Apocalypse World: The Jutland Archipelago

[Yora]

While I am currently running a D&D sandbox campaign that is fairly preparation intensive, I am entertaining the idea to also take a shot at running an Apocalypse world game, which is a system where you can make things up pretty much as you go. (No stats for enemies and most equipment helps a lot with that.)

Spoiler: My plan and intentions

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Even though it's called Apocalypse World, it really is a rules system with a heavy focus of "make something up that seems cool at that moment" to have a crazy rollercoaster ride instead of following a planned out path. And creating unique and original settings to let the players loose on them is a big part of that. The rules themselves are deliberately vague on what the world for a campaign should look like.

Somebody’s sure to ask.
The apocalypse happened about 50 years ago. The oldest people still around have childhood memories of it. Nobody knows what really happened or why, though. Maybe nobody ever knew.
“Hey MC, it says here ‘the world’s psychic maelstrom’—what’s that?”
It’s everywhere, just outside your perception, and if you open your brain up to it you can learn things from it. It learns things from you, too. If you know how, you can reach out into it to make things happen. It caused the apocalypse, or else the apocalypse caused it, nobody knows.

The standard setting for post-apocalyptic stories is a nuclear desert wasteland. Which can be fun, but has been done to death. Then there's also the always popular "Main, Washington, England, or Ukraine with a constant drizzle and gray clouds". That just gets too depressing way too fast. The usual causes for apocalypses are nuclear war, desertification, and zombies. Again, they have their place, but I want to do something new.
Something I always found much more interesting about global warming than desertification is the corresponding increase in warm humid air over the oceans. Warm air means more energy for wind, and humid air means more water that has to come down somewhere. Deserts make good stock photos for news articles, but coastal storms are where climate change really is going to hit the most painfully.
I was inspired by this highly entertaining map showing a sea level rise of 60 meters, assuming that all ice on Earth melts. (Which even in worst case scenarios would take a thousand years.) That's not a plausible scenario for a near future setting, but it had me thinking about dramatic sea level rise in the Baltic Sea region where I live. It's a part of the world I always considered pretty boring as a local, but it also doesn't really get much attention from the rest of the world. Having the post-apocalypse in Kiel just feels hilarious to me.

Inspirations
Metro: Obviously. In particular the Volga and Taiga regions of Exodus.
Neon Genesis Evanglion: For the apocalypse.
Fury Road: The machine cult is fantastic.
Annihilation: Bring the weird ****!
Command & Conquer: Tiberium Dawn: Some aspects of Tiberium.
Mass Effect: Indoctrination.

The Apocalypse
During the 21st century, retreating ice in Antarctica uncovered ancient growths of lichens consisting of a mundane form of algae and a strange form of fungus. The retreating ice also uncovered large amount of nutrients that had been trapped for millions of years, which fed the fungus, while the algae made good use of the permanent sunlight for half of the year. With there not being any real competition from plants in Antarctica, the lichen soon covered every piece of ice-free rock before any plants could get a foothold there. Even more disturbingly, the lichens produced considerable amounts of heat, increasing the rate of ice melt, which uncovered more ground for it to spread. This resulted in even more warming of Antarctica, turning into a chain reaction. Killing the lichen with nuclear weapons was considered, but that would only melt more ice, potentially making the situation even worse a few years later. Massive use of pesticides was ruled out as the runoff from the melting glaciers it would poison the whole southern ocean with unpredictable damage.

Those whole deliberations didn't go anywhere because one morning people in Northern Europe woke up to find that the electricity was out. Over the following days, people travelling between cities in cars spread the news that the nearby power stations had been fried by a massive power surge, and with no phone or internet, nobody knew how widespread the issue was. The power never came back on.

