Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

About Phil the Cannibal:

 

I'd be willing to bet that before too much longer, someone in the PC group is

going to cut loose with the Lay's potato chip commercial line to the charact-

er:

 

"Bet you can't eat just one."

 

Major Tom

Smarta$$ Supreme of the Wastelands

[Dr Divago]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

The Chosen One

Is this a young girl blessed with superstrenght superspeed and regeneration powers?

:cool:

p.s. Sorry' date=' Dr. Div, I don't have anything written up on computer just yet, but I'll be converting it over the next few weeks. I'll post it up when I have something coherrent put together.[/quote']Fine. I'll wait.

[Glupii]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

If I were playing the chosen one, I would be very careful about how seriously ole Big Mac takes this "brotherhood" thing. In his tribe, you may not be aware of everything "brotherhood" involves.

 

Seriously though, it sounds great. The one thing that keeps me hung up on my PA world is what is going on in the rest of the world? If there is anyplace that can utilize, repair, or heaven forbid, create, advanced tech, why have they not spread to this area yet?

 

My own flavor is to say there are no such societies though there may be a small enclave of scientists somewhere that survived the "event" and are looking for tech that will allow them to take humanity out of the mire it is in.

 

What drives the world now though? Is it fuel like in the Mad Max universe? Food, like the old Car Wars universe? Water, as someone here suggested? Or simply tech and anything that makes survival better, similar to the old west? I kind of like the old Carwars type scenario where you have the large cities (New Philadelphia, New Denver, etc.) where some tech is available and you have civilization that is akin to the late 1600's. then everything between those oasis of near civilizations is lawless, anything goes areas.

[J. Chamberlin]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

Thanks for your help and the compliments dudes. Its good to know I'm on the right track (for a change).

 

Does Mel have a rebuilt black muscle car with a blower tucked away somewhere?

 

As a matter of fact, he does; the player couldn't come up with enough Character Points to have that and his dog/equipment, so he tucked a few CP away and wrote it up as being up on blocks under a tarp in some garage somewhere.

 

I'd be willing to bet that before too much longer, someone in the PC group is

going to cut loose with the Lay's potato chip commercial line to the charact-

er:

 

"Bet you can't eat just one."

 

Its funny you should mention that; as soon as Mel found out that Phil was a cannibal, thats exactly what he said. See what I mean about brilliant lines?

 

The one thing that keeps me hung up on my PA world is what is going on in the rest of the world? If there is anyplace that can utilize, repair, or heaven forbid, create, advanced tech, why have they not spread to this area yet?

 

I'm actually keeping the game specifically limited to North America because I couldn't decide on those questions. I figure the rest of the world got bombed to Hell and back, but who knows? One of the players might have a really cool idea for what else might have happened after the bombs dropped and I can just say "yeah, thats how things are in Italy right now." For now, I'm thinking that for the most part the only people that are really advancing technology in any appreciable amount are Vault-Dwellers whose Bomb Shelters simply haven't opened yet. Or maybe I'll do something like a secret Bomb Shelter out there somewhere that the gov't stocked with scientists and politicians and make that like an Evil Shelter Society or somesuch.

 

What drives the world now though? Is it fuel like in the Mad Max universe? Food' date=' like the old Car Wars universe? Water, as someone here suggested? Or simply tech and anything that makes survival better, similar to the old west?[/quote']

 

I wanted to keep the game as close to Sergio Leone's remake of The Road Warrior as I could; I've never seen Carwars. Basically the big motivators are fuel, clean water and tech, but I'm not really decided on that yet. Any ideas?

[Susano]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

As a matter of fact' date=' he does; the player couldn't come up with enough Character Points to have that and his dog/equipment, so he tucked a few CP away and wrote it up as being up on blocks under a tarp in some garage somewhere.[/quote']

 

:lol:

[TheRavenIs]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

I have a very small question? Are you allowing equipment to be used, if you are that car on blocks might show up alot sooner.

[Susano]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

I have a very small question? Are you allowing equipment to be used' date=' if you are that car on blocks might show up alot sooner.[/quote']

 

Yeah... it being the last of the V-8 Interceptors after all... a real piece of history that one... be a shame to blow it up.

