Creating a Comprehensive Species

[Milo Ventimiglia]

Creating a Species

For the serious role-player or the RPG newbie!

Want to create your own species or play with one of the species above? This is a good guide to what things you should think about when creating/adding to them. This is a good guide for someone writing a book, too. The species information will affect your character's history, world perception etc. Keep that in mind.

These are suggestions, ideas so you can build a realistic character; you do not have to answer all these questions! It is suggested you think carefully about them.[/u]

xx. Where do I start?

Okay. You’ve decided you want to make your own species or work with a well-known species. The first thing you should ask yourself is whether you want to create a species based on a well-known category (vampire, shape-shifter, faerie etc), or whether you want to strike out on your own. If your species fits into several categories above, then say so on your species form. A vampire may also be a shape-shifter. A shape-shifter may be a type of faerie. A creature may be half shifter, half faerie, or a human may be half faerie. Be specific.

Suggestion #1
My first suggestion is that you ask yourself: how will my character fit into the world? What do I want them to do? What kind of species you make will affect that. For example, a walking, talking lion anthro guy will immediately be chased down by the government and made a slave. If your species can appear to be human, then he or she stands a much better chance of hiding. If you play a vampire and they cannot walk in the sun, think about how that affects your character’s lifestyle.

I caution against too many people making military creatures unless there are a few of you wanting to role-play in the military areas, unless they escape. This is because it’s more fun to have a character that can interact with other characters. You’re here to role-play, not write a story alone. This goes for any species made; make sure you can interact with someone else’s character!

xx. Origin/Birthplace/World
The next thing you should ask is where your character comes from. The way they view Earth will be greatly affected when they put everything into the context of their upbringing. Your character’s history, cultures and traditions are going to make them view Earth a certain way and react to things a certain way.

xx. Are they from Earth or another world?

xx. What is that world called?

xx. What did the world look like? Similar to Earth, or different? What kind of climate did it have or what climate did your character originate on? Since many worlds have differing climates? Was it a desert where water was scarce (in Wonder County where this RPG is set, water is very plentiful – that would surprise your character)?

xx. Is the world a distant planet or another dimension?

xx. What customs exist on that world? What level of technology, what beliefs, ideologies? Were women higher placed than men? Were warriors important?

xx. Religion?

xx. What sort of education did they have? Were they aware of other planets, the solar system they were in, other dimensions? Or are they just learning now?

xx. What species of animals and plants lived there? Was your character a major sentient species?

xx. What was their job there, or their social standing? Were they a commoner, noble, royal, warrior, clan leader, were they highly educated or a farmer, a hunter gatherer, slave, etc?

xx. Was the world prone to wars, natural disasters, etc?

xx. Did your character live in severe poverty and fear, or were they very happy there?

xx. Did they leave a family behind?

xx. Physical Features
We all love a good descriptive character appearance. That doesn’t mean you have to try to win some award or anything, this isn’t a University course. But we would love to know what your character looks like, which makes the storyline much richer in the role-playing world.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when creating your species and character:

xx. Are they more humanoid or other? How humanoid is their appearance, or how animal/dragon/plant/alien etc?

xx. Do they stand on two legs, four legs, six legs...?

xx. How tall are they?

xx. How large are they; bulky, lean, skinny, robust. If they are a large creature, like a dragon, compare them to a house or a 6 foot tall human.

xx. What colour are their eyes and how many eyes do they have, where are they located? Can the eyes change colour?

xx. What sort of skin tone do they have? Light, dark, olive, very dark brown, medium brown, very pale and burns easily?

xx. What is the hair on their head like, if they have any? Is it really thick, is it hair or feathers or long fur, or thin scales? What sort of hairstyle do they have, what colour, how long, and do they colour it?

xx. Do they have scales or fur or feathers instead, or some kind of leathery skin? What colour is it? How soft, thick, long or short is the fur, or the feathers? What kind of patterning does this covering have? Are the scales armoured or are they rather thin in places? Lizard-like or more crocodilian?

xx. Do they have wings? If so, what kind of animal’s wings do they resemble? A bird? Dragon? Faerie wings (glossy)? Do they have feathers, fur, skin stretched over bone, claws, how big are they, can they maintain the character’s weight in the sky, and can they be folded back quite nicely or remain rather bulky? If they have feathers, do they spread down the person’s chest and hair and back or limited to the wings? Do they decorate their wings, is it a ceremonial thing for them, do they dye their feathers, or put gold clips on them?

