Science Fiction (Traveller) world generation

[ffilz]

I'm starting a new campaign in a different part of my Wine Dark Rift from where I have been running games before. I have used the Stars Without Number tags to help me make worlds more interesting, but I'm finding them less helpful now. For one, too often I have to re-roll since a tag will contradict the UWP, other times a tag has just come up too much. So I'm looking for other similar random inspiration lists/generators. I don't care about stellar system detail or anything else on the realism scale, I'm looking for ideas to help me flesh out the UWP and create hooks for adventure.

 

[E-Rocker]

What is the UWP?

 

[robertsconley]

The gold standards are out of print. However they still can found for reasonable prices. They are Grand Survey, and Grand Census by Digest Group Publications

I found the following on ebay
Grand Survey
Grand Census Prices are not so reasonable unfortunately


Alternatively Traveller5 fleshes out the UWP and supporting details to the point where I consider the second best.

Traveller 5

 

[ffilz]

What is the UWP?

Universal World Profile: star port code, size code, atmosphere code, hydrosphere code, population code, government code, law level code, tech level.

The gold standards are out of print. However they still can found for reasonable prices. They are Grand Survey, and Grand Census by Digest Group Publications

I found the following on ebay
Grand Survey
Grand Census Prices are not so reasonable unfortunately


Alternatively Traveller5 fleshes out the UWP and supporting details to the point where I consider the second best.

Traveller 5

That's actually the type of stuff I'm not so interested in. Or at least when I've looked at Grand Survey and Grand Census it seemed to be mostly about adding lots of detail about the world, but not in a way that generates interesting ideas for adventure hooks. Contrast that to the SWN World Tags which may be invocative themselves, and if not, the description of the tag gives more ideas for how to use them as hooks.

One of the constant challenges I have with Traveller is that the UWP doesn't really help trigger interesting world descriptions and ideas for adventures. It's great for running a trade campaign or a "scouts survey the sub-sector and report back".

 

[David Johansen]

My problem with the UWP is all the extensions. It's a handy code but it's too little and people keep adding to it which makes it less handy, harder to remember and just plain annoying.

I've been coding a world generator for Galaxies In Shadow but it's mostly physical details, the system is in the core rules but I'll probably be changing it based on the issues I've encountered coding the widget.

 

[Trippy]

T5 would work for this. For Mongoose Traveller, the Book 4: Deep Space Exploration book in The Great Rift set is quite useful for generating star systems and planets. However, its probably as easy to get a plot/encounter generator which was also provided in several books, including The Campaign Guide (including a World Building chapter) for the previous edition.

 

[Black Vulmea]

Would any of this help?

Fleshing out a UWP: post 1 | post 2

Nobles as setting-building blocks (aka The Wine List): post 1 | post 2

A lot of my setting prep is devoted to 'stuff I can hang other stuff on later' improvisation cues. I might have a corporate name and a few sentences of exposition which becomes part of the background or occupation of a non-player character, the owners of a starship or private spaceport, something which appears in a TAS bulletin, &c. Once it's introduced, then it can keep popping up in different contexts and becomes part of the fabric of the setting.