Au contraire my good man. I think a creepy setup where there are rumors and scattered reliable stories that something is dreadfully wrong would make a great game. Most are in denial, but your neighbors are becoming increasingly restless and lawless. The authorities won't admit it, but they are becoming increasingly ineffective. Then some radical event forces you out of your safe space out into the world at large.Holman wrote: ↑Thu Apr 20, 2023 5:41 pmThe thing is, post-apocalyptic settings are all about the struggle for survival or restoration or exploitation now that the old order is gone. The game consists of doing hard things and making hard choices with a lot of freedom of action. That freedom is the game.Lagom Lite wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 2:22 pm 3. Post-Apocalyptic settings. The drama already happened apparently, why couldn't I have a game about the events leading up to the disaster? I mean it's too late now. All that's left to do is to survive, for a while, and loot the scraps from better days. It's just too depressing for me.
A pre-apocalyptic game would be one where the old order persists, and thus its rules and protections are still in place. Where's the game in that?
Of course there's room for grey areas (e.g. the zombie apocalypse has begun, but it hasn't yet reached your town), but I'd argue that there is really only a game to the degree that the player can act outside of the old/normal rules of society. I mean, the game could be about fortifying a town, but even that scenario has left the pre-apocalyptic order and its norms behind.
I don't mean to dump on the opinion you're presenting. Watching the apocalypse slowly approach and begin to unfold is *great* stuff for novels and movies and TV. (My favorite parts of The Stand are all in the long slow burn of the first third of the book.) But I'm not sure there's much potential gameplay there.
There you discover pockets of normalcy and chaos as you gradually piece together details of the apocalypse, and begin preparing for the worst. I would play such a game.