A Gonzo Science Fantasy Adventure Game
This project is maintained by Transcendent-Tapir
Distorted Domains takes place in a broken universe that’s organized into different Domains. Each Domain will have a theme, and they can vary in size from nearly infinite to a single building. There is no official canon for Distorted Domains, or put another way, all Domains and adventures are officially a part of the infinite number of Domains that make up the universe.
Travel between domains tends to be rare, and could take many forms. Technologically advanced gates, magical portals, sailing ships going through the void, an interdimensional phone booth, a dangerous trek through the mist, a long walk along a rainbow, mysterious doors leading to an infinite hallway, a rainbow bridge that magically appears where you need it to. Any or all of these could be true. You can also choose not to address it at all and the players can simply show up where they are needed.
A glowing crystal tower that rises to the skies from the ocean floor. The water around it turns to vapor. At the bottom is a thriving city full of aquatic mammals run by the orca mafia. Inside lies only mystery.
A space station orbiting a black hole beyond its event horizon. The layout feels ever shifting and time can move faster or slower depending on what room you’re in. The station is occupied by sentient dinosaurs who have no recollection of who built the station or how they got there.
A village in an acidic swamp with carnivorous trees. People mostly live in huts raised above the deadly water. The wildlife is large and dangerous. Nearby is a cave constantly emitting black smoke. You will see giant insects, amphibians, and reptiles that the denizens have learned to avoid or live along side of.
A dieselpunk city on the shell of a snail dragon traversing the cosmos. Get a drink at a speakeasy with an octopus bartender, steal from a warehouse staffed by foxes and wolves, get hunted down by a robot PI, make a deal with a catfish mobster.
Badlands with settlements built around the ruins of ancient civilizations and the bones of fallen monsters. Explore ancient ruins, fight giant monsters, deal with bandits, trade rare goods with other travelers.
You can use the tables below to create a location and a starting scenario
| D12 | Descriptor | Type | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bubble | Castle | At the Ocean Floor |
| 2 | Crystal | Island | In Space |
| 3 | Neon | Temple | Inside a Star |
| 4 | Vapor | Farm | On the back of a Giant Beast |
| 5 | Mechanical | Tower | Outside of Time |
| 6 | Dreary | City | Inside a Volcano |
| 7 | Grassy | Ship | Atop a giant flower |
| 8 | Abandoned | Factory | In an enhanted forest |
| 9 | Golden | Cavern | In a simulated reality |
| 10 | Towering | Village | At the edge of a cliff to the abyss |
| 11 | Sunken | Lighthouse | In a Bog of fungus and twisted roots |
| 12 | Frozen | Amusement Park | In a mountain pass |
| D8 | Person | Needs help to | this thing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wizard | Destroy | Sentient Slime |
| 2 | Farmer | Save | Earth Elemental |
| 3 | Miner | Blackmail | Energy Slug |
| 4 | Fairy | Court | Manifestation of their fear |
| 5 | Squid | Locate | Void Being |
| 6 | Knight | Extract | Out of control killer robot |
| 7 | Lost Soul | Befriend | Three goblins in a trenchcoat |
| 8 | Wanderer | Devour | Shadow that slowly consumes everything |
If your group likes, you can build a domain to play in together.
The first step in domain creation is to determine the size and scope of the domain. Domains can be endless, as small as a single room, or anywhere in between. They roughly break down into the following sizes:
Get a word or phrase from each player at the table, including the GM. This could be anything, like “demons”, “gold”, “tower”, “weird west”, “clouds”, or “evil”. Try arranging the words in different ways until the group comes to a consensus on what their favorite arrangement is. That’s the start of your domain.
| D68 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Demon | Gold | Stars | Steampunk | Aether | Revolution |
| 2 | Swords | Cloud | Mountain | Temple | Monks | River |
| 3 | Stilts | Gears | Crystal | Giraffe | Mechanical | Gateway |
| 4 | Automaton | Monster | Spirit | Mushroom | Village | Boat |
| 5 | Shattered | Arcane | Island | Wolves | Swamp | Fortress |
| 6 | Ocean | Alien | High-tech | Abandoned | Reinforced | Walking |
| 7 | Darkness | Fire | Frozen | Spiral | Mafia | Corporation |
| 8 | Farm | Rotting | Tower | Quantum | Cliff | Hut |
Go around the table and have everyone suggest locations, npcs, factions, environment details, and wildlife. Do this until you have a few examples for each category. To flesh out the setting further, connect these details in ways that the group thinks make sense. Putting certain NPCs with specific factions, putting points of interest and specific environment details in specific locations and the like.
Each Player, including the DM, should introduce some sort of mystery, rumor, or conflict within the setting. Maybe two factions are fighting over resources or a location, maybe there’s something mysterious going on in a given location, maybe a specific NPC has been acting weird lately, perhaps there are rumours related to unusual wildlife in an area.