"Post Apocalyptic...what sort of setting comes to mind?" Topic

Oh assuredly there would be few places that would be untouched…but the impact of thousands of infected passing through your village and one is going to make so sort of difference…some aspect of gaming "writer's privilege" has to kick in sometime…or we won't have any mutants…hmmm uh ah that's right…no mutants in that last scenario…how sad :)

Ok years have pass and all the inbreeding in a small remote location could sub for mutants, or the infection itself could have an effect on lets say 1% of the total population thats left, causing those still carriers to have a mutant offspring "writer's privilage" as W.C. Fields "I'm only trying to find a loop hole"

You know more and more I am falling out of favor of madmax/waterland type setting… I am kind of liking the idea of this;

link

War Monkey wrote:

Einstein said WW III will be fought with sticks and stones

World War IV, actually:

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

It's a great quote.

Thanks for the correction, see what happens when you get old hahaaah

Old? Old is relative. Hah!

How about a technological disaster?

Something interesting like a super collider mishap or a black hole experiment gone wrong perhaps?

Or maybe something with good intentions that went down the wrong road? A petroleum oil scrubbing microbe that breaks away from controls and goes underground, continuing to follow the trails of the crude breaking it all down to soluble carbon and trace minerals. Once a reservoir has been depleted these microbes travel the ocean currents seeking other sources…a silent assassin that is in most if not all sea supplies of crude as well as in trace amounts in supplies stored on ship and refineries awaiting processing before they are found…the refining process only slowed the microbes down, millions upon millions of refined fuels are now corrupted by the microbes, from the huge machines to the smallest motor…the microbes making due with petroleum based products within these motors…then due to a few eco-terrorists the land based fields are seeded with microbes…far too late it is discovered as eventually all the sources of crude and refined oil/fuel is reduced to friendly black ash slurry.

How about the first testing of a terraforming atmosphere factory that establishes a chain reaction that cascades into a meltdown of sorts by creating a super storm, a mega hurricane that stays focused around the factory spinning off smaller (huge) hurricanes in all directions in a chaotic pattern.

Or something like that :)

I like this too:

Source:

cghub.com/images/view/6450

Dan

Super collider mishap! I like it sound reasonable, maybe it could open up into some form to another dimension like "The Mist" allowing creatures or mutants of sorts to enter our world
If possible knocking out all power from a massive EMP discharge, from a massive explosion leaving only a large crater with this glowing orb at the bottom, and then come forth the creatures from with in or should I say the other side.
Or the orb could throw out bolts of discharge that whatever it strikes mutates man, plants or animals

The world from Slipstream, a film from the eighties? a vast hurricane swept desert with pockets of humanity?

A petroleum oil scrubbing microbe that breaks away from controls . . .

Does anyone else remember "Mutant 59: The Plastic-Eaters," inspired by "The Andromeda Strain"? Description: link

As much as I like a mutant there is a warm feeling building for a hard science (nearly) end to it all…The Andromeda Strain sort of incident.

I like a space rock with riders, series of solar flares, something primordial bubbling up, or even the man made microbe (Frankenstein's creature).

But in the end something that is required for our modern culture is removed…all the plastics and other petroleum based materials are eaten/destroyed/ruined in quick succession.

All this gone, practically overnight.

Basically all modern technology would fail and become nothing more then broken pieces, at best.

How did that little song go…

No phone, no lights, no motor cars,
Not a single luxury,
Like Robinson Crusoe,
As primitive as can be

Think about what you deal with everyday that would be erased…no computers, cars, planes, phones, power, pharmacies, etc.

Maybe it was initiated for a good reason…petroleum eating microbes/nanites released into garbage dumps to break down all the plastics and other related materials…they get out of control and transfer in ways that were not expected but should have been, drawn into the clouds and then rained down…repeating over and over.

As much as I like mutants and mutations, I am liking this as a starter.

