Shatterworlds (Random Roll Tables)

[taalismn]

Shatterworlds(Or, Rolling Up Death Worlds)

“Yeah, my people were proud and stupid...too proud to settle their differences peacefully, too stupid not to know what would happen when they started mashing buttons and throwing nukes. Eight thousand years of recorded history, gone in two days of mushroom clouds. I’m not so sure that the ones who survived the exchange were the lucky ones. The few survivors that your Shifters came across and pulled along to your worlds, we have to live with the radiation scars in our bones and the nightmares in our memories.”

“These ‘Mechanoids’...maybe they’ll be our friends.”

“Telsor’s a green hell, when it was once a living paradise.....something got into the colonists’ crops and mutated them into inedible forms...to begin with. Second attempt using fresh seed stocks resulted in poisonous plants. Third attempt....well, the last the colonists up in the high mountains heard from the lowlands was that their crops were eating THEM. Fortunately, they were able to call the next starships to make landings up on the rocky plateaus before they ran out supplies and had to make a go at growing crops of their own. As it was, orbital scans showed jungles that WEREN’T THERE BEFORE advancing up the valies towards the highlands. Now Telsor’s off-limits; not a single leaf or sprig is allowed to leave that planet.”

“These people had arts, sciences...they had astronomy. They watched the skies. They charted the heavens religiously. So when they sighted the rogue planet, they did the maths and knew it for what it was. They knew to the day how long they had left to live. They knew they wouldn’t survive, but they wanted to leave something to the ages on the offhand chance that someone might come here. They wanted us to know that they were here and that they lived and dreamed and died.”

Shatterworlds are worlds where something has gone wrong...VERY wrong, causing the planet to become borderline, or totally uninhabitable. Shatterworlds or deathworlds can be the end of species, catalysts for exodus, treasure boxes of unclaimed wealth, or traps for the unwary.
Shatterworlds can also provide PCs or entire alien species with tragic backgrounds

Cause:

01-25% War
“Of COURSE our Doomsday weapon is safe! You take us for FOOLS?”

Whether it’s a cold war gone hot or terrorists with access to strategic weapons, a deliberate use of WMDs has spiraled out of control and damaged the planet.
Despite the horrors of the horrors of war, there may be survivors; military personnel and civilians hiding in deep shelters, space stations and spacecraft above the conflicts, overlooked communities with supplies and perhaps some sort of champion or protector, or isolated outposts that the devastation hasn’t yet reached.

01-65% Nuclear---Nuclear weapons were the scourge, releasing deadly radiation into the environment and triggering catastrophic climate change. The extreme case results in the planetary crust being cracked, and earthquakes and volcanoes finish what the bombs started.
66-75% Biological----Engineered plagues were the ultimate weapon in the war, and got out of hand. -5% on the Survivors table.
76-90% Conventional----Conventional weaponry has been used extensively and for a protracted amount of time, resulting in a social breakdown and the effective depletion and destruction of available resources. -20% on the Survivors table.
91-97% Machine War---War became automated, and the machines became too good at killing life. Whether it’s nuclear-armed killbots prowling the planet or vicious nanotech devouring everything, the planet belongs to the machines now.
In the alternative, the ‘robots’ may be genetically-engineered lifeforms that have turned on their creators.
-10 % on the Survivors table.
98-00% Other---Maybe it’s gravitic weapons dropping black holes into the planetary core or reality-altering superweapons changing the physical laws such that the planet turns into anti-matter and promptly explodes, or gravity reverses and flings everything out into space.

26-50% Environmental Disaster
“’Climate change’? Don’t worry, the environment will eventually reset itself!”

Something went wrong with the environment, rendering it no longer hospitable.
The only good side is that there may be isolated pockets of survivors; well-stocked shelters, environmentally-sealed enclaves, naturally immune or vacinated people, or offworld sanctuaries.

