# Silly name generator



## SpikeyFreak (Jan 31, 2002)

I've been messing around with VB6 trying to learn it, and in the process made this simple little program, so I thought I use it as a way to try the "attach file" feature of the boards.

It's a name generator.  All it really does is take names or sections of names from the text file and glues a random number of them together in random order.  You can edit the .txt file to change the name parts it uses.

Check it out.  Both files have to be in the same folder.

If you want I can email the source code, but I doubt if anyone is going to care.

--Virtual Spikey


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## Luke (Feb 1, 2002)

SpikeyFreak said:
			
		

> *It's a name generator.  All it really does is take names or sections of names from the text file and glues a random number of them together in random order.  You can edit the .txt file to change the name parts it uses.
> *




Hey Spikey,

If you're into name generation, you'll probably want to check out the "Names" section of the "Generators" in RolePlayingMaster (RPM).
There are categories there for fantasy, middle earth, orc , orc tribes, towns, arabic, bharati, book titles, egyptian, fuedal chinese, feudal japanese, formal, french, greek, herbs, hungarian female full, hungarian female, hungarian male full, hungarian male, inns and taverns, adventure naming, japanese, modern japanese, nordic, russian...
... you get the idea.

I've amused myself for minutes on end by asking for 7 names at a time, and just pressing generate a few times  

If you're keen on how it's done, the generators are in "TableSmith" format, and the "source" is viewable by pressing the "Source" button.

It really works very well...


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## CRGreathouse (Feb 1, 2002)

I had noticed RPM's name generator earlier.  Did you make it, convert it from paper form, or take it from someone else?

In any case, all of these random generators excite me, becauase it's just another step toward complete NPC generation - as if race, classes, equipment, and spells werent enough.


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## Luke (Feb 1, 2002)

CRGreathouse said:
			
		

> *I had noticed RPM's name generator earlier.  Did you make it, convert it from paper form, or take it from someone else?
> 
> In any case, all of these random generators excite me, becauase it's just another step toward complete NPC generation - as if race, classes, equipment, and spells werent enough.  *




Basically, it's from Bruce Gulke's "TableSmith" program. I had a look at his grammar/language, and wrote my own parser for a subset of it. The huge number of generators in RPM are actually freeware TableSmith generator files compatible with the subset of Bruce's homegrown language.

It's unclear whether I'll go for full TableSmith compatibility in the future, or integrate it as is with RPM's scripting language. Bruce is planning some changes, and will keep me up to date on them.

I'm pretty excited about the possibilities too!  

I'd like to integrate it with RPM's tables (feats, items, skills, equipment, classes etc), to provide a nice visual way of selecting the random weightings for various tables. It would only take about 10 minutes for me to integrate my parser/generator to the RPM scripting engine, so that you could make simple calls for x rolls of any named generator.
If you look at the sources, you'll notice that HTML text is often generated. By the same token, a generator could just as easily generate XML. Now, if you generate XML compatible with RPM's future XML import capability... you could generate entire adventures, and import them directly (not that I agree with that sort of thing  ).

- You could have area-specific generators for wandering monsters, or particular campaigns.
- Use it to generate scroll lists, spell books, NPC histories, encounters of a particular El... the list goes on and on.

I think that the generators open the best doors possible for awesome potential in RPM, but first things are first...


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## CRGreathouse (Feb 1, 2002)

Yes, it 's much too soon, but I can't help but look ahead, whether for RPM, Jamis' gens, or mine.  There's so much possibility out there!

Random dungeons especially interest me, not as a "I forgot to plan for an adventure" or a "I'm lazy" solution, but as a starting point for your own customized adventure.  Randomly generate a dungeon half a dozen times, until you see something closer to what you were imagining, then customize to your heart's content.


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## SpikeyFreak (Feb 1, 2002)

CRGreathouse said:
			
		

> *Yes, it 's much too soon, but I can't help but look ahead, whether for RPM, Jamis' gens, or mine.  There's so much possibility out there!
> 
> Random dungeons especially interest me, not as a "I forgot to plan for an adventure" or a "I'm lazy" solution, but as a starting point for your own customized adventure.  Randomly generate a dungeon half a dozen times, until you see something closer to what you were imagining, then customize to your heart's content. *




Ooooh, there something that might be fun to take a stab at....

--Thinking Spikey


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## SpikeyFreak (Feb 1, 2002)

*Re: Re: Silly name generator*



			
				Luke said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Hey Spikey,
> 
> ...




Well, the reason I made it was just to try to figure out how to read from a file, and I thought this would be a fun and fairly easy way to do it.  Now that I've done it, I thought it might be neat to see how attacking a file on the forum works, so here it is.

I may take a look at the generator you're refering to tomorrow while I'm at work.  I may be busy trying to figure out other stuff though.  I'm curious as to how difficult it is to put network stuff in VB6 proggies.

--Interested Spikey


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## MythosaAkira (Feb 2, 2002)

Luke said:
			
		

> *
> 
> If you look at the sources, you'll notice that HTML text is often generated. By the same token, a generator could just as easily generate XML. Now, if you generate XML compatible with RPM's future XML import capability... you could generate entire adventures, and import them directly (not that I agree with that sort of thing  ).*




In the next version of TableSmith, I plan on implementing some method to allow the generated results to be written to an XML file rather than an HTML file. You can generate XML right now if you want, but the results file has an .HTML extension and gets HTML tags added to the beginning and end (mainly just the HTML and BODY tags). With the new functionality, you'll be able to generate an XML file directly.

I don't know when this'll happen, but the more interest in it the more likely I'll address it sooner than later.


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## Luke (Feb 3, 2002)

*Re: Bruce's plans*



			
				MythosaAkira said:
			
		

> *
> 
> In the next version of TableSmith, I plan on implementing some method to allow the generated results to be written to an XML file rather than an HTML file. You can generate XML right now if you want, but the results file has an .HTML extension and gets HTML tags added to the beginning and end (mainly just the HTML and BODY tags). With the new functionality, you'll be able to generate an XML file directly.
> 
> I don't know when this'll happen, but the more interest in it the more likely I'll address it sooner than later. *




Nice work Bruce!


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