Occurrence Border Random Encounters

Occurrence Border Random Event Tables

If you for whatever reason want to let the dice decide your fate, here are a number of lovely random tables, intended for use with Dark Heresy 1e. You can let the dice entirely decide your fate, by rolling to see how many rolls you make on which tables, or you can pick a table that meets your specific needs and roll a few times. Or just pick something you like the look of. Note that the default assumption is that rolls which are modified out-of-bounds (IE, rolls modified below 1, or above 100,) are discounted, and considered a temporary reprieve from the Emperor/Omnissiah. Exceptions are noted below.

Master Random Events Table

If you want to leave everything, including the nature, severity, and complicating factors of your encounter to chance, start by rolling 1d100 and consulting this table, for a truly random encounter.

• 01-33: Roll on the Ship Problems Table with a -10 modifier.
• 33-40: Roll on the Ship Problems Table.
• 41-45: Roll twice on the Ship Problems Table with a -10 modifier to the first roll, and a -20 modifier to the second.
• 45-50: Roll on the Ship Problems Table with a -10 modifier, and on the Warp Problems Table with a -20 modifier.
• 51-60: Roll twice on the Ship Problems Table with no modifier and a -10 modifier, and once on the Warp Problems Table with a -10 modifier.
• 61-66: Roll on the Ship Problems Table, and flip the digits if the result is equal to or below 50. (IE, 49 becomes 94.) Treat any doubles (11, 22 ... 88) as being in the 90s. (IE, 33 becomes 93, 55 becomes 95, etc.)
• 67-80: Roll on the Warp Problems Table with a -10 modifier.
• 81-85: Roll on the Warp Problems Table.
• 86-90: Roll twice on the Warp Problems Table with a -10 modifier to the first roll, and a -20 modifier to the second.
• 91-93: Roll on the Warp Problems Table, and on the Ship Problems Table.
• 94-96: Roll twice on the Warp Problems Table with no modifier and a -10 modifier, and once on the Ship Problems Table with a +10 bonus.
• 97-99: Roll on the Warp Problems Table, and flip the digits if the result is equal to or below 50. (IE, 49 becomes 94.) Treat any doubles (11, 22 ... 88) as being in the 90s. (IE, 33 becomes 93, 55 becomes 95, etc.)
• 100: Demand a number from 1-100 from one player, then make another player flip a coin. Heads: Ship Problems Table, Tails: Warp Problems Table.

Occurrence Border Random Encounter Tables

These tables are separated into three levels of severity, to give you an idea just how deep the shit you're in is about to get.

Ship Problems Table		Warp Problems Table
Routine		Routine
01-20:	Gravity Issues	01-40:	Whispers of the Warp
21-40:	Warning Sticker Issues	41-50:	Minor Warp-spawn
40-60:	Navigational Hazards	51-60:	Possessed Equipment
61-70:	Minor Equipment Fault	61-70:	Departed Acquaintances Room
Problematic		Problematic
71-75:	Xeno-Tech Issues	71-75:	Doorway to the Warp
76-80:	Krootoid Outbreak	71:	Tentacle Beast
81-85:	Major Equipment Fault	72:	Fire Pit
86-90:	Cracked Crewman	73:	The Poo Door
BY THE EMPEROR/OMNISSIAH!		74:	Daemonettes
91-93:	Major Krootoid Outbreak	75:	Something New
94-96:	Major Xeno-Tech Issue	76-80:	Possessed Servitor
97-99:	Critical Equipment Fault	80-85:	Moderate Warp-Spawn
100:	Treason	86-90:	Unreality Zone
		BY THE EMPEROR/OMNISSIAH!
		91-94:	Warp Terrain
		95-97:	Weird Manifestation
		98:	Cogtain Issues
		99:	Heresy
		100:	Daemonhost

Gravity Issues

"Down" relative to the ship is a direction of 180° and facing the prow of the ship - IE, 0° would be pulling 'up,' 180° is normal, 90° would put your feet on the starboard bulkhead, and 270 would put you on the port bulkhead.

Many areas on the Occurence Border have some gravitational issues associated with them. If the DM wants to establish a different 'norm' in an area than usual, he may consider rolling 1d100+130 to generate a gravitational pull which averages to the usual but can vary wildly. For a number which will be statistically closer to the norm of 180 but can still vary significantly, consider rolling 4d10+158.

Notes: Results of 1-45 are applied cumulatively. If the gravity shifts suddenly and abruptly, everyone, from the lowliest Rating to a Daemon Prince, finds this very disorienting. Everyone is at a -10 penalty to all actions, unless the gravity suddenly shifts 45° or more in one go, in which case they are at a -30 penalty.

Results of 46-80 are applied abruptly. This is highly disorienting, causing everyone to take a -30 penalty in the round in which the gravity strength changes, cumulative in addition to any penalties they would be suffering for the new gravitational pull. Gravity's a bitch, and the bigger you are, the harder it pulls.

If a result of 81-95 is rolled, continue to re-roll and apply effects.

The Gravity...

