(I hope this is the right place to post this! If not, please enlighten me <3)
No doubt this has been done before, and by those with far more skill than I, but! I hardly ever do anything with my huge collection of character-related links; hopefully they'll be useful to somebody.
Here's an incomplete list of useful resources; feel free to comment with short reviews of certain sites/generators, recommendations, requests or, of course, more to add to the list!
DESIGN INSPIRATION
(help with this one v much appreciated! ;u;)
character design inspiration.tumblr
character design inspiration on pinterest
character-designs.tumblr
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
f***yeahcharacterdevelopment.tumblr.com/post/50825149893/character-sheets-and-character-creation (remove asterisks)
referenceforwriters.tumblr
RANDOM GENERATORS
For those who don't mind a hit-and-miss approach to character design and development, random generators are some of the most helpful tools there are.
MAIN - SITES WITH PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING
chaotic shiny - mottos, rune descriptions, contellations, crowds, place names, animal companions (fairly good for giving an outline for a non-human character), musical instruments, meals, paranormal romance, worldbuilding...
seventh sanctum - there is literally a whole section called 'names and naming'. Another on anime and manga, including a really cool magical girl gen. Another called 'beings and creatures', with four different dragon gens and a generator for anthros, plus the legendary creature gen, which is a pretty good species generator. Don't stick just to one section - the generators are a bit randomly filed, so explore a bit! This generator site inspired many other, including chaotic shiny itself; go bask in its magnificence.
springhole - Yup, it's got everything, including a non-human character gen section and a fandom-relevant generator index. Also, there's a spaceship generator! (If you want a very quick humanoid character, look at the Quick Character & OC Creation Kit).
donjon - mostly geared toward D&D and similar tabletop games, but there's a few nice customisable character generators for sci-fi, fantasy, weird and so on.
random-generator - this has a wide variety of generators of various standards and for some really rather obscure fandoms, including some urban fantasy (Laundry Files, anyone? No?). There's a good chance it'll have what you're looking for, but it's also a butt to navigate. Here's a few possible places to start: sorted by genre, setting (not too well organised), topic (better organised), all character concept-related generators (including an... undead software programmer character concept generator? Seriously, everything), most descriptions (including dogs, zombies and bookshelves), misc weird gens (ever wanted to randomly generate a smell? SpiritForm generator very recommended), all name gens ...ahh, just look yourself. There's a whole bunch, is what I'm saying.
generating - generally fantasy-focused gens; character background and pocketses generators particularly recommended, as well as a realistic horse generator.
inspiration pad - a good selection of name generators, but most of the other generators are intended for tabletop gaming and so are only very useful if you know how to interpret them (i.e. are wise in the ways of the dungeon crawlers) or are very imaginative, in which case you could probably get about the same results from a screen of static.
CHARACTER APPEARANCE & PERSONALITY
rangen - look to the bottom of the page for all the generators. There's a nice results-of-pregnancy generator (intended for humans, but works fairly well for other species), a couple of human personality and appearance generators with nice levels of detail, an awesome family generator and a very useful species generator.
fantasynamegenerators - look in 'descriptions' for a bunch of description generators. Plus, under 'guides' there's a guide to species-builiding!
quick tumblr character gen - substitute the companion for the species if you want a non-human character.
crimson daggers - humans, especially fantasy humans, with weapons and clothing suggestions. Also specific descriptions of shape of facial features, which is always nice when drawing.
fake name generator - this... if you ever want to create a completely believable modern cover identity, complete with address, activatable email and blood type, here you go. Almost frightening. Download bulk identities here (up to 50,000, apparently!).
warpcore sf - generally science fiction-centred generators, including a science fiction/fantasy (SFF) character generator that can be quite useful.
gm help alien profile - very detailed alien character generator, with sections for communication methods, nervous system composition and polymorphic cellular shapeshifting. Scroll all the way down to find the randomise button.
gm help hero background - very detailed fantasy character (not necessarily human) background generator.
pbe games lifepath - quick character background generator, with a very brief appearance description more geared, unusually, to how you present yourself than genetics.
VISUAL APPEARANCE GENERATORS
dreamself - yeah, you already know about this one. Good for anime/cute humans.
heromachine - you do NOT have to pay for this; the trial version is really good (as long as you have internet and a few hours to spare browsing the millions of options). If you want to make a comic book-style character reference for a humanoid while designing, this is great. Also, weapons!
