# Post-Apocalyptica 2025 tags: #thoughts/tweets ## The Setup   ## Why You Don't Give Me a Setup Well, starting at the top of the list, if I'm feeling like the post-apocalypse needs some cultivation, I'm going to break out *[[After the Horsemen]]* and go wandering the wasteland, looking for resources and building up a base of operations. If I really want to deal with mutants, whether it be playing them or working with them, I have both *5150* for the aliens rules and *All Things Zombie* to add some spicy mutated dead people, and that pretty much covers as close to OSR-style play as I'm likely to get, except with super lightweight mechanics and less irritation. - https://rebelminispress.com/products/after-the-horsemen-the-game-of-the-apocalypse-2nd-edition-pdf Now if I want to head off into an apocalypse which has a lot more structural detail, that is, a setting which is provided for me and not one that I largely create myself, then I'll bust out my original copy of *[[Tribe 8]]*, or even better, my copy of *[[Tribe 8|Tribe 8: Tribes in the Dark]]*, which is the [[Blades in the Dark|Forged in the Dark]] adaptation, which is still not quite released yet, but backers have a preview version. You don't see a lot of post-apocalyptic Canada in the world, so it makes perfect sense. Besides, everyone knows I'm backing the Z'bri anyway. - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dp9/tribes-in-the-dark-roleplaying-game/description Alternately, alternately, I could use *Starforged* and break out my copy of *Ironsworn: Reign* with largely compatible mechanics to do things like settlement building and development while using the core mechanics of *[[Ironsworn - Starforged|Starforged]]* for pretty much everything else. There's not a whole lot extra that would need doing. Mutancy is largely a narrative construct. If I really felt like being interesting, I would break out *[[Ironsworn - Starforged|Sundered Isles]]* alongside it, throw it all in the blender, and hit frappé. I could even use the area generation tables from the original *[[Ironsworn]]* to plot out where we are in the wastelands and roll from there. Come to think of it, replacing your starship with a great big landship with the core premise that you're rolling about from place to place getting into trouble sounds like a great setup. - https://tomkinpress.com/pages/ironsworn-starforged - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/419256/ironsworn-reign?affiliate_id=844973 Of course, if you like something a little bit crunchier and you want some more provided content, you can go over to Free League Publishing and pick up *Mutant Year Zero*, along with all sorts of expansion content, which is both beautiful, well laid out, and mechanically kind of interesting. It's actually a bit crunchier than I would be inclined to myself, but that doesn't make it bad. It just makes it a little more heavyweight than I would be interested in running, though probably perfectly willing to play. - https://freeleaguepublishing.com/shop/mutant-year-zero/ But let's say all of those things are too expensive. Instead, you want something that you can have for free and that fits on two 8.5x11 pages front and back with only a very mild nod to OSR design, but they claim there is one. You can grab *[[Wastewalkers]]* off of itch.io. It has the right mood. It has super light mechanics. It's fast and friendly. It lets you play with a deck of poker cards, which always brings the right experience to the table. Plenty of reasons why right there. - https://farirpgs.itch.io/wastewalkers What say I want to do post-apocalyptica, but I also want to do really easy, lightweight GMing, which is pretty unlikely, but possible, and an extremely fiction-first game design? Well, then I'm breaking out *[[Wushu]]*, because I don't even need to pull that book out of my bag to run it off the top of my head. Characters fit easily on a 3x5 card. The dice are fun. They don't keep you from doing cool things. Instead, they just tell you how effective they are. And any idea that you can pop out of your brain is damn near trivial to bring to the game mechanics. Oh, yes, and it's free. Pretty much a fantastic choice for doing any setting. Especially if you have players who aren't absolutely married to classic and traditional game design. Once someone is hanging upside down out of a car, careening through the desert, firing rounds from a .357 in each hand, and popping mutant heads, they're sold. It's easy. - https://danielbayn.com/wushu/ Are the only dice that you have in hand d6s? But you absolutely want to play an awesome post-apocalyptic game that won't break the bank, has a really good attitude, isn't written by people who hate you, and which has a bunch of other RPG genres using the same or similar mechanics that are interoperable? Well, then go pick up *[[Tiny Wastelands]]*. Stick it together with *Tiny Frontiers* and you can be playing *Firefly* in five minutes or less. Throw it together with *Tiny Dungeon* and you can be in the post-apocalyptic dungeon-running business, which actually sounds pretty cool. Throw it together with *Tiny Cthulhu* and things get weird really quick, and I guess we know what happens after the Great Old Ones arrive. - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/246020/tiny-wastelands Okay, I get it. You can't always get a group together to play, and some of the other solo games on this list might be a little bit intimidating. So how about *[[Loner]]*? Not only is it completely free, but there is a post-apocalyptic adventure pack which is also completely free. It gives you a one-page setting description, gets you the setup, and hands you the trait tables and other oracles, and then says, go have a good time. You can play it solo, you can play it co-op, or you can play it traditionally guided, but it gets as exciting as you're willing to get with it. I particularly like the fact that all things are characters, whether it be NPCs, factions, areas, weapons, vehicles—you name it. They all use the same mechanics to describe them in a sort of fractally recursive mechanism. Again, you can mix and match settings as you please because everything uses the same rules. - https://lonersrd.zotiquestgames.com/#/adventure_packs/AP09_postapoc That list is pretty much just out of the grab bag without actually digging around too hard, though the top ones really are the top ones for a reason. I have yet to sit down and use Loner for this sort of thing, but I can't imagine that it would suck, given how flexible and open it is. Generally, what you want is going to be in that pile somewhere.