Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction and how it affects World Building

I am a big fan of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction and I like the influence it has had on my home-brewed worlds and on my campaigns. While I enjoy stories about the apocalyse taking place, I enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction even more, the story of what takes place after the "end."

Of the pre-1900 books my favorites are Mary Shelley's novel, The Last Man, H. G. Wells' novel, The Time Machine and Richard Jefferies' novel, After London. These are all free on line if you are interested.

Of the post-1900 books my favorites are Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer's novel When Worlds Collide and After Worlds Collide, Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven's novel, Lucifer's Hammer, John Wyndham's novel, The Day of the Triffids, Richard Matheson's novel, I Am Legend, Andre Norton’s novel, Star Man’s Son, Walter M. Miller Jr.'s novel, A Canticle for Leibowitz, David Brin's novel, The Postman, George R. Stewart's novel, Earth Abides, Robert Adams, The Horseclans series and Sterling E. Lanier's novels Hiero's Journey and The Unforsaken Hiero.

Though there are many more, these are most of my favorites.

One of the world building things that I like to do are image a world and flesh it out a bit, then destroy it and fully imagine what it looks like after the end. You can generate some interesting places to play in when you do that. On a few occasions I have did world building where I have had multiple apocalypses and then looked at the last post-apocayltic situation and what it looks like.

I will eventually be saying more about these things.

Pure Escapist Adventure aka Pulp Fantasy

So what does pure escapist adventure aka pulp fantasy mean to me? It has lots of parts "Sword and Sorcery" in the vein of Robert E Howard mixed with "Sword and Planet" in the vein of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Included are the "Sword and Sandal" in the vein of mythology and Ray Harryhausen movies and "Far Future Fantasy" in the vein of Jack Vance.

In these books the "Heroes" are men such as Conan, Tarzan, John Carter, Solomon Kane, Doc Savage, The Shadow, Zorro, Carson Napier, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Bran Mak Morn, Cormac Mac Art, Phantom, Dick Tracy, El Borak, Breckenridge Elkins and many others. These are not "nice" men, and they are not necessarily good although when the chips are down most of them lean that way. But what they are, are men that can be depended on when the chips are down. No cowards among them and they are not afraid of getting their hands dirty.

These "heroes" are real men, they have their faults, they may cross a line or two here or there, but they know what real evil is when they see it and they are opposed to it. Some of them go around dispensing justice as they see it, others are just out to have a good time and quest for wealth and power. They are larger than life and they don't pass through the world unnoticed. They tend to draw others to them, both men and women, and yeah most of them have a great appreciation for beautiful women.

These stories don't focus on scientific accuracy and believeability and that is well. These are at the base fantasies and who cares about letting scienfific facts get in the way of a good story. These stories and these "heroes" are primal things, but that does not mean there is not world building, in fact, in my opinion the world building of these writers of these characters is often undervalued and underrated.

These things are the basis of OD&D and of all excellent Heroic Fantasy and permeate the way that I play the game.

OD&D Campaign World Inspirations (Fantasy, Pulp Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adventure)

I grew up reading books and Science Fiction Magazines, back then they had no separation between Fantasy and Science Fiction, they were all one genre on both the book racks and in the magazines. I also read paperbacks galore and a lot of the stories had run as serials in the pulp magazines. But that is not what I started out with, I started out with mythology of the Greeks, Romans and Norse, read the Illiad and the Oddyssey, Aesops Fables and all the fairy tales I could get my hands on. My father made up and told stories every night of my childhood, his deep resonant voice was that strong protective presence in my life and I still hear his voice in my mind when I tell or read stories.

I soon started reading Edgar Rice Burroughs, Poul Anderson, Jack London, Robert E Howard, Fritz Leiber, Richard Adams, Frank R. Stockton. J. M. Barrie, L. Frank Baum, Lewis Carroll, Rudyard Kipling, Hilaire Belloc, Walter Farley, Arthur Conan Doyle, Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens, Eugene Field, Joel Chandler Harris, Jim Kjelgaard, Howard Pyle, C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald, J. R. R. Tolkien, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jonathan Swift, Jules Verne, Mark Twain and H. G. Wells. All of these along with many others.

All of these and more inspired the worlds that I build and the people that I populate them with. So pure escapist adventure with a little high fantasy mixed in to it is the stew from which I create game worlds and inspires the way that I game in OD&D. I will probably return to this subject from time to time as I talk about some of these authors and the worlds I have built.