Prologue: Departures & Arrivals
You are a new hire for the Happy Trails Caravan Company, the Company growing successful due to its strong monopoly over the routes in and out of New Canaanite territory along Highway 50. Happy Trails having managed to outbid the old NCR standard, the Crimson Caravan Company for the initial rights to established trade routes in Cascadia, the Crimson Caravan Company having fallen on hard times never having fully recovered after some disastrous mismanagement of their Mojave routes. You are a merchant, guard, or just some folk looking for a change in scenery. Yet your particular baggage train is different from the rest. While you are carrying with you cargo of various sorts, your most valuable "package" was, in fact, another human being. An archeologist of all things paying for an escort as they chase after rumors of a lost vault. A vault that if the rumors are true makes the squabbles of the NCR and the CF petty in comparison.
You are a new hire for the Happy Trails Caravan Company, the Company growing successful due to its strong monopoly over the routes in and out of New Canaanite territory along Highway 50. Happy Trails having managed to outbid the old NCR standard, the Crimson Caravan Company for the initial rights to established trade routes in Cascadia, the Crimson Caravan Company having fallen on hard times never having fully recovered after some disastrous mismanagement of their Mojave routes. You are a merchant, guard, or just some folk looking for a change in scenery. Yet your particular baggage train is different from the rest. While you are carrying with you cargo of various sorts, your most valuable "package" was, in fact, another human being. An archeologist of all things paying for an escort as they chase after rumors of a lost vault. A vault that if the rumors are true makes the squabbles of the NCR and the CF petty in comparison.
Welcome to Fallout: Cascadia, a roleplay run by your friendly neighborhood Hexaflexagon. Cascadia is a kind of soft reboot RP I ran on another site some number of years ago between the release of New Vegas and Fallout 4. That previous roleplay was fairly successful lasting just shy of three years upon its eventual completion. I hope Cascadia to be the refinement of that previous story focusing on the things that I believe worked the most. So rather than a massive wide-open sandbox experience as was its predecessor, I instead want to create a more character and story-driven game, the kind of game I find myself drifting more and more towards throughout my roleplay career.
The premise of this roleplay is simple; you are a contract hire for the Happy Trails Caravan Company heading north towards the region known as Cascadia. Taking up the majority of the Seattle metropolitan area, Cascadia is a region under the control of the aptly named Cascadian Federation. The Federation in many ways is a strange mirror to the NCR and fittingly the two have grown weary of one another as they compete for control of the surrounding Washinton Wasteland. Your story will run tangential and collide sometimes directly with these tensions as both the NCR and the CF and the many subfactions within them will try and use you for their gain, though ultimately the narrative of the war is not the primary focus of this tale. Instead, the focus is the hunt for a lost Vault-Tec Vault, which if the rumors are true is said to be the primary reason that Cascadia is all green and brown in contrast to the rest of post-apocalyptic America.
Experience with the story Fallout New Vegas and the rest of the games is recommended, but not completely necessary as it takes place some one hundred and four years after the events of New Vegas in the far off year of 2385. In this way, thematically instead of post-apocalyptic, Cascadia is closer to post-post-apocalyptic in tone. What that means is that while the world did go to shit, it is starting the slow process of rebuilding itself with the emergence of new governments and unified societies for better or for worse. So while the cynicism of a post-nuclear war wasteland is still present, there is a new undercurrent of hope or something resembling it as society continues to try and pull itself upward out of the ashes.
As a GM, I tend to align myself towards a playstyle that allows for a blend of GM direction as well as a degree of player freedom. What this means for you guys is that the RP is split between two categories of RP. The first are mission segments which are largely guided set pieces and gauntlets where you have set objectives, tasks, and whatnot. In these sections, you will either be put in one big team or separate smaller teams trying to complete some kind of goal or task. What that goal is will depend from mission to mission. Mission segments are primarily used to drive the plot forward and for other big dramatic moments. Inbetween mission segments you will have R&R segments. These segments give you more freedom to basically do what your want in camp or whatever town the group may be stopping in. These sections exist to give you as players a chance to explore other aspects of your character that the missions would otherwise not let you see, and more importantly, for me it gives you the chance for more collaborative and slower-paced writing between players as their characters interact with one another. While also providing a well-needed change of pace from the more high-intensity missions, peaks and valleys and all that.
