Fallout Fallout Questions

[Quigs]

I'm starting up a Fallout tabletop RPG soon. In doing the prepwork I've come across a few questions that I need to figure out, and thought I might turn to the hive for a bit of help.

Basic premise, Fallout New Jersey. Canon inclusions are Fallout 1, 2, the bible, and New Vegas. Anything purely Bethesda is getting tossed as bad fanfic. Van Buren is going to be mined for some minor details but isn't considered to have happened.

My questions :

1. The Vats of Goo. Green radioactive barrels everywhere. What are they? Are they akin to used oil? Byproduct from fusion cells?

2. Does it make sense to have Super Mutants in the east? A rare one or two is fine, but hundreds? Thousands? Enough that upon sight, the average person would know what one is?

3. Anything really known about the NJ/PA/NY tristate area? The fan wiki was scant on useful details. I can presume the cities got nuked, but anything more and I don't know.

4. Vaults. Is it safe to presume the usual density of Vaults in the area? (If not more, given the populations)

5. I'd like to include Tactics as canon as it seems mostly solid. Will I run into any problems down the road if I include it as having happened?

6. System. I've played and/or ran in a few of Modiphus systems, and I don't really think it'll be a good fit for Fallout. I browsed through the PNP system, and saw there've been several iterations of it. Any general advice of what to avoid, and issues the system itself has?

Thanks.

 

[Bester]

3. Anything really known about the NJ/PA/NY tristate area? The fan wiki was scant on useful details. I can presume the cities got nuked, but anything more and I don't know.

I'd google "US potential nuclear targets", pick one map and go from there. I don't think there's anything in the canon that describes the exact fate of most cities.

 

[lukaszek]

4. Vaults. Is it safe to presume the usual density of Vaults in the area? (If not more, given the populations)

id expect vaults density to depend on soil type, number of existing caves or other areas that can be repurposed etc

 

[agris]

1. The Vats of Goo. Green radioactive barrels everywhere. What are they? Are they akin to used oil? Byproduct from fusion cells?

I suggest you play Fallout 1 before making a tabletop game out of it. The fact that you asked this question indicates you don't really know the setting, and are trying to run before you learn to walk.

They are none of those things, and aren't "goo" on top of it.

 

[None]

1. The Vats of Goo. Green radioactive barrels everywhere. What are they? Are they akin to used oil? Byproduct from fusion cells?

They're an industrially manufactured chemical/mutagen. Think something along the lines of processed oil. Very much made and done on purpose. Unless you aren't talking about FEV, which yeah, those barrels could just be radioactive byproduct or something.

2. Does it make sense to have Super Mutants in the east? A rare one or two is fine, but hundreds? Thousands? Enough that upon sight, the average person would know what one is?

I don't think so. Maybe include a couple of migrants from the west, but without Fallout 3/4 you'll have a hard time justifying their presence in any significant numbers.

4. Vaults. Is it safe to presume the usual density of Vaults in the area? (If not more, given the populations)

I'm not so sure. Keep in mind that the entirety of LA got one vault, so I'm inclined to believe that vaults were purposefully constructed away from populated areas in order to increase their survival chances. So you may actually end up with more vaults in less dense areas than more dense ones. In your areas you'd see a lot more vaults in places like upstate NY and rural PA.

5. I'd like to include Tactics as canon as it seems mostly solid. Will I run into any problems down the road if I include it as having happened?

Depends on what you want to do. The Midwestern Brotherhood and Vault 0 could pose some issues if you delve into either of those subjects.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

PA and upstate NY have a high density of caves and mines, so vaults there would make sense. I don’t know about Jersey. Super mutants on the east coast make no sense. Presumably NYC would be one of the top 3 targets in a Nuclear assault. Philly? Not so much, it’s already a shithole.

 

[Quigs]

Unless you aren't talking about FEV, which yeah, those barrels could just be radioactive byproduct or something.

Right. The shit in the toxic caves, along with barrels randomly here and there in other areas. I think the Arroyo dog map has toxic goo there too. I know it's mostly just a set piece, but had thought maybe there was something basic I missed that'd lead to so much being produced they're literally just shoving it in random caves to get rid of it.

The Midwestern Brotherhood and Vault 0 could pose some issues if you delve into either of those subjects.

If I have tactics following "good guy" endings, Vault 0 doesn't remain too special for long. Calculator shuts down, and the area is just a hub for Brotherhood salvage. I could switch it up a bit and have different events occur, but if vaults are going to be rare in Jersey anyway, the major issue there is just the unfortunate implications with what things meant for vault dwellers at large.

