As Rand Roll has been running since mid-2018 and has moved to a new platform, I'm taking a look at some of the highlights.
A Bundle of Interviews
The best bit is the Creator Interviews where I got to hear from people making similar tools and having similar problems. Hearing about their favourite tools, how they got into this niche fields and their plans for the future.
Well known creators from our miniscule world (of Random Tools for Tabletop RPGs) such as Emily of Fantasy Name Generators, Donjon, Watabou, folks at Chartopia and Casey of DND Speak.
But probably my favourite was the Interview with the Folks at Dungeon Master's Vault, a crazy long affair with 6 of the organisers there, just before Covid kicked off big time.
The Generator Challenges
In August 2019 we ran our first Generators Challenge, which is any creator welcome to make a tool following a theme detailed over at the rpg_generarators Subreddit and here on Rand Roll (as not everyone uses reddit). We've run several since with the latest being Wagons, Mechs and Vehicles with several gens made.
It's been great to see veterans such as donjon and Ben of Iron Arachne joining in along with newer tools from Courtney at Magic Gurrl and Paul Bellow of Lit RPG. I've been wandering how to get more creators involved and may experiment in the coming year.
Starting on Table and Gen Theory
I've wanted to write more articles about the creation of random generators and how they are used in games. To help me understand what we do and help GMs and players use the tools that we create.
So it was a good feeling to start series of these with Table Basics and Linear Tables and Bell Curves for table theory. Plus Creating a Names List for your RPG Session and Using Dnd Random Encounter Tables for using random rpg tools.
I don't expect the table theory articles to be the most-read of things, but plan on these two strands continuing well into the future. If it goes well I might compile into a book.
Far More Highlights!
Other highlights include 31 Days of RPG Gens, discovering new gens through the Generator Guides and
