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Stars Without Number Alien Generator

Welcome to my first (only?) post. I always thought, "it sure would be cool to have a
generator to make my own stupid alien species to play as in Stars Without Number or
whatever." Unfortunately, all I could find was people's well-thought-out, deliberately
designed aliens. To that end, I present to you: MY STARS WITHOUT NUMBER STUPID ALIEN
RACE GENERATOR.
Here's how it works. Just roll once on the "base species" table for a starting inspiration. You
don't have to literally make your alien that animal, but it can be inspired by it- like if I got "a
bear" I could start with Chewbacca rather than "Space Bear." Probably you should assume
everything is bipedal at first, but hey it's your alien. Then roll twice on the "traits" table to
make your creature a little weirder and more alien. Finally, roll twice on the "abilities" table.
Your two abilities together make up your starting foci. As an optional last step, roll on the
"lenses" table in the SWN book to get an idea of what your alien's society is like. Finally,
combine all of these to get a somewhat-coherent and very unique alien species. Several
entries here (and the idea to do this in general) were inspired byMoonhop.
Optionally, you could also roll a 1d6 for each alien race to grant a +1 modifier to one stat,
and one stat to get a -1 modifier to. This would more closely mimic the usual dynamic in sci-
fi where some races are just "strong" and some are "smart." You could also roll 1d40 (a d4
and a d10) for one or both rolls on the special abilities table to only get stat bonuses, attack
bonuses, and starting skills. As fun as it is to get weird powers, an alien race with the
abilities "Intelligent and good at healing" is certainly easier to find a place for in the galaxy
than "Secretes rope and talks to ghosts."
Here are five examples I generated on the spot, then tried to elaborate on slightly (names
stolen from my favorite blog ever.
1. You are a Rogotaud. You have the appearance of a large vegetable with tentacle-like
roots coming out of the top. You have cybernetic limbs allowing you to walk around and
manipulate objects in a surprisingly agile manner. The Rogotaudare known throughout the
galaxy for two things: Their advanced healing techniques, and their utter cowardice in the
face of any danger.
2. You are a Tabra. The Tabra are a race of wealthy aliens; although they are supremely
intelligent they are mostly focused around finding new and exciting foods to devour, and to
this end have jaws capable of completely unhinging to allow them to swallow entire animals
at once. They look like slugs with long, elephantine trunks and a small pair of horns on their
head.
3. You are a Tolemenaster. The Tolemenaster are composed of a goat-like alien and a
symbiotic moss covering them that allows them to telepathically communicate with each
other. They form a hive mind in the service of great mother trees that exists on their home
planet. They have an extremely flexible, boneless body and can squeeze into incredibly
small spaces.
4. You are a Blucket. The Blucket are a race dispersed from their home planet, and now
travel across the galaxy. They are resilient, with the ability to regrow limbs and regenerate
quickly, and they can climb, swim, and jump far better than humans. They each have six
arms and have mantis-like insectoid faces. Also you smell absolutely awful so good luck.
5. You are a Lastibal. The Lastibal have bumpy, starfish-like heads with no eyes, and an
eternally burning flame at the top. They have an extremely hot temperature, and by
touching metal they can cause it to become red-hot. They are naturally good at
manipulating other species, but unbeknownst to everyone but themselves they absolutely
loathe all alien life, and their goal is to annihilate everyone but themselves.
1d100 BASE INSPIRATION