[Glupii]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

I wanted to keep the game as close to Sergio Leone's remake of The Road Warrior as I could; I've never seen Carwars. Basically the big motivators are fuel' date=' clean water and tech, but I'm not really decided on that yet. Any ideas?[/quote']

 

Well the one question I would still have to answer (At least is your players are as intense on details as mine are) is the food supply. Obviously the vault dwellers have some sort of synthetic food source. Even a Hydroponic lab would leave fresh veggies and fruits at a premium and forget anything like wheat.

 

The cummunities would have to rely on some source of food (Farming/hunting/ranchers) unless they have some sort of Soilent Green (ewww) solution.

 

Also, how is the health care? How advanced are the Hospitals/Witchdoctors?

 

One other thing to throw the wrench as it were. How advanced did tech become before the "Event"? What is out there to be rediscovered? Had the civilization prior to the "Event" reach the computer age? Genetic Manipulation? Nano? This could affect the kind of things they may discover once they leave the area. Possible there are areas that were more advanced then even the Vaults?

[J. Chamberlin]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

Yeah... it being the last of the V-8 Interceptors after all... a real piece of history that one... be a shame to blow it up.

 

BWA-HA-HAHAHA! (yeah... thats really how I laugh. What?)

 

Yeah, I'm letting the characters buy/barter equipment - Mel just wanted to spend CPs on it so that he could start with the car, or at least access to it. He didn't think his chances of finding the right car were very good, so he took out Character Point "insurance" on it. I suppose I could put them (or just him) on a quest to find the right size tires, or the necessary gubbins, or whatever it is his car is missing. Truth told (and I would never tell him this) I would have given it to him eventually anyways. For now though, they couldn't squeeze the whole gang in there, let alone Big Mack, so I'm waiting for a plan to pop into my head about what sort of vehicle I'll give to the others: it'll have to be good, but not as spiffy as Mel's V8 cuz he's actually invested CPs into his ride. Any of you seasoned HERO gms out there have a suggestion?

 

Obviously the vault dwellers have some sort of synthetic food source. Even a Hydroponic lab would leave fresh veggies and fruits at a premium and forget anything like wheat.

The cummunities would have to rely on some source of food (Farming/hunting/ranchers) unless they have some sort of Soilent Green (ewww) solution.

Also, how is the health care? How advanced are the Hospitals/Witchdoctors?

One other thing to throw the wrench as it were. How advanced did tech become before the "Event"? Possible there are areas that were more advanced then even the Vaults?

 

Yeah, the Dwellers have hydroponics and also probably a lower floor dedicated to pigs and cows and stuff; do you think a hydroponic lab could support a community for a few hundred years? For a stoner, I know next to nothing about hydroponics.

The Wasteland communities rely mostly on barter, hunting and ranching for their food; farming is possible depending on where they live, but its difficult everywhere. A really popular source of food is the giant insects of the Wastes - really gross, but high in nutrients and clean ones are fairly common. I dunno about Soylent Green though... maybe there should be a community or two that does that and doesn't tell... maybe a Vault or two?

As for Tribals, they can farm just about anywhere, and eat mostly corn, insects, beef and each other. Depending on which Tribe your talking to is which one they'll prefer - some Tribes won't eat bugs (not kosher, etc), some won't eat people, some won't eat anything but people, things like that. So far I'm using the different Tribes to exercise my wonky notions of Wasteland survival.

 

Y'know, I haven't even really considered healthcare yet... I guess it should be really low in most places, Dark Ages style in a lot of Tribes, higher up the closer you get to a Sheltertown... good question, any suggestions?

 

I'm thinking technology before the War was about where it would be today, with a lilt to 1950s flavour and 1960-80s cars. Weapons are pretty modern though. I was thinking of opening a Vault with a few cyborgs in it, just to really freak out the Tribals, but I haven't really decided yet. Again, gimme an idea guys; you folks are doing half the work for me just giving me ideas.

[Glupii]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

Well I make no claims of ANY authority on the knowledge of Hydroponics. However I DID do a highschool project on it back in the 70's (oh shut up, yall will get old one day too if you're lucky) and from what I remember it would take a pretty huge project to feed even 20 folks year round. That is not even counting what it would have to grow for animal feed. Of course alot may have happened between the days I collected my data and the more modern times on which you are basing the Vault's initial tech. And they may have developed ways of enhancing the output somewhat we have yet to discover. So you can go with whatever you feel like.

 

Animals though, now that would be hard to realistically justify. I like the idea you started on with the bugs. It is a good bet that Vault dwellers may have bread a speciallized form of Pork or some other animal that could be rasied cheaply, fed on scraps and a minimal of edible organics, and that would make a decent potted meat when supplemented heavily with other sources like Soybeans. Chickens are another possible source but again you have the whole feeding thing.

