The Things They Left Behind (Alternate Setting Concept)

[Rali]

While poking at an AtB scenario I've been working on-and-off on for a few years (The Things We Leave Behind), I had the idea of turning the underlying theme into a game setting. The following is the skeleton I've come up with, and would greatly appreciate any thoughts you all might have. Like much, it is a work in progress.

The Things They Left Behind

Fantasy like post-human world where lifted species and AI creations (Player Characters) struggle to survive against the monsters (sentient machines and genetically engineered organisms) that “those who left” (humanity) left behind. Some of these monsters are discarded tools, while others were meant to heal the world of the damage their forebears had wrought upon the Earth by tearing down the cities and buried infrastructures humanity had now abandoned, as well as repair the damage to the ecosystem. Unfortunately, the lifted species and AI have started to move into the old cities and to reclaim the infrastructures as they try to claim the Earth as theirs, and so now have to fight the things “they” left behind.

The characters will need to defend against the beasts that want to destroy the areas they are trying to rebuild, as well as old tools that had been discarded and just want a place to rest peacefully. They will be sent to areas to scavenge and salvage the means to protect and grow the new civilizations populated by them, “the things ‘they’ left behind”. They will occasionally stumble upon some who worship "those who left" as gods and the things they left behind as their angels and demons doing their gods work.

Who will survive the things they left behind?
Who will dominate the things they left behind?
Who will defeat the things they left behind?
Who will control the things they left behind?
Who will be consumed by the things they left behind?

Will they return... for the things they left behind?

[CyCo]

Sounds a little like a D&D game I wanted to run years ago but never got around to it. Basically a fantasy world (based on Earth) hundreds of years after some apocalyptic event wiped out most of humanity. No humans (only the occasional human npc in stasis), and most of the 'classic' fantasy races are present. On occasion there would be an attack by the 'steel monsters'. Pre Apoc robotic vehicles/robots running on degraded programming. These provide most of the high quality metal that is re-smelted by the current races into tools, weapons & armour.

Maybe also look into the Numenera RPG. A setting several eons into a future earth and the rise and fall of several civilizations.

[thorr-kan]

By "lifted" do you mean "uplifted?"

[The Oh So Amazing Nate]

I can't remember the name of it, but the idea of cyborg animals roaming around the wilderness reminds me of trailers for a PS4 game I once saw. Sounds like a pretty cool scenario Rali

[Rali]

CyCo, Numenera sounds pretty interesting. I'll have to check it out some time. I think replacing D&D monsters with "metal" equivalents is probably pretty common to get a fantasy/sci-fi game going.

thorr-kan, Just using 'lifted' as shorthand.

The Oh So Amazing Nate, Horizon Zero Dawn had robot monsters in a post-apocalyptic setting with humans reverting to tribal communities. I never played it, but watch some of the game play videos. Not exactly the feel I was going for, but most likely added some inspiration.

[The Oh So Amazing Nate]

[quote="Rali"
The Oh So Amazing Nate, Horizon Zero Dawn had robot monsters in a post-apocalyptic setting with humans reverting to tribal communities. I never played it, but watch some of the game play videos. Not exactly the feel I was going for, but most likely added some inspiration.[/quote]

Yeah! That's the one. I never played it either, but it looked cool. I read the link you supplied for this campaign on your webpage. Good stuff, I like where you're going with it

[taalismn]

I thought 'GammaWorld' was the D&D post technopocalypse game setting?

[Graymouser65]

This sounds a little bit like the earlier books in the Shannara series, specifically the Genesis of Shannara series and the Legends of Shannara series, depending on how long after those who left are gone.

I know that some hate the original book, which actually takes place long after the two series I mentioned, and consider it little more than a Tolkien rip off, but these two series that I mentioned are set before the original book, but were written by Brooks long after the original book, and are Rey different from the first book he wrote, both in story and content and writing style. I enjoyed both series quite a bit and love the blending of the sci-fi post-apocalyptic elements with traditional fantasy elements.

I myself am using the basic idea of the PC’s home town being isolated from the outside world for many generations with the game starting when someone or something gets past the defenses that no one in the community even knew existed. This idea is completely stolen from the plot of “The Bearer of the Black Staff” which is the first book in the Legends if Shannara series. The Origins of Shannara books, however, are a bit more in keeping with the technology available in the After the Bomb core rulebook though. Which is why both series might be a good source of inspiration for you.