OGRE Dungeon: Recruiting and work thread

[GMMichael]

"...and the steel guardian falls. The last bit of unstirred dust in the room clouds up above it, and your ears ring from the returning silence. What do you do?"

"I check the treasure chest for traps!"

"Hold, Stickypalms. We're racing against time, remember? GM, I lead the party dungeon-north, through the collapsed section of wall ahead."

::GM clicks "Next Room" on the O.G.R.E. Random Dungeon Generator::

--

This seems to me the very reason that OGRE was invented - whether Morrus knew it or not.

However, doing it right will take a significant amount of work. Any volunteers?

If you're not helping, maybe you know of some generators or tables that are already in OGRE that would be useful?

 

[GMMichael]

Here's my basic idea: version 1 of the random dungeon generator creates a complex that is a generic "dungeon." Which is to say, underground, tile/brick, and dangerous. Much like anything made by the ancient Nords of Skyrim.

Before a GM clicks "Next room," he can tailor a handful of things: encounter difficulty (based on PC abilities), room size (based on where the room needs to fit in the map) - the main ones. Then, everything is random:

- Room size
- Room shape
- Room lighting
- Room contents/obstacles
- Enemies/friends present
- Treasure
- Number/type of exits
- Traps
- Clues (to a puzzle encounter)

Each "random" decision will actually be based on a die roll and bell curve - so while "shadowy" might be the default lighting, there's the possibility that dark, bright, and dim rooms are present as well (but not as likely).

The random dungeon will still require a handful of GM pregens, because it cannot (yet?) account for different systems, house rules, genres, and power levels. So each random dungeon will probably require 5-7 pregenerated NPC/monsters, and 5-7 traps as well. I'm hoping that treasure is generic enough to not require system-specific rules.

I'll be including the dungeon-dressing tables from a DMG, some awesome ideas from Dungeonscape, and some encounter and random-dungeon ideas from Miniatures Handbook.

Tip of the iceberg, my friends. Any other ideas so far?