View table: WorldTags
< Cargo tables
Table structure:
- Name - String
- LinkName - String
- TagType - List of String
- Description - Text
- Authorities - Text
- Enemies - Text
- Friends - Text
- Complications - Text
- Things - Text
- Places - Text
- Regulations - Text
This table has 145 rows altogether.
| Page | Name | LinkName | TagType | Description | Authorities | Enemies | Friends | Complications | Things | Places | Regulations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abandoned Colony | Abandoned Colony | Abandoned_Colony | Nopop | The world once hosted a colony, whether human or otherwise, until some crisis or natural disaster drove the inhabitants away or killed them off. The colony might have been mercantile in nature, an expedition to extract valuable local resources, or it might have been a reclusive cabal of zealots. The remains of the colony are usually in ruins, and might still be dangerous from the aftermath of whatever destroyed it in the first place. | Crazed survivors, Ruthless plunderers of the ruins, Automated defense system | Inquisitive stellar archaeologist, Heir to the colony’s property, Local wanting the place cleaned out and made safe | The local government wants the ruins to remain a secret, The locals claim ownership of it, The colony is crumbling and dangerous to navigate | Long-lost property deeds, Relic stolen by the colonists when they left, Historical record of the colonization attempt | Decaying habitation block, Vine-covered town square, Structure buried by an ancient landslide | ||
| Alien | Alien | Alien | Alien • Lopop • Politics • Trade | The denizens of this world are either aliens or else possess such a strange culture that they might as well be non-humans. Such societies tend to have strange estimates of value by ordinary human standards, often prizing substances of limited interstellar value or requiring bizarre procedures before business can be conducted. Dealing with alien societies is fraught with danger even by far trader standards, as it is easy for a human to trespass taboos that seem so obvious to their local dragoman that there is no thought to warn them beforehand. | Member of a special trading caste, Bureaucrat that communicates in strange idioms, Judicial official of an incomprehensible law, Gone-native human transplant with full authority over human traders | Amoral far trader selling the aliens tech dangerous to humans, Alien renegade seeking offworld goods for its plots, Alien trader trying to sell local artifacts forbidden from export, Alien selling goods that are actually very dangerous | The locals suddenly become very dangerous due to alien ritual behavior or biological impulses, Aliens suddenly demand a particular good to continue trading, Aliens become enraged over inexplicable slight, Alien rebels start fighting for control of human trade | Alien religious artifacts, Exotic alien tech, Alien slave caste, Precious biological extract from dead aliens | Humans are restricted to trade zones, Traders are required to give passage to members of a non-starfaring species, Traders must prove themselves honorary members of the species, Offworld trade is always prefaced by harsh ritual | ||
| Alien Ruins | Alien Ruins | Alien_Ruins | Nopop • Lopop • Alien | The world has significant alien ruins present. The locals may or may not permit others to investigate the ruins, and may make it difficult to remove any objects of value without substantial payment. Any surviving ruins with worthwhile salvage almost certainly have some defense or hazard to explain their unplundered state. | Customs inspector, Worshipper of the ruins, Hidden alien survivor | Curious scholar, Avaricious local resident, Interstellar smuggler | Traps in the ruins, Remote location, Paranoid customs officials | Precious alien artifacts, Objects left with the remains of a prior unsuccessful expedition, Untranslated alien texts, Untouched hidden ruins | Undersea ruin, Orbital ruin, Perfectly preserved alien building, Alien mausoleum | ||
| Alpine World | Alpine World | Alpine_World | Nopop • Lopop • Worldtype | Mountainous world. Snow covers the mountaintops and frozen-over lakes dot the valleys. Often has extensive mining. | Greedy miner, Administrator of world's only spaceport | Friendly sherpa, Mountain-climbing tourists | Avalanche, Snowstorm, Cave-in | Mining equipment, Shipment of minerals, Rare furs from local mountain fauna | Deep in the mines, Facility deep underground, Snowy mountaintop | ||
| Altered Humanity | Altered Humanity | Altered_Humanity | Lopop | The humans on this world are visibly and drastically different from normal humanity. They may have additional limbs, new sensory organs, or other significant changes. Were these from ancestral eugenic manipulation, strange stellar mutations, or from an environmental toxin unique to this world? | Biochauvinist local, Local experimenter, Mentally unstable mutant | Local seeking a “cure”, Curious xenophiliac, Anthropological researcher | Alteration is contagious, Alteration is necessary for long-term survival, Locals fear and mistrust non-local humans | Original pretech mutagenic equipment, Valuable biological byproduct from the mutants, “Cure” for the altered genes, Record of the original colonial genotypes | Abandoned eugenics laboratory, An environment requiring the mutation for survival, A sacred site where the first local was transformed | ||
| Anarchists | Anarchists | Anarchists | Lopop • Politics | Rather than being an incidental anarchy of struggling tribes and warring factions, this world actually has a functional society with no centralized authority. Authority might be hyper-localized to extended families, specific religious parishes, or voluntary associations. Some force is preventing an outside group or internal malcontents from coalescing into a power capable of imposing its rule on the locals; this force might be an ancient pretech defense system, a benevolent military AI, or the sheer obscurity and isolation of the culture. | Offworlder imperialist, Reformer seeking to impose “good government”, Exploiter taking advantage of the lack of centralized resistance | Proud missionary for anarchy, Casual local free spirit, Curious offworlder political scientist | The anarchistic structure is compelled by an external power, The anarchy is enabled by currently abundant resources, The protecting force that shelters the anarchy is waning | A macguffin that would let the possessor enforce their rule on others, A vital resource needed to preserve general liberty, Tech forbidden as disruptive to the social order | Community of similar-sized homes, Isolated clan homestead, Automated mining site | ||
| Anthropomorphs | Anthropomorphs | Anthropomorphs | Lopop | The locals were originally human, but at some point became anthropomorphic, either as an ancient furry colony, a group of animal-worshiping sectarians, or gengineers who just happened to find animal elements most convenient for surviving on the world. Depending on the skill of the original gengineers, their feral forms may or may not work as well as their original human bodies, or may come with drawbacks inherited from their animal elements. | Anthro-supremacist local, Native driven by feral urges, Outside exploiter who sees the locals as subhuman creatures | Fascinated genetic researcher, Diplomat trained to deal with normals, Local needing outside help | The locals consider their shapes a curse from their foolish ancestors, Society is ordered according to animal forms, The locals view normal humans as repulsive or inferior | Pretech gengineering tech, A “cure” that may not be wanted, Sacred feral totem | Shrine to a feral deity, Nature preserve suited to an animal type, Living site built to take advantage of animal traits | ||
| Arctic World | Arctic World | Arctic_World | Nopop • Lopop • Worldtype | Frigid, rocky world. The poles are big, and significant water deposits can be found permanently frozen as glacial ice. Some planets experience seasonal variations and have a equatorial band covered by vegetation. | Territorial equatorial farmers, Administrator of secretive polar site | Team of arctic explorers, local Inuit-like population | Snowstorm, Winter is coming, Unstable Glaciers, Not enough food for the coming winter | Shipment of food supplies, cold-exploration gear | Polar ice-plain, snow-covered pine forest, farm growing hardy gene-crops, facility buried in ice | ||
| Area 51 | Area 51 | Area_51 | Politics • Trade | The world’s government is fully aware of their local stellar neighbors, but the common populace has no idea about it- and the government means to keep it that way. Trade with government officials in remote locations is possible, but any attempt to clue the commoners in on the truth will be met with lethal reprisals. | Suspicious government minder, Free merchant who likes his local monopoly, Local who wants a specimen for dissection | Crusading offworld investigator, Conspiracy-theorist local, Idealistic government reformer | The government has a good reason to keep the truth concealed, The government ruthlessly oppresses the natives, The government is actually composed of offworlders | Elaborate spy devices, Memory erasure tech, Possessions of the last offworlder who decided to spread the truth | Desert airfield, Deep subterranean bunker, Hidden mountain valley | ||
| Artistic | Artistic | Artistic | Lopop | Art and culture are highly prized. Aesthetic design is important in all items produced on this world and even mundane items, like screwdrivers, are decorated and artistically embellished. Offworlders who do not appreciate the artistry and aesthetic designs can be shunned or ostracized. | Dishonest art dealer, Offended artist, Offworld art thief | Flamboyant artist, Conscientious worker, Enthusiastic art historian | Fines for lack of artistry, Accidental damage of artwork, hidden character talent | Unique collectable artwork, Aesthetic mundane items, Offworld art as new trend | Antique shop, Art Gallery/Museum, PreTech art studio | ||
| Atropus | Atropus | Atropus | Alien • Fantastic • Lopop • Nopop • Worldtype | Atropus worlds are living and dead, all at the same time. Experts disagree on their nature, some saying they are experiments while others insist that they are literal breathing planets. Upon arrival, the first thing the explorer will notice is that the surface of Atropus planets are literally flesh and bone. Besides flesh and bone, large pools of bodily fluids (namely pus and blood) take up much of the surface mass. As to the origin of these strange, maddening worlds, the experts haven't arrived at a consensus. Some believe that Atropus is simply the natural culmination of life's evolution: given enough time, the biosphere of a planet will eventually evolve from a multitude of interdependent living beings to a single, planet-wide living organism. Others think that they are the results of advanced genetic engineering from some long-lost alien race, a lonely mad genius, or a long-lost alien race of mad geniuses. Yet others uphold more esoteric theories involving arcane-sounding things such as "Great Old Ones", "Primordial Evil", "Forgotten Lore", and "Embodiment of Madness"; a few of them even combine all of these weird concepts together!<br> Created by [https://www.reddit.com/user/CrescentCakes /u/CrescentCakes]. | Mutated cultists who want to feed your biomass to the planet, The planet itself, Necromorph-like creatures, A planet-sized Lovecraftian-esque god/goddess slumbering in it core | A hopelessly lost team of scientists, An excessively violent sole survivor of a lost expedition overjoyed to finally be rescued, A "cute" harmless flesh creature who follows the party around | Blood falls from the sky like rain bringing with it a horde of otherworldly monsters, A party member starts to go into short bouts of violent raving insanity, The cultists speak of a prophecy in which the god/goddess at the planet's core will soon awake, A friendly or neutral local military power is going to nuke the planet oblivious to the fact that some survivors still haven't evacuated | A horrific effigy made of flesh, bone and brain matter (it whispers to your mind), Remnants of alien technology that could potentially be responsible for this planet, An unholy codex written on human skin, Valuable naturally occuring organs that match the genetic makeup of humans | Mountains chiseled out of bone that seem to scream in agony during the night, A massive swamp consisting of rotting flesh and pools of thick yellowish pus, A putrid forest of sinewy "trees" with bloodshot eyes that watch your every move, Geysers that spew molten streams of stomach acid and blood | ||
| Badlands World | Badlands World | Badlands_World | Nopop • Lopop • Worldtype | Whatever the original climate and atmosphere type, something horrible happened to this world. Biological, chemical, or nanotechnical weaponry has reduced it to a wretched hellscape. Some local life might still be able to survive on its blasted surface, usually at some dire cost in health or humanity. | Mutated badlands fauna, Desperate local, Badlands raider chief | Native desperately wishing to escape the world, Scientist researching ecological repair methods, Ruin scavenger | Radioactivity, Bioweapon traces, Broken terrain, Sudden local plague | Maltech research core, Functional pretech weaponry, An uncontaminated well | Untouched oasis, Ruined city, Salt flat | ||
