Excellent character generators exist, so why no good monster generator? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Excellent character generators exist, so why no good monster generator? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Velocity
04-04-06, 01:17 AM A sort of "populate your dungeon with monsters for dummies" if you will. Something that not only randomizes what monsters of which level show up in your dungeon, but also gives their stats. Any computer geniuses out there want to give it a try?
pileobone
04-04-06, 01:54 AM Any non computer geniuses feel like doing the massive data entry required?

Randomized monster generation wouldn't be hard at all. The ***** of it would be entering in the stats of every monster that could be chosen. Plus you'd have to go and make sure that any monster you're giving out stats for isn't the exclusive intellectual property of WotC, namely the monsters you can't find in the SRD.
Velocity
04-04-06, 02:07 AM Plus you'd have to go and make sure that any monster you're giving out stats for isn't the exclusive intellectual property of WotC, namely the monsters you can't find in the SRD.

Ah, grim reality rears it's ugly head. Yep, it's true. Wotc would have to rake you over the coals to protect their copyright. Thanks for clearing that up for me. Perhaps Wotc itself will one day include one you can download from this site. Until then, we'll have to do it ourselves. Blast the need for problem solving intelligence! :mad:
KublaiKhan
04-04-06, 02:07 AM You mean like the entries found at the d20 SRD page? (http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/monsters.htm)

That's an excellent point, and if I weren't at work all the time [ when I can't really get away with personal projects ] I'd definitely hack one out.

My method, for the record, would be to download all the SRD pages, write a quick script to strip out the HTML, and put 'em in a mySQL database. From there, it'd be a simple task of writing a php script to take data from an entry form and use that to generate X monsters of CR Y, etc. Could be made as complicated as you like, really.

For the record, as well, mySQL and PHP are free, and PHP is easy to learn.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Velocity 04-04-06, 01:17 AM	A sort of "populate your dungeon with monsters for dummies" if you will. Something that not only randomizes what monsters of which level show up in your dungeon, but also gives their stats. Any computer geniuses out there want to give it a try?
pileobone 04-04-06, 01:54 AM	Any non computer geniuses feel like doing the massive data entry required? Randomized monster generation wouldn't be hard at all. The ***** of it would be entering in the stats of every monster that could be chosen. Plus you'd have to go and make sure that any monster you're giving out stats for isn't the exclusive intellectual property of WotC, namely the monsters you can't find in the SRD.
Velocity 04-04-06, 02:07 AM	Plus you'd have to go and make sure that any monster you're giving out stats for isn't the exclusive intellectual property of WotC, namely the monsters you can't find in the SRD. Ah, grim reality rears it's ugly head. Yep, it's true. Wotc would have to rake you over the coals to protect their copyright. Thanks for clearing that up for me. Perhaps Wotc itself will one day include one you can download from this site. Until then, we'll have to do it ourselves. Blast the need for problem solving intelligence! :mad:
KublaiKhan 04-04-06, 02:07 AM	You mean like the entries found at the d20 SRD page? (http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/monsters.htm) That's an excellent point, and if I weren't at work all the time [ when I can't really get away with personal projects ] I'd definitely hack one out. My method, for the record, would be to download all the SRD pages, write a quick script to strip out the HTML, and put 'em in a mySQL database. From there, it'd be a simple task of writing a php script to take data from an entry form and use that to generate X monsters of CR Y, etc. Could be made as complicated as you like, really. For the record, as well, mySQL and PHP are free, and PHP is easy to learn.