Palladium Books is one of my favorite game publishers.
It's a bit of a meme, but they make quite a few games set in a post apocalypse story.
1. RoboTech: Invid Invasion (3rd Alien invasion in a lifetime, humans finally lose).
2. After the Bomb (mutant animals).
3. Rifts (magic & monsters ruined the sci-fi world).
4. Splicers (biology vs technology)
5. Dead Reign (shock: it is zombies).
But there are others. I used to think Dark Sun was a D&D setting that's post Apocalypse, but I now know it's just a messed up world.
6. System Failure (literally giant electrical energy bugs come out of the wiring during Y2K year 2000 computer scare).
Does anyone have a game they like set in a post Apocalypse setting?
-Loved Rifts. When it came out, it was like the pages of Heavy Metal magazine were given stat blocks. It was awesome. Then the bloat came. It was so hard to keep up. I have an entire shelf of Rifts material, and just a small portion of stuff available for the game.
-Gamma World will always have a soft spot.
-My personal campaign, The Land of a Thousand Towers, based upon the Anomalous Subsurface Environment (ASE) by Patrick Wetmore. See here (https://www.therpgsite.com/design-development-and-gameplay/land-of-a-thousand-towers-a-gonzo-game-world/) for more details
My actual favorite isn't even an RPG, but a board game: Fallen Land.
As far as RPGs go, it would be The Morrow Project. Aftermath had a lot of great stuff in it, but like other FGU games, it was way overcomplicated.
MY still very much W.I.P. Totally-Not-Thundarr! RPG.
Twilight 2000 was the game I always considered to be the pinnacle of the genre. After actually playing it, though, I think when I played in the TW2K setting using GURPS it was a much, much better experience.
That said, there are games like Morrow Project and Aftermath that have excellent background material, but garbage rules. Lots and lots of those. If I had to pick something for the background and use the rules as-is, I'd probably do After the Bomb or Rifts because as for much crap as Palladium gets being trash rules, you can just run combat like D&D and toss out the rest.
Quote from: I on January 10, 2025, 12:33:22 PMAs far as RPGs go, it would be The Morrow Project. Aftermath had a lot of great stuff in it, but like other FGU games, it was way overcomplicated.
Literally was replying when I saw this...yep. Every single FGU game is overly complex for some inexplicable reason, and yet I love them all.
I mean, you could take BRP (I just got the new version, it's pretty good) and run Mad Max and be done with it. It'd be better than 99% of the crap on the market.
Earthdawn is probably my favorite post-apocalyptic game. I was using it to play emerging "vault dwellers" before I ever encountered Fallout.
I saw this Shadowdark inspired game on Drivethru this week called Gammadark. It is what inspired me to ask this question.
Gammadark RPG (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/507694/gammadark)
Anybody have any info on it?
Gamma World for the win. I swapped out the system for Phoenix Command and made it more like Mad Max (even set it in Oz), deleting the sillier mutations like the army hares and pyrokinesis, but I kept the giant radioactive moths and threw in some robots and packs of bald, diseased radioactive terror-cats.
Now that I've played it for serious, if I were to play a postholocaust game again I'd probably run straight-up Gamma World 1st edition and embrace the crazy.
Deadlands: Hell on Earth.
The Morrow Project (although these days I use BRP rules)
Other Dust.
Quote from: GeekyBugle on January 10, 2025, 01:29:38 PMMY still very much W.I.P. Totally-Not-Thundarr! RPG.
Another?
Quote from: Omega on January 11, 2025, 12:52:59 AMQuote from: GeekyBugle on January 10, 2025, 01:29:38 PMMY still very much W.I.P. Totally-Not-Thundarr! RPG.
Another?
Another? I only have the one Totally-Not-Thundarr! RPG in the works, although it's in the back-burner.
I'm not working on it except to make a note if inspiration strikes. I'm vacillating between using OSE Race as Class or WBFMAG Race & Class. I do have 90+ monsters tho.
