The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I have been anxiously awaiting this book for a while. I had been toying with the notion of doing just what this book talks about, ending the world while a campaign was being run, as an experiment. The thought that Greg Porter, RPG research god, was going to cover precisely this subject in a CORPS supplement was great news.

What the Hell is this about?

That's a damned good question. Down in Flames is about the end of the world. Which world? Whichever world your characters happen to inhabit. It provides ideas on how to drastically (but coherently) change your setting based upon several forms of major disaster:

natural disasters;
man-made disasters;
"outside-influenced" disasters; and
wrath of (a) god disasters.

In each category the book cites three possible scenarios. And it tacks on a final scenario to bring the total to an even baker's dozen of world-cracking fun.

In all scenarios, Down in Flames discusses what happens, how it happens and provides both short- and long-term ramifications of the event, although sometimes the "long-term" impact is fairly terse: nobody survives. Be warned, however: some of this material is not for people with overactive imaginations paired with weak stomachs.

In addition to these broad overviews, several of the scenarios include specific adventure seeds complete with location, characters, equipment and a goal. All of these are well-conceived and well-written. Most of them are also very good indicators of how to use the information on the disaster to generate human drama -- the grist of the role-playing mill.

In addition to the raw information (and the optional adventure seed), each chapter also provides a list of

Natural disasters.

The three natural disasters provided are "Water, water, everywhere" in which the world is flooded; "Shake & Bake" in which the sun essentially burps, roasting much of the world in the process; and "When Worlds Collide", something which taps into the re-recent wave of "asteroid crashes into Earth" movies and books. In all three of these scenarios, Down in Flames provides (semi-)plausible explanations of how the situation occurred. The first and the third provide adventure seeds as well. I personally found this a bit frustrating because I didn't want to do Waterworld or Deep Impact. I liked the sun's burping scenario much better. (It reminded me a lot of a good episode of The Outer Limits I once saw.) Still, there is ample information provided in all three categories to spawn all sorts of unholy thoughts in an evil GM's mind.

Man-made disasters.

This section contains three human-implemented approaches to killing off humanity. Not all of them are 100% successful. They're all quite enough to make life miserable for PCs, however.

The first of these, "Nuke 'em 'til they glow" is the classic nuclear war scenario. It is based on the very bleak view of nuclear war found in books like On the Beach, not the so-called "men's adventure" post-holocaust novels we were plagued by in the mid-eighties. Why do I think this is the case? Well, the "short term consequences" heading pretty much sums it up:

In the short term, the inevitability of events will bring out the best and the worst in people. After the people are gone, along with most higher life forms, it gets kind of boring.

The next man-made disaster is "Biohazard 101". A vicious new disease, combined with technology's ability to spread that disease as far and wide as possible, wipes out 90% of the Earth's population. Aside from discussing the technical details, there is an adventure seed provided as well.

The final man-made disaster is "Malthusian Meltdown". If you've seen the movie Soylent Green, you already know what this is about: overpopulation destroys the world. (This is, in my opinion, the least plausible of the scenarios in this category.) Again an adventure seed is provided.

Outside Influence

"Evolution in action", "Time enough to die" and "What a long, strange trip it's been" are the scenarios in this category. The first is a classic "alien invasion" scenario. The second is based upon a Rifts-like disintegration of the space-time continuum. The final is an odd scenario based upon all of humanity going mad for any number of possible grounds. Only the last of these three has an adventure seed, but boy is it a good one! If run properly, nobody, GM included, will know what the truth of the situation is until the very end.

The wrath of (a) god.

It's fire and brimstone time, folks. Or at least it is in the first scenario under this heading: "All Hell Breaks Loose". This is an interesting scenario, if a bit cliched. (How many movies have you seen based on this theme already? How many games?) The adventure seed for this section, however, contains a good joke: the three primary characters are Rutger Hamilton, Linda Lundgren and Dolph Hauer.

"God comes a'callin" is a much darker, bleaker scenario. Great beings, relative to whom we are as ants, come back to reclaim the property they left millions of years ago. They find this property infested with lower life forms: us. In come the exterminators. The result isn't pretty.

The final scenario, "Death takes a holiday", is at the core of several zombie flicks, but it has an interesting twist. (Read the book for details.) It also has another, much more detailed than usual adventure seed. Interestingly this adventure seed is a continuation of the one from "All Hell Breaks Loose".

And the final scenario.

The final scenario doesn't fit neatly into any other category. Humanity splits up into two groups, regular folk and those who can only be called "beast men". They're not bestial in demeanour nor mentality. They're just perfect sociopaths who prey on the regular folk; who have lost all vestiges of human civilization. A little like neo-Nazis, in fact, only not so unpleasant.

So what do you really think?

There is an astounding amount of information in this package. Aside from the 13 world-ending scenarios, there are notes on how to convert the information to campaigns set in times other than the modern age as well as tips on how to meld different scenarios together to create a unique Apocalypse of your own. It was worth every gaming dollar I spent on it.

Still, the question has to come up: for whom is this intended? How many people are really interested in terminating their campaign worlds? I won't even hazard a guess. For all I know, the only thing holding people back from doing this was not having any good guidelines for it. Or there could be exactly five people on the planet sick enough to want this supplement. I suspect strongly that this is Greg Porter's labour of love; a well-written, well-researched, very entertaining labour of love, though.

So to whom would I recommend this book? Anybody who finds the concept even slightly interesting.

Don't you have anything to complain about?

