THAT'S NO MOON, or, I wrote a space station generator

 SPACE STATION GENERATOR

Generate a space station! Assumed aesthetic is grimy, industrial, used future. Alien, Rebel Galaxy, Battlestar Galactica, The Expanse, The Mandalorian, Event Horizon.

If you see a table with two given die rolls you can pick which one to roll. It's usually a choice either between flat and curved, or curved and size-dependent.

SIZE (d4)/(d6)

Later rolls call for the Size Die (SD) to be rolled. If you see SD+2 or the like, roll the station's Size Die and add the modifier.

1/1 Tiny (d3)
2/2-3 Small (d4)
3/4-5 Medium (d6)
4/6 Large (d8)

BASIC SHAPE (d12)

1. Rod (with SD-2 other rods that are d4 1 Crosswise, 2 Parallel, 3 Spoked, 4 Perpendicular)
2. Ring (with SD-2 extra rings that are d4 1 Concentric, 2 Adjacent, 3 Perpendicular, 4 Stacked)
3. Cylinder (d4 1-2 Horizontal 3-4 Vertical) (SD-2 0-2 Tube 3-4 Drum 5-6 Decks)
4. Sphere (SD-2 0-2 Hollow 3-4 Onion decks 5-6 Stacked decks)
5. Disc (d4 1 Spoked wheel 2 Pancake 3 Puck 4 Flying saucer)
6. Polygonal (d4 1 Tetrahedron 2 Octahedron 3 Pentahedron 4 Dodecahedron) OR (d20 sides minimum 4)
7. Irregular (d6 1 Flower 2 Lumpy 3 Organic 4 Spiky 5 Bulbous 6 Crystalline)
8. Slab (SD-2 0-2 Simple slab 3-4 City skyline profile 5-6 Lots of projecting berths and piers)
9. Distributed (SD+2 sections, for each roll d6 on this table but don't do the sub-rolls unless you feel like it)
10. Agglomeration (SD+2 sections, for each: d4 1 asteroid 2 big ship 3 several small ships 4 another smaller station (roll d6 on Shape table w/o sub-table)
11. Asteroid (d4 1 hollowed out 2 wrapped around 3 projecting from 4 tethered to)
12. Tower (1 main tower with SD "floors", plus SD-2 half-size attached sub-towers)(d4 1 tapered 2 brutalist 3 corporate glass 4 spindly)

GRAVITY (SD)/(d6)

1 None
2-3 Spin (depending on the shape of the station this may exist in only part or not be possible at all)
4+ Artificial

PURPOSE (d12)

1. Mining
2. Manufacturing
3. Habitat
4. Refinery
5. Commercial
6. Shipyard
7. Cargo transfer
8. Crime
9. Communications
10. Observation
11. Science
12. Military

d6 1-3 Retrofitted, roll again for original purpose, 4-5 Purpose built 6 Alien/Paleotech

The station has SD-2 additional functions, roll again for each.

CONDITION (SD-2)

0-2 Roll once for the entire station
3-4 Roll once for the overall condition, and once for a specific subsection
5+ Roll for each major section

(d6)/(2d6)

1/2     Condemned (d4 1 Abandoned 2 Breached 3 Irradiated 4 Haunted)
2/3-5   Dangerous (d4 1 Damaged 2 Poorly maintained 3 Infested 4 Crime)
3-4/6-8 Grungy
5/9-11  Good repair (d4 1 Dedicated staff 2 Positive culture 3 Limited traffic 4 Robots)
6/12    Pristine (d4 1 $$$ 2 Oppressive social hygenie laws 3 Indentured cleaning staff 4 High tech)

OWNERSHIP (d6)/(2d6)

1/1-3   Civilian (Union, Co-op, Private Ownership, Squat)
2/4-5   Government (Military, Cops, Infrastructure, Science)
3/6-7   Corporation
4/8-9   Crime (Organized Crime, Smugglers, Pirates, Blacksite
5/10-11 Wildcat (Salvagers, Prospectors, Miners, Researchers)
6/12    Alien (Absentee, Station AI, Robots, Caretaker, Really really alien, Living station)

SERVICES (d10)/(2d6)

Roll SD-1 times.

