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Blackhawk748
2016-05-12, 09:38 PM
Im sketching out a plan for a game set in a world inspired by Fallout (its the one in my sig if you care to look) and since its gonna be a player driven sandbox game i dont want to pick where they start. So what im looking for is a list of interesting ways that the campaign could start that they can look over. The locations (broadly speaking) that they can start in are:

The Midwest (primarily Northern Illonois, Michigan and Wisconsin)
The East Coast (primarily Maryland and Virginia)
The Southwest and West Coast (California, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada)
Southern Mexico
East Coast of Canada (Nova Scotia mostly)
Texas

I've got a few ideas already:

They are shipwrecked off of the Door Peninsula in WIsconsin and stumble across a murder in a Lighthouse
They are part of a Caravan that gets attacked by Raiders (this works anywhere)
They all meet holed up in a building after being chased by a hrde of Feral Ghouls

Honest Tiefling
2016-05-13, 12:22 PM
I wonder if Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory would produce a number of ghouls? Berkeley also has a number of 'nuclear free zone' signs, so I think you should put those in whatever metropolitan you can for kicks and giggles. (Assuming that like Fallout, there's a bit of alternative history going on).

Several of the areas you've mentioned have a sliiiight problem: Lack of rainfall, especially during summer months. Maybe a plot centered around liberating (or repairing) a water purification plant?

Also, I'd think it was hilarious if they chose to start in Mexico and have being chased by radioactive snakes, found some locals. Who don't speak English. (Or you could have a tribe of potentially hostile Francophones from Quebec.

Are you trying to keep them mobile, or have them set up a home base? Perhaps sketch out three towns, and adjust them to the site picked depending on plot. For instance, have Small Town, Large Town, and Fort Town with NPCs and shops for all three. Pick the one that makes the most sense for the plot (Feral Ghouls, for instance, pretty much demand Small Town, unless you want them to have to out run them for several miles to get to the light in the distance...), and save the other two for later.

Blackhawk748
2016-05-13, 02:13 PM
I wonder if Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory would produce a number of ghouls? Berkeley also has a number of 'nuclear free zone' signs, so I think you should put those in whatever metropolitan you can for kicks and giggles. (Assuming that like Fallout, there's a bit of alternative history going on).

Several of the areas you've mentioned have a sliiiight problem: Lack of rainfall, especially during summer months. Maybe a plot centered around liberating (or repairing) a water purification plant?

Also, I'd think it was hilarious if they chose to start in Mexico and have being chased by radioactive snakes, found some locals. Who don't speak English. (Or you could have a tribe of potentially hostile Francophones from Quebec.

Are you trying to keep them mobile, or have them set up a home base? Perhaps sketch out three towns, and adjust them to the site picked depending on plot. For instance, have Small Town, Large Town, and Fort Town with NPCs and shops for all three. Pick the one that makes the most sense for the plot (Feral Ghouls, for instance, pretty much demand Small Town, unless you want them to have to out run them for several miles to get to the light in the distance...), and save the other two for later.

The setting im using is based around Exodus which is basically Fallout with the serial numbers filed off. So ya, Berkley has a bunch of ghouls in it.

I like the Water Purifier idea, so ill add that one and Mexico is filled with basically Mad Max Raiders, and radioactive snakes of course. :smalltongue:

As for mobility thats up to them, though the Small Town, Large Town, Fort idea is a good one so ill probably do that.

LibraryOgre
2016-05-13, 03:01 PM
A thing to consider is how long ago was the apocalypse? A week? A year? A generation? That's going to influence some of what is available, and skillsets available. "Former engineer" is a different skillset than "tribal tech shaman"

Blackhawk748
2016-05-13, 07:51 PM
A thing to consider is how long ago was the apocalypse? A week? A year? A generation? That's going to influence some of what is available, and skillsets available. "Former engineer" is a different skillset than "tribal tech shaman"

50-ish years, so a few people remember what it was like before, but only the very, very old.