OpenFiction is live and we need readers to help us test it. Browse characters, set up spoiler filtering, and tell us what's broken.
What's ready
The platform has real content across ten universes, 140 books, and over 360 characters:
- The Wheel of Time - all 15 books including New Spring, with reading orders and chapter-level segments across the full series.
- The Cosmere - Mistborn, Stormlight Archive, Elantris, Warbreaker, and the Secret Projects. Multiple reading orders including publication and recommended paths.
- Discworld - all 41 novels organised into six sub-series, with reading orders for each.
- A Song of Ice and Fire - all five published novels with characters and factions.
- The First Law World - the original trilogy, The Age of Madness trilogy, and all three standalones.
- The Expanse - all nine novels, now live.
- Middle-earth, Dune, The Culture, The Sprawl, and more.
The features that make OpenFiction different are working:
- Spoiler filtering - set up a reading profile, mark which books you've finished, and character pages automatically show only information from those books. No spoiler banners to click through.
- Character tracking - appearances, life events, relationships, traits, abilities, and group memberships, all tied to specific points in the story.
- Reading orders - for series and universes, with multiple options where they exist.
- Content requests - ask us to add books, series, or characters, and vote on what matters to the community.
- Contributions - add character data directly. Appearances, relationships, life events - all reviewed by curators for accuracy.
What we need tested
Honestly, everything. But a few areas where feedback would be particularly valuable:
The reading profile and spoiler filtering. This is the core feature. Set up a reading profile, mark some books as read, then visit character pages. Does the filtering work as you'd expect? Is it clear what's being shown and what's hidden?
Character pages. Browse characters from series you know well. Does the information match what you remember? Are appearances in the right chapters? Do relationships and life events make sense in context?
The contribution flow. Try adding an appearance or editing some character data. Is the process intuitive? Is it clear what each field means?
Content requests. If there's a book, series, or universe you'd like to see, submit a request and let us know if the flow makes sense.
General usability. Navigation, search, page load times, mobile experience. Anything that feels off, confusing, or broken.
How to help
- Create an account - sign in at openfiction.org. Takes about 30 seconds.
- Set up a reading profile - go to your dashboard, open Reading Profile, and search for books you've read. This activates spoiler filtering.
- Browse around - look up characters, explore series, check reading orders.
- Try contributing - pick a book you know well and add a few character appearances.
- Report issues - use the "Report an issue" link on any page, or get in touch at support@openfiction.org.
You don't need to do all of this. Even just browsing and telling us "this felt weird" or "I expected this to work differently" is genuinely helpful.
What to expect
OpenFiction is a real product, not a prototype - but it's early. Content coverage varies: some universes have detailed character data with appearances mapped to specific chapters, others have books listed and not much else. You might find bugs. Some pages will feel sparse.
That's exactly why we need testers. The feedback you give now shapes what we build next.
What's coming next
Based on what we learn from beta testing, near-term priorities include:
- Deeper character data - more appearances, relationships, and life events across all universes.
- New universes - The Expanse character seeding is underway. Grishaverse, The Gentleman Bastard Sequence, and others are being scoped.
- Chapter-level spoiler filtering - currently filtering works at the book level. We're working towards letting you set your position within a book for even more precise filtering.
- Reading order integration with spoiler filtering - choosing a reading order and having your position in it define your spoiler boundary automatically.
If any of this sounds interesting, we'd love to have you involved. Create an account, have a look around, and let us know what you think.