Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

[ghost-angel]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

The Revelation of St. John had plenty of high weirdness - although I am not sure it's a viable background for a game.

 

Revelations is the basis of one of the included settings, written by Darren Watts, takes place in 1000AD IIRC.

[Doug Limmer]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Yup' date=' that's the one! Just out of curiousity, what did you search on to find it? [/quote']It was a little complicated. I used a search phrase on Google, found an alternate phrase, plugged it into Ask.com, and went back and forth a few times. I think the final hit was on Ask.com; I don't remember exactly what I typed in.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Looking at the time line... I'm not sure it's all that accurate, or at least it's erring on the side of quickness.

 

Blacktop, outside the stresses of constant vehicle traffic, doesn't break down so easy. Neither does stone. Brick might, don't know much about concrete.

 

I don't think our buildings and roads would go away after only 1000 years.

 

As Steve said - look at the pyramids. Maybe 1,000-10,000 years depending on climate and other outside factors.

 

Frost heaving and tree roots are hell on roads, whether anyone drives on them or not. Now, in the desert, where the trees have no business sticking their roots in a place as dry as under asphalt, and where the ground rarely if ever freezes, they'll hang around a while. The east coast won't have roads for very long once the work crews stop coming every summer....

[ghost-angel]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Frost heaving and tree roots are hell on roads' date=' whether anyone drives on them or not. Now, in the desert, where the trees have no business sticking their roots in a place as dry as under asphalt, and where the ground rarely if ever freezes, they'll hang around a while. The east coast won't have roads for very long once the work crews stop coming every summer....[/quote']

 

Even out East, I've seen blacktop go unused for years with little wear. Concrete tends to heave more than blacktop once water in the pores freezes.

 

I'm not saying blacktop is super long lasting. But once you stop driving on the stuff it doesn't break down so quickly.

[zornwil]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

I wouldn't compare years to a thousand years, but I really don't claim to know. However, looking at the pictures of the ghost towns around Chernobyl, tend to favor the shorter cycles.

[zornwil]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

PS - also, as a reminder, it's not just plants, it's the insects and all that as well.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

It's possible it could be a 1000 years. I just look at pictures of Aztec ruins, the Pyramids, etc...

 

Once mankind stops putting pressure on something nature seems to take the slow route.

[gojira]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

I haven't read this, but it might serve as a source of inspiration:

 

http://www.postnukecomic.com/

[Steve Long]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

the amazing power of plants

 

This sounds like the name of a punk band or something.

[teh bunneh]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Speaking of Chernobyl, if you haven't already y'all should check out Kid Of Speed. Beautiful, haunting photography not of a ghost town, but of a ghost nation...

[Labrat]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Speaking of Chernobyl' date=' if you haven't already y'all should check out Kid Of Speed. Beautiful, haunting photography of a literal ghost town...

 

There's a cult-fad (or used to be, been a while since I've had any real interest) called 'urban spelunking' that seeks out abandoned urban sites (at their own risk), gain access (probably not legally) and just go around taking pictures of the effect of time over once-useful buildings. The photos on some of the websites are very cool. The architecture and little details of buildings that are no longer in use were posted. I'm sure there's still a lot of interest in it and it's neat to see.

 

I remember seeing pictures of the old boarding houses on Ellis Island and some of the older hotels in New York City. Very cool. When I Googled 'urban spelunking' first I got my spelling corrected and then I saw that there was a myriad of pages to choose from. Check it out, good stuff for PA atmosphere.

 

I cannot stress enough that this activity is often illegal breaking and entering so I am not officially endorsing this activity. Some of the buildings are hazardous in and of themselves so there is really a high risk of injury, not to mention the 'locals' found in such places probably don't want to be discovered so I strongly advise against it. (Wow, this turned into a PSA quickly didn't it?)

 

The 'Infiltration' website (http://www.infiltration.org I believe) also has some info but I haven't been there for a while either.

[Squeakula]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

There's a lot of good photos of abandoned buildings

on this site http://oboylephoto.com/ruins/

[Lucius]

Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To Say?

 

 

--as I've stated here and there elsewhere in the thread, since we've been fortunate enough not to have suffered through an apocalypse,

 

Uh, Sir, a large number of people have arrived by Palindromedary Express to talk to you about that.

