Post-Apocalypse[Genres]
Post-ApocalypseAfter civilization falls, the world is transformed into a harsh place where your character's very survival is in question. The only answer is constant scavenging for food and water in a ruinscape of collapsing buildings, rotting food stores, radiation, crazed animals, and desperate bands of raiders willing to take everything you have without shedding a tear. Postapocalypse games are grounded in a (somewhat) realistic portrayal of what life would be like in the aftermath of a world-ending sequence of events. Mere survival may be one of the primary themes of your GM's game.
If you're familiar with books or movies like The Road, Children of Men, and even the Mad Max series, you know what postapocalypse settings are like. The Walking Dead comics and TV show are very much a postapocalypse setting as well, aside from the fantastic element of the zombies that caused the world to end.
Use the Postapocalypse Skills table for a list of skills you can choose from when creating and advancing your character. Your choice of background skill, and possibly the extra skill you might get if you also choose a meaningful inability, also come from the same list of genre skills.
These skills are appropriate for games in a modern postapocalypse setting. When you have the option to choose skills, choose from the following.
The postapocalypse skills listed here are appropriate for games where the world ended in modern times. If your game is set in a different time, adjust the skills as needed.
| Animal care Astronomy | Athletics | Attacking † | Biology |
| Chemistry | Crafting | Deception | Defending † |
| Disguise | Driving | Engineering | Escaping |
| Firefighting | Forensics | Gathering information | Geology |
| Gymnastics | Hacking | Healing | Heavy equipment operation |
| History | Identifying | Initiative | Intimidation |
| Lockpicking | Magic lore | Mathematics | Mechanics |
| Mining | Navigation | Outdoor survival | Perception |
| Performance | Persuasion | Philosophy | Physics |
| Pickpocketing | Piloting | Plumbing | Psychology |
| Publishing | Recognizing motive | Religious lore | Riding |
| Scavenging | Stealth | Tracking |
Postapocalypse settings usually feature mostly Humans.
The list of suggested foci for a postapocalypse game doesn't generally include foci with magical, science fiction, or other fantastic elements.
| Absorbs Energy | Builds Robots | Carries a Gun | Controls Beasts |
| Doesn't Do Much | Drives Like a Maniac | Explores | Fights Dirty |
| Fights Unarmed | Fights With Panache | Helps Their Friends | Entertains |
| Hunts | Infiltrates | Leads | Learns Quickly |
| Lives in the Wilderness | Looks for Trouble | Masters Defense | Masters Weaponry |
| Moves Like a Cat | Murders | Needs No Weapon | Never Says Die |
| Performs Feats of Strength | Scavenges | Sneaks Through the Shadows | Solves Mysteries |
| Stands Like A Bastion | Talks to Machines | Tends to the Wounded | Throws With Deadly Accuracy |
| Wears Power Armor | Wields Two Weapons at Once |
Refer to your type's suggested equipment bundle or the Postapocalypse Equipment table for equipment you can choose from when creating your character and for options that might be available to your character when you have more currency to spend.
This setting usually has no manifest cyphers.
The postapocalypse tends to be a realistic genre. Using treatments to remove a wound takes ten minutes for a minor wound, one hour for a moderate wound, and one week for a major wound.
The currency underlying price categories in a postapocalypse setting is most likely barter. An especially organized and resource-rich group of survivors might develop scrip or something similar as usable currency within their own region of influence.
Each type includes suggestions for your character's background. Choose one or create your own.
At tier 3, your postapocalypse character gains a mid-tier ability from the list of Science Fiction Genre Abilities, and at tier 6 you gain a high-tier ability from the same list. In addition, at tier 6, you can replace one of your mid-tier genre abilities with a different mid-tier ability. See that section for additional stipulations that might affect your science fiction genre ability choice.
| Dealer |
| Heavy |
| Survivor |
| Tender |
Before choosing a type, create your core character, which (as a quick reminder) grants the following.
