Sci-fi Adventure Location Generator

It isn't until you see the wreck that you realize why space scares you. It's the silence. The stillness. It makes you think of hidden things, lurking things. Now you're wondering how many hideaways there are on that motionless metal goliath, storage lockers and ducts for all manner of things to crawl into and gestate. Biding their time. You shouldn't have come here. That icy trickle down your back tells you that you should have stayed planetside. But now you've got a job to do, and this silent metal tomb is here, before you, waiting.

Histories of the Blasted Lands

Noble penitents, pilgrims, and caravaneers seek to build hopeful societies on hills of bones, ignoring the feverish tales etched into dusty stone by starving vagrants who only faintly remember the madness that came before. The schemes of long-lost empires still play out, warped beyond recognition by the passage of time. The slumbering prison-bodies of Gods lurk deep beneath the earth, waiting to be awoken.
At a certain depth, history is no longer passive. It infects. It waits in the dark for the foolish to stumble upon it. Whatever the elders told you, ignorance is not the resting state of the human mind, it is a defense mechanism, a mental martial art honed by generations in order to forget histories of madness and exploitation, the kind of trauma that scars the faces of worlds.

(Each variable has ~40 results, but the table only chooses from 12 of them. The number of "centuries ago" modifies which set of 12 results the table chooses from, making it seem like history is moving through different periods with their own themes. The limit is ~40 centuries in, where it'll start giving you a pre-creation response message.)

Centuries ago:

0

Mothership, Dead Planet: Derelict Ships Generator

(This is the automated version of the Derelict Ship Generator from the brilliant module, Mothership, Dead Planet.)

Spirits of the Blasted Lands

All the travelers and penitents of the Blasted Lands know to venerate the Spirits, for they are the unseen magisters of all that is. Rulers of the places between spaces, they make the waters flow and chart the paths of sun, moon, and stars throughout the sky.

THIS SPIRIT APPEARS AS

1 a gaunt
2 a shrouded
3 a twisted
4 a withered
5 a transparent
6 a spindly
7 a ragged
8 a gaseous
9 a ghostly
10 a rippling
11 a shimmering
12 an obscured
13 an ominous
14 a droning
15 a jittering
16 an uncanny
17 a terrible
18 a grim
19 a diseased
20 an undead

1 floating humanoid
2 form of fluttering rags
3 amalgam of light
4 cloud of gloom
5 sculpture of driftwood
6 bone carving
7 fractal pattern
8 constellation
9 obscure shape
10 fractal form
11 flickering of unclear limbs
12 old man
13 old woman
14 child
15 silhouette
16 tumorous mass
17 spindly humanoid
18 coil of smoke
19 corpse
20 hole in spacetime

WITH

1 a magnificent set of antlers
2 countless eyes
3 hanging dreamcatchers
4 a hangman noose
5 a constant, eerie grimace
6 hanging bells, ringing (dolefully, balefully, joyously)
7 four arms constantly folded in prayer
8 (number) constantly spinning orbs of (color) fire
9 piercing eyes
10 a symbol, painted in blood, that hurts your eyes
11 a clock face that keeps time
12 electricity sparking throughout
13 runes and symbols skittering across its surface
14 a mysterious mask
15 a collection of hanging locks made of different metals
16 a collection of hanging keys made of different metals
17 a collection of ancient tomes
18 an array of floating candles
19 a cloak of mist
20 tiny, constantly fidgeting hands

THAT IS FEELING

1 disapproving.
2 inquisitive.
3 instructive.
4 gravely insulted.
5 concerned.
6 pensive.
7 watchful.
8 stoic.
9 tranquil.
10 enigmatic.
11 troubled.
12 puzzled.
13 lonely.
14 alert.
15 restful.
16 meditative.
17 mournful.
18 reminiscent.
19 capricious.
20 utterly beyond your comprehension.

IT WAS ONCE TASKED WITH

1 making the rivers flow.
2 weaving light.
3 guiding the moon through the sky.
4 translating messages from the stars.
5 curating the silent spaces between moments.
6 putting meanings to words.
7 remembering everything.
8 making the leaves fall.
9 appearing before those who are about to face grave danger.
10 shepherding the dead into the afterlife.
11 watching over a settlement.
12 watching over an area of wilderness.
13 enforcing ancient law.
14 observing everything.
15 opposing all change.
16 causing chaos.
17 hiding secrets away from prying eyes.
18 misleading people.
19 hastening the heat death of the universe.
20 battling entropy.

YOU WILL KNOW IT DRAWS NEAR WHEN

1 the moon hangs low and appears to writhe with maggots.
2 flowers bloom and turn to face a single direction.
3 birds begin to laugh with human voices.
4 small objects begin to defy gravity.
5 your hair stands on end and the air tastes like metal.
6 your vision distorts and tunnels.
7 you hear far-off static.
8 technology malfunctions.
9 written words squirm and writhe in pain.
10 water runs upward.
11 smoke drifts downward and forms into twisted faces.
12 plants begin to wither and die.
13 the wind smells like brimstone.
14 minor events begin to run in reverse.
15 the sun darkens in the sky.
16 stars scatter across the sky like fireflies.
17 etherial music danges on the air.
18 you experience deja vu.
19 colors fade to gray.
20 your thoughts move in alien ways.

