D20s, Manga Writers, and Post-Apocalyptic Worlds – Geekout 21

As we’re into the fourth week of the year, what better way to celebrate than by nearly completing one of these geekout challenges. Today I’m tasked with naming Two Games that contain a d20 as a Component, Two Manga Writers, and Four Television Shows or Films [Set] in a Post-Apocalyptic World.

Here we go!

Two Games that contain a d20 as a Component

For clarity, if you don’t know, “d20” means a 20-sided die rolled to get an indeterminable number as a result. These are nearly always a icosahedron. For this prompt, I could obviously just name some pen and paper roleplaying games here, but I don’t want to do that; I’m going to draw a line here for myself. This says “contains a d20 as a Component”, which I am going to interpret that the d20 must come with the game, not be a separately required purchase.

D&D Starter Set

This is a boxed set of Dungeons and Dragons. It doesn’t contain the full rulebooks, but it’s got simplified versions of the required rules in order to play. Also contained in the box are some premade characters and an designed adventure. Most importantly to what I’m writing here is that it came with a set of dice in the box., which means it counts! For people who wanted an easier way to get started with D&D, a box set lowers that barrier to entry greatly.

Formula D

Formula D is a racing board game where you’re driving your racecar around a track. You roll dice to determine how far you move, and the die is chosen based on the gear you’re in. What’s interesting here is that the movement dice are not normal and have some duplicate values on the faces. If you want to say that the d20 with non-standard printing doesn’t count, then I’ll cite the game’s damage die; the black d20 is a normal d20 with the usual sides and is used as the damage die in the game.

Two Manga Writers

Coming up with people’s names. Even when I have ever learned someone’s name, it’s so hard to remember. Here goes!

Akira Toriyama

He’s the artist/writer behind the Dragon Ball manga, so he qualifies for this. I’m more familiar with the anime based on the manga, which I did watch long ago. I’m also a Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross fan, and he did the character design for the former. If you know Dragon Ball, you’ll notice his style in the Chrono Trigger characters, and you’ll see it even more in Blue Dragon, another set of characters he designed.

CLAMP

And here’s why I said at the beginning of the post that I’d be nearly completing this challenge. I’m kind of cheating here, since I feel like I should be naming a person. I don’t know the names of the members of CLAMP. I know it’s a group of female manga artists who rotate responsibilities. In other words, if I could come up with one of their names, I’d probably be correct. Sadly, I’ll not be able to here.

Four Television Shows or Films Set in a Post-Apocalyptic World

I changed “that take place in” to “set in”, because that prompt was quite wordy. Anyway, I’m planning to be generous in the concept of post-apocalyptic, because devastating wars that cripple infrastructure, etc. certainly should count. If many are dead with society and infrastructure taking a giant leap backward, I’d say it counts.

The Matrix

Here’s a good one. After a war between humans and machines there’s not much left of the world. We know the sky was scorched, and the surface is uninhabitable now. Machines are using humans as batteries, and the remaining humans are hiding underground. Quite the bad scenario.

The Hunger Games

This world already had some issues, and a great war caused some more. I’d say (despite there being a functioning government) that this is a post apocalyptic world. It’s certainly a society that’s in shambles (in most places) after a war. And it’s kept in shambles intentionally. Much of the place is uninhabited, so I’d say it counts.

Zombieland

One of the best zombie movies I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen quite a few. This movie is comedy gold.Cardio. Double Tap. Always check the back seat. Such a funny movie. Can’t get enough of it. Obviously, being a zombie movie, it’s an post apocalyptic world of zombies.

WALL-E

One of the greatest of Pixar’s films, it takes place after the Earth has been abandoned by humanity. It was destroyed beyond use, so people took the space in generation ships designed to survive as long as needed. This movie has some interesting points we should consider with our society. Will we let the Earth get beyond our own saving? Who knows?

Wrap Up

Well, you can call this a win or a loss, but I did get some of it written. Tomorrow’s post will be Fantasy, General Geekiness, and Gaming.