You've got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive
E-lim-i-nate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mr. In-Between
Accentuate The Positive
War never changes, only the sides do: the fields of battle, the crazed motivations of the soldiers and the commanders. But the nature, it remains the same - the same carnage, the same chaos, the same bloodshed and loss of life.
In the ten years since the Armageddon of the Hoover Dam, which witnessed the humbling of two armies before a bullet-marred mailman, the East has been cracked wide open by the decisive blow struck against Caesar's Legion. With the death of its leader, and the routing of his armies along the entire width of the Colorado, its once peaceful lands - brought to heel and to chain by Legion sword and Legion shot - have descended into maddening chaos as the last vestiges of the Legionaries attempt to corral the splintering tribes into something resembling their former glory. From Denver to Flagstaff, the entire East is in flames as the formerly subservient and enslaved tribals rise up to regain their birthright. Some tribes have returned their lands to peace, while others rove around the wasteland that is more anarchic than ever before, in a crazed search for blood and revenge for the injustices done to them by Caesar and his army of slavers.
To the West, the Two-Headed Bear licks its wounds, and nurses its pride. Perhaps they could've dealt with being thwarted by the Legion, defeated in open combat. Perhaps they could've even acquiesced to being outsmarted by Robert House, with his methodical calculations and his army of robots. But to be bested by a Courier? To be shown up in the hour of victory by an upstart postman? Unthinkable, and unacceptable. The President and the General were crucified by public opinion, as the Californians raged against the injustice of it all - to have shed so much blood only to lose it all to the clamoring of Mojavan independence - and the will of one man. So they wait, and watch, and ready themselves to take the Crown Jewel of the Wastes once and for all, and to see that parvenu hanged from the New Vegas sign.
As for New Vegas, the Courier rules indisputably. His displays of goodwill - from saving Goodsprings from convict raiders, to returning Primm to justice in the form of a liberated sheriffs, and bringing peace to Freeside - and his ironbound strength - being the only man to go to the Sierra Madre and return unscathed, to singlehandedly destroying the Brotherhood of Steel, his adventure in the Divide, all the way to his victory at the Hoover Dam - ensures his position. With an AI that answers only to him to handle the mundane, he is free to devote his time to the people. But all is not well, for the vast city of New Vegas and the stretches of the Mojave under his control has many people and not enough resources to feed them all. With the East in chaos, he looks towards the former territories of the Legion to stabilize his position, and to capitalize on the power vacuum.
Settlers recruited from the newly-declared Free State of the Mojave, from the New California Republic, and from all the cities of the West, are brought to Vegas and sent East, to set up outposts and colonies and towns, to spread the ideals of the new America and to ensure that Vegas remains free and strong. Motivated for different, vastly disparate, reasons, these settlers go forth under the command of the Courier that they may administer themselves freely - so long as they obey him. And so the caravans set out across the Colorado, moving into the chaos of the East with half-parts trepidation and excitement.
One group of these settlers move towards the East, heading south of Flagstaff. Following the water pipelines constructed by engineering robots sent before them, they arrive near the ruins of Prescott, the ghost city south of the former capital of the Legion. It is there where they will set up, to be the next outpost of the Free State. But with hostile tribals all around, with roving bands of former Legionaries, committed to the 'Cult of Mars,' and even rumors of an Apache warband arising out of the old Rez, the future of their fledgling town remains in the air.
Eliminate The Negative
So the general story of this takes place in the years after the Second Battle of the Hoover Dam, as depicted in Fallout: New Vegas. In our roleplay's canon, the Courier takes the Wild Card route, and declares the independence of Vegas and the Mojave against the two warring parties. We'll assume that the Courier took the 'Good Karma' endings of his quests, that he's ruling as a bit of an enlightened autocrat in New Vegas, and is strengthening his position in the wake of rumblings from the NCR. If enough people are interested, I'll create a character profile for the Free State of the Mojave and the Courier so that it can all be established properly.
The Legion, defeated at the Dam, fractured and split in the wake of Caesar's coma and death. Lanius, as strong of a man as he was, did not have the strength of personality to hold the Legion together as the tribes from Denver to the Colorado rose up. Essentially their former territory is ablaze with chaos and war, as the tribals fight to keep their lands against each other, and an army of Legion fanatics - rechristened the Cult of Mars (working name, might change) - fight to restore the Legion. The whole place is basically chaos, and ripe for exploitation by the Courier and hereto unknown powers of the East.
The NCR is in political turmoil following the total embarrassment in the Mojave. Two political factions have arisen, one led by the Ranger Chief Hanlon who advocates rapprochement with the Courier - motivated perhaps out of his personal opinion of the man - and recognition of the Mojave's position. The other, led by a (currently unnamed) former Army officer, advocates for a new campaign of war against the Mojave, so that all of the soldiers who died there may not have died in vain. While all of this goes on, commerce and travel continues unabated between California and the Mojave as it always did, perhaps a little more peaceful - if not a little more tense - in the wake of Vegas independence.
In direct relationship to the roleplay, we'll be a group of settlers who have headed out towards the East under the banner of the Mojave. Each are motivated for different reasons, for different justifications for leaving their lives behind and settling out in the wild East, but each have landed in the company of another. I'll establish more of the background of the settling expeditions if this roleplay gets taken up, but we're just a group of many who have headed out. I imagine that there's a good number of people, as Vegas is a large city and the Mojave is likewise rather large. I never thought the scale of the game captured the true nature of the area well, so imagine that the territory more accurately reflects the real scale of Las Vegas and the area.
There will be the overaching plot, where we try to set up a settlement in the East, but numerous other subplots and plot arcs that go from just getting water, to fighting against tribals, to the hinted-to Apaches. I have some ideas in the can, some more fleshed than others. I'll be playing one of the settlers, and also acting as a sort of "God" character, taking control of certain large players to move the plot forward in absence of real movement. But I intend for this roleplay to act a bit self-motivating, and I hope that other players utilize the freedom to create their own plots, their own characters and NPCs and motivations between them.
If anyone has any questions, or expresses interest, please post up!
2x Like