01-15% Man-Made Disaster----Engineered viruses or microorganisms escaped into the environment, mutated, and began wreakig havoc, knocking out key ecological lynchpins and setting up a catastrophic ripple effect. -10% on the Survivors table.
16-30% Solar Irradiation---The ozone layers got depleted, or the planetary magnetic field weakened, but the planet is now being slowly cooked by solar radiation. Night time offers a respite, but without photosynthesis from healthy plants, the ecosystem, and all life dependent on it, are doomed. -10% on the Survivors table.
31-45% Climate Change: Ice Age----The planet hasn’t just entered an ice age, it’s entered a CRYOGENIC age; massive ice storms and glaciers advance across the planet, open water is freezing, massive plant and animal die-offs occur as the ecology freezes, and even the atmoshere may becoming a solid. -15% on the Survivors table.
45-70% Climate Change: Greenhouse Effect---Global temperatures are rising, leading to increasigly violent heat-fueled weather. The milder case is a flooded world, as ice caps melt. The extreme case is total vaporization of surface water, as the planet turns into a Venus-like hot hell. -5% on the Survivors table.
71-80% Drowned World---Somehow, the planet is acquiring liquid water that is accumulating and submerging the land masses. -20% on the Survivors table.
81-95% Mutagen Pollution---Something has begun altering the genetic structure of lifeforms, radically changing them from generation to generation. Food crops are no longer reliable, and domestic animal stocks may spawn monsters. -10% on the Survivors table.
96-00% Gaia’s Revenge----The ecology just up and went insane, actively turning on the local population. Animals attack, plants spread poison, bacteria all acquire immunity to treatment drugs, or maybe key species just spontaneously die overnight. -10% on the Survivors table.

51-75% Social Disaster
“Rats in a box! Rats in a box! Get enough rats in a box, and they start eating each other! That’s all we are, rats in a box!”

Social ecolypses are generally ‘slow motion disasters’, remaining unseen and disregarded until it’s too late. The other problem with a slow-motion global catastrophe is that it often gives time for people to panic, civil disorder and fighting are often as bad, if not worse, than the catastrophe itself.
As wirh the Environmental Catastrophe there may be isolated pockets of survivors; well-stocked shelters, protected enclaves, naturally immune or vacinated people, or offworld sanctuaries.

01-25% Resource Depletion----The locals just used up the available resources and can no longer maintain their civilization. There’s no longer any fuel, potable water, or edible food. -15% on the Survivors table.
26-50% Pollution----The local civilization simply poisoned the environment with industrial wastes, so that they couldn’t eat untainted food, drink nontoxic water, or breath clean air any longer. -20 % on the Survivors table.
51-75% Overpopulation----Too many people have overtaxed the available resources; societal breakdown and cannibalism are the outcome. -5% on the Survivors table.
76-00% Immune Diseases---Normally treatable diseases become resistant to treatment, spawning epidemics which have swept the population to (near)extinction. -15% on the Survivors table.

76-90% Cosmological Disaster
“Is it just me, or do the moons seem unusually bright tonight?”

It doesn’t what the locals did, the cosmos just seems to have had it in for them.
Chances for survivors tend to be rather grim in these instances, though if a society has enough warning, they may be able to construct deep shelters, erect protective stasis fields, or launch deep space ‘life boats’ to carry some part of their population to new worlds.

01-25% Asteroid Bombardment---Comets or asteroids slam into the planet; this is ‘dinosaur killer with extra BLAM.
26-35% Planets in Collision---The star system has become a Velikovskian nightmare of careening planets and altering orbits; 01-30% chance of a planetary collision, 31-00% of the planet being gravitationally pulled out of its ‘Goldilocks zone’. +5% on the Survivors table.
36-45% Dust Cloud---A nebular dust cloud has enveloped the star system, cutting off sunlight from the planet and causing the star to behave erratically. +5% on the Survivors table.
46-60% Sun Trouble---The local sun has gone bad, flaring up, expanding, or just going out. +5% on the Survivors table. +5% on the Survivors table.
61-75% Supernova---A nearby exploding star irradiates the planet
76-93% Alien Invasion---Aliens have arrived and they’re not content with simple conquest; their actions are destroying the planet, rendering it unfit for its original inhabitants. This could be extreme xenoforming, or cracking the planet to harvest all its resources.
94-95% Harmonic Disruption---The fabric of space-time ripples catastrophically, wrecking the planet. +25% on the Survivors table.
96-00% Black Hole---A gravitational singularity rips into the planet. +30% on the Survivors table.

