I'm starting a new steampunk dnd campaign with a sort of grimdark vibe. I want to use alot of homebrew, including races.

Can you give me some cool prompts for races that are more than just "human but short", "human but cat", "human but-" you get the idea.

Thank you to anyone that replies.

Link: https://bsky.app/profile/manospondylus.bsky.social

If not,can anyone make a pdf of it ?

I am trying to design an alien which ancestrally had tube feet when it still lived in the ocean. But I am struggling on how to go about ensuring it can support its weight on land. Furthermore, the adults of the species are intended to grow to the size of a small dog, while carrying around the weight of an exoskeletal casing around its body. Would it be best to reinforce the existing feet with the exoskeleton? And if so, how could I best go about it? Or should I look into developing an alternate structure into more robust limbs? Such as the muscular proboscises, perhaps.

Edit: I forgot to mention, my intend is to try to make the feet more efficient and reduce their number to about 12.

Caption is pretty much it.

Would love to read how people approach creatures (and plants if you do that) in their spec evo project.

Do you establish the science first, design after? Do you do the opposite? Do you even care about the science and just make designs you like without limitations?

Just thought it would be a fun thing to talk about since for my spec evo projects I tend to design first and science second, though sometimes there’s not much science to think of.

Osticaudalis find human concepts of sex and gender to be a bit confusing, along with being strange, as due to the majority of osticaudalis having both “male” and “female” gametes (male and female in the sense of having both cells that produce large gametes and small gametes). In fact, many osticaudalis would find themselves getting offended if a human referred to them as “he” or “she”, as such gendered terms sadly have a bad connotation within their culture, as those designations have a historical designation for individuals with specific disabilities (these disabilities being when an individual has only one type of gamete and the issues it may cause. One thing that Osticaudalis also find strange and even a bit disgusting is kissing, as to them, it resembles how they mate. Due to this, when broadcasting within osticaudalis colonies, many juman shows and movies have to remove or censor kissing scenes or else they would be rated only for adults.

Like listing any possiblities, then hpyothetising how would they function, such as silicon based lifeforms. I am open to any form of media from youtube videos to books or articles.

Thanks.

Designing my first seed world rn and I was wondering what methods are used to estimate the size a species can grow to. I had the idea that I could just compare the gravity of my world vs earth and use that to get an idea, but the doesn't take into account a lot of other details like oxygen levels, skeletons and any other factors. Is there any formula, recourse or method that could give me a more accurate estimate or do I just have to guess?

I wanted to make some sort of terrestrial reef system, and I think termite mounds might be a good reef builder. I was thinking that since the external mound is mainly ventilation, it might make more sense for a large group of them to form a reef rather than a single giant one, although I don’t imagine separate colonies would get along. What could benefit them by forming a group of possibly hundreds of colonies within very close distances?

I guess I'm not technically a newcomer, I've known about and been interested in speculative evolution for a little over a year now, but I haven't read much more than All Tomorrows and some of Man after Man. So, like the title says, any recommendations for somebody looking to get deeper into speculative evolution? Books, movies, shows, whatever you have to suggest, please let me know. It would be greatly appreciated.

Apologies if the post seems low effort, I don't really know what all else to say and feel like it'd be redundant to ramble on just to get to a simple question.

A simple idea for a Seedworld, since they all focus around one vertebrate species which diversifies and evolves without wiping themselves out. 

Let's say there's a Lion Seedworld where the only creatures are Lions and ants and arthropods with the Lions subsisting off randomly dropped meat to start their development with parasites and carnivorous/ scavenger insects, of course eventually the Lions begin to overpopulate on this meat and when it starts to wane they all go extinct slowly leaving only the invertebrates who eat the lion corpses until some develop herbivory.

Some invertebrate species: 

Driver Ant

Flies

Carrion Beetles 

Cockroaches 

European Wasps 

Plain Tiger

Bombardier Beetle 

Baboon Spider

Whirligig Beetle

Planet Conditions:

Has two moons 

Sideways rain 

Excess of oxygen that will slowly run out to normal Earth levels in 600 million years

Plate tectonics are prone to extreme volcanism 

The planet is 50 percent ocean and 50 percent land 

It orbits a star like ours. 

EXAMPLE SPECIES

The Ormigator 

https://preview.redd.it/kab6g0w1chzd1.png?width=862&format=png&auto=webp&s=f082695bfec22e87d65112f305db11b35f20a0eb

A descendant of the Driver Ant, it is one of the first large species to foray into the water since the Semi Aquatic Lion of 25 million years prior, with them building several nests connected to each other by burrows in their territory which they travel between to rest, they are carnivorous with the Grabbers attacking and killing prey which they deposit in a nest where the Workers will grab the carrion and give them to the Queens, they can sometimes crawl onto land to feed.

The Beetacean 

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A giant descendant of the Whirligig Beetle, by 56 million years after the Ormigator some of the oceanic water beetles have evolved to a much larger size and have adapted towards a diet of eating the small oceanic insects and eating their tiny juveniles, they are around the size of car and are one of the largest species alive in this world.

A simple idea for a Seedworld, since they all focus around one vertebrate species which diversifies and evolves without wiping themselves out. 

 Anyway thanks for reading, the main things I want feedback on is the planetary conditions, are they alien enough (that seems to be the main issue with seedworld these days) and plausible?

Edit: THANK YOU SO MUCH TO THE PERSON WHO HELPED ME!

I seriously need help! I have been looking for this specific setting I found through the Birgworld tumblr. The creator reblogged a picture from the creator of this setting that fascinated me. A young man submerging his bottom half into a strange creature. I believe they are called thrones? Really they are two halves of two different organisms. The first are human, and the second are called thrones. Both merge into one organism, but both are still two They are the royalty of this world, and come in many different sizes and shapes. I specifically remember centaur like throned (which i'm gonna call the merged organisms since idk their true name), and bird-like throned. Part of the human is digested by the merger. In the birds case only the head remained, but in the centaurs case only the bottom half disappeared.

I normally wouldn't make a post like this, but I'm sure there was a post of this species on here. I wanted to make a character of this setting for a while, but by the time I finally wanted to, I could not find the tumblr post. At all. I did send a ask to the creator but Notes go only so far into the past, so I can't find them there. I tried looking it up here, but 'Throne' only shows Game of Thrones spec evolution. I really would like some help!

i've been thinking about how certain animals might evolve to look like garbage in the future. seems genuinely likely to me! this moth would mimic a discarded butt to make itself look unappetizing! it would tuck its little antennae under itself with its hands. i'm thinking it would be adapted to live amongst humans in big cities, maybe eating food scraps?