Post-Apocalypse Flavour

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 2:21 am

What do you prefer in your Post Apocalypse RPG? Fantasy such as Dark Sun or Sci-Fi like Fallout? Do you want kitchen sink, such as Rifts? Do you want to crawl through the ruins, or is the pre-Fall civilization effectively lost in both ruin and memory? Do you want the pre-Fall world to be based on RL, so you can see the Statue of Liberty in the background? Or do you prefer the pre-Fall to be fictional, such as having it be on Toril or Middle-Earth?

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 2:39 am

Any of the above.

I am not particularly helpful on questions of taste, as I have none.

silva · Post by **silva** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 3:02 am

The STALKER pc game has the most exciting post-acpoalyptic setting Ive ever seen.

Aryxbez · Post by **Aryxbez** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 7:27 am

I enjoy all manners of Post Apocalyptic types, though Fallout & Zombie Apocalypse's are my two favorites, I've been exposed more to that, than Dark Sun, or Ravenloft.

Latest Post Apocalypse games I have played equal it out, State of Decay and NIER, being Zombie Apocalypse and Apocalypse turned Fantasy-esque world. I like the former games currency being based on Reputation or "Influence", and wonder on the merit of such an idea in a Tabletop RPG.

silva · Post by **silva** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:12 am

Aryxbez, I know its not exactly what you want, but I remember vaguely that Eclipse Phase had a post-scarcity, reputation-based, economy.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:41 am

i would guess there would need to be remnants of the old world . .
otherwise, if there are not hints about the world having gont to the crapper, does it really count as post apocalyptic, if nobody remembers what was before? if there are no hints as to it having ever been different, then that's not post apoc but the way it's always been right?

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 1:46 pm

Stahlseele wrote:i would guess there would need to be remnants of the old world . .
otherwise, if there are not hints about the world having gont to the crapper, does it really count as post apocalyptic, if nobody remembers what was before? if there are no hints as to it having ever been different, then that's not post apoc but the way it's always been right?

I meant more for the kind of story where the ruins & survivors are far enough from the pre-Fall civilization to not be able to make references to cultural touchstones; "setting-neutral", as it were.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 4:50 pm

Ah, i see.
Well, i prefer Sci-Fi.
Fallout is a big Yes in my book.
I guess it depends on how long ago you had your apocalypse, how it was carried out and how people dealt with it . .
After Earth, that one Movie with Will Smith and his son?
People from Earth evacuated and it turned back into a natural jungle world over the course of several thousand years.
Fallout is only 100 Years after the Apocalypse and the People did not leave earth but hunkered down in Bunkers.
Both of these are SciFi, but they are both completely different.
I like to make connections to the old World. Find Los-Tech, try and rediscover it . .

Look up the old animated Series: Cadillacs and Dinosaurs for example
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillacs_ ... TV_series)

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 6:20 pm

If we're talking about non-interactive fiction I'm game for just about anything, but from a pure tabletop game standpoint, I don't like it when people go overboard and have virtually nothing be available in abundance. I say that because ultimately I don't think most groups or systems do gritty survivalism and non-abstracted resources very well. So, while I'm hardly what you'd call a zompocalypse fan, I do think the notion of some sort of recent disease based disaster that ultimately results in a small number of people with a large amount of guns and vehicles has some potential.

Wesley Street · Post by **Wesley Street** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 7:21 pm

It depends on your definition of post-apocalypse. Shadowrun, Cyberpunk 2020, and Eclipse Phase fit the bill but they aren't defined by Mad Max post-nuclear hellscapes (well Earth is Terminator-land in EP but the colonies are pretty diverse). That said, I do like Dark Sun, as it's a nice departure from the typical Tolkien-influenced high fantasy, and Paranoia for its dark humor.

For sci-fi, which is my genre of choice, I prefer apocalypses that are economic rather than WMD.

EDIT

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Tue Aug 13, 2013 12:00 am

I like a return to a "dark age", with technology as almost a form of arcana (like Frank's old idea that "steelmaking is magic"). People know that tech exists, but it needs to be dug out of the ruins of the ancients, and is treated as mysterious; people who can actually repair it are like wizards. Something like Gamma World, or the works of Donald McQuinn.

I also like a fallen earth setting, so that there can be references to past ages, often badly garbled into legends and folklore.