Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 11: Barbarians of the Aftermath

Barbarians of the Aftermath is a great post-apocalyptic game that uses the Barbarians of Lemuria rules-set.  It uses the same attributes and the same career system, etc. but makes some modifications to bring it in line with a post-apocalyptic feel.

 

First it adds what it calls Genotypes.  Genotypes include humans, awakened plants, awakened animals, that type of thing.  Second, it has modified and added careers as appropriate.  Third, it has added vehicle combat rules for those who want to go all Mad Max on their friends.  And fourth, it adds psychic powers to the magic of the original.  I know there are other things too, but I'm forgetting them at the moment.

 

World building can be great fun and the author added a interesting mini-game to help the GM randomly create the game world, if the GM wants to do so.  This isn't about the physical setting.  It's about the larger view and can directly effect play. 

 

Creation is accomplished through a series of dice rolls, each of which can effect the next in the series.  They determine:

• When the apocalypse happened.  This helps decide what sort of tech is available to scrounge.
• What the actual disaster was.  This can range from a simple nuclear war to a biological disaster.  It could be tech going wrong, an alien invasion or god getting pissed. 
• What the current date is.  This can determine how many relics there are and what condition they are in.  It can also determine how much biological change has happened.
• What genotypes are available.  Mutants?  Awakened animals?
• What resources are available.  Barren wasteland or lush paradise?
• Tech level.  How far along the recovery is.
• Civilization level.  How large communities are.
• Supernatural.  Psychics?  Magic? 

And all of these help determine what careers are available. 

Even if you don't roll randomly this can be a good tool to help the GM focus his thoughts and translate ideas into game terms.  Do you want Mad Max?  Then it shouldn't be set to terribly far in the future so gasoline, automobiles and parts or junkyards are still available.  The apocalypse also shouldn't have been to physically destructive.  Ideally, you will need some sort of infrastructure to drive around on. That sort of thing.

 

Here's the worksheet for the world I rolled up.  I decided the awakened animal is descended from raccoons. (Has anyone read The Architect of Sleep by Steven Boyett?  I remember it being pretty good.  It was supposed to be the first in a series that never materialized, which is disappointing.)

 

 And into this rough world was born Branyon.

 

Branyon was born in the barbaric wastelands.  Life is tough in the world but it is even tougher in the wastelands.  You fight to survive.  Survive Branyon did.  He became a feared fighter and skilled hunter.  Every bit of food helped in the wastelands.  When his mother died he had nothing to hold him to his nomadic band.  He had heard that in the lands to the west life was easier and food was more plentiful.  So he went to find this paradise.  He was disappointed with what he found.  Yes, there were villages there, and more food.  But warlords ruled the lands, oppressing the people, exploiting them.  Taking what their sweat and sometimes blood produced.  Because of this,  the west could be just as deadly as the wastelands.  Just in different ways.

 

Things changed, however, when he wandered into the lands of the warlord Raymo.  Raymo wasn't like other warlords. Yes, he ruled firmly and defended his lands fiercely but in other ways he was different.  He didn't treat his people like serfs.  He did not force them to labor for him or take their produce by under threat.  He paid his people for what he took, one way or another, and for their labor.  He did not rule with an iron fist.  He often gathered the chiefs of his villages and consulted them about major decisions.  Yes, he still made the decisions and backed them up with his warband but he often took chiefs' advice into consideration.  He gave fair judgements when there were disputes.  He treated the raccoon people gently.  Never attacking them or enslaving them.  Even traded food and simple tools with the racks in return for their for their fruits and cleaver woodwork.

 

Branyon liked it in Raymo's realm and stayed.  He swore the oaths and joined the warband.  His prowess and honesty quickly earned him a spot in Raymo's personal guard.  It was tough and the training was strict but he excelled at it.  He fought in a few battles against Raymo's rivals.  They hated him because their people kept defecting to him and Raymo always accepted them.  Branyon fit into his new life well.

 

Five years later, Branyon became a hero.  While traveling between his villages, Rayno's  procession stopped for a break.  Everyone was relaxing except Branyon.  His wastelander experience never left him and always kept him alert.  Seemingly out of nowhere , a 30 foot long nanogater appeared, biting one guard in half and crushing another with its massive tail.  It then sprinted straight for Raymo.  Branyon was the only guard near enough to intervene.  He plucked up his spear and with two pumps of his massive thighs he leapt into the air.  His timing was excellent.  He landed on the creatures back just as it charged by.  Branyon drove his spear into the base of the creature's skull, killing it instantly.

 

The creatures momentum slid it to Raymo's feet.  Branyon almost casually stepped off and slapped his chest in salute.  Raymo stood stunned, unable to speak.  When he finally found his voice, he promoted Branyon to officer on the spot.

 

Now, Branyon wonder, how did the neogator get to the procession when the water loving creature is 40 miles from the nearest water that is known to be their hunting grounds? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dicey Tales #2 Part 2

I downloaded Dicey Tales #2 this morning.  Since I am at work I have only been able to glance at it. It contains a G-Man adventure set in Lemuria!  Another reason to be excited about this issue.

