What is an Apocalypse Rally?

In its most basic terms, you can think of it as a road trip with camping. Everyone who enters will be following different paths, all heading to the same destination.

There are a few twists though..

First, lets talk about your typical Hollywood apocalypse. These usually start with an EM pulse that burns out all digital electronics. Then basically all society infrastructure collapses. No water, power, communications, GPS, commerce. Everyone is on their own. There can be aliens or zombies running about to make life interesting, but we’ll skip those for now.

Now, in your Hollywood apocalypse there is usually some destination that’s rumored to be where society is starting over. Many times this destination will be called something along the lines of “New Hope”. There will be a journey wrought with peril for our heros heading to “New Hope”.

An Apocalypse rally is the journey to “New Hope”.

So you’d like to try this? Here’s the rules :

Like a board game, Apocalypse Rallies have rules, but your playing piece is a real car.

Now, remember, no digital electronics. This means no electronic fuel injection or electronic ignition. And, no GPS. This limits your selection to early 1970s  cars and trucks or older.

This doesn’t mean you can’t go in style, it just means you can’t use any digital help whatsoever. Points ignition only. Or, mechanical injected diesel.

Day #1, You can take anything from your home. You can scavenge (buy) most anything. But, when scavenging, the store or gas station must be at least 10 miles from both cities and Interstate highways. And, once on the store’s parking lot, you must flip a coin. Heads you can scavenge, tails? Its already been looted, move on.

Scavenging only works for buying goods. Any service business is off limits ‘cause, there wouldn’t be any running. Camp grounds? We’ll allow camp grounds ‘cause no one would stop you from using one during an apocalypse anyway. Make sure its not full of zombies or aliens.

Day #2, 20 miles from cities and interstates and you now must flip 2 out of 3 coins for heads. And, no more food from the refrigerated sections.

Day #3, 30 miles from cities and interstates and flip 3 out of 4 coins. Good luck!

Note : Lets say you find a farmer selling eggs. He’s not thought of as being part of the infrastructure, so it would be fine to buy them. Also, for our purposes, hunting or fishing would be fine as well.

Once you receive the location of New Hope, there’s no more internet or GPS. Your down to using paper maps or word of mouth.

Also, all bridges on the interstate highways are down. You can use the interstate but you can’t cross any bridges on it. If you can find a way around them? Fine.

Somewhere a small town will be designated as “New Hope”. The plan is to choose a town with a nearby campground. Maybe by a lake or something that would be neat to go to in any case. Once you arrive in the town, the Rally is over for you. Enjoy the society you missed for so long. Everyone meets up at the campground to chat an exchange stories.