In a perfect world, I would like at least one post per player every week. That being said, I also understand that once a week schedules can sometimes be too taxing on people. So instead we will be following a once every two-week posting policy. I will be enforcing this schedule with a two strikes policy, what that policy means is that the first time two weeks pass without you posting and you haven't given me prior notice you will receive one strike, if it happens again well you get voted off the island. So what that means is all you have to do is communicate with me, I'm typically a very understanding person who knows how hectic life can be, so as long as you tell me that "Hey Hex, something came up" then everything will be fine and dandy.
For the first round of applications, I'm looking for up to eight other players though that number may change as I get a feel for things. Applications will be primarily based on the quality of the CS submitted but also upon some player reviews which is mostly just me snooping around to see if you are a total arse or not. So here are my recommendations for you! Don't write a character just to "fill a gap" on the team, write the character whose story you want to tell, that will always be the better sheet. Take your time writing it, I'm partial to highly detailed sheets and sheets that are extremely evocative of the character they are for, make me want to know more about them, make them flawed, make them feel real, make them hurt. These applications are not first-come-first-serve, the name of the game here is quality.
The premise of this roleplay is simple; you are a contract hire for the Happy Trails Caravan Company heading north towards the region known as Cascadia. Taking up the majority of the Seattle metropolitan area, Cascadia is a region under the control of the aptly named Cascadian Federation. The Federation in many ways is a strange mirror to the NCR and fittingly the two have grown weary of one another as they compete for control of the surrounding Washinton Wasteland. Your story will run tangential and collide sometimes directly with these tensions as both the NCR and the CF and the many subfactions within them will try and use you for their gain, though ultimately the narrative of the war is not the primary focus of this tale. Instead, the focus is the hunt for a lost Vault-Tec Vault, which if the rumors are true is said to be the primary reason that Cascadia is all green and brown in contrast to the rest of post-apocalyptic America.
Experience with the story Fallout New Vegas and the rest of the games is recommended, but not completely necessary as it takes place some one hundred and four years after the events of New Vegas in the far off year of 2385. In this way, thematically instead of post-apocalyptic, Cascadia is closer to post-post-apocalyptic in tone. What that means is that while the world did go to shit, it is starting the slow process of rebuilding itself with the emergence of new governments and unified societies for better or for worse. So while the cynicism of a post-nuclear war wasteland is still present, there is a new undercurrent of hope or something resembling it as society continues to try and pull itself upward out of the ashes.
As a GM, I tend to align myself towards a playstyle that allows for a blend of GM direction as well as a degree of player freedom. What this means for you guys is that the RP is split between two categories of RP. The first are mission segments which are largely guided set pieces and gauntlets where you have set objectives, tasks, and whatnot. In these sections, you will either be put in one big team or separate smaller teams trying to complete some kind of goal or task. What that goal is will depend from mission to mission. Mission segments are primarily used to drive the plot forward and for other big dramatic moments. Inbetween mission segments you will have R&R segments. These segments give you more freedom to basically do what your want in camp or whatever town the group may be stopping in. These sections exist to give you as players a chance to explore other aspects of your character that the missions would otherwise not let you see, and more importantly, for me it gives you the chance for more collaborative and slower-paced writing between players as their characters interact with one another. While also providing a well-needed change of pace from the more high-intensity missions, peaks and valleys and all that.
In a perfect world, I would like at least one post per player every week. That being said, I also understand that once a week schedules can sometimes be too taxing on people. So instead we will be following a once every two-week posting policy. I will be enforcing this schedule with a two strikes policy, what that policy means is that the first time two weeks pass without you posting and you haven't given me prior notice you will receive one strike, if it happens again well you get voted off the island. So what that means is all you have to do is communicate with me, I'm typically a very understanding person who knows how hectic life can be, so as long as you tell me that "Hey Hex, something came up" then everything will be fine and dandy.
For the first round of applications, I'm looking for up to eight other players though that number may change as I get a feel for things. Applications will be primarily based on the quality of the CS submitted but also upon some player reviews which is mostly just me snooping around to see if you are a total arse or not. So here are my recommendations for you! Don't write a character just to "fill a gap" on the team, write the character whose story you want to tell, that will always be the better sheet. Take your time writing it, I'm partial to highly detailed sheets and sheets that are extremely evocative of the character they are for, make me want to know more about them, make them flawed, make them feel real, make them hurt. These applications are not first-come-first-serve, the name of the game here is quality.