While there were always rumors about cities in other places that had working power and would provide shelter for people making the journey, there was never any real evidence that any place in the world had been spared. Meanwhile the sea levels continued to rise at a dramatic rate over the following decades until it more or less stabilized at 30 meters above normal, completely submerging all port cities and huge parts of the Northern European Plain. Saint Petersburg, Hamburg, Stockhholm, Copehagen, Helsinki, Riga, Göteburg, Gdansk, Tallinn, Kaliningrad, Kiel, Lübeck all went beneath the sea, together with thousands of smaller cities and towns.
It wasn't the water that killed people, though. And neither was it starvation. A few months after the power went out, there was a massive outbreak of fungus infections that affected the sinuses and spread from there into the brain, eventually killing most people.

The Psychic Maelstrom
A major element of Apocalypse World is the inclusion of psychic powers that are linked to some kind of psychic energy that has covered the world since The Event. The effects of these powers are defined by the game rules, but their nature and origin are left open as part of the setting for each campaign.
Not all people who suffered the fungus infection died. Some survived, but the fungus growing in their nervous system clearly did something to them. And some of them claimed that they were able to hear each others thoughts in their minds. As well as an immense presence far beneath their feet that clearly is nothing like a human mind in conceivable way.
And the fungus does not just infect humans, but animals as well. It does not affect plants, though.

"It's a force. It warps reality just by being there. It doesn't have to want to. It doesn't have to think about it. It just does."

"What did it want?"
"I don't think it wanted anything..."

Culture of the Jutland Archipelago
I was born in Hamburg and grew up in Lübeck and have spend about a dozen vacations in Denmark, so the Jutland region made the obvious choice for where I should set a campaign. With a 30 meter sea level rise, about a third to a half of Denmark and Northern Germany is flooded, drowning almost all of the existing island and creating lots of new ones. All major cities in the region are basically at sea level, and at 30 meters of water, almost all buildings will disappear beneath the water.

Spoiler: Regional Map

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We got lots of islands and also a region with a long naval culture. I also checked my subjective perception that we are a major growing region for rapeseed, which can be made into biodiesel. (Which is relatively easy to make, while petroleum fuels have a limited shelf life.) That means Fury Road with speed boats.
(Don't call it Water World.)

I also checked some other subjective perceptions about our regional economy, which we locals consider part of our regional culture, but could potentially not be actually significant:

Spoiler: Some maps about population and agriculture

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Population Density:


Rapeseed Production Regions:


Livestock Raising Regions:


Farm Sizes:

As you can see, Northern Germany and Denmark are prime producers for rapeseed, cattle, and pigs, with individual farmers owning very large plots of land. (Which is because we used to give everything to the oldest son instead of splitting it between all sons.)
Population density is much higher than in Sweden and Northern Poland, but still not very high compared to most of central Europe. And given that this region is massively loosing land, I see people primarily trying to central Germany, with very few refugees attempting to get closer to the encroaching water.
This all gave me the idea that the powerful leaders in the new world are the old farming families who own the land at higher elevations. They control the fuel and also all the meat. I really like the idea of going back to measuring wealth in the amount of cattle and pigs that you own, with boars and bulls being popular symbols for powerful groups.

Interestingly, the main bases of the German, Danish, and Swedish Navies are all pretty much right next to hills that will remain above water. So if anyone would have been inclined to save the equipment from their storehouses from the rising waters to higher ground, it wouldn't have been too difficult.
Between them, they also have 7 destroyers, 14 frigates, 15 corvettes, and 11 submarines. Submarines are pointless in a post-apocalyptic world, especially in a region with very shallow coastal waters. The destroyers are probably also too big and complicated to maintain. Which leaves the frigates and corvettes, which except for the Swedish Stealth-Missile-Corvettes all have diesel engines. So I can certainly see one or two warlords cruising around in one of those. Though probably mostly keeping it anchored because the fuel consumption on these things must be enormous.
Much more interesting are the Swedish CB 90 assault boats, which are basically troop carrying speed boats with armed with machine guns. And the Swedish Navy has 147 of them! I can totally see a Swedish Pirate King ruling the Baltic Sea with a couple dozen of those.

[sktarq]

Okay my first thought is.
Those "old families" that currently hold a lot of the higher farmland that will be turned in rapeseed, cattle, and swine farms and thus rise to prominence currently make up a rather small percentage of the general population pre-event and have no obvious reason to survive the fungal infestations at a higher than average rate. Include the swarm of refugees from the rising seas trying to take over their spaces and I don't see ENOUGH of the them surviving to be a major force as things are currently set up.

