An interesting site if you're stuck on something...

[Revo]

http://chaoticshiny.com/

Basically, its a site of generators. These generators are very detailed though.

Here's a quick example of the "Character" Generator:

Name:  Jaiklalos
Gender: male
Race: human, some elf blood

Motivation: malice
Class: dark knight
Current Mood: lonely

Attractiveness: 5
on a scale of 1-10
Eyes: brown
Hair: brown
Height: short
Other: very nice clothes

   Competence: 9
on a scale of 1-10

Main Weapon: shortsword

Favourite Sin: Pride
Believes In: Gods
Element: Darkness

Sucker for: the 'bad boy/girl' look
Annoyed by: total innocence
Hobby: experiments with chemicals

Satisfaction with life: 70%
Satisfaction with self: 49%

They have a  lot of generators, so it's worth your time if you just need a town description or something like an entire nation description. It's great for writer's block. A lot of it is pretty bland but you can find some good stuff sometimes.

[Reives]

[Don't be offended if this sounds harsh, it isn't directed at you, but rather just the subject in general. ]


This seems like the kind of stuff to avoid, in most cases. For the example provided in the quote, here's why:

1. Characters are intertwined with the story to begin with; and if the characters are generated, you either simply loose that creative control or are forced to cope with what you get - which isn't much.

2. It is a pre-written generator that simply pieces together pre-existing information, most of which are arguably over-done, and does not provide any actual new ideas. This subconsciously confines you into archetypes and what everyone who is using the generator is thinking.

3. You are left with a bunch of details that may not be of any significance at all, and it diverts the focus from the core fundamentals of what makes a character - something that does not simply get generated.


Satisfaction with life: 70%? Satisfaction with self: 49%? Okay, so why? You then, hopefully, go and come up with his/her history and personality - and for what, to match those percentages? It would be more work than to simply create his/her history and personality, then show the character's character from what you've given him/her; something that isn't just a vacant shell of attributes. After all, you don't have characters walking around and say "I am 70% satisfied with myself!" when you pull the string on the back.

[modern algebra]

I agree with Reives. Character and story are intertwined. You can't just have a story and impose random characters on it. For a game to be truly good, I think that the characters and the story have to grow together in the mind of the creator. They are not separate from each other.

But for those looking for generators for other less crucial things, like items and stuff, it is certainly a useful site. Nice find.

[Revo]

I pretty much agree with you guys. I just use generators for stuff like town names, unimportant character personalities, ect. And really, that's all they should be used for.

Anyway, thanks for the replies. I'm glad this may be helpful for someone.

[tSwitch]

I suck with names for anything, so this could come in handy for me.
I wouldn't use it for anything else though.

[Kathryn]

This is my favorite:

http://chaoticshiny.com/clichegen.php?amount=1

but i don't think this is anything to live your life by 

[Zeriab]

I disagree with Reives.
This can be highly useful no matter how intertwined your story may be.

The generator may piece together information already know, but is the information already known to you?
Even if it is known to you (highly unlikely) getting what you know pieced together in a somewhat random way can still be useful.

Naturally one should not blindly use the information, but for inspiration I see a huge potential.

[Reives]

[I assume we are just talking about the character gen. thingy as you mentioned intertwining the story. o: ]

Ah, but it is important to take a note at what kind of information it is generating:

• 1. Generic traits that can be described in a word or so (favourite color, gender, height).

If this was for NPCs it would be convenient for small details like fav color, yet NPCs don't need that anyhow. There is virtually no difference in randomizing spontaneously of a gender and height, as opposed to having a generator giving it to you - especially when there are cases that they actually do play a role in the actual creator's planning.

• 2. A blatant numeric representation of something that is completely abstract ("satisfaction with life" as %, "satisfaction with self" as %, "competence" on a discrete numeric scale of 1-10).

Similar point can be made here as the indifference of randomization goes. But in addition, this is highly misleading to creators, especially novice ones who are in need of a good start. Characters are to be treated as characters - if one translate their personality into %s, not only does it not solve what actually matters (their past and whatnot which resulted in such), it is also counter-productive as it limits the creator into matching the actual work of the character into strict numeric limits, hence restricting an otherwisely fenceless creative freedom.

• 3. Something overshadowingly impactful that it has an unavoidable effect on the story. ("Current Mood: Lonely" <-Why? "Race: Human + Elf"

A bit of a redundant point on my part here, as this shares a lot of the previous point's arguments - so I'll inherit that here and extend onto another reasoning: A different kind of creative restriction. "Race: Human + Elf" for example - I am not against Elves and etc. as some cynics are, but I still do believe that it's best to not hinder potentially creative sights into pre-establishments. Of course, it does not physically restrict that - but when something is placed in front of you, it's often a subconscious act to follow through.
[/list]

All in all, I believe that while it certainly can help in some senses (including inspiration), its cons out-weights its pros. In the end, all it generates is an arbitrary list containing either traits that are meaningless/can be humanly randomized in the same amount of time, or values that depends on the actual work to its cause (which the creator will end up having to do anyway). In a perfect world everyone would use it and only take away the inspirations that arise, but past records have shown that the main group of users who use this device are not the ones who use it for that purpose - and that is the target of my opinion on it. c:

[Zeriab]

You are quite right to ask those questions and you definitely should thing about it.

You assumed wrong. I was talking about it in a broader sense. Sorry for not being clear.
There probably is a larger group who would fall in the pitfall you mention and the group may be so big that you could consider not recommending the site.
Either way I still would say it's a useful tool and I don't believe that some people using the tool wrongly changes that.

*hugs*
- Zeriab

[Reives]

Oh okay, I just took the assumption since you were mentioning the intertwining-with-story part, which I originally brought up while noting that it was specifically aimed at the character example.

In that case then, I certainly do agree that it certainly can be used wisely with benefits, as most tools can be - which I actually did keep it in mind in my original post on this thread (bolded part):

This seems like the kind of stuff to avoid, in most cases. For the example provided in the quote, here's why:...

-In which I meant from the perspective of:

There probably is a larger group who would fall in the pitfall you mention

But all in all, it's certainly entirely up to the user - I am merely trying to bring up the point in an attempt to halt those who would jump to use it in the bad way immediately (I used to be like that :c ), and give a reminder to think about that before falling into the track. Those who understands should know better than taking my little personal opinions for it and put themselves in the exception-clause that I included.

P.S. Only one hug from two entire posts? Aww. :p

[Doombird]

Is it only me, or is the charcter it made rather dirty sounding. Example:

"Current Mood: lonely" . . . mmhmmmm

"Competence: 9" . . . *snicker*

"Sucker for: the 'bad boy/girl' look            . . . reasonable
Annoyed by: total innocence                     . . . understandable
Hobby: experiments with chemicals"        . . . i.e. no children

"Satisfaction with self: 49%"                     . . . inconsistent (<-- bad spel), it just said he was lonely, which I would think means . . .


I think this would be a useful tool in creating characters that don't really have an essential role, and if you don't want to bother fleshing them out yourself. It would also be very fun to randomly generate the personalities for an entire bar.

[Zeriab]

Oh okay, I just took the assumption since you were mentioning the intertwining-with-story part, which I originally brought up But all in all, it's certainly entirely up to the user - I am merely trying to bring up the point in an attempt to halt those who would jump to use it in the bad way immediately (I used to be like that :c ), and give a reminder to think about that before falling into the track. Those who understands should know better than taking my little personal opinions for it and put themselves in the exception-clause that I included.

P.S. Only one hug from two entire posts? Aww. :p

I can't imagine you being like that :>

You know what. I am going to make a game based entirely on this generator :x

*double hugs*