About my SRD page and Tools

Table of contents
  1. My tools:
    1. Monsters Database
    2. Spells Database
    3. Staffs Database
    4. Rings Database
    5. Rods Database
    6. Traps Database
    7. Maze Generator
    8. Dungeon Generator
    9. City Generator
    10. Tavern Generator
    11. Treasure Generator
    12. Scroll and Spellbook Generators
    13. NPC/Character Generator
    14. Name Generator
    15. Store Generator
    16. XP level and Prerolled dice tables
    17. Feat List
    18. Cave Generator
    19. Region Generator
    20. Deckplan Generator
  2. Other stuff:
    1. Other people's tools
    2. Contact me
    3. Pending reading material

I thought of writing down something about these tools: how I started them, why I started them, and more importantly: what's missing and other people's similar tools.

Since this static page grew up too much I decided to start a blog to write down the ideas I come up with. In that same place, I intend to write down how I came up with things, samples, and whatever I come up with.

The first post contains the retelling of how I started this project.

Looking for other people tools? Don't like my tools? Check out this paragraph style on sections below or go to the section for Other people's tools

Monsters Database

The monsters database was my the first tool I created.

What's missing? A lot of things. But a probable first item on the list would be generating encounters. (and mixing it up with the character generator)

Other people's generators:

Spells Database

The spells database was my second quick hack. Like I said, I already had a database, so I only had to tweak it a bit to support Schools.

I reused much of this page for the Scroll and Spellbook generators; and then I used it for the Treasure Generator (to generate scrolls).

Not long ago, I realized that the database was a 3.0 version, so I started filling in the 3.5 version in a separate page.

Other people's generators:

Staffs Database

I did this staffs database just for kicks, basically. I was working on the Treasure generator and simply decided I would fill in all the information in a database.

Rings Database

I did this rings database on the same premise as the staffs database: Everything was already typed down, so I simply decided to fill it in a database.

Rods Database

I did this rods database on the same premise as the staffs database: Everything was already typed down, so I simply decided to fill it in a database.

Traps Database

The traps database was also already typed down, perhaps I can use it to fill descriptions for dungeon features.

Maze Generator

To create dungeons, I needed to create mazes. So this was an intermediate effort for a larger generator.

Dungeon Generator

I love maps. And quite honestly, I don't really run dungeons all that much; but then again, I love maps. And I love mazes.

Also, this helped me teach myself some graphic handling in PHP.

Not long ago, I added fixed seed values, and 2 extra map styles (because my graphic design skills are not very good and I stumbled upon Squidi's fine art)

More recently, I added an X3D version of the dungeons (still sort of experimental).

What's missing? More algorithms, cleanup the code. More decorations. Non-rectangular rooms.

Note: Treasures, monsters, and NPCs are generated randomly, so the information generated is pretty rough on the edges. Its supposed to be more of a guideline.
For use in your game consider the following options: changing or removing encounters, equiping NPCs, treasures listed belong to NPCs (i.e.: the treasure is not just lying around), removing treasure altogether, changing the alignment of NPCs, etc.

If you need something fancier, you should try these generators:

City Generator

Generating cities proved to be a challenge. I didn't like my first attempt ("Square" style), but my second attempt ("Block" style) looks much better. In this second version, I use pretty much the same algorithm I used to generate taverns.

The colors are still too chromatic, and the overall aesthetics need some work; but at least I have something better than my first attempt, which generates cities that are just too square.

What's missing? Figure out better ways to generate a city. Perhaps also use better textures or pick better colors. At this point, I'm probably ready to add city walls.

Some other stuff you might find useful:

Tavern Generator

Yet another experiment on graphic generation. At least this one I'm satisfied with. Not all taverns make sense (sometimes restrooms are bigger than kitchen and common area)

What's missing? Make the common room proportionately sized to the kitchen and restroom. Decorations: the only decoration right now are a bunch of tables and sometimes a counter (how about a fireplace? kitchen tables?)

Some other stuff you might find useful:

Treasure Generator

Probably the most incomplete of all my tools. Still, the treasure generator has a lot of information in it. It uses the generation method listed in the SRD documents.

It links to the spells database for scrolls, and to the staffs database whenever one is rolled. This tool, along with the character generator, is referenced by the dungeon generator (for the sake of placing something in the dungeon rooms).

What's missing? Maybe include itelligent and cursed items?

