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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>About these Apps</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hobby Hovel Generators</h1>
<h2>About the apps</h2>
<p>
This collection of web apps for old school dungeoncrawling started with DunGen in 2014,
when I realized that while there are plenty of programs to randomly generate and stock one
of those graph paper like grids, nobody had done a pointcrawler that I was aware of, and none were
stocking then at the level of detail and thematic unity that I wanted to see. So I gave it a try when I
came across the Vis.js javascript library that could take the pain out of generating the graphs, even make them
kind of fun to play with. Then DunMap descended from it when I got the idea that using the same room contents generation,
I could scratch another itch and make a stocker for the nice bitmap map images that people make and
share on the internet, including some I'd drawn myself. Hiring Hall got its start when the preeminent
OSR hireling generator Meatshields was down for awhile and I was in a game that
could use such a utility. And its getting a second pass now as I get into GMing AS&SH with its unique needs.</p>
<p>
Technically they are pretty simple, straightforward JavaScript running purely in your browser, with no server behind them other than the static
webserver that provides them. This makes them easy to hack on and run from local copies, and something I can leave out there on the web, without worrying
about server maintenance issues. They use vis.js for the graphs and data handling and a bit of jQuery besides basic JavasScript.
</p>
<p>I might go in any of several directions next, whatever catches my interest the most.
But its most likely to be one of these:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Fleshing out the levelled PCs in Hiring Hall, and making it more flexible</li>
<li>Customizable content toggles for the dungeon generators like the one now in Hiring Hall, probably first for AS&SH stocked dungeons, then maybe Tekumel</li>
<li>A UI update on DunGen that breaks out the Notes box into multiple editable and savable fields, a better arrangement for the controls, position locking for the graphs, etc.</li>
<li>MegadunGen that has a way to link and build together multiple DunGen maps in a big, multipage navigable complex</li>
<li>More complex, combinatorial setpiece descriptions for major rooms, and more detailed customized monsters, like unique dragons and demons</li>
<li>More historically sourced name lists and a UI to select the one(s) you want for flavor</li>
<li>More game design like contents layouts with entrances called out, explicit bosses shielded buy minions in buffer rooms and such</li>
<li>A better wilderness treatment</li>
<li>A town generator treatment</li>
<li>Generators targeted for ease of use and convenience on smaller mobile displays, like just names, organizations, or room contents to use on a phone on the fly</li>
<li>A politics generator/simulator/game that builds up a fantasy social network with actions arising from conflicting interests</li>
<li>A better utility for saving your stuff and returning to it from other devices probably using Google drive or Dropbox login and storage,
so you own your own stuff and I don't have to be responsible for keeping a server up.</li>
<li>A grand campaign tool that rolls together several of the above for generating and editing a wilderness campaign map with dungeons and towns and other strongholds with politics fractally on it</li>
</ul>
<h2>About Me</h2>
<p> I'm Ed Allen, one of those middle aged gamers who's been playing D&D since it
was first published, and miniatures a couple years longer than than that. On and off I've built software to
support my gaming hobby, more often for D&D than other stuff. My first program was
a Fletcher Pratt Naval Rules ship generator, in BASIC, that ran slow as molasses on an
Altair 8080, spending all night to calculate and print out a ship chart. My dad
showed my my first coding optimizations, that got it down to about 45 minutes per ship. So I guess that dates me. I really fell in love with programming via HyperCard and the epic collection of D&D campaign
HyperCard stacks I built back in the 80s.
</p>
<p>Besides RPGs, I also still play cardboard chit wargames, though less often than I once did, computer games, mins, some Euro board games,
but I'm pretty much over CCGs and haven't done an FPS for a couple years now. I read SF & fantasy & occasionally history or something else, currently working my way back through The Malazan Book of the Fallen for a second pass.
</p>
<h2>Contacting me</h2>
<p><a href="https://plus.google.com/+EdAllen">+EdAllen on G+</a>.</p>
<p><a href = "https://sites.google.com/site/hobbyhovel">Ed's Hobby Hovel</a> - Some things I made: Rencounter skirmish rules, etc</p>
<p> or you can leave a comment on a post on my blog <a href="http://geekruminations.blogspot.com">Ruminations of a Geek</a>.</p>
<p>I'm @edallen on Twitter.</p>
<p>I'm on gmail with a 1 after my name.</p>
</body>
</html>