xx. How about a tail of some kind? Is it attached to the spine, or do they have a tail instead of legs (e.g. snake lower half, fish lower half – mermaid). Is it rather long, or short and tufted, does it have fur, what colour is the fur, how long is the fur? Is it prehensile (can it grip, and can it hold the character if he or she was to hang from a tree)? Is it cat-like, monkey-like, wolf-like, dog-like, bird-like or lizard-like or other? Scales? Feathers? Does it have spikes running down it, at the end of it, and do they decorate it? Dye the fur/feathers? Put rings and tassels on it? Does it maintain their balance?

xx. What are their ears like? Pointed, tufted, animal-like, on top of the head, on the side of the head? Or don’t they have ears because they use thoughts rather than words?

xx. Do they possess any impressive horns, spikes or feathery/leathery/spiked crests? Where are the spikes, how big are they, are they lethal, can they kill someone with blades attached somewhere to them (e.g. the elbow or large swiping claws on the fingers). Webbed crests?

xx. Any webbing on the feet or hands?

xx. What is their facial structure like? Do they have a snout, human mouth, or no mouth at all? Proboscis, like an insect, or huge tusked mouth? What is their nose like, is it human, or animal? What about facial patterning, tattoos etc? Eyebrows? Narrow face or wide face, square or round, long or short?

xx. Fangs, teeth? What are their teeth like?

xx. Tribal or clan tattoos? Tribal markings or jewellery?

xx. Feet and hands – do they have human-type hands and feet, or do they have paws or hoofs or flippers? Are they webbed, what are the claws like, can they retract like a cat’s or can’t like a dog’s, or partially like a cheetah’s? Are they fairly large, do they walk on their toes like cats and dogs do, or plantigrade like humans (flat footed).

xx. Language and Vocalisations
All sentient species must communicate somehow. Communication and language is what forms cultures, ideologies, beliefs, attitudes, and a sense of self. It’s critical.

xx. Do they have a written, symbolic language? i.e. does the species communicate via the written word/symbol/image?

xx. Is their language spoken instead of written, or both? E.g. spoken stories not necessarily written down.

xx. What kind of sounds can they make? Can they roar, snarl, yelp, perform echo-location/sonar, make strange clicking sounds? What does speaking sound like? Or do they talk like humans?

xx. Do they communicate by sending thoughts and images to the other person’s mind? Can they bond this way, and share emotions as well? Do they think primarily in images, or in words and images? Can they convey tone this way?

xx. Is their language different to any on Earth, and do they speak any human language or are they still learning? Remember that speaking another language and not knowing any English will heavily restrict dialogue and communication. Perhaps your character has learned English out of necessity, though it can be fun to have another character teach them.

xx. Powers and Abilities
Below is a list of ideas for powers/abilities that your character might possess. Be realistic. Don’t have too many, and describe each power well. Below this list is a bunch of weaknesses. Don’t make your character too powerful. That just makes them boring and annoying if they can’t be stopped or are super duper powerful.

xx. Elemental Magic – the ability to manipulate water, wind, fire, earth, ice etc. For example, the ability to cast fire (pyrokinesis) and manipulate water, or grow/encourage plants. Also manipulating the weather to an extent and cause earthquakes. This is a power many fey and elemental creatures may be born with, and one learned by many magic-users who may be born with an affinity for it.

xx. Growing/encouraging plants. This ability has huge potential for agriculture and farmers love to own slaves with this ability.

xx. Charming animals. Such people can be powerful. They can communicate with animals and in some cases control them.

xx. Electrokinesis – manipulating electricity. It would be over the top if someone could cause millions of bolts of lightning to come from the skies – do not do this.

xx. The ability to read someone’s thoughts (telepathy) and even manipulate their minds by pressing one’s own thoughts and desires onto theirs. Other abilities here could include being able to tear into someone’s memories, give them nightmares and/or sensual dreams, or perhaps nice dreams if the person has good intentions.

xx. Shape-shifting. What can they turn into? Do they use magic, were they born able to change forms, please describe the animal form or alternate form in depth. Do they change painfully or simply become the other form instantaneously? If they turn into an animal, can they command that kind of animal or have an affinity with it? Often collars can change shapes so they can’t become something small and shift out of the collar, or choke and die if they become something large.

xx. Bonding – the ability to bond with an animal or spirit. If one can create a bond, they can also bond two people together and their descendants. Common in the faerie world and common between a vampire and a human.

xx. Telekinesis – moving and manipulating objects with one’s mind.

xx. The ability to see ghosts and spirits and communicate with them.

