[OOC] Alternate Fallout: New Vegas, Points of Divergence

[Letter Bee]

Fallout: New Vegas - Points of Divergence

I. Intro

What if Ceasar's Legion were sane? What if they weren't complete monsters, or evil to the point of stupidity? What if they weren't built to fall apart once Caesar died? What if they, while still brutal and cruel, brought actual order and organization to their lands? Would things still turn out to be the same?

Other questions are: What if the Kings were more fleshed out? What if the Fiends and Vipers showed the depths glimpsed in the original world? What if Elijah maintained control of the Brotherhood? What if the NCR's sinister reputation wasn't based on exaggerations, rumors, and outright lies? What if the fate of the Mojave relied not on one person, but multiple pariticpants?

Why that last question? Because the Courier is dead...

-------

Basically, the points of divergence, aka the things that make Caesar's Legion different, are first, Ceasar finding different books about Ancient Rome during his time as Edward Sallow, and second, Caesar not having a brain tumor. This results in a Legion that, while led and controlled with an iron fist, with harsh punishments for disobedience, is more sensible, more willing to negotiate, and more willing to build, in general. A Legion of order and organization, based not on slavery, but on the practicalities of landed power focused by a strong man at the centre of it all. The New Roman Empire, the Nova Roma Imperii, risen again and looking towards what was good in the past to apply it to the future.

Your jobs, in this open world game, are to fight, explore, and interact; you can take bounties, sell food and purified water, take up arms in favor of a faction, and affect the larger story and world in your own way. What you would not be permitted to do, however, is cut yourself off from the world; no man or woman is an island, especially in the Mojave Wasteland.

II. New and Changed (Main) Factions

A.) The New Legion (Alternate Ceasar's Legion)

Led by a less extreme, more rational Caesar, the New Legion has united scores of tribes, bringing them forcibly to the light of civilization. Settling his subjects in what fertile lands remain in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado, as well as bringing what settled peoples remain under his protection, whether they like it or not, The New Legion is a more stable state than its canon incarnation, with its power coming not from wholesale enslavement and plunder, but from Latifundia and Coloni, large estates and tenant farmers with slightly more rights than slaves. Not merely that, but veteran soldiers of the New Legion are given their own small plots of land that they can call their own, tend to, and as they are still heavily armed, even defend.

But what happens when there's no more fertile land to give away? Well, that's why the New Legion still needs to expand west.

Ceasar still feels contempt for the NCR and Mr. House, and desires to bring his version of civilization to the Mojave. Although more willing to negotiate and compromise on the outside, that is all to hide his and his new army's determination to take what they they desire. Due to being based on smallholdings instead of slavery in this universe, though, they are much less numerous than they were in canon...but also better-equipped, organized, and led.

Even the minor soldiers wear armor and riot shields that can deflect small arms, while guns such as revolvers and cowboy repeaters a more common sight. The mid-tier soldiers have what the elites in canon have; brush guns, super-sledges, and ballistic fists, while as for the the true elites, the true elites are clad in true bulletproof armor made from Pre-War meta-materials and reflective, anti-laser plating, and carry miniguns, plasma casters, and longer swords that emulate the late roman 'spatha' instead of the 'gladius'.

As for their treatment of women, the New Legion does not treat women like cattle; they are allowed to defend themselves and to do paid work, but one sexist law still remains: Only women who have given birth to a child can join the New Legion, aka only a woman who has already 'bred for the cause' can fight for said cause.

And now, for the final difference from the original universe: Slavery. The New Legion does not actively enslave people. Slavery is still legal, and the Legion turns a blind eye to it, but slavery is a soldier's private business, and no effort is made to impede or support it. Basically, this Caesar turns a blind eye to slavery instead of endorsing it, although he is glad for the taxes it gives him...

B.) The New California Republic

The New California Republic changed with the assassination of President Aaron Kimball, a corrupt and imperialist war hawk who was overextending the NCR's resources. Led by a new President, Lucita Blake, the NCR has began waging a crackdown on corruption, special interests, and straightening out its bureaucracy, while at the same time foregoing the brute-force tactics it was using on the Mojave...in favor of cloak-and-dagger tactics like assassinations, deception, and subversion in order to get its way anyway. Keeping the gruding loyalty of Chief Hanlon, the NCR has less open, but deeper grip on the affairs of the region than ever before.