| Battleground | Battleground | Battleground | War | The world is a battleground for two or more outside powers. They may be interstellar rivals, or groups operating out of orbitals or other system bodies. Something about the planet is valuable enough for them to fight over, but the natives are too weak to be anything but animate obstacles to the fight. | Ruthless military commander, Looter pack chieftain, Traitorous collaborator | Native desperately seeking protection, Pragmatic military officer, Hapless war orphan | The war just ended as both sides are leaving, The natives somehow brought this on themselves, A small group of natives profit tremendously from the fighting | A cache of the resource the invaders seek, Abandoned prototype military gear, Precious spy intelligence lost by someone | Artillery-pocked wasteland, Reeking refugee camp, Burnt-out shell of a city | ||
| Beastmasters | Beastmasters | Beastmasters | Lopop | The natives have extremely close bonds with the local fauna, possibly having special means of communication and control through tech or gengineering. Local animal life plays a major role in their society, industry, or warfare, and new kinds of beasts may be bred to suit their purposes. | Half-feral warlord of a beast swarm, Coldly inhuman scientist, Altered beast with human intellect and furious malice | Native bonded with an adorable animal, Herder of very useful beasts, Animal-revering mystic | The “animals” are very heavily gengineered humans, The animals actually run the society, The animals have the same rights as humans | Tech used to alter animal life, A plague vial that could wipe out the animals, A pretech device that can perform a wonder if operated by a beast | Park designed as a comfortable home for beasts, Public plaza designed to accommodate animal companions, Factory full of animal workers | ||
| Bubble Cities | Bubble Cities | Bubble_Cities | Hitech | Whether due to a lack of atmosphere or an uninhabitable climate, the world’s cities exist within domes or pressurized buildings. In such sealed environments, techniques of surveillance and control can grow baroque and extreme. | Native dreading outsider contamination, Saboteur from another bubble city, Local official hostile to outsider ignorance of laws | Local rebel against the city officials, Maintenance chief in need of help, Surveyor seeking new building sites | Bubble rupture, Failing atmosphere reprocessor, Native revolt against officials, All-seeing surveillance cameras | Pretech habitat technology, Valuable industrial products, Master key codes to a city’s security system | City power core, Surface of the bubble, Hydroponics complex, Warren-like hab block | ||
| Cheap Life | Cheap Life | Cheap_Life | Human life is near-worthless on this world. Ubiquitous cloning, local conditions that ensure early death, a culture that reveres murder, or a social structure that utterly discounts the value of most human lives ensures that death is the likely outcome for any action that irritates someone consequential. | Master assassin, Bloody-handed judge, Overseer of disposable clones | Endearing local whose life the PCs accidentally bought, Escapee from death seeking outside help, Reformer trying to change local mores | Radiation or local diseases ensure all locals die before twenty-five years of age, Tech ensures that death is just an annoyance, Locals are totally convinced of a blissful afterlife | Device that revives or re-embodies the dead, Maltech engine fueled by human life, Priceless treasure held by a now-dead owner | Thronging execution ground, extremely cursory cemetery, Factory full of lethal dangers that could be corrected easily | |||
| Civil War | Civil War | Civil_War | War | The world is currently torn between at least two opposing factions, all of which claim legitimacy. The war may be the result of a successful rebel uprising against tyranny, or it might just be the result of schemers who plan to be the new masters once the revolution is complete. | Faction commissar, Angry native, Conspiracy theorist who blames offworlders for the war, Deserter looking out for himself, Guerrilla bandit chieftain | Faction loyalist seeking aid, Native caught in the crossfire, Offworlder seeking passage off the planet | The front rolls over the group, Famine strikes, Bandit infestations are in the way | Ammo dump, Military cache, Treasure buried for after the war, Secret war plans | Battle front, Bombed-out town, Rear-area red light zone, Propaganda broadcast tower | ||
| Closed | Closed | Closed | Politics • Trade | The planet flatly refuses to conduct any trade with offworlders, or may be prevented from trading by some organization or power, or may simply be so strange that no coherent concept of "trade" is possible. Primitive worlds have few ways to physically enforce this ban on landing, but their government or social structure has enough moral sway to prevent most members from breaking the prohibition. More advanced worlds may have orbital defenses to ensure that interloping far traders do not come where they are not wanted. Some such worlds permit landing and communication, but no significant business can be conducted- or at least, no significant legal business. | Zealously xenophobic security officer, Guardian of cultural purity, Interstellar quarantine officer, Brutish monopolist | Corrupt local potentate, Bribed quarantine enforcer, Relentless far trader smuggler, Native aspiring to break the seal | The planet was wide open until very recently, An exceptionally vicious local ruler wants to open outside trade to support his regime, The local culture forces people to profess public contempt for all offworld goods, Seemingly innocuous offworld tech caused a horrific disaster | Blatantly offworld goods, Uniquely precious cultural artifacts, Key or tools for bypassing trade barriers, Offworld goods disguised as precious local products | Trade is possible for "friends of the people", Trade at a very few traditional times and places is allowed, Offworld traders are universally treated as spies, Religious experts are allowed to handle offworld goods | ||
| Cold War | Cold War | Cold_War | War | Two or more great powers control the planet, and they have a hostility to each other that’s just barely less than open warfare. The hostility might be ideological in nature, or it might revolve around control of some local resource. | Suspicious chief of intelligence, Native who thinks the outworlders are with the other side, Femme fatale | Apolitical information broker, Spy for the other side, Unjustly accused innocent, “He’s a bastard, but he’s our bastard” official | Police sweep, Low-level skirmishing, “Red scare” | List of traitors in government, secret military plans, Huge cache of weapons built up in preparation for war | Seedy bar in a neutral area, Political rally, Isolated area where fighting is underway | ||
| Colonized Population | Colonized Population | Colonized_Population | Lopop • Politics • Regional | A neighboring world has successfully colonized this less-advanced or less-organized planet, and the natives aren’t happy about it. A puppet government may exist, but all real decisions are made by the local viceroy. | Suspicious security personnel, Offworlder-hating natives, Local crime boss preying on rich offworlders | Native resistance leader, Colonial official seeking help, Native caught between the two sides | Natives won’t talk to offworlders, Colonial repression, Misunderstood local customs | Relic of the resistance movement, List of collaborators, Precious substance extracted by colonial labor | Deep wilderness resistance camp, City district off-limits to natives, Colonial labor site | ||
| Communist | Communist | Communist | Politics • Trade | The world's economic system is communist in nature. All goods and all production are under the control of the state, and private trade tends to be minimal where it is not outright forbidden. On planets with very small populations, this communism tends to be of a crude variety expressed through familial obligations and a sense of shared labor for communities small enough to police their own members. Unlike ancient Terra, however, most worlds now lack the hyperintelligent AIs and precognitive economistpsychics that once made command economies practical on a planetary scale. As a consequence, most surviving large-scale communist worlds are gray places of calcified bureaucracy, populist rancor, or fresh-faced enthusiasm yet untempered by experience. | Eager bureaucrat with a poor grasp on private property, Cynical apparatchik who just wants his share, Local factory manager desperate to make quota, "Fixer" for the regime looking for vital spare parts | Vengeful survivor of the former propertied class, "Enemy of the people" out to overthrow the government, Far trader with moral objections to dealing with communists, Aspiring tyrant seeking to seize control of the world | Stock of overproduced goods, Crude but tough equipment, Last cache of some underproduced product on the planet, Goods seized from capitalist roaders and wreckers | Stock of overproduced goods, Crude but tough equipment, Last cache of some underproduced product on the planet, Goods seized from capitalist roaders and wreckers | Only state traders are allowed to buy and sell to offworlders, Offworlders must bring specific state-mandated goods to be allowed any trade, Only far traders with "good politics" are allowed to trade, Far traders must demonstrate their commitment to the revolution to be allowed to trade | ||
| Cultural Power | Cultural Power | Cultural_Power | Regional | The world is a considerable cultural power in the sector, producing music, art, philosophy, or some similar intangible that their neighbors find irresistibly attractive. Other worlds might have a profound degree of cultural cachet as the inheritor of some venerable artistic tradition. | Murderously eccentric artist, Crazed fan, Failed artist with an obsessive grudge, Critic with a crusade to enact | Struggling young artist, Pupil of the artistic tradition, Scholar of the art, Offworlder hating the source of corrupting alien ways | The art is slowly lethal to its masters, The art is mentally or physically addictive, The art is a fragment of ancient technical or military science | The instrument of a legendary master, The only copy of a dead master’s opus, Proof of intellectual property ownership | Recording or performance studio, Public festival choked with tourists, Monument to a dead master of the art | ||
| Cybercommunists | Cybercommunists | Cybercommunists | Politics • Ultratech | On this world communism actually works, thanks to pretech computing devices and greater or lesser amounts of psychic precognition. Central planning nodes direct all production and employment on the world. Citizens in good standing have access to ample amounts of material goods for all needs and many wants. Instead of strife over wealth, conflicts erupt over political controls, cultural precepts, or control over the planning nodes. Many cybercommunist worlds show a considerable bias toward the private interests of those who run the planning nodes. | Embittered rebel against perceived unfairness, Offworlder saboteur, Aspiring Stalin-figure | Idealistic planning node tech, Cynical anti-corruption cop, Precognitive economist | The pretech planning computers are breaking down, The planning only works because the locals have been mentally or physically altered, The planning computers can’t handle the increasing population within the system | Planning node computer, Wildly destabilizing commodity that can’t be factored into plans, A tremendous store of valuables made by accident | Humming factory, Apartment block of perfectly equal flats, Mass demonstration of unity | ||
| Cyborgs | Cyborgs | Cyborgs | Lopop • Hitech | The planet’s population makes heavy use of cybernetics, with many of the inhabitants possessing at least a cosmetic amount of chrome. This may be the result of a strong local cyber tech base, a religious injunction, or simply a necessary measure to survive the local conditions. | Ambitious hacker of cyber implants, Cybertech oligarch, Researcher craving fresh offworlders, Cybered-up gang boss | Charity-working implant physician, Idealistic young cyber researcher, Avant-garde activist | The powerful and dangerous come here often for cutting-edge implants, The cyber has some universal negative side-effect, Cyber and those implanted with it are forbidden to leave the planet as a tech security measure | Unique prototype cyber implant, Secret research files, A virus that debilitates cyborgs, A cache of critically-needed therapeutic cyber | Grimy slum chop-shop, Bloody lair of implant rippers, Stark plaza where everyone is seeing things through their augmented-reality cyber | ||
| Cyclical Doom | Cyclical Doom | Cyclical_Doom | Lopop | The world regularly suffers some apocalyptic catastrophe that wipes out organized civilization on it. The local culture is aware of this cycle and has traditions to ensure a fragment of civilization survives into the next era, but these traditions don’t always work properly, and sometimes dangerous fragments of the past emerge. | Offworlder seeking to trigger the apocalypse early for profit, Local recklessly taking advantage of preparation stores, Demagogue claiming the cycle is merely a myth of the authorities | Harried official working to prepare, Offworlder studying the cycles, Local threatened by perils of the cycle’s initial stages | The cycles really are a myth of the authorities, The cycles are controlled by alien constructs, An outside power is interfering with preparation | A lost cache of ancient treasures, Tech or archives that will pinpoint the cycle’s timing, Keycodes to bypass an ancient vault’s security | Lethally-defended vault of forgotten secrets, Starport crowded with panicked refugees, Town existing in the shadow of some monstrous monument to a former upheaval | ||
