Spacewrecks Random Roll Tables
Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 8:40 pm
Random SpaceWrecks
“Okay....what are the odds of us JUST happening to stumble across a drifting derelict starship in the middle of nowhere? And what are the odds of it being full of precious valuable loot that we can just waltz up and salvage? Anybody seeing that thing out there just get a shiver up your spines?”
Space is not hospitable; it’s a vicious lethal environment that will kill the unwary. You think shipwrecks on oceans are common? It’s a lot easier to come to grief in space than on water, there’s just more room to lose the wreck in. However, at some time, if one(yeah, we’re looking at you, adventure-freak!) is traveling around long enough, there’s a chance of coming across a spacewreck.
a) Location:
b) Numbers:
c) Type/Size:
d) Age:
e) Origin:
f) Apparent Cause of Wreck:
g) Condition:
h) Interior Surprises:
A) Location:
“Getting a modulating signal from the surface of that planet...atmosphere’s a mix of methane and ammonia vapor...cold hell world. We’ll be wanting to gear up for really cold weather.”
Where is the wreck encountered? Where it’s found may provide clues to what happened(such as radiation from a pulsar irradiating it, or an alien organism brought up from an uncharted planet). The location may also hamper efforts to approach, explore, and salvage(or escape) the wreck.
01-20% Deep Space----The wreck is drifting through interstellar space. Depending on its age, it may be light years away from where it originally came to grief.
21-30% Cosmic Anomaly----The wreck is found near a potentially dangerous cosmic phenomenon, such as a black hole, neutron star, cosmic string, plasma storm, energy-sapping energy field, or other hazard.
31-40% Cometary Orbit---The ship is orbiting a star, albeit at some distance from the sun.
41-50% Asteroid Belt---The ship is near a star, but within a region of dense mass accumulation, such as an accretion belt or asteroid cluster.
51-60% Planetary Orbit---- Dead Planet---The ship is adrift over an uninhabitable world such as a gas giant, sun-blasted Mercury-style cooker, or cryogenic snowball.
61-70% Planetary Orbit----Habitable Planet---The ship orbits a habitable world.
71-80% Surface---Dead Planet----The ship is crashed on an uninhabitable world such as an ice ball or Venus-style hellworld.
81-97% Surface----Habitable Planet---The ship’s located on a world with its own ecosystem, compatible with most common oxy-life species of the Three Galaxies.
98-00% Phase-Space---The wreck is caught in an effective limbo between planes of reality.
B) Numbers:
“Judging from the different spectrographic readings off the debris out there, I can’t tell if we’re dealing with one big mult-sectioned wreck, or a flotilla-sized pileup.”
How many wrecks are involved? Sometimes catastrophe involves several parties, or maybe the local conditions claim more than one victim.
01-60% One
61-75% Small Group--- 1d4+1 ships
76-90% Group Wreck----2d6 ships have come to grief in the same area
91-00% Ships’ Graveyard---1d4x10 ships are in the same area
C) Type/Size:
“So you found a derelict old Falmat staryacht drifting in the Yaganna Gulf near where you were prospecting in the local ort? Got a persistent signal that called you in? Decided that you, all by your lonesome, had to investigate, see if anybody was still alive aboard her? Only, once you were aboard and deep inside, the doors all slammed shut, the lights came on, life support booted up, you got tazered, and five bare naked women peeled you out of your vacsuit, while a voice came on identifying itself as an AI said you were going to help repopulate some crash-world in the dark zones with fresh genetic material, they had their way with you, and then you found yourself back on your tug, suffering from a wrenched pelvis, dehydration, and a hangover, your computers wiped, and your hold full of top grade ore? Yeah, right! That’s not even worth a soy-beer. Pick up your own bar tab, willya?”
What’s the size and presumed type of the wreck?
