Sunday, May 3, 2020

Ill-Advised Escapades: Generating a Random Shipwreck

Take a standard rpg dice set (a d4, a d6, a d8, a d10, a d12, a d20 and percentile dice), roll 'em, reroll some of 'em, and consult these charts to generate your very own shipwreck!

(Tables listed in descending size of dice, not based off content)

Name (d%)

  1. The Grinning Pussycat
  2. The Handsome Devil
  3. Destiny's Blade
  4. The Coiled Serpent 
  5. God's Corpse
  6. The Vanquisher
  7. Ascendence 
  8. Veilpeircer
  9. Windchaser 
  10. The Mesmeriser 
  11. Queen of Hearts 
  12. Ace of Spades 
  13. Jack of Diomands 
  14. King of Clubs 
  15. The Waking Nightmare 
  16. Vengeance 
  17. Webspinner 
  18. Eclipse. 
  19. Hegemony. 
  20. The Liberator. 
  21. Lillith's Bride. 
  22. Vessel #37-12-Alpha 
  23. Nitrogen Shield
  24. The Fall of Eden 
  25. Oxygen Sword
  26. Neon Nightmare
  27. Rivals' Embrace 
  28. Man's Folly   
  29. The Reaper's Scythe 
  30. Apisaon 
  31. Echoing Scream 
  32. Demeter 
  33.  Shai
  34.  Budeia
  35.  Persephone
  36. Chloris 
  37. The Dionysian Rite 
  38.  Hedjhotep
  39.  Wepset
  40.  Shemsetet
  41.  The Scent of Nectar
  42. Young Acolyte 
  43. Arceophon 
  44. The Walled Garden 
  45. The Fallen Age 
  46. The Shadowy Mist 
  47. Clytus 
  48. The Flaming Thornbush 
  49. Heavens Above 
  50. Speak of the Devil 
  51. The Last Straw 
  52. Bird in the Hand 
  53. Insult to Injury 
  54. The Silver Lining 
  55. The Wild Goose 
  56.  Live and Learn
  57. Thin Ice
  58. Devil's Advocate
  59. Rain or Shine 
  60. Enlil 
  61. Nanna-Suen
  62. Nergal 
  63. Dumuzid 
  64. Down in Flames
  65. Eye of the Storm 
  66. The Conflagation
  67. Mother of Monsters 
  68. The Synaptic Burst
  69. Cognitive Overload 
  70. Ship of Theseus 
  71. Uncertain Pilgrim 
  72. Cunning Merchant 
  73. Kind Thief
  74. Devil's Pitchfork
  75. Eye of the Needle 
  76. Hell and Back 
  77. The Endless Staircase
  78. The Organ Player 
  79. The Spinning Dancer 
  80. The Maddened Oracle 
  81. The Drowning Maiden 
  82. Hybrid Image 
  83. Aeternitas 
  84.  The Golden Apple
  85.  Aera Cura
  86. Ad astra per aspera 
  87. Discordia 
  88. Dulce periculum
  89. Dia Lucrii 
  90. Audentes fortuna iuvat
  91. Fama
  92. Ducor duco 
  93. Mutinus Mutunus 
  94. Infantes Sumus 
  95. Naenia 
  96. Slayer of Dragons 
  97. Poena
  98. Madame Unbreakable 
  99. Prorsa Postverta
  100. Good Fortune 
Look (d20)
  1. Spartan & Sparse
  2. Dusty & Dank
  3. Rusted & Ragged
  4. Sleek & Stylish 
  5. Cozy & Comforting 
  6. Ornate & Ornamented 
  7. Lush & Luxurious 
  8. Regal & Rococo 
  9. Cramp & Crystalline 
  10. Slimy & Slippery 
  11. Pristince & Prismatic 
  12. Cluttered & Chaotic 
  13. Overylit & Orderly 
  14. Tacky & Tasteless 
  15. Weathered & Worn 
  16. Robust & Repaired 
  17. Artificial & Automated 
  18. Cold & Colourless 
  19. Noisy & Noisome 
  20. roll two: it's both.
Dangers in the Wreck (d12, use a d4 to determine the total number of dangers)
  1. A rival team of wreck robbers.
  2. A tentacled mass and it's spawn.
  3. The security system gone haywire.
  4. Mutated crew.
  5. The ship's rogue AI.
  6. The ship collapsing around the players.
  7. The horrible creations wrought by the horrific experiments that were secretly conducted on the ship. 
  8. A mind-warping oddity. 
  9.  The ship's set to self-destruct! (use a ticking clock mechanic to taunt and torture the players.)
  10.  A corrosive gas leaking from the engine.
  11. An interdimensional rift torn in the middle of the ship.
  12. A surveillance system streaming footage to governmental databases.
The Ship Was Wrecked After Falling Prey to... (d10)
  1. Space locusts.
  2. Pirates/raiders. 
  3. Alien parasites. 
  4. Meteors. 
  5. Sabotage. 
  6. A fatal flaw in it's design. 
  7. Running out of fuel. 
  8. Crashing into another ship (roll up a second shipwreck) 
  9. Navigational discombobulation. 
  10. Fall twice: it was both.
Loot (d8)
  1. Trapped survivors from wealthy families.
  2. Stock commodities
  3. Illicit substances. 
  4. Fine art. 
  5. Information/data. 
  6. Experimental technology. 
  7. Weird.
  8. Roll twice: it's both.
Official Purpose (d6)
  1. Recreation.
  2. Cargo delivery. 
  3. Exploration.
  4. Prison ship. 
  5. Private transportation. 
  6. Unstated.

