Contrast this with something like Warhammer 40K, a setting with simply insane scales and many fleshed out factions, but with very few mysteries that don't have answers. It's hard to come up with something new for 40K without having to make sure it doesn't step on the toes of the setting's canon. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you, but it creates a different sort of setting.
But how can you make an RPG have that same sense of scale? Easy answer: tables. Lots of tables. By writing interesting things in advance and combining several different rolls into one, you can effectively multiply your preparation. If you write six interesting entries with two major details, you've made six encounters. But if you write three versions of each major detail and roll for them, you haven't made six encounters - you've made nine.
I was going to (and did) write a starship generator, but all those Star Wars clips reminded me of an obvious example: bounty hunters. Remember that scene in The Empire Strikes Back where they hire all the bounty hunters? They're on screen for maybe half a minute, but almost all wound up getting extensive backstories as the setting was expanded. So I wound up writing two generators. You can click the buttons below (thanks to Angus) to instantly generate a result, but I encourage you to read the tables and mine them for ideas.
BOUNTY HUNTERS
Bounty hunters. They work well for RPGs, especially scifi ones. There's an obvious way to bring them into conflict with the party, and it's easy to have them simply give up and leave to fight another day. They also give you an easy excuse to play dirty - random guards aren't going to tailor their strategies to the party's weaknesses, but a bounty hunter is more or less expected to prepare in advance and know what they're doing. Plus, they can come from more or less anywhere, and are a perfect chance to show off a cool species or culture concept without forcing the party to interact with it on a large scale.
To use these tables for Into The Odd, give them 12 HP, either a base 10 in every stat or 3D6 in order, and any gear you see fit. If you don't normally have NPCs be injured when they fail a STR save, simply dying, I would recommend you have bounty hunters be an exception - if only so the party can interrogate them for information. Dying bounty hunters are notoriously talkative.
BOUNTY HUNTERS
 |
| The scene in question. |
Bounty hunters. They work well for RPGs, especially scifi ones. There's an obvious way to bring them into conflict with the party, and it's easy to have them simply give up and leave to fight another day. They also give you an easy excuse to play dirty - random guards aren't going to tailor their strategies to the party's weaknesses, but a bounty hunter is more or less expected to prepare in advance and know what they're doing. Plus, they can come from more or less anywhere, and are a perfect chance to show off a cool species or culture concept without forcing the party to interact with it on a large scale.
To use these tables for Into The Odd, give them 12 HP, either a base 10 in every stat or 3D6 in order, and any gear you see fit. If you don't normally have NPCs be injured when they fail a STR save, simply dying, I would recommend you have bounty hunters be an exception - if only so the party can interrogate them for information. Dying bounty hunters are notoriously talkative.
D4 Who
are they hunting?
This is pretty self-explanatory, but I would recommend you let the party know who's being hunted and why - just not who by or when they'll strike.
1 A member of the party.
1 A member of the party.
2 A close ally of the
party.
3 Someone temporarily
critical to the party's goals.
4 An enemy of the party. They'll fight anyone who tries to kill them instead.
D6 What
is their demeanour?
This comes up most when the bounty hunter is monologuing to seemingly defeated prey, but can also say something about how they fight. Mostly it's just for flavour.
1 All business, no nonsense.
1 All business, no nonsense.
2 Extreme aggression,
easily provoked.
3 Boring and plain.
4 Cheerful, bordering on
saccharine.
5 Melancholic and fatalist.
6 Showy and narcissistic.
D8 What's
their modus operandi?
Again, pretty self-explanatory. They're broad descriptions, however, so you have plenty of room to determine exactly what kind of explosive, vehicle, etc they're using.
1 Explosives and heavy weapons.
1 Explosives and heavy weapons.
2 Long range weapons,
sniping.
3 Automated drones.
4 Stealth and melee
weapons.
5 Hired help.
6 Heavy armour and close
range weapons.
7 Combat vehicles.
8 All-rounder weapons and
gear.
D10 What
specialist gear do they own?
It can be daunting to combine two seemingly incompatible methods and specialist gears, but think on how they could work together. A sniper in power armour, for example, could wield much larger weapons, or stand straight out in the open without fear of easy retaliation.
1 A jetpack, reliable but easily damaged.
1 A jetpack, reliable but easily damaged.
2 Ancient weaponry that
ignores armour.
3 A heavily upgraded,
combat-specialized starship.
4 Power armour and energy
shields.
5 Combat drugs.
6 High tech tracking and
scanning devices.
