Friday Night Fights Roster Generator

[genleo]

In my annual "What the heck is this file?" clean up I came across something that might be of interest to Friday Night Fights players.

A couple of years ago I started a spreadsheet designed to generate a random roster of 90 grunt boxers of various skill levels. The last test run I did ranged from 25 to 139, though I believe the absolute minimum is 2 and the maximum is 142.

I haven't seen much activity relating to Friday Night Fights, so I don't know if this is something anyone else would be interested in.

[craigt13]

I would certainly be interested in something like that.

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

Me too. Could use it for Alien Fight Night as well I'd guess.

[genleo]

I don't have Alien Fight Night so I can't be sure, but it should work for human boxers. Since I don't have the creation tables for aliens, they would not be included.

The generator is an OpenDocuments Spreadsheet, so most programs should open it. There are four visible worksheets. They have the same stat blocks, just different names. One with men's names, one with women's, one with mixed men's and women's, and one with ambiguous names. Use the "Recalculate" command generate a new roster.

Attachments:

fnf generator.ods (148.27 KB)

[genleo]

It seems I also started Red Sand Blue Sky gladiator generator. It has a few issues that need to be addressed before I would make it available.

One sheet is designed to randomly create gladiators that mostly follow the guidelines for player created characters. It determines size and signatures according to the tables and randomly selects an attribute set from a pool of combinations that meet the starting requirements (minimum of 2, total of 10, excluding one possibility). There is a very small chance that after applying the size modifier to the random attributes, either Str or Spd could become 0. I have included two re-rolls of the attributes to reduce the chances, but the possibility does exist. A final Spd or Str of 1 is also possible.

The fighting style is randomly selected, and that is the first issue. On pg. 7 it says that the Dimachaerus style may only be used as a secondary style, but in the gladiator pools on pg. 30 it is as likely a result as any other style. There is also no mention of secondary styles in the gladiator pool. Would it be more appropriate to pick from all six fighting styles, skip Dimachaerus and just pick from the other five, or work in an option for secondary styles with Dimachaerus only available as a secondary style?

A second sheet is designed for the gladiator pools. The base stats are appropriately modified by dice rolls and the fighting style is selected. These base stats can end up being below the threshold for the pool's region. I've seen 11 or 12 show up in a Heart of the Empire pool, which would normally be a Fringes of the Empire rating. Is that the way thing roll, and sometimes the available talent is below expectations?

Also in the gladiator pools there is no mention of sizes or signatures. Does that mean I shouldn't be rolling for them in the pools?

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

Feb 15, 2023 23:12:35 GMT genleo said:

It seems I also started Red Sand Blue Sky gladiator generator. It has a few issues that need to be addressed before I would make it available. Looking forward to it.

One sheet is designed to randomly create gladiators that mostly follow the guidelines for player created characters. It determines size and signatures according to the tables and randomly selects an attribute set from a pool of combinations that meet the starting requirements (minimum of 2, total of 10, excluding one possibility). There is a very small chance that after applying the size modifier to the random attributes, either Str or Spd could become 0. I have included two re-rolls of the attributes to reduce the chances, but the possibility does exist. A final Spd or Str of 1 is also possible.

The fighting style is randomly selected, and that is the first issue. On pg. 7 it says that the Dimachaerus style may only be used as a secondary style, but in the gladiator pools on pg. 30 it is as likely a result as any other style. There is also no mention of secondary styles in the gladiator pool. Would it be more appropriate to pick from all six fighting styles, skip Dimachaerus and just pick from the other five, or work in an option for secondary styles with Dimachaerus only available as a secondary style? I'd go with all six.

A second sheet is designed for the gladiator pools. The base stats are appropriately modified by dice rolls and the fighting style is selected. These base stats can end up being below the threshold for the pool's region. I've seen 11 or 12 show up in a Heart of the Empire pool, which would normally be a Fringes of the Empire rating. Is that the way thing roll, and sometimes the available talent is below expectations? Correct, the region could limit the talent.

Also in the gladiator pools there is no mention of sizes or signatures. Does that mean I shouldn't be rolling for them in the pools? You can add them if you like. THW rules is like a toolbox. Some you can use to modify the rules to fit your desires. Hope this helps.

[genleo]

I just about got this where I want it. The first sheet generates ninety starter gladiators according to the star creation rules. The second one generates pools of eight gladiators for each of the five locales with staring bids. The final generates a ranked list ninety random gladiators from all over the empire, the fringes to the Colosseum. It is random, so the number per region does vary.

The only thing remaining is generating names for them. I looked at ideas from an ancient Roman name generator and they seemed too formal. And rather long.

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

Maybe just one name only?

[atomicfloozy]

Roman names can be complex, if the character is a slave, or freed slave - the last name (sometimes the last two names) in the list, the cognomen, is what the person was known by. Marcus Tullius Cicero - Marcus was his first name, Tullius was his family/clan, & Cicero was a nickname he was known as. So, today when you run across the name of the philosopher who pissed off most of the nobility of Rome, you will find him referred to as "Cicero."

Caius Julius Caesar was known as Caesar.
Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus was known first as just Scipio & later after the 2nd Punic war as Scipio Africanus.

Hope this helps if you are putting together a list of gladiator names based on historical names.

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

And then there was Frank.

[atomicfloozy]

Oh, if the gladiator was a slave or freed slave - the first name & the family/clan name would be that of his master or former master. The cognomen would be his name in his own language, or a Romanized version of his native name. If there is a second name, it would be a nickname he earned in the arena, i.e. his "stage" name, kind of like today's pro wrestlers.

[atomicfloozy]

Frank the Finisher!

Hey, all those years of Latin & Greek have to be good for something, right?

[genleo]

Now that I am better informed about Roman naming conventions, I think I have figured out what I am going to do for the generator.

Gladiators for the pools will just get a cognomen. If the pools are being used for acquiring gladiators for a player's school, the family/clan name would be the name of the player buying them. The number of gladiators is small enough that duplicate names would be very rare.

Gladiators for the starter list and the regional roster will get both a family/clan name and cognomen. I tried using just a cognomen, but even with around 400 of them, I still got duplicates more often then I would like. Even using their fighting style instead of a family name I was getting too many duplicates.

[genleo]

I think I am satisfied with my naming setup, so here is the Red Sand Blue Sky generator.

The first sheet generates ninety starter gladiators according to the star creation rules. The second one generates pools of eight gladiators for each of the five locales with staring bids. The final generates a ranked list ninety random gladiators from all over the empire, the fringes to the Colosseum. It is random, so the number per region does vary.

After making a starting gladiator generator, I was debating if it would be worth adding a staring boxer generator for Friday Night Fights. Right now it is possible to get  boxers with the proper number of attribute points, but it doesn't happen very often.

Attachments:

rsbs generator.ods (155.54 KB)

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

How do you generate them?