Post-apocalyptic literature, movies, and games are a subgenre of science fiction that focuses on the dystopia that follows the fall of civilization. Strictly speaking, post-apocalyptic stories take place after the end of the world. At least, the end of the world for most people.
Players take the role of the survivors (or their descendants) trying to persevere in the face of immense hardship. Popular post-apocalyptic scenarios include those set after nuclear war, in the aftermath of a zombie plague, in the months and years following an alien invasion, or after the environment collapses in the face of human overpopulation. Other ways the world could end include a massive meteorite strike, the long-awaited robot uprising, a powerful solar flare that burns out the world’s power grids and communications, or even something as prosaic as a global disease pandemic.
For a post-apocalyptic story to have long-term interest, the world can’t be completely dead. Other people are necessary to interact with, help, and compete against for limited resources. A wealth of food, parts, and other supplies should be available so that survivors can live long enough to establish something more long term. Other threats should also manifest—rival survivors, mutant abominations, wild creatures, aliens, disease, poisons, and, yes, possibly even zombies—depending on the post-apocalyptic world you want to create.
Creating a post-apocalyptic setting is almost cheating because you can start with the world as it is now, with its current technology, its history, and all the rest, before ruining it with an apocalypse of your choosing.
Alternatively, you could decide that the apocalypse comes much earlier in the history of the real world, or much later. You might even decide that the apocalypse that defines your setting occurs in another world entirely, perhaps in a fantasy world where the gods all suddenly and inexplicably go extinct.
However, if you stick with the real world as your baseline, consider these additional advantages that you gain. Maps are the biggest benefit. All the maps of the real world are useful as maps of your fictional post-apocalyptic world with a few modifications. Add a crater here, a shanty-town there, and maybe a crashed jet airliner or another oddity, and voila, you’ve created a high-fidelity map in just minutes.
Another advantage of starting with the real world is that it sets a baseline for designing the post-apocalyptic cultures, wildlife, plant life, architecture, and so on. It’s easy to make a major and memorable encounter using something like a bear, even if it’s a zombie bear or radioactive bear, or just a huge freaking bear facing off against characters armed with their fists and sticks.
Your players might start a game a little more invested in the setting if they’re already familiar with a few of the locations and history, even if those locations are ruined and the history is forgotten by most of the characters. To the players, it’s “home.” Setting a shootout in a fictional version of a now-ruined nearby supermarket, library, or coffee house will be all the more visceral because the players will be able to imagine it as clearly as if they’d been there themselves. Because they probably have.
Even if your baseline is the real world, you’ve chosen to run your game after some kind of apocalypse. That means that many encounters and situations faced by the PCs should be colored by that event. Thus, the aforementioned shootout in the grocery store should contain a post-apocalyptic twist. Maybe there’s a berserk android in aisle 7, a wounded mutant in the stock room, or a radiation hazard associated with a particular food item.
It’s easy for characters to find motivation in a post-apocalyptic game. Unlike in most other settings, the PCs’ basic needs can’t be assumed to be met. Even the most basic physiological needs like air, water, and food might be an issue from one day to the next. Thus, scavenging in supermarkets, gas stations, abandoned homes, and warehouses is likely to be an activity that characters must often do, at least as they begin their careers in the world’s aftermath. More guidance for this activity is discussed under Scavenging, below.
In addition to meeting their base physiological needs, characters need to locate a place of safety. Finding a location free of radiation, zombies, disease or poison, killer robots, or rival groups of hungry survivors is a must. It’s likely that only after these basic needs are met (or a strategy for meeting these needs over the long term is developed) will characters become motivated by goals that apply in other genres, such as saving the innocent, finding the missing heir, defeating the marauders, exploring for monetary gain, and so on.
If you’re looking for inspiration, don’t be afraid to steal plots from post-apocalyptic stories and games you like. Long-running series and popular games provide a wealth of possible ideas, both in grand campaign arcs and for individual encounters. A single episode that describes a relatively small story can make a great session. If an ally falls down into a ruined structure or needs medicine to recover from sickness, if all the food is stolen, or if a shelter previously thought to be secure is overrun with an external threat, players will react viscerally and become invested.
