Alternate Venuses

Three tables to roll an alternate Venus (or Venus-like) world for your old-school campaigns.

 General Planetary Conditions
1. Dense (crushing) Atmosphere, unbreathable, surface temperatures high enough to melt lead.
2. Dense (crushing) Atmosphere unsurvivable by humans at low altitudes, high altitude contained habitats survivable but oxygen supplement needed to breathe outside habitats.
3. Dense Atmosphere unsurvivable by humans at low altitudes, high altitude jungle environment habitable.
3. CO2 rich atmosphere hot but endurable, filter mask required to breath outside habitats for human.
4. Thick but breathable atmosphere with surface ravaged by toxic clouds that periodically rain insidious acid rain.
5. Oxygen rich atmosphere requires filter masks to breath, frequent vast fires create they cloud deck that blocks out sunlight keeping surface survivable (aside from the frequent fires).
6. Otherwise breathable atmosphere tainted by gases bubbling from the vast seas of rotting biological matter. The seas are a riot of grotesque life-forms in an aggressive Darwinian contest.
7. A Seeming tropical paradise save for the toxic atmosphere which would kill humans in minutes.
8. A steaming world spanning Tropical jungle filled with dinosaurian life.
9. A riot of fungus-like growths dominate the lowlands in such profusion the spores are dangerous to human life. In the uplands isolated communities struggle to keep the infestation at bay.
10. An ocean world wracked by and ever storm filled sky conceals a vibrant and diverse aquatic ecology in the depths of the oceans.
11. A steaming ocean world  where the only surface is vast island-mats of vegetations. Great beasts of immense size swim in the seas mostly ignoring the relatively pathetic surface life that clings to the island-mats.
12. A world choked in the gases of a once great technological civilization. Little pockets of life exist isolated in precarious local ecologies but on the main the seas, land, and air are filthy with wastes from the fallen civilization.


Native Intelligent Species (roll 1d3, if more than one choose one to be dominant)
1. Blind Spiked Crustaceans
2. Levitating Cephalapods
3. Sentient Bivalves
4. Tripodal Fungoids
5. Chthonian Horrors
6. Communal Vegetable Intelligence
7. Gargantuan Insects
8. Large Singing Snails
9. Savage Reptilians
10. Sophisticated Myriapods
11. Machines from an elder civilization
12. Forgotten Atlantean Colonists/Amazons




Native Technology (roll 1d12 for dominant culture, 1d8 for others)
1. Non-technological society
2. Primitive/Stone Age; tools shaped directly from raw goods in the environment
3. Pharaonic; Chariot-like vehicles and pyramids
4. Bronze Age; catapults and small ships
5. Medieval; castle, swords, and handwritten books
6. Steam Age; an age of industry and science overtaking older way of life
7. Diesel Age; roughly analogous to the middle of the 20th century
8. Crystal Age; harmonic vibrational weapons and healing crystals
9. Space Age; Orbital weapons, Superalloy
10.Bio-Tech; Cultured materials and bio alteration
11.Psychotronic; Astral Detonators, Psychoactive beat
12.Cosmic; appears to be magi-tech to primitives


Some of the general conditions seem like they would prohibit much in the way of local species being around. Those that do seem out of place could be in isolated habitats (dungeons, domes, towers, redoubts, spaceships), micro-environments, just a notion to describe long lost ruins, or the undead remnants of a previous civilization.

Sample:
Dense Atmosphere unsurvivable by humans at low altitudes, high altitude jungle environment habitable. Crustaceans and Insectoids with medieval technology battle it out over control of the lowlands while the remnants of an Atlantean colony struggle to survive in isolated mountain citadels with their slowly failing crystalline technology (they are ignorant of the fate of Atlantis on Earth).

Pondering World Design

I've been pondering on world design for OSR compatible sci-fi games (among other things). Scientific plausibility is the key but only to some extent can't just leave it to happenstance to get a Hoth or Dune, or can we?

Traveller has had world generation it it's rules for since it's inception (as gar as I'm aware) and I have a fondness for those strings of hexadecimal data but they are limited and lacking. There is also the case where worlds get dreadfully dull when they are expressed as little more than said string of hexadecimal codes. 

