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Hopeless
2016-06-19, 10:42 AM
So what with the recent Pathfinder news it got me wondering if anyone has tinkered with the idea of a Post-apocalyptic setting?

For example you have your game start at the shores of a lake surrounding an ancient island adorned by a ruined fortress.

The town that's built up on the shores surrounding the lake have their story to tell originally established when the fortress was ruled by a so-called Seer whose lust for power caused a rival order to descend upon the area devastating the fortress forcing the Seer to collapse the land forming the lake as it is now drowning a majority of the battling forces including her own.

At the darkest hour a silver dragon descended upon the area slaying many of the still warring forces, forcing the surviving to take heed and made them perform a ceremony for the dead sealing them far beneath the newly formed island preventing the rise of an unstoppable horde of undead.

The dragon descended within the island and is said to have entered a deep sleep insuring the seal remains undisturbed as long as the surviving clergy perform an annual ceremony intended to keep both asleep and whatever remained of civilisation safe.

However this story is now regarded as mere myth and ignored for the most part the recent upheavals however catch more attention and your party has been sent across to the island to discover the truth as well as discover whatever lost treasures lie within.

Yes there is a dragon, but she isn't ASLEEP!

So what I'd like to ask is what system would you like to play this scenario in?

5e, Legend, Runequest, Fantasy AGE or another preference?

Khedrac
2016-06-19, 01:17 PM
A lot depends on how you want the system to work - there are lots and lots of post-apocalypse games out there (Gamma World, Morrow Project to name two early ones).
So use the sort of system you like playing, there's almost certainly one you can use direct or with minimal adaptation.

For a setting with guns etc. I personally would not use D20 (3.5 etc) even though that is what I mainly play.
Basic Roleplay (RQ, Call of Cthulhu etc) might work well, though I would also look at the Laundry Files for how to handle modern weapons.
Alternatively, especially if this is not going to be a long campaing, original Traveller (or even 4th Ed) might be interesting.
If I had a copy a combo of RoleMaster and SpaceMaster would also be potentially viable.
etc.

Again, it all depends what systems types you and your players like to use.

Thrudd
2016-06-19, 05:54 PM
So what with the recent Pathfinder news it got me wondering if anyone has tinkered with the idea of a Post-apocalyptic setting?

For example you have your game start at the shores of a lake surrounding an ancient island adorned by a ruined fortress.

The town that's built up on the shores surrounding the lake have their story to tell originally established when the fortress was ruled by a so-called Seer whose lust for power caused a rival order to descend upon the area devastating the fortress forcing the Seer to collapse the land forming the lake as it is now drowning a majority of the battling forces including her own.

At the darkest hour a silver dragon descended upon the area slaying many of the still warring forces, forcing the surviving to take heed and made them perform a ceremony for the dead sealing them far beneath the newly formed island preventing the rise of an unstoppable horde of undead.

The dragon descended within the island and is said to have entered a deep sleep insuring the seal remains undisturbed as long as the surviving clergy perform an annual ceremony intended to keep both asleep and whatever remained of civilisation safe.

However this story is now regarded as mere myth and ignored for the most part the recent upheavals however catch more attention and your party has been sent across to the island to discover the truth as well as discover whatever lost treasures lie within.

Yes there is a dragon, but she isn't ASLEEP!

So what I'd like to ask is what system would you like to play this scenario in?

5e, Legend, Runequest, Fantasy AGE or another preference?

That story sounds like standard fantasy fare, it could be any fantasy system. A silver dragon specifically implies D&D, and any edition would work.

Not sure how this is connected to post-apocalyptic, unless the story is really a metaphor for a past civilization that was modern or advanced technology and the dragon isn't actually a dragon but some kind of war machine/AI/cyborg something.

Hopeless
2016-06-20, 03:50 AM
Shape shifter.

As far as that character is concerned she was resurrected in the form of a dragon and spent decades trying to avoid starving to death let alone trying not to turn cannibal before managing to change her form into something more human and keep it there so she could manage her dietary habits.:smalleek:

The Post-apocalyptic part is so they can have rusting remains of present day technology turn up and be treated as if they were magical even though they're anything but!

