In perusing the forums I was a bit surprised that I never saw mention of it.

http://www.mystyldyne.com/wiki2/index.php?title=Home

I ran across it while randomly looking for Pendragon stuff. It's a very nice, lightweight program that serves as an NPC generator, heraldry generator, makes a family tree and a few other nifty doodads. I figure it might be of use and they're also always looking for help even though they don't get a ton of traffic.

It's a very nice, lightweight program that serves as an NPC generator, heraldry generator, makes a family tree and a few other nifty doodads. I figure it might be of use and they're also always looking for help even though they don't get a ton of traffic.


I found it very useful for the family tree. It gave a lot more game time for the larger family and politics of the local manors. The heraldry was also useful for NPCs. I haven't had a chance to play with the NPC generator. Do you know what version NPCs are generated?

Seems to be KAP5e as far as I can tell. The project seems to be in limbo, which is a shame since they had some further refinements planned.

Seems to be KAP5e as far as I can tell. The project seems to be in limbo, which is a shame since they had some further refinements planned.


I'd guess half the design staff is on this forum.

I figured they had to be around somewhere but the silence on the subject had me second guessing their presence. ;D

It really is a nifty program and I'd love to see the Steward module come to fruition.

Domesday is more sleeping under the hill than dead. Unfortunately, Pablo is no longer able to work on the application due to Real Life obligations. That leaves me as the sole developer, and I changed jobs last year and consequently haven’t had much time either.

The (tentative) plan is for one more v2 release with a few bug fixes and the Tournament Planner module, and then start work on version 3. v3 would be compatible with the new publications (Lords & Ladies, Manor, etc.) and have a system engine that is better able to accommodate future changes.

We learned a lot from programming v2 and I’m confident that v3 will be even better. If there are any C# .NET developers out there who would like to contribute (especially those with GDI+ experience), please contact me.

Cheers,
Mark

Very awesome to hear. My coding knowledge is dim (though my QA techniques are seasoned!) so I can't offer much more than words of encouragement but they are there for you. It's a great program and I look forward to seeing how it develops further.

We learned a lot from programming v2 and I’m confident that v3 will be even better. If there are any C# .NET developers out there who would like to contribute (especially those with GDI+ experience), please contact me.


I'm not interested in C# .NET or any other platform-specific implementations. Been there, done that, too costly. I'd happily write code in something like Flash (using Flash Builder.)

I downloaded this program and tried it out. But it seems like it doesn't use the rules from 5th Edition. Where are these rules from?

The rules that the current Domesday uses are a mix of 4th and 5th editions. It was written before Knights and Ladies and the other expansions were released, which is why it still references Occitanians, Romans, Picts, etc. The Census module is based on the old Family Tree Generator which had its basis in the 4th edition's Family History section of character generation, but otherwise isn't related to any Pendragon rules. The NPC generator uses 5th Ed. rules, but will also generate based on 4th Ed. cultures. The Armorial is just a random heraldry generator, though it sticks pretty close to the Gallo-British style. The Hunting worksheets are based on the rules in Lordly Domains.

It seems to have a lot more features than it did when i last looked at it. Is there a help/documentation page for it?

I just picked up the Book of the Manor. I was considering writing software that was sort of a Doomsday book too.. someone beat me to it.

However, my plan was to write a database driven web application that housed every manor in Britain. You could run through a yearly cycle and it would automatically resolve all the manors ( I would have to ask Greg about scale, I really have no idea how many would need to be included.. I can autogenerate them I just have no idea of the scale at the moment). At whatever year if a player was granted a manor or gifted a manor you can pick from the manor database and it would already have a history for it.

I don't think there's enough in the rules to run a game on these alone, it would be pretty boring, but to have a database of every manor in Britain (could do Ireland and the continent too) would be pretty cool. If you owned a manor you can set the manor's management to Manual and handle the decision making yourself... for that manor... the rest would automatically resolve themselves each year.

I am still reading the Book of the Manor. I like some of it but I like some of the stuff in the Noble's book too.. I really liked the

1 Hyde = 1 Household = 1 Food / annum Model

It may not have been realistic, but it was very clean. The application I wanted to write above would use BOM, LD, and Nobles Book... I would have a lot of decision-making to do, but I really think I want to write this software.

It doens't look like the Doomsday program has it.

check out: http://www.domesdaybook.net/

you can get the actual domesday data in a microsoft acess file, I think. There is also a CD for 6 Pounds that lets you queery the data base and map stuff...

I haven't actually seen the data, but it seem like you could get the actual lat/longs of all settlements...no need to populate at random. Since lots of the places on the Pendragon maps are named after real places...it would work nicely.

But like I said, I've only perused the web site.

I just picked up the Book of the Manor. I was considering writing software that was sort of a Doomsday book too.. someone beat me to it.

However, my plan was to write a database driven web application that housed every manor in Britain. You could run through a yearly cycle and it would automatically resolve all the manors ( I would have to ask Greg about scale, I really have no idea how many would need to be included.. I can autogenerate them I just have no idea of the scale at the moment). At whatever year if a player was granted a manor or gifted a manor you can pick from the manor database and it would already have a history for it.


I had a similar idea.
The problem with that approach _for me_ is it constrains the GM and campaign world building.
At any given moment in the campaign, the GM may need to create new npcs or manors, or modify existing ones. Also, the manor book rules require intelligent choice for growth of manors: it's not all about economics- the choices a manor holder will make, will he add a bower, or a church, or a apiary, etc., these depend on his personality.
Plus, if all manors have been developing from the campaign start date, and players get hold of new ones, they aren't going to be clean slates (which the rules assume) - they'll come with riches, population increases, etc.

Plus, the nature of the pendragon world means there is no universal list of manors. During the anarchy period, some areas are overgrown with forest, and later become manors. I imagine some manors also grow and get split into separate manors.

All that said, such a tool would be great if we could define its area and define the manors within it, and the ownership of those manors.

I would first start with all the manors in Salisbury (referring to my map).

However to be honest, as GM, I am not really that interested if a manor has 600 or 700 peasants on it. So if a player gets a manor I tend to come up with some interesting complications instead of just a randomly picked (actually you could write a random starting manor generator).
What I would like much, much, much more is a family generator.
The family generator of Domesday is great, but regretable it doesnt stick to Pendragon rules (in the number of starting young/old knights etc).
What I do is make characters around the table (no PC) and so let players roll for the number of family knights etc.
I would LOVE a program I can then insert these numbers (I think 4) and then a family tree (with names and dates of birth) is generated to match those numbers.

fg,
Thijs

All that said, such a tool would be great if we could define its area and define the manors within it, and the ownership of those manors.


The flexibility would be added in as I went along. I would tweak the system such that most manors would be subsistence only...no real improvement. And the BOM does mention that for a richer game manors that are inherited could ahve a history of character to them.. some rich manors and some falling apart.

And if a manors state of living falls far enough it could turn into wasteland, i would have the software account for this. New manors popping up is another issue.. I think I really would need to account for geographical space... and plot manors into that space... such that new manors could be developed in free space if the funds and serfs are available.

I can add some very basic AI for the steward to handle change, that's not a problem either.

And of course, the GM would have the authority to hop onto the system and change any value at whim.

It really is just intended as a system that allows for the GM to populate the island and keep track of what is happening economically.

I am just batting the idea around.. I would definitely need some help with modifying the rules ... since they don't accomodate a project of this scale.

check out: http://www.domesdaybook.net/

you can get the actual domesday data in a microsoft acess file, I think. There is also a CD for 6 Pounds that lets you queery the data base and map stuff...



Be careful if you order the CD. It doesn't work on 64-bit windows.