Sunday, August 12, 2012

The Place Where Black Stars Hang


Here's a random colony generator, for those times when you just have to violate human biology in a new and exciting place.

[A] [B] on a [C]. It is under the control of [D], and currently facing a threat from [E]. 

A — Quality
1: Failed, seemingly-empty
2: Violently divided
3: Understaffed
4: Ramshackle
5: Fully-functional
6: Overtaxed

B — Function
1: Mining colony (Examples: gas-mining balloons, seismic power station, mobile helium-3 extractor, unusually non-automated labyritnth deep in the planet's crust)
2: Industrial colony (Examples: raw-material refinery, semi-automated factory, repair facility with massive drydocks, bio-manufacturing centre, junk/salvage processing centre)  
3: Agricultural colony (Examples: vat-farms, luddite primitives, oxygen farm)
4: Settlement (Examples: terraforming homesteader community, refugee camp, splinter sect, mutant colony, crash survivor camp, squat)  
5: Outpost (Examples: listening post, expedition base, refueling station, isolated laboratory)  
6: Fortification (Examples: pirate port, rebel base, military storage facility, forward defensive position, prison)

C — Planet Type
1: Noxious, volcanism-shattered magma planet. (Examples: Io, Mustafar)
2: Hazy, cloud-wrapped storm planet. (Examples: Venus, Titan)
3: Arid, wind-carved desert planet. (Examples: Mars, Arrakis)  
4: Grey, primordial, grit-choked rocky planet. (Examples: LV-426, Fury 161)
5: Brackish, fungal swamp planet. (Examples: Dagobah, primordial Earth)
6: Glacially-encrusted ice planet. (Examples: Europa, Pluto, Hoth)

D — Who's In Charge
1: A governor appointed by an absent power.
2: The owner of the colony; a prospector, corporate head or aristocrat.
3: A combined council of the heads of each segment of the colony's operations.
4: A strongman who rules by force and fear of force.
5: Elders, headmen or leaders by popular esteem.
6: [Reroll twice for separate factions, adding another reroll each time a 6 comes up.]

E — Threat
1: Unexplained phenomena such as ghostly apparitions, or disappearing things and people. (Or appearing things and people.)
2: Illness or disease of the inhabitants, or other essential life-forms.
3: Unusual or suspicious behaviour among the colony personnel, or suspicion of unusual behaviour, or unusual suspicious behaviour…
4: Equipment malfunctions. 
5: External assault from outsiders, or giant bugs, or giant bug outsiders.
6: A natural disaster—this is Ceti Alpha V!

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