# Random Nation Generator



## Jürgen Hubert (Jun 9, 2009)

I've mentioned the Arcana Wiki before. And now I'd like to start on a project which should be very useful for people here - a Random Nation Generator.

Such a generator would work similarly to the Random Character Generator. It wouldn't bother with coming up with specific statistics (such as "how many people live here"?), since that wouldn't work well with the Wiki software and those details are massively setting-dependent anyway. Instead, it would come up with random entries from specific categories - see the Random Character Generator for how it works for a different application.

So what needs to be done is to come up with (a) specific categories which represent the basic building blocks of the generator, and (b) come up with and _write_ different entries within these categories. Here are some ideas I have so far:

*Government:* In this entry, the random generator would pick one of a large number of different government types. I have created a list of different government types here, which is based directly on a list given by a Wikipedia entry - but for the generator to work, these must exist as distinct entries. Furthermore, this list only covers real world forms of government - and there is no reason why we shouldn't add forms of government from fantasy and science fiction, such as "Magocracy" or "Hive Mind".

*Dominant Terrain:* This would expand on the Terrain page. Users could use tabs (like with the Random Character Generator) and select how many predominant terrain types they would like to have for their nation (let's say from one to five). However, the number of terrain types listed in the wiki is still rather limited, so new entries for terrain need to be written as well.

*Trade Goods:* After that, we need to figure out the economy of the nation. For this, we need entries for all sorts of different industries. This page of the CIA World Factbook is probably a good starting point. However, substances from mythology and fiction - including various types of Phlebotium - need to be added as well (how about Orichalcum?).

*Religion:* I think there should probably be two sub-categories for religion. One is the overall form of the predominant religion(s) - Shamanism, Monotheism, etc.. I haven't yet found a good page for all those different types, but this might be a good starting point. The other sub-category should list specific divinities or other powerful entities which are worshiped - the Mythological Characters page should be a good starting point for this. Note that these entities don't need to represent the _actual_ deities of the setting - just something you can base your own creations on.



What other categories should there be in such a generator? And more importantly, who would be willing to help me out with it and write entries for it?


----------



## Asmor (Jun 9, 2009)

Racial makeup: Dominant race(s), other common races if any.

Aggression: Is the nation particularly likely to go to war?

Military organization: Standing military, mercenaries, compulsory service, etc. Could depend a lot on government type.

Age & status: Relatively new state or an ancient empire? Is it currently rising in power or is it going into decline?


----------



## Rhun (Jun 9, 2009)

I like the concept. I'm sure you've thought of this, but it seems that Terrain/Location and Trade Goods might have to be related. I mean, a mountain nation may have ore and precious metals as a trade good, while a coastal state may have shipbuilding and fishing.

Unfortunately, I really don't have the time to help out writing entries. Best of luck with this though, as I think it is a great idea.


----------



## Jürgen Hubert (Jun 9, 2009)

Asmor said:


> Racial makeup: Dominant race(s), other common races if any.




Good point. I will probably make it an optional tab that the user can open if he _wants_ such races.



> Aggression: Is the nation particularly likely to go to war?




Hmmm... What kind of categories can you see for this?

These shouldn't be any numerical values, but descriptors which wouldn't look too out of place in, say, the Wikipedia.



> Military organization: Standing military, mercenaries, compulsory service, etc. Could depend a lot on government type.




Good idea, although it's not really possible with the wiki software to put in limitations depending on the results in other categories. But maybe worldbuilders will enjoy the challenge of justifying unusual combinations...



> Age & status: Relatively new state or an ancient empire? Is it currently rising in power or is it going into decline?




Hmmm... I have some ideas for an additional "History" tab where users can enter the number of significant "events" they want in the past of the nation. The number they choose can represent the age of the nation.

I must think some more about this.



Rhun said:


> I like the concept. I'm sure you've thought of this, but it seems that Terrain/Location and Trade Goods might have to be related. I mean, a mountain nation may have ore and precious metals as a trade good, while a coastal state may have shipbuilding and fishing.




Unfortunately, as I have pointed out above, these kinds of limitations are not feasible with the wiki software.

But perhaps this will encourage DM creativity. Perhaps the ore comes from open pit mines, while there might be sand ships in a desert nation - or even sand _fish_ to catch...


----------



## Doug Sundseth (Jun 9, 2009)

Rather than including something as narrow as "Aggression", I'd consider something more like "National Traits".  This would include things like Expansionist (Republican Rome or Louis XIV France), Isolationist (Japan during the Tokugawa Shogunate), Insular (USA prior to the ACW), Chauvinist (Ancient Greek city states), Clannish (Medieval Scotland, or arguably the Hanseatic League), ....


