Let's make a pulpy post-apocalyptic setting

> It's been several centuries since the apocalypse shattered and crudely rearranged the continents.
> People can't seem to agree whether or not the region is in the ruins of Arizona and Nevada, or in the ruins of Australia.

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The primary settlements are a combination of giant crawlers and oil refineries that only park long enough to drill for go-juice before moving on after the land is tapped dry.

The world is not one big desert and is actually covered with plants and animals that survived

Patches of what might be radiation are everywhere, and prolonged exposure to what might be radiation cause the rapid onset of extreme bodily mutations.

Sometimes the stars align and wizards from the stars wander down on their steel steeds to trade laser guns and weather predicting rings for surface goods and chunks of ancient computers.

>Everyone says that things are "different" up over the mountains, though no one can agree whether that's "good-different, "bad-different" or "weird different."

>Banditry in this post-apocalyptic world is more akin to old-timey piracy, with the bandits using smaller, faster vehicles to launch lighting-fast raids on the colony-crawlers.

>Living off the land and what thy can salvage from the ruins of civilizations, different groups of mutants lead lifestyles that range from tribal to old-western, and may be good or evil.

Hordes of feral misshapen mutants roam the land led by war-like mutants who have retained a level of intelligence, who dominate their atavistic and monstrous brethren with the ability to use firearms and operate machinery.

Shambling undead corpses wander in silent, terrible droves spreading radiation with every step, their ionized carrion driving insane and diseased the flocks of crows and vultures which feast upon them.

Ancient warbots stalk the wastelands, chrome sheens dulled by nuclear fire and acid storms, from skittering assassins to thundering tank-men, warbots destroy all in their path.

The sky wizards look like pic related.

There Is only one forest for miles.
It's protected savagely by cultists who use an archaic cloning machine to keep their army alive.

The monster hordes are one reason most major settlements are mobile crawlers.

Not to hijack the thread but if we are discussing post-apocalyptic settings could someone give me some feedback on mine? I've posted it like 3 times now, trying to get it ready, it's an actual document for a setting I made up on-the-fly for a campaign. it was on hiatus but might be starting up again soon. It's meant to have a very gray cold comfy sort of feel, not like Fallout or Stalker with all the heavy-armor dudes and steampunk aesthetic.

Here's a video to give you an idea of the tone, ignore the zombies: streamable.com/lb8cs


Anyway here's my contribution to the thread.

>sometimes on the full moon, rocks come to life

Combine these two, and you've for the making for all new, post apocalyptic regions. Countries, even.

In places, nature has merely reclaimed the earth, wild and natural, ripe for the harvest, but in other places, the nature was corrupted by clouds of radiation, toxins and chemical and biological run off, creating monsters the minds of the old world wouldn't dare dream of. It's a new and terrible Earth, a neo-primeval hellscape created at the hands of Man and Nature.

Looks pretty good, what system are you going to be running it with?

> Medieval weaponry has made a comeback, as it's much less diffucult to manufacture blades and shields than it is to manufacture rifles and ammunition.

>> Medieval weaponry has made a comeback, as it's much less diffucult to manufacture blades and shields than it is to manufacture rifles and ammunition.
If you want something like that, you can use my worldbuilding trick.

First you have WW3 with WMD's.

Then, you have WW4 with whatever weapons were left over after WW3.

Now all the guns are rare, and all the bullets are rare, because someone decided to fight a world war in the ruins of the old world and fucked it up even more!

>knights armed with oozies and riding abrams fighting cultist in what remains of USA fused with the middle east
>all that is known about america is the flag and the word "Freedom"
>any war in this region can be justified by freedom

The mutants are actually an engineered fungus that will slowly engulf any non-biological material in contact with itself or the dirt, and take over the nervous systems of humans.

The fungus appears as humanoid blobs with wet feet of slime mold like substance that carries the humanoid fungus body like it was rollerskating on snails.

High above the blasted hellscapes and primeval foliage floats a single great flying city. It's founders were composed of the richest of the rich from around the old world, the scientists and engineers hired to build it and a small army of servants and entertainers to see to the financiers every want.
Launched just before the calamity struck it is a shining beacon of old world power and glory.
However the generations have been less kind to its inhabitants, a rigid caste system has evolved. The hedonistic bloated inbred descendants of the wealthy ruling absolutely through systems and robotic security that are loyal only to those of certain genetic signatures.
They periodically send their minions to raid the surface world for fresh slaves and amusements.

The floatong cities favorite pastime is to watch the more primitive residents of the planet survive and fight

However the mutants are fairly easy to kill
A dash of salt instantly kills them
Too bad salt is rare
Without salt or ballistics it takes dozens from a pistol to kill the mutants
This is a reason why armor is still largly relevant

Savage Worlds. It's kinda pulpy but has exploding dice so it can be pretty lethal. Decent gun rules although I have some edits to make.

Cliche: The Thread

>The world's male nobility travel exclusively by manticore. Male nobles who fail to tame a manticore as a boy are ridiculed like we'd ridicule a 30 year old who can't drive now.

>Stone is the most valuable resource. It protects you from dragon fire, can be used as a weapon or tool and to boil water in a pinch.

>Due to genetic and evolutionary mutation all women with breasts below a D cup are now extinct. Breasts are harvested for their flesh and delicious milk. A remote mastectomy tribe exist in protest to this and a return to the old ways.

>that last green text
Please stop fetish posting
Its the the rebuilt society but that just makes no sense

I'm literally trying to use California to build this kind of setting right now, drawing inspiration from Into the Badlands and The Dark Tower

I'm going to throw in my idea that most people have forgotten how to read and write in pre-apoc languages, and have developed new writing to substitute. To add to this, Magic is old world novels- if you can figure out how to read old world books, reading one will grant you a spell related to the book. If I read Jane Austin it'll be a social spell but if I read something like World War Z it'll be animate dead

OP did say pulpy...

>A bare handful of religious orders, much of their original doctrine long forgotten, roam the wastes in the modified colony crawlers known as Arks
>having more in common with a monastery or a biodome than an actual city, they keep the lights on and motors running by selling their most valuable resource: relatively uncontaminated crops, livestock, and brews. Relatively.

>missing the point: the post. rated r.

Reminds me of the quote (paraphrasing) from the beginning of A Boy and His Dog:

"World War III lasted 33 years. World War IV lasted five days."

So it's a knightriders / postman mashup then? I can dig it.

>I'm literally trying to use California
Likely going to be a bit cliche. Every post-apoc setting ever is either in California (because of movies) or Australia (because of Max). Why not try somewhere (anywhere) else? Your setting will get some unique flavor simply by virtue of people having to cope with terrain that's not flat rocky desert.