1/2   Specialty Shop (d10 Guns, Cybernetics, Science, Engineering, Industrial, Food, Exporter, Importer, Broker, Fence) (d6 1 shady af 2-3 shady 4-5 legit 6 famous specialist)
2/3   FTL Comm (duplicates increase range and cost)
3/4   Medbay (duplicates increase quality of care and cost)
4/5   Market (if duplicate, d6 1-4 bigger better market, 5-6 there's a black market too) (general stores, plus roll SD-2 times on the Specialty Shop list)
5/6   Cantina (d6 1-3 Shady af 4-5 Shady 6 Upscale) (duplicates indicate additional cantinas)
6/7-8 Fuelling (duplicates indicate more expensive)
7/9   Repair Bay (d6 1-3 run by station owners, 4-5 independent, 6 shady af) (if duplicate d6 1-4 bigger better more expensive bay, 5-6 additional bay)
8/10  Faction Agent (if duplicate, d6 1-3 upgrade existing agent, 4-6 add new agent from another faction)
9/11  Salvage Yard (d6 1-3 shady af 4-5 slightly shady 6 legitimate)
10/12 Shipyard (on duplicate d6 1-3 bigger more expensive yard, 4-5 additional yard, 6 yard does black market work)

Shadiness Table 

Roll d8 on this if a result is shady, with a +2 if it's shady af

1 Unreliable goods
2 Stolen goods
3 Organized crime front
4 Pirate front
5 Rebel/insurgent safehouse
6 Black market connections
7-8 Under cop surveillance (roll d6 for why)
9-10 Cop sting (roll d6 for disguise)

WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE d66

11 A major theft has the station on lockdown.
12 Pirates recently strafed the station, are threatening to do it again unless paid off.
13 Someone hacked the station emergency services, the pressure warning sirens keep going off randomly.
14 An underboss from the regional organized crime syndicate is visiting with a retinue, everyone is on edge.
15 An unidentified body has been found.
16 The station manager is murdered shortly after the PCs arrive.
21 A solar flare fried the docking systems. Boarding the station requires spacewalks until it gets fixed.
22 A foreign bacteria got past the scanners and infected the station's algae tanks. It's not toxic, but it does make all the food taste strongly of anise.
23 A mandatory firmware update to the station doors included a prototype AI assistant. Make reaction rolls for doors.
24 Life support has gone haywire and keeps randomly pumping pure O2 into compartments. Causes giddiness at first, then diorientation, followed by lung and eye damage, and eventually death.
25 A micrometeorite swarm has damaged the solar panels. Strict power rationing and rolling blackouts is in effect until repairs can be made.
26 Starship fuel has leaked into a cargo bay after a accident. The station is waiting on a hazmat crew from the nearest popuation centre and hoping it doesn't explode before then.
31 A child's fuzzy alien pet has reproduced. A lot. Now the station is overrun by the harmless, adorable creatures.
32 A diaspora group is having an annual festival and people from all over have packed the station to attend.
33 A beloved local elder has passed, and much of the station is shut down for mourning.
34 The station is having a cooking competition to see who can prepare the local delicacy the best. Visitors are dragooned into being judges.
35 Two of the station's leaders are having a bad breakup and refusing to communicate except through intermediaries.
36 Impromptu reunion, as a childhood friend or estranged family member of a PC is on the station by (apparent) coincidence.
41 A pod of space whales is loitering near the station. Beautiful, but they're risking a collision with a passing ship.
42 An enormous teal crystalline structure has appeared in close orbit around the system's star. Everyone is having bizarre, prophetic dreams.
43 A passing band of theta radiation is making the station's hull audibly resonate. Some say it sounds like music, other hear voices.
44 The station is gripped with terror as residents report unearthly figures lurking in corridors, appearing in locked rooms, etc.
45 Silicon-based, vacuum-tolerant, metal-eating "moss" has colonized the station's hull, spreading fast. A quarantine is about to be imposed.
46 A ghost ship arrive on autopilot. Everyone is sure it's haunted (weird noises, windows smeared with blood) and no-one wants to investigate.
51 A mediocre movie starring B-list actors has come to film. They're in the way, but people are excited and they're throwing money around.
52 A famous bounty hunter has arrived and is hanging out in the cantina. Everyone is terrified, sure she's there for them.
53 A small navy ship has docked for emergency maintenance and given the crew shore leave. What do you do with a drunken spacer?
54 A popular comms-cast has claimed the station is related to a famous lost treasure. A horde of amateur treasure hunters have descended. The only question is whether the locals can hustle them for everything they've got before they all get bored and leave.
55 Another crew of freelancers arrives at the same time as the PCs, after the same score/target/job/treasure.
56 A mysterious VIP has arrived with a small army of bodyguards, personal assistants, and lawyers. Nobody knows who they are or why they've come.
61 A major strike is spreading across the system and the station is joining in, and everyone is bracing for reprisals by The Company.
62 The station is the hub for Company actions during a major system-wide strike. They're aggressively recruiting scabs and strikebreakers.
63 An election is underway to replace station management. It's hotly contested, and the locals expect visitors to take sides.
64 The Company is leveraging sanctions and blackballing against the station in a hostile takeover attempt. The locals desperately need supplies and aid.
65 System police are brutally ransacking the station and harassing the locals, ostensibly pursuing a high-value fugitive.
66 A popular anti-corporate movement is sweeping the system, and the station has become a battleground between protesters and corporate gunmen.

