War, war never changes…
If you were able to describe the world we live in to someone from way back in the 21st century, they would have called it “post-apocalyptic”. While not an entirely accurate description, it gets the idea across. All of the great monuments, convenience stores (hell, convenience itself), and the entertainment technology of the 21st century are all gone. The buildings have been morphed into burned out husks, the open land glows with radiation. Any trip outside (and sometimes inside) the fortified walls of any of the larger remaining cities is always met with violence. The Wasteland is overrun with criminals, Radscorpions, and worse.
However, this way of life is not “post-apocalyptic”. You see that would imply some sort of world ending event followed by a Judgment Day/Reckoning and finally a Heaven for the good and a Hell for the wicked. What we received instead was a world changing set of events followed by generations of people just trying to get by. Hell is dished out in any sized portion you could dream of. We live in a time that is merely Apocalyptic.
This is an attempt to set the record straight about how we ended up this way and what we can do about it now. Hopefully this will prove to be a useful reference for those wanting to catch a peek of the things that are waiting for them outside.
So…let’s start at the beginning; The Great War.
The idea of conquest in the name of riches is nothing new. Even a quick glance back through history will reveal a very basic pattern. Winner takes all, to the victor go the spoils, you snooze, you lose; this is the first lesson of history. The Roman empire, the British empire, the Third Reich, even small scale land grabs such as Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait were all fueled by the desire to control resources.
The second lesson is a little harder to pick up on, but it’s there. Sometimes being the victor, maintaining victory or even the fight itself is simply self-destructive. You end up spending or destroying the very riches you were trying to gain.
By the mid-21st century the riches that Man had usually waged war over had grown from the simple list of gold, ports, slaves, and arable land. This list now included oil, coal, lumber, and technology. And when these things started getting scarce, people began to become very afraid.
Like many impending crises, the dwindling of the Earth’s natural resources went largely unnoticed by the general population.
That is until a televised documentary about the tapped out oil fields in Texas put the issue front and center in everyone’s living room. It did not take long for the rising panic to cause world leaders to take overt actions (despite attempting to deal with the problems in quiet, ignorable ways for years).
The United States began laying down economic sanctions against Mexico using the cover story that the government of Mexico was unstable and was therefore a threat to the U.S.’s national security. The real reason for stirring up trouble was, of course, to create a politically viable reason to send in American troops to secure the oil refineries and other North American business concerns. Despite this rather open case of “appropriation”, the Resource Wars kicked off in earnest in the Middle East and Europe.
The European Union had begun military actions against the Middle East in response to rising fuel costs. Fully prepared to fight to the death for their oil and land, the nations of the Middle East launched counter attacks. Before long, the entire Earth was engaged in a war seemingly without resolution.
The U.S. began sending an ever-increasing amount of troops to Alaska to secure the oil reserves. Tempers flared between Canada and the U.S. over this issue. Meanwhile, the conflict between Europe and the Middle East devolved into a limited nuclear exchange. These developments lead to the creation of the Vaults.
It did not take long for the oil fields in the Middle East to dry up (effectively ending the war while exhausting both sides). With the world’s greatest deposit of oil gone, countries prepared to fight over the scraps. China, in particular, had its eye on the Alaska oil reserves.
In 2066, China finally invades Alaska. The result is not only a major increase in military hardware (Power Armor was invented to combat Chinese tanks), but also the U.S.’s annexation of Canada. Even as Alaska fell to communist China, The United States managed to tap the last known deposit of petroleum. This deposit is miles beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
The Chinese-American war continued to escalate while the rest of the world crumbled. Food supplies were running out, riots were occurring daily, and there were still no viable solutions on the table.
The U.S. sent Power Armored troops into mainland China, which turns into a fiasco. Fortunately, for the U.S., the American army is able to reclaim Alaska. This victory is short lived. While entrenched in a protracted war with another nation, the domestic situation in the United States became untenable. The entire nation seemed poised for violent revolt. The war with China might have been something of a victory, but any sort of idea of “winning” was long gone.
And that’s when it happened. Someone pushed the button and changed the world. Everything we knew became unraveled in a matter of less than two hours.
On October 23rd , modern civilization died in a sea of mushroom clouds and heat. That day was forever engrained in our minds.
In the past, U.S. history’s most powerful events were so immersed in the culture, such as July 4 th, that they were celebrated. The dates they occurred on became a sort of short hand for what they signified and formed a calendar of national identity. Not only did they represent the events, but also the implied context, feelings, and aftermath left in their wake.
This phenomenon was not unique to the U.S. either. Specific dates had special meaning for various countries around the globe. Each culture had its own defined, but separated, collection of events and histories.
October 23rd , 2077 cut across all national borders. On that day the sky burned, the earth blackened. On that day, all people of all nations were united in a terrifying and deadly maelstrom.
