Thinking by Posting: Post Apocalypse Seattle?

[Jkeown]

So we're starting up a post-oops Seattle game tonight using Post Apocalyptic HERO. I figure the Space Needle is the most iconic thing I can insert to suggest where the PCs actually live. They won't know at the start. The world ended in 2008 with an alien invasion, so our current culture is intact after a fashion, though twisted almost to the point of absurdity.

 

A few things I have in mind:

 

Music Cults: Seattle is still a very music-oriented city, certainly, after the invasion and the destruction that followed, something like our music of today lives on. Seattle bands like Nirvana, Queensryche, Harvey Danger, Pearl Jam, Jericho... Something in there suggests gangs of warriors and psychics with "band" themes. Would you groan too loudly if your GM threw a clone-gang of Eddie Vedders after you? Or a bunch of shotgun-weilding Kurt Cobains? (Staring at the floor (-5 to Ranged Combat))

 

The Fremont Troll: Maybe there are real trolls in Fremont now? Or the statue is worshiped by a buncha guys who use the leftover alien technology to augment themselves into the likeness of the statue?

 

Starbucks: I'm tempted to add something about Coffee... but that might be too obvious. Perhaps the Starbucks logo is a symbol of some fake goddess now?

 

Art Museums: There are five major museums in Seattle, perhaps each is the headquarters of some Warlord?

 

Ferries: There is no city on earth with a more extensive ferry system. Have they been converted into floating hospitals by do-gooders, or are they haunted water-borne ruins, reminders of the city's glorious past?

 

I've got more, but the game is tonight... so any off-the-cuff comments are very welcome. To residents of Seattle on the board: I'm not trying to make fun of your city, I feel it has so much culture that it would survive a war with aliens and mark the future with its uniqueness. My other choice was Indianapolis, but we live here... it's boring to us (and to a lot of others, I suspect!)

[Sketchpad]

Re: Thinking by Posting: Post Apocalypse Seattle?

 

So we're starting up a post-oops Seattle game tonight using Post Apocalyptic HERO. I figure the Space Needle is the most iconic thing I can insert to suggest where the PCs actually live. They won't know at the start. The world ended in 2008 with an alien invasion, so our current culture is intact after a fashion, though twisted almost to the point of absurdity.

 

A few things I have in mind:

 

Music Cults: Seattle is still a very music-oriented city, certainly, after the invasion and the destruction that followed, something like our music of today lives on. Seattle bands like Nirvana, Queensryche, Harvey Danger, Pearl Jam, Jericho... Something in there suggests gangs of warriors and psychics with "band" themes. Would you groan too loudly if your GM threw a clone-gang of Eddie Vedders after you? Or a bunch of shotgun-weilding Kurt Cobains? (Staring at the floor (-5 to Ranged Combat))

 

I would almost use the music cults more like armies on themselves. Maybe have the warlords proclaim themselves "Cobain Reborn" or Vedder II". They lurch into battle with their forces with lyrics as their battle cries.

 

The Fremont Troll: Maybe there are real trolls in Fremont now? Or the statue is worshiped by a buncha guys who use the leftover alien technology to augment themselves into the likeness of the statue?

 

Or maybe their the children of some kind of experiment or fallout effect that have taken on the area and name for their "species"?

 

Starbucks: I'm tempted to add something about Coffee... but that might be too obvious. Perhaps the Starbucks logo is a symbol of some fake goddess now?

 

I think the goddess idea is perfect ... maybe something like "Starbuck, Goddess of Energy" or "Starbuck, Goddess of The Bean" ... make The Bean a source of sustenance that people eat/drink in certain areas. Maybe it's a left over from the invasion or maybe some kind of mutated wildlife that causes massive addiction, as well as provide the basic food/drink structure.

 

Art Museums: There are five major museums in Seattle' date=' perhaps each is the headquarters of some Warlord?[/quote']

 

These could also be the last vestiges of human culture, having people guard over them to provide history. Another route is to make a sub-culture called "Society" that runs from the High-Culture, High-Society stereotype. In it, people must modify themselves to be "perfect" and viciously attack those that aren't.

 

Ferries: There is no city on earth with a more extensive ferry system. Have they been converted into floating hospitals by do-gooders' date=' or are they haunted water-borne ruins, reminders of the city's glorious past?[/quote']

 

It would be cool to see these ferries just floating in the water, dead calm. Maybe have remains on them with cars. Getting to one would be great transportation IF someone could get them running. But it begs to ask ... what else is in the water? Are the ferries just bait for something else?

 

Hope this helps. I've been plotting a PAH game for my home town as well

[Jkeown]

Re: Thinking by Posting: Post Apocalypse Seattle?

 

Thanks!

 

There's definately something in the water... Mutated Orca? Or mutated Octopus? Mutated-Not-A-Problem-Now-But-Give-It-200-Years-And-A-Ton-Of-Mutagens Other Fish?

 

I like the third option. Big Nasty Fish... loves Caffeinated Humans.

[Cancer]

Re: Thinking by Posting: Post Apocalypse Seattle?

 

Hm, I do live in Seattle, and there's nothing wrong with this thread at all. And I lived two years in Bloomington IN, so yeah, I know enough about Indianapolis to think Seattle is more interesting, too.