| Deceptive | Deceptive | Deceptive | Trade | Trickery and equivocation are considered acceptable. Honesty is a sign of weakness. | Dishonest customs official, Fence for stolen goods, Unbribeable official | The only honest merchant in the world, Admiring con artist, Stranded offworlder | Stolen cargo, Forged currency, Bureaucracy that runs on bribery | Illegal cargo, Fake PreTech/PsiTech/XenoTech/MalTech artifact, Thieves‟ tools | House of illusion, Festival of tall tales, Bureaucratic administration | ||
| Derelict Battlemoon | Derelict Battlemoon | Derelict_Battlemoon | This "world" is actually a moon-sized Terran Mandate battleship. First built for the war against <redacted>, in the later years of the Mandate it served as a "bigger hammer" for suppressing border-world revolts and mal-tech misuse. If fully functional, this vessel would be capable of wiping out any post-tech fleet sent against it, and might be a tool to dominate an entire sector. However, it is not functional. The grand generators which would power the weapons and engine lie dead and neglected. The exterior armor, sensors and weapon ports have been blasted by centuries of space debris. The computer systems were turned off once the AIs started a moral drift due to lack of maintenance and diagnostics. The original crew survive as a cargo cult, huddled in those compartments that still have air and light, living off improvised hydroponics or ancient food paste dispensers. Recently other parts of the vessel have been colonized by a post-tech civilization seeking to explore and understand the vessel. And maybe, just maybe, getting it operational again. | Cargo cult chieftain, Zero-G head hunters, Possessive scavenger, Foreign agent scoping the place out | Native guide, Enthusiastic and oblivious researcher, Grime-covered technician | Vacuum, Autonomous defense systems, Sealed compartments, Multiple post-tech factions competing for the prize | The pretech spare part which will fix a broken system, Tribal staff made from piping and gears, Still functional capital ship macro-grav cannon, Map of subdecks 145-b through 145-f, Pretech robot in a cleaning closet. | The main armory, The main bridge, Sub-bridge 45-e, Airduct large enough for a gravtank, Tribal hut squeezed under a water reclamator | |||
| Desert World | Desert World | Desert_World | Nopop • Lopop • Worldtype | The world may have a breathable atmosphere and a human-tolerable temperature range, but it is an arid, stony waste outside of a few places made habitable by human effort. The deep wastes are largely unexplored and inhabited by outcasts and worse. | Raider chieftain, Crazed hermit, Angry isolationists, Paranoid mineral prospector, Strange desert beast | Native guide, Research biologist, Aspiring terraformer | Sandstorms, Water supply failure, Native warfare over water rights | Enormous water reservoir, Map of hidden wells, Pretech rainmaking equipment, Spare parts for moisture capturing installation | Oasis, “The Empty Quarter” of the desert, Hidden underground cistern, Crashed ship or ancient ruin half-bured in sand, Tent in the middle of the desert | ||
| Disorganized | Disorganized | Disorganized | Politics • Trade | The world is a chaotic mass of tribes, statelets, warring classes, hostile ethnicities, atomized philosophical adherents, or some other churning mess of inchoate humanity. There is no real centralized power despite whatever proclamations may be made by the government of the hour, and no infrastructure for handling sophisticated trade. The people of different regions, castes, or cultures might be drastically different in their attitudes toward far traders, and the rules can change lethally in a matter of kilometers or minutes. While a far trader is free of the coordinated rapaciousness of a planetary government, he must fight off innumerable smaller exactions, and has no better avenue of justice than what he can get from the local ruler or his own strong arm. | Egomaniacal prophet of the new dispensation, Desperate remnant-lord of the old order, Survivalist tribe chieftain, Leader of a recognized sanctuary from the chaos | Aspiring offworlder planetary warlord, Offworld government agent seeking control, Local lord cooperating with an amoral trader, Organlegger trading copious spare parts | The local balkanization is relatively stable among numerous small powers, The disorganization is peaceful in nature and the product of genteel disagreements, The planet is experiencing an inevitable and brutal population cull, The chaos is recent enough that the locals still have many artifacts of the old order | Losers of local quarrels made into slaves, Caches of the old government's weapons of mass destruction, Stockpile of the resource the locals are fighting over, Salvage from a ruined lab or city | Trading with one group will incite bitter hatred from their neighbors, Trade is eagerly sought for weapons and other military supplies, The only serviced spaceport is constantly fought over but never itself attacked, All deals need to involve all sides of any live conflict | ||
| Divine Pantheon | Divine Pantheon | Divine_Pantheon | Lopop | This world appears to have the attention of a divine pantheon which rule the elements and provide miracles to the faithful. Are they true divine beings? Some kind of psionic planetary intelligence? Or maybe misunderstood pretech AI? Whatever the case, any technology that might be involved is clarketech, indistinguishable from true magic. | Avatar of the deity of justice and civilization, High God king freely wielding the power of his patron deity, Inquisitor surveilling the behavior of outsiders | Servant of the deity of entropy, Priest using her power for her own ends, High inquisitor striking down all who might deny their divinity, Creature created by the deities | Offworld theologian, Healer serving the poor, Priest of the deity of commerce | The pantheon take an active interest in the outsiders, Outside technology sometimes stops working, Anyone can ask the deities for a miracle, The very terrain of the world bear evidence of the local miracles, It seems the deities might be able to spread to other worlds, The gods have sent a monster to punish the populace | Token that gives one free miracle, "Magical" high priest robes, Ambrosia, Holy artifact sword, Pretech artifact which blocks the power of the deities | High temple with magical lighting, Forgotten network of tunnels criss-crossing the entire world, Rune-covered altar high in the mountains, Festival to the deity of harvest, Poor-house handing out ambrosia to the poor, Underworld full of the souls of the dead | Blasphemy is illegal, Ambrosia may not be taken offworld, A tithe is imposed on all off-world trading, Certain areas of the world are off-limits to mortals |
| Doomed World | Doomed World | Doomed_World | Lopop • Trade | The world is doomed, and the locals may or may not know it. Some cosmic catastrophe looms before them, and the locals have no realistic way to get everyone to safety. To the extent that the public is aware, society is disintegrating into a combination of religious fervor, abject hedonism, and savage violence. | Crazed prophet of a false salvation, Ruthless leader seeking to flee with their treasures, Cynical ship captain selling a one-way trip into hard vacuum as escape to another world | Appealing waif or family head seeking escape, Offworld relief coordinator, Harried law officer | Appealing waif or family head seeking escape, Offworld relief coordinator, Harried law officer | Clearance for a ship to leave the planet, A cache of priceless cultural artifacts, The life savings of someone trying to buy passage out, Data that would prove to the public the end is nigh | Open square beneath a sky angry with a foretaste of th impending ruin, Orgiastic celebration involving sex and murder in equal parts, Holy site full of desperate petitioners to the divine | ||
| Dying | Dying | Dying | Lopop • Trade | The world is in the process of collapse. Unlike the conventional anarchy of a savage world, basic human survival on this planet is becoming gradually more and more difficult, either from a hostile environment that the locals can no longer fend off, or from a cultural collapse so complete that basic survival processes can no longer be maintained. In some cases, astrophysical events such as impending solar flares or unstoppable rogue-planet impacts might spell the doom of an otherwise healthy world. The time pressure is usually not so intense as to cause complete social breakdown, but almost everyone on the planet realizes that their time is coming to a close. Trade still exists on such worlds only insofar as the locals are not convinced they can successfully steal a trader's ship, or if they think they have enough time to build their own with the help of outside supplies. In almost no case is it feasible to save anything but a tiny fraction of the world's population, and their leaders are usually determined to be the ones rescued. In a few cases, the death spiral might be reversible with enough outside tech and support- if the locals can be kept from mad panic. | Sweating local ruler bent on escape for their family, Grim chooser of the slain apportioning dwindling resources, Military officer providing security for the remaining far traders, Resigned religious leader working to save his flock | Desperate local grandee bent on ship theft, Ruthless local ready to do absolutely anything to get their loved ones away, Furious demagogue convinced the doom is the work of offworlders, Cheat selling passage on the PCs' ship without telling them | Only the world's elite realize that they are doomed, Half the planet is still convinced there is hope, Outside rivals actively seek the death of the world, The doom can be averted with lost alien tech | A king's ransom gathered to buy passage for a now-dead ruler, Precious cultural relics symbolic of the world, Cold sleep pods for hundreds of infants, A cache of usable spike drive cores | Openly acknowledging the impending armageddon is a capital crime, All travel offworld is restricted to those permitted by the elite, Local currency is based on chances at a ship berth, Far traders must take a certain number of passengers in order to leave | ||
| Dying Race | Dying Race | Dying_Race | Lopop | The inhabitants of this world are dying out, and they know it. Through environmental toxins, hostile bio-weapons, or sheer societal despair, the culture cannot replenish its numbers. Members seek meaning in their own strange goals or peculiar faiths, though a few might struggle to find some way to reverse their slow yet inevitable doom. | Hostile outsider who wants the locals dead, Offworlder seeking to take advantage of their weakened state, Invaders eager to push the locals out of their former lands | One of the few youth among the population, Determined and hopeful reformer, Researcher seeking a new method of reproduction | The dying culture’s values were monstrous, The race’s death is somehow necessary to prevent some grand catastrophe, The race is somehow convinced they deserve this fate | Extremely valuable reproductive tech, Treasured artifacts of the former age, Bioweapon used on the race | City streets devoid of pedestrians, Mighty edifice now crumbling with disrepair, Small dwelling full of people in a town now otherwise empty | ||
| Eugenic Cult | Eugenic Cult | Eugenic_Cult | Lopop • Hitech | Even in the days before the Silence, major improvement of the human genome always seemed to come with unacceptable side-effects. Some worlds host secret cults that perpetuate these improvements regardless of the cost, and a few planets have been taken over entirely by the cults. | Eugenic superiority fanatic, Mentally unstable homo superior, Mad eugenic scientist | Eugenic propagandist, Biotechnical investigator, Local seeking revenge on cult | The altered cultists look human, The locals are terrified of any unusual physical appearance, The genetic modifications- and drawbacks- are contagious with long exposure | Serum that induces the alteration, Elixir that reverses the alteration, Pretech biotechnical databanks, List of secret cult sympathizers | Eugenic breeding pit, Isolated settlement of altered humans, Public place infiltrated by cult sympathizers | ||
| Exchange Consulate | Exchange Consulate | Exchange_Consulate | Lopop • Hitech • Politics | The Exchange of Light once served as the largest, most trusted banking and diplomatic service in human space. Even after the Silence, some worlds retain a functioning Exchange Consulate where banking services and arbitration can be arranged. | Corrupt Exchange official, Indebted native who thinks the players are Exchange agents, Exchange official dunning the players for debts incurred | Consul in need of offworld help, Local banker seeking to hurt his competition, Exchange diplomat | The local Consulate has been corrupted, the Consulate is cut off from its funds, A powerful debtor refuses to pay | Exchange vault codes, Wealth hidden to conceal it from a bankruptcy judgment, Location of forgotten vault | Consulate meeting chamber, Meeting site between fractious disputants, Exchange vault | ||
| Fallen Hegemon | Fallen Hegemon | Fallen_Hegemon | Regional | At some point in the past, this world was a hegemonic power over some or all of the sector, thanks to superior tech, expert diplomacy, the weakness of their neighbors, or inherited Mandate legitimacy. Some kind of crash or revolt broke their power, however, and now the world is littered with the wreckage of former glory. | Bitter pretender to a meaningless throne, Resentful official dreaming of empire, Vengeful offworlder seeking to punish their old rulers | Realistic local leader trying to hold things together, Scholar of past glories, Refugee from an overthrown colonial enclave | The hegemon’s rule was enlightened and fair, It collapsed due to its own internal strife rather than external resistance, It pretends that nothing has happened to its power, It’s been counter-colonized by vengeful outsiders | Precious insignia of former rule, Relic tech important to its power, Plundered colonial artifact | Palace far too grand for its current occupant, Oversized spaceport now in disrepair, Boulevard lined with monuments to past glories | ||
