This offers the second half of my original look at Steampunk & Victoriana RPGs. Here you see some of the genre trapping used in new and novel ways, rather than falling back to the old tropes. They're still there and dominant, but some new paths have been opened. See the first half here.

11. Private Eye
(1993, Victoriana) A German-language game where players take on the roles of detectives in the Victorian era, ala Sherlock Holmes. The name's a little odd to me as I usually associate the phrase "private eye" with Noir. I've listed this as 1993, but this is actually the publication date of the 3rd edition. I've had a hard time tracking down other information on the game. A Google-translated document I found suggests the earlier editions were amateur-press or fan produced. A larger, hardcover fourth edition appeared in 2008.
 
12. Tradition Book: Sons of Ether
(1993, Steampunk-esque) Mage the Ascension presents a war over shared reality, fought between mages who want to move the world towards their view of reality. The bad guys have a monolithic view of that reality, while the "good guys" of the Traditions have a freer and more fragmented approach. The Sons of Ether are one of these traditions, with a love of mad science and an aesthetic borrowed from Steampunk. The background for the Sons of Ether sourcebook cites the usual suspects - Babbage and Lovelace - and the author has clearly read The Difference Engine. I'd say this is the first time we see a distinctly "steampunk style" faction in an rpg. The art has all the classic motifs: goggles, gears, Victorian dress, and so on. MtA itself isn't steampunk, but it smartly borrows from a rising trend. White Wolf's always been good at incorporating those ideas and laying the groundwork for future use. As the Mage line evolved, you would see more and more of these aesthetics appear in the game and art.

I continue revisiting my history of RPG Genre lists this week. Steampunk & Victoriana was my second series and I hadn't figured out a final approach: how much to say, how many to include on each list. As a result, this one ended up way too large. So I've split it into two parts, with the second half next week. Warning: LOTS of problematic stuff here. 

LIGHTING THE BOILER 
This list begins to trace the history and development of Victoriana and Steampunk RPGs. I did this earlier with Horror RPGs. I focus on tabletop games, though many video games could easily fall into this category (the classics Thief: The Dark Project, Arcanum and Final Fantasy VI). Because these two concepts have been tied closely, I opted to link them for this list. I could have presented them individually, but the lists would overlap heavily. Victoriana’s reasonably easy to spot, but Steampunk offers more of a challenge.
 
There’s a good deal of debate about what constitutes Steampunk - resulting in many argument panels at various conventions. I think of it generally as a set of design and aesthetic elements - generally recognizable symbols. If it had a political or social content at the start, that’s been streamlined away in favor of “the look.” Like other subjective genre elements it has a continuum, with some books, movies, games and TV shows embracing it fully and others just throwing in some knobs and goggles.

by Jesse Ross and Jason Cordova

We have just concluded the Trophy incursion-writing contest. Congratulations to the winner, Linda Codega (Southern Holler), and the three fabulous runners-up: Gabriel Robinson (Gift of the Sea), Natalie Ash (The Huntsman’s Feast), and Michael Van Vleet (A Warm and Pleasant Hum). You can read these and all the other entries on The Gauntlet Forums. 

We recorded a special podcast episode to announce and discuss the winner and runners-up, which you can listen to right here. We also announced that we will be Kickstarting THREE Trophy books early next year, and those three books are the focus of this blog post. 

​Here they are! These are mock-ups, and the images aren’t quite finalized, but you still get a good sense of what the books will look like. Each book will be 7”x10” hardcover, approximately 120 full-color pages, with a partial cloth binding, foil stamp, and ribbon bookmark.

What we were previously calling “original” or “core” Trophy is now called Trophy Dark. Trophy Dark is a game of dark fantasy and psychological horror, about doomed treasure-hunters exploring an environment that doesn’t want them there. It’s designed to be played as a one-shot, perfect for convention play or as a tragic side story in your regular, long-term game. 

Here’s what the Trophy Dark book will include:

• A new ruleset, expanded and clarified from what was originally published in Codex - Dark 2. 
• Tips for running a great game of Trophy Dark.
• A handy, step-by-step sequence of events for running Trophy Dark (similar to the one found in Girl Underground).
• Guidelines for creating your own incursions. 
• Over a dozen incursions, from Codex and elsewhere, written by a diverse group of creators. 
• Ideas for using Trophy Dark as part of another game (such as a funnel for Trophy Gold, or flashbacks and side stories for other fantasy games). 

