I've recently discovered Wizardawn, thanks in large part to the B/X Misadventures in Randomly Generated Dungeons thread on rpg.net. (Despite its flaws, it's still possible to find jewels on that site.) I urge you to go and read the thread in question, and take a look at Wizardawn - it may be the greatest RPG-related website in the world. Possibly the universe.
I think this means we are now at the stage where it is possible to run D&D as a roguelike. Computer technology is sufficiently advanced that a near-infinite number of randomly generated dungeons can be created, each at the click of a mouse button. The features of *band roguelike play - permanent death, a respawning dungeon that is generated from scratch each time it's entered, and unfeasible, unfair and jumbled-up elements - are replicable, and extremely easily so.
It gives me the urge to do what I've been wanting to do for a while, which is run a BECMI out-of-the-box game set in the Known World. A town in Karameikos or Ylaraum or wherever, with a mysterious and legendary pit on its outskirts which people say leads to the Abyss and which is never, ever the same way twice. Adventurers enter and usually never come back, but on the rare occasions they do they sometimes come back with gold, platinum, silver, precious jewels, or magic items. There is enough of this to allow the town to exist despite lack of other resources in the area, and the fame of this pit spreads - not enough for everyone to know, but enough to attract a steady stream of foolhardy risk-takers who have nothing else to lose. Vagabonds, runaways, thrill seekers and criminals, people with low self-worth or no responsibilities who are willing to brave the dangers of the underworld in an attempt to get rich or die trying. "Do YOU dare to enter the Abyss????" etc. A back-to-basics campaign with an approach that only modern technology permits.
This approach is terrifically fun when done with computers, not so much in-person. I have Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup to scratch this itch.
ReplyDeleteThe rpg net thread is awesome. OP comes on saying "we're doing B/X by the book, and its great and hilarious and here are some stories!" Then gets dogpiled by a bunch of rules nerds trying to explain how he can fix that. ROFL.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't stop right the way through the thread. Nerds love telling other people how they could do things better.
DeleteThis is great:
ReplyDelete"They search the room, and someone triggers a trap. Stone walls seal the two exits and sand starts pouring in from above.
"We should have brought a thief!" Elrand cries!
"Look what I found." Sir Sickly has opened an iron coffer and found a pile of coins and some gems.
"Lot of good that will do us when we're buried alive," says Green Sonja. Sand is up to ankles now. Everyone gathers around the sealed door and tries to pry open the stone wall, but they are unable. They try again at the second door, sand is getting higher...
They are unable to open the second door either.
"I guess this is it," says Larry Potter, "Mary, even though you are my sister, I've always been attracted to you."
"Gross!" Says Mary.
"Do not say such things right before facing your judgement," says Joel Olstein. Mary Potter, being compassionate to a fault, casts sleep on herself and her companions, and as they sleep, the sand keeps pouring in.
Team Awesome is slain."
I know, some of it is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, which is really rare for a rpg.net thread.
DeleteI am not a fan of computer generated random dungeons. I prefer deeper meaning, where players can actually engage in good decision making. That requires a lot of world building, before the players can be released in the sandbox. In that setting, dungeon adventures have the toxic effect of the trench warfare. This goes both ways - In WWI, raiding enemy trenches at night was treated like adventuring in D&D, and was even called that, raiding patrols of volunteers being called "adventuring parties", and in D&D, a good sized dungeon is like a black hole that will keep your group occupied for months and will keep them players from moving along in the campaign (and I absolutely do not railroad).
ReplyDeleteI like the ability of the computer to generate totally random worlds. When people try to do it, we are always biased in some way. There is always some subconscious influence that hinders the randomness but computers can throw all new environments at us and we don't know what to expect!
ReplyDeleteI like the sound of your randomly generated Abyss!
Wizardawn's generators are awesome fun to play with. You can get some crazy results so I usually rearrange or remove room descriptions/encounters that don't make sense but sometimes the random can result in some happy accidents. For example, I was using the crashed spaceship generator and one 10 by 10 room was stocked with 6 monoclonius. One of these dinosaurs wouldn't fit in a room that size much less a locked room inside a spaceship. I decided the ship's dimensional warp drive was malfunctioning (part of the reason it crashed) & opening up random portals. It was merely a coincidence that a portal opened up in the room and a herd of dinosaurs came running out just as the door to the room was opened. The dinosaurs would trample the adventurers and run down the hall.
ReplyDeleteI do a couple runs with maps and then use to tools to generate encounters without maps for the same number of rooms and mix and match what I want.
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