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If a post-apocalypse game is one that starts after an apocalypse has already occurred (e.g. Gamma World), a pre-apocalyptic game starts before the events occur and run through or beyond the great catastrophe.



Let's look at a few specific examples of a pre-apocalyse setting.

• Many Call of Cthulhu campaigns deal with the summoning of one of the great Elder Ones. The idea of ever increasing signs and events culminating in the summoning of a Great One is embodied in the Arkham Horror boardgame (recently released). if the players don't stop mighty Cthulhu from being summoned, well, that's usually the end of the world.
• The Long Night is a classic science fiction setting for both roleplaying and fiction. Whether it be the fall of the Third Imperium in MegaTraveller, Ensign Flandry trying to protect his Terran Empire (Poul Anderson) or the collapse of the Terran Federation (H. Beam Piper), the interstellar goverment can no longer hold its worlds together as lawlessness and corruption continue to rise.
• A sudden change in the world — the nukes start flying, a great natural disaster, a plague. The point being, that this is an unpredictable occurence.
• In Ars Magica, the concept of a winter covenant...an institution whose founders are old and senile, whose buildings are in disrepair, and whose future is not guaranteed. The possibility of redeeming the covenant is there, or it may be destroyed by its enemies or possibly its own folly.
• The main Paratwa story and the historical backstory described in the books both describe apocalyptic events. In the backstory, the world is accelerating out of control, culminating in bio and nuclear weapons that render the earth uninhabitable. Surviving humans fled to orbital colonies or to the great space fleet.
• Millennium the TV show is all about Frank Black coming to understand a terrible apocalypse (779 days remaining)!

Okay, so what steps might someone follow to define a pre-apocalypse game.

• Define the scale of the apocalypse. Is it a city, a nation, a world, or something larger? Low scale events are less like an apocalypse and more like a disaster flick. However, smaller scales may be more appropriate for gaming as they are more accessible. Smaller scale events may also be precursors to greater and greater events. A planet falls this year, the galaxy the next.
• How long before things go bad? A short storyline will quickly get to the apocalypse and into a post-apocalyptic game.
• What will bring about the apocalypse? Is it cultural decay? Demons? A military coup?
• What events are going to happen? Collapse of society? Natural disaster? Man-made disaster?
• What agencies know about the upcoming apocalypse? Are they aiding it, preventing it, or preparing for it?
• What role do the players play? Are they agents trying to fend off the upcoming danger? Are they normal people caught up in events beyond their understanding (e.g. Miracle Mile). Are they agents trying to bring about the end? Do they realise their role in doing so?
• How soon before the players realize that thjey are actually in a pre-apocalyptic game? Is it something you tell them up front or do they learn it over time?
• Are the characters expected to stop the apocalypse? Blunt the worst of its effects? Save their own small corner of the world? Or just survive the unexpected disaster which is sprung on them?
• How soon does the campaign end after the disaster occurs?

For the next section, I will assume that the apocalypse is happening within the character's lifetime and the players can alter the impending apocalypse. Most apocalyptic games will be event driven — the bad guys are summoning Cthulhu, the volcano is about to erupt, the food supplies from Tau Ceti fail to arrive on time, etc.

Heroes of Battle, which I briefly reviewed before, has a rigorous system for event-driven adventure design. In a nutshell, you define the series of events that make up your apocalyptic adventure path. At the end of it, you define the results that would happen if the players didn't exist. You then define at least 3 other results, 2 results that are better then your previous baseline and 1 result that is significantly worse.

You should have a good idea what the player characters can do to prevent each event. Given the nature of an apocalyptic game, players should not win every session. They need to feel like things are twisting out of control, that they are losing! Obviously, they can't lose all of the time; that isn't any fun for the players either!

Once you have events worked out, you should assign a victory point total to each event — how important is each event to the upcoming disaster. It is important to not base the apocalypse on a single event, but it is also very useful to have later events worth more VPs as things accelerate to the exciting ending. Total the VPs. You should then be able to assign VP thresholds to achieve each level of victory. For some rough numbers, you might use 25%, 50% and 75% of the actual totals. 1-25% is a great disaster! 76-100% is a great victory. Alternately, you might make it more difficult to achieve a great victory.

Time to finish up.

Adventure branching: A victory at a particular event can not only provide victory points, it may cause a different sequence of events to take place. These are important to not make the game feel like it is on rails where players do not affect the results. Depending on actions the players take, you may also need to rethink future events if the players get too far outside your original plan. Both of these are particularly true when an intelligent agent can react to player's actions. Throwing the players on the defensive is again useful for providing that feeling of dread.

NPCs (family, close friends) that the player characters like and appreciate can be useful to get across impending disaster either by becoming victims or by being threatened.

As you near the final events, you ought to have a good idea of the two most likely victory conditions. It helps to tailor descriptions to get things across to the player characters what they have accomplished and where events are heading. Just because the players may be set up to score the best of all victories doesn't mean that the apocalypse will be completely prevented. It may be that the earned victory is just setting up to be prepared for your new post-apocalyptic game. The post-apocalyptic game may take place right on the heels of your pre-apocalyptic game or have new PCs as descendents of the existing player characters.