Trophy Gold is a game of desperate treasure-hunters exploring the lost and forgotten places of the world. It takes the core rules of Trophy Dark and expands them for use in a more traditional, long-term fantasy campaign. The game mashes together story game and OSR principles to create a gameplay experience that is fast, flexible, and deep. 

Here’s what the Trophy Gold book will include:

• A new ruleset, expanded and clarified from what was originally published in Codex - Gold.
• New rules for journeys between incursions, and expanded “back at home” rules. 
• Tips for running a great game of Trophy Gold.
• An example-of-play transcript. 
• Guidelines for creating your own incursions plus guidelines for converting existing modules to Trophy Gold. 
• New backgrounds, occupations, and equipment. 
• Over a hundred different ritual and saints, based on the classic B/X D&D magic-user and cleric spells. 
• Brand new incursions, unique to Trophy Gold. 

Trophy Loom is a setting book for the world of Trophy. It will outline all the major places, people, and strange creatures of the shared world of Trophy Dark and Trophy Gold. There are a few key details you need to know about this book:

• It will be completely system agnostic, so you can use it with Trophy Dark, Trophy Gold, or any fantasy game system you prefer. 
• It will be comprised largely of tables. Each location will have some general information common to any game set in the world of Trophy, but will otherwise be comprised of tables that include rumors, historical details, and myths about that location, so you can “weave” your own version of the Trophy world. 
• The Trophy Loom tables will be written in a highly-innovative way: some will be crowdsourced by the folks who make up the awesome, vibrant Trophy RPG community, and others will be written by specific creators from the OSR and indie communities. If you’d like to participate in the crowdsourcing, you can do so right here.

We’re very excited about Trophy Dark, Trophy Gold, and Trophy Loom. We have been working on this project for a long time, and we have been so humbled by all the folks taking this journey with us. These books are going to be very, very special, and we can’t wait to share them with you! 

Get updates on everything we’re doing with Trophy by following us on Twitter @trophyrpg and signing up for the mailing list.

As I mentioned last post, for the next several weeks I’m revisiting the first installments of each of my Histories of RPG Genres. Horror was the first one I did, spurred by an offhand comment by Robin Laws on a podcast. Looking back in comparison to my later genre histories, I’m shocked at how long it took for horror to become a thing. It isn’t until the early 1990’s that we get regular releases of horror rpgs. I wonder if that represents interest or more that Call of Cthulhu had such market power.

IT RISES REVISED
When I first wrote this list, Call of Cthulhu 7th was on the horizon- a game and system which has had many editions, but remains roughly the same game. At the time I wasn’t sure if CoC could remain interesting in a time with many competing horror rpgs, including brethren Lovecraftian rpgs like Trail of Cthulhu, Lovecraftesque, and Cthulhu Dark.
 
Call of Cthulhu kicked off horror gaming as a standalone genre. You could point to Tegel Manor as the first real haunted house product, but it doesn't put the horror elements at the center and still focuses on the dungeon crawl. For this list I'm looked at products lines offering a full horror rpg or major twist to an existing game. I lump some interesting sub-products under their main entry (if they're produced by the same company). Some things, like S.H.A.D.O.W. over Scotland, offer a horror diversion for the main system, but don't rise to the level of sourcebook or core rules.
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3. Chill: Adventures Into The Unknown (1984)
I'll honestly say that two things kept me away from Chill when it came out: the goofiness of other Pacesetter publications and the Holloway cover. I knew it was a horror game, but from the outside, it looked to be just hanging on Call of Cthulhu's coattails. It took a broader approach to horror - covering all of the classics. Many reviews suggested the original rules focused more on fighting monsters than offering horror or frights. For a nuanced perspective on this, see James Maliszewski's retrospective here. I like the idea that Chill serves as a middle ground between D&D and CoC. I offers the concept of a patron organization, S.A.V.E, independent of conventional authority. Chill would see a rebirth with Mayfair's new edition in 1990. It was rumored that another version would be coming out a few years ago from OtherWorld Creations, but I'm not sure of the status of that. (Note: since the original writing, a new edition has landed). 
 
