To make anything very terrible, obscurity seems in general to be necessary. When we know the full extent of any danger, when we can accustom our eyes to it, a great deal of the apprehension vanishes.
—Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
What follows is a roll all the dice apocalypse generator. I designed it primarily as a tool to help create atmosphere and structure challenges for a new campaign, but it could also be used for entries on an event table, if you like to watch the world burn and were so inclined. Just drop the 1d4 component, or replace it with some other determination, such as the changed color of sunlight in the brave broken world of tomorrow or the pattern of fissures spreading over the moon.
To sketch the outlines of an apocalypse, use the following six determinations. Since indicates for how long the apocalypse has obtained. Cause indicates what precipitated the apocalypse. Obtenebration indicates what conceals the ruined world from the view of mortals. Monsters indicate what still lurks in the wilds. Redoubt indicates where humanity endures. Doom indicates the immediate nature of destruction.
Or? Maybe your players found a portal. This is where it leads.
Since (1d4)
- As long as anyone can remember
- Terminating the previous cycle of empire
- Three generations past
- Yesterday and ongoing
Cause (1d6)
- Reckless wicked sorcery
- Final war
- Primordial monsters unchained
- Divine judgment of human hubris
- Imprudent excavation
- Extra-dimensional incursion
Obtenebration (1d8)
- Smoke and noxious gasses
- Boundless fog
- Extinguished sun and endless night
- Perpetual eclipse
- Storms of blood, slime, or ash
- Snow and ice
- Submarine: drowned world or under the ocean
- Inhospitable void: wilderness is outer space or Ptolemaic firmament
Monsters (1d10)
- Embodied divinities
- Restless dead
- Inscrutable giants
- Avenging angels
- Possessed animals, people, or objects
- Fears and nightmares made flesh
- Mass delirium, lunacy, or madness
- Gigantic, fecund fauna and flora
- Legions of hell
- Robots
Redoubt (1d12)
- None remain
- One final, fortified settlement
- Arc designed to preserve humanity
- One small village strangely untouched
- Isolated walled towns
- Underground bunkers
- Dungeon level one: waste above and underworld below
- Abandoned castle
- Wizard’s seclusium
- Ship run aground
- Small nomadic camps
- Huts clustered around a lighthouse, bonfire, or hoard of lanterns
Doom (1d20)
- Restless fault lines
- Ancient war machines unleashed
- Colossal monsters rampage
- Pestilence
- Plague of locusts
- Vanished sun
- Falling stars
- Land of the dead annexes the realm of mortals
- Invasion of extra-dimensional beings
- Flood
- Sky flooded by the parching rays of nine incessant suns
- Armageddon bombs
- Volcanic eruptions and rivers of magma
- Poisoned, blighted land
- Sunlight turns mortals to stone
- Reign of Satan
- Feral beasts
- Season of dragons
- Drought, famine, and mass starvation
- Playground of gods
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