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I didnt find any similar projects online, so I decided to dig into creating an automatic treasure generator, using the methods and procedures in the Core Rulebook. Not sure if it will be helpful for anyone or not, but I am looking for some feedback regarding options to add or drop, and no doubt a few bugs to squash.
The current format isnt that pretty, but is definitely functional, including the rules from the Core rulebook, the Gamemastery guide, and a few of the new tables from the APG (the rest are in the works). It only currently does a town's inventory of magic items, but could be extended to creature treasure, etc.
Let me know your feedback, or if your google-fu is better than mine, of any similar projects that might care to share ideas.
Software Quality Engineer here.
It looks really good. I didn't get any obvious bugs.
These are not exactly bugs, but you might want to know/consider this stuff:
Minor errors:
1. Select a community size, and click Generate, to randomly determine that community's total stock of available magic items.
2. Listed tables have been fully incorporated into the generator
Possible concerns:
3. Wands don't list charges. Have you considered that communities might sell partially charged wands at prorated prices?
4. I rolled duplicates (Major: Staff of Illumination appeared twice in the same list). While I am sure it is possible to have two of the same item appear in a town, I would, as a DM, consider that to be both strange and limiting (fewer choices for the players) unless that item were a reasonably common item (like a +1 longsword) or a consumable (like a potion of Cure Light Wounds). Have you considered de-duping?
Feature enhancements:
5. Have you considered exposing the data to the user? Especially if this could be downloaded locally. I might want to edit the frequencies of things. I rolled up more nunchaku than I rolled longswords (3 chucks, 0 longswords) and the only armors I got were several suits of full plate and 2 studded leather armors. I might also want to add some homebrew stuff. Having access to the data would be a lovely enhancement.
6. Have you considered offering the user buttons/links that would enable exporting the results to html, xml, .doc/.docx, .xls, or .csv file types?
7. Have you considered allowing the user to import a file he previously exported to "age" the list, thereby simulating that some items in town were "sold" and others were "acquired"? Maybe allowing for different scales: daily, weekly, monthly, annual aging, each with their own increasingly higher chances of removing existing items from the list and generating new stuff to fill the gaps.
8. Have you considered breaking it down by shop. Maybe one town has just one enchanter who sells every magic item the town has, but another town has four different shoppes, one alchemist sells potions, one temple sells divine stuff, one enchanter sells general magic items like wands, scrolls, rings, staves, and wonderous items, and a blacksmith sells weapons and armor. DM's who have that kind of detail might really enjoy a way to break the list into sections, each with its own gold limit and inventory limit, especially if you also implement #6 & #7. That way he could track what comes and goes from each shoppe individually
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Software Quality Engineer here.
It looks really good. I didn't get any obvious bugs.
These are not exactly bugs, but you might want to know/consider this stuff:
Minor errors:
1. Select a community size, and click Generate, to randomly determine that community's total stock of available magic items.
2. Listed tables have been fully incorporated into the generator
Thanks, correcting those typo's first.
Possible concerns:
3. Wands don't list charges. Have you considered that communities might sell partially charged wands at prorated prices?
Had not considered partial wands, but definitely a valid idea. Probably would have to hand wave a distribution though, I would not expect them to be necessarily a linear probability (ie, same chance for 1 charge as for 50 charges).
4. I rolled duplicates (Major: Staff of Illumination appeared twice in the same list). While I am sure it is possible to have two of the same item appear in a town, I would, as a DM, consider that to be both strange and limiting (fewer choices for the players) unless that item were a reasonably common item (like a +1 longsword) or a consumable (like a potion of Cure Light Wounds). Have you considered de-duping?
I noticed the occasional duplicate as well. I don't believe its the logic of the code, but probably an issue built into the random number generator. Unfortunately, my format makes it problematic to eliminate duplicates, but I can look into it.
Feature enhancements:
5. Have you considered exposing the data to the user? Especially if this could be downloaded locally. I might want to edit the frequencies of things. I rolled up more nunchaku than I rolled longswords (3 chucks, 0 longswords) and the only armors I got were several suits of full plate and 2 studded leather armors. I might also want to add some homebrew stuff. Having access to the data would be a lovely enhancement.
