You could print the map and then cover it with a piece of paper, in which you've cut a hole that is the radius of your party's light source.
Alternately, open a copy of the map in GIMP or Photoshop. Create a new top layer, that you paint solid black (or whatever colour you like). Size your eraser to a circle the radius of your party's light source/visual range. Erase a path through the dungeon as you go. I've actually done this with an exploration hexcrawl that I made in Hexographer, complete with random features.
In either method, you could draw large features on the map itself as you go. To preserve some amount of mystery/danger, I would also keep a numbered key on a separate piece of paper for notes on other contents: traps bypassed but not disabled, magical effects, etc. Number every room & corridor, so if you need to move back through them quickly (e.g. should the monsters give chase when you retreat) you won't be tempted to go the route with no markings.
When I was using kabuki kaiser's ruins of the undercity and mad monks of kwantoom, I generated the rooms but skipped the maps. it's clunky, but it will do in lieu of programmatic room-at-a-time dungeon generation.
I'm guessing there's some code that could be stolen from a roguelike and adapted to this use, but my c/c++ is rusty beyond belief.
"Or, if you prefer, We have a lot of Dungeon generators out there, but how do you make them grow as you explore?" If you go with a tile based system, you can always leave lots of exits on each side ala dungeon geomorphic maps. You can also have logic that says that the last room in a level that 'seals' it is always a way down. Similarly, if there are a fixed number of levels, the last room on the last level is the boss lair (as per tradition.)
I always like the way some rogue-likes and Diablo did the mix of procedural levels with specific encounter tiles.
Todd Zircher Warhammer Quest took this approach. Random generation, mix of random & "set piece" rooms, a final Encounter ("Boss Battle" room somewhere towards the end.
I usually just generate it up room by room in text. I'm not into mega dungeons though so it never gets to be too much. I wonder if you could use, say, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup in god mode for a similar effect? For a "paper" map, I'd load it up in Gimp with an opaque layer on top, then erase carefully as I explored. Maybe use a eraser set to the approximate area of my party's light source or something.
Procedural dungeon generation with the ability to persist a save state. At least that's one of the ideas I am playing with. :-)
ReplyDeleteTodd Zircher do not think I have forgotten our ghost program discussion. It's out there, just a matter if it was made yet or not!
ReplyDeleteI made a card game to solve that problem and called it Delving Dungeons , it's on rpgnow if your interested
ReplyDeleteYou could print the map and then cover it with a piece of paper, in which you've cut a hole that is the radius of your party's light source.
ReplyDeleteAlternately, open a copy of the map in GIMP or Photoshop. Create a new top layer, that you paint solid black (or whatever colour you like). Size your eraser to a circle the radius of your party's light source/visual range. Erase a path through the dungeon as you go. I've actually done this with an exploration hexcrawl that I made in Hexographer, complete with random features.
In either method, you could draw large features on the map itself as you go. To preserve some amount of mystery/danger, I would also keep a numbered key on a separate piece of paper for notes on other contents: traps bypassed but not disabled, magical effects, etc. Number every room & corridor, so if you need to move back through them quickly (e.g. should the monsters give chase when you retreat) you won't be tempted to go the route with no markings.
When I was using kabuki kaiser's ruins of the undercity and mad monks of kwantoom, I generated the rooms but skipped the maps. it's clunky, but it will do in lieu of programmatic room-at-a-time dungeon generation.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing there's some code that could be stolen from a roguelike and adapted to this use, but my c/c++ is rusty beyond belief.
Mike Overbo something of this is happening in another of my posts
ReplyDeleteGerard Nerval Those are some really fantastic ideas! Kudos. :)
ReplyDelete"Or, if you prefer, We have a lot of Dungeon generators out there, but how do you make them grow as you explore?" If you go with a tile based system, you can always leave lots of exits on each side ala dungeon geomorphic maps. You can also have logic that says that the last room in a level that 'seals' it is always a way down. Similarly, if there are a fixed number of levels, the last room on the last level is the boss lair (as per tradition.)
ReplyDeleteI always like the way some rogue-likes and Diablo did the mix of procedural levels with specific encounter tiles.
Todd Zircher Warhammer Quest took this approach. Random generation, mix of random & "set piece" rooms, a final Encounter ("Boss Battle" room somewhere towards the end.
ReplyDeleteI usually just generate it up room by room in text. I'm not into mega dungeons though so it never gets to be too much. I wonder if you could use, say, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup in god mode for a similar effect? For a "paper" map, I'd load it up in Gimp with an opaque layer on top, then erase carefully as I explored. Maybe use a eraser set to the approximate area of my party's light source or something.
ReplyDelete