Contributor
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So WotC has put up a barrel, sack and crate contents generator on their website.
My impression/guess is that this is supposed to be demonstrative of how electronic materials can do things that a magazine can't. At the very least they seem to be trying to counter the popular attitude that they have a poor online content track record.
It does quickly generate random contents very quickly, and it appears to be fairly customizable in terms of number of boxes, total value, types of things to be found etc.
However, the results frequently include things like '1d4 [gem type] value 10 gp' or even worse '1d4 random common weapons, see table x in DMG.' If this is supposed to save me time by generating the contents, why not do the whole job?
But it doesn't really bother me, because I doubt I would ever have a need for it. I mean, if I'm designing my own adventure, and have a room full of crates, I should already have a pretty good idea of what is in them. And if I'm running a published adventure and there is a room full of crates and barrels with no description of what they would contain, I would assign them no particular value or use. If the author intended more for them, they would have assigned it themselves, and hopefully the treasure is already balanced to the encounters.
I suppose in a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants adventure where the PCs break into a random warehouse or something, it would be handy, assuming you had your lap-top at the table. Also, it does show that there are neat things you can do with electronic content. Quick generators can be useful.
I just think there are more useful things that could be generated (I'd love a generator that could quickly make a variety of humanoid warriors with different stats, feats, and equipment). And I think that a generator should complete the task it's intended for.
Now, they haven't said that this has anything to do with their online initiative, and of course, if it does, they don't want to give away their best stuff for free right now.
But if this is the face of the future, I have to say "meh."
Craig Shackleton,
The Rambling Scribe
There are some generators on my site, the treasure generator at low ELs creates some pretty interesting stuff. Is that kind of like what you'd like to see, instead of the barrel/sack/crate generator?
I'd like to see good old fashioned modules instead of online content.
GIVE ME PAPER! GIVE ME SOMETHING I CAN READ IN THE BATHROOM, or ON A TRAIN!
Yes, I take my laptop on the train, because I freelance for Hero Games, but I usually need some paper material to read when my eyes get tired.
Yes, I take my laptop to work, but without hardcopy, I am filled with gloom.
I don't want to "purchase" a website. I want PAPER PRODUCTS!
Plus, in an emergency, you CAN wipe your butt with a bad module and buy another. You CAN'T wipe your butt with your laptop.
Yeah you can, it's just more time consuming and a little more akward if someone walks in on you...
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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I don't want to "purchase" a website. I want PAPER PRODUCTS!
But, with the money you save on the .PDFs and online content, you can convert those savings into buying ink and paper to PRINT THEM YOURSELF! It's AMAZING!!!!!
(Yes, I'm being sarcastic. Online content pales in comparison.)
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So WotC has put up a barrel, sack and crate contents generator on their website.
My impression/guess is that this is supposed to be demonstrative of how electronic materials can do things that a magazine can't. At the very least they seem to be trying to counter the popular attitude that they have a poor online content track record.
They do? I always liked their online content. Sure, it could be more, but hey, its free. You can't beat that.
I just hope it is still there once the transition over to their new 'thing' going on, because I don't plan to subscribe to that. And if not, oh well. They already lost me with cancelling Dragon and Dungeon magazine. LOL
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Maybe this is like brownie recipes. I read somewhere that packaged food is designed to have unnecessary steps to make it feel as though the person making the food is actually "cooking." So, maybe leaving the last step for you to do provides the psychological feeling that you are participating in the barrel/crate/etc generation and not just copying results from a machine.
That being said, it wouldn't hurt to be able to scale the level of automation so that you can just get the brownies rather than the brownie mix.
Ohhhh it gets better. Fiddle with the thing a little, I hot a 50lbs crate of Paprika taht was worth easaly over the 100000gp limlit of thelargest city in the DMG, not to meantion being a heck of a blip on the wealth by level charts. Wish theyed thought about the blasted things value to DMs not how fiddle worthy it was. I dont need a random generator whose results I need to double check, I may as well do it the old fassioned way.