4. Ghostbusters (1986)
I loved the Ghostbusters movie. Within a week of seeing it I tried to cobble together a GB game. I ripped apart the closest thing I knew, Stalking the Night Fantastic. That resulted in a crunchy, dense system which, shockingly, didn't work. I couldn't figure out the problem, why I couldn't get the feel I wanted?
 
Then the Ghostbusters rpg came out and I went "d'uh." This was the first rules-light game which worked for me. I'd seen others, but they felt thin. This game actually emulated the feel of the movie. It changed the way I thought about games. Ghostbusters was fun and clever, with the horror taking a back-seat as it needed to. It remains among the best "funny" games out there, striking the right balance between goofiness and playability. On the other hand, it had the effect of associating short rules with a light tone and subject matter. Simple games worked for comedy, but not for "serious" gaming. The Ghostbusters system went on to power WEG's Star Wars RPG and many, many others. Interestingly, Chaosium actually designed that mechanic for GB before they handed the game off to WEG.
 
Ghostbusters took an interesting tact for the time, replacing movie stills with cartoony art. That likely made approvals easier. It had the side benefit of leaving room for the players. It offered a new world of Ghostbusting, rather than sticking to the film and those characters. It also had one of the first custom dice seen in an rpg, a d6 with the iconic GB symbol. The boxed set included lots of secondary materials: forms, equipment cards, IDs. WEG released three modules for GB. In 1989, with the release of the second Ghostbusters movie they rebooted and expanded the game as Ghostbusters International. This time they released a module covering the film. Again WEG only slightly supported the line, offering three modules and two sourcebooks. By 1990 the game line had wrapped. 

With this being NaNoWriMo and the holidays coming up, I've decided to present a greatest "Age of Ravens" hits for the next several weeks. To that end, I'm presenting the first installment of each of my History of RPG Genre posts, along with links to the reset of the series. I may take the opportunity to correct typos and fix omissions. 

MY KIND OF APOCALYPSE
The Apocalypse vexes me. More than other genres I’ve tackled, Post-Apocalypse games seem obvious, but when I look closely I cut and add items madly. I suspect my picks this time will be more contested. And I haven't even made up my mind about Judge Dredd...

​THE DIVIDE
Many games exist in the margins of the definitions- and I’ll be wrestling with those across these lists. My definitions cut out a number that- looked at from another standpoint- could have gone on. For example, I’m leaving off most cyberpunk games. Both Cyberpunk 2020 and Shadowrun have cataclysms in the backdrop. For the former general societal collapse and for the latter the eruption of the Sixth World. They both have some wastelands, but those are just places to pass through. Otherwise the focus on the game isn’t the traditional play of post-apocalypse games- survival and exploration.
 
I’ve also left off games where the focus is on fighting back against the apocalypse. In a sense the full effects of the cataclysm haven’t really happened. So I leave off 50 Fathoms, The Mechanoid Invasion, Necessary Evil and their alien invasions. On the other hand, I think Fantasy Flight’s Midnight qualifies as post-apocalyptic. Defeating the evil crisis remains an open question and the world’s been completely reshaped by Izrador’s conquest. Then again Base Raiders offers an interesting world crisis, but the scope is limited. The result is less a question of survival and more of exploitation so I won't include it. I also leave off “disaster” books which simply detail a collapse or crisis event, unless they include significant material covering campaigns run in the aftermath.
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​THE ZED QUESTION
As we saw with the Horror lists, there’s an explosion of Zombie games in recent years. Some of these offer either a general discussion of zombies or a sourcebook for using them in different settings. Others present a distinct zombie outbreak and build a world around that. Generally if I have two or more Zombie games on the same list, I’ll group them together into a Miscellaneous: Zombie entry. I might break that rule if I spot something truly striking or worth calling out.
 
