Post Apocalypse Settings

[Staffan]

Mutant Year Zero is post-apocalypse, though with a rather focused and sparse setting. The core experience presumes it's set in the ruins of a single town/city, with the mutant PCs knowing very little about it and having to explore the surroundings for resources both for immediate survival and to build up their little community. There are also expansions that let you play mutated animals, robots, and vault-dwellers, and I believe each of these have their own campaign setups.

There are also various spiritual predecessors of MYZ released as "Mutant", but I'm pretty sure those aren't available in English. They have more setting material, focused around post-apocalyptic Scandinavia, primarily the Pyri Commonwealth (which is basically a reduced-size version of Sweden). These are set at a later date than MYZ, where society has been rebuilt to an early industrial level of technology (steam engines and breech-loaded blackpowder firearms, but not electricity or revolvers).

 

[Belen]

Rust and Redemption, Cypher system, Monte Cook Games

d20 Apocalypse, d20 Modern, WOTC

 

[MGibster]

is twilight 2000 post apoc? I thought it was during ww3 or something?

It's really set at the end of WWIII following the last major NATO offensive in Europe which ended in abject failure and resulted in the total collapse of command cohesion at anything above the platoon level. It's more of a realistic version of the apocalypse where governments have collapsed and everyone is dealing with the chaos as they try to recover.

 

[zarionofarabel]

It's really set at the end of WWIII following the last major NATO offensive in Europe which ended in abject failure and resulted in the total collapse of command cohesion at anything above the platoon level. It's more of a realistic version of the apocalypse where governments have collapsed and everyone is dealing with the chaos as they try to recover.

I just got the 4e version recently, and it's a great way to do post apocalypse. No weird stuff! No zombies, or magic, or psionics, or aliens, or other strange not real stuff. Just a limited nuclear war and the resulting societal collapse. All the major governments and institutions are gone, global trade is no longer viable, money is worthless. Now what?!?

 

[Reynard]

I just got the 4e version recently, and it's a great way to do post apocalypse. No weird stuff! No zombies, or magic, or psionics, or aliens, or other strange not real stuff. Just a limited nuclear war and the resulting societal collapse. All the major governments and institutions are gone, global trade is no longer viable, money is worthless. Now what?!?

To each their own, but for the life of me I can't imagine how that would be fun.

 

[MGibster]

To each their own, but for the life of me I can't imagine how that would be fun.

Do you like movies that don't include zombies, aliens, psionics, magic, or other fantastical elements? Okay, movies aren't games, but have you ever had fun just trying to run through a hypothetical situation? I mean something that could theoretically happen in real life? In 1984, not that I played TW2000 when I was eight, the idea of NATO and the Warsaw powers might go to war felt like a distinct possibility. The documentary Red Dawn released the same year as TW 2000 also posited a war between the Warsaw powers and NATO. At the time the game was released, wondering what you might do if WWIII broke out was part of the Zeitgeist. You don't need the fantastical when the real world has plenty of drama and danger.

But I was always under the impression an RPG like Twilight 2000 was likely to be more appealing to role playing enthusiast who also had an interest in war gaming. I mean old school board war games made by the likes of SPI, Avalon Hill, and GDW (who published TW2000).

 

[Reynard]

Do you like movies that don't include zombies, aliens, psionics, magic, or other fantastical elements? Okay, movies aren't games, but have you ever had fun just trying to run through a hypothetical situation? I mean something that could theoretically happen in real life? In 1984, not that I played TW2000 when I was eight, the idea of NATO and the Warsaw powers might go to war felt like a distinct possibility. The documentary Red Dawn released the same year as TW 2000 also posited a war between the Warsaw powers and NATO. At the time the game was released, wondering what you might do if WWIII broke out was part of the Zeitgeist. You don't need the fantastical when the real world has plenty of drama and danger.

But I was always under the impression an RPG like Twilight 2000 was likely to be more appealing to role playing enthusiast who also had an interest in war gaming. I mean old school board war games made by the likes of SPI, Avalon Hill, and GDW (who published TW2000).

Not really.

I have been very close to some really, really bad stuff in real life and I am not the least bit interested in misery porn.

Like I said: to each their own. But "realistic" apocalyptic RPGs hold about as little interest for me as a SAW simulator.