CATS, RATS, AND HOODED MEN

In Gatopolis no-one may harm a cat or allow a cat to be harmed. The cats are sacred. They are also a pain. They keep the rats away, people say, and indeed there are few rats to be seen. But the truly deseperate, clawing struggle that goes on when humans aren't looking is known to few.

THE CATS

Each neighbourhood has its own cat congress, and each congress is headed by a queen who rules for however long she feels like and is chosen by being whichever cat wants to do it. Queens and congresses cooperate on matters that affect the entire city.

Cat Queen Titles (3d8)

All cat queens can speak with humans. Nobody knows if becoming queen instills this, if only cats with this ability become queen, or if (as some believe) all cats can but only some choose to.

Cat Queen Powers (d8)

1. Vorpal Claws
2. Can cast a random 1st level spell
3. Has eighteen lives
4. Can shadow-teleport
5. True sight
6. Urine wards off demons
7. Detects lies
8. Is actually a Cat Lord from the Violet City

Each congress is more or less independent, though individual cats have only vague notions of boundary lines. The cats go everywhere, see everything, are omnipresent.

WHEN YOU LOOK AROUND YOU SEE (d12)

Befriending a congress can be a great benefit, and angering one equally fraught. In either case, the relation is likely to prove fleeting unless the humans prove themselves true allies (or staunch foes).

THIS CONGRESS (3d8)

THIS CAT IS (3d8)

THIS CAT (2d8)

All cats have a 2-in-6 chance to speak, unless the Ref feels that they should in which case they do. All cats have d8 lives remaining. If a cat is reduced to 0 HP, it loses one remaining life and returns the next morning.

THE RATS

Most of the rats just want to be left alone, to feast on the riches humans throw away and scuttle and breed and live down in the dark. But the city is old, and the things that have leaked down to its roots - demonic tissue, discarded magics, potions gone wrong, and all the detritus of humanity - have changed many of the rats turning mischiefs into malevolences. To most, there is no difference between the rats and The Rats.

IN THE DARK, THEY GNAW

THESE RATS (6d6)

Even as warped as they are, The Rats are little more intelligent than monkeys. There is a controlling force that guides each malevolence.

THIS FELL INTELLIGENCE (3d8)

WHEN YOU SEE THEM THEY ARE (d6)

1-3  Ambushing you! Skreee!

4     Eating someone

5     Carrying loot

6     Fleeing from something

THE HOODED MEN

It's said they are seen at night, lonely figures tall and broad, cloaked in dark brown or green. When they are seen, people disappear. Children, elders, the sick, those who live alone. They are never seen again. Beware the Hooded Men. They live below.

The Hooded Men are cockroaches, grown tall as a man and shifted strange by eons below the city until they can walk the streets and hunt. Below, they take anything they can find, eating flesh or dragging it back to their eggs for the next foul generation.

HOODED MAN - HD 4

Ambush Hunter. Players have disadvantage on Initiative rolls in the first round of combat.

Jagged Mandibles - STR (1 Close) 5 dmg

• Toxins! If a creature rolls 16+ to Defend they must pass a CON Test or be Paralyzed.

Stabbing Limbs - STR (1 Close) 3 dmg

• Grabbed! The target is Stuck until they pass a STR Test or the Hooded Man is killed.

WHEN YOU SEE IT, IT IS (d6)

1. Standing, watching
2. Eating someone
3. Stalking someone
4. Cleaning its mandibles
5. Dragging someone to its lair
6. Fighting someone

WITH

1. Mass of eggs
2. Shredded corpse
3. Eerie silence
4. Regurgitation with loot in
5. Another Hooded Man nearby
6. A shrieking victim

THINGS YOU MIGHT FIND ON A HOODED MAN

1d4 loose coins per HD, shreds of clothing, undigested loot, pile of bones, freshly laid eggs, embedded weapon