There’s an old saying. “History is written by the winners”. If that’s the case, then history stopped being recorded on October 23rd 2077. As the bombs fell and the Vault doors closed, all winners and history began to be erased. Those left behind to tell the story of what happened were merely survivors and history became a folk legend degrading with each generation retelling the story. You Were part of one of these vaults. Vault 98. One of the few that were not made for experiments. Only about 100 of you are left in the vault. This ranges from dogs, humans, and even ghouls, or poor mantance men who were too close to the great steel door during the bombs rain. Its a day before the radroach invasion, and you guys are doing your daily vault activities. Work, work, and look, more look. The old saying goes, Listen to the overseer, and Hard work, is happy work.
Character creation (Races)
Humans: or Homo sapiens (sometimes called smoothskins or normals by ghouls and super mutants, respectively) are a species that have been more-or-less unaffected by radiation. In post-nuclear America, four major ethnic groups have so far been distinguished: African, Asian, Caucasian, and Hispanic. Evolved and mutated humans, while still members of the homo genus, are a different species from regular humans. Humans are the primary race found in the Wasteland. There are many different kinds of humans ranging from pale-skinned Vault Dwellers who have not seen natural light for generations, to primitive tribals who have developed an entirely new culture. Humans have little in common ideologically and there is no one root for all human cultures since each spawned from a separate groups of survivors.
Perk
Adaptive (able to withstand certain environments better, and make decisions easier than other races)
Weapon proficiency (you do slightly more damage with a type of weapon of your choice. Chose one, Big guns, Small guns, Unarmed, Melee, Energy, explosives)
Lose cannon. (Your human mind is acceptable to fits of rage/sadness/mind control, otherwise, but this is not neccicarily a bad thing)
Dogs: have stayed generally unaltered by radiation, which is seemingly a miracle. Dogs can run at incredible speeds allowing them to chase down prey. While running, they use their long tails to keep their balance. They are carnivorous, with sharp teeth designed to rip into the flesh of an animal. Their furs are usually a grey color with some white. Though same or hairless and almost Ghoul-looking. Dogs can have all the hair colors of Humans and more. Dogs can understand languages, but they cant talk, unless aided by a device. Armor cost more to suit a dog, and weapons cant be used by dogs unless its a stick like weapon, I.E spear.
perks
Sharp bite (Your bite does more damage than a humans fist)
Loyalty (Dogs are very loyal to there companions, so friends are the easiest to make)
Obedience (dogs are very obedient to there masters, so they tend to listen to them. For better or worse)
Ghouls: or necrotic post-humans are decrepit, rotting, zombie-like mutants. They are victims of heavy radiation poisoning which results in their skin decaying and, paradoxically, greatly extends their individual lifetime. Although they look like a walking corpse, Ghouls are in fact otherwise normal humans who have been exposed to massive amounts of radiation during the Great War and survived against all odds. The name Ghoul comes from the mythological beings that devoured flesh and also resembled Ghouls. These guys came from the lower areas of mantance in the vault. Usually a worker working on the leaky nuclear generators. Luckily none of them went feral.
Perks
Rad heal
Experience (Being a ghoul, you have experience with repairing/maintaining machines. that 200 and something year old body is good for something)
Frightening Appearance, (Being a undead looking corpse, people tend to shy away form you, or out right hate you)
Feral mind (Your mind has degraded, but survival instants are clearer, decisions are made by mostly survival ideas, not nessicarily smart choices)
Humanoid Robot: These robots were meant to clean, work and do all the nessicary jobs that humans wont. There slim in frame, made of a titanium skelington, and light steel plates. Though, since your the one working, why do you really have these robots? No one knows. Robots can wear armor, but they also have the option to add plates to themselves
Perks
Breathless (doesn't need to breathe)
Rad immunity (Radiation doesn't affect you)
Calculated (Being a robot, you tend to not use emotions, making it hard to build relationships, and decisions are made through calculations, your also great at build/crafting)
RULES
No god modding.
Fallow the story/theme. (No unicorns or dragons)
Respect other peoples post
Don't fight other players without there consent.
Events will be made, and scene changes will also be made.
Listen to the GM.
Don't start off with bad ass equipment. Your in a vault. Weapons are reduced to zip guns and small melee weapons until you are out of the vault.
This is not a stat based rp, but it is perk based. You will gain random perks at random times, so keep track of the, on your posts. perks will help you or hinder you in your quest for survival. Each perk is valuable, so list them all, or that perk you haven't listed wont be used. And please list both the name, and definition of what the perk does. SPECIAL system would be preferred.
