Fantasy Race Generator

The Fantasy Race Generator 

This generator will allow you to create random playable or monster races for fantasy settings and worlds. To begin, roll 1d3 on the following table for the racial type. If you want to directly roll a random fantasy race;  Skip to the body-generator. Once your type has been rolled or chosen, start where instructed and follow from top to bottom, rolling on each table or category.

This generator is quite long and complicated, and can create some very freaky stuff. It can also create some very boring stuff. The ideal here is a generator that can make Tolkien orcs, Japanese style pig-orcs, weird final-fantasy esque versions of orcs, and Warcraft orcs all in one table. Many categories here uses at least two dice to create dice curves; making some outcomes more rare then others- this is intentional to keep a more believable baseline.

If you want to see it in action, here's the examples.

Racial Type Table
[1] Humanoid. (Human, elf, dwarf, gnome, etc.) Skip to the physical modifiers section.
[2] Animal Person. Roll a Random Animal, then skip to the cultural modifiers section.
[3] Wholly Unique. Roll on the Body-Generator table below.

Body-Generator Tables

Roll on these tables to create the basic overview.

#	Basic Body Shape (3d6)
3	Serpent. Two arms, no legs, one head.
4 to 5	Quadrupedal- no arms, four legs, one head.
6 to 8	Tauric- two arms, four legs, one head. Roll on Legs subtable.
9 to 12	Standard- two arms, two legs, one head. Bipedal.
13 to 15	Devi- four arms, two legs, one head.
16 to 17	Tentacles- Roll on Tentacles subtable for limbs, one head, no body.
18	Disproportionate- Roll on Warped subtable.

#	Legs (d4)	#	Tentacles (d4)
1	Appropriate for Skin covering	1	Four tentacles; Appropriate for Skin.
2	Legs of a Random Animal.	2	Octopus / Squid bottom half. Suckers.
3	Change to Insect. Six legs. Roll on this table again with a 1d2	3	Roll 2d6 for number of smooth tentacles. Tentacles are a Random Color.
4	Change to Arachnid. Eight legs. Roll on this table against with a 1d2	4	Has arms; roll 1d3 on this table again for lower body tentacles.

#	Warped Subtable (d10)
1	Standard body, with one arm hilariously bigger and stronger then the other.
2	Standard body, with a tiny shrunken head.
3	Serpent body type, but no arms either. Just a snake-thing.
4	Orb body; No arms, legs, one head as a large floating ball.
5	Manspider body; 8 arms, no legs, on head set in the body.
6	Roll on Basic Body Shape table, no head.
7	Roll on Basic Body Shape table, add +1 head
8	Roll on Basic Body Shape table, add +1 arm. Comes out of center of the chest.
9	Roll on Basic Body Shape table; replace arms with tentacles. Roll on tentacles table. If no arms are present; roll again.
10	Roll on Basic Body Shape table, roll different skin covering for head. If it's an animal head or body, roll a second animal and make them different.

Skin Covering - Roll 1d8
Every race will have a skin or skin covering. The skin type determines other features of the creature which fit; for example, a tauric creature that has scaled skin would have the lower half of something like a komodo dragon. Skin types usually cover the entire creature, with coloration patterns and adornment as what would be found in nature; the exceptions are anything rolled on any table in this generator which contradict this. This skin-covering table also covers things like hair or other details.

#	Skin Covering
1	Skin. Human like. Hair.
2	Chitin. Waxy. No hair.
3	Feathers. Down, plume(s).
4	Fur. General fluffiness
5	Smooth. Slimy smooth skin; amphibious. Gil filaments.
6	Scales. Lizard or Fish. Frills or spikes.
7	Rocky/Bony. Cartilaginous pieces. Hair is spikes.
8	Thick-Skin. Dark, elephant-like skin. No hair.

Face Shape - Roll 2d6
This modifies the lower half of the creature's head, mostly the mouth, jaw, and nose.The diet of the creature can also be taken into consideration to design what its face looks like; for example a creature that rolls a short snout and is a herbivore may be more like a cow, where as a short snout creature that is a carnivore would be more like a bear.