1.Make believable characters. There is a time and a place for the beloved power fantasy, but that time and place is not here. This is a collaborative story-telling effort and not a dick measuring contest to see whose action star carriers around the biggest gun if you know what I mean. Know the limits of your characters because if you push past them, they will get hurt and it will be bad. No auto-killing npcs without effort, no metagaming and the like. Adversity is the best thing to happen to your characters because its how you get to see what they really are, don't run away from it. Your overpowered character will be mauled to death by a Deathclaw at your earliest convenience.
2.The writing standard for the RP is advanced. I'm not here to grade your English paper (trust me I do too much grading already) but try and at least put in an honest effort and we will be fine. Posting expectations are at least four solid paragraphs but will probably be more. I typically write much more than four but like you do you. Just like try your best. Failure to post within the 14 day period without notifying me as discussed above will result in an infraction, your second posting infraction will result in your removal from the game.
3. There is no set posting order, but please refrain from speed posting. Do not post two posts back to back without letting somebody else post. If you are interacting with another player and that's not happening in a collab and you are having a back and forth that is okay, But please make sure that those posts are up to standard. I don't want just one line conversations going back and forth, back and forth.
4.Communication is key. If you are having a problem with another player, the content of the RP, or for any other reason such as not being able to post please reach out to me. I can't help you unless you ask me. I understand for some people that's a hard task but I promise you that I'm here to help.
5.If two players are having a disagreement please take it outside to your PMs. Once you bring it into the RP space, it becomes my business and you will not like it once it becomes my business. That being said, I hope that everyone here can be nice and respectable to one another.
6.The world of Fallout is dark and depressing but that doesn't mean we have to be. I have a zero-tolerance policy for harassment based on gender, sexual orientation. religion or creed, race, etc in our OOC content. And I take these issues very seriously. You don't like that, you can go somewhere else because frankly, I do not want you here.
7.If you have a question on if you can do something and you are not sure for whatever reason please ask.
8.If you have any ideas about the plot going forward, potential side-plots, etc also please bring them up. Though if you want to keep them a secret from the other players, a PM will probably work best.
9. Be Fonz cool.
2.The writing standard for the RP is advanced. I'm not here to grade your English paper (trust me I do too much grading already) but try and at least put in an honest effort and we will be fine. Posting expectations are at least four solid paragraphs but will probably be more. I typically write much more than four but like you do you. Just like try your best. Failure to post within the 14 day period without notifying me as discussed above will result in an infraction, your second posting infraction will result in your removal from the game.
3. There is no set posting order, but please refrain from speed posting. Do not post two posts back to back without letting somebody else post. If you are interacting with another player and that's not happening in a collab and you are having a back and forth that is okay, But please make sure that those posts are up to standard. I don't want just one line conversations going back and forth, back and forth.
4.Communication is key. If you are having a problem with another player, the content of the RP, or for any other reason such as not being able to post please reach out to me. I can't help you unless you ask me. I understand for some people that's a hard task but I promise you that I'm here to help.
5.If two players are having a disagreement please take it outside to your PMs. Once you bring it into the RP space, it becomes my business and you will not like it once it becomes my business. That being said, I hope that everyone here can be nice and respectable to one another.
6.The world of Fallout is dark and depressing but that doesn't mean we have to be. I have a zero-tolerance policy for harassment based on gender, sexual orientation. religion or creed, race, etc in our OOC content. And I take these issues very seriously. You don't like that, you can go somewhere else because frankly, I do not want you here.
7.If you have a question on if you can do something and you are not sure for whatever reason please ask.
8.If you have any ideas about the plot going forward, potential side-plots, etc also please bring them up. Though if you want to keep them a secret from the other players, a PM will probably work best.
9. Be Fonz cool.
⧎ Salvaged
These are the most common weapons you are going to find in the wasteland. Think a plank of wood with some nails in it or the pipe guns from Fallout 4. Civilian clothing will be found in this cateogry
⧎ Civilian / Recreational
These are your hunting rifles, simple pistols, hunting knives. These weapons are also common enough that you don't really need an explanation for carrying them.
⧎ Energy Weapon 1
These are your barely functioning plasma and laser pistols. They work...sometimes, mostly. Most energy weapons carried in the Wasteland will be in this condition.
