One aspect of science fiction tabletop role-playing games that often goes unnoticed is their need for dungeons. Dungeons are almost genre-defining in TTRPGs like D&D, offering GMs and players a specific type of experience: a closed environment that adds tension, encounters around every turn, and a goal at the end, even if it’s just finding treasure. Sci-fi players and GMs need these experiences, too.
I’m not necessarily suggesting that you throw a vaguely medieval dungeon into a sci-fi campaign, though that can work since planets can have varying levels of technological development. Besides, we’ve all seen The Battle for Endor—it can be done. Tunnels, ruins, or sub-basements are great options for the sci-fi GM. They offer confined spaces, limited visibility, and the potential for unexpected dangers.
Science Fiction Facilities in TTRPGs
Derelict spacecraft and facilities also make excellent dungeons. Facilities, in particular, provide some of the best opportunities for sci-fi GMs to introduce dungeon-like experiences. Imagine this: your spaceship crew is hired to check on a remote research facility that has been out of contact for a month—what could have happened? Or your crew lands on a supposedly uninhabited planet, only to find clues leading them to a secret facility that appears to have been attacked or overrun.
Investigating facilities is a staple of sci-fi books, TV shows, and movies. Let’s bring that experience to our players and ourselves. I’ve written The Book of Random Tables: Science Fiction Facility Generator to help GMs create engaging facilities quickly, with plenty of room for their imagination. Here’s a look:
The Book of Random Tables: Science Fiction Facility Generator
This book works with any setting or system, like Star Trek, Star Wars, Traveller, Stars Without Number, Alien, or any sci-fi tabletop RPG. You use percentile dice to get results from random tables.
The first section, Organization, helps you create a fictional organization that built the facility. It provides a framework but can be skipped if your game already has established factions.
The Location section lets you determine whether the facility is on an asteroid, moon, or planet or if it’s a space station. Additional tables offer details about the locations, including names for planets and space stations.
The Facility section provides structural details and information about the facility’s current status with the founding organization.
Captains Kirk and Picard always stopped by remote research stations with problems. The Facility Problems section allows you to introduce issues the facility is facing.
The Facility Secrets section covers shady operations within the facility, but you can skip it if your facility is above board.
The Items section offers fun items that could be found in the facility director’s office and scientific equipment for laboratories.
The Encounters section adds flavor while characters explore the facility, with options for both functioning and abandoned sites.
The NPCs section provides lists of names for facility personnel, mostly human-centric, with an Uplifted Cetaceans table for enhanced animals aiding in operations—optional, of course, but fun.
Science Fiction Facility Generator
Your imagination is the only limit. If you’d like to pick up the Science Fiction Facility Generator, it’s available on both Amazon and DriveThruRPG. Links are in the description below. Don’t forget to like and subscribe. Thank you, and keep gaming!
The Book of Random Tables: Science Fiction Facility Generator: https://tinyurl.com/scififacilitygenerator
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