The Star Frontiers' Recipe for Creating Aliens:<br />Write 1-3 paragraphs in each of the following topic headings and you will have an alien.<br /><br /><b>Physical Appearance and Structure<br /><br />Senses<br /><br />Speech<br /><br />Society and Customs<br /><br />Attitudes<br /><br />Special Abilities</b><br />The above should only take about 1-2 pages<br /><br />Alpha Dawn got away with this since it rooted its core 4 into a setting. However, anyone checking out the Core Four project on this site will realize that much more could have been done with them. I dont believe new races are very playable as PCs or even NPCs if all they have is the above. <br /><br />I would contend that an alien race with only the above is only half finished. <br /><br /><b>Add some Seasoning:</b><br />To round out an alien spend some time 2, 3 or 5 paragraphs describing the environment that it evolved in. It's homeworld will have many different environments, describe a few. Do these different environments impact how the alien lives? or its culture?<br /><br />Tackle some of the Botany and Zoology of this alien's homeworld. If the alien has wings then perhaps many other creatures from its ecosystem also have wings. <br /><br />Is there a one world culture for this alien? or multiple cultures like on Earth? <br />Write some history in broad brush strokes.<br /><br />Describe a holiday or religious festival commonly practiced. <br /><br />Write a planetary brief- Now the alien has a place where is lives and can be identified with. More importantly, a busy GM can take this alien and quickly deploy it in a game and doesn't have to work up the "seasoning details" and can just focus on getting together his adventure.<br /><br />The seasoning should take 2-4 pages.
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