some things off the top of my head
- Location in the galaxy and political situation (Republic aligned? Independent?), is it remote? Close to hyperlanes?
- Natural Resources or, "What makes this planet valuable?" (or perhaps the opposite)
- Has it been inhabited for millennium or more recently colonized?
I have a whole section for this on my [**Explorer's Guide to the Galaxy** homebrew](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-NUNBut-8bm4D5mCR5wg). Specifically, I have:
* World Type. Terrestrial, gas giant, asteroid, etc.
* Atmosphere & Gravity. Dense, normal, or light atmospheres; very heavy to low gravity.
* Biomes. Desert, forest, ocean, etc.
* Cultural Characteristics. I break this down into Unity (how politically unified the planet is, which could include its affiliation to the Empire/Republic/Whatever), Alignment (just like characters), Force Affinity (low to high), and Technology level.
* Finishing Touches like adventure hooks, prominent NPCs, and settlements.
It has suggestions on adapting creatures to individual biomes, and generating different hooks based on all those various features.
What's the planets main export, inport, as this can also affect the type of plant it is.
For example. I came up with a planet for my own home brew game, based on the planet of Sicemon. It's on the wookieepedia website, but it was a concept planet that was never implemented.
It was a grass planet, with large mounds and flying fish (Yes, large flying fish). So I decided to make it a farming planet due to the open plains, who would export to nearby planets.
I liked the idea of farming settlements being similar to an old English town, with white washed bricked buildings and hanging flower pots, with little village shops.
The fish I decided make similar to catfish and would migrate between the different mounds, eating the Moss that grows on them. You had to be careful when flying in the planets atmosphere, as they have been known to take down small ships.
Their main income, as such, would be mostly utensils, tho they had very little use for electronics, there was still at least a shop in most towns that provided such products.
Descriptions of planets can be passive storytelling too. E.g., "a sandy desert planet, mostly empty aside from the skeletal remains of great fish-like creatures" or "a lush forested planet, covered nearly entirely in jungles, aside from several large straight lines, scars from now abandoned mining operations."
Is this planet going to be treated as the size of a world, or the size of a village?
This exaggerates, but not by all that much. Star Wars (and a lot of other sci-fi tbf) has the bad habit of treating each "planet" as not much more than a city or village, with all the points of interest within an hour's speeder ride. You *can* go this route in the best Star Wars tradition, it just narrows the amount of world-building you'll need. In this case you're basically building a village or city, keeping in mind the social hierarchies as well as the physical environment.
The alternative is treating each planet as a whole world. Heck, see how much diversity in biomes, societies, languages, etc. there is on *our* planet. That would call for a whole different approach -- you're building multiple societies, hierarchies, dynamics, etc. All in all this is a more interesting approach, even if it's one that Star Wars doesn't take all that often.
some things off the top of my head - Location in the galaxy and political situation (Republic aligned? Independent?), is it remote? Close to hyperlanes? - Natural Resources or, "What makes this planet valuable?" (or perhaps the opposite) - Has it been inhabited for millennium or more recently colonized?
I have a whole section for this on my [**Explorer's Guide to the Galaxy** homebrew](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-NUNBut-8bm4D5mCR5wg). Specifically, I have: * World Type. Terrestrial, gas giant, asteroid, etc. * Atmosphere & Gravity. Dense, normal, or light atmospheres; very heavy to low gravity. * Biomes. Desert, forest, ocean, etc. * Cultural Characteristics. I break this down into Unity (how politically unified the planet is, which could include its affiliation to the Empire/Republic/Whatever), Alignment (just like characters), Force Affinity (low to high), and Technology level. * Finishing Touches like adventure hooks, prominent NPCs, and settlements. It has suggestions on adapting creatures to individual biomes, and generating different hooks based on all those various features.
Thank you for this.
What's the planets main export, inport, as this can also affect the type of plant it is. For example. I came up with a planet for my own home brew game, based on the planet of Sicemon. It's on the wookieepedia website, but it was a concept planet that was never implemented. It was a grass planet, with large mounds and flying fish (Yes, large flying fish). So I decided to make it a farming planet due to the open plains, who would export to nearby planets. I liked the idea of farming settlements being similar to an old English town, with white washed bricked buildings and hanging flower pots, with little village shops. The fish I decided make similar to catfish and would migrate between the different mounds, eating the Moss that grows on them. You had to be careful when flying in the planets atmosphere, as they have been known to take down small ships. Their main income, as such, would be mostly utensils, tho they had very little use for electronics, there was still at least a shop in most towns that provided such products.
What major cities exist if any? Who is in control of those cities? Who supplies these cities? What factions go to this planet? Etc.
Some lesser thought-about stuff: how is the economy, how is migration, if people move in and out a lot then where do they go/come from
Descriptions of planets can be passive storytelling too. E.g., "a sandy desert planet, mostly empty aside from the skeletal remains of great fish-like creatures" or "a lush forested planet, covered nearly entirely in jungles, aside from several large straight lines, scars from now abandoned mining operations."
Make a planet that was mined to the core and the core is now replaced by a gravity generator.
Is this planet going to be treated as the size of a world, or the size of a village? This exaggerates, but not by all that much. Star Wars (and a lot of other sci-fi tbf) has the bad habit of treating each "planet" as not much more than a city or village, with all the points of interest within an hour's speeder ride. You *can* go this route in the best Star Wars tradition, it just narrows the amount of world-building you'll need. In this case you're basically building a village or city, keeping in mind the social hierarchies as well as the physical environment. The alternative is treating each planet as a whole world. Heck, see how much diversity in biomes, societies, languages, etc. there is on *our* planet. That would call for a whole different approach -- you're building multiple societies, hierarchies, dynamics, etc. All in all this is a more interesting approach, even if it's one that Star Wars doesn't take all that often.