Four and a half inspirations
Grass & Rubble was once named Automatic Wasteland and it came out of a playtest right at the height of 2020 covid. The concept changed over the years but the core persisted.
My goal isn't to create a original lore, my goal is to capture the tones from some of my favourite media and try to create a game that let's me explore it further. The setting of Grass & Rubble has four and a half major inspirations.
The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag: The 2017 graphic novel tells the story of a melancholic roadtrip through a creeping collapse, questions human conciousness and the consequences of war driven by late stage capitalism. It's cyber punk without the flashyness and the sprawling cities. Free League already made a ttrpg about the novel that fine tunes a simple version of the Year Zero Engine for very specific campaigns. What I take from it: The mid-collapse melancholy, the ghost in the machine, the CRT aesthetics.
Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky: A soviet science fiction novel about an unexplainable circular zone full of dangerous anomalies and the life of a desperate fortune seeker who undertakes illegal expeditions into it. Its a foundational piece of fiction that inspired many works of media and art. It's very raw, slow and full of magical realism. What I take from it: The concept of mundanity swallowing the extraordinary, the horrors of normalizing risking your body for the daily grind, the moments of microscopic pacing where every wrong step could be devastating, the lo-fi sci-fi cosmic horror of the zone.
Metalhead (Black Mirror S4E5) written by Charlie Brooker: This short film about a group being hunted by a ruthless dog-like robot in what seems to be either a warzone or some kind of AI apocalypse presents the technological threat as unstoppable and detached from humanity. The major inspiration are obviously the quadrupedal prototypes from Boston Dynamics and other concepts for autonomous robots and weapon systems from the late 2010s. As it's the case with most Black Mirror episodes, grim reality has caught up quickly with the current evolution of drone warfare. What I take from it: The portrayal of uncompromising machines as a force of nature, the survival horror, the near future technology.
The Last of Us by Naughty Dog: I love those games and I think the adaption is fine. I generally enjoy post-apocalyptic media and The Last of Us is my favourite setting. The story is brutal, the world is unfair and the gameplay reflects it perfectly. What appeals to me about post-apocalyptic media isn't the "prepper porn" aspect or the archaic violence, what I like is the deconstruction of human behaviour and their relationships that is told via through the lense of decay. Even though the story of the girl whose immunity could save the world is grand, most interpersonal drama and character development is very intimate. What I take from it: The moments of bonding and nostalgia triggered by props, the consequential violence, the aesthetic of overgrown ruins.
Tales from the Loop by Simon Stålenhag: This one is only a minor influence and it's definitely less important than The Electric State, but when I first played the ttrpg and read the novels, I felt like the charming 2000s nostalgia, the lo-fi but hi-tech vibe, once again the magical realism and the underlying theme of dysfunction and transformation are something I want to explore outside of the kids on bikes stories.
I could name many other influences or moments from media that I think about when daydreaming my setting, like Station Eleven, Solaris, The Road, Annihilation, The Walking Dead, Scavengers Reign, Arc Raiders and many more. But when you want to know where Grass & Rubble is coming from, The Electric State, Roadside Picnic, The Last of Us, Metalhead and Tales from the Loop are where to start.
If you are curious about games with a similar tone, take a look at 24XX Zones and QZ by Jason Tocci, The Zone by Laughing Kaiju, Zones by Sasquatsh Games, Milk Bar by Eryk Sawicki and Stalker by Burger Games.