It turns out mom and dad were wrong. There were monsters under the bed. In 9:02 AM of the night after Christmas, for a period of 1 second, there was a terrible noise. Every human being who wasn't covered in a blanket vanished off the face of the Earth.
How does the world continue from the morning after?tfw sitting next to your son who's afraid to go to sleep gives you an idea for a post-apocalyptic game
Ha. I always sleep covered by a blanket, so I'm alright. Time to rule the world.
>>44500612
Joke's on you, I don't have a bed.
>>44500612
>9:02 AM
By which Timezone?
Is this affected by Daylight Savings?
These details and many more need to be addressed before any semblance of an answer can be given.
>>44500725
Didn't say anything about you needing to be in a bed.
>Every human being who wasn't covered in a blanket vanished off the face of the Earth.
Were you covered by a blanket in your non-bed? Were you? Hmmh?
>>44500735
Does it really matter that much to extrapolating about the setting? One moment, like 9/10ths of humanity disappears. Doesn't change much if slightly more disappear in Boston or LA.
>>44500762
Timezones do matter.
If it's 9:02 local, that means Asia and shit'll disappear, but the West and Latin America'll survive.
>>44500762
It does, because that skews it way towards some geological areas.
How many people do you think are under blankets around 3PM in any part of the world? How could they get eaten by bed monsters if they weren't even sleeping?
Also, if all you want from this premise is that 9/10 of humanity disappears (a rather optimistic measure anyhow), and that it's mostly kids who survive, seems like a waste of good monster scenario to use that here.
>>44500780
I think it depends on how you read it. I understood that at what was 9:02 PM in a certain place, whatever happened and everyone disappeared. Not that some slow wave of disappearances happened gradually and always took place when it was 9:02 PM in any particular place.
>>44500805
Yeah, that's what I got from it, too. I think it makes a lot more sense. The whole scenario seems to be based on childish fears, so the less you think about the tiny little details of it, the better it'll work. Focus on what it's like to wake up one day and find your city completely empty.
A far, far more important question is whether the monsters under the bed are still out there. If it really was them after all, rather than just justification for the setting. Makes me thing about Stephan King, for some reason.
>>44500805
OP is talking about 9/10 of whole humanity disappearing and doesn't consider timezones important, as per >>44500762
So yeah, this is a shitty scenario for over half of the timezones.
>>44500802
I think part of what's so scary about this scenario is that whatever happens lasts 1 freaking second. Nobody "fought monsters", nobody probably even saw them coming. All those people, wiped out COMPLETELY, all over the world, in the span of a second. Either the monster under the bed is really fucking fast, or it's just a childish way of interpreting whatever "really" happened (e.g. alien abduction, the rapture, whatever).
>>44500612
>spoiler
I know how you feel. My wife's son is such a crybaby...
>>44500735
>>44500762
>>44500780
>>44500802
>>44500805
>>44500823
>>44500836
>>44500839
OP here, just to clarify, my thoughts were along >>44500823s interpretation. It's 9:02 AM somewhere (say West Coast), then at that moment all over the world at the same time everyone disappears. It's not a slow effect, nobody gets any warning about it, and nobody fights it. It just happens like that, then the survivors wake up.
>>44500612
Sounds like a bad Doctor Who episode OP, go write for bbc.
>>44500856
But you do realize that half the world is already awake when that happens, right? They're not in beds. Do they still just disappear? How is that related to bed monsters?
By this scenario, huge parts of the world get wiped out more or less completely, since very few people were sleeping under blankets in the middle of the fucking day.
>>44500762
>Boston or LA
Do you honestly think that when you sleep at night, everyone, the entire world over, is also asleep at the same time?
Perth, Australia is +8 Hours from GMT
Los Angeles, USA is -8 Hours from GMT
This will really alter who gets eaten.
>>44500873
That's why it's an apocalyptic scenario. Everyone's gone.
>how's this related to bedtime monsters
I'm assuming he's referring to the childish belief that the "monster would get them" if they aren't covered.
>>44500856
This is a very shit premise, you realise.
I'm assuming the monsters aren't still around. If they (or it? Was it a single monster?) were capable of disappearing like 99% of humanity in a second, they'd have finished the job in the next one if that's what they wanted. You can't hope to "fight" or "escape" or even "hide" from something so fast.
