So on Reddit I'm doing 31 Days of Gens for August bringing in links from the last 3 years of blogging on Rand Roll.
I thought I'd also collate them into a post here on Rand Roll
Day 1 - Fantasy Calendar
Starting with Fantasy Calendar, useful for fantasy campaigns and those set on Earth.
It has preset calendars for Eberron, Ravenloft, Critical Role, Golarion, Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms and Middle Earth. You can also create your own for a homebrew world or ancient calendar whose lore is lost.
The random parts come in weather predictions (temperature, wind precipitation, clouds) for each day which can be heavily customised.
There is a Fantasy Calendar Generator at donjon and a Calendar Creator at Roll for Fantasy (with chance of natural disasters)
Day 2 - Dungeon Mapping Tools
DunGen is a Dungeon Generator with filters for size, theme and resolution. And includes the option of Dynamic Lighting for Patrons.
One Page Dungeon from watabou produces a small map with a few notes about the rooms
Donjon has a Random Dungeon Generator with many filters to play around with and versions for various editions of D&D. One of the filters give a list of details for each room
Gozzy's Random Dungeon Map Creator produces pretty maps and has a good number of filters. There are also Cave and Wilderness map tools there
Myth Weavers has a Dungeon Generator with filters available for Secret Doors and Dead Ends. There is also a list of what's in the rooms
And for something different Dave's Mapper has a tile-set based dungeon gen tool that lets you choose different tile sets to mix. Sections of the map can be selected to replace, rotate or generate a new map based on that tile.
Day 3 - Ancient Quests - Generators Site
Ancient Quests has lots of rpg generators for places, stories, and items.
What's unique about Ancient Quests is the generators are all on one page. All results are generated in a single text window. It's great for gathering some ideas for a game session or adventure.
My favourite generators are the Door and Unsolved Mysteries
"Many people report dreams of being abducted and experimented upon by bizarre squat beings, in a strange metal chamber, and an entire week seems to have passed overnight. A local wizard will pay highly for accurate investigation of these occurrences..."
Day 4 - DM Heroes - Editable Fantasy Portraits
While DM Heroes is a character generator, it's main strength is the portrait which is randomised, but can also be manually edited. Or downloaded as a .png image
Choose different eyebrows, scarves, jaws, noses and accessories. It covers the 9 races from the D&D 5e Player's handbook.
A version of this which could do aliens or animal-folk would be amazing!
Day 5 - Cyperpunk Random Tools and Tables
Cyberpunk is the genre I get most requests for generator recommendations.
Starting with characters, nicknames are common and there will be npcs to meet, fight, help and betray. Plus love interests to complicate lives.
For problems to solve there's a cyberpunk jobs board, mega corporations to investigate and specific corporate problems.
Looking into the world there is weird fusion food to try and specific fashions in the streets. There are futuristic drugs to find, buy and steal. Maybe a character wants a new arm attached at a dodgy chop shop.
Then there is Augmented Reality, a Pay What You Want 47-page pdf of cyberpunk random tables.
For weird ideas try Cyberpunk Story Icons (one of mine)
These and far more generators come from the Cyberpunk Generators Guide at Rand Roll.
Day 6 - DND Speak, Generator Site
DnD Speak has many d100 random tables, some of which have been combined into Generators such as the Random Potion.
The tables are from the d100 subreddit , where d100 lists are crowd-sourced. There are many more random tables in its archives.
Despite the name it's not restricted to D&D and has all flavours of fantasy in the descriptions.
DnD speak is also available in other formats including pdfs, instagram and on patreon
Picking out a couple favourite lists I've got 100 Mushrooms and Their Effects, and 100 Gnomish Inventions
Day 7 - Open Source Generators
Several Gens are open source, which means you can help out or make your own version These include
- Eigengrau's Generator
- Azgaar's Mapper
- Paco's Miselaneous Stuff (WFRP Generators)
- Starfinder Tools
- NPC Generator Android App (github link)
Day 8 - Settlement Map Tools
For random settlement maps try
- Medieval Fantasy City Generator by watabou (beautiful city maps, lots of options)
- Random Town Generator by donjon (filters by environment and culture, notable places and NPCs)
- Village Generator by watabou (beautiful village maps, lots of options
- Fantasy Town Generator (click on a settlement to see who's there at a particular time of day, select a person for lots of details)
- City Generator by Oskar Stålberg (click on an area to expand the map)
Day 9 - Fantasy Name Generators - Generators Site
Probably the best known gens site is Fantasy Name Generators, home of a gazillion names tools.
