10-06-2018, 03:07 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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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? |
10-06-2018, 03:23 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: near Houston
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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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A generous and sadistic GM, Brandon Cope GURPS 3e stuff: http://copeab.tripod.com |
10-06-2018, 04:15 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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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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10-06-2018, 05:35 PM | #4 | |
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Central Texas, north of Austin
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Re: The End of the World
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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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10-06-2018, 06:39 PM | #5 |
Untagged
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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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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Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check. |
10-07-2018, 03:11 PM | #6 | ||
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: The Kingdom of Insignificance
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Re: The End of the World
Quote:
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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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It's all very well to be told to act my age, but I've never been this old before... |
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10-07-2018, 03:13 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Oct 2004
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Re: The End of the World
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10-07-2018, 05:31 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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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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10-07-2018, 08:18 PM | #9 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: The Kingdom of Insignificance
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Re: The End of the World
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.
__________________
It's all very well to be told to act my age, but I've never been this old before... |
10-08-2018, 10:44 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Feb 2011
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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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