----------



## Bungus (Jun 9, 2009)

maybe instead of likelihood of going to war, maybe relations with neighboring states?


----------



## Jürgen Hubert (Jun 10, 2009)

Bungus said:


> maybe instead of likelihood of going to war, maybe relations with neighboring states?




The problem with this is that the number of neighboring states is highly variable - as is the nature of those states.


----------



## Fallen Seraph (Jun 10, 2009)

Technological Level: It can range from early civilization all the way up to Steampunk and/or Magitech stuff like Eberron.


----------



## dm4hire (Jun 10, 2009)

How about age of nation?  Could list it in specific years or increments, i.e. nation is 227 years old or nation was founded 200+ years ago.


----------



## Jürgen Hubert (Jun 10, 2009)

Here's another suggestion from another forum: In addition to trade goods, we could also come up with a random economic system - such as barter, mercantilism, etcetera.


----------



## Jan van Leyden (Jun 10, 2009)

Jürgen, you might be able to get some ideas from Daan's Box of Flumph. It's a random kingdom generator which focuses on the population, including the citizens' ancestry.


----------



## Connorsrpg (Jun 10, 2009)

I wrote a whole system for creating realms (from nations to villages) for 3e (and adapted to a SAGA kind of hybrid.

It was done similar to character generation with skills, feats etc. It included campaign turns (expanding upon a system developed for Dungeoncraft in Dragon mag in the famous Ray Winniger series).

Worked well for me, but found in the end that maybe I don't need so many details (such as battle rules).

I still use it it generate realms' traits, such as races, type of realm, government etc, and one day plan to make it more useful, such as by just rolling options for the outcomes of war (rather than trying to play it out with own system).

I found combining 2 elements of governments worked. The system of gov can be seperated from who forms it.

Anyway, this looks interesting, but I am not sure how it will work as a wiki - guess I need to check the character one. 

C


----------



## Jürgen Hubert (Jun 10, 2009)

OK, I've created a first prototype for this generator. What do you think of it so far?

Oh, and this has pretty much exhausted my Procrastination Time Bank for today... and tomorrow and Friday as well. Thus, I'd really appreciate it if someone would help me write up entries for the various government forms...


----------



## NewJeffCT (Jun 10, 2009)

Jürgen Hubert said:


> OK, I've created a first prototype for this generator. What do you think of it so far?
> 
> Oh, and this has pretty much exhausted my Procrastination Time Bank for today... and tomorrow and Friday as well. Thus, I'd really appreciate it if someone would help me write up entries for the various government forms...




You might want to do something to eliminate conflicting entries.  I tried 3 dominant terrain types and came up with "Desert" and "Archipelago" and one other that I think was something like "Forests" or "Wooded"

Of course, I guess that could mean a large kingdom with a chain of forested islands, but they also control a desert area on the mainland.


----------



## Jürgen Hubert (Jun 10, 2009)

NewJeffCT said:


> You might want to do something to eliminate conflicting entries.  I tried 3 dominant terrain types and came up with "Desert" and "Archipelago" and one other that I think was something like "Forests" or "Wooded"
> 
> Of course, I guess that could mean a large kingdom with a chain of forested islands, but they also control a desert area on the mainland.




That's what I thought. Only the smallest nations have a single terrain type, and for those you can limit yourself to a single dominant terrain.

Unfortunately, the wiki software won't be able to avoid _all_ inconsistencies - I can't really use a random result to have an influence on other random results. But I suggest seeing all this as a challenge rather than a limitation - after all, fantasy worlds often have some very strange terrain features, and trying to justify them might be half the fun.

(And since we are discussing terrain, the Terrain page only has a very small number of terrain types listed. Anyone interested in writing more?)


----------



## Jürgen Hubert (Jun 12, 2009)

Given that the Wiki also lists a large number of Real World People of significance, I think I will also be able to add a "Major Personalities" category. These people should be seen as inspiration for similar NPCs, of course - you will get disbelief from your players if Isaac Newton shows up in your campaign setting, but if you change the name and context a bit, you can still have a brilliant alchemist/scientist in your setting whose presence the players will accept.


----------



## haakon1 (Jun 12, 2009)

CIA World Factbook is great.

For D&D economics, I like the North American Industrial Classification System.  It lists just about every form of economic activity, and it's well organized from very broad (agriculture) to quite specific (berry growing).  Obviously, much of it is irrelevant in a medieval economy, but you could delete those.

NAICS - North American Industry Classification System Main Page


----------



## Jürgen Hubert (Jun 13, 2009)

Added new categories for "Major Personalities" and "Major Projects".


----------



## Jürgen Hubert (Jun 13, 2009)

I've also added a "Hot Political Issues" category, which is powered by all sorts of news headlines represented in the wiki.

