It’s the end of the world as we know it…

We are still there! LHC has not killed us (yet), so we still have some time left to play post-apocalyptic roleplaying games! There are probably dozens of interesting roleplaying games featuring the end of the world, but now I want to write about some of my favourites:

• d20 Apocalypse (Wizards of the Coast)
  D20 Apocalypse is THE toolbox for GMs planning a post-apocalyptic campaign. It’s a sourcebook to Wizards of the Coast’s d20 Modern. In the 96 page softcover book you find rules for playing at the end of the world, several campaign ideas including advanced classes and monsters. The included campaign models are Atomic Sunrise, Earth Inherited and Plague World. If you look for a complete campaign setting with all details fleshed out, d20 Apocalypse is probably not the right book for you. But if you plan to use d20 Modern and you want to run a fully-fledged post-apocalyptic campaign of your own creation, the book is worth a look.
• RIFTS (Palladium Books)
  If you are a fan of roleplaying games you’ve probably heard from RIFTS. RIFTS is a unique mix of post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk, fantasy and horror elements. Rifts Earth is still one of my favourite campaign settings, but I think that the rules used by the game are nothing short of a catastrophe itself. If you can get over the unbalanced and confusing Palladium system used in the game, you get one of the most unique post-apocalyptic campaigns ever published. In 2005 a revised “Ultimate Edition” was released that made some minor updates to rules and setting, but I haven’t seen it yet, so I can’t comment on the changes. If you want to play a cyborged elf wielding magic and piloting a giant robot fighting against ancient demons and a nation of faschists, check out RIFTS!
• Twilight 2000 (GDW)
  Twilight 2000 is clearly a product of the 80s. NATO and Warsaw Pact have gone to war and dropped a few of those thermo-nuclear devices the military is so fond of.  The campaign is set into a destroyed Europe where the remnants of former armies try to fight against warlords who came to power after everything went down. I made first contact with Twilight 2000 in form of the computer game based on the tabletop RPG. I was at once drawn into the setting and was blown away by the great character creation. The games’ rules are old-school but not as bad as Palladiums’ and the campaign is based on what everyone feared in the 80s. I recommend playing Twilight 2000 with people who still remember the early 80s or check out the upcoming version that features a completely rewritten timeline.