To keep this list easy to read I’m tightening the years covered. As we get closer to the present the lists expand and contract weirdly. I include mostly core books, but also significant setting or sourcebooks. I’m consolidating “spin-off” supplements into a single entry. For example you'll see at the end of this list isolated modules for a line using post-apocalyptic elements. Given the number of great things published I haven't included everything I want. I try to only list revised editions which significantly change a line or present a milestone. Generally I only include published material- print or electronic. I skip freebie or self-published games. I'm sure I've left something off without adequate reason; feel free to add a comment about a line I missed (if published from 1976 to 1984). I've arranged these by year and then alphabetically within that year.
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​1. Metamorphosis Alpha (1976)
I'd only just gotten the hang of cutting open giant rats to search for treasure when my sister tried out Metamorphosis Alpha on me. She didn't give me much information on this new game. I rolled up a weird character, wandered into a domed garden, and was promptly eaten. I only played Metamorphosis Alpha once, but I remember sneaking into her room and flipping through the book. I didn't get the game, except for the sense of desperate survival in a harsh environment. This wasn't about diving into a dungeon for loot. This was about being stuck in a horrible place trying to survive. I'd remember that later when the first horror rpgs arrived.
 
Metamorphosis Alpha is the first post-apocalyptic game, but strikingly doesn't use the post-nuke setting which would become a default in next several years. Instead characters were passengers of a giant seed-ship where things went terribly wrong. I made the connection years later when I watched Dr. Who's The Ark in Space and finally read Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky. The game itself is a wonderful and brilliant mish-mash. Readers have to disentangle the system from the setting. Every page is filled with wild ideas, but it will take a GM effort to bring everything together. While it eventually became eclipsed by Gamma World, MA set the stage for a new approach to gaming- one of the earliest sci-fi games as well as the first post-apocalypse rpg. While early D&D borrowed a little from Avalon Hill's Outdoor Survival, this put that challenge in a new context. Gamers can still buy the original pdf and this year Goodman Games successfully launched a Kickstarter for a reprint which includes a mass of additional material.
 
2. Simian Conquest (1978)
I started gaming in the early, early days. I have strong memories of obscure games that sat on the shelf of the FLGS for years, but I don't remember this one. I could do a list of "non-licensed licensed-setting" games- including many where the company ended up slapped with a lawsuit. Simian Conquest's clearly the Planet of the Apes rpg (movie, not book). Some blurbs describe it as humorous, but that's not clear. You can play as an ape or as an astronaut. So it is kind of Post-Apocalyptic depending on your character, I suppose...and how much you stick to the plot of the movies. ("You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!")
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​3. Gamma World (1978)
And here comes the boom. We played Gamma World in the early days. It overshadowed Top Secret and Boot Hill as our non-D&D game of choice for years. And how can you not be drawn to this game? Look at that cover...what's going on there? And it actually conceals the sheer craziness inside. Gamma World takes some of the ideas of Metamorphosis Alpha- mutations, sci-fi, and survival and makes something new out of them. It cites several sources, including Ralph Bakshi's Wizards. That and the newly arrived Heavy Metal magazine drive the game. The interior illustrations go all over the place. But the game itself feels much more playable than Metamorphosis Alpha. Players can move through the book more clearly, character creation's up front, and the lessons learned from D&D's presentation shape the layout.
 
The crazy mess of the setting's possible because the apocalypse takes place in the 25th Century. In the far future a nuclear war breaks out resulting in a world of talking rabbits with bandoliers, stop-sign wielding madmen, and high-tech artifacts. Here's the thing- I never quite got that the "event" took place in the distant future. So more often than not I mixed bits and pieces of present tech into the setting (Walkmen tape players, Apple Macintosh). Gamma World existed in a weirdly flexible state (which actually makes the most recent "reality warp" edition make a little more sense).
 
From Gamma World I learned a classic trope of post-apocalypse games. Young tribal members have to go out into the wilderness to find something to save the village or carry out a rite of ascension. We'd end up doing that dozens of time. Gamma World presented a world of anachronisms, showing that any tale or trope could be rebuilt with a science-fantasy frame. It offered a more robust system of random mutation tables. Players could choose their type, but beyond that had to settle with their results- good and bad. It made rolling up characters a desperate and fun gamble. One awesome element, little used in modern games, was the random artifact interaction table. Players rolled on the flowchart to see if they could figure out how to use a device, break it, or set it off in their hands. It was a great system and one worth lifting for other games.
 
