Apocalypse Hero

[Old Man]

Originally posted by Derek Hiemforth

 

 

In the positive focus game, the post-apocalypse world is used more as a backdrop rather than an end in itself. The Armageddon event often happened long ago, so the Earth has had some time to recover. There are usually new civilizations arisen, though of course they are usually smaller than today's civilizations, and different in nature. This game plays more like a fantasy game, with the characters more likely to do things for altruistic reasons than in the negative focus game. Examples include the film Logan's Run (especially once they escape the city) and the cartoon Thundarr The Barbarian.

 

I would highly recommend David Drake's "The General" Series to you in that case. Kind of hard to find as I think they have been out of print for a while. (The Hammer, The Anvil, The Forge, The Steel, The Sword)

 

Another suggestion would be William Forstchen's Lost Regiment series (?) It's about a civil war regiment that gets transplanted to a low tech alien planet. The apocolypse in is the form of roving hoards that consider humans to be food.

[Dauntless]

Does anyone know of books or movies about Apocalypses brought forth by climatic changes or meteor impacts? I'd like to take a look at some to give me some inspiration for my own game world.

 

I've been developing a world background in which Earth was hit by several cataclysmic meteors. Initially, it was one huge meteor which would have been literally the end of most life on Earth, but it mysteriously broke up in orbit before landing, creating several smaller but still incredibly devestating impacts.

 

The long shot of it is that this happens a few score years in the future, when man has terraformed Mars and has a few other intra-solar colonies (Io, Europa, the Moon, and some La Grange points have some hefty populations at this point). What this allowed me to do was to create a ravaged society and a high tech one at the same time. In a nutshell, the surviving Earth Colonies band together to try to save Earth, but due to their small numbers (and they are barely self-sufficient themselves) that it takes them a few decades to tool up. By the time they are ready, the surviving Earth populations have settled into various factions, all fighting for survival against each other and the elements. Because these factions have developed a bad case of xenophobia, the "rescuers" are looked down on as just another conqueror...whether they can provide high tech support or not.

 

The game actually takes place a few score years after "The Impact", and society has for the most part recovered on Earth...at least in some areas. Most of the Earth Factions eventually got subdued by the Colonial Government and they have instituted certain laws and taxation in return for medical aid and infrastructure improvements (schools, roads, hospitals, etc). There are however a few "Freezones" which were never absorbed into the NEC...due to a combination of a lack of will on the NEC's part (it's citizens felt that after conquering 80% of the Earth factions, it was good enough) as well as the budgetary constraints of continuing the war. These Freezones are not beholden by NEC laws and are free to pursuse their own customs, technology and trade.

 

So really, my setting has an apocalyptic origin, but a recovered apocalypse. What the cataclysm did is allow me to radically alter human society in a realistic, and logically consistent manner which plays off on several themes. I was very much influenced by the American Civil War, and he main theme that I wanted to get across was the idea of local sovereignty vs. a strong central government. In my world, there really isn't a good guy vs. bad guy world since both sides have their heroes and their villains, their good laws and their bad laws. The apocalyptic setting also allows one to sift through ideological and cultural ways like an archaeologist would...and it leaves some "badlands" for adventurers to explore.

 

I developed the game world not so much for roleplaying originally, but actually for a computer strategy game that I'm slowly working on. I do however want to expand it to a roleplaying setting (much like Battletech was originally a board game, but also had a supporting world storyline). I definitely admire more realistic settings, and a game world has to be plausible and logically consistent. So even in my wargame, the rules are geared more towards realistic considerations (like logistics, morale, command and control, communications, and leadership to name a few). The roleplaying elements will be equally as well-detailed and realistic as I believe this is more fitting of the "grim and gritty" nature of apocalyptic and realistic sci-fi settings.

[concord]

Originally posted by Dauntless

Does anyone know of books or movies about Apocalypses brought forth by climatic changes or meteor impacts?

 

Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Apocalypse Hero

 

"cough cough"

 

 

QM

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: Apocalypse Hero

 

Here's a movie to add to the Post-Apocalypse list: Island City.

