d20 Apocalypse Review
After hearing some good things about d20 Apocalypse here on Enworld and being a sucker for disaster movies, I decided to pick up this newest book in the d20 Modern line. As the title implies, it gives rules and advice for running a d20 Modern (or Future) game set after the end of civilization. And it does this very well. d20 Apocalypse was a very fun and fast read. All the content is solid and there's no filler. The book maintains an good balance between strong mechanics and imaginative settings. It's very much a DM's book, though it does contain a few tidbits for players. I wouldn't say d20 Apocalypse is an essential resource for DMs wanting to run a post-apocalypse game, but it is incredibly helpful and an excellent time saver.
The book itself weighs in at 96 pages of full-color goodness. The artwork is of high quality overall, and it usually showcases heroes in action. It's great for getting your imagination going and visualizing the many ways a ruined world may look. The gritty page boarders and font go a long way towards making the book look great. $19.95 is a very fair price, especially given the quality of its contents.
Introduction (Pages 4-5)
d20 Apocalypse gets started with a forward written by one of the authors who discusses the appeal of post-apocalypse games. This section introduces a few ideas core to the genre, and also goes over d20 Future's progress levels and their relation to the ways in which the world can end.
Chapter 1 – Postapocalypse Campaigns (pages 6 – 15)
How do you want to destroy the world? This chapter offers a lot of suggestions and explores what the aftermath of each method might be like. The apocalypse could take the form of an asteroid, a nuclear war, a robotic rebellion, or even judgment day. Many of these reminded me of a movie on the subject. In fact, I think a Recommended Viewing appendix would make a nice addition to the book.
The next section lists many of the forms a post-apocalypse society might take. Do people build their society upon law and order, or do they thrive in the lawlessness and anarchy? It also mentions many possible conflicts that could arise within and between societies. The advise in this section of the book isn't too in-depth, but it does provide a good resource for DMs building their campaign worlds.
Chapter One also covers eras, which are the time periods after the apocalypse in which a campaign can take place. Though its mainly to get you thinking, it also applies to some of the tables dealing with scavenging and the structural integrity of buildings. The next section, Heroes of the Campaign, examines the role of the PCs in the world. Are they native survivors, or is this their first encounter with the world?
The next section, entitled Devastation, discusses the varying degrees a damage an area could have sustained. There's a table detailing the damage done by various types of nuclear weapons; while I can't seem much game application, I enjoyed reading it nonetheless. There's also a section on radiation and radioactive fallout. The authors wisely recommend that you use radiation sparingly, mainly to define the landscape and add tension to exploring certain areas. d20 Apocalypse borrows the base radiation rules from d20 Future, which is practical but not too interesting.
Overall this chapter provides a good overview of what the world might be like after the apocalypse and provides the DM was many ideas of how to shape his or her campaign setting.
Chapter 2—Rules Modules (pages 16 – 55)
This meaty chapter provides many different rules that you can add to your own post-apocalypse game. As the title states, they are all modular so you can pick and choose which ones to use. These rules all make sense, and strike the right balance between abstraction and realism.
The chapter starts with some rules for damaged buildings. There's a tables for randomly determining how damaged any given building is. While exploring these buildings, characters must make Survival checks based on its condition or suffer some damage. This can take the form of falling debris or go all the way to the building's collapse.
The next chunk of rules details Scavenging. Why would characters go exploring unsafe structures unless there was some reward? To scavenge, characters make a search check against a DC based on how old the building is and if it's been ransacked before. What they find depends on the degree of success and the type of building. Characters can only find supplies, such as parts, ammo, or random gear, while scavenging; stuff like firearms and armor are wisely kept off the table, leaving their placement to the DM.
These beginning sections are of great utility to a DM. The tables, along with some custom random encounter charts, could be great for quickly detailing any buildings the PCs may explore and what dangers and plunder await inside. I think this is a great time-saver and a better alternative to purely winging exploration.
Postapocalyptic Gear is a large section that details a number of new rules regarding equipment. This first is the Trade Unit, or TU, which describes the relative value of gear now that currency has no meaning. A large table lists the TU value of equipment in the d20 Modern game. There are some simple rules for bartering; basically, its a Diplomacy check to persuade the NPC to offer you a fair deal. Bartering is an uphill battle, though, since NPCs won't do better than to offer you an equal trade unless you have something they really want. I suppose this makes sense, given how paranoid people would be after the collapse of civilization.