>>44500887
It's the premise of quite a few stories out there, honestly. Immediately made me think about Everyone's Gone To The Rapture, although I supposed that's not the best of examples since as a game it wasn't very appealing.
>>44500856
Your setting is shit.
I get up, punch the GM in the face and leave.
>>44500876
>>44500873
>>44500836
>>44500780
>>44500780
>>44500735
This thread is full of autism.
>>44500904
It's a shit premise when the random decisive factor is "Were you under a blanket at the time" and then random rambling about how there are monsters under beds, which doesn't actually have any bearing on the scenario when most of the people who disappeared weren't in beds.
>>44500856
Ya best not to think too much. The movie gremlins has the law that you can't feed them after midnight. What's that even mean.
>>44500823
>Makes me thing about Stephan King, for some reason.
That's because Stephan King loves the plot of "normal people stuck in an absurd situation where all of a sudden some bizarre catastrophe happens and you never learn about the rest of the world." Problem is it's not that conductive to a classical roleplaying game.
>>44500915
>Timezones are autism
Watch your bitch mouth, American fuckface. Just because you have never travelled outside your filthy capitalist city and realized that morning is not universal over the entire planet doesn't mean you aren't a pig.
>>44500930
U mad? Truth hurts I guess.
This is seriously not all that different from your granddady's nuclear apocalypse scenario, except replacing "people who were in bunkers" with "people who were in bed."
You know what this sounds like more than everything? Malevil. Anyone read this book?
>>44500930
>America is one city and one timezone
Kek. That insult doesn't even make sense unless you were applying to Australians or something equally forgettable.
>>44500842
>My wife's son
>>44500967
We all know that fat American bitches are like vermin. They infest buildings and will not leave. They will simply sit and watch capitalist television that feeds them propaganda while they fatten themselves.
Like pigs. Ratpigs.
>>44500973
Divorce is a thing that happens
>>44500987
I sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter. Ever since I was a boy I dreamed of soaring over the oilfields dropping hot sticky loads on disgusting foreigners. People say to me that a person being a helicopter is Impossible and I'm fucking retarded but I don't care, I'm beautiful. I'm having a plastic surgeon install rotary blades, 30 mm cannons and AMG-114 Hellfire missiles on my body. From now on I want you guys to call me "Apache" and respect my right to kill from above and kill needlessly. If you can't accept me you're a heliphobe and need to check your vehicle privilege. Thank you for being so understanding.
>>44500987
Easy there, Vasili, you are havings the angry drunks again. Sober up with some vodka before doing the post again, comrade.
>>44500612
How strong is the monster?
>>44502489
Enough to kill most of humanity in a second.
Cool idea, no potential.
>>44500842
And you are a literal cuck.
Bumping for interest.
>>44504508
>no potential
>>44504508
Pretty much this.
Although it's tempting to say that the "how does that work?" crowd are just being autistic, accepting their concerns and having the monsters be a kind of "vanishing plague" that kills off the majority of the human race over a matter of weeks or months probably gets better results for most traditional games. (I'm assuming an RPG here, so character background is important.)
Still leaves the question of "what next?" open, but presumably some sort of survival story could be run with fruity monster- and blanket-cults running amok.
>>44504508
>>44507695
I disagree entirely. The best way to handle it is like Y the Last Man. Shit got real. How does it work? You don't know. And although you'd really LIKE to know, the more pressing concern is surviving.
Assuming 9:02 am is relevant, a lot of people might have been awake and IN bed.
So now what does this mean? If you're not in a blanket again by 9:02 the next day, you might die. Maybe not. Maybe it was a one-of event. Maybe it'll happen again next 26th of December at 9:02 am.
The first thing most people would do (other than panic), is to to check TV/media outlets/see if the internet works. It likely would, even if 50+% of the earth vanished, because of generators/back-up systems/etc.
Then people would trade stories to see what happened, obviously mixed with some hyperbole/superstition.
Likely, there was someone who was in bed, AWAKE, with a blanket on them, talking to someone NOT in bed, awake, who saw them melt/vanish/explode/whatever in that 1 second. Probably even more than one person saw this happen, and they'd corroborate their stories.
This is already a good enough hook. The next step is simply introducing the main conflict.
>>44500612
>9:02 AM
Are... are there people still in bed at this hour? I mean, I guess if they work overnight sure, but I'm already at work for half an hour at that point.
Are you just a lazy fuck OP?