#	Face Shape (2d6)
2	Alien-like human. No lips, smoothed, maybe eel-like.
3	Tentacle mouth leading to hidden inner beak. Squid, cuttlefish.
4	Long & Thin beak. Similar to Dolphins, Gharials, Hummingbirds, etc.
5	Beak. Use skin covering for a basis. Bird like, turtle like, flesh-beak, etc.
6	Short & Thick Snout. Pig, Hippo, Feline, Bear, etc.
7	Humanoid. Lips, jaw.
8	Long & Thinner Snout. Wolf, Horse, etc.
9	Probiscus. Mosquito, fly, tapir, elephant, etc.
10	Mandibles. Insectoid, or tooth-whorl like the Helicoprion.
11	Snail or Sea-Cucumber ish. Simple mouth hole, closed via flap.
12	Cromagnon-like human. Very broad jaw.

Eyes - Roll 2d4
Determines the general makeup and position of the eyes. Eyes try their best to be symmetrical.

#	Eyes (2d4)
2	Eyeless.
3	Two Eyestalks.
4	One large, central eye.
5	Two Eyes in the middle of the face. Humanlike.
6	2d4 Eyes of various sizes. If odd; one eye is centered.
7	Two Eyes; very large, bulging.
8	Roll 1d3 eyes. Random spots; tip of tail, chest, palm of hands, etc.

Physical Modifiers
Note: If you are skipping here from rolling Humanoid, then your race has two arms, two legs, and is covered in skin. They have a human like face and two eyes. Roll every table from here on out.

Size- Roll 2d4
Size is calculated using height as a basis, with weight increasing proportionally.

#	Size (2d4)
2	Significantly smaller then a human. (2-3 ft)
3	Smaller then a human. (3-4 ft)
4	Shorter then human, but same weight. (3-4 ft- bulky)
5	Roughly human.
6	Taller then human, but same weight. (7-8 ft- spindly)
7	Bigger then a human. (7-8 ft)
8	Significantly larger then a human. (9-10 ft)

Tail Table - Roll 1d4 then 2d6
Table to determine if a creature has a tail or not. Animal people are assumed to have a tail, as they skip this section anyway.

First, roll a 1d4.
[1-2] No Tail.
[3] Standard tail. The tail is fitting for their skin covering and is at a length that is about 50% of their height, so it doesn't drag on the ground. Those with human skin have a cow tail instead of a gross pink flesh tail, to better fit the high-fantasy theme.
[4] Roll on the Advanced Tail Table.

#	Advanced Tail Table (2d3)
2	Has up to 1d6 tails. These grow out in number with age or experience.
3	Tail matching the skin covering. About 1.5x body length, prehensile.
4	Has the tail of a Random Animal. Reroll if the animal doesn't have a tail. In this context, you can count tail feathers or insect abdomens as “tails” a race can have.
5	Tail matching the skin covering. Only a few inches long; stubby.
6	Has a demon-like spade tail. Roll d20 on the Color Table for it's coloration.

Diet - Roll 2d4
Determines what the creature eats and its tooth shape. Could also factor into forms of aggression and/or bite attacks along with the face shape above, if rolling a totally generated race. Humanoids will still have more human faces, but may have unusual teeth and diets. For humanoids- you can roll a 1d3+3 for a more bounded result. If you want a more mundane table; you can roll 1d6+1.

#	Diet (2d4)
2	Reliant on one highly specific source of food
3	Herbivorous (grass and roughage)
4	Vegetarian (nuts, fruit, mushrooms, tubers, etc.)
5	Omnivorous
6	Carnivorous
7	Iron Stomach (Eats basically anything. Corpses, pond scum, feces, etc.)
8	Abstract. Feeds on light, magic, music, life-force of others, etc.

Special Body Features Table - Roll 3d6
This table lets you generate a special body feature for members of this race. Typically you'd only want to roll once per race to prevent them from being too overloaded with concepts.