CHARACTER NAMES
behindthename - this one is great. It's so great. Well, you have to know what kind of nationality you want your character to have (or at least if they had hippie parents), but if you don't know, there's always -
behindthename themes - with opportunities to search for canine, feline, flowery, elfin and sea creature names, this has been really useful for me in the past. Go forth and discover!
fantasynamegenerators - so very many name generators. Mermen and mutants, warrior cats to world of warcraft, Anglo-Saxon to alien - I can't list them all, but there's a very nice pop culture section and an equally distinguished fantasy section.
serendipity - alas, this excellent site got taken down by hackers a while ago, but there are a few generators that have been restored, including a crop of fantasy, French, Japanese and Medieval name generators.
rinkworks - fantasy names, with very good (if tricky) customisation options and a long legacy stretching back to, like, 1994. It's very old!
the forge - very shiny fantasy person, beast, spell and place name generator, with nice interactivity; feels like a minigame!
oobleck - Victorian and Steampunk names, customisable by class (commoner, aristocracy, enforcer and more).
pbe games namer - not real (but kind of real-sounding) names.
COLOUR PALETTES
coolors - cool as heck palette generator! press spacebar to randomise colours, you can lock them & export palettes p easily... v useful when looking for a kind of extended palette challenge u_u
OTHER STUFF
namepistol - good for unserious medieval names and equally silly band names
fantasynamegenerators - check under descriptions and place names for armour, clothing, weapons, cities, dungeons and societies. Fun, and almost comprehensive!
nicholas mcrae - this is a fairly generic quirks generator, the likes of which can be found elsewhere on this list. I'm just including it because... who is this guy?
pbe games - vehicles, chinese restaurants, landmarks... try bestiary and demonic creature gens for species descriptions.
NON-RANDOMLY-GENERATED NAMES
behindthename themes - with opportunities to search for canine, feline, flowery, elfin and sea creature names, this has been really useful for me in the past. Go forth and discover!
last-names - what it sounds like!
behind the name - the surname counterpart to its more popular first-name site :3
behind the name links - scroll down to find a whole bunch of country-specific real-world name sites! Far too many and too specific to list here unless requested, so take a look!
If you want a specific generator, please do ask and I'll see if I can find one <3 There really are too many to list if they're not specifically requested!
No doubt this has been done before, and by those with far more skill than I, but! I hardly ever do anything with my huge collection of character-related links; hopefully they'll be useful to somebody.
Here's an incomplete list of useful resources; feel free to comment with short reviews of certain sites/generators, recommendations, requests or, of course, more to add to the list!
DESIGN INSPIRATION
(help with this one v much appreciated! ;u;)
character design inspiration.tumblr
character design inspiration on pinterest
character-designs.tumblr
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
f***yeahcharacterdevelopment.tumblr.com/post/50825149893/character-sheets-and-character-creation (remove asterisks)
referenceforwriters.tumblr
RANDOM GENERATORS
For those who don't mind a hit-and-miss approach to character design and development, random generators are some of the most helpful tools there are.
MAIN - SITES WITH PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING
chaotic shiny - mottos, rune descriptions, contellations, crowds, place names, animal companions (fairly good for giving an outline for a non-human character), musical instruments, meals, paranormal romance, worldbuilding...
seventh sanctum - there is literally a whole section called 'names and naming'. Another on anime and manga, including a really cool magical girl gen. Another called 'beings and creatures', with four different dragon gens and a generator for anthros, plus the legendary creature gen, which is a pretty good species generator. Don't stick just to one section - the generators are a bit randomly filed, so explore a bit! This generator site inspired many other, including chaotic shiny itself; go bask in its magnificence.
springhole - Yup, it's got everything, including a non-human character gen section and a fandom-relevant generator index. Also, there's a spaceship generator! (If you want a very quick humanoid character, look at the Quick Character & OC Creation Kit).
donjon - mostly geared toward D&D and similar tabletop games, but there's a few nice customisable character generators for sci-fi, fantasy, weird and so on.
random-generator - this has a wide variety of generators of various standards and for some really rather obscure fandoms, including some urban fantasy (Laundry Files, anyone? No?). There's a good chance it'll have what you're looking for, but it's also a butt to navigate. Here's a few possible places to start: sorted by genre, setting (not too well organised), topic (better organised), all character concept-related generators (including an... undead software programmer character concept generator? Seriously, everything), most descriptions (including dogs, zombies and bookshelves), misc weird gens (ever wanted to randomly generate a smell? SpiritForm generator very recommended), all name gens ...ahh, just look yourself. There's a whole bunch, is what I'm saying.
generating - generally fantasy-focused gens; character background and pocketses generators particularly recommended, as well as a realistic horse generator.
inspiration pad - a good selection of name generators, but most of the other generators are intended for tabletop gaming and so are only very useful if you know how to interpret them (i.e. are wise in the ways of the dungeon crawlers) or are very imaginative, in which case you could probably get about the same results from a screen of static.
