Testing out the Planet Generation Tables

The fruits of my tables. Still tweaking things, but on the whole I think they work excellently.

Pangur Ban

Arid martian superterra
High population / Weak economy / Independent

• Geological Mystery
• Neogenic Biosphere
• Population decanted as adults, work off debts to enter a child paradise

A Core rustbelt world of low enough gravity that surface settlement is considered possible, though the comet ice and designer lichens have yet to show any major terraforming impact. This has generated a lot of controversy on its own, as geologists are unified in their declarations that the canyons, arches, and  mountain ranges the planet is famous for were not the result of natural erosion by wind and water, but by Celestial, or possibly even alien, hands and thus best left alone.

The local population holds to merlinist teachings - decanting as adults and aging backwards until their appointed childhood ceremony, when most memories of the adult world are wiped and they may retire in play.

Lathe

Icy dwarf
Low population / Weak economy / Company + anarchists

• Gov't in Exile
• Perpetually petty
• Expired gene patents have lead to food shortages

A out-of-the-way anarchist commune found itself with unwanted neighbors when a flotilla of OMNIGOMCORP ships showed up on their doorstep requesting shelter from their inner-system rivals. The anarchists hadn't had any visitors in sixty years, and by a very slight majority voted to allow the corporates to build their own habitat out of their ships.

This was a terrible idea.

Almost immediately, the OMNIGOMCORP exiles started getting aggressive with the commune, demanding resource dispensation for perceived slights against their honor. The reveal that OMNIGOMCORP was a minor IP squatter with delusions of grandeur did not surprise anyone. Their refusal to use the open-source autogreenhouses that the commune provided them was surprising, and since the gene patents on most of their own food stocks have run out they have been beginning to threaten military action if increasing demands for food are not met.

Cleave

Molten terrestrial
Low population / Strong economy / Independent

• Hidden library
• Paraterraforming
• Mosquito ghouls in the vents

Nearly but not quite torn apart by the tidal forces of its own star, Cleave is a hellworld notable for two things: the first being the functioning worldring and elevator system that is used to mine rare metals from the semi-liquid surface, and secondly for one of its orbiting habitats containing a complete collection of the Centauri Banned and Controlled Media List. Given that the government of Alpha Centauri has no jurisdiction anywhere close to Cleave the library's existence is an open secret, but actual access is still hidden from the public - mostly because it's in the hands of the neogenic mosquito-headed ghouls that live in the vents.

Magetobria

Rocky asteroid
High population / Weak Economy / Independent

• Rust belt colony
• Luxury good
• Major interplanetary trade deal fell through, union power vacuum.  

An economy based upon the whims of the corporate elite is never viable-long term. So it was with this little asteroid and the many thousands who worked in the boutique chimera houseplant industry. Tastes in the inner system changed, and there was no way to pivot. Unemployment is well over 40%. Some enterprising venture capitalists have attempted to respec the old greenhouses and genetanks into other fields, but these have all been pie in the sky farces. The one that did have some legs, a deal for neogenic plant life to aid terraforming efforts elsewhere, has since fallen through and the resulting power vacuum among the unions has tipped over into open conflict.

Yesod

Icy Asteroid
High population / Weak Economy / Independent

• World of immortals
• Tenacious
• Rumors of illegal mind-copy trade

Member of an alliance of outer-system kabbalistic habitats in orbit around an ice giant, the cybermystics of Yesod managed to survive both the brunt and the aftermath of the Patch War (named so for the triggering event being a controversial privacy upgrade to brain-computer uplinks across multiple operating systems), despite the entire population possessing cyberbrains vulnerable to the patches and counter-patches. As the inner system is still struggling to recover, there are few who come to visit - from them come rumors that fleeing infomorphs routed through Yesod's ego-transport stations were copied during layover, pruned of resistant qualities, and sold as android logic cores.

Pegana

Continental supergiant (10% water coverage)
Low population / Strong Economy / Independent

• Religious revival
• Potluck
• Local machine cult has elected controversial technopontifex

A rim boomtown settled, as many rim boomtowns are, by a diverse populations of debtors willing to relocate in exchange for forgiveness of fees. Pegana proved more valuable than the Company anticipated, permitting the settlers to sue for independence with an economic trump card. Just enough time and success has passed for older folks to bemoan that Peganans have forgotten where they came from and are drifting away from their roots. This has fueled a major revival of the local variant of Simulationism, which for the first time in a century and a half has elected a new representative for the Seat of Skarl, a hardline techpriest who has already gained a laundry list of controversial statements about non-Simulationist religions and polities.

Pisswater

Hot gas giant
Low population / Weak economy / Independent / Celestials

• New colony
• Vile vizier
• Decaying billboard reads "Have you seen the Yellow Sign?"

Named so for its unpleasant yellow-brown coloration, this Rim settlement has little going for it beyond a few orbiting habitats and mining operations on the rocky moons. The Company has already written it off as a loss and is preparing to evacuate its non-contract personnel, but their efforts have been stymied by a particular advisor their representative has taken on - an individual going by the name of Specter-of-Truth, who has been, bizarrely enough, patronizing the arts in this backwater. A common theme in all of them has been a decadent theoaesthetic and symbolical movement called the Yellow Sign, which is regularly associated with a pack of unaligned Celestials inhabiting one of Pisswater's minor moons, locally known as the Pale-Masked Court. Company observers are concerned, as there was no trace of it prior to the appearance of Specter-of-Truth.

Bir Tawil

Terrestrial Gaian (17% water coverage)
Low population / Strong economy / Independent

• Legendary history
• Godhead
• Ongoing genocide of minority population

Tensions between the two colonizing factions of the planet had always simmered in the background: the legendary and daring migration out of Amalgamated Hegemony territory was a moment of desperation and shared enemies, rather than lasting alliance between the inhabitants. The economic boom that came from settling Bir Tawil ended up benefiting the majority population significantly more than the minority, and the generations of success baked in some particular ideas of moral superiority when compared to their less-fortunate neighbors. The appearance of a member of House Au to construct a warp gate was, unfortunately, all the excuse the dominant population needed to rid themselves of their neighbors and settle the matter permanently. The representative of House Au has shown no change in behavior since the genocide began five months ago.

Dead Heat

Frozen terrestrial gaian
Low population / Strong economy / Company

• New colony
• Primordial soup
• Smart-lemurs have taken control of maintenance 

A tiny science outpost dedicated primarily to studying the native alien life that is just developing around the deep-sea vents far below the ice sheets. Since primordial ooze is not particularly profitable, the Company has instead made a killing on a reality TV series about the scientists, which is currently entering its 13th season. The recent rebellion of the maintenance smart-lemurs was unexpected, but has been a smash hit with test audiences. Viral footage of the creatures marching around the maintencence tunnels demanding tribute and imitating Union hall meetings has had billions of hits online.