[Other] [Fallout RPG] Vault 18 - Out of the Furnace

[Grouchy]

Game Name [Fallout RPG] Vault 18 - Out of the Furnace

Game System Other Roleplaying Games

Theme Futuristic post-apocalyptic world, inexperienced PCs, mutants, sandbox options.

Flavour Alternate future/sci-fi, post-apocalyptic. In the theme of the Fallout video games.

Plot Summary You were born and raised in Vault 18, one of the preeminent Vaults from the 21st century which was dedicated to the military elite of the United States. Vault 18 was designed as a caste system based off of the premise of ancient Sparta, where the warriors were the most important individuals within the Vault and they governed over civilian servants who did the menial day to day work so the warriors could train for war. If you were born into the warrior caste, your life was one of hard training tempered with luxury. You received the best of everything – medical care, chemical enhancement, food, quarters, training, marriage partners, etc. Whatever you wanted, it was yours for the taking so long as you did not step on the Overseer’s toes. You are essentially a member of royalty and treated special in all ways. Unfortunately, that is not you. You are a member of the serf class, born into a life of hard work and menial labor. Although you have had the luxury of being raised in the safety and security of the Vault after the Great War destroyed the surface, your life has not been all sunshine and daisies. The Vault is entirely dependent on the serfs for everything outside of security, and you have had to work every day of your life to justify your existence. It’s been a hard but safe life – you have a bunk to sleep in in the main room, you get two meals a day, and you get a half day off every two weeks. Life could be worse. With the upcoming annual meeting, however, you can feel tension in the air so thick you can cut it with a knife. To keep the serf population in check, every year the Overseer holds a meeting where he and his command staff determine who shall be expelled from the Vault to make room for new serfs to protect the Vault against overpopulation. As you sit and wait for the meeting to begin, some of you are desperately wishing that you will not be chosen. For others, your existence is draining and you are almost eager for the Overseer to call your number…

Fallout RPG System This is a very brief summary of the Core Rules of the Fallout RPG. If you are selected, you will learn more of these rules in-depth. It looks a bit overwhelming at first but once you start getting the hang of it it becomes a lot more intuitive. I have been GMing a game for my sons for a few months now and feel confident enough I can offer it here. S.P.E.C.I.A.L. There is seven attributes in the Fallout RPG, easy remembered by the acronym SPECIAL. Strength – Melee attacks, melee damage, carry capacity. Perception – Initiative, energy weapon attacks, lock picking. Endurance – HP, how tough you are, heavy weapons. [u]Charisma[u] – Convince others, barter, find safety. Intelligence – Healing others, fixing things, hacking. Agility – Initiative, small guns, sneaking. Luck – How lucky you are, Luck points. SKILL TESTS: Attribute + Skill is your Target Number (TN) your D20 rolls need to equal or be under to generate one success. Depending on the difficulty of the task, you may need more than one success. You roll 2D20 but you can buy up to three more D20s by spending Action Points. Others can also assist you and add a D20 into your roll as well (this especially is useful for group tests). A natural 1 is a critical success which counts as two successes. If the skill is a tagged skill, you score a critical success for each die that rolls equal to or less than your skill rating. A natural 20 generates a complication. Any success over what you need generates Action Points. Some actions may have a difficulty of 0 in which case they automatically succeed but do not generate Action Points (unless you want to roll, but then you risk a complication). An opposed Skill Check involves you rolling against your opponent for your successes (e.g. grappling someone). ACTION POINTS: Each success you generate above the difficulty becomes an Action Point. You can use Aps to buy D20s for tests, obtain info from the GM if you’re stuck, reduce the time to complete a task, take additional actions in combat, or add extra damage in combat. These Action Points get placed into a pool for the entire PC group to use, for a maximum of 6 AP. The GM also gets Action Points – if you are out of AP but desperately need Action Points for something, you can give them to the GM. LUCK: Each PC has Luck points equal to their Luck attribute which they start with at the beginning of each quest. You can spend Luck points to introduce a helpful fact or detail to a situation (e.g. find the password to the locked computer), use your Luck attribute for a skill test, go first in initiative order during any round of combat, or re-roll D20s in a dice pool. You regain Luck when you reach a new milestone or when you start a new quest. COMBAT: Combat is in rounds, and each PC gets a turn. If you initiate combat, you get to take a turn immediately and then the initiative order begins (your initiative score is PER + AGI plus any bonuses from equipment/perks). Each turn you can take one Minor Action (aim, draw item, interact with something, move, or take a chem) and one Major Action (assist, attack, command an NPC, defend, first aid, pass, rall, ready, sprint, or test). When you Attack, you choose your weapon and target, and you can choose your hit location or randomly roll for it. Then it’s a simple skill check to see if you hit them, then you roll Combat Dice (D6) per the weapon damage rating. This can be reduced by Resistances (armor, natural toughness, etc.). Combat Dice results are as follows: (1) 1 damage; (2) 2 damage; (3-4) nothing; (5) 1 damage + damage effects trigger. Damage is either Physical, Energy, Radiation or Poison. If you activate your weapon damage effects, this can have such effects as stunning, inflicting additional hits, extra damage, radiation poisoning, or burst attacks to hit more than one target. Critical hits occur when the target suffers 5 or more damage in one hit and can cause you to bleed out, fall down, drop items, or daze you. Range comes into play during attacks, especially with ranged weapons. Each ranged weapon has a preferred range. There is Close, Medium, Long, and Extreme range. If you shoot your weapon outside of its preferred range you increase the difficulty. You can also move one zone as a minor action (or two if you use your major action also) anywhere within that zone.