Also, there's one thing I've seen that many people need: the ablity to roll a treasure based on the cost of the treasure. For that, I'd needed to change the way I coded the items generator, and then I added a simple search form. So far only magic shields are pending (they are not accounted for), so the interface should still be considered beta.

Other people's stuff:

Scroll and Spellbook Generators

These are just sort of simplified UIs to the spells database.

The scroll generator has pretty much all thet it needs.

The spellbook generator is missing something: make a drop down that automatically fills in the number of spells per level according to the class (Work in progess, currently only spells per day for wizard).

NPC/Character Generator

This is one of my latest tools. I wanted to be able to generate NPC encounters easily. It comes in two versions: the standard generator generates a bunch of NPCs of the specified level, and the progression generator generates a single NPC and displays it at different levels.

So far it rolls attributes, race and racial traits, adds class levels, calculates saves and base attack, rolls skills and feats randomly, and generates a name (Drow, Elf, Orc, and male Dwarf only).

It may also suggest or equip an armor (based on a randomly-picked class level). So far the armor bonus is only added to AC (no spell failure, max DEX bonus, check for armor feat, update skill penalties, etc).

What's missing? There's a lot of room for improvement here. There's a partial implementation for skills, feats and armor; so the next logical step is suggesting weapons; and maybe some treasure. Then I'd finish armor properly (not just a suggestion). And then I'd make it choose ability increases, skills, and feats with some intent, instead of simply randomly.

Some other stuff you might find useful:

Name Generator

Ok, so my NPCs need a name.

I stumbled upon a couple of interesting pages on name generation:

So I gave a shot to the roll table option and some time later I tried the sillable method for Dwarf names. Currently female and male Drow names are generated (no house names, or last names). It still troubles me that Dwarf names all appear male to me. So for the time being, no female Dwarf names. Sorry!

What's missing? Pretty much everything. The drow names don't consider last names yet. And human/generic names should be sort of a priority.

Some other stuff you might find useful:

Store Generator

I wanted to be able to generate Stores.

Right now it's extremely basic and has no options. It generates a list of items that might be for sale in city shops.

I added some randomness: to see which items can be found for sale; and to vary the price a little bit.

What's missing? A lot. I'd like to be able to skew the results depending on town size. I'd also like to be able to take into account a charisma modifier into the equation (bargaining).

Other people's generators:

XP level, Prerolled dice, and EL vs CR tables

Ever try to run a game without dice? Well you could if you somehow printed a table.

Q: Do you know how many XPs do you need to get to level 35? A: 595000.

The XP table now includes the PC wealth by level calculation.

Want to calculate the EL for several creatures of a given CR?

Other people's generators:

Feat List

This is part of an effort to make my character generator include selected feats. Since I already imported them to PHP arrays, I decided to list them all somewhere.

Other people's generators:

Cave Generator

I've been stopped on my tracks several times because PHP-generated pages (or images) must take less than 30 seconds. Otherwise the page indicates a time-out.

This is particularly annoying for image generation (and one of the reasons I haven't done something fancier for my city generator). So I wanted to start on something simpler... and a Cave Generator sounds simple, right?

Wrong. (you saw that coming!)

A 300px by 400px image has 120,000 pixels! If you iterate through them 4 times... that's almost half a million pixels to analyze.

Still, donjon's generator does a good job in generating cavernous terrain.

At the moment I thought perhaps Perl is just faster than PHP, but I really couldn't tell.

So, that led me to my second and third attempts (the third attempt inspired by a blog named Evil Science). Each has its own merits, but I'm still not 100% sure it works.

Some time later, I learned that arrays in PHP, although very practical, are not too efficient. So I tried using SplFixedArray instead of normal arrays and my original cave attempt made quite some progress.

Other people's generators:

Region Generator

I started playing with the idea of generating hex maps. And the Region Generator came to be.

It's still very basic and I still need to figure a way to do a few efficient algorithms. In the meantime, it's sort of usable.

Other people's generators:

Deckplan Generator

Still very preliminary, this generator displays very basic spaceship deckplans.

At one point I realized I could reuse much of the code I've already done and create ship deckplans so I gave it a go.

It's still a very rough WIP, but I think it's good enough as a starting point or inspiration.

What's missing? A lot. This is very much an "alpha" version. Right now: Cockpit always faces left, engines are towards the rightmost room, textures are preliminary, and it's very easy to have a design that doesn't make much sense.

Subsector Generator

Another relatively new generator, this one generates subsectors for your sci-fi game.