Have Fun, and good luck
MAP(Basic county map)
ALSO, if you have any ideas for weapons and or armors or even vehicles or factions, please tell me, and I may incorporate these
If you were able to describe the world we live in to someone from way back in the 21st century, they would have called it “post-apocalyptic”. While not an entirely accurate description, it gets the idea across. All of the great monuments, convenience stores (hell, convenience itself), and the entertainment technology of the 21st century are all gone. The buildings have been morphed into burned out husks, the open land glows with radiation. Any trip outside (and sometimes inside) the fortified walls of any of the larger remaining cities is always met with violence. The Wasteland is overrun with criminals, Radscorpions, and worse.
However, this way of life is not “post-apocalyptic”. You see that would imply some sort of world ending event followed by a Judgment Day/Reckoning and finally a Heaven for the good and a Hell for the wicked. What we received instead was a world changing set of events followed by generations of people just trying to get by. Hell is dished out in any sized portion you could dream of. We live in a time that is merely Apocalyptic.
This is an attempt to set the record straight about how we ended up this way and what we can do about it now. Hopefully this will prove to be a useful reference for those wanting to catch a peek of the things that are waiting for them outside.
So…let’s start at the beginning; The Great War.
The idea of conquest in the name of riches is nothing new. Even a quick glance back through history will reveal a very basic pattern. Winner takes all, to the victor go the spoils, you snooze, you lose; this is the first lesson of history. The Roman empire, the British empire, the Third Reich, even small scale land grabs such as Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait were all fueled by the desire to control resources.
The second lesson is a little harder to pick up on, but it’s there. Sometimes being the victor, maintaining victory or even the fight itself is simply self-destructive. You end up spending or destroying the very riches you were trying to gain.
By the mid-21st century the riches that Man had usually waged war over had grown from the simple list of gold, ports, slaves, and arable land. This list now included oil, coal, lumber, and technology. And when these things started getting scarce, people began to become very afraid.
Like many impending crises, the dwindling of the Earth’s natural resources went largely unnoticed by the general population.
That is until a televised documentary about the tapped out oil fields in Texas put the issue front and center in everyone’s living room. It did not take long for the rising panic to cause world leaders to take overt actions (despite attempting to deal with the problems in quiet, ignorable ways for years).
The United States began laying down economic sanctions against Mexico using the cover story that the government of Mexico was unstable and was therefore a threat to the U.S.’s national security. The real reason for stirring up trouble was, of course, to create a politically viable reason to send in American troops to secure the oil refineries and other North American business concerns. Despite this rather open case of “appropriation”, the Resource Wars kicked off in earnest in the Middle East and Europe.
The European Union had begun military actions against the Middle East in response to rising fuel costs. Fully prepared to fight to the death for their oil and land, the nations of the Middle East launched counter attacks. Before long, the entire Earth was engaged in a war seemingly without resolution.
The U.S. began sending an ever-increasing amount of troops to Alaska to secure the oil reserves. Tempers flared between Canada and the U.S. over this issue. Meanwhile, the conflict between Europe and the Middle East devolved into a limited nuclear exchange. These developments lead to the creation of the Vaults.
It did not take long for the oil fields in the Middle East to dry up (effectively ending the war while exhausting both sides). With the world’s greatest deposit of oil gone, countries prepared to fight over the scraps. China, in particular, had its eye on the Alaska oil reserves.
In 2066, China finally invades Alaska. The result is not only a major increase in military hardware (Power Armor was invented to combat Chinese tanks), but also the U.S.’s annexation of Canada. Even as Alaska fell to communist China, The United States managed to tap the last known deposit of petroleum. This deposit is miles beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
The Chinese-American war continued to escalate while the rest of the world crumbled. Food supplies were running out, riots were occurring daily, and there were still no viable solutions on the table.
The U.S. sent Power Armored troops into mainland China, which turns into a fiasco. Fortunately, for the U.S., the American army is able to reclaim Alaska. This victory is short lived. While entrenched in a protracted war with another nation, the domestic situation in the United States became untenable. The entire nation seemed poised for violent revolt. The war with China might have been something of a victory, but any sort of idea of “winning” was long gone.
And that’s when it happened. Someone pushed the button and changed the world. Everything we knew became unraveled in a matter of less than two hours.
On October 23rd , modern civilization died in a sea of mushroom clouds and heat. That day was forever engrained in our minds.
In the past, U.S. history’s most powerful events were so immersed in the culture, such as July 4 th, that they were celebrated. The dates they occurred on became a sort of short hand for what they signified and formed a calendar of national identity. Not only did they represent the events, but also the implied context, feelings, and aftermath left in their wake.
This phenomenon was not unique to the U.S. either. Specific dates had special meaning for various countries around the globe. Each culture had its own defined, but separated, collection of events and histories.
October 23rd , 2077 cut across all national borders. On that day the sky burned, the earth blackened. On that day, all people of all nations were united in a terrifying and deadly maelstrom.
