Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 43

Thread: New Setting: After the Fall?

  1. #1
    TheHolo.Net Admin

    Baroness Scorpion #2
    Lesbian Overlord of SWFans



    DragonCon 09
    Dasquian Belargic's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    AKA
    Jenny
    Posts
    27,298

    Roleplay Related New Setting: After the Fall?

    Some mood music...


    On December 21st 2012 at precisely 00:33 GMT, the world as we know it ended.

    From deep in space – from an unknown point of origin – a beam of blinding light sheared through the heavens at struck the Earth. Though it's initial point of impact was in Africa, the effects of the beam were felt worldwide.

    Three hundred and thirty million people were simply gone. Vanished from their beds, their homes, their work places; as whole families or as individuals, they were – are – gone.

    For those who remained – suddenly bereft of their families, their children – the time to grieve was short. The light gave as much as it took, and soon the streets of cities all over the world were full of confusion and anger as people of all ages began to demonstrate abilities beyond the realm of human understanding or found their bodies somehow transformed into forms awe-inspiring or grotesque. At least, that was the only way that they could explain the appearance of the bizarre creatures now walking among them.

    For some, the light purified and cleansed away disease and illness; for others, it inflamed their sickness and soon unstoppable waves of virulent plagues began to decimate entire cities. Some say that even the dead stirred in their graves.

    What's left of Earth is a fractured, confused mess. Some governments – or corporations – were quick to react and create high-security quarantine zones, whilst others lost complete control of their people to rioting and anarchy.

    Groups both large and form small formed, banding together amid the wreckage to fight against the rising chaos. Rallied by religion, by fear, by anger, by their new-found powers, by suspicion or greed, by hope and hopelessness alike.

    The world as we know it ended. Now it's time to start again.



    ***


    Anyone interested in exploring this GenRP idea?

    I suppose the plot would revolve around the different factions that have risen up as a result of the change in the world, people coming to terms with their new lives / powers, people trying to understand what has happened to the love-ones that they 'lost' and so on.

  2. #2
    TheHolo.Net Admin
    OG Forum Overlord


    Lilaena De'Ville's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    AKA
    Holly
    Location
    deep space
    Posts
    31,078
    Blog Entries
    35
    Gamer IDs

    Gamertag: Lilaena Steam ID: jainhollie
    I'm up for it. I need some posts in current RPs though, unless DC is dead and I don't know it yet?



    oh what a tangled web I weave


  3. #3
    This sounds like an awesome idea, though I have absolutely no idea where to start in terms of cooking up characters / groups / etc. Did you have any ideas yet on the kinds of groups that might form, or the kinds of powers that people might have?

  4. #4
    TheHolo.Net Admin

    Baroness Scorpion #2
    Lesbian Overlord of SWFans



    DragonCon 09
    Dasquian Belargic's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    AKA
    Jenny
    Posts
    27,298
    A few thoughts on groups that might come out of a situation like this would be...

    A private security firm or government military annexing a portion of land, creating a quarantined zone where people are very protective of their seclusion from the rest of the world.

    Some kind of religious movement, who think that the Rapture has occurred. Or a group who thinks that people were abducted by aliens.

    Anti-powers activists. People who do have powers banding together to form some kind of elitist faction.

    I didn't have specific thoughts on powers. I was just figuring it could be almost anything that people wanted it to be, since the source of the powers is a mystery (for now!)

  5. #5
    Hector Hall
    Guest
    This reminds me a little of The 4400. One of the movements that show spawned was a kind of commune of people with powers living together and using them for mutual benefit. Something like that might work.

    It makes me think of Dark Angel, too. We need a shady eugenics group that forces Jessica Alba to wear tight pants.

  6. #6
    I, similarly, think this is a sweet idea, but really don't know where I'd start. I think narrowing the scope would be a big help in terms of generating characters and plots. The premise is global, but we would likely need a regional focus, like LA for Mutants Unite, or Gotham for DC.

