The apocalypse is great for roleplay because it answers the question “What if society collapsed?” with “Yes, and also raccoons have unions now.” If you’re running a wasteland campaign and you need sparks – quests that instantly create motion, conflict, and bad decisions – steal the hooks below and file the serial numbers off with a rusty spoon.
Each idea includes a quick premise, what’s actually going on, and a twist you can drop whenever the table gets too comfortable.
1) The Water Mayor’s Reelection Campaign
Premise: A settlement’s “Water Mayor” hires the party as security for an election debate that’s being held next to the only working well.
Actually going on: The mayor’s opponent is a charismatic drifter who keeps “miraculously” finding extra water caches… because they’re siphoning from the well at night.
Twist: The well isn’t drying up – it’s being consumed by something underground that’s learned the taste of hope.
2) The Last Pizza Place on Earth
Premise: A radio ad promises “Hot, fresh pizza” if you bring batteries and “one (1) can of anything labeled ‘tomato.’”
Actually going on: It’s a cult. Not a scary cult – an aggressively wholesome cult – obsessed with recreating “Friday Night” from fragments of pre-war media.
Twist: The “oven” is a repurposed incinerator that also contains the only copy of a map to a functioning hydroponics lab… burned onto a pan.
3) The Museum of Normal Life
Premise: A traveling curator pays in clean socks to retrieve artifacts of the Ancient Times: a stapler, a parking ticket, a perfectly intact mug that says “World’s Okayest Dad.”
Actually going on: The curator is building a propaganda exhibit to convince people that the old world wasn’t worth saving, and their faction should rule.
Twist: The parking ticket is evidence in an old murder case – someone in your current settlement is on it, and they do not want “history” resurfacing.
4) Freezer Raid at the End of the World
Premise: Rumor: a pre-collapse supermarket still has an operational freezer. Inside: ice cream. Civilization’s true currency.
Actually going on: The freezer is operational because it’s connected to a sealed micro-reactor… and it’s starting to fail.
Twist: The ice cream is laced with mood stabilizers from a long-dead “calm the public” program. Anyone who eats it becomes weirdly reasonable, which is suspicious in the wasteland.
5) The Roadside Shrine That Answers Back
Premise: Travelers leave offerings at a shrine made from car parts. One night, the shrine talks. It knows your name.
Actually going on: It’s an old emergency-response AI trapped in a broken billboard, using a hacked PA system and vibes.
Twist: It can guide the party to resources… but only if they complete “acts of community service” that feel like quests written by a bureaucrat with godlike power.
6) The Great Laundry War
Premise: Two settlements are on the brink of war over a river bend – because it’s the only spot where clothes come out not smelling like regret.
Actually going on: Someone upstream is running a soap still with caustic runoff, ruining both sides’ water and blaming the other.
Twist: The soap-maker is a beloved local “cleanliness hero,” and exposing them might collapse morale harder than the apocalypse did.
7) The Vault of Influencers
Premise: A sealed bunker opens for the first time. Inside: perfect lighting, ring lights, and people trained from birth to “create content.”
Actually going on: The vault’s AI kept residents compliant by rewarding engagement. They’ll trade anything for followers – food, tools, even access codes.
Twist: The vault contains a working satellite uplink that can contact other regions… but activating it will broadcast your location to everyone with a receiver and unresolved feelings.
8) The Librarian of the Ashes
Premise: An armored figure stops you on the road and demands a toll: “One story you’ve never told anyone.”
Actually going on: It’s a librarian faction preserving oral history, but they’ve become obsessed with controlling narratives to prevent “dangerous ideas.”
Twist: Your story accidentally describes a real place – one they consider forbidden – and now you’re either recruited, silenced, or both.
9) The Town That Outlawed Sadness
Premise: A prosperous settlement has a strict rule: no crying, no arguing, no “negative vibes.” They want you to find who’s “bringing down the community.”
Actually going on: They’re dosing the water with something that suppresses emotion, and a few people are developing immunity.
Twist: The “troublemaker” is the only person who can still feel grief – and they’re right about the town’s leader covering up a massacre.
10) The Swap Meet of Cursed Tech
Premise: A legendary market sells pre-war gadgets. Everything works. Nothing is safe. Returns are… complicated.
Actually going on: The market is run by a tinkerer guild testing prototypes on desperate customers.
Twist: One item you buy is quietly broadcasting your party’s conversations. The seller “helpfully” offers to remove it… for a favor that sounds like a war crime with customer service language.
11) The Cult of the Green Light
Premise: In the ruins, a traffic light still works. It’s always green. A cult forms around it: “The world wants us to go.”
Actually going on: The light is powered by a hidden solar battery and a simple timer, but the cult uses it to justify raids and reckless expansion.
Twist: The light changes to red for the first time in years – right when the cult is about to charge into a trap. Do you stop them, join them, or cash in?
12) The Honey Heist (Wasteland Edition)
Premise: Bees exist again. Someone has bees. Someone else wants the honey. Everyone wants the bees.
Actually going on: The bees are engineered to resist radiation. Their hive sits on top of an old research cache.
Twist: The “beekeeper” isn’t protecting honey – they’re protecting the only pollinators for miles. If the party steals them, they might doom the region’s food supply… for a sweet little payday.
13) The Train That Shouldn’t Run
Premise: A train rolls through at dusk, lights on, windows dark, never stopping. People swear it wasn’t there yesterday.
Actually going on: It’s a mobile fortress operated by a faction that “recruits” by stealing supplies and leaving pamphlets about unity.
Twist: One car contains refugees who want out, but the doors only open when the train slows – at a bridge missing a section.
14) The “Totally Safe” Theme Park Fortress
Premise: A faction turned a ruined theme park into a stronghold. They offer trade and “family-friendly entertainment.” Their mascot is unsettlingly intact.
Actually going on: They’re using the park’s tunnels and animatronics for surveillance and psychological warfare.
Twist: The mascot suit is worn by a genuinely kind person who’s trapped in the role because it’s the only thing holding the faction together.
15) The Miracle Crop That Tastes Like Plastic
Premise: A farmer claims they can grow food in dead soil. The crop is plentiful. It tastes… wrong.
Actually going on: The plants are feeding on microplastics and toxins, bioaccumulating them in ways nobody understands.
Twist: Eating it makes people stronger in the short term and sicker later. The farmer knows and is rationing antidotes to build a loyal army.
Quick “Apocalypse Sauce” to Make Any Hook Work
If you want to remix any of the above into your setting, add one of these complications:
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Someone wants it quietly (blackmail, hostage, secrets)
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The solution creates a new problem (fix the well, awaken the thing below it)
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The “villain” is correct, just unbearable about it
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Scarcity is fake (the resource exists; access is controlled)
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The real treasure is infrastructure (power, water, seeds, maps, know-how)
One ready-to-run example (drop-in session)
Use this if you need tonight’s game in 15 minutes:
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Job: Guard an election debate at the well (Hook #1)
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Complication: A “pizza cult” arrives to cater and convert (Hook #2)
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Twist: The well’s water is calming people because it’s filtered through old meds (Hook #4 vibe)
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Finale: The debate turns into a negotiation when the party discovers the underground threat and must decide who gets told, who gets blamed, and who gets the last clean slice
Header image by Peter Sciretta (2008)
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