Right now I'm slaving away on a story based in the post-apocalyptic world. It's not a clusterfuck of "Supermutants riding nukes" and "FalloutFalloutFallout", it's something along the lines of 'The Road', 'I Am Legend', and some other things. It's a basic survival story that has hints of excitement. The thing is, I'm not sure what other elements would fit into the Post-Apocalyptic genre. I'm trying to stay away from the purely science fiction things you see in stuff like the Fallout Series with super mutants, giant mole rats, and advanced technology. I have a few things nailed down, like questioning ones sanity, loneliness, and a few other things, but I need to know what I'm missing.
[quote]It's not a clusterfuck of "Supermutants riding nukes"[/quote]
There's your problem.
But in all seriousness what kind of apocalypse are you talking about? Zombies, Atomic Bomb, Natural disaster, squid people uprising?
Or just, some guy alone in a desert or some shit? Does he have a pet or partner with him? Where's he at? Is it too dangerous to go outside?
If your gonna make it realistic and about nukes then you got either a bunker, some mountains, or maybe like the guy lives isolated in a floating house devoid of human contact and when he finally goes lands after he sees some bright lights on the ground he finds out he's now gonna die of radiation poisoning... The end.
Could happen...
Some basic info on it:
- Takes place in Manhattan.
- After the war that has caused the apocalypse, the protagonist loses his wife and child while them and many other people are moved to fallout shelters.
- The protagonist is slowly losing his mind.
- The environment isn't exactly safe. Drug nuts and psychopaths living all over the island living like savages.
- It's written in the first person point of view.
- The protagonist writes down entries into a journal, feeling that the journal is the only thing he can talk to.
- At this time, skyrises and skyscrapers are at least half a mile to a mile in height. After the invasion, many of these buildings are destroyed, leaving debris and dust all over the place. This makes it difficult to breathe the air. Coupling that with ICBMs that hit new england, there's radioactive dust all over the place.
- The protagonist doesn't live in a bunker or some sort of fortress, but in an abandoned apartment building. He doesn't have a huge cache of supplies, he scavenges around the city for stuff. He spends most of the day exploring the city for supplies.
- He wears a sort of "make-shift" hazmat suit. It doesn't help much against the radiation, but he has a breathing apparatus to help him stay outside for more than a few minutes.
Sounds like I am Legend without the dark seekers.
Loses as in the wife and child die? Or as in they got separated. And if its the latter, is the main guy's motive to be reunited with his family some day?
You also gotta take in consideration the fallout that you mentioned, and how long it's been, since it could be decades for life to come back and the guy would die in less than a day if he just goes outside. Also his reason for leaving the safety of shelter.
You could also have him join one of the gangs around the place 'cus that lone wanderer against everyone and everything is sorta played out and nobody really gives the "bad gang" guys outlook any background other than that they're savages who'll do anything to survive. It doesn't even have to be a gang full of bad guys either. Maybe they make it easier to scavenge food and keep him company?
But anyways its your story and you decide what actually fits in it, I'm just throwing shit out there see if anything gives you a better idea.
Nice concept by the way.
I've thought about giving a "Friend" to the protagonist, rather than having him against the world. I also might not make the fallout that dangerous, but then I might have to get rid of it altogether.
You could still make it work, maybe you could watch some movies and read some books about post-apocalyptic settings? Like for instance, "I have no mouth and I must scream", the Mad Max movies, you've already seen I am legend, hell even Terminator. I'm sure there are more out there that slip my mind/ haven't seen, so explore.
You could also play STALKER, or the Fallout series to get ideas, I'd suggest you play the the ones that came before fallout 3 though.
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