What is Reddit's opinion of Archivist Elements?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Archivist Elements is great for randomly generating stuff on the fly. It's fully offline and is far and away one of the best random generators I've used because of the variety and detail of its content. It's medieval fantasy-based, but system agnostic so you can use it for any version of D&D, Pathfinder, or other systems. I use it regularly to come up with stuff I didn't know I needed, or as a base to expand on or tweak when I'm creating a session or world. You can save or screenshot stuff in-app.

Here's what it does:

• Banners (randomized background, crest, and colours)
• Playing cards (standard or tarot)
• Characters (name, alignment, appearance, personality, magical ability, handedness, backstory, argument style, and identifying features/quirks)
• Deities (also very detailed, with domains, activities, artifacts, holy days)
• Items (armor, books, herbs, jewelry, misc. goods, potions, weapons, or any combination thereof in differing amounts)
• Maps (cave, dungeon, grid, or tunnel tiles)
• Names (for characters/locations/other, with a variety of styles)
• Omens (random minor but unusual sights/sounds/events)
• Plot hooks (in the form of rumours)
• Rooms (by building or room type)
• Settlements (by size, with leadership type, GP limit, law system, population, and demographics)
• Taverns (with map, current population, brawl chance, notable patrons and rumours)
• Weather (actual and perceived temperature, clouds, wind, precipitation)

In terms of creating a world, the main things it doesn't do, which you'd have to find elsewhere, are countries, organizations, and world maps - mainly because those aren't really things you need on the fly.

If you are willing to pay a little bit, there is an app called Archivist Elements which generates whole dungeons (in several different styles, like caves, tunnels, and building-style dungeons), it will generate entire rooms with descriptions of the room, the treasure in it, enemies, etc. It can generate things like coats of arms, and so on. It'll generate rumors, villages and towns, NPCs, and so on.

It can generate basically everything.

Here is a link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xalops.archivist.elements&hl=en

Archivist Elements

This generator is so good I have a friend right now who is running a game where literally the whole game is being randomly generated with Archivist Elements.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xalops.archivist.elements&hl=en

Created Archivist Elements on both Android and Windows Phone. And LinkedIn

Current planned projects (so you have an idea of availability): * Refactor Archivist Elements backend * After refactor, rebuild app in Xamarin (most likely) or Cordova to be cross platform. Including Win Universal and iPhone. * Redesign my crappy personal website * Continue work on Archivist Chronologies and Archivist Worlds projects (slower progress as I'm still deciding features and using as an opportunity to become better at UI and UX)

Hey. I would say it's good experience for programming. I did something similar within my app, but it is very basic. Instead of choosing a shop type, you pick the types of items the shop happens to have, and how many items it has in total. Then it generates and compounds the number of items in case of the same item being generated multiple times.

If you are using an Android or Windows Phone device, you can download the app. And use it for inspiration. It costs $1, but I'll gladly refund that for you if possible. I know I can refund on Android, not sure about WinPhone.

Also, I'm sure you can find a good list of items, but if you happen to need a list of items to include, let me know and I'll send you the list I am using in Archivist Elements.

Archivist Elements on Android

Archivist Elements on Windows Phone

I developed both an Android and Windows Phone app to cover a lot of spontaneous surprise information I would need for my players. Not an End-All-Be-All but I definitely think it is a useful tool. Lack of updates because I'm currently enrolled in the Udacity Android Course and wanted to finish it so I can redesign the app in a better way.

Archivist Elements on Android

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xalops.archivist.elements

Archivist Elements on Windows Phone

https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/store/Apps/Archivist-Elements/9WZDNCRDC9M5

Going to piggyback off this leave this here for you and Matt in case you guys need them, as I found this a few months back and use it for my own shitty DM screen :)

Additionally, I use this app to help generate some small towns [general population and what not], this one for tracking down what class/level/type of spell somone is using [Can also make custom spell lists for characters!], and I've found this one while looking for these to link on!

I hope these help!

QuickEdit: There's this app I use in case I need to make some stats for the character too!

