PDA

View Full Version : Features of a small frontier post apocalyptic town



Kol Korran
2013-05-05, 09:08 AM
Hey folks, I'm continuing my lines of inquiry to populate a small (250-350 people) post apocalyptic town in the middle of nowhere. It's for an introductory game so they needn't be complex. I'm looking for:
- buildings or zones, possibly ones that can enhance a post apocalyptic feel, but not too complicated. ( if they might make interesting setting pieces for the scene at the edge of the post that's a good bonus!)
- pre apocalypse features ( assume real world culture)
- interesting people or power groups.

Currently I'm thinking of:
- the Jenkins: the founding family, a wide polygamy based family of very similar looking people. Extreme practical, extreme tightly knit, but also extreme luckluater and humored... running the town on a "what must be done" basis.
- the tough "I'm too old for this s***" sheriff (potentialy a player)
- the madam who runs the theater/ bar/ brothel known as the Marilyn for it's sign (also potentialy a player)
- a zany scholar doctor with enthusiasm for surgical solutions. ( the same).
- an unscrupulous merchant/ investor who controls two supply caravans to town. Had many hirelings, seeks to control the town ( the same)
- the mutant hulk (like in fallout) saved by the Jenkins at youth but feared by most. Talented builder. ( the same)
- "padre"- a former bandit turned preacher, new comer to the town, seeking to bring hope to a faithless town.
- the blazing trio: two bike brothers and a biker sister, mercenaries for hire, also new comers. ( the sister may be a player as well)

the town will be besieged by strange animistic mutant raiders looking for something I haven't decided on yet, but shouldn't be obvious...

Thoughts?

JellyPooga
2013-05-05, 11:01 AM
I've always got time for post-apocalpypse! Here's some thoughts off the top of my head:

- Mutant Raiders aren't so much looking for something, as being inexplicably drawn to the town. They don't know why, but they just gotta find out what's inside. If captured and interrogated, they can only exclaim that something smells soooo good. No-one else in town can smell it. The source of the "smell" is an old, unused, water tower; the dregs of water in it having been corrupted by fallout/biological hazard/whatever to emit a peculiar pheremone that drives the Muties nuts. If the town can harness the properties of the water, they could devise a potent weapon against future mutie raids...

- Junkyards are always an interesting addition to a towns' resources. Gives PC's plenty of "ammo" as far as creating makeshift weapons/armour/tools/whatever goes. Coming up with a decent reason why the junkyard is still there is a different matter. Here's one: Ancient Mutant Rottweilers. "Rusty Petes Scrap 'n Shop" was just another junkyard run by some rummy old grease-monkey before the [insert apocalyptic disaster]. Like most juckyard owners, 'Rusty' Pete owned several dogs he employed for the sole purpose of keeping trespassers off his property. When the [apocalyptic disaster] happened, Rusty Pete was fried up nice and crispy, like most of the population. His dogs, on the other hand, took shelter in a [insert comedically appropriate item of choice: refridgerator, stack of tires, cardboard box], which handily protected them from the worst of it. It did, however, make them three times the size, ageless and crudely sentient. [however many] years later, they still rule the junkyard, selling choice bits of junk in exchange for tins of Doggo dog food and crunchy snacks.

Frosty
2013-05-05, 01:38 PM
Really. Just go to any Fallout small town and crib off of them. It'll work perfectly.

Kol Korran
2013-05-06, 11:08 AM
Before I'll get into the responses- Does anyone have an idea of an interesting resource that the town can develop around, but small enough as to let it be a small town yet, without other forces trying to take it so far? currently I'm thinking that it maybe be on top a mostly intact but deserted trucker's stop, with a non damaged fuel station (and small silo?) nearby... Or having access to some limited solar power. Or perhaps a patch of soil that grows non radiated food?


I've always got time for post-apocalpypse! Here's some thoughts off the top of my head:

- Mutant Raiders aren't so much looking for something, as being inexplicably drawn to the town. They don't know why, but they just gotta find out what's inside. If captured and interrogated, they can only exclaim that something smells soooo good. No-one else in town can smell it. The source of the "smell" is an old, unused, water tower; the dregs of water in it having been corrupted by fallout/biological hazard/whatever to emit a peculiar pheremone that drives the Muties nuts. If the town can harness the properties of the water, they could devise a potent weapon against future mutie raids...
Your idea of the raiders "smelling/ sensing" something is quite good really, and fits well with an expansion of my idea. I Think of having the raiders be a mixed bunch of normies and mutated people who have developed an aversion to sunlight, while also having a great craving for flesh (Needing some sort of protein/ enzyme/ something from it), perhaps even granting them temporarily greater agility or strength, and a feeling of euphoria. They call themselves "The Vampirs" or something else misguided like that. (Not sure yet). They are all connected somehow, with some of the normies slightly affected by the mutation, but proving the brain/ shooters/ talkers of the raiders, while the mutants are sort of the raw force and terror effect. They are led by 1-2 individuals who happen to possess the strength of the mutants but also maintain the mental capabilities.

They are drawn to the town indeed due to some "smell", which I imagine will turn out to be something not obvious, something requiring investigation (the mutants themselves do not know where the smell comes FROM, but they treat it with a sort of awe- "it will free us! bring us glory! feed us!" and such. if the party investigate this, they may find it's something The Jenkins clan hold unto, but is not willing to let go, or that it might be a tough moral choice (what if the smell emanates from a certain child? will they sacrifice it for the sake of the town? or will they defend it even if more town's people die?) Not sure of what they are hiding yet. I'd love to hear suggestions.


- Junkyards are always an interesting addition to a towns' resources. Gives PC's plenty of "ammo" as far as creating makeshift weapons/armour/tools/whatever goes. Coming up with a decent reason why the junkyard is still there is a different matter. Here's one: Ancient Mutant Rottweilers. "Rusty Petes Scrap 'n Shop" was just another junkyard run by some rummy old grease-monkey before the [insert apocalyptic disaster]. Like most juckyard owners, 'Rusty' Pete owned several dogs he employed for the sole purpose of keeping trespassers off his property. When the [apocalyptic disaster] happened, Rusty Pete was fried up nice and crispy, like most of the population. His dogs, on the other hand, took shelter in a [insert comedically appropriate item of choice: refridgerator, stack of tires, cardboard box], which handily protected them from the worst of it. It did, however, make them three times the size, ageless and crudely sentient. [however many] years later, they still rule the junkyard, selling choice bits of junk in exchange for tins of Doggo dog food and crunchy snacks. This sounds like a cool idea! I'll put it in. Might make for an interesting encounter- possibly combat, possibly stealth, possibly trickery and more... thanks!


Really. Just go to any Fallout small town and crib off of them. It'll work perfectly.
... I don't have the fallout games anymore, and though I'll look into seeing excerpts from the game or other resources, I was hoping for other ideas? especially for influences of the lost past to the current setting.

Anyone else with ideas?

Gnoman
2013-05-06, 11:15 AM
One simple idea is to have the town built upon the ruins of an old military installation that was damaged in the apocalypse (incidentally, what WAS the apocalypse? Standard nuclear war, plague, Y2K?). The townsfolk migrated there because the empty munitions bunkers or hardened shelters were easy to convert into secure housing, while raiders are attacking because they believe that there is an underground bunker containing losttech weapons. In actuality, there is a bunker that the town doesn't know about, but the base was used to house an experimental agriculture station, and there's nothing there but hybrid seeds designed to thrive in a post-apocalyptic environment.