A random monster generator

[peorthyr]

Good day all.

I'm trying to developing a tool, as the title says, a random monster generator.

I'm not trying to generate a complex monster, or add a lot of details, I'd prefer to generate something basic, but functional.

My idea is to generate the stats STR, CON, SIZ, INT, DEX, POW and then generate all the other data from them.

Probably I'll add some flags to the generator like "has tentacles", "can fly", or "has tail" in order to generate special attacks or features.

Now my problem is, how can I calculate the basic damage of those creatures?

Let's say for example that by default I'll assume that all monsters can bite (maybe a "cannot bite" flag will be added), so I'll have to generate a bite attack, so I need to determine the percent of the skill, the basic damage and if the DB will be added or not.

I should say that STR, CON, SIZ and DEX will be involved in this formula, but I'm struck on this basically.

I don't need something perfectly tuned, but I'd like to have some plausible numbers. Of course each monster should be validated by the GM and not used as is, but I'd like to have something that "could work" out of the box (of course one should add some special ability, some magic if needed, a background and some fancy thing, but I guess you take the point).

You are more experienced than me for sure, I'm reading the BRP system since a couple of months, but nothing more, so I'm a noob in this world, I've taken a look at some bestiary, but I can't figure out a way to standardize this aspect.

[Lloyd Dupont]

I'd say you can go with a base damage between D3~D10 related to monster size... it's a bit tricky because bigger monster have bigger mouth hey? I would fudge it based on monster type (herbivores, carnivores, apex predator, exceptional or weak natural weapon)
And then add SIZ+STR damage bonus.

 

[peorthyr]

6 minutes ago, Lloyd Dupont said:

I'd say you can go with a base damage between D3~D10 related to monster size... it's a bit tricky because bigger monster have bigger mouth hey? I would fudge it based on monster type (herbivores, carnivores, apex predator, exceptional or weak natural weapon)
And then add SIZ+STR damage bonus.

 

I started from there, but I faced the Horse like creature VS Lion like creature, and using only size, the Horse makes a bite damage equal if not more than the lion, so I actually trying to use also DEX and STR to choose the kind of dice D3-D10 but actually I'm struck with balancing... I'm merely adding all the stats now... STR+SIZ+DEX and I'm taking a look at the basic bestiary to look for a pattern...

[Lloyd Dupont]

There are plenty of critic to be said on the realism of BRP... But when you simulate reality with a simple HP, Armor and Dmg value there is only so much that you can do.
I am working on a large weapon and spell table and I plan on tweaking damage type effect and armor type behavior to add some pleasing (to me) degrees of realism...

At any rate look what BRP does:
Horse: 
- Bite D3+db/2 (cutting)
- Kick D8+db (crushing)
- Trample: 2D6+db (crushing) (war horse only.. prone enemy?)

Lion:
- Bite: D10+db/2 (bleeding)
- Claw: D6+db (bleeding)
- Reaping 2D6+db (bleeding) (need to succeed both claw previous round)

so .. close enough!
also consider that predator will have higher natural weapon skill values. That also tilt the odds in a relevant fashion

Edited October 8, 2020 by Lloyd Dupont

[peorthyr]

yes maybe is a matter of adding some type flag like "is predator", "is stealthy"... etc...

[Lloyd Dupont]

remember than in BRP (even in D&D to some degrees) 1 monster, unless it has exceptional stat (like a Dragon) is never going to be a challenge to a whole well armed party.

To make it a challenge you need many monsters (to start with more action than the PC party), do enough damage to bypass armor and (or?) using stealth guerilla tactic or come at a very inopportune moment...

I.e. seldom can you just put a monster and make it a challenge. Instead you should have some challenge (a tomb with many traps? an enemy tribe?) and when everything goes bad, but recoverable, boom pile up the additional challenge!

After all, monsters hate it too when the PC fight back, so better fight smart! 😮

Edited October 8, 2020 by Lloyd Dupont

[peorthyr]

2 minutes ago, Lloyd Dupont said:

To make it a challenge you need many monsters (to start with more action than the PC party), do enough damage to bypass armor and (or?) using stealth guerilla tactic or come at a very inopportune moment...

you are absolutely right, maybe I'm over-engineering this thing.

[rsanford]

Doesn’t Mythras have an encounter generator? Maybe you could see how they did it?

[Prinz Slasar]

On 10/8/2020 at 4:28 PM, rsanford said:

Doesn’t Mythras have an encounter generator? Maybe you could see how they did it?

Yes, it has http://skoll.xyz/mythras_eg/

[peorthyr]

Wow, really interesting!

[g33k]

On 10/8/2020 at 5:08 AM, peorthyr said:

yes maybe is a matter of adding some type flag like "is predator", "is stealthy"... etc...

I think this is good.  Herbivore/Omnivore/Predator, & baseline on omnivore; move up a die-type UP for predator, DOWN for herbivore (for bite & claw).

Some herbivores also have VERY potent kick attacks... frequently running for your life will do that, hmmm?  Others not so much...