The island part was inspired by Fantasy AGE, the rest is more dnd but figure Legend or any of the other systems should work well.

How about you post an adventure idea or two of your own?

Thrudd
2016-06-20, 10:20 AM
Shape shifter.

As far as that character is concerned she was resurrected in the form of a dragon and spent decades trying to avoid starving to death let alone trying not to turn cannibal before managing to change her form into something more human and keep it there so she could manage her dietary habits.:smalleek:

The Post-apocalyptic part is so they can have rusting remains of present day technology turn up and be treated as if they were magical even though they're anything but!

The island part was inspired by Fantasy AGE, the rest is more dnd but figure Legend or any of the other systems should work well.

How about you post an adventure idea or two of your own?

Does the story of the island fortress and the seer and the dragon and undead and all that have anything to do with the ruins of the modern world? If it's just scenery for an otherwise normal fantasy setting, then you can use any fantasy game. D&D is perfectly fine, in fact some published D&D settings actually have post-apocalyptic and sci-fi elements. There's a 1e adventure where the players explore an ancient crashed spaceship. You can easily have some rusted modern technology as scenery.
If the game is actually about rediscovering or salvaging tech from the lost civilization, then you want a game more like Gamma World, or Apocalypse World, or the free retro clone "Mutant Future". These games won't have magic and dragons and undead, necessarily. They will have mutants and robots and psychic powers, some of which could appear very similar to things described in fantasy settings (but of course we know they are the product of Science!, not magic.) The Rifts setting could also work, there is actual magic and supernatural stiff in that, along with future tech, but the game itself is pretty unusable.

Hopeless
2016-06-20, 12:33 PM
I pictured the castle as being a fortress built atop of an ancient underground shelter.

I was picturing them as eventually resurfacing becoming a druidic cult with the shelter maintained and used to keep members of the cult in suspended animation (by this I mean they're asleep and in a form of stasis) however when the Seer usurped control of the Fortress she misused the artefacts stored in the care of the cult flooding the lower chambers of the shelter drowning the slumbering druids which perverted the carefully stored mana batteries.

The corruption reanimated the massive numbers of dead bodies all that prevented them from emerging was the unexpected intervention of the last surviving Lightbringer who froze the water surface giving them time to consecrate the water whilst their rescuer sealed away the undead from the inside of the shelter that wasn't flooded.

Picture there are what looks like pools which are actually broken staircases leading deep inside the shelter but being flooded its very dangerous as one wrong turn and they're either going to drown in the pitch dark depths or caught by the slumbering dead they disturb...

Thrudd
2016-06-20, 01:10 PM
I pictured the castle as being a fortress built atop of an ancient underground shelter.

I was picturing them as eventually resurfacing becoming a druidic cult with the shelter maintained and used to keep members of the cult in suspended animation (by this I mean they're asleep and in a form of stasis) however when the Seer usurped control of the Fortress she misused the artefacts stored in the care of the cult flooding the lower chambers of the shelter drowning the slumbering druids which perverted the carefully stored mana batteries.

The corruption reanimated the massive numbers of dead bodies all that prevented them from emerging was the unexpected intervention of the last surviving Lightbringer who froze the water surface giving them time to consecrate the water whilst their rescuer sealed away the undead from the inside of the shelter that wasn't flooded.

Picture there are what looks like pools which are actually broken staircases leading deep inside the shelter but being flooded its very dangerous as one wrong turn and they're either going to drown in the pitch dark depths or caught by the slumbering dead they disturb...
You've got druids, undead, a dragon, shapeshifting, what sounds like divine magic: so far still sounds like D&D, whatever edition you prefer will work.

Was there something in the setting you envision that you are worried D&D can't do?

Hopeless
2016-06-20, 03:23 PM
I'm not completely set on a game system to me it's more what would they like to play and use that to run it.
But yes dnd does work.