• 01-20: Pulls in the wrong direction at normal strength.
  • 01-05: Is offset -45°. Under otherwise normal conditions, this orients to 135° (Down-Starboard.)
  • 06-10: Is offset +45°. Under otherwise normal conditions, this orients to 225° (Down-Port.)
  • 11-15: Is offset -20° Fore-Aft. Under otherwise normal conditions, moving towards the bow is an uphill hike.
  • 16-20: Is offset +20° Fore-Aft. Under otherwise normal conditions, moving towards the stern is an uphill hike.

• 21-45: Shifts cardinally in the wrong direction, at normal strength.
  • 21-25: Is offset -90°. Under otherwise normal conditions, this orients to 90°. The starboard wall is now the deck.
  • 26-30: Is offset +90°. Under otherwise normal conditions, this orients to 270°. The port wall is now the deck.
  • 31-35: Is offset 180°. Under otherwise normal conditions, this orients to 360°. The ceiling is now the deck.
  • 36-40: Is offset -90° Fore-Aft. Under otherwise normal conditions, the aft wall is now the deck.
  • 41-45: Is offset +90° Fore-Aft. Under otherwise normal conditions, the fore wall is now the deck.

• • 46-80: Has strength issues.
  • 46-55: Is between 0.25g and 0.5g. Low Gravity Modifiers (Page 213, Core) are in effect. This is -10 difficult terrain.
  • 56-60: Is between 0.01g and 0.1g. Triple the effects of Low Gravity. This is -30 difficult terrain.
  • 61-70: Is between 1.5g and 2g. High Gravity Modifiers (Page 213, Core,) are in effect. This is -10 difficult terrain.
  • 71-75: Is between 3g and 3.5g. Triple the effects of High Gravity. This is -30 difficult terrain.
  • 76-80: Is less than 0.001g. There is effectively no gravity whatsoever. This is -30 difficult terrain.

• 81-90: Has two distinct problems. Roll twice on this chart.
• 91-95: Has three distinct problems. Roll thrice on this chart.

• 96-100: Gravity shifts frequently.
  • Every round in combat (or every narratively-relevant interval of non-combat time,) roll again on this table. Roll at the start of combat rounds. Rolls of 96-100 indicate the problem is getting worse; roll an additional time on the table for each time this result is reached. Should this reach the point where the GM would be rolling more than three times per round, the poor overloaded gravity generators give out, leaving the entire compartment in microgravity. Frankly, this may come as something of a relief.

Warning Sticker Issues

There are lots and lots of warning notices around the Occurrence Border, a great many of them enshrined as bronze plaques, the rest in the form of the sticky notes that every Engineer worth his salt (and by now, probably more than a few of the Tech-Priests) carries with him. They can also be painted on the walls, and everyone on this ship, from the Captain down to the newest Rating, has it pounded into their head from day 1 that you scorn the advice of these notes at your own great peril. In this case, though, something's off about the notes...

• 01-55: Unclear Notes pervade this area. Instead of explanations, the best you can hope for is a "Do not touch" or "Don't forget to ..." note. Perhaps no-one alive actually knows why this warning is here, and have just maintained warnings that were left by previous generations. Tech-Use to interact with the ship in this area is at a -10 penalty unless the notes can be clarified.

• 56-80: Incomplete/Misleading Warning Stickers: The warning stickers here are very unhelpful. They might be so old as to be visibly faded and soiled, rendering their accuracy dubious regardless of how clear the note, they might be written in obscure jargon requiring careful scrutiny to work out, they might only say "Call Bill!" In the worst cases, they may reference crew who are no longer aboard the Occurrence Border. Tech-Use to interact with the ship in this area is at a -20 penalty unless the notes can be clarified.

• 81-95: Missing, illegible, or otherwise inscrutable Warning Stickers. The warning stickers here are either absent entirely, or so obtuse, arcane, illegible, or otherwise unhelpful as to be altogether irrelevant. Tech-Use to interact with the ship in this area is at a -30 penalty unless the notes (if they exist at all,) are clarified, or someone who knows the section in detail is contacted.

• 96-100: Malevolant Warning Stickers: The stickers in this section are not merely misleading, they're actively hostile to the ship and its crew. Perhaps they were tampered with by a saboteur, a mean-spirited drunk on a bender, or even the forces of Chaos, twisting the information on the notes passively during Warp transit. Perhaps they're simply so old that they predate the ship's last retrofit, or even its last two or three, and what was once good information is now literally the worst. Either way, attempting any Tech-Use rolls to interact with the ship in this area will cause Bad Things to happen, like a hatch to one of the sealed, tainted areas to spring open, gravity to suddenly invert or vanish, a black-water line to begin spraying into the compartment at firehose pressure, a neighboring compartment to vent, or fill with plasma, a major ship system to go offline, etc. If the GM doesn't want to decide, he can always roll for another random event and have the result lie in wait until someone tries to manipulate the ship...

Navigational Hazards

Navigational hazards are seldom an entire problem in and of themselves, but they tend to complicate things - usually, getting to your destination, but they could also complicate another random hazard.