Character Creation Guidelines and Submission Standards 1. ORIGIN – You are all starting as Vault Dwellers. The RPG also allows Brotherhood of Steel, Ghouls, Super Mutants, Mister Handy robots, and Survivors if you’re curious. Everyone is starting at level 1. 2. SPECIAL – All attributes start at 5, you have 5 points to add anywhere else up to 10. You can reduce any attribute to 4 to gain a point to increase any other one attribute (there is no limit to this so can have more than one 4). 3. TAG SKILLS – Choose 4 tag skills (as a Vault Dweller, you get 4 – the rest get 3). Add 2 ranks to each tag skill. Then you have 9 + INT points to increase your skill ranks which all start at 0. Skills have a maximum rank of 6. Because you are a serf, you will not be able to put any points into the following skills at the beginning: Big Guns, Energy Weapons, Explosives, Melee Weapons, Small Guns, Survival. 4. PERK – Choose a perk from the list. We will get to that when you are selected. 5. CALCUALTE STATISTICS – This is things like carry weight, defense, initiative, etc. 6. STARTING EQUIPMENT – For now, you will just have your Vault-Tec jumpsuit. Character submission guidelines will be as follows: Name: First name only, serfs don’t get to keep a family name. Assigned Role: This is what you currently do in Vault 18. This is open-ended so you have some creative license here. The only thing is you cannot do anything that would be associated with the warrior caste (e.g. firearms instructor). Appearance: Pictures encouraged but I still want a description. Personality: Tell me about them. Brief History: Just a few sentences about yourself that wouldn’t be covered under personality.

Acceptance, Deadline, Posting Rate, and Other Items of Note Ideally I would like four PCs, more or less we can work with. From my own experiences three seems the smallest to go with due to how dangerous the world gets, 6 would probably be the most. Deadline tentatively scheduled for Sunday September 22nd, 2024. I have a camping trip and will be out of touch for that weekend, and that will give me a few days to review and make a decision. Posting rate is ideally 1-2 GM posts per week so I expect that from the players also. Faster rates can be used but that tends to burn most players out quickly. During combat, they don’t need to be long posts but during RP situations put some effort in at least. I currently only have access to the core rulebook but I am looking to expand on that. Any other questions I will answer below.