Gamma World got modest support from TSR, with only two modules GW1: Legion of Gold and GW2: Famine in Far-Go released for it. They also put out a GM screen. It went through several printings, with IIRC different colors on the booklet cover. According to wikipedia, TSR planned to do Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega which would have adapted the earlier game to the new rules. But the publication of a second edition of GW in '83 (see later on the list) put the kibosh on that.
 
4. The Morrow Project (1980)
The Morrow Project always seemed like a reaction to the gonzo weird of Gamma World. Everything about it seemed serious and adult. I avoided it because it looked like a 'mature' game...plus the stark presentation did nothing to grab my tween imagination. In Morrow Project, the PCs play frozen sleeper survivalists awoken in a post-nuclear war future. It aims to be more realistic but still adds pseudo-scientific elements like flora and fauna mutated by the radiation. It focuses squarely on survival and exploration, with perhaps even a hint of being a building game as you try to find other survivor caches. Morrow has a definite military vibe to it, with our "out of time" characters organized as teams. In that regards its a precursor to other gun-love and military games. Artist Richard Tucholka would go on to design the crazy and elaborate firearm systems of various Tri-Tac games (see some below). Supplements included Personal and Vehicular Loads and Vehicular Blueprints: Volume I, but they also released several modules. I'm not sure about the full edition history, but the most distinct revision seems to be 2013's The Morrow Project 4th Edition.
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​5. Aftermath! (1981)
Fantasy Games Unlimited scared me off for many years. My sister ran me thorough character creation for Chivalry & Sorcery once, I flipped through Space Opera a single time, and one of the smartest people I knew, Gene Ha, spoke lovingly of the complexity of Aftermath!. It sounded too heavy. Eventually I broke down and started picking up FGU games, but I always steered clear of what I assumed was the dense detail of this game. Looking at it now...I think I was a little right. Even knowing the weird math and design choices in games like Bushido and Daredevils, Aftermath's still a big shower of crazy detail and odd game focus. So many figured stats and totals, a two-page combat flow chart, strange look-ups, location-based hits and armor class, labeled hex grid examples for everything. It feels very wargamery- like a reaction from grognard gamers bothered by the loosey-goosey nature of other games. However Aftermath! had a solid following, supported with several supplements.
 
The oddest thing for me is something the game actually hides in its box set presentation. The cover blurb describes this as "A Role Playing Game set in a Post Holocaust world." The back cover expands that a little but doesn't offer much detail. That obscures one of the most interesting things about Aftermath!, that it actually offers a generic game system combined with a toolkit for running post-apocalyptic games. The first book of the core three included doesn't even mention the setting. Instead it is a 60 page set of general rpg rules- not unlike the booklets included in early Runequest and other Chaosium games covering Basic Role-Playing. But this is significantly more detailed. It might have been one of the earliest generic rpg products if it had been published separately. Book two covers character creation, but still avoids concrete setting. Book three finally addresses that and talks about options for the kinds of "Ruin" that could come to the world- nuclear, biological, social- and the implications of the passage of time. Its almost too much- where a few detailed and concrete examples of different settings might have made it more useful. Aftermath is interesting and a fascinating artifact of the time. But post-apocalyptic GMs might find the tools and ideas on offer in the campaign book worth looking at.
 
6. Car Wars (1981)
While Car Wars began as a board game, it evolved into a pseudo rpg. The basic game offered a simple post-collapse backdrop with warriors competing in arena contests with weaponized vehicles. It drew from Death Race, Mad Max, and Damnation Alley. But as the game expanded, the designers fleshed out that setting, resulting in the creation of Autoduel America. Gazetteers and a GURPS supplement would solidify that as a complete world playable as a board game, miniatures simulation, or rpg. The game itself evolved to incorporate more rgp elements. Each supplement- Sunday Drivers, Truck Stop, Dueltrack- added on to that. Eventually we got adventures like Convoy, Mean Streets, and Ultraforce which pretty much confirmed the game's status as an rpg.
 
