What is the lure of the Post-Apocalyptic genre?

[Sinewgrab]

I had to take some time to think about this, but I think that the PA setting is so flexible that it cannot help but be appealing to anyone who wants to mashup all of the other genres.  Knights with swords, check.  Big guns? Check.  Weird monsters? Check. Old tech? Check. New tech? Check.  Can be used with almost any system? Check.

And Fallout just hits that all-american apple pie laced with cyanide that post-nostalgic children of the 80's cannot get enough of.

[Arundel]

And don't forget Thundarr. God, I loved that show back in the day. Still do, come to think of it...

Some excellent points here. I've been feeling the lure lately myself!

[Ithaquatini]

I just like going around and picking up toasters, hot plates and wonder glue!

[Messyart]

When I was younger and despised the world, PA settings in games just felt right.
*Shrugs*

Since then the aesthetic simply pleases me. Especially when the story goes along the lines of "Everything was destroyed but people are keeping strong and making the best with what they have"

Empowering notions of human strength, etc.

[Gailbraithe]

When I was younger and despised the world, PA settings in games just felt right.
*Shrugs*

Since then the aesthetic simply pleases me. Especially when the story goes along the lines of "Everything was destroyed but people are keeping strong and making the best with what they have"

Empowering notions of human strength, etc.

You know, I think that's one of the other great elements of the genre -- its easy to accuse it of nihilism (the world is gonna end!) but the genre itself, with a few exceptions (The Road, I'm looking at you), is generally quite optimistic.  Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome are both told from the perspective of survivors looking back and remembering the legend who saved them, and almost all the Mad Max knockoffs are built around this assumption that humanity will rebound.

Not to get political, but I think we're back in a cultural moment much like the one that gave birth to the genre originally -- this time the concern is less thermonuclear annihilation, and more catastrophic environmental collapse, but the end result is the same:  civilization grinds to a halt and it all becomes deserts.  And while it's easy to think of post-apocalyptic fiction as a gloomy warning, it can also be a cheery promise that no matter how bad things get, people will survive and find ways to thrive.

[Infojunky]

For me the draw is the wide-openness of theme, where one can have hideous monster struggling to do the right thing in the most monstrous way possible.

Then there are the CARs, what is the future wasteland without everyone's reawakened vehicle. they all fit as characters in their own right. My current idea is Landspeeders of the Apocalypse..... Though to be honest I tend to have a High Tech Post Apocalypse....