Post-Apocalyptic Generator Dump

Hi yes hello

over the last nearly-a-decade i have run several campaigns set in a post-apocalyptic greater vancouver area (lower mainland, BC, pacific northwest, canada, etc)

i also made a lot of random generators using the engine at http://orteil.dashnet.org/randomgen/

here they are, collected for your perusal, but first, some preamble

PREAMBLE - THE SETTING

Everything gets worse forever. At every junction of history (starting from when i started writing this, so the early 2010s) everything that could go wrong, did. Imagine the current surrealist hellscape we live in, if nobody even pretended like things were going to work out. This resulted in nuclear war breaking out in mid-2028, initially limited to China and the USA but quickly expanding to include, well, most of the world. Vancouver BC (the setting for the game) escaped direct damage, but quickly devolved into apocalyptic chaos regardless. The mood is very gonzo, sort of like a more-cyberpunk Fallout with the Wild Wasteland perk jammed on. Fallout wasn't a main inspiration though, at least not directly - a specific dead MOO was, which itself was heavily inspired by Fallout among other things.

The game was set around the year 2070, approximately forty years after the apocalypse that ended the world, but the setting included plenty of sci-fi stuff that doesn't really make sense to have existed in 2028, and also a dash of STALKER-esque radiation-horror-magic, because that's fun. I think it was later retconned to have been at least partially a result of time/dimension travel, but that's not really present in the mechanics-as-lore, more of a background thing as an easter egg for my friends because one of them ran a game where we were time and dimensional travelers and it neatly explained all the anachronisms and fucked up shit in my apocalypse setting.

PREAMBLE - THE SYSTEM

the game was run using a hacked-together system based (somewhat loosely) on d20 Modern and/or D&D 3.5. it diverged from those more significantly as time went on, but i think the first campaign actually did use the d20 Modern Strong/Fast/Tough/Smart/Wise/Charismatic hero classes - later ones were classless. i also wrote a gigantic table of firearm damage by specific real-world caliber, which is fun if your gaming group has gun nerds in it. maybe i'll post that later

anyway, this stuff should all be directly compatible with d20 (D&D 3.5-esque) systems, and compatible without much too much effort with other editions of D&D and systems derived from or inspired by them

notable differences from the basic d20 system:
- Wisdom bonus applies to AC and initiative, i liked this because it made it a lot more valuable and made Dex slightly less obviously the best statistic (it still was though)
- Armor has HP as well as an AC bonus, in practice this was fiddly as hell and I recommend ignoring it - or ignoring the AC bonus and just using the HP, if you like the flavor of pulling your shattered plate carrier off after taking a round to the chest
- max level was 6
- by the end at least, there were no classes
- also by the end (i.e. some of the generators may not reflect this) ability scores were replaced entirely with their (d20 system) modifiers, meaning for ex. the average strength for a human was "+0", not "10". you can probably convert this in your head but i thought i'd mention it, also of note because it means that stuff with stat effects should most likely be doubled if you use this in a d20 system game (i.e. something that gives "+1 STR" is meant to give a +1 bonus to strength modifier)

if you plan to use this stuff with OSR-type games then probably just cut weapon damage waaaaay down, like maybe in half or something, and probably scale skill modifiers down as well (and interpret them to fit your system ofc)


CONTENT WARNING: some of these (notably the Tattoo generator, and the Jerk and Dog ones by proxy along with any others that include it) contain some problematic shit, because the setting is a hellworld steeped in 2010s-2020s internet culture with zero social context. there shouldn't be any slurs, but a jerk might have some nazi tattoos or something because they're a jerk.

okay on to the generators

GENERATORS - THE BEST ONES

these are the best/most useful/funniest. a lot of them import stuff from other ones, because that's a thing you can do. i heartily recommend bookmarking these if you plan to do anything wacky and/or post-apocalyptic

Random Jerk Generator
- this is it. this is the best one. combines nearly all the others to give you a random NPC.

Random Gun Generator

Random Weapon Generator - includes the above (somewhat rarely) and also melee weapons etc

- creates some truly ridiculous shit, much funnier if you know anything about guns and how bad of an idea it would be to build.. pretty much anything that this spits out

- of note: 

"jury-rigged" firearms would crit fail on rolls of 1-3 and then you rolled for them to explode (low chance), break (high chance), or jam (about even with break)

"average quality" would crit fail on rolls of 1-2 and then explode (very low chance), break (medium chance), or jam (most of the time)

"professionally made" would only crit fail on rolls of 1 and never explode, rarely break

Random Car Generator

- either this one or the gun one was the first one i made

- funnier if you know anything about cars

Random Name Generator - content warning: capable of some problematic combinations. no slurs but there are a lot of words in there.
Random "Cocktail" Generator - includes the random name generator, because they're just as good as names for cocktails
- people consider some truly desperate shit to be a "cocktail" in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, hence the scare quotes

Random Outfit Generator
Random Food Generator - notable for the 2028-era "snack foods", which i keep meaning to split into their own separate generator for this one to include but never got around to
Random Loot Generator - includes both of the above, but single clothing items rather than outfits, also includes a couple other generators (rarely) like the weapon one, the armor one, the implant one, maybe the car one i forget

Random Armor Generator
- includes some heavy clothing with no armor value as well, generates full "outerwear" outfits... by apocalypse standards, anyway

GENERATORS - THE SUPPLEMENTAL/ANCILLARY ONES

these are mostly useful if you need a specific class of object, or as things that the other ones include

Random Bag Generator
- pretty much the same as the Loot generator from the "best ones" section, but in a bag

Random Monster Generator - mutant animals
Random Dog Generator - good dogs, often with tattoos, collars with names, mutations, implants, disabilities, or other things

Random Haircut Generator
Random Tattoo Generator - content warning: contains some nazi shit, because i wanted a shitty world where people would have tattoos of random pop culture stuff from the 2020s that they had absolutely zero context for
- built to include in the Jerk generator, the tattoos ended up in the Dog generator as well. nightmarish.

Random Implant Generator
Random Mutation Generator
Random Disability Generator - content warning: no r-slur or anything but it's a fraught topic.
- built these all to include in the Jerk generator at the top (and also the Dog generator)

Random Settlement Generator
- does what it says on the tin. useful for background when the party stumbled upon a building I decided should be occupied but didn't have anything in mind

Random Weather Generator
- built for the Encounter generator, but i think i actually ended up using it more on its own

Random Encounter Generator - includes the Jerk, Dog, Monster generators among others
- sets the scene for an encounter. in practice i didn't use this much, usually just picked stuff myself