 

As to healthcare, I agree that a medeval type society would be the most appropriate for most towns. I like the feel of the moremystic based voodoo for the tribes you describe. Witchdoctors and such.

 

I was planning on my world being a much more technoligically advanced society before the "Event" so I was thinking of having the existance of Nano take its place. I can see a town springing up around what was once a research facility for Nano and the local well/fountain is flooded with self replicating health bots that keep the locals free of disease and illness and slows the aging process considerably.

 

And this leads into my answer to your last question. I am partial to the d20 version of the Gamma World remake. They took history well beyond what we know today. That way even the players do not really know what to expect of the "Ancient Artifacts" or what they can do. When they were put under most of the ancient tech was not even invented yet. So you have Nano (Magic), Psionics, Cyborgs, Androids, the whole range of oddities. Basically, it differs little from a fantasy setting. But you have the occasional item or reference that gives it just a little different flavor.

 

One other idea we have been toying with in a PA game one of my players has been running is along the lines of the Morrow Project, where the players are all put into deepfreeze at some point before the "Event" and come out of it some decades/centuries later. The world has evolved into this wild wasteland and it is their duties to go out and search out other bases that may or may not have survived and try to rebuild humanity. It has worked well so far and all of us are having a ball with it. Everytime we come across something in the local town (Seeley Lake, Montana of all places!) that we can use for something, it is like finding a treasure. Finding old rusted trucks and cars we could scavage the leaf springs from and make crossbows was a major find! The GM has been able to recycle fanasty monsters and can almost explain anything away. We have fought Giant beetles the size of a truck, A breed of dark, ugly mutated humanoids with tusks (can you say Orcs?), Even a giant winged lizard that was a vicious battle to take down even with our advanced weaponry (we have a 50 cal. on a hummer but are running out of ammo for it). All in all it is a blast!

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

A giant winged lizard, eh? Hmmm....

 

One of the characters in this group wouldn't happen to resemble Christian

Bale now, would he?

 

 

Major Tom

[J. Chamberlin]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

I'm not really sure on the whole hydroponics thing; really its just a convenient way for me to explain things to myself. Same thing with the animal life, I just wanted to be able to grill up burgers while we play and say "lucky you guys, this Sheltertown has cows"; kinda like edible props. I dunno how scientifically accurate it would be, but it works for me. I just keep the cattle uncommon or expensive; I like the idea of chickens though, can't imagine why I didn't think of it.

 

Truth told, I've never really liked Nanotech in any game I play - its just such a big can of worms. I like your idea about a spring full of 'em though, Glupii, and I can see myself using that scene sometime in the future, but not quite yet. Ditto with psionics and cyborgs, but they might trickle into the game gradually. In a lot of PA source material I've found Androids are a big part, so they'll probably show up sooner or later too. I think I should mention that Tribal magic is nothing more than superstition and doesn't really work: a shaman might curse you, but nothing actually happens; I can't get the idea of a person with the gift of prophecy out of my head, so maybe some magic kinda sorta exists.

 

I'm actually at a bit of a loss for the monster angle, though. Giant insects and mutated animals is one thing, but they just don't have the resonance that a huge winged lizard would – but I'm not sure that’s the sort of thing I want to have either. Again, I might use it for a one-shot but I dunno about including it in the game full time. So far the biggest threats are Raiders and Slavers and other evil humans, but monsters are a nice touch. Man, campaign creation is a lot of work.

 

Yeah, I love the scavenging angle; I want to write up like a random treasure table for scavenged material, but I'm having some trouble getting it started. Really what I need is a huge (and I mean huge) list of useful stuff, maybe separated by where you might find something. There's another good question I can ask you folks: what sort of things might you find 200 years after the Bomb, or what sort of things might you want to find?

 

Anyways, thanks for all your input guys, and keep it coming. Game night tonight, so any and all ideas are welcome.

 

j

[Susano]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

For the record Damnation Alley had the following:

 

40' Gila Monsters, 120' snakes, bats with a 40' wingspan, spiders big enough to spin webs across a city street, toadstool-shaped cactus 50' across, and huge thorn bushes. It was also rumored that huge moths preyed on the Gila Monsters.

[Prometheus]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

I don't know how much of a fusion you want in your world, but have you considered introducing some more Western staples?