91-00% Metacosmic Disaster
“The skies rain blood! The sea reeks of corruption! The earth festers with blight! The Unseen Ones rise to reveal themselves! Yakka’ti’ya-sia’t’ang-aul-gul-!!!”

A supernatural event has seriously altered conditions on the planet.

01-10% Rift Event---Either a giant dimensional rift or many smaller ones have opened up on the planet, expelling deadly energies or atmospheric gases into the environment, or sucking away atmosphere and matter.
11-15% Paranormal Plague----Something swept through the population of sentient beings, or maybe all the higher lifeforms, or maybe ALL life, killing it. This could have been lights in the sky that reduced everybody to smears of inert powder, accelerates aging, or some horrible agonizing malaise that broke down bodies into fungal blooms. There’s a small(10% or less) chance of some people/life exhibiting an immunity, but life as they knew it is effectively over.
16-20% Zombie Outbreak---The dead have risen and feast on the living.
21-60% Demonic Invasion---Some monsterous external force came upon the planet , killing(or worse) all the people, despoiled the environment, and then either corrupted the world into an outpost of evil, or left it a lifeless husk.
61-65% Fall of Darkness---The planet became wrapped in a cloak of supernatural darkness that slowly suffocated the planet. Besides cutting off available sunlight, the darkness also projects a global Aura of Darkness, causing suicidal depression and madness to be inflicted on the planet’s inhabitats.
66-70% Brain Drain----Something effectively drained the brains of all living creatures above a certain cognitive ability level. Civilization just stopped as people became unable to think and most starved to death. There’s a 50% chance the cause of this mental die-off is still lingering in the area and will attack anybody investigating.
71-95% Elemental Unbalancing---One or two of the Elements have surged into prominence on the planet to the exception of all other factors. Perhaps one Element is running rampant, or two are warring with each other, but windstorms may be sweeping the surface clean as a billard ball, volcanoes may be erupting everywhere, the earth may be sifting and shaking, and giant waves may be drowning entire continents.
96-00% Incubator---Something was implanted into the core of the planet, then gestated, in the process killing the environment, altering surface conditions, draining life energy away to feed itself, or cracking the planet open in its birthing. +25% on the Survivors table.



Survivors?

“Doomsday Log Entry #134. Thus far Professor Bergov’s underwater sanctuary seems to be holding up. At least the material and technological aspects of it. Of those sheltered within, though, I fear the first cracks have appeared in the will of some of us. It has finally begin sinking in, with no contact from outside, no ray of daylight piercing the watery canopy above our adamantium bubble, that we are collectively the last of our kind...”

Did anybody survive? This can be fairly arbitrary, and some disasters leave very little chance of survival, especially the big cosmic catastrophes, but occasionally there are miraculous breaks.

01-40% Hold-Outs---A small number of survivors found some means to hold out in some temporary refuge. Maybe a laboratory where a cure to the plague was found, a community of immunes, a hardened fortress or bunker, a ship with supplies, or sacred ground. However, the sanctuary offers only a respite from the castatrophe, and the survivors desperately need rescue before it is too late.

41-60% Refugees---A handful of lucky(?) survivors managed to flee the planet by techological or magical means

61-70% Transformed----Either by design or accident, the survivors have been transformed into a new form that little resembles their original bodies, such as radiation-resistant mutants, transferred intelligence robots, symbiotic/parasitic microorganisms, or beings of pure energy. These survivors may be so radically changed that they may be urecognizable for what they really are.

71-00% Total Extinction---No survivors.

Updates(New Tables) to the Shatterworld Roll Tables

Alien Invaders

“*HUNGER*PREY*HUNGER* KILL*EAT*NOW*”

If an alien invasion was the cause of the cataclysm, here are some possible perpetrators:

01-10% Mechanoids
11-17% Splugorth(mass extinctions aren’t their style, but occasionally there’s an insane one, or their experiments in magic or biowizardry go out of control)
18-20% Naruni(again, mass extinctions aren’t their optimal modus operandi, but occasionally a weapons experiment gets out of control. NE really doesn’t like word of these incidents being made public).(+20% on Date of Planet Death)
21-25% Brodkil
26-35% Yboor Devouring Blobs
36-40% GeneSplicers/Tech(again, oops, but they got some GREAT data about the experiment)
41-50% Dominators
51-60% StarHunters
61-70% Intruders(+15% on Date of Planet Death)
71-80% Star Wasps
81-85% Demons/Dyvals
86-90% Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
91-95% Xiticix
96-97% Necrons
98-00% Alien Intelligence


Time of World Death

“...this asteroid belt wasn’t here last week....”