The environment itself is riddled with dangers in many post-apocalyptic scenarios. It’s nearly a defining characteristic of the genre. Getting from point A to point B isn’t assured because the bridge might be out, the road could be choked with dead vehicles, mutant ants might be living beneath part of the pavement, or a radiation storm could set in. Or the characters could just blunder into a poisoned swamp. These plus a few additional hazards you could throw at the PCs are presented in the Wasteland Threats table. Choose one or roll when you need a threat to throw at your players; if a particular entry on the list doesn’t match your conception of the apocalypse, ignore it and use something else. As described under Scavenging, attempts to find a safe place to hole up could also require a roll on the Wasteland Threats table.
| 1 | Radioactive crater (level 3): Inflicts 3 points of ambient damage per round and drops character one step on damage track each day the character fails a difficulty 5 Might defense task. |
| 2 | Radioactive storm (level 3): Treat as a radioactive crater, but one that moves. |
| 3 | Exposed electrical wiring (level 5): inflicts 5 points of damage per round of contact and character is stunned and unable to take their next action until they succeed on a difficulty 5 Might defense task. |
| 4 | Dilapidated infrastructure, minor (level 3): The floor gives way beneath a character who falls 30 feet (9 m) on a failed Speed defense roll, taking 3 points of ambient damage and dropping one step on the damage track. |
| 5 | Dilapidated infrastructure, major (level 5): The building, underpass tunnel, or cave collapses or the bridge over which the vehicle is passing crumbles. Characters suffer 5 points of damage, and on a failed difficulty 5 Speed task are buried under suffocating rubble until they can escape or are rescued. |
| 6 | Abomination cave (level 2): They were people once, or their ancestors were. Now they’re dangerous threats best avoided. |
| 7 | Toxic spill (level 5): Sticky orange goo busts from rusted ancient barrels. Characters who fail on a Speed defense task are caught and held in place until they can escape the morass, and suffer 5 points of damage each round they remain stuck. |
| 8 | Quantum singularity (level 6): Attempts to change the past to avert the apocalypse have consequences, including these points of unstable space-time; characters who fail an Intellect defense task are teleported a short distance in a random direction and possibly several hours forward in time. |
| 9 | Roach infestation: These insects the size of dogs have truly come into their own now that they’ve grown in stature and intelligence. They have little use for survivors, except as food. |
| 10 | Unexploded ordnance: Either a level 5 explosive that can inflict 5 points of damage to all creatures and objects within short range, or much less likely, a level 10 unexploded pocketnuke that could kill everything in a several-mile radius and is likely radioactive to boot. |
| 11 | Killer Robot depot (level 6): Designed by robots to kill humans, killer robots may be what caused the apocalypse in the first place. |
| 12 | Superstorm (level 6): With the climate destabilized, storms of unprecedented strength sometimes blow, creating windstorms and tornados that inflict up to 6 points of damage each round victims remain exposed. |
| 13 | Choking pollution (level 4): Asbestos and other substances once safely bound up in the infrastructure is loose, sometimes as clouds of dangerous particulate matter inflicting 4 points of damage per round for three rounds as on a failed Might defense roll. |
| 14 | Animate vegetation (level 4): Kudzu got a lot worse in the aftermath; creatures that fail a Speed defense roll take 4 points of damage each round from strangulation and vine constriction until they can escape. |
| 15 | Poisoned waters (level 5): Whether it’s water flooding a structure, a stream, a swamp, or a lake, drinking it inflicts 5 points of damage per round for three rounds on a failed Might defense task, and 2 points of damage per round for three rounds merely for getting wet on a failed Might defense task. |
| 16 | Psychic lichen (level 4): Psychic lichen gently attacks the minds of nearby creatures, causing them to grow tired and nap if they fail an Intellect defense roll. If not awakened, the dozing body serves as food for a new psychic lichen colony. |