The upside for me is that it introduces a rare touchpoint to games folks have played. The Enclave's big plans aren't really going to be felt this far east. The Master is kind of in the same boat, minus the stray Super Mutant or two. Mr. House presents an interesting case where if things work out, he's got one of the few places you'd conceptually travel by air to reach safely, and want to do so, but The Gangs Vegas Vacation doesn't really add all that much that Atlantic City couldn't do more reasonably.

But Tactics happening means there can be a small Brotherhood outpost, with all the old world ties linked through it, along with a little more information on vehicles and such.

The consensus over time seems to have shifted on Tactics being an absolute piece of shit in every way, to a buggy game that gets most of it right.

 

[Quigs]

PA and upstate NY have a high density of caves and mines, so vaults there would make sense. I don’t know about Jersey. Super mutants on the east coast make no sense. Presumably NYC would be one of the top 3 targets in a Nuclear assault. Philly? Not so much, it’s already a shithole.

Hey. Fuck you. Go Flyers.

Northwest Jersey has a touch of Appalachia, but most of it isn't rocky at all. Is that a requirement? I always kind of figured you could just dig down and lay reinforced concrete foundations kind of anywhere. Naturally more of a pain in the ass, but if the Holland and Lincoln tunnels are still standing with a bay resting atop them, it's probably feasible to do it in the sticks, no?

 

[None]

I'd try to come up with a creative solution, regardless of whether or not you'd actually be able to construct the same style vaults. Maybe something like a dual purpose missile silo? Half civilian, half military. Could present some interesting dynamics. Or perhaps in the areas that are suitable for the traditional vault, they create some exceptionally large vault meant to service multiple states? Regardless, I encourage you to be creative instead of derivative.

And for the toxic caves barrels, yeah I don't think we are ever explicitly told what the barrels are. Not sure we needed to be, so maybe there's a plot hook or something for you to develop?

 

[blessed king of longing]

NuVegas isn't canon.

 

[curds]

6. System. I've played and/or ran in a few of Modiphus systems, and I don't really think it'll be a good fit for Fallout. I browsed through the PNP system, and saw there've been several iterations of it. Any general advice of what to avoid, and issues the system itself has?

Wasn't the system used in the games based loosely on GURPS? Maybe you could use that system.

I don't play PnP though, so take that advice with a grain of salt.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

There's quite a few Fallout pnp systems around, some official, some not official but from developers themselves, some are just fanmade. If you're going to check out any of them, you'd probably want to start with Sawyer's
https://falloutpnp.fandom.com/wiki/J.E._Sawyer's_Fallout_Role-Playing_Game

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

6. System. I've played and/or ran in a few of Modiphus systems, and I don't really think it'll be a good fit for Fallout. I browsed through the PNP system, and saw there've been several iterations of it. Any general advice of what to avoid, and issues the system itself has?

Wasn't the system used in the games based loosely on GURPS? Maybe you could use that system.

I don't play PnP though, so take that advice with a grain of salt.

It was intended to be a GURPS game but GURPS was stripped out relatively late in development when Steve Jackson saw the level of graphical violence and pitched a fit. Tim Cain then created the new rules system -iirc insanely quickly over a weekend, Roguey would know the details.
But the final product doesn’t have that much GURPS DNA left in it.

Edit: It was Taylor not Tim Cain, see Roguey's post below.

 

[Roguey]

Tim Cain then created the new rules system -iirc insanely quickly over a weekend, Roguey would know the details.
But the final product doesn’t have that much GURPS dna left in it.

It was actually Chris Taylor who used his middle school D&D-inspired homebrew system.

CHRIS TAYLOR

We had a meeting about what we wanted to do. Now, all game designers fall out of love with D&D at one point or another, and they make their own roleplaying game. I had done this in middle school. I had made an RPG on paper called Medieval—which is a terrible name, and I'm embarrassed to say it out loud after all these years—and it had all the stats that are in S.P.E.C.I.A.L., even though we weren't calling it S.P.E.C.I.A.L. at the time; it had all of S.P.E.C.I.A.L.'s core mechanics; it had a lot of those elements.

It wasn't complete. It wasn't an exact copy. But all the stats were there, and how it fundamentally worked was pretty solid. I had run games with this. I was very used to it. It was my system, so I had an answer for any question about it.

 

[Bruma Hobo]

It was intended to be a GURPS game but GURPS was stripped out relatively late in development when Steve Jackson saw the level of graphical violence and pitched a fit.

Which, if I remember correctly, was later revealed to be bullshit, it was Interplay that decided to use their own system instead of tying their franchise to Steve Jackson Games.

