Planetary Events by James L. Cambias is a generic role playing game supplement published by James Cambias Productions.
The supplement is available as a seven page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover and around half a page is credits.
The introductory paragraphs explain that science fiction role playing games often involve travelling from one world to another, and that worlds that are revisited don’t change between visits, which is what this table is intended to change. The events are those that are most likely to affect space travellers, and some have the potential to become adventure hooks.
The Planetary Events Table is the main part of the supplement. This is a d66 table, with instructions as to how these work, with 35 different events; the 36th result is roll twice.
The events cover a wide range of possibilities, from asteroid strikes to diseases to famines to acts of war to civil unrest. There is a paragraph explaining the event and, in many cases, more d6s can be rolled to determine event specifics; what size of asteroid and when it hit or will hit, for example.
Planetary Events in Review
The PDF is bookmarked but only the cover and the introductory paragraphs are linked. Given the type of supplement, navigation is fine. The text, apart from the introduction, maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of stock images used. Presentation is okay.
With this supplement essentially involving 2d6, it’s idea for use with Traveller or Cepheus Engine. The lack of stats means that it’s generic enough to be used with other systems too. It’s appropriate for use in settings that have a lot of different planets with common interstellar travel; it would be a bit much for events to take place with any regularity on the same planet or in the same system. Planetary Events is a useful little supplement and it can be found by clicking here.
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