Technically, the data is already available, in the various rulebooks. All of the odds and percentages are taken directly from the listed tables, except for the material from the APG, which I adjusted the frequency to be more in line with the Core Book charts (otherwise the odds were way off). I avoided making the tables directly available, to avoid any concerns over copyright and such.
6. Have you considered offering the user buttons/links that would enable exporting the results to html, xml, .doc/.docx, .xls, or .csv file types?
Definitely. My intention for use is to generate and save outputs, to create a timeline of snapshots, so various formats would be useful. CSV is a definite, the others will depend on time and difficulty.
7. Have you considered allowing the user to import a file he previously exported to "age" the list, thereby simulating that some items in town were "sold" and others were "acquired"? Maybe allowing for different scales: daily, weekly, monthly, annual aging, each with their own increasingly higher chances of removing existing items from the list and generating new stuff to fill the gaps.
Yes, but technically that isnt the intention of the mechanics in the main books. I would say that that option is on my list, but probably near the bottom of the priorities.
8. Have you considered breaking it down by shop. Maybe one town has just one enchanter who sells every...
According to the theory in the rulebook, these tables are supposed to represent what an entire town has available from all sources. I take that as potions and scrolls from the local general store, mid-level gear from specialty shops, and high-level gear from ex-adventurers, black market, etc. It could certainly be grouped or sorted in some fashion, but it really comes down to GM preference for their specific campaign. I could sort by item category though instead of price, that might be a decent middle ground.
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Some feature request's:
1)Ability to choose what I am rolling. i.e. Alchemist is part of a small town and he only makes potions and alchemical items. Assassin's Guild that sells poison's.
Definitely planning on a filter, to be able to eliminate items from the distribution. Would still generate the same number of items, only from a smaller category list.
2)Ability to limit gp amount to magic items. Say a caravan had been raided and the party comes across the remnants. Not everything is going to be magical. I would like to say the gp limit is total 500, but only 100 of it is magical.
Limiting the total price of the item is do-able, or potentially, the total value of the treasure list. Limiting the maximum price, but only considering the magical properties, is quite abit harder, especially since many of the specific magic items do not have a non-magic cost associated.
3)Mundane items.
For now, I am leaving these outside of the scope, primarily since this is intended as a "what can I buy in town" sort of list. Almost every town has the entire mundane items list, so it would not be helpful.
As an encounter treasure generator though, I could definitely see that as helpful.
Looks good...
I know it's easier to control and modify online (and also to keep clear attribution to it's author) but have you considered porting to Excel?
The only reason why I ask is because it might be useful for refs at the table - and off the grid. Just a thought.
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Looks good...
I know it's easier to control and modify online (and also to keep clear attribution to it's author) but have you considered porting to Excel?
The only reason why I ask is because it might be useful for refs at the table - and off the grid. Just a thought.
I started that way initially, but the tables and code just got too unwieldy. So far I have 30 tables, with 4+ columns each, and a mess of if blocks and while loops. Possible, but more painful (and slow to develop) in Excel.
Erm, I just got a +3 Tower Shield, Bashing. Since you can't have that quality on a Tower Shield, it couldn't exist.
Aside from that, looks great! I'll keep hitting buttons to see if anything else like that pops up.
Edit: I also got a Potion of Goodberry, not sure this is possible since it targets berries... but I guess it could be an oil.
Sorry for the double post but I have come across a few more impossible potions, like a potion of Animate Rope. Not sure if limiting potions to only the legal ones would be difficult to do, but it would be really nice for GMs in a rush.
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Sorry for the double post but I have come across a few more impossible potions, like a potion of Animate Rope. Not sure if limiting potions to only the legal ones would be difficult to do, but it would be really nice for GMs in a rush.
Maybe a good solution would be to have a dynamic page to view the results that contains a "reroll" button next to each item. That way illegal items can be manually vetted, or simply allowed (depending on the DM). It also lets DMs reroll stuff they don't like for other reasons.
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Sorry for the double post but I have come across a few more impossible potions, like a potion of Animate Rope. Not sure if limiting potions to only the legal ones would be difficult to do, but it would be really nice for GMs in a rush.
A Tower Shield of Bashing I can filter out, I think that is a rare case of the options not matching the main item.