Of course I do! I'm never satisfied. This book needs an index. That's why I gave it 4/5 on style instead of 5/5.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Down In Flames
Author: Greg Porter Category: game Company/Publisher: BTRC Line: CORPS Cost: US$12.00 Page count: 72 ISBN: 0-9438891-37-X SKU: BTRC 7105 Capsule Review by Michael T. Richter on 09/29/99. Genre tags: Modern_day Generic	I have been anxiously awaiting this book for a while. I had been toying with the notion of doing just what this book talks about, ending the world while a campaign was being run, as an experiment. The thought that Greg Porter, RPG research god, was going to cover precisely this subject in a CORPS supplement was great news. What the Hell is this about? That's a damned good question. Down in Flames is about the end of the world. Which world? Whichever world your characters happen to inhabit. It provides ideas on how to drastically (but coherently) change your setting based upon several forms of major disaster: natural disasters; man-made disasters; "outside-influenced" disasters; and wrath of (a) god disasters. In each category the book cites three possible scenarios. And it tacks on a final scenario to bring the total to an even baker's dozen of world-cracking fun. In all scenarios, Down in Flames discusses what happens, how it happens and provides both short- and long-term ramifications of the event, although sometimes the "long-term" impact is fairly terse: nobody survives. Be warned, however: some of this material is not for people with overactive imaginations paired with weak stomachs. In addition to these broad overviews, several of the scenarios include specific adventure seeds complete with location, characters, equipment and a goal. All of these are well-conceived and well-written. Most of them are also very good indicators of how to use the information on the disaster to generate human drama -- the grist of the role-playing mill. In addition to the raw information (and the optional adventure seed), each chapter also provides a list of Natural disasters. The three natural disasters provided are "Water, water, everywhere" in which the world is flooded; "Shake & Bake" in which the sun essentially burps, roasting much of the world in the process; and "When Worlds Collide", something which taps into the re-recent wave of "asteroid crashes into Earth" movies and books. In all three of these scenarios, Down in Flames provides (semi-)plausible explanations of how the situation occurred. The first and the third provide adventure seeds as well. I personally found this a bit frustrating because I didn't want to do Waterworld or Deep Impact. I liked the sun's burping scenario much better. (It reminded me a lot of a good episode of The Outer Limits I once saw.) Still, there is ample information provided in all three categories to spawn all sorts of unholy thoughts in an evil GM's mind. Man-made disasters. This section contains three human-implemented approaches to killing off humanity. Not all of them are 100% successful. They're all quite enough to make life miserable for PCs, however. The first of these, "Nuke 'em 'til they glow" is the classic nuclear war scenario. It is based on the very bleak view of nuclear war found in books like On the Beach, not the so-called "men's adventure" post-holocaust novels we were plagued by in the mid-eighties. Why do I think this is the case? Well, the "short term consequences" heading pretty much sums it up: In the short term, the inevitability of events will bring out the best and the worst in people. After the people are gone, along with most higher life forms, it gets kind of boring. The next man-made disaster is "Biohazard 101". A vicious new disease, combined with technology's ability to spread that disease as far and wide as possible, wipes out 90% of the Earth's population. Aside from discussing the technical details, there is an adventure seed provided as well. The final man-made disaster is "Malthusian Meltdown". If you've seen the movie Soylent Green, you already know what this is about: overpopulation destroys the world. (This is, in my opinion, the least plausible of the scenarios in this category.) Again an adventure seed is provided. Outside Influence "Evolution in action", "Time enough to die" and "What a long, strange trip it's been" are the scenarios in this category. The first is a classic "alien invasion" scenario. The second is based upon a Rifts-like disintegration of the space-time continuum. The final is an odd scenario based upon all of humanity going mad for any number of possible grounds. Only the last of these three has an adventure seed, but boy is it a good one! If run properly, nobody, GM included, will know what the truth of the situation is until the very end. The wrath of (a) god. It's fire and brimstone time, folks. Or at least it is in the first scenario under this heading: "All Hell Breaks Loose". This is an interesting scenario, if a bit cliched. (How many movies have you seen based on this theme already? How many games?) The adventure seed for this section, however, contains a good joke: the three primary characters are Rutger Hamilton, Linda Lundgren and Dolph Hauer. "God comes a'callin" is a much darker, bleaker scenario. Great beings, relative to whom we are as ants, come back to reclaim the property they left millions of years ago. They find this property infested with lower life forms: us. In come the exterminators. The result isn't pretty. The final scenario, "Death takes a holiday", is at the core of several zombie flicks, but it has an interesting twist. (Read the book for details.) It also has another, much more detailed than usual adventure seed. Interestingly this adventure seed is a continuation of the one from "All Hell Breaks Loose". And the final scenario. The final scenario doesn't fit neatly into any other category. Humanity splits up into two groups, regular folk and those who can only be called "beast men". They're not bestial in demeanour nor mentality. They're just perfect sociopaths who prey on the regular folk; who have lost all vestiges of human civilization. A little like neo-Nazis, in fact, only not so unpleasant. So what do you really think? There is an astounding amount of information in this package. Aside from the 13 world-ending scenarios, there are notes on how to convert the information to campaigns set in times other than the modern age as well as tips on how to meld different scenarios together to create a unique Apocalypse of your own. It was worth every gaming dollar I spent on it. Still, the question has to come up: for whom is this intended? How many people are really interested in terminating their campaign worlds? I won't even hazard a guess. For all I know, the only thing holding people back from doing this was not having any good guidelines for it. Or there could be exactly five people on the planet sick enough to want this supplement. I suspect strongly that this is Greg Porter's labour of love; a well-written, well-researched, very entertaining labour of love, though. So to whom would I recommend this book? Anybody who finds the concept even slightly interesting. Don't you have anything to complain about? Of course I do! I'm never satisfied. This book needs an index. That's why I gave it 4/5 on style instead of 5/5. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Down In Flames