Post Apocalyptic Missions

[Blackhawk748]

Im Overseeing a Post Apocalyptic game (yes its Fallout Exodus) and while i have no shortage of missions to offer my players, im curious what kind of missions the GMs of the playground use while in a Post Apocalyptic setting.

Now i know you need more than "Post Apocalyptic Missions". The particular apocalypse doesnt really matter (ok maybe it does a little) as i feel more of how advanced society is matters more. So lets say that society has recovered to about Old West style society (IE: a lot of small towns with not a lot of centralized authority) and that most people have their basic needs met.

[Beta Centauri]

There's a "mine" of old technology or substances (an old factory, or a dump, or something) and the PCs need to defend it, or capture it, or clear it of dangers.

[Maglubiyet]

A group of survivors has a primitive fortress built around an oil refinery. A local warlord wants it for his own and has his men constantly circling and probing the defenses. The group sends out a mission as a rescue party to get help, but the warlord's men capture and kill them all...except one.

The character(s) rescue that one and make a bargain with him for gasoline to power their own vehicle(s). All they have to do is take him back to the fortress...

"Two days ago I saw a rig that could haul that tanker. You wanna get out of here, you talk to me."

[Blackhawk748]

There's a "mine" of old technology or substances (an old factory, or a dump, or something) and the PCs need to defend it, or capture it, or clear it of dangers.

Ah a classic. So much use out of this.

A group of survivors has a primitive fortress built around an oil refinery. A local warlord wants it for his own and has his men constantly circling and probing the defenses. The group sends out a mission as a rescue party to get help, but the warlord's men capture and kill them all...except one.

The character(s) rescue that one and make a bargain with him for gasoline to power their own vehicle(s). All they have to do is take him back to the fortress...

"Two days ago I saw a rig that could haul that tanker. You wanna get out of here, you talk to me."

ROAD WARRIOR!! So, awesome.

[Silus]

The PCs stumble upon information relating to the apocalypse that hints at a Machiavellian scheme that manipulated the world powers into ending the world (or at least contributing to it) and more hints that the scheme is still in effect for unknown ends.

Or, for something a bit more freeform: Giant mutated wildlife is attacking/sieging settlements/caravans and the PCs are encouraged to engage in some big game hunting.

[LokiRagnarok]

Not a mission per se, but maybe there are competing factions - one seeking to return civilisation to pre-apocalyptic state, the other working against that ("see where all the fancy-schmancy technology got us!")

[bloodystone2]

Well are these missions something to bide their time? Getting supplies is always necessary. Emphasize the need for food, water, shelter, ect.

Are these missions quests? Have a violent power hungry faction led by a warlord rampage throughout the countryside

[Brookshw]

Post apocalyptic games are awesome, so good on you! A lot of it doesn't differ from standard adventures really like you'd find in most games. Recover the X from the ruins of Y, except instead of the Orb of Ra being X its some piece of technology and its and old military bunker with a functioning set of autodefences instead of Orcs (or both!).

Resource wars, cattle driving, land grabs (overt raiders, "rich" barons), battles to control water supplies, old pre-apocalypse locations, slaver nations etc, easy to do.

Trying to get a good tone is great, remnants of the apocalypse, people trying to rebuild and the cultural reaction (hello cults!) And so on. Try to build this up. Raiders kidnapped someone's daughter, they're in the employ of some despot who wants the guys land. They hole up on an old national guard outpost. After clearing the raiders the party discovers and old section locked section the raiders couldn't access. Inside are the dead remains of a guard and his journal, detailing how he couldnt reach his family when the bombs started, hiding from people seeking refuge and listening to them die to radiation knowing he could help them. Depression sets in and eventually he commits suicide.

Someone wants to rebuild the railroads but has plenty of problems, supplies, raiders, hostile territories etc.

Crazy vault schemes and nutty experiments designed around psychological trauma are fun.

Racism! Ghouls and Mutants need not apply. The Church of the Comet believes the return of, what else, a comet, is a sign and they must purify the wastes to gain salvation.

Old radio signals were just detected, from who? What do they mean?

Anyway, back to work.

[Blackhawk748]

Good stuff

Hilariously Orcs are in this setting. Basically its the standard Exodus setting, but with Fantasy Races and me tweaking things a bit. So its a homage of a Fallout homage. Its kinda weird like that. If your curious its in my Sig (shameless plug)

But ya cults are a thing, and some are freakin hilarious, some are also batsh** insane and want to "cleanse" the world, so always a good time to be had.

[Kol Korran]

I played a FATE core game with my party, short lived, but we had two nice situtions/ missions:

1. The party's home town was attacked by sort of mutated ghouls. At first, the party needed to defend it. Then investigation came up with the last ghoul attack being just a preliminery "scout force" for a much bigger horde. They then had discussions in the town as to what solution they will take:
- Stay to protect the place.
- Evacuate everyone to a nearby (about a week away) bigger town, better defended.
- Try to locate the source of the horde, and somehow deal with them.

