Random Generation is Dead

Once upon a time, I was told emphatically that randomness is the bane of everything. Random results are useless. Crap shoot, roll of the dice chances are not for everyone but they are far from useless. Aren’t role playing games pretty much all based on a random chance?

I use them to spark my mental processes. I use them to fill in holes. I use them when I don’t have anything planned. I must not be alone.

A month ago, I started tracking page views on my generators. Each and every time someone clicks a Generate button it issues a log message. I don’t track who, what, or where anyone is from. I don’t care about that information. I just wanted to see how many times the pages are used.

Before the change, I didn’t track any element of the generators other than initial page view. Prior to the change, the overall site had just under 100 page views daily. Now that I actually track generation hits, the page view count averages slightly under 1000 page views a day.

If that equates to dead, I’m must be a member of the undead army. Maybe I can rise up and be an anointed knight.

Another Freebie for Labyrinth Lord

The lords and ladies of Knightvision Games have released a new Labyrinth Lord Module, Heroes of Heirandos. The release is targeted at character levels 1-2 and is available for free. The price is right; Knightvision Games is known for quality material. Why are you still reading this post?

Of course, it is now listed on the Labyrinth Lord Module List. Go forth and adventure.

D&D 1E Treasure Generator

I finally finished the minor elements of the treasure generator. The form and function follows the general approach used in all the other utilities on the sight. Strangely, I started the project shortly before the recent announcement of the re-release of first edition to support the Gary Gygax Memorial Fund.

The generation process includes treasure by type, any magic, maps, or specific treasure class. The reference tables for the process are from the Dungeon Master’s Guide and Unearthed Arcana. Magic and spell lists use the U.A. table information.

Typos, bugs, and easter eggs may be present. If you suspect an error or find a typographic error, please let me know.

Head Down, Mind in the Weeds

ROTWORLD scenario is finished. Okay, close to finished, may have to tweak a bit more. Labyrinth Lord session is nearly there. That’s all I’m going to prep for VisionCon. I’m going to play more than I run but figured it would be useful to have some things ready to roll should the opportunity strike .

While I was in that process, I did a massive amount of code for some new generators. Neither of them are done. I went tangential on both generators. Tangents add interesting bits but defeat a completion target. Tangents win. My personal efforts have no deadlines.

It is 2012. I’m going to game more and code less.

Three weeks to go.

Remember the ‘Anything’ Items?

Ah, Unearthed Arcana, a bit of a mid-edition book. After the announcement that WoTC was reprinting the 1E books, I started flipping through the originals to see what I’d forgotten. Certainly, 1E UA isn’t going to be a part of the reprint from what I’ve seen.

Did anyone ever use any of the Anything Items — Anything Ring, Anything Miscellaneous Magic Item, Anything Armor, and Anything Sword? I cannot recall ever giving them out.

Skipping them was likely intentional. When you have players who know the list of items as well or better than you do, the anything rules allow an easy escape mechanism with a bit of thought.

I will not bash on the idea although I still find it strange. The items are reasonably constrained. The concept of characters (not players) having complete knowledge of the list of magic items is foreign to me. I suspect that’s why I never engaged the Anything item.

Labyrinth Lord – Referee Screen

Yesterday I received my signed copy of the recently released Labyrinth Lord Referee Screen from the Kickstarter project. Unfortunately, the post man decided it needed a curl. No real damage was inflected. The curve will flatten out in time.

I’m impressed with the quality of the screen. The finish is as good and likely better than any other screen I’ve owned. All the pertinent tables are present for easy reference. I’m looking forward to giving it a maiden run.

Crafting Zombies: Fluff vs. Crunch

Game prep always leads to thoughts on random generation. Up to bat are zombies. More specifically, I’m pondering zombies for ROTWORLD. I have already hand-crafted a dozen that will be featured in the game. Still, I’m going to need filler at some point.

My needs are more fluff than crunch. Good information on a random set of the folks behind the scenes so I can expound when needed and just cross them off the list as they’ve been terminated.

The bare bones process I’ve worked up includes sex, general age range, ethnicity, hair color, hair style, wound locations, wound severity/descriptions, and clothing style. Not all of the elements are well defined yet. Wound descriptions and clothing are still in progress.

I may add information regarding the rigor stages for the newly undead along with decomposition states as defined within ROTWORLD. Even those are mostly fluff. Usable information with little impact to game mechanics.

For the crunchier bits, I could add occasional occurrences of differing ability scores, movement, and specialized attacks. Doing so is trivial but all zombie worlds vary so I am leaning against it. The same goes for different intelligence levels and talents.

Do you need zombies? If you do, would you like options to enable the crunchier bits of the ROTWORLD system? Are there descriptive elements I have missed?