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[Wwolin]

Sorry that the generator's taking a while, but finals start next week for me so I've been busy learning / teaching physics. I'll have it posted by Wednesday though. And I'll probably run another Looter's Delight style game pretty soon. I've been thinking of a few minor tweaks to make to the system, which should make things a bit easier for me to run. Namely the ability to choose to evolve a piece of loot instead of getting a new one if you want, so that not as many people end up with gigantic piles of items that I have to keep track of even though they're only using three of them. Also I've gotten a bit better at making maps, so the days of crude MS Paint maps with no real scale to them might be over. Maybe... We'll have to see on that one.

[Harry Baldman]

So, what are the opinions on this bit of insanity?

It's really quite squiggly. But I suppose players can get used to anything given time, can they not?

[Draignean]

So, what are the opinions on this bit of insanity?

It's really quite squiggly. But I suppose players can get used to anything given time, can they not?

Get used to anything, perhaps... Actually be able to use it tactically, I'm not sure. I'm just looking for some way to convey the information of a battlemap using symbols rather than pictures. Unfortunately, pictographic languages that contain detailed information are exactly as hard to learn as archaic chinese.

I like it but I'm pretty sure the hybrids are completely unreadable and I suspect the progression thing only works if you're familiar with them already.

That is my fear. I don't want the player to start snorting KY jelly for no reason, but I'd also like them to be prepared for the appropriate carnage.

Icons are hard. Any suggestions on how to make it more readable or otherwise better?

[Harry Baldman]

Get used to anything, perhaps... Actually be able to use it tactically, I'm not sure. I'm just looking for some way to convey the information of a battlemap using symbols rather than pictures. Unfortunately, pictographic languages that contain detailed information are exactly as hard to learn as archaic chinese.

Maybe try something less squiggly and dotted? Like the old ER artifact classification, where it's coded with colored polygons - color denotes class and number of sides on the polygon denotes intensity and maybe other things. You could add a letter in the middle to denote race if it's really that important. Not quite as flavorful as your own system of hieroglyphs, but I suppose it'd get the job done, right? You could even do hybridization this way, since colors can be mixed.

[IronyOwl]

Try to make them fit fairly elemental, recognizable shapes or patterns, maybe? "Straight thing" versus "Curvy thing" should be easier to read on a complexity scale than "third eye of the ascendant" or "queen's breadth."

You could also try for more specific icons but ensure that they all have a generic equivalent that's always visible. So for instance, "bug" would always be readable as a bug and "face" would always be readable as a face, even at the lowest, simplest tier. You could also combine the two so that, for instance, bug begins with a hexagon and then continues out into straight angled lines, while face begins with a pair of circles and continues into gently curving lines.

[FallacyofUrist]

Sorry that the generator's taking a while, but finals start next week for me so I've been busy learning / teaching physics. I'll have it posted by Wednesday though. And I'll probably run another Looter's Delight style game pretty soon. I've been thinking of a few minor tweaks to make to the system, which should make things a bit easier for me to run. Namely the ability to choose to evolve a piece of loot instead of getting a new one if you want, so that not as many people end up with gigantic piles of items that I have to keep track of even though they're only using three of them. Also I've gotten a bit better at making maps, so the days of crude MS Paint maps with no real scale to them might be over. Maybe... We'll have to see on that one.

Impossible. The wwolin has returned! Looter's Delight is about to return! Reserve me a spot.

[Tsuchigumo550]

Speaking of loot, I've been thinking about how one would make guns in a magic setting.

The answer is, of course, magic. Wizards are crazy and will try anything, because the Scientific Method hasn't been invented yet.

So when an artificer can create a tiny magic circle able to turn a minute amount of ambient mana into a small metal ball, his next goal is to find a way to fling that metal ball with as much force as possible (explosions) and then automate it (more circles).

So one wizard, particularly sick of all these sword-carrying beef golems around his tower trampling all the reagents and getting blood everywhere, works to make -more- of these "gun" things. Better guns. Bigger guns. Guns that shoot guns that shoot bees, even.

tl;dr I'm considering a system to randomly generate magic guns, anything from a silenced hand-cannon that fires beehive grapeshots to a tiny revolver that apparently does nothing, but actually fires small puffs of air. Or something.

It would probably look something like this:
Step One
-Choose a main body type (Hand Cannon, Musket, Revolver, Bowgun)
--Hand Cannons fire huge things with tons of power, but take a while to recharge between shots. They're also really cumbersome and heavy, so bring physical strength to the table or fail horribly.
--Muskets are average, they encompass everything between literally strapping cannons to you arms to the much smaller revolvers as far as weight and maneuverability go, recharge times usually aren't hideous, and they can still have crazy effects even with a much thinner barrel.
--Revolvers are small, quick to draw, recharge, move with... they're useful, but they also don't take to effects so well. They won't be as powerful- a fire-spitting hand cannon might burn through an entire town, a firey revolver is like a firecracker. Usually.
--Bowguns
Unlike all the other guns, Bowguns don't use barrels. Instead, they can create complicated bolts rather than singular bullets, do so rather rapidly, and they probably won't blow up even if they do fail. You might even be able to pour mana directly into it to overcharge the shot and not have like a billionth of a chance to succeed, it might be more like 1/8th. Maybe. Guns are still dangerous.