 

Let's see, there's

 

A delegation saying they're former residents of Chernobyl and thereabouts -

 

A mixed bag claiming to be from Gaul, Hispaniola, Africa, and Italy, complaining (in Latin, mostly) about the barbarians having conquered Rome Herself -

 

A different group saying the Turks brought down civilization by destroying the Roman Empire, or I think that's what they're saying; it's all Greek to me -

 

Members of several native American, African, and Australian tribes (I caught a few names, or what I think are names - Ishi, and Tisquantum, and Truganini) who've dragooned a couple of palindromedaries into translating for them as they compare notes on What The Hell Happened and ask one another Are You the Last of Your People Too and Is Everyone Going to Die -

 

Some peasants of some kind saying the Mongols "destroyed civilization in its cradle" when they destroyed the irrigation system that had been in constant productive use for eight thousand years until THEY came along -

 

A group of exhausted people who say they were on forced march for days trying to escape rising waters that seemed destined to flood all the land in the world, and that they were at the end of their strength when "this miraculous two headed beast" saved them. The palindromedary says it found them over seven thousand years ago, on land that is now at the bottom of the Black Sea -

 

And finally a small handful of very dazed Japanese men who say they just saw Hiroshima destroyed and then Nagasaki days later and that at this rate it won't be long for the whole world to be blasted to ash -

 

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary asks again, what is the plural of apocolypse?

[Lucius]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Revelations is the basis of one of the included settings' date=' written by Darren Watts, takes place in 1000AD IIRC.[/quote']

 

Hm. I think I'd rather play out Fimbulwinter and Ragnarok.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

And a preapocolyptic palindromedary

[Toadmaster]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Lucius brings up a good point, might be worth at least a side bar to mention non-modern PA games. The dark ages could very well be considered a PA setting.

 

Similarly a space colony setting where support from the home world has mysteriously ended.

 

These would probably best belong in other genres but if a fantasy like setting 1000+ years after like Horseclans is PA then I would think a game set in an outpost of Rome during the collapse of the empire would be too.

 

Again I wouldn't expect a lot of material but a mention seems appropriate.

[Steve]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Something that could use mention about the setting of a PA campaign is when it takes place relative to the apocalypse in question. The numbers are purely for illustration.

 

Generation 0: It just happened, and the fires are still burning bright.

 

1-3 Generations Ago: People who lived through it are still alive, but they're getting old. Folklore starts to form about what the Old World was like. The present is still raw and untamed.

 

4-6 Generations Ago: Things are getting settled, and larger political powers are forming.

 

7+ Generations Ago: The Old World is a myth, and the frontiers are getting pushed back.

[TonyTempest]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To Say?

 

Uh, Sir, a large number of people have arrived by Palindromedary Express to talk to you about that.

 

 

 

A delegation saying they're former residents of Chernobyl and thereabouts -

 

 

And finally a small handful of very dazed Japanese men who say they just saw Hiroshima destroyed and then Nagasaki days later and that at this rate it won't be long for the whole world to be blasted to ash -

 

 

Lucius Alexander

 

 

 

I hope you don't think me rude, and I've been on enough boards to not diss the messanger, only the message, but I don't think any of that was relevant to what Steve Long was saying. When he said that we hadn't lived through any apocalypses, he was answering questions about how long skyscrapers, roads, and twinkies last. None of the people from Gaul, Africa, or (native) America could answer that because they were displaced by more aggressive cultures. So, yes, some cultures have fallen by the wayside in Earth's past, but none of them really qualify for an apocalypse by the standards of the genre. And Hiroshima and Nagasaki weren't abandoned, just rebuilt, so there would be no answers there, and Chernobyl didn't happen long enough ago to be considered in "most" PA settings.... (there are a few that happen very close to the apocalypse).

 

With that being said, I do like the idea your post brought up (and pointed out above mine) about PAs from a setting that was more historical than Modern. I think the book has a PA setting based on Revelations that will be during the Dark Ages (1000 AD right?). Dark Sun is a DnD PA setting where a traditional fantasy setting suffers the equivalent of an ecological disaster/nuclear (magical) war. So, while not really relavent to how long a Hot Dog will last if kept in a cool, dark place, your post triggered some good ideas about a historical Apocalypse.

 

david

[Steve Long]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Uh, Sir, a large number of people have arrived by Palindromedary Express to talk to you about that.

 

Please stop being pedantic. You know perfectly well I was talking about the sort of large-scale destruction of modern society that's depicted in countless PA books and films. Chernobyl and Hiroshima are nothing of the sort, nor are invasions of one people's territory by another people hundreds of years ago. There is absolutely, positively, unequivocally no precedent for the sort of total collapse of modern society seen or referred to in PA literature.

