D20 Apocalypse: Other Ways to End the World?

[jeff37923]

Lets put a bit of science back into science fiction. Here's an idea based on a lecture given by Stephen Hawking....

When a black hole evaporates - it leaves behind the singularity at its center. A singularity is a point where all known physics break down, science and logic stop working. So you'd have to wonder what would happen if one of these naked singularities passed through the Earth - how would we survive when the fabric of reality was bent and twisted beyond recognition all around us?

Make for an interesting post-apocalyptic setting, I think.

 

[DMH]

A plague kills of all of humanity and the PCs are things like appilances or toys (with AIs of course). They have to survive in a world not meant for them at all.

That could be a truely awesome game if written right.

 

[C. Baize]

Lets put a bit of science back into science fiction. Here's an idea based on a lecture given by Stephen Hawking....

When a black hole evaporates - it leaves behind the singularity at its center. A singularity is a point where all known physics break down, science and logic stop working. So you'd have to wonder what would happen if one of these naked singularities passed through the Earth - how would we survive when the fabric of reality was bent and twisted beyond recognition all around us?

Make for an interesting post-apocalyptic setting, I think.

Ooh! Wasn't there an Ayn Rand book much like that?
Some sort of several century cosmic ray shower that really screwed with all life on Earth?
Made simians smart... gave some humans psychic powers... yadda yadda... ?

 

[Gomez]

How about this?

Simply put ... Cthulhu wakes up.

The fated day arrives, and R'lyeh rises. Cthulhu is manifest upon the earth. After years of being thwarted by clueless New Englanders in Arkham, the Cthulhoid monsters finally win the day.

This could be run as a cross between the Alien Invasion apocalypse (i.e. with byakhee and Mi-Go running rampant all over the place) and the Supernatural Apocalypse (with ghouls and cultists now having the upper hand).

I have had this idea on the back burner for a while now. A "Endtimes" game could be pretty sweet. I had even thought of running a Delta Green game that transititioned into a "Endtimes" post-apoc game without the players knowing ahead of time of coarse.

 

[jeff37923]

Ooh! Wasn't there an Ayn Rand book much like that?
Some sort of several century cosmic ray shower that really screwed with all life on Earth?
Made simians smart... gave some humans psychic powers... yadda yadda... ?

Not that I know of. Ayn Rand was from a different era then Stephen Hawking, not to mention one was a writer-philosopher and the other is a physicist.

Although, Ayn Rands Anthem is pretty post-apocalyptic, and short enough that you can get through her writing style without choking (I tried Atlas Shrugged and couldn't get all the way through it - gimmee Allen Steele and Harlan Ellison anyday).

 

[DnDChick]

Stephen King's novella The Mist would make a good post-apocalyptic setting.

Just make sure you read up on the concealment rules ... it is a world covered in mist so thick you can't see 20 feet in front of you and filled with hideous *things* from another dimension.

 

[C. Baize]

Not that I know of. Ayn Rand was from a different era then Stephen Hawking, not to mention one was a writer-philosopher and the other is a physicist.

Although, Ayn Rands Anthem is pretty post-apocalyptic, and short enough that you can get through her writing style without choking (I tried Atlas Shrugged and couldn't get all the way through it - gimmee Allen Steele and Harlan Ellison anyday).

Yeah. It's entirely possible it wasn't...
The (at the time) girlfriend gave me a stack of books when I was laid up for a bit... I know there was some Ayn Rand, and there was another one that was the story I remember... Don't know the author or the title.

 

[DMH]

Stephen King's novella The Mist would make a good post-apocalyptic setting.

Just make sure you read up on the concealment rules ... it is a world covered in mist so thick you can't see 20 feet in front of you and filled with hideous *things* from another dimension.

This was adapted in the Alternity supplement Tangents (1 or 2 pages). And yes, it does make for an interesting and horrific PA setting.

 

[JohnSnow]

Lets put a bit of science back into science fiction. Here's an idea based on a lecture given by Stephen Hawking....

When a black hole evaporates - it leaves behind the singularity at its center. A singularity is a point where all known physics break down, science and logic stop working. So you'd have to wonder what would happen if one of these naked singularities passed through the Earth - how would we survive when the fabric of reality was bent and twisted beyond recognition all around us?

Make for an interesting post-apocalyptic setting, I think.

And combining a lecture from Hawking with a novel by David Brin (Earth for the curious)...

Shortly after developing the Grand Unified Field Theory, physicists accidentally create a singularity at the center of the Earth. Just exactly like the theory above...but with the added twist of it being, basically, our fault.

Hollywood disaster movies are a great source of Apocalypse setting starters...The Day After Tomorrow and The Core both come to mind.

 

[Nuclear Platypus]

Here's another site with some goodies:

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