pet peeve

[Running Wolf]

One of my huge pet peeves is doing a search for PA stuff and coming up with zombie stuff! Zombie stuff is not post apocalypse.

To me it would be like saying it's a naval game but the game focuses exclusively on naval aircraft! That would be a dog fighting game!

These damned kids today not growing up in the cold war .

[AJ]

I grew up in the era when it was the done thing to film crappy sci fi films in the outback of Australia.. I blame Mad Max for this, and the fact that it was dirt cheap.. and dirt is what Outback Australia has LOADS of.. that and dryness, heat, flies and bounding marsupials.. not to mention snakes, spiders, spidersnakes and in some places, radioactive dirt (ok, there is no such thing as spidersnakes.. I think).
Anyway, yes, I am familiar with what post apocalypse means.. it means biker gangs in assless chaps and everyone fighting for the last tanker of petrol, or water, or whatever.. accidentally shooting every useful person or woman in the crossfire, and there being this strange urge to give every item they own a weird tribal/ducktape motif.

Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome is a classic
A Boy and His Dog is a classic
Waterworld is a classic
The Book of Eli is a recent classic I think.

Teenage Mutant Turtles : After the Bomb did this genre particularly well.

[Running Wolf]

That's it on the head AJ.

Night of the Living Dead ("they're coming to get you Barbara!") was horror & a bit of a political statement. Someone pointed the last part out to me. Everyone loosing their cool, the black guy kept his and get shot at the end of it for his trouble. You might argue that movies like 28 Days Later and I am Legend are zombie movies and PA movies, but the big distinction there are that the zombies are victims of a plague.

To me a PA might have mutants and might not, but it sure as hell doesn't have zombies. I can even stretch it to the point that if it was a fantasy world it will have magic, but to me that is still a fantasy setting not a PA setting.... Maybe that is part of my I hate the zombie apocalypse idea so much is that it is fantasy trope. For me the fantasy and sci fi tropes don't mix well except in certain circumstances. At least for it's a matter of taste and aesthetic. The setting (not the game mechanics) of Shadowrun does a good job of it as well as GURPS Technomancer.

[AJ]

Ironically, my current D&D game is actually a sci fi setting (Warhammer 40K) but the players don't know it yet, and I am not telling them! When they do finally figure it out, all hell is going to break loose, and I may possibly have dice thrown at me... I don't know yet, but it is going to be one of the greatest moments in my role playing career (plus, I record audio logs of these games, so it will be preserved for all time).
I will post about this setting on the ... hmmm... fantasy board or sci fi board?

[onethatwas]

Sounds a bit like what Terry Brooks did with his Shanara series. The theme of the book is clearly Fantasy, but there are hints (which later become obvious facts) about the entire series being post apocalypse. The Dwarves, Trolls, and Lizardmen turn out to be human mutations (while elves just decided to come out of hiding).

Neat twist to the books, but it doesn't strike me as truly Post Apoc to me. As you indicated, ruined world, lack of resources/resource fighting, and devolved barbaric societies kinda fit tjis theme better.

[Running Wolf]

Onethatwas - Was that the series about the swords?


AJ - what was that old red box adventure? The Expedition to the Barrier Peaks that tried to tie in Gamma World with D&D? Sounds like you're doing an update to taht oldie but goodie

[valas]

double post, edit and remove

[valas]

My favorite PA seeting is the Deathlands. It s a pulp fiction setting after a nuclear war. Interesting read and would be easy to do using the D20 modern rules.

PLot



On the morning of January 20, 2001 the climax of the Cold War set the post-apocalyptic stage for the series. The end game began with a pre-emptive strike on Washington. Underground nuclear bombs were detonated from within the basement of the Soviet embassy, by an elite group of Spetsnaz operatives, destroying the central command structure and political system of the United States. For an indefinite period of time a nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union devastated both countries and subsequently the entire planet (but little details are known outside both countries). All manner of genetic contagions were released infecting the survivors of the firestorm with horrible illnesses. The remaining survivors lived harshly during a time of prolonged nuclear winter known as 'Sky Dark'. The geography, climate, and ecosystems of the world had changed dramatically. What was left of the United States came to be known as the Deathlands.



100 years later civilization begins again: brutal, short lived, morally confused and crazed from mutation. Between the many hot spots are small plague pits ruled by power hungry individuals who have no limits in order to establish their rule and expand their influence. These individuals are known as the Barons. Their rabble pits are known as Villes and Baronies. Civilization unknowingly resembles the Dark Ages. Trading resumes between the villes: Jack (a regional currency), Jolt (a hallucinogenic mixture of Mescaline and Heroin) and slaves are the primary forms of currency. Life is a strange mixture of ancient history and limited technology that is scrapped from the 20th century. Military technology is the most prized possession of all; success is often measured by the number of bullets he or she possesses. A man named Ryan Cawdor leads a group of companions across the deathlands. Ryan has extremely secret knowledge of the 20th century. The understanding of hidden underground complexes, known as redoubts, that contains Teleportation technology. He and this companions guard this knowledge with their lives. The technology is called MAT-TRANS.



Each novel usually begins with the companions arriving at a frequently unknown redoubt by MAT-TRANS. If the situation is impossible or hostile the companions can use the "last destination" feature of the transporter to return to the sending location. If the redoubt is unknown then the companions usually explore, looking for weapons and supplies which they rarely find. Sometimes they are lucky and find a working shower or stored food which they always utilize or take. The story picks up speed once the characters leave the redoubt and explore the surrounding countryside. Frequently the companions are captured or forced into a confrontation with the local barons. Each novel reveals a little of the characters' history, motivations and the regional location where they arrived.

[onethatwas]

Runningwolf:

The first book is entitled the Sword of Shanarra. Interestingly, the rest of the series uses the Shanarra name, but the character really has little to nothing to do with most of everything else (and is a character in only one book). The Elfstones, the Wishsong...should have been entitled "The <blank> of Alanon," because that character had much more to do with everything. Although Walker Bo was much cooler IMO.

Ah well. But yes, it is a fantasy book set in post apocalypse future (which allowed brooks to tie the series to another, modern/post modern series of books he writes, which feature magic also. Contemporary fantasy?)

[Running Wolf]

oh forget the name of the series.... was written by Saberhegan... Think I read some of them as a freshman in high school so it would have been 30 years ago.

Errr me no wanna go to work today!