"Any time they meet someone new, they're not sure if they want to exterminate humanity or not…"

Players: Pat, Brenna, Alton and me (and Ed for a moment)

Our big picture was the rise of humanity out of our ashes after the population is ravaged by a disease that killed 90% of the population. The pallet included human extinctionists and banned mutants and zombies. That made this a pretty concrete and real world setting (and the shortest pallet I've ever had in a game). I also loved that the extinctionists, something that I probably never would have thought of, became this huge part of the game just through a mention in the pallet. It seemed like everyone at the table broke out into a wide grin upon hearing the suggestion. The bookends implied an upward trajectory, starting with a dark period of humanity ravaged by disease and ending with the light of the founding of the first city after the fall.

On the first pass we added "The Siege of Disneyland" which had been turned into a walled fortress area where many survivors are holed up trying to avoid the growing hordes of extinctionists who want to make a pile of their skulls. Pat took off running with this and our first focus was Prince Walt, the tin crown despot of Disneyland. His annoying teenage sister turned out to be so exciting that she was our second focus.

Our last two foci were the virus mutation and, finally, the extinctionists. The mutation took out a third of the survivors in a period before last (when it was created) which put this dramatically brilliant tarnish on this shining city at the end of the timeline. It was really cool for the last focus to spend some time talking about who was harrowing the survivors for all this time. Rev. McGill, with his biochemistry background and book The Hand of God planted the seed which some people took to meaning people should finish God's work and kill the remaining humans. McGill ended up getting assassinated by one of these new extinctionists who are (according to him) misinterpreting his work.

This was my first game set in a modern/realistic world which I thought was a great change of pace. It made it much easier to jump into the world instead of figuring out why or how things were. It also contributed to the smaller pallet. I think that – taken with Pat's awesome first focus of Prince Walt – made much of the game have a much more human feel and focus. The middle periods (Disneyland under Siege and Rebecca's Pack of Survivalists) have fifteen events between the two of them, more than the rest of the periods combined. These periods were emotionally taxing. I think the internet likes to put it as "right in the feels."

Beyond the time at the table, I think this game is going to stay with me for a while. My family and I love Disneyland (we're going in September) and I'm not sure I'll be able to look at it the same way. I'll walk through Cindarella's castle and think of Prince Walt's desperate attempt to call Anaheim's survivors and standing outside the main gate I'll think of Lilo fighting off her mother's attackers and seeing her get mortally wounded.

I can't believe you didn't title this thread "The Siege of Disneyland"! So many images pop to mind.

These periods were emotionally taxing. I think the internet likes to put it as "right in the feels."

That's good story gaming.