| Fashion | Fashion | Fashion | Lopop • Trade | Fine clothing and decoration are considered vitally important in the culture. A significant portion of each person’s income is spent on clothing and accessories. Underdressed characters have no standing here. | Egotistical fashion designer, Sack-cloth wearing revolutionary, Elegant fashionista | Bemedaled police officer, Jeweler, Up-and-coming fashion designer | Fines for plain clothing, Fashion models get special treatment, Designer using offworld designs and selling them as his own | Jewelry with built-in electronics, Exotic clothing, Historical fashions | Fashion show, Clothing superstore, Outlet mall | ||
| Feral World | Feral World | Feral_World | Nopop • Lopop • Lotech | In the long, isolated night of the Silence, some worlds have experienced total moral and cultural collapse. Whatever remains has been twisted beyond recognition into assorted death cults, xenophobic fanaticism, horrific cultural practices, or other behavior unacceptable on more enlightened worlds. These worlds are almost invariably quarantined by other planets. | Decadent noble, Mad cultist, Xenophobic local, Cannibal chief, Maltech researcher | Trapped outworlder, Aspiring reformer, Native wanting to avoid traditional flensing | Horrific local “celebration”, Inexplicable and repugnant social rules, Taboo zones and people | Terribly misused piece of pretech, Wealth accumulated through brutal evildoing, Valuable possession owned by luckless outworlder victim | Atrocity amphitheater, Traditional torture parlor, Ordinary location twisted into something terrible | ||
| Flying Cities | Flying Cities | Flying_Cities | Hitech | Perhaps the world is a gas giant, or plagued with unendurable storms at lower levels of the atmosphere. For whatever reason, the cities of this world fly above the surface of the planet. Perhaps they remain stationary, or perhaps they move from point to point in search of resources. | Rival city pilot, Tech thief attempting to steal outworld gear, Saboteur or scavenger plundering the city’s tech | Maintenance tech in need of help, City defense force pilot, Meteorological researcher | Maintenance tech in need of help, City defense force pilot, Meteorological researcher | Precious refined atmospheric gases, Pretech grav engine plans, Meteorological codex predicting future storms | Underside of the city, The one calm place on the planet’s surface, Catwalks stretching over unimaginable gulfs below. | ||
| Forbidden Tech | Forbidden Tech | Forbidden_Tech | Lopop • Hitech | Some group on this planet fabricates or uses maltech. Unbraked AIs doomed to metastasize into insanity, nation-destroying nanowarfare particles, slow-burn DNA corruptives, genetically engineered slaves, or something worse still. The planet’s larger population may or may not be aware of the danger in their midst. | Mad scientist, Maltech buyer from offworld, Security enforcer | Victim of maltech, Perimeter agent, Investigative reporter, Conventional arms merchant | The maltech is being fabricated by an unbraked AI, The government depends on revenue from maltech sales to offworlders, Citizens insist that it’s not really maltech | Maltech research data, The maltech itself, Precious pretech equipment used to create it | Horrific laboratory, Hellscape sculpted by the maltech’s use, Government building meeting room | ||
| Former Warriors | Former Warriors | Former_Warriors | Lopop | The locals of this world were once famed for their martial prowess. They may have simply had a very militaristic culture, or were genetically engineered for combat, or developed high-tech weaponry, or had brilliant leadership. Those days are past, however, either due to crushing defeat, external restrictions, or a cultural turn toward peace. | Unreformed warlord leader, Bitter mercenary chief, Victim of their warfare seeking revenge | Partisan of the new peaceful ways, Outsider desperate for military aid, Martial genius repressed by the new dispensation | Neighboring worlds want them pacified or dead, They only ever used their arts in self-defense, The source of their gifts has been “turned off” in a reversible way | War trophy taken from a defeated foe, Key to re-activating their martial ways, Secret cache of high-tech military gear | Cemetery of dead heroes, Memorial hall now left to dust and silence, Monument plaza dedicated to the new culture | ||
| Fractious | Fractious | Fractious | Politics • Trade | Where a disorganized world is an incoherent mess, a fractious world is divided up into several strong, organized groups. These factions may have de facto existence in the form of rival nations or geographic regions, or they may be political artifacts of a disjointed planetary government, with different groups of officials jousting over control of offices and delegated authority. Most such worlds have not devolved into overt warfare, but tensions can range from a decided coolness toward rivals to assassination and deniable guerrilla strikes. | De facto but discreet faction leader, Figurehead leader controlled by hidden masters, Eminently corruptible bureaucrat working for the highest bidder, Desperate faction member on his way down the ladder of power | Faction member seeking to discredit a troublesome superior, Saboteur seeking offworlder weapons, Reformer seeking offworld resources, Renegade seeking a plague on all their houses | All of the factions honestly mean well, One faction is clearly dominant but opposed by all the others, One faction has heavy offworld support, The factions are very good at hiding their membership | Forbidden tech meant for a faction's leadership, Restricted data stolen from a faction, Precious resource the factions are fighting over, Offworld tech shipment meant for "freedom fighters" | Openly admitting the existence of the factions is a grave crime, The factions offer different trading terms with their own advantages and problems, Some factions have won over xenophobic locals by forbidding offworld trade, The leading faction is built on control of offworld trade | ||
| Freak Geology | Freak Geology | Freak_Geology | Nopop • Lopop • Worldtype | The geology or geography of this world is simply freakish. Perhaps it’s composed entirely of enormous mountain ranges, or regular bands of land and sea, or the mineral structures all fragment into perfect cubes. The locals have learned to deal with it and their culture will be shaped by its requirements. | Crank xenogeologist, Cultist who believes it the work of aliens | Research scientist, Prospector, Artist | Local conditions that no one remembers to tell outworlders about, Lethal weather, Seismic activity | Unique crystal formations, Hidden veins of a major precious mineral strike, Deed to a location of great natural beauty | Atop a bizarre geological formation, Tourist resort catering to offworlders | ||
| Freak Weather | Freak Weather | Freak_Weather | Nopop • Lopop • Worldtype | The planet is plagued with some sort of bizarre or hazardous weather pattern. Perhaps city-flattening storms regularly scourge the surface, or the world’s sun never pierces its thick banks of clouds. | Criminal using the weather as a cover, Weather cultists convinced the offworlders are responsible for some disaster, Native predators dependent on the weather | Meteorological researcher, Holodoc crew wanting shots of the weather | The weather itself, Malfunctioning pretech terraforming engines that cause the weather | Wind-scoured deposits of precious minerals, Holorecords of a spectacularly and rare weather pattern, Naturally-sculpted objects of intricate beauty | Eye of the storm, The one sunlit place, Terraforming control room | ||
| Friendly Foe | Friendly Foe | Friendly_Foe | Lopop | Some hostile alien race or malevolent cabal has a branch or sect on this world that is actually quite friendly toward outsiders. For whatever internal reason, they are willing to negotiate and deal honestly with strangers, and appear to lack the worst impulses of their fellows. | Driven hater of all their kind, Internal malcontent bent on creating conflict, Secret master who seeks to lure trust | Well-meaning bug-eyed monster, Principled eugenics cultist, Suspicious investigator | The group actually is as harmless and benevolent as they seem, The group offers a vital service at the cost of moral compromise, The group still feels bonds of affiliation with their hostile brethren | Forbidden xenotech, Eugenic biotech template, Evidence to convince others of their kind that they are right | Repurposed maltech laboratory, Alien conclave building, Widely-feared starship interior | ||
| Fusion | Fusion | Fusion | Lopop | The culture is a merger of two distinct cultures. Roll again twice to determine the tags inherited from these cultures. If the tags are incompatible, the culture is likely to be divided. | Cultural purist, Suspicious offworld anthropologist, Misguided social integrator | Child of two cultures, Cultural attaché, Native guide | Character is from of one of the original cultures, Corned-beef with cabbage and humus | Expensive integrated artwork, Exotic blended foods, Mismatched clothing | Fusion restaurant, Cultural heritage museum, Twisted cultural location | ||
| Gold Rush | Gold Rush | Gold_Rush | Lopop • Trade | Gold, silver, and other conventional precious minerals are common and cheap now that asteroid mining is practical for most worlds. But some minerals and compounds remain precious and rare, and this world has recently been discovered to have a supply of them. People from across the sector have come to strike it rich. | Paranoid prospector, Aspiring mining tycoon, Rapacious merchant | Claim-jumped miner, Native alien, Curious tourist | The strike is a hoax, The strike is of a dangerous toxic substance, Export of the mineral is prohibited by the planetary government, The native aliens live around the strike’s location | Cases of the refined element, Pretech mining equipment, A dead prospector’s claim deed | Secret mine, Native alien village, Processing plant, Boom town | ||
| Great Work | Great Work | Great_Work | Lopop | The locals are obsessed with completing a massive project, one that has consumed them for generations. It might be the completion of a functioning spaceyard, a massive solar power array, a network of terraforming engines, or the universal conversion of their neighbors to their own faith. The purpose of their entire civilization is to progress and some day complete the work. | Local planning to sacrifice the PCs for the work, Local who thinks the PCs threaten the work, Obsessive zealot ready to destroy someone or something important to the PCs for the sake of the work | Outsider studying the work, Local with a more temperate attitude, Supplier of work materials | The work is totally hopeless, Different factions disagree on what the work is, An outside power is determined to thwart the work | Vital supplies for the work, Plans that have been lost, Tech that greatly speeds the work | A bustling work site, Ancestral worker housing, Local community made only semi-livable by the demands of the work | ||
| Hatred | Hatred | Hatred | Lopop | For whatever reason, this world’s populace has a burning hatred for the inhabitants of a neighboring system. Perhaps this world was colonized by exiles, or there was a recent interstellar war, or ideas of racial or religious superiority have fanned the hatred. Regardless of the cause, the locals view their neighbor and any sympathizers with loathing. | Native convinced that the offworlders are agents of Them, Cynical politician in need of scapegoats | Intelligence agent needing catspaws, Holodoc producers needing “an inside look”, Unlucky offworlder from the hated system | The characters are wearing or using items from the hated world, The characters are known to have done business there, The characters “look like” the hated others | Proof of Their evildoing, Reward for turning in enemy agents, Relic stolen by Them years ago | War crimes museum, Atrocity site, Captured and decommissioned spaceship kept as a trophy | ||
| Haunted | Haunted | Haunted | Fantastic • Lopop • Nopop | Something here is just...off. You constantly feel as if you're being watched. Perhaps a great tragedy happened here long ago, significant enough to leave metadimensional echoes and anomalies. Restless apparitions and fragments of the past cling to this place like flies to a mass grave. You are not wanted here.<br> Created by [https://www.reddit.com/user/CrescentCakes /u/CrescentCakes]. | Stalking apparition resembling a figure in a vacc suit; visor shattered, The Rapture (an entity I shamelessly borrowed from Veins of the Earth; definitely check it out), The disembodied consciousness of a mad psychic lost to the Scream, A poltergeist-like gravitational anomaly | A spectral radio signature warning away any passersby, An overly ambitious exorcist, A ghostly janitor who just wants to keep the place clean | The party's ship is possessed by a malicious spirit and refuses to take off, A party member is led astray from the rest of the group and is now hopelessly lost without a light source or comms, Something sinister is stalking the party waiting for someone to let their guard down, A surge of metadimensional energy erupts without warning slowly ripping the location from reality | An otherwise pleasant child-like drawing caked in centuries of dust, A black box of a team of explorers who came before never to be heard from again, An early 21st century camera filled with family photoshoots, A blood-stained keycard | A silent colony, A long-dead hydroponics facility exposed to the vacuum of space, A large playground consigned to oblivion, A massive apartment complex devoid of life | ||
