This is mostly a curiosity - has anyone played with maps which are randomly generated as the players explore? I am currently pondering a system which will, I hope, make for some really cool procedurally generated dungeons (analogue, not digital - its going to be cards!) for players to explore and get lost in. I'm wondering what peoples experiences with this sort of thing are - does it work well, or does it tend to leave you scrambling for ideas as the next room is revealed?
My current plan, to avoid making the dungeon disappear off the table (as often happens for me in games like Shadows of Brimstone, where our 6ft by 3ft table wasn't-friggin'-big-enough!) is to have the cards dictate what type of card goes next to it. The type of card will only be defined by the number and direction of the exits, so it will ultimately create a side-scrolling game without risk of dead ends or corridors going for miles in random directions, and without risk of the players learning "that next one is a blue card, that's a corridor".
Do you think that such a system would have legs? I know that the side-scrolling dungeons are quite popular, but risk being repetitive. do you like randomly generated maps, or do you prefer pre-planning it?
I guess I would ask what the point of the randomly generated dungeon is? If you are just doing a dungeon crawl and what's in the next room doesn't really matter narratively or from a "dungeon logic" perspective, then I would suggest one of those engines that generates both the dungeon and its contents (donjon does this, I think, but don't quote me on that... it's been a while).
I tend to prefer every room in a dungeon to have a logical purpose or its occupants to have a reason why they are there, so to me the map itself is not the hard part -- that part is easy and I can do that in my sleep. It's stocking the rooms that takes time, and unless the random dungeon maker is going to do that, just having a map is, well, meh.
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Sounds like Advanced Heroquest. In fact, there's an update to AHQ that uses card draws instead of lookup tables.
If I were to use the idea for D&D (and I'm not sure I would), I'd want to set a theme for creatures and treasure, and be able to insert some prebuilt rooms of my own. Something like every 2-4 rooms, insert my prebuilt rooms in this order, culminating in BBEG's chamber. It could be a nice bridge between pre-built and 100% homebrew dungeons.
I think most DMs want things to have an overarching purpose and theme. Reaching for a 100% random dungeon seems like an act of pure desperation because you failed to do any prep and your players are at the table and ready to go.
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This is mostly a curiosity - has anyone played with maps which are randomly generated as the players explore? I am currently pondering a system which will, I hope, make for some really cool procedurally generated dungeons (analogue, not digital - its going to be cards!) for players to explore and get lost in. I'm wondering what peoples experiences with this sort of thing are - does it work well, or does it tend to leave you scrambling for ideas as the next room is revealed?
My current plan, to avoid making the dungeon disappear off the table (as often happens for me in games like Shadows of Brimstone, where our 6ft by 3ft table wasn't-friggin'-big-enough!) is to have the cards dictate what type of card goes next to it. The type of card will only be defined by the number and direction of the exits, so it will ultimately create a side-scrolling game without risk of dead ends or corridors going for miles in random directions, and without risk of the players learning "that next one is a blue card, that's a corridor".
Do you think that such a system would have legs? I know that the side-scrolling dungeons are quite popular, but risk being repetitive. do you like randomly generated maps, or do you prefer pre-planning it?
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I guess I would ask what the point of the randomly generated dungeon is? If you are just doing a dungeon crawl and what's in the next room doesn't really matter narratively or from a "dungeon logic" perspective, then I would suggest one of those engines that generates both the dungeon and its contents (donjon does this, I think, but don't quote me on that... it's been a while).
I tend to prefer every room in a dungeon to have a logical purpose or its occupants to have a reason why they are there, so to me the map itself is not the hard part -- that part is easy and I can do that in my sleep. It's stocking the rooms that takes time, and unless the random dungeon maker is going to do that, just having a map is, well, meh.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Sounds like Advanced Heroquest. In fact, there's an update to AHQ that uses card draws instead of lookup tables.
If I were to use the idea for D&D (and I'm not sure I would), I'd want to set a theme for creatures and treasure, and be able to insert some prebuilt rooms of my own. Something like every 2-4 rooms, insert my prebuilt rooms in this order, culminating in BBEG's chamber. It could be a nice bridge between pre-built and 100% homebrew dungeons.
I think most DMs want things to have an overarching purpose and theme. Reaching for a 100% random dungeon seems like an act of pure desperation because you failed to do any prep and your players are at the table and ready to go.