Subfaction: The NCR Secret Service - Once the bodyguards of the President, the NCR Secret Service has been expanded to much, much, more. An elite group that does to urban areas and settlements what the NCR Rangers do with countryside settings, the Secret Service is a technologically advanced force that uses Stealth Boys, Oliver Anti-Materiel Rifles, Gauss Guns, and Laser Pistols to conduct assassinations and raids all across the Mojave.

Subfaction 2: The Cabal - A group of businessmen, diplomats, and investors whose goal is to establish control of the Mojave's riches, the Cabal spreads money around like water, and tosses out blackmail information like candy. Normally, Mr. House would be preparing a harsh response to this...if not for the fact that the Cabal's mysterious head has gained knowledge of Robert House's Pre-War life and career himself...

C.) Mr. House

An enigmatic genius who has kept the Mojave Wasteland together, Mr. House is brilliant, charismatic and utterly ruthless. However, in this universe, he has to play smarter and more clever than he had ever done before, due to a sane Caesar and more ruthless and less corrupt NCR after the riches of the Mojave. But in this case, he has help, able help, in the person of the Muted Man, a mysterious figure acting as his hand. With numerous contacts and resources, this subordinate might be the key to ensuring that the house would always win, even with these new circumstances.

III. Rules

Hider

1.) No godmodding, powerplaying, metagaming, etc. etc.
2.) Note, there will be sexual themes in this RP, but anything above nudity is forbidden, because I don't want us to get banned.
3.) No OOC feuding! If you must argue, be respectful. IC, meanwhile, you can hate each other as much as you like as long as it doesn't seep over to OOC.
4.) You can control NPCs when I explicitly say that you can control them.
5.) That said, you are allowed to create two major NPCs, with Special Stats of their own, as well as the player character.
6.) Please notify me if you will be gone longer than a few days, I myself will let you guys know if I will be gone.
7.) I reserve the right to kill off Custom Factions made by inactive Players, or fold them into a larger faction. Same for characters.

IV. Character Sheet Skeleton

Hider

Name:
Age:
Looks: (picture optional)
Personality:
Faction
S.P.E.C.I.A.L= (45 Points spread wisely. Cannot go over 10 on any one stat)
Strength:
Perception:
Endurance:
Charisma:
Intelligence:
Agility:
Luck:

Backstory:

Weapon choice:

Perks (Add only three):

'Tagged' Skills (the skills you are strongest in; add only three unless you add a 'Weak Skill', see below):

All other skills are assumed to be average unless you want to take a 'Weak Skill'.

'Weak' Skills (the skills you are weakest in, add only if you want more 'Tagged' Skills):

Any other info not included in the above:

Post the CS in OOC and once accepted then you can move it to the Characters Tab.

[Letter Bee]

@APRoll201984@ClocktowerEchos@chiru@Hippocamp@Hopeless@Keksalot@TheHangedMan

[APRoll201984]

I'll try to have my sheet up on here over the weekend after the holiday.

[ClocktowerEchos]

Working on a sheet, I'll try to get it up soon-ish. In the mean while, found this cool picture that could work for the Neo Roma Imperialis Legionaries or some elite variant like Principes

My Hider

[APRoll201984]

Do we need to have a faction or can we be neutral?

[Letter Bee]

@APRoll201984, you can be neutral, just interact with other PCs or create two major NPCs (who are permitted to have SPECIAL stats) that can interact with other PCs.

If you have a custom faction, I will allow you to control minor NPCs but they won't have SPECIAL stats.

[thegreenleafe]

I hope you don't mind if I come along

[Letter Bee]

I hope you don't mind if I come along

@thegreenleafe

I don't mind.

[Hopeless]

@ClocktowerEchos That picture looks like if NCR and the Legion had a baby.

@Letter Bee I'll get a sheet up during the weekend, but I will try to do it sooner.

[APRoll201984]

I'm going for more of a survivalist. Lives off the land, hunter can make BBQ centaur that will taste like the best ribs you ever ate. That sorta thing. XD

May also become a cannibal in the future <_<

[chiru]

Jeffrey Wagner

Jeffrey Wagner

Age: 56

Personality:
Having spent years out in the wastes, Jeffrey is well aware of how animalistic human beings can become, and is disgusted by it. He has a refined and cultured demeanor, appreciating the finer things in life. Deep down though, he is cunning and ruthless with the shrewd sense of a true businessman. While he’ll get his hands dirty if he must, Jeffrey prefers to get his way through bribery and blackmail.