Favorite is 2e Gamma World. DMed that ALOT!
Runner up is After the Bomb. This is what my first gaming club played alot.
I like the concept of Morrow Project. But have never gotten to play it.
I DMed Rifts, but never really got into it. Everyone loved me running it though. Go figure.
Does Torg count? Several of the realms have a very post apoc feel with some wild twist on it. Especially the Tharkhold one with the techno-horror theme.
Quote from: GeekyBugle on January 11, 2025, 12:57:13 AMQuote from: Omega on January 11, 2025, 12:52:59 AMQuote from: GeekyBugle on January 10, 2025, 01:29:38 PMMY still very much W.I.P. Totally-Not-Thundarr! RPG.
Another?
Another? I only have the one Totally-Not-Thundarr! RPG in the works, although it's in the back-burner.
I'm not working on it except to make a note if inspiration strikes. I'm vacillating between using OSE Race as Class or WBFMAG Race & Class. I do have 90+ monsters tho.
heh... Meant another Thundarr RPG. Under the Broken Moon came out many a year ago and theres at least one, likely two more out there. I do not think any were commercial though. Just fan works to parse the setting into an RPG.
Quote from: Omega on January 11, 2025, 01:08:37 AMQuote from: GeekyBugle on January 11, 2025, 12:57:13 AMQuote from: Omega on January 11, 2025, 12:52:59 AMQuote from: GeekyBugle on January 10, 2025, 01:29:38 PMMY still very much W.I.P. Totally-Not-Thundarr! RPG.
Another?
Another? I only have the one Totally-Not-Thundarr! RPG in the works, although it's in the back-burner.
I'm not working on it except to make a note if inspiration strikes. I'm vacillating between using OSE Race as Class or WBFMAG Race & Class. I do have 90+ monsters tho.
heh... Meant another Thundarr RPG. Under the Broken Moon came out many a year ago and theres at least one, likely two more out there. I do not think any were commercial though. Just fan works to parse the setting into an RPG.
There's one based on the Black Hack (warlords of something IIRC), under the moons of zoon IIRC is also Thundarr inspired.
I'm not aiming at 1:1 to the cartoon but to enable play in a pretty similar world.
It'll be different enough so I can sell it.
Deadlands: Hell On Earth released back in the late 90s under the classic Deadlands system.
It still remains my favorite Post Apocalyptic Setting for RPGs.
You have Walking Dead style Zombie Apocalpyse going on Back East, You have a Terminator Apocalpyse going on in Denver, you have Evil Mutant Cultists in Los Vegas, you have Road Warrior Stuff going on near Salt Lake City.
A Hell on Earth Deadlands party could have RoboCop, Judge Dredd, Paul Atredies, Daryl Dixon and Taarna in a Party together and it makes perfect sense.
It's less Gonzo than Rifts but just Gonzo enough almost every post apocalpytic concept and character idea works. Characters can be Psykers, Mutant Priests of Radiation, Tech Shamans, Toxic Shamans, Cyborgs, Templar Paladins, Old Soldiers, Feral Kids, Indian Tribesman, Road Warriors, Librarians who get powers from Books, Witches, and more.
All the while fighting Zombies, Terminators, Soda Junkies, Evil Mutants, Anti-Paladins, classic Monsters, Evil Dune Sandworms and the 4 Horseman of the Apocalypse.
It's legitimately an awesome game with never a lack of things to do.
Gamma World first; but second? Got to be Morrow Project.
Car Wars, the out-of print pocket box version, not the new Gaslands clone, which was a Car Wars 5th edition clone.
Gamma World for sure. But I ran "Mutant Future" which is an accessible, retro-clone kind of version of Gamma World and that might be easier to grab than a vintage copy of GW.
Quote from: Brigman on January 14, 2025, 10:56:41 PMGamma World for sure. But I ran "Mutant Future" which is an accessible, retro-clone kind of version of Gamma World and that might be easier to grab than a vintage copy of GW.
Yes Gamma World is my fav also.