In the case of potions of Goodberry and Animate Rope, Pathfinder actually defines those as valid potions. In both cases, I would assume an Oil instead of a Potion, currently the code is using the word Potion to mean both. I can probably add a filter though to identify one or the other, or that could simply be a player/GM call. The Pathfinder book seems to consider them interchangable, ie, an "oil" can be drunk, and a "potion" can be applied to the body or item.
For my own campaign that helps, since you no longer have to be concious to receive the benefits of a Potion of Cure Light Wounds (someone else can pour it over you).
But obviously some campaigns will treat them as different items and methods.
[EDIT] Tower Shield of Bashing should no longer be a result.
Wow, this is fantastic, thanks so much for doing this.
I will echo the sentiment that it would be useful to expand this to be able to use it as an encounter treasure generator as well (look at the 3.5 one at MythWeavers for an example), but even as it stands, it's a great tool. Thanks again.
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Absolutely great stuff. This will save me a bunch of work.
One request. Is there any way of referencing the book that the items come from? It would help me to know if the item comes from the core book or the APG.
Yes and No. I can add a field that lists the book to each particular item, that is fairly easy. But once I have all the tables included, there can easily be items from one book with addons from another. I guess I could key it off of the "biggest" factor though. Let me see what I can do with that.
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Slight tweak to the treasure generator, I added an option to restrict items to under a specific value, ie, the purchase limit. I was running into situations were a relatively small town would generate items that were completely illogical for the economy (as in a 200k gold staff in a small village), only as a result of the randomness of "medium" and "high" rated items.
Just enter the purchase limit (or leave it as 0 for no limit), and each item that is out of range is automatically re-generated until it falls in line. Makes the treasure tables far more reasonable, and it works fully with both a basic item list as well as a super-list format.
Still working on the other features, though honestly I have let it set idle for a long period, until my current campaign encouraged some more adjustments.
Have you tried my Pathfinder RPG Random Treasure Generator?
It's an highly customizable generator specific for Pathfinder.
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Have you tried my Pathfinder RPG Random Treasure Generator?
It's an highly customizable generator specific for Pathfinder.
Although your graphics and layout blow my tool away entirely, it looks like they are actually different approaches for similar information. Where your tool generates encounter-specific treasure, mine is focused on available-for-purchase style lists for towns. Both of course have their use, depending on the campaign. Nice to see an alternative approach though.
Although your graphics and layout blow my tool away entirely, it looks like they are actually different approaches for similar information. Where your tool generates encounter-specific treasure, mine is focused on available-for-purchase style lists for towns. Both of course have their use, depending on the campaign. Nice to see an alternative approach though.Have you tried my Pathfinder RPG Random Treasure Generator?
It's an highly customizable generator specific for Pathfinder.
I bookmarked both, they both look like excellent tools for two different jobs. Thank you both for your work putting them together!
Slight tweak to the treasure generator, I added an option to restrict items to under a specific value, ie, the purchase limit. I was running into situations were a relatively small town would generate items that were completely illogical for the economy (as in a 200k gold staff in a small village), only as a result of the randomness of "medium" and "high" rated items.
Just enter the purchase limit (or leave it as 0 for no limit), and each item that is out of range is automatically re-generated until it falls in line. Makes the treasure tables far more reasonable, and it works fully with both a basic item list as well as a super-list format.
Still working on the other features, though honestly I have let it set idle for a long period, until my current campaign encouraged some more adjustments.
I like it.
Have you tried my Pathfinder RPG Random Treasure Generator?
It's an highly customizable generator specific for Pathfinder.
This one is nice also.
Although your graphics and layout blow my tool away entirely, it looks like they are actually different approaches for similar information. Where your tool generates encounter-specific treasure, mine is focused on available-for-purchase style lists for towns. Both of course have their use, depending on the campaign. Nice to see an alternative approach though.Have you tried my Pathfinder RPG Random Treasure Generator?
It's an highly customizable generator specific for Pathfinder.
In no way this a competition everybody can benefit from our efforts.
We provide some tools...they use it...We are all happy!If you need some help let me know I'm always interested in participating in projects.
Thanks for your comment.
Very nice! So usefull! :D
I like it, I would enjoy if I could specify "Generate x minor, y medium, and z major" to make my filling my king maker slots faster.
Here's KaruiKage's generator as another alternative.