| Heavy Industry | Heavy Industry | Heavy_Industry | Trade | With interstellar transport so limited in the bulk it can move, worlds have to be largely self-sufficient in industry. Some worlds are more sufficient than others, however, and this planet has a thriving manufacturing sector capable of producing large amounts of goods appropriate to its tech level. The locals may enjoy a correspondingly higher lifestyle, or the products might be devoted towards vast projects for the aggrandizement of the rulers. | Tycoon monopolist, Industrial spy, Malcontent revolutionary | Aspiring entrepreneur, Worker union leader, Ambitious inventor | The factories are toxic, The resources extractable at their tech level are running out, The masses require the factory output for survival, The industries’ major output is being obsoleted by offworld tech | Confidential industrial data, Secret union membership lists, Ownership shares in an industrial complex | Factory floor, Union meeting hall, Toxic waste dump, R&D complex | ||
| Heavy Mining | Heavy Mining | Heavy_Mining | Trade | This world has large stocks of valuable minerals, usually necessary for local industry, life support, or refinement into loads small enough to export offworld. Major mining efforts are necessary to extract the minerals, and many natives work in the industry. | Mine boss, Tunnel saboteur, Subterranean predators | Hermit prospector, Offworld investor, Miner’s union representative | The refinery equipment breaks down, Tunnel collapse, Silicate life forms growing in the miners’ lungs | The mother lode, Smuggled case of refined mineral, Faked crystalline mineral samples | Vertical mine face, Tailing piles, Roaring smelting complex | ||
| Hivemind | Hivemind | Hivemind | Lopop • Politics • Trade | Natives of this world exist in a kind of mental gestalt, sharing thoughts and partaking of a single identity. Powerful pretech, exotic psionics, alien influence, or some other cause has left the world sharing one identity. Individual members may have greater or lesser degrees of effective coordination with the whole. | A hivemind that wants to assimilate outsiders, A hivemind that has no respect for unjoined life, A hivemind that fears and hates unjoined life | A scholar studying the hivemind, A person severed from the gestalt, A relative of someone who has been assimilated | The hivemind only functions on this world, The hivemind has strict range limits, The hivemind has different personality factions, The hivemind only happens at particular times, The world is made of semi-sentient drones and a single AI | Vital tech for maintaining the mind, Precious treasure held by now-assimilated outsider, Tech that “blinds” the hivemind to the tech’s users | Barely tolerable living cells for individuals, Workside where individuals casually die in their labors, Community with absolutely no social or group-gathering facilities | ||
| Holy War | Holy War | Holy_War | War | A savage holy war is raging on this world, either between factions of locals or as a united effort against the pagans of some neighboring world. This war might involve a conventional religion, or it might be the result of a branding campaign, political ideology, artistic movement, or any other cause that people use as a substitute for traditional religion. | Blood-mad pontiff, Coldly cynical secular leader, Totalitarian political demagogue | Desperate peacemaker, Hard-pressed refugee of the fighting, Peaceful religious leader who lost the internal debate | The targets of the war really are doing something diabolically horrible, The holy war is just a mask for a very traditional casus belli, The leaders don’t want the war won but only prolonged, Both this world and the target of the war are religion-obsessed | Sacred relic of the faith, A captured blasphemer under a death sentence, Plunder seized in battle | Massive holy structure, Razed community of infidels, Vast shrine to the martyrs dead in war | ||
| Honorable | Honorable | Honorable | Lopop | On this world, one’s word is one’s bond. Lying is both rare and despised. Written contracts are rare and people abide by the spirit of the law, not just the letter of the law. | Liar in the midst, Honest opposition, Affronted former business partner | Honest merchant, Paladin guard, Friendly waiter | A not-so-simple misunderstanding, Caught in a lie, Over helpful business partner | Too much cargo, lie detector, PreTech artifact that enforces honesty | Hall of honorable sacrifice, Business center, Prison | ||
| Hostile Biosphere | Hostile Biosphere | Hostile_Biosphere | Nopop • Lopop • Worldtype | The world is teeming with life, and it hates humans. Perhaps the life is xenoallergenic, forcing filter masks and tailored antiallergens for survival. It could be the native predators are huge and fearless, or the toxic flora ruthlessly outcompetes earth crops. | Local fauna, Nature cultist, Native aliens, Callous labor overseer | Xenobiologist, Tourist on safari, Grizzled local guide | Filter masks fail, Parasitic alien infestation, Crop greenhouses lose bio-integrity | Valuable native biological extract, Abandoned colony vault, Remains of an unsuccessful expedition | Deceptively peaceful glade, Steaming polychrome jungle, Nightfall when surrounded by Things | ||
| Hostile Space | Hostile Space | Hostile_Space | Nopop • Lopop • Worldtype | The system in which the world exists is a dangerous neighborhood. Something about the system is perilous to inhabitants, either through meteor swarms, stellar radiation, hostile aliens in the asteroid belt, or periodic comet clouds. | Alien raid leader, Meteor-launching terrorists, Paranoid local leader | Astronomic researcher, Local defense commander, Early warning monitor agent | The natives believe the danger is divine chastisement, The natives blame outworlders for the danger, The native elite profit from the danger in some way | Early warning of a raid or impact, Abandoned riches in a disaster zone, Key to a secure bunker | City watching an approaching asteroid, Village burnt in an alien raid, Massive ancient crater | ||
| Immortals | Immortals | Immortals | Lopop | Natives of this world are effectively immortal. They may have been gengineered for tremendous lifespans, or have found some local anagathic, or be cyborg life forms, or be so totally convinced of reincarnation that death is a cultural irrelevance. Any immortality technique is likely applicable only to them, or else it’s apt to be a massive draw to outside imperialists. | Outsider determined to steal immortality, Smug local convinced of their immortal wisdom to rule all, Offworlder seeking the world’s ruin before it becomes a threat to all | Curious longevity researcher, Thrill-seeking local | Immortality requires doing something that outsiders can’t or won’t willingly do, The immortality ends if they leave the world, Death is the punishment for even minor crimes, Immortals must die or go offworld after a certain span, Immortality has brutal side-effects | Immortality drug, Masterwork of an ageless artisan, Toxin that only affects immortals | Community with no visible children, Unchanging structure of obvious ancient age, Cultural performance relying on a century of in-jokes | ||
| Jungle World | Jungle World | Jungle_World | Nopop • Lopop • Worldtype | A world covered (mostly) in jungles. | Hostile native tribes, Dangerous wildlife, Zealous nature protectionist | Local guide, Big game hunter, Visiting bio-researcher | Local diseases, Quicksand, Quick-growing plants ensnaring buildings and spaceships, Dangerous wildlife | Rare drugs synthesized from the plantlife, Exotic toxins, Forest-clearing equipment, Napalm | Clearing deep in the jungle, Isolated research station, Series of tree-top platforms | ||
| Kleptocratic | Kleptocratic | Kleptocratic | Politics • Trade | The planet has a dominant trade framework, but that framework is hopelessly corrupt. Nothing happens without money, and possession of wealth is license enough for every variety of crime and wrongdoing. The local officials are ferociously greedy, peeling every spare credit off a far trader and making very narrow estimates of how much profit the offworlder will need in order to justify return. The endless corruption makes for poverty and suffering among the common folk, but those who control the levers of wealth do very well. | Corpulent port master with detestable tastes, Local trade official who doubles as a crime boss, Supervisor of a security department that's just another gang, Paranoid bureaucrat being pressured by numerous murderous "friends" | Abominably corrupt ruler who demands loathsome tribute, Hard-bitten underclass entrepreneur with no god but profit, Offworld reformer who blames far traders as the root of the problem, Savagely vengeful renegade | A reformist movement is growing stronger but is hostile to far traders, The society used to be much less corrupt before a disaster or war, The corruption is carefully and ruthlessly hidden from the populace, Without the grease of corruption the local legal framework would paralyze society | Goods "mislaid" as a bribe payment, The forbidden tech that all the local factions want, The goods due as protection money to keep someone from getting killed, An offworld criminal's stash of looted goods | Openly acknowledging the corruption is a grave crime, Bribes are never paid in money, Far traders are squeezed much more harshly than locals, Corruption is ruthlessly punished when revealed yet remains ubiquitous | ||
| Laissez Faire | Laissez Faire | Laissez_Faire | Politics • Trade | The planet has few if any trade laws, but retains enough social coherence and infrastructure to facilitate large-scale trade. Some worlds of this type recognize almost no trade laws except basic rules about fraud and contract enforcement and permit virtually anything to be bought and sold in their markets. Most laissez-faire worlds either have so few inhabitants that tariffs are unnecessary, or else have a deep cultural commitment to free trade, or are so populous and divided in power sources that no single faction or government can maintain restrictive trade practices. Minor far traders love these worlds, though greater trade princes tend to prefer captive markets. | Entrepreneurially-minded bureaucrat, Harried goods inspector, Official hunter of offworld rarities for the government, Hidebound administrator relic of a more mercantilist age | Amoral merchant trading in foul things, Aspiring monopolist seeking to control the market, Lobbyist seeking to control the regulators, Failed merchant who blames far traders | The new liberty is fragile and old economic powers want the market restrained in their favor, Economic losers in the market are growing violent, A government faction fears the market is starting to threaten their power, Society is thrown in flux by the sudden flood of new wealth | Forbidden goods unknown on other civilized worlds, Recently-outlawed wares hidden for later pickup, Defrauded goods cached for later claiming, Cases of the One Thing Outlawed Here | A person can sell anything here- even their own life and freedom, Local contract-law judges can be openly influenced by "favors", Contracts are all bearer documents and he who holds the physical document has the deal, Grand fraud is a capital crime | ||
| Liberal | Liberal | Liberal | The planetary culture welcomes change and offworld influence. Characters that bring new and strange ideas will be welcomed. Depending on the speed of the changes brought to the planet, significant cultural upheaval could be taking place. | Conservative activist, Offworld con-man, XenoTech thief | Cultural advisor, Eager merchant, Xenophilic romantic | Unintended fad, Conservative demonstration/rally, Environmental impact | Wide variety of XenoTech, Plans for the next big trend, Fake XenoTech | Multi-worlds fair, Import business, History of fads museum | |||
| Local Specialty | Local Specialty | Local_Specialty | Lopop • Trade | The world may be sophisticated or barely capable of steam engines, but either way it produces something rare and precious to the wider galaxy. It might be some pharmaceutical extract produced by a secret recipe, a remarkably popular cultural product, or even gengineered humans uniquely suited for certain work. | Monopolist, Offworlder seeking prohibition of the specialty, Native who views the specialty as sacred | Spy searching for the source, Artisan seeking protection, Exporter with problems | The specialty is repugnant in nature, The crafters refuse to sell to offworlders, The specialty is made in a remote, dangerous place, The crafters don’t want to make the specialty any more | The specialty itself, The secret recipe, Sample of a new improved variety | Secret manufactory, Hidden cache, Artistic competition for best artisan | ||
| Local Tech | Local Tech | Local_Tech | Lopop • Trade | The locals can create a particular example of extremely high tech, possibly even something that exceeds pretech standards. They may use unique local resources to do so, or have stumbled on a narrow scientific breakthrough, or still have a functional experimental manufactory. | Keeper of the tech, Offworld industrialist, Automated defenses that suddenly come alive, Native alien mentors | Curious offworld scientist, Eager tech buyer, Native in need of technical help | The tech is unreliable, The tech only works on this world, The tech has poorly-understood side effects, The tech is alien in nature. | The tech itself, An unclaimed payment for a large shipment, The secret blueprints for its construction, An ancient alien R&D database | Alien factory, Lethal R&D center, Tech brokerage vault | ||
