Philosophia Reformata (source)

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

I release the contents of this post under the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0) license. It is available as a PDF for ease of offline use and printing; see downloads page.