 

[Quigs]

There's quite a few Fallout pnp systems around, some official, some not official but from developers themselves, some are just fanmade. If you're going to check out any of them, you'd probably want to start with Sawyer's
https://falloutpnp.fandom.com/wiki/J.E._Sawyer's_Fallout_Role-Playing_Game

<3 Yeah I dug through that. There's the OG iteration, and a few fan "fixes" posted. I'm hoping there's someone out there who knows some of the systems pitfalls, and if the fan versions are in fact improvements. I've done d100 systems before and they're not *great*,(I like a curve in a dice mechanic, when every result is-as-likely as the next, it can feel like nothing really matters) but it's probably easier to manage for me than GURPS.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

There's quite a few Fallout pnp systems around, some official, some not official but from developers themselves, some are just fanmade. If you're going to check out any of them, you'd probably want to start with Sawyer's
https://falloutpnp.fandom.com/wiki/J.E._Sawyer's_Fallout_Role-Playing_Game

<3 Yeah I dug through that. There's the OG iteration, and a few fan "fixes" posted. I'm hoping there's someone out there who knows some of the systems pitfalls, and if the fan versions are in fact improvements. I've done d100 systems before and they're not *great*,(I like a curve in a dice mechanic, when every result is-as-likely as the next, it can feel like nothing really matters) but it's probably easier to manage for me than GURPS.

You could probably reach out to Sawyer and ask him what his thoughts are, he tends to respond to questions.

 

[Quigs]

You could probably reach out to Sawyer and ask him what his thoughts are, he tends to respond to questions.

Oh wow. Awesome. What's the best way to reach him, email?

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

You could probably reach out to Sawyer and ask him what his thoughts are, he tends to respond to questions.

Oh wow. Awesome. What's the best way to reach him, email?

TUMBLR!

 

[rusty_shackleford]

You could probably reach out to Sawyer and ask him what his thoughts are, he tends to respond to questions.

Oh wow. Awesome. What's the best way to reach him, email?

Tumblr, no idea if he answers questions directed to him elsewhere(e.g., Twitter), Infinitron might know.
https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/

Just don't word your question in a FNV specific way, he got tired of being asked so many FNV questions.

 

[Beans00]

1. The Vats of Goo. Green radioactive barrels everywhere. What are they? Are they akin to used oil? Byproduct from fusion cells?
bEEN ANSWERED

2. Does it make sense to have Super Mutants in the east? A rare one or two is fine, but hundreds? Thousands? Enough that upon sight, the average person would know what one is?
No not at all

3. Anything really known about the NJ/PA/NY tristate area? The fan wiki was scant on useful details. I can presume the cities got nuked, but anything more and I don't know.
Probably more heavily nuked, due to higher pop density

4. Vaults. Is it safe to presume the usual density of Vaults in the area? (If not more, given the populations)
Probably more then california and nevada

5. I'd like to include Tactics as canon as it seems mostly solid. Will I run into any problems down the road if I include it as having happened?
Not really it's a bit nonsensical but self contained


6. System. I've played and/or ran in a few of Modiphus systems, and I don't really think it'll be a good fit for Fallout. I browsed through the PNP system, and saw there've been several iterations of it. Any general advice of what to avoid, and issues the system itself has?
I'm not sure I've never played any pnp

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Are there links to all the available PNP Fallout RPGs? Or is it google-fu time?

 

[blessed king of longing]

2. Furry, Intelligent Deathclaws. That literally makes no sense.

And why not? If a tiny lizard could become a deathclaw, why couldnt some of them develop the ability to use vocal cords well enough to hold semi-intelligent or higher conversation? Why would The Master, an alienish goo creature with multiple voices and psychic powers make sense but not talking deathclaws? Why would immortal deep fried humans make sense but not that?
It's not like we're confined by the constraints of real life here.

Caesar in FNV even references it, when he says some captured brotherhood people they got didn't even know who the founder of their order was.

Don't expect coherent writing from NuVegas.

The Beast Lords are a cool, interesting mutant species.

They psychically control deathclaws - but you don't take issue with this.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

my favorite plotpoint of fallout tactics was when you had to go kill members of a "rightwing hate group"

 

[lukaszek]

Northwest Jersey has a touch of Appalachia, but most of it isn't rocky at all. Is that a requirement? I always kind of figured you could just dig down and lay reinforced concrete foundations kind of anywhere. Naturally more of a pain in the ass, but if the Holland and Lincoln tunnels are still standing with a bay resting atop them, it's probably feasible to do it in the sticks, no?

yeah you can build bunker anywhere. Building large number of them across country in short period of time? Good luck with that.
You want it to be underground for soil to act as barrier. The harder the soil the better - you dont need to go too deep. At the same time its harder to dig. Digging in general takes extra time, hence Id expect repurposing every possible space.
If there was a lot of time to develop those then yeah, it would make sense to link vaults number to population density. Otherwise not so much.