![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Nov. 5th, 2003 10:53 amI don't normally post quizzes, but I got sucked into this one. Sadly, I didn't do as well as I feel I should have.
Nov. 5th, 2003
(no subject)
Nov. 5th, 2003 10:26 pmY'know, just because I'm not expecting much combat in the next session of D&D doesn't mean that I don't need to prepare more than I've done so far.
I should be taking this as an opportunity to prepare descriptions, personalities, significant lines. I should be working on the vocal pattern, so that the tragic ghosts don't sound like, say, Valley Girls.
Needless to say, I am not wholly doing so.
By the way, although I've missed a few days, I generally did achieve my goal of being much more productive with journal entries than I had been. I hope it pleases y'all.
I should be taking this as an opportunity to prepare descriptions, personalities, significant lines. I should be working on the vocal pattern, so that the tragic ghosts don't sound like, say, Valley Girls.
Needless to say, I am not wholly doing so.
By the way, although I've missed a few days, I generally did achieve my goal of being much more productive with journal entries than I had been. I hope it pleases y'all.
Automated munchkinry
Nov. 5th, 2003 11:45 pmTonight, I've been pondering the problem of random generation of NPCs in D&D.
The problem is that I don't want truly random characters; I want characters that are at least a little bit optimized for their purpose. Some examples of the sort of optimization I have in mind:
- a cleric should probably have Wisdom among his highest stats.
- a bard should probably have some ranks in Perform, and should own and use the instrument he can Perform.
- the prepared spells of a wizard expecting combat should favor magic missile over Nystul's undetectable aura.
- a character with weapon focus in a weapon should probably own and use that weapon.
These are all guidelines, not absolute rules. But they're still good ideas that should be generally followed by most NPCs.
I'd really like to have an NPC generator that could follow those guidelines and create reasonably effective PCs. I have no idea how to code such a beast, though--I'm not even sure what all those guidelines are, myself.
One idea for an approach to this problem: genetic programming. But the only evaluation metric I can think of is 'have the characters fight it out and see who wins'. But I don't have nearly the time or energy to write the simulator and the AI that would take.
The problem is that I don't want truly random characters; I want characters that are at least a little bit optimized for their purpose. Some examples of the sort of optimization I have in mind:
- a cleric should probably have Wisdom among his highest stats.
- a bard should probably have some ranks in Perform, and should own and use the instrument he can Perform.
- the prepared spells of a wizard expecting combat should favor magic missile over Nystul's undetectable aura.
- a character with weapon focus in a weapon should probably own and use that weapon.
These are all guidelines, not absolute rules. But they're still good ideas that should be generally followed by most NPCs.
I'd really like to have an NPC generator that could follow those guidelines and create reasonably effective PCs. I have no idea how to code such a beast, though--I'm not even sure what all those guidelines are, myself.
One idea for an approach to this problem: genetic programming. But the only evaluation metric I can think of is 'have the characters fight it out and see who wins'. But I don't have nearly the time or energy to write the simulator and the AI that would take.