Sablemage
Demi-God
The third and final look at The Perilous Void, in which we work out a few things I might need later in the Aslan Route campaign.
The initial review gave examples of rolling up a planet, a faction, and a community, taken from the rulebook, and a nonhuman species I diced up myself. The second look documented my current group campaign, the Aslan Route, using the setting overview form and rules.
As a GM, I always need a Development (scenario idea), NPCs, and a site to explore, so let’s generate some of those and stuff them in the back pocket for later. It’s probably worth noting that all the tables are either 1d10, 1d%, or a combination thereof.
Development
Development type: 61, event. Something happens which the PCs notice, but which does not have to involve them – they can decide not to get involved.
Theme: 39 – History. Prompt: 3, 17 – dissent.
That one looks like something playing on the holo set in the corner of the bar, perhaps a documentary on some local protest movement.
On the same tables I could have rolled “assassination ignites open warfare” which would have been much easier to turn into a scenario.
NPC
The fact that the GM is bothering to work out an NPC implies that they’re going to play a significant role, otherwise you wouldn’t bother. You may need to retrofit this partway through a campaign; Ahoaki, the Port Authority contact on Sink, didn’t even have a name to start with, but now she’s the PCs’ friend and has quite a detailed personality. (I didn’t expect their base world to be Sink either, but there we are, that’s players for you.)
Fortunately, The Perilous Void allows for that.
First impression: When we first encounter an NPC in passing, we generate their species (43, commonest species in the campaign, for me that’s human) and occupation (0, 94; high priest or cult leader).
Second glance: Add 1-3 details, let’s say two; (2, 71) scars and (8, 73) sarcastic.
Introduction: Now you find out the NPC’s pronouns (9, they/them) and name; for that, I roll on the generic space opera tables, which generate names a syllable at a time, and get Oncan Bolmar, very Star Wars.
What makes them tick? As GM, you use this to work out what they do next, or when they need to make a decision. Until they need to decide on something, you don’t need this. Motivation: (8, 70) pleasure – this NPC is a hedonist.
How do they behave? When the NPC first needs to react to a situation, roll three traits. (0, 52) opportunistic, (1, 45) honourable, (9, 30) devious.
Loyalty: Decide if the NPC belongs to a faction. If so, either pick one of the existing ones or create a new one.
Embellish. Flesh out the NPC further as time and your needs dictate. No tables for this really.
Now, that looks like quite a lot of detail, and it is, but only if that’s what you need. Remember, you’re only adding layers of detail as and when you need them.
There is a different and somewhat faster process for the case when you want to fill a particular position in the narrative with an NPC archetype; an antihero, for example, rolls on the neutral part of the motivation table (53, knowledge) and also rolls for one neutral and two negative traits – let’s say 39 (disruptive), 66 (sinister) and 37 (malevolent).
Site
Roll for type: (99) Ruin.
Roll for theme: (39) Discovery/revelation.
As it’s a ruin, I now need to roll for its origin (84, precursor civilisation), cause of collapse (14, natural disaster), theme (might as well use the one above), and architecture (25, fluidic/floating/shifting).
Sketch a map: Choose or roll key locations from the site’s area tables and establish their relationship with a simple node map, assigning each node a number. Let’s just roll one as a taster; (04) a connective structure or hall.
This step is where the Site Profile form comes in, letting you record the node map, areas, and whatnot; judging by the classifications at top left, it is intended for Communities as well as Sites. It has one of those strange isometric grids though, so not sure what a square is for scale purposes.
Populate areas using detail and prop tables. Let’s just look at our sample area; detail 87, structural damage/cracks (might be how we get in), prop 06 ancient armour/defence (maybe a force screen protecting the inside from sand blowing in through the crack?).
Establish threat, bearing the site’s type and theme in mind. 28, energy surges. Maybe the force screen is starting to overload and occasionally sheds sparks?
Finalise content.
Conclusions
The downside of using random tables like these is that you get quite of lot of results which are not immediately useful for the kind of pulp action-adventure games I prefer to run, which mostly use melodramatic stereotypes. I think The Perilous Void probably works best when you have some ideas already and use the generators to flesh them out.
Of the tables I’ve looked at so far, I found the Development and NPC ones a bit meh and probably wouldn’t use them in play myself. However, I did like the setting overview and site generator and you may see those again later.
Overall, I think The Perilous Void is closest to Ironsworn: Starforged in feel, although the latter is a complete solo RPG. You probably don’t need both; the former gives you a broader range of setting options but assumes you’re using something else as the RPG engine.
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