[Grouchy]

Player	Character	Assigned Role	Complete?
A7ice	Aurora	Companion	Yes
Drinkslotsa	??	??	No
mightymconeshot	Al	Spiritual Adviser	Yes
O2CXt3	Nina	Sanitation	Yes
RedMoney	Chopper	Cook	Yes
Snicker	Elias	Medical	Yes
Togot	Andrew	Robot Mechanic	Yes
Vaynol	Mya	Agriculture	Yes
Zangul	Garrett, "Old Man"	Chemist	Yes

[Vaynol]

Posting interest. It looks like there is a QuickStart rules guide on DriveThruRPG here for anyone who is interested which I’m downloading and will have a skim over.

[Grouchy]

Originally Posted by Vaynol

Posting interest. It looks like there is a QuickStart rules guide on DriveThruRPG here for anyone who is interested which I’m downloading and will have a skim over.

Yes, highly recommended. The system looks a bit overwhelming on paper but in practice once you get the hang of it it's very manageable.

[Red Leper]

 

Peaceful but not Harmless: Name: Strength: 9 Perception: 5 Endurance: 9 Charisma: 5 Intelligence: 4 Agility: 4 Luck: 4 Tag skills: Athletics: 6 Unarmed: 6 Repair: 4 Speech: 4 Perk: -Iron Fist Samson Assigned Role: Samson is a builder, he builds new tunnels, puts up new walls, he does alot of physical labor that suits his strangely large physique. Appearance: Samson is quite large, a giant compared to most standing at six and half feet tall and upwards of three hundred pounds. He is a muscular fellow and is tall enough that he has to hunch inside the vault, except in his quarters that he built taller and in the main thoroughfare where the ceilings are two levels high. He has a short cut mohawk and a big bushy mustache with beady little eyes set deeply in the sockets in between. and below, a perfectly sculpted chin covered in stubble. Personality: Samson is easy going with most people that don't make fun of him. He is a peaceful sort but not the harmless sort. While his size would say otherwise, he chooses to be a teddy bear. He cares deeply for and protects those he calls friends, the other servants mostly. His big bushy mustache is usually draped over a smile that squinches his whole face. Brief History: Samson was born a big baby, but being born into the servant caste saw that he would never be a warrior, always a servant. He was put to jobs that required lots of muscle and eventually he was made a builder. Unfortunately, what he had in size and strength, he lacked in intelligence. Often ridiculed for his size and stupidity made his life a hard one and gave him a tough social skin and a closed off personality, only able to open up around his fellow servants who truly appreciated his hard work. It's also a truth that as a larger fellow, he is not only one to get picked on but also picked for sparring practice by the youth of the upper class, taken down to the lower bowels of the vault and pummeled about. He longs for the wide open spaces of the outside and hopes to get chosen to venture out eventually.

[Red Leper]

Complete, Maybe. Let me know if you need more details or anything

[Vaynol]