There’s an old saying. “History is written by the winners”. If that’s the case, then history stopped being recorded on October 23rd 2077. As the bombs fell and the Vault doors closed, all winners and history began to be erased. Those left behind to tell the story of what happened were merely survivors and history became a folk legend degrading with each generation retelling the story. You Were part of one of these vaults. Vault 98. One of the few that were not made for experiments. Only about 100 of you are left in the vault. This ranges from dogs, humans, and even ghouls, or poor mantance men who were too close to the great steel door during the bombs rain. Its a day before the radroach invasion, and you guys are doing your daily vault activities. Work, work, and look, more look. The old saying goes, Listen to the overseer, and Hard work, is happy work.
Character creation (Races)
Humans: or Homo sapiens (sometimes called smoothskins or normals by ghouls and super mutants, respectively) are a species that have been more-or-less unaffected by radiation. In post-nuclear America, four major ethnic groups have so far been distinguished: African, Asian, Caucasian, and Hispanic. Evolved and mutated humans, while still members of the homo genus, are a different species from regular humans. Humans are the primary race found in the Wasteland. There are many different kinds of humans ranging from pale-skinned Vault Dwellers who have not seen natural light for generations, to primitive tribals who have developed an entirely new culture. Humans have little in common ideologically and there is no one root for all human cultures since each spawned from a separate groups of survivors.
Perk
Adaptive (able to withstand certain environments better, and make decisions easier than other races)
Weapon proficiency (you do slightly more damage with a type of weapon of your choice. Chose one, Big guns, Small guns, Unarmed, Melee, Energy, explosives)
Lose cannon. (Your human mind is acceptable to fits of rage/sadness/mind control, otherwise, but this is not neccicarily a bad thing)
Dogs: have stayed generally unaltered by radiation, which is seemingly a miracle. Dogs can run at incredible speeds allowing them to chase down prey. While running, they use their long tails to keep their balance. They are carnivorous, with sharp teeth designed to rip into the flesh of an animal. Their furs are usually a grey color with some white. Though same or hairless and almost Ghoul-looking. Dogs can have all the hair colors of Humans and more. Dogs can understand languages, but they cant talk, unless aided by a device. Armor cost more to suit a dog, and weapons cant be used by dogs unless its a stick like weapon, I.E spear.
perks
Sharp bite (Your bite does more damage than a humans fist)
Loyalty (Dogs are very loyal to there companions, so friends are the easiest to make)
Obedience (dogs are very obedient to there masters, so they tend to listen to them. For better or worse)
Ghouls: or necrotic post-humans are decrepit, rotting, zombie-like mutants. They are victims of heavy radiation poisoning which results in their skin decaying and, paradoxically, greatly extends their individual lifetime. Although they look like a walking corpse, Ghouls are in fact otherwise normal humans who have been exposed to massive amounts of radiation during the Great War and survived against all odds. The name Ghoul comes from the mythological beings that devoured flesh and also resembled Ghouls. These guys came from the lower areas of mantance in the vault. Usually a worker working on the leaky nuclear generators. Luckily none of them went feral.
Perks
Rad heal
Experience (Being a ghoul, you have experience with repairing/maintaining machines. that 200 and something year old body is good for something)
Frightening Appearance, (Being a undead looking corpse, people tend to shy away form you, or out right hate you)
Feral mind (Your mind has degraded, but survival instants are clearer, decisions are made by mostly survival ideas, not nessicarily smart choices)
Humanoid Robot: These robots were meant to clean, work and do all the nessicary jobs that humans wont. There slim in frame, made of a titanium skelington, and light steel plates. Though, since your the one working, why do you really have these robots? No one knows. Robots can wear armor, but they also have the option to add plates to themselves
Perks
Breathless (doesn't need to breathe)
Rad immunity (Radiation doesn't affect you)
Calculated (Being a robot, you tend to not use emotions, making it hard to build relationships, and decisions are made through calculations, your also great at build/crafting)
RULES
No god modding.
Fallow the story/theme. (No unicorns or dragons)
Respect other peoples post
Don't fight other players without there consent.
Events will be made, and scene changes will also be made.
Listen to the GM.
Don't start off with bad ass equipment. Your in a vault. Weapons are reduced to zip guns and small melee weapons until you are out of the vault.
This is not a stat based rp, but it is perk based. You will gain random perks at random times, so keep track of the, on your posts. perks will help you or hinder you in your quest for survival. Each perk is valuable, so list them all, or that perk you haven't listed wont be used. And please list both the name, and definition of what the perk does. SPECIAL system would be preferred.
Have Fun, and good luck
MAP(Basic county map)
ALSO, if you have any ideas for weapons and or armors or even vehicles or factions, please tell me, and I may incorporate these
