Into the Weird Blue Yonder: Cataclysm Dice

So a few things:

Number one: I think three Weird Powers/Major Antagonizing Factions is far too few for an expanding world, at least that is what I am coming to based off my current game, though you could certainly go about consolidating your various powers, connecting them to larger forces which your players slowly unveil, which I think is good and proper.

Secondly, these numerous different forces at play means that a lot of sets of events, many of which could end in catastrophe, are all moving forward at once. Cults progress towards their final ritual. An alien works towards fixing its ship. A contagious mutation spreads through the population.

The question then, for the game master, is how do I keep track of these chains of events and when do I show these as progressing?

This is where the Cataclysm Dice come in.

These work like Usage Dice. Roll a 1 on a die and it downgrades to the next die on the dice chain until you arrive at the smallest die and then the die runs out.

You ought to create a list of possible Cataclysms and assign dice to them. If something ought to happen fairly quickly, give it a low die. If it feels like this catastrophe is a ways off, give it a large die.

Whenever a period of time passes in game or in real life, depending on the kind of game you are running, roll all Cataclysm Dice. Since I am running a West Marches style game online and part of the impetus is on players to set up games, I roll my dice weekly (If I remember.)  If a die downgrades, introduce a rumor about how this progression manifests. This will ensure that players have a chance to interfere and that they feel they have agency in the world. If multiple downgrade, I would pick one or roll for it.

If none downgrade, reveal something stagnant in the world that the players can explore if they feel like it.

Here is an example: (I am not using this in my current game if sneaky players are trying to scan this for hints.)

To The Titan's Heart: 

By Scrap Princess from Deep Carbon Observatory

The Pale Elves under the leadership of the Hollow Lords are digging through the corpse of a fallen Titan to its dead heart. If they can harvest the heart, they will be able to use it to power the gigantic golem body they have built for their masters to inhabit.

1d8: The Pale Elves have been taking slaves in nighttime raids.

1d6: Mining operations have begun to release bursts of gas that manifest on the surface as geysers of toxic steam.

1d4: Whole villages have been emptied near the mining site. Monstrous parasites that once fed off the Titan's corpse, flee through the tunnels to the surface.

CATACLYSM: The Gigantic Golem-body of the Hollow Lords rises and begins making its way towards civilization.