I hot a 50lbs crate of Paprika taht was worth easaly over the 100000gp limlit of thelargest city in the DMG,
Computers are no substitute for a good DM, and there's nothing as dumb as a dumb program. Trust not in technology, for it will fail you.
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That generator has two main flaws:
1. A programming glitch. It thinks every container is a large barrel with 384 pounds of whatever.
2. It uses the values from the Arms and Equipment Guide. There are some significant issues with these numbers, both for the basic edibles list, and when commodities traded by the ounce fill containers rated by the pound.
Between those two, as a random generator of stuff it is fair, but you need to determine the exact value of everything yourself.
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Contributor
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There are some generators on my site, the treasure generator at low ELs creates some pretty interesting stuff. Is that kind of like what you'd like to see, instead of the barrel/sack/crate generator?
I replied to this the other day, but my post got eaten.
Your site is cool. I remember seeing (quite a while back) the initial discussions about the stat block bank. Glad it's been so successful. It would be much more useful for me than any treasure generator.
That said, I do like that your treasure generator gives complete treasure lists including unique items based on EL. Much more useful than based on "how big a space do you need to fill with stuff?"
I was just thinking: What I really need is an item generator that uses my variant masterwork qualities; in my current campaign, I seperated the + to hit and + to damage enhancements for weapons, and created a whole bunch of new masterwork qualities for weapons and armour. But since I'm running a pregenerated adventure, I often have to convert npc equipment on the fly, and I don't use enough of my own masterwork stuff. Mind you, I could probably just make a simple chart, and really, I should give most npcs masterwork items that suit their feats etc.
So back to my original wish; what I'd like is to be able to quickly generate a squad of x number of x humanoids, each with slightly varied stats and equipment. So instead of 6 goblin warriors with the exact stats from the MM, one might be stronger, one faster, and they each have different weapons etc. Just to mix it up a bit. Throw in some feat variation as well. But a good generator could quickly do this and make most of it logical. Goblin one is strong, so he likely has power attack (increase odds), if he has both of those, increase chance of 2H weapon. Goblin two has good dexterity, better chance of weapon finesse, if so , likely has light weapon. And hell, maybe some of them have iron will, or combat reflexes, or whatever. I find these things can really throw a monkey wrench into a PC's tactics, and it's easy for them to get used to assuming that all of these guys are the same. "All right I'll move past that guy, he's already used his Attack of Opportunity... Oh crap, I guess these guys all have combat reflexes... But wait, that other guy used power attack... they must be higher level than I thought."
I'm wandering off-topic here, but that's why I want a good npc generator. And btw, I know many people discourage the kind of metagame thinking I just described in general, and it may appear that I am criticizing it, but we like to get our tactical wargame fix mixed with our role-play. It's how we play. I just like to confound them once in a while. It sets the challenge higher without just throwing a tougher monster at them.
All right, dragging myself kicking and screaming back on topic, I'm distressed to learn that the barrel, sack and crate generator is even worse than I thought. My already low expectations of the online initiative continue to spiral downwards.
Craig Shackleton,
The Rambling Scribe
Hmm...
It is possible to create a generator like this, but it's something that's beyond me for now. I would probably be only be able to use OGL/SRD stuff. Still, it's an interesting project.
All right, dragging myself kicking and screaming back on topic, I'm distressed to learn that the barrel, sack and crate generator is even worse than I thought. My already low expectations of the online initiative continue to spiral downwards.
I don't believe people should look at the barrel, sack, and crate generator as a preview of the online initiative. Just a few months ago they released a dungeon tile mapper tool and before that they had a rod of wonder simulator. It is just a free random generator. If I were paying for it I would certainly be insulted by it's lack of quality, but I wouldn't say that this a preview of the online initiative. At least, I hope not.
I ended up downloading it just to see if it could be easily modified and it seems that it can be altered. Not easily (a 3000+ line HTML file with barely any comments ... yuck) but it is not impossible. Although I would be more tempted to start from scratch than build off of this.