Afterworlds

Afterworlds is an original post-apocalyptic live action roleplaying game I created from the ground up, including its setting, game systems, rules, factions, characters, and the larger world that ties them all together.
The goal was to create more than a setting for people to dress up and fight in. Afterworlds was designed as a living game world where exploration, survival, combat, trade, alliances, rivalries, and player decisions all matter. Players aren't simply following a predetermined story. Their actions become part of the story.
Building it meant solving a very different kind of game-design problem. Rules have to work not just on paper, but with real people, in real spaces, while everyone is trying to remain immersed in the world. Systems need to be understandable in the moment, flexible enough to support unexpected ideas, and sturdy enough to keep the game moving when players inevitably do something nobody planned for.
It also meant building the world around those systems: its history, cultures, factions, conflicts, characters, props, documents, visual identity, and all the little pieces that make a fictional place feel like it existed before the players arrived.
Afterworlds became a combination of writing, game design, worldbuilding, event design, graphic design, prop making, and a considerable amount of asking, "Okay, but what happens if a player tries this?"
It's one of the projects that best represents what I enjoy making: something strange and ambitious that doesn't fit neatly into a single medium.