 

The premise of this movie: That, at some point in the future, someone discovers

the means to retard aging, and distrubutes the anagathic world-wide. However,

some of the people who recieve the anagathic suffer an adverse reaction to it

because of a recessive gene in their DNA. As a result, these unfortunates are

physically transformed into muscular, rage-driven berserkers (think of the Lou

Ferrigno version of the Hulk, but without the green hair or skin) with reduced

intellectual capacity. Much of the world (at least what was shown in the movie)

resembles a desert, in which scattered groups or individual unaffected human

beings try to survive both the environment and marauding bands of "Recs"

(short for "recessives", the name given to the adversely-affected humans).

 

 

Major Tom

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: Apocalypse Hero

 

Here's a movie to add to the Environmental section of the LASM:

 

The Day after Tomorrow.

 

 

Major Tom

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: Apocalypse Hero

 

A few bits of source material that seem to have slipped through the cracks:

 

The Deathlands series of books (and a low budget movie on the Sci-Fi Channel) details the exploits of a mercenary type in the shattered wasteland of a world gone about 100 years post-nuclear (I think). There are some mutants and such in the books, along with lost technology, warlords, etc.

 

The first of the Bolo series of stories takes place a few decades after a nuclear war. The major character was a test subject for a cryosuspension system at a missile or military base.

 

The Marvel comics character Deathlok was a cyborg survivor of some sort of cataclysmic war (at least in the comics I've thumbed through in the past).

 

For a slightly childish take on the apocalypse, try the Saturday morning live action series Ark II in which a group of young scientists helps the scattered groups of humanity begin to rebuild after earth suffers a ecological holocaust due to pollution.

 

Along the same lines, don't forget Planet of the Apes movies, since a few of them are (presumably) some 1500 to 2000 years post nuclear war. (As a side note, I have secretly wanted to do a slightly expanded version of this for a campaign for a long time, though most of my current group of gamers can't stomach the kitch...)

 

And, not to be too much of a gadfly, The World of Greyhawk might technically qualify as a post-apocalyptic setting, since a great (non-technological) society has fallen in ruins in the past, and the current inhabitants live on the bones of the former society.

 

Matt "Damned-dirty-apes-fan" Frisbee

[Labrat]

Re: Apocalypse Hero

 

Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

 

This would be a definitive story I think. It's so well written. However, it's the chronicles of a couple of main characters dealing with the immediate aftermath.

 

Consider it very highly recommended though. If nothing else you get a very good glimpse of what kind of environmental impact a meteor would have on the human race.

 

Think about it this way, if a meteor or meteors did do in the dinosaurs, humans survived... and actually progressed rather nicely despite it. I don't think society would collapse, there would probably be an era of warlords and bandits disguised as 'reconstructionists' and 'scavangers' but ultimately I think the human race would return to some civility even within a single generation. Of course, 'civility' does include 'factions with opposing agendas' so you still have power, greed and territorialism angles that you could work. We just wouldn't throw ourselves back into 'Planet of the Apes' like cavemen. (IMO of course)

[bloomann]

Re: Apocalypse Hero

 

For an unusual' date=' and rather disturbing take on the fall of civilization, you might see if you can find a copy of the supplement [i']Champions in 3-D[/i] and take a look at the "Horror World" section. Even though it was written up for Champions, the threat in this world is more environmental and not really defeatable through brute force, so the power level of the PCs is much less of an issue.

 

Remember those investigators in H.P. Lovecraft's stories who barely prevent the evil cultists from summoning the unspeakable Horrors from Beyond? In this world, they failed. Rather than immediately ushering in the Apocalypse, though, these monsters subtly insinuate themselves into the human population at first, working to tear down the fabric of society and any potential resistance before bringing in larger numbers of their fellows. By the era that Ci3D describes, the process is almost complete: true humans are a dying race fighting a losing guerilla war, our cities have become vast nests of nightmares, and the planet's native ecology has been decimated by imported monstrosities.

 

I have to add, though, in all seriousness, that this world is not for faint hearted players.

 

Hey I just had to say THAT was one of my all time favorite supplements of any game.

[bloomann]

Re: Apocalypse Hero

 

My first baby steps as a GM were all done under Gamma World, and to this day, post apocalypse settings are my favorites.

 

For a look at the ways the world could end, I strongly recommend: Exit Mundi.

 

I've surfed this site VERY SCARY, especially the CATapacolypse