Mya Name: Mya Assigned Role: Agriculture / Food Grower. Mya works in the hydroponic farms working to grow the plants and helping to provide a sustainable food source for the dwellers of Vault 18 to live off. It is a menial and repetitive job for sure, but in truth Mya doesn’t mind this. She appreciates the chance to help others and know that she is playing an important part in their continued existence. Appearance: Slender and of slight build, Mya is not the tallest or most imposing figure one could meet. Raven coloured hair cascades down to her shoulders and parted on the left side of her head. Her soft features would make one believe that Mya is possessed of a naive and timid demeanour but in this case appearances can be deceptive. Her dark blue eyes glint with the light of fierce stubbornness. Personality: There are two sides to Mya’s personality. The first is an overwhelming desire to help others and do what she can to provide for the people of the vault who she has come to think of as her own, despite her lowly status. And truly she does not mind her place. She understands everyone has a role to play in the continued survival of the vault and hers is no less important than the others. She would not like it any other way, the mere thought of not contributing and not pulling her weight is anathema to Mya. And yet that sense of duty is juxtaposed by her own burning ambitions. Mya is not beholden to the simple inevitability of life in the vault. There simply had to be more out there, surely? For a reason that she could not quite place herself, Mya felt that her own place was more than just being a food grower on the hydroponic farms in the vault, a role that she was not dissatisfied with for sure, it was more the fact that she wanted to do more with herself. She holds inside of her a stubborn streak, single-minded almost to a fault. Mya is so convinced by her own thoughts and beliefs that she finds it difficult to perceive with and agree with trains of thought outwith her own, and this sheer stubbornness is quite often a source of frustration to those around her, particularly in the times that she is so very clearly wrong. Brief History: Mya has never known a life outside of the vault. Brought up by her parents to always be dutiful, and to be responsible in her own right both to herself and others, it is this sense of duty that she holds quite closely to herself. Always the serious and quiet girl, Mya didn’t take to friends easily, yet those she did make know her to be solid, dependable and always someone that they can trust. Perhaps that is why Mya was chosen to work on the hydroponic farms, helping to grow a sustainable and nutritious food source for the vault dwellers. After all, you could assign someone with a combustible and fickle manner to such an important task. Yet she is restless. There has got to be more to this life than just the daily monotony of getting up, going to work on the farms and going to bed again. Surely?

[Red Leper]

Can I change my entry? I would like to be a big, dumb brute. They don't recruit into the warrior caste, right?

[Grouchy]

Originally Posted by Red Leper

Can I change my entry? I would like to be a big, dumb brute. They don't recruit into the warrior caste, right?

Correct and that's fine. Manual labor requires strong folks.

[Snicker]

I'm thinking of playing a charismatic doctor. I'll get a character concept up soon.

[A7ice]

Aurora Name: Aurora Assigned Role: Aurora is a companion and a source of comfort for the warriors of the warrior caste. Appearance: She stands at 5’9", with a slender, almost skinny build. Her striking red hair, tied back in a short ponytail, frames her long face, drawing attention to her piercing blue eyes, which seem to hold a world of secrets. Her fair complexion, dotted with a hint of freckles, adds to her youthful appearance, suggesting she is in her mid-twenties. Her high cheekbones, delicate nose, and full lips often curl into a serene, almost enigmatic smile. She wears a Vault Dweller outfit from Vault 18, complementing her vibrant hair and eyes. The blue jumpsuit fits her form tightly, subtly highlighting her cleavage in a way that adds a touch of sensuality. Personality: Despite her calm and perceptive demeanor, an underlying intensity in her gaze hints at a deeper, more complex nature. She often smiles, exuding a kind and approachable aura. On the surface, she is pragmatic and flirty, with a witty and ironic sense of humor that makes her both charming and intriguing. Her presence is commanding, and she carries herself with a confidence that suggests she is always one step ahead, her every move calculated yet effortless. Brief History: From a young age, Aurora was assigned the role of a companion, a position that required her to be both a confidante and a source of comfort to the warriors. Unfortunately, this role often meant being passed around and not always treated with the gentleness she deserved. To ensure she could not bear any offspring, it was decided without her consent that she would be made permanently sterile, further emphasizing her status as a serf. Despite these hardships, Aurora’s natural charisma and perceptive nature allowed her to navigate the complex social dynamics of the Vault. Her ability to read people and situations quickly became her greatest asset, helping her to build connections and gain the trust of those around her. As she grew older, Aurora honed her skills in speech and sneak, learning to move quietly and speak persuasively. These abilities were crucial in her role, allowing her to offer solace and companionship without drawing undue attention. She was becoming recognized as a luxurious commodity. Her agility and intelligence also served her well, enabling her to adapt to the ever-changing demands of her position. Aurora’s life was not without hardship, but she found ways to make the best of her circumstances, using her skills to charm her way around the rigid hierarchy of Vault 18. Despite the limitations of her serf status, Aurora’s resilience and resourcefulness set her apart. She developed a keen sense of barter, negotiating small favors and privileges that made her life a bit more bearable. Her modest knowledge of science and medicine, though limited, allowed her to provide basic care and support to those in need.

