For better or worse, I am someone who loves the post-apocalyptic genre. I am not so sure I would be too keen on the real thing but as far as entertainment genres go, I guess it is my all time favourite. Other genres have their attractions but I guess these are not as great as mutants and zombies. This especially applies to roleplaying games and miniature painting.
The first apocalypse film to really have an impact on me was Dawn of the Dead which was quickly follows by Day of the Dead. This closely followed by films like A Boy And His Dog, Terminator, The Omega Man, Mad Max, Logan's Run and Planet Of The Apes. When I look back at my choices of Sci-Fi, worlds were being destroyed and settlements were being wiped out. The big comic of the time, in the UK at least was Judge Dread. As the nineties came along, I read a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction with the most notable being The Postman. This book had a big effect on me. It taught me that if I don't take responsibility no one else will. If you were to take one thing away from this post it would be to read The Postman and not to judge it by watching the film. I guess the seventies and eighties were bleak times indeed. As computer games developed at the end of the nineties, Fallout came along. I have been hooked since.
A couple of days ago I started playing Fallout 4 again. Despite playing it heavily, I have never completed the main plot. I am getting close to completing Far Harbour but I still have a long way to go with the main plot. According to the game I have something like 700 hours of game play in it. There have been a number of back trackings and I am sure there is plenty of time I have just left the game running but I assume the figure is mostly accurate. Sadly, this is not as big as my investment in the Fallout 3 game (or Skyrim for that matter).
Despite all this time I am still drawn back into it. Unlike a lot of games, you are able to affect the world. In small ways and in specific locations perhaps. These settlements then serve you a little, allowing you to recover cash and resources from them. You have a real sense of being at the heart of rebuilding this world and not just going out and killing things although I have done plenty of that.
This has in turn spurred me into action. This evening I have been working more on my RPG background based in the ruins of London, called Underground. Whilst not a direct copy, the idea of going around and rebuilding is a part of what I want to do with the game. All gear is built from the ground up but the emphasis is different. You are building tools and machinery for settlements more than you are building weapons and armour. Vehicles made out of scrap also feature highly in what is going on. In lends some of the more stranger stories and events in London both real and fantastical (but no Jack the Ripper).
There is no real moral to this story. What there is, well it is just a piece of advice. Find your inspiration, tweak it into something you can relate to. Then go and make it your own.
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