"Underground Post Apoc" Topic

I had an idea this week, what about a background where the survivors are all forced to live underground?

The reasons I thought of to force people to live underground might be that the surface has become so toxic that they cannot survive. Perhaps something has happened to the sun and solar radiation kills anything up top. My favourite is a new ice age, it is simply too cold to go above the ground. It would also solve water and air issues that the other two might present. Any other ideas?

The action would take place in old sewer systems, service tunnels, Rail and road tunnels (many of the longer ones also have secondary service and escape tunnels), mines, underground bunkers, vaults, basements, cellars and natural caves/caverns. Maybe there are other older tunnels that exist (for instance where I live there are several tunnels built by a rich Victorian nutter and smugglers tunnels). Maybe some buildings have been buried by what ever happened (or even just buried by rubble) and survivors have dug into the sewers?

Terrain would be cheap and easy to get hold of, and would be a quick introduction to the genre. A simple set of floor plans from the net glued to cereal packet would do. The old GW floor plans or Space Hulk tiles would also be useful.

For basic 3D terrain a sheet of polystyrene snapped into chunks. It can be laid out as caverns and tunnels on the tabletop. Some textured paint and you are good to go.

So what sort of underground nasties will there be? Mutants, Cannibals, giant roaches, bug swarms, Zombies (for you Zombie nuts out there), mutant rats. Anything else? Other hazards will be cave ins, floods, running out of air and explosive/poison gases. Any other ideas?

Any other ideas for this theme?

The City of Ember movie was all set underground. It had a giant star-nosed mole as a monster.

Here's what it looks like: picture

Giant centipedes might also be cool. You could have giant versions of lots of blind cave critters that hunt you down by smell, touch and vibration.

Dark Universe by Daniel Galouye had post apoc survivors who had been living underground so long that they'd evolved into two different races: ones that could echolocate from the echoes made by clicking pebbles together and ones that could do that plus see infrared.

And then there are the Morlocks, of course!

Cleopatra 2525?

Humans driven underground by an alien race which has control of the surface.

Look up the old 1st edition DMG (Dungeon Master's Guide) for gaming minutiae about light sources. Gygax went into an awful lot of detail about that stuff that seems excessive – until you've been underground. Drop your light in the Deep Black and you don't make it home. Dropping a light underground is a lot like dropping your air tank under water – the time limit for survival is longer, but the distance you can make it without one is about the same.

I guess you need to consider is there any science or are we talking fantasy? I am fine either way, just seeing what you are thinking.

I assume a bit of both, which then allows for just about anything…so

Driven underground by harsh conditions, you would have to get far enough to insulate from the conditions but then you have new issues of no sunlight (which we currently need), fresh/foul air exchange (without heat/cold exhange or loss), and your food stuffs (it is not easy being green without any bright solar rad energy).

With a little fantasy you can have new light sources that make it reasonable for people and plants to thrive, you could have a natural heat source like a hot spring feed or a steam vent, etc..

I would consider these and the domed cities. Clean, white, and healthly the domed cities can only house so many…the rest are left to live on the edge of the domes, below the domes, or out in the wastes.

Sounds like fun. Cold, but fun.

There was also the dreadful movie The Alien from LA, which stared the lovely Kathy Ireland and was a Jules Verne spinoff. People weren't exactly driven underground, but it was certainly a post-apocalyptic type place to live.

Also, Logans Run is not exactly "undeground" but it certain was a "we destroyed the world and need to live elsewhere movie.

So what sort of underground nasties will there be? Mutants, Cannibals, giant roaches, bug swarms, Zombies (for you Zombie nuts out there), mutant rats. Anything else? Other hazards will be cave ins, floods, running out of air and explosive/poison gases. Any other ideas?

One idea that come to mind is renegade robots. You could also look at the underhive in Necromunda, where resources are scarce and life is cheap. Again, not underground, but under the rest (and the best) part of the hive.

Great concept!!!

You could even have a partially underground society like Pax in "Genesis II":

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However, I've always loved the possibility of entirely underground or, at the very least, during daylight hours:

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About terrain:

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I plan to make more of these, for the edges of the table (to create an underground cavern system feel:

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Check this out:

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Maddan: "My favourite is a new ice age, it is simply too cold to go above the ground. It would also solve water and air issues that the other two might present."

You'll love this then:

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Depending on what calamity you had happen up above, how they survive down below would be different.

If there is solar flares, a toxic environment due to pollution or warfare, chances are, the survivors aren't just living underground. More than likely they would be in some kind of sealed environment. This then changes the terrain slightly to one that is more urban within the cities, and only the tunnels/sewers/subway lines, etc as one gets closer to the surface.

Things to run into underground? If the apocalypse happened long enough ago, possibly other humans who have evolved to survive underground (ie ones that did not live in the sealed cities) – Morlocks, etc

As you get closer to the surface, possibly mutants, zombies, etc

There is some cool ideas here, cheers. If I head down this path it will give me an excuse to buy more Moonfleet Smoggers.
These guys are subterrainian and would make nice mutants.

What about Solar Flares from our own sun making the surface too dangerous to live on? Maybe the survivors could venture above ground after dark?

I think that radiation from solar flares would penetrate the ground and kill everything up to 60 miles or more deep.

Okay – scrub that idea. lol!

Another cool terrain idea would be to build a modular sewer system out of pvc pipe cut length wise. Then using different sizes and connectors you could get a great tunnel system that would be birds eye view and I would be cheap to make.

"build a modular sewer system out of pvc pipe cut length wise"

I think that's what Javelin98 shared with us on this other thread:

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To play with the idea a little more, close to the end of the book World War Z there is a mention of North Korea. In the book when the zombie plague hits full steam the entire country packs up and heads underground. Once the zombie plague is suppressed and life returns to "normal" the North Koreans are still underground, and no one has heard a peep out of them. It made me shudder to think what might be down there.

"It made me shudder to think what might be down there."

Afraid of really pale North Koreans, are you? :)

Just kidding, of course. How long were they forced to stay below?

Some people are having a good time below ground:

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Anyway, I love the idea of something environmental. Serious, but survivable if extreme measures are taken:

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The part that was ooging me out was the thought "what if there were infected among the people who went underground?"

Now the thought of trying to surve a zombie plague underground is really unpleasant.

These are cool pictures:

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I forgot about this thing:

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I love this:

fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Vault_101
fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Vaults
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Some of the ideas here might also be useful:

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Another idea for this would be the later stages of the reign of fire background.

The dragons are feeding on each other. As a result they are getting bigger and meaner. They cant get into the tunnels to feed on the survivors.

There is a problem if the story is set too early, that without power or anyone to activate the pump system many city service tunnels will soon flood as they are often below the water table. Only long after has any building been done so the underground communities can only exist if the apocalypse was slow enough to allow those with enough foresight to build the tunnel systems and caverns and connect support systems.
Of course some tunnels are built much higher up, and the remains of many cities can resemble an underground environment.

I wonder if this modular cave/mine system could be used for underground shelter corridors too:

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Dan