allowed to use that term. Anyway, it’s a database of character types, monsters, and items and equipment that can be used in various table-top gaming systems, like the kind where you poke around in dungeons and fight mighty dragons. This works out great for me, for a couple of reasons.

1. The data set is very mature, having evolved from a system that was created in the 70’s.
2. The SRD is open content. The license is full of all kinds of legalese, but I know from other sites that I can do what I need to do with it.
3. The data is highly relational, but is represented in the database as unrelated tables. This gives me opportunity to model how one would refactor a site or a data model after the site has gone live, the whole changing-the-engines-while-in-flight problem.

Thus DungeonMart was born, a modern day e-commerce site where an adventurer could go to buy all the known adventuring equipment and items. It could be anything from a pound of wheat to a magical suit of chainmail. It’s nothing special yet, just a page that says Welcome. But as I evolve it over time, it should be pretty cool.

Technology wise, I’m first going to play around with getting the data into DocumentDB, while it’s still in preview on Azure and because I’m possibly going to be doing a session on DocumentDB at an upcoming event. Once the data is in place, I’ll probably progress to a Web API 2 RESTful service and then finally the actual web site part.

I’m sure I’ll get distracted many times on the way as I need to talk about one thing or another, but it will slowly come together. The source will be on my github the whole time, and the site will live on Azure probably for a while, here.