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...