Making `Random Home Planet’ Tables in Star Frontiers

Randomizing the Unquantified

I didn’t pull the numbers on the Random Home Planets Table out of thin air: the table is weighted in favor of the higher population worlds. Of course, the Frontier Worlds tables only provide four vague levels of population (Outpost, Light, Moderate, and Heavy), without really quantifying the difference. Nothing in the rules tells us (for example) how much larger a Heavy population is than a Light population. So I made something up.

I arbitrarily created an exponential scale, so that each category was twice as large as the preceding one, and assigned each Frontier world a point value for its population. Thus, an Outpost was worth 1 point, a Light population worth 2, Moderate worth 4, and Heavy worth 8. This simple rule allows one to derive the ratios we need to created a reasonably-weighted table. Using an Alpha Dawn Dralisite Home Planets Table (it was the smallest one) for an example:

Column 1 is the planet name. (I didn’t really need to tell you that, did I?)
Column 2 is the point value for the world. (Worlds dominated by 2 or 4 races were listed on several races tables, with their point values divided by 2 (for "slash worlds" like Terledrom, 4 (for Mixed Federation Worlds), or 3 (for Mixed Rim Worlds). That’s why Gran Quivera (a Heavy/Mixed world) is worth 2 points on the Dralisite table, not 8.
The number at the bottom of Column 2 is the sum of the entries for Column 2.
Column 3 is tricky. Divide the sum of Column 2 by 97 to get a "percent per point number". Multiple that number by each Column 2 value to get the corresponding value for Column 3, which is a rough percentage of Dralisites on the Frontier who came from the planet in Column 1. (We divided Column 2 by 97 because we want to keep 3% free at the end of the table. The number at the bottom of column 3 is the sum of the percentages — 97.)
Column 4 is just the percentage rounded to an iteger (I could have kept it a 4-digit number and made players roll a d10000, but that would be too silly), except I had to add one percent to Gran Quivera’s percentage to make the table add up 97%.
Column 5 is just the percentages from Column 4 added up to create the real table.
The values for rolls of 98-00 are arbitrarily used to reroll on other racial tables so that every character has a chance (however small) to be born anywhere on the Frontier.

Column 1	Col2	Col3	Col4	Col 5
Gran Quivera	2	12.12	13	01-13
Groth	2	12.12	12	14-25
Inner Reach	4	24.25	24	26-49
Outer Reach	1	6.06	6	50-55
Pale	1	6.06	6	56-61
Terledrom	4	24.25	24	62-85
Triad	2	12.12	12	86-97
reroll on Human table				98
reroll on Vrusk table				99
reroll on Yazirian table				00
	16	97.00	97

So, if you’ve been adding planets to the Frontier, figure out the point value (by race) based on Population level for each planet, build the subtables yourself, and calculate. (Spreadsheets are recommended.) Remember, if you’ve been adding whole races (with their own planets) to the Frontier, you’ll need to reduce the arbitrary 97 by one point for each race you add.

The (New) Old Table

Just for comparison, this is a version of the table I used before SFAC3: Zebulon’s Guide to Frontier Space was released. It includes Kraatar (the planet introduced in SFAD6 Dark Side of the Moon, but doesn’t include the K’tsa-Kar system that was accidentally left off the "Frontier Worlds" Table in the original Alpha Dawn rules.

TABLE SF-H2: Random Home Planets (ALPHA DAWN VERSION)

Planet	Dral.	Human	Vrusk	Yazi.
Gollywog	—–	01-20	—–	—–
Gran Quivera	01-13	21-25	01-08	01-07
Groth	14-25	—–	—–	—–
Hakosoar	—–	—–	—–	8-14
Hargut	—–	—–	—–	15-41
Hentz	—–	—–	—–	42-68
Histran	—–	—–	—–	69-71
Inner Reach	26-49	—–	—–	—–
Kawdl-Kit/Zoot-Kit	—–	—–	—–	—–
Ken’zah Kit	—–	—–	09-17	—–
Kdikit	—–	26-35	18-35	—–
Kraatar	—–	36-40	36-44	—–
Laco	—–	41-43	—–	—–
Lossend	—–	44-48	—–	—–
Minotaur	—–	49-68	—–	—–
Morgaine’s World	—–	69-71	—–	—–
New Pale	—–	72-76	—–	—–
Outer Reach	50-55	77-79	45-48	72-74
Pale	56-61	80-82	49-52	75-77
Rupert’s Hole	—–	83-92	—–	—–
Terledrom	62-85	—–	53-70	—–
Triad	86-97	93-97	71-79	78-84
Yast	—–	—–	—–	85-97
Zik-kit	—–	—–	80-97	—–
reroll on Dralisite table	—–	98	98	98
reroll on Human table	98	—–	99	99
reroll on Vrusk table	99	99	—–	00
reroll on Yazirian table	00	00	00	—–