There are a ton of different strategies involving random creature creation.

One for example, I call, “Scramble”. When you use the “Scramble technique you draw a bunch of different heads, bodies, tails, wings, arms, hands, legs, feet, random detail parts, etc. and mix it up. You choose one from each section and boom! You’ve got a creature.

Real quick I want to mention a strategy for name choosing. This I call, “Letter Selection”. You look at the finished creature and pick out different parts. Then, you describe what that part looks like. Let’s say you have a creation that has talon-like feet. You could use the word “talon” or the word “hook” or something else like those. You take a random letter from that, like the “A” in talon. You have the other words picked out by then and choose random letters from each one. Talon – “A” , Feather – “R” , Bent – “B” , Spike – “I” , Thin – “T , Plated – “A”. If you stop there you have “ARBITA” or “Arbita”. Sounds good, right?

Another way of creating a random creature without blowing your brains out is the tactic I call, “Surrounding Picks”. “Surrounding Picks” is when you are having trouble coming up with an origional idea and look around the room for something to inspire you. For example, lets say you have a penny on your desk. You look at the penny, see Abe’s beard, and draw a line of fuzz down the creatures neck. See how they relate? Line of fuzz – Beard, Chin>Neck – Neck. Exactly. Are you following this?

One way I would NOT recommend is “Editing CopyRight”. “Editing CopyRight” is when you’re desperate for an idea and just look one up but edit it. If you didn’t edit it…, well, don’t do that.

Here’s another name creation strategy, I call it, “Zing”. Why do I call it “Zing” you’re probably wondering. All the other names are normal. The reason why I call it “Zing” is that it involves some randomization and “Zing” is a random word. “Zing” is when you get a basic name or name of some object near you then replace some letters or add letters. With “Zing”, you would be better off thinking up odd phrases or letter combinations. For example, double “ii”s, “arv”, “akzo”, and a million more. Some real examples of the whole thing and not just the random phrases: Start with something like “Barn”. Change the vowel/vowels “Birn”. Replace only one consonant with a different letter/phrase “Birgh”. Replace the first letter if you haven’t already “Knirgh”. See what I mean? By the way, you don’t have to use that same set of directions, make up your own. Anyway, I just changed “Barn” to “Knirgh”. Yep.

Well, that’s all for now. Thanks for reading!