01-10% Civilian Shuttle
11-12% Military Assault Shuttle
13-16% Local Space Fighter
17-18% FTL Fighter
19-30% Small Civilian Freighter
31-38% Medium Civilian Freighter
39-43% Heavy Civilian Freighter
44-47% SuperHeavy Civilian Freighter/Colonizer
48-49% Space Station
50- 54% Military Patrol Ship
55-56% Depot Ship/Tender/Mobile Shipyard
57-60% Tug
61-67% Runner
68-74% Corvette
75-81% Frigate
82-87% Destroyer
88-91% Cruiser
92-95% BattleCruiser
96-98% Carrier
98-99% Battleship
-00% Dreadnought
D) Age:
“Whatever that thing is, it’s been out here a LOOOONNNGGG time...”
How old a wreck are we talking about here? Because space is so YUUUGGGEEE, vessels can drift undiscovered for millennia, if not longer.
01-10% Ancient---On the order of 1d100x1,000 years, if not longer
11-25% Old; predates most of the modern starfaring cultures. 1d4x1,000 years
26-50% Modern---Happened within the lifetime of the current galactic power blocs; 2d4x100 years
51-90% Recent---- 5d6x10 years
91-00% Just Yesterday---Whatever the disaster, the evidence suggests it happened within the last 2d6 weeks.
E) Origin:
“No...wait, those aren’t Starhunter runes on the hull, they’re a Galactic Five commercial font registered to....Murphy’s AstroAustralian KangoBurger Delivery...”
Can the builders/operators of the ship be identified by its design or markings? Depending on the discoverers’ own species and space presence, such species as humans may be very common and well-documented, and lists of missing ships and deep space history easily accessible(including blueprints and schematics), or the reverse could be true; the ship belongs to an exotic species of which very little is known, and hardly anything can be found in the computer records.
01-45% Common Species
46-85% Known Species
86-90% Rare Species
91-00% Unknown Species
(Optional) Modifiers---Regions of space can determine the likely origins of the wreck:
CCW/TGE/UWW space: -15%
Colonial Frontier: -5%
Deep Edge: +10%
Deep Unknown: +25%
F) Apparent Cause of Wreck:
“The presence of one ship two thirds of the way inside the other would suggest a collision...but the traces of mekaroff radiation would suggest chronal weaponry. The fact that both ships are identical to each other suggests something or somebody REALLY messed up.”
On casual inspection, what appears to have happened to the poor ship?
01-15% Battle---Burn scars, blast marks, bullet and shell holes, paths of suspiciously straight disruption through the hull materials all attest that the wreck was subjected to weapons fire.
16-30% Meteor ---There’s evidence of a strike by space debris, such as flecks of stone embedded in the hull.
31- 45% Cosmic Disaster---Signs of widespread plasma ablation, hull warping, or residual charged particles lingering around the wreck tell of an encounter with some cosmic phenomenon.
46-60% Collision---Damage would suggest a violent encounter with another vessel or artificial construct, owing to different materials embedded in the hull.
61-75% Drive Failure---The engineering/propulsion appears to have melted down, overloaded, or run out of fuel.
76-90% Abandoned---None visible, but the vessel was clearly abandoned with some order, due to evidence of empty escape pod chutes or shuttle bays.
91-00% None Apparent---This could mean, though, that the ship might have gone off-course, or the crew killed by something INSIDE the ship.
G) Condition:
“The section drifting over there? It’s radiating nuclear radiation off the scale. No way we’re going to get close enough to it with the equipment we’ve currently got. However, I figure that’s the drive. This section over here, though, shows up cool for radiation. Cargo section or life modules, I’d say. That’s our best bet for finding anything of interest, if we overlook the ominous organic starfish-like shape sticking out of it.”
On casual inspection, what’s the overall condition of the wreck?
01-15% Husk----The ship is little more than a shell and a cloud of loose debris. Unless something can survive exposure to hard vacuum, forget about Interior Surprises.
16-45% Cracked Apart---The ship is broken in 1d4+1 large pieces, typically along sections or bulkhead lines. There may still be airtight compartments intact and backup systems still operational. However, the wreck is likely very unstable.
