June 26, 2017 game_design rpgs dnd tables
About a year ago I decided to see how hard it would be to make a twitter bot. Apparently it’s not that hard depending on what you want to do. I cobbled together a couple small twitter bots (you can see them below) that generated random dnd characters as well as a random location. The funny thing is, because of how prevalent the hashtag #dnd is (there’s even a bot that just retweets any tweet that has “#dnd” in it, go figure) these random bot accounts generate more followers to themselves than I do. Probably because they are serving some unique purpose and I am just half the ass that made Two Rooms and a Boom.
Recently though, now that twitter changed and I actually know how lists work, I started collecting all the different dnd type bots that I’ve found on twitter. The goal is to be able at any moment to be able to scroll through my twitter feed and have all the inspiration I need to run a quick game of dnd. Inspiration may even be the wrong word, I’d like to be able to use this as a list at the table, where I can just scroll down a few entries and find what I’m looking for.
Here’s the list. Please @seanmccoy for any bots you think might be helpful. I’m still at a real loss for a few different categories that I’d like. Maybe I’ll need to make them myself:
Things I’m looking for: randomly generated monsters, randomly generated spells, and randomly generated magic items, random NPCs, and then random “what’s on the body” tables.
But for now, here are the bots!
@Hexaday @Hexaday is one of my absolute favorite twitter bots, though I wish it generated prompts every hour or so as opposed to once a day. I’m not sure how the tweets are generated, but they’re all pretty amazing. Perfect for generating adventure seeds.
@Gobbobot @Gobbobot generates a random, if not detailed, goblin.It updates once every few hours with a few tweets delving into a goblin and gives you personality details, some equipment, and maybe tactics or a little background.
@InfiniteRpgGods There are some things I would never have found if I hadn’t gone looking for them. @InfiniteRpgGods is one of those. It generates random gods for use in your campaign. A brief poetic description and then their earthly (or unearthly) domain follows.
@gammaworldbot Okay, so this one isn’t strictly D&D, but the gamma world character generation here is awesome. It gives you a name, stats, skills, equipment, and some personality quirks as well. Perfect for your maximalist games.
@gimmeapc @GimmeaPC delivers exactly what it says, giving you the stats of a PC, but also quite a bit of character background and details.
@unchartedatlas Oh my god this one is great. It’s a randomly generated fantasy map every hour with names, borders, and land features. It’s fucking amazing. Don’t waste any more time drawing up your continent maps. Or don’t be afraid to have your PCs transported to dimensions far away from home. These all look, sound, and feel amazing.
@TateBot Not all of these beautiful sketches and paintings will work for your game, but the ones that do, really really will. Dnd is a game about magic, mystery, and monsters, and nothing gets my imaginative motor turning than a virtual tour through a museum.
@GoblinGenerator Apparently the market demanded two separate generators for goblins, so great was the need for a random specific goblin at a moments notice. Necessity is the mother of innovation I guess. This is a goblin every hour on the hour and its a pretty quick entry. Which makes sense. It’s just a goblin for fuck’s sake.
@RandomMapBot Not nearly as attuned to your D&D needs as Uncharted Atlas, the @RandomMapBot actually gives you a random Google Map screenshot. In researching for tools for this list I didn’t prioritize only Dndable stuff, I just wanted a crashing wave of tools. Random fantasy map? Perfect! Random map? Good enough.
@I_Find_Planets I love this one so much I’m probably going to use it in my next Traveller campaign. It’s not super detailed, but that’s okay. A big part, to me at least, about running a giant sci-fi campaign is the feeling that there’s always more stuff out there. This can help you populate a sector fast.
@DungeonRooms Alright, back to our more typical Dnd faire. @DungeonRooms is okay, if a little generic and non-sensical at times without being magical. But hey, on a twitter list, you just want maximum crap all the time. I’m not here to judge.
@random_map Hey, you can’t have too many of these am I right? @Random_map differentiates itself by being a satellite picture. In a lot of ways its actually better as a terrain generator or a picture to inspire you when describing an area, or a remind of what the actual earth looks like, rather than as a tool for describing various locations.
@RandomMagicItem Unfortunately, this generator doesn’t give you any magical properties, just prose descriptions of items. But hey, that can be useful too sometimes.
@TinyDungeons There’s a whole suite of Tiny Dungeon bots and I’ve included them all. Aside from being goddamn adorable, they’re actually pretty functional. They compact, they give you information, and they move on. Of all the bots on this list, these are pretty near the top of “things I might actually use at the table.”
@EmojiAtlas Very similar in size and scope to the Tiny Dungeon bot, Emoji Atlas is perfect for a wilderness hexcrawl. I am now interested in running a dnd campaign strictly by text. @seanmccoy if you are interested.
@Tiny_Forests Just like the Tiny Dungeon but this time its a cute little forest.
@Tiny_Seas Just like the other Tiny bots, but perfect for your next wavecrawl. I like this one a lot more than the others because I’m usually at such a loss when it comes to maritime adventures. So much so that I’ve never run one. But hopefully this’ll change all of that.
@Rijksmuseumbot Because nothing’s more inspiring to your games than some good ass art — and oftentimes you’ll need to describe the paintings, murals, or pots and pans of your dungeon. Plus, I mean, just look at this shit.
@ChargenBon We’ll end this overview with the two bots that I designed. This first one just rolls up a PC and assigns it a random class and race and some equipment giving literally no regard to hardly any of the rules for suitable PCs. Which would seem dumb, but because the internet is the internet, the most broken (like Ninjas with 3 DEX, Magic-Users with Plate Mail and Greatsword and a mule) PCs often get the highest engagement.
@randomDND This one I’m pretty proud of. It generates a unique location and some random details about it along with a subtle or not subtle adventure seed. It’s not pulled from anything but a series of lists that I grow whenever I think to do it. Even the weird ones seem to make sense in a strange dream like way.
And that’s all I’ve got for now! If you have any recommendations, please shoot me a tweet or DM at @seanmccoy. I’m all ears.
Last night, I was reviewing Mothership with some close friends while complaining about Alien:Covenant and my friend Nick said something that’s stuck...
EDIT: Thanks to everyone who voted for me, I can now say that I am a judge for the 2018 ENnies - I’m super excited and feel incredibly honored to...
Copyright © 2018 Failure Tolerated