When did the world end? The longer ago a catastrophe happened, the less likely one is going to find survivors(either their scattered descendants, if anybody got offworld, or possible survivors locked in some sort of stasis). Also, time will have erased the finer details and destroyed any salvageable goods.

01-05% Ancient History; 1d4x10,000 years ago.
06-35% Millennia--- 1d4x1,000 years ago
36-60% Centuries---2d6x100 years ago
61-85% Decades---4d4x10 years ago
86-95% Years---1d4x10 years ago
96-99% Recent ----2d6 months ago
-00% Happening Now---The disaster is days(2d4) if not hours old past its apex.

[Deostarat]

You are my helper I want to thank you so much for imparting to me.

[taalismn]

You are my helper I want to thank you so much for imparting to me.

You're most welcome.
Have fun destroying a world.

[Warshield73]

This is an outstanding chart. My version the Three Galaxies is already filled with dead worlds of all types but your chart has given me some new causes to consider. Have you thought about adding specific causes like invasion by Hive Spawn, Xiticix (I have a world that is end stage Xiticix conversion that players have to land on to recover an ancient artifact so lots of fun), or Four Horseman?

And, have you thought about adding a chart for when this occurred? Recent, decades, centuries, millennia ago? The longer times might even have penalties to survivors.

[taalismn]

This is an outstanding chart. My version the Three Galaxies is already filled with dead worlds of all types but your chart has given me some new causes to consider. Have you thought about adding specific causes like invasion by Hive Spawn, Xiticix (I have a world that is end stage Xiticix conversion that players have to land on to recover an ancient artifact so lots of fun), or Four Horseman?

And, have you thought about adding a chart for when this occurred? Recent, decades, centuries, millennia ago? The longer times might even have penalties to survivors.

I can always add update sections....that's the joy of random roll, as opposed to a point system..I can add as many (Optional)s as needed/desired.

[taalismn]

There...added two more tables to the original post, as per suggestions.

[Warshield73]

Great chart and I love the addition. If people use this chart they may want to look at the Colony Creation table on pg. 121 of DB 14 - Thundercloud Galaxy or World Builder Toolbox on pg. 139 of DB 5 Anvil Galaxy.

If you want to create a dead planet it helps to first create a living system and then kill it.

Also, you have given this some thought, most of the dead worlds I have created are in different areas of the Corkscrew and throughout the Anvil. I do this since it is said that they are the older galaxies. Since the Thundercload seems to be newer so I put fewer there. What do you think?

[taalismn]

Also, you have given this some thought, most of the dead worlds I have created are in different areas of the Corkscrew and throughout the Anvil. I do this since it is said that they are the older galaxies. Since the Thundercload seems to be newer so I put fewer there. What do you think?

Yeah, but the Thundercloud had the big extinction event of the Dominator War....The Thundercloud likely has the most ANCIENT world-deaths, and most concentrated in one statistical cluster....the other galaxies likely have a more even distribution of shatter world events over time.
I'd say they're about even numbers-wise.

[Warshield73]

Also, you have given this some thought, most of the dead worlds I have created are in different areas of the Corkscrew and throughout the Anvil. I do this since it is said that they are the older galaxies. Since the Thundercload seems to be newer so I put fewer there. What do you think?

Yeah, but the Thundercloud had the big extinction event of the Dominator War....The Thundercloud likely has the most ANCIENT world-deaths, and most concentrated in one statistical cluster....the other galaxies likely have a more even distribution of shatter world events over time.
I'd say they're about even numbers-wise.

Number or percentage of systems? The Corkscrew has way more stars then the other two.

[taalismn]

Okay, you got me there. Maybe with the Prometheans there, the Corkscrew was a bit more peaceful? At least for a while?

[Warshield73]

Okay, you got me there. Maybe with the Prometheans there, the Corkscrew was a bit more peaceful? At least for a while?

