Mom's gonna fix it all soon

Post-apocalyptic settings are fun.  As I touched on in my previous zombie apocalypse post, half the fun is about destroying the world, and the other half is about seeing how players (and people in general) react to it.  Today, I'd like to focus on ways to plot a game after the end of the world.

But deciding just how the world goes could be time consuming.  Here are five ways with brief internet research that are wonderful guides on how to end your particular world, so you can get straight to the meat of designing.  About halfway through this post, I discovered a blog dedicated to finding obscure Google Maps mashups.  Where I've found a handful of these, I found quite a good deal more there.  Have fun!



1) Flood
Want to see London, Boston, New York, LA, D.C., and a huge chunk of California submerged?  Use this tool, gathered from NASA flood maps.  You can raise the sea levels by up to 60 meters and check out your particular preferred location on Google Maps.  As an added bonus, should you expect the polar ice caps to melt any time soon, you can find out if your house will become a swimming pool!

2) Fire
 What about nuclear weapons?  Concerned about a nuclear holocaust?  Have at it with this map mashup, and have fun dropping bombs anywhere your heart may desire.  Use this map to find out whether you're going to live at any location.  This one includes wind direction.  And here's a map of US Nuclear facilities, to further help you plan out ways to game a nuclear holocaust.  To further identify specific timelines, consult Wikipedia, and perhaps come up with your own solution to the Cuban Missile Crisis.  For added fun, check out Defcon, a game based entirely around ending the world through nuclear warfare.  And, as always, consult Peter Sellers for how to plan for the aftermath.  Be prepared for the mineshaft race!

3) Disease and pollution
Want to flesh out a zombie apocalypse, like I talked about a month ago?  Disease spread and toxic areas are rather important.  This map shows current and historical outbreaks.  Here's one of swine flu.  This map is one by the New York Times that shows polluters registered with the EPA.  Here's a map of American towns and their individual risk of pollution.  To see places to go to avoid other people, go to this map.

4) Chaos!  Anarchy!
For early trends, check out unemployment levels. Here's a map of global happiness levels.  If you really want to, you can find dozens of maps of the past years' revolutions in the middle east.  Again, look at the global population density map.

5) Earthquakes!  Volcanoes!
Finding this one was a blessing.  National geographic has a custom map maker, where you can tell it what you're looking for.  It's a beautiful tool.  And this is their map of earthquakes in the US.  Here's a map of earthquakes with volcanoes!  And here's a map of earthquakes, volcanoes, and jaguars.  Because I can.

After viewing these, how would you choose to end the world?