Dice-Drop Sub-Sector Generation

[This is part of a series of rules I'm putting together to make generating a sub-sector in a sci-fi setting fast and easy, leaning heavily on Dice-Drops and One-Rolls. These will eventually be cleaned up and compiled into a PDF to make a wholistic system. For more along these lines, look here. Thanks!]

This is probably the simplest part of the process of generating a sector of space, from the user's perspective, but for me, it's been one of the weirder processes of coming up with the rules.

The first part is really simple. Get yourself some hex graph paper. I'm using a 5x7 grid because I think there's a lot to be said for a small map. And the whole point of developing a rapid system for stay system generation is to make it easy to add new sub-sectors to a campaign, so keeping star maps small seems appropriate to me.

Then drop a standard set of polyhedral dice: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and d10s. Personally, I got a better spread over the map by splitting the dice between both hands before dropping. Just a pro tip there, you're welcome.

Each hex is equal to 5 light years (the average distance between stars in the Milky Way). The dice represent the location of a star system somewhere within one of those hexes.

Then add jump-lanes between your stars (they should pass through no more than 2 empty hexes).

You'll get something like this:

Simple so far.

The problem is, I want this system to be really efficient. I want to get as much narrative value out of every role made. We got location and travel routes out of the drop, but we've got all these numbers. What to do with them?

Interpreting the Stars

The first problem I had was just trying to figure out what the numbers might represent. My first though was they represent the stellar type of the star in question. But I already have a quick way of doing that in my Star System generator.

Then I thought maybe it was indicative of some sort of spatial anomalies, but I have an idea of how to do that later.

So I decided that I would like a table that used the results to indicate what sort of space-faring population one might expect to encounter here.

At this tentative time, my operating assumptions are that this ruleset describes a universe like Star Trek or Star Wars, where there's an over-abundance of sapient, technologically advanced societies. So, while there's plenty of "frontier space," there's also little in the way of unclaimed space.

The first thing to get a handle on was how a single table interpreting the rolls of all seven polyhedral dice was going to work statistically. This is how I wound up visualizing it.

It's a weird spread!

There are 28 possible results.

Ranked from most frequent to lease frequent:

• 1, 2, 3, 4
• 5, 6
• 7, 8, 10
• 9
• 11, 12, 20
• 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100
• 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

Obviously, the most frequent results will be 1-4. Because of the d4, you're guaranteed to get a result of 1-4 at least once. These four things have to be something you won't mind popping up more than once in a single map. To me, these seem like they should be of some aid to players, like taverns and inns. Places where you can find supplies when you need them, even if they're not the best supplies, and maybe get some rest.

1. Explorer Fleet (traders in dnd terms)

2. Frontier Settlement (town)

3. Abandoned Colony (dangerous, but will have supplies)

4. Service Station (for patching up star ships)

I opted to make results 5-20 story-oriented stuff: unexplored locations, locations run by rival powers, or isolated alien enclaves, etc. 30-00 are astronomical phenomena that imply inhabitability of nearby planets, but might be of interest as plot devices or hazardous encounter locations. As it stands now, the list is like this:

1. Faction 1 Explorers
2. Faction 1 Frontier Settlement (pop. 1d10*100)
3. Faction 1 Abandoned Colony 
4. Faction 1 Service Station (pop. 1d6*10)
5. Unexplored
6. Frontier Colony (pop. 1d10*1000)
7. Abandoned Rival Colony 
8. Ancient Ruins
9. Faction 2 Settlement (pop. 1d6*10)
10. Faction 2 Explorers
11. Faction 1 Tamed Planet (pop. 1d20*1,000,000)
12. Faction 2 Colony (pop. 1d10*1000)
13. Faction 2 Populous World (pop. 1d10*1,000,000,000)
14. Uncontacted Alien Homeworld
15. Independent Alien System
16. Faction 1 Megalopolis (pop. [1d10+10]*1,000,000,000)
17. Faction 2 Tamed Planet (pop. 1d20*1,000,000)
18. Faction 2 Megalopolis (pop. [1d10+10]*1,000,000,000)
19. Faction 1 Populous World (pop. 1d10*1,000,000,000)
20. Alien Megastructure
30. Worm Hole
40. Nebula
50. Planetary Nebula
60. Supernova
70. Pulsar
80. Neutron Star
90. Magnetar
00. Black Hole

Looking back at the map:

My philosophy on the statistical likelihood of Faction 1 appearing vs Faction 2, is that almost every epic space story I can think of involves various factions vying for influence in sectors in which their powers are imbalanced (even if their overall power is fairly balanced). 

Star Trek fans would probably find the easiest analogue to be conflicts between the Federation and Dominion. The Dominion was very powerful but struggled to gain a strong military foothold in the Alpha Quadrant, while the Federation was also very powerful but couldn't get much of a military foothold in the Gamma Quadrant.

Star Wars fans might read the above map in terms of Faction 1 being the Empire and the Abandoned Colony from Faction 2 being a former Rebel base. Hell, it could be Hoth.

Warhammer grognards might see Imperial colonies and a failed T'au expansion colony.

The Magnetar, meanwhile, represents a neutral regional threat. It's probably periodically (1d10 decades) puking out significant amounts of radiation into the surrounding region. Perhaps that's why the this sub-sector is relatively unpopulated. But there must also be something good in the neighboring star systems for colonists and settlers to put up with the constant threat of gamma-ray bursts.

I'm not sure if I'll bother making up my own Faction Creation scheme, because I'm not sure I have anything new to bring to the table that Stars/Worlds Without Number hasn't already done.

My current concern with the table as it stands is mainly that it may be too biased toward underpopulation. But, space is vast and empty. So I'm comfortable with it for the moment.

Update 10/6/22: I realized that if unusual stellar objects were linked to the d10s they were going to be showing up all the time because each one has a 10% chance of appearing every roll with at least one guaranteed to, so I decided to swap stellar objects with population-related objects:

1. Faction 1 Explorers
2. Faction 1 Frontier Settlement (pop. 1d10*100)
3. Faction 1 Abandoned Colony 
4. Faction 1 Service Station (pop. 1d6*10)
5. Unexplored
6. Frontier Colony (pop. 1d10*1000)
7. Abandoned Rival Colony 
8. Ancient Ruins
9. Faction 2 Settlement (pop. 1d6*10)
10. Faction 2 Explorers
11. Alien Megastructure
12. Worm Hole
13. Nebula
14. Planetary Nebula
15. Supernova
16. Pulsar
17. Neutron Star
18. Magnetar
19. Black Hole
20. Faction 1 Tamed Planet (pop. 1d20*1,000,000)
30. Faction 2 Colony (pop. 1d10*1000)
40. Faction 2 Populous World (pop. 1d10*1,000,000,000)
50. Uncontacted Alien Homeworld
60. Independent Alien System
70. Faction 1 Megalopolis (pop. [1d10+10]*1,000,000,000)
80. Faction 2 Tamed Planet (pop. 1d20*1,000,000)
90. Faction 2 Megalopolis (pop. [1d10+10]*1,000,000,000)
00. Faction 1 Populous World (pop. 1d10*1,000,000,000)

Looking back at the map. The only thing this would change is the Magnetar. Suddenly, it's a Megalopolis planet associated with Faction 2. This changes the sub-sector a lot! 

For one thing, it went from unpopulated to over-populated. Faction 2, while controlling fewer star systems vastly outnumbers Faction 1. But Faction 1 controls the jump-lanes for some reason. This is now going to result in much more populous regions.

There may be something to be said for having two different table arrangements. Pick one variant for frontier space, pick another for more "civilized" space. Something to consider.