Side Note: Car Wars is interesting in creating a distinct sense of place. Some of that came from the need to construct a game-able setting. While it's a post-collapse setting, there's still a strong sense of civilization. It isn't The Road Warrior. Survival's a question- less so exploration. Games Workshop went a slightly different route with Dark Future, buying more into a full apocalypse. Car Wars also blurs the line between board game and rpg. It combines elements of both, but leans towards the former. Other rpg board games like Mordheim: City of the Damned, Necromunda and Confrontation: Dogs of War can be easily distinguished in having players control and manage multiple characters. But what about Inquisitor or MechWarrior? Wreck Age? 
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​7. Gamma World 2nd Edition (1983)
I'm hesitant to mark out Gamma World 2e as a distinct item and edition, but there's a key change here. It isn't in rules themselves. GS 2e tightens the system, expands important material (like mutations and monsters), and adds a wealth of material for the GM. But what really clinches it for me is the presentation. If the original Gamma World's a product of the 1970's- basic layout, weird ordering, gonzo art, and hodge-podge feel; then Gamma World 2e is the 1980's. Here outsider ideas and images have been carefully repackaged and re-presented. No longer does it feel like an underground comic, instead it looks and feels like a Saturday morning cartoon version of heavy metal. The elephant in the room here is 1980's Thundarr the Barbarian. Every gamer I know who saw it said the same thing: Gamma World the Cartoon. And we loved it for that. Of course Lords of Light, the short documentary on the creation of Thundarr makes no mention of that, citing other sources. But we know better. This edition of Gamma World wants to be popular and tries too hard.
 
I didn't pick up Gamma World 2e at the time. The look didn't appeal to me and I'd begun to gravitate to superhero and spy games. Once again TSR supported it modestly, with only two modules, a GM screen, and a character sheet pack. Within two years they would be back at the well. The next edition would make a more radical shift and be much less backwards compatible.
 
8. Mutant (1984)
Sweden has a long and interesting history of rpgs. On G+, Olav Nygård, has been posting about their history with the tag #swedishrpgs. He says,
"In #swedishrpgs , the post-apocalyptic slot is occupied by Mutant. Originally borrowing its rules from Drakar och Demoner and everything else from Gamma World, it has since evolved in multiple directions...Featuring a dude in a Luke Skywalker-esque pajamas and a rainbow, the cover of Mutant 1ed signaled that the apocalyptic future might not be such a bad place after all."
Mutant has a specific setting, with devolved technology and deadly radiation zones. Like Gamma World players can be mutated humans or animals. It was supported by a number of supplements and went on to spawn several editions. Since I first posted this, Modiphus has released an English translation of the most recent version, Mutant Year Zero.
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9. Paranoia (1984)
Paranoia offers a different post-apocalypse world. The apocalypse has changed things and you have to fight to survive but your challenges aren't the wilderness and monsters, but bureaucracy and your fellow clones. Paranoia draws from another strain of sci- fi. Instead of Moorcockian weirdness, Paul O. Williams' fallen America, or Ellisonian rad survival, it draws more on Stanislaw Lem, Aldous Huxley, and A Canticle for Liebowitz. It offers a black dystopian comedy- and a product completely unlike any other rpg of the day. We'd had attempts at injecting humor and rpg parody articles, but nothing sustained itself and carried through like Paranoia.
 
And that may be why I had a hard time thinking of this as a post-apocalyptic game. As I mentioned in the intro, I left out some games where there's been a collapse, but that collapse serves more as backdrop rather than framing the game. You could argue that's the case with Paranoia. On the other hand I'd believe the Big Whoops and what it spawned colors everything about the game: the Cold War paranoia rewritten, pop culture mistranslated, a collapse which scrambles sense into nonsense. Add to that the day to day tension of existence and I think you have a remarkably PA game, though jammed into an enclosed space. Ironically once later Paranoia editions got outside and presented details of the collapse and the world, it destroyed much of the setting's tension.
 
