Draw a random planetary hazard -- corrosive air, active defences, parasitic larvae, time dilation -- the complication that turns a landing site into a story.
This generator draws from 100 things that make a world dangerous, across seven groups covering atmosphere, geology, biology, radiation, gravity, anomalies and leftover machinery. Each is written as an operational problem rather than a hit-point number, so it applies to any system and any medium.
Every result here is drawn using crypto.getRandomValues() -- the Web Crypto API's cryptographically secure randomness -- instead of Math.random(), so it's genuinely unpredictable, not just statistically random. Learn more.
A planet without a complication is scenery. Game masters use this to give a landing site stakes, and writers use it to answer why a place that looks habitable has not been settled. In the Random Alien World preset it's the reason the world is interesting rather than merely described.
Generate draws one hazard at random using the site's cryptographically secure randomness, guaranteed not to repeat whatever result is currently showing in single-result mode. Filter by kind to keep it physical, biological or unexplained, and raise the amount for a world with several overlapping problems.
A sample of what this generator can draw, spread evenly across the full list:
Yes -- deselect Anomalous & Psychological in the filter and everything left has a straightforward physical or biological mechanism.
One is usually enough to drive a scenario. Two that interact -- say crushing gravity plus abrasive dust -- create the kind of compounding problem that makes a place memorable.
Many are. The geology, weather and biology categories work for any exploration setting, including fantasy expeditions and historical survival stories.
Yes -- it's the last block of the Random Alien World preset, so the hazard arrives attached to a world, a landscape, a species and a civilization.
Alien Planet · Alien Species · Alien Biome · Alien Civilization · Spaceship Name · Sci-Fi Gadget