SciFi world generator system notes.

Last Fall I posted a quickie and general world generation system and noted I had an older one I used for traveller that I was updating to the 21st century. Some of it is here in this post, it's a big old mess of charts and a few notes, it's incomplete but I felt like sharing and wondered if anyone else out there would ever be interested in seeing more?

World Class

RR	Ring
AS	Asteroidean	Under 0.0001 Earth Masses,Small Minor Planet
SD	Sub-Dwarf	Under 0.001 Earth Masses, Large Minor Planet
DD	Dwarf	Between 0.01 and 0.001 Earth Masses
MM	Mercurian	Under 0.1 Earth Masses but over 0.01 Earth Masses
ST	SubTerran	0.1 to 0.5 Earth Masses
TT	Terran	0.5 to 2.0 Earth Masses
XT	SuperTerran	2-10 Earth Masses
CH	Chthonian	2.5-25 Earth Masses
HN	Helian/Neptunian	10-50 Earth Masses
JJ	Jovian	50-200 Earth Masses
XJ	SuperJovian	Over 200 Earth Masses, up to 80 times the mass of Jupiter
BDW	Brown Dwarf	A cool dim near-star

Hot Zone World Table (roll 2d6, 1d6 times)

2	SD - Sub-Dwarf
3	DD - Dwarf
4	MM - Mercurian
5	ST - SubTerran
6	XJ – Super Jovian
7	JJ – Jovian
8-9	TT - Terran
10	XT - SuperTerran
11	CH - Chthonian
12	HN - Helian/Neptunian

Warm Zone World Table (roll 4d6, 1d6-1 times)

4-7	AS - Asteroidean
8-9	SD - Sub-Dwarf
10-11	DD - Dwarf
12-13	MM - Mercurian
14-15	TT - Terran
16-17	JJ –Jovian
18	XJ – Super Jovian
19-20	ST - Terran
21	XT - SuperTerran
22	CH - Chthonian
23	HN - Helian/Neptunian
24	BDW - Brown Dwarf

Cold Zobe World Table (roll 2d6, 2d6-2 times)

3	AS - Asteroidean
4	SD - Sub-Dwarf
5	DD - Dwarf
6	MM - Mercurian
7	TT - Terran
8-10	JJ –Jovian
11-12	HN - Helian/Neptunian
13-14	XJ – Super Jovian
15	ST - SubTerran
16	XT - SuperTerran
17	CH - Chthonian
18	BDW - Brown Dwarf

Determine World Size within a Class

2d6-2, if result is 0 roll 1 d6 on 1-3 go Down A World Class, 4-6 use size 1; on 10 roll 1d6 on1-3 use size 9, 4-6 go up a world class

(Many more charts/tables after the break. I had to trim a bunch just from the selection I'm posting here. )

Basic Foodstuff of Spacers

Ever wonder what the cook has on the boil down in the galley, what the nutri-replicators use to shape the dishes it spits out, or just what the heck there is to eat on that thousand year old space hulk?
Wonder no more here's 10 yummy basic food stuffs for stellar traveling camapigns.

Basic Spacer Grub

1	Phaetonic Nims	These vaguely edible parasites are harvested from cool white dwarf stars where they dwell by the billions upon billions.
2	Void Krill	Best described as butterfly winged shrimp these creatures are scooped up by slowships beyond the heliosphere of main sequence stars with life bearing worlds.
3	Reclaimed Protein Gel	Where’s this reclaimed protein come from? Don’t ask. Some spacers note there’s plenty of it on hand after Taco Tuesday.
4	Soylent Teal	Good news is it isn’t people but it does tend to induce suicide sometime after the 100th consecutive meal.
5	Crunchy Calcium Cubes	All the goodness and pleasure of chewing dry dusty bones.
6	Aqueous Dole Brick	Rock hard until you turn it to mush in a bowl of water.
7	Condensed Jovian Miasma	If carefully processed the particulates from some gas giants can prove to be nutritious and hardly ever toxic.
8	Nutritional Yeast Flakes	nothing beats the yummy goodness of stabilized dry flakes of yeast.
9	Star Whale Blubber	Served in big rubbery slabs or as deep fried crunchy strips.
10	Algae Stew	The taste just grows on you… not in you, trust us.

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).