D&D 5E Abstract Dungeoneering (random backstories)

[FormerlyHemlock]

I made a little tool that you can use to generate backstories for characters that start above first level: https://maxwilson.github.io/Beast/AbstractDungeoneering/

Source code is here: https://github.com/MaxWilson/Beast

Screenshot:



If your PC is killed, you roll up a new one. Might be nice to add character creation to it at some point but for now you have to do that on pen and paper per usual and then hit "Reset". Feel free to submit a pull request with new and different kinds of adventures--what's there is pretty basic.

This is just a tool, but it represents my preferred playstyle pretty well--you choose your own difficulty level, and if you survive the harder ones you level up rapidly. If you choose to grind goblins, you will be safe, but it will takes dozens and dozens of sessions and years of gametime to grow rich and powerful. (And the DM will probably cry with boredom, and then write you a CRPG tool so you can grind goblins in your spare time without him needing to be involved directly.)

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

For amusement's sake, I also added stat-rolling, just so you can feel the pain of having a character with really awesome stats die on his very first adventure, like this:

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

One last modification: each adventure you go on makes you older, so if you stick to the safe path you will get old and grey without ever reaching high level.

https://maxwilson.github.io/Beast/AbstractDungeoneering/

Screenshot:

 

[MNblockhead]

The Vampire did it. And did me in.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Added some more races and stat swapping via drag-and-drop. (Obviously it swaps the underlying stat rolls, not the post-racial-modifier stats.)

Right now I've got a half-orc Moon Druid named Friedrieka who just may be fun to play at the table, if someone else DMs:

Friedrieka, bookish, near-sighted Chaotic Good half-orc Moon Druid
Str 15 Dex 5 Con 8 Int 15 Wis 8 Cha 10 HP 23
You are level 5 and 19 years old, with 6500 XP and 1000 gold and Dragon wyrmling


Your adventures so far:


Raise a dragon hatchling from an egg


Repel small orcish invasion


Defend orphanage from zombie horde

Even though you can swap stats around, I'm finding that the temptation to place stats in the optimal position is less when the stat already has a position. With a 15/13/10/8/7/5 array, it probably never would have occurred to me to make a clumsy, sickly, nerdy half-orc. But if I already DO have a nerdy half-orc, and I see that she's got a dragon hatchling and saves orphans from zombies, well, Moon Druid could explain both why she likes animals and how she manages to survive the scrapes she gets herself into despite her physical inadequacy in her own body. The story kind of writes itself--and it would be a pity to swap Int at that point into a more "optimal" position.