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Old 10-06-2018, 03:07 PM   #1
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default The End of the World

Recent reports from the US government and the UN predict a minimum of a 7 F increase in average global temperatures by 2100 (ranging from a 5 F increase in average annual temperatures in the tropics to a 35 F increase in average summer temperatures in the Arctic and Antarctic). The climate scientists that I know have been describing massive rainfall changes, such as a reduction in rainfall in the Southwest by 90% and a 200% increase in rainfall in the Southeast, by 2100. In addition, there will be rapid deglaciation after 2050, with the majority of Antarctica melting by 2100, resulting in ocean levels rising 100' by 2100. In short, it is too late to save human civilization without one or more miracles (commercial fusion or reactionless engines by 2050).

So, imagine a game set from 2050-2100. Human civilization is ending with a whimper rather than a bang. Rising oceans are swallowing every coastal city and displacing the majority of humanity. Crop production is falling severely as agricultural land drowns underneath the rising oceans, as rainfall pattern changes make it difficult to grow crops in the majority of the world, and as increased heat causes grains to be less productive. Wars and famines break out as entire continents disintegrate underneath the strain.

What type of campaign would you run? Would the campaign be a valiant attempt to save the knowledge of human civilization? Would it be a Hail Mary pass to create a miracle? Would it just be an attempt to survive when 90% of humanity is doomed to suffering an inglorious death? Or would it be an attempt to trigger a global nuclear war in order to reset the climate clock, so that 90% of humanity dies in a flash of bright light rather than starving to death?
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Old 10-06-2018, 03:23 PM   #2
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Default Re: The End of the World

You'd end up in a global thermonuclear war as nations violently take livable land from others.

In the beginning there may be optimistic attempts to survive, but it will eventually deteriorate into the theft of usable land at gunpoint.
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Old 10-06-2018, 04:15 PM   #3
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Default Re: The End of the World

We also have video evidence that there would be pirates on jet skis operating out of a ship loaded with cigarettes.
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Old 10-06-2018, 05:35 PM   #4
Tom H.
 
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Default Re: The End of the World

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Originally Posted by The Colonel View Post
We also have video evidence that there would be pirates on jet skis operating out of a ship loaded with cigarettes.
Oohh, yeah! Rewrite the ending so that instead of the Valdez going down, it's used as a modern Ark to ferry all remaining species to Dry Land.

Then it's put in a museum so that in several millennia the descedants will marvel at the wisdom of the ancients to have prepared such a construction to save the planet. Oh well, who's to know any better. ;-)

At any rate, in reality, I'm betting on the Gaia hypothesis.
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Old 10-06-2018, 06:39 PM   #5
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Default Re: The End of the World

So massive flooding leading to Waterworld, but also massive droughts on mainland leading to Mad Max and/or Tankgirl.

Throw in a death cult or two using an Umbrella symbol and you got a wonderful Apocalyptic hat trick.
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Old 10-07-2018, 03:11 PM   #6
Luke Bunyip
 
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Default Re: The End of the World

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
So, imagine a game set from 2050-2100. Human civilization is ending with a whimper rather than a bang... Crop production is falling severely as ... rainfall pattern changes make it difficult to grow crops in the majority of the world, and as increased heat causes grains to be less productive. Wars and famines break out as entire continents disintegrate underneath the strain.

What type of campaign would you run?
Sounds like the current campaign I'm working on. I'm going to scale back the sea level rise because 100m sea level rise is too bleak for even me.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
So massive flooding leading to Waterworld, but also massive droughts on mainland leading to Mad Max and/or Tankgirl.

Throw in a death cult or two using an Umbrella symbol and you got a wonderful Apocalyptic hat trick.
As an Antipodean, I feel obligated to point out that the later two are set down here, so throw another long pork chop on the barbie, I say.

Mmmn, Unbrella Corp.... that's the BBEG I was looking for. Am tempted to include Zerstörung durch Fortschritte der Technologie, but.
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Old 10-07-2018, 03:13 PM   #7
Pomphis
 
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Default Re: The End of the World

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Sounds like the current campaign I'm working on. I'm going to scale back the sea level rise because 100m sea level rise is too bleak for even me.
Only 100 feet.
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Old 10-07-2018, 05:31 PM   #8
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: The End of the World

A possible scenario would be Fortress Alaska. Alaska declares independence from a fragmenting USA and attempts to ride out the storm, so to speak, using its natural resources to support its population. With the warming climate, Alaska would just be barely capable of supporting its tiny population, but it would face immigration from the former USA, though Canada could be a useful buffer if it can survive. What type of fate would Alaska face as its infrastructure begins to disintegrate beecause it cannot get replace parts as the rest of the world falls apart?
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Old 10-07-2018, 08:18 PM   #9
Luke Bunyip
 
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Default Re: The End of the World

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Only 100 feet.
30+ metres is still too much for me to be able to run a viable game setting.
I'm going to be comparatively optimistic and go for a 'mere' 23' / 7m.
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Old 10-08-2018, 10:44 PM   #10
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Default Re: The End of the World

The fun thing about apocalypses is that it produces two kinds of governments suited for adventuring: Sparsely-populated Mad-Max-esque anarchism and densely-populated police states.

There's so much to play with in that scenario. I'd say that there's the lawless wastes and barrens that cover 90% of the landmass, and dotted around the continents are densely-populated enclaves wherever the climate permits. These walled cities have diverse cultures, rules, and ideologies, but are alike in that they have more people than they have resource (or else, they have extreme control over the population; Malthus Was Right in this setting, after all).

The wastes have some small settlements, and they too are diverse; what they have in common is that they are unstable. A single bad harvest, sickness, even one particularly important person's death, might lead to the collapse of the settlement into banditry or migration to a city.
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