Do X without Y
Ruby, 102 bytes
Array#sample
doesn't do repetitions for sampling from the character set, but that's OK because the character distribution don't have to be perfectly uniform! Recursive function, returns an array of lines.
Try it online!
f=->l{w,x,y,z=([*?!..?~]-%w"y Y").sample 4
l<2?[w]:[w+(s=' '*(l-2))+x,*f[l-2].map{|e|" #{e} "},y+s+z]}
Actually, 62 bytes
"!⌂"♂┘ix♂c"Yy"@-╗½≈u;r2@∙`i=`M╪k`;dXR@+`M;dXR@+`"╜J' aI"£MΣ`Mi
This is one of the longest Actually programs I've ever written.
Try it online!
Explanation:
Part 1: setting up the character list
"!⌂"♂┘ix♂c"Yy"@-
"!⌂" push the string "!⌂"
♂┘ CP437 ordinal of each character ([21, 127])
ix range(21, 127)
♂c character at each ordinal (list of printable ASCII characters)
"Yy"@- set difference with ["Y", "y"] (printable ASCII except "Y" and "y")
Try it online!
Part 2: constructing the boolean array for an X
½≈u;r2@∙`i=`M╪k`;dXR@+`M;dXR@+
½≈u; two copies of int(input/2)+1
r range
2@∙ Cartesian product with itself
`i=`M for each sublist: push 1 if both elements are equal, else 0
╪k split into int(input/2)+1-length chunks
(at this point, we have one quarter of the X)
`;dXR@+`M mirror each sublist (one half of the X)
;dXR@+ mirror the entire list (the whole X)
Try it online!
Part 3: picking random characters
`"╜J' aI"£MΣ`Mi
`"╜J' aI"£MΣ`M for each row:
"╜J' aI"£M for each column:
╜J push a random value from the character list
' push a space
a invert the stack
I take the character if the value is 1, else take the space
Σ concatenate the strings
i flatten the list and let implicit output take care of the rest
Try it online!
Mathematica, 146 bytes
a:=RandomChoice[33~CharacterRange~126~Complement~{"Y","y"}];StringRiffle[Normal@SparseArray[{{b_, b_}:>a,{b_,c_}/;c-1==#-b:>a},{#,#}," "],"
",""]&
Anonymous function. Takes a number as input, and returns a string as output.