The system would then generate shot material and type (silver dart, for instance), then a barrel to alter the shot (silence, imbue life, pretty much any wizard spell or spells).

[piecewise]

Sorry that the generator's taking a while, but finals start next week for me so I've been busy learning / teaching physics. I'll have it posted by Wednesday though. And I'll probably run another Looter's Delight style game pretty soon. I've been thinking of a few minor tweaks to make to the system, which should make things a bit easier for me to run. Namely the ability to choose to evolve a piece of loot instead of getting a new one if you want, so that not as many people end up with gigantic piles of items that I have to keep track of even though they're only using three of them. Also I've gotten a bit better at making maps, so the days of crude MS Paint maps with no real scale to them might be over. Maybe... We'll have to see on that one.

If anyone needs generators made or just roll tables automated, I can do it.

[Draignean]

Sorry that the generator's taking a while, but finals start next week for me so I've been busy learning / teaching physics. I'll have it posted by Wednesday though. And I'll probably run another Looter's Delight style game pretty soon. I've been thinking of a few minor tweaks to make to the system, which should make things a bit easier for me to run. Namely the ability to choose to evolve a piece of loot instead of getting a new one if you want, so that not as many people end up with gigantic piles of items that I have to keep track of even though they're only using three of them. Also I've gotten a bit better at making maps, so the days of crude MS Paint maps with no real scale to them might be over. Maybe... We'll have to see on that one.

If anyone needs generators made or just roll tables automated, I can do it.

Come now, half the fun of making these generators is coding a weighting system. You wouldn't take that away, would you?

Get used to anything, perhaps... Actually be able to use it tactically, I'm not sure. I'm just looking for some way to convey the information of a battlemap using symbols rather than pictures. Unfortunately, pictographic languages that contain detailed information are exactly as hard to learn as archaic chinese.

Maybe try something less squiggly and dotted? Like the old ER artifact classification, where it's coded with colored polygons - color denotes class and number of sides on the polygon denotes intensity and maybe other things. You could add a letter in the middle to denote race if it's really that important. Not quite as flavorful as your own system of hieroglyphs, but I suppose it'd get the job done, right? You could even do hybridization this way, since colors can be mixed.

I avoid color mixing like the plague, perhaps because I have the irrational fear that one of my players will be colorblind and I'll commit some hideous design faux pas. Anyway, reworked the design to include fewer bizarre pieces of segmented freehand.

Reading the top row, left to right: Soldier's blade, Rifleman's bullet, Illuminator's star, Arbiter's heart, Avernale's lampade. I admit, it does look much cleaner. While the hybrid symbols don't join together like bastard child of a Combiner and a frisky inkpot, they do get the job done.

Re-example of the map with the two symbols and the newer symbols...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

An improvement, or merely a step sideways?

[Harry Baldman]

A definite improvement, I would say. Though I see you still couldn't resist having one squiggle in there (looking at the map, it occurs to me that squiggles tend to respond poorly to being scaled down in addition to being illegible when in greater numbers). How do those combine, if I may ask?

Also, you've got three circles in there twice. Do their meanings differ?

[High tyrol]

Sorry that the generator's taking a while, but finals start next week for me so I've been busy learning / teaching physics. I'll have it posted by Wednesday though. And I'll probably run another Looter's Delight style game pretty soon. I've been thinking of a few minor tweaks to make to the system, which should make things a bit easier for me to run. Namely the ability to choose to evolve a piece of loot instead of getting a new one if you want, so that not as many people end up with gigantic piles of items that I have to keep track of even though they're only using three of them. Also I've gotten a bit better at making maps, so the days of crude MS Paint maps with no real scale to them might be over. Maybe... We'll have to see on that one.

Impossible. The wwolin has returned! Looter's Delight is about to return! Reserve me a spot.

me too

[Dermonster]

Wait damn I didn't see the 'new game' bit of it.

Count me in as well.

(I do still want a copy of the generator as well.)

[Draignean]

A definite improvement, I would say. Though I see you still couldn't resist having one squiggle in there (looking at the map, it occurs to me that squiggles tend to respond poorly to being scaled down in addition to being illegible when in greater numbers). How do those combine, if I may ask?

Also, you've got three circles in there twice. Do their meanings differ?

Ah, I meant to ask this. Is it nicer to read the simple stack of symbols, or is the much prettier intertwining good enough? The three triangles is the same idea, only symbols of the same size and orientation count towards the symbolic total. That way the triforce configuration (which arguably contains 5 triangles) is identical to the speed boost configuration.

Intertwining is purtier in my opinion, but could be slightly more complex to read.

In a related story, May 4th is looking like an increasingly unlikely deadline to have the material for the OP finished by...  Goddamn Discrete.

[Harry Baldman]

The intertwining ought to be readable enough, as the purtiness increases geometrically. Although I thought the triforce was four triangles, honestly, so maybe it's not that easy to read after all. Maybe just arrange them in a regular polygon kind of way?

On the other hand, the example is obviously pretty quick and dirty, as mentioned, so either way it should be okay.

[Draignean]

I see what you did there, and I'll probably use a radiation configuration to avoid confusion with my triangles.

I made a testing set of overly complex icons, but.... Don't know how well they work out. Here's an example of two.