Review: Aftermath!

(Source: Fantasy Games Unlimited)

How did you become interested in prepping? I grew up in the LDS Church which, as you probably know, encourages its members to put up a year's supply of food and keep a "72-hour kit" on hand for disasters. The Church also engages in other emergency preparation, such as the Church's canneries where members and nonmembers may volunteer to can food, and then buy at discount, canned goods and dry goods for food storage. In my area, the Church authorities maintain lists of members with special skills or tools that would be useful in a disaster. One of the my brothers lives in an area where the Church maintains a list of people with short wave radios in order to maintain communications in the event of a disaster.

However, that is not the only influence in my life. It seems corny in retrospect, but my interest in prepping was fed and shaped to certain extent by science fiction novels, such as Lucifer's Hammer, and even role playing games. Yes, as a high school student, my friends and I enjoyed table-top role playing games, including Dungeons and Dragons. However, rather than focusing on a single game or milieu, we tried many different games. One of the games we came across was  Aftermath! published by Fantasy Games Unlimited. (Also available for sale as a PDF download here). Since I recently uncovered a box in my attic where my copy was stashed away, I decided to pull it out and look at it again, and do this review.

The game was authored in the 1980's, and reflects the fears of nuclear war from that time. Although the game contains rules and ideas for alternative settings and disasters, the game was written with the assumption of a large scale nuclear war destroying world civilization sometime in the 1990's, and the story line for the players (the "campaign") beginning approximately 20 years later. In that respect, it is more similar to the show Revolution rather than Jericho. However, it would be easy to change the game setting to something immediately following an apocalyptic event.

All role-playing games are a "model" of the real world to a greater or lessor extent. What set Aftermath! apart from other role-playing games is that it attempts to be as realistic and accurate as possible within the confines of a role-playing game. That is, it attempts to accurately model the accuracy and lethality of firearms, the impact of disease and starvation, character development, and even the technology. On the latter point, there are certain concessions in order to make the game more interesting. First, because the "apocalypse" was to take place a decade or more in the future from the time the game was made, the authors made certain assumptions or predictions as to what technology would be like, including a few that they freely admit were to make the game more dramatic: they postulated advances in robotics and computers that, for the most part, still lie in the realm of science fiction; they postulated the development of preservation techniques that would allow food and equipment to be still salvageable 20 years later; and they postulated dramatic increases in the availability and use of solar power (to, in effect, make electricity "salvageable"). For those interested in "space opera" or "fantasy" elements, they provided pointers for such disasters, and they try to include rules to cover some of the popular post-apocalypse books extant at the time.

Like I noted, however, the authors attempted to provide a realistic model. Thus, there are rules on diseases and poisons (addressing even different vectors for diseases), the strength of barriers (even recognizing the difference between cover and concealment), extremely detailed rules on firearms (including step-by-step on how to load a blackpowder muzzleloading arm), explosives and fragmentation, vehicles and accidents, food and water, and electricity and technology. (While I haven't read it, there apparently was a supplement to update the technology which was published in 2008).

Just a couple examples on some of the details that were put into the game. In a section on animals, it includes a list of the "usefulness of animals" including a percentage of mass that is edible (e.g., 75% for a cockroach versus 33% for a human), the number of "man-days" of rations, and chance of contamination. I don't know how accurate the table is, but it shows that the authors put a lot of effort and thought into the details. It also has details on the effect of nuclear weapons (including health effects from certain levels of radiation exposure--200 REM, 500 REM, 750 REM, and 1000 REM) and chemical weapons.

Of course, some of the details could be dangerous to someone relying on them. For instance, the rules notes the following about ammonium nitrate explosives:

The fertlizer is sold in 25 kg sacks, which should be soaked in kerosene (kerosene is not the correct material) and allowed to dry. Use of a fulminating primer (see below) will set it off. Extreme heat will cause it to ignite and burn, but not explosively. It is otherwise completely stable. 

A simple chemical treatment with a substance so common we are not really sure we should mention it will turn any ammoniated nitrate fertilizer into a very efficient explosive.

(Emphasis in original). A couple obvious problems, one not dangerous, but the other definitely so.

First, the authors do not mention that the fertilizer prills are larger and have thicker coatings which make it better for fertilizer but less effective for explosives. (Thus the reason why the British in Northern Ireland used the sound of coffee grinders to track down explosives labs). Of course, they can't be blamed for holding this detail back since the game was marketed to kids and we obviously don't want kids trying to mix up a recipe like this.

The second major problem is actually more dangerous--stating that kerosene won't work--because it can. (Actually, I've seen this come up in television programs--Burn Notice, for example--that attempt to keep the public "safe" by pretending not to disclose the "real ingredients," so this issue is not limited to just this game). The Atlas book on Explosives and Rock Blasting states:

In the early 1950s, it was discovered that No. 2 diesel fuel oil, when mixed with prills at the level of 5.5 - 6.0% by weight, produced a practical and inexpensive blasting agent. This optimum ratio provides the best explosive performance and fewest postblast toxic fumes. (It is important to stress that only No. 2 fuel oil should be used. No. 1 fuel oil, kerosene, and gasoline must not be used. These fuels will not improve performance. However, these fuels will increase the hazard of vapor explosion because of their volatility and low flash point. The use of crude or crankcase oil is also unacceptable  These, too, may contain volatile impurities and may also include gritty particles that could increase sensitivity.)

(Emphasis in original). Why should this matter? Well, as noted, the game was marketed to teens, and I'm sure that there is some teen, somewhere, that may give it a go notwithstanding the instructions that kerosene is the wrong ingredient, and actually wind up with something more dangerous than if they had used the right ingredients.

There are some other interesting factors to the games. For instance, the range of bows and similar "muscle-powered" missile weapons are determined by the users strength. The game recognizes the different types of gun actions and barrel lengths. A character's knowledge is broken down into "skills," meaning that no one can be an expert at everything (or even most things). It has rules on hunting, gathering, bartering, and foraging and scavenging. The downside to all of the detail and attempt to be realistic is that the rules are complicated. There is a two-page flowchart needed to describe how combat should be resolved. Frankly, this game really needs to have some aspects set into a spreadsheet or computer program.

The ultimate question is whether this game has any use to preppers. Obviously, for someone interested in entertainment involving a post-apocalypse world, the entertainment value would be enough to justify looking at this game. As a game, no matter how realistic the authors have attempted to make it, it cannot replace actual training and experience. It will not teach you how to purify water, start a fire, or the ins-and-outs of food storage. However, it can do a couple of things. First, it may provide another way to spark in interest in prepping. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it could be used as a way to experiment or model details that you can't train for. For instance, the rules on combat could be used as a table-top simulation of an attack on your home or retreat. More broadly, you could develop a "campaign" that involves your neighborhood or city after a particular type of disaster. I'm not saying that such scenarios would end up being realistic--garbage in-garbage out, and all of that. But, like the "war games" that the military uses, it could allow you to explore issues and situations, and provide insights, you might not otherwise have.