Generating Random Worlds for FFG's Star Wars RPGs, First Draft

INTRO

This post details information I'm working on for generating random star systems for Fantasy Flight's Star Wars RPGs (Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, and Force and Destiny). This is only a first draft, but in my testing the system has worked roughly the way I want it to - it creates a lot of planets that are almost really great, but could put players in difficult positions in terms of deciding what they're willing to sacrifice for colonization or settlement.

Note that there are some references - for example to Basic and Advanced Resources - which are not fleshed out. Those are placeholders for systems that are still in progress.

In general the system uses the narrative dice, but this is not always the case. Some information is referenced in d20 notation. For those of you unfamiliar, any die called out as "xdy" is x dice of y sides. So, for example, 1d6 is one six-sided die. 2d20 would be two twenty-sided dice. The standard d20 dice sizes are d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20. Although there are other sizes of dice, I have not used them in this system.

This is all a work in progress, and any feedback or recommendations are greatly appreciated! With that out of the way:

GENERATING A SYSTEM

Each star system has a green belt, the "goldilocks" zone where planets are most likely to have the necessary conditions for life. The green belt starts 1d20/10 AU from the star, and continues for 1d20/5 AU. A star system has a 1/3 chance of having an asteroid belt which is randomly located within the star system. The difficulty of navigating the asteroid belt is randomly determined to be between 1 and 3 Purple dice.

A star system has 1d12 planets. Planets fall into one of three categories: Close, Golden, and Far. Close planets are nearer the star than the green belt, Golden planets are within the green belt, and Far planets are beyond the green belt.

The first planet is 1d4/10 AU from the star. The second planet is 1d6/10 AU from the first planet. The third planet is 1d8/10 AU from the second planet. This continues, with the die increasing in size to 1d20 per planet, at which point you continue to roll 1d20 until you get beyond the green belt. Beyond the green belt, you begin the cycle again with 1d4, but do not divide by 10 – so the first Far planet is 1d4 AU away from the planet before it. The next one is 1d6 AU away from that one, etc.

GENERATING PLANETS

GENERIC TRAITS

All planets have a size determined by rolling 1d8. If the planet is a Gas Giant, it has 1d8*10 size. Planets have the following generic traits based on their location and size:

Distance	Temperature	Brightness (Day)	Brightness (Night)*
Close	Hot (3 Setback)	Bright	Dark (1 Setback)
Close	Hot (2 Setback)	Bright	Dark (1 Setback)
Close	Hot (1 Setback)	Bright	Dark (1 Setback)
Golden	Comfortable	Bright	Dark (1 Setback)
Far	Cold (1 Setback)	Dark (1 Setback)	Dark (2 Setback)
Far	Cold (2 Setback)	Dark (1 Setback)	Dark (2 Setback)
Far	Cold (3 Setback)	Dark (2 Setback)	Dark (3 Setback)

* Add 1 Setback die for Darkness if the planet has no moon.

Planet Size	Gravity
1	Low (3 Boost)
2	Low (2 Boost)
3	Low (1 Boost)
4 OR 5	Earthlike
6	High (1 Setback)
7	High (2 Setback)
8	High (3 Setback)
9+	High (4 Setback)

RESOURCES

Close planets roll 1 Ability & 1 Difficulty.
Golden planets roll 1 Setback & 1 Boost.
Far planets roll 1 Proficiency &1 Challenge.

Advantage	Success	Triumph	Threat	Failure	Despair
N/A	Planet has a Basic Resource	Planet has an Advanced Resource	Planet is Rough (1 Setback die per Threat); note a Far planet that is not Rough is a Gas Giant	N/A	Planet is Radioactive

ATMOSPHERE

Close planets roll 1 Ability & 1 Difficulty.
Golden planets roll 1 Proficiency & 1 Challenge.
Far planets roll 1 Setback &1 Boost.

Advantage	Success	Triumph	Threat	Failure	Despair
Advantage is used to buy down low or high O2 (from 3 Setback dice) on planets with atmosphere	Planet has an atmosphere	Planet has a perfect atmosphere	Planet has an Acidic, Fiery, Icy, or Toxic atmosphere (1 Setback die per Threat) if it has an atmosphere	N/A (failure only matters insofar as it can cancel out success)	Planet has a Caustic atmosphere which destroys ships and spacesuits within an hour of exposure

WATER & LIFE

Water and Life is only rolled if the planet has an atmosphere. If it does not have an atmosphere, then water and life automatically fails.

Close planets roll 1 Ability & 1 Difficulty.
Golden planets roll 1 Proficiency & 1 Challenge.
Far planets roll 1 Setback &1 Boost.

Advantage	Success	Triumph	Threat	Failure	Despair
Advantage is used to buy down thick foliage (from 3 Setback dice) OR to buy down desert (from 3 Setback dice); note a “desert” also includes a fully ocean world	Planet has surface water	Planet has animal life and surface water (this overrides Failure)	Planet is covered in thick fog (1 Setback die per Threat) OR Planet is wracked by horrible storms (1 Setback die per Threat)	N/A (failure only matters insofar as it can cancel out success, but is overridden by Triumph or Despair)	Planet has hostile animal life and surface water (this overrides Failure)