d10 d10 Species

0 HUMANLIKE

0 Gray-skinned Humanoid

1 Red Humanoid

2 Yellow Humanoid

3 Green Humanoid

4 Blue Humanoid

5 Purple Humanoid

6 Clear-skinned Humanoid

7 Normal skin-tone Humanoid, but with a weird forehead

8 Normal skin-tone Humanoid, but with tentacles for hair

9 Normal skin-tone Humanoid

1 MAMMALIAN

0 Armadillo

1 Bat

2 Bear

3 Camel

4 Feline

5 Deer

6 Canine

7 Elephant

8 Giraffe

9 Hippo
2

0 Horse/Rhino

1 Kangaroo

2 Koala

3 Mole

4 Walrus

5 Primate

6 Rodent

7 Caprinae (Goat/Sheep)

8 Weasel

9 Cetacean (Whale/Dolphin)

3 REPTILIAN

0 Snake

1 Iguana

2 Chameleon

3 Misc. Lizard

4 Alligator

5 Turtle

6 Tyrannosaurus
 7 Stegosaurus

8 Triceratops

9 Pterodactyl

4 BIRDLIKE

0 Owl

1 Parrot

2 Pigeon

3 Crow

4 Duck

5 Hawk

6 Kiwi

7 Ratite (Ostrich/Emu)

8 Hummingbird

9 Vulture

5 ARTHROPOID

0 Spider

1 Crab

2 Ant

3 Wasp/Bee

4 Butterfly

5 Fly

6 Beetle

7 Praying Mantis

8 Mosquito

9 Dragonfly

6 AMPHIBIAN OR FISHLIKE

0 Frog
 1 Salamander

2 Hammerhead Shark

3 Hagfish

4 Shark

5 Manta Ray

6 Piranha

7 Anglerfish

8 Eel

9 Tuna

7 MISC. ANIMALS

0 Octopus

1 Squid

2 Slug

3 Shrimp

4 Earthworm

5 Clam

6 Barnacle

7 Starfish

8 Coral

9 Jellyfish

8 PLANTOID

0 Flower

1 Flytrap

2 Pitcher Plant

3 Vegetable/Fruit
 4 Leafless Tree

5 Leafy Tree

6 Pine Tree

7 Fern

8 Cactus

9 Vine

9 FUNGOID/EXOTIC

0-2 Mushroom

3-5 Moldy Fungus thing

6 Rocklike Being

7 Entirely gaseous creature in a humanoid suit

8 Gas-Sack Form

9 Amorphous Blob Thing

2x TRAITS

d10 d10 Species

0 EYES

0 Compound Eyes

1 Giant pale eyes

2 Eyes at the end of eye stalks

3 Swivel-y eyes like a chameleon

4 Just one giant cyclops eye

5 Multiple pupils per eye socket

6 Extra three eyes

7 Extra 1d4 pairs of eyes

8-9 No eyes

1 MOUTH
 0 Ant-like chewing mandibles

1 Mosquito-like blood-sucking proboscis

2 Lamprey-like jawless toothy mouth

3 Extra 1d3 mouths

4-5 Abnormally long tongue

6-7 Mouth of giant shark teeth

8-9 Tentacle-y zoidberg mouth

2 SKIN

0 Red skin

1 Blue Skin

2 Green Skin

3 Yellow Skin

4 Gray Skin

5 Transparent skin, visible skeleton

6 Slimy shiny skin, like a frog

7 Cool patterned two-color skin

8 Rocky, craggy skin

9 Super wrinkly skin

3 LIMBS

0 One super long finger on each hand

1 Hooved feet

2 Bird-talon feet

3 No legs, move around on a snake-like tail

4 No legs, move around on a slug-like foot

5 Really long legs

6-7 Extra pair of arms

 8-9 Extra pair of legs (like a centaur)

4 0 2d4 pairs of limbs

1 Membranous wings (like a bat) - gain flight as your first

ability if you want

2 Feathery wings (like a bird) - gain flight as your first ability

if you want

3 Dragonfly Wings - gain flight as your first ability if you want

4 Butterfly Wings - gain flight as your first ability if you want

5 You roll around on wheels instead of feet

6 You have 2d10 tentacles in addition to/instead of arms and

legs

7 One of your arms is a big, crushing crab claw

8 Sharp claws (scratch for 1d6)

9 Tentacles for arms

5 BODY

0 Covered in shaggy fur

1 Covered in spikes

2 Porcupine quills

3 Radially symmetric, 5 ways- you have 5 of everything

instead of pairs, equally distributed around your body in a
circle

4,5,6 Small - 1 meter or shorter. Gain +1 DEX mod, -1 STR mod.

7,8,9 Large- 2.5 meters or taller. Gain +1 STR mod, -1 DEX mod.