46-75% Broken Back----The ship is broken in two(though they may still be connected by a few panels or cables), so no chance of repairing the damage and firing up the drive. There may still be multiple interconnected intact compartments in each half.
76-90% Badly Beaten Up---The ship is mostly intact(though may be missing a nacelle or two, or large swathes of hull skinning).
91-00% Unblemished----Other than laying dead, the ship appears to be in perfectly functional condition. Might need some refueling and light repair, but otherwise seems okay.
H) Interior Surprises:
“Okay, show of hands! Who volunteers to explore the derelict alien spaceship?”
Okay, we get to the heart of the encounter; what’s inside waiting for anybody brave enough to enter. Roll 1d4 times.
01-15% Salvageable Parts----There’s still usable technology, bits and pieces, to be gleaned from the wreck. Even if the ship is of alien design, some principles of technology may be common enough that a good engineer can jury-rig something using the salvage.
16-20% Regressed Crew---The survivors, or their descendants, have reverted to a primitive state, and will likely regard outsiders as threats. Alternatively, deranged crewmember(s) who will attack any intruders.
21-25% Black Box---Emergency recorders(or the equivalent) still intact. Even if the ship is ancient, the recorders might be of value to historians.
26-30% Alien Lifeform---A (relatively) harmless, but inconveniencing, alien lifeform has taken up residence in the wreck, such as a colony of space coral clogging passageways, alien vegetation slowly breaking up the hull, or an extended family of rodent-analogues stealing and caching everything small and shiny.
31-35% Space Zombies---Reanimated dead populate the wreck. Spacing doesn’t affect them much.
36-45% Valuable Ore/Metal---Inside the wreck is a substantial amount of valuable mineral ore or salvageable metal.
46-50% Automated Defenses---Some of the ship’s weapons systems remain operational and have been programmed to fire on targets not ID’ing as friendly.
51-55% Salvageable Cargo---The wreck still holds a cargo(use the Random Cargo charts from Three Galaxies) that can be salvaged.
56-65% Radiation---Parts of the wreck are glowing with dangerous levels of nuclear radiation.
66-70% Booby-Trap---The wreck’s been rigged with some sort of device to trap the unwary. This could be a simple explosive on the airlocks or lockers, a tractor zone to disable the drive systems of any ship that comes too close, or a self-destruct that obliterates the entire wreck.
71-73% Navigational Data---The ship’s remains hold valuable navigation data(a shorter way across a dangerous area, coordinates of planets, or clues to a treasure) embedded in its circuitry, written in the ship’s log, or painted on the walls.
74-76% Insane Artificial Intelligence----A rogue computer system or robot is aboard. It may or may not have been responsible for the original wreck.
77-78% Usable Weapons---This can be lockers of charged energy rifles or magazines of ship-launched missiles, ready for the taking.
79-80% Predatory Alien Lifeform(s)----A violent alien organism responds to the intrusion and it’s hungry.
81-82% Pirate Trap---Pirates are using the wreck as a honeytrap to bring in prey.
83-84% Fuel or Consumables---The ship still holds a stock of usable fuel, water, or usable gases that can be tapped. Or maybe it’s still edible food or drugs.
85-86% Monster Lair---Some monstrous being has made the wreck its home; it doesn’t like its solitude being disturbed.
87-88% Hoard of Valuables----Collection of valuables; precious metals, jewels, or objects de art, held aboard the wreck.
89-90% Haunting Entities---A number of haunting entities lurk aboard, drawn by the psychic echoes of violent death.
91-93% Cryogenic Lifeboat---There’s survivors, in some form of stasis.
94-95% Virulent XenoPathogen---The wreck is permeated by a highly contagious alien disease vector.
96-97% Exotic Alien Technology or Magic---This can be load of magic weapons, or a teleporter, phase engine, or Dominator device, but it’s potentially VERY valuable and a potential game-changer.
98-00% Xeno-Trap---An alien species has set the wreck as a honeytrap to capture other starfaring sentients. The goal can be crude diplomacy, collecting for a galactic zoo, psychological testing, or biological experimentation.
