If we're going with pangea (which I'm not opposed to) then there won't be much surprise anyhow. You can still do things with large internal seas, land bridges, off continent islands, etc. From reading Rik Meleet's comments it sounds like he's all about balance, which is reassuring. Why not give him the # of players we end up with, difficulty level, aggression, & barbs & ask HIM to surprise us with landmass, age, temperature? I don't think we have any crybabies here, and speaking for myself I'm in it for the fun of playing with others, win or lose. Maybe if he knew our skill levels he could take that into consideration when putting everything in place. I, for one, am just about to win my 1st solo Emperor game, and am playing in 2 Vanilla Deity SG's.