The section continues with some “new” equipment. By “new” I mean too mundane to be worth describing in typical d20 Modern games. There's descriptions and TU values for, among other things, food, gas, medicine, and parts. Parts are interesting; they represent either mechanical or electronic pieces of equipment characters have salvaged. Parts are used to build or repair things, but you need to make a special Parts check (based on how many a character has accumulated) to see if he has the right pieces (much like a Wealth check). The system is simple and abstract while being a good representation of all the useful junk a character may be toting around. This section also has some improvised weapons and armor listed as well.
Vehicles also get their fair share of support, with tables listing the gas mileage of different vehicles, rules for repairing and modifying them, and some additional movement and combat rules. There's also a section on Long-Distance Travel, which is largely self-explanatory. There's even stuff for mounted combat, in case you want a mode of transportation that is not prone to exploding. To keep travel dangerous a few environmental hazards are provided.
The next section is on Mutations . . . and yes, Chapter 2 is pretty big. Like radiation, the mutation rules are borrowed from d20 Future and expanded upon. We get some advice on how to incorporate them into a post-apocalypse campaign, as well as some new mutations and drawbacks. While the rules in this section are practical, they can't compare to the freaky and wild Creep rules in Redline.
Chapter 2 ends with some new monsters for your post-apocalypse game. We get a template for the Apocalypse Demon—a buff outsider that epitomizes war and is proficient in every type of weapon. Next are a pair of robots: the first is called the Tin Can, and it's a weak CR 1 bot that usually attacks in swarms; the second is an armored crablike monstrosity known as the Meatgrinder (it's illustration is pretty cool). The next horrifying postapocalypse monster puts all the others to shame . . . the donkey! This fearsome CR 1/6 creature can carry up to 150 pounds! (Someone definitely forgot to factor in the sturdy quadraped bonus there.) Following the donkey are, appropriately, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They come in four varieties, although these ones are mortal and non-unique (but still very powerful). Next is the Mutant template, the Rad-Roach (my personal favorite of the bunch), and the Thinking Swarm. Last is the Viral Deathspawn template, which represents the zombified victims of some sort of super-disease. There's even a few example super-viruses given at the end.
Overall, the monsters are pretty cool. The only real criticism of this section is that you probably couldn't justify using more than a few of these in any given campaign. Also, there's no radioactive slime monster. The bestiary whet my appetite for more post-apocalypse creatures. Fortunately, there's a section that recommends monsters to use from other sources. And Wizards of the Coast, if you're reading this, I'd love to see a full d20 Apocalypse monster book.
Chapter 3 – Character Options (pages 56 – 63)
This brief chapter gives us some new crunch for the PCs to use. First there's an overview of how to adopt many of the d20 Modern occupations to a d20 Apocalypse game. Some skills get changed a bit, such as Diplomacy being used for bartering and Craft skills now use the parts system. Next are the obligatory new feats and advanced classes. The feat section is small; the new ones mainly deal with mutations or scavenging. The two advanced classes in this section (there's more later in the book) are decent. There's the Road Warrior, which gets some situational bonuses to Drive checks and learns some vehicle combat tricks. We also get the Salvager, who is good at building and finding stuff. As a whole, this chapter does its job good enough, but isn't as interesting as the other parts of the book.
Chapter 4 – Earth Inherited (pages 64 – 75)
Remember when I said this book has a good balance of fluff and crunch? Well, here's where the fluff comes in. The last three chapters of the books each detail a post-apocalypse campaign setting. This one, called Earth Inherited, takes place sometime in the future right after the Rapture. All who are virtuous and pious are granted a blissful afterlife; those who have lead a life of vice and selfishness are dragged off to eternal torment. Meanwhile, the forces of Heaven and Hell have unleashed their forces to do battle on Earth amidst the human survivors. Millions died as war swept the planet, but strangely enough the angels and demons are unable to return to their otherworldly realm. Stranded in the mortal world, many continue the war but some begin doubting what they've been fighting for. Humankind, though, isn't down for the count just yet; they still have advanced technology that is quite effective against the invaders. The survivors must fight to live in a lawless world imperiled by demons, marauders, and bitter secular humanists.
In addition to the setting overview we get some interesting organizations. There's the Avengers of Humanity, who want to rebuild civilization and extract revenge upon both angel and demon alike. The Heavenfire Coalition is a group of fallen demons and angles who want to call a truce to their pointless war. The Order of the Damned are a group of human who have allied themselves with the demons to live a depraved life of pleasure, while the Order of the Machine wants to build a civilization guided by technology and logic, rather than antiquated ideas such as good or evil. There's also some stats for angels and demons, and a mapped-out location—a grounded barge converted to a crude fortress.
