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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
How I prepare for my tabletop RPG sessions has changed a lot over the last 12 years, and open source software has been a big part of those changes. It's now a vital part of every step in the process, from collecting and sketching out ideas, to dungeon map creation, to map keying, right through to the tools used during play.
When I first started gaming, around 1980, the idea of open source was just beginning to form. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D, 1st edition) was still very new and our tools were just paper and pencil. I didn't get to play very much back then because my closest friend lived several miles away.
I got back to it in 2005 when a coworker invited me to play in his game. Four years later he couldn't continue as the DM because Life Got Busy™ so I took over as DM.
Initially, I went back to the old pencil and paper tools, just like back in 1980, to prepare for gaming sessions. Quickly, though, my work as a sysadmin and open source user changed how I prepare and run my campaign, the series of play sessions run by a DM that create the world and the challenges the other player characters (PCs) confront in AD&D or the Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea.
Guy had a few ideas I hadn't thought of yet. You lot care to add any of the tools you use to the list?
Source: OpenSource.com
(Score: 2) by darnkitten on Thursday June 22 2017, @11:14PM (2 children)
Does anyone know anyplace online that has automated the 1st Ed. dungeon and wilderness generators?
I've found several other generators, but they don't seem to have the same feel--more later edition-y, maybe...
That being said--one of the first programs I remember writing on the old TRS-80 that was my high school's only computer was a 1st ed., 4d6-drop-the-low, stats-in-order, character generator with rudimentary class-picker, that printed out to the green-and-white-striped continuous feed paper in the lab--I don't remember if I actually used any of the characters, but certainly I had fun making 'em....
(Score: 1) by ShadowSystems on Friday June 23 2017, @01:38AM (1 child)
Not necessarily for wilderness, but can be adapted to generate such terrain.
Grab a stack of plain white posterboard, the kind normally provided to preschool kids for craft projects.
Draw a rectangle 1 inch in from the sides top & bottom, so there's a 1 inch border all the way around.
Draw the 1x1 inch grid across the entire interior, plus along the left & bottom edges.
This becomes your Blank Graph Paper.
Make as many of these as possible.
Grab a Blank & doodle trees, rocks, puddles, grass, cow poop, fences, dirt trails, & anything else you can think of to add to a jigsaw puzzle sized piece of a larger nature scene.
Put a row of letters down the left edge & a column of numbers along the bottom, thus creating an alphanumeric coordinate system for later use.
Turn the paper over & call it "Map Bit 0001."
Do this a thousand more times, each time putting in different elements (ponds, puddles, gnarled trees, a rock shaped like a fish, etc) so each map is a different jigsaw puzzle piece to the larger complete scene.
Now that you have a stack of nature scene, you can shuffle the stack & draw them at random, placing them on the table one after the other as the party moves from one map to another.
If there's a dirt trail in the one they're on but not the next map, draw new maps until you find one with a bit of trail on it.
Turn the new map so the two trails match sides (even if not accurately), & tell the players that the break is due to natural erosion or something equally plausible.
As you progress in the game you can keep a running log of the maps they encounter & in which order, so back tracking is easy enough to recreate.
Record that they were on Map#X & were headed $Direction when they left it, to move on to Map#Y next.
You just check your notes, see that they started on 7, moved to 57, 81, & 115 in turn; if they're going back then they encounter those same bits in reverse.
Each map doesn't include any monsters, that's done by random every time they encounter that map.
You can use a Random Monster By CR table to determine if they find one, what they find, & if they need to run away screaming.
=-)p
With a stack of 100 such maps you can create giant "mega maps" that were essentially randomly generated AS they were being played.
It is VERY unlikely that you will EVER create the same mega map twice by accident.
This same tactic can be used to create dungeons as well.
Each individual map is just a hall, part of a room, a set of stairs, a ladder, a trap, or some other element they might find in a dungeon.
Record that they went from Map#x "up the ladder" to Map#Y, & continue adventuring from there.
If the map you draw can't work with the map they came from, keep drawing until you find one that does.
Rotate it to fit & call any edge discrepencies as "tunnel shift".
The monsters come from the table so the maps remain free of critters, concentrating on the objects/walls/floors/ceilings/etc instead.
Same thing goes for cities, hamlets, metropoli, towns, villages, etc.
Make individual map bits for lengths of street (one way, one lane, two lane, narrow alley, broad thoroughfare, etc), buildings (small hovels to massive structures), homes & stores & everything else you might find in a locus of population.
If you want a "little cow town" & draw a map for a Grand University for example, put the GU back & keep drawing until you find something relevant.
You can create as large or small, as tightly knit or as loosely woven communities as you like, just remember to record each map as they encounter it so they can retrace their steps.
Basicly any terrain you can think of, map it.
You can then create truely epic maps of where they've been, all without ever having to draw a "World Map" to start from.
DM's like to call this method "Pulling it outta my ass" & it can be rather fun for everyone.
Don't ask the DM for what they're about to run into WRT the map, the DM doesn't know & simply flings monsters, treasures, & plot points at you to keep you jumping.
=-D
If you WANT to draw a World Map & have a bit more structure, then label each individual map as "$TerrainType Map ####."
Then when you want to run them through a forested region, grab just the Forest Maps; or just the City Maps; or just the Dungeon Maps.
Whatever matches the environment you want them to encounter, you narrow the subset of maps to draw upon to only the desired terrain.
I suggest keeping a binder folder with each subset in it's own subsection.
I put mine in plastic binder paper protectors & just left them in the binder.
I'd roll for which map to get, flip through the binder to find it, & show the results to the party.
Roll?
Yes, because once you have all the maps drawn & numbered, a simple D% roll can be used to make it even more random.
If you've got 100 individual maps then 1d100 will generate the next map.
If you have 1,000 then 1d10 * 1d% gets you your next map.
If you have some low number like 44, divide it into d10's so you can roll #d10 & then 1d10 again to get to the rough section (like 30) & then the specific (like 4) to find map 34.
The only limit is your own imagination & willingness to draw maps.
If you get tired of doing it then "sub contract" out to a bunch of others.
Explain the jigsaw pieces concept, that they're not to draw in animals, & let them go for broke.
You'll have to go over each one to make sure it works for you & give it the map number, but YOU won't have to draw anymore.
=-)p
(Score: 2) by darnkitten on Friday June 23 2017, @03:39AM
Cool--I'm gonna have to play with this a bit. Thanks!