Suggest me some "different" apocalypse :)

So, i'll run soon enough another AW campaign. And while i'll always ask my players what kind of Apocalypse they want, i would like to give them some inputs to ponder on. Last campaign my players wanted a Mad Max Apocalypse, and while they liked it, i hated it very much.

Things i will avoid at all costs:
- Classical Nuclear Apocalypse
- Terminator or Matrix Apocalypse
- Zombie Apocalypse
- Battlestar Galactica Space Exodus Apocalypse

Things i'm considering:
- Nausicaa or The 100 Apocalypse
- Ice Age Apocalypse
- Waterworld Apocalypse

Do you have some suggestions to have a different spin on the Apocalypse World?

I have personally been intrigued by a "Life After People" type scenario inspired in part by the book Earth Abides.  After a few generations there is a general reset to a hunter gatherer state of nature.  It might make too many assumptions about scarcities of guns, ammo, technology and such to appeal to some groups though.

This sounds like a task for "Watch the World Die", which I wrote originally to serve as "Session 0" of an AW campaign.  But it can also be played as a one-shot "party game" or used as a solo GM tool for structured brainstorming. 

The "APOCALYPSE TYPE" table in Phase 1 will add a few options to your list all by itself.

Yes it did that:
- Conventional War - No
- Climate Chaos - Yes if polar
? Flooding/Searise - Yes
? Biological War/Plague - Yes
? Desertification/Solar Radiation - No
? Thermonuclear War - No
? Methane Eruptions/Poison Atmosphere - Yes
? Acid/Toxic/Disgusting Precipitation - Yes
? Polar Reversal/Tectonic Chaos - Don't Know
? Radioactive Fallout/Waste - No
? Meteorite/Planetary Impact - This could lead to most of the things already said it before
? Cosmic/Galactic Rays/EMF - Same as Climate Chaos
? Alien Invasion - No
? Zombie Apocalypse - No
? AI/Robot/Nano Revolution - No
? Psychic Apocalypse/Singularity - Yes

I thought of a couple new Apocalypse Types:
- A new intelligent species is now the top of the food chain and it's not an alien (like planet of the apes)
- A beast of the legend comes real (think like Reign of Fire)

If anyone have something to add to the possible Apocalypse Types, is more than welcome to do so!

Ice/snow apocalypse can be fun. Our group also tried a swamp apocalypse, and while it didn't quite get off the ground the setting seemed promising. There's also urban apocalypse, which can be mixed and matched.

Urban apocalypse is interesting indeed, but i almost played it when i played a star wars campaign set in the lower levels Coruscant. But it has potential for sure.

I've found that for the purposes of creating the setting, one of the most interesting methods is the "pick an adjective" method described somewhere here on these forums (sorry, I don't know who it was and can't sem to find the thread).  In any event, the gist of it is that each player gives you an adjective (or noun or simple concept) that describes their impression of the apocalypse.  Those adjectives, taken together, describe the setting.

You can even give folks a veto if need be (like if one player says "zombies," and another player wants to do somethingelsepleasegodanythingbutzombiesthey'vebeendonetodeathseewhatIdidthere).

What's cool about this is that it's different every time.  And sometimes players will really throw you a curve ball, which is great fun to incorporate.  Using this method I've run three different games with three radically different Apocalypses:

Barren, Lawless, Empty, and Violent - this one started out straight up Mad Max, but ultimately the psychic maelstrom turned out to be the result of alien intervention, and it wasn't clear whether the the no-longer-present aliens were the cause of the Apocalypse or its cure.

Moldy, Green, Cloudy, Fiery, and Animal-Infested - this setting was a wild, overgrown, vermin-filled Apocalypse where it drizzled all the time and the sun rarely shone.  In order to fit in "fiery," the area's primary industry was built around coal.  The hardhold had an old coal gasification plant, and constantly belched out soot.  Similarly, flames and furnaces were used to dry big piles of desiccant used by pretty much everyone to keep the creeping damp at bay.  And in this one the psychic maelstrom seems to have something to do with a breakdown in the linearity of time.

Haunted, Scorched, Hunted, and Flashy - That last adjective was a total curveball, but really ended up setting the tone for the game.  It took place in this technologically advanced city (powered by an aging Tokamak reactor) that was the last, desperate hold-out of a bygone golden age.  The city sat amid a mostly trackless, blasted plain, but inside its precincts it was all neon and glitz.  The Chopper decided his gang's bikes were electric and radio/acoustics played a big part in the Savvyhead's workspace.  And outside the city, everyone lived in fear of the Ghosts, incorporeal creatures that were drawn to sound and seemed to hunt humans.

I feel like this is a great way to "ask the players" on one of the very most basic facets of the game.  And since each one is contributing something, everyone has buy-in to the setting.  And from an MC perspective, it's a great challenge to incorporate all of of that into a cohesive whole.

