Hello!
So I've been working on a homebrew version of a hot-seat GM, procedurally-generated game mode inspired by Deep Rock Galactic. I still believe Paizo should do something similar to this, which is why I wrote up my proposal a while back, but being realistic I'm tinkering away!
A big part of this project is creating monster families which cover the full range of levels so that the GM can pull from a deck that says something like "3 Grunts APL-2, 1 Spitter APL+1", and the GM just has to flip to the page for the right stats for that level monster without any manual calculation. I'm no programming genius, so I put together a tool in Google Sheets to help me create monster families that I can print out for a hands-on prototype.
Here is the spreadsheet that I've come up with so far:
20221222_Deep Rock Finder Monster Families
The first sheet has the reference tables from the creature creation rules, as well as some default matrices for the different base road maps. The second sheet has the species template, where the blue fields are where you edit. At the bottom of that page you can find the creature level selector and printout area.
I was hoping people could look over the five species I put together: Grunt, Spitter, Warden, Praetorian, Dreadnought. Since I've pretty much only played to level 11, and I almost always reskin monsters rather than creating my own, I would very much appreciate any thoughts people have regarding the higher level abilities and stats for each species!
My next step will be working on the randomization elements including the encounter deck, dungeon layout deck, room deck, and bonus deck.
Cheers and happy holidays!
Since a couple of you were interested, I pulled together a rough and ready, proof of concept prototype that I'm going to be testing out with my group tomorrow.
My goal with this is to:
1) Find out if my never-GM'd-before-and-is-super-intimidated-by-the-idea player can set up and run a mission
2) Check how the nitra-esque subsystem feels
3) See how the players react to the concept going in mostly blind
4) See how long it takes to set things up, and what the GM and players stumble on
5) See how far off the mark the randomization numbers are