    I like Jace's commune idea as a starting point. A small cluster of humanity trying to preserve order and common decency in the middle of a wasteland of anarchy and oppression. Which could be a literal wasteland, patrolled by bandits and military/paramilitary forces, or perhaps an Orwellian regime maintaining control by any means necessary. It could even be as simple as a refugee camp with the area still in a state of crisis. The worldwide impact may not be immediately apparent to the characters.

  7. #7
    TheHolo.Net Admin

    Baroness Scorpion #2
    Lesbian Overlord of SWFans



    DragonCon 09
    Dasquian Belargic's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    AKA
    Jenny
    Posts
    27,298
    Does anyone have a preference for geographical setting?

    I'd say somewhere different to where we have located the Mutant RPs, just for varieties sake

  8. #8
    Are you saying you don't want an enormous, privately funded school for children with powers?

    If we want a post-apocalyptic wasteland, we could use the American Southwest, maybe with Texas to the East and California to the West as competing military-economic powers (and VERY different cultures/political makeups, which could be interesting).

    If we wanted to get out of the States, we could look for a British Isles setting for a change, though I know Droo and Jace had designs on an Orwellian plot arc for the UK in Mutants, Unite. Alternately, we could land anywhere in a Balkanized Europe.

    At the risk of cribbing Peter Jackson's style, South Africa also occurred to me. It could be near the epicenter of the event, and what world governments remain could have sent forces in to seal off the area and study it, trampling the locals in the process. Of course, of the three, that's the country I know the least.

  9. #9
    TheHolo.Net Admin

    Baroness Scorpion #2
    Lesbian Overlord of SWFans



    DragonCon 09
    Dasquian Belargic's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    AKA
    Jenny
    Posts
    27,298
    I like all of those ideas. I'd probably go for either the American Southwest or the UK, or maybe both, with the potential for characters to travel elsewhere (e.g. to investigate Africa) as international travel becomes viable again.

  10. #10
    TheHolo.Net Poster

    Has been a member for 5 years or longer
    Amos Iakona's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    AKA
    Jace
    Location
    Ossus / Astral Queen
    Posts
    174
    The American Southwest makes sense to me, though we might want to be careful about Fallout overlap.

    My knowledge of America isn't great, but isn't most of America's farming in the Midwest (Kansas / etc)? It might be interesting to see society dividing along the lines of industry/wealth/etc. California might have to use it's wealth to buy everything, while Texas trades oil for grain from Kansas, etc. Kind of a giant post-apocalyptic game of Settlers of Catan.

  11. #11
    Not just food - the Southwestern states, notably Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and California, are dependent on other states for water, since their populations use more than their land can produce. That's already a source of political tension among the western states. In an apocalyptic setting, I could see that escalating into military action if things get really bad.

    Texas would probably have the easiest time forming an independent state (some of its residents already think they'e be better off that way). They have plenty of farmland, industrial infrastructure, and a strong military presence, whereas California is much more dependent. I'd actually see California being more aggressive and expansionistic, with Texas being more isolationist and xenophobic.

    I do like the Catan comparison. The sheep must flow!

  12. #12
    TheHolo.Net Admin
    OG Forum Overlord


    Lilaena De'Ville's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    AKA
    Holly
    Location
    deep space
    Posts
    31,078
    Blog Entries
    35
    Gamer IDs

    Gamertag: Lilaena Steam ID: jainhollie
    Now I want to RP a post-apocalypse cattle drive to California.

  13. #13
    TheHolo.Net Admin

    Baroness Scorpion #2
    Lesbian Overlord of SWFans



    DragonCon 09
    Dasquian Belargic's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    AKA
    Jenny
    Posts
    27,298
    Does anyone have ideas for a character they might like to play, if we were to set it in California, Texas, etc?

    Also, just to clarify: I don't envisage this being like the 'post apocalypse' as seen in Fallout. The 'event' which altered the world has happened very, very recently. Many places in the world would probably be in crisis mode, and whilst there will have been impacts on technology - I imagine a collapse of world media, plus probable damage to communication technology - I don't imagine people 'living in the past' (a la Fallout) just yet.