The Rapture has happened and you are the people that were left behind.

YOU ARE ATLANTEANS, the last survivors of a highly advanced civilization which was destroyed by (name it).  Once, not that long ago, your people had electricity, running water, flying machines and other wonders of science and engineering.  Now, wandering the devastated ruins of your island continent, you scavenge and fight amongst yourselves for subsistence and pieces of Atlantean Technology to aid you in survival. 

The Gods and the Demons have spoken; if you shut your eyes and relax you can hear their rumbling, buzzing voices in the back of your mind.  Some people converse with them on a regular basis, and many of these wyrd ones have come to a singular conclusion: The Continent Is Sinking.

You have less than (X) years.  Eventually you will need to build or obtain a seafaring vessel, travel across the Atlantean Ocean in your chosen direction, and find a new place to live.  But for now, it's hard enough just staying alive.

How about this setting?

Waste Space is a game set in the far future, where the human race has taken refuge in large, derelict space stations around the galaxy. Earth is but a distant memory; humankind lives on the scraps and crumbs left behind by a once great civilization that has crumbled to dust centuries ago. People make do with the debris and spare parts they can find; remnants of when humankind lived in a technological paradise. Our Golden Age is over; all that’s left is bits and pieces.

The stations would be isolated from each other if it wasn’t for one communications protocol that is still functional, simply called the Network. It is not perfect; as with everything else in the Waste Space, technology is a luxury. But when it works, it enables the stations to keep in contact and work together to better the lives of their inhabitants.

Living in space stations has a peculiar effect on people. They tend to get weird and unpredictable. Sometimes, the inhabitants of a station decide to cut the connection to the Network because of social issues; maybe they have started a fanatic cult. Maybe some power-hungry maniac has taken control of the station somehow. Maybe the technicians who took care of Network maintenance have all been killed off under mysterious circumstances.

Warning!! Pseudoscience detected ahead!! Warning!!

******

A plague springs up that modifies the toxicity of C4 (a type of carbon) in the body, throwing it through the roof.  In the nation where it started, where corn or corn-raised meat (the source of C4 in the human body) is almost unheard of, it spread without notice, infecting almost the entire population.  In no time there was an endless supply of unaffected carriers. 

Many nations, however, were destroyed by the disease.  The western hemisphere was practically abandoned.  Most of Europe suffered devastating losses. Countries receiving or having received foreign aid from the American breadbasket were affected. 

Survivors did exist. 
In Greenland the population was spread enough to allow quarantine in time. 
Hunter groups in the deep north of the North American continent survived. 
In Pennsylvania those Amish children who hadn't left on their Rumspringa survived the first wave of disease.  The ones who remained unnoticed by the rest of America remained unexposed to modern corn-based foods and lived long enough to grow into adults. 
A few religious extremists and modern-militias, squirreled away in the middle of nowhere, remained unexposed and (due to their paranoiac nature) had enough supplies to survive.  Some of them.
W.H.O. and U.N. expeditions to the western continents mostly died out... but a few rogue survivors remained immune because of their diets.

What remains in the west is a land of startling prosperity, almost entirely abandoned and decaying faster than the survivors could possibly maintain it.  Guns?  Check.  Citadel-like apartment complexes, factories, and churches?   Check.  Cars?  Trucks?  Armored, weaponized military monstrosities?  Check.  Food?  Almost entirely lethal.  Gas?  Maybe for the first year or two - that stuff doesn't last forever.  Bio-diesel?  Historically made from corn, which usually ended up killing the producers when they got hungry and dipped into the production stock.  Factories?  Rusted out husks of dangerous metal.  A world where you could have anything you want, as long as it's something you'll kill for.

Yesterday i watched the premier of the Dominion tv series and it gave me some interesting ideas about a Real Apocalypse (armageddon)

The Rapture has happened and you are the people that were left behind.

This is one I want to do. It also brings in some good explanation for how things got so Weird so quickly.

And y'know, if you wanted a reason why the dead are risen. First the dead rise, then all good living and dead receive rapture, leaving behind only bad people (your parents/grandparents) and bad dead...

So my players decided for a Glacial Apocalypse, set in the far north. The fun part was how the Apocalypse originated: one day, for some mystical reasons (maelstrom?) all inhabitants of the earth started to tell the truth and couldn't tell lies anymore. The war came, and the nuclear fallout left the earth with toxic clouds that obscured the sun and led to a glacial era. Decades after (or centuries? no one really knows) the mankind could start to tell lies again, and some form of society began to resurface... Ice, mutations, toxic wastes, subterranean cities, cannibals, polar smilobears, pockets of "lie detection" and condensed maelstrom artifacts are part of the setting.

All the apocalypse was to teach something to mankind? It was an act of god or a mere supernatural/natural disaster?

What do you think? How can i make this little start more awesome?

What do you think? How can i make this little start more awesome?

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