“Okay....what are the odds of us JUST happening to stumble across a drifting derelict starship in the middle of nowhere? And what are the odds of it being full of precious valuable loot that we can just waltz up and salvage? Anybody seeing that thing out there just get a shiver up your spines?”
Space is not hospitable; it’s a vicious lethal environment that will kill the unwary. You think shipwrecks on oceans are common? It’s a lot easier to come to grief in space than on water, there’s just more room to lose the wreck in. However, at some time, if one(yeah, we’re looking at you, adventure-freak!) is traveling around long enough, there’s a chance of coming across a spacewreck.
a) Location:
b) Numbers:
c) Type/Size:
d) Age:
e) Origin:
f) Apparent Cause of Wreck:
g) Condition:
h) Interior Surprises:
A) Location:
“Getting a modulating signal from the surface of that planet...atmosphere’s a mix of methane and ammonia vapor...cold hell world. We’ll be wanting to gear up for really cold weather.”
Where is the wreck encountered? Where it’s found may provide clues to what happened(such as radiation from a pulsar irradiating it, or an alien organism brought up from an uncharted planet). The location may also hamper efforts to approach, explore, and salvage(or escape) the wreck.
01-20% Deep Space----The wreck is drifting through interstellar space. Depending on its age, it may be light years away from where it originally came to grief.
21-30% Cosmic Anomaly----The wreck is found near a potentially dangerous cosmic phenomenon, such as a black hole, neutron star, cosmic string, plasma storm, energy-sapping energy field, or other hazard.
31-40% Cometary Orbit---The ship is orbiting a star, albeit at some distance from the sun.
41-50% Asteroid Belt---The ship is near a star, but within a region of dense mass accumulation, such as an accretion belt or asteroid cluster.
51-60% Planetary Orbit---- Dead Planet---The ship is adrift over an uninhabitable world such as a gas giant, sun-blasted Mercury-style cooker, or cryogenic snowball.
61-70% Planetary Orbit----Habitable Planet---The ship orbits a habitable world.
71-80% Surface---Dead Planet----The ship is crashed on an uninhabitable world such as an ice ball or Venus-style hellworld.
81-97% Surface----Habitable Planet---The ship’s located on a world with its own ecosystem, compatible with most common oxy-life species of the Three Galaxies.
98-00% Phase-Space---The wreck is caught in an effective limbo between planes of reality.
B) Numbers:
“Judging from the different spectrographic readings off the debris out there, I can’t tell if we’re dealing with one big mult-sectioned wreck, or a flotilla-sized pileup.”
How many wrecks are involved? Sometimes catastrophe involves several parties, or maybe the local conditions claim more than one victim.
01-60% One
61-75% Small Group--- 1d4+1 ships
76-90% Group Wreck----2d6 ships have come to grief in the same area
91-00% Ships’ Graveyard---1d4x10 ships are in the same area
C) Type/Size:
“So you found a derelict old Falmat staryacht drifting in the Yaganna Gulf near where you were prospecting in the local ort? Got a persistent signal that called you in? Decided that you, all by your lonesome, had to investigate, see if anybody was still alive aboard her? Only, once you were aboard and deep inside, the doors all slammed shut, the lights came on, life support booted up, you got tazered, and five bare naked women peeled you out of your vacsuit, while a voice came on identifying itself as an AI said you were going to help repopulate some crash-world in the dark zones with fresh genetic material, they had their way with you, and then you found yourself back on your tug, suffering from a wrenched pelvis, dehydration, and a hangover, your computers wiped, and your hold full of top grade ore? Yeah, right! That’s not even worth a soy-beer. Pick up your own bar tab, willya?”
What’s the size and presumed type of the wreck?
