Today, I’ve released a generator for the Estates of the Eliari module.

Back in 2022, I was curious about whether I could build a random generator for entire dungeon that made more sense than the traditional, purely-random variety, such as those that come out of Appendix A. I was also thinking about Frontier Forts of Kelnore, the 1978 supplement published by Judges Guild. That supplement had a map that you might have to modify based on a few results, such as “a 5 foot ditch was dug around the walls”.

I built a generator based on Frontier Forts it to get an idea of what it could produce. You can see how the results are relatively sparse, though I remember reading that players had fun with it when it was first available. I knew I could do something much more complex. And when I got into it, I discovered it was a lot of fun to keep coming up with alternate results. It was something like a solitaire version of the short-form improv game “New Choice” aka “Change”, where a bell rings and you must come up with a different response.

This experience is similar to that of abductive reasoning that we use when making sense of random results in TTRPGs. In fact, preparing this generator was much like the whole process in reverse because I started from one result and asked my muse to tell me about how it could be different, all the while keeping in mind the context of the other parts of the adventure location. And added challenge is making sure that one result won’t introduce a contradiction that ruins verisimilitude.

I had so much fun grinding through the possibilities, I thought others would like to join in. I posted the unfinished manuscript to the BFRPG forum, hoping for some collaboration. I didn’t get much on the creative side, so eventually built out the entire set of tables. I did benefit from the excellent editing team over there, and the module was eventually published in 2025.

Check out the loot page for more information plus links to download the module.

How useful or interesting is this kind of generator? Should I build another one? I’m open to suggestions.