dealing with the remains of the old world is going to effect faction/settlements/organizations. How they survived the apocalypse is going to effect their operations. depending on how post the apocalypse is the old world may only be myth and legend. Mix fact and fiction or keep it unknown. If it's post as in immediately after the apocalypse then have NPCs note how hard things are compared to before and wounder about people they know that were in different areas when it hit.
That's my thoughts on the matter so take it with a grain of salt
Survival mechanics. Tracking items and food almost religiously. You will want to focus on the elements that are uniquely post-apoc. You will want to really have vivid scenery of reclaimed cities and twisted metal structures that once were things like bridges. Maybe bits and pieces of plastic-- depending on what civilisation was like pre-apocalypse.
You will probably want to focus on how dangerous the environment is. How the beasts in the wild are serious threats to the remnants of life in this world. In that way, society has regressed to a more savage time.
What happened to the world will obviously shape what remains afterward, and different apocalypses will result in different landscapes. This will also affect how the survivors manage to survive, and how they restructure their remnants of society. Was it a meteor strike that wiped out a nation or two entirely then turned the rest of the world into an ice-age snowscape, resulting in mass starvation as food stores were consumed and new crops could not be grown to feed everyone who didn't freeze to death first? Obviously food and shelter will be the top commodities. A magical plague? Aggressive quarantine protocols are probably put in place if it's contagious (as in "shoot any outsiders before they get close enough to infect anybody") but if there's an obvious healer in the party they might be able to talk their way in if they approach carefully. Zombie apocalypse brought about by a nigh-godlike necromancer BBEG? Defensible positions with access to resources like fresh water and fertile land will be a priority, as well as staying concealed if there's any effective organization to the army of the dead.
2: Know your society.
First question is how many people survived, and in what state? Are people scattered about in small survival focused groups, generally no larger than a small village, if even that? Do those little outposts have contact with each other and if so do they trade and share resources or are they hostile and raid each other? Has a surviving leader, be they a royal, noble, military officer, or high priest assumed control and united survivors into a larger concentration? Are the enclaves organized as communal groups where everybody has a say and cooperation is stressed and expected, or are there specific leaders in charge who rule in a strict, militaristic authoritarian system where everyone is assigned specific jobs and allotted resources as deemed appropriate by those leaders?
3: How do the PCs fit in?
Are they all from the same enclave? Did they know each other before the fecal matter impacted the oscillatory ventilation mechanism? Are they acting on behalf of a single group of survivors to establish an enclave (or maintain/protect an existing one, depending on how recent the apocalypse was)? Are they from a larger group trying to re-establish large scale civilization, either by negotiating with or conquering outlying groups to incorporate them into the whole? Are they from a smaller settlement resisting a larger one attempting to do that? Are they on a quest to slay the nigh-godlike necromancer that summoned and now commands the army of undead that plagues the land? Are they just trying to loot riches from the ruins of civilization and use that to buy themselves a life of whatever luxury can be achieved now? How will they be greeted by other people?
I ran something similar to this using the Mongoose Legend system.
The background was that over a thousand years previously a cataclysm caused the majority of humanity to take shelter in shelters (ala Earthdawn or Fallout) not all were successful and alot of people were caught outside.
They suffered massive losses and it took generations before many ventured outside discovering the world greatly changed.
Despite their efforts much of the salvaged knowledge and technology was lost during their efforts to rebuild and resulting conflicts with each other or other survivors including horrifyingly altered creatures who adapted to survive in this new world without the resources those shelters provided.
I used some Pathifnder scenarios for the adventures i ran which evolved around them helping a village and discovering artefacts that allowed one of their number to become a landed noble.
Much of the creatures in d&d were explained as having survived the catastrophe but changed so much they resembled monsters than the humanity they original were and that wasn't even counting the anima!
Thinks Rats of Nymm some animals experimented upon freed by the disaster and evolved to actual sentience and unlike humanity and their offshoots which seem more inclined to using magic and salvaging lost technology the anima are actually advancing to replace humanity as the most technologically advanced species.
Sorry the above description does a better job of explaining this, I posted this as my own effort in that area hope it helped!
What was the world like pre apocalypse? I have a home brew world I have used in the past which is based partly on the wheel of time. So in the past the world was a technological marvel with hover cars, planes, space ships etc, and these had pushed magic down and made the gods less important. then something happened and the world was ruined, the remnants of civilization managed to barely survive and rediscovered the old skills of magic, they went back to needing and worshipping the gods and redefining there cultures.
So every now and again my players will come across some twisted metal skyline, all that is left of a city, or find some old abandoned communications building. There is one small community that survived the apocalypse and kept themselves technologically advanced, but they are also pacifists who see themselves as shepherds for the rest of the civilizations protecting them from the horrors of a magical world such as demons etc.
So yes it is important to know what your world was pre apocalypse and how that impacted the development and growth of the existing populace.
