Generating Communities for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game

By JD Wiker
based on rules designed by Monte Cook

Quite frequently, the heroes in a Star Wars campaign come upon a city, a village, or even a teeming metropolis, brimming with life from a thousand different worlds. The Gamemaster often needs to know several important facts about these communities to make them come alive for the players. This system builds on similar material presented in the Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide to allow Star Wars GMs to quickly generate communities, from tiny clusters of dwellings to vast cities spanning a hundred square kilometers and reaching high into the sky.

Laying the Foundation

The first step in the process is to decide the general size of the community. The GM can either choose a community size that fits his needs, or roll percentile dice to determine randomly. Note that the community types listed here (thorp, small town, metropolis, and so forth) are merely for reference. The GM might choose to call a given community a base, commune, hub, collective, hive, crèche, or any other name that fits. The community might even be in a non-standard location, such as an orbital space station, a sub-aquatic dome, or a repulsorlift-supported platform located several kilometers above the actual surface of the world where it is located. The important this chart provides is the scale of the community, expressed as the size of the adult population. (Depending on the dominant species of the community, the number of nonadults will range from 10% to 40% of this figure.)

Community Wealth and Population

Every community has a credit limit based on its size and population. The credit limit (see Table 1) is an indicator of the price of the most expensive item available in that community. Nothing that costs more than a community’s credit limit is available for purchase there. Anything having a price under that limit is most likely available. While exceptions are certainly possible (a boomtown near a newly-discovered mine, a farming community impoverished after a prolonged drought), these exceptions are temporary; all communities will conform to the norm over time.

To determine the amount of ready cash in a community, or the total value of an given item of equipment for sale at any given time, multiply half the credit limit by one-tenth of the community’s population. For example, suppose a group of heroes brings a cargo of a dozen blaster pistols (each worth 500 credits) into a thorp of 200 people. Half the thorp’s credit limit (250 credits) times one-tenth its population (20) equals 5,000 credits. Therefore, the heroes can only convert ten of these blaster pistols to cash on the spot, before exhausting the local cash reserves. In addition, some of this money will likely be in actual hard currency, probably minted locally, rather than more convenient credit transfers.

If those same heroes hope to equip a dozen newly recruited followers with blaster rifles (at 1000 credits each), they can find a single blaster rifle in even the smallest community. But a community of at least 480 people is necessary in order to have the resources to procure or produce that many weapons (500/2 = 250, 480/10 = 48, 250 x 48 = 12,000).

Power Center for the Community

Sometimes all the GM needs to know about a community is who holds the real power. If this is the case, use Table 2: Power Centers, modifying the roll by the size of the community as explained below:

*10% of these have an alien power center in addition to the conventional.

Conventional: The community has a traditional form of government—a mayor, a town council, a noble ruling over the surrounding area under a greater liege, a monarch ruling the community as a city-state. Choose whichever form of government seems most appropriate to the area.

Nonstandard: While the community may have a mayor or a town council, the real power lies in other hands. It may center on a guild—a formal organization of merchants, craftsmen, professionals, warriors, or organized criminals who collectively wield great influence. Wealthy aristocracy, in the form of one or more rich individuals with no political office, may exert influence through their wealth. Prestigious aristocracy may exert influence through their reputation and experience. Wise elders may exert influence through those who respect their age, reputation, and perceived wisdom.

Mystical: From a powerful temple full of priests to a single Force adept cloistered in a tower, a mystic of some king might be the actual, official ruler of the community, or perhaps just someone with a great deal of influence. Depending on the era in which the campaign takes place, a mystical power center may be composed of actual Force users, those who only pretend to be in touch with the Force, alternate Force–using traditions, or even dark side devotees.

Alien: Not all communities completely govern themselves. They may be answerable to unforgiving merchant coalition (such as Hutts) who occasionally make nonnegotiable demands and insist on being consulted in all major decisions, or alien warlords who periodically collect tribute, troop levies, and exorbitant taxes, while simultaneously passing down pronouncements that can have devastating effects on the day-today lives of the community’s population. An alien power center represents any major influence (beyond just a simple nearby danger) held by a sentient off-world concern not native to the community. Note that during the Rebellion Era, the majority of conventionally-ruled governments are also subject to "alien" control—that of the Galactic Empire.

Conflicting Power Centers

As shown in Table 2: Power Centers, any community at least as large as a small city has more than one power center. If a community has more than one power center, and two or more of the power centers have opposing goals (such as a brotherhood of Force-using monks who refuse to bow to the will of the Emperor), they conflict. Such conflict is not necessarily open conflict, and sometimes the opposed power centers actually get along, albeit grudgingly.

