In preparation for my RT game, I looked at a number of system generation tools, from various editions of Traveller , through to the mechanics presented in Diaspora (very light and freeform, but a bit too "civilised" for what I wanted), and Cosmos II , a fan-made generation ruleset for Alternity (this last one is very good, although too detailed for my purposes). At the time, I thought I was going to be running RT very soon, and so I wanted something a bit quicker than these.

I remembered that I enjoyed the depth of information presented in the old Amiga game Frontier , a sequel to the classic Elite , and so I decided to have a look at that for inspiration. Alas, I no longer have the game, but there is a tool available which replicates the star system data, called FFE Starsys . I matched it up with the part of the RT galactic map I wanted to use, and I had a whole bunch of fully-generated star systems ready to go. I've used these as a backbone on which to add more campaign-specific details like Imperial outposts, xeno colonies, and so on, but it's saved me a lot of work.

You can download FFE Starsys (for free) here: www.jongware.com/index.html

It seems a bit like an advert, I know, but I'm merely passing on a GM time-saving tip. It won't be for everyone, but it might prove handy for someone!