| 17 | Stinging insects (level 2): These wasps are the size of eagles and inflict 2 points of Speed damage (ignores Armor) with a sting attack. When a swarm of 3 or more attack, they act as a single level 4 creature with a sting that inflicts 4 points of Speed damage (ignores Armor) |
| 18 | Bear, grizzly: level 5; health 20; Armor 1; A regular bear can be terrifying in many situations. |
| 19 | Bear, radioactive: level 5; health 20; Armor 3 from carapace; radioactive bite maul attack inflicts 5 points of damage and on failed Might defense task, stuns target so that targets loses its next action. |
| 20 | Marauder patrol (level 4): Whether on scavenged trucks or motorcycles, or riding on mutant pigs bred as war mounts, a marauder patrol is bad news. |
One GM’s post-apocalyptic game may have mutants and killer robots, maybe even aliens and super-science items. Another GM’s game might attempt far more realism because they want to focus on the challenges of simple survival in a ruined world. A wide continuum of scenarios is possible. The threats, useful items, and creatures described and referred to in this chapter attempt to span that continuum. If you’re running a “realistic” game, ignore results that you dislike, don’t choose them, or modify them so they make sense in your scenario. For instance, a realistic version of psychic lichen might simply be lichen that gives off an invisible spore that results in a similar sleepiness.
Characters in a post-apocalyptic setting must usually spend part of each day scavenging for supplies or a place of safety.
Generally speaking, characters must spend two to four hours searching through the rubble and ruins before succeeding. Finding enough food for a group of characters to eat for one day is a difficulty 5 Intellect task. Finding a place of relative safety to regroup and rest is also difficulty 5. Characters who succeed on either one of these also get to roll up to once each day on the Useful Stuff table and three times on the Junk table.
Found food often takes the form of canned, processed, dried, or otherwise preserved goods from before the apocalypse, but sometimes it includes fresh fruits and vegetables found growing wild or cultivated by other survivors. Safe places to hole up include homes, RVs, offices, apartments, or any location that can be secured and defended and isn’t radioactive, poisoned, or overrun with hostile creatures.
The difficulty of succeeding at finding food, water, and a safe place varies by location and by how many days the characters have already spent in one location. Each week the PCs spend at the same location hinders subsequent scavenging tasks and requires that they succeed on a new task to determine if the place they’re staying is still safe. The result of failing to find food and water is obvious. If the PCs fail at the task of finding (or keeping) a safe place, their presence is noticed by hostile forces, or they face a result from the Wasteland Threats table.
Food, water, and a safe place to rest are the most important finds, and are the basis of each scavenging task. But other obviously useful stuff is often found along with these basic requirements. When a group of characters successfully finds either food and water or a safe place, consult the Useful Stuff table up to once per day. If it’s the first day the PCs have searched in a particular area, each character might find something useful, but in succeeding days, a group normally gets only a single roll to find useful stuff.
Useful stuff also includes a “loot” entry. Loot includes collectible coins from before the apocalypse, such as silver dollars and gold eagles. It also includes jewelry and artwork that survived the disaster and related material that can be used as currency or barter when the characters find other survivors or arrive at a trade town.
Items found on the Useful Stuff table are generally expensive or exorbitant items (except for firearms, which start in the expensive category).
Characters who find food and water also find lots of junk. They are free to ignore that junk, but some PCs might have a use for what they find, especially those with the Scavenges focus. All characters gain up to three results on the Junk table each time they successfully scavenge for food or a safe place to stay. Sometimes junk can be fixed, but more often it can be disassembled and used as parts to create something else.
