Viewpoint If not zombies then what? What do you care to see in apocalyptic roleplays?

[Viper]

Personally, the threat matters a lot to me. Of course the interactions and characters matter, but if I'm doing an apocalypse RP, then the apocalypse should matter throughout the whole RP, not just be a setting never mentioned again. And the type of threat changes so much: the type of characters we play, the conflicts we will meet, those we bond with, those we don't trust, how we survive, etc etc.

To answer your "If not zombies, then what?" question, I'll describe a few of my vague ideas....

• Hive minds- alien, fantasy, or realistic. This is fun whether those in the hive are obvious or they are still capable of pretending to be normal.
• Mass ghost/demon possession, making exorcists valued commodities and the main target of any possessed. The world is becoming hell on earth.
• Vampires are real and they were hiding in secret until their numbers were large enough that they took over the world. Now small bands of humans are hiding out or else they will be turned into living blood bags and/or pets of the vamps.
• A disease that spreads through a hard to avoid medium, like water (including rain) or sunlight.
• Something that causes mass violence, paranoia, and any other negative emotion. Basically the world is full of murderous madmen besides those uninfected.
• Cults- an end of the world cult actually made it happen and now the members make up the majority of the worlds population. This can be fun even if you are a cult member who got your way cause now the RP can be about chasing down the remaining non-members or realizing that the end of the world is not as great as you thought it would be.
• Mass Cannibalism, so similar to zombies but its just normal people with a deep craving and tolerance for flesh. Weapons, rich people using their money to get food, skilled killer is now a valued profession, cops barely even see killing to eat as a crime anymore, etc.
• Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse- its what they are designed to do, and its even more fun of the 4 Horsemen are also at war with each other and "infecting" different areas, so survivors survive differently depending on who they are being affected by. The horsemen being War, Famine, Disease, and Death, I sub out Conquest for Disease cause war and conquest are so similar, and disease offers more variety.
• Seven Deadly Sins- same as the above, but different powers at war and different ways to survive.
• Dystopian- The air is poisons, but a medicine exists to let you breath it. if you don't get a certain medicine, you die, and although there are not many people left, the drug is a limited resource so naturally what little exists is hoarded rather than shared, prompting a lot of people to do a lot of bad things out of desperation.

And not exactly apocalypse, but I think an RP that takes place in a bunker could be cool. Ever seen American Horror Story Apocalypse? Like that but no magic. And it doesn't even matter if the threat is real or just imaginary, your stuck in there with people for the rest of your lives.

 

[Idea]

Personally, I am a big fan of ruined magitech societies, or ruins of an old more advanced society in general with a less advanced one built on top. I prefer post apocalypses with focus on a new society or in the aftermath of desolation than one based on present threats or that are more thriller / action styled.