I don't think any one faction has all that much of an effect on the number of dead worlds. I think just two things have an effect:

1 - Age of the Galaxy, the longer it's around the more worlds die.
2 - Size of Galaxy, how many stars are in that galaxy.

When I was setting this up 15 or so years ago I set it up as follows:

Corkscrew has the most dead worlds in numbers but came in second in percentage because it is largest and second oldest galaxy.

The Anvil has the second most dead worlds and came in first in percentage because it is by far the oldest, has the oldest races but is still the smallest galaxy.

The Thundercloud comes in last in both because whil it is bigger than the Anvil it is supposedly a lot younger of a galaxy. Even with the Dominator thing they took a bite out of the Corkscrew too so it all equals out.

[taalismn]

And that's just factoring in the NATURAL components of the Great Filter(of potential star farers).

[Warshield73]

And that's just factoring in the NATURAL components of the Great Filter(of potential star farers).

Exactly. Although in the Three Galaxies you don't just have naturally arising space faring races. You also have trans-dimensional transplants. Humans are supposed to be from another dimension, I think it it hinted they are from Rifts Earth but don't quote me on it. There are also species that are uplifted by gods, the Oni, conquest, the Kreeghor, or just finding lost technology.

This means the Three Galaxies, at any given time, should have more spacefaring races than the average galaxy.

[BookWyrm]

Great contribution!

[taalismn]

Great contribution!

Thanks.
When writing up devastation material like this, I always think of H.G. Wells who, when writing 'War of the Worlds', admitted that one of his guilty pleasures was walking around his neighborhood, gleefully mentally marking various landmarks and the homes of people he knew for destruction by the Martians.

[Warshield73]

Great contribution!

Thanks.
When writing up devastation material like this, I always think of H.G. Wells who, when writing 'War of the Worlds', admitted that one of his guilty pleasures was walking around his neighborhood, gleefully mentally marking various landmarks and the homes of people he knew for destruction by the Martians.

I do the same thing after my Home Owners Association meets.

[taalismn]

[
I do the same thing after my Home Owners Association meets.

" ...that's two cases of artillery practice...And you're getting the spiney ravager in the living room...but YOU, mister my-lawn-service-parks-its-truck-across-the-neighbor's-driveway, are going to be treated to the full Bug* infestation..."



*Eww,,,should have considered the Systems Failure Bugs as a possible cause of technological civilizations going silent....
Wonder how the Neurons would react to them?

[BookWyrm]

Don't forget the planet I made, Stillborn, from my contribution here;
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=155358

[taalismn]

Don't forget the planet I made, Stillborn, from my contribution here;
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=155358

I kinda got the impression Stillborn was a world that came just shy of developing something more sophisticated, like a Mars that developed slime-level cellular life, before getting choked off or sideswiped, rather than an established Earth-like world that saw millions of years of evolution snuffed out by cosmic catastrophe or the stupidity of certain over-evolved local idiots.

That might merit a separate category of dead worlds; something akin to crib-death. There's fossil evidence of life ALMOST establishing itself, the environment ALMOST or JUST SHY of becoming amenable to sustaining life. That one degree difference in temperature, or that lack of enough liquid water....With a little terraforming, however, some such dead worlds just might be coaxed to habitability(although it could be argued that some shatterworlds, with enough decontamination, pest extermination, or re-terraforming, might be salvageable(enter the eco-engineering Shattertech profession---world salvagers who see the long term...like hundreds of years---to restore a planet to viability).

[Warshield73]

[
I do the same thing after my Home Owners Association meets.

" ...that's two cases of artillery practice...And you're getting the spiney ravager in the living room...but YOU, mister my-lawn-service-parks-its-truck-across-the-neighbor's-driveway, are going to be treated to the full Bug* infestation..."



*Eww,,,should have considered the Systems Failure Bugs as a possible cause of technological civilizations going silent....
Wonder how the Neurons would react to them?

I have never used those bugs but it would be an interesting idea. Rifts Mercenaries pg. 69 under the description of Arrak Chrome they talk about his people being wiped out by something called the Horde. I had an entire region of the Corkscrew, 4 or 5 systems I think, wiped out by them so even the most obscure evil races works for a list like this.