2. The same town had some key component for "Old tech" (Prior to the apocalypse) which they just can't fix. They needed the party to go to the bigger town and try and acquire some way to fix their stuff. The party came as sort of emmiseries to the bigger town, and had to deal with the 4-5 factions there, each trying to advance their own (Not necesserily moral) agendas, on the expense of others. Was quite nice for the atmosphere. Some of the factions:
- The Purifiers: Superior engineers, controlling a water purification plant, but with a sort of religious zeal of "purifying" the wasteland, returning it to what it was. Disliked mutants of any kind.
- A sort of a Mafia organization, who has their hands in lots of small businesses, some arms, some booze, but mainly information! They held a surviving library with actual computers powered by solar panels.
- King Harry and the misbegotten: A ruler of the ghoul population, which have their own small slum and "Palace", they re refuge eaters, scavengers, but also quite capable of retrieving a lot of old tech from contaminated zones. Disliked by ll pretty much.
- Some organization that deals mostly with drugs, prostitution, and other criminal activities, aimed at pleasure. Their main power comes from the drug market, and social favors. Run by a "Madam".
- The Hudsons: Manufacturers of small arms, and owners of lots of livestock. Have a bit of a Texan feel.

The small town the party came from had some sort of resource everyone wanted, that could give them all an edge... This can be fun if your party likes intrigue, scheming and such. If not, then don't do it.

Hope this helps.

[aspekt]

What happens when all that stuff in orbit begins to experience orbital decay? Does anything worthwhile or of interest survive the plummet back home?

Was the society advanced enough to have a moon colony? If so how do they get back? When? Why do they even try and what happens when they do make it back? Maybe that's where those radio signals are coming from all of a sudden.

[Storm_Of_Snow]

You've already mentioned Fallout, that's a decent starting point in it's own right. The Fallout wiki could be a great resource for you, not just for missions, but also background information and things the players can find.

Missions I thought of are:
Scavving old tech - not just complete items, but also parts. A pocketful of wire springs or plastic gears wheels could be worth the price of a bottle of spirits, maybe even a night with one of the medium price range prostitutes if they're very rare or desperately needed. Or maybe there's a mini-mart that looks completely intact and ripe for plundering - but given it's however long since everything went kablooey, plus the decay of civilisation in the aftermath, why has no one else plundered it yet?

Rumours of a library that contains a lot of pre-apocalypse technical and scientific books. Potential for a massive balance of power shift for whoever gains control of it.

Hunting for uncontaminated food and water.

Rescuing people from raiders, rival settlements or the caves they went exploring and got trapped in.

Simple mapping expeditions, or setting up a watch tower on a trade route to protect it from raiders.

[Brookshw]

Hilariously Orcs are in this setting. Basically its the standard Exodus setting, but with Fantasy Races and me tweaking things a bit. So its a homage of a Fallout homage. Its kinda weird like that. If your curious its in my Sig (shameless plug)

But ya cults are a thing, and some are freakin hilarious, some are also batsh** insane and want to "cleanse" the world, so always a good time to be had.

Checked your sig, good stuff. I really dig that idea someone threw out about an intelligent disease, makes me want to revise feral ghouls as victims of the disease with a hive mind capacity when en masse, or maybe intelligent central nodes.

[Blackhawk748]

Checked your sig, good stuff. I really dig that idea someone threw out about an intelligent disease, makes me want to revise feral ghouls as victims of the disease with a hive mind capacity when en masse, or maybe intelligent central nodes.

That idea was right up there with Piranha Frogs (yes you read that right) in its awesome. I do plan on using the intelligent disease somehow, wasnt sure how till you mentioned Feral Ghouls. I like that idea, i will probably add that if thats ok?

Also i will probably reincarnate the thread in the near future, might even make a thread for monsters. So feel free to pop on over when its back up.

[Brookshw]

That idea was right up there with Piranha Frogs (yes you read that right) in its awesome. I do plan on using the intelligent disease somehow, wasnt sure how till you mentioned Feral Ghouls. I like that idea, i will probably add that if thats ok?

Also i will probably reincarnate the thread in the near future, might even make a thread for monsters. So feel free to pop on over when its back up.

Hey have at it if you like it, heck, I piggy backed it off someone else.

Shoot me a pm or something if you do reincarnate the thread, I'll see if I can dig up my exodus campaign notes for your consideration.

[Somebloke]

Post-apocalyptic warlord politics. Warlords x, y and z are all eyeing one another and have reached a low-level warfare kind of status quo in the wastes. Then the players show up. You don't even really need a plot for this one- pretty soon the players will do something to screw with the status quo and get involved in local politics. Males for a nice background campaign sub-plot while they deal with the main quest.