How to Create a Species/Race

Detailed Course Outline

Module: About the Course

• The course goals
• How the course is laid out
• The count of video lessons, quizzes, and assignments included, and course length
• Who the ideal students are and what sets them apart
• About the instructor
• How the course templates and assignments are set up

• About the course bonuses and how to access them

Module: Reasons to Invent a Species/Race

• Reasons to invent our own species or race (this may include reasons you haven't thought of)
• Why our species will be compared to others
• What is mandatory to invent and what is optional

Module: Names and Nicknames

• What makes some names better than others
• Ways in which names can be worse than we think and how to avoid pitfalls
• How we can use names to associate a species with its races
• The impressions and traits of names
• Tricks for how to invent nicknames

Module: When to call it a Species or Race

• What a species is
• What a race is
• Why the amount of difference between two humanoids helps determine which word to use
• Why it matters if two lifeforms are from the same planet or not, regarding which term to use
• How dwarfism on Earth (among humans) is different from fantasy dwarfism
• Whether the ability to interbreed matters for our choice
• How using a hierarchy of both terms can promote understanding of our life form(s) and setting
• My recommendations on when to use each term (or both!)

Module: Determining Disposition

• Why "good" and "evil" is an oversimplification but why it's done on purpose
• What "good" and "evil" can mean
• The merits of one-dimensional dispositions
• Why having species that are uniformly good or evil is not the best option
• Why they might be uniformly good or evil
• Why more complexity in disposition is good
• Why a "good" species is more useful and how to make an "evil" species more comparable
• How to use races of a species to create more variety

Module: Their Source of Fame

• We'll look at some reasons our species or race might be famous
• The types of items they can and cannot use
• Travel considerations for non-humanoids
• The benefits of humanoids
• Pros and cons of non-humanoids
• How to combine them

Module: Whether They’re Humanoid or Not

Module: Determining Their Habitat

• What impact a habitat might have on a species, including underground, under water, flying species, and forests
• The impact of climate on development
• Whether they only live in settlements of their own or also in those of other species, and the impact this has
• How to fill out the habitat section of the template

Module: Creating Humanoid Bodies

• Whether races and species should bear some resemblance to each other, how to achieve this, and how to utilize this
• Facial features to choose from
• Terms we shouldn't use
• What aspects of the body we need to develop

Module: Creating Non-Humanoid Bodies

• We'll look at considerations for how to create the body of a non-humanoid
• How climate can affect clothing choices
• How attitudes about nudity can impact clothing
• Style considerations
• What sorts of items and accessories to think about them using
• Body modifications to consider adding

Module: Determining Their Clothing

Module: Determining Their Senses

• Sight
• Hearing
• Feel
• Taste
• Smell
• Sixth sense(s)
• And how to determine if there’s anything different about these based on what we’ve created so far, such as habitat and their bodies

Module: Determining Their Physical Traits

• Agility
• Dexterity
• Constitution
• Strength
• And how to determine these based on habitat and their body

Module: The Sixth Sense(s)

• Telepathy
• Clairvoyance
• Psychometry
• Precognition
• Mediumship
• And why a species may have one of these abilities, based on habitat, body, and lifestyle

Module: Determining Their Mental Traits

• Charisma
• Intelligence
• Morale
• Wisdom

Module: Determining Their Gods

• How traits can be used to chose or invent gods, including detailed examples
• The impact of already having gods (or not) on choosing ones for this species
• How to associate the species with religions

Module: Language Considerations

• Whether there's a common language and who it originated from
• Language proficiency levels and how we can leverage this
• Writing systems we can employ (alphabetic, logographic, pictograms, ideagrams)
• What direction a language is written in and why
• How to use species characteristics to determine what language characteristics

Module: Creating Relationships with Family

• How long a species lives and the impact on outlook
• Family size and its potential impact
• Child rearing and who participates
• Expectations of teenagers
• Whether military service or taking over a family business is expected
• Major milestones we can leverage
• Species attitudes about various family subjects like marriage, monogamy, and more

Module: Creating Family Names

• The difference between a given name and surname
• When, how, and why each is chosen
• How compound surnames work
• The flexibility we have in choosing name order
• Mistakes and clichés to avoid
• Techniques for creating names

Module: Determining Customs

• What customs are and aren't
• The effect of following or not following customs
• The types of customs we should invent as world builders
• Real world greetings and dining customs to leverage
• How to use your species characteristics, developed in an earlier lesson, to influence customs you invent

Module: Creating Civilizations

• The goals of governance so we can decide if our species desires this, and if they're capable of it
• Whether they create settlements and what they're like
• Whether they live in settlements created by others and how to decide
• Whether they form settlements with other species and how to decide
• Four major types of sovereign powers our species might form and the traits that would lead them to choose one

Module: Creating Relationships with Other Species

• How humans view your species
• How your species view humans
• How to do human commentary with your species/race
• When there are two races of a species, how to determine their interactions
• Techniques to creating relationships between species/races

Module: Relationships with the Supernatural

• How mental and physical traits impact a species' relationship with the supernatural
• What to consider when deciding how they deal with magic, phenomena, and gods

Module: Relationships with Technology

• Different technologies to consider in both fantasy and science fiction settings
• Which personal traits (mental and physical) impact the ability to both create and use technologies
• How species can acquire tech they can't create and the impact on relations between species

Module: Determining Combat Skills

• A look at what kinds of weapons are impacted by your body and which ones aren't
• How physical and mental traits can be used to decide combat styles
• What weapons act as equalizers, making the weak strong
• When weapons designed for another species can be used by this one
• Attitudes often shown about combat
• Natural weapons and defenses some species may have and how to decide on this

Module: Creating History

• Their origins and where else they've relocated to to understand which civilization of them is oldest and newest
• Government changes, why these happen, and the impact they have
• Wars between species, race, and sovereign powers
• Inventions and discoveries they've made
• Significant events and characters