7 A cloaking field.
8 A bioengineered
combat/tracking pet.
9 Nanotech weapons, easily
concealed.
10 Multiple cybernetic
augmentations.
D10 What
do they look like?
Another flavour roll, but think about how their appearance combines with their tactics and gimmick - for example, someone wearing corporate-branded punk gear tells a story.
1 Nondescript, easily blending into crowds.
1 Nondescript, easily blending into crowds.
2 Military surplus
everything, trying a little too hard.
3 Elegant and elaborate
clothes and gear, like a fashionista.
4 Practical equipment, worn
by years of use.
5 Punk fashion with tons of
accessories.
6 One colour all over, lots
of fabric and plastic.
7 Robes and masks, mystical
in nature.
8 Revealing clothes,
covered in tattoos and cosmetic implants.
9 Stylish clothes, suits
and ties, dark and sleek.
10 Brand new everything,
most of it never used before.
D12 What
species are they?
In some cases, species is little more than another flavour roll, but a clever bounty hunter (IE all of them) will know how to use their biology to their advantage. Vatborn, Mentats, and Spacers are all "panhumans", human but somewhat different from the baseline.
1 Human, +2 to their lowest stat.
1 Human, +2 to their lowest stat.
2 Vatborn, +2 STR.
3 Mentat, +2 CHA.
4 Spacer, +2 DEX.
5 Lizard, +1 DEX and immune
to heat.
6 Feline, always acts
before enemies/traps.
7 Hound, preternatural
sense of smell.
8 Mantis, D8 unarmed
damage.
9 Rabbit, outrun anyone,
even some vehicles.
10 Yeti, +1 STR and immune
to cold.
11 Assassin Robot, closely
resembles an organic.
12 Combat Robot, +1 Armour
at all times.
D20 What's
their gimmick?
Every self-respecting bounty hunter has something that sets them apart from the crowd, either as a marketing technique or a quirk picked after years of stressful work.
1 They warn all their targets in advance.
1 They warn all their targets in advance.
2 There's two of them:
twins, friends, lovers, clones, etc.
3 They're actually several
people working in turns. Kill one and another comes back.
4 They take great care to
avoid any collateral damage.
5 They try to make each
kill slow and painful.
6 They have branded
corporate gear and try to show it off.
7 They're exceptionally
young or old, but no less effective for it.
8 They offer to fake the
party's deaths in return for a bribe.
9 They carry incendiary
grenades and are a pyromaniac.
10 They have limited
psychic ability. One power, always the CHA drawback.
11 They are followed by a
documentary crew.
12 Their will places a
large bounty on whoever kills them, larger than any existing ones.
13 They are being hunted by
another bounty hunter themselves.
14 They dual wield their
weapons. It looks cool but provides no benefit.
15 They use only sidearms,
daggers, and other "light" weapons and gear.
16 They revel in causing
unnecessary collateral damage.
17 They are exceptionally
skilled: +2 HP and +1 damage.
18 They are particularly
inept: -2 HP and -1 damage.
19 They throw sonic devices
which emit loud, piercing screeches they are immune to.
20 They talk to their
quarry constantly throughout the fight.
STARSHIPS
 |
| Lord of the Rift by Jean Paul Ficition |
There are plenty of tables out there that will tell you when you encounter starships and what statblocks they use. I would be occupying existing design space and mimicking things I've seen done much better than I can do by making one like that. Instead, I wanted to write a table that tells you what it looks like, what it's doing, and why and how it still exists. You can roll on these tables to generate a ship another table says exists, or roll on all of them at once to create everything you need for a stellar encounter.
All these ships are assumed to be roughly the same size as the standard light scifi ship most RPGs (and scifi stories in general) have the characters fly, with the "normal" size mentioned below being roughly the same as the PC's ship, if they have one. To use them for Into The Odd, give them a base 12 HP, 10 in every stat, D6 damage, and no armour. When it tells you to add or subtract +1/-1 damage, increase or lower the damage die by one size. You should take a look at my ship rules if you want more detailed rules.
D4 How
large is it?
As mentioned before, all ships are relatively small. Think the Millenium Falcon or Serenity.
1 Smaller than normal. (-2
HUL, fast)
2 As large as normal.
3 Larger than normal. (+4
HP, +2 HUL, slow)
4 Much larger than normal.
(+8 HP, +4 HUL, very slow)
D6 What
kind of ship is it?
Note that this is only its intended design, not necessarily what it is currently being used for.