01-10% Civilian Shuttle
11-12% Military Assault Shuttle
13-16% Local Space Fighter
17-18% FTL Fighter
19-30% Small Civilian Freighter
31-38% Medium Civilian Freighter
39-43% Heavy Civilian Freighter
44-47% SuperHeavy Civilian Freighter/Colonizer
48-49% Space Station
50- 54% Military Patrol Ship
55-56% Depot Ship/Tender/Mobile Shipyard
57-60% Tug
61-67% Runner
68-74% Corvette
75-81% Frigate
82-87% Destroyer
88-91% Cruiser
92-95% BattleCruiser
96-98% Carrier
98-99% Battleship
-00% Dreadnought
D) Age:
“Whatever that thing is, it’s been out here a LOOOONNNGGG time...”
How old a wreck are we talking about here? Because space is so YUUUGGGEEE, vessels can drift undiscovered for millennia, if not longer.
01-10% Ancient---On the order of 1d100x1,000 years, if not longer
11-25% Old; predates most of the modern starfaring cultures. 1d4x1,000 years
26-50% Modern---Happened within the lifetime of the current galactic power blocs; 2d4x100 years
51-90% Recent---- 5d6x10 years
91-00% Just Yesterday---Whatever the disaster, the evidence suggests it happened within the last 2d6 weeks.
E) Origin:
“No...wait, those aren’t Starhunter runes on the hull, they’re a Galactic Five commercial font registered to....Murphy’s AstroAustralian KangoBurger Delivery...”
Can the builders/operators of the ship be identified by its design or markings? Depending on the discoverers’ own species and space presence, such species as humans may be very common and well-documented, and lists of missing ships and deep space history easily accessible(including blueprints and schematics), or the reverse could be true; the ship belongs to an exotic species of which very little is known, and hardly anything can be found in the computer records.
01-45% Common Species
46-85% Known Species
86-90% Rare Species
91-00% Unknown Species
(Optional) Modifiers---Regions of space can determine the likely origins of the wreck:
CCW/TGE/UWW space: -15%
Colonial Frontier: -5%
Deep Edge: +10%
Deep Unknown: +25%
F) Apparent Cause of Wreck:
“The presence of one ship two thirds of the way inside the other would suggest a collision...but the traces of mekaroff radiation would suggest chronal weaponry. The fact that both ships are identical to each other suggests something or somebody REALLY messed up.”
On casual inspection, what appears to have happened to the poor ship?
01-15% Battle---Burn scars, blast marks, bullet and shell holes, paths of suspiciously straight disruption through the hull materials all attest that the wreck was subjected to weapons fire.
16-30% Meteor ---There’s evidence of a strike by space debris, such as flecks of stone embedded in the hull.
31- 45% Cosmic Disaster---Signs of widespread plasma ablation, hull warping, or residual charged particles lingering around the wreck tell of an encounter with some cosmic phenomenon.
46-60% Collision---Damage would suggest a violent encounter with another vessel or artificial construct, owing to different materials embedded in the hull.
61-75% Drive Failure---The engineering/propulsion appears to have melted down, overloaded, or run out of fuel.
76-90% Abandoned---None visible, but the vessel was clearly abandoned with some order, due to evidence of empty escape pod chutes or shuttle bays.
91-00% None Apparent---This could mean, though, that the ship might have gone off-course, or the crew killed by something INSIDE the ship.
G) Condition:
“The section drifting over there? It’s radiating nuclear radiation off the scale. No way we’re going to get close enough to it with the equipment we’ve currently got. However, I figure that’s the drive. This section over here, though, shows up cool for radiation. Cargo section or life modules, I’d say. That’s our best bet for finding anything of interest, if we overlook the ominous organic starfish-like shape sticking out of it.”
On casual inspection, what’s the overall condition of the wreck?
01-15% Husk----The ship is little more than a shell and a cloud of loose debris. Unless something can survive exposure to hard vacuum, forget about Interior Surprises.
16-45% Cracked Apart---The ship is broken in 1d4+1 large pieces, typically along sections or bulkhead lines. There may still be airtight compartments intact and backup systems still operational. However, the wreck is likely very unstable.
