Post Apocalyptic Fantasy

[Julian Grimm]

Maybe it is due to my Fallout obsession but, I have been thinking about what a campaign set in a post apocalyptic fantasy world would be like. Instead of a nuclear war you would have a unrestrained release of magic (a mage war perhaps?) that would have caused widespread destruction and not a few mutations in the aftermath. Settlements would range from shanty towns to some attempt at rebuilding cities, there would be environmental damage and large groups of bandits and raiders to contend with. Not only would that be a problem but there would be the rise of new creatures mutated by magic and brought in from extra-planar sources.

While I think this would be doable, I am not sure how to get it all together to make enough sense not to be cheesy. I know that to begin you would need a small town and explorable area, something like a hex crawl, and I would like to go a bit on the sandbox/open world idea with it.


Suggestions?

[Arduin]

Suggestions?

Look over Piers Anthony books for ideas.

[Mark Hall]

Though Dark Sun is arguably a lot more Barsoom, it's a good model for such things.

[obatron]

Check out Desolation, http://www.desolationrpg.com, you can probably convert it to C&C pretty easy...

[Sir Aaron Gwyn]

Rifts, by Palladium Books. It's a post apocalyptic game. It has a lot of magic, mutants, psionics, and technology. It could give you great ideas.

[Treebore]

Rifts, by Palladium Books. It's a post apocalyptic game. It has a lot of magic, mutants, psionics, and technology. It could give you great ideas.

Yep, I've been thinking about converting Rifts to the SIEGE engine, and so far I think it would be pretty darn easy to do.

[Captain_K]

Sort of odd and a bit of waste is Guardian's of the Flame Series (The sleeping dragon was first) by Joel Rosenburgh. Another surprising "waste" or in decline but no one really knows it for a while is the Instrumentality of the Night three books by Glen Cook of the Black Company series... all on ABEBooks.com for likely a buck or three..

Why not just close your eyes and do it all from the heart, I bet you got it in yah..

Cap K

[Go0gleplex]

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_ ... ?eidn=5027

check these out. you can pick your apocalypse.

[Mark Hall]

Rifts, by Palladium Books. It's a post apocalyptic game. It has a lot of magic, mutants, psionics, and technology. It could give you great ideas.

Yep, I've been thinking about converting Rifts to the SIEGE engine, and so far I think it would be pretty darn easy to do.

Watch out for flying cease-and-desist orders if you put it on the web.

[Sir Aaron Gwyn]

Rifts, by Palladium Books. It's a post apocalyptic game. It has a lot of magic, mutants, psionics, and technology. It could give you great ideas.

Yep, I've been thinking about converting Rifts to the SIEGE engine, and so far I think it would be pretty darn easy to do.

Watch out for flying cease-and-desist orders if you put it on the web.

As long as he is only getting ideas from it and not quoting is word for word, he should be fine. Leave the Coalition out of it and just take ideas from all the world books that the RPG has.

[Buttmonkey]

It seems to me there are two issues for putting something like this together:

1. What rules system will you use? I suggest taking Mutant Future and merging it with C&C a al the Mutants & Mazes rules in the MF rulebook (those allow you to mix Labyrinth Lord (essentially B/X) with Mutant Future). They should merge very easily and allow you to use the SIEGE engine.

2. How are you going to build your campaign world? I assume you can steal ideas from all over the place. Take Rifts materials and use their ideas within the context of the C&C/MF rules. Take old Gamma World modules and convert them. There are lots of PA-themed resources out there.

[Julian Grimm]

It seems to me there are two issues for putting something like this together:

1. What rules system will you use? I suggest taking Mutant Future and merging it with C&C a al the Mutants & Mazes rules in the MF rulebook (those allow you to mix Labyrinth Lord (essentially B/X) with Mutant Future). They should merge very easily and allow you to use the SIEGE engine.

Pretty much straight on C&C with possible rules for contamination from 'High Energy Magic'.

2. How are you going to build your campaign world? I assume you can steal ideas from all over the place. Take Rifts materials and use their ideas within the context of the C&C/MF rules. Take old Gamma World modules and convert them. There are lots of PA-themed resources out there.

The world will be a straight fantasy one that has had some form of apocalypse. Right now I am leaning toward a mixture of natural disaster mixed with potent magical use. This would effectively end the former civilization and create the landscape I am wanting. Outside of character generation equipment and weapons will be hard to find and scavenging will be a way of life. Money would be scarce so bartering will be the main trade. Nations and empires are gone being replaced by City-States and small settlements.

The effect of such high magic would have caused extraplanar rifts and mutations of certain creatures. As well you would have creatures bred by magic for use in the wars. These creatures now roam the landscape preying on the few survivors that have banded together.

In essence I want to combine certain themes of Earthdawn, Fallout and Dark Sun into a different type of setting for C&C. Basically a break from typical high fantasy to something different.

[Jyrdan Fairblade]

I read the section in Mutant Future on mixing it with Labyrinth Lord and have been wanting to run that every since.

For post-apocalyptic fantasy, I’d probably recommend Hiero’s Journey by Sterling Lanier most (not the least because of its appearance in Appendix N and its clear influence on Gamma World). It's a fun, strange read. How many books out there feature a psychic hunter-priest that rides a giant moose? Also, the movie Wizards naturally springs to mind.

I agree, starting small and building from there makes sense. Also, establishing the previous era’s tech/magic/society.

It seems to me there are two issues for putting something like this together:

1. What rules system will you use? I suggest taking Mutant Future and merging it with C&C a al the Mutants & Mazes rules in the MF rulebook (those allow you to mix Labyrinth Lord (essentially B/X) with Mutant Future). They should merge very easily and allow you to use the SIEGE engine.

[serleran]

Nope, no ideas.

[Zudrak]

Nope, no ideas.

Lies. Ruins & Radiation would've been cool, IMO.

*ducks*

[Julian Grimm]

Nope, no ideas.

Lies. Ruins & Radiation would've been cool, IMO.

*ducks*

Agreed.

[Fizz]

You might want to check out the Midnight campaign setting for some ideas. The basic premise is that the evil god has won- the good gods are gone (cut off) and the evil one is now surely but steadily crushing and destroying the world for his own gains.

It was designed for 3E, so shouldn't be too tricky to convert to C&C.

-Fizz

[Relaxo]

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_ ... ?eidn=5027

check these out. you can pick your apocalypse.

That is so great!