 

P.A. is already Western with some window dress. How about:

 

• Dusty towns with wide streets- for shootouts of course. And after a long ride through the wasteland, nothing beats a stop at the local saloon.
  
• Riding shotgun on stagecoaches (or their post-apocalypse equivalent). Stagecoaches are old west plot vehicles. No reason why a few nuclear explosions should change that.
  
• Robber barons with an iron grip on towns. With the world going to hell in a handbasket, who's to stop someone from exploiting his fellow man?

 

You can grab just about any Western staple and twist it into something usable in P.A. Take railroads- I could see some crazy idealist digging up an old steam engine with dreams of helping pull the world out of a dark age by reintroducing travel and commerce.

[UltraRob]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

I think the meat won't be a problem for the Vaulters...

 

http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/scitech/release.cfm?ArticleID=1098

 

Rob

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

I don't know how much of a fusion you want in your world' date=' but have you considered introducing some more [i']Western [/i]staples?

 

P.A. is already Western with some window dress. How about:

 

• Dusty towns with wide streets- for shootouts of course. And after a long ride through the wasteland, nothing beats a stop at the local saloon.
  
• Riding shotgun on stagecoaches (or their post-apocalypse equivalent). Stagecoaches are old west plot vehicles. No reason why a few nuclear explosions should change that.
  
• Robber barons with an iron grip on towns. With the world going to hell in a handbasket, who's to stop someone from exploiting his fellow man?

 

You can grab just about any Western staple and twist it into something usable in P.A. Take railroads- I could see some crazy idealist digging up an old steam engine with dreams of helping pull the world out of a dark age by reintroducing travel and commerce.

 

This reminds me of the Plater Gunsmoke, setting of Trigun. Where a supernatually-gifted gunfighter and an all-around basass psycho maniac battle for the survivial of mankind, and a couple of mis-assigned office ladies follow the gunsliger around trying to figure out how such a dork can be so powerful....

[Susano]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

This reminds me of the Plater Gunsmoke' date=' setting of [i']Trigun[/i]. Where a supernatually-gifted gunfighter and an all-around basass psycho maniac battle for the survivial of mankind, and a couple of mis-assigned office ladies follow the gunsliger around trying to figure out how such a dork can be so powerful....

 

Derringer Meryl is more than just an office lady. Just sayin'.

[J. Chamberlin]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

Wow, sure has taken me awhile to get back to this thread. Damn I hate workin'.

 

Anyways, here goes. I'll address the statements to whoever inspired them, but they're to everyone of course.

 

Susano: I picked up a copy of the HERO System Bestiary; do you use this one very much? It has a few creatures I think work well in the setting, especially the giant bugs and beasts, but it doesn't have near enough of them. Looks like I got critters to write up, too. The big ones so far are scorpions, cockroaches, spiders, rats, dogs, and lizards.

 

Prometheus: I'm actually thinking it'll be big-time Western flavour; I went out and rented a few Clint Eastwood movies and they capture the spirit perfectly (especially the desert landscape and the dusty shack-towns). I'm not sure how I'm gonna do the Rail Road guys, but they have definetly got to be in. Any thoughts?

 

UltrRob: Gross! Lab-meat? Brilliant... but gross. Between synthetic meats and hydroponic veggies, the Shelters are looking more and more self sufficient.

 

Michael Hopcroft: Never seen Trigun. Any good? Phil the Cannibal was talking about making a blessed gunfighter, but decided not to when he heard we had the Chosen One on the team.

 

Okay, thats all I have time for right now. I'll put up some of the highlights from last week's game (and the questions they brought up) when I get another chance.

 

j

[Susano]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

Wow, sure has taken me awhile to get back to this thread. Damn I hate workin'.

 

Anyways, here goes. I'll address the statements to whoever inspired them, but they're to everyone of course.

 

Susano: I picked up a copy of the HERO System Bestiary; do you use this one very much? It has a few creatures I think work well in the setting, especially the giant bugs and beasts, but it doesn't have near enough of them. Looks like I got critters to write up, too. The big ones so far are scorpions, cockroaches, spiders, rats, dogs, and lizards.

 

I find the HSB to be a good resource of "base stats" for different things. I used it a lot while working on THE HERO SYSTEM ASIAN BESTIARY.