#	Special Body Feature
3	This race has scythe-arms which come out from their back. These back arms have their skin covering, up to the blades which are made of bone. Like a Zergling.
4 to 5	This race has unusual hands. Roll a new skin covering for the hands, which go from the fingers to the elbow.
6 to 8	This race has unusual legs. Roll 1d2 on the Legs Subtable above. Roll a new skin covering if you get a result of 1; these only cover the legs.
9 to 12	No special feature.
13 to 15	This race has Horns. Roll on the Horns Table.
16 to 17	This race has Wings. Roll 1d3 on the Skin Coverings table to generate appropriate wings. Skin wings = bats, feather wings = birds, chitin wings = insectoid, fur wings = moth or butterfly wings.
18	This race has geometric stone/calcium growths in a part of their body. These are located on the (roll 1d4) Top of Head; Shoulders; Chest; Back.

Body Color - Roll 2d4
Individuals of this race tend towards this coloration; but can vary based on bloodline or other factors. There is no reason to assume a fantasy race can't have different ethnicities, as humans do.

#	Body Coloration (2d4)
2	Rainbow vomit species. Roll 1d8 on the Color Table for overall color and then roll 1d8+12 for their highlights. If you get similar colors, then they glow in the dark.
3	Brightly colored. Roll 1d6 on the Color Table.
4	Neutral, earth colors. As [5], but creatures will have a slight color tint to their entire body or coat. Roll 1d8 on the Color Table.
5	Neutral, earth colors. Creatures with skin will have humanoid skin. Creatures with fur will have brown, sable, or tawny, and so on. Colors are influenced by their Homeland.
6	Neutral, earth colors. As [5], but creatures will have a single very bright natural highlight. This could be a stripe down the mane, or the color of their claws. Roll 1d8 on the Color Table.
7	Monochromatic. Their body is mostly a one color; roll a "Monochrome" color on the Color Table. Roll again for the color of their hair, quills, body spikes, etc.
8	This species is albino and has no coloration. Roll d% for how transparent and thin their skin is; up to being able to see their internal organs.

Eye Color - Roll 2d3
Skip for eyeless species.

#	Eye Color (2d3)
2	This race's eyes are pure white; no iris. No loss of vision.
3	Roll 1d8 on the Color Table. Their eyes glow this color in darkness.
4	Roll 1d6 on the Color Table. This is the “most common” eye color, and individuals of this race can have colors adjacent to this color on the color wheel. For example, if you roll Yellow, then yellow eyes are most common followed by orange and green eyes.
5	Roll 1d20 twice on the Color Table. This race has a mixture of these colors as its primary eye color, with flakes or spots of these colors visible. Having eyes that are purely one of these colors is a recessive gene.
6	Roll 1d20 on the Color Table. They have no pupils or iris, it is one solid color.

Homeland - Roll 1d12
This is the preferred biome or ancestral climate that this race was either most evolved for or created to live in by the Gods.  While partially cultural, this can also effect biological factors, such as a furred race having thinner, light colored fur if their homeland is a hot savanna.
You can also roll 1d8 for purely terrestrial or 1d10 for natural only habitats.

#	Homeland Table (1d12)
1	Grasslands / Prairie
2	Forest
3	Bog / Wetland
4	Mountain
5	Desert
6	Tundra
7	Tropical / Island Hopping
8	Subterranean / Underworld
9	River or Lake (Amphibious or Aquatic)
10	Coastal or Reef (Amphibious or Aquatic)
11	Urban / Artificial
12	Supernatural (Crystal Mines, Mushroom Forest, Another Dimension, etc.)

(Optional) Stat Adjustment - Roll 1d30
This table can be used to give a race a stat adjustment. This table just features a positive and negative possible result for every stat. The rest of this generator hasn't given any mechanical backing to any of the special traits; so this is just there for flavor in case you want a jumping off point.

