Favorite Post-Apocalyptic Game?

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I'm a big fan of Gamma World 4e (1992) and was wondering what your favorite RPG is in this genre. I've been perusing DTRPG to see if there is something new that's out there that might spark my interest. I see this as an intriguing area for growth in RPGs.
 
Mine is a toss up between Darwin's World and Mutant: Year Zero.

Darwin's World is a d20 game that borrows heavily from Fallout but still manages to be its own thing. It's d20 Modern based and I have to admit I've fallen out of love with 3e/Modern/Pathfinder.

Mutant: Year Zero is a new game from Free League, a Swedish company. It's a modern sandbox style game. Unlike a lot of its contemporaries the core book provides lots of toys for the sandbox with locations, factions etc. However, it isn't built to do generic PA adventures.

Other stuff that is interesting:
Atomic Highway, a road warrior game
Mutant Crawl Classics - Gamma World by way of DCC RPG.
 
The Mutant Epoch seemed very fun, but I never actually ran it. It would be the first choice in my list if I did run a post apocalyptic game.
 
I like Darwin's World 2nd edition. Various post-apocalyptic subgenres are geographically distributed. But it runs on d20 modern, which can be a drawback.
 
Does GURPS count? I do like Gamma World for zany silliness. But one thing I like about GURPS for post apocalypse games is that it doesn't give away the situation. I like it for Horror for the same reason. The system used doesn't give away the nature of the threat.
 
I cannot in good conscience call Rifts a post-apocalyptic RPG, so I'll go with Apocalypse World. It's the most fun we've ever had at the game table with the premise, but admittedly it's a premise that doesn't get a lot of table time with us. We mostly do fantasy and horror and the odd SF game (spacefaring or cyberpunk).

I'm generally down with gonzo gaming but for some reason the radioactive mutant silliness of Gamma World (and Waste World, After The Bomb, Darwin's World, etc.) doesn't do it for me. You know, the whole idea that irradiating the Earth will result in spider-goats or sentient gun-toting bunnies. I have no compelling argument to make; it's like having a blind spot. It just irks me.

I would, however, be absolutely down for anything in the vein of The Morrow Project (with a leaner system), Twilight: 2000 (ditto), octaNe or Atomic Highway.
 
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Gamma World was a big favorite back in the day, though I ran it much more straight than the rules would suggest... no sentient rabbits.
I'd particularly like to play/run Tribe 8 and Paranoia (straight/horror) again.
 
I had a good time with Gamma World 2nd Ed. back in middle school. Next came After the Bomb, which we played with a focus on the Road Hogs rules. We only did one session of that. Vehicle rules tended to be really clunky in the '80s, so while we had fun with that one session, we never played it again. Finally came Twilight:2000. I ran that with the classic set-up of the PCs stranded in Poland and heading for Krakow. After a lot of espionage shenanigans in Krakow, the game fell apart. Out of those three, Gamma World was probably my favorite. It's the only one I still own at least. Actually, I have the players book for T:2000 which ended up in my Star Frontiers: Knight Hawks box somehow. That's not really enough to play it though.

I haven't done any post-apocalypse gaming since then, aside from sitting in on one session of a Deadlands: Hell on Earth game in the late '90s. I do have Other Dust and have considered running that.
 
Simlasa said:
I'd particularly like to play/run Tribe 8 ... again.
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Yeah, I'd forgotten Tribe 8. Been a while since I've read it, and about 13 years since I ran a short campaign of it. I'd like to run it again, sometime. This time around I'd just stick with the core book, interpreting the setting more than relying on the "Word of .." books, and the metaplot-heavy adventures.
 
Well, I haven't actually played or ran anything in the genre, but there's a couple of games that have caught my eye and I like what I've read of them so far.
  • Atomic Highway
  • EarthAD.2
  • Era: Survival
  • Mutant: Year Zero
I picked up two supplements for The Mutant Epoch to mine for ideas. A lot of very infectious enthusiasm and fun went into making that game.
 
I've never owned a specifically post-apocalyptic game but I did plan out a post-apocalyptic campaign for Big Eyes Small Mouth 1E a while back. The world was similar to Fallout, but inspired by the 1980's rather than the 1950's.

I never got to run it due to the players' changes in their work schedules.
 
Definitely a fan of GW2e and 4e. The Alternity version is interesting and I do like 3e for the fluff. Beyond that, I've got the Savage Worlds version of Broken Earth waiting to be given a test drive. :smile:

Harl
 
Doc Sammy said:
I've never owned a specifically post-apocalyptic game but I did plan out a post-apocalyptic campaign for Big Eyes Small Mouth 1E a while back. The world was similar to Fallout, but inspired by the 1980's rather than the 1950's.
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Makes sense. I suppose the '80s is to you what the 50s was to us in some ways.

Harl Quinn said:
Definitely a fan of GW2e and 4e.
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While 2E was my edition, I just got my hands on a copy of 4E. I haven't had much of a chance to absorb it but it looks good.
 
Baulderstone said:
Makes sense. I suppose the '80s is to you what the 50s was to us in some ways.
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Pretty much, I was born in 1993 but my parents grew up in the 80's (both of them were born in 1973) and they are still very nostalgic for the era. So, in some ways, the 80's is the idyllic bygone era of my parents, much as the 50's was for the parents of Gen X.
 
The Butcher said:
I cannot in good conscience call Rifts a post-apocalyptic RPG...
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When I first saw Rifts I thought it was my new Gamma World... wild and crazy and weird, but not overtly jokey. I never really connected with the system though and shortly thereafter I also developed a bad taste for Sembieda and Palladium.

Twilight 2000 was another I bought and had hopes for but never even got on the table (truthfully, I think I was mostly pulled in by the cover art... which is unusual for me).
 