• 01-25: You Can't Get There from Here. Such is the state of the ship that, to put it quite plainly, you cannot chart anything approaching a reasonable route to your destination from your location. It might be literally separated from you by just one bulkhead, or it might be on the other side or end of the ship, but you can't get there from here. If you want to reach your destination, you must chart a circuitous or otherwise non-intuitive route. You'll get there, eventually, barring some non-euclidian geometry (which is not only possibly but entirely probable on this ship,) but it will take you a while. Increase the time to arrive at your destination by 60% over what a reasonable arrival time would be. A Navigation test is called for, with each degree of success reducing the time penalty by 10%. Failures can actually increase your arrival time, as even less-efficient routes are plotted, or the navigator gets lost. But look on the bright side: anyone may treat Navigation as a Basic Skill on the Occurrence Border.

• 26-50: Unexpected Obstruction. Something unexpected obstructs your route. It may be that a corridor you were planning to use has been vented to space, flushed with hot plasma, or has been filled with wall-to-wall servitors. Extremely intensive maintenence may be taking place, or the ship's Armsmen may be fighting a battle with minor daemons. A hatch may have slammed shut and broken shut. Either way, delay is inevitable, whether you go through, or backtrack and go around. Barring an unusual ability to resolve the obstruction (joining the armsmen in battle, tip-toeing through the repair work, putting on voidsuits and traversing the voided corridor, etc,) a 25% increase in travel time hits you unexpectedly and unavoidably.

• 51-75: Gravity hazard strikes suddenly and without forewarning. Maybe the section you were attempting to traverse had an unmarked gravity anomaly, maybe it just developed, possibly while you were in the corridor. This could be dangerous, but the upshot is that it might not slow you down much, and might even give you a speed boost (if the corridor you need to traverse becomes a nice easy downhill jog,) assuming you can pass it without being injured. Roll on the Gravity Issues Table and apply the effects without warning.

• 76-90: Mundane Weirdness. The terrain becomes appallingly weird as you traverse the ship. You might encounter a corridor which has unexpectedly become a snowy wonderland (or an icy hellscape.) You might encounter a room where cooking grease from the ship's kitchens has gushed en masse, and then been stirred up by gravitational fluctuations, or a corridor where the hull plates are buzzing and snapping with electricity. Either way, traversing this corridor is gonna be hard.

• 91-100: Warpy Weirdness. If you're flying on the Occurrence Border, then Warp phenomena can become just another navigational hazard. Roll on the Warp Problems Table, re-rolling any result of 76 or greater. This is just the shit you have to deal with getting to the problem you were heading to deal with!

Minor, Major, and Critical Equipment Faults

Things go wrong on a warpship, this is a given fact of life, any ship, any crew. This, however, is the Occurrence freaking Border. Roll some dice, generate some faults, figure out how to deal with it. Warning: Supply your own technobabble!

Unlike the other tables, on this table, rolls modified out-of-bounds are re-rolled. Minor equipment faults reroll any result of 70+, and apply a -1 modifier to the Problem table. Major Equipment Failures do not apply any modifiers. Critical equipment failures reroll any Equipment roll of 70 or lower.

In all cases, any result that would result in utter annihilation to the ship, such as the Gellar Field becoming or even likely becoming completely inoperable during warp transit, should be rerolled.

Equipment (1d100)		Problem (1d10)
01-10:	Illumination	1:	Working Strangely or intermittently. (Lights on weird cycle, comm cycles randomly, etc.)
11-20:	Temperature	2:	Not working hard enough.
21-30:	Lockers	3:	Working too hard.
31-40:	Comms	4:	Damaging itself.
41-50:	Cogitators	5:	Damaging other equipment.
51-60:	Lifts	6:	Creating a hazard.
61-65:	Moving Walkway	7:	Stopped working.
65-70:	Bulkhead Hatches	8:	Booby-Trapped.
71-75:	Atmosphere Generation	9:	Broke.
76-80:	Atmosphere Circulation	10:	Broke and needs new parts.
81-85:	Weapons
86-90:	Sublight Drives
91-95:	Warp Drives
96-100:	Gellar Field Generator

Once you've determined your problem, you need to figure out what, why, and how to fix it. So, for example, you might roll for a random major equipment fault and get rolls of 74 and 4, indicating that the atmosphere generation somewhere on the ship (presumably, either a location which your PCs are heading to, or passing by,) is damaging itself. So you tell the players that there's reports of inexplicable damage in the life support systems in the area, buying yourself time to cook up some technobabble and a cause. In this case, you might say that the cause is that some rating saw a cable hanging from the ceiling fly loose from a socket in the wall and plugged it back in, not realizing that the cable, being non-keyed, could be inserted incorrectly into the socket. As a result, charge is running through the life support systems with the electrical flow reversed. Thanks to the necessarily hardy nature of Imperial engineering, the equipment is still functional, but it won't be if this state of affairs goes on for much longer, because the reversed electron flow is causing shorts in the equipment, arcing bolts of electricity between metal parts deep inside the guts, burning out motors, and threatening to start a lovely electrical fire.