 

Character Sheet Name: Aurora Origin: Vault Dweller (Serf Class) SPECIAL Attributes: - Strength: 4 - Perception: 8 - Endurance: 4 - Charisma: 7 - Intelligence: 6 - Agility: 7 - Luck: 4 Skills: - Speech [T]: 5 - Sneak [T]: 5 - Barter [T]: 4 - Science [T]: 4 - Lockpick: 3 - Medicine: 2 Perk: Black Widow - Effect: Re-roll 1d20 on Charisma checks to influence male NPCs, Inflict an extra die of damage against male opponents (subject to confirm as the information I found was online, not from the actual manual) Equipment: - Vault-Tec Jumpsuit Calculated Statistics - Carry Weight: 150 + (10 x STR) = 150 + (10 x 4) = 190 lbs - Defense: 10 + AGI = 10 + 7 = 17 - Initiative: AGI + PER = 7 + 8 = 15 - Hit Points: 10 + (2 x END) = 10 + (2 x 4) = 18

[Togot]

posting interest, but one thing i should point out which i made the same mistake the first time i ran this system, is skill ranks can only go up to 3 at first level, unless your house ruling it other wise.

[Togot]

Name: Andrew

Assigned Role: Andrew is a mechanic who is responsible for maintaining the vaults mr Handy robot.

Appearance:
Andrew is a small 5’2 25 year old male with a scrawny frame and glasses. He is Caucasian with short brown hair. he can usually be seen with a tool belt and grease stains. He has a few chipped teeth from warriors punching him and he has bad posture and keeps his head and gaze low to avoid provoking people. It has been remarked that andrew resembles a mouse, or a dog that’s been kicked too many times.

Personality:
Andrew is an undiagnosed autistic who has a very hard time socializing with others. he can’t read non-verbal social ques and doesn’t understand many social norms. This causes many misunderstandings which results in people getting angry at him a lot. As a result, he has become introverted and unsocial, though he desperately longs from companionship.

To fill this need, he turned his brilliant and logical mind towards maintaining the vaults Mr. handy who andrew gets along with very well. andrew will talk to the robot for hours which, sadly, has done nothing to improve his reputation in the vault as many think he is just crazy.

Brief History:
Since he was four it was obvious that andrew was different. For starters, he never cried when he was alone like other children, no matter how long. he’d be happy sitting in a chair looking at a book for hours with patience atypical for even an adult. Often times his parents would see him set up his toys around him and then simply stare at them. when asked what he was doing, he would explain he was watching them fight with his imagination.

This irregularity caused him to be singled out by the other children who bullied him daily. Things only got worse when he started school. Andrew had a knack for math and science. To him it simply made sense so it was easy to understand. it was people who were illogical, irrational, and emotional that baffled him. to make matters worse, andrew had a habit of speaking his mind with no reguard for whether his words were appropriate or offensive. to him he was simply speaking truth and he disliked lying. Needless to say, this made his relationship with his fellow vault dwellers even worse.

Due to constant bullying and abuse, andrew became withdrawn and depressed. he threw himself into reading technical manuals, hacking computers, and working on the vaults Mr. handy robot. Robots were Andrews passion and he dreamed of building one himself. He had read about assaultrons, protectrons, and even the powerful sentry bots. He would fantasize about building a robot army and program them to be his friends.

Of course, he was never going to be able to do that in the vault.

