I just came across this new idea, but I fear it's been overused. It's a post-apoclayptic society, not too long after, not like the distant future. I'm thinking 2200s, maybe. Anyways, there was this crazy atomic war (or accident) and the landscape is desolate, food is meager, people even scarcer. The only thing is that, half the people die off anyways. Risen from the ashes was not only a struggling human race, but a human race struggling for order.

They've split into three groups. There are City Dwellers-- those that live in the fortress like city in the middle of nowhere (which is, essentially, the middle of everywhere. There are mercenaries-- those that defend the city, kind of like bounty hunter-esque people. Don't know how that'd work. There're those who were deemed too uncivilized to live in the city and too talentless to serve as mercenaries, who were kicked out and scavenge outside of the city. And there are those who choose to live alone, probably the equivalent of today's crazy anti-socialites. You know, 'I-don't-need-a-label-I-can-live-on-my-own-and-form-my-own-crazy-government-in-what's-left-of-the-wilderness' people.

Serious Lord of the Flies undertones. Kind of like Swan Song, as well, if any've you have ever read it.

Could I get some feedback? My other one that I've already started was a complete opposite-- three girls in a boarding school.

It's as legit as you make it. The idea itself is well-used, but it doesn't need to be original if you use it well too. If you've a really good idea for a story set in that setting, then knock yourself out!

Ya you can definately make that legit, I don't know what story revolves around the world exactly, but if you need any help in getting your ideas out when it comes to "building" the world then send me a message if you like, I did a fantasy trilogy where I had to make out a world, albeit like Lotr type fantasy, but I know how hard it is to make sure things seem logical and give different characteristics to different regions etc.

What about three girls in a post-apocalyptic boarding school?

EXT. DESERT WASTELAND - DAY

MINDY, BUFFY and JANE trudge over the crest of a massive, sun-baked dune. Below, a dilapidated boarding school is situated on a rocky, sage brush dotted plain. A scorched river bed cuts a groove in the earth beyond it and one lone palm tree on the bank sways limply in the wind. It looks very dead.

In the distance, a cloud of dust rises. The rumble of engines can be heard. Oh noes: BANDITS!

...

Much hilarity ensues.

It does sound a bit like Fallout 3, which is recent. But if you could differentiate through the details, it could work.

Ahaha. You just had to make one of the girls' names Buffy, didn't you? That would be pretty great, though.

Thanks for the help, everyone. If anyone else wants to criticize this or give me some advice, I really hope you would. I could use it.

And I've never seen (... played/read?) Fallout 3. So, again, I have no idea. I don't do the sci-fi thing, apart from the nerdy Star Trek marathon ritual after cheerleading. Sigh.

You do realize I'm going to have to steal this idea now.

A post apocalyptic coming-of-age musical set in a boarding school. Hells. Yes.

///Analyzing DAEtabase for similar premises ... ... ... done!///

DAEdalus says: /Subject has been covered in many different ways; however, subject is a very engrossing one, as no one knows what would happen after Ragnarok or equivalent end to the world. The subject is one of theory, and by 0401050401122119's analysis of DAEtabase data, Homo sapiens is a very excitable and easily engrossed race as a whole./

DAEdalus further adds: /if SELF were engaged in such a script, SELF would add a virus that has mutated from the fallout and is unstoppable. The UNTOUCHABLES or REJECTS of the land would be the KEY TO THE VIRUS' VACCINE, but until the LEADERS decided to VIVISECT/ANALYZE/EXPERIMENT UPON an unfortunate INSURGENT UNTOUCHABLE, they would not find out./

DAEdalus finishes: /SELF does not plan to use this premise. SELF freely gives it to user NDESJ. Please feel free to utilise premise at your leisure./

///Transferring NEURAL NETWORK to SCRIPT PROGRAMME.///

/Goodbye./

Just a thought... 2200 is distant future. Just think how much civilization went in the last 20 years. And one nuclear event changes the face of the planet in a single day.

The idea is a well used one, but it depends on what you do with it.

I wrote a comic with a similar premise and I just read a comic by Rick Remender called The End League that also had a similar premise, but neither one had a Lord of the Flies or Swan Song feel to it.

If you give the idea your own twist it can work out very well.

The Fallout 3 example is a good one. Their twist was that they took a hyper-stylized 1950's view of what the atomic age would be like and then blew it up with communist-Chinese A-bombs. This gives the game a strange mix of Mad Max-like survivalism with sci-fi technology and 1950's style.

As the life form calling itself 0401050401122119 said, "it is a very engrossing subject" and it presents many possibilities.