Our intention has always been to create a background from the point of view of the Wasteland inhabitants, that our players and general public know what those dwellers know and that they feel like them. That’s why we have only given some small strokes about locations and factions, while publishing as much short stories as possible. For further progress in this direction, when everything is set in motion we will start publishing the Scrapbridge Gazette, where you will be able to read news, gossip, etc. We want the background to move onwards, but at the same time we don’t want to hand everything on a plate for the players; we obviously have more material already written and thought, we know what will be behind some of the most iconic locations and there are already planned some events in the near future, so nothing will be left to chance. But, as said before, that will be shown through the eyes of the Wastelanders.
To try and deepen even more that feeling of immersion we want to give to our public, we have tried to develop a language of our own with distinct phrases and characteristics. And the icing on the cake would be the retro-twist we have given to many of the words we use for the slang and street-level language, many of which are taken from the pimp jargon from the 70’s and 80’s. mixed with other terms derived from the actual ones and those which are straight pure invention.
About the actual background, we have to admit that in no way we wanted it to be strictly realistic, but to create a personal and recognizable style. Basically the story of how the world has come to be as it is in Punkapocalyptic is but a mere excuse; we have taken the current geo-political situation and we have exaggerated it to the limit, reaching some kind of “ultra-neo-liberal utopia”. As the Wastelanders don’t remember what really happened and the Megalipoli are but legends in the best case, this is the only part of the background where we had to get away from the idea that the readers will only know what the people of the Wasteland know. We could have just skipped this part and tell it by legends (which more or less happens in one of the short stories), but people knowing this will help us in future events and sets a clear base from which to build upon.
At the beginning of the game creation we wanted to talk about the whole Wasteland, but later we decided to focus on a specific area, the surroundings of Scrapbridge. It is a lot easier and more logic to develop the factions and background of just a portion of the world that to try to encompass everything in one go. This way we can fully describe the main characters, conflicts, settlements and, in general, everything that’s going on around. If things go well, this area will grow further in the future and we will show you more of it.
When we talked about the lack of realism before we were referring to facts such as although some generations have passed since the so-called end of the world, in the Wasteland you can still find a totally distinctive eighties style. We really don’t care, the same way we absolutely enjoy the TV show Firefly as a space western, or Cowboy Bebop with a future mixed with cities taken directly from the thirties. But still, this is in no way an “anything goes” game and we try to be coherent with ourselves and with what we offer to the public.
Another interesting topic is that of the originality. We are well aware that this is a really well trodden theme, and that we almost always look to the same sources (Mad Max, Fallout, Jugde Dredd, etc.), but we have tried to give this game a distinct own style and, as we expand the background, this will become more and more obvious. One of the things we cherish the most about Punkapocalyptic is the fun, pimp and carefree aspect to it. The edge we tread on is thin, trying to mix the harshness and brutality of life in the Wasteland with this particular sense of humor without leaning too much to either side. We are not trying to parody the post-apocalyptic genre, but to make it fun.
All in all, everything is summed up in our usual motto: “Punkapocalyptic, the pimp and lethal skirmish game”.