It’s a beautiful day for the Post Apocalypse.

I never realized how many games in this category I actually enjoy. I’ve been a RIFTS and Gamma World fan for many years. What I didn’t realize is the wide variety of games that I hadn’t paid much attention to lately.

Here are a few games that have become leaders in the genre that I hadn’t noticed as much:

Mörk Borg (English) by Free League Publishing.

Mork Borg cover.

I feel like I woke up one day and this game was everywhere. I will say it is quite popular and has many offshoots such as Cy Borg and Pirate Borg. Possibly more bizarre is the fact that this game is listed as an OSR game and runs off of B/X D&D mechanics.

This game was originally published in Sweden. The acid punk art style and easy d20 vs target number mechanics rapidly became popular everywhere. It has apparently become the post apocalypse of choice for many gamers. I’ve never gotten into Mork Borg, but I definitely respect it in terms of sales and popularity.

Salvage Union by Leyline Press.

I regret not backing the Kickstarter for this game, but I didn’t have the funds at the time. It’s a game where mecha pilots salvage whatever they can from a post-apocalyptic world in the name of their mobile arcology. It combines a lot of moving parts seamlessly into a very neat TTRPG. This game rocks in multiple categories.

Salvage Union from Leyline Press. Worth checking out.

Fallout RPG by Modiphius.

I love the video game series this TTRPG is based on. It’s a newer game compared to RIFTS or Gamma World. The 2d20 mechanic has been used in multiple Modiphius games with a great deal of success. The recent resurgence of the Fallout franchise has made this TTRPG more popular than ever.

Rust and Redemption by Monte Cook Games.

This is a Cypher System game and I truly wish I had jumped onboard the massive Kickstarter that included this book. My FLGS had a copy of this game on the shelf, and I thumbed through it. Love at first sight for me and I’ll be adding it to my Cypher collection someday. As post apocalypse goes, it emphasizes exploration and survival over combat. Honestly, I think it might be tough to compete with right now.

Stiff competition for a BRP Design Challenge entry, to be sure.

I am still strongly considering doing a post-apocalyptic style game for the BRP Design Challenge. The BRP system lends itself well to emulating multiple time periods. BRP is a classless system and leans more on character skills and abilities. The organic skill leveling mechanic would work well in a setting where training and education are a bit harder to come by.

I also had zombie apocalypse on my brainstorming list. It’s a fun subgenre of post-apocalyptic games. I’m not sure what I could bring to the table that Walking Dead, Zombicide, and Palladium’s Dead Reign doesn’t already have. Not every zombie apocalypse looks exactly alike, but zombies are zombies no matter what the movie or TTRPG.

I would like to make an honorable mention of Red Markets by Hebanon Games. I originally scoffed at this notion originally, but the funny thing is, the game works. It works really well, actually. Imagine playing an enterprising entrepreneur in the zombie apocalypse. It’s inspiring as a TTRPG to me because of its unique concept.

The Post-Apocalypse genre also crosses over into giant robots on occasion which is a whole different topic. Mecha is probably my favorite TTRPG genre, even though devoted mecha fans are few and far between. We’ll see where the road takes us on that one.

The PA genre also crosses over into horror quite a bit. I mean, nuclear winter or zombies just aren’t scary enough, right?

Thanks for stopping by today. Please go check out some of the links in this article. There are so many cool TTRPGs out there in the world and I’ve only scratched the very surface of one genre today. I appreciate you being here with me as we delve into the various possibilities for the BRP Design Challenge.