Episode 147: Season 6 Opener- Creating a Post Apocalyptic Campaign

Seize the GM

00:00 / 32:59

Main Topic

Intro

After we ran a poll with the Patreon Subscribers whose votes counted double and a poll on twitter we are here. And where is here? We are at the collapse, the end of days. Well actually it is after that has come to pass. We are in the Post Apocalypse. What does that mean for this, and why does it matter?

Well this season of the show we are going to be doing something much different then we have done since we started this podcast. In the past we talked about how to create campaigns. This year is going to be taking those things and doing a build out with the bits you will need to run a full campaign. But first things first we are going to be talking about what it means to be post-apoc.

What is Post Apoc?

There are several things that help to define the genre. Below are several of them. These are some of the core features. Depending on time frames and other things there can be more and different features.

Identifying features:

Resource Scarcity – Post Apocalyptic settings are always starved for resources of various kinds
Declining Tech – New tech cannot be made up to the old standards. Something was lost in the apocalypse
Exploration or re-exploration vibes
Feudal Social Structures – Reversion to less democratic or anarchic structures in favor of authoritarianism
Limited Choice – Limited resources create limited choices

Guard-a-Manger Concept

ISS Pandora

A huge generational ship or Dyson sphere launched before its time. The impending solar catastrophe wrecking the planet slowly was only accelerating and before the solar flare could wipe out all of what was left, the ISS Pandora was launched taking with it what it could. Attempting to outpace the collapsing solar system behind it, Pandora makes its way through space.

The different crew designations and then noncrew make the factions. All equipment wasn’t loaded before launch and repair parts are nonexistent.

Zendead Concept

Typhon

The Typhon Project is one that mankind had planned to use to terraform the moon of Io. Mankind had started to terraform so very slowly this moon. They had a number of sections of the moon that were semi habitable by humans. Well humans might be stretching that a bit. Gene rewriting to make them able to live there was the short term plan of a generation or two at the most but then the Typhon project was brought online.

There were a few hundred city states all over the moon and when the project was made active something happened. No one is sure since once it started the moon underwent a drastic change almost overnight. The moon was declared dead by the rest of mankind since the people couldn’t have survived what happened.

What really happened? That is the biggest question and was it the plan from the beginning? Who has the pieces and what has been lost in this world? And more importantly what has survived?

Joules Concept

Eileithyia

One of the “Cradles of New Civilization” has reached the end of life. It was one of 100 ships sent out from a dying earth. Plagued with ever worsening technical challenges, the ship has to find a habitable planet in the near future, as well as protect the various biological specimens stored on the ship.

DNA is so very fragile, and exposure to cosmic radiation can introduce so many risky variables.

Do they continue to “undo” the damage to the DNA strands, which consume precious resources? Are they try and protect only the most necessary and fragile specimens, hoping that the hardier ones survive? Do they just cross their fingers and hope for the best

Who gets the resources, because if the ship crashes, all that effort is for naught. But if the specimens are destroyed, same result.

Closing remarks

Zendead – The Lost City By Goodman Games, this is so good.

Joules – Everlore by Manchild Ltd Games.

Guard-a-Manger – Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. Streaming on Amazon Prime, a movie from the early 2010s that is full of camp, fun, and some neat ideas of world building coming off of the idea of Hansel & Gretel as adult bounty hunters.

Music is courtesy of Sim on Twitter you can find him at @TheSimulacrae