Summary: My entry for the Secret Jackalope 2020 community event over on the OSR Discord. The request in question was as follows:
"A random generator of "lost races": origin, features, technology/magic/artifacts, vice, reason of disappearance/decline, how many of them remains and in what form? Maybe put this on a d6 (or d10) table, with a column for each detail. Pulp, early science fantasy style."
- by evil scientist of Eldritch Fields
I'll be entirely honest, pulpy science fantasy is not my forte. Although I find it fascinating and intriguing, I have severe difficulty crafting solid setting elements and stories for the genre. I ended up making a few adjustments to the request, some bits I skipped, but some other things were added instead (like the "Structural and environmental legacy"). The table ended up rather huge, so I cut it in two separate tables just so that it could fit the width of the blog.
No doubt that this was an interesting challenge, so I hope that a particularly Evil Scientist and the most holy Jackalope will be pleased! Let me know your thoughts.
Two notes regarding specific table entries:
...* - roll "Name" column again
_____* - roll "Social structure" and "Name" column again (re-roll if result is the same as previously rolled)
d10 | Social structure | Name | Origin | Description |
1. | Roaming Tribes of ...* | Xia-Hes | Ambrosia-9 Cluster | Cyan-skinned humanoids with 7 eyes |
2. | The Last Colony of ...* | Hoogluk | The floating rings of the Dark Star | Invisible cyclopean giants with four hands, two heads and three brains |
3. | The Discovered Society of ...* | Omega Prime | The Tri-Moon Constellation | Telepathic mantis-men with angelic wings of blue cobalt feathers |
4. | The …* Molecular Raiders | Zuoqosz | Decomposing Plains of Shaghar | Benign ephemeral humanoids with spider heads |
5. | …*, The Solar Cabals | Terra Peregrinator | The Boiling Swamplands | Beings of pure dark matter made flesh |
6. | Shattered Clans of …* | Ghu-rlok | Underdeeps of Molten Nova-45 | Sentient Star-Rocks sculpted as a caricature of the human form |
7. | Consolidated Nations of ...* | Wyrloom | The Inner- Plannar Void | Centipede-folk with human hands on each limb and the head of a shrimp |
8. | Lunar Hordes of ...* | Ska^thar-i | The spawning vats of _____* | Gaseous organisms wearing space suits with polycarbonated spheroidal dome helmets |
9. | …*, The Sprawling Hive-Mind | Gweedonyans | Wastes of the Purple Sands | Feline anthropomorphs heavily enchanced with Psyberware |
10. | The Drifting Fleets of ...* | Fei-tryn^a | Dried Reefs of the Evaporated Sea | Adamantine techno-primates controlled by C.S.N.M. (Central Synaptic Network Mother) |
d10 | Reason for decline | Remaining | Architectural and environmental legacy | Technology/Artifacts left behind |
1. | Annihilated in a nuclear civil war | Completely extinct, some things are simply beyond salvation | The Inverted Gardens of Spi-ur | FleshGrafter-395 gun |
2. | Slowly whithered away over time, due to an elder curse cast long ago | Splintered and assimilated into various other tribes | The Apotheosis Frequency Antennae | Semi-functional historical archiver drone with 36% memory fragmented correctly. Pass-key required |
3. | Self-sacrificed to repel a non-euclidean ancient being | Last living member ascended to godhood | Hanging Luminous Spires of the planetar underbelly | Bio-Vat Capsules |
4. | Mass suicide, reason unknown | Exiled from the star system | The White Spiral of the Abscess Forest | CO3 Life ray cannon |
5. | Vital parts of natural habitat tainted beyond repair | A handful of wandering elders | The Derelict Hovering Sky-City | Dark Matter Manipulator beam |
6. | Exterminated by _____* | Unknown, but occassional violent encounters have been logged | Splintered Dome of the Southern Frost-land | UNIVAC-0 machine with label “Codex Terranicus” |
7. | Ripped out of reality after a botched attempt to artificially create a wormhole | Extinct and almost entirely erased by time | No structures, instead they left massive gravitational distortions across the entire planet | The Translucent Radio Emitter 707 |
8. | Collective apotheosis of the majority of members, at the expense of others who perished | Last surviving pair of the species is protected by _____* | Floating orbital debris around the Hexatonal Mountains | None, they despised their own inventions |
9. | Collateral damage as a result of a conflict between _____* and _____* | Presumed extinct, but a sighting of one member of the race has been reported on Delta-12 Moon | The only legacy left is an unleashed toxic vapor storm which harbors all kinds of mutated viral contagions | A decaying space-suit with a faintly buzzing, undecipherable radio transmittion in its headset |
10. | Self-inflicted societal collapse, reasons unknown | Enslaved and decimated by _____* | A series of protective vibrating rings around a wormhole orbiting the planet | The Voidling Star-Seeds |
Thank you so much! This is amazing!
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job capturing the atmosphere of lost cosmic races. A small personal favorite is the inclusion of "None, they despised their own inventions" for artifacts... very flavorful!