Another feature question?

[Psycho Dad]

Is there a feature that can create random dungeons and/or encounters? If not will there be this feature at some point?

I.E Would like the generator to randomly generate the dungeon or encounter based of the input it gets from the GM. Like if the player's plane shift into the plane of shadow's there encounters can be native to that plane etc etc.

[Magic Myra]

I've seen some functionality in the Tables section that allow you to export the results to the Encounters section, but I haven't done a lot of experimentation to see how or how well that works. If that works the way I think it would, that would let you handle the random encounter side of the equation. Similarly, you can export to Parcels for randomly generated Treasure that you can easily hand out to your players.

The randomly generated dungeons, on the other hand, I don't know if they have in the system, nor how you would set things up to do that. There are a lot of variables that you'd need to account for, including what tiles the GM has available, how the walls and doors match up between tiles, how you would mix and match tiles from various sets together, and what tiles has the GM manually created. It's a lot of planning and coding to get even a simple generator to work properly, and while it is a feature I could see them taking on down the road, I don't think it's one they've looked at quite yet (what with all the work that's going in to the Line of Sight and Dynamic Lighting updates up to this point).

[Psycho Dad]

Originally posted by MagiusDel:

I've seen some functionality in the Tables section that allow you to export the results to the Encounters section, but I haven't done a lot of experimentation to see how or how well that works. If that works the way I think it would, that would let you handle the random encounter side of the equation. Similarly, you can export to Parcels for randomly generated Treasure that you can easily hand out to your players.

The randomly generated dungeons, on the other hand, I don't know if they have in the system, nor how you would set things up to do that. There are a lot of variables that you'd need to account for, including what tiles the GM has available, how the walls and doors match up between tiles, how you would mix and match tiles from various sets together, and what tiles has the GM manually created. It's a lot of planning and coding to get even a simple generator to work properly, and while it is a feature I could see them taking on down the road, I don't think it's one they've looked at quite yet (what with all the work that's going in to the Line of Sight and Dynamic Lighting updates up to this point).

I feel ya. but so far the system looks like a gold mine. I have not been able to buy it just yet<waiting on some pay>. BUT i do and will be getting it at some point.

I see your point on the generator thing, but o man it would make this system sooo much more <no more prep work> free lol.

[Magic Myra]

Yeah, I get that. I'd love to see some system for handling that sort of thing - the problem is, I just don't see it as being particularly feasible in the short term (and, barring creating modules and extensions made specifically for it, likely not in the long term either). The biggest problem is, how does the system tell how to line the tiles up and connect the walls properly, especially when you account for GMs bringing their own maps and tiles into the system (a process that is otherwise very straightforward, assuming you're not trying to load LoS on them in the Assets window).

Outside of that... Yeah, this program is definitely a godsend for keeping things organized and streamlining running a game - especially if you're using a strong story or map-based campaign. The automation on most systems is really snazzy, and being able to quickly apply the appropriate effects for something like a well-placed Sleep spell can definitely save a lot of time while playing.

[Psycho Dad]

Yeah i hear ya. I think the biggest thing in my group are the rules. We play 3.5 and all books except ebboron are open. With that sad players are always challenging the systems rules. SO i am wondering how this system will be able to handle that. IMO 3.5 rules are so conflicting when you have so many books open its a challenge.

[Magic Myra]

It strikes a nice middle ground. It focuses on resolving the Attack/Save/Damage/Effects nicely, though players and GMs can easily go in and modify anything they need to in order to update the rules. You can set up automatic attacks for the most common actions that the players take or items they like to use all the time - or you can just us the dice roller to track what you're doing and apply any relevant effects manually. With an upcoming update, you'll also be able to add in effects for carrying different types of light or vision types (Darkvision, Lowlight Vision, etc), and the Line of Sight update allows you to enforce blocking players from moving through established walls and closed doors, windows, or similar effects if you want. You don't have to use all of this automation, and can pick and choose between which parts you want to use and which you don't - but it all comes together to create a system that you can easily use to fit your needs, and then gets out of the way to let you do the rest.

[nylanfs]

Have you guys seen this for the maps? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1024146278/dungeon-alchemisttm

[Kronovan]

My problem with this idea, is that I've never seen a dungeon map generator that actually created quality maps I'd want to put in front of my players. Any I've seen only created the old school blue ink on gridded paper dungeons, or dungeons that are almost entirely devoid of any features other than walls.

I'm reasonably skilled at using map making tools like Campaign Cartographer though, so I'm admittedly a bit picky about my maps. I can create a decent dungeon in about 1 hour with CC3 and export as a JPG to my FG images folder in less than a minute. So auto generated maps aren't a FGU feature I'd be looking for. Personal preferences aside, the new FGU painting and tile tools for maps are IME so weak, that I'd be surprised if it was possible to code a map auto-gen feature.

