I think people might be thinking of too dramatic a scenario perhaps.<br/><br/>How about if there are a LOT of Haves and they build many closed communities. Life isn't all rich lazy effete corruption inside such communities; everyone has a job, works hard or leads or protects; life in such places might not even be very nice for some/many (as applicable) there could be a good few Have Nots within such a community but they would be the slaves or other menials.<br/><br/>There might not be much incentive for the Have Nots to even bother attacking such well-defended places.<br/><br/>I don't think you need to look far within our present society to see enclaves of Haves lording it up while the rest of us just ignore them and carry on. I agree that the super rich, the airhead celebrities, the private island owners, the club members, the elite golf club members don't so much as physically defend what they have but the analogy is there.<br/><br/>Just because the Haves have something it does not necessarily follow that the Have Nots will want what they have. Many may be quite content with a much simpler freer anarchic agricultural way of life after whatever it is that has befallen this world.<br/><br/>Following a major war (internal or external, military or economic) in an already very underpopulated country such as New Zealand or Australia I think you could very easily have a couple of dozen extremely well defended enclaves boasting enough hardware and numbers of defenders to discourage the outsiders - who in a fallout type scenario would be dispersed and in disagreement with each other as well.<br/><br/>Or a plague could be the cause if people really feel a very low population is better, but the proportions of Hs to HNs will be similar no matter what scenario you draw up - whether its an enclave of 1000 people attacked by 10000 outsiders or 10 attacked by 100, the proportions are likely to be similar right down to the lowest end of the scale of numbers. Maybe the enclave our characters inhabit is an especially strong one and 20 miles away are a couple of weak ones and its those that take all the heat.<br/><br/>I'm sure that without struggling too much with convoluted explanations we can come up with any setting we choose and it will be as justifiable as the next.<br/><br/>I'm all for simplicity. Simplicity in backstory and simplicity of execution. Simple things that everybody can quickly grasp.<br/><br/>I personally am in favour of a very small community, just the players in fact with no NPCs. I was considering a place that has a civilian workforce or people of leisure plus an armed defence force. If 15 of us played such a game and took 2 characters each (one resident, one soldier each) we would have a community of 30 people, half of whom have fun at home (aka smut), half go out on patrols and such (aka action). The patrols will contact external forces that will provide an over-reaching story arc all of whom would be NPCd by the GMs.