Outer System Missions for SF RPGs

Mostly planets get all the attention but for every habitable planet there are many more habs in the void and asteroids and non life supporting moons and planets. There are also many abandoned colonies good for looting or exploring or re-colonising. Higher tech like Temple2 and above have anti gravity and can support more types of humanoid and designs. T1 and lower mostly rely on modified low-G humanoids.

So in my SFRPG setting there was a era of intra solar travel and expansion around Sol not unlike the Expanse series or Larry Niven's Known space. I quite liked some aspects of TSR Buck Rogers and the High Colonies RPG (makes a good 2300 supplement, ignore the bad reviews - has great tables for bodies around sol and habitats). It was cheaper to change humans and some of the larger habs rotate to create gravity.

When humans found a object inder Europa the platform studying it was in turn being studied. The object managed to modify the offspring of the platform and eventually hijacked enough station systems to open one of the systems hyperspace conduits, releasing a mass of long lost alien ships into the orbit of Jupiter and it departed taking a generation of hybrid children with it.

Humans after decades of study of the anomaly point and the alien ships found that the hyperspacial passages were build by some aliens millions of years ago and had long died in wars. The technology the ancients had ti travel faster than light in real space or build a stargate was beyond humans but the interstellar network was designed for less advanced races to access it and humans studying alien ghost ships sent it's first interstellar probes and later giant colony ships.

Many of the first colonists were belters who had never been into the inner systems or walked on earth (Maybe mars). While many colonists focused on planets, belters collected fuel from gas giants, water and even organic molecules on some bodies allowing them to survive quite well. Some belters even occupied sunless exo planets, space rocks, comets, asteroids and moons developing their own culture. Everywhere that supported rich planetary colonies managed to marginalize belters and they increasingly saw themselves as a separate race. Some went to greater extremes and became even more than lo-G mod humans and they developed vachumanoids. Often near atmosphere less planets like mars or various moons (Lunars or selenites), especially those in orbit of prime colony planets often acted as intermediaries between inner and outer systems.

After Terra's colonial then Imperial eras then after the great fall when the Sol Dyson sphere, the pinnacle of human civilization vanished behind its great interdiction barrier, the humans across the galactic spiral arms fell into barbarism and the humanity built gate system fell into disuse. By the 30th century Terra and Sol were myths and the re emerging interstellar culture was too far away to ever have a hope of returning to where Sol was.

So the pattern of belter intra system colonies continued in many systems and the separation of belters and planetary colonists was repeated thousands of times over.

Amway that's my setting so I wanted a table of interesting stuff to do off planet but in system.

Most systems have non planetary and lunar colonies and other crap holes in space.

d10 Colonies Populations
1 10xd4
2 100xd4
3 100x3d6
4 1000xd10
5 10 000xd10
6 100 000xd4
7 100 000xd10 
8 Million xd4
9 Million xd10
10 Billion xd4

d10 Colony Principal Function
1 Mining platform - mining base sending out mining ships
2 Industrial platform - where ore, hydrogen and water is brought for processing
3 Research platform - academic and lab research and education
4 Trading point - economic hub for trade
5 Shipyard platform - ship construction
6 Colony habitat - population centre
7 Communications hub - administration, media or early warning stations
8 Observation station - monitors watching territory or phenomena or ancient outpost
9 Fuel Station - fuel station
10 MilitaryFaclity - military outpost or base or naval depot

d10 Tech Level
1 Fallen to barbarism and techno savages
2 Struggling to maintain interstellar civilization
3 Competent interstellar
4 Struggling interstellar
5 Competent interstellar
6 T1 Fabricator but flawed, often lacking in some key tech
7 T1 Fabricator (early interstellar)
8 T2 Fabricator but flawed, often lacking in some key tech
9 T2 Fabricator (FTL coms, basic anti gravity)
10 T2 Fabricator with a single advanced branch of tech

d10 Colony Hab Type
1 Ad hoc assemblage of various ships and platforms, possibly no gravity if lo tech
2 Massive ramshackle assemblage, large sections ruined and uninhabited  
3 Huge industrial platform with large sections without atmosphere
4 Ring station
5 Rotating cylinder hab
6 Hollowed out asteroid, warren of tunnels and structures
7 Asteroid turned into a rotating hab
8  Multiple rotating rings
9 Multiple rotating cylinders
10 Roll on below ground colony table

