TTRPG Roll 23-45 – Adventure building a better world with Building Better Worlds (ALIEN: The Roleplaying Game, Free League Publishing, 2023)

As a long-time Traveller roleplaying game referee, I have created a literal galaxy of worlds for adventure. While chapter 12 of the core rule book for ALIEN: The Roleplaying Game (Free League Publishing, 2021) offers a world creation system, the 2023 expansion Building Better Worlds has an expanded system in the Appendix.

Building a better world 2d6 at a time

The campaign module Building Better Worlds for ALIEN: The Roleplaying Game is literally a “worldbuilding” toolkit for the Game Mother. The part I focused in on was taken from the back cover of the book: “Making Your Own Better Worlds – tools for creating worlds to explore and colonizing them with new settlements.”

The introduction to the Appendix of Building Better Worlds says, “This appendix give you all the tools you need to create expanded solar systems and the planets tht populate them, to colonize those planets with new settlements full of exciting opportunities, to see those colonies grow and thrive, and become the stage for thrilling adventure in the far frontier.”

The section for “Enhanced Systems and Planets” is at heart a series of die roll, usually 2d6 or d66, with some results modifying later rolls. Here is how my colony was founded:

• System Star. [7] Single
• Star Type. [6] G Class Main Sequence—white, radius up to 1.5 million km.
• Solar System Composition. No gas giants, 3x terrestrial planets, 3x ice planets, 1x Asteroid Belt.
• Primary Planet Position. [9] Third planet.
• Radiation. [8] None.
• Planet Size. [6] 7,000 km (-2 on Atmosphere Roll—0.7G)
• Atmosphere. [9-2=7] Breathable.
• Climate. [7-2=5] Cold (-50 to 0 ⁰C, +1 to Hydrosphere roll).
• Hydrosphere. [9] Temperate Wet (frozen oceans 60-70%).
• Day Length. [8] Long Rotational Period, 2d6 [8] x 2d6 [12] = 96 hours.
• Orbital Period. [d66=41] 410 days.
• Global Feature. [4] Abundant and complex biodiversity.
• Axial Tilt. [6] None.
• Regional Terrain. d66 each, Resource Potential Modifier, Resource Potential
  • North Pole – [62] Immense series of waterfalls, -1, [53] Good.
  • Northern Hemisphere East – [61] Huge rivers and vast river deltas, +1, [65] Superb.
  • Northern Hemisphere West – [25] Seismically active, many earthquakes, -2, [32] Average.
  • Equator – [56] Fog banks on coastal archipelagos, +0, [13] Abysmal.
  • Southern Hemisphere East – [22] Mountain ranges with deep valleys, +0, [44] Average.
  • Southern Hemisphere West – [43] Frozen tundra and snowstorms, -1, [31] Average.
  • South Pole – [21] Ancient earthquake crevices, +2, [52] Good.
• Planet Personality. [22] Forgiving.
• Colony Sponsorship. [5] Single sponsor [10] Central Government of Africa.
• Colony Mission. [21] Research.
• Colony Attributes. d3+1 per attribute.
  • Economy – [3]
  • Potential – [2]
  • Productivity – [2]
  • Maintenance – [3]
  • Science – [5]
  • Spirit – [4]
• Colony Development. Attribute total = 19 which is Inceptor with 1 policy and 1 installations.
• Starting Policy. Home Investigation (+1 Science, +1 Potential, -1 Maintenance).
• Starting Installations. Resilient Systems (+1 to COMTECH rolls).
• Starting Project. Offworld Advertising Campaign (+1 Potential, +1 Spirit).

Creating this colony took about 20 minutes for all the die rolling. A bit more than half the time was spent on the step Colony Attributes and later. Part of the reason those steps take more time is that there are decisions made here that are not strictly die rolling. I also found myself naturally slowing down as this section turned more towards campaign play rather than pure Game Mother creation actions. This is particularly true when it comes to the selection of Policy/Installations/Projects which can be chosen by the Game Mother or by the player characters if they are playing the Command Staff of a colony.

ALIEN Traveller

Making a comparison between Building Better Worlds to the Traveller RPG (or the modern Cepheus Engine System versions) is inevitable for me. Generally speaking, both Traveller (at least the more advanced planetary and system makers) and Building Better Worlds create a fairly detailed planet with plenty of strong adventure hooks. Whereas Traveller generally keeps the details at a very high level, Building Better Worlds digs deeper into the attributes that are usually created using referee fiat in Traveller. These attributes directly tie to a campaign game system that is used to progress the colony in play.

Welcome to LV-7979-A

Like many Central Confederation of Africa (CCA) colonies, LV-7979-A lies near an area of the frontier generally associated with another governing entity, in this case the Independent Core System Colonies (ICSC). While the CCA publicly states their research interest is in the frozen waters of LV-7979-A with well publicized expeditions to the waterfalls at the North Pole (Project – Offworld Advertising Campaign), a more important research objective is determining if the planet is suitable for terraforming (Policy – Home Investigation). The ancient earthquake crevices of the South Pole could provide answers to that question. The CCA is trying to keep the terraforming potential a secret from the ICSC and the Weyland-Yutan Corporation, experts in exoplanetary transformation” in particular, in an effort to avoid a “hostile takeover” (Installations – Resilient Systems).

While LV-7979-A appears somewhat forgiving at first impression, the extremely long day cycle makes life more difficult as human bodies are not well suited for two earth days solar facing and two earth days-worth of dark night. Daily life has devolved into a series of cycles (two Light and two Dark) each matching the human 24-hour clock. While the colony has so far focused on the surface of the planet, the deep oceans and the diverse maritime life in it remain a mystery.

A new team of scientists tasked with exploring the seas are scheduled to arrive soon. What will they discover?

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Feature image “Laboratory on frozen planet” by Patrick Cooper via pinterest.

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