A great deal will depend on how well executed these systems are. However, they sound quite promising. If they're done right, they could be an immense help. DM prep is part creative inspiration (my dungeon is the ruined citadel of a group of renegade devils that were trying to redeem themselves and return to heaven!) and part tedious scut work (gotta prep a bunch of encounters, draw some maps, assign treasure, et cetera). The more scut work the system can take off my shoulders, the more fun and productive my prep time will be.
It sounds like what they're shooting for is a system that can rapidly generate a prefab dungeon for you, which you can then customize to fit your needs. I'm hoping they will also have different encounter tables for common themes. If my dungeon concept is a tomb crawling with undead, it would be nice to have a table where I can roll up a bunch of "undead tomb" encounters, instead of getting a lot of orcs and ogres that I then have to swap out by hand.
Though there is also potential for unexpected inspiration in the occasional "off-theme" roll. Going back to the renegade-devil dungeon, if I roll up a room with some demons in it, I might just swap them out. But I might also think, "Hey... I bet demons would be involved here. I mean, this project has the potential to cleave the infernal hierarchy right down the middle. If Hell is plunged into civil strife, it could mean demonic victory in the Blood War. Let's take this and run with it."
It sounds like what they're shooting for is a system that can rapidly generate a prefab dungeon for you, which you can then customize to fit your needs. I'm hoping they will also have different encounter tables for common themes. If my dungeon concept is a tomb crawling with undead, it would be nice to have a table where I can roll up a bunch of "undead tomb" encounters, instead of getting a lot of orcs and ogres that I then have to swap out by hand.
Though there is also potential for unexpected inspiration in the occasional "off-theme" roll. Going back to the renegade-devil dungeon, if I roll up a room with some demons in it, I might just swap them out. But I might also think, "Hey... I bet demons would be involved here. I mean, this project has the potential to cleave the infernal hierarchy right down the middle. If Hell is plunged into civil strife, it could mean demonic victory in the Blood War. Let's take this and run with it."
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