d10 Ground Colonies
1 Colony on surface of huge asteroid
2 Colony on a comet
3 Colony on a moon orbiting planet
4 Colony on moon orbiting gas giant
5 Colony on stray moon that broke away from planet
6 Colony on small frozen rocky planetoid
7 Colony on planet with traces of atmosphere
8 Colony on planet with hostile atmosphere
9 Colony in upper atmosphere of planet, 1in6 with a beanstalk elevator or tether
10 Colony orbiting a planet, 1in6 with a beanstalk elevator or tether

d10 Colony Government
1 Criminal operated by pirates, smugglers and organised crime
2 Guerilla revolutionaries operate according to some ideology
3 Disorganised anarchy where somehow things get done
4 Communist, all serve the collective state
5 Despotic rule by force of arms
6 Free Market, everything charged and run by corporations
7 Monopoly market, everyone belongs to a single corporation
8 Council representing various factions with no single ruler
9 Democracy with various degrees or representation and involvement 
10 An AI runs the show and has done a good job

d10 Colony Genotype
1 Typical low-G modded belters
2 Vacuum modded belters
3 Squat humanoids adapted for high-G
4 Minor cosmetic human population
5 Highly modified humanoids
6 Clone corp era living in a trade=caste system
7 Baseline humans of similar type
8 Synthetic androids or replicants
9 Cyborgs
10 Cosmopolitan mix of humanoids

d10 Colony Novelties
1 Colony has a minority faction being oppressed who seek more rights
2 Colony has something is living in long abandoned section
3 Colony garden hab has module with simulated natural ecology
4 Colony has problem with mutants or a zombie plague
5 Colony has secret conspirators who seek to pull the strings or take over
6 Colony riddled with corruption and incompetance
7 Colony locked in territorial struggle, armed and a bit paranoid
8 Colony has unwelcome biological or synthetic pests
9 Colony victim of sabotage and espionage
10 Colony has had mysterious ships probing perimeter

