Post apocalyptic world building setting

[Brave_Raven]

I found in my parents basement an old school 1st edition gamma world rulebook.

My plan was to start a gamma world club at my college but for reasons I don't realy want to get into, I had to withdraw from my courses until January. Even if I can't find a group to start role-playing with I still want to start world building. I'm just not really sure to start.

Ok so my idea for a setting would be about 1000 years after the collapse of a super advanced "brave new world" type society. Geomatic weapons that created new fault lines, cities glassified by thermonuclear weapons, flora and fauna permentally changed by biomutagenic agents and radioactve death swamps filled with dangerous chemicals. The reason that it put 1000 years after the war is so I could put a big nature reclaimng civilaztion element.

I plan on putting in a few city-states in that have more advanced technolodgy but for the most part mutated humans and animals are going to live in the wild in either primitive villages or nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes. I could talk all day about this

Do you have any suggestions for starting this world building process? Should I take a few a map of a real world place and alter it or should I make a whole new map from scratch?

Any and all replies are welcome.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Hello Brave Raven, and Welcome to Mythic Scribes!!

I have removed the image that you had attached, please visit the link here: How to Use Images in your Posts.

Thank you =)

 

[Saigonnus]

Like with any other types of fantasy/science fiction you should have the following included:

Geography: What does the world look like, maps?

Cities/civilizations: Who is where? what do their cities look like? what does the population look like? Population centers? Villages?

Technology: What sorts of arms and armament does each civilization use?, what sort of things do they have access to? computers? solar power? swords? guns?

Infrastructure: Transportation, water, power, waste products; are they present? if so, how are these things provided or disposed of?

Goverment/law: What sort of government oversees the society? What laws are enforced and for what reason? what are punishments for broken laws? What sort of "police force" does the society have?

Trade/economics: What do the different cultures have for natural resources? What do they have excess of to trade? Who do they trade with? What sort of currency do they use? Barter system? Commune? (i.e. a percentage of everything produced belongs to the community for those who need it) How is trading made and by whom?

Religion: Polytheism? Monotheism? Atheism? None at all? Who do they worship? what are the tenets/beliefs of the religion? ceremonies? special dress? How do the different religions interact? What place in the societal structure do they have?

Basic social structure: Who is the upper class?, Who is the middle class? Who are the base workers/commoners?

Military: How many soldiers does the civilization have under arms? How fast can they get new conscripts? how are they disposed? (units, legions, squads etc...) who leads the military forces? What arms/armaments do they use? What duties do they have during times of peace? how are they trained?

 

[Brave_Raven]

Thanks saigonnus, you've given me a lot to think about.

Is there anyone who can give me some tips on mapmaking?

 

[Saigonnus]

Thanks saigonnus, you've given me a lot to think about.

Is there anyone who can give me some tips on mapmaking?

My suggestion is to start with the area that will be central to the story first; whether it be a single continent or just a single area. If you start just with that, it is easy to expand it later on if needed. Just sketch out the basic area with the geographic features; mountains, rivers, forests etc... plus the basic population centers and main thoroughfares (if needed).

 

[Brave_Raven]

Thanks again man.

 

[sugarpixie]

I got google maps on and printed a pic of the area i wanted to use then traced the outline and some water features then started creating my own geography from there. Just an idea.

 

[Saigonnus]

I got google maps on and printed a pic of the area i wanted to use then traced the outline and some water features then started creating my own geography from there. Just an idea.

Actually, it's not a bad idea; I just tend to do my own freehand because that way I am not copying someone else's work or using the real world. It is a fantasy world after all, it shouldn't be like earth except in the broadest sense.

 

[Brave_Raven]

Ya i decided on taking a snapshot of the strip of land between Lake Superior and the James bay(bottom tip of Hudson Bay), enlarging the waterlines a bit(melted icecaps), throwing in a mountain range around Lake Superior and drawing in several big river and lake systems. All freehand.

My plan is to have four major areas plus three ruined cities:

1- On The Great Lakes-side of this mountain range I gonna have it as a desolate wasteland filled with acid rain, nuclear fallout, weird toxic sludge dwelling mutants but rich in old world technolodgy.

2- This mountain range is gonna blockout the worst of this radiation, rainshadow affect an what not, making the other side of this mountain range primordial forest, probably a temperate rainforest (not sure as to whether I want to put winter into the equation). This forest is gonna be fed by manymmountain rivers(undammed of course). On the rivers are going to be a few villages and towns but most of the population is gonna consist of hunter-gather type tribes and bands.

3- To the south Is gonna be mechanized farmland. Situated around City C is going to be industrialized farm land, Some worked by robots(very few) others by slaves. Interspred is gonna large tracts of arable land-turned dessert by overworking of the land. This area is gonna be dominated by ancient greek style city states with a sparta styled one dominating the rest(in both military might and sheer number of slaves).

4 The northeastern parts of the map are going to be composed of Canadian Shield-style rugged hills. Im not sure who is gonna populate these hills but im thinking barabian tribesmen.

City A: Far in the northwest I am gonna have a prewar logging town, motly unlooted.

City B: I am going to put in an old army town on the shores of The James Bay that was nuked directly during the war. This city and the downstrea, from it are gonna be a mess for radiation.

City C: Large farming community, Mostly colonized.

 

[Saigonnus]

City B: I am going to put in an old army town on the shores of The James Bay that was nuked directly during the war. This city and the downstrea, from it are gonna be a mess for radiation.

I have a post-apocalyptic work in progress that is set in the ruins of a single large city. I chose to make it different by not relying on the old standby of nukes. I chose instead to use more mundane means to ruin the world, though it took considerably longer to accomplish. There was economic and societal collapse coupled with war, famine and disease that inevitably follows the ruination of the infrastructure.

I was always of the opinion that if a city is completely leveled, there little difference how that comes about. Do you think the men and women from Carthage would feel any different from those at Hiroshima or Nagasaki? The city of Carthage was leveled, no stone left standing on another and the ground salted so nothing would grow... sure it took thousands of men several weeks to accomplish the task but how is that different from the same damage in just a few minutes?

 

[TheYoungWriter]

Hello fellow Scribe. If you ever want to make another map, and such I suggest you use autoREALM. It's a small, quick download. There's even a tutorial in one of the forums on how to build an Island. Just keep in mind that it is easier than it looks.

 

[Brave_Raven]

Thanks i will take a look at that.