xx. Teleporting – ability to move from one place to another instantaneously. Such people may also be able to dimension hop. They need a lot of rest and energy before doing such a thing. The collars generally stop people with this ability from teleporting out of the collar. This was accomplished after many mistakes trying to collar these people. They may also be able to teleport objects to themselves; for example, they might use this ability to change clothes without moving, which is notoriously hard to master but useful.

xx. Disease/energy thieves – make people sicken and die. The opposite to healing, this kind of power is often terrible to possess and not always possessed by those with ill intent. Some people suck all the energy from their victims (succubi and incubi and certain vampires) and others make living things die or become sick.

xx. Healing – the ability to heal living things. Healing takes a lot of energy. Once a patient has been healed, he or she still needs to rest. The healer also needs to rest. Healers are well sought after in all towns and cities. The healer can draw energy from the patient, which can be extremely limited, or from themselves, which can make them weak and sick. Some can also draw energy from the environment.

xx. Glamour magic – this is more a trick than a true shape-shift. Almost all faeries possess this power. The user bends light or uses magical means to change their appearance – either changing what clothes they are wearing, or changing what they look like altogether. A non-human with this ability might use this to appear human. They can also put glamour on large areas. For example, they can make a shop front look like a cave wall. The larger the glamour, the weaker it is. Faeries are generally very powerful in glamour magic and can keep simple glamours up for long periods of time without thinking about it.

xx. Seduction – something many vampires, faeries and some were-folk possess, as well as other creatures. This power can be annoying for other role-players so discuss it first with them, as it allows one role-player to determine what the other person’s character does.

xx. Shadow casting – ability to manipulate shadows and light. Some can make shadows attack people.

xx. Necromancy – power to raise the dead and command them or demand questions of them. A sought after ability in a slave for certain companies.

xx. Visions and psychic powers – people who can see what the future may hold. Some have visions, others simply know.

xx. Empathy – ability to know another person's emotions and even manipulate them. While empathy suggests someone who is of good nature, this ability is brilliant for con artists and salesmen if they learn to stop another person’s emotions from affecting them. Many shifters, healers and vampires have something of an empathic ability, though most can’t necessarily manipulate someone else’s emotions.

xx. Astral projection – projecting one’s soul elsewhere. This can be used to spy or to escape from a painful experience – a form of protecting one’s self.

xx. Seeking memories from an object – a person can touch and object and know its memories. For example, if such a person touched a bracelet, they would know about the wearer and perhaps where the bracelet had been sold previously, even any blood shed around the bracelet. They would know it’s entire history.

xx. Time travel – very rare. A person transports themselves through time and space without the use of machinery such as a time machine or a TARDIS. Most people with this ability can only transport themselves a day ahead or a day backwards, but some can go all the way back into different centuries and also forward in time. They may also be able to stop time.

xx. Flight and levitation powers – people who can fly or float without the use of wings. If the person accomplishes flight with wings, that is a physical ability.

xx. Regeneration – healing via magical means.

xx. Physical Abilities
Physical abilities are things which are sometimes impossible to block with a collar. For example, heightened senses, immortality and fast healing are impossible to block. Super strength can often be blocked, although they will maintain their stamina. Flying with wings cannot be blocked, nor can sharp hearing.

xx. Flight – accomplished physically with wings and not magic.

xx. Heightened hearing – what level of hearing do they have? Can they hear the way Superman does or is it more like a dog’s hearing? A shifter might have similar hearing to what the shift animal’s is. For example, a cat shifter’s hearing should be as good as a cat’s, but if they turn into an animal that does not have good hearing, they are unlikely to have hearing better than a human’s in human form. This also goes for anthros.

xx. Good eyesight – common in vampires, some shifters (bird and cat shifters for example), anthros and some predatory creatures or people who can fly. In my opinion it would not common in werewolves because wolves do not have great eyesight, but that's just me.

xx. Good sense of smell – common in most shifters whose animals have a good sense of smell, and also in vampires and anthros.

xx. Speed that is better than a human’s – how fast can they run? Super fast, or just faster due to what they are?

xx. Strength – is it super strength or mildly enhanced strength? Describe.

xx. Reflexes – Some creatures have better reflexes than others.

xx. Stamina – many species have better stamina than humans, although humans may have better stamina than many species as well.

xx. Healing – do they heal fast? How fast? Can they regrow amputated limbs? Be realistic here. Most creatures can be killed by a gun or some form of silver or other poisonous bullet. I would say that almost all creatures, unless a ghost, could be killed by beheading or removal of the heart if the heart is functioning. If you remove several important organs, some may regrow them but most would die before that happens. I doubt anyone could survive having a shard of metal shoved into their heart or brain.

