I''ve seen cool little random name generators, and random NPC generators, and random town generators... What about a random race generator? If you forget graphics for a sec, what are some of the things about a species or culture that can be randomized? More importantly, how would you represent this in game terms? I think the character of a culture can be similar to the character of an NPC, so maybe that''s a good place to start. Maybe a culture has stats / skills like an NPC. Maybe a 1-10 scale like this would work... ------------------------------------------ AGRESSIVENESS: How likely NPCs are to get into fights. DIVERSITY: How much they tolerate difference; affects all town interactions, with a penalty if DIVERSITY is low and you''re not of the town''s race LAW: Frequency of guards, harshness of sentences POVERTY: Number of beggars, presence of disease, types of buildings in town COMMUNICATION: How chatty and open the society is. Could change this if the environment changes (like the culture becomes occupied, or affected by a secret). CRIME: Number of thieves, smugglers, pirates, and other shady folk; chance to be pick pocketed or mugged; availability of black market goods INDUSTRY: Number and type of shops present. Really high industry should have lots of different goods. POPULATION: Size and density of town / living space Comments, criticisms? What else might work? -------------------- Just waiting for the mothership...

Here''s a summary of a table in a paper RPG called Shaan.

The genre would be science-fantasy. Basically, the humans have invaded a remote planet called Heos, inhabited by 9 "thinking" races. Quickly the humans establish a dictature, naz style ... but that would be another story.

Here are the stats that describe the location/tribe/village a player start his life in.

Size : How many people compose the tribe. It modifies the mentality of the people, as smaller tribes will generaly live further away from the rest of the civilization, and thus have had less contact with the human technology. The size also affects the amount of resources.

Army : the abilities of those people at war, and their level of equipment. From totally disorganised, to a fully equiped force.

Magic : The importance of magic in this tribe, and how magicians are perceived by those people. (Magic is forbidden by the human regime, and unaffiliated magicians are killed).
From a fearful tribe, or that doesn''t know anything about magic, to common use of magic in everyday life.

Technology : The level of availability and knowledge in vehicles, mechanical devices, computers, droids, etc.
From feral age, to use of the comuter network, creation of borgs, to research labs.

Religion : How important is the old religion to those people (the humans have brought their own religious system, and forbidden the cult of other gods).
From atheists, or agnostics, to a cult of fanatics, ready to embark on a holy crusade against other cults.

Trade : the development of trading, the abilities at dealing goods, the level of implication in the national network of trading.
From feral age bargain (no money system), to a important node on the trading roads.

Science : the level of development, of life.Hygien, knowledge in medecine, and other life sciences.
From feral level, to "rich country" type, to advanced technologies like genetics, cloning, and research labs.

Art : the level of knowledge and the importance of the arts in this tribe.This influences the cloths, the architecture, as well as the presence of artistics events.
From a totally censored tribe (the humans forbid indigenous arts), to a dyonisiac one, with permanent party, and bursting creativity.

Nature : the level of involvement with the surrounding environment.How well the nature is exploited. The level of production of resources.
From undereploited, where the trive has to import goods, to an autonomous tribe, to an overeploited society, exporting to other regions.

Also the tribe is characterised by the region it''s in. The different races have more affinity with some region types than others. So a tribe of one species, will usually avoid such or such region, and try to be in another.

The types of region are described in terms of
landscape(geography), fauna(animals), flora(plants,trees), locomotion(what are the means of access and travel in this zone), habits (you don''t have the same customs and habits in a desert or in a rainforest), sports/activities, traditional weapons, traditional relations with cults (which cults are banned, neutral, or usual).
Those region types are :
burnt lands (colorado style), desert, plains (bush, savana, or grass fields), rainforest, taiga (vast forests in arctic regions), arctic (groenland, arctic, etc), mountains (the Rocky, the Himalaya, etc), marsh (bayou and the like), sky (these are special regions, where the ground ... is floating like an island in the air), sea (either coastal regions, or the floating cities).

And I don''t even talk about the ten cults of the elements (the religion system), the alternative religion system (the antediluvian religion, the human religion ...), the shaanism ( a bit like zen), the different races, the resistance ... pfff. But I suppose that would be OT.

Anyway, I suppose this is a good beginning (I won''t post an example for the sake of not posting another lenghty message)

youpla :-P

Ahw, thanks, this was exactly the kind of thing I was thinking about. I''m surprised more people aren''t working on something like this. I think it''d be perfect for RPGs. Heck, even the designer could have fun in his own game world after he finished it, as he''d never be sure what''s there. Oh well...

--------------------
Just waiting for the mothership...

you''re welcome.

the reason there are no such things everywhere in games is : Laziness.
*Never* underestimate the laziness of the human species

youpla :-P