So I was digging through my hard drive and I found this document tucked away in a deep dark forgotten corner. It was a conversation I had on the D6 mailing list, dated from 1998 or thereabouts. It's a bunch of mails, so it's a bit disjointed - but there's still some pretty solid nuggets.
The topic was: lets brainstorm some planetary quirks. We've got an unlimited special effects budget, to build flying castles and planets with pink skies and landscapes that would make ILM weep. Here's what we came up with. . . .
Gosh, the possible lists go on and on. Here are a few categories to start with:
Cultural. These are "artificial" restraints, placed by human or alien preference, fear, etc.
Physical. These are actual things about the planet that affect the characters. Deadly gases, earthquakes, etc.
Here are a few I can think of off the top of my head:
1) Most of the planet is composed of a certain mineral that make repulsorlifts not work. So only wheeled vehicles, hover vehicles or beasts of burden are used. (For those who don't know WEG, each of those proceeding examples is a separate skill to pilot.)
2) Poisonous gases, or slightly toxic.
3) As a variation on the above theme, I find that describing the general smell of the planet is remarkable in getting a good feel. You can be general("It smells of decay") or very specific. ("As you step outside, you grimace. In the air is some ephemeric odor...it smells of rotting leaves and wood.")
4) Different colors. Who says plants have to be green? Or the sky has to be blue? Don't go overboard with the colors, though. Players will take wild, neon colors for granted after a while.
5) Totally different environments. Mercury seas. Chlorine oceans. Bromine lakes. Heavy deposits of Cesium (Explodes on contact with water). These, too can be overdone, so use them sparingly.
The above are all physical factors, which are easy to come up with. Cultural factors are much harder. There is a helpful method, though: go to the library (or the 'net) and look up some actual human cultures. Adapt them for whatever species, and you've got something that the players probably haven't heard of, unless they're majoring in history or something. Some examples:
1) Like you mentioned, certain colors can mean different things. In our culture, black means death. But in other cultures, the color can be white, yellow, purple, etc.
2) The ecology of the planet can give rise to interesting customs. On a planet with very intense sunlight, it could be a sign of respect to stand so as to give the other person some shade. On a desert planet, spitting and crying are very sacred acts, since water is so precious. (check Dune for more ideas about desert planets).
3) Religions have shaped the world's cultures, for better or for worse. (Often the latter, it seems...) Maybe it's sacrilegious to say certain things. Perhaps certain days of the week are "holy" and you can't drive or do certain things on those days.
Cultural differences are hard to come up with, unless you've traveled extensively and have some grasp as to cultural differences. You have to look at all cultures, including your own, with an open mind, and take out bits and pieces. What things do we do? Why do we do these things? What if history had been different, and we did these things differently? How else could we have done those things?
An example: Someone sneezes. You say something like "Gesundheit," or "Bless you," or "Jesus." This response started in the middle ages, when to sneeze very likely meant you had a disease. And diseases were very fatal back then. So people would try to stave off any disease by saying "God bless you," hoping the Lord might help the person. In modern times, it's just a response, and has lost all meaning. So think about that origin. What if people who sneezed were regarded as sinners, being punished for their crimes by a disease? What if a sneeze was thought to be some kind of magical incantation (could be good or evil)? Obviously, I'm stretching it, but they are possibilities. In those cases, a person might be shunned, or regarded as impolite, or in the incantation possibility, immediately assumed to be either nice people, or evil ones.
Planetary quirks. Cool idea, and a great supplement to the WEG Planet Generation system. Here's a few from me (some of which I've used in adventures and may have stolen from other sources, so forgive me if something looks familiar):
CULTURAL
Do-It-Yourself Surgery -- The natives are baseline Humans, similar to most others in every respect but one: when someone gets injured, they are responsible for fixing themselves. No natives will offer medical help, and will look disdainfully upon those asking for it.
They're Baaack -- The planet was visited once, eons ago, by a Jedi Healer. Since then its low-tech inhabitants have developed a religion based on visitors from the sky, and if a new group of visitors should land, they will be wined, dined, and treated as demigods . . . until they fail to miraculously heal some sick people.
