Pedal powered battery charger and an IKEA refugee shelter (because of course IKEA makes refugee shelters) for your post-apocalyptic RPGs/world building needs

First up, Boing Boing posted a video detailing how to rig a bicycle to recharge batteries. Becky Stern, the woman behind the video explains that in the black out caused by Hurricane Sandy, she was able to use this method to stay online thanks to her friend Hackett setting this rig up. Check it out below.



Interesting. I can see this being useful as part of a quest in a post-apocalyptic RPG like Mutant Future or Gamma World.

Quest ideas:

• Maybe a party has to construct one or several to help out a settlement
• They find a piece of pre-apocalypse technology, but need to charge up its battery in order to activate it.
• If the party has a base, they have to build some of these to power objects.

In terms of fiction/world building, a bicycle-turned-generator could be a fairly common sight in post-apoc settlements since bikes would likely be in abundance.

Second, Web Urbanist has this interesting shelter that the IKEA Foundation and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees teamed up to create for use in refugee camps. The shelters normally employed in the camps are only meant for temporary habitation.

Like the bike generator, these have uses in both gaming and world building:

• Possibly a common sight in settlements or at the players base.
• A quest aimed at acquiring a load of these shelters to bring to an existing settlement or to help establish a new one.
• The main character(s) come across a warehouse or derelict truck with some of these inside and decide to appropriate them for their own use.

Are you a DM running a post-apoc RPG or a writer of post-apoc fiction? Do these look like something you'd use?

In the post-apocalypse, everybody has nice clothes and perfect hair

Postapocalyptic chic.
(via Fanpop)

So I'm watching reruns of Revolution on Syfy and I'm reminded of one of the problems I had with the show. You might remember that I posted about Revolution back when it premiered last year, but for those who don't, Revolution is a post-apocalyptic series by Eric Kripke (creator of Supernatural) and produced by J. J. Abrams. The premise is that some sort of event causes electricity to stop working. Now, it's an interesting show for sure, but the things that sort of turned me off are the characters' clothes and hair. The former look like they came straight off the rack at a department store and the latter is so blatantly the work of stylists, it actually takes you out of the show's world.

Maybe the show is sponsored by L'Oreal.
(via Revolution Wiki)

Now, I can see people looting retail stores and hoarding clothing and footwear, because the machinery used to mass produce that stuff no longer works, but I just find it hard to suspend my belief enough that decades after the power went bye bye, that people are still walking around a post-apocalyptic environ in clothes that look clean and brand new. As for hairstyles on this show, it's just impossible for me to suspend my belief that shampoo and conditioner still exists in abundance.

To be fair, the show is pretty damn good and worth watching, provided you can get past those two things.

Finished: The Protector's War by S. M. Stirling

I decided to undertake a massive summer reading project, since I tend to read quite a lot during the summer months and I have loads of books that I've been wanting to read or finish. Top of the pile was The Protector's War, which I bought about a week ago from a used book store.

Emberverse Wiki.

The book is the second in Stirling's Emberverse series, which follows several groups of survivors after an unknown event (called the Change) robs the world of electricity, gunpowder, and explosives. Suddenly thrust back into the middle ages, the Bearkillers, Clan Mackenzie, and several other factions are forced to fight for survival in western Oregon and against the machinations of the Portland Protection Association, who desire to control the Willamette Valley as they can. Hit the jump for more, but beware of spoilers.

Revolution gets a full season pickup and a thought on last night's episode (spoilers)

First off, WOO HOO! I was deathly afraid that Revolution wouldn't get renewed, but I guess NBC is at least willing to give it a go. Apparently, the show hasn't been doing too well in the ratings when it airs, but its saving grace was the fact that a lot of people are recording it on their DVRs and watching it later. Give whoever invented those things a f*cking medal! Hit the jump for a thought I had on last night's episode, No Quarter, but fair warning:

I was born, six gun in my hand

The perfect theme song for any adventuring party. Might have to replace "six gun" with a more setting appropriate weapon, like a sword or whatever for fantasy and a blaster for scifi. Post-apoc games need no adjustment.

New post-apocalyptic TV series Revolutions - First impressions

So, NBC actually had a smart idea and posted the pilot episode for the new J.J. Abrams post-apocalyptic series Revolution online for free. They had another smart idea and made the video embeddable.

Revolution is set fifteen years after a mysterious event kills everything that runs on electricity and in a single moment, the entire world is thrown back several hundred years, tech-wise. As you might expect of something from the post-apocalyptic genre, society collapses and warlords emerge to carve our their own kingdoms with their militias. However, there's a twist here, with the possibility raised that the effects of the aforementioned event could be reversed and not surprisingly, that potential will be craved by less than savory factions.

Hit the jump for the video and my thoughts on it. Fair warning, the episode is over 43 minutes long, so you might want to set aside some time, lol.

How about some Fallout 3 music?

The Ink Spots - I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire. Enjoy.



Speaking of Fallout 3, I'm also planning on expanding Swords, Dragons, and Nerds to include post-apocalyptic fiction. I know the stuff usually falls under science fiction or speculative fiction, but I think it would fit better here than on Rayguns and Space Suits, which I want to keep focused on scifi like space opera, military science fiction, and such.