If you have the Rifts Manhunter books the robots in there are good for this too.

Don't forget the planet I made, Stillborn, from my contribution here;
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=155358

Someone needs to create a sticky at the top of the page for just random charts. Like I said I don't use them much as random charts but they give great ideas.

[BookWyrm]

Taalismn: that works too.

Warshield73: Yes.

[Tick]

Interesting.
Enjoyed reading these bits!

[taalismn]

Interesting.
Enjoyed reading these bits!

Then we'll keep looking for subjects that can generate similar story-grist charts.

As frustrating as trying to complete random roll charts can be(I always feel like I'm overlooking some factor in a subject), there's a great amount of fun in coming up with some of the possible results in each section.

[BookWyrm]

Don't forget the planet I made, Stillborn, from my contribution here;
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=155358

I kinda got the impression Stillborn was a world that came just shy of developing something more sophisticated, like a Mars that developed slime-level cellular life, before getting choked off or sideswiped, rather than an established Earth-like world that saw millions of years of evolution snuffed out by cosmic catastrophe or the stupidity of certain over-evolved local idiots.

That might merit a separate category of dead worlds; something akin to crib-death. There's fossil evidence of life ALMOST establishing itself, the environment ALMOST or JUST SHY of becoming amenable to sustaining life. That one degree difference in temperature, or that lack of enough liquid water....With a little terraforming, however, some such dead worlds just might be coaxed to habitability(although it could be argued that some shatterworlds, with enough decontamination, pest extermination, or re-terraforming, might be salvageable(enter the eco-engineering Shattertech profession---world salvagers who see the long term...like hundreds of years---to restore a planet to viability).

Agreed.

[Warshield73]

Then we'll keep looking for subjects that can generate similar story-grist charts.

As frustrating as trying to complete random roll charts can be(I always feel like I'm overlooking some factor in a subject), there's a great amount of fun in coming up with some of the possible results in each section.

I don't think you have to worry too much about getting everything in the chart. The whole point of these is to give an adventure idea. Hit some of the high points and it will serve its purpose just fine.

[taalismn]

Nice thing is, refugees feature often in some of my other post threads( the EShemar rescue refugees, the GNE recruits refugees from worlds gone bad, etc...), so now I have a nice new shiny tool to come up with back stories.

And there's always planetary exploration...

And let's not forget the 'survivors of dying world X become mutated monsters or disembodied malign spirits seeking to escape by whatever means necessary' schtick.

[taalismn]

Failed Colonies in the Thundercloud Galaxy
The ‘new frontier’ of the Thundercloud Galaxy is fraught with danger. Here’s a roll call of a few of the casualties of the colonization effort:

*Shandara Colony---(as related in EDB 6: The Three Galaxies) Scientific colony wiped out by rampant nanotech. Declared off-limits.

*Gitavis Colony---TGE colony settled with human and wulfen conscript colonists. A Kreeghor-developed terraforming organism mutated(though some claim it was a bioweapons test) and caused an atmospheric/geochemical chain reaction, threatening with extinction the colonists who were abandoned. The Shemarrian Star Nation managed to evacuate nearly 60% of the colonists and resettled them on worlds within their own territory.

*Spangle’s World----Agricultural colony annihilated within a week by a protoplasmic lifeform. Planet quarantined after the lifeform attempted to get offworld aboard rescue vessels sent to investigate the colony’s distress signal. The system has since been mined to enforce a no-approach/no-landing edict.

*Effrin III----Heavily-settled Human Alliance colony. Unfortunately, bitter factionalism amongst the colonists led to a dramatic arms race and then a nuclear and bioweapons exchange that virtually wiped out all the colonists and rendered most of Effrin III uninhabitable.

*Vendat----Human-settled colony world. The colony was almost eaten alive by an intermeshed shape-changing macro-organism, possibly related to the one that destroyed Spangle’s World. The Shemarrian Star Nation, however, managed to rescue the colonists and set up their own quarantine of the system. Last report was that the planet has become a live fire range for WMD testing by the SSN.