My thoughts:

1. I never used a DM screen for any system. Not because I'm proud of my memorization skills, it's just that my basic philosophy is that if there's too much situational stuff in a system that you can't run it by memory after a few sessions, then it's too complex a system... but if you're too afraid to make by-the-moment calls, then maybe a DM screen is worth your bacon. And frankly, if you want the players to trust that you have the best intentions for them, then only roll when there's a chance for the dice to fudge your decision-making. In which case, why bother with a DM screen? [When it comes to stuff I need, if it's not in my notes and it's not in the player's character sheets, I just make up the stuff and let the dice roll where they may.]
2. The math is actually simpler than what's in this PDF. There are actually just 5 DCs in the game, divided by tier -- 15 (normal adventurer), 20 (hard adventurer/normal champion), 25 (ridiculous adventurer/hard champion/normal epic), 30 (ridiculous champion/hard epic), 35 (ridiculous epic). So all you need to think of are two things -- A: what sort of environment are the adventurers in?, and B: how high are the stakes? Mundane environments would put everyone in the Adventurer tier, Fantastic environments are at least Champion tier, and world-shattering environments are Epic tier... then threat/harm level would be low/easy (normal), meaningful/average (hard), potentially deadly (ridiculous).
3. If you are referring to Skill Challenges themselves (the X successes before X failures), note that 13th Age doesn't have that; that's D&D 4E, and the early version of Skill Challenges to boot. They updated it to X successes before 3 failures, and 13th Age never even has it; instead, Tales from the 13th Age has montages (where each of the players takes turns setting up a situation that prevents them from moving forward, and the person next to them explains how their character overcomes that situation). The very concept of Fail Forward also limits the need for Skill Challenges if you ask me.
4. I use https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xalops.archivist.elements&hl=en instead of Chaotic Shiny, if only because I use my mobile device instead of a laptop or PC :)
5. Fail Forward also applies to GMs, but in a slightly different way: if for players, Fail Forward means failing a skill usually shouldn't mean that the action stops (it just means it usually succeeds but with a complication that makes things worse for the group), for GMs Fail Forward means failing to follow the rules shouldn't mean that the game stops (it just means that the mistake would be fixed later on or in the next session).
6. Index cards are your best friends. Master their use ;)
7. 13th Age expects you to do the legwork when it comes to making the system and the world your own. But you're also encouraged to get your players to do the legwork with you -- that's precisely what the Backgrounds and One Unique Things are for (and if they're that vested in the world, they can name the icons as well, making it feel far less generic).
8. 13th Age is a lot more forgiving when it comes to creating fights. That fight table in the core book? Far too easy for the group based on experience. The design of the 10-Session Campaign implies that the system allows and even encourages you to provide set pieces that are high as 2.5x the listed difficulty (which I successfully tested with a party of three, who didn't have a cleric or healer to support them). I personally just reduce the monster table to this little list: 5-10 mooks (in 1-2 waves), and 1-2 standard monsters per PC above 2. If I want to spice things up: trade 5 mooks for a standard, 2 standards for a double-strength, or 3 standards/1 standard + 1 double-strength for a triple-strength. And if I really want to make it epic, I just double the total, or double the level. I could always have them suffer a campaign loss, instead of a TPK.

[So yes, you can actually throw 10 level 2 mooks and a single level 1 triple-strength monsters at a party of 5 level 1s and it'll still be relatively fair, if a bit difficult due to the number and level of the mooks, plus the raw power of the triple-strength monster; if you're not sure if they could handle this number, send the mooks in waves of 2s or 3s and stop if half of the party gets staggered.]

Now that I've voiced out that bit about the PDF itself, this is what I would've put in that PDF in terms of resources that any newbie DM would need, not only for D&D but for any d20 RPG in general (aside from what was mentioned already):

