Fantasy Map Generator; Deorum; Armoria

“Let’s give it a good shake and SEE WHAT FALLS OUT!!”

After this 380 Drop-day journey together (416, total, with the Bonus Drops), one might come to the errant conclusion that your friendly neighborhood hrbrmstr has no time for silly things like games. While it is true that I prioritize a bunch of other pastimes and projects over mere entertainment, I have a soft spot for all things RPG, especially when one gets to be in control of the action.

For the uninitiated, the opening quote comes from Baldur’s Gate, one of the best series of digital games ever created. While I will never think un-fondly of all the BGs, I firmly believe we all are capable of creating such epic flights of fancy.

So, today, we encroach a wee bit on Lynn’s territory (you do sub to TITAA, right?), we won’t linger too long, there, as we delve further into creating our own great under(or, over)ground empires for our imaginations to run wild in, preferably around a table of fellow adventurers.

TL;DR

This is an AI-generated summary of today’s Drop.

While not exactly what I asked for, Perplexity did a fine job, despite leaving out all the links.

• The post begins with a reflection on the author’s love for RPG games, particularly the Baldur’s Gate series. The author believes that everyone has the potential to create their own epic adventures and encourages readers to explore their creativity in this realm. The author also introduces the theme of the post, which is a focus on tools for creating fantasy worlds and characters.

• The author then introduces three resources created by Max Haniyeu (a.k.a. Azgaar). The first is Azgaar’s Fantasy Map Generator, a free open-source web application that helps users create and edit fantasy maps. The tool generates biomes, civilizations, cultural spread, and even events and military deployments. The second resource is Deorum, a tool that provides a gallery of over 1,600 pre-created, customizable characters from 32 diverse fantasy races. The third resource is Armoria, a procedural heraldry generator and editor that can generate unique, customizable heraldic emblems.

• The author concludes the post by highlighting the potential of these tools to add depth and authenticity to users’ creations. The author also mentions that they might consider changing their handle to dngnmstr, indicating their enthusiasm for dungeon mastering and the creation of fantasy worlds.

Fantasy Map Generator (FMG)

All three of today’s resources are creations of Max Haniyeu (a.k.a. Azgaar).

This first one, Azgaar’s Fantasy Map Generator (GH) is a FOSS web application that helps fantasy writers, game masters, and cartographers create and edit fantasy maps.

It’s not just a simple map maker, though. This tool generates biomes, civilizations, cultural spread within the civilizations, and even events and military deployments. It’s like having a world-building assistant at your fingertips.

You can use auto-generated maps as they are, edit them, or even create a new map from scratch. Or, you can change a burg’s or country’s culture, expand a country’s territory, and even combine one country with another.

Azgaar is actively working on the tool, with plans to implement features like an economic and trade system, history simulation, dynasties and rulers, plus built-in search and guides. You can follow along on the dev board.

If so inclined and able, you can also directly support Max’s work.

Be careful, though. You can lose hours crafting the perfect setting for your next adventure!

Deorum

Your world needs inhabitants, and those inhabitants need to be kept engaged. For this, we turn to another of Azgaar’s creations, Deorum (GH). This also FOSS tool is a veritable treasure trove for fiction/fantasy writers, game masters, and anyone in need of unique, customizable fantasy characters.

This web app provides a vast gallery of over 1,600 pre-created, customizable characters from 32 diverse fantasy races. Each character is unique, boasting a distinct portrait and a detailed biography, serving as a potential inspiration source for your next fantasy project. The basis of these portraits is 120 original, hand-drawn images, which have been multiplied into over 10,000 variations using advanced AI image generation techniques.

You can use your own intelligence and creativity to manually edit the existing characters but can also create new ones and generate comprehensive biographies using GPT-4.

Like the map generator, Azgaar is actively working on Deorum, with plans to implement features like an economic and trade system, history simulation, dynasties and rulers, built-in search and guides, and more.

Plus, the latest versions of both Deorum and FMG play very nicely together.

Armoria

Azgaar’s Armoria (GH) is a procedural heraldry generator and editor. It’s both a serverless GUI tool and a server-side API, which means you can use it directly from your web browser or integrate it into your own applications.

One of the neatest features of Armoria is its ability to generate unique, customizable heraldic emblems. These emblems, or coats of arms, are automatically generated for all states, provinces, and burgs in your fantasy world. The tool is smart enough to produce similar emblems for connected areas, select shield shapes based on culture, and even know where port and mountain settlements are to select a better emblem.

Some powerful magic is unleashed when you start customizing these emblems. The very human-friendly interface enables us to edit the generated emblems or create our own versions from scratch. We can choose from various patterns, symbols, and colors to create an emblem that represents perfectly your fantasy state or character.

The outputs from this tool can truly add a layer of depth and authenticity to your creations.

FIN

Perhaps, I should consider changing my handle to dngnmstr?! ☮️