Post Apocalyptic Discussion (Possible World-building?)

[TJByrum]

Fallout 4 is on the horizon, and new found interest in that genre is peaking within me. Not to mention the advertising for Mad Max here recently, and me watching The Book of Eli has also got me interested in the genre. I want to talk about at least.

What type of post apocalyptic setting do you like most? Some tend to have some futuristic stuff in it (like Fallout or even Destiny and Oblivion (Tom Cruise movie), if you want to include that) while others tend to use contemporary things (like in the Book of Eli, or the Last of Us).

Do you like the idea of zombies/mutated humans in the setting? Do you like mutations in general? Or do you like the more grounded, 'realistic' approach? Are you a fan of nuclear wars being the reason for the fallout, or something else?

If you guys want, we can all 'build' settlements, factions, and important characters and 'build' us a world to RP in.

[Vilageidiotx]

I like non-environmental apocalypses, sort of like "Dies the Fire" but perhaps with less voodoo behind the plot. Something like a modern dark age. Viruses kill most the population, industry collapses for some reason, that sort of thing.

[HeySeuss]

I always thought the path less-traveled might well be the aftermath of a resurgence of magical, sort of an apocalyptic fantasy at that point.

[Keyguyperson]

I like nuclear apocalypses in my backstories. I like them so much that I made one of my favorite stories have multiple hundred nuclear apocalypses in its backstory. I sometimes like futuristic stuff, but sometimes I want something contemporary. And other times I like my apocalypse with a side of dieselpunk. Supersized.

I hate mutations, unless they're realistic. You know, like stuff that we've seen in things like the atomic bombings. Because, well, a nuclear war would probably look like the atomic bombings. Because they're both atomic.

[VATROU]

Fallout is a Retro Future https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrofuturism Based upon how the 1950's Era saw it. And personally it's my favorite genre. I've done some world building in the Fallout Universe creating an entirely new setting in Alaska, where Fallout and Fantasy themes are present. It's still the Fallout world but the fantasy elements are references to myths and lore, creatures and peoples who believe in legends centuries old. But legends that don't actually exist.

Mirelurk Kings resemble the Inuit legends told of the Qalupalik https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qalupalik

And some other creatures I've made were created with mythological creatures in mind. There are also swords and bows, but these are more for self defense against animals than humans.

[Darcs]

I love Fallout, but my favorite post-apocalyptic setting has to be one where "The apocalypse" never actually happened, but instead life is still mostly gone. Something outside of nature destroying humanity, or humanity destroying itself happened-- but the landscape would imply exactly that. for other, possibly sinister reasons, like... the singularity making it so that all populated planets are abandoned and everyone goes to a dyson sphere computer to upload their brains into their own perfect dream bubble.

Like the blood red LCL sea at End of Evangelion.

[Ellri]

We think the less travelled paths are more interesting. The "desolate wasteland with mutants/zombies" one has been done too much.

One setting that we've not seen much is one that isn't merely humans exterminating most of each other through nuclear war. Nuclear war on that scale would probably destroy all life as we know it. What we think would be much more interesting is one in which, either naturally or human-triggered, supervolcanoes erupt, creating a new cold era, maybe even an ice age. A single known supervolcano probably wouldn't be enough to do that globally, but if two-three such are triggered, there ought to be more than enough ash thrown into the atmosphere to cool the earth dramatically.

It sure would solve global warming, at least.

To spice the new story up, we see no trouble involving things like magic in the aftermath of it.

[mdk]

The thing that seems to be present in all my favorite post-apoc settings is watching the very last humans doing their thing.... the numbers don't have to be super-small, but they can be. I'm thinking of everything from Battlestar Galactica (where they show you exactly how many humans are alive at the start of each episode), Attack on Titan (you're watching the last city crumble and the last people die), Demon's Souls (especially when saving one character causes him to roam the last refuge, secretly murdering the only humans left in existence), heck Interstellar even counts. That's always an intriguing thing to me. The end of the world, I mean.... I like the world, sure, but I care way more about the end of human beings. We're easily the coolest things on the planet anyway.

That tends to get lost when you start bringing in robots and zombies and mutants and all that. It becomes about killing the titans instead of just friggin' existing, somehow.

[TheMadAsshatter]

I would mention S.T.A.L.K.E.R., but that's not really post-apocalyptic, just sci-fi shit with a post-apocalyptic-esque environment contained in a bubble with a radius of 30 kilometers.

I feel like the unfortunate thing about post-apocalyptic shit is that there's only so many avenues that can be taken. Asteroid fucks shit up, supervolcano fucks shit up, global warming fucks shit up, global freezing fucks shit up, humanity fucks shit up, zombies fuck shit up, aliens fuck shit up, etc. I'm sure there are some things I'm forgetting, but really, what more can you do with the whole apocalyptic thing aside from what's pretty much all of the "generic" ideas?