Now the time has come to cull the population once again. Andrew knows he’s on the chopping block. What he doesn’t know is how to feel about it. all his life he’s been told how dangerous the world outside is, but from his perspective the vault hasn’t exactly been safe either. On the one hand, the thought of such a massive change causes him no small amount of anxiety, but, the possibility of freedom excites him. either way, he knows there is little he can do about it. just as everything else in his life, the warriors are the ones with the power…not him.

 

Character Sheet Name: Andrew jones Origin: Vault Dweller (Serf Class) SPECIAL Attributes: - Strength: 4 - Perception: 10 - Endurance: 4 - Charisma: 4 - Intelligence: 10 - Agility: 4 - Luck: 4 **Skills:** - repair [T]: 3 - science [T]: 3 - pilot [T]: 3 - sneak [T]: 3 - athletics: 3 - Lockpick: 3 - Medicine: 3 - barter: 3 - speech: 0 - throwing: 3 - unarmed: 0 Perk: Hacker - Effect: difficulty tests to hack terminals is reduced by 1 to a max of 0 Equipment: - Vault-Tec Jumpsuit Calculated Statistics - Carry Weight: 150 + (10 x STR) = 150 + (10 x 4) = 190 lbs - Defense: 10 + AGI = 10 + 4 = 14 - Initiative: AGI + PER = 4 + 10 = 14 - Hit Points: 10 + (2 x END) = 10 + (2 x 4) = 18

[Snicker]

Are all of the perks on https://fallout.wiki/wiki/Fallout:_T...ing_Game_Perks allowed? The Settler's Guide Book and Wanderer's Guide Book seem to add some fun options.

[O2CXt3]

Nina Name: Nina Assigned Role: Sanitation Appearance: Nina is in her late twenties - shoulder length black hair, with blue-gray eyes. She wears a hi-vis, short-sleeve polyester work shirt - orange or yellow - and ripstop cotton-poly blend utility pants. Her clothes are always dirty. She wears heavy boots, work gloves, and sometimes safety goggles and a hard hat (when she remembers). Despite otherwise being a mess, she takes pride in maintaining her looks - she combs her hair in the morning, puts on makeup, and likes to look good doing what she does. Personality: Destruction is her passion. Whether it's sledgehammers, blow torches, saws, pry bars, grinders, hydraulic jackhammers - it doesn’t matter - she loves it. But when the destruction is over, someone needs to haul the trash away, and unfortunately that’s Nina’s too. Whether it’s recycling, waste disposal, compacting, shredding, storage, or processing - it doesn’t matter - she hates it. Her life is a manic depressive, Jekyll and Hyde, series of highs and lows, oscillating between the giddiness of destruction and hand sorting your dirty recycling. Her dream is to become an explosives expert, but unfortunately for her, serfs aren’t allowed to use explosives in the vault - so she’s out of luck. Brief History: Nina was born into the sanitation trade. Her father was a sanitation worker before her, and her mother too. Since nobody else wanted the job, it became her “legacy”. As a child, she was immersed in trash. She spent her time taking things apart, breaking things, and just generally seeing “what happened”. While some kids with these inclinations might have developed into engineers, not Nina. She wasn’t interested in books, or math, or how things worked. She was just interested in destruction. Carlton, the vault’s explosives man, took notice. Nina always seemed to be around when it was time to blow something up. The first time she saw a C4 explosion is something she’ll never forget. When the light of the explosion went up, a shimmering halo lingered in the reflection of her eyes. It was love at first sight. But unfortunately for Nina, she wasn’t allowed anywhere near explosives, so she had to content herself with hauling trash and small, manual jobs tearing things apart. She watched Carlton’s work whenever she got a chance, and then would clean up the rubble afterwards. It wasn’t until later, when there was an unfortunate accident - nobody was ever quite sure what happened - when Carlton blew himself up, that people began to talk. Nina was always adamant that she had nothing to do with it, but everyone knew that a serf in love with explosives was a liability that would need to be dealt with eventually.