⧎ Raider Gear
Typically better quality civil and recreational weapons will fall under these quantities usually modified with more blood and spike motifs. Simple explosives such as grenades, Molotov cocktails, and regular frag mines will fall under this category. Most advanced melee weaponry beyond power fists will fall into this category as well. Raider gear while common also means you have either ran into raiders or was one at some point! You should explain how you got these
⧎ Energy Weapon 2
Laser Rifles, Plasma Rifles, and their repeater variants. High-quality plasma & laser pistols. Energy equipment of this caliber is often rare, expensive or both. Not likely that everyone will be carrying gear like this around. Please explain how you acquired this piece of gear.
⧎ Military
Assualt Rifles, Higher Powered Sniper Rifles, Machine Guns, Flame Throwers, Power Fists, C-4, etc. These are weapons that are usually only found in the hands of NCR and CF soldiers. You better have a very good reason for carrying one of these around.
⧎ Energy Weapon 3
Gatling Laser, Tesla Cannon, Gauss Rifles, Plasma caster, etc. Exceedingly rare and very powerful. You will probably not have any of these on your person.
⧎ Advanced Military
Power Armor, Fat Men, Archimedes cannon, etc. These are the types of things you earn, not things you start with sorry.
These are the most common weapons you are going to find in the wasteland. Think a plank of wood with some nails in it or the pipe guns from Fallout 4. Civilian clothing will be found in this cateogry
⧎ Civilian / Recreational
These are your hunting rifles, simple pistols, hunting knives. These weapons are also common enough that you don't really need an explanation for carrying them.
⧎ Energy Weapon 1
These are your barely functioning plasma and laser pistols. They work...sometimes, mostly. Most energy weapons carried in the Wasteland will be in this condition.
⧎ Raider Gear
Typically better quality civil and recreational weapons will fall under these quantities usually modified with more blood and spike motifs. Simple explosives such as grenades, Molotov cocktails, and regular frag mines will fall under this category. Most advanced melee weaponry beyond power fists will fall into this category as well. Raider gear while common also means you have either ran into raiders or was one at some point! You should explain how you got these
⧎ Energy Weapon 2
Laser Rifles, Plasma Rifles, and their repeater variants. High-quality plasma & laser pistols. Energy equipment of this caliber is often rare, expensive or both. Not likely that everyone will be carrying gear like this around. Please explain how you acquired this piece of gear.
⧎ Military
Assualt Rifles, Higher Powered Sniper Rifles, Machine Guns, Flame Throwers, Power Fists, C-4, etc. These are weapons that are usually only found in the hands of NCR and CF soldiers. You better have a very good reason for carrying one of these around.
⧎ Energy Weapon 3
Gatling Laser, Tesla Cannon, Gauss Rifles, Plasma caster, etc. Exceedingly rare and very powerful. You will probably not have any of these on your person.
⧎ Advanced Military
Power Armor, Fat Men, Archimedes cannon, etc. These are the types of things you earn, not things you start with sorry.
1.Don't be carrying around 300 pounds of gear on you. If you are carrying around a flamethrower there is a high likely hood that you aren't carrying much else either. Your character is a person and not a human pack mule. Try and keep their load realistic and try and make sure you have a good idea where they keep everything.
2.You aren't Arnold. If you charge at twenty guys with cover and sightlines on you, there is a very high likely hood that you are going to get injured or worse. Every fight should be and is going to be a life or death situation. Just one lucky bullet is all it takes to ruin someone's day and that someone could be you. You can still cool things and you can still fight back, just be smart about it.
3.Stimpacks won't heal you instantly. They will stop you from dying from an infected bullet wound or hemorrhaging on the spot but they take time to truly be effective. Sticking yourself with needles all day won't make you the immortal god of the wasteland.
4.Similiary to Stimpacks, lets talk about drugs. Drugs are nearly omnipresent in the Fallout universe and they do a lot of wonderful things but they also do a lot of shitty things. If your character religiously uses pyscho, for example, you may want to talk about their anger problems.
5.Having better equipment doesn't necessarily mean that you automatically win. Skill, strategy, and various other factors go into winning any battle. So if your plan is to just to give your character all the best gear so that they are walking death machines, I advise you to rethink your plan.
6.Equipment doesn't have to be specifically from the games themselves, but try and at least keep it lore appropriate.