*Thyfor VII---Wulfen-settled world. After several colonists desecrated a local holy site, the native Thyrians slaughtered the colonists in a holy war. Despite superior weaponry, only 1,000 of the 6,000 colonists managed to retreat offworld. As Thyfor VII had been settled outside the approved colonial systems, in defiance of recommendations by the planetary scouts, the Wulfen SAF refused to retaliate against the natives, aside from destroying several sensitive colony structures from orbit. Rumors persist, however, promoted by the colonial corporation that settled Thyfor VII, that the steampower-using, musket-wielding natives still hold captured colonists hostage, and are exploiting them for their technical knowledge.

*Thueon---UWW lunar colony eradicated by a suspected Demon Planet visit, judging from several recordings found aboard a scientiflc survey drone that was studying Thueon’s gas giant host planet, and was apparrently overlooked by the Infernal abomination.

*NE 541-234434---Naruni Enterprises established this colony in the backside of the Gaelera Arm. Little is known of the colony, and rumors persist of it being settled with debtors, or as a weapons testing laboratory, but soon after the colony was established, contact was lost. Investigating ships found the planet shattered by what seemed to be a massive asteroid bombardment, with debris scattered across the solar system. As Naruni is wealthy and conscientious enough to do wide system survey scans, it is believed when they say that they previously detected no cosmic bodies in the neighborhood in a position to threaten their colony. As no survivors have been reported from the outpost(NE press releases say only 30 pioneers were present, while other sources say 5,000+), no one knows quite what happened. Rumors are that NE 541-234434 was destroyed by a relativistic rock deliberately launched by, variously, the Shemarrians, the Squaada, the Dominators, the Infernals, rogue CosmoKnights, or the Splugorth. Another rumor, playing on the secret research base thread, has a mssive artificially-generated rift backfiring by letting in a mass of cosmic debris from another universe, and moving at high velocity, opening up and shotgunning the planet.

*Abeis IV----’Think Tank’ colony established by the University of New Chicago. Last commuiques claimed the colonists had made contact with a ‘very intelligent and friendly” alien lifeform speaking with them by radio transmission. After contact was lost with the colony, investigating rescue missions found most of the colonists had starved to death in spite of amble food available around them, and the few survivors close to death, their minds effectively brainwiped. Only a quarter of the four thousand colonists survived, and those all require life-long hospitalization as a result of the effective obliteration of their minds.

*Thygolin VIII----Golgan Republik-settled world swept by successive plagues that infected the colony’s drinking water supply. Only a small percentage of the colonists managed to hole up in quarantine with offworld-bottled water until rescue could come. The planet was written off after it was discovered that interaction between Golgan microbiota and local microbes had generated new strains of Golgan-hostile pathogens.

*Telsor----Indie-established colony world that was wiped out by monstrous mutation of their crops, though it is suspected that a previously unsuspected vegetable intelligence possessed their agriculture, then springboarded to mutate native plants into fast-growth lethal forms. Out of 8,000 colonists, only 900 in high-elevation mining camps and communities survived long enough to be evacuated.

*Parthus---An attempted Free World Council ‘free colony’ launched as a possible refuge and fleet fallback base world in event their efforts to liberate worlds via popular uprising in the TGE colonial zone went sour. When contact was lost with the settlement, it was first believed that the TGE had discovered and destroyed the colony, but it has since been ascertained that Parthus was invaded and subjugated by a Dyval warfleet. Nothing has been heard of the 7,000 pioneer colonists since.

*Adasland---Independently-established colony placed ‘as far from the mob as possible’ by the free-spirited Kinyo Church, who were seeking a ‘sanctuary of the soul’. Unfortunately, while Adasland was surveyed as 100% safe, the neighboring stellar neighborhood was NOT so carefully surveyed by the expedition’s limited interstellar sensor resources. Eighteen months after the establishment of the colony, the star system was hit by the radiation wave front of a nearby blue giant that had gone supernova, the wavefront already being en route when the coony was being settled(and undetected by the Kinyos’ civilian-grade stellar navigation sensors). Only 300 out of 4,000 colonists managed to survive, by dint of them being aboard an orbiting transport in the lee of the planet, which shielded them from the wave of radiation. Seen as an act of divinity, the fatal irradiation of Adasland led to the dissolution of the Kinyo Church, as ‘punishment’ for imagined transgressions.

[taalismn]

Updated the Survivor table to include a new category of survivor: The Transformed.