| Major Spaceyard | Major Spaceyard | Major_Spaceyard | Trade • Hitech | Most worlds of tech level 4 or greater have the necessary tech and orbital facilities to build spike drives and starships. This world is blessed with a major spaceyard facility, either inherited from before the Silence or painstakingly constructed in more recent decades. It can build even capital-class hulls, and do so more quickly and cheaply than its neighbors. | Enemy saboteur, Industrial spy, Scheming construction tycoon, Aspiring ship hijacker | Captain stuck in drydock, Maintenance chief, Mad innovator | The spaceyard is an alien relic, The spaceyard is burning out from overuse, The spaceyard is alive, The spaceyard relies on maltech to function | Intellectual property-locked pretech blueprints, Override keys for activating old pretech facilities, A purchased but unclaimed spaceship. | Hidden shipyard bay, Surface of a partially-completed ship, Ship scrap graveyard | ||
| Mandarinate | Mandarinate | Mandarinate | Politics | The planet is ruled by an intellectual elite chosen via ostensibly neutral examinations or tests. The values this system selects for may or may not have anything to do with actual practical leadership skills, and the examinations may be more or less corruptible. | Corrupt test administrator, Incompetent but highly-rated graduate, Ruthless leader of a clan of high-testing relations | Crusader for test reform, Talented but poorly-connected graduate, Genius who tests badly | The test is totally unrelated to necessary governing skills, The test was very pertinent in the past but tech or culture has changed, The test is for a skill that is vital to maintaining society but irrelevant to day-to-day governance, The test is a sham and passage is based on wealth or influence | Answer key to the next test, Lost essay of incredible merit, Proof of cheating | Massive structure full of test-taking cubicles, School filled with desperate students, Ornate government building decorated with scholarly quotes and academic images | ||
| Mandate Base | Mandate Base | Mandate_Base | Lopop • Politics • Hitech | The Terran Mandate retained its control over this world for much longer than usual, and the world may still consider itself a true inheritor of Mandate legitimacy. Most of these worlds have or had superior technology, but they may still labor under the burden of ancient restrictive tech or monitoring systems designed to prevent them from rebelling. | Deranged Mandate monitoring AI, Aspiring sector ruler, Demagogue preaching local superiority over “traitorous rebel worlds”. | Idealistic do-gooder local, Missionary for advanced Mandate tech, Outsider seeking lost data from Mandate records | The monitoring system forces the locals to behave in aggressive ways toward “rebel” worlds, The monitoring system severely hinders offworld use of their tech, The original colonists are all dead and have been replaced by outsiders who don’t understand all the details | Ultra-advanced pretech, Mandate military gear, Databank containing precious tech schematics | Faded Mandate offices still in use, Vault containing ancient pretech, Carefully-maintained monument to Mandate glory | ||
| Maneaters | Maneaters | Maneaters | Lopop | The locals are cannibals, either out of necessity or out of cultural preference. Some worlds may actually eat human flesh, while others simply require the rendering of humans into important chemicals or pharmaceutical compounds, perhaps to prolong the lives of ghoul overlords. This cannibalism plays a major role in their society. | Ruthless ghoul leader, Chieftain of a ravenous tribe, Sophisticated degenerate preaching the splendid authenticity of cannibalism | Sympathetic local fleeing the fork, Escapee from a pharmaceutical rendering plant, Outsider chosen for dinner, Reformer seeking to break the custom or its necessity | Local food or environmental conditions make human consumption grimly necessary, The locals farm human beings, Outsiders are expected to join in the custom, The custom is totally unnecessary but jealously maintained by the people | Belongings of a recent meal, An offworlder VIP due for the menu, A toxin that makes human flesh lethal to consumers | Hideous human abattoir, Extremely civilized restaurant, Funeral-home-cum-kitchen | ||
| Megacorps | Megacorps | Megacorps | Politics • Trade | The world is dominated by classic cyberpunk-esque megacorporations, each one far more important than the vestigial national remnants that encompass them. These megacorps are usually locked in a cold war, trading and dealing with each other even as they try to strike in deniable ways. An over-council of corporations usually acts to bring into line any that get excessively overt in their activities. | Colorless Mr. Johnson with trust issues, Government bureaucrat working for a patron corp, Military officer wanting hardware the corps don't have, Utterly mercenary port master | Megalomaniacal executive, Underling looking to use the PCs as catspaws, Ruthless mercenary who wants what the PCs have, Industrial saboteur working for a rival, Official who hates "destabilizing" far traders, Violent anti-corp terroristslash-freedom fighter, Megacorp creation gone rogue | Victim of megacorp scheming, Offworlder merchant in far over their head, Local reformer struggling to cope with megacorp indifference | The megacorps are the only source of something vital to life on this world, An autonomous Mandate system acts to punish excessively overt violence, The megacorps are struggling against much more horrible national governments, The corps are actually making the standard of living very good here, The corps hold the key to some process vital to local survival, The corps maintain functional pretech facilities, The corps are actually deniable government proxies completely in thrall to the local rulers | Blackmail on a megacorp exec, Keycodes to critical corp secrets, Proof of corp responsibility for a heinously unacceptable public atrocity, Data on a vital new product line coming out soon, Exotic R&D product, Warehouse of goods left in legal limbo by a subsidiary, Product of some brutal human experimentation, Vital parts for a crucial manufacturing facility | A place plastered in megacorp ads, A public plaza discreetly branded, Private corp military base | No one wins a legal case without corp patronage, Corp agents have a license to kill, All business holdings must be corp-affiliated, The corps sell local sovereignty to the highest bidder |
| Mercenaries | Mercenaries | Mercenaries | Lopop | The world is either famous for its mercenary bands or it is plagued by countless groups of condottieri in service to whatever magnate can afford to pay or bribe them adequately. | Amoral mercenary leader, Rich offworlder trying to buy rule of the world, Mercenary press gang chief forcing locals into service | Young and idealistic mercenary chief, Harried leader of enfeebled national army, Offworlder trying to hire help for a noble cause | The mercenaries are all that stand between the locals and a hungry imperial power, The mercenaries are remnants of a former official army, The mercenaries hardly ever actually fight as compared to taking bribes to walk away | Lost mercenary payroll shipment, Forbidden military tech, Proof of a band’s impending treachery against their employers | Shabby camp of undisciplined mercs, Burnt-out village occupied by mercenaries, Luxurious and exceedingly well-defended merc leader villa | ||
| Military | Military | Military | Lopop • Trade | The world is heavily militarized. For a rare few worlds this militarization may revolve around the space navy, with the citizens organized to support a fleet vastly in excess of the usual limits. For most military planets, however, the focus is on ground and atmospheric forces and the rivalries that have led to their growth. A world in this state might have huge conscript armies, completely militarized societies, or otherwise be dominated by the effort required to build and maintain huge numbers of people in martial professions. Such worlds may have limited wars breaking out in client nations or among allied vassal states. Others may be locked in generations-long trench warfare. | Quartermaster military official, Military port police, Internal security spy-hunter, Black ops supply officer | Zealot confiscating goods "for the war effort", Ruthless enforcer of military quarantine, Enemy saboteur bent on ruining far traders, Deserter looking to make a profit | High-tech military prototype gear, Supplies vital to a beleaguered unit, Crates of weapons banned by local laws of war, Luxuries beloved of high brass | High-tech military prototype gear, Supplies vital to a beleaguered unit, Crates of weapons banned by local laws of war, Luxuries beloved of high brass | Far traders are required to earn military ranks to trade, Far traders are expected to support military missions, Goods are subject to confiscation at times of military necessity, Far traders risk conscription | ||
| Minimal Contact | Minimal Contact | Minimal_Contact | Lopop • Trade | The locals refuse most contact with offworlders. Only a small, quarantined treaty port is provided for offworld trade, and ships can expect an exhaustive search for contraband. Local governments may be trying to keep the very existence of interstellar trade a secret from their populations, or they may simply consider offworlders too dangerous or repugnant to be allowed among the population. | Customs official, Xenophobic natives, Existing merchant who doesn’t like competition | Aspiring tourist, Anthropological researcher, Offworld thief, Religious missionary | The locals carry a disease harmless to them and lethal to outsiders, The locals hide dark purposes from offworlders, The locals have something desperately needed but won’t bring it into the treaty port | Contraband trade goods, Security perimeter codes, Black market local products | Treaty port bar, Black market zone, Secret smuggler landing site | ||
| Misandry | Misandry | Misandry | Lopop | The culture on this world holds a particular gender in contempt. Members of that gender are not permitted positions of formal power, and may be restricted in their movements and activities. Some worlds may go so far as to scorn both traditional genders, using gengineering techniques to hybridize or alter conventional human biology. | Cultural fundamentalist, Cultural missionary to outworlders, Local rebel driven to pointless and meaningless violence | Oppressed native, Research scientist, Offworld emancipationist, Local reformer | The oppressed gender is restive against the customs, The oppressed gender largely supports the customs, The customs relate to some physical quality of the world, The oppressed gender has had maltech gengineering done to “tame” them. | Aerosol reversion formula for undoing gengineered docility, Hidden history of the world, Pretech gengineering equipment | Shrine to the virtues of the favored gender, Security center for controlling the oppressed, Gengineering lab | ||
| Misogyny | Misogyny | Misogyny | Lopop | The culture on this world holds a particular gender in contempt. Members of that gender are not permitted positions of formal power, and may be restricted in their movements and activities. Some worlds may go so far as to scorn both traditional genders, using gengineering techniques to hybridize or alter conventional human biology. | Cultural fundamentalist, Cultural missionary to outworlders, Local rebel driven to pointless and meaningless violence | Oppressed native, Research scientist, Offworld emancipationist, Local reformer | The oppressed gender is restive against the customs, The oppressed gender largely supports the customs, The customs relate to some physical quality of the world, The oppressed gender has had maltech gengineering done to “tame” them. | Aerosol reversion formula for undoing gengineered docility, Hidden history of the world, Pretech gengineering equipment | Shrine to the virtues of the favored gender, Security center for controlling the oppressed, Gengineering lab | ||
| Moon Colony | Moon Colony | Moon_Colony | Trade | This world has a thriving moon colony and constant trade and travel is flowing between the two, to the point where they might be considered a single world culturally and politically. Either the moon is easily habitable (maybe as a result of terraforming) or it is home to industries that cannot be performed on the main world. | Stressed lunar governor, Thorough customs official, Foreman of lunar trade union, Federal law enforcement officer with jurisdiction on both worlds | Lunar independence freedom fighter, Foreign agent seeking to sour the grounder-lunar relationship, Terraforming company squeezing the moon for every credit they can, Crime mob accepting only lunar natives in their ranks | Lunar miner, Cultural exchange officer, Local merchant needing help with a trade dispute | Independence movement is slowly rising, The wealthy have slowly moved moon-side leaving the planet in economic depression, Exploitation of the moon is causing tectonic instability, A disease in the moon-side population threatens to spread planet-side | Secret cache of weaponry, Replacement valve for the atmosphere generators, Shipping tank full of grade-A helium-3, Pet gengineered for lunar gravity | Isolated spot on the lunar surface, Planet-side space port serving the moon-bound cargo ships, The Office of Lunar Affairs | All interstellar trade must pass through planet-side spaceports, Certain planet-side animal and plant species may not be transported moon-side, Travel between the moon and planet is only allowed with the proper paperwork, The tariffs are far lower moon-side than planet-side |