IN ITS PRESENCE, YOU MUST NEVER

1 speak above a whisper
2 eat
3 drink
4 ask questions
5 interrupt anyone
6 harm a living thing
7 speak a name
8 allow there to be a moment of silence
9 display any writing
10 look up at the sky
11 speak in the past tense
12 speak unkindly
13 reference the future
14 show your face
15 waste time
16 allow anything you're holding to hit the ground
17 make use of even the simplest technology
18 allow your shadow to cross another
19 stray from the path
20 disagree

OR ELSE

1 you will be struck dumb.
2 you will age (number) years.
3 you can never speak above a whisper.
4 you will become illiterate.
5 you will be traumatized by the profound meaninglessness of existence.
6 you will be stricken with hallucinations.
7 you will experience crushing despair.
8 you will forget your most precious memories.
9 you will lose all motivation for your current goal.
10 you will lose all sense of direction.
11 small animals will abhor you from now on.
12 all of civilized society will shun you.
13 technology will never work for you.
14 you will only hear lies when people speak to you.
15 you will be consumed by never-ending thirst.
16 you will age twice as fast.
17 all will forget your name, including you.
18 all your plans shall fail.
19 you will draw the ire of unseen, sinister beings.
20 you shall be stricken from all history.

Multifarious Mutated Monstrosities

They lurk within the crevices of these lands, emerging to howl at moons that do not exist, stringing up the guts of heroes foolish enough to hunt them, devouring entire villages due to ceaseless hunger. They carve swathes through histories. Travelers swap tales of death given teeth and claws, and the stories become stranger with every telling. The tales are all true, in the very worst of ways.



You find this creature

It is feeling

It is

With

That can

Long ago, this creature

can be carved from its corpse.

YOU FIND THIS CREATURE

1 hidden in a ravine, licking its wounds.
2 perched above an unsuspecting traveler, about to ambush.
3 being trained by a DISREPUTABLE WASTELAND WIZARD.
4 being hunted by RAMBUNCTIOUS APOCALYPTIC OUTLAWS.
5 fighting another BEAST.
6 fighting a DERELICT DESERTED DREADNOUGHT.
7 terrorizing a small settlement.
8 marking its territory by lining it with human guts.
9 trying to reach a hapless traveler who has hidden in a tiny crevice.
10 howling at the sky, mourning its dead mate.
11 mortally wounded, looking for one last thing to take its anger out upon.
12 molting its skin.
13 mutating into an even more hideous form.
14 seriously ill, vomiting black tar.
15 covering itself in entrails.
16 talking to itself.
17 starving and searching for its next meal.
18 growing in size.
19 treed, surrounded by advanced military forces sent to eradicate it for good.
20 on the cusp of evolving into a mind-bending eldritch horror.

IT IS FEELING

1 voracious.
2 rabid.
3 fearful.
4 territorial.
5 ferocious.
6 inquisitive.
7 exhausted.
8 inferior.
9 anxious.
10 unsure of itself.
11 suspicious.
12 greedy.
13 bloodthirsty.
14 confused.
15 content.
16 drowsy.
17 suicidal.
18 paranoid.
19 proud.
20 social.

IT IS

1 a massive black wasp
2 a writhing pale worm
3 a terribly thin, stringy ape
4 a massive, musclebound elephantine biped
5 a serpent with no beginning or end
6 a giant amoeba
7 a tardegrade the size of an actual bear
8 a gestalt swarm of chipmunks or other such small woodland rodents
9 a giant maw on comically small legs
10 a blur of hair, teeth, and claws
11 a giant monkey twisted into a spider shape.
12 a tangled mess of varied limbs.
13 an abhorrent mass of tentacles with beautiful moth wings.
14 an ever-changing mass of chaotic genes.
15 a knot of writhing muscle sinews.
16 a liquefied blog of sinew and muscle.
17 a twisted, scarred humanoid.
18 a shapeless amalgam of hundreds of mouths.
19 a massive cloud of tiny insects..
20 a shapeshifter that copies anyone it sees.

WITH

1 a detachable floating face
2 thousands of tiny insectile legs
3 contagious genes (lycanthropy)
4 a symbiotic relationship with a hive of bees (obscured by bee cloud)
5 a psionic membrane that magic rolls off of like water
6 highly toxic blood
7 a mane of blue flame
8 eyes that glow like red stars
9 saliva that prevents wounds from closing
10 a roar that triggers specific panic responses in sentient beings’ brains
11 a hidden stinger that instantly kills both it and the victim if it stings something.
12 countless quills that it can fire like bolts.
13 an ever-changing fractal form.
14 the ever present stench of thousands of rotten corpses.
15 seven prehensile squid tentacles.
16 magnificent, speartip-sharp antlers.
17 chitinous insectile plates.
18 spider legs growing from its orifices.
19 grasshopper legs able to jump dozens of times its length.
20 a charming, genteel voice and a fondness for intellectual conversation (before it kills you).