1 Military: For combat or
troop/starfighter transport. (+1 Armour/+1 damage)
2 Research: For
exploration, survey, and analysis. (laboratory, medbay)
3 Industrial: For mining,
construction, salvaging, etc. (various tools)
4 Merchant: For
transporting goods and resources. (huge cargo bay)
5 Liner: For transporting
many individuals at once. (many cryopods)
6 Personal: For
transporting a few individuals in luxury. (many staterooms)
D8 Who
owns and operates the ship?
This determines what sorts of jobs it performs, who crews it, and what sort of legal recourse attacking (or helping) it incurs.
1 A major interstellar
power.
2 Rebels, rogues, and
dissidents.
3 A private individual
living aboard the ship.
4 Independent workers who
own their own ship.
5 A megacorporation.
6 Friendly or neutral
aliens.
7 Hostile or enigmatic
aliens.
8 Robots, independent or
for their owners.
D10 What
is its main strength?
Most of these are combat related, but can also say something about what it is used for, either beyond its initial design or what specific role within that design.
1 Reinforced hull. +3 HUL.
2 Large engines. +3 ENG.
3 Overclocked systems. +3
SYS.
4 Armour plating. +1
Armour.
5 Targeting computers. +1
damage.
6 Strong shields. +4 HP.
7 Exceptional maneuverability.
8 Long range, high accuracy
sensors.
9 Difficult to detect and
scan.
10 Has the benefits of
another ship type.
D10 What
is its main weakness?
As above, but in reverse, saying what it isn't used for. Can also be useful to determine what went wrong on a damaged or derelict ship.
1 Cracked hull. -3 HUL.
2 Small engines. -3 ENG.
3 Buggy systems. -3 SYS.
4 Obvious weak points. HUL
damage always causes critical damage.
5 Undersized weapons. -1
damage.
6 Weak shields. -4 HP.
7 Slow turns and
acceleration/deceleration.
8 Inaccurate, obvious
sensors.
9 Adware constantly
broadcasts its position.
10 Lacks the benefits of
its ship type.
D12 What
is it doing?
Vague, but keeping in mind the previous rolls can help narrow down exactly what it's doing.
1 It's a pirate ship, and
pursues the party. +1 damage if not a Military ship.
2 It's a pirate ship, and
is pursuing/boarding a ship. +1 damage if not a Military ship.
3 It's being hunted by, or
is hunting, a pirate ship.
4 It's drifting in space,
somehow damaged or disabled and in need of aid.
5 It's following the party,
purely by coincidence.
6 It's defending something,
and threatens the party against approaching it.
7 It's doing whatever it is
it was built to do, but is obviously about to fail.
8 It's offering the party a
trade, but rarely one as simple as credits for fuel.
9 It's doing whatever it is
it was built to do, but in a way dangerous to the party.
10 It's resupplying from a
cache of valuable materials, and is clearly vulnerable.
11 It's requesting the
party's aid in return for a reward.
12 It's offering the party
something its crew has no use of, but they would appreciate.
D20 What
does it look like?
Again this is mostly for flavour, but again it can also be a good base for coming up with ideas. A corporate ship that's blocky and grey will be run by a very different corporation, ro at least for very different purposes, than one that looks sleek and elegant.
1 Blocky and grey, totally
devoid of intentional aesthetic.
2 Sleek and elegant, pure
white with black glass.
3 Black and angular, as if
a stealth ship.
4 Green and organic-looking
– possibly a living ship.
5 Red and curved, like a
retrofuturist rocket ship.
6 A mechanical cube,
sphere, pyramid, or other polyhedron.
7 Spindly and elegant,
golden and shimmering with large glass planes.
8 A Frankenstein of several
other ships welded together.
9 Dark blue, long and with
rounded edges and bright yellow windows.
10 Ostentatious and
religious, like a cathedral turned into a ship.
11 Bright white plastic
with blue and orange extremeties.
12 A series of bright green
spheres connected by pipes.
13 Insectoid in appearance,
with bright, clashing colours.
14 Cartoonish, covered in
stars, constantly shifting between several vibrant colours.
15 Narrow and angular, like
an upsized starfighter.
16 Round, smooth edges,
dull yellow, orange, or brown.
17 Imposing, blocky, and
long, red as blood.
18 White, sleek exterior
half-conceals a pitch black, biomechanical interior.
19 An asteroid, space
station, or even space lifeform's corpse turned into a ship.
20 Deep purple, with shiny
metallic trimming.