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Plastics on wiring is gone creating shorts which create cascading failures…

your cel phone disintegrate into dust

your car is a pile of parts

your house is a mess, piles of dust and weakened supports

etc. etc.

then the fun stuff…the nuclear plant fails and BOOM goes the dynamite

2011 is the last year that any petroleum or petroleum based products are ever on Earth again…now look at 5, 10, 15, 20+ years down the road.

Maybe a saving grace is that another microbe/nanite had been developed at the same time…this one eats radiation…these are contained around the world at the nuclear plants, just in case…so the plants still go into meltdown due to the controls being reduced to dust and then afterwards the microbes/nanites eat the fallout.

I guess in the end there would be a significantly reduced carbon footprint…

Looks like Oz is a fairly safe zone…within reason…and afterwards with the lack of technology isolation that takes place, it may be one of the safer places to be.

USA, East and West Europe, Southwest and East Asia…just yikes!

Even if the fallout is removed, the actual damage from the meltdowns, fires, etc. whooooo nelly would cause more than a few new badlands and wastelands…

Lower Manhattan is toast even without sea level rise. Most of the south end is swampland naturally, and will revert without the pumps to keep it somewhat dry. If the sea level should *fall* however, some chunks of the high-rise jungle would survive.

There have been many Apocalypses posited by SF, including some that were total (such as AI's returning ice, or the Cellulose Mistake), a great many near-totals (including nuclear causes, Captain Tripps, climate changes, space-originating ELEs, Zed events, and adaptions or mutations of Man that make high population unsustainable), and some mere inconveniences (Sterling's power down, the Wild Card Virus, and others).

Figure out the game and work backwards…

"Figure out the game and work backwards"

That is my normal approach.

For a best case gaming setting, for me, a world with three elements of change:

human population is quickly reduced to a couple million, worldwide with most being connected in a handful of communities

an explosion of green growth worldwide

beastmen…classic mobs/herds of fell animal men…hooves, horns, fur, etc.

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As much as a I like the random mutations of Gamma World, I do appreciate the black and white of us vs them…and the them that has my attention is beastmen.

Insert the them of your choice…undead/zombies, machines/robots, etc.

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The getting there is most of the fun for me.

Lovecraftian logic is about the only way to insert the beastmen…but I am open to suggestions.

The big green…I like an active Mother Nature reclaiming the Earth…but this could be a science or Lovecraft reason also.

Fun to consider though.

What about a more scriptual doom? Plagues, pestilence, famine, rescouce wars, the Wrath of God stuff along with whatever else- mutations, walking dead, demonic creatures unleshed. An almost complete destruction, but not quite. Kinda sounds like a chaos world.

That was a key in a handful of games…that came out fairly close to each other…I got burned out on that one personally, but it is still a valid ruin to be sure.

Thinking about my personel Post Apocalypse is a vast plain reminiscent of the Basin and Range of the American southwest occupied by fortified city states, outposts and hard scrabble farms.

Interspersed with ruins and wrecks and the leftovers of a Final War.

Now when I start adding the weirdness is starts sounding like Cynosure link but without so much of the fantasy elements…

Cynosure does sound interesting…pretty much what Palladium/Rifts did with Atlantis, and I am sure the writers were inspired by something :)

What about a more scriptual doom?

Taking it at face value, there won't be a lot of time after wards. You can get a fair amount of time out of the Tribulations, but once the Rapture hits, the clock is ticking.

Read more loosely, you can get a situation like the short-lived D20 setting about the subject. Everyone still around qualifies as "The Meek", has very few HP, and is generally pretty helpless. You can *also* get a longer timeframe from such a read, as "the world will be destroyed" can be read in a variety of ways if you are already watering down the rest.

If you interpret this in a "world no longer for Mortals" way, you can get something similar to the old Cell skirmish game 1999. Earth becomes (or returns to being) part of the eternal battleground between Heaven and Hell, and the remaining humans are seriously outclassed, forced to join a side or be destroyed.

From a mechanical sense, this is little different than, for example, an Apocalypse based on two alien invaders hitting at the same time. The theological elements make such a game a bit of a time bomb with some players, but since many groups have a time bomb player anyway, it may not make a difference…

While this extradimensional setup steps far away from the hard science ones we have been discussing, I do have a fun one using the Rifts Atlantis setting.