THAT CAN

1 spew forth clouds of burning ash.
2 emit hyper-allergic dust.
3 emit blinding flashes of light from hidden photopores.
4 eat anything organic.
5 spit forth a tiny clone of itself upon death that tries to escape.
6 keep a victim paralyzed if it can hold their gaze.
7 constantly chant psionic nonsense poetry that confuses sentient prey.
8 become a blind spot in sentient creatures' vision for short periods of time.
9 climb on walls and ceilings.
10 fit itself into impossibly small spaces.
11 can wreathe itself in mist and become nearly invisible.
12 instantly incorporate eaten flesh and bone into itself.
13 spit acid.
14 spew forth magma.
15 emit hallucinogenic gas.
16 shapeshift into your loved ones.
17 bleed small insects.
18 alter local gravity.
19 turn metal into sand.
20 hover eerily.

LONG AGO, THIS CREATURE

1 destroyed an entire ecosystem with its ceaseless hunger.
2 outwitted a famous band of beast hunters and left their corpses for all to see.
3 devoured a spirit and digested its essence and powers.
4 was a tiny normal animal that fell into a Mutation Vat.
5 was a tormented lab experiment that managed to escape.
6 became a target of a sentient mutagen virus that wanted to morph it into the perfect host.
7 was worshipped as a guardian of a tribe that lived in its territory.
8 systematically eradicated an entire civilization.
9 was a tiny normal animal that was bombarded by intense radiation.
10 was released from captivity by a human who later became its friend.
11 bonded with a human, who betrayed it. It will never make the same mistake again.
12 accidentally saved an important human leader, after which they became friends.
13 was Summoned by a foolish wizard who it immediately devoured.
14 crossed into our world across a bridge between dimensions.
15 escaped the slumbering mind of a dreaming God.
16 emerged, fully formed, from a pile of unstable radioactive mutagenic ooze.
17 served as the symbol for a warlike nation who respected its power and deadliness.
18 was a wizard whose experiment went horribly, horribly wrong.
19 was engineered as a biological war machine by a long-lost civilization.
20 Was exiled from its own dimension

AND

1 an ever-beating heart
2 a gallstone that serves as panacea
3 bones stronger than steel
4 teeth sharper than blades
5 a petrified fetal twin
6 guts that writhe like snakes
7 an eye filled with timeless pain
8 highly explosive bile
9 a tiny budded copy of itself
10 hide stronger than steel plate
11 venom that is so deadly it can kill ideas
12 brains with high thaumic potential
13 a densely encoded genetic cipher
14 an advanced weapon from a devoured beast hunter
15 a priceless relic from a long dead civilization
16 a liver holding the accumulated toxins of hundreds of years of indiscriminate devouring
17 regenerative but addictive blood
18 tallow that burns for centuries
19 cancerous tumors that induce mutations when eaten
20 a key to a long forgotten treasure

CAN BE HARVESTED FROM ITS CORPSE.

This table was made with assistance from the excellent Goat Wizard from the OSR Discord!

d36 Automated Encounter Complications

Made this table out of overlapping sticky notes on my DM screen. It looks very janky, but it works pretty well, so I decided to automate it. When I end up making biome posts for the blasted lands I will most likely expand this further with subtables and then create a version of this for each of the biomes.

1 Terrain shifts dangerously.
             1 Sinkhole/cave-in from below.
             2  Rockfall/treefall/collapse from above.
             3  A new hazard appears.
             4  An unseen hazard becomes triggered.
             5  Dangerous weather or gas effect begins.
             6  Utter catastrophe, entire surrounding area is falling apart.
2 Terrain shifts dynamically.
             1 New difficult terrain appears.
             2 New obstacle appears.
             3 Existing obstacle is removed.
             4 A new point of interest appears.
             5 A hidden area is revealed.
             6 Hidden loot is revealed.
3 Enemy changes.
             1 Simple mutation.
             2 They use a hidden item.
             3 They unleash hidden powers.
             4 They display sudden ferocity/heroism.
             5 They recieve a boon/reward from their god.
             6 They decide to flee.
4 Wandering monster appears.
             1 Scavenger looking to clean up scraps.
             2 Scavenger looking to fight the wounded winners.
             3 The enemies' natural predator.
             4 The PCs' natural predator.
             5 A truly coincidental random encounter.
             6 The apex predator of the region.
5 An enemy appears.
             1 Reinforcements/more of the existing foes.
             2 An ally of the enemies.
             3 A bounty hunter with a bounty on the PCs.
             4 A familiar evil npc.
             5 An evil adventuring party.
             6 The alpha of the pack or leader of the organization, with their retinue.
6 A potential ally appears.
             1 Law enforcement of the region, attracted by commotion.
             2 An enemy of the enemy appears.
             3 A bounty hunter with a bounty on the enemy.
             4 A small neutral adventuring party.
             5 Friendly familiar npc.
             6 Friendly adventuring party.