2e is the best I think. Tho 1e is certainly playable. 3e has a great module set but the rules suffered from absolutely horrible editing and holes.
You can get all the gamma world rules on drive thru as PDFs. Original copies are expensive.
Mutant future is also certainly serviceable.
I am trying to port GW to index card RPG system. Not done tho.
Car Wars: I guess it counts. Played the hell out of it back in the day. Really loved when they added gasoline engines and permanent armor for that more Mad Max feel.
Gamma World: I had 1st through 4th edition, but I think I liked the 2ed best. It just felt more complete than 1st and not as weird as 4th. My bothers played it more as a straight game rather than gonzooooo mode that it seems to be "known" for.
AFMBE: Very nice game for seeing how long one can survive a post-apoc world as a more normal person.
Quote from: blackstone on January 10, 2025, 12:22:25 PM-Loved Rifts. When it came out, it was like the pages of Heavy Metal magazine were given stat blocks. It was awesome. Then the bloat came. It was so hard to keep up. I have an entire shelf of Rifts material, and just a small portion of stuff available for the game.
To be honest, that's how Rifts needs to be played. In a small section, with a chunk you can manage. If it goes beyond that, well that's on the players (Did they *really* need to go north and kick the Xiticix nest with their boot?). System has always been an issue. I'm enjoying the current renaissance using all those Rifts books as source material for that "other system".
Quote from: blackstone on January 10, 2025, 12:22:25 PM-Gamma World will always have a soft spot.
Ironically, I've been reading up on Gamma World recently. I used to play it back in the day, I'd take a lot of the gear from it and drop it into Barrier Peaks. I forgot how much I missed it. It's pretty damn awesome.
When I think of Post-Apocalyptic gaming - it's hard to not be in the shadow of Rifts. But that aside, I'm digging "Broken Earth" for Savage Worlds, their new edition is dropping soon. It's almost purely survival oriented.
I'm very interested in "Fragged Empire" as a setting - but this is post-post-Apocalyptic. Basically set 13k-years after humanity effectively killed itself. Their genetic "superiors" effectively created their own biologically superiors who flee into the space and return a few centuries later to wipe out everyone. The game starts with the PC's in this post "fubarred" space-opera setting. I have no opinions on the system yet.
I would like a fleshed out Mad Max kinda game, but I'd have to hand-build it myself. I want it more Autoduel than Max.
I like The Morrow Project setting, but I might go for a different game engine. Perhaps Cepheus Engine or some percentile system.
Quote from: zircher on January 15, 2025, 02:11:24 PMI like The Morrow Project setting, but I might go for a different game engine. Perhaps Cepheus Engine or some percentile system.
Oh hey, TMP 4th edition is a pwyw PDF on DTRRPG? I might have to check that out and see how it has changed over the years.
The Morrow Project, 4th Ed PDF on DTRPG (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/112660/the-morrow-project-4th-edition)
For us the top Post Apocalypse game was Rifts.
We started in RoboTech, but that setting was pretty limited. You can only run so many military missions against the same baddies before it got old.
Then along comes Rifts, and has all the same mecha rules, but now you can be mercs working for yourself, and instead of one or two pilot classes that are worth playing you get tons of cool classes. Mages, cyborgs, psychics, knights with energy swords, even young dragons. It was liberating.
I like the Darwins World Savage Worlds Adventure edition. Nice mixture of Fallout and Gamma world and not quite as gonzo as Rifts (which I like, but I do not think of Rifts as post apoc...its sort of its own genre almost).
Deadlands Hell on Earth - tonally it's all over the place, but I still love it anyway. I also had some fun running a (too brief) game set the moment the ghost rock bombs dropped in the Last War. Less silly, more survival horror.
Rifts - While Rifts is infamous for it's gonzo choices for character builds, tonally I'd say it's pretty consistent as to what it wants to be. Shame the writing behind it all isn't better (although I liked Carella's work!).
Gamma World - 2ed and 4ed were familiar to me, but I'd probably ditch either one these days and choose...