| d100 | Item Found |
|---|---|
| 01-10 | Tools (provide an asset to tasks related to repair and crafting) |
| 11-20 | Medicine (provides an asset to one healing-related task) |
| 21-25 | Binoculars |
| 26-35 | Chocolate bar or similarly sought-after candy or snack |
| 36-45 | Textbook (provides an asset to a knowledge-related task) |
| 46-50 | Coffee or tea |
| 51-55 | Gun or rifle with ten shells or bullets |
| 56-60 | Flashlight |
| 61-65 | Loot |
| 66-70 | Gasoline (2d6 × 10 gallons) |
| 71-75 | Batteries |
| 76-80 | Functioning vehicle (sedan, pickup, motorcycle, etc.) |
| 81-85 | Generator |
| 86-90 | MRE cache (food and water for six people for 1d6 weeks) |
| 91-95 | Ammunition cache (100 shells or bullets for 1d6 different weapons) |
| 96-97 | Helpful stranger (level 1d6 + 2, stays with the PCs for a week or two) |
| 98-99 | Cypher (in addition to any other cyphers the GM awards) |
| 00 | Artifact (in addition to any other artifacts the GM awards) |
| d6 | Item Found |
|---|---|
| 1 | Electronic junk (stereo, DVD/Blu-ray player, smartphone, electric fan, printer, router, etc.) |
| 2 | Plastic junk (lawn furniture, baby seat, simple toys, inflatable pool, etc.) |
| 3 | Dangerous junk (paint, rat poison, solvents, industrial chemicals, etc.) |
| 4 | Metallic junk (car bodies, old playsets, grills, empty barrels, frying pan, etc.) |
| 5 | Glass junk (vases, windows, bowls, decorative pieces, etc.) |
| 6 | Textile junk (coats, pants, shirts, bathing suits, blankets, rugs, etc.) |
Abomination* Giant rat Scrap drone Cannibal* Giant spider Thug CRAZR Glowing roach Vat reject Devolved* Guard Wardroid Elite soldier* Mad creation* Fusion hound* Marauder* *New in this book Gamma spiker* Robot mimic* Abomination Assassin Cannibal CRAZR Crime boss Fusion hound Giant rat Giant spider Glowing roach Guard Kaiju Killing white light Marauder Mechanical soldier Slidikin Soldier Thug/bandit Vat reject Wardroid Zhev Zombie
In a post-apocalyptic setting, the items on the Additional Modern Equipment table as well as the following items might be available in trade from other survivors, or in the rare trade town.
| Inexpensive Items | |
|---|---|
| Item | Note |
| Animal hide | Light armor, odor hinders stealth tasks |
| Candle | Dim light in an immediate area; one hour |
| Duct tape roll | Level 2 adhesive, level 3 with multiple layers |
| Knife (simple) | Light weapon; rusty and worn; easily destroyed 1 |
| Plastic bag | Easily destroyed 1 |
| Preserved food | (1 day) |
| Shield | Can block wounds |
| Wooden club | Medium weapon |
| Moderately Priced Items | |
| Item | Note |
| Backpack | |
| Baseball bat | Medium weapon |
| Binoculars | Asset for perception tasks at long range or longer |
| Bolt cutter | Cuts objects like bolts, chains, and bars up to level 5 |
| Bullets (50) | Ammo for handguns and rifles |
| Climbing gear | Asset for climbing tasks |
| Crank flashlight | Normal light out to short distance; recharges with built-in crank |
| Cricket bar | Ground-cricket protein bar feeds two people for one day |
| Crowbar | Asset for prying open things |
| First aid kit | Asset for healing tasks; five uses 2 |
| Gas mask | Breathable air for four hours |
| Handcuffs | |
| Handaxe | Light weapon, melee or thrown short range |
| Leather jacket | Light armor |
| Machete | Medium weapon |
| Multitool knife | Light weapon; asset to small repair tasks|
| Padlock with keys | Level 3 lock|
| Rope | Nylon, 50 feet (16 m) |
| Shield | Can block wounds |
| Scavenged doctor's bag | Asset for healing tasks; five uses 2 |
| Sleeping bag | |
| Water filter straw | Removes bacteria and parasites while drinking |
| Expensive Items | |
| Item | Note |
| Antiradiation pill (5) | Asset on defense rolls against radiation effects for 12 hours |
| Electric lantern, solar | Normal light in an immediate area, dim light in a short area;
three to four hours,
recharges in eight hours of sunlight |
| Kevlar vest | Medium armor |
| Nightvision goggles | Reasonably accurate vision in darkness up to long range |
| Radiation detector | Alert noise increases with intensity |
| Radiation tent | Prevents radiation damage for three days |
| Riot gear | Medium armor |
| .22 pistol | Light weapon, short range |
| .22 rifle | Light weapon, long range |
| .45 pistol | Heavy weapon, short range |
| 9mm pistol | Medium weapon, short range |
| Grenade | Explosive weapon, inflicts 5 points of damage in immediate radius |
| Hunting rifle | Medium damage, long range |
| Shotgun | Heavy weapon, immediate range |
Artifacts in a post-apocalyptic game include still-working technology from before the disaster that is not widely available, as well as cobbledtogether pieces of tech that can weaponize previously prosaic items. If the apocalypse was related to some kind of alien invasion, artifacts would include even stranger items.