| Nanites | Nanites | Nanites | Nopop • Lopop • Worldtype | The surface of this world is covered with grey goo nanites, the results of some attack or accident with pretech technology. Either the goo is contained through continuous effort by the inhabitants, or the grey goo is in the process of converting everything into more goo, leaving human habitation in the last few places the goo can't reach such as space stations or deep undeground. | Quarantine officer | Grey goo terrorist, Pretech cultists worshipping the natites, Locales blaming the calamity on outsiders | Scientist working on a counter to the goo, Impoverished refugees seeking to escape the world, Entrepreneur harvesting the byproducts of the goo | Grey goo infestation of the ship, Nanites penetrate the local settlement, Punitive taxation to cover the fight against the goo, Quarantine of the planet by outside powers, People who become infected by nanites become servants of the swarm | Sample of the nanites, Pretech counter-nanites that will destroy the nanites, Shield generators that can keep the nanites at bay, The last gene-samples of the ecosystem that was destroyed | On a platform overlooking the sea of grey goo, In an overrun laboratory, Inside a protected settlement or outpost | |
| Night World | Night World | Night_World | Nopop • Lopop • Worldtype | The world is plunged into eternal darkness. The only life on this planet derives its energy from other sources, such as geothermal heat, extremely volatile chemical reactions in the planet’s soil, or light in a non-visible spectrum. Most flora and fauna is voraciously eager to consume other life. | Monstrous thing from the night, Offworlder finding the obscurity of the world convenient for dark purposes, Mad scientist experimenting with local life | Curious offworlder researcher, Hard-pressed colony leader, High priest of a sect that finds religious significance in the night | Daylight comes as a cataclysmic event at very long intervals, Light causes very dangerous reactions in native life or chemicals here, The locals have been gengineered to exist without sight | Rare chemicals created in the darkness, Light source usable on this world, Smuggler cache hidden here in ages past | Formlessly pitch-black wilderness, Sea without a sun, Location defined by sounds or smells | ||
| Nomads | Nomads | Nomads | Lopop | Most of the natives of this world are nomadic, usually following a traditional cycle of movement through the lands they possess. Promises of rich plunder or local environmental perils can force these groups to strike out against neighbors. Other groups are forced to move constantly due to unpredictable dangers that crop up on the planet. | Desperate tribal leader who needs what the PCs have, Ruthless raider chieftain, Leader seeking to weld the nomads into an army | Free-spirited young nomad, Dreamer imagining a stable life, Offworlder enamored of the life | An irresistibly lethal swarm of native life forces locals to move regularly, Ancient defense systems destroy too-long-stationary communities, Local chemical patches require careful balancing of exposure times to avoid side effects | Cache of rare and precious resource, Plunder seized by a tribal raid, Tech that makes a place safe for long-term inhabitation | Temporary nomad camp, Oasis or resource reserve, Trackless waste that kills the unprepared | ||
| Obsessed | Obsessed | Obsessed | Lopop | Everyone is obsessed with or addicted to a substance, personality, act or item. This monomania pervades every aspect of the culture. | Addict in need of next fix, Entitled dealer, Obsessed mob | Reformed addict, Offworld anthropologist/medic, Counter-culture Advocate | Characters (unknowingly?) have ingredient key to the obsession, no time to service the ship due to obsession, The obsession is no longer available. | Cash for obsession, the substance or object obsessed over, Cure for the obsession | Abandoned manufactories, Looted stores, Building dedicated to the obsession | ||
| Oceanic World | Oceanic World | Oceanic_World | Nopop • Lopop • Worldtype | The world is entirely or almost entirely covered with liquid water. Habitations might be floating cities, or might cling precariously to the few rocky atolls jutting up from the waves, or are planted as bubbles on promontories deep beneath the stormy surface. Survival depends on aquaculture. Planets with inedible alien life rely on gengineered Terran sea crops. | Pirate raider, Violent “salvager” gang, Tentacled sea monster | Daredevil fisherman, Sea hermit, Sapient native life | The liquid flux confuses grav engines too badly for them to function on this world, Sea is corrosive or toxic, The seas are wracked by regular storms | Buried pirate treasure, Location of enormous schools of fish, Pretech water purification equipment | The only island on the planet, Floating spaceport, Deck of a storm-swept ship, Undersea bubble city | ||
| Opened | Opened | Opened | Lopop • Trade | An opened world is fresh to the game of interstellar contact, one willing to reestablish the ancient bonds of trade that once webbed worlds together. Regrettably, most of them are not entirely certain how the whole business is supposed to work. The natives have little experience in dealing with offworlders, often misinterpret their customs, and have certain assumptions and expectations that they never think to question... along with an often-overblown esteem for "offworld tech". Opened worlds usually have not had time to develop sophisticated starports, complex interstellar trade bureaucracies, or a jaded indifference to far traders. | Confused minister of the local trade bureaucracy, Personally ambitious official, Leader of the faction that advocated for opening the world, New port master with no idea how to do his job | Angry xenophobic local, Ruthlessly exploitative far trader rival, Offworld ambassador with a grudge against the far trader, Local ruler who expects pliant service from the offworlders | The locals opened up trade because they need the far traders to save the planet from something, The locals are convinced the far traders are Space Gods or something similar, Another world's government wants them quarantined for economic or religious reasons, The locals think far traders all belong to the same company- and are culpable for each others' sins | Pretech spare parts useless to the locals but priceless offworld, Cargo container full of enormously disruptive offworld tech, Access codes to a military space station inaccessible since the Scream, Cache of goods that the locals don't realize are extremely valuable | Far traders don't yet have legal standing in the local courts, A rival trader has "helped" the locals set up the trade laws to his own benefit, The locals have dusted off trade laws from before the Scream, Spaceship travel is permitted only to and from designated "starports" | ||
| Out of Contact | Out of Contact | Out_of_Contact | Lopop | The natives have been entirely out of contact with the greater galaxy for centuries or longer. Perhaps the original colonists were seeking to hide from the rest of the universe, or the Silence destroyed any means of communication. It may have been so long that human origins on other worlds have regressed into a topic for legends. The players might be on the first offworld ship to land since the First Wave of colonization a thousand years ago. | Fearful local ruler, Zealous native cleric, Sinister power that has kept the world isolated | Scheming native noble, Heretical theologian, UFO cultist native | Automatic defenses fire on ships that try to take off, The natives want to stay out of contact, The natives are highly vulnerable to offworld diseases, The native language is completely unlike any known to the group | Ancient pretech equipment, Terran relic brought from Earth, Logs of the original colonists | Long-lost colonial landing site, Court of the local ruler, Ancient defense battery controls | ||
| Outpost World | Outpost World | Outpost_World | Lopop • Regional | The world is only a tiny outpost of human habitation planted by an offworld corporation or government. Perhaps the staff is there to serve as a refueling and repair stop for passing ships, or to oversee an automated mining and refinery complex. They might be there to study ancient ruins, or simply serve as a listening and monitoring post for traffic through the system. The outpost is likely well-equipped with defenses against casual piracy. | Space-mad outpost staffer, Outpost commander who wants it to stay undiscovered, Undercover saboteur | Lonely staffer, Fixated researcher, Overtaxed maintenance chief | The alien ruin defense systems are waking up, Atmospheric disturbances trap the group inside the outpost for a month, Pirates raid the outpost, The crew have become converts to a strange set of beliefs | Alien relics, Vital scientific data, Secret corporate exploitation plans | Grimy recreation room, Refueling station, The only building on the planet, A “starport” of swept bare rock. | ||
| Panopticon | Panopticon | Panopticon | Lopop • Trade | The world is watched. Everything of consequence is monitored, every interaction recorded and logged. Panopticon worlds usually form only on planets sufficiently hostile to force bubble cities or similar contained, controlled habitats. In such compressed circumstances it becomes possible to track individuals to an extent that would be infeasible on more free-ranging worlds. Some panopticon worlds are relatively benign, but most exist in order to enable some ruthlessly oppressive power structure. In an effective panopticon society the only people with unpunished crimes are those responsible for monitoring the observations. The societies that grow from such soil tend to pair spectacularly corrupt overseers with a populace trained to a half-demented degree of dissembling. | Spaceport monitor official, AI surveillance controller, Official empowered to turn off surveillance, Local elite of the Great Unwatched | Monitor saboteur, Official paranoid about unobserved far traders, Offworlder seeking to subvert the monitors for their own purposes, Avid blackmailer | Telepaths run an undetectable psychic comm network, Locals actually communicate via subtle contextual cues rather than the words they speak, The surveillance state is new and society is in turmoil over it, The watchers are actually looking for something specific and mortally dangerous | Monitor-proof shielding shipment, Cargo of hyper-advanced surveillance gear, Semi-intelligent monitoring hardware, Entertaining but extremely illicit surveillance logs | The local currency is based on privacy allotments, Local clothing is transparent, Concealment or deceit of any kind is a serious crime, The locals are incredibly good at detecting smuggled goods | ||
| Peaceful | Peaceful | Peaceful | Lopop | Physical conflict is almost unheard-of. The culture produces few soldiers and diplomacy reigns supreme. Forceful characters will be ostracized. | The one violent person on the planet, Master orator, Obsessed stalker | Fascinated anthropologist, Pacifistic guru, love-struck peacenik | Nonviolent demonstration, Peace is secured through drugs, Invaders or pirates | Book outlining perfected debating techniques, Weapons used for different purposes, Mind control device that ensures peace | Center of reason, self-defense class, Ancient battle site | ||
| Perimeter Agency | Perimeter Agency | Perimeter_Agency | Lopop | Before the Silence, the Perimeter was a Terran-sponsored organization charged with rooting out use of maltech, technology banned in human space as too dangerous for use or experimentation. Unbraked AIs, gengineered slave species, nanotech replicators, weapons of planetary destruction… the Perimeter hunted down experimenters with a great indifference to planetary laws. Most Perimeter Agencies collapsed during the Silence, but a few managed to hold on to their mission, though modern Perimeter agents often find more work as conventional spies. | Renegade Agency Director, Maltech researcher, Paranoid intelligence chief | Agent in need of help, Support staffer, “Unjustly” targeted researcher | The local Agency has gone rogue and now uses maltech, The Agency archives have been compromised, The Agency has been targeted by a maltech-using organization, The Agency’s existence is unknown to the locals | Agency maltech research archives, Agency pretech spec-ops gear, File of blackmail on local politicians | Interrogation room, Smoky bar, Maltech laboratory, Secret Agency base | ||
| Pilgrimage Site | Pilgrimage Site | Pilgrimage_Site | Lopop • Regional | The world is noted for an important spiritual or historical location, and might be the sector headquarters for a widespread religion or political movement. The site attracts wealthy pilgrims from throughout nearby space, and those with the money necessary to manage interstellar travel can be quite generous to the site and its keepers. The locals tend to be fiercely protective of the place and its reputation, and some places may forbid the entrance of those not suitably pious or devout. | Saboteur devoted to a rival belief, Bitter reformer who resents the current leadership, Swindler conning the pilgrims | Protector of the holy site, Naive offworlder pilgrim, Outsider wanting to learn the sanctum’s inner secrets | The site is actually a fake, The site is run by corrupt and venal keepers, A natural disaster threatens the site | Ancient relic guarded at the site, Proof of the site’s inauthenticity, Precious offering from a pilgrim | Incense-scented sanctum, Teeming crowd of pilgrims, Imposing holy structure | ||