If you're world building or creating a campaign finding 5-20 relevant name generators makes a great start. There are also many French and Spanish generator translations.
Some relevant lists include Dungeons and Dragons Name Generators (player races and monster names), Pathfinder Name Generators, Star Wars Names and Starfinder Names.
Also check out the lists of generators for Places and Locations, Pop Culture and Descriptions. There's probably something super-useful in the hundreds of generators there.
Lastly I'm a fan of the Haiku Generator, under the grab bag of "Other Gens"
Day 10 - Eigengrau's Generator - Linked Generator Results
Imagine generating a town. Then generating a blacksmith's described in a street. Then getting a full description of the blacksmith. And getting a list of their relationships (inc son, neighbour, ex, drinking buddy). Then getting details of one of those and the street where they live.
This is Eigengrau's Generator. Create something and add related npcs, taverns, factions, shops, streets and market items.
Everything is editable and there is a Toolbox to create specific elements for a settlement.
Day 11 - Chartopia, Search and Create Charts
Chartopia is home to many charts and generators with collections specific to rpgs such as Shadow of a Demon Lord and Vampire 5th Edition.
The defining ability of Chartopia is the ability to create your own charts. You can keep these private, publish for others to find and embed in other websites. The docs help with creating simple generators to more complex tools such as the Vampire 5e Character Generator.
There is also a Discord bot called Twelves you can use to roll tables.
Development is ongoing with the recent addition of a text editor called the Code Playground
Day 12 - Here Be Taverns, Generators Site
Here Be Taverns is a generators site with great-looking tools and contributions from previously mentioned creators of DM Heroes and Medieval Fantasy City Generator.
The basic gens include Towns and Characters along with the Taverns it is named for (including menus and floorplans).
Day 13 - Narrative and Character Tools, RanGen and Springhole.net
Two sites today for any genre and system. Both have many generators for writers, world builders and gamers.
RanGen has many generators useful for gamers and also runs Writing Challenges around random generators. Most recent is for August 2021. Among the gens there is an impressive list of Worldbuilding Generators and the character gens include Super Powers and a Family Generator (including a filter with Low Drama, Medium Drama and High Drama)
Springhole has a plethora of generators, many resources for Writing, Roleplaying & Worldbuilding plus many other articles. The generators have many character and genre focused sections, including Character Detail Generators, Genre, Plot, & Story Prompt Generators, and Outfits & Wardrobe Gens
Day 14 - Potion Shop - Generators that Fascinate
The best rpg generators are ones that you come back to again and again. The results they produce are interesting and fun as well as useful.
The Potion Shop at Magical Gurll! is an example of this for me. It reads like adventure text, has interesting and quirky details, great names and could be inserted into any fantasy city.
For example
Helga's Revolutionary Mysteries is run by a warm elderly gnome who speaks with a lisp. You can identify it because the shop is built inside of a titanic tree, and has a giant twisted lantern outside it. You're the only customer in the store except for an older man becoming increasingly heated over the store's return policy.
Check out the TTabletop, Fandom and other generators at Magical Gurll for more!
Day 15 - Donjon, Generators Site
I know some folks for whom "RPG Random Generators" and "donjon" mean the same thing
Donjon has a clean design, lots of high quality generators and support for Fantasy, D&D (4 Editions), Pathfinder, Sci Fi and "Weird Fiction"
One of the best know gens is the Dungeon Generator with it's many filters (and available for different systems). Look under "Random Generator" for each system for extra gens not in the main menu.
Picking out a particular generator I'd recommend the 5e NPC Generator.
Day 16 - Worlds and Wilds Random Maps
For worldbuilding map gens there is Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator which has many filters and modes in the options section. Then donjon has a fractal Fantasy World Generator.
For smaller maps Mapgen4 from Red Blob Games has lots of filters and you can paint terrain types across the map. The site also has lots of resource for procedural map creation. Roll for Fantasy's Map Creator also has a Random Map option. HexTML is a hex-based map generator with a "generate" option (under the "Map settings" cog)
For a wilderness map at battlemat scale Gozzy's Random Wilderness Map Creator is the only option I've found so far.
For lists of map generators and resources Feed the Multiverse has a comprehensive one. And dnd-compendium has one with more assets and communties.
Day 17 - Unusual Quest Generators
There are several traditional quest generators. Then there are these.