I wanted to do a Post-Apocalpsyes Campaign, I just wanted some pointers on what I should Include.
dealing with the remains of the old world is going to effect faction/settlements/organizations. How they survived the apocalypse is going to effect their operations. depending on how post the apocalypse is the old world may only be myth and legend. Mix fact and fiction or keep it unknown. If it's post as in immediately after the apocalypse then have NPCs note how hard things are compared to before and wounder about people they know that were in different areas when it hit.
That's my thoughts on the matter so take it with a grain of salt
Mostly nocturnal
help build a world here
Survival mechanics. Tracking items and food almost religiously. You will want to focus on the elements that are uniquely post-apoc. You will want to really have vivid scenery of reclaimed cities and twisted metal structures that once were things like bridges. Maybe bits and pieces of plastic-- depending on what civilisation was like pre-apocalypse.
You will probably want to focus on how dangerous the environment is. How the beasts in the wild are serious threats to the remnants of life in this world. In that way, society has regressed to a more savage time.
1: Know your apocalypse.
What happened to the world will obviously shape what remains afterward, and different apocalypses will result in different landscapes. This will also affect how the survivors manage to survive, and how they restructure their remnants of society. Was it a meteor strike that wiped out a nation or two entirely then turned the rest of the world into an ice-age snowscape, resulting in mass starvation as food stores were consumed and new crops could not be grown to feed everyone who didn't freeze to death first? Obviously food and shelter will be the top commodities. A magical plague? Aggressive quarantine protocols are probably put in place if it's contagious (as in "shoot any outsiders before they get close enough to infect anybody") but if there's an obvious healer in the party they might be able to talk their way in if they approach carefully. Zombie apocalypse brought about by a nigh-godlike necromancer BBEG? Defensible positions with access to resources like fresh water and fertile land will be a priority, as well as staying concealed if there's any effective organization to the army of the dead.
2: Know your society.
First question is how many people survived, and in what state? Are people scattered about in small survival focused groups, generally no larger than a small village, if even that? Do those little outposts have contact with each other and if so do they trade and share resources or are they hostile and raid each other? Has a surviving leader, be they a royal, noble, military officer, or high priest assumed control and united survivors into a larger concentration? Are the enclaves organized as communal groups where everybody has a say and cooperation is stressed and expected, or are there specific leaders in charge who rule in a strict, militaristic authoritarian system where everyone is assigned specific jobs and allotted resources as deemed appropriate by those leaders?
3: How do the PCs fit in?
Are they all from the same enclave? Did they know each other before the fecal matter impacted the oscillatory ventilation mechanism? Are they acting on behalf of a single group of survivors to establish an enclave (or maintain/protect an existing one, depending on how recent the apocalypse was)? Are they from a larger group trying to re-establish large scale civilization, either by negotiating with or conquering outlying groups to incorporate them into the whole? Are they from a smaller settlement resisting a larger one attempting to do that? Are they on a quest to slay the nigh-godlike necromancer that summoned and now commands the army of undead that plagues the land? Are they just trying to loot riches from the ruins of civilization and use that to buy themselves a life of whatever luxury can be achieved now? How will they be greeted by other people?
I ran something similar to this using the Mongoose Legend system.
The background was that over a thousand years previously a cataclysm caused the majority of humanity to take shelter in shelters (ala Earthdawn or Fallout) not all were successful and alot of people were caught outside.
They suffered massive losses and it took generations before many ventured outside discovering the world greatly changed.
Despite their efforts much of the salvaged knowledge and technology was lost during their efforts to rebuild and resulting conflicts with each other or other survivors including horrifyingly altered creatures who adapted to survive in this new world without the resources those shelters provided.
I used some Pathifnder scenarios for the adventures i ran which evolved around them helping a village and discovering artefacts that allowed one of their number to become a landed noble.
Much of the creatures in d&d were explained as having survived the catastrophe but changed so much they resembled monsters than the humanity they original were and that wasn't even counting the anima!
Thinks Rats of Nymm some animals experimented upon freed by the disaster and evolved to actual sentience and unlike humanity and their offshoots which seem more inclined to using magic and salvaging lost technology the anima are actually advancing to replace humanity as the most technologically advanced species.
Sorry the above description does a better job of explaining this, I posted this as my own effort in that area hope it helped!
Wow, Thanks guys
What was the world like pre apocalypse? I have a home brew world I have used in the past which is based partly on the wheel of time. So in the past the world was a technological marvel with hover cars, planes, space ships etc, and these had pushed magic down and made the gods less important. then something happened and the world was ruined, the remnants of civilization managed to barely survive and rediscovered the old skills of magic, they went back to needing and worshipping the gods and redefining there cultures.
So every now and again my players will come across some twisted metal skyline, all that is left of a city, or find some old abandoned communications building. There is one small community that survived the apocalypse and kept themselves technologically advanced, but they are also pacifists who see themselves as shepherds for the rest of the civilizations protecting them from the horrors of a magical world such as demons etc.
So yes it is important to know what your world was pre apocalypse and how that impacted the development and growth of the existing populace.