Simlasa said:
When I first saw Rifts I thought it was my new Gamma World... wild and crazy and weird, but not overtly jokey. I never really connected with the system though and shortly thereafter I also developed a bad taste for Sembieda and Palladium.

Twilight 2000 was another I bought and had hopes for but never even got on the table (truthfully, I think I was mostly pulled in by the cover art... which is unusual for me).
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"Overtly jokey" is also a big part of why GW never "clicked" for me. Say what you will about Rifts, it's an outrageous setting that nevertheless takes itself seriously, not unlike an AD2000 comic where plots and characters, however absurd and even when openly satirical, can still be gritty and deadly.

As for Twilight: 2000, I've never played it either, I just think it's a good premise that would be fun to try with a better system (I lean towards BRP or even a modified Traveller/Cepheus).
 
Gamma World 1e and the D&D 4e version, but I don't do gonzo with either. Everything is through a horror filter for me.

I am also a huge fan of Waste World. It's by Bill King, one of the big brains involved in 40k.

And, of course, Rifts. I absolutely run Rifts as post-apoc and downplay the whole "everybodys making new MDC goodies in every town". But in general, I prefer Chaos Earth to Rifts. I love gaming during the apocalypse with all the unheavals.

If I am looking for less gonzo post-apoc, I go with Systems Failure. I am bored with zombies, but SF gives me all the zombie storylines, but with giant bugs to shoot.
 
Spinachcat said:
Gamma World 1e and the D&D 4e version, but I don't do gonzo with either. Everything is through a horror filter for me.
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My Gamma World games were a bit gonzo but I borrowed a lot from 'underground' comics and Heavy Metal... wild but scary was my goal (so no rabbit people turning stuff into rubber).
I can see the appeal of a straight PA game... I think I'd model it after 50s movies like Panic In The Year Zero, but it would be hard to resist adding giant ants.

I am also a huge fan of Waste World. It's by Bill King, one of the big brains involved in 40k.
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News to me but something I'll want to have a look at!
 
Tribe 8, hands down. The system is quite nice, the art incredibly evocative, and the setting is fascinating unique blend of post-Catholic Myth, Neolithic Tribal societies, and Clive Barker-esque horror. I'd say it manages to hit some strange equilibrium between The Dark Crystal and Mad Max,
 
The Butcher said:
"Overtly jokey" is also a big part of why GW never "clicked" for me. Say what you will about Rifts, it's an outrageous setting that nevertheless takes itself seriously, not unlike an AD2000 comic where plots and characters, however absurd and even when openly satirical, can still be gritty and deadly.

As for Twilight: 2000, I've never played it either, I just think it's a good premise that would be fun to try with a better system (I lean towards BRP or even a modified Traveller/Cepheus).
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Twilight:2000 1e is actually quite similar to the BRP family. It's a percentile roll-under system with similar stats and a not-wildly-dissimilar combat and task resolution system.
 
- Legacy: Life Among the Ruins
- Mutant Year Zero
- Tribe 8
- Summerland
 
Does Paranoia count? If so....that’s #1

2 Gamma World ( 1st rpg I read/played)
3 Mutant Year Zero and all the associated material
4 Mutant Crawl Classic ( if only I could get them to play it)
 
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Gamma World (some 1st but mostly 2nd edition), Twilight 2000, and Aftermath back in the day. Most recently, I used Supers! Revised (a super hero game system) to run a PA mini-campaign ('Gamma Supers').

My favorite? It's the nostalgia of Gamma World 2nd edition and all the fun we had with it versus the ease of combining Gamma World mutation charts/high tech weapons with the super powers of Supers! Revised (a D6 dice pool system). Today, I'd struggle to run a game system that lacked skills for the characters, so Gamma Supers by a nose.

My marginal PA games would be Paranoia and Psi World. Better throw Hawkmoon in there too.
 
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Best games:
1. Apocalypse World
2. Mutant Year Zero
3. Red Markets

Best settings:
1. Stalker's Zona
2. Dark Souls' Lordran
3. Nier Automata's Earth
 
Nicomos said:
Does Paranoia count? If so....that’s #1
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Oh yeah, I didn't really think of that, as I tend to associate it strongly with another genre, but I guess it would be #1 or 2 for me as well.
 
Apes Victorious is a lot of fun and a different twist on the genre.
 
Growing up my favorites were Morrow project--which brought out the gear head in me. It did a really good job of making the technology feel right--and Gamma World 1e which was just so wild and over the top we loved it.

We released our own post apocalypse world JAGS Have-Not (free). This is a link to the PDFs.
Vol 1 (The world): https://ab900f1d-e970-4efa-ba0e-38c...d/0cf371_97d565af28524407b962a118b8475d74.pdf
Vol 2 (Making adventures): https://ab900f1d-e970-4efa-ba0e-38c...d/0cf371_8a8b8394048544bb8cf078f76b17526d.pdf
Vol 3 (Monsters and artifacts): https://ab900f1d-e970-4efa-ba0e-38c...d/0cf371_7aacd97d76044ad680679af25454eee6.pdf
 
For some reason I could never get into Gamma World, but I did like Darwin's Wold back in the 3e days. I don't know that I could say why. I think DW is maybe slightly less gonzo. Eclipse Phase is a fun take on the genre as well, but I didn't care for the 1e system and haven't seen 2e yet.

Actually and perhaps oddly, although I've always professed a fondness for the genre, I'm realizing thinking about this that I haven't really played in all that many post apocalypse games. I kinda want to rectify that now.
 
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I had a blast with GW 4th edition (based off ad&d 2nd)
Morrow Project looks cool to me.
 
I picked up a lot of the All Flesh Must Be Eaten line when I was first getting into RPGs, and have always liked the way the various genres were adapted to the core concept.
 
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