Those people who have played in my games or talked with me at length about my favorite settings know that I have a soft spot for Armageddons, Apocalypses, and catastrophes of all sorts - it was just a matter of time until I picked up
Down in Flames, even though I don't play
CORPS at all.
a party at the end of time
Inside the wonderfully done cover (there's just something about a man using a license plate as a cod piece that excites me) are several great scenarios about sending your game world "down in flames." Breaking the ideas up into natural disasters, man-made catastrophes, "outside" influence and divine wrath (of one sort or another).
The natural disasters offer a selection of rising water (or sinking land), a flaring sun baking the earth or an asteroid impact. The first is definitely the best done of the three, although they are all interesting, and it, more than any other set-up in the book, is easily adaptable to a smaller location for less "final" games. Man-made disasters showcase the classic "nuke 'em all!" scenario, as well as a bioengineered plague and a world starting down the Soylent Green road. The Outside Influence section has some of the most interesting ideas, from an alien invasion that I almost a direct adaptation of the War Against the Chtorr series of novels to a world where everyone is slowly going insane, or maybe reality is warping around them. My personal favorite, however, is "Time Enough to Die," which reminds me of the brilliant John Tynes the Zone with it's random pops of transportation through time and space. The divine intervention scenarios have two based on the idea of death taking a holiday or the souls of the departed returning to the earth and with the idea of obscenely powerful Lovecraftian aliens claiming the Earth as a playground. A final idea, apparently in it's own category, is the idea that some people are born with animal souls, not human ones, and so they are alien and vicious, and society falls apart.
The book closes out with a few pages of notes on how to translate the ideas into nearly any game setting of different time periods or styles of play, as well as several maps showing rise and drop in sea level world-wide.
and I feel fine
sorry for the reference, but it has become obligatory for end times games these days
I have to say that this is one of the best generic supplements I've had the fortune to buy. I've had ideas for Blue Planet, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Unknown Armies and Fading Suns games - and that's what the book was aiming for. Written clearly and succinctly and presented simply and professionally, Down in Flames is an excellent resource for game masters who want to seriously shake up their game world.
Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)
Visit the above forum to let us know!