CHARACTER APPEARANCE & PERSONALITY
rangen - look to the bottom of the page for all the generators. There's a nice results-of-pregnancy generator (intended for humans, but works fairly well for other species), a couple of human personality and appearance generators with nice levels of detail, an awesome family generator and a very useful species generator.
fantasynamegenerators - look in 'descriptions' for a bunch of description generators. Plus, under 'guides' there's a guide to species-builiding!
quick tumblr character gen - substitute the companion for the species if you want a non-human character.
crimson daggers - humans, especially fantasy humans, with weapons and clothing suggestions. Also specific descriptions of shape of facial features, which is always nice when drawing.
fake name generator - this... if you ever want to create a completely believable modern cover identity, complete with address, activatable email and blood type, here you go. Almost frightening. Download bulk identities here (up to 50,000, apparently!).
warpcore sf - generally science fiction-centred generators, including a science fiction/fantasy (SFF) character generator that can be quite useful.
gm help alien profile - very detailed alien character generator, with sections for communication methods, nervous system composition and polymorphic cellular shapeshifting. Scroll all the way down to find the randomise button.
gm help hero background - very detailed fantasy character (not necessarily human) background generator.
pbe games lifepath - quick character background generator, with a very brief appearance description more geared, unusually, to how you present yourself than genetics.
VISUAL APPEARANCE GENERATORS
dreamself - yeah, you already know about this one. Good for anime/cute humans.
heromachine - you do NOT have to pay for this; the trial version is really good (as long as you have internet and a few hours to spare browsing the millions of options). If you want to make a comic book-style character reference for a humanoid while designing, this is great. Also, weapons!
CHARACTER NAMES
behindthename - this one is great. It's so great. Well, you have to know what kind of nationality you want your character to have (or at least if they had hippie parents), but if you don't know, there's always -
behindthename themes - with opportunities to search for canine, feline, flowery, elfin and sea creature names, this has been really useful for me in the past. Go forth and discover!
fantasynamegenerators - so very many name generators. Mermen and mutants, warrior cats to world of warcraft, Anglo-Saxon to alien - I can't list them all, but there's a very nice pop culture section and an equally distinguished fantasy section.
serendipity - alas, this excellent site got taken down by hackers a while ago, but there are a few generators that have been restored, including a crop of fantasy, French, Japanese and Medieval name generators.
rinkworks - fantasy names, with very good (if tricky) customisation options and a long legacy stretching back to, like, 1994. It's very old!
the forge - very shiny fantasy person, beast, spell and place name generator, with nice interactivity; feels like a minigame!
oobleck - Victorian and Steampunk names, customisable by class (commoner, aristocracy, enforcer and more).
pbe games namer - not real (but kind of real-sounding) names.
COLOUR PALETTES
coolors - cool as heck palette generator! press spacebar to randomise colours, you can lock them & export palettes p easily... v useful when looking for a kind of extended palette challenge u_u
OTHER STUFF
namepistol - good for unserious medieval names and equally silly band names
fantasynamegenerators - check under descriptions and place names for armour, clothing, weapons, cities, dungeons and societies. Fun, and almost comprehensive!
nicholas mcrae - this is a fairly generic quirks generator, the likes of which can be found elsewhere on this list. I'm just including it because... who is this guy?
pbe games - vehicles, chinese restaurants, landmarks... try bestiary and demonic creature gens for species descriptions.
NON-RANDOMLY-GENERATED NAMES
behindthename themes - with opportunities to search for canine, feline, flowery, elfin and sea creature names, this has been really useful for me in the past. Go forth and discover!
last-names - what it sounds like!
behind the name - the surname counterpart to its more popular first-name site :3
behind the name links - scroll down to find a whole bunch of country-specific real-world name sites! Far too many and too specific to list here unless requested, so take a look!
If you want a specific generator, please do ask and I'll see if I can find one <3 There really are too many to list if they're not specifically requested!