[Warshield73]

Updated the Survivor table to include a new category of survivor: The Transformed.

Great time to break out those random mutation tables or create a cyborg race. This is my favorite kind of survivor, you can make them good or evil but they a physically changed by it. My second favorite is the frozen survivors - cryo tubes, temporal loop, magical stasis, I once had a fade town of survivors.

[taalismn]

Updated the Survivor table to include a new category of survivor: The Transformed.

Great time to break out those random mutation tables or create a cyborg race. This is my favorite kind of survivor, you can make them good or evil but they a physically changed by it. My second favorite is the frozen survivors - cryo tubes, temporal loop, magical stasis, I once had a fade town of survivors.

I was also thinking of movies like Planet of the Vampires, and the like, where the explorers happen upon possessing entities that will enslave and kill just to leave their dying/dead planet.
Yeah, when you really didn't wish you'd found survivors....

[SolCannibal]

Updated the Survivor table to include a new category of survivor: The Transformed.

Great time to break out those random mutation tables or create a cyborg race. This is my favorite kind of survivor, you can make them good or evil but they a physically changed by it. My second favorite is the frozen survivors - cryo tubes, temporal loop, magical stasis, I once had a fade town of survivors.

I was also thinking of movies like Planet of the Vampires, and the like, where the explorers happen upon possessing entities that will enslave and kill just to leave their dying/dead planet.
Yeah, when you really didn't wish you'd found survivors....

Or werewolves, people taken over by members of the Host from Wormwood, variant possessing entities or a number of other possible bizarre threats, scientific or supernatural.

Hmmm, now i'm thinking of some sort of Vampire Intelligence/Mind Bleeder mashup, a sort of psychic/memetic parasites/symbiotes kind of relationship, just to bring a little fun twist to one or two old Rifts standbys...

[Warshield73]

Updated the Survivor table to include a new category of survivor: The Transformed.

Great time to break out those random mutation tables or create a cyborg race. This is my favorite kind of survivor, you can make them good or evil but they a physically changed by it. My second favorite is the frozen survivors - cryo tubes, temporal loop, magical stasis, I once had a fade town of survivors.

I was also thinking of movies like Planet of the Vampires, and the like, where the explorers happen upon possessing entities that will enslave and kill just to leave their dying/dead planet.
Yeah, when you really didn't wish you'd found survivors....

Or werewolves, people taken over by members of the Host from Wormwood or a number of other possible bizarre threats, scientific or supernatural.

I hadn't thought about these guys in years. I briefly ran a campaign on Wormwood a few months after the book came out but the only player that enjoyed it was the one playing the Apok. The minions of the Host are a really great villain to have wiping out a planet even though the story of the Host does sound like the villains from the Howard the Duck movie.

[SolCannibal]

Updated the Survivor table to include a new category of survivor: The Transformed.

Great time to break out those random mutation tables or create a cyborg race. This is my favorite kind of survivor, you can make them good or evil but they a physically changed by it. My second favorite is the frozen survivors - cryo tubes, temporal loop, magical stasis, I once had a fade town of survivors.

I was also thinking of movies like Planet of the Vampires, and the like, where the explorers happen upon possessing entities that will enslave and kill just to leave their dying/dead planet.
Yeah, when you really didn't wish you'd found survivors....

Or werewolves, people taken over by members of the Host from Wormwood or a number of other possible bizarre threats, scientific or supernatural.

I hadn't thought about these guys in years. I briefly ran a campaign on Wormwood a few months after the book came out but the only player that enjoyed it was the one playing the Apok. The minions of the Host are a really great villain to have wiping out a planet even though the story of the Host does sound like the villains from the Howard the Duck movie.

In fact i would imagine that any members of the Host would be very interested in space technology and exploration if they ever found out about it, as being able to travel to other worlds in the same dimension/universe makes for a great way to expand and conquer places while getting around their "unable to leave the dimension of origin of possessed body" limitation.

Damn, now i'm imagining one of them making a sort of nomad fleet, with a mix of "common" FTL systems and rift drives - that they use more to map a galactic grid of ley lines and nexuses, to optimize its use for summoning purposes in "army-spamming" for the conquest or raiding of any interesting star systems in their way.