 

Don't forget that not far from the Fremont Troll is the Statue of Lenin, which could come to life and stride bronzily around whipping up the proletariat.

 

There are at least five drawbridges in the city (there's five that I cross on a frequent basis, and I'm sure there must be others), all of which could become controlled by trolls. (Oddly, the Fremont Troll, though located under a bridge, is not under a drawbridge.) The tunnel, where Highway 99 passes under Belltown from the waterfront Viaduct onto Aurora Ave N, is also a site for paranormal manifestation and exploitation of a transportation chokepoint.

 

Gas Works Park could come alive as infested with toxic spirits, or the shades of demented old chemical workers. You may be able to do something with the peculiar piece of art titled The Fin Project at Magnuson Park.

 

Boeing Field, including the Museum of Flight, could be the home site for a number of aerial marauders. If someone's kept the floatplanes going, a number of those operate off Lake Union too.

 

If you're going to invoke the undead ... invincible kung fu zombies? ... don't forget that the remains of Bruce Lee (and his son Brandon) are interred in Seattle. Jimi Hendrix's remains are in nearby Renton.

 

There's a zoo and an aquarium, three universities, a couple of research centers. There's the fish ladder and locks between Shilshole Bay and Lake Union. All of these could have "interesting" developments at them in some kind of apocalypse.

[Sketchpad]

Re: Thinking by Posting: Post Apocalypse Seattle?

 

Instead of fish, how about plant-life? Maybe something's mutated in the seaweed to give it animal intelligence? Now it strikes out of the water and drags unsuspecting people into the murky depths.

Or ... maybe the ferries are alive. Either as a puppet or something sentient in the machine, they lure people to their doom?

 

Another thought in general ... maybe there's a faction of the aliens left alive on the planet and the city is their proving grounds for experiments?

[Cancer]

Re: Thinking by Posting: Post Apocalypse Seattle?

 

Don't forget also: the lower Duwamish River is a Superfund site.

[Sundog]

Re: Thinking by Posting: Post Apocalypse Seattle?

 

You'd need to be careful regarding said apocalypse. Seattle would be a BIG nuke target due to the Navy Yards.

[Cancer]

Re: Thinking by Posting: Post Apocalypse Seattle?

 

Well, those are actually in Bremerton, across Puget Sound, there's the sub base at Bangor, the NAS on Whidbey Island, and the new carrier home port in Everett. Of those, only Bremerton is close enough to Seattle that a nuke on that would destroy much in Seattle at the same time.

[Nyrath]

Re: Thinking by Posting: Post Apocalypse Seattle?

 

One wonders what the post apocalyptic inhabitants will eat. My imagination quails at the thought of what a mutated geoduck clam would look like.

[Cancer]

Re: Thinking by Posting: Post Apocalypse Seattle?

 

Lessee ... just thinking about things of which there are too many around my house ... crows, pigeons, banana slugs, moss ...

 

Me, I worry what mutated Himalayan blackberry brambles would be like. I expect those aren't so far from anthrophagia already.

[Nyrath]

Re: Thinking by Posting: Post Apocalypse Seattle?

 

Me' date=' I worry what mutated Himalayan blackberry brambles would be like. I expect those aren't so far from anthrophagia already.[/quote']

No joke. Blasted bush has thorns that are aimed inward, not outward.

 

This means you can stick your hand in with no problem. Your troubles start when you try to remove your hand.

 

The mutated variety will hang on to you until you expire, so your lifeless rotting corpse can fertilize the bush with nitrogen.

[Sundog]

Re: Thinking by Posting: Post Apocalypse Seattle?

 

Long are my memories of Blackberrying on bright days - (I'm a Bremerton native, wherever I might live now).

[The Weapon]

Re: Thinking by Posting: Post Apocalypse Seattle?

 

I think the goddess idea is perfect ... maybe something like "Starbuck, Goddess of Energy" or "Starbuck, Goddess of The Bean" ... make The Bean a source of sustenance that people eat/drink in certain areas. Maybe it's a left over from the invasion or maybe some kind of mutated wildlife that causes massive addiction, as well as provide the basic food/drink structure.

 

Or people simply recognise how valuable staying awake can be in PA Seattle.

The goddess' other name is "Cafeina" and her acolytes are detailed in the example adventure "Search for the Melita" in Authentic Thaumaturgy by Isaac Bonewits. At one stage one of the followers of the "Way of sweetness and light" is punished by a prohibition on milk and sugar for a week. Others follow the Left-out path.

[The Weapon]

Re: Thinking by Posting: Post Apocalypse Seattle?

 

 

There are at least five drawbridges in the city (there's five that I cross on a frequent basis, and I'm sure there must be others), all of which could become controlled by trolls. (Oddly, the Fremont Troll, though located under a bridge, is not under a drawbridge.)

 

Well it didn't used to be a drawbridge...

[Nyrath]

Re: Thinking by Posting: Post Apocalypse Seattle?

 

The goddess' other name is "Cafeina" and her acolytes are detailed in the example adventure "Search for the Melita" in Authentic Thaumaturgy by Isaac Bonewits. At one stage one of the followers of the "Way of sweetness and light" is punished by a prohibition on milk and sugar for a week. Others follow the Left-out path.

And their enemy was the dreaded Sect of Sanka, whose sacramental "elixer of awareness" blasphemously lacks the "divine spark".