 

There's no reason you couldn't run an apocalypse-based game in some other time period (in fact, one of our sample settings/scenarios takes place in 1000 AD). But that's in no way, shape, or form anything like the mainstream of PA fiction.

[JmOz]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Umm steve one question about your last post:

 

What does pedantic mean?

[Steve Long]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

pe·dan·tic [puh-dan-tik] –adjective

1. ostentatious in one's learning.

2. overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, esp. in teaching.

 

 

In a gaming sort of context, the second definition is what typically applies, typically with the connotation of "reading a simple statement of obvious intent and meaning, then raising all sorts of questions or concerns about it in defiance of what was written and common sense."

 

Classic example -- complaining that the Instant Change form of Transform could be used on someone else's clothes. Anyone with common sense reading that knows that's not what's intended and not allowed, but a pedant has to raise the issue to make himself look smart and feel important.

 

I used it above because anyone who's read any sort of post-apocalyptic literature, or followed the discussion here, or even used simple common sense should know that when I say "since we've been fortunate enough not to have suffered through an apocalypse," there's no basis for quibbling. Modern human society has never suffered a total collapse or near-extinction of the sort envisioned in books and films like A Canticle For Leibowitz, the Pelbar Cycle novels, The Stand, and so on. Chernobyl and Hiroshima don't even come close.

 

Now, to be fair, the detailed nature of the HERO System tends to attract pedantic people, for whom its precision is appealing. I tend to be somewhat pedantic myself at times. But that doesn't mean we can't all use our common sense when thinking about this stuff.

[keithcurtis]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Speaking of Chernobyl' date=' if you haven't already y'all should check out Kid Of Speed. Beautiful, haunting photography not of a ghost town, but of a ghost nation...

 

Be careful using her as a reliable source.

 

Keith "Remembers the last time she came up." Curtis

[Labrat]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Now' date=' to be fair, the detailed nature of the HERO System tends to attract pedantic people, for whom its precision is appealing. I tend to be somewhat pedantic myself at times. But that doesn't mean we can't all use our common sense when thinking about this stuff. [/quote']

 

How about palindromantic?

 

(ducks in time for the 5th Edition Revised book to go sailing past head)

 

Ok... since I'm posting I may as well contribute. Will there be any (relative) room to address the Paranoia/Insanity rules that I mentioned previously? Beyond Psych Lims I mean. I figured (in a previous post) that since Horror Hero is a long way off that this might be a good place to put any Hero-based treatments of the 'last man on earth' complex and any other related psychological effects of surviving after the vast majority of a population has been destroyed. What are the long-term effects of such an environment on EGO? Of course this will be relative to the proximity of the Event... 'The Day After' scenario would benefit more from these rules (as in The Stand novel, there's a whole chapter on common people's reactions to such things and the dumb things they do...), but if a third generation nomad stumbles onto a city of glass and steel there may be some effects there as well.

 

Just askin'.

[Steve Long]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

palindromantic

 

Somehow I feel there should be a power in a book somewhere with this name.

 

Will there be any (relative) room to address the Paranoia/Insanity rules that I mentioned previously?

 

No, I don't see that as a large enough part of the genre to merit inclusion. Until we get around to publishing HH, my HEROglyphs column in DH #36 will have to suffice.

[Labrat]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

No' date=' I don't see that as a large enough part of the genre to merit inclusion. Until we get around to publishing HH, my HEROglyphs column in DH #36 will have to suffice. [/quote']

 

Oh brilliant! I forgot all about DH #36. Problem solved!

 

And stop winking at me. People will start to talk.

[zornwil]

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Please stop being pedantic. You know perfectly well I was talking about the sort of large-scale destruction of modern society that's depicted in countless PA books and films. Chernobyl and Hiroshima are nothing of the sort, nor are invasions of one people's territory by another people hundreds of years ago. There is absolutely, positively, unequivocally no precedent for the sort of total collapse of modern society seen or referred to in PA literature.

 

There's no reason you couldn't run an apocalypse-based game in some other time period (in fact, one of our sample settings/scenarios takes place in 1000 AD). But that's in no way, shape, or form anything like the mainstream of PA fiction.

I don't want to further any debate or rancor, but I think that these historical collapses of societies (especially the Roman Empire, which has a very sort of Road Warrior feel to it) probably do deserve being touched on as historical PA scenarios, the feeling of man being reduced to savagery. Yes, I am aware there is a massive body of work that debates this for any/all of these instances, but if we look at it from the perspective of the "civilized" who lost out, these are practical and easy settings to enact a PA type series of games, if not a sustained campaign. For what this is worth.