6 HEAD

0 Membranous neck-frill

1 You have an extra head

2 You have three heads

3 Anglerfish-like lure on head

4 Abnormally long neck

 5 Antlers

6 Antennae

7 Bull-horns

8 Giant pair of sheep horns

9 Human-like hair

7 0 Tentacles for hair

1 Long beak-y nose

2 Elephant trunk

3 Really big pointy ears

4 Droopy rabbit ears

5 Slits for nose

6 No nose

7 Enormous underbite

8 Enormous overbite

9 Long Unicorn horn

8 MISCELLANOUS

0 Some part of you (blood/fruit) is a powerful drug or poison

1 Your flesh is made of a valuable commodity

(gold/uranium/something) and everyone wants to kill you to
get them

2 You communicate through flashing different colors

3 You can emit a noxious scent

4 You have a prehensile tail that you can use to manipulate

objects

5 Part of you is on fire all the time

6 You have a scary decoy face

7 Actually a mindless animal piloted by a parasitic mushroom

on its head
 8 Symbiotic relationship with a plant (maybe a moss) on your
body

9 You have a tiny animal (either a tiny mouse or a swarm of

bugs) that lives on/in your body

9 0 You are a swarm/colonial entity made up of smaller

creatures

1 You have a really sexy mustache

2 Partially cybernetic

3 You wear a Jawa-like cloak with only eyes visible

4 You wear a weird creepy mask all the time

5 Long tail with an Anklyosaurus club on it

6 Two necks, both connect to your head (like Mewtwo)

7 Snail-like feelers on your face.

8 You reproduce asexually by budding. It takes a week's

rations worth of energy to do so.

9 You are constantly shifting. Reroll on this table once per

day to get a new trait.

2x SPECIAL ABILITIES

d10 d10 Ability

0 0-2 +1 strength modifier

3-5 +1 dexterity modifier

6-8 +1 constitution modifier

9 Aptitude for Violence: +1 to attack bonus

1 0-2 +1 intelligence modifier

3-5 +1 wisdom modifier

6-8 +1 charisma modifier

9 Aptitude for Violence: +1 to attack bonus

2 0 Gain "Administer" as an origin skill

 1 Gain "Connect" as an origin skill

2 Gain "Exert" as an origin skill

3 Gain "Fix" as an origin skill

4 Gain "Heal" as an origin skill

5 Gain "Know" as an origin skill

6 Gain "Lead" as an origin skill

7 Gain "Notice" as an origin skill

8 Gain "Perform" as an origin skill

9 Gain "Pilot" as an origin skill

3 0 Gain "Program" as an origin skill

1 Gain "Punch" as an origin skill

2 Gain "Shoot" as an origin skill

3 Gain "Sneak" as an origin skill

4 Gain "Stab" as an origin skill

5 Gain "Survive" as an origin skill

6 Gain "Talk" as an origin skill

7 Gain "Trade" as an origin skill

8 Gain "Work" as an origin skill

9 Gain any combat skill as an origin skill

4 0 Natural Fighters: Gain a +1 to normal attack bonus

1 Armored Hide: Base Armor class of 15

2 Metallic Skin: Base Armor class of 15

3 Giant Shell: Base Armor class of 15

4 Rocklike Hide: First hit die is always treated as full value (as
"tough" ability in SWN)

5 Resilient: First hit die is always treated as full value (as

"tough" ability in SWN)
 6 Redundant Organs: First hit die is always treated as full
value (as "tough" ability in SWN)

7 Ferocious: Even if dropped to zero Hit Points, you can

remain active, and can stay alive for ten more rounds
instead of 6. You will still die instantly if you take any
further damage, however.

8 Shrink: As a main action you can shrink, reducing your

overall size by 2/3rds. While shrunken you get a +1 to your
dexterity mod and a -1 to your strength mod. You can
return to normal size as a main action.

9 Growth: As a main action, you can grow in size, increasing

your size by 50%. This grants you a +1 to your strength
mod and a -1 to your dexterity mod. Spend a main action
to shrink back down.

5 0 Electroreception: Sense electrical signals (including living

creatures) within 20 meters

1 You have magnetoreception and are slightly magnetic. You

can sense metal shapes within 5 meters, and metal objects
can stick to you like a fridge magnet.

2 Infravision: You can see heat, which can be used to sense

living creatures within 20 meters

3 Super Hearing: Can hear 4x as well as a human, granting

+2 on notice checks.

4 Super Sight: Can see 4x as well as a human, granting +2

on notice checks.

5 Super Smell: Can smell 4x as well as a human, granting +2

on notice checks.

6 Burrowing: You can burrow through earth or rubble. In

Earth you can dig a human-sized hole 1 meter deep in one
minute.

7 Flight: You can fly at 5 meters per move action.

8 Swimming: You can swim at 10 meters per move action

and breathe underwater/hold breath while underwater.

9 Jumping: You can jump 10 meters in the air.

6 0 You can use Psychic Succor and get an effort point as the
level 0 Biopsionic power (you are treated as having
 biopsionic-0, but can only improve this skill if you take a
psychic class).

1 You can detect psychic powers and get +2 vs psychic

powers, as the level 0 Metapsionics power (you are treated
as having metapsionic-0, but can only improve this skill if
you take a psychic class).

2 You can use oracle and get an effort point, as the level 0
Precognition power (you are treated as having
precognition-0, but can only improve this skill if you take a
psychic class).