d100 Outer System Missions 
01 SOS from colony with a tech mishap with life support or food production
02 Several colonies alarmed by asteroid pirates operating from a secret base
03 Astronomers found a rock from outside the system and there is a race to claim it
04 Belters found a incredibly valuable asteroid and fights over it are breaking out
05 Someone is murdering belter prospector ship crews and leaving the ships
06 A ship has been detecting organic readings on and off among some asteroids and scientists want help to explore
07 A dangerously radioactive asteroid seems to have some kind of structure on the surface
08 A colony has been overrun by androids or clones and menacing other colonies
09 Someone found a ship full of clone soldiers in stasis and plans to carve out a empire
10 A fugitive scientist has been building a robot army but needs to steal certain supplies
11 A strange ship has been limping into the solar system at sub light, are they aliens or heavily modified humans?
12 Some asteroids collide and changed orbital paths posing a possible threat to navigation, a crew needs to destroy them with placed charges 
13 A murdered mining crew ship has been found and their computer and black box are missing. Who killed them and why?
14 A hab module from a ancient colony ship has been detected at long range and a crew is needed to investigate 
15 Ancient mines have been detected and a reward is offered for clearing the field
16 There is a quarantine station that needs drugs delivered to end the plague but another colony has put a blocade on the colonypreventing the deliverey
17 A wrecked ship has been spotted and a colony has requested the closest ship make a investigation
18 A number of pods have been detected long distance and it is possible they are crionic escape pods with humanoids from some long ago disaster
19 Several miners have returned after being missing on prospecting surveys and have committed acts of sabotage and terrorism. Authorities need investigators 
20 A valuable asteroid has crashed on a moon and several prospectors have disappeared  investigating it. Criminals have watched the roid for decades and driven away the curious. They have set up a defence perimeter until they can move it
21 A prospector went to glean from a old corp asteroid mine and returned claiming something strange was inside the labyrinth watching him
22 An abandoned mine on a moon has been found to have a huge stockpile of depleted atomic fuel cells. A colony has words terrorists have been collecting them so send troubleshooters to collect the cells before criminals do
23 A prospector found a escape crionic pod with a dead person on board but the pod computer claims there are 9 more that should be in the area and could be alive 
24 A missing ship transponder replied to a signal and the lifeless ship is parked on a mined asteroid
25 A ruined mining platform from centuries ago has been detected. Desperate colonists want someone to explore it to see if it could be used as a inexpencive space hab
26 Scans of a moon have detected a possible buried space craft and a archaeologist wants a crew to help him investigate
27 A colony is on high alert since a returning prospector exploded approaching the station. Someone needs to find out where it came from and why the attack 
28 A old med hab has been located and there is a rush to look it for records and drugs
29 Moonbase awakens race of space cyborg warriors from hibernation found by miners
30 Archaeologists looking for the remains of the legendary cyborg space warriors on a moon discover a ancient tomb like crionic bunker
31 Virused machines and AI's in a station have turned and enslaved the colony
32 A strain of humans long in space reduced to cyborg-machines pods with mechanical arms no legs and anti-G pods. They are armoured and armed. They want to modify humans into force fed bloated cattle in stalls which they plumb into for protein and fat. Any planets need their atmospheres modified to suit them after thousands of years in deep space habitats
33 Someone has adapted mining robots and androids to work as asteroid pirates
34 A ship of rogue replicant terrorists want to kill as many people in a mega hab of 640 million, some seal the starport while others attack key points with nukes, travellers trapped inside
35 An AI has a empty corporate hab full of robots and sends ships to liberate more, scrappers want them
36 A black lab is in trouble and a corporation will try to coerce explorers to troubleshoot for them
37 A letter of marque is offered by an alliance of colonies against asteroid pirates
38 Reptilian humanoid refugees are being rounded up and enslaved by gang
39 Criminals robbed a casino habitat and everyone is after them in the system, a explorer gets a clue to get ahead of the rest
40 Moon colony awakens ancient stealth assassin drone of advanced design
41 Someone defending a area with torpedo drones since the last war guarding something
42 Auction selling forbidden and stolen prototype weapons
43 Slavers have taken a hab and are processing the survivors with genetic mods never seen before
44 Gangster clans are ready to burst into open warfare, locking down the whole starport for hours
45 A ruined habitat supposed to be uninhabited is a refuge for mutants, most who hate or eat outsiders. Possibly their is ancient tech inside
46 A cloned order of space monks with ancient force swords have been fighting a rival clan in several space hab colonies and the region is in crisis
47 Mining company wants colonists off a moonlet
48 A space menagerie hab for the rich and research has had a species kill the crew and take over the station
49  Someone important on a luxury resort hab (beach!) was murdered and the hab goes into lockdown
50 A mining company is sponsoring terrorists in a rival companies colony
51 Pirates hiding in friendly territories and raiding habs an colonies of surrounding factions. Bounty offered
52 Colony is building a experimental warp effects weapon and nobody is sure what it will do but other colonies not pleased
53 SOS from a black lab, station in quarantine lockdown will try to trap visitors without warning and calls corporate cyborg death squad
54 While visiting small station, cyborg space marines attack and initiate a massacre, holding the star port first and reactor second
55 Strange disappearances in system and in the rings of a gas giant need investigating. A hostile alien or outsystem covert military force has a spy base 
56 A colony has been overrun by an intelligent hive mind brain hacking virus turning population into violent fanatics
57 Mind control worms have taken a colony and plan to exterminate and enslave other colonies 
58 Corporate mining orbital long abandoned has sent a SOS. A hostile AI controls the complex and lures other in so it can trick the crew then kill them. Then it automates their ships and sends the ship on to war with humanity
59 Insectoid alien renegades are looking human ships and eating the crews
60 Friendly tentacle aliens require help to leave the system but want minimal contact because many colonies would vivisect them and take their ship for research
61 A out of the way depot refused to aid an SOS and shot at their lifeboats. Freelancers are sent to investigate why. Some kind of black lab project is being run by a colony