Star Wars and BoL Again

Quite awhile ago I wrote a post about combining Star Wars and Barbarians of Lemuria.  Well, as with many of my thoughts I didn't get far with it.  But I'm getting the itch again.  I recently watched the original trilogy with my boys and want to do something with it again.  Let's see how far I get this time.  If I make any progress, I'll share.  Don't hold your breath though.  I'll probably borrow heavily from WEG Star Wars though I want much simpler force rules.  I want to keep the basis as close to BoL as I can, too, but will probably steal concepts from Barbarians of the Aftermath.  It is such a good resource that I can't just pass it by.

Strange Stones

I ran across a blog today that, somehow, I haven't seen before. It is called Strange Stones and covers BoL/BotA, Traveller, and Labyrinth Lord amongst others. One cool feature is a Barbarians of Lemuria Meso-American type setting with bestiary. Take a look.

A Winter Wonderland

So, Western Washington is covered in a gentle blanket of snow. It has been drifting down all day. Although my drive to work this morning was easy with roads clear and traffic light, I'd been hearing of horrific traffic snarls all through the day. This was also the day I needed to drive even further after work to pick up my new suit. For my interview at 9 am tomorrow. I could possibly get a promotion. I left work and made to the store in good time. No slipping, no sliding. Everyone driving safely and sanely. The suit looks good. I started driving home. Once again I avoided the worst of the snarls. I was feeling good, driving slow. I got within a few blocks of home. I've got it made, I thought. I then, quite promptly, slid in a curb at an angle. At a minimum I screwed up my alignment because it drove wobbly the rest of the way home. At worst....?

And I still need to make it down the big hill to get to my interview tomorrow morning.

This does bring to mind the novel The Sixth Winter by Douglas Orgill which was published in

the '70's. There is/was a theory that a new ice age could start in as little as six winters if all the conditions are right. This is a fictionalized account of just such an event. It has been years since I have read it but I do remember I very much enjoyed it. One image that stuck with me was of a group of Soviet soldiers being attacked by a large pack of wolves. Including the unfortunate fellow in an APC who gets his head chewed on while it is sticking out of a hatch. According to the story, with the coming of the ice age, the wolves instinctively gather in larger packs and become more aggressive. This is one of the reasons humans have such a deep-seated fear of wolves.

This would make a fun RPG scenario, either a one shot with the characters trying to survive and make it to a warmer climate or as a small campaign. Maybe for Barbarians of the Aftermath. I may have to think on this more.

Barbarians of the Aftermath

It is time I expand on my previous post about Barbarians of the Aftermath:

I think it is pure-strain awesome!
Or:
It's the bomb!
Or:
Earth destroying goodness.

OK, enough with the bad puns.

Barbarians of the Aftermath expands the rule-set presented in Barbarians of Lemuria to include the post-apocalypse genre. It is a toolkit, not a standealone game. The rules for Barbarians of Lemuria are required.

As a toolkit BotA allows you to create nearly any sort of apocalypse you can imagine. And also some you perhaps didn't. This book is full of random tables. The book (I have the pdf version) starts out with a set of table to create a random world that has gone through some sort of catastrophic change. This ranges from natural disasters to man-made catastrophes to alien invasion to divine wrath. I grew up rolling up random worlds and characters with Traveller. I spent hours doing this. I loved it. And I really like this. These tables will set the nature, time frame, types of available characters and tech level for your destroyed world. Truthfully, I like to use a semi-guided method of world creation. So, for example, I dislike and have no interest in playing in or running a world destroyed by supernatural powers. So if I roll that as a result, I simply re-roll. But it is great fun. And this is just the first chapter.

The second chapter covers character creation. It has new or modified careers and character types. By character I mean mutants, aliens and various types of humans.

Chapter Three covers the new rules added to BoL by this supplement. Amongst the other things it introduces firearms. This is a very important addition for a post-apocalypse world and it does it in a way that is both simple but adds a necessary bit of complexity. Instead of having the players count every round of ammo, it has an integrated dice mechanism. It is random so you are never quite sure when you will run out. Hope you have some reloads. I like this. It minimizes record keeping, which is in the spirit of BoL, but still makes ammo an important resource. There are also rules for mutations and a nifty vehicle creation section. Road Warrior, here I come. Or Toxic Avenger. Whatever floats you boat.

Chapter Four is equipment. The aforementioned firearms, energy weapons, and various and sundry other gear.

The fifth chapter is entitled "Flora, Fauna and Other Foes." This is pretty self-explanatory. Once again, there can be a random element if the GM wishes.

And chapter Six. Chapter six contains a random adventure generator for those who need an adventure quickly or lack inspiration. I'm usually a victim of both so this is a great help.

The last portion of the book is a Game Master's kit. It contains many of the tables and charts used throughout the book. A very handy tool indeed.

I realize that this has been a rather sketchy review but this resource is filled with such an abundance of material it is hard for me to do justice to it. Suffice it to say that if you like Barbarians of Lemuria and have any interest in post-apocalyptic game play, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

-As a sidelight I discovered a book that is both inspirational and amusing. This is Field Guide to the Apocalypse by Meghann Marco. It is subtitled Movie Survival Skills for the End of the World.

Barbarians of the Aftermath - A One Word Review

Awesome!!!

You know how in movies and on television there is often a character who will say that word in a sing-song tone to emphasis the awesomeness? Well, consider it said in such a manner. I will write an expanded overview as I get the opportunity.