    Does that make sense? Obviously this is all open to interpretation. I am just wary of starting anything that mirrors Fallout, because my initial inspiration for this was grounded very much in a modern day setting that is not a post-nuclear wasteland.

  14. #14
    Sure, I was just airing ideas. If this is a recent event, it would make sense to walk back a ways from the sort of conflict I was describing. And I definitely don't want to dominate this discussion, since I'm not sure if I'll even be able to participate.

    If I do, I'm going to be much more interested in playing somebody with feet on the ground trying to survive rather than somebody in a position of administrative authority. I prefer writing a small-scale focus to large-scale. So I'd still lean toward the refugee camp/commune idea, or even a disaster-stricken community awaiting relief, like New Orleans after Katrina. And that could work just as well in the UK as in the US. The appeal of the US for me, besides familiarity, is that there can be more of a sense of isolation given the scale of the land.

    Here's a crazy and mostly unrelated idea... a cruise ship in international waters loses power and communications during the event and has to limp along with a depleted crew and panicky passengers, some of whom develop powers? If there's any interest in that idea, it could progress independently of any other storylines until the ship finally makes it to a civilized port.
    Last edited by Dragon; Feb 9th, 2013 at 01:59:28 PM.

  15. #15
    TheHolo.Net Poster
    Has been a member for 5 years or longer
    Vince's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    AKA
    Vince
    Posts
    716
    Gamer IDs

    Steam ID: vinceisgreat
    Quote Originally Posted by Lilaena De'Ville View Post
    Now I want to RP a post-apocalypse cattle drive to California.
    If I do anything with this, it'll be a cattle drive. That idea is simply amazing.

  16. #16
    TheHolo.Net Admin

    Baroness Scorpion #2
    Lesbian Overlord of SWFans



    DragonCon 09
    Dasquian Belargic's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    AKA
    Jenny
    Posts
    27,298
    Here's a crazy and mostly unrelated idea... a cruise ship in international waters loses power and communications during the event and has to limp along with a depleted crew and panicky passengers, some of whom develop powers? If there's any interest in that idea, it could progress independently of any other storylines until the ship finally makes it to a civilized port.
    That sounds like a good 'pilot' story to function as an introduction to the world at large. Start off with the characters on this isolated cruise and when they come back onto land, it could branch off into whatever else. But it would give us a good, tense starting point!

  17. #17
    SW-Fans.Net Poster

    Purveyor of the Finest Faux Halos in the Verse!

    Has been a member for 5 years or longer
    Dee's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    AKA
    Demetra
    Location
    Boston, yo.
    Posts
    322
    Gamer IDs

    Gamertag: BloodyDecadence Steam ID: TheSpartanWitch
    That sounds amazing. Not sure why watching Lockout inspired me to this setting, but it did.

  18. #18
    TheHolo.Net Admin

    Baroness Scorpion #2
    Lesbian Overlord of SWFans



    DragonCon 09
    Dasquian Belargic's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    AKA
    Jenny
    Posts
    27,298
    I'd like to make a suggestion: how about we try this with each of us only have one character? Or a maximum of two characters. I'm keen to keep this tightly focused on an interesting group, and I think limiting ourselves like this might be a good way to ensure that we have an interesting, varied group!

  19. #19
    Mara Tallen
    Guest
    Jenny, I think that's a perfect idea. Personally, I'm going with one.

  20. #20
    TheHolo.Net Poster
    Has been a member for 5 years or longer

    Droo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    AKA
    Droo
    Posts
    5,117
    Gamer IDs

    Steam ID: droogydroo
    I love the cruise ship idea and, like Jenny said, it could potentially serve as an excellent introduction to the characters. And in that circumstance, the situation facilitates the mingling of characters from all walks of life, rather than them all happening to be living in the same area. Also, the idea of these unfortunate souls departing on their holibobs one day, only to endure the cruise from hell, and then at last dock in a strange new world is pretty awesome. Where it can go from there is anyone's guess.

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •