Under construction: ENworld's first random dungeon room generator

[GMMichael]

It's way overdue. So I'm doing it.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/dnd_view_block.php?id=1770

I have a lot of work left to do though, so I need your input, comments, advice, recommendations, and so forth.

The room contents are, indeed, capable of duplicating themselves, but I'm not seeing this as a bad thing. And I've seen some article-noun agreement issues. I'd like these pointed out as well.

Another thing I want to do is shift table rolls lower for "below" ground dungeons, and higher for "above" ground dungeons. I'm afraid this will require a "if (result) < 1, then variable = 1" sort of thing.

Happy playtesting,
Michael

 

[FreeXenon]

Some thoughts! =O

Looks interesting.

I would remove this text since it is repetitive and not useful - "The next dungeon room follows.", especially since you have the horizontal rule there separating things.

Perhaps a long term programmatic idea would be to break down the descriptions into sub themes or tags - above ground and below ground are a good start. How about further creating a 3 descriptive tag components for each descriptor - descriptor, building type, and room type, since each building type will have a different set of room types and sizes that are common and each descriptors or items will have certain things more in common than with others:

Descriptor:

• mad wizard
• holcaust
• earth
• water
• fire
• air
• priestly (general)
• military
• earth god
• war god
• druidic

Building Type:

• temple
• tower
• keep
• castle
• warehouse
• safehouse
• dungeon
• outpost

Room Type:

• Kitchen
• Cellar
• Dinning Room (large)
• Dinning Room (small)
• Foyer
• Living Room
• Guard room
• Armory
• dungeon (prison)
• bedroom (large)
• bedroom (small)
• bedroom (austere)

An example would be braziers and censures would be much more common in a mad wizard or earth god's building, or in something that was a temple.

A weapon rack may be common in a military or war gods building; or in an outpost, dungeon (prison) or tower; or in an armory or guard room than in other places.

Perhaps even an affinity could be set up, for each descriptor showing how hard you want the generator to stay within the descriptor's confines, or leak out into other types not a core part of its descriptors. An example would be a mad wizards dungeon might not even have a bedroom as a part of its final options, but with loosening on one of the components might allow for that.

Perhaps taking a look at the Dungeon Architect Cards might help with this.

You could also add in an environmental factor too:

Environmental type

• jungle
• arctic
• temperate

Geographic Feature

• moutain
• island
• underdark
• fey

Just a few thoughts. Good luck! =)

 

[GMMichael]

Great ideas, FreeXenon, but first thing's first!

I've made some changes, and found out this awesome tidbit about a particular room:

"You see a an empty room, a nothing. this room is empty, and a an empty room." Oops!

Plus, walls and floors seem to be functioning now.

 

[FreeXenon]

LOL! Yea, that is an empty problem! =)

 

[FreeXenon]

You may also want to get rid of "you see" in front of the stuff that is seen since it is also redundant, and the labels work well enough for that. =)

 

[FreeXenon]

I love this "This room is pitch black. For just a moment, you can see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing, taste nothing, and you're not even entirely sure who you are."

The is one dark room!!

 

[FreeXenon]

I know this is more work, but cathcing multiples of items: "You see a stone statue of an aristocrat, a podium, and a stone statue of an aristocrat."

 

[FreeXenon]

Here's another one: ""You see a stage, a stage, and a balcony." For fixed things like a stage you may not see more than one, although you definitely could. =)

 

[FreeXenon]

Perhaps also getting rid of the quotes would be good - redundant and will clean up the text a bit.

 

[GMMichael]

For fixed things like a stage you may not see more than one, although you definitely could. =)

You definitely could! The saving grace is the room size. As the room gets bigger, more contents show up. So I'm guessing that playroom you rolled up had a max dimension of 40 feet?

Some of the redundancy would be nice to avoid, but I lack both the programming skills and allotted time to make that happen. Keep the comments coming please!