Mutant Epoch - It's the love child of Gamma World with playable plants and more, and very much influenced by the kind of old school role-playing where parties would have 2d6+4 characters in case somebody died, but with an awareness of modern influences as well. I suspect the main thing holding it back is that it's setting is so sparse (and most modern gamers dislike the classically styled art or mechanics, or both).
Tribe 8 - I like this one simply because it's the only PA game I've seen that both has a "spiritual apocalypse" and said apocalypse has nothing to do with any real world religions. No Biblical angels or demons, but there are alien forces who are -very- interested in humanity. My main gripe would be that it has the kind of metaplot where players get to watch More Important NPCs do stuff at too many points. But if you can work around that, it's a pretty neat setting.
Barbarians of the Aftermath - powered by the Barbarians of Lemuria system, it's a toolkit and idea mine for generating apocalypses. You'd have a ton of work to do using it, but the system it runs on is light enough that shouldn't be an issue. Terrible for long term play probably, but fun for a quick session or two.
Ran a few sessions of Mutant Epoch. I thought it was a lot of fun. It is very, very similar to Darwin's world in setting and even more similar to Gamma World than DW. Combat was fun and the system was old school feel and I thought quite a bit of fun.
I enjoyed Gamma World as a tongue-in-cheek version of post-apocalyptic - including playing using the HERO System rules (https://darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/gammahero/) back in 2006. I also tried Mutant Year Zero back in 2017, which I thought fit well with the genre. I liked the random mutations, but in retrospect, I didn't like the class/template system much.
My real favorite for tongue-in-cheek post-apocalyptic gaming is
Paranoia, which was a really hilarious and pointed satire.
For non-satirical gaming, my favorite was Twilight:2000.
Quote from: Brad on January 10, 2025, 02:10:03 PMTwilight 2000 was the game I always considered to be the pinnacle of the genre. After actually playing it, though, I think when I played in the TW2K setting using GURPS it was a much, much better experience.
Yeah, I liked T:2000 a lot but never got to play a full campaign of it. There were parts of the rules that I liked and borrowed for my own homebrew systems, but there were also some problems with it (though I can't remember the details there).
This makes my curious about the post-Soviet editions of Twilight:2000. There was evidently a post-Soviet edition in 1992, and a later Twilight:2013 (https://archive.org/details/273913399-twilight-2013/page/n9/mode/2up?view=theater) published in 2008. Did anyone play either of those?
Mutant Epoch is the one that interests me. I don't own anything for it, but have had my eye on it for a while. I agree that the art is old-school and that's probably a turn-off for modern gamers, but it's a big plus as far as I'm concerned.
Quote from: jhkim on January 28, 2025, 04:04:40 PMThis makes my curious about the post-Soviet editions of Twilight:2000. There was evidently a post-Soviet edition in 1992, and a later Twilight:2013 (https://archive.org/details/273913399-twilight-2013/page/n9/mode/2up?view=theater) published in 2008. Did anyone play either of those?
Yes. Mechanically, they were similat to (based on?) Traveller New Era, and these were the ones that involved chucking large numbers of dice every time autofire was used (which was pretty often). 2013 was less about a WWIII scenario and more about mercs in hot spots on a world at the edge of WWIII (but technically pre-apocalypse).
Quote from: I on January 28, 2025, 04:12:59 PMMutant Epoch is the one that interests me. I don't own anything for it, but have had my eye on it for a while. I agree that the art is old-school and that's probably a turn-off for modern gamers, but it's a big plus as far as I'm concerned.
I've played Mutant Epoch, and it is a lot of fun. I have a copy, and that's because a GM who ran it at North Texas was so stoked by the game that he bought a copy for all the players and handed them out at the session!
If/when I run Gamma World style post-apocalypse I intend to use Mutant Epoch. It's a very simple game; the book is huge because it's filled with creatures, relics, and mutations.