>>44508015
>working on boxing day
You poor fuck. You deserve to vanish during the Monsterocalypse; it would be an act of mercy.
>>44508039
What the hell is boxing day?
>>44508108
Basically, the day after Christmas, everyone gets the day off, except slave laborers. Department stores/shops/etc slash all of their prices to half off or higher to try and blow out all of their leftover merchandise from Christmas, and hordes of berserk poorfags stampede the stores and literally get into fist-fights over $2 t-shirts.
>>44508181
The day AFTER Christmas is a holiday?
This is a European thing, isn't it? Sounds kinda like Black Friday here in the US. Only BF is the day after Thanksgiving. Though the last 5 year or so it's started ON thanksgiving.
>>44508015
>>44508039
>>44508108
>>44508181
>>44508235
Seems to me a lot more likely OP made a mistake. He pretty clearly intended night.
>>44508235
Canadian here.
>United Kingdom, The Bahamas, Barbados, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, Bermuda, New Zealand, Kenya, South Africa, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and other former British colonies
>>44508235
Americans don't get the day after Christmas off?
Holy fuck, that's suffering.
We normally get Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, *and* Boxing Day off. Then you get New Years Eve and New Years Day off, so most people just book the 2-3 days needed in between.
Why's it called "boxing day"? Who do you punch?
>>44508321
No, we only get Christmas off. Sometimes.
If you're critical personnel, you better be in on Christmas day.
>>44500612
>Every human being who wasn't covered in a blanket vanished off the face of the Earth.
Vanished to where?
>>44508181
So it's like britfag Black Friday?
>>44508321
>We normally get Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, *and* Boxing Day off. Then you get New Years Eve and New Years Day off
How it works here for a lot of jobs too. Hell, I'm not back to work until the 4th.
>>44508357
>Oxford English Dictionary gives the earliest attestations of the term as being from England in the 1830s, defining it as 'the first week-day after Christmas-day, observed as a holiday on which post-men, errand-boys, and servants of various kinds expect to receive a Christmas-box'.
>>44508382
Savage.
>>44508393
Well, I guess. In Canada, we get Black Friday too though. And I live right by the American border, so I usually get American thanksgiving *and* Canadian thanksgiving.
I feel humbled. I've been taking all of these holidays for granted!
>>44508382
A lot of places, like banks, get New Year's Day off too.
At my last job I got THREE days off of work for holidays.
Thanksgiving day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. And we only got New Year's off because the store was so slow in the mornings we would lose money by being open. And that was working a small time mom and pop store.
My current job is with a bog box store and I get NO holidays off. Overnight stock workers don't get any holidays. I was lucky in that I was just so happened to not get scheduled for New Year's. I worked Christmas Day from Midnight to 6 AM. I had to work Thanksgiving. Though, granted I didn't have to go in until 11:30 PM so it hardly counted.
>>44508275
Ok. How many adults are in bed by 9 then? Hell, how many are even NEAR a bed that early?
>>44508644
Very few, meaning most survivors would be kids. Wasn't that the point of the scenario?
>>44508644
People watching Netflix
People having sex
NEETs that live in their bed with a laptop
etc
So quite a few. Also it said in a blanket, not in a bed.
So you could be on the couch with a blanket, or just wearing a slanket around the house like a wizard (which I do, virtually 24/7)
>>44508235
It's not holiday here, only the 25th is. But I don't personally know anyone that's been forced to work on either the 24th or 26th, most people use some of their vacation days for the week or two around Christmas and new year.
>>44508695
>>44508721
Says in the OP "There were monsters under the bed."
That wouldn't be relevant if it's just ANYONE without a blanket. Hell, what defines a blanket? Is a sheet enough, because it's summer in the southern hemisphere and when it's too warm for a blanket I use sheets.
In Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy they point out a towel can be used as a blanket, so is anyone stepping out of the shower safe?
>>44508644
>>44508695
So basically the first few hours there's a LOT of fucking crying, because Mom, Dad and possibly a number of older siblings are now deader than disco.
Then there's going to be a lot of fear and freaking out. Eventually a bunch of kids will get outside.
At which point, they will make like the kids on Pleasure Island.
>>44507923
If we're assuming it all happened at the exact same time then you probably have a fair number of time zones with relatively little impact.