| Pleasure World | Pleasure World | Pleasure_World | Lopop • Regional | This world provides delights either rare or impermissible elsewhere. Matchless local beauty, stunningly gengineered natives, a wide variety of local drugs, carnal pleasures unacceptable on other worlds, or some other rare delight is readily available here. Most worlds are fully aware of the value of their offerings, and the prices they demand can be in credits or in less tangible recompense. | Purveyor of evil delights, Local seeking to control others with addictions, Offworlder exploiter of native resources | Tourist who’s in too deep, Native seeking a more meaningful life elsewhere, Offworld entertainer looking for training here | A deeply repugnant pleasure is offered here by a culture that sees nothing wrong with it, Certain pleasures here are dangerously addictive, The prices here can involve enslavement or death, The world has been seized and exploited by an imperial power | Forbidden drug, A contract for some unspeakable payment, Powerful tech repurposed for hedonistic ends | Breathtaking natural feature, Artful but decadent salon, Grimy den of desperate vice | ||
| Police State | Police State | Police_State | Politics | The world is a totalitarian police state. Any sign of disloyalty to the planet’s rulers is punished severely, and suspicion riddles society. Some worlds might operate by Soviet-style informers and indoctrination, while more technically sophisticated worlds might rely on omnipresent cameras or braked AI “guardian angels”. Outworlders are apt to be treated as a necessary evil at best, and “disappeared” if they become troublesome. | Secret police chief, Scapegoating official, Treacherous native informer | Rebel leader, Offworld agitator, Imprisoned victim, Crime boss | The natives largely believe in the righteousness of the state, The police state is automated and its “rulers” can’t shut it off, The leaders foment a pogrom against “offworlder spies”. | List of police informers, Wealth taken from “enemies of the state”, Dear Leader’s private stash | Military parade, Gulag, Gray concrete housing block, Surveillance center | ||
| Post-Scarcity | Post-Scarcity | Post-Scarcity | Lopop • Trade | The locals have maintained sufficient Mandate-era tech to be effectively post-scarcity in their economic structure. Everyone has all the necessities and most of the desires they can imagine. Conflict now exists over the apportionment of services and terrestrial space, since anything else can be had in abundance. Military goods and items of mass destruction may still be restricted, and there is probably some reason that the locals do not export their vast wealth. | Frenzied ideologue fighting over an idea, Paranoid local fearing offworlder influence, Grim reformer seeking the destruction of the “enfeebling” productive tech | Offworlder seeking something available only here, Local struggling to maintain the production tech, Native missionary seeking to bring abundance to other worlds | The tech causes serious side-effects on those who take advantage of it, The tech is breaking down, The population is growing too large, The tech produces only certain things in abundance | A cornucopia device, A rare commodity that cannot be duplicated, Contract for services | Tiny but richly-appointed private quarters, Market for services, Hushed non-duped art salon | ||
| Preceptor Archive | Preceptor Archive | Preceptor_Archive | Lopop | The Preceptors of the Great Archive were a pre-Silence organization devoted to ensuring the dissemination of human culture, history, and basic technology to frontier worlds that risked losing this information during the human expansion. Most frontier planets had an Archive where natives could learn useful technical skills in addition to human history and art. Those Archives that managed to survive the Silence now strive to send their missionaries of knowledge to new worlds in need of their lore. | Luddite native, Offworld merchant who wants the natives kept ignorant, Religious zealot, Corrupted First Speaker who wants to keep a monopoly on learning | Preceptor Adept missionary, Offworld scholar, Reluctant student, Roving Preceptor Adept | The local Archive has taken a very religious and mystical attitude toward their teaching, The Archive has maintained some replicable pretech science, The Archive has been corrupted and their teaching is incorrect | Lost Archive database, Ancient pretech teaching equipment, Hidden cache of unacceptable tech | Archive lecture hall, Experimental laboratory, Student-local riot | ||
| Pretech Cultists | Pretech Cultists | Pretech_Cultists | Lopop | The capacities of human science before the Silence vastly outmatch the technology available since the Scream. The Jump Gates alone were capable of crossing hundreds of light years in a moment, and they were just one example of the results won by blending psychic artifice with pretech science. Some worlds outright worship the artifacts of their ancestors, seeing in them the work of more enlightened and perfect humanity. These cultists may or may not understand the operation or replication of these devices, but they seek and guard them jealously. | Cult leader, Artifact supplier, Pretech smuggler | Offworld scientist, Robbed collector, Cult heretic | The cultists can actually replicate certain forms of pretech, The cultists abhor use of the devices as “presumption on the holy”, The cultists mistake the party’s belongings for pretech | Pretech artifacts both functional and broken, Religious-jargon laced pretech replication techniques, Waylaid payment for pretech artifacts | Shrine to nonfunctional pretech, Smuggler’s den, Public procession showing a prized artifact | ||
| Primitive | Primitive | Primitive | Lotech • Trade | The world is technologically primitive. Their societies may be quite sophisticated in cultural, artistic, or aesthetic terms, but they lack the raw materials or expertise to move past the muscle-powered stages of technology. Few such worlds can support centralized governments or large numbers of non-farming specialists, and social organization tends to be oriented toward stability and survival. Far traders who can bring in tech to unlock formerly-inaccessible resource deposits or jumpstart an industrial base can unleash drastic changes on these worlds. The natives often lack the experience to recognize these impending changes before their world has transformed around them. | Confused local autocrat, Unrelentingly hidebound guildmaster, Local official with wildly inflated expectations about far traders, Local grandee unable to understand that her authority is not universal | Official privately determined to drive the offworlders away, Local crime boss desperate to steal offworld goods, Local demagogue bent on extorting the offworlders, Far trader who really dislikes competition | A local priestess has cynically duped the locals into thinking her far trader partners are holy figures, The world is on the cusp of an explosively disruptive industrial revolution, The locals are Luddites for a reason that is or was rational, The last far trader to come through left chaos in his wake | Colony-era pretech parts that are useless to the locals, Amazingly refined art or liquors, Exquisitely-bred and trained warbeasts, Papers proving ownership of local serfs or slaves | Offworld tech use is restricted to the native elite, Tech use is relegated to a tightly-policed underclass of laborers, Tech use is permitted only after dangerous purification rites, Tech use is considered a declaration of rebellion | ||
| Primitive Aliens | Primitive Aliens | Primitive_Aliens | Lopop • Alien | The world is populated by a large number of sapient aliens that have yet to develop advanced technology. The human colonists may have a friendly or hostile relationship with the aliens, but a certain intrinsic tension is likely. Small human colonies might have been enslaved or otherwise subjugated. | Hostile alien chief, Human firebrand, Dangerous local predator, Alien religious zealot | Colonist leader, Peace-faction alien chief, Planetary frontiersman, Xenoresearcher | The alien numbers are huge and can overwhelm the humans whenever they so choose, One group is trying to use the other to kill their political opponents, The aliens are incomprehensibly strange, One side commits an atrocity | Alien religious icon, Ancient alien-human treaty, Alien technology | Alien village, Fortified human settlement, Massacre site | ||
| Prison Planet | Prison Planet | Prison_Planet | Nopop • Lopop | This planet is or was intended as a prison. Some such prisons were meant for specific malefactors of the Terran Mandate, while others were to contain entire “dangerous” ethnic groups or alien races. Some may still have warden AIs or automatic systems to prevent any unauthorized person from leaving, and any authorization permits have long since expired. | Crazed warden AI, Brutal heir to gang leadership, Offworlder who’s somehow acquired warden powers and exploits the locals | Innocent local born here, Native technician forced to maintain the very tech that imprisons them, Offworlder trapped here by accident | Departure permits are a precious currency, The prison industry still makes valuable pretech devices, Gangs have metamorphosed into governments, The local nobility descended from the prison staff | A pass to get offworld, A key to bypass ancient security devices, Contraband forbidden by the security scanners | Mandate-era prison block converted to government building, Industrial facility manned by mandatory numbers of prisoners, Makeshift shop where contraband is assembled | ||
| Progressive | Progressive | Progressive | The culture is expanding and vibrant. Fortunes are being made in trade and science is forging bravely ahead. | Unscrupulous merchant, Conservative terrorist, MalTech scientist | Budding Entrepreneur, Eager young scientist, Offworld advisor | MalTech violations, Parade promoting advancement, Jealous neighbor tries to slow down or stop the rapid progress | Rich literature or artwork, Hidden cache of PreTech equipment, Plans for the next great project | Construction site, Outdated space station ready for demolition, University research center | |||
| Psionics Academy | Psionics Academy | Psionics_Academy | Lopop | This world is one of the few that have managed to redevelop the basics of psychic training. Without this education, a potential psychic is doomed to either madness or death unless they refrain from using their abilities. Psionic academies are rare enough that offworlders are often sent there to study by wealthy patrons. The secrets of psychic mentorship, the protocols and techniques that allow a psychic to successfully train another, are carefully guarded at these academies. Most are closely affiliated with the planetary government. | Corrupt psychic instructor, Renegade student, Mad psychic researcher, Resentful townie | Offworld researcher, Aspiring student, Wealthy tourist | The academy curriculum kills a significant percentage of students, The faculty use students as research subjects, The students are indoctrinated as sleeper agents, The local natives hate the academy, The academy is part of a religion. | Secretly developed psitech, A runaway psychic mentor, Psychic research prize | Training grounds, Experimental laboratory, School library, Campus hangout | ||
| Psionics Fear | Psionics Fear | Psionics_Fear | Lopop | The locals are terrified of psychics. Perhaps their history is studded with feral psychics who went on murderous rampages, or perhaps they simply nurse an unreasoning terror of those “mutant freaks”. Psychics demonstrate their powers at risk of their lives. | Mental purity investigator, Suspicious zealot, Witch-finder | Hidden psychic, Offworlder psychic trapped here, Offworld educator | Psychic potential is much more common here, Some tech is mistaken as psitech, Natives believe certain rituals and customs can protect them from psychic powers | Hidden psitech cache, Possessions of convicted psychics, Reward for turning in a psychic | Inquisitorial chamber, Lynching site, Museum of psychic atrocities | ||
| Psionics Worship | Psionics Worship | Psionics_Worship | These natives view psionic powers as a visible gift of god or sign of superiority. If the world has a functional psychic training academy, psychics occupy almost all major positions of power and are considered the natural and proper rulers of the world. If the world lacks training facilities, it is likely a hodgepodge of demented cults, with each one dedicated to a marginally-coherent feral prophet and their psychopathic ravings. | Psychic inquisitor, Haughty mind-noble, Psychic slaver, Feral prophet | Offworlder psychic researcher, Native rebel, Offworld employer seeking psychics | The psychic training is imperfect, and the psychics all show significant mental illness, The psychics have developed a unique discipline, The will of a psychic is law, Psychics in the party are forcibly kidnapped for “enlightening”. | Ancient psitech, Valuable psychic research records, Permission for psychic training | Psitech-imbued council chamber, Temple to the mind, Sanitarium-prison for feral psychics | |||
| Quarantined World | Quarantined World | Quarantined_World | Nopop • Lopop | The world is under a quarantine, and space travel to and from it is strictly forbidden. This may be enforced by massive ground batteries that burn any interlopers from the planet’s sky, or it may be that a neighboring world runs a persistent blockade. | Defense installation commander, Suspicious patrol leader, Crazed asteroid hermit | Relative of a person trapped on the world, Humanitarian relief official, Treasure hunter | The natives want to remain isolated, The quarantine is enforced by an ancient alien installation, The world is rife with maltech abominations, The blockade is meant to starve everyone on the barren world | Defense grid key, Bribe for getting someone out, Abandoned alien tech | Bridge of a blockading ship, Defense installation control room, Refugee camp |