46-75% Broken Back----The ship is broken in two(though they may still be connected by a few panels or cables), so no chance of repairing the damage and firing up the drive. There may still be multiple interconnected intact compartments in each half.
76-90% Badly Beaten Up---The ship is mostly intact(though may be missing a nacelle or two, or large swathes of hull skinning).
91-00% Unblemished----Other than laying dead, the ship appears to be in perfectly functional condition. Might need some refueling and light repair, but otherwise seems okay.
H) Interior Surprises:
“Okay, show of hands! Who volunteers to explore the derelict alien spaceship?”
Okay, we get to the heart of the encounter; what’s inside waiting for anybody brave enough to enter. Roll 1d4 times.
01-15% Salvageable Parts----There’s still usable technology, bits and pieces, to be gleaned from the wreck. Even if the ship is of alien design, some principles of technology may be common enough that a good engineer can jury-rig something using the salvage.
16-20% Regressed Crew---The survivors, or their descendants, have reverted to a primitive state, and will likely regard outsiders as threats. Alternatively, deranged crewmember(s) who will attack any intruders.
21-25% Black Box---Emergency recorders(or the equivalent) still intact. Even if the ship is ancient, the recorders might be of value to historians.
26-30% Alien Lifeform---A (relatively) harmless, but inconveniencing, alien lifeform has taken up residence in the wreck, such as a colony of space coral clogging passageways, alien vegetation slowly breaking up the hull, or an extended family of rodent-analogues stealing and caching everything small and shiny.
31-35% Space Zombies---Reanimated dead populate the wreck. Spacing doesn’t affect them much.
36-45% Valuable Ore/Metal---Inside the wreck is a substantial amount of valuable mineral ore or salvageable metal.
46-50% Automated Defenses---Some of the ship’s weapons systems remain operational and have been programmed to fire on targets not ID’ing as friendly.
51-55% Salvageable Cargo---The wreck still holds a cargo(use the Random Cargo charts from Three Galaxies) that can be salvaged.
56-65% Radiation---Parts of the wreck are glowing with dangerous levels of nuclear radiation.
66-70% Booby-Trap---The wreck’s been rigged with some sort of device to trap the unwary. This could be a simple explosive on the airlocks or lockers, a tractor zone to disable the drive systems of any ship that comes too close, or a self-destruct that obliterates the entire wreck.
71-73% Navigational Data---The ship’s remains hold valuable navigation data(a shorter way across a dangerous area, coordinates of planets, or clues to a treasure) embedded in its circuitry, written in the ship’s log, or painted on the walls.
74-76% Insane Artificial Intelligence----A rogue computer system or robot is aboard. It may or may not have been responsible for the original wreck.
77-78% Usable Weapons---This can be lockers of charged energy rifles or magazines of ship-launched missiles, ready for the taking.
79-80% Predatory Alien Lifeform(s)----A violent alien organism responds to the intrusion and it’s hungry.
81-82% Pirate Trap---Pirates are using the wreck as a honeytrap to bring in prey.
83-84% Fuel or Consumables---The ship still holds a stock of usable fuel, water, or usable gases that can be tapped. Or maybe it’s still edible food or drugs.
85-86% Monster Lair---Some monstrous being has made the wreck its home; it doesn’t like its solitude being disturbed.
87-88% Hoard of Valuables----Collection of valuables; precious metals, jewels, or objects de art, held aboard the wreck.
89-90% Haunting Entities---A number of haunting entities lurk aboard, drawn by the psychic echoes of violent death.
91-93% Cryogenic Lifeboat---There’s survivors, in some form of stasis.
94-95% Virulent XenoPathogen---The wreck is permeated by a highly contagious alien disease vector.
96-97% Exotic Alien Technology or Magic---This can be load of magic weapons, or a teleporter, phase engine, or Dominator device, but it’s potentially VERY valuable and a potential game-changer.
98-00% Xeno-Trap---An alien species has set the wreck as a honeytrap to capture other starfaring sentients. The goal can be crude diplomacy, collecting for a galactic zoo, psychological testing, or biological experimentation.
