I thought about creating a random generator table to help you create a random world that the rogue trader mak come across in the kurnous expanse.

Tell me what you think. I may prove usefull for the meantime before supplements come out

D100 Topography Type Inhabited Government Culture
1-10 Ice Feral Human Anarchy! Warrior
11-20 Jungle Medieval Human Autocratic Criminal
21-30 Mountain Industrial Human Democratic Religious
31-40 Ocean Modern Xenos Theocratic Suspicious
41-50 Forest Space- faring Xenos Caste Mercantile
51-60 Barren Decadent Xenos Part of federation Isolationist
61-70 Toxic Violent Deserted Chem/psychic repression Progressive
71-80 Plains Mutated Deserted Xeno/Human Enslaved Bizzare
81-90 Roll Twice Hyper-Civilised Deserted Tech-Controlled Artistic
91-100 Roll Twice Roll-Twice FerociouBeasts Roll Twice Roll Twice

It's an interesting prospect.

One idea that comes to mind is that perhaps the topography of the world should be based on what type of star the world in question orbits around, and how wide or close the orbit is?

For instance, most ice worlds would most likely be located far out from it's star, while desert worlds are most likely located closer to the star etc.

I'm quite impressed and am glad you included the "roll twice" on some of the columns, though I feel that worlds tend to not be diverse enough in climate in most sci-fi settings. I'd add that if you roll a "roll again" twice you roll twice again (for a total of three times) and continue until you have used everything in that column OR no longer roll a "roll twice" result.

Varnias Tybalt said:

Not necessarily -

I live in a desert and it's not because I'm closer to the sun or equator than other places - it's because there isn't much water. There are lots of deserts that get especially cold (generally at night, though not always) - the lack of water leads to a lack of clouds that leads to the soil being parched and non-arable. If a planet forms with little water, it will be a "desert world" no matter its proximity to its star. If a planet with lots of water formed near its star, it would probably be a jungle world as the water cycle would be accelerated and increased cloud cover would prevent the surface from being too dried out by the sun.

Mmmmm I seem to remember battlefleet gothic having some sort of system creator... Ill check it out and draw up a new table...It may be that a entire system needs to be randomly generated...

The original WH40k:RT had a world generator. Very detailed too.

Maxim C. Gatling said:

Thanks. I have that ancient tome lying back at home. Ill see if I can combine the two. Ill take a peek at the world building system from traveller and see if there are any good ideas there. I think the main problem is balance. How detailed do you make it before it gets too unwieldly. However I really like the idea of random generator tables/ excel sheet as we need to preserve the element of 'sandbox randomness' that could be what is attractive about RT but without setting narrative snares for the GM.

There is some awesome software called InspirationPadPro2 that I have (its free!) and I plan on trying to make some tables and generators for that for RT and DH as well.

Check it out here: InspirationPadPro2

You might want to add a population column. Dead World(0 Pop.) – Multi Hive(Billions+)

A suggestion for a slight tweak to the Roll twice section under topography might be:
81-90 Roll Twice
91-96 Death World + Roll Again, reroll anything above 90
97-100 Death World + Roll Twice, reroll anything above 90

ItsUncertainWho said:

Ill Think on it. The reason being that one of the few times I played traveller we managed some really low scores on population, so that our mighty starship managed to land with the intention of taking on a planet with a population of less than 10 people...who lived on a farm. I think Our Rogue Traders need firmer challanges. The point is taken theough, I could look at population ranges for diffferent types world and the GM can roll it if he so wishes..

You do luurve your death worlds though!!!! Is youre Rogue trader a big game hunter!!!?

I rolled a

Toxic Ice world populated by Hyper-Civilised Ferocious Beasts who live in a Progressive culture goverend by Tech-Controlled Anarchy (which sounds like Demarchy to me).

I think I'm going to roll again.

Don't! That is great...