Hey! I just started my first UW campaign and I came up with a collaborative, random-ish galaxy creation process, which is basically going around the table rolling d6s and drawing circles. I made some tests on my own and used it with my group and I think it turned out pretty cool, so I thought I’d share it.
One thing to mention is that our campaign setting is a colonized galaxy run by a megacorporation and a powerful religion, so jump addresses are a commodity. The map reflects the sites that the characters already know (we plan on expanding as the campaign progresses).
GALAXY CREATION:
1 – Player to the MC’s right rolls 1d6+2 and draws medium circles with plenty of space between them. These are the star systems the group knows. They place 1d6 on each circle.
2 – Player to their right rolls the d6s separately and draws small circles around each star equal to the number rolled. These are the planets on each system.
3 – Player to their right rolls d6s in the same way and fills in one planet if they get a result smaller than or equal to the number of planets on that system. These are the major colonies.
4 – Player to their right rolls 1d6 for each system and if they get 1, 3 or 6, they draw a small, filled diamond around one of the planets on the respective system. These are the major space stations.
5 – If any system ends up without major colonies or space stations, the next player draws a symbol on a planet of each empty system. Those are dangerous planets, which aren’t inhabitable, but pose a risk to the general population (rogue colonies, dangerous wildlife, unstable weather, and so on). The player who “tagged” them gets to decide what makes that planet dangerous when the time comes to visit them.
Next, draw dotted lines between neighboring systems, forming a kind of “road map” indicating the systems that are jump-connected.
My group used a geometric ruler and colored pencils to make our map (pictured). We also decided to tag the stars of each character’s home system. We used alchemical runes for most of the tags (except for the central system, because we hadn’t had that idea yet). Our map is still pretty empty since we’re only gonna decide the details of each system as we get to them.
Anyway, hope someone finds this interesting! It sparked a lot of ideas about the galaxy on our table. Let me know if you use it or if the process wasn’t clear enough.