7.b]Ghoul and Super Mutant characters are allowed but given the nature of things, their sheets will be reviewed with more scrutiny. Given the setting and timeframe of the story, any player history with the Brotherhood of Steel should be limited at best since the West Coast Brotherhood has mostly gone to ground at this point, and to keep things simple robot characters are not allowed.
2.You aren't Arnold. If you charge at twenty guys with cover and sightlines on you, there is a very high likely hood that you are going to get injured or worse. Every fight should be and is going to be a life or death situation. Just one lucky bullet is all it takes to ruin someone's day and that someone could be you. You can still cool things and you can still fight back, just be smart about it.
3.Stimpacks won't heal you instantly. They will stop you from dying from an infected bullet wound or hemorrhaging on the spot but they take time to truly be effective. Sticking yourself with needles all day won't make you the immortal god of the wasteland.
4.Similiary to Stimpacks, lets talk about drugs. Drugs are nearly omnipresent in the Fallout universe and they do a lot of wonderful things but they also do a lot of shitty things. If your character religiously uses pyscho, for example, you may want to talk about their anger problems.
5.Having better equipment doesn't necessarily mean that you automatically win. Skill, strategy, and various other factors go into winning any battle. So if your plan is to just to give your character all the best gear so that they are walking death machines, I advise you to rethink your plan.
6.Equipment doesn't have to be specifically from the games themselves, but try and at least keep it lore appropriate.
7.b]Ghoul and Super Mutant characters are allowed but given the nature of things, their sheets will be reviewed with more scrutiny. Given the setting and timeframe of the story, any player history with the Brotherhood of Steel should be limited at best since the West Coast Brotherhood has mostly gone to ground at this point, and to keep things simple robot characters are not allowed.
[color=black]◄[color=lightgray]A telling Quote[/color] ► [/color]
NAME
Age | Place of Birth | Height/Weight | Species
A P P E A R A N C E.
What do you look like? A detailed description of your charachter's physical characteristics
E Q U I P M E N T.
Guns, Knives, Armor, Meds, Drugs, the important gear that is kept on your person.
M I S C E L L A N E O U S G E A R
Rope, Lighters, Bedrolls, food, books etc. Remeber to consider how much stuff you are gonna be carrying.
S K I L L S.
Alright, so skills are the crunchiest part of these sheet. For the sake of keeping everybody on the same page we will be using the New Vegas Skill list. From this last of skills including stuff like barter, guns, energy weapons, sneak, science, etc you will pick one skil. That is your Core Skill which represents the best thing your character can do. Then you get to pick 2 Good Skills. These are two skills you are still skilled at but not the best at. Then you get 3 skills that you are Average at which means exactly what it sounds like! Next to each of these from Core to average please briefly explain why they are good at these skills and not others. The rest of the skills not and that you don't have to list are the skills that you are poor at! Which you can still attempt but will very hard for you to succeed at without help from a friend!
So an example skill list might look like
Science (Core Skill) : Explanation goes here
Repair (Good Skill): as;;rjfafjsafjsa
Barter (Good Skill): askaksdjaslkdjal
Medicine (Average Skill): askdakdjald
Survival (Average Skill): aksdjaljdakjsd
Energy Weapons (Average skill): asjdajdajsdasd
So an example skill list might look like
Science (Core Skill) : Explanation goes here
Repair (Good Skill): as;;rjfafjsafjsa
Barter (Good Skill): askaksdjaslkdjal
Medicine (Average Skill): askdakdjald
Survival (Average Skill): aksdjaljdakjsd
Energy Weapons (Average skill): asjdajdajsdasd
H I S T O R Y
How you got to where you are today. This should be your largest and most detailed section of the entire sheet and its strength or weakness will heavily affect how I regard the rest of your sheets. It should be several paragraphs in length and cover the entire arc of their lives. Things like how they were raised, life-changing events & people, how they got all the cool stuff they got and learned what they learned, and of course things like how they ended up working on the Caravan heading towards Cascadia in the first place. Really give this section your all because it will also help you get a much better understanding of who your character is and their place in the world. Make we want to find out what happens next to them.
P S Y C H E.
Who are you? Their quirks, their likes, their dislikes, and their faults. Flawed charachters are always better than perfect charachters.
D R I V E.
What keeps you up at night? What are your charachters long term goals? What do they want from the world? What do they desire above all else?
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