Piecemeal

Campaign Resources

Original Introduction

It ended not with a bang, but a whimper.

People predicted the end was coming for years. War. Disease. Climate change. Asteroids. Super volcanoes. No matter how outlandish the cause, someone was there, claiming it would cause the downfall of civilization as we knew it.

Who would have thought they were *all* right?

Over one hundred years have passed since the Fall. For the most part only stories remain. Stories of New York and Washington under water. Of Los Angeles consumed by wild fires and riots. Of a great meteor that struck Europe and blackened the skies for months. Of plagues that killed thousands. Stories of wars fought for oil. For religion. For technology. Stories of despair and death. Of poison vials released from secret labs. Of terrible weapons unleashed from space. Stories of burning skies and terrible storms that wiped away entire cities. Stories of honor and courage. Of those who faced the darkness and fought. Fought and lost.

The world is different now. No gas. Little power. The sun still burns. Much of the land has been seared by fire, or worse. The world is alive with danger. Man's domination of the land has faded and the wild things have returned. People have changed as well. The disasters that brought down civilization affected mankind as well, twisting gene and mind in equal measure. Not everything that looks human is human.

But the green has come back. Mankind survives. Scattered and isolated for the most part, but stubborn and resilient. Mankind survives.

Pretty wide open so far as the sort of game this would be. I'd probably run it with a bit more detailed version of FUDGE and actually do some character creation. The description above lends itself to a post-apocalyptic game, but I'm leaning away from the typical Mad Max gritty world, more towards a 'rediscovery' type game. A couple random thoughts:

• Major cities are pretty well wiped. With huge populations, no local food source, and no power, things quickly went bad.
• Technology isn't gone, but it's taken a giant step back. Steam engines and wind power are in use, but a lot of farming has reverted to animal power. Higher technology is still around, but being able to use it is iffy.
• There are guns. And knives. And grenades. And explosives.
• Vehicles are rare, fuel is practically non-existent.
• The wilderness has returned with a vengeance.
• There might be mutants, both human, animal and plant.
• There might be psionics and/or powers.

I'd like to get at least three people to actively participate in turns with an anticipated 2-3 turns a week (pretty much the pace Northern is running right now). I think the once a week turns were too slow. I'll also accept people who can't contribute as regularly, with the provision that their characters are subject to the whims of fate or GM fiat.