Faction:
The New California Republic – the Cabal

S.P.E.C.I.A.L=
Strength: 4
Perception: 9
Endurance: 4
Charisma: 8
Intelligence: 8
Agility: 6
Luck: 6

Backstory: Jeffrey grew up in a rundown shack with his parents, who made their living trading goods. They never made much, but he always enjoyed coming along and watching the deals be made. When he was eighteen years old, the determined young man decided he wanted to set off for Vegas. The journey was hazardous, and it wasn’t long until he found himself exhausted and overheated in the middle of the Mojave. When a group of raiders found him, he was ready to accept death, but by some stroke of what seemed at the time to be luck, one of the raiders knew him from childhood. The friend asked if he wanted to join them – promising caps, water, and companionship. Jeffrey joined quite eagerly, wondering if perhaps raiders weren’t always as bad as he had heard.

But they were. The things he would come to see them do made him question what constituted a human being. Jeffrey himself didn’t commit as much murder and destruction as the others, instead becoming the planner and the speaker of the group. But he still committed his fair share of violence and depravity, all the while despising the crude nature of it all. And yet despite this, Jeffrey stayed with them for many years. Perhaps it was the caps, perhaps it was the sense of being skilled and useful to a group, or perhaps he just didn’t know where else he would go. But Jeffrey stayed with them until he one day caught wind of some NCR rangers coming their way. He decided not to notify his fellow raiders, and when the NCR finally found them he pretended to be a prisoner. And it worked – they were all gunned down except for him, and they took him back.

Soon enough, Jeffrey managed to talk his way into getting a job of his own with them, where he later became a member of the Cabal. He felt that job was much more suited to him than his former occupation – oftentimes some well-chosen words and a bit of blackmail would do much more damage than a gun would. He grew fond of sophistication and had strong distaste towards thugs and brutes. After all, having the lived the life of a hoodlum he was all too aware of how easy it was for human beings to become animals. Jeffrey came to live in New Vegas, where he would frequently make deals regarding huge amounts of caps with the intention of the NCR having control of the riches flowing through the Mojave. And if worst ever came to worst, he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot someone who was no longer needed in the back.

Weapon choice:
Silenced .22 pistol and a combat knife

Perks:
Educated
Fortune Finder
The Professional

'Tagged' Skills:
Barter
Speech
Guns

[Letter Bee]

@chiru, accepted; move it to the Characters Tab!

[ClocktowerEchos]

I'm going to be making a Legion-aligned tribe of basically engineers, their backstories much like the Legion's itself but instead of finding books of Rome and History they found books on Math and Science. Literally built a hill fort castle that Legion scouts thought was NRC or old world at first glance and mostly gives the Legion clerks/bookkeepers in civilian aspects and siege/artillery specialists for Legio Imperialis.

[Letter Bee]

@ClocktowerEchos, I like it, as I've said before.

[APRoll201984]

My Hider

Here's character reference pic for my character. I'm thinking of giving her a pet night stalker. :3

Spectre

[Letter Bee]

@APRoll201984, cool.

[ClocktowerEchos]

@Letter BeeJust curious from an idea that popped into my head, can we play as non humans ie a tribe of ghouls/super mutants?

[Letter Bee]

@ClocktowerEchos, yes. One prospective player, @Keksalot, will be a Super Mutant with permission to have more points to spend on more attributes; in exchange, however, I will be sending what PCs I can against his character once the game starts.

[Wernher]

Name: Bernard Löwert
Age: 37

Looks:
Bern prefers to wear his ranger helmet for a damn good reason in the fact that outside of his uniform, his natural bad posture, diminutive and even ugly physique hardly allow him to command the same respect he does otherwise. His physique is still however a statement on his methods of operation and where other veterans show their numerous scars with pride, Bern spites them for their macho conduct, preferring his own skin that only shows the traces of a bad box that almost snuffed the life out of him when he was a teenager. 'No need to be tough enough to survive attrocious wounds when you're smart enough not to get them in the first place.' is the way he thinks. Ultimately, the frown of mild disgust he has for his comrades seem to be rather permanently imprinted on his face, though it is sometimes replaced by a smug smile.