- Darehart's random job board posting, with a visual job board (using a quest list from dnd speak)
- A Wanted Poster at perchance with faces. And a Wanted Poster at DM's Vault with more details (but no faces)
- A full Random Adventure Generator at donjon (with theme, goal, story hook, plot, climax, 3 settings, 3 villains, ally, encounters, deathtrap, chase, omen, secret weakness, condition, moral quandry, red herring and cruel trick)
- Dareheart's Random Treasure Map Generator (a textual description)
- Time Travel adventures at donjon
- Last is a D&D One-Shot Gen at ChaosGen (one of mine)
Day 18 - Oh My Games Master, Generators Site
A smaller site than other gens sites, Oh My Games Master (OMGM) has quality generators for Cities, Inns, landmarks, NPCs, Shops and Traps with a dnd focus
Each gen has a good number of settings / filters.
I like that the shopkeepers have a set of greetings! "Greetings; What have you been up to?; Hi there"
Day 19 - Sci-Fi Random Tools
It's a big area, so to start Iron Arachne can detail a star system. Round it out with space phenomena from 7th Sanctum. RanGen will give you planet details and maps
Chaotic Shiny can provide some spaceships, and this spaceship modeller might show what it could look like. Dave's Mapper can give some internal floor plans
Donjon has Space NPCs, or meet aliens from sci-fi ideas, shaped like this entoform.
Most of the gens come from a Sci-Fi Gens Guide at Rand Roll (which is due an update)
Day 20 - Inn and Tavern Generators
Taverns and Inns are a tradition of fantasy games and there are a number of options.
Not Another Tavern Generator is a dedicated tavern generator site with filters including neighborhood, atmosphere and menu.
Then Inkwell Ideas has a Inn/Tavern Floorplan Generator with related tools including a rumours gen
And a Random Tavern Sign Generator.
And there are tavern generators at... Donjon (with option of adventurers as patrons, Here Be Taverns (inc floorplans) , DnD Speak (with encounter and signature drink), Chaotic Shiny (with lots of information points), Ennead Games (food and drink options), Fantasy Name Generators (description only)
Last is an archaic tavern & menu generator from Wizards of the Coast in 2001
Day 21 - Secret Door, Generators Site
Secret Door has a mix of generators, starting with the Character Names (filters by profession and race) and a detailed background generator. Many of the gens have the choice of "Full" or "Short" description.
Objects include magical items, magical swords and books descriptions.
There are more name gens and a then a Vicious Mockery generator (some NSFW)
Day 22 - Chaotic Shiny and 7th Sanctum. Two Superb Classic Generators Sites
These two gens sites are venerable in internet terms. The sites and their creators have inspired many games and helped other gens creators find their way. Both have a variety of generators that is hard to match.
Chaotic Shiny (since 2008 i think) has 70+ system neutral tools for GMs, world builders, writers. With categories of Culture, People, Places, Names, Accessories, Color, Evil, Plot/Writing, Silly and Tools. Picking out a few favourites are gens for portals, crowds and cliche fantasy plot
Seventh Sanctum (since 1999!) specialises in short text generators great for ideas. It covers a broad range of fantasy and science fiction, fandom and the weird. Take a look at generators in categories of characters, media & fandom (inc. several Harry Potter gens) and technology.
Day 23 - Perchance, Text Generator Platform
If you like text editors or scripting then Perchance might be a tool you can use to build random generators. There is a wealth of tutorials and examples.
Here's a 5e Magic Item generator made with perchance as an example (by u/Edward_Monton)
You can also search the many generators at perchance, although most aren't rpg related. You can edit (making a copy) any generator you find and like.
There is a r/perchance subreddit for support and advice.
Day 24 - Iron Arachne, Generators Site
A site with unique procedural generators, Iron Arachne has tools for Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Cyberpunk
The fantasy Culture gen is useful for world building or a character backstory. It comes with names, organisation of the culture, religion, taboos, greetings, meals, design and music details.
Other highlights are an Organisation Gen with heraldry, a Star System is useful for spacefaring campaigns and I'm a fan of the Chop Shop for cyberpunk (example below)
"Outside, a large neon sign proclaims the name of the shop, the brightness of the writing diffused by thick smog. You open the door to the shop, and a soft chime announces your entry. Each of the shop's offerings is shown on a screen that takes up an entire wall. A few customers silently shuffle through the displays or wait in the small lobby for patients. In the back, a single operating table sits in the center of the room surrounded by harsh white lights."
Days 25-31...
I did finish these, links up at reddit