Earth Inherited is a very cool setting. I like the kitchen-sink approach, with its inclusion of angles, demons, cybernetics, mechs, and magic. I also like the fact that its not a setting of moral absolutes: some demons want an end to the conflict, many angels are overzealous and uncompromising, and the organizations tend to pursue their own goals which are not so clearly good or evil.
Chapter 5 – Atomic Sunrise (pages 76 – 85)
The next campaign setting is another winner; this one is called Atomic Sunrise and it's the quintessential post-apocalypse setting. Not too far in the future nuclear war has decimated to earth. The vast majority of the population is killed in the attacks or their immediate aftermath, but the (un)lucky few far away from missile strikes or in the safety of a bomb shelter managed to survive. Its a few generations after the world changed, and society is beginning to pull itself together in this new desert land of hardship and anarchy.
After setting description, this campaign provides many organizations to spice things up (more than I will describe). The CIA has become the Establishment, which plays other groups against each other until the time is right to reinstate the US government. The Nautilus Club, though, are a group of scientists that predicted the nuclear war and built undersea bases where they could continue their research. One group, the Government of New Texas, wants their title state to grow in both size and power. There are other groups of mutants (where there's nukes, there's mutants) and of bandits which make good foes for the PCs. A sample location is provided; in this case a college football stadium turned arena where people pay to watch gladiators and mutants fight to the death. Is that cool or what? We also get the Lawbringer, a 5-level prestige class that seeks to bring frontier justice to the wastelands.
Atomic Sunrise is a very fun setting. Among the organizations are a web of alliances and enemies that keep things interesting. The relations between the many groups, their goals to reshape the United States, and still-active governmental organizations give this setting an interesting political element. And don't forget about the mutants!
Chapter 6 – Plague World (pages 86 – 96)
The final chapter details a campaign called Plague World. Sometime in the near-future, a super-intelligent alien race know as the spanthi discover Earth, a planet that would be an excellent substitute for their destroyed homeworld. With ease the alien invaders neutralize our planets defenses and begin releasing deadly viruses to wipe out humanity (and even clean up the environment). Mankind is crushed and civilization is destroyed. Furthermore, the viruses have caused many people to mutate out of control. Content that they have won the war, the spanthi biotech ships land on Earth to begin colonization. However, they soon learn that their viruses have mutated into something new, and that they and their biotechnology are no longer immune. With their numbers dwindling, the spanthi begin to genetically alter themselves to grow into powerful but mindless warriors that are immune to the deadly viruses.
Some groups, seeing the war as unwinnable, decide to put specialized teams into suspended animation until there is no longer any signs of the alien fleet. These highly-trained and well-armed Rip Van teams are given the mission of rebuilding civilization in the war's aftermath. Hundreds of years after the invasion, these teams begin to awaken. They find that the world has descended into barbarism and that dangerous mutated spanthi roam the countryside. However, the world is strangely pristine—many of the spanthi's weapons were actually designed to improve the environment, and most of the world's cities have long since crumbled.
In addition to the long backstory, this chapter offers a few organizations, stats for both varieties of the spanthi, a map of a typical Rip Van bunker, and a prestige class know as the Evolutionary. This is an interesting class for mutants who wish to control the future of their own mutation.
While Plague World is an interesting setting, I think that too much space was devoted to its cool premise and not enough to the current conflicts that the Rip Van teams (by that I mean, the PCs) might face. This setting could serve as an unusual starting point for a post-apocalypse game, but the DM will have more blanks to fill in than with the other settings.
d20 Apocalypse is a great supplement for anyone who wants to run a game after the collapse of civilization. Its also the ideal companion to Fantasy Flight Games' Redline. D20 Apocalypse's modular design and solid rules gives this book a lot of utility, and the excellent campaign settings show you what you can do with it. Be warned, though: after reading it you may want to run your own post-apocalypse game. The only thing holding d20 Apocalypse back is its small size; after reading it, I couldn't help but want more. Guess I'll cross my fingers for a web enhancement.
Overall, I'm giving d20 Apocalypse a 4 out of 5. Its definitely a high 4, more like a 4.5—great, but not quite superb.
-Casey Smith
