dfd hack

Disclaimer: I have never played or run Death Frost Doom. I have never even read it.

But it seems like a pretty good way to start a campaign so here is

Ian’s
BLIND D.F.D. HACK CAMPAIGN KICKER GENERATOR

A.K.A outline for a dungeon where a catastrophic force is held at bay until the PCs release it accidentally.

FORCE. Broad types of things that could be released by the party exploring this dungeon:

1 - Huge Army or Horde (skeletons, space troopers, terracotta soldiers)

2 - Solitary Hunter or Predator (alien, dracula, Bengal tiger)

3 - Spreading Plague or Infestation (mutagens, rage virus, undead curse)

4 - Massive Beast or Monster (Tarrasque, dragon, Mononoke nightwalker)

5 - Mindless Eater or Devourer (The Blob, black hole)

6 - Disaster or Cataclysm (San Andreas, superstorm, wildfire)

(Last Gasp’d with a bunch of adjectives here)

EXAMPLES BECAUSE YOU’RE IN A HURRY

1. Skeleton Army
2. Volcanic giant
3. Ubermensch from the past (Khan...or evil Captain America)
4. Rage virus
5. Self-replicating nanobots
6. Sphere of Annihilation
7. Shai-Hulud
8. Army of Decepticons
9. Dinosaurs
10. Smaug
11. A Nuke
12. Mutant spider horde led by 666 driders
13. Count Orlok
14. Lunar Leprosy
15. A humming, floating golden sphere with the Midas touch
16. Minotaur with adamantium endoskeleton
17. Anti-Oberon
18. Cyclopean mechas
19. The Pacific Rim portal
20. Psychic child experiment No. 28

CONTAINMENT. The force is:

1. Behind locked door, nearby guardian has key
2. Simply forgotten, anyone finding it can open
3. Kept in stasis/slumber by a spell effect
4. Not existent yet; opening “containment” creates force
5. In a battle with an equal, opposite force
6. Behind a guarded seal
7. Buried deep
8. Contained in dangerous terrain, like an island in lava
9. Lost in a confusing place
10. Not contained, but a ward keeps it benign

Some of these don't make sense so use your brain (how can an earthquake get lost?). You gotta figure out a way the PCs can trip the containment that would not necessarily be a horrible idea for them. Put treasure behind it, or the damn exit to whatever hellhole they’re stuck in.

HOW THEY BEHAVE ONCE THEY’RE OUT

1 - Army or Horde will cut a swathe of destruction towards whatever target they seek - usually for revenge or power. Settlements and resources in between are taken over, used or destroyed, unless the army has particular reasons to ignore them.

2 - Solitary Hunter or Predator will remain hidden around groups, usually travelling to a place where they can hunt without interference. Intelligent hunters may have more lofty goals and machinations.

3 - Plague or Infestation spreads in all directions amongst food sources, more quickly among population centers, slower in sparse areas

4 - Massive Beast behaves similar to an army, but mostly just destroys everything in its path. Often driven by hunger or hatred of cities.

5 - Mindless Devourer follows food, growing and spreading arbitrarily depending on what it eats.

6 - The Disaster or Cataclysm quickly fills and ruins the local area and generally doesn’t spread, though “local” can mean dozens of hexes, or an entire ocean.

Ideally this means within the first couple sessions the world is changing significantly for the worse because of something the PCs did