Ashes Without Number is coming out some time this year and I'm going to run a Mad Max campaign. What's the best apocalypse for the setting? I'm trying to avoid the two big cliches (zombies and nukes).
Why are you trying to avoid cliches? They're incredibly useful and save a lot of work.
Hostile alien terraforming. They fucked with the planet's rotation so nights are longer, and alien wildlife is rapidly hybridizing with Earth's.
>>94828482I don't like those two particular cliches, I think they're one-note. I want something with monsters and mystery. Importantly, the nature of the apocalypse won't be spelled out for the party and I want there to be a real fog of war on the setting. The moment you see a zombie, you can safely assume the campaign will climax in some kind of underground lab.
Peak Oil. A slow, inevitable slide back to the Iron Age slowed by refuges kept modern by nuclear reactors, algae farms, corn ethanol, and hydrogen powered vehicles. The central federal governments are unable to effectively project power in many places, leading to zones controlled by county governments or rendered effectively lawless.
Y2K plus X-files could be fun.
>>94828695>The moment you see a zombie, you can safely assume the campaign will climax in some kind of underground lab.This sounds like a you problem
>>94828448>What's the best apocalypse for the setting?Megavolcano eruption combined with a solar storm disaster.
>>94828730Thank God peak oil was just a hoax.
>>94828448Climate change, crop failures leading to 6 gorillions dying of hunger and/or immigrant hordes pouring into colder countries and grinding civilization to an African pulp
>>94828448>I'm going to run a Mad Max campaign>What's the best apocalypse for the settingThe Mad Max one?
>>94828448To be honest. I have been working on one that is basically due to all the social programs failing and people start losing faith in their governments and "country." Many groups within their nations basically all cut ties and declare independence to the point that the world economy falls apart and basically cripples the world trade. Making it so the former big nations are broken apart to smaller nations and now the nations that are left no bigger than a small state. (Think like all the states outside of the really small ones break up to three or four. (Maybe more for states like TX and CA. Though some like AK stays the same due to the lack of people and limited hubs/cities to make another nation.)
>>94828448Smush STALKER and Mad Max together. Have cool car chases through anomalies while simultaneously shotgunning mutants for fun and profit. Set it in Appalachia.
>>94828448Waterworld. Whether it's inspired by fears of global warming like the movie, or something more science fiction/sci fantasy like Derelict, it's an underused style of apocalypse.
