Inspired by Save vs. Poison, over lunch I coded up a quick cliche science fiction race generator in java. It mixes up a species cliche, throws in a random trait to salt that, and then grabs a couple of human cultures that can be used to fill in the blanks. Here's my best result set so far:
The Amoral Scientist Race
Natural supercomputing mentation
Souix-Celtic
The Surly Technician Race
Technologically advanced in cybernetics
Indian-Australian
The Religious and Probably Psionic Race
Can't share environment with common species
Scandinavian-Mongolian
The Evil Empire Race
Stand-in for topical political group/enemy
Egyptian-Ottoman
The Hedonistic Merchant Race
Basically a historic human culture
Roman-American
The Totalitarian Machine Race
Practically un-kill-able
Mayan-Iroqouis
The Hot Purple Chick Race
Can't use common inter-species mode of communication
Han-Tibetan
The Mean-Muggin' But Scrupulous Warrior Race
Completely humorlous and stoic
English-Polynesian
Hedonistic & mercantile American/Romans? Purple Asian sex-objects that can't talk back? Un-killable totalitarian machines? Topical evil empire? Surly cybernetic technicians? Amoral supercomputing scientists? How cliche can you get!
Since I don't have a good hosting spot for my rpg coding projects yet, I'll just make this available by request.
Here's another interesting sample:
ReplyDeleteThe Mad Scientist Race
Berserkers or have warrior life-phase
Roman-Souix
The Race That Hates Humans For No Damn Reason
Have important resource monopoly on space drive component
Mongolian-Indian
The Evil Empire Race
Universally cybernetic
Mayan-Arabian
The Archaic Noble Savage Race
Technologically advanced in shields
Navajo-English
The Hot Blue Chick Race
Basically a historic human culture
Frankish-Ottoman
The Totalitarian Machine Race
Can't share environment with common species
Icelandic-Polynesian
The Hedonistic Merchant Race
Can't use common inter-species mode of communication
Carthaginian-Ancien Regime
The Philosophical and Probably Psionic Race
Invented common space drive
Incan-Tibetan