That said for setting reasons I could see that being appealing.

Perhaps creating a reason why they survived (high lactose/animal protein diet perhaps?) Could go a long way....or that the area rather devolved partially very early on and these families started creating militias that allowed them to set up the current system before the fungi really hit so new leaders replaced the fallen ones but inherited the lands and social systems?

So far is looking very good.

How the psychic stuff fits into the system will be very dependent on details. How such people fit into society, organization, etc.

And also I'd recommend you start tracking wood issues. For firewood, new building materials, etc. Could quickly become an issue in many places as building in pre-event materials will be difficult. As well as just building things like boats as running the engine is something to be conserved I'd imagine. (which also leads to questions of fiber in general-for clothes, nets, sails)

Also have you thought about cultural variation? By which I mean how much cultural variation which would be linked to questions of how much communication and travel their is.
Pigeons with news from far off places? How regular is trade and travel? Is there a new haseatic league forming? If you want to push variation having an event between the main "Event" and current could be a good reason (something to both forge new ideas and be very isolating...possibly something toward the end of the event?) Another possibility is the maelstrom was highly variable in its effect by location and each place's culture was thus shaped by separate forces.

[Yora]

The world that I have always coming to mind when reading the Apocalypse World is one with an extremely decreased population. I am thinking of something like Fury Road, or the impressions I am getting from Walking Dead (which I never watched or read).
This is very different from what you'd get even from 30 meters sea level rise, hence most of the global population needs to die as well. Since all surviving vertebrates are infected by a symbiotic psychic fungus that melted the Antarctic ice, that seems like the perfect thing that killed most people. Always better to expand on existing fantastical elements before introducing new ones.

If something randomly killed 90% of all people, it would also have killed 90% of farmers. But that still leaves the farms on high grounds standing and they are hugely valuable to the survivors. So I would say that even though most farms are no longer run by the original families, someone else would have taken control of them.
I like the idea of larger farms or small villages being turned into strongholds inhabited by 50 to 100 people.

Wood is an interesting factor. I don't remember the landscape of southern Sweden very much, but Northern Germany and Denmark don't have much forest. I think mostly it's just open fields. Even with most of them getting unused, it would probably take many centuries for them to return to forests. If the old population had survived, I would expect forests to be cut down pretty quickly. But with it being down to say 10 or 5%, that might not be the case.
Harvesting peat from bogs has been used as a way to get fuel for a long time in the region, but I think there's already not much of it left. The remaining peat is probably found in the bogs that are the most difficult to drain to allow harvesting, and I guess that's just not going to happen in such a wrecked future.

Culturally speaking, I don't think there would be big differences between Germans, Danes, and Swedes, and in the new world there would be no point on drawing lines between "us and them" along old national borders or even native languages. I think it would be cool to have a slang that includes lots of German, Danish, and Swedish words, though.
For truly wrecked post-apocalyptic worlds, I think it's much more fun to have strong cultural identification with specific towns or stronghold. The local weirdos of the week. But I think drawing heavily from farming and sailing would be fun. I'm from a big city myself and grew up as a fully urban kid, but there's still a lot of "farming and fishing romanticism", which in my experience people in more rural places enjoy even more. I don't know what our local analog of "Americana" or "Soviet Nostalgia is, but we definitely have it, and it's a long honored tradition of post-apocalyptica to fully embrace it.
I guess that means cow lords, pig kings, pirates, and shipwreckers. And of course sailors' superstitions. There should be quite a lot of fun stuff to harvest.

I remembered that were I grew up, we have five medieval brick cathedrals with 100+ meter towers that are all build on a 20 meter high hill. Even with 30 meters of sea level rise, those would still mostly be above the water. I checked an elevation map and they would be poking out of the water about 10 km from the nearest shore. They are also very big on the inside, so you could easily take lots of boats inside through broken windows. I think that would make for an awesome pirate base.
Also in the area, at the current coastline and 16 km from the churches, is a 120 meter tall hotel building with 36 floors. That one would still have some 30ish floors remain above water while standing seemingly in the middle of the sea. That probably won't be too good for the building, but even close to collapse it should still make for a great fortress.