1	(+Str -Dex)	16	(+Int -Str)
2	(+Str -Con)	17	(+Int -Dex)
3	(+Str -Int)	18	(+Int -Con)
4	(+Str -Wis)	19	(+Int -Wis)
5	(+Str -Cha)	20	(+Int -Cha)
6	(+Dex -Str)	21	(+Wis -Str)
7	(+Dex -Con)	22	(+Wis -Dex)
8	(+Dex -Int)	23	(+Wis -Con)
9	(+Dex -Wis)	24	(+Wis -Int)
10	(+Dex -Cha)	25	(+Wis -Cha)
11	(+Con -Str)	26	(+Cha -Str)
12	(+Con -Dex)	27	(+Cha -Dex)
13	(+Con -Int)	28	(+Cha -Con)
14	(+Con -Wis)	29	(+Cha -Int)
15	(+Con -Cha)	30	(+Cha -Wis)

Cultural Modifiers
Note: If you are skipping here from rolling Animal Person- Then your race is a bipedal, anthropomorphized version of your chosen or rolled animal. Any stats or special abilities of the race should be based on the animal stereotypes themselves; foxes are clever and tricky, but impulsive. Bears are strong, but lazy, and so on.

Society - Roll 2d6

#	Society (2d6)
2	True Democracy.
3	Anarchistic Clans.
4 to 5	Oligarchic Republic. Group of elites rule this nation, 1 in 2 chance they elect an Emperor as a figurehead; with all but legal assassinations if he gets too big for his pants.
6 to 8	Monarchy.
9 to 10	Despotic Heirarchy. You move up by defeating the one above you. “Defeat” doesn't necessarily mean kill, just outdo according to their cultural values.
11	Theocracy. Depending on the setting; their Gods may literally rule the nation as well.
12	Meritocratic Bureaucracy.

Religion - Roll 2d4
Religion may be shared or taken from other races or cultures in the setting; Monotheists may all worship Zulin, no matter how weird or foreign they are.

#	Religion (2d4)
2	This race worships a single type of powerful monster- Dragon, Beholder, Behirs, Giant Evil Spiders, Nature Spirits, etc. Cults spring up around local monsters.
3	This race worships demons or elder gods. This worship isn't out of genuine respect, and may simply be done in exchange for magic, to avoid punishment, or as slavish devotion to power.
4	This species is Monotheistic.
5	This species worships a Pantheon of Gods. The Gods look like them, share their cultural values, and may be the originator for their race. Generate a Pantheon.
6	They are pagans; worshiping nature, the elements, and wild animals. Their priesthood are druids. Regardless of their tech level, they hold nature in high esteem.
7	Animists.
8	Strangely Atheistic. Instead, they venerate an idealized singular ancestor of their species; all strive to be more like this ancestor. (Kral of the Shek, Talos, Cú Chulainn, The Founding Fathers, etc.)

Values - Roll 1d10 + 2d20
Roll three times on this table. The first roll is the highest and most respected value among this culture- rolled with a d10. The second rolls are d20s with these being secondary or highly valued, but not the most important, values of this culture. For a less gonzo culture, use d10s instead.

1	Honor	11	Profit (Monetary)
2	Mercy	12	Prudence
3	Justice	13	Nature
4	Love	14	Purity
5	Family	15	Cunning
6	Loyalty	16	Beauty
7	Strength	17	Obedience
8	Order	18	Ambition / Daring
9	Fairness	19	Craftsmanship
10	Reason	20	Hospitality

Tech Level - Roll 2d4
This tech level is designed to keep most cultures around a LotR-esque high iron age to early middle age levels of technology and metals. This is my preferred tech-level for fantasy worlds, but you can adjust it by rewriting the table with your own tech levels being in the center.

If this race is isolated from the others (lives under the ocean, in sky islands, on a far away island, etc.) Then the tech-level roll exists where it stands. If this race lives on the mainland or general continent(s) of the setting, then adjust the result to be one space towards the center, normalizing technology in this fantasy world.

#	Tech Level (2d4)
2	Paleolithic.
3	Neolithic
4	Bronze Ages.
5	Iron Ages.
6	Middle Ages.
7	Renaissance.
8	Early Modern. (May involve Steampunk)

Historical Events Table - Roll 2d6
Each Historical event rolled is a significant, major development in this race's lineage and history. Historical events can be rolled chronologically; one per "age" until the race has caught up with everyone else in the setting, or it can just be rolled and sprinkled into the background.

