Bad Future
Basic Information
An alternate future where the bad guys won. In Movies and TV, this is often just a temporary situation, that will be fixed or solved as the plot goes on, retroactively wiping this bad future from existence.
See Also:
- Alternate Universe
- Alternate History
- Darker and Edgier
- Dystopia
- Future Badass
- La Resistance
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong
- Status Quo Is God
- Storyboarding The Apocalypse
- Time Travel
Sources
Bibliography
Game and Story Use
- Can be set up as a fun framework for an entire campaign. Galadriel became as terrible as the dawn. I wished Buffy never came to Sunnydale. Luke didn't trust the force. Corwin dallied with some faceless chick, and Brand won. Etc. Just take your favorite setting, figure out the Point of Divergence, and twist to your wicked little heart's delight. You get a nice blend of familiar yet terribly wrong.
- For a really conflicting campaign, stir in some values dissonance - the California of Demolition Man, Huxley's Brave New World or Jasmine's "Earthly Paradise" from Angel are all dystopic, but in such a way that there is real moral ambiguity in opposing them.
- Also fun to hold out as the likely end-state if the PCs don't get their butts in gear.
- In a branching time or parallel universe campaign, the bad future may have time agents that are dark mirrors of the PCs. The future self that you hope never comes to be.
page revision: 2, last edited: 10 Aug 2010 07:52