The GM will have to determine just how the various power centers in a community interact. Do they cooperate in open meetings, putting aside their differences and voting on measures for the common good? Or do they struggle and argue over every issue, constantly vying for power for themselves or their constituency? A prestigious aristocracy may object to the teachings of a Jedi academy in their community, while the Jedi themselves nervously watch every move made by a guild of warriors led by a Force-trained, but non-Jedi, warlord. All of these combined may serve to drum up business for the powerful merchant’s guild, but the merchants know that were open conflict to erupt, then their livelihoods would suffer.

Community Authorities

It’s often important to know who makes up the community’s authority structure. The authority structure does not necessarily indicate who’s in charge, but instead who keeps order and who enforces the authority that does exist.

Captain of the Guard/Police Prefect/Peacekeeper

This position generally devolves upon the highest-level thug in the community, or one of the highest-level soldiers. Alternately, a Jedi guardian or consular might serve in the role of peacekeeper or judge:

Use Table 3: Highest-Level Locals (Heroic Classes) or Table 4: Highest-Level Locals (Non-Heroic Classes), modified by Table 5: Community Modifiers, to determine this official’s level.

Guards/Soldiers

For every one hundred people in the community (round down), the community has one full-time guard or solder. In addition, for every twenty people in the community, an able-bodied member the local militia or a conscript soldier can be brought into service within just a few hours. (Don’t forget to include the nonadult population in your calculations of the community’s total population.)

Non-Heroic Characters in the Community

For detailed city play, knowing exactly who lives in the community becomes important. The following guidelines allow you to determine the levels of the most powerful locals and then extrapolate from that to determine the rest of the classed characters living there.

Highest-Level Non-Heroic Character in the Community by Class

Use the following tables to determine the highest-level character in a given class for a given community. Roll the dice indicated for the class (Table 3, Table 4) and apply the modifier based on the size of the community (Table 5). A result of 0 or lower for character level means that no characters of that type can be found in the community. The maximum level for any class is 20^th.

Note that in some eras of play, the GM might wish to adjust the numbers for Force-using characters. Jedi are all but extinct during the early and middle part of the Rebellion Era; the GM should not roll randomly for these. Similarly, most Force Adepts during this time have also been hunted to extinction, with at least half of the remainder serving the Emperor (and subsequently, being more attuned to the dark side of the Force).

During the New Jedi Order Era, Force users are more plentiful than they were during the Rebellion Era, but still nowhere near as common as they were during the Old Republic Era. GMs should apply a –5 modifier to the character level for Jedi consulars and Jedi guardians, and a –2 modifier for Force Adepts.

*Where these classes are more common, level is 1d8 + modifier.

Total Characters of Each Class

Use the following method for determining the levels of all the characters in a community of any given class.

For heroic classes, if the highest-level character indicated in the method is 2^nd level or above, assume there are twice that number of characters half that level. If those characters are above 1^st level, assume that for each such character, there are two of half that level. Continue this process until the number of 1^st level character is generated. For example, if the highest-level soldier is 5^th level, then there are also two 3^rd level soldiers and four 1^st level soldiers.

Do the same for non-heroic character classes, but leave out the final stage that would generate the number of 1^st level individuals. Instead take the remaining population after all character types are generated, and divide it up so that 91% are commoners, 5% are thugs, 3% are experts, and the remaining 1% consists of diplomats. All of these characters are 1^st level.

The numbers of Jedi characters is determined differently. Assume that there is only one Jedi of one-half the level of the highest-level Jedi consular and Jedi guardian. If this second Jedi is greater than 7^th level, assume that there is one more Jedi, again of one-half this level. In both cases, round down. (Alternately, the GM may wish to randomly determine the levels of the lower-level Jedi in the community.) Any generated Jedi of below 7^th level should be assumed to be the Padawan of the highest-level Jedi in the community.

Species Demographics

The mix of species in a community depends on whether the community is isolated (little traffic and interaction with other races and places), mixed (moderate traffic and interaction with other races and places), or integrated (lots of interaction with other races and places).

Note that mixed and integrated communities in the Rebellion Era are less and less common the closer one approaches to the Core Worlds. The Empire is so strongly prejudiced against alien species that they are barely tolerated on Imperial worlds. Such worlds should almost always use the "Isolated" column to determine the species mix.

If the area’s dominant species is other than human, place that species in the top spot, put humans in the #2 rank, and push each other species down one rank. For example, in an isolated Gungan settlement, the population is 95% Gungan, 5% human and near-human, and a negligible amount of other species. You may also change the figures slightly for various racial preferences and eras. For example, a Wookiee village would have a 0% population of Trandoshans, a Twi’lek community (especially during the Rebellion Era) might have a higher than normal percentage of Hutts, and Ewoks are all but unheard of until late in the Rebellion Era.