Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

http://www.basicfantasy.org/dungeoneer.html

I have been playing around with map generators, following up with some random stuff from this dungeon generator. It is the only generator that I know of which produces BFRPG specific stuff... but it sure would be nice if it had a few more options to fine tune results. Perhaps something as simple as a set of themes to apply such as Vermin, Undead, Evil Temple, Fairy Realm, Good, Evil, Animals, Orc Lair, Goblin Lair, etc. It would take adding one or more types of data to each monster entry in your database.

Perhaps a couple of options for a random difficulty modifier (such as one or more rooms have a slightly tougher critter than normal), or to increase or decrease numbers of creatures found. Similarly, perhaps a Loot Modifier (low, medium, high), perhaps simply tied to the difficulty tag as well.

Just thoughts as I try a few random encounters for my kid's game. The completely random element makes things that are a tad too funky.

Further thoughts... thinking in terms of Humanoids and Lairs, perhaps a couple of simple lair generators might be made in conjunction with the basic dungeon generator... creating a series of 'rooms' where the lair inhabitants are divided up and enhanced with a few random (but related) elements. For instance, the first couple of 'rooms or encounters' are guard rooms, then a common room (bulk of inhabitants), a couple of miscellaneous rooms that might have traps, storage (gear), random monster, etc. followed up with a Chieftain or leader room (also where the bulk of treasure is located).

I am not a database/programmer sort, so exactly how to get your randomizer to spit things out in such a way is unknown to me. In a nutshell, having the encounters be 'not quite so random' or being able to fill a set of rooms in a themed or related manner would be awesome.

For an alternate example, I saw this dungeon creator where there is a 'motiff' data element, but it utilizes d20 monsters. http://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/

The script you are talking about is written in Python, which is about as easy to read as you can make a computer language; further, my coding style is, well, retro-Python, which in my opinion is easier to read than the more modern style. Two things would need to be done to meet your requirements:

1. Monsters would have to have a set of categories applied to each (i.e. undead, insect, etc.), and
2. The program would have to allow the user to choose which categories to select from.

Parallel to this, it would probably be a good idea to make a couple of other changes:

3. Add monsters which do not appear on the random encounters list, and
4. Include full lairs as well as encounter groups.

Of course, I'd need that most precious of commodities, time.

As mentioned viewtopic.php?f=2&t=357&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=10#p7870 I am working slowly on adding some more detail to the BFRPG monsters (just in my database) to make it easier for me to theme my random encounter tables and generate some lists based on these additional details.