[Xector]

You can make random encounter tables and have it output the result into the encounter window. It doesn't do random dungeons. The closest thing would be to generate a random dungeon on https://donjon.bin.sh then drag the player map into FG while keeping the browser window open to read off.

I prep a lot of my dungeons ahead of time by generating one in donjon, importing the player map then creating a new story entry and copy & pasting the room descriptions into the story tab and adding pins to the map. I add things and modify some room descriptions and encounters to make it more interesting since a pure random dungeon can be a bit plain or incoherent.

The ability to import a donjon TSV directly into FG would be a cool feature.

[Primo]

Originally posted by Xector:

You can make random encounter tables and have it output the result into the encounter window. It doesn't do random dungeons. The closest thing would be to generate a random dungeon on https://donjon.bin.sh then drag the player map into FG while keeping the browser window open to read off.

I prep a lot of my dungeons ahead of time by generating one in donjon, importing the player map then creating a new story entry and copy & pasting the room descriptions into the story tab and adding pins to the map. I add things and modify some room descriptions and encounters to make it more interesting since a pure random dungeon can be a bit plain or incoherent.

The ability to import a donjon TSV directly into FG would be a cool feature.

adding on what Xector said - there is also One Page Dungeon by Watabous[watabou.itch.io] which generates random dungeons as well.

[Kronovan]

Originally posted by Xector:

You can make random encounter tables and have it output the result into the encounter window.

While I've always thought that was a potentially cool feature, it's never worked for me. It does auto create a blank encounter with a title that matches the name of the table, but the result of the roll is never posted to the encounter. Which IMO pretty much makes it a useless feature for tables. It does work for story pages, just not encounters.

Using a story isn't such a bad thing though, as you can drag & drop encounters and map images on a story page to create convenient, clickable links. The problem though, is that each table roll creates a new story page. IMO what would be more useful, is if you could have an open story page be a target/receptacle for a series of random rolls. That way you could have a random table for number of dungeon rooms, and other tables for say traps, significant room feature, number of NPCs, etc., with the result of each roll becoming line items on that story page.

Were that possible, I'd use it frequently to generate a random dungeon outline and then quickly bang out a map in Campaign Cartographer based on it. Then export it as a JPG or PNG to the FGU image folder and link it to the story page once it was imported.

[Magic Myra]

I'm just starting to tinker with this feature, but I think I have an understanding of how it works. I'm still not sure how to generate a random number of a particular creature without building a new set of Encounters or Tables specifically for that (doable, but the solution I have is definitely a lot more work than it should be). From what I've seen, there are two ways to do it:

1) You can link the result directly to the monsters associated with the roll. Each Column relates to a single NPC, and will add 1 of that creature to the table.
2) You can link each entry to a pre-defined Encounter with the creatures that you want in it. This is useful if you have groups of enemies that you want the players to potentially encounter, or if you have a pre-defined number of enemies that you want to include.

You can also link to other tables, which can then link to the above options, if you want something more complex. You can use this to kludge in multiple creatures, but it's not quite as simple as just having the system roll and add that number to the encounter (which SHOULD just be as simple as passing the Number of Creatures to the Encounter table alongside the creature type). At least, that's what I've found with my short time tinkering with this today.

[Kronovan]

Originally posted by MagiusDel:

I'm just starting to tinker with this feature, but I think I have an understanding of how it works. I'm still not sure how to generate a random number of a particular creature without building a new set of Encounters or Tables specifically for that (doable, but the solution I have is definitely a lot more work than it should be). From what I've seen, there are two ways to do it:

1) You can link the result directly to the monsters associated with the roll. Each Column relates to a single NPC, and will add 1 of that creature to the table.
2) You can link each entry to a pre-defined Encounter with the creatures that you want in it. This is useful if you have groups of enemies that you want the players to potentially encounter, or if you have a pre-defined number of enemies that you want to include.

You can also link to other tables, which can then link to the above options, if you want something more complex. You can use this to kludge in multiple creatures, but it's not quite as simple as just having the system roll and add that number to the encounter (which SHOULD just be as simple as passing the Number of Creatures to the Encounter table alongside the creature type). At least, that's what I've found with my short time tinkering with this today.

I was aware of the ability to create table rows that consisted of multiple columns with a different NPC in each. Which in and of itself is quite powerful if you have monsters &/or NPCs in your setting that have some kind of synergy when grouped together. I didn't know about linking an encounter in a table row, but I'm not surprised. Something I've also done is to link story objects to table rows, which contain NPCs, Parcels and possibly even items. Which can be quite useful when output to a new story.

Ultimately though, it always comes down to the fact that the table roll results always generate a new encounter, parcel or story, and don't allow for an exiting one to be appended to. Which for me, really limits how useful a tool it can be.