I'm planning out my next 5 Parsecs campaign, and I'm thinking of doing some "story" scenarios.
Now, I like to use procedural generation, because while I'm capable of coming up with my own, as a solo wargame, I like to be a little surprised by a scenario that I might not have thunk up.
I've got the donjon link (https://donjon.bin.sh/scifi/random/#type=space_job) handy, and I just got Space Aces, TNG (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/346728/Space-Aces-TNG-The-New-Guidebook) but I thought I'd pick the board's collective brain and see if there's any other online, hardcopy or PDF resources I've missed.
Putting this in the RPG section, since rpg scenarios are just fine for ideas.
Stars Without Number has good tables and GM tools, but I'm not sure if it's the particular level of detail you are getting from your other stuff.
Here is a cool planet generator
https://anodyneprintware.com/planets/
Works well with Alien, Mothership, Death in Space... etc etc
Quote from: Summon666 on May 11, 2023, 12:58:38 PM
Here is a cool planet generator
https://anodyneprintware.com/planets/
Works well with Alien, Mothership, Death in Space... etc etc
Oooh! That's a neat one!
These are for Cepheus Engine, but are pretty good:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/393166/Cepheus-Scenario-Generator?term=cepheus+engine+scenario
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/330576/Cepheus-Engine-Mission-Generator?filters=45550_0_0_0_0
I second "Stars Without Number" for the world-building tools, but look also at its format for adventure design. You roll a list of features common to a particular planet/system, which gives you a list of likely Friends and Places and Complications and so on. Then you can apply those to a "Mad Libs" style plot outline: "An Enemy is trying to steal a Thing from a Friend by forcing him to a Place..." And you plug in eg. "Gene Clinic" or "Radioactive Monster" and so on.
See https://sectorswithoutnumber.com/ for a random space sector generator that lets you click on specific planets to see how the tags work.
Besides that, maybe try https://chartopia.d12dev.com/ and Seventh Sanctum. I have had fun using a set of physical idea-generator cards called "The Gamemaster's Apprentice", which (once you know how to read them) give you a lot of phrase prompts and sensory prompts and so on.
Quote from: KrisSnow on May 16, 2023, 01:12:54 PM
I second "Stars Without Number" for the world-building tools, but look also at its format for adventure design.
I've got SWN. I need to dig out the hardcopy and give it a look see. Only got to GM it once many years ago.
There's heaps of stuff for Traveller and Cepheus. I'd also check Mythic Games Master Emulator 2e. It's generic but has tables for science fiction scenarios alongside the usual fantasy stuff. In general if you're doing something solo like 5 Parsecs looking at solo GM material will really be a big help.
Eureka (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/82670/Eureka-501-Adventure-Plots-to-Inspire-Game-Masters) isn't free but it does have 501 Adventure outlines, a third of which are Sci-fi and the rest could be genre flipped without much trouble. It's a pretty useful source of inspiration IMO.
I'll blow my own horn on this: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/254216/Piracy-and-Privateering (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/254216/Piracy-and-Privateering) is system neutral, though intended for Stars Without Number and Traveller/Cepheus Engine. It's a full set of encounter rules for interstellar and intra-system travel. Not necessarily full scenarios, but you can generate enough to hang a scenario or two on with very little work. I developed it for use in my own campaigns before publishing it.