Obviously, you also have desolate wastelands where everyone got monster'd, but without further monster interference (because OP hadn't stated anything about later attacks) it'd be your B-movie outbreak/zombie virus movie, just with a shitton less conflict and suspense and more >well fuck I guess we're going to form small communities of survivors and loot shops etc for resources until a foreign power turns up to help re-secure the nation/it's survivors and settle them again or refugee them.
That's hardly exciting, since even if you're in a wasteland it just becomes playing small scale politics with groups of survivors, and no outside force to make them into the 'real evil all along'. Yeah, you're gonna get a huge amount of emotional turmoil, but do you really want to RP every session being horrible depression at the fact 90%+ of your family and friends 'died' overnight mixed with "Ok, so we've heard on the radio/satellite phones that the FOREIGNPOWER is coming to distribute aid, so for now we're just gonna set up in the sports hall and send runners to the local supermarket."
There would be the potential for a little conflict (as there is with any human interaction) but it'd be pretty boring compared to the same thing with literally any other monster/pandemic involved.
>>44508752
>most people use some of their vacation days
Most jobs in the US don't have vacation days. Sure you can take time off, but you aren't getting money for them.
>>44508800
A week later, nuclear power plants start to keel over and release harmful shit into the atmosphere.
Kids die everywhere as radioactive shit is carried by the winds.
>>44508819
>mfw 5 weeks of paid holidays for everyone for free.
>>44508821
And most kids have no chance of surviving without adults
Only long term survivors are bunch of farmers at best
But America has boars so they die too
>>44508785
As long as you're covered by it.
>>44508803
This is assuming that it doesn't happen again tomorrow at 9:02 am. That's where it gets fun. Also, why would FOREIGNPOWER be coming? It might not at all. This is the point of the thread, after all. What makes it more interesting?
>>44508981
FOREIGNPOWER always comes, eventually.
You'd need a very different world to the one we have today for a nation not to immediately go "Shit, what the fuck happened to <CONTINENT> we must send a small force to investigate."
Then later it becomes, "We must help these people on this now powerless landmass, full of resources and evidence/clues that may help us negate this happening to the world ever again, send a load of our scientists and EQUIPMENT". Lots of nations use their military to engage in humanitarian roles around the world, a huge disaster like this would force them to do so.
The problem with it happening again is you are just culling the human population time after time. Then say people work out that blankets stop it, what happens when people work out they can sleep zipped into a sleeping bag and are safe? Do the monsters just pick a different time and fuck everyone over again?
When there's no way to stop the monsters from acting it becomes a weird version of inoculation, you can zip yourself into a lightly insulated sack at night and you're safe, so now what? Now almost nobody dies from this ever again, since you can carry a watch and a sack around with you at all times.
>>44509163
Not if every nation is dealing with the same shit. Other countries have less means to fund invasion forces to be FOREIGNPOWER relief aid.
And if it happened time and time again, I guess people would just start wearing blanket-stillsuits and it would be some kind of Dune setting.
>>44509266
If it's 9AM GMT then it's middle of the night for most Americans.
If we assume OP was wrong and we're looking at 9PM GMT then it's middle of the day for most Murkans and you've got Russia/China asleep.
And of course that's just assuming we're using GMT, but someone is always asleep, that's how the world works. So they'd have significantly less problems than other places. Sure there'd be rioting and domestic panic, but that's not new or novel since you get that in any disaster.
I honestly feel like there's nothing here that say zombies for example, don't do better. And zombies are overdone as shit, OP essentially took all the external pressures out of a zombie survival story, so now in order to survive all you do is wear a sleeping bag with holes for your arms and legs, or get one of those shyguy shuffle sleep suits.
And if it keeps happening/people don't work out what stops them? Everyone dies, probably. Since apparently the monsters are instant and unstoppable.
>>44509533
>GMT
Europe, you're drunk, go to bed.
He was clearly talking about EST, the real time zone of the civilized world.
>>44509619
He didn't specify a time zone, 0 is clearly the default. Unless you're planning to argue that -5 etc is somehow more worthy?
>>44509727
Positive leap seconds make UTC and GMT an obsolete notion.
>>44509786
Yeah but he didn't specify a time in superiorBEATSso we'll deal with what we have.
>>44509727
>Unless you're planning to argue that -5 etc is somehow more worthy?
That's where Washington DC is, the capital of the free world is. So yes, it's most important.
>>44509892
>America's quarantine zone for politicians and street gangs.
Please. I'd accept something more trade related, but don't pretend you even like Washington DC.