xx. Use of claws, fangs and other predatory/defense things. Perhaps your character has large claws which they hunt with, or fangs to feed with, or crushing jaws to kill their prey. Maybe they have a clubbed tail with spikes that can kill someone.

xx. Venom, poison – surgery can stop a person from using an ability like this in most cases, because a collar can’t unless it’s magic or similarly related. Poisonous fangs, claws, poison sacs, those who can spit poison, or whose skin is venomous.

xx. Create spider webs – think Spiderman or a spider creature.

xx. Health – see the health section below. Health and immortality and aging cannot be changed via a collar unless related to magic.

xx. Health and Mortality
Think about this one carefully. If your species is immortal, make sure the birth rates are low or they have other mortal weaknesses, otherwise they would overrun the planet!!

xx. Are they immortal? This means they cannot die from any means. Some people use this word to describe a person who cannot die by aging, but who can die if killed by outside forces such as beheading. Describe what you mean when you use this term! Even if a character is completely immortal, they would still have to have plenty of weaknesses and I doubt anyone could survive having their head lopped off! Remember, nobody is going to kill your character without your permission anyway!

xx. Aging – how fast or slow do they age? Some species age faster than humans. Some age slower. Some do not age at all (age immortality). When do they hit puberty, when do they grow old, and do they grow old suddenly? Is their life span in decades, centuries, or millennia? What are the signs of aging if there are any? If they stop aging, what age is that? Most people opt for somewhere between 20 and 30. If a vampire is turned, do they stop aging at the age they are turned? If the vampire is born, what age do they stop growing old?

xx. Immunity to disease – is your character immune to diseases on earth? Is there an illness among your species or interspecies which they are vulnerable to? Are they vulnerable to the Berserker disease?

xx. Shape-shifters – does being prevented from shape-shifting by the collar make your character sick? How so?

xx. Magical creatures – if your character is wearing a collar, can it make them ill if they are out of touch with their powers?

xx. Healing – do they heal fast? How fast? Can they regrow amputated limbs? Be realistic here. Most creatures can be killed by a gun or some form of silver or other poisonous bullet. I would say that almost all creatures, unless a ghost, could be killed by beheading or removal of the heart if the heart is functioning. If you remove several important organs, some may regrow them but most would die before that happens. I doubt anyone could survive having a shard of metal shoved into their heart or brain.

xx. Mortality rate – especially infant mortality. Do they breed easily or is it difficult for a child to be born? Why? Are many children still born, are there plenty of miscarriages, or can couples not conceive? Are children born mutated and die quickly? Is the world too harsh for an infant of a certain species to grow up in? Do the parents kill their children to survive?

xx. Behaviour/Culture
I already posed a few questions about this up the top with ‘world’, but here are a few more to consider regarding their behaviour, such as breeding and such.

xx. Breeding – does it take a male and female, or are they a created species, or can an individual replicate themselves? Did they need technology on their world to breed or is it done naturally? Are they born like mammals are, or do they hatch from eggs/cocoons?

xx. What is their culture like? This refers to their world also, but what culture did they bring to Earth? What kinds of rituals do they practice? Religion? Who do they pray to? Is God real for them, or do they only believe in their own god(s), do they worship nature, or is there no religion for them?

xx. Do they often live in clans or packs? How does the hierarchical system work for them? Are they uncomfortable without a pack?

xx. Do they believe in dominion over nature or that they should be in sync with nature?

xx. Are they warlike or peaceful or varied?

xx. Are they happy to be a slave, do they love to serve, or are they plotting mankind’s destruction?

xx. Are they inherently aggressive creatures?

xx. Are they territorial?

xx. Do they have a strong sense of honour and will they protect those they love and their families?

xx. Are they inherently good or inherently evil, or always neutral?

xx. Do they have a conscience? Can they empathise and have compassion for others? Some vampires and demons may not be able to feel guilt.

xx. Do they have certain beliefs which clash with human ideology or fits nicely with it? What do they think of Earth, and how do they live in it?

xx. Do they live in a house or a cave, or in the forest? Why? What is their dwelling like?

xx. What kinds of skills do they have? Do most people in their clan back home have this skill, or is it something more individual?

xx. Do they bring up their children, are they monogamous or polygamous (take one mate or several mates) or varied? Do they abandon their children straight away?

xx. Do they mate with other species or with their own only?

xx. Do they take another mate if their mate dies or do they remain alone forever?