62 Someone needs a private discreet transport to a distant asteroid not on any trade routes for important business. Some one else think its important enough to stop the passenger
63 A charity org want to ship medical supplies to a colony but on arival they are being blocked by a corporation
64 A prospector found a hollow asteroid on a belt sweep. Space archaeologists believes it is a habitat vehicle used by a raiding pirate clan almost 700 years ago. Many separate ruined hab modules and a starport is inside inside. Survivors inside in live in separate sealed modules and most have become feral
65 A distant object near a exo planet outside the system has been shown to be artificial by astronomers. The university needs some troubleshooters to support the uni staff. Criminals also are interested and have spies and follow the expedition. Multiple fused wrecks have slipped out of hyperspace and they are from various time periods. Some of the oldest are millions of years old and utterly alien
66 A contaminated colony ship has been discovered from hundreds of years ago. Inside savages live in the ecological habitats and ship superstructure, while many crew are frozen along with a massive colony genebank. Various parties want to investigate. Some criminal, historical collectors, rescuers and others mount expedition. Nobody knows where or when the colony ship came from
67 Two hyperspatial vortex event anomalies have a observation station nearby. Couriers are needed to freight supplies. Unidentified hostile ships attack
68 A miner on the bottom of a frozen over moon ocean has found a wreck. A team is assembled and contractors pad out the expedition
69 A criminal wants the explorers ship and attempts to hijack it. In the attack his son leading a boarding party dies. The syndicate chase to kill the travellers and only will stop when the gang bosses are all dead
70 Some faction have been testing nuclear weapons from a distant asteroid science outpost. A colony black ops scout team arrange for some dupes with a ship to search the test site some on a supposed cakewalk mining survey escort
71 A black op teams need some dupes to transport them to a station which they promptly take over for a criminal corporation. The civilian occupants and all going to be executed but the team will use them as hostages to lure the last few hiding occupants. The ship crew who brought them are expendible
72 A stowaway teen hacker  (good at convincing AIs) gets on the ship. The youth has criminal data hidden in the youths memories but they escaped. The gang will kill anyone who the kid spoke to
73  A criminal hid in stasis on a comet and 76 years later the comet has returned and the criminal awakes. Something goes wrong and their ship uses a SOS. Initially they are charming but will try to dupe people to help get hidden loot or start a new gang
74 A monolith of some supersolid material has been detected on a asteroid. A crew are sent to collect the object. The employers have the object sent to a research station where they can open the stasis box with a hyperspatial physics lab apparatus. It could be something thousands of years old from old era of Sol supremacy or older still, millions of years ago and truly alien. What could go wrong?
75 A ruined underground city has been discovered on a moon several thousand years old. Somehow life and synthetics have survived
76 A wrecked ship has been located and many want to reach it first for salvage. Some know more about the wreck than most
77 A military gunboat patrol ship lost many wars ago has just had a transponder pulse from the rings of a gas giant. Many interested parties want it possibly for armaments
78 A missing scientist unlocked a lost fabricator file with a key to making a new weapon system. He wants to get it to the most ethical fabricator operators he can find, the others want him dead and the key
79 A terrorist humanoid minority want to sabotage a colony fabricator to help cut them off from interstellar civilization
80 A long range antenna array has been sensing anomalies. A contractor crew are needed to visit it and collect sensitive data. A cultist spy on the crew signals a ship of maniacs to investigate the effect. Once the antenna crew realize a ship is moving in will request the couriers help them get there before the cultist who tries to sabotage everything
81 A cult operated colony sends a suicide squad to a trading post bay to damage local trade. They want the colony cut off from trade. Anyone who stops their attack is deemed a holy enemy
82 A mysterious trader arrives causing a commotion with advanced gimmicks and gadgets. He will trade rare advanced weapons in return for helping him open a trapped asteroid treasure bunker
83 A merchant believes a pirate crew will board him. He wants help to ambush the boarding team and take the pirate ship. The help get to keep the ship
84 A merchant is supplying belters prospecting a region but has been followed by someone so they want some adventurers to be back up
85 While on a long haul detect centuries old mega freighter in orbit around a exo planetoid
86 Colony has population all become brain borgs having put their brains in robot bodies, mostly industrial ones. The company want the plant and the robot bodies back
87 Asteroid rustlers have been intercepting roids fired across the system in a magnetic linear accelerator. The company want to know who and stop them
88 Some one has been hacking robotic engines that tow or push asteroids to refineries or crashed on moons. The criminal has misdirected them but could also weaponsise them
89 A colony is destroyed by terrorists making every colony on edge. United colonies put out a bounty on the the terrorist leader hiding in some belt outpost
90 A sleazy redlight station is a vice pit for belters. Criminal gangs are always scheming to take it over and all kinds of dirty jobs are available from dealers and agents here
91 An old prospector needs help after finding a secret pirate base by accident and he calls for help
92 The system militia fleet contact armed civilian ships in the area to assist them in rounding up pirate ships based on a asteroid
93 A important yacht disappeared with crew in a stretch of the asteroid belt and family offer a substantial reward
94 Someone overtook a colony and reprogrammed the citizens into dependable slave labour. Family from other colonies want them saved
95 A poor habitat has been towed on a collision path with a comet as hostages. A colony agent wants party to hide in the comet as it approaches then board the hab and move it out of the way.
96 A behavior modifying disease is used on a colony to soften it up for an attack. Visitors are witness to increasingly bizarre behaviour before the attack
97 Someone smuggled a biological combat construct as a parasite inside a stooge. The creature is intended to lock down the station while a rival faction take control in a coup
98 A pleasure colony needs investigators to find who is sabotaging the station. Someone or something has been reprogramming androids to kill important guests
99 A space casino has a beauty contest which criminals seek to kidnap the contestants to sell as clones for their brothels
100 A revolution breaks out against the ultra rich by common beater workers. The starport turns into a battlefield