Love in the Time of the Hydrogen Bomb (Interest Check)

[AlexStone]

Hey, Everyone!

If we've learned one thing from The Walking Dead, and any number of the recent zombie movies, comic books, books and games, it's that The End of the World as We Know It makes for a number of compelling, interesting stories.  And where there are good stories to be told, there are good role-plays to be had.  That said, while I find zombies fun, I have a hankering for something more realistic.  Let's be honest, no matter what they say causes the zombies, it's never going to happen...

So, how about a real apocalypse, one that hits suddenly, with only a little warning?  How about one we've been living with for 60 years?  Yup, between that and the title, you've probably guessed I'm talking about a nuclear apocalypse.  The game would  center around the players' efforts to deal with the aftermath of a nuclear exchange.  And, since this is E, probably find some love, or something close enough to it, in the process.  To do this, I would actually borrow from an older roleplaying game, Twilight:2000.  When they wrote the game, it was a scary future, but it's now an alt-history: the long and the short of it, though, is that the Cold War never ended, then went hot.  After a year of keeping it mostly conventional, the nukes started flying. 

This thread is an interest check to see if there is enough interest in a game like this.  I'd be the GM, and wouldn't take a character.  We'd use a system- specifically, the third edition of the Twilight:2000 rules, but players won't need to know the rules.  I'll handle the dice-rolling and the crunchy bit, you focus on the characters and the writing.

If you are interested in a fairly realistic roleplaying game about survival, love and wondering just what's over the next hill, drop a note in this thread.  I also want to know which of the following pitches for a game you'd be interested in:

1) They Really Did it!:  This game would begin with word reaching the players that tactical nuclear weapons have been used at the front.  Needless to say, this will start quite the panic, and any last minute preparations before the bombs come.  The game would work through the exchange and it's aftermath, while every struggles to stay alive and, if possible, comfortable.  This is a more gritty, survival game than the other option, but would make for some intense roleplay and some very hard decisions to make.  While I'm tempted, for sheer perversity, to set the game in Lawrence, KS, it will probably take place in one of the many moderately sized cities in the midwest- Columbus, OH, Indianapolis, IN, Cario, IL, or Bowling Green, KY.  How long the game stays there is up to the players, of course.  One of the things we'll have to work out in character creation is how you all know each other- the game sort of assumes that all of you will form some sort of survival group.

2) 1000 days on.   This would actually use the normal Twilight:2000 timing for a game- a little less than three years after the exchange, when people have had some time to adjust to the new world, but things are still quite in flux.  There's certainly not peace- not outside the farming town that your characters have come to inhabit.  It's not an ideal situation, either.  Refugees that have been taken in all live in the schoolhouse, there hasn't been much electricity in a long time, and the grocery story is now a supply depot, but it's overall not too bad, so long as people keep pulling together in town... and, hasn't it been a while since it rained?  This game would be less about the immediate aftermath, and would be about a more slowly developing crisis in the town.

Also, in the history of the game I'm borrowing from, the exchange happens in 1997, but there's no reason it couldn't happen in 2013, give that it's an alternate history we're working with. 

So, in sum, if you're with me so far, and you'd like to give this a go, I need to know the following things:

1) Which set up interests you?
2) What year interests you?

Of course, if you have questions, also, feel free to ask.  Once I have an idea of if there are enough players who want to play, and what the parameters will be, I'll put together a more formal signup thread, and with more details about how things will go.  I just didn't want to pour a pile of effort into the game, only to find out that I was the only one interested.

Thanks for sticking with me to the end!

[mayovagn]

Up for being a part of this, thanks Alex.

The second option is better I think, still plenty of scope for survival fun, but more established so our characters are not set to expire at any moment.

I would be more interested in a tale set in the modern day or near future than one set back in 97. I lived through 97 once already. *Grins*

M.

[AlexStone]

I suspect that timing will be popular- I remember 97, it was a good year for me, but most people live in the here and now.  Hopefully, we'll get a few more folks interested, and I can get a pitch together.

[AlexStone]

Hmmm.. now I'm starting to wonder if a more standard Twilight:2000 game would attract attention. :)

[AlexStone]

Looks like I'll file this one away.  There may be more auspicious times later.