I have some homebrew tables for generating civilizations, including some economics, religions, culture. Is there a plan to make a supplement for this sort of thing or has anyone else homebrewed this stuff and would you be interested in bouncing ideas here?
Sounds interesting.
The last time I thought about this, I planned to pirate the Ethics and Traits mechanics from the marvellous Grand Strategy Game ‘Stellaris’ by Paradox. I did not consider publishing for obvious reasons.
While not suitable for quick reference, you might take a look at a few .pdfs from Ennead Games that can offer some thoughts:
Star System & Planet Maker
100 Planetary Aspects & Quirks
Lifeform Maker
The amount of minute detail may be off-putting for some, but I found randomly rolling to generate the associated content can provide inspiration for something suited to stories I might want to tell…
problem with random socities is that in trek the aliens of the week always are used for a story, and often exist as social commentary, randomly detirmining stuff then means you’re proably not thinking about things like that just my opinion.
The amount of minute detail may be off-putting for some, but I found randomly rolling to generate the associated content can provide inspiration for something suited to stories I might want to tell…
Sorry if that was vague. I meant that sometimes by playing about with the tables and randomly rolling stuff, I can find some inspiration for content that I would then carefully select from the available options to create content for missions. I use it more as a sandbox tool than a way to generate content on the fly.
I made this in 2015 or 16 for a game. It has origins in a format used in Chaotic Shiny’s civilization generator with some material from 3 different games and a whole lot of encyclopedia research. Criticize all you like (it can only make it better), just don’t hate. This is only the government stuff.
Alien Civ.pdf (19.6 KB)
Thanks for mentioning those products. I also enjoy random tables as a jumping off point.
Garrett
I’ve often used the tables from FGU’s Star Explorer (now in reprint from Goblinoid Games) as mission inspiration.
While long out of print, DGP’s Grand Survey and Grand Census (later combined into World Builder’s Handbook) are excellent for detailing worlds out.
I finished transcribing all my tables into a pdf (updated)
Alien Civ.pdf (26.2 KB)
I use the old GURPS Space 3rd ed generator when I need physical details. Scientifically a little out of date, but still one of the more consistent random generation systems
Thank you for providing this. I always want more random tables to jumpstart my imagination.
Garrett