What's missing? Very much. This is another "alpha" generator.

Other stuff

Other people's tools

The following table atempts to summarize all tools from other people (it's a work in progress, of course).

Category Link Images Comments
monsters D&D Monster Finder yes Search by name, type, size, CR, alignment, environment, home plane, or book. Links to images at WoTC.
monsters Monstrous Database no Very basic search options.
monsters Michael Sonntag's D&D 3ed Monsters database no MS Access app or MS Word document.
monsters D&Dtools yes Web page with monster listing.
monsters Donjon's Random Encounter Generator no Very complete, includes querying by Plane
monsters DM Tools Encounter Generator no Lots of filters by environment
monsters d20SRD: Monster DB no Filters by Size, Type, Climate, Terrain, Plane, CR, Alignment
monsters d20SRD: Encounter Generator no Filter by Climate, Terrain, Plane. Displays EL and XP.
monsters jsigvard: 5E monsters no Nice looking table with search options. Includes monster from many sources
monsters Goblinist: 5th Edition Random Encounter Generator no Specify: #players, difficulty, terrain, and options. Also calculates XP.
spells D&Dtools no Web page with spells listing.
spells d20SRD: Spell DB no Filter by Class, Level, School, Descriptor, Components, Range, Duration, Aiming, Save, SR
spells jsigvard: Spells no Includes spells from various sources.
dungeon donjon's dungeon generator yes One of the best out there.
dungeon Watabou's One Page Dungeon yes Beautiful, practical, organic.
dungeon Myth Weavers dungeon generator yes Nice. Generates content for rooms.
dungeon Gozzy's dungeon generator yes Good looks. Has option for generating ruins.
dungeon Inkwell dungeon generator yes Very popular. Made of pregenerated tiles.
dungeon d20SRD: dungeon map generator yes Apparently based on donjon's code.
cities Watabou's village generator yes Beautiful, practical, organic.
cities Watabou's Medieval Fantasy City Generator yes Beautiful, practical, organic.
cities Watabou's Neighbourhood Generator yes Beautiful, practical, organic.
cities A city description generator no Also has text descriptions for strongholds, countries, etc.
cities Chaotic Shiny city generator no Generates text descriptions.
cities Chaotic Shiny city "map" generator. no A city generator with a sort of text map.
cities Inkwell city generator yes Very popular. Made of layered images in HTML
cities Inkwell village generator yes Very popular. Made of layered images in HTML
cities Myth Weavers Town generator no Generates text descriptions for a town (including NPCs).
cities City Encounter Generator no Text description.
cities CrystalBallSoft City Generator no Text description.
cities Red Dragon Inn Town Generator no Text description (for towns).
cities Wizardawn settlement map generator yes Made of pregenerated tiles.
cities Procedural City Generation by tmw yes Very interesting L-system generator.
cities Great procedural City Generation by watabou yes Very good looking generator (voronoi?) that allows a lot of tweaking on generated maps and exporting (PNG, SVG).
tavern WoTC: Instant Tavern Generator no Generates name, NPC descriptions, menu...
tavern Chaotic Shiny Tavern generator no Generates name, overall descriptions and patrons...
tavern Inkwell Ideas Random Inn Generator yes Made of layered images in HTML.
tavern WoTC: Inn Generator no Generates name, NPC descriptions, menu, available rooms, conversation topics, events...
tavern d20SRD: Inn Generator no Generates name, location, escription, innkeeper, menu, patrons, rumors...
treasure WoTC's Wizard's Barrel, Crate, and Sack generator no Text descriptions for contents of barrels, crates, and sacks.
treasure Donjon no Very good. With well-thought options.
treasure Myth Weavers no Can generate treasures by EL of by number of items.
treasure Aaron Sherman no Generates treasures by CR.
treasure Pathfinder Treasure Generator no Very nice looking. Many options (such as color-coding results).
treasure Monster Advancer no Generate by value, number of items, or party level (Pathfinder style).
treasure Dingle's Games no Better looks than mine. Generate by CR.
treasure Wizardawn random treasure yes Based on ADND. Also has text-based treasure maps.
treasure d20SRD: Random Treasure Generator no Is able to generate several hoards of different level at once.
treasure herokuapp: Magic Store Generator no Generates stores that sell weapons, armors, wondrous items, scrolls, and potions.
treasure NPCbase: Magic item no Descriptions for unique magic items.
treasure jsigvard: Magic items no Searchable table with magic items.
npcs DND 3rd no An exhaustive step-by-step PC/NPC generator.
