New Low Fantasy/After The End idea

So this will be my first post on my new TV Tropes account which I created to use the TV Tropes forums. I wanted to ask about an idea for an open world RPG game I've thought of called "The Fate Of Man", "Man" standing for "mankind", which has a focus upon moral and cultural dissonance in conjunction with ideas of heroism and war. It's going to be hard to give a synopsis which is short enough but gives enough information so bear with me.

This a basic synopsis: In the far future, a new and much more destructive nuclear weapon is created which causes a nuclear winter when it is used in a war. Many thousands of years after this war humans who emigrated from Scotland into the less affected Northern Highlands have evolved into several different species (the most prominent one being the Tuatdé) that can survive the extremely dangerous conditions of this new world. These species formed many several tribes who now all fight for dominance in a society based upon war. A clansman of one of these tribes, called Folkvar, is forced into a world of political espionage, suffering and madness when he is betrayed by the people most close to him.

I'm not happy with that synopsis because even I can see how some of this stuff needs further explanation or how it may sound like it's "anti-war anvilicious" when the idea of the game is that it shows how all philosophies of war have basis. If someone posts a comment asking for any further explanation of any plot, setting, gameplay ideas (especially since I haven't said anything about the gameplay) that I didn't want to do in one potentially very long first post then I'll happily shed some light. My question is, from that brief synopsis: What does everyone think? Would you play it? Has it been done before?

edited 30th Jun '13 4:00:55 PM by Ndf27

Don't worry too much about originality. There's nothing new under the sun.

That said, I like the idea. Can you give a brief description of the new species and world?

What are the effects of radiation poisoning? How have the mutants adapted? Are there any non-mutant human survivors? What is the environment like, what kind of plants and animals have survived or adapted? What are the wars about? In a post-apocalyptic setting I don't think people would be fighting for political or philosophical ideals but for scarce resources (unless a good deal of time had gone by). (That said) how much time has passed since the nuclear weapon was used? When, where, and why was it used? Where are the fantasy elements? Do the mutants have Psychic Powers, are The Undead roaming around, what?

[Sorry, new accounts cannot post external links.]

Thanks for responding Sunember 123 and nekomoon 14. To answer the first question, the new sentient species are: Selkar, a water dwelling species with seal and dolphin like qualities; Tuatdé, a faun/satyr species; Aossi, a large species with the traits of wooly mammoths/oxen and buffalo; Jötrow, an under-dwelling ogre/moleman species and the Kentauros who are basically less human centaurs. The Highlands are naturally cold and cloudy with very little sunlight, meaning that plants have had to evolve past photosynthesis, with it becoming more colder as you go south. Blizzards are a constant threat and I would like to implement some survival elements in having to traverse through hilly and frozen wastes.

The species have adapted to the higher background radiation of the world but can suffer from lung problems if exposed for too long in the polluted snow which has become a common. but fatal, illness. The mutated species have naturally evolved in the cold environment with fur, new aspiratory adaptations and larger body sizes than humans (comparable to polar bears). There are no human survivors as all homo sapiens died following "WW3". The war itself has a history involving several aspects such as a unification of Middle Eastern powers into the Greater Eastern Union/GEU, an increasing issue in resource limitation, the development of the HOW/"Head Of War" (a play on words of a "warhead" and this bomb being the greatest of all weapons) Weapon which can amplify the EM Spectrum to increase the bomb's blast radius; and escalating tensions between the UN, EU and GEU cultivating in the first use of the HOW Bomb upon the Northern part of Africa due to several northern African countries having an allegiance with the GEU. There's still a lot more behind this such as the actual timeline of events but one aspect of the game, comparable to a show like Cowboy Bebop, is that the player should only know as much as the people of this world as they themselves have not researched the origins of their world. In line with that aspect the player and the people of Highrlan (the name of their country) don't know how much about our civilisation or how much time has past since the detonation of the HOW Bomb, something they know nothing about. It would have probably have been a few hundred thousand years or maybe even a million for the full evolution of humans to have taken place. The clans fight for several different reasons having to do with the state and location of their clans (e.g a southern clan would want northern land to get away from the dangers of the much more radioactive south lands). The four most powerful clans, The Sverdian, Penningr, Vondr and Skalmen, mainly fight over political power as it should be known that a great many years have past since the extinction of humans meaning that the newer clans have managed to build their own "society" and have established philosophical and religious ideas.

The fantasy elements mainly come from the medieval state of technology that the clans have and the fantasy inspired creatures. It's a science and low fantasy so you can probably tell by the TV Trope pages for those genres where this idea falls on the fantastical scale. The "magic" they can use are born out of handheld devices and staffs that are small scale versions of the EM Spectrum technology that manipulates different types of electro magnetic energies. None of the species have psychic powers and there are zombies (as well as other more disturbing creatures) walking around.

Is there any criticism that you can think of for that info or is it developed enough? I'm also sorry for the long wait in posting again and I'm sorry for the length of this post. I'm still having a hard time creating a synopsis that can sum all this up in short words.

I like the idea of characters not really knowing what the world was like "once, long ago, in ancient times". One thing, though: I'm not sure it counts as fantasy without magic; it could definitely work as sci fi though and I'd love to play this game either way.

Are you going to have "classes/jobs" like fighters and tech-wizards or just mundane occupations like hunters and farmers? I assume it'll be more adventure/combat-focused.

Low Fantasy can have low amounts (or none at all) of actual magic like A Song Of Ice And Fire/Game Of Thrones. It will be more combat based, with a focus upon the balanced application of both brute force and environment based agility, so there will be combat classes such as the typical warrior and "mage". I might try and create some more original aspects of the classes but the typical RPG classes are already well defined and varied enough. And thank you for your support, the doubt in the actual quality of my idea is a constant presence in my mind.

edited 18th Jun '13 2:56:46 AM by NDF27

I made this topic a while ago and I'm sorry I'm bringing it up again but with my own increasing doubts over the idea I was wondering what people think about the "HOW Bomb" and whether I should use that in the idea or something else for the actual apocalypse in the idea?

If none of the people in the setting have more than a very vague idea about what happened way back when, I don't think it really matters what the 'actual' cause was.

Good point.