Quote from: capvideo on January 29, 2025, 01:18:24 PMQuote from: I on January 28, 2025, 04:12:59 PMMutant Epoch is the one that interests me. I don't own anything for it, but have had my eye on it for a while. I agree that the art is old-school and that's probably a turn-off for modern gamers, but it's a big plus as far as I'm concerned.
I've played Mutant Epoch, and it is a lot of fun. I have a copy, and that's because a GM who ran it at North Texas was so stoked by the game that he bought a copy for all the players and handed them out at the session!
If/when I run Gamma World style post-apocalypse I intend to use Mutant Epoch. It's a very simple game; the book is huge because it's filled with creatures, relics, and mutations.
The pdf of the big rules expansion came out a few months ago, and it has a huge page count too.
I like the Umerican Survival Guide.
Gamma World is the one we played back in the day, or Metamorphosis Alpha if not-on-Earth-apocalypse counts. (Pretty much the same game, only on a generation ship where an apocalypse struck before it could arrive at its destination. You're trapped on the ship instead of wandering on Earth.)
The new Walking Dead (Free League) is pretty neat.
Not an RPG, but the TV show Jericho is a lot of fun for shortly-after-the-blast. I'm not sure that it's very accurate, but they have some neat ideas and plotlines. Too bad it was never finished.
Other Dust seems rather unmentioned yet very capable. Basically Fallout mixed with Gamma World, by Kevin Crawford.
One of my favorites was d20 Apocalypse because it tried to give you a toolkit for playing different apocalypses. Other postapoc games aren't toolkits.
I like Gamma World, in all its editions, and its few clones.
Darwin's World was neat. It introduced horror before it became popular during the influx of Eastern European postapoc
Mutant Crawl Classics absolute favorite. I guess a bit biased because I love DCC so much, it felt natural to love MCC as well.
Gamma World has to be on the list, I consider it a mandatory classic.
Tribe 8 as a sleeper gem. Love everything about it, such a beautiful and complex game.
I've never heard of Tribe 8. Thanks for mentioning that.
Incredible, I find out I don't have a post apo game!one day, Deadlands: Hell on Earth ?
-Twilight 2000, wow, what memories it brings up, I used to play a ton of the 2nd edition.
I wasn´t impressed with the 2013 enough to buy it. Also, I am a bit wary to touch the
latest iteration after I saw those boss babe pictures.
-Deadlands: Hell on Earth, a pretty decent setting, if you don´t mind the magic and supernatural
stuff.
-Red Markets, has anyone played this? I own it, have red a bit. Apparently the rules creating
desperation are slick.
QuoteNot an RPG, but the TV show Jericho is a lot of fun for shortly-after-the-blast. I'm not sure that it's very accurate, but they have some neat ideas and plotlines. Too bad it was never finished.
It was really amazing, usually postapo fiction is pretty shite.
The 5th Wave was a weird film to watch right before Covid. Varg's The Coming is a game supplement worth mentioning here. Wild take on all that in a fantasy world and certainly post apocalyptic.
My group loved Rifts. It was liberating to own mechs without a government to answer to, while also being pretty much any character type you wanted.
Gamma World 2e! I mean 1e was the watershed moment in my gaming life when I purchased it, but 2e is a better overall implementation of the game. It didn't change the flavor of the game like later editions did.
"Happy daze are here again!"--the crypt keeper
I never left.
Quote from: HappyDaze on February 06, 2025, 11:22:36 PM"Happy daze are here again!"--the crypt keeper
I never left.
Much to everyone else's chagrin...
Quote from: Brad on January 10, 2025, 02:10:03 PMTwilight 2000 was the game I always considered to be the pinnacle of the genre.
I don't know about the pinnacle, but it was the one I actually played.
It really helped that I was playing the game during the late 1980s, as a college student.
After the fall of the USSR in real life, it just wasn't the same.
Played SO much Rifts as a teen. And a bunch of other Palladium stuff too. Now I won't touch Palladium with a 10 ft pole, except to read the fluff. I have actually bought a couple Rifts books in the last decade just so I could see where it went.