Friday, May 1, 2020

Ill-Advised Escapades on the Outer Solar System - pitch

Below is the text of the pitch document I sent out to my friends for a dungeon-style science fiction campaign I plan on running next year called Ill-Advised Escapades on the Outer Solar System (or just Ill-Advised Escapades if you don't have a lot of time).

I took the idea of a pitch document from the Angry GM, and the idea of a small set of basic principles that govern how the game is played from the wikipedia page for the Tales from the Loop rpg.

---------- Setting Information ----------

Aliens, Humans and Robots.
Most of the characters you will play and encounter will be humans, but there are two other kinds: robots built and rejected by the inner solar system and aliens from beyond the solar system.
Most of the Aliens in the outer solar system come to the system sol seeking refuge from the terrible wars raging across the galaxy. The system sol is neutral in these conflicts, making it a relatively safe haven. Migration to the wealthier planets of the inner solar systems is strictly regulated, leaving large populations of alien refugees trapped in the outer solar system.
Robots are built in the inner solar system with limited cognitive functions, but occasionally something will go wrong and one will be built with full self-consciousness and an inner life. Various local and inter-planetary laws forbid or prohibitively regulate the enslavement or murder of concious beings, so instead of using or recycling these rejects, they ship them off to the outer solar system to fend for themselves.

Floating Wrecks
It is only natural, given both how many vessels travel in and out of the solar system, and how many raiders, meteorites, space locusts, mind-warping oddities, and other various hazards, that there are a whole lot of shipwrecks in these parts. Many of them are laden with trade goods, trapped survivors, and other miscellanea exchangeable for credits. Some of them have rare and experimental technologies, which can also be exchanged for credits, or used to your own advantage. If there’s a decent living to be made here, it’s in the wrecks.

Weird Crystals
As well as advanced tech and credits, there’s another treasure that lies in some of these wrecks: a semi-liquid, semi-crystalline substance known to the scraps and scoundrels of the outer solar system as Weird. Those who ingest it in small qualities manifest strange powers and develop mutations. Nobody knows what happens when you ingest large qualities of it.


---------- Principles ----------

Life Is Cheap
Life on the outer solar system is nasty, brutish and short. You start play as scraps, 0th level characters with low stats, not many hit points and hardly any gear. Even as you level up, play stays dangerous and death a very real possibility. The game is rigged against you, and it will take cunning and luck to win. Character generation is quick and mostly randomised, so it’ll never take too long to get back into play.

The Law is Powerless at Best, Evil at Worst.
Unlike the heavily governed inner solar system, in the outer solar system, the law is little more than a rumour. Predatory debt collectors and corporations keep everyone in constant competition, preventing co-operation or organisation by the people of the outer planets from happening on any large scale. When the governments of the inner solar systems do get involved, it is never for the better. Those shiny white vessels drift forth towards us not to protect or serve us, but to enforce corporate interests, find minor offenders to convict to indentured servitude, break up bars or demand tribute.

Science Doesn’t Really Matter
Importance is not placed on how different tech actually works, how different alien species came to be, or other such concerns. Some elements of this campaign may contradict how things would actually work. It’s a pulp sci-fi comic or a bad 80’s flick set in space, not a hard science fiction novel. Once established, rules about how things work will be logically upheld, but any resemblance to actual science living or dead is purely coincidental.

The World is Discovered Through Play
Beyond the basic information laid out in this document, and the implicit assumptions of the rules, the setting is a blank map waiting to be filled. Not just you, put I - the GM - will be discovering things as we go along. The vast majority of information of the setting will be decided about me or by random tables. Collaborative worldbuilding is great, and we might do a little of it, but for this campaign, we won’t be doing as much of it, to put a further emphasis on discovery and exploration.

The Game is Played Adventure to Adventure
Any storylines greater than a single wreck will emerge through play. I’ll prepare sessions in advance, but not a whole campaign. You’ll find plot hooks, hear rumours, encounter signs of bigger plots going on, and at the end of every session I’ll ask “what do you think you’ll do next session?” and prepare for that.