[Cancer]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

The distillery is likely to be a key installation. Produces clean water, drinkable alcohol (always an important item), and undrinkable alcohol (a/k/a vehicle fuel). I would expect most "towns" would have such a thing, and it would be defended with people's lives. A town's stillmaster is a valuable person.

[Glupii]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

J,

 

Remember that you have your imagination to pull from to make things work. In the game I spoke of, the bigest threats we faced to date (discounting the obvious Wyvern/dragon reference) were a race of ill bred barbaric humanoids that more than anything resembled a throwback to humans at some lower point on the totem pole. Yes, the GM used Orcs to fasion them from, but that is not how they were introduced to us. Another critter we faced were cannablistic ravers that paralyzed you with their touch. Yes they were ghouls but the whol undead thing never had to enter into it. They attacked, we killed them. It was a close battle and it struck fear into our collective adventuing party heart. But at no point did it force us into the fantastic.

 

And there are plenty of critters in the system that would work well for a PA game with just a slightly different description and flavor on their text. (Different SFX for all practical purposes)

 

As for Nano, it is not important to include it, I just offered it up as an option for allowing some of the more fantastic elements to creep in without losing the techno feel. Psionics are alo harder to explain away and I personally was not planning on using them or if I did on a VERY limited basis. But Nano is something that is near future tech (or maybe already here? I have not heard that it was but I am not an authority) that could be used to explain alot of things. Much like Radiation was used for so long to explain away all manner of super powers/mutations/illnesses/giant sized lizards rampaging through Tokyo.

 

One word of warning, becareful about what you make available and/or rare. I know the minute I made beef cattle rare but available, they would use their advanced knowledge to begin a ranch.

[Susano]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

The distillery is likely to be a key installation. Produces clean water' date=' drinkable alcohol (always an important item), and undrinkable alcohol (a/k/a vehicle fuel). I would expect most "towns" would have such a thing, and it would be defended with people's lives. A town's stillmaster is a valuable person.[/quote']

 

"Gas! Thousands of gallons of it! All you could ever want! K-chunk, k-chunk, k-chunk..."

[J. Chamberlin]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

"Gas! Thousands of gallons of it! All you could ever want! K-chunk' date=' k-chunk, k-chunk..."[/quote']

 

 

Jesus, Susano, I wish you were local so I could press-gang you into the campaign...

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

I picked up a copy of the HERO System Bestiary; do you use this one very much?

 

Be sure to use the templates at the beginning with wild abandon. Nothing says Post-Apocalypse like a Ferocious, Enormous, Venomous Raccoon.

[J. Chamberlin]

Re: Friendly faces in the Post-Apocalypse

 

Arite, very quick recap of last week's adventure and highlights then my patented requests for help.

 

Last week the characters decided that to succeed in their quests (cure the plague and rebuild Mel's car) they needed to find some stuff to trade and a place with good tech; naturally, this crew of D&D players elected to find a ruin somewhere and go on a crawl.

 

Along the way they are accosted by Raiders who capture them and decide to kill them one by one in single combat as a means of entertainment and staying in practice. Phil gets picked first, dropped in a dry pool with the biggest raider and given a shiv to make it interesting.

 

Post segment 12 he throws the shiv, calls it for the raider's throat, and rolls natural 3 right in front of me. Phil's player doesn't bat an eyelash, doesn't look surprised; he lights a smoke and says "I dropped my shank. Guess we gotta do this again, huh?". While the raiders offer Phil a job, the others escape their cages and the group eventually manages to escape, laden with equipment.

 

They move on, find a town and buy a map to a nearby ruin. Along the way our heroes meet with some really rough weather and hole up in a conveniently located cave, where they have to deal with a pack of giant scorpions.

 

I left them in the cave, licking their wounds and trying to decide what to do next - explore the cave or keep on going for the ruins.

 

Now comes my request part. The cave goes deeper, but where does it go? Whats in it worth finding? Who put it there? I didn't think they would want to explore the cave over the ruins.

 

About the ruins, do you have any suggestions to make it reminiscient of a D&D dungeon crawl? My big problem is the above ground part; cities are built up not down, and I can't help but think subterranian is better for the feel of a dungeon. Also, what sort of buildings do you figure would be worth checking out, or would the remains all basically look the same?

 

For badguys I'm thinking I'll stick with mutated insects and animals for now, with maybe a really horrible mutant beast or small community of cannibals or something to shake them up, but I dunno.

 

Comments, criticism, and of course strokes of genius are welcomed guys.

 

j