Cannibal Planet -- The inhabitants of the world consume their dead family members, believing it keeps their souls closer together for eternity. Visitors are rare and therefore accorded one of the culture's highest honors: participation in a family funeral-feast. Also, the natives view burial or incineration as repugnant and sinful. (My wife came up with that one.)
Waste of Time -- The sentient but very-low-tech natives have no concept of time. Their memories are as undeveloped as a cow's, and they only speak in the present tense. (Perhaps this is because they never see their sun, and/or the skies and weather never change.)
What Are You Doing with That Vibroblade -- The native species, space-tech and possibly near-Human, place religious reverence on grisly, painful self-mutilation. However, being spacefarers, they are aware that offworlders may not share their strong stomachs -- so, when visitors come to their world, they're nice about not forcing them to mutilate themselves; they take care of it instead. Can't offend the gods on the homeworld, ya see.
PHYSICAL
Chromium Valleys -- the planet (or much of it) is covered in gleaming silvery rock formations. It looks stunning during the morning or evening, but when the sun's at its full height, the reflected rays will blind just about anyone. Also, the mineral substance interferes with comm devices. (This one was inspired by a TV ad for some car.)
Who Said That? -- The natives are invisible to Humans and most other beings that see in the standard spectrum.
Gravity Flux -- For reasons I'm too scientifically ignorant to explain, the gravity of the planet shifts randomly and in random locations from 0.2 to 2.0 (or more, on bad days). This would probably necessitate airborne dwellings and travel, based on a technology that was able to compensate for the gravity fluctuations. (To outsiders, it might feel like standing on a small boat in the ocean.) It may also have led to an indigenous species evolving strange legs to compensate further. I don't even wanna think about what would happen to the planet's bodies of water . . .
Happy to Be Stuck to You -- The natives, roughly half the size of an Ewok, are sentient and mid-tech, very courteous, very peaceful, and pretty smart, but a little parasitic. One attaches itself physically to every being not of its species whenever it can find one, inserting a tube for nutrient extraction into its host's stomach (natural anesthetic juices excreted by the parasite make this a painless procedure for most host species). It's basically like being pregnant -- you have to eat for two -- except the parasite may never want to leave.
You're Going to THAT Planet? -- It's a simple agricultural world, no huge settlements, nothing out of the ordinary . . . except it reeks. I mean it REALLY reeks. Beyond sulfur, beyond decaying vegetation . . . something about the entire planet just REEKS, and there's no escaping it. We're talking Very Difficult stamina rolls every fifteen minutes just to remain conscious (unless environment suits with their own air supplies are worn the whole time).
I'm Huuuuuuge -- The zero-tech planet seems perfectly normal, except that the natives are forty stories tall. Their young would undoubtedly find standard-sized beings endlessly entertaining. (I've shared this one on the mailing list, I know, but it's so rich in possibilities. The mere THREAT of a planet like this existing is enough to freak out PCs; whenever my wife's characters land on an unknown planet, she fears it's this one and is relieved when she learns it isn't.)
How about this? It's world where like any other... except ten years ago there was this terrible plague which wiped out two thirds of the population. The population has recovered a bit since then. But the plague was carried via organisms that fed on electricity (dodgy science, but hey it's Star Wars!). So, no electricity is used on the planet in case the plague comes again, which would make for some eerie scenery. And of course, when the characters arrive, with their ship and their lightsabres etc
Not all that dodgy, there are known real world organisms who seem to thrive on electricity, kinda like they keep going via the shock treatment. A species that only survived on electricity runs into problems vis a vis their ability to physical replicate themselves, but certainly some bacteria get a boost when they hit an electrical connection. Intel don't keep their chip manufacturing plants hermetically sealed just because of the dust, , , .
A planet where a high ambient radiation level is the norm. The local species NEED the constant radiation to prevent premature aging (the rad' kills off their rapidly-dividing cells). Thus if you take any of the natives off-planet they rapidly age and die. Kinda like their bodies are naturally cancerous
I wish I still had my original mail that kicked off the entire conversation - but sadly I didn't bother saving that one (I think it was an idea about a culture where all transactions are finalized with sexual intercourse, or something like that). Anyway, I thought it would be some cool ideas in here for others to shamelessly steal from and/or generate some brainstorming of our own.
Edited by Desslok