Why Sci-Fi TTRPGs Need Dungeons Too
One aspect of science fiction tabletop role-playing games that often goes unnoticed is their need for dungeons. Dungeons are almost genre-defining in TTRPGs like D&D, offering GMs and players a specific type of experience: a closed environment that adds tension, encounters around every turn, and a goal at the end—even if it’s just finding treasure.
Sci-fi players and GMs need these experiences, too.
Not Medieval Dungeons, Sci-Fi Ones
I’m not necessarily suggesting that you throw a vaguely medieval dungeon into a sci-fi campaign, though that can work since planets can have varying technological levels.
Besides, we’ve all seen The Battle for Endor—it can be done.
But sci-fi has its own versions: tunnels, ruins, maintenance shafts, reactor cores, and sub-basements. Each offers confined spaces, limited visibility, and the potential for unexpected dangers.
Derelicts and Facilities: The Best Sci-Fi Dungeons
Derelict spacecraft and abandoned facilities make excellent dungeons. Facilities, in particular, offer some of the richest opportunities for sci-fi GMs.
Imagine this:
- Your crew checks on a research station that’s been silent for a month.
- You land on an uninhabited world and discover clues leading to a secret underground base.
- A seemingly routine survey mission turns into a desperate struggle through dark, malfunctioning hallways.
Investigating facilities is a staple of sci-fi books, TV shows, and movies—so why not bring that experience directly to your players?
A Tool for Creating Sci-Fi Dungeons Fast
To make this easier, I wrote The Book of Random Tables: Science Fiction Facility Generator. It helps GMs create detailed, engaging facilities quickly, while still leaving plenty of room for creativity.
Here’s what’s inside:
- Organization – Build the faction, corporation, or government body behind the facility. Use it as a framework or skip it if your setting already has established groups.
- Location – Determine whether the facility is on a planet, moon, asteroid, or space station. Extra tables help you name and flesh out these locations.
- Facility Details – Establish the structure, layout, and current operational status of the facility.
- Facility Problems – Just like Kirk and Picard always discovered: something is wrong. These tables introduce crises the facility faces.
- Facility Secrets – Shady dealings, covert research, or hidden agendas—optional but fun ways to complicate the mission.
- Items – Flavor your facility with small but meaningful details: office items, lab equipment, and more.
- Encounters – Bring the facility to life (or haunt it) with a variety of encounters for both functioning and abandoned sites.
- NPCs – Lists of names for personnel, plus an optional Uplifted Cetaceans table for enhanced animals working at the facility.
Compatible With Any Sci-Fi RPG
This generator works with Star Trek, Star Wars, Traveller, Stars Without Number, Alien, Ironsworn: Starforged, or any sci-fi system. Just grab percentile dice and start building.
Take Your Sci-Fi Games Deeper
Your imagination is the only limit. If you’d like to pick up the Science Fiction Facility Generator, it’s available on both Amazon and DriveThruRPG.
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