But frankly, I think there's too many exceptional cases.  Like, some macaws have a bite capable of snipping off a finger.  Triggerfish eat coral and -- though their bite is tiny -- the human body has NOTHING that impedes their little nip...

I'd work on a "most cases" model, and not worry about the exceptions (at least at first).

Edited October 15, 2020 by g33k

[peorthyr]

31 minutes ago, g33k said:

Herbivore/Omnivore/Predator, & baseline on omnivore; move up a die-type UP for predator, DOWN for herbivore (for bite & claw).

that is the starting point I was searching. of course it will be a sort of "template", but at least I'd like a medium fidelity template

[Warframe44]

On 10/8/2020 at 6:04 AM, peorthyr said:

Good day all.

I'm trying to developing a tool, as the title says, a random monster generator.

I'm not trying to generate a complex monster, or add a lot of details, I'd prefer to generate something basic, but functional.

My idea is to generate the stats STR, CON, SIZ, INT, DEX, POW and then generate all the other data from them.

Probably I'll add some flags to the generator like "has tentacles", "can fly", or "has tail" in order to generate special attacks or features.

Now my problem is, how can I calculate the basic damage of those creatures?

Let's say for example that by default I'll assume that all monsters can bite (maybe a "cannot bite" flag will be added), so I'll have to generate a bite attack, so I need to determine the percent of the skill, the basic damage and if the DB will be added or not.

I should say that STR, CON, SIZ and DEX will be involved in this formula, but I'm struck on this basically.

I don't need something perfectly tuned, but I'd like to have some plausible numbers. Of course each monster should be validated by the GM and not used as is, but I'd like to have something that "could work" out of the box (of course one should add some special ability, some magic if needed, a background and some fancy thing, but I guess you take the point).

You are more experienced than me for sure, I'm reading the BRP system since a couple of months, but nothing more, so I'm a noob in this world, I've taken a look at some bestiary, but I can't figure out a way to standardize this aspect.

Peorthyr, I used VLOOKUP tables. This was originally posted to /r/BRP, but I've attached a copy. Feel free to pillage whatever works, if any of it does for you. It's not pretty but it more or less came about by accident

BRP Character Generator ROUGH.ods

[peorthyr]

12 hours ago, Warframe44 said:

I've attached a copy.

Thanks! 

[Atgxtg]

I don't know if this would work for you or not, but a few years back I was working with someone on a bestiary, and I did some work deconstructing the creatures from RQ3. Here are a few things I worked out:

STR typically is similar to SIZ. Realistically it should increase at a 2/3 ratio with SIZ due to the sqaure-cube law, but most large creatures in the game are magical, and so can be considered to be supernaturally strong.

CON tends to increase in proportion to 2/3s the SIZ increase. Ths a creature that's SIZ 40 will probably have a CON around 25 ish.

Armor is susally a multiple of the damage bonus. Typically 1 point per db, although values of 3 or even 4 times db are possible for creatres with tough natural armor, such as dragons.

Damage dice tends to shift up a dice if the creature is a carnivore, and also for every 8 points of SIZ past a certian point (I'd have to find my notes to get the actual progression). Also, some smaller animals either have a larger damage stat than normal to offset thier db peanlty, or a smaller damage stat but ignore the db modfier.

 

We were using this stuff to stat up animals based on the nearest analogues that had stats- i.e. stating up a Megalodon based on the RQ3 "Large Shark" stats and the square cube law, and we have a database with lots of animals,  but then general ideas could easily be adapted to a table with generic stats for creatures of a given size.  Probably in increments of 8 SIZ points (double the mass), or 4 SIZ points (about a 40-50%) increase). 

[peorthyr]

On 10/16/2020 at 6:51 PM, Atgxtg said:

some work deconstructing the creatures from RQ3. Here are a few things I worked out:

I love you.

[Atgxtg]

On 10/19/2020 at 3:59 AM, peorthyr said:

I love you.

Whoa! Dinner first.

 

More seriously, I have found some of my old notes including my "Critter Fitter" speadsheet that I used to scale animals from nearest analogs. It might be worth alook, especially if I can find where I put the "Weapon Class" stuff for scaling up damage for bigger critters. Oh, and the Superworld SIZ table would be useful to you too, as it can help to turn real world data into game stats based on a creatures mass or weight.  

 

Oh the rough rule of thumb is x2 mass = +8 SIZ = +6 STR & +6 CON, and probably -1/2 DEX. But most creature in BRP have STR equal to SIZ.

Edited October 20, 2020 by Atgxtg

[colinabrett]

I wrote a set of Perl programs for randomly generating PCs and monsters for BRP and Magic World. If you're interested, I could send you a tar.gz or zipfile.

Colin

[peorthyr]

On 10/20/2020 at 7:55 AM, colinabrett said:

I wrote a set of Perl programs for randomly generating PCs and monsters for BRP and Magic World. If you're interested, I could send you a tar.gz or zipfile.

Colin

Thanks Colin, I'm not into Perl, but you can send them of course, I bet something I'll be able to understand
send them to peorthyr(snail)gmail.com