Random Conflicts in the Megaverse(Random Roll Tables)

[taalismn]

Random Conflicts in the Megaverse(Random Roll Tables)
“Just another stupid damned spat between neighbors fighting over the property line between their lawns, and throwing nukes at each other.”
----Captain Taror M’lain, GNEASS Jarson, Heavy Cruiser, United Systems Alliance Joint Command

“Forests grow healthy with the occasional brushfire to clear away the scrub, the undergrowth, the dead wood, no? Think of me then as a forester, helping the galaxies grow stronger and healthier by lighting the fires of war, burning the rampant overgrowth away, making the soil fertile again for new growth. I am not a destroyer, I am a benefactor of civilization! My conflicts control population, promote development, inspire art, drive migration! My fires are glorious, a thousand flowing heralds of change!”
---Ares, God of War, recorded by a Network Omni News reporter.

“Of course you have a choice! You can join the Glorious Army of Bashadur, smite the treacherous Galdan, and at war’s end, you can go on your way covered in glory, with the gratitude of Bashadur, or you and your friends can work in the uranium mines for the crime of being obvious Galdan agents traveling through our space to spy on the Glorious Army of Bashadur! See, you have a choice! Make the smart one!”

“I do not fear the Outsiders’ death-lights, I fear the courage-death they have inflicted on you of the Warriors! The Outsiders bleed just as freely as the People do when you strike them deep with your spears! They die, just as the People do! Bo, they die FASTER than the People do! I have seen this with my own eyes! They do not have the Courage to stop bleeding as the People do! They hide behind the walls of their chariots rather than show their lack fo Courage! But they have spread that fear to you so-called Warriors! Do you not have the bravery to get close to their chariots, pry open their w alls, and spear them?! Some of us will fall, yes, but death is part of being a Warrior! We accept death as our companion always, and expect it to carry some us away while others go on to victory! So must we accept this now, especially now, if we are to drive the Outsiders off our home!”

Somewhere in the Three Galaxies, or the Megaverse, somebody is fighting. The odds are, sooner or later the PCs are going to run ino a conflict, and have to make the decision to either skirt it or get involved in it. Here are a few random roll tables for generating background conflicts.

A. Conflict Type:
“They came out of our skies unannounced. They struck without warning. They showed no mercy in their targets. They never identified themselves.”

What are the involved parties in the conflict?

01-30% Invasion
Invasions happen when generally unrelated parties fight and one has the upper hand in invading and occupying the homeland(s) of the other.
01-20% A major polity(TGE, CCW, Golgan Republik) is invading. The invasion could be a territory grab or an ‘intervention’(aka ‘police action’), but the locals see it as an invasion.
21-50% A minor polity is invading.
51-65% A previously unknown species/polity is invading.
66-75% A major corporation is invading, likely using mercenary proxies as its frontline troops
76-90% Pirates/Mercenaries----A criminal organization is making a major bid for power over the region
91-00% Alien Force---An utterly alien force is invading; this could be an alien vermin species, reactivated Ancient robot army, or demonic horde.

31-60% Civil War
Civil Wars happen within a common culture wth usually one common species.
01-20% A once-strong central government is breaking up. The American Civil War is a good example of this.
21-40% An aggressive central power is trying to unify the region, whether everybody else wants to join or not. Communist China’s expansion into neighboring rgions is a good example, Nazi Germany’s roll-over of Europe an even better one.
41-55% Revolt Against Injustice---A sub-group or special interest group has taken to arms in protest over a real or perceived greivance. They may still feel that they are part of the larger culture/nationality, but feel that their concerns have been given short-shrift by the current govermment, that has left them little in the way of other options. The Black Panther movement and the Whiskey Rebellion are good examples of this sort of conflict,
56-75% Several more-or-less equally matched ethnic or religious factions are settling long-standing scores with each other. The division of India-/Pakistan is a good example of this. Rwanda and the breakup of Yugoslavia also qualifies.
76-90% Rebellion---A smaller sub-group has decided to try going it alone and seperate from the larger polity. Or else the rebels are an assimilated sub-culture attempting to re-asert their cultural identity and independence. The American Revolution, Irish war for independence, and Ceylon’s Tamal Tiger insurgency are examples of this.
91-00% Class War----A long-standing social class or caste system has broken down as different social classes clash with each other. The French and Russian Revolutions typify this.

61-00% National War
These are conflicts between established nations with their own identities who have found each other and found reasons to fight each other.
01-30% Contest of Equals----Two more or less equally-matched polities are fighting each other.
31-50% Geopolitical Mismatch--- One polity is substantially larger than the other. This does ot automatically mean the larger party is going to trounce the smaller; the smaller nation may have a technological edge or aggressive initiative over its larger neighbor.
51-75% Pack Against the Bear----A large polity is engaged in combat with an alliance of smaller nations, tribes, or clans.
76-00% Free-Fire Zone---There’s actually 1d4+2(or more) different factions all fighting each, with some alliance-making as matters of convenience, but not staying party.

B. Cause of the War
“ The Malveens claim the Chaoldans stole the urn containing the remains of the Great Sage Promulgar, which the Chaoldans deny, and have even offered to help search for whoever did take it. That hasn’t stopped the Malveens from sending their warships to shell Chaoldan ports and sending bombers to carpet-bomb Chaoldan border towns. Promulgar was supposed to have been a pacifist in his later years, but the Lalveen seem to have latched onto his earlier writtings when he was a real firebrand, as justification for ‘smiting the unjust’. “

What is at the root of the conflict? Sometimes it’s desperation, or greed, or pure fanaticism that provides the spark and fans the flame.