Level: 1d6
Form: Backpack-sized plastic module from which
clamps, forceps, scalpels, and needles can
extend
Effect: When strapped to a target (or when someone wearing the autodoc is damaged), the autodoc activates and restores 1 point to a target’s Pools each round for ten rounds or until the target is fully healed, whichever happens first.
Depletion: 1 in 1d10
Level: 1d6
Form: Forearm-mounted computer tablet
Effect: This multifunction device can receive radio transmissions, automatically map locations the wearer has visited, play various forms of media, keep voice and written records, and provide an asset to any task related to interfacing with other computerized systems or machines. Also, the wearer can scan for specific materials, toxic traces, and life forms within short range.
Depletion: 1 in 1d10 (check per use of scanning function)
Level: 1d6 + 1
Form: Articulated metal struts with deformable
padding and straps for custom fit to a
human frame
Effect: For one hour per use (when the exoskeleton is powered on), the wearer has +1 to their Speed Edge and +1 to their Might Edge.
Depletion: 1 in 1d10
Level: 1d6 + 2
Form: Metal gauntlet with flaring rocket exhaust
nozzles
Effect: If the user activates the fist as part of an attack, the punch gains a rocket assist. If the attack is successful, the fist inflicts additional damage equal to the artifact level and throws the target back a short distance.
Depletion: 1 in 1d10
Level: 1d6 + 3
Form: Tube with sight and trigger
Effect: The user can make a long-range attack with a rocket-propelled grenade that inflicts 7 points of damage to the target and every creature and object next to the target.
Depletion: 1 in 1d6
Level: 1d6 + 1
Form: Visor fitted with bulky electronics
Effect: By emitting terahertz and long-range infrared light, this device allows a user to see a short distance through most interior walls of standard structures, through normal clothing, and into normal bags and briefcases. Only stone or concrete more than 6 inches (15 cm) thick prevents a scan. Regardless, images are black and white and fuzzy, and lack fine detail.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
In a post-apocalyptic setting, some GMs may want to offer species affected by the disaster.
Core Rulebook
You have lived your life deep underground in artificial bunkers, hidden from the world’s destruction and the brutal scavengers that live above. As a morlock, you have a keen mind for the technology salvaged from the before-time. In fact, every morlock comes of age by fitting a piece of morlock technology to its body to provide enhancement and extend its life. This means that you are part flesh and part machine. Your skin is as pale as milk, except where it’s been replaced with strips of metal and glowing circuits.
You gain the following characteristics:
From the following list of options, choose how you became involved in the first adventure.
Core Rulebook
You are born of a species of evolved insects once called “cockroach,” but that is far in the past. Radiation and forced evolution have radically increased your size, shape, and ability to think. Your exoskeleton mimics the shape of a human being, though not perfectly. When you move about human society, shadows and cloaks are your ally if you wish to pass unnoticed. When those of your kind are discovered, it usually goes poorly for someone. You, however, have a wandering spirit and seek to explore the fallen world and find a new way forward.
You gain the following characteristics:
From the following list of options, choose how you became involved in the first adventure.