Personality:
Bernard was bullied when he was young and it shows a great deal. Ironic that he would hate the macho alpha males so much while being in one of the most elite branch of the army basically filled with them. Others think that he just has 'issues', but that doesn't even begin to cover it. He will admit himself that his dislike of others (and it goes double for women) is frustration due to his own crippling lack of charisma, but it goes deeper than that. No, being an introvert spending most of his time educating himself rather than socializing, he has come to despise the republic that employs him and its sham of a meritocracy. No, the number of times he was passed for a promotion because the guy next to him was simply more likable. Democracy itself! What a joke, just a contest of popularity. Even crime and justice was just a contest of rhetoric, certainly not a tool to find the truth.

This has made him secretly sympathetic to the legion. If he was confronted about this terrible secret he'd of course go on and on on the practicality of solid leadership based on intelligence and not on the ability to please a crowd though in secret there is a certain fantasy of just enslaving a woman for himself, have a plot of land and hire a few people to grow his crops... that or maybe make a name for himself rather than just be another 'Ranger' so that someone would maybe mourn him or cheer at his death, rather than just vanish in the sand.

Faction: NCR! (For now...)

S.P.E.C.I.A.L
Strength: 6
Perception: 7
Endurance: 6
Charisma: 1
Intelligence: 7
Agility: 8
Luck: 10

Backstory:
Bernard was always called a huge nerd back in school, and that was on a good day as on a bad one he could expect the worst forms of torture imaginable for a kid (Born in the city, far away from raiders and super mutants). But this isn't some fantasy world with free superior education, oh no, Bernard found out the hard way that a single alcoholic mother could hardly afford superior education for her only child. At first Bern kind of drifted from place to place, doing menial jobs and becoming increasingly angry at the system for all the reasons possible. Ultimately however, he met a girl. Well, encountered. From a distance. They might have spoken on about 3 occasions and she didn't insult him or anything so that was all he needed to get a crush really. Still, a dishwasher boy really couldn't expect to impress a cute girl like that so he kept his distance. Speaking about his crush to a friend however, said guy, an even bigger nerd, laughed at him. 'There's you and right here in the streets there's... hey look at that, a ranger! How can you even compete?' Well... what could someone do when a ranger was interested eh?

The poor fellow really did see the army as his salvation, a way to gain social status, some wealth and impress someone special. His career seemed to naturally go toward a bureaucratic role, at most that of an engineer, but Bernard wouldn't hear it, it would just be walking the same shoes he did all of his life! He worked hard and ultimately got what he wanted: Ranger. He walked home with pride in his stride but found his mother uncaring, his friends on the defensive now that he was 'better than them' and worst of all, quickly came to the crushing realization that having trained for years in an overly masculine field hardly made his social skills with women any better. He quickly abandoned his original plan of asking the girl of his dream out as when he knocked on her door, the boyfriend answered.

And so Bernard continued to live his life alone, trying some amateur writing but stopping after he was discovered and humiliated for it by his fellow rangers, finding solace in solitary recon work and in trapping stupid raiders in ingenious ambushes. It was of course at this point that the deployment in the mojave happened. He only took minor role in the battle of the damn, spotting for artillery and taking pot shots at officers of the legion, but he couldn't help but admire rather than despise Caesar who had with knowledge of Rome managed to get an empire of his own. The half retarded barbarians of the legion themselves were brain dead idiots beyond him but Caesar... A more impressive figure than the president at least.

Weapon choice:
-Anti-material Rifle
-Revolver
-Grenades
-Mines

Perks:
+Splash Damage
+Better Criticals
+Weapon Handling

'Tagged' Skills
+Guns
+Explosives
+Sneak
+Repair
+Science

'Weak' Skills
-Speech
-Barter

Any other info not included in the above:

[Wernher]

@chiru Assuming I'm accepted, want to work a little something in our backstory? Namely my char being part of the group of rangers that 'saved' yours from the raiders. Have minor knowledge of each other but enough so that once we meet at least Bern can say 'Hey, I remember you' and maybe have a plot hook.