Quite a few political issues of today are easily recyclable for other settings. And isn't recycling real world material for gaming what the Arcana Wiki is all about?


----------



## Jürgen Hubert (Jun 14, 2009)

haakon1 said:


> CIA World Factbook is great.
> 
> For D&D economics, I like the North American Industrial Classification System.  It lists just about every form of economic activity, and it's well organized from very broad (agriculture) to quite specific (berry growing).  Obviously, much of it is irrelevant in a medieval economy, but you could delete those.
> 
> NAICS - North American Industry Classification System Main Page




Thanks - I will look into this.

I plan to submit my PhD thesis on Tuesday, so I should have some more free time after that.


----------



## haakon1 (Jun 15, 2009)

Jürgen Hubert said:


> I plan to submit my PhD thesis on Tuesday, so I should have some more free time after that.




Ah, excellent.  Best of luck!


----------



## Jürgen Hubert (Jul 14, 2009)

Unfortunately, I haven't found the time to make any progress on either the Economics or the Government section. But at least I've expanded the list of terrain types a bit...


----------



## Jürgen Hubert (Jul 28, 2009)

I've added a "raw resources" category which lists raw materials the country might import or export, such as ores, livestock, and so forth - basically, anything that doesn't require much in the way of processing is appropriate for this category. And the individual entries for such resources don't have to be boring, as the entry for acacia hopefully proves.


----------



## Jürgen Hubert (Aug 4, 2009)

I've added counters which list how many "seed entries" exist for the individual categories. Here is the current count:

Type of Government: 1
Major Races/Species: 13
Significant Creatures: 39
Cultural Influences: 48
Type of Worship: 0
Worshiped Entities: 9
Powerful Organizations: 24
Major Projects: 20
Major Personalities: 21
Major Political Issues: 85
Dominant Terrain: 10
Raw Resources: 4
Famous Locations: 58
History: 21


Remember - you can add your own generator seeds to the wiki!


----------



## haakon1 (Aug 7, 2009)

I just figured out what Jurgen is talking about . . . go to his site (links below) and on the right, under tools, you can randomly generate a country.  I got Burma with Heimdall and a standoff with a cult in a cave, with the Hundred Years War in its history . . . kinda fun, not sure what I'd use it for.  Might be good for a sci fi scenario about travelling planet to planet, I suppose.

You can refresh and get new random results.


----------



## Mercule (Aug 8, 2009)

If you haven't already looked at it, check out "Aria: Worlds", if you can find it.  It's basically 280 pages of random nation generation.


----------



## Jürgen Hubert (Aug 11, 2009)

haakon1 said:


> I just figured out what Jurgen is talking about . . . go to his site (links below) and on the right, under tools, you can randomly generate a country.  I got Burma with Heimdall and a standoff with a cult in a cave, with the Hundred Years War in its history . . . kinda fun, not sure what I'd use it for.  Might be good for a sci fi scenario about travelling planet to planet, I suppose.




Of course, you don't have to use all those elements _literally_ - just use them as inspiration. I mean, take the Forgotten Realms, which has all sorts of realms inspired by real world history (the most blatant being Mulhorand). So if the generator comes up with, say, France as a source of cultural inspiration, you don't need to use the actual France in your setting - just use some French elements to give your nation some distinct flavor. The same goes for the dominant deities of the nation - if you come up with "Heimdall", you can use a deity with similar characteristics.


In my view, the whole point of the Arcana Wiki is to use real world stuff as an inspiration for gaming. The Random Nations Generator is thus also intended as a source of inspiration - a starting point for your own ideas.


----------



## Orius (Aug 12, 2009)

Yes, some of the results are decidedly...random.  I just rolled up a nation based on Saudi Arabia inhabited by Bigfoot that worships Santa Claus.    And we need more natural resources, they're all coming up sheep, acacia, and whales (going to see if I can add a few things there).


----------



## Jürgen Hubert (Sep 15, 2009)

I finally got around to adding a few more government forms. Now the generator has the following:

- Consociational State
- Demarchy
- Exilarchy
- Noocracy
- Puppet State
- Technocracy

Is anyone here willing to tackle the more traditional forms of government, such as monarchy, republic etc.?


----------



## Jürgen Hubert (Sep 18, 2009)

I've added a category for various economic systems. So far, I have the following:

- Grain-based Local Currency
- Just-in-Time Socialism
- Monopoly By Royal Decree
- Resilience Economics
- Robonomics


----------



## Irving Oleck Galvez (Sep 28, 2017)

Is there any tutorial on how to use this?


----------



## Jürgen Hubert (Sep 28, 2017)

The closest are probably the assorted blog posts I wrote and tagged with it - they contain numerous worked examples:

http://german-geek.blogspot.de/search/label/random nations generator?m=0


----------