[sktarq]

The world that I have always coming to mind when reading the Apocalypse World is one with an extremely decreased population. I am thinking of something like Fury Road, or the impressions I am getting from Walking Dead (which I never watched or read).
This is very different from what you'd get even from 30 meters sea level rise, hence most of the global population needs to die as well. Since all surviving vertebrates are infected by a symbiotic psychic fungus that melted the Antarctic ice, that seems like the perfect thing that killed most people. Always better to expand on existing fantastical elements before introducing new ones.

If something randomly killed 90% of all people, it would also have killed 90% of farmers. But that still leaves the farms on high grounds standing and they are hugely valuable to the survivors. So I would say that even though most farms are no longer run by the original families, someone else would have taken control of them.
I like the idea of larger farms or small villages being turned into strongholds inhabited by 50 to 100 people.

Hmmm...this could be very interesting especially as the newcomers who are taking over the old farms would have two major issues.
first would be a lack of knowledge of how to actually operate a farm. It is going to bad enough for the old families as farming would CHANGE with a lack of imported feed, lack of vets, tractors and other mechanization, dramatic drop in monocultures etc but for total newbies it would a critical change
secondly would be a cultural shift...which would again be huge...but you could use to your advantage...false claims of ancient lineages and "back to land" claims could be a powerful driver to get that rural romanticism you desired.

Wood is an interesting factor. I.....Harvesting peat from bogs has been used as a way to get fuel for a long time in the region, but I think there's already not much of it left. The remaining peat is probably found in the bogs that are the most difficult to drain to allow harvesting, and I guess that's just not going to happen in such a wrecked future.

Yeah fuel for cooking, warmth, metalworking, ceramics kilns, saltmaking, etc is another limiting factor. to think about. and if you are dealing with more sailing then so is fiber for rope and sails...lots of hemp classically but will bite into limited crop land (though is great in rotation) plus is a rather labor intensive process to turn into cloth (the whole retting process plus bashing with boards etc implies a lot of fresh water etc etc)
Actually unless there is a significantly warmer temperature and more sun I would also have to ask about salt...it would be needed for food preservation again.

Culturally speaking, ...I think it would be cool to have a slang that includes lots of German, Danish, and Swedish words, though.
For truly wrecked post-apocalyptic worlds, I think it's much more fun to have strong cultural identification with specific towns or stronghold. The local weirdos of the week. ....I guess that means cow lords, pig kings, pirates, and shipwreckers. And of course sailors' superstitions. There should be quite a lot of fun stuff to harvest.

Yeah I was kinda taking this as a given TBH. But it brings up my issue though....coming from only slightly dissimilar cultures and being only a couple generations apart how much would one expect for these various settlements to culturally diverge from each other? I would say the real determinant factor there will be how much connection they have to each other. . . For a generation getting a connection to another survivor group would probably be highly desirable for cultural affirmation reasons. I would think to get some highly divergent cultures in such close physical proximity one would have to restrict cultural exchange and stress the systems that exist in different ways.
A problem comes up that there are lots of things in your descriptors that imply a lots of travel and cultural exchange. Pirate-kings existence implies enough shipping to prey on for example.
That's why I might recommend that for a while at least things were far more isolating...perhaps rapeseed to diesel conversion was very rare and had to be basically rediscovered and now all those old boats that had only been useful for parts are now treasures.
Another way to drive greater cultural variation is to have various groups face different challenges. This could be easily done with different maelstrom effects.

[Yakk]

Read https://www.sssscomic.com/ for northern European post-apocalyptic inspiration.

(Here the survivors are mostly from the Nordic nations, as the disease created predator monsters from both animals and humans; other than the initially small percentage of immune, this caused human settlements to all die out. The nordic nations had lower population densities, and Iceland in particular just blew up every ship that came near their shores.)