Or, more to the point, why do *I* love apocalyptic fiction? It's not like I have some subconscious (or lord forbid conscious) desire to smash civilization into ruins. I like people and I can barely stomach reading about real-world disasters in which real people suffer or die. And as a technophile, I love the conveniences of modern civilization and would much rather live in a trippy Transhuman SF future than a Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Yet, I can't get enough of apocalyptic fiction in which the modern world falls apart and a plucky band of survivors use their wits to survive and salvage something of civilization. I'm talking about works like The Passage, the Strain, the Stand, Dies the Fire, Without Warning, Y: The Last Man,World War Z, and now John Barnes' Directive 51 (which bumped everything else I was reading). All of these works wormed their way into my head because they present survival and rebuilding as an irresistible problem to solve. Reading these books, regardless of the implausibility of the premise, I can't help but imagine the "holy s$@t, what if it happened to me" situation. I'm *so* not a survivalist type of guy, but thoughts immediately run towards emergency planning and escape routes and figuring out exactly what kind resources to get myself and my family to safety.
Anyway, I mention all this because I still think one of these high-concept apocalypses would make a great roleplaying campaign. The GM just needs to set the storm in motion and it all comes down to how the player characters react. In some ways, my Knights of the Astral Sea game is an example of this sort of thing, though I also loaded it up with Arthurian themes and Traveller-style adventure trading. Also, destroying an alternate 1930's earth and having surviving ships flee into the Multiverse is very different than wrecking a contemporary civilization in which the player characters are forces to survive in the ruins.
Someday, I hope to run such a game.
8 comments:
I find I will watch ANY movie that features a city being destroyed. Even those crappy SyFy channel 'weather gone awry/evil' movies.
So at least your obsession has some merit in the survival/rebuilding component. I just like seeing stuff destroyed.
I'd love to play in a game like this. Resource management would be key, I'd think.
@123: As a GM, it would be fun to smash the crap out of stuff. Like building sand castles and knocking them down.
@Nakia: Totally. Ally about resource management. Regular goods would need to be hard to come by, not to mention the difficulty of choosing which stuff to take when you can only carry so much.
Didn't Hero Games publish one? I think it was called Post-Apocalypse Hero. There's also the system-neutral Deluge by VSCA Publishing, and of course Gamma World.
Thanks for the reading list -- I'll look up the novels you mention. I love apocalyptic fiction (although I tend to call it post-apocalyptic). My favorites are Lucifer's Hammer and, more recently, The Road.
@Ken: Hmm, as a Gurps guy I was always pretty ignorant of what was going on with Hero. But you might be right. As for Gurps, Y2K was a great resource for the actual apocalypse and its immediate aftermath.
When I here Post-Apocalyptic, I think of Gamma World, Mad Max, and Apocalypse World. Usually, the apocalypse itself is backstory.
I'm scared of the Road. I'm afraid it will be too dark even for me.
Risus Monkey said...
@123: As a GM, it would be fun to smash the crap out of stuff. Like building sand castles and knocking them down.
I am in two and a half zombie apocalypse games - and yes, stomping zombies, looting cars, and starting fires does, indeed, kicks ass.
http://www.cracked.com/article/136_5-reasons-you-secretly-want-zombie-apocalypse/
I have to admit watching civilization go to rack and ruin does it for me too. Unlike the Monkey, I don't worry about my broken psychological make up that allows me to enjoy it.
"Oh Clarice, you need to get more fun out of life."
Hannibal Lecter.
I also like the Aftermath docs on Nat Geo.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/aftermath-population-zero-interactive/
@Nakia: Totally. Ally about resource management. Regular goods would need to be hard to come by, not to mention the difficulty of choosing which stuff to take when you can only carry so much.
That and finite resources make your fellow non-undead as dangerous as the undead.
Finite Resources is a key point in a Dawn of the Dead based game.
How to Run Killer Zombie Campaigns
http://www.roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=508#tips
@Nero: Love that link! But I think they needed to destroy that barn well before the city's skyscrapers.
Risus Monkey said...
@Nero: Love that link! But I think they needed to destroy that barn well before the city's skyscrapers.
I like the 'to do list' on the 5 Reasons link. The kid with the glasses and machine-gun is funny too.
As to the Barn. On my grandparents farm, I was raised in a barn built before the Civil War. It survived two hurricanes, both which flattened the rest of the county.
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