Let's face it, there are a ton of tools out there for harried Fantasy GM's. Not so much for those who prefer to spin tales in the space lanes, the fringe space, and alien worlds. There are some good resources out there, and in the spirit of the Si Fi season, I thought I would share a few of the ones that I find valuable, interesting and fun.
First up
Sine Nomine Publishing (SNP) and
Stars Without Number (SWN). Kevin Crawford is Sine Nomine Publishing and in addition to creating great games based on the framework OD&D and B/X D&D with many added, simple and innovative features, he is the loudest and most prolific proponent of the Sandbox. Mr. Crawford's work in not only providing rules for many settings (fantasy, sci fi, cyberpunk) but also in creating a set of tools for GM's to develop the sandbox with which to play them has been groundbreaking.
The sector creation tools include not only development of a sector of space, but the systems and worlds that inhabit it. Additionally, his adventure creation tools are robust and easy to use. But where the tools really shine are in the faction creation tools. They allow for creating living, operating, organizations (corporations, rivals, cults, governments, etc) that will interact with the players and the world. The really great thing about them is they live and function in the background. And so they are executing their goals and aims, which may be in alignment or opposition to the PC's, which in turns creates lots of opportunities for conflict. Mr. Crawford is all in on sandbox style play and has the tools to back it up. SNP also has a significant number of supplements for SWN. Some of my favorites include:
- Persons of Interest - a supplement for the creation of patrons and antagonists, or in other words, key NPCs for your sandbox.
- Distant Lights - a supplement for creating border world outposts.
- Sixteen Stars - a supplement for adventure site creation using sixteen separate locationtypes, that include random charts for creation that includes adventure seeds, antagonists, friends, places, and things.
- Dead Names - a supplement for the creation of lost and dead civilizations and their ruins.
SNP also has two issues of a great Zine called The Sandbox, dedicated to sandbox play of the SNP games.
Next up is a tool from
DWD Studios,
The Adventure Idea Factory. The Adventure Idea Factory is a supplement for generating an adventure framework with an easy to use series of tables. And we all know how I like tables. Designed by Bill Logan of Star Frontiersman Zine fame, and for his great reimagining of Star Frontiers - Frontier Space, it is still an agnostic adventure generator. In a crisp 24 pages and only a couple of bucks price, it should be in every harried GM's toolbox. The simple flow chart of the supplement allows you to quickly develop a nights (or more) adventure very quickly in six steps.
- Determine Areas - Roll for number of adventure areas and type of location
- Determine Area Descriptors - Roll for atmospheric descriptors of the areas
- Determine Area Primary Objectives - Roll to determine the objective of each area
- Determine Area Primary Obstacles - Roll to determine each area primary objectives
- Determine Final Encounter - Based on the adventure created so far, create a final encounter
- Put It All Together - Weave the results together, prepare a random encounter table for each area.
A full example is included for clarity, but its all dead simple. Keep in mind that this isn't an adventure site generator, there are some good ones out there, like the ones mentioned from Sine Nomine for Stars Without Number. This is an adventure generator, and so is built to have multiple areas (locations) each with its own identity and piece of the puzzle(purpose) to link to the final encounter of the adventure. It's a really great framework, and by adding a location specific generator a GM can get to a fully playable multi location adventure in a night's work.
While counterintuitive for Sci
Fi, the website
Fantasy Name Generators is and will continue to be an absolute
godsend for me and building lists of names for people, places, and things for
all of my gaming. With a pretty high churn rate on names, I am not always
inspired when naming things. I simply open Fantasy Name Generators and I am
offered up a highly curated, voluminous, and quite mind boggling array of name
generators. A lot of fantasy, but also a lot of sci fi as well. The major
categories include: Fantasy and Folklore(which has sci fi baked in), Real Names
(for Humans), Places and Locations (think shops, but also space stations,
casinos, company names), Other Names (which expands niche names for things like
species, artifacts, currency, etc), Pop Culture (which include names from video
games, books, novies, media, rpgs), Description Generators(for alien races, shopwrecks,
towns, personalities, etc.), and then Other Generaotrs (riddles, haikus,
character goals, traits, etc.).
All in all, its hundreds and
hundreds of name and description generators on one site. The generators have
great variety, and each has a description of how each of the generator naming
conventions works. I often grab a Dyson Logos map, label it, and use the
Fantasy Name Generator site to help fill in random details. Cant recommend
highly enough for when a PC asks for the name of the street vendor he’s talking
to and you need a name.
Thats it for now. I will replumb these depths for Fantasy as well coming up in the Fall.
Lead Addict
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