#	Historical Events Table (2d6)
2	Great villain of this race caused a major catastrophe, created a thousand years of darkness, or greatly reduced the setting in some way. This race has a negative connotation to most peoples in the setting every since, and many still have prejudice against them.
3	Plague, sickness, or curse unique to this species was created or appeared- killing off a huge number of their people. If this is the last or latest historical event you roll; then this is currently ravaging the population and killing off many of them.
4	Roll on the Tech Level table. This race was or will be one of the most dominant races in the world during the generalized time period of that tech level for the whole setting. If you roll the current time period for the setting; then they are currently powerful OR are at their peak.
5	This race has a subrace or a substantial minority. Perform a reroll or add an extra element on one of this race's Physical Modifier table results. The attitude of the main race towards this minority is determined by a d6 roll; with a 6 being total acceptance and a 1 being openly hunted for genocide.
6	This race once waged a bloody racial war against another power in the setting. First, randomly determine another race or faction in the setting, then roll a 1d3 to determine how much they were the aggressor. Finally, roll a d6 to see the result; with a 1 meaning this race was utterly humiliated by the other or a 6 meaning they nearly wiped out the other.
7	Roll again on the Society table. This roll was an older power structure that was overthrown to make way for the current, more righteous power structure.
8	Generate a Splinter Group for this species. This is a political group or rogue-kingdom. Only roll again on the Society table if they're different or strong enough to actually create their own government; otherwise they're just generic rebels.
9	Generate a Splinter Group for this species. This is a religious group; roll on the Religion table to generate a new religion for them.
10	Roll on the Weird Obsession table. This extra Weird Obsession has also become popular with other races; and has become a source of trade and prestige. For instance; Dwarven Alcohol.
11	Pick one of this race's Values or roll a new one. An influential, great thinker of this species or a new paradigm uplifted this value into great importance into this culture- they were uncivilized before this moment.
12	Great hero of this race ended a major catastrophe, or greatly advanced the setting in some way. Frodo carrying the ring, or Prometheus stealing fire, etc. This people is therefore granted some manner of respect, however begrudging, from most people in the setting.

Weird Obsession - Roll 1d50
This table is partially optional; but creates a specific motif or element that anchors the species into the rest of the fantasy world. You can think of a weird obsession as this race's "thing" that every other species in the setting thinks they are all obsessed with- even if the individual they are talking to isn't. Similar to a stereotype, but more broad. For example, humans are obsessed with roads, elves with trees, dwarves with beer, orcs with axes, and so on.

1	Swords	26	Magic (Bad kind; occultism)
2	Any weapon besides a sword	27	Magic (In General)
3	Horses / Riding Mounts	28	Glassworks
4	Gardening	29	Alchemy
5	Alcohol OR Tea	30	Specific animal as weird pets
6	Theater OR Dance	31	Trees
7	Jewelry	32	One Specific venomous pest; spider, snake, etc.
8	Gambling OR Banking	33	Mining OR Metallurgy OR Crystals
9	Luck & Lucky Charms	34	Hunting OR Map-Making
10	Cool sounding or rhyming names	35	Ghosts and/or warding ghosts
11	Furniture OR Ornate Travel Gear	36	Each individual having a weird talent
12	Divination / Fortune Telling	37	Family/Tribal Totems
13	Medicine	38	Talk with hands OR Respectful bows
14	Sex	39	Dye-Making & Colorful Clothing
15	Architecture / Great Works	40	Predatory Animals
16	Taxes	41	Collectibles
17	Astronomy	42	Dreams & What they could mean
18	One Specific piece of clothing (shoes, scarf, hats, etc.)	43	Sea Monsters OR Spelunking
19	Candles / Indoor Lighting	44	Mail and/or Mail Privacy
20	Secret Rooms or Passages	45	War banners & Heraldry
21	Really gross foods OR really fine foods	46	Weight Lifting OR Footraces OR Koans
22	Corpse Preservation / Relics	47	Specific fantasy drug; maybe legal
23	Torture Devices OR Traps	48	Grooming
24	Calligraphy OR Poetry	49	Martial Arts
25	Fine Art OR Sculpture	50	Music