Grendel War Child As Source Material For Your Old School Post Apocalyptic Rpg

 

Back in the 90s it was all about vampires! They seemed to be everywhere like today except that they were in role playing & mostly mine. I ran the various World Of Darkness games in a wider variety of formats from post apocalyptic to original.
 It got to the point that I got tired of vampires. Really very tired of them.
 In other words Dm burnout..
The 80s & 90s were highlighted by one character that seldom ever gets mentioned anymore .
Grendel by Matt Wagner.
 

Grendel isn't a single series of  comic books about a character but a cycle of stories about a devil like life essence that passes from person to person bringing with it some incredible violence! The essence also effects the entire history of the Earth! 

I'm not going to summarize the entire series because it would spoil the comic book

This is the first Grendel who was a criminal mastermind of the first order. He took on Batman & well it wasn't pretty. We're not concerned with him.
I'm concerned with Him!
 

This is Grendel Prime. You see sometime in the future the Grendels are a warrior class & the world has come into a sort of  post apocalyptic golden age with this man.
 

Orion I, the first Grendel-Khan. His troops became known as "Grendels", and to be a Grendel became an honorable, high-status position in society. Grendel had, in effect, conquered the world.
The only problem by the time of  the events of  War Child he's dead. Its ten years later
His son Jupiter the First is a small child & he's been kidnapped by  Grendel Prime. A black clad armored powerhouse. There's lots of political infighting, romance, & post apocalyptic madness. 

As lots of  vampire killing. I do mean lots of it throughout the entire series!
Grendels & vampires don't get along its pretty much oil & water.
 

Throughout the entire series vampires are lurking in the background. Manipulating, murdering, causing problems, but their not one note monsters. These are characters with motives. Deep sinister motives.
 Over the weekend I got the opportunity to reread the Warchild cycle. Which also could be referred to as 'Around the  post apocalyptic world in 30 days'
Its pretty much one stop shopping for inspiration. You've got a ruined terminator infested New York City, a burned out bombed out South West, Mississippi returned to the wilderness, the Middle East infested with mutants lots of them, a vampire cult in Siberia, & there's lots & lots of high tech goodies. 

There are tons of clans of Grendels running around. Grendels of every shape stripe & creed.
This is not a full wasteland world this is a wasteland that is bubbling right under the surface of the normal day to day world we live in. Take a wrong turn & bang its going to kill you.
Grendel War Child New York City Random Encounters 1d10 

1. Grendel Guardians of  Pain Clan 1d4 Fighters Level 4  Armed With Melee & High Tech Weaponry 
2. Horror From The East River Armor Class 8 3 Hit Dice Monster With 1d4 Random Mutations 
3. 1d5 Roving Bands Of Mutant Survivors Armor Class 9  2 Hit Points Mutations -Toxic Emissions, Parasite Infection 
4. 1d3 Random Warbots 
5. 1d6 Toxic Zombies Armor Class 9  2 hit dice, Toxic Blood 1d3 Damage 
6. Miasma Cloud  - Toxic Emissions 1d4 damage 
7. 1d10 Mutant Survivors Armor Class 8 Hit Dice 3 Toxic Infection, Parasites, Toxic Blood 
8. Horror From Beyond - Armor Class 6 Hit Dice 4 Tentacles, Acid,  Toxic Blood 
9. 1d10 Extermination Devices Armor Class 6 Hit Dice 5  Armed With Energy Weapons 1d4 damage, Some capable of Flight 
10. 1d10 Giant Rats Armor Class 8 Hot Dice 3 Bite 1d4 70% of Disease 

 

If you wished to set a game in this world the best source book is this one:
 

This is all merely speculation on my part. Grendel was written by Matt Wagner & is copyrighted to Dark Horse comics.
If you want to spoil the cycle of  Grendel you can read about it right Here
Check out Matt Wagner's page right Here 

Technically you might use Mutant Future, Metamorphis Alpha, or any number of old school post apocalyptic games for Grendel's future 

When my old Vampire game came to an end I statted up the characters & had the players hunt down their old characters in the future of  Grendel.
Vivat Grendel!