Favorite is probably Twilight:20xx. 1st edition almost required you to be a wargaming mechanical engineer, but 2e and 2.2 were less complicated. I liked 2013, and wish the company had stayed in business and published a lot more stuff, especially something that would let GMs use their system in a way similar to GURPS. It would have given me a way to fix the worst part of Rifts, that being the Palladium mechanics.
I wanted to try Aftermath and Morrow Project, but they were long out of print by the time I had money to spend on the hobby. There's a 2E Morrow Project out there, I have a PDF of it, but IDK if my gaming group would want to try it. They were pretty happy with Cyberpunk RED until the GM needed a break, and they seem to be pretty happy with Shadowrun 3E (now if only I can avoid the dreaded burnout, and actually prepare things instead of winging it like I did for about 97% of the Genesys campaign I ran).
Quote from: Hague on February 12, 2025, 10:27:07 PMFavorite is probably Twilight:20xx. 1st edition almost required you to be a wargaming mechanical engineer, but 2e and 2.2 were less complicated.
Character creation in 2e/2.2 may have been easier (life module picks), but combat most certainly was not. Rolling a ton of dice (one for each bullet in a burst of automatic fire) gets tedious really fast, moreso if the automatic weapon has a burst radius (like the Mk19 greande launcher--fire it once and watch time stop).
Quote from: HappyDaze on February 12, 2025, 11:59:01 PMQuote from: Hague on February 12, 2025, 10:27:07 PMFavorite is probably Twilight:20xx. 1st edition almost required you to be a wargaming mechanical engineer, but 2e and 2.2 were less complicated.
Character creation in 2e/2.2 may have been easier (life module picks), but combat most certainly was not. Rolling a ton of dice (one for each bullet in a burst of automatic fire) gets tedious really fast, moreso if the automatic weapon has a burst radius (like the Mk19 greande launcher--fire it once and watch time stop).
It's been almost 30 years since I played, but from what I remember you rolled one die for each bullet, each 6 was a hit. That's pretty simple. And IMO, simplistic. But I have yet to see a system that models autofire worth a damn.
I don't recall ever having to deal with automatic fire on something with a blast radius. Maybe the main gun of one of the BMP models with an autocannon? I can see where it would be a huge pain in the ass. I'd still rather play, and much rather GM, 2/2.2 than 1e. But again, I'm operating on 30+ year old memories here.
Quote from: Hague on February 13, 2025, 11:45:36 AMBut I have yet to see a system that models autofire worth a damn
EABA handles it pretty well IMO, since it's primary scale is logarythmic. When shooting, if you roll at or over the target you hit. If you shoot double the bullets you get +2 to hit, and if you beat the roll, you hit with as many more bullets, each dealing the same damage, as scale with how much you beat the number by. This also works for volley fire.
Quote from: Zenoguy3 on February 13, 2025, 12:13:12 PMQuote from: Hague on February 13, 2025, 11:45:36 AMBut I have yet to see a system that models autofire worth a damn
EABA handles it pretty well IMO, since it's primary scale is logarythmic. When shooting, if you roll at or over the target you hit. If you shoot double the bullets you get +2 to hit, and if you beat the roll, you hit with as many more bullets, each dealing the same damage, as scale with how much you beat the number by. This also works for volley fire.
EABA?
Quote from: Hague on February 13, 2025, 12:39:33 PMEABA?
Yea it's just called EABA (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/114516/eaba-v2-01-augmented-pdf). I think of it as an evolution of gurps. it uses a logarythmic scale and a very cool roll over system instead of a dice pool. This thread (https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/feedback-on-end-all-be-all-role-playing-system/) talks about it at a bit more length, and I've been theory crafting how to snare some of my players into a game of it for a while now.
Quote from: Zenoguy3 on February 13, 2025, 03:45:19 PMYea it's just called EABA (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/114516/eaba-v2-01-augmented-pdf).
IIRC, it stands for "End All Be All."