Post-Apocalyptic Games

[HaroldTheHobbit]

As an unashamed Savage Worlds fanboy, I must point to the latest version of Darwin's World for that system. It's well fleshed out, with lots of post-apocalyptic specific rules and stuff added on. I can heartily recommend it.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

The setting is great and well-supported, but the system has terrible presentation, and is rather clumsy. I recently ran a 4e campaign, and the system needed a lot of tweaking.

Just want to counterpoint this with my own experience, which is that it runs super smooth and has maybe the best military-style gun combat system I've ever used.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Just want to counterpoint this with my own experience, which is that it runs super smooth and has maybe the best military-style gun combat system I've ever used.

Have you used many military weapons? It not very good.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

Have you used many military weapons? It not very good.

Oof.

ETA: Just to clarify, that oof isn't directed toward T2K.

 

[Juxtapozbliss]

Mutant Year Zero is pretty cool, has lots of supplements.

 

[aramis erak]

Good morning folks. My wife and I were watching the 2006 show  Jericho last night and both of us thought it would be great to start a post-apocalyptic campaign, as it's a genre we're both very interested in. As a fan of traditional gaming and a believer in the idea that someone somewhere has done a lot of my work so I'll have a good base from which to build my campaign, I am asking: does anyone have suggestions on post-apocalyptic games and/or settings? I am specifically not looking for games with a narrativist style or a strong lean on narrative or "storygame" mechanics (and please understand this is not a request to debate what those terms technically mean; at this point I think most folks around here know what I mean by them even if you don't agree), so something like Apocalypse World would not be appropriate. I would also like to avoid anything that requires a lot of re-flavoring to look right, although I could potentially be talked into some. A setting using or convertible to 5e would be easiest on my players, but I'm willing to go outside that for what would otherwise be a better option.

Thanks in advance.

Twilight 2000 — 2nd ed (on cd) or 4th ed (current) is more realistic end of things... I like both, but find 4th easier to run. uses 1d(A) & 1d(S), count successes as a dice mechanic.
Mutant Year Zero: more silly. Uses d6 dice pool. I've yet to run it, but it looks good.

Mutant Future: OSR gamma-world.

Gamma TrollWorld unauthorized setting book for Tunnels and Trolls.

Rifts - game sucks, setting rocks.

 

[MGibster]

Have you used many military weapons? It not very good.

I don't mean this as a dig, but you have some very particular and refined tastes when it comes to this kind of thing. You're the type of guy who looks at Phoenix Command and thinks those rules are a great start. Meanwhile us mere mortals look at those rules and flee in terror.

 

[Umbran]

You're stuck in Poland with a certain period of time to get to a port to get home otherwise you're just stuck there.

The original game had no specific setup of getting to a port. The last message from the CO was just, "You're on your own. Good luck."

The original was also a very slim game - the boxed set had a 24-page player's manual, a 31 page Referee's Manual, some charts, record sheets and worksheets, and an intro adventure that is about getting out of the area of the final battle of the war.

The end of the Referee's Book suggests that the party needs a long-term goal, and tells you that "getting home" is a good one, but gives no real guidance on what that might entail.

 

[aramis erak]

The original game had no specific setup of getting to a port. The last message from the CO was just, "You're on your own. Good luck."

The current one does same. So did 2nd ed.

The original was also a very slim game - the boxed set had a 24-page player's manual, a 31 page Referee's Manual, some charts, record sheets and worksheets, and an intro adventure that is about getting out of the area of the final battle of the war.

The end of the Referee's Book suggests that the party needs a long-term goal, and tells you that "getting home" is a good one, but gives no real guidance on what that might entail.

The adventure is 8pp, with a 4pp handout.
The PDF and later print runs included a 1 page errata sheet.

"some charts"...
The 2 page player charts handout
The 2 page price list
The 8 page Ref's charts
The 11 page equipment guide.

Note that the charts and equipment are not duplications from the PG/RG - the tables are only in the charts books. So you've elided 10% of the rules pagecount out with "some charts"...

pretty much a third booklet. The overall PDF is 102 pages, presents the 11×17" map as 2 of those, and is missing the box-back. And they're full 8.5×11"... so, discount counting the covers of the PG/RG and the box front, it's 95 pages content; dropping the coverless adventure, too: 83 pages.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I don't mean this as a dig, but you have some very particular and refined tastes when it comes to this kind of thing. You're the type of guy who looks at Phoenix Command and thinks those rules are a great start. Meanwhile us mere mortals look at those rules and flee in terror.

I used Phoenix Command for years.

T2k4e means well, but in practice the weapons are terrible. Pistols are useless except against animals; an average Human can soak up numerous direct hits. The only weapon worth carrying is a upper-caliber assault rifle, and while the game details dozens, the damage system means that they are virtually identical. Meanwhile, a wood axe or machete out-performs automatic weapons.

The combat system is chart-intensive, made worse by splitting information between multiple charts It carries a strong ASL feel and love of modifiers and minutiae.

It uses hex system 30m across, which requires either the handful of tactical maps available for the game, or a house-ruled system. They try to fix that issue in the urban combat expansion, but it is clumsy.

The basic thrust of the game appears to be that morale breaking will win fights long before killing (not bad as a concept) but the ability to rally is such that unless you identify and target leaders quickly, morale will never be an issue.

And the presentation of the rules is utterly awful.

All in all, it is, IME, a bit more challenging than Phoenix Command. Which is why I heavily house-ruled the system. There is a better varient of the rules out by a third paty, but I have not actually used them.