I've been toying with an expanded Traveller compatible system for years always feeling the original just didn't go far enough.  Atmosphere as density and composition in one code...how limiting, where was the surface temperature, ambient radiation, and more? All the seas of our solar system are not water surely there would be a difference in the rest of the universe.

My last posted start at expanded world generation included world classes, AtmosphereiDensity, Atmosphere Composition, Types of asteroids, asteroid use, Hydrology Class (not just seas of water), the cloud decks of gas giants and  radiation levels. I didn't get it all wrapped up. I havn't played traveller in years and traveller does have one or more expanded world and system generation systems out there. Time to set my sites further afield.

What would you find necessary and evocative in the descriptions of worlds for sci-fi gaming?  Is it safe to have a world be one descriptive biome, or should things get pickier? How picky er uh, detail oriented should it be?

Into the Planes

Richard LeBlanc of the Save Vs. Dragon blog has been posting in regard to the planes and how they are  setup, connect, all that sort of comsmological stuff. It's pretty interesting if you dig into the magical metaphysics of your game or even plan to have adventurous jaunts on other planes.

It inspired me to doodle between business meeting and illustrating today.

No idea if this is going anywhere but a picture is sometimes worth 1,000 words.

Every D&D campaign need not have the same cosmology/planar arrangements. Makes me wonder how fiddling with them could or should impact the rest of the game.

Intellect,Romance,Brutality, and Cynicism for Traveller

Going with appeal of Dr. Who as being “The Triumph of Intellect and Romance Over Brute Force and Cynicism” it crossed my mind that was a useful basis to establish the philosophical and cultures attitudes in a civilization for a traveler campaign that would go deeper and wider than I’ve seen others raise in the past without being needlessly picky and leave room for GMs to decide what those values mean in the context of their own campaign. So from the quoted line we have four factors to describe a civilization: Intellect, Romance, Brutality, and Cynicism.

Intellect: Reasoning and understanding objectively, esp. with regard to abstract or academic matters. Some view a purely intellectual universe would be austere and unemotional while others have argued true application of intellect would allow for comprehension and contact with the divine (I guess it depends on ones notions in regards to the other elements here). Worlds of high intellect may become academic centers or worlds where technological wonders would be devised on a regular basis.

Romance: an emotional attraction or aura belonging to an especially heroic era, adventure, or activity. Romantic love certainly falls within romance but does not exclusively define it. In a Romantic universe the actions and deeds of individuals matter even if driven by abstract and external forces. Romantic worlds would often be rich in poetry,art, and music ,mayhaps enough so to draw folks from other worlds.

Brutality: violent, cruel, and harsh treatment of others. Application of force is a defining element to a brutal universe. Different views of aliens like Klingons and Kzinti provide examples of brutal civilizations. A world with a high brutality score and law level would be a very unhealthy place for larcenous travellers. Brutal worlds may sponsor death-races or jousting as popular sports.

Cynicism: A general distrust of the apparent motives of individuals and institutions. A cynic has a lack of faith in individuals and institutions (often within the currently established parameters not that suitable alternatives need to be voiced in Toto for one to be a cynic). Classical cynicism had a libertine nature that leads folks to define modem and classical cynicism as distinct philosophies claiming modern cynicism is almost a reverse of the original, I’d argue that “classical cynicism” was cynicism tempered by romanticism against a civilization where intellectualism was not used to define the rights and privileges of individuals in an environment often hampered/controlled by brutality as such cynicism remains a useable definition across culture and time when kept in context with the other metrics here. Highly cynical worlds will find travellers monitored by the secret/cultural police while worlds with low cynicism may be ripe for interstellar con-men.

Each of the above could be rated in the classical hexadecimal pattern of Traveller.

Determining scores for a world’s Intellect, Romance, Brutality, and Cynicism using classic traveler parameters:

Intellect: 2d6-2 + DM listed below

TL 0  = -2, TL 1 or 2 = -1, TL 6-10= +1, TL 11 to 14= +3, TL 15+ = +4

Gov 3,5,or 6 = -2, Gov 4= +1, Gov 2= +2, Gov 9= -1

Pop A+ = +1

Romance: 2d6-2 + DM listed below

TL 1 to 3 = +2, TL 5+= -2

Gov 1 or 6 = -3, Gov 2= +3, Gov 8 or 9 = -2, Gov 10 or 12= +6, Gov 13 = +2

Pop 5 to 7= +2, POP 9+ = -2

High Romance (A+) worlds aren’t always stable as the locals are prone to flights of passion and whimsy based on the local notions of romanticism. Dueling wouldn’t be unusual on worlds with both Romance and Brutality scores of 7+.