If you do not know anything about it: Atlantis is a cross roads for many realities (as noted above :) and is ruled by Lovecraftian beings using high science-magic (pics above), there are many many races, most everyone without real power is a slave in some measure, etc.

I used this setting once for a Rifts game, to tone it down I usually do not use all or even most of the books as there is just too much…anyway I had Atlantis reappear dead center in the Alantic…the magical shockwave and interdimensional fallout causes serious changes to the Earth as the energies wash over the world.

95% of Earth's population is enslaved/used for batteries/eaten/etc. and removed off planet.

This leaves 350 million spread across the globe.

This opens the door for magic and super science!

Australia with an 80m sea level rise, with 2 new inland seas:

Source:

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Source:

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Lots more detail here:

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And, with all that global worming, the saltwater crocodiles will spread south and make those inland seas fun.

Dan

This one looks cool too:

Source: link

Dan

"Taking it at face value, there won't be a lot of time after wards. You can get a fair amount of time out of the Tribulations, but once the Rapture hits, the clock is ticking.

Read more loosely, you can get a situation like the short-lived D20 setting about the subject. Everyone still around qualifies as "The Meek", has very few HP, and is generally pretty helpless"

I was under the idea umbrella that the meek were the meek by faith indecision not because they are physically weak…but either way the biblical end of days sounds fairly ungamable…lack of hope and all…so depressing.

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"And, with all that global worming, the saltwater crocodiles will spread south and make those inland seas fun"

Nuclear plants melting down, an asteroid passing between the Earth and the Earth…all this and more…after all this horror and grief, now mutant crocs causing global worming…disgusting!

Papa Nurgle has come home to roost!

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A flood Oz looks great…lots to work with…new islands, shallow seas, good stuff…

The Eastern Outback is not so desolate in this vision of Oz is it?

A link to the classic Google map flood chart…goes up to 60m (197'+)…so pick a place and let the waters flow! Did you make it? Glub glub?

:)

flood.firetree.net

I am in Corpus Christi, TX USA…uh yeah…well, at least my lawn will not be so dry anymore…

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100m sea level rise global map

With just a little push we could see North America getting split North-South from the Great Lake to the Gulf…South America central North-South creating the Amazonian continent, leaving the rest of Western South America on one long spit of land…there is all kinds of crazy going on in Europe-West Asia with a possible split all the way down and through, yikes…and then it is just a slight nudge for Oz to be split in two.

Interesting stuff here.

Another crazy global map that highlights other aspects of water coverage for wetlands and river basin interaction, but it provides a really interesting map.

A near-split Oz would make for a truly wild west over there, where the law of the more populated east would not apply at all.

A real Pirate haven too, if you ask me:

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And imagine all the craziness in South America too:

Source: link

Dan

Hey! Our TMPers from down under…if this split happened and people were still around to name these two bodies (let us say a magical situation) I am thinking the larger one might retain the name Australia as it is bigger and some how that makes me think it might count for something…oiy oiy oiy!

But what about the small section?

Surely for any non-Aussie a simple West and East Australia would seem ok…but that seems a bit of roo poo…what would be a good name for the Eastern island?

Link for Oz 60m under water

link

A fairly equal amount of Queensland and New South Wales is balanced with a smidge of Victoria.

Australia and Eastern Australia?

How would that sit with the general population? Is there a name that pops into mind?

What do people in the Outback call their "Easteners" now?

Dan

Well if the sea level were to rise at a slow rate, looking at the amazon river on the maps and giving time for change or evolution one would say, piranhas might have a chance to migrate to open seas Hmmmm ON MY GOD! DON'T GO INTO THE WATER!!!!!!

Most of the 60m+ flood maps, looking at Oz, also show a new small island in the Southern section, fairly large…about as big as Tasmania…need a name for that one too!

"What do people in the Outback call their "Easterners" now?"

…Lucky…it's bloody dry an hot here mate!

