These histories feed into the simulated present in subtle but meaningful ways, much as Tolkien’s unpublished legendarium added context and consistency to The Lord of the Rings.
Seems so obvious that procedural is best wielded as a tool in the hands of human world-builders and storytellers.
At the most foundational level, everything in the world is named: dwarves, elves, fortresses, fell beasts, books, artifacts, lands, and even the world itself are all given custom names, often in fictional languages complete with English translations.
if it's important to someone, it's got a name. It's fun, but Tolkein's extensive use of incomprehensible names was always an unpleasant challenge for me.
Rogue would inspire dozens of successors, including Hack, an extended clone with innovations including a “bones” file, a record of each prior hero who’d died in its world: these could be brought back as uniquely personal undead villains on future runs.
A beautiful game mechanic
I broke out the URL Forwarder app which uses the ubiquitous share functionality of most phone platforms and adds a thin layer of program-ability.
[] install url forwarder
every good legend has a protagonist and an antagonist. There’s a Greek word for this eternal conflict: agon.
conflict, struggle, contest