It's the End of the World As We Know It: Apocalyptic Campaign Settings

[John Dallman]

Last night we started playing a Day After Ragnarok campaign, so that's definitely post-apocalypse. We're based in Australia, which hasn't been hit hard compared to most places. The initial mission was "Find out why sheep and a constable have been disappearing" and the answer was a serpent-tainted giant goanna which had to be found and killed.

 

[Umbran]

Vote for the option that fits best, and give us any nuance or details in the comments.

Um, I need an "and" option for my upcoming game.

The PCs are on a colony world. A war starts on Earth, with the implication of magically enhanced nuclear weapons used. The colony, barely self-sufficient, still recovering from a natural disaster, is cut off. And the thing that started the apocalypse at home is coming here...

 

[Joerg Baumgartner]

Much of my gaming is in the world of Glorantha, whose major apocalypse is called the Gods War culminating in the Greater Darkness, typically more than 1625 years ago (before Time). There have been two major cataclysms in history (around 450, and again around 1050), and another one is brewing since about 1600 and expected to go critical in the next few 25 years, aka the Hero Wars. So, significantly post-apocalyptic, with the next one already building up but about to explode in the near future.

Other (homebrew) game settings of mine have cataclysms in their past, too - how else do you generate interesting ruins and lost civilizations for your adventurers to interact with?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Other (homebrew) game settings of mine have cataclysms in their past, too - how else do you generate interesting ruins and lost civilizations for your adventurers to interact with?

Time?

I don't think humans have any fantasy setting-level cataclysms, and we're pretty well set for ancient ruins full of treasure.

 

[Voadam]

I don't think humans have any fantasy setting-level cataclysms, and we're pretty well set for ancient ruins full of treasure.

What, you discount the fall of Atlantis? Sekhmet almost wiping out all of humanity in the past and civilization having to start over? The Great Flood?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What, you discount the fall of Atlantis? Sekhmet almost wiping out all of humanity in the past and civilization having to start over? The Great Flood?

By the standards of the 21st century, those are just ordinary Thursdays.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Time?

I don't think humans have any fantasy setting-level cataclysms, and we're pretty well set for ancient ruins full of treasure.

Depends how you count it. I personally think I'd call the things that happened to the Central American civilizations in that category.

 

[Zaukrie]

I've always thought the Scarred Lands setting did this really well.