Don't get me wrong, post-apocalypse is probably my single favorite genre, but I really do feel like there's only so much you can do with it.

[TJByrum]

What about judgement day? All the good people have went to Heaven, and all the assholes of the world were left on earth and have fought this huge war with demons from hell. The demons have been pushed far into South America, while the remaining humans reside sparsed out around North America.

There's an American Dad episode you guys should totally see.

[Dinh AaronMk]

What about judgement day? All the good people have went to Heaven, and all the assholes of the world were left on earth and have fought this huge war with demons from hell. The demons have been pushed far into South America, while the remaining humans reside sparsed out around North America.

There's an American Dad episode you guys should totally see.

@TJByrum

I think the issue with overtly religious themes like this is that they are... Well, religious. And different religions have different opinions on how the world will end. And then there's always the non-religious who would scoff at it in favor of any listed plausible scenario. So any perspective RP'er who goes to join a post-Apoc RP to find that it's based on the events of the Judgement Day/Yawm al-Qiyāmah/Whatever may feel uncomfortable for stepping into something which fundamentally may or will shove religious themes upon them.

So it's usually a lot easier in any case to do something not inherently religious and if anyone wants they can interpret the theme as being religious or secular.

And as silly as apocalypse themes come a new TV show just aired by James Paterson about an animal-driven apocalypse.

[TheMadAsshatter]

That was actually a pretty unique and interesting idea. Too bad the script, acting, and even the fucking continuity suck dick. Seriously, their continuity person needs to be fucking fired, and by fired, I mean executed by firing squad.

[Dinh AaronMk]

That was actually a pretty unique and interesting idea. Too bad the script, acting, and even the fucking continuity suck dick. Seriously, their continuity person needs to be fucking fired, and by fired, I mean executed by firing squad.

@TheMadAsshatter

Every time I think about even trying to watch it my gut twists with anxiety on how mediocre it could be.

So not only do their writers - according to you - suck, but their marketing is terrible too. I saw so much on one of their trailers in particular the show is forever associated with that one.

[TheMadAsshatter]

I'm actually strongly considering making an RP based upon Zoo, and then titling it "Zoo: For the Sake of Proving that Even I Can Make a Better Story than the Asshats Who Made the Show.'"

[Nilesapa]

One thing that I from time to time attempted to write on, albeit extremely poorly, was what kind of societies may form from the ashes and how it would advance given the example of a industrial, world-spanning civilization/economic system before them. And when I say this I mean a fully fledged societies with their own cultures, languages and set of traditions (all of which having signs from the society we lived in today, but highly distorted in the teeth of time) be it akin to Greece or China, not warlords and successor states.

Like a civilization a millennium into the future after things go downhill in 2060 or so and just keep tumbling for another 70-100 years.

Anyone know any post apoc settings go with that sort of "collapse" where things just keep getting shittier until society has been reduced back to tribalism and warlordism not from one traumatic event, but from a procession of progressively more destabilizing and disastrous events until everything just ceases not in a boom, but a whimper?

[Ellri]

The setting in Interstellar is a bit that way, isn't it, @Nilesapa?

Another thing that would make for a decent setting is a post-apoc medieval fantasy.

We've experimented with such once, but the world proved pretty complex to construct. We found ourselves missing a target in it, so the worldbuilding got aimless.

[Nilesapa]

Sorta.

But interstellar's future culture was basically Americana in a O'Neil cylinder. I am thinking in terms of a civilization that's as culturally distant to us as feudal, catholic dominated Europe at the very least.

What makes distant future post apoc complicated is how does one take into account the remains of our civilization or the possibility of a culture that isn't tech averse popping up too soon or the likelihood some areas of the world may hold themselves together into some advanced city state. Only way I can figure this out is basically to hit a reset button on mankind and reduce global populations down to a meager 1.7 million people. Even than they'd still have linguistic evolution.

I had one future where earth after a collapse was dominated by isolated, but technologically advanced city states that kept watch on the rest of mankind. But that future was only 250 years to where the collapse also was tempered by a couple colonies stuck on the moon and mars whose cultures became psychotically rigorous and communal (since everyone must have astronaut levels of discipline to survive and food supply needs to be precisely rationed to last).

...Which is not the 1000 years it would probably take to get whole new cultures and traditions can take root. Even the astronauts would have continuity with the US and NASA or the CNA.

[Dinh AaronMk]

I'm actually strongly considering making an RP based upon Zoo, and then titling it "Zoo: For the Sake of Proving that Even I Can Make a Better Story than the Asshats Who Made the Show.'"

@TheMadAsshatter

I can approve of this venture.

But a part of me is wondering where the C130 gunships went. Like I can partially ignore it under the zombie pretense since so often there's a disease involved and those can be sorta-dormant for long enough to infect the pilots and nullify that...