1. Use the index cards to A: character tents that let you the DM know who the players' characters are, and remind the players of their backgrounds and unique things. Adding stuff like most common combat stats (AC, PD, MD, attack bonus of their signature attack) would be useful for the player so that they don't need to flip through their character sheet, or you could have some of it on the side facing you so you don't need to wait for them to check if you hit them; B: create maps on the fly, by writing a brief description of what a room or area is about (gatehouse with trellis, locked guard barracks, main road littered with the sick, etc.); saves on ink and is easier to imagine how engaged/nearby/far away looks like [if the tokens are touching base, they're engaged, if they're in the same index card but not touching bases, they're nearby, and if they're in adjacent index cards, they're far away]; and C: have all the relevant stats for your NPCs, monsters, etc. Much more convenient than having it all in a DM screen or a notebook if you ask me.
2. It might not be related to 13th Age, but I highly encourage all new DMs to go through http://book.dwgazetteer.com/gm.html , http://book.dwgazetteer.com/first_session.html , and http://book.dwgazetteer.com/fronts.html . The first is effectively a tutorial on how to DM fairly, the second has advice that could help new DMs prep a campaign that is personalized for the group, and fronts is the overarching plot that is organized so that new DMs could avoid the number one mistake made by newbies I think: railroading the players (because instead of telling you how the players should go, it tells you why the enemies matter and how they would move in the game world; players are merely there to react to those threats).
3. Icon relationships are your tools that connect the characters with the world, and their presence and how they're related to the characters suggests what the tone for that campaign ought to be. I use ideas from http://pelgranepress.com/index.php/13th-age-when-icons-interfere/ and roll the Random Icon Influence when players fail their icon relationship rolls (explaining that they successfully called for help from their icon [or from enemies of their icon], but that help was prevented by someone else who took advantage of that move by the icon).
4. Vignettes (from D&D 4E) are awesome :) basically for certain types of scenes (particularly when not everyone in the party is involved), you can hand out index cards that describe the NPCs [name, quirk, secret, goal] that the player who receives it would roleplay as, and watch them go at it until you consider the scene as sufficiently resolved.
5. For ultra-quick prepping, prepare one long-term threat [campaign front], one immediate threat [adventure front], three monster stats per threat/front (that you can alter on the fly), three NPCs [each with a name, a quirk, a secret, and a goal], and three magic items. Make sure that they're threats and NPCs that can easily be meaningful enough to the players -- refer to their characters' backgrounds, or better yet talk with them and learn more about their character's backstories that aren't immediately found in their character sheets.

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Fantastic! Good to know that there're more sources out there (May need to start watching those to improve my own style, hehe).

There's a piece of software that I use. It's a bit clunky and can take a bit of getting used to, but for the most part you can set up encounters, have the character information and monster information on the one screen and go through it. It has an encounter builder as well, so you just need to take the initiative order from the players and the app can do the rest.

I use this app to help generate some small towns [general population and what not], this one for tracking down what class/level/type of spell somone is using [Can also make custom spell lists for characters!], and I've found this one while looking for these to link on! There's this app I use in case I need to make some stats for the character too!

I've also made some quick-reference excel sheets, as they have things like potion look, effect, statuses and conditions etc. in a quick reference guide, which I would be happy to share. A list of symonyms can also help when describing things to players, which can always be handy.

I've seen a few comments saying that you were over-prepared, and I'll pass along the biggest piece of advice I was given when coming up with a story; Have a few bullet points in story, some notable NPCs, and the rest can be filler.

I use this app to help generate some small towns [general population and what not], this one for tracking down what class/level/type of spell somone is using [Can also make custom spell lists for characters!], and I've found this one while looking for these to link on! There's this app I use in case I need to make some stats for the character too!

I've also gotten the hang of this app, which allows me to track the initiative, stats and initiative order with my tablet. I've also made some quick-reference excel sheets, as they have things like potion look, effect, statuses and conditions etc. in a quick reference guide.

As for the tablet, I use a Samsung Galaxy Pro Tab 8.4" with a bluetooth keyboard.

As a DM inspired by the one and only Matt, there was a few things that helped me get started.

There is this here for you.

Additionally, I use this app to help generate some small towns [general population and what not], this one for tracking down what class/level/type of spell somone is using [Can also make custom spell lists for characters!], and I've found this one while looking for these to link on! There's this app I use in case I need to make some stats for the character too!

I've also gotten the hang of this app, which allows me to track the initiative, stats and initiative order with my tablet. I'd be more than happy to show screenshots!
I've also made some quick-reference excel sheets I'll scan in later for you if you'd like, as they have things like potion look, effect, statuses and conditions etc. in a quick reference guide.

Let me know and I'd be happy to help out as well!