 

[zarionofarabel]

To each their own, but for the life of me I can't imagine how that would be fun.

For me it's because I can engage in more realistic heroics. I don't find much fantasy heroics to be all that interesting or compelling. Especially the poorly named superhero genre, or gonzo stuff like your average D&D setting/game. To me most of that stuff is cheesy and silly, neither all that engaging or fulfilling. Especially games like 5e D&D where the PCs are basically immortals slaughtering sentient creatures with abandon all while claiming to be "heroes" of some sort. It's just not that interesting for me to play through that kind of tripe anymore, it stopped being fun ages ago. Nowadays I much prefer grounded a-historical settings, hard sci-fi, and more realistic gameplay; where the actions of my PC, rather than their plot armor or kewl powerz, is what makes them a hero. Much like you my life has been chock full of crap, so being able to be a realistic hero is a much more fulfilling experience for me than the super fake "hero" stuff I find in most mass media. With a setting like T2K I can pretend to be an awesome regular person doing awesome heroic things and trying to make the world a better place. So much more satisfying than blasting imaginary monsters with fireballs, or trying to rationalize how my PC got stabbed with a sword for the 54th time and yet is somehow perfectly fine.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Do you like movies that don't include zombies, aliens, psionics, magic, or other fantastical elements? Okay, movies aren't games, but have you ever had fun just trying to run through a hypothetical situation? I mean something that could theoretically happen in real life? In 1984, not that I played TW2000 when I was eight, the idea of NATO and the Warsaw powers might go to war felt like a distinct possibility. The documentary Red Dawn released the same year as TW 2000 also posited a war between the Warsaw powers and NATO. At the time the game was released, wondering what you might do if WWIII broke out was part of the Zeitgeist. You don't need the fantastical when the real world has plenty of drama and danger.

But I was always under the impression an RPG like Twilight 2000 was likely to be more appealing to role playing enthusiast who also had an interest in war gaming. I mean old school board war games made by the likes of SPI, Avalon Hill, and GDW (who published TW2000).

Yeah, my current post-apocalyptic Level Up game, while containing some weird stuff, is primarily inspired by the short-lived TV show Jericho, which is about the immediate aftermath of a fairly "mundane" Armageddon.

 

[RenleyRenfield]

For me it's because I can engage in more realistic heroics. I don't find much fantasy heroics to be all that interesting or compelling. Especially the poorly named superhero genre, or gonzo stuff like your average D&D setting/game. To me most of that stuff is cheesy and silly, neither all that engaging or fulfilling. Especially games like 5e D&D where the PCs are basically immortals slaughtering sentient creatures with abandon all while claiming to be "heroes" of some sort. It's just not that interesting for me to play through that kind of tripe anymore, it stopped being fun ages ago. Nowadays I much prefer grounded a-historical settings, hard sci-fi, and more realistic gameplay; where the actions of my PC, rather than their plot armor or kewl powerz, is what makes them a hero. Much like you my life has been chock full of crap, so being able to be a realistic hero is a much more fulfilling experience for me than the super fake "hero" stuff I find in most mass media. With a setting like T2K I can pretend to be an awesome regular person doing awesome heroic things and trying to make the world a better place. So much more satisfying than blasting imaginary monsters with fireballs, or trying to rationalize how my PC got stabbed with a sword for the 54th time and yet is somehow perfectly fine.

This is pretty much the vide I am going for as well. On occasion we can dip into the body horror of mutation or the madness of gaining a power, but honestly, Mad Max was such a rip riot of fun, and our few sessions of Apocalypse Word led us to want more and more. Turns out we can have fun with cars, guns, and survival banditry for a really long time.

...

That have been a ton of great suggestions here! I may end up taking a few and making a mish mash.

One of the things about post apoc is that since its in our world, technically i can just go on to google maps, look at places and then denote what its wasted and what isn't. But I was hoping to have a bit done for me. As in "here is a picture of Boston after the big bomb!" and "here are a dozen wasteland gangs who all have history with each other, and have agendas and themes and NPCs who have their own big damn problems."

Like, something I can grab bundles of ideas from, use a little as is, and then have a LOT more structure to build my own from there...