post-apocalyptic campaigns!

[DreadPirateMurphy]

Thinking about it more, the apocalypse genre typically breaks down into a few distinct categories:

Waiting for the End: Think On the Beach, Z for Zachariah, The Day After, etc. The world is destroyed, and people are coping with being among the few who survive for at time.

Making a Moral Choice: With your world destroyed, the lines are drawn between good and evil. The Stand is the obvious example, but movies like The Postman and Mad Max also fit here. Hammerfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle also fit here.

Rebuilding: Brin's book The Postman is more in this area, as are some of Orson Scott Card's novels in the Earthborn series. Take the wreckage and build something new. Ignoring the pessimistic ending, Canticle for Leibowitz also fits.

The first is grim, the second is epic, and the third is optimisitc. Note that these can be on a continuum, with a campaign progressing from the first, through the second, and then to the third.

Of course, if you really want to be bastard, then you can just start a normal D20 Modern campaign, and trigger the fall of man in the middle of the campaign.

 

[scourger]

Omega World. It's the best $10 you'll ever spend on d20 gaming (IMO). Get it here:

http://paizo.com/dungeon/products/issues/2002/94

I also recommend picking up Alternity Gamma World Campaign Setting for flavor. I ran a great mini-campaign a couple of years ago using these 2 books--OW for d20 rules and AGW for setting & adventures.

I also like the post-apocalyptic elements in Judge Dredd d20, and Redline is a nice Mad Max style d20 mini-game.

 

[Lalato]

Are there differences between post-apoc settings created by magic vs. those created by technology? If so, what are those differences?

--sam

 

[DMH]

Are their differences between post-apoc settings created by magic vs. those created by technology? If so, what are those differences?

Yes and no. It depends on the technology level before the Cataclysm and if mutants exist. If there is high enough technology and funky mutations, it is effectively fantasy. If there is little or no high technology, then it can be very hard science fiction.

 

[Vigilance]

I agree with DMH here.

However Id add that very few post apoc campaigns are "hard sci fi" because the realistic effects of the radiation unleashed by a nuclear exchange are likely too harsh.

So unless you're in a setting like that found in David Brin's Postman (excellent book btw- dont hold the movie against it) where the apocalypse was a series of natural disasters followed by a military revolt/guerilla movement that brought down the US gobvernment, there's usually at least a little "handwaving" of radiation effects.

If the radiation causes creatures to mutate into fantastically new creatures (a la Darwin's World/Gamma World/Fallout) then radiation has become magic.

Chuck

 

[Jack of Shadows]

Well,

I've had this idea for years but never been able to take the time to develop it and run it. The concept is essentially that the entire campaign occurs with in a ginat arcology that survived the fall of mankind. It's sealed off from the outside which has become entirely uninhabitable. It was originally designed by an excentric genius but a LOT of time has passed. People have become tribal and a lot of the knowledge of the past has been lost because the building takes care of everyones needs. But it's been hundreds of years and things have been breaking down. No one knows who's running the place or even if anyone is anymore. The whole campaign is about exploring the massive building and learning what's been forgotten and what has happened. Sort of a Starlost with a skyscraper instead of a space arc.

Jack

 

[Kanegrundar]

So unless you're in a setting like that found in David Brin's Postman (excellent book btw- dont hold the movie against it) where the apocalypse was a series of natural disasters followed by a military revolt/guerilla movement that brought down the US gobvernment, there's usually at least a little "handwaving" of radiation effects.

Chuck

Heh. Just goes to show the difference in tastes. I thought the movie was a lot better than the book. It flowed better and there were no deus ex machina-ish super soldiers in it. The book was alright, but most importantly had some cool ideas (the tech guild with that was spreading hope with Game Boys essentially).

Back to the main point, there are many ways to handwave some of the more fantastical elements that seem to arise in a Post-Apoc setting. Mutations can be fantastical (such as the mutants in GW) or horrific (such as the Aborted and Terminal mutants in DW), or they could be non-existant in lieu of how you want radiation and chemicals to work in your setting.

PA settings can be many, many different things to different people. Just look at how many possiblities are listed in books like DW and D20 Apocalypse as well as in the various links posted in this thread. For me, my tastes lie somewhere between the fantasic and hard sci-fi. There may be a few "stabilized" mutant races, but the majority of mutations are terrible and not at all like the X-Men or the Evolutionary advanced class. That's why DW was a perfect fit for my gaming style.

Kane

 

[DreadPirateMurphy]

Nuclear war generally isn't a great "realistic" apocalyptic setting. The radiation really does wipe out most of the ecosystem. You have a similar problem with comet strikes and such. Anything bad enough to bring down modern civilization completely is likely to toss the planet into a massive ice age.

Plagues make for better disasters, since they don't wipe out the ecosystem. You need a really nasty (possibly bio-engineered) bug to take out most of humanity, however. Eurasians and their decendents have too much natural immunity to disease. (Now I sound like Dr. Evil...)

The D20 Gamma World posited a war using a variety of biological, chemical, nuclear, space-based, and nanotechnological weapons, and an extremely high tech level prior to the end. That "sort-of" rationalized all the bizarre mutations in the setting.

 

[Rel]

Hammerfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle also fit here.

Not to nitpick but that'd be "Lucifer's Hammer" actually. Just wanted to clear that up in case somebody goes looking for it because it is an EXCELLENT book.

I agree that you need to really define what the campaign will be about. For me, the most effective PA campaign would probably just be about survival. I'm a resource management freak and I love the idea of scrounging in the dirt for fragments of a lost civilization that can bring you above a subsistance level of survival. The big treasure might be a hand cranked bellows to use with your forge. Or having a war with another tribe over a healthy group of pigs they own.

Nothing softens the blow of the fall of civilization better than some nice bacon.

I played and loved Fallout but I find myself leaning away from the world of big green mutants and stuff like that.

 

[DMH]

Not to nitpick but that'd be "Lucifer's Hammer" actually. Just wanted to clear that up in case somebody goes looking for it because it is an EXCELLENT book.

Maybe, but it could be also he wanted to use an alien invasion that destoys human civilization as an example. Hammerfall is also a great story.

I think one of the problems with PA games is many people seeing mutants and advanced technology as requirements. Metamorphosis Alpha and Gamma World were the first 2 PA games and have 10 editions and variations (soon to be 11) so it must be a popular view. But there are so many other variations in the genre that have yet to be used in RPGs.

I am like Rel in that I like very gritty games. But the reason I dislike DW so much is my view of the future is not a desert. It is very alive and very deadly. Humans and, in GW, the other intelligent species have a chance to do better than last time. I like the idea of a bright future under the grim of pain, blood and potential failure.