Polluted Wasteland/Sandbox



The Polluted Wasteland, often found in more realistic or Sci-Fi settings, is an Aesop against abusing resources. Its inhabitants stripped the land of everything good, and polluted the air. This may justify the activities of Planet Looters who raid other worlds for the resources that they've squandered on their own. Defeat of the Big Bad won't necessarily return the land to its pristine state -- though Hope Springs Eternal is quite common. Quite often, this also involves big sprawling cities that somehow became something worse than the run-down ghettos of São Paulo, or big sprawling industrial zones that breathe smoke 24/7.

See Mordor for the Polluted Wasteland's fantasy counterpart.

Compare Forbidden Zone, I Don't Like the Sound of That Place.