Hullo, folks,

Since we're talking about stuff like this here, I was curious about something else.

What are the inspirations from all forms of media, DESOLATION? (We're talking books, movies, tv series, and any other media that you can think of.)

Thanks.

Off the top of my head...

Things that helped shape my vision of the post-apocalyptic world:
Old westerns
Some books by S.M. Stirling
The Postman
Waterworld
Jeremiah (the tv series)
zombie movies
The End RPG
The Stand
Survivor (the tv series) - much like zombie movies, it shows how people's true nature comes out.
X-Men - Days of Future Past
Conan

Of course, all this is predicated on my love of the fantasy genre which has been shaped and influenced by countless games and books. My favorite fantasy series is The Song of Fire and Ice. I used to like the Wheel of Time (but only got to book . WoT is an excellent example of the cliched ancient civilization that fell.

Hullo, Matt,



Some interesting stuff there, Matt, notably the JEREMIAH tv series. David Brin's _The Postman_ was a wonderful novel with this kind of feel, as was Jack McDevitt's _Eternity Road_, although that book had more of a science fictional feel to some extent. We wont even start getting into SURVIVOR...



I loved the first two books of Martin's series, but got tired of all my favourite characters getting killed off, not to mention the wait for the books in the series. As for the Jordan, just a waste of trees in my opinion.

There aren't a lot of novels that deal with post-apocalyptic fantasy, so DESOLATION should be interesting. I might pick up a few novels with the theme if I can find any of them, and of course there's always the library.

Well... survivor is a guilty pleasure, what can I say? In retrospect, it really has less to do with anything post-apocalyptic and more to do with my general viewpoint of human nature.

People keep telling me that the Desolation idea reminds them of the Dark Tower stuff, but I have intentionally avoided it so I won't be unduly influenced.

As for the Song of Fire and Ice... I think the fact that main characters died was one of the main reasons I enjoyed it. It was nice to be surprised by a book.

I'm specifically one of the people who thinks of Dark Tower a lot when we're working on Desolation. I'm a big fan of the books, but I'm usually just pointing out similarities as we write to make sure we avoid too many direct comparisons.

For me, a lot of inspiration comes from history, especially ancient civilizations like the Romans, Vikings, Mongols, Aztecs, etc. While the glory days of these civilizations ended over many years, in Desolation, civilization's greatness is brought low in a very short time frame. Some of the same things that caused the decline of ancient civilizations -- disease, famine, conquest, superior arms/tactics, religious conversion -- come to the fore after Desolation's apocalypse. The backdrop for Desolation is this nearly clean slate.

Hullo, Matt,.



It was rather odd, but when I read the piece of fiction on the website, I immediately thought of the Kjing _Dark Tower_ stuff, too. I guess we;ll all just have to wait and see what the game looks like to judge whether it's largely influenced by any of the post-apocalyptic stuff.

Hullo, Jamie,



For me, hearing this is rather neat. While I don't have a degree in history, archaoelogy and anthropology are hobbies o f mine, and the fact that you're nspired by the civilizations of the Aztecs, etc. and the almost "tabula rasa" that you can do with the game from that point of view is rather cool.

Well, that's probably in part due to the DT stuff influencing me subtly when I wrote it.

Honestly, I'll try to keep too many obvious references out of the game

Hullo, Steve,



I don't know if you need to keep the obvious references out of the game, to be honest, as some gamers will find it a challenge to spot the stuff and all. That said, too much influence from other games and the like could make the game less DESOLATION and more a hodgepodge of various other post-apocalyptic settings. Keeping DESOLATION's identity intact seems a good idea to me.

I agree... which is why I have avoided reading anything to do with the Dark Tower (including the new comics that look pretty snazzy).

Between the three of us, one of us has seen, read, or heard about most other post-apoclyptic stuff. And during the brainstorming sessions it helps when we can say, "Simpsons did it.". But sometimes we like ideas enought that we just don't care and leave it in.

I don't believe there is anything truly unique under the sun. However, I think we've tried with Desolation to at least recycle ideas in some new and exciting ways. And at the end of the day.. it will feel like a distinct and interesting world.

Hullo, Matt,



That is interesting to hear. I'm just not sure that you avoid all sorts of stuff that might pertain to the game world.



For me, this is good... I like to read the details of a setting and try and figure out where I've heard of them or seen them before.



Well, I hope it does. Based on the Setting chapter so far that we've seen in the playtest, well...but you've seen the comments on this subject, so we can leave that discussion in the Playtest areas.

Interesting list of inspiration. Jeremiah...very cool.

Taking this idea of this thread to a new place if you were to see a movie made of Desolation which of your characters are going to be in it, and who would star in it?

Hi, John,

Good question, and sorry for taking so long to get to it.

In the unlikely event that Desolation gets made into a movie (fingers crossed, right?) I think that the characters encountered in our demo game for Gen Con 2007 would be perfect. Specifically, as two core characters, Lem and Esther, the legionnaire and the noblewoman, would be good. They represent the fallen Empire, perhaps the best of it, and the supporting cast could be made up of characters from the rest of the Marches, giving the audience insight into the rest of the world. We could reflect upon the attitudes between the nations just in those characters alone.

The plot of the movie? Probably a journey home to find someone's lost children, with the destroyed world as the backdrop.

As for who would play those roles? That's tough, and any answer grounds oneself in the current favorites of the moment.

I think that Lem should be played by British actor Matthew Macfadyen, while I could see Esther being played by either Kate Winslet (any excuse to meet her) or Lucy Brown (an actress from the British TV show Primeval).