npcs Myth Weavers no Straightforward, rolls skills, gear value, spells known, and motivations.
npcs One Sentence NPC Generator no Text description.
npcs Seventh Sanctum's General Person Generator no Generates random person descriptions.
npcs Birched'S D&D 3.0 NPC generator (Hailscape) no Generates complete stats plus mounts, languages, etc.
npcs d20SRD: NPC generator no Generates simple stats plus descriptions. Also generates pickpocket loot and items.
npcs Donjon no Generates simple stats, descriptions, and character traits.
npcs NPCbase no Generates brief text descriptions and backstory.
npcs jsigvard no Generates a character foundation and backstory.
names Donjon no Many options for type of names.
names Dicelog Yafnag no Generic random names.
names Fantasy name gen no Names for many races and places.
names Rinkworks no Generic random names with many weighting options.
names Nine frenchboys no Generic random names with type options.
names WoTC no Also generates aliases and may suggest a class and/or race.
names Christopherpound no Large lists of names on different categories.
names Abulafia Random Generators no Randomized wiki.
names TheForge Fantasy Name Generator no Flash-based name generation. Generates names for: generic, creatures, spells, places.
names Isomage's Name Generator no Generates names for: Elite, Markovian, and random.
names Behind the Name no All sorts of names for real cultures, mythology, ancient, biblical, and fantasy.
names Sam Twidale's name generator no All kinds of names based on Markov chains.
names d20SRD: Fantasy Name Generator no All kinds of names from humans to draconic and from town name to festival names.
stores Inkwell ideas no By store size or custom number of items.
stores LCS localstore no Offline. Disappeared from the face of the web some time ago.
stores Donjon Magic Shop Generator no Select location and store type.
stores d20SRD: Magic Shop Generator no Supports different store types; reports misc shop details along with wares.
xp d20SRD: Encounter calculator no Many fields to calculate individual XP earned by party members.
dice d20SRD: Dice bag no Rolls dice.
feats jsigvard: Feats no Clean-looking 5E feats.
caves Gozzy's Cave generator yes Quite nice.
caves donjon's dungeon generator yes May generate cavernous dungeons (select layout).
caves Curufea cave generator yes Generates caves from premade tiles (not fully connected).
caves Isomage cave generator yes Caves that have a very real feel.
world Watabou's perilous shores yes Beautiful, practical, organic.
world Graphic hexmap world. yes Graphic hexmap world.
world Dave's Mapper yes Uses randomized hand-drawn tiles.
world Gozzy Wilderness yes Wilderness Map Generator (great graphics)
world Hexographer yes Generates regions, towns, and star-maps.
world Isomage's Wilderness hex maps yes Generates regions with several preset templates.
world Wizardawn world map generator yes Generates hex map made of image overlays
world d20SRD: Fantasy world generator yes Generates big hex maps
world azgaar: Fantasy map generator yes Beautiful map generator with many details (open sourced).
world HexTML yes Hex map editor with collaboration and presenter options.
general donjon's generators yes Many tools, very good.
general inkwellideas' generators yes City generators, very popular.
general Gozzy yes Has a few generators (dungeon, cave, wilderness)
general Dave's Mapper yes Randomized tiles. Hand-drawn styled maps (cities, dungeons, caverns)
general Isomage's Island generator no Randomized island generation for the Agon RPG.
general ANAmap (Anaximander RPG map editor) yes Tool for manual map drawing. Flash-based, allows PNG export and saving design file.
general Wizardawn post-apocaliptic maps and tools yes Generates Post-apocaliptic maps, Scavenging lists, Sewer maps, Suburb maps, and World maps
general d20SRD: Demographics calculator no Many settlement details.
drawing A map drawing editor for web and mobile yes Simple map editor with many object brushes. Can export and save online.
drawing The Tiled map editor for desktop yes Map editor with many features. Supports 2D, hex, isometric.

Contact me

Want to drop me a line? You can find me on twitter or use this page to contact me..

Pending reading material

I found this great page on Procedural Content Generation (PCG). Maybe after reading them I'll be able to make better generators. I also might try a cave generator with this algorithm, or a forest with this one. Or try a new BSP dungeon generator. I also found RogueBasin, a Wiki dedicated to roguelike games. It has many articles and tips for PCG. Also, there's this blog with many PCG articles.