Brutality: 2d6-2 + DM listed below

TL 0= +4, TL or 2 = +3, TL 9+= -2

Gov 1 = +1, Gov 5= +3, Gov 7 or 9 = +1, Gov A = +1, Gov B= +5, Gov D= +3

Law 3 to 7 = -2, Law 8+= -3

Pop A+ = -2, Pop 7 to9 = +2

High tech brutal worlds often end up being destroyed by war or terrorism.

Worlds of Brutality 7+ and lower Intellect may be prone to trial by ordeal or trial by combat.

Cynicism:  2d6-2+ DM listed below

TL 2= +1, TL 3 to 9= +2

Gov 1= +4, Gov 2 = -2, Gov 5 pr 6= +1, Gov 8= -2, Gov 9= +5, Gov 11 or 13= +3

Law 3 or less -2,Law  5 to 8=+3, Law 9+ = +5

Pop 3 or less = -3, Pop 7 to 9 = +2, Pop A+= +3

Worlds with a Cynicism score of A+ likely wouldn’t stay that way for long if there is Intellect or Romance of 7 or more is present as folks will adapt over time. If the world has had cynicism for a generations at A or higher it’ll likely lower as society changes.

Using Intellect, Romance, Brutality, and Cynicism to determine TL, Gov,Law, and Pop will surely come up in a future post on traveller world creation (I’ve been updating my old alternative method).

Saucerman Loot Tables

The Saucermen are back and what do they need, covet, and display? Better yet, what can PCs walk-off with?

Weapon Prefix

1.      Hypno

2.      Stun

3.      Agony

4.      Ecstasy

5.      Nightmare

6.      Soporific

7.      Phase

8.      Pulse

9.      Sonic

10.   Electo

11.   Rust

12.   Razor

13.   Photon

14.   Plasma

15.   Heat

16.   Cryonic

17.   Tachyon

18.   Neuro

19.   Toxic

20.   Slime

Weapon Types

1.      Rod

2.      Prod

3.      Lash

4.      Whip

5.      Baton

6.      Mace

7.      Flail

8.      Star

9.      Pistol

10.   Gun

11.   Rifle

12.   Sprayer

13.   Projector

14.   Blade

15.   Sword

16.   Glove

17.   Disk

18.   Drone

19.   Emitter

20.   Ray

Weapon Grips (also Upholstery/Covering for Saucer Seating)

1.      Lunar Lapis

2.      Venusian Rubber

3.      Plasteel

4.      Ceramax

5.      Crystal

6.      Homosapien Leather

7.      Wrapped in Braided Earth Girl Hair

8.      Crysteel

9.      Bandersnatch Hide

10.   MiGo Horn

11.   Shoggoth Epidermis

12.   Wamp Tooth

13.   Cow Hide

14.   Cephaloid Membrane

15.   Memory Metal

16.   Star-Whale Ivory

17.   Fungal Foam

18.   Astro-Coral

19.   Collapsium

20.   Transluminum

Strange Artifact Shapes

1.      Tetrahedron

2.      Cube

3.      Octahedron

4.      Dodecahedron

5.      Icosahedron

6.      Globe

7.      Cylinder

8.      Decahedron

9.      Hexahedron

10.   Polyhedron

11.   Pentahedron

12.   Omnihedron

Shape Modifiers

1.      Tessellated

2.      Truncated

3.      Quasitruncated

4.      Stellated

5.      Fractalized

6.      Dodecic

7.      Hemi-

8.      Semi-

9.      Cubo

10.   Rhombi

11.   Icosi

12.   Hyper

What’s the object doing?

1. Oscillating
2. Vibrating
3. Flashing
4. Shimmering
5. Radiating
6. Glowing
7. Luminescent
8. Hovering
9. Glittering
10. Fluorescence
11. Shining
12. Pulsating
13. Throbbing
14. Quivering
15. Undulating
16. Humming
17. Beeping
18. Whistling
19. Fractalizing
20. Shifting