3 You can use Telekinetic Manipulation and get an effort

point, as the telekinesis level 0 power (you are treated as
having telekinesis-0, but can only improve this skill if you
take a psychic class).

4 You can use telepathic contact and get an effort point, as

the telepathy level 0 power (you are treated as having
telepathy-0, but can only improve this skill if you take a
psychic class)

5 You can use personal apportation and get an effort point,

as the teleportation level 0 power (you are treated as
having teleportation-0, but can only improve this skill if you
take a psychic class)

6 You can use Sense the Need and get an effort point, as the
precognition level 1 power (If you take a psychic class and
gain the precognition skill at level 0, you may improve it
freely to level 1.)

7 You can use Terminal Reflection and get an effort point, as

the precognition level 1 power (If you take a psychic class
and gain the precognition skill at level 0, you may improve
it freely to level 1)

8 Life Transfer: You can transfer your HP to another by touch;

sacrifice 2 HP to heal them by 1. This does not count as a
psychic skill.

9 Shapeshifting: You can shapeshift into any form, as the

biopsionic Metamorph power. This does not count as a
psychic skill.

7 0 Clinging: You can cling to walls like a gecko. This allows you
to "walk" across any vertical surface capable of supporting
your weight.
 1 Necromancy: You an talk to ghosts of recently-deceased
creatures (within the past week). Doing this causes one
point of system shock.

2 You can very convincingly play dead- you stop moving and
vital signs stop.

3 Your species is wide-spread and loyal to each other.

Anywhere you go that is inhabited and not-entirely-hostile,
you can find other members of your species who will be
willing to do a mild favor for you. You can call in one favor
per day.

4 You can survive a fall from any height; if the total damage
for the fall is less than your current HP you are fine,
otherwise you land on your feet but are stunned and can
take no actions for (fall damage / current HP) rounds.

5 You are afflicted with bloodlust. Anytime you kill a creature

in combat you get a free attack.

6 Lucky: Once per day you can reroll a single d20 or 2d6 roll.

7 Fast: You run extremely fast. You run at 20 meters per

round instead of 10.

8 Sneaky: You can use the "fighting withdrawal" action as an

instant action, meaning you can always freely disengage
from enemies without giving them a free melee attack.

9 Heat Metal: You can heat metal with your touch. It takes
1d4 rounds, after which anything touching it takes 1d4
damage.

8 0 Spark: You can summon a flame the size of a candle on the

tip of one of your fingers, and are immune to fire.

1 Plant Growth: You can cause plants to grow at your touch,

even dead ones.

2 Extremophile: You are able to survive in the cold of space,

or in extremely hot or cold environments.

3 Photosynthesis: You can survive without eating, needing

only an hour of sunlight a day. You can store sunlight for up
to a week (you can still eat to survive normally)

4 Mimicry: You can perfectly repeat any sound you have

heard, like a parrot.
 5 Animal Empathy: You can touch an animal to establish
telepathic contact with it, during which you can
communicate basic thoughts with it. Animals are still
animal-level intelligence, and may not be that useful.

6 Squeeze: You can squeeze through any space 20 cm/8"

wide

7 Camouflage: You can change colors at-will. You can use this
as camouflage to get +2 to sneak if you're naked.

8 Regeneration: You can regrow any lost limbs, and heal 1 hit
point per hour instead of per day.

9 Acidic blood. Anything that causes you to bleed must save

vs 1d6 acid damage as your blood splashes on them

9 0 You have a long, sticky tongue that can pick up objects or

attempt to grab foes within 7 meters.

1 Your jaw can unhinge to swallow anything your size or

smaller and store it in your stomach like a boa constrictor.

2 You can secrete 10 meters of sticky web per day, it can be

used as rope and is slightly sticky like a spiderweb.

3 You constantly secrete a lubricating oil. It makes you hard

to grab, and lets you slip out of small spaces.

4 You have a natural weapon (sharp claws, teeth, a stinging

tail). They deal 1d10 + punch skill damage, and have
Shock damage 2/13.

5 You can spit acid, which deals 3d4 + shoot skill damage.
Range of 0

6 Always Aware: You are never surprised in combat.

7 You form a hive mind with others of your species. You can
automatically know the thoughts of any others of your
species within 100 kilometers, and they can know yours.
This only works while you are awake.

8 You can lift 4x the weight a human can, and have twice the
carrying capacity.

9 Minor Time Travel: You can rewind time by ten minutes.

Once used, you can never use this power again ever. If
time travel is common in your game you might let this
power be used 1/day for 1 minute instead.