d20 apocalypse

[Gwaihir Windlord]

I didn't really know where to put this, so I'm putting it here.  I would really like to play in a d20 apocalypse game.  I don't DM much (I'd rather play) but I can offer some help if needed (I've got the book).

So, can I con any of you DMs into running an apocalypse game?

[Bill Volk]

I could be tempted to run one, assuming that we get some other players who all agree to some kind of regular post schedule this Summer.

I've never run a play-by-post game or any actual d20 Apocalypse material, but I know d20 Modern pretty well.

On a tangential note, who else is psyched for Fallout 3 (and holding out hope that Bethesda won't mess it up)?

[Gwaihir Windlord]

Cool!  Thanks.  Well then, another question would be who else wants to play in an apocalypse game?

As for Fallout, I've heard of it but don't really know what it is.  Please don't smite me.

[Bill Volk]

Seriously, you've never played Fallout? I don't feel like smiting; I'm just surprised.

Well, if you never find enough players, at least go and try to scrounge up Fallout 1 and 2. They're fairly old PC games, and they rank right up there with Planescape: Torment as the best electronic RPGs ever.

[beejazz]

If there's a decent premise, I'm game. It's a real plus if you use a set of classes other than those presented in d20 modern.

[Gwaihir Windlord]

Seriously, you've never played Fallout? I don't feel like smiting; I'm just surprised.

Well, if you never find enough players, at least go and try to scrounge up Fallout 1 and 2. They're fairly old PC games, and they rank right up there with Planescape: Torment as the best electronic RPGs ever.

Really?  Well, I might have to dig them out.

If there's a decent premise, I'm game. It's a real plus if you use a set of classes other than those presented in d20 modern.

I really have no idea of what kind of classes to use in place of the standard modern ones, maybe just tweak D&D classes?  But I'm with you, I much prefer D&D classes to the ability classes of modern.

[Bill Volk]

I'd prefer to work out a premise with the players, once we're sure who'll be playing.

Do you mean you'd prefer a post-apocalyptic fantasy setting? I'd feel uncomfortable trying to blend the D&D and Modern stuff too much. I think it would just lead to imbalance and confusion. Of course, if we go for all-Modern material, I'd allow any of the advanced/prestige classes from d20 Apocalypse and at least some of the ones from d20 Past and d20 Future.

[Gwaihir Windlord]

I was just responding to beejazz's preference of D&D style classes over d20 modern classes.  He's got a point, but if you don't want to mix the two systems that's cool with me.

About the fantasy thing, no I don't really want a post-apocalyptic fantasy game.  My mention of D&D was just the classes, not the magic or monsters or anything like that.

[beejazz]

I don't know if I didn't already post this (curse my buggy comp!), but if you're willing to wait until after Gencon, I can cobble something together from Star Wars Revised ala Unearthed Arcana, Star Wars Saga for classes, Iron Heroes for skill rules, and D20 Modern/Apocalypse for everything else. It'd be a bit of a frankenstein mash, but it might work.

[Bill Volk]

That sounds crazy awesome, but perhaps a little more crazy than awesome. Let's not waste time learning new rules conglomerations when we could be playing instead.

If the generic d20 Modern classes really bug anyone, we can adjust the campaign so that the players start at level 4 or so, giving them access to advanced classes right away.

Here are a couple of possible ideas for adventures. Any prospective players, please offer feedback.

[ic=The Tomb of the Unknown Bowler]The PCs come from a small, poorly-equipped public fallout shelter outside of Pittsburgh. The shelter is overpopulated, and the PCs have been voted off, as it were. They're sent out into post-nuclear Western Pennsylvania with nothing but a pistol with one round for each PC, since the shelter inhabitants voted that they should have a humane means of suicide. It's up to them to find a new home, find a way to get themselves accepted back into the shelter, or simply get bloody revenge.[/ic]

[ic=Spiritual Warfare]This campaign would have a setting similar to Earth Inherited, in which believers of all faiths have suddenly disappeared and angels, devils, and the supernatural agents of every human faith have come to fight each other and lay waste to the world. The PCs are citizens of a fortification run by what's left of San Fransisco's police department, and they're on a mission to rescue a famous skeptic who might have some kind of insight into the cause of the cataclysm and a way to restore peace. They must venture into the ruins of San Fransisco and face off against angels, demons, Jinn, Hindu and Shintoist spirits, and the evil Lord Xenu![/ic]

[beejazz]

I don't have any fully formed ideas, so let me just splatter my thoughts all over the intarweb like I usually do:

How does it end?
War? Nuclear? Biochemical? Totally mundane, but otherwise brutal and genocidal and whatnot, maybe accompanied by economic depressions et al?

Environmental? Is it the meteorological effects of global warming? Is it the biological aftershocks of mild temperature change causing mass extinctions on a scale not seen since the dinosaurs? Is it a specific poisoning of the land?

Supernatural? The Christian Apocalypse? Some warped variation thereon, like Evangelion or Childhood's End? Something Cthuloid or King-in-Yellow-ish? Some specific (or multiple) mythological war-at-the-end? Something existencial in nature, as might be seen after the occurences in Lathe of Heaven?

Is the end the cause of crazy high-level physics and tech? Reality degrading because of FTL travel? The "souls" of the dead made manifest by temporal distortion? Gravity wells? Schisms in reality?

Are there odd aftershocks? Are women not having children anymore? Are there zombies?

What gets left behind? Are there still guns? Cars? Ammo? Fuel? How long will these things last before we have to stop living on leftovers?

What other genre are we going to bear a resemblence to? Fantasy? Horror? Science Fiction? Cyberpunk? Steampunk? Giant Robots?

What are the playable options? Human? Other? Psychics? Mutants? Fantasy races? Awakened fungi? Anthropomorphic shrimp? Ninjas? What?

Just thoughts scattered all over the place.

[Gwaihir Windlord]

Good thoughts as well.  As for the two settings presented thus far I like them both equally, so if one of those two is chosen I'll go with whatever.

[DeeL]

Here's a possible cause for the apocalypse that I don't think has ever been depicted -

Peanuts.

Now hear me out.

What if all the diesel in the world was replaced by peanut oil?  It has been proven that an allergy can be provoked by overexposure to a chemical compound - what if constant atmospheric exposure to peanut byproducts caused a worldwide histaminic reaction?  

The succeptible individuals would mostly die - but a significant fraction of their number would experience behavioral changes and survive quite well as weirdly deformed denizens of the ruined city, dependent on the peanut dust that gives them their allergenically fueled hatred and rage, but ever hungry for the unpoluted flesh of the unaffected survivors who managed to escape to the wilderness.  These 'histaminics' would survive long enough to keep the protagonists from reclaiming any significant technology, at least without a fight.

And the survivors might be afraid of radiation or industrial poisons, but the worst fear would be taking an overexposure to the lethal or mutating residue of the fearsome peanut...

[Gwaihir Windlord]

peanut zombies.  Huh.  That's most definitely the weirdest, and possible coolest, idea I've heard all month.

Just a question, are you intending to play?

[DeeL]

Sorry, no.  My time is awfully spoken for.  All I can do is contribute the occasional weirdass idea from the sidelines.

Sidelines.  Hm.  Football apocalypse...  nah.