Paranoia's a great game. Its the only game I've ever won a tournament of. And one I won't run. Every single time I ran it, I ended up with angry players and in-fighting regardless of how I framed things. I loved reading the books and rules. The early editions are smart, funny, and completely unlike anything else going on at the time. I'd say Paranoia's essential reading for anyone considering a post-apocalypse game. It might not have exactly the tone you're seeking, but consider how these elements could be dialed in your desired direction- or how a few moments of levity might make what comes later even more horrible.
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10. Rhand: Morningstar Missions (1984)
This is an odd one. In Rhand a space colony is overrun by an alien invasion force known as the Spectrals. Now five hundred years have passed since that invasion. What results is a devolved world of mixed technology and barbarian sensibility. Think the Horseclans novels with alien invaders. The result is a mish-mash which could be seen as post-apocalyptic or as straight sci-fi. More interesting is that Leading Edge Games went back and reworked this concept into a much more conventional setting with Living Steel. That game's still crazy and over the top, but it embraces high-tech, superweapons, and sci-fi over the fallen sword & science setting of the original.
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11. Twilight: 2000 (1984)
Twilight 2000 was the new hotness around our area for a long time. We had a strong wargame and miniatures community. T2000 ended up drawing from that pool as well as rpgers. It smartly hooked into mid-1980's Tom Clancy, Red Dawn, Reagan-era sensibilities. I picked up the core set, but only a played a couple of sessions with it. I knew several micro-armor players who loved it- as well as my friend Gene. He's always been attracted to details and he had an infectious enthusiasm about the T2000 concept.
 
Twilight 2000 stakes out a territory for itself as an authentic and realistic rpg experience. I'm not saying it is, but that's certainly how they positioned the game. And while there had been other military rpgs before this (Merc, Recon, Commando), this game lifted that genre out of niche status. Its also the first post-apocalyptic rpg to put the players straight into the still-smoldering ruins. Scattered characters from across the armed forces have to figure out how to survive and get home in the wake of civilization's collapse. Or they have to figure out how to construct some kind of order- military or social- in a world gone mad. No mutants, no talking animals- just tanks, guns, and societal collapse.
 
There's a phrase my wife uses, "Machine Love," to describe games filled with the minutiae of gun lists, equipment guides, and vehicle annexes. To her they represent a weird, collector-like fascination with stuff over people and characters. They're often wargamery or power fantasy games. I don't think they're a bad thing: that's an experience some people appreciate from games. I grew up fascinated by Palladium's weapons books, the Q Manual, and Guns, Guns, Guns. It's that lizard part of my brain that still has a fondness for Twilight 2000. Think about this- we're nearly as far on the other side of their predicted apocalypse as they were when they pinned it to the future.
Twilight 2000 at RPGNow
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12. Miscellaneous: Post-Apocalypse Supplements
Several supplements for other games take advantage of a post-apocalyptic setting. The earliest of these is Security Station (1980). I could never get enough gaming in when I was young, so I'd pick up Tunnels & Trolls solo adventures and Metagaming Microquests for Melee & Wizard. I can say with some certainty that I never legitimately finished one. I'd get killed off quickly every single time. I ended up using them like CYOAs and simply reading through. Of those Fantasy Trip adventures, Security Station remains one of the strangest. Your fantasy characters have to go through a gate into an atomic wasteland to raid a hi-tech bunker on this ruined Earth. Effectively it was Expedition to the Barrier Peaks mixed with nuclear war. I remember the dungeon being dangerous and arbitrary. I wish someone would reprint these adventures- perhaps even make them available as a playable online resource.
 
A few years later saw OMEGAKRON (1984) arrive. Developed for the bizarre Lords of Creation rpg, this one had the party trapped in a future post-nuke Akron, OH. This weird module can still be picked up for cheap. Also in the early 1980s Richard Tucholka developed a host of rpgs. Notable among them is Fringeworthy, a cross-dimensional travel rpg (which the later Stargate looks suspiciously like...). Rogue 417 (1984) is a sourcebook for Fringeworthy which presents a world where a bioweapon spread across the world, unleashing zombie-like creatures. That may make it the first zombie rpg. This material can be used as a world to be explored or else as the starting point for a campaign. Likewise Invasion U.S.! served dual purposes as well. It could be used as a new location or as the basis for a Red Dawn-style game. That's a little outside my definitions, but I thought it worth mentioning.
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