D&D 5E What should be in a 5E Game Prep generator? [Poll]

[PieAndDragon]

If there was a single one-click generator to help out 5E DMs with game/session prep, what should it include?

This would most likely for a time when you have nothing/little prepared, have players who go off on random tangents or have an idea and just want to run with it....

 

[ART!]

Input for number of PCs and their levels.

Input for how much time you have to play. I've never seen this in any tools, but it would be nice to ballpark an answer to "how many encounters should I plan for this game session?"

An encounter generator, with input for terrain and climate type and type(s) of monsters preferred.

A simple random map generator or set of simple stock encounter maps.

 

[PieAndDragon]

Input for number of PCs and their levels.

Input for how much time you have to play. I've never seen this in any tools, but it would be nice to ballpark an answer to "how many encounters should I plan for this game session?"

An encounter generator, with input for terrain and climate type and type(s) of monsters preferred.

A simple random map generator or set of simple stock encounter maps.

The encounter generator at donjon might be what you are after. It has inputs for number and level of PCs, terrain type and encounter difficulty

 

[77IM]

All I want is mini-dungeons. Just some interesting multi-encounter locations that I can drop in to a campaign. I can improv reasons for the PCs to go there and have the encounters. But actually designing interesting encounters and locations (especially traps and puzzles!) on-the-fly is very difficult for me.

 

[ART!]

The encounter generator at donjon might be what you are after. It has inputs for number and level of PCs, terrain type and encounter difficulty

Thanks - I know most of the things I listed already exist out there in the wonderful webs, but I was just answering PieandDragon's question about what should be in a 5E Game Prep thingamagig.

 

[PieAndDragon]

All I want is mini-dungeons. Just some interesting multi-encounter locations that I can drop in to a campaign. I can improv reasons for the PCs to go there and have the encounters. But actually designing interesting encounters and locations (especially traps and puzzles!) on-the-fly is very difficult for me.

Are you after a list of traps and puzzles, monsters combined with traps or something a bit more elaborate and detailed?

 

[alienux]

All I want is mini-dungeons. Just some interesting multi-encounter locations that I can drop in to a campaign. I can improv reasons for the PCs to go there and have the encounters. But actually designing interesting encounters and locations (especially traps and puzzles!) on-the-fly is very difficult for me.

Are you familiar with the One Page Dungeon contest? I find that a lot of the entries (which they keep on the site for download) fit in exactly the way you described.

https://www.dungeoncontest.com/

 

[77IM]

Are you after a list of traps and puzzles, monsters combined with traps or something a bit more elaborate and detailed?

I guess I am looking for fully-specced-out adventure locations, with monsters, traps, treasure, and XP values, and 1-4 hours of play time.

Since this is a game-prep aid, I especially want things that I can "drop in" to an ongoing campaign without needing a lot of set-up or back-story.

Examples:

• Kobold lair. It's a half dozen dungeon rooms filled with kobolds, their traps, etc. It would be designed so that I can decide whether it's a portion of a larger dungeon or a stand-alone dungeon on the surface.
• Magic shop. It's got vaults in the basement where the "good stuff" is kept, with lots of traps and magical guardians. It would come with 3-4 short hooks that might explain why the PCs are raiding a magic shop.
• Border fort. It's full of "enemy" soldiers. Each encounter has three possible enemy groups: humans, hobgoblins, or orcs. The rooms themselves might vary slightly based on inhabitants (maybe the orcish barracks are messy, the hobgoblin barracks are neat but smelly, and the human barracks are well-kept).
• Hag's lair. The hag is willing to talk -- eager to talk -- so this would be more of an interaction or infiltration location.
• Dragon's lair, in several flavors.
• Prison. Might have several variants, like the border fort (above). Would have instructions for running the location as a place the PCs are trying to infiltrate, OR as a place the PCs are trying to escape.

I don't have a lot of time to spend on game prep. I tend to prep only the very big things, like the main campaign conflict and enemies and setting. Then I improve little things -- encounters, NPCs, treasures. I want a steady supply of these sorts of "medium-sized" things that are difficult to improv, but which I don't have time to prep.

I could also make good use of interesting encounters. I don't need stuff like "An orc shaman and 6 orc warriors," that's boring. Something like, "A wounded orc beseeches the PCs to save his tribe's shaman from a band of troglodytes holed up in an abandoned mine" (with map) is way more useful.

Are you familiar with the One Page Dungeon contest? I find that a lot of the entries (which they keep on the site for download) fit in exactly the way you described.

https://www.dungeoncontest.com/

I love that contest! I've used its entries in the past for this very purpose. However, many of the entries don't work very well as drop-ins (they're not ready to play, or they have a weird backstory, or, ironically, they have too much content), so it's a process of periodically sifting through. Still, a lot of super creative stuff there, and I love the one-page constraint.

I'm really looking forward to this thing: https://www.kickstarter.com/project...dungeon-tome-for-5th-edition-or-pathfinder-rp
I have high hopes that it will be the kind of resource I am looking for!

 

[Quickleaf]

If there was a single one-click generator to help out 5E DMs with game/session prep, what should it include?

This would most likely for a time when you have nothing/little prepared, have players who go off on random tangents or have an idea and just want to run with it....

Interesting question.

Thing is, there are already plenty of generators for names, NPCs (some of which can be used to make adventuring parties), encounters, treasure, weather, simple dungeons and inns/taverns (see Donjon), quests (Donjon), settlements (see DMMuse & Myth-weavers), villains (1-dot-encounter-planner), rumors (Inkwell Ideas & ENWorld), festivals (see Chaotic Shiny), even unusual locations (springhole.net).

Honestly, it's rare that I need to use many generators besides the ones on Donjon.

So my question is how is what you want to do different?

 

[PieAndDragon]

...
....So my question is how is what you want to do different?

Also a good question, and it may be that you're not the target if you already make heavy use of lots of different generator sites (do you ever use fantasynamegenerators.com?)

What I'm hoping will be useful is

• A generator that unites the most useful content in one place and with one click. It will provide enough to run a session with nothing prepared or provide enough to improv when players go on random tangents.
• Generators focused on content for 5E. I'd use O.G.R.E and reuse (or repurpose) several of the generators already available on the EN World
• Description-based summaries, giving content as a passage of text instead of a list of separate parts for an item. This Random Room generator shows best what I mean, where there is both the description and those bits split out into component parts.

I've just seen you're the author of Haunting of Calrow Ruins! Running that at the moment for my group on Roll20!