Well, you have to ask yourself why you're running a post-apocalypse setting.

You could run any kind of story or theme - a romance! Courtly intrigue! Mystery! Horror! in any setting. But why are you picking that setting, what does it reinforce?

Post-apocalyptic settings are about survival, demonstrating the folly of humanity, etc. Those are the tropes that kind of setting evokes. So choosing a theme not aligned with that setting begs the question of why you'd choose that setting as opposed to another. Trying to fit random themes into arbitrary settings can be fun I guess, but in general I'd start with the story and then choose a setting that actually supports it with its tropes.

To me it's like asking "how come whenever I play World of Darkness games we end up covering a lot of the same ground?" Well... Of course you do. That setting is superheroes + angst so stories you set there are going to rehash superheroes + angst at some level, unless you put in a lot of work to stay away from it. "Let's all play happy kids on a playground in Vampire! But no one will be a vampire and we won't meet any vampires." "...What?"

As such I'm not sure there's a meaningful answer to the question. You can:

1. Not run a post-apoc setting
2. Run some very different story type in a post-apoc setting, and go against the grain
3. "Hide" the post-apoc so much that it's not post-apoc any more (most lands had some previous civilization there that fell, but a game set in WWII Italy is not "Roman post-apocalyptic" in any meaningful sense).
4. Pick a setting to suit your story

Well, you have to ask yourself why you're running a post-apocalypse setting.

You could run any kind of story or theme - a romance! Courtly intrigue! Mystery! Horror! in any setting. But why are you picking that setting, what does it reinforce?

Post-apocalyptic settings are about survival, demonstrating the folly of humanity, etc. Those are the tropes that kind of setting evokes. So choosing a theme not aligned with that setting begs the question of why you'd choose that setting as opposed to another. Trying to fit random themes into arbitrary settings can be fun I guess, but in general I'd start with the story and then choose a setting that actually supports it with its tropes.

To me it's like asking "how come whenever I play World of Darkness games we end up covering a lot of the same ground?" Well... Of course you do. That setting is superheroes + angst so stories you set there are going to rehash superheroes + angst at some level, unless you put in a lot of work to stay away from it. "Let's all play happy kids on a playground in Vampire! But no one will be a vampire and we won't meet any vampires." "...What?"

As such I'm not sure there's a meaningful answer to the question. You can:

1. Not run a post-apoc setting
2. Run some very different story type in a post-apoc setting, and go against the grain
3. "Hide" the post-apoc so much that it's not post-apoc any more (most lands had some previous civilization there that fell, but a game set in WWII Italy is not "Roman post-apocalyptic" in any meaningful sense).
4. Pick a setting to suit your story

If it's your players requesting post-apocalyptic... Isn't it likely that they are making that request specifically to experience those tropes? If you file the post-apoc off the post-apoc, does that meet their expectations?

Well, you have to ask yourself why you're running a post-apocalypse setting.

You could run any kind of story or theme - a romance! Courtly intrigue! Mystery! Horror! in any setting. But why are you picking that setting, what does it reinforce?

Post-apocalyptic settings are about survival, demonstrating the folly of humanity, etc. Those are the tropes that kind of setting evokes. So choosing a theme not aligned with that setting begs the question of why you'd choose that setting as opposed to another. Trying to fit random themes into arbitrary settings can be fun I guess, but in general I'd start with the story and then choose a setting that actually supports it with its tropes.

To me it's like asking "how come whenever I play World of Darkness games we end up covering a lot of the same ground?" Well... Of course you do. That setting is superheroes + angst so stories you set there are going to rehash superheroes + angst at some level, unless you put in a lot of work to stay away from it. "Let's all play happy kids on a playground in Vampire! But no one will be a vampire and we won't meet any vampires." "...What?"

Well, you have to ask yourself why you're running a post-apocalypse setting.

You could run any kind of story or theme - a romance! Courtly intrigue! Mystery! Horror! in any setting. But why are you picking that setting, what does it reinforce?

Post-apocalyptic settings are about survival, demonstrating the folly of humanity, etc. Those are the tropes that kind of setting evokes. So choosing a theme not aligned with that setting begs the question of why you'd choose that setting as opposed to another. Trying to fit random themes into arbitrary settings can be fun I guess, but in general I'd start with the story and then choose a setting that actually supports it with its tropes.

To me it's like asking "how come whenever I play World of Darkness games we end up covering a lot of the same ground?" Well... Of course you do. That setting is superheroes + angst so stories you set there are going to rehash superheroes + angst at some level, unless you put in a lot of work to stay away from it. "Let's all play happy kids on a playground in Vampire! But no one will be a vampire and we won't meet any vampires." "...What?"

As such I'm not sure there's a meaningful answer to the question. You can:

1. Not run a post-apoc setting
2. Run some very different story type in a post-apoc setting, and go against the grain
3. "Hide" the post-apoc so much that it's not post-apoc any more (most lands had some previous civilization there that fell, but a game set in WWII Italy is not "Roman post-apocalyptic" in any meaningful sense).
4. Pick a setting to suit your story