Lately I’ve been tinkering with The Perilous Void, a supplement by Jason Lutes of Lampblack & Brimstone. It allows GMs or gaming groups to generate an entire science fiction setting with a few (OK a lot) of d10 and d100 die rolls. You can generate an entire star sector, the planets and other satellites around each star system, the parameters of each world (planet or moon) in the star system, aliens, societies, factions, communities, settlements from small outposts to megacities, NPCs, adventure seeds, and entire campaign frames. If you’re dissatisfied with how your science fiction RPG (or own brain) constructs such things, TPV might be exactly what you need.
Just be warned: you can stop at any time, or simply choose from lists, but generating all this stuff will require a lot of die rolls. For my own amusement I created a set of Python scripts to handle sectors, star systems, and world parameters. (TPV isn’t under any Creative Commons or other shareable license, so legally I don’t think I can publish the scripts.) With the automation, I can create wholly random sectors, star systems, and basic world parameters. I haven’t tackled the softer side – societies, factions, communities – and I probably won’t, since those tables require more interpretation. Even with my scripts, I end up with things that make no sense, e.g. a tiny world with no gravity that still inexplicably has an atmosphere.
Also worth noting, the Perilous Void has its own treatment of faster-than-light travel. One can roll on a random table to determine the nature of FTL (or not, if your game system already describes it), but it makes its own assumption about the practicalities. Those are:
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FTL requires a pre-existing “route” between two “subsectors”, represented as hexes on an almost familiar 10x10 hex grid.
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Each route can only stretch up to three hexes, including the destination.
- Routes which lead to an adjacent subsector are “safe”.
- Routes which cover two hexes are “unsafe”.
- Routes which cover three hexes are “dangerous”.
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FTL without a route is “perilous”, which ties back to the name.
The meanings of “safe”, “unsafe”, “dangerous”, and “perilous” are left to the GM and/or the game system. I have some draft rules for Faster Than Light: Nomad but haven’t tested them. It’s not hard to repurpose other “misjump” rules with an escalating level of risk based on distance. I’m not sure why the supplement makes this assumption; if FTL is too risky interstellar trade organizations and governments would be unlikely, as few people – mostly the desperate and deranged – would venture into the Void. The sector generation system makes worlds more than three hexes away from another star a real possibility.
Still, if you’re unhappy with the default assumption in many SFRPGs that each star system has only one interesting world, or are stuck trying to conjure a setting for a science fiction RPG, spend $20 and pick up this book. Some of the tables are plug-and-chug, while others are designed to spark your imagination through random prompts. About the only thing it lacks is an actual game system; it uses real-world or abstract units, though, so it should fit into any tabletop RPG that can handle the near or far future. Once you open The Perilous Void, you may fall into it as much as I have.