Ever read a series of books "The Guardians" by Richard Austin, that's more or less what I'm inline with, so now just add in rising water and a plague and I'm good to go

Richard Austin…or is it Robert Baron…no, maybe S. L. Hunter…hmmm or Victor Woodward Milán…that's it!

That is a lot of pen names.

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The Guardians

Freedom's Last Hope:
Unknown to most American's, there is a plan for the day after. Before the dust of World War III has settled, Project Guardian moves into action. America's secret weapon is a four-man elite survival team, armed with awesome combat skills, equipped with the most devastating personal weaponry ever devised, trained to hair-trigger tautness, and entrusted with freedom's last hope: the top secret Blueprint for Renewal.

First step: get the new President safely out of ravaged Washington, across a thousand miles of chaos, and into the impregnable midwestern fortress known as Heartland.

A tall order, even for a bunch of hardcore heroes.

Looks like Morrow Project…in the best of ways :)

Ok I have one for you guys…a blip is sighted by roving cameras and confirmed by Earth based telescopes…a vast object is cruising past the outer rim of the galaxy…heading towards Earth, roughly…maybe…21 Dec 1971.

June 1983 the object, named KO-19372 (Bruiser), reached the half way point to intersect with Earth.

July 2005 it is clear that the object is slowing down…potential contact is forecast for 2007…preparations are being made to provide some measure of hope to divert Nick.

Jan 2006 KO-19372 changes direct…it is clear that it is slowing down…the numbers are in…the object is at least 50 miles long…all hope is lost…

Sept 2011 Bruiser is finally here…every single weapon capable of breaking orbit has been deployed long ago (2007)…with the whole world watching the impacts in 2008…no affect…the great killer can be seen with the naked eye as it breaks into view…and then settles into orbit.

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Now what?

It is clear now that this vast object is a ship…encrusted with space dust layers upon layers.

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A mad rush to get there first?

Combined effort to get there and explore?

Do hundreds of ports open and millions of ships pour out of the great space hulk?

Are they fighters, bombers, or escape pods?

Maybe seed ships?

Does the ship look like the one that shows up at 1:30 in this clip?

YouTube link

Dan

Never heard of the Morrow Project, looked it up and it's different, sound fun to play.
In Guardians this happens like tomorrow, the twist is, the key person with the first set of names involve in "Blueprint" goes down, so a computer generates a list of names that are most likely involve in the project and most likely have the next set of names, and their job "The Guardians", go out into a world of hell and bring them back.

Maybe the ships are escape pods…but everyone in them are already dead…by hundreds of years…but the viruses, the microbes, and the micro fauna that have been laying dormant all these years..these are quite alive…

The alien tech is scavenged and unseen dangers begin to adapt…it is a race…the discoveries are profound!…then thousands fall ill, the forests are overwhelmed by a weird fungus, and common animals are seemingly going insane attacking anything that moves, then fall and die with strange growths erupting from their bodies…

Ok…how about the opposite of the sea level rising 150-200'+…drop the sea level down 200'+ or even much more like in the Wind Whales of Ishmael…

Where the oceans have dried up for the most part, the water trapped as vapor, most animals and plants have adapted to reach the moisture by means of gas bladders…flying sharks, whales, clusters of blood sucking vines (looks like a jellyfish), etc.

Wacky and improbable but still interesting.

Perhaps another look at Mars?

80yrs of terraforming using the great machines of the ancients that left them behind…then bad things happen back on Earth…terrorists blow up 5 of 13 factories creating dead zones of limited thin breathable atmosphere which allows a native flora-fungus to grow with abandon, though breathable air reduces the growth rate…

The most common animal in the Martian Oceans are varieties of Ironhead

and Shellback

I can just imagine those critters lying in stasis, just like Triops eggs, waiting for the right conditions:

Just add water:

TMP link
TMP link
TMP link
TMP link

With the lower gravity, who knows how big those triops bugs can get:

Who knows? Maybe a few Anomalocaris:

Or Eurypterids, like this baby one here:

TMP link

Dan

Mmmmm tastes like crab.