Is it the sunset of the earth or the sunrise of a brave new world? That’s the question asked on the back of the box containing Aftermath, a post-apocalyptic RPG (this is the 1981 second edition from Fantasy Games Unlimited – another near identical version was released in 1980 by Phoenix Games with slightly different cover art). I’m quite keen on the box design. That logo is sweet, the painting (by co-designer Robert Charrette) is amateurish in all the best ways and that color scheme is primo. Yellow is an under-loved color.

The game, by the team that created the Bushido RPG, is obviously centered on surviving in a post-apocalyptic world. Intriguingly, the nature of the apocalypse isn’t firmly established (the box set generally embraces the idea of a nuclear event, but there is nothing stopping you from ending the world with a pandemic or an alien invasion.

Aftermath’s aesthetic is probably the best thing about the game. I find the rules to be painfully complex. Just look at those hit location charts, that tells you all you need to know about the fine grain detail in the ruleset. 30 locations! Woof. Everything in the system slows things down for meticulous simulation; actions that would take a handful of seconds require minutes of calculations and the consultation of flow charts.  This is very much of its time, but I don’t think it has aged very well.

Still, Aftermath and The Morrow Project (also released in 1980 and very similar in its complexity and theme) seem pretty influential to me, in that there appear to be some pretty clear things in both that seem to have inspired aspects of the Fallout series of videogames.