WB Chapter 1 - Galaxies Step1 Classification

Step 1:
To determine the type of Galaxy you will eventually end up in roll on 1d100

1-12 - Galaxy is of Irregular shape. You will find very little amount of planets orbiting stars in this type.

13-28 - Galaxy is of Elliptical type. Very few planets orbit stars and the stars found here are older (Population II) than other types so add an age modifier to the system of +5

29-94 - You rolled a Spiral Galaxy. Because Spiral Galaxies are the main focus of this guide they will be more complicated than the other types but you can still use the other types for your planet just make sure to take notes on the different properties.

95-100 - NONE. This type isn't really a type a system can be rogue and not have any Galaxy to belong to. It may still be in a Globular Cluster or any other formation, maybe even none. These setups tend to be very unstable and generally after some time being rogue the system will fall apart and will be unable to support planets. It is Dim and very cold in these systems.

If you have a Spiral Type roll a 1d10. If you land between 1-5 then the Spiral has a bar through the center (Barred Spiral) or if you happened to get 6-10 then you have a Normal Spiral.

Now you need to give your Galaxy a classification. Ellipticals are shown with a capital E and a number after wards between 0 and 7 so roll 1d8-1 the number corresponds to its eccentricity with 0 being a perfect (almost) shere and 7 being extremely elliptical. Irregulars are just known as Ir.

If you rolled for a spiral then the path splits off into different directions each for the Normal Spiral and the Barred Spiral. Each fork is represented with an S for spiral and they both have the letter designations a-c, a meaning very tight arms and a large bulge with Population II Stars in the Bulge all the way to c with loose arms and a smaller bulge with Population I Stars in the Bulge. But the Barred Spirals also have a further designation B this designates it a Barred Spiral, example SBa would be a tightly wound Barred Spiral Galaxy. So roll a 1d3 and each number corresponds to a b or c.

For the spirals there is further breakdown of the shape of the spiral arms. You will find the Grand Design Spiral Arms which are prominent and well defined they usually are accompanied with 2 spiral arms. While Flocculent on the other hand have Patchy and discontinuous arms. 10% of all Spirals are Grand and 30% are Flocculent while the rest are multi armed being very similar to Grand Design but having a multitude more arms.

Roll a 1d10 - If 1-2 your Galaxy has Grand Design with 2 arms, if you rolled onto 3-5 then it is Flocculent and has no real discernible arms, if you landed between 6-10 then you have a multi armed setup - Roll a 1d10+2 for the amount of arms Exclude numbers that are not power of 2 e.g. 3,5,7,9,11.

E.G. I rolled a 41 so my galaxy is of the Spiral type with a roll of 4 which makes it a Barred Spiral and a roll of 2 which makes my Galaxy a SBb with a Medium Bulge and Population I and II Stars in the Bulge. My Galaxy is multi armed and has 8 Arms.

In the next article we will go into details on the different locations in a spiral galaxy and then Step 2 for those with Spiral Galaxies.