01-25% War over Territory---The parties are fighting over prized ground, such as a border zone, colony, or strategic location.
26-40% Resources----Something is in short supply. Could be food, water, energy, or some precious substance, and sharing isn’t an option.
41-50% Fight over Trade---The parties are fightng over the control of trade lanes, commodities, and markets. The Opium Wars are cases in point, about the right of a nation to control its own trade, and restrict the import of deleterious substances.
51-65% Ideological Differences---The parties involved have different philosophies that clash. This coulld be magic vs technology, capitalism vs communism, or righthandeds vs lefthandedness.
66-80% Justice/Revenge/Retribution----The conflict started over something that demanded justice or revenge, usually some crime against the lives of the citizens of a nation. This could be the slaughter of civilians, the assassination of a beloved leader. or an old grudge against former occupiers/invaders. Sometimes a third party steps in on behalf of an oppressed people for humanitarian reasons, such as the Rhilith stepping in to prevent the attempted genocide of magic users on Yoria.
81-90% War of Honor--- In cultures heavily into appearance, propriety, and manners, perceived insult or libel can be cause enough to go to war. This could be over the outcome of a game or a besmerching of the good name of a polutical leader, but it calls for redress!
91-00% Religious Conflict--- Clash of heretics, God(s) is/are on the side of the righteous. These conflcits rarely have clean or easy resolutions.

C. Extenuating Factors
“ The Book of War used by both sides of this bloody little war lists eighteen hundred taboo subjects that can qualify as war crimes. These include the use of flame-throwers, incendriary weapons in general, use of silver-tipped ammunition, electrically-powered automatic weapons, the spacing of prisoners. and the wearing of purple, puce, and dayglo green. ”

The conflict may be defined by certain conditions that limit or complicate it.

01-10% Land War----The war is limited to a planetary surface
11-15% Space War---The war is limited to space
16-20% Any Place is a War Zone---The war is fought on multiple fronts; no restrictions, including polity borders. That means wherever combatants encounter each other can become a battleground.
21-30% Code of War---A code of war that all parties ascribe to and scrupulously adhere to is in effect, This could be a Geneva Convention-style codex covering treatment of prisoners, rules against the use of WMDs/magic/psionics/cyborgs, limits on civilian casualties, code duellos, or rules for resolving combat(like rolling dice, if a fight lasts more that 24 hours).
31-35% War of Assassins---The conflict is limited to only certain professional combatants who are only allowed to attack certain targets. These could be professional assassins, gladiators, cyberhackers, giant robot crews, psychics, or the like.
36-40% Testing Ground---The war is being used by a party to test new weapons, strategies or soldiers. The party so doing so has no real stake in the conflict, but finds it convenient to try out new technologies or theories. A good example would be the Arzhur invasion of Rifts Earth; despite its scale, it’s really a probing attack meant to try out Cold weapons and warriors in the Hot realms.
41-50% Outside Agents Provocateur ---There are one or more outside agencies stoking the conflct for their own purposes. This could be to aide fellow followers of a belief system, are hoping to create a genocide for blood sacrifice, are hoping to hamstring a political rival , generate arms sales, or simply for the giggles of an all-out fight.
51-60% Outside Agents Humanitarian---There are one or more outside aide groups supplying humanitarian aide to refugees, is monitoring the conflict on the lookout for war crimes, protecting key cultural sites or environments, is trying to negotiate a ceasefire, or is actively trying to enforce a peace(at least in certain areas). These parties may reduce the severity of a conflict, or may simply provide the combatants with more targets to shoot at, hostages to take, supplies to steal, and weapons to confiscate.
61-65% Proxy War---The war has attracted sponsorship from outside agencies who are supplying one or more of the combatant factions with arms, supplies, training, and intelligence. This can get messy if the larger organizations are using their smaller partners as puppets in a larger geopolitical gambit, in lieu of declaring open war on each other. It also raises the danger level if the personnel of the larger polities(usually serving as ‘advisors’ or ‘technical support’) get taken prisoner or killed, potentally drawing the larger nations into openly joining the conflict.
66-75% Merc War--- One or more sides in the conflict rely heavily on professional hired guns to do their fighting. This is usually the case with corporate warfare, with primate military contractors hired to provide ‘enhanced security’, but other factors may be involved as well. The submarine city-states of Bishel, for example, simply couldn’t risk having native standing armies disrupting their utopian society, while the Erageen will nt sully their hands with bloodshed in their many territorial and political conflicts, so they hire ‘unclean’ outsiders to do the dirty work.
76-80% Conscription---One or more sides in the conflict have taken to forcibly conscripting outside parties into the war. Britain’s high-seas conscription and impressment of American sailors in the leadup to the War of 1812 is a good example of this.
81-90% Technological Disparity---One side has an overwhelming advantage over the other. This doesn’t necessarily mean a short conflict; it just means that the other party may resort to other means to undermine the other’s advantage and prolong the conflict.
91-00% Roll 1d4+1 times

D. Intensity
“After today’s tank battle, what say you and me, mine and your general staffs, have dinner together and a friendly game of wickets?”

How extent and involved is the conflict? This could determine how easily it is resolved.
01-10% Slow Burn---The war is so low intensity that hardly anybody realizes there IS a war going on. A few individuals may harbor grudges, but not enough that negotiations aren’t possible.
11-40% Low---- The war exists and is prominent in daily life, but has little impact on the economy or culture. There is little mass mobilization of resources across society and life goes on for most civilians not directly in the warzone. Somalia and Afghanistan, at least from the viewpoint of the United States’ populace, hover at this level.
41-70% Full-Out---The war preoccupies daily life and takes up the major part of the involved economies. WW1 and WW2 are good examples.
71-90% War to the Hilt---The war isn’t ending unti one or both parties are utterly annihilated. Bad blood is an understatement, with atrocities and war crimes occuring regularly.
91-00% War of Extermination----The war will only be over when all of one side is expunged from existence.