Hermits, Man
hiding under rocks since 304 BCThe Idea
While skimming a collection of roleplaying blogs, I came across a post by some Rolang character wherein he sets out some criteria for a random hermit. It was alright, but it got a little weird in the end for me. But, after glancing at it, I figured I could make this into a neat little python script.
I only know python, so it’s not like I was going to write it in any other language though.
The Core
The actual mechanic is a simple step-by-step set of RNGs. See here:
nr = 5
while nr >= 0:
if nr == 5:
obs_res = obsession[random.randint(1,10)]
nr -= 1
This process continues until nr == 0, which allows the program to run through each of the 5 randomized elements then print out the results. All in all, it’s a pretty simple program.
I’m sure there’s a way to modulize it, make it even more compact, but I wouldn’t know, since I’m still new to this. The obs_res variable is the value to the random key which gets called later when everything is printed out.
So you’ll notice above that the if loop calls on something called obsession, which is a dictionary that I defined/populated/whatevered higher up in the code. The randint takes a random number between 1 and 10 which then serves as a key value for the obsession dict.
The Content
I created 5 dictionaries to contain the randomized values. Those dicts cover the hermit’s obsession, with whom he will converse, the kinds of people he tolerates, a defining quirk, and his secret. Here’s the converse dict:
converse = { 1 : 'no one (he\'s mute)',
2 : 'birds',
3 : 'plants',
4 : 'animals',
5 : 'rocks',
6 : 'invisible friend',
7 : 'ghosts',
8 : 'puppets',
9 : 'dead mother\'s corpse',
10: 'penis', }
So it’s not a total random hermit: he has bounds and only 5 given areas of randomization. You’ll have to supply the name and clothing and his habitat and anything else about him, but to make things a bit easier, the script does print out a very nice paragraph for you to read aloud to the players. Here’s an example:
Your randomly generated hermit is obsessed with supernatural events, converses only with no one (he’s mute), and only tolerates warriors. Curiously, he constantly talks bakwards and in realiity, he is actually related to a party member!
Amusing? Sure. Useful? Maybe. Awesome? Most definitely.
Give it a spin
Check out the github page for hermit-gen.py here. Oh, and just as a note, all my code is in python 3 (I know, I know, but that’s what I learned). For something like this, I think you might only have to change one or two things to get it to work in python 2, but I wanted to forewarn you there.
