The spiritual successor to TSR's Gamma World - Earth: After Death

Long ago, the powers that be bickered and squabbled. And darkness ravaged the world as the unthinkable became reality. As those that survived that cataclysm would go on to tell their offspring:

Once upon a time, we had a love affair with fire...

What in the goddamn is even Earth: After Death?

Earth: After Death is a brand new retroclone-inspired dungeon crawler for 2-10 players and one exhausted Overseer (Game Master), and is currently live on Kickstarter from May 7th to June 4th. Inspired heavily by AD&D, the OSR, Fallout 1 & 2, Wasteland, and - of course – TSR’s Gamma World, Earth: After Death is designed to recapture the mystique and aesthetics of classic 20th century apocalyptic media.

Utilizing the novel d20-utilizing AP System, combat is faster than typical OSR-likes, while retaining the complexity, depth, and lethality to make every encounter feel unique and every approach feel viable. Do you hate games that make you track ammo, but you also don't want to leave it all up to a dice roll to see if you have ammo left? The Ambiguous Ammunition System has you covered, allowing a direct correlation between ammunition used and dice rolled, making it simple, easy, but also thematically appropriate. You may be able to mow down enemies with ease at the start of combat...but eventually, everyone runs out of ammo.

The Kickstarter is funding the development and printing of 2 zines, 1 hardcover book, and a cardstock GM screen. Most of the art is done by Latvian artist Rolands Kalniņš, with additional art by Justin McElroy, Alex Cipriano, Mike Doscher, CrimReaper, Francesco Silva, wufdrawscrap, Soul (Soul_ant19), and more!

The books being Kickstarted are the following:

Wastelander's Handbook 1e

• 6 Character Strains (we don't use the term Race anymore);
• 12 Character Backgrounds (like classes, but less railroaded);
• A whole list of Perks to make every build more unique and weird;
• Rules for Wastecrawls (hexes) and Dungeoncrawls, and rules for both square-by-square combat and zone-based combat;
• Stress, Radiation, and more than 100 Mutations;
• Tons of guns, weapons, vehicles, random items, as well as degradation and encumbrance rules that won't get too in the way of the fun;
• and more!

Overseer's Manual

• Rules for diseases, weather effects, and anomalies caused by the bleeding Noosphere;
• Vehicular Combat, optional rules for exploration and progression, and as well as cybernetic augmentations and psionic powers;
• Rules for army-scale battles and building your own towns and defenses;
• 200+ enemies of varying power levels - everything from mutants to men to machines to boss monsters;
• Random dungeon and wilderness generation, allowing your players to explore abandoned malls, subway systems, sewer runoffs, skyscrapers;
• and so much more!

Apocalyptic Dreams

• The Hammer, a complete map of the post-apocalyptic city of Hamilton, Canada, and its fledgling attempts to rebuild after the Final War. - by Brenden Carlson and Tristan Marks
• Apocalyptic Dreams - An adventure involving digital ghosts, a tribe of Arctic machine-hunters, and a secret mission to help the world at the expense of so many of those that remain. - by Brenden Carlson
• Over the Moon - A point-crawl through an abandoned amusement park infested with machines. What treasures or horrors lurk within the depths of the park? - by Luke Gearing
• Cakewalk - News of an old water reclamation system has circled through the settlements of the Hammer. It promises riches beyond compare to any who can reach it, but little do they know the system has accidentally grown its own guardians. - by Josh Domanski

Accolades and what creators are saying:

There's some great stuff here. The art and layout are wonderful. I very much like how the book reads like someone teaching me the rules in real life at the table. The conversational mood is my favorite when learning something new. [The] influences feel very present. It's wild seeing a game that feels like it could be a trad game from 2001 in my "hands" today. Everything from the accelerated doomsday timeline (apocalypse in the 2015!) to the mechanics and tone of the setting. I know if you're someone who loved d20 Modern, GURPS Car Wars, RIFTS, or the original Fallout games you'll love the vibe! - Josh McCroo, Rise Up Comus, His Majesty The Worm

Earth: After Death is a slick fusion of post apocalypse, military warcraft and cyberpunk genres, with page after page of clean layout, easy to grasp mechanics and gorgeous art. If there's another game like it, I haven't seen one in my decades in the hobby...new, different and DEFINITELY COOL. - HodagRpg, HODAG RPG, No Foes No Traps

Earth, After Death is plenty crunchy without running amok or getting too carried away with itself. Players will have plenty of options with great opportunities for growth that are interesting, fun, and most importantly, manageable...The encumbrance system makes me actually want to include it in gameplay. - Tim Obermueller, Obermueller Games, various Mothership supplements

There is a serious lack of mechanics involving cloacae. – JD Clement, HyperMall: Unlimited Violence, Rat Bastard Games

With a targeted fulfillment date of December 2024, we hope to give our writers and artists plenty of time to make and create this weird and wild RPG, while respecting your time as backers. Distribution will be handled by RV Games, who are not only incredibly intelligent and insightful, but will prevent any Stretch Goal Bloat which will push this game back another year or more. That being said, check out the Kickstarter for Stretch Goals and additions to the 3-book bundle!

Hammer City Games is a Canadian TTRPG developer and publisher starting up in Hamilton, Ontario. We are dedicated to making and elevating Canadian voice in the tabletop space by publishing weird, fun, cool, and stupid games. We are opening submissions in late 2024 to Canadians and Brits (or even Americans that can conceive of the fact that other countries exist).