Over the last month, I’ve been cranking out utility software for role playing games. The bulk of them covered either Labyrinth Lord or modern elements. Randomly generated information is central to RPG’s. Like many, most of the time I’d rather make the selection via dice. At times, picking up dice and making a series of rolls is not convenient or you may just need a lot of rolls. They are useful in certain situations but not others. Writing them is rewarding in many ways. .
When to Use
Although many purists would never utilize a coded system, there are situations where they can useful. My top two reasons are speed and inspiration.
Speed
Speed is simply explained. If you need a 100 different results and have 10 minutes to do it, a utility is going to get you the information. Rolling dice and writing up the results by hand is significantly slower. Copy and pasting the information or even a quick download is far faster. If you trust the random number generation used, the results are similar. If you can cut prep time and spend more time gaming, the benefit is a win-win for the players and game master. I’ve never met a gamer who would prepare materials over actually playing. Bulk results are far faster from a coded system.
Inspiration
Everyone hits a wall at times. Randomly generated information can provide a spark to get creativity flowing. Perhaps you want a specific bit of information to spark a group goal but cannot quite come up with what it should be. It may be a friend, foe, or magic item. Rather than racking your brain after it has failed you, hit a generator that focuses on that portion of the information. Maybe 1 of the hundreds of results they can produce in seconds will get you over the hump. Although its far less interactive than asking people, at 3 a.m. on a Tuesday, the generator won’t mind you calling.
When Not to Use
Specificity
If you already know the results you want, you shouldn’t be looking for them within a random utility. For example, if you want a small 7 room dungeon that features a water crossing and a shrine to a long dead god, you are unlikely to find it in a random series of results. You may find a few elements for inspiration but you already know what you want. Design what you know and use the random utilities for the rest if you need more inspiration.
Balance
I’m not a big fan of overall balance in a system or a group. However, everyone and everything needs the spotlight at some point. Perhaps you’ve given everyone but one character a useful magic item and you want to place one in the current dungeon. Random results will not help. You know the character and the goal, its specific, so just pick it and place it appropriately.
Why Produce Generators
A few people have asked me why I write utilities. There are number of reasons. Djeryv offered this opinion on the Goblinoid Games forums, which is accurate within limits.
When people make tools like this…to help in their “own” gaming…they can’t lose. Sharing it with others is just a selfless gift on top of that. It is really cool when we make these tools/generators because they help with putting a game together so much quicker than the hours we spent in the 80′s. The main excuse of why people stop gaming is “no time”. These tools diminish that problem. Also, any printed generator also lets us keep the laptops away from the gaming tables.
However, I’ve got ulterior motives.
Permanence
If a game system is in use, the utility software can be useful forever. Essentially, they are traffic generators. If I was aiming toward monetizing this site (I’m not), every utility I write generates repeat traffic back to the site. Once written, debugged and present, utilities are a constant source of traffic. If they suck or don’t fill a need, they are as pointless as most of the random posts I write. Out of the dozen generators I’ve written in the last 20 years, only the system specific ones continue to result in repeated visitors. Still, those repeat visitors might find a new one useful.
Fun
Yep, I write them for the challenge of writing them. Not because they are difficult. Rather, I get to explore technologies I don’t interact with daily. In the last decade, I’ve never been asked to write a web application. Writing a generator forces me to embrace new technologies I wouldn’t normally use. Learning and using AJAX was cool. I’ve probably over used it but none the less I had fun figuring it out and the result were useful to gamers in general
Learning something new plus producing products useful to others is a lot of fun. I’ve stumbled more than once. The Treasure Book generator is chuck full of inefficient programming. I’ve indented to fix it but the number of people using it raises the priority.
In a strange sense, I’m providing a service to others while having fun doing it. Very similar to running a game for other players. I burn some energy doing the prep work and then they reap the benefits. I have fun. The consumers have fun. I’ll call it a win-win.
