"War...War Never Changes."
This is a Fallout TTRPG utilizing a system I've built that uses the guts of D&D 5e. I call it Raiders & Radroaches. Our story will be set in the ruined remains of the Lonestar State, Texas. We will be telling the tale of a newly formed community, called Independence, that is trying to survive and find its place in the harsh, dangerous, and politically tense New Republic of Texas. This broken world is full of wonderful and equally broken characters.
This is going to be sandbox style RP where player characters, relationships, and choices really make a difference in the story of the primary community and the greater setting in general. Together we will shape the community known as the Tower and watch as our story sees it rise to greatness or fall to the dangers of the Red Wastes.
Please take the time to look over the lore information below and compose a character concept that you feel would be interesting to play. The approved races are Humans, Ghouls, Robots / Synths, and (with GM Approval) Supermutants.
Feel free to write up a guard, bartender, trader, mercenary, radio DJ, Doctor, Chem Dealer, or anything else that you feel would fit in this type of gang. Don't worry about game mechanics or anything like that at first...just come up with something you will enjoy and we will go from there.
This is going to be sandbox style RP where player characters, relationships, and choices really make a difference in the story of the primary community and the greater setting in general. Together we will shape the community known as the Tower and watch as our story sees it rise to greatness or fall to the dangers of the Red Wastes.
Please take the time to look over the lore information below and compose a character concept that you feel would be interesting to play. The approved races are Humans, Ghouls, Robots / Synths, and (with GM Approval) Supermutants.
Feel free to write up a guard, bartender, trader, mercenary, radio DJ, Doctor, Chem Dealer, or anything else that you feel would fit in this type of gang. Don't worry about game mechanics or anything like that at first...just come up with something you will enjoy and we will go from there.
[Disclaimer: Many of these ideas were directly taken from or inspired by other people's works and ideas that were found on the internet.]
The “partisan” factions in the Republic are the NRA (San Alamo), Captains Council (Flotilla), B.O.S (Fort Hood), & The Saints (Nawlins).
San Alamo is the capital city, and was where the founders of the Republic met to form the fledgling government years ago. Not even the devastation of the Old World could make Texas forget the Alamo, and it was one of the few buildings in the ruins of downtown San Antonio (as the area used to be called) that survived intact. Most of the population lives in and around several sprawling university campuses north and east of the former city center, farming and grazing their livestock in old parkland in the middle of the city. The government has been rebuilt based on old maps and further expanded; now standing as a fortress and the seat of government for the National Regulator Alliance (Once affiliated with the vigilante group known as the Regulators, the NRA has broken away and thrived on their own). Both the NRA Rangers and the Army of the Republic have their headquarters in the Alamo, and the House of Representatives meets there. There is also a sizable Brotherhood of Steel contingent in the area; they occupy several significant military bases, with their local headquarters located at Camp Bullis, which reports to Fort Hood to the north. Most recently, a Nawlins Embassy has been built to include and house ambassadors of the newest partisan city.
Fort Hood is the southern operations center of the Brotherhood of Steel. It was a major Army base in the pre-War days, and its anti-missile defenses were apparently good enough to keep it reasonably well protected from nuclear attack. The base was a major center for the Army, and contained a massive stockpile of military ground vehicles. Unfortunately, a large portion of these were stolen by the raider gang known as the Road Hogs before the Brotherhood arrived in the area. It took a years-long war between the raiders and the Brotherhood of Steel before the Brotherhood was indisputably in charge of Fort Hood.
Flotilla is a floating community of fishermen, scavvers, and brahmin barons, built around the half-sunken remnants of the Old World aircraft carrier Lexington. There are a number of other ships that have been lashed to the Lexington over the years, forming a massive structure of metal and wood off the coast of the ruins of a town that was called Corpus Christi before the Great War. It has the largest navy of any of the Republic towns, mostly sailing ships and rebuilt trawlers, tugboats, and sportboats, which are used to either fish, trade, or defend against mirelurks and the raider gang known as the Gulfers. Between the fishermen and brahmin barons of the area, a large portion of the Republic's food moves through Flotilla. The place is governed by a group of important citizens known as the Captain's Council, with important naval captains and a few of the larger brahmin barons getting to sit on a council that makes decisions for the city and chooses their representative to the Republic.
Nawlins is a massive city to the east, at the mouth of the Mississippi River. It's a town run by the Saints, a religious faction that has loose control over city’s significant criminal element. It’s a place where just about anything can be had for a price, but it's also a major trading center, sending caravan ships west to the Republic, upriver, and farther east. The swamps around it are dangerous, but the Big 10 is well-patrolled - just don't venture off the raised highways, and watch out for sadistic swampfolk, massive irradiated gators, and carnivorous plants.
Big Rocket is the largest community on the road between San Alamo and Scavver's Bay. It has a sizable Republic military presence, but it's mostly a caravan town, hosting traders, tribals, and all other sorts from around the Red Wastes. This was once the location of the first Red Rocket station, and a massive (nearly eighty feet tall) red rocket structure marks the location of Big Rocket for miles around. It's the head of Big 10 Traders, a caravan company that makes most of its money from large-haul caravans making their way along the ruins of Interstate 10 from Nawlins to west of San Alamo.
Scavver's Bay is a town located on the edge of the Scar, the ruins of Houston. The Old World city was hit directly by a pair of nukes, and so most of the city was either leveled or horrifically irradiated. Scavver's Bay is a community of scavengers, madmen, and ghouls that call the area east of the Scar home. It was once a part of the industrial complex of Houston; the main body of Scavver's Bay was an oil refinery centuries ago. If you're in need of tech, this is a good place to look - the markets of Scavver's Bay have the most Old World valuables you're likely to see outside of maybe a Brotherhood vault. The place is run by a small group of scavver bosses; they tend to quarrel among each other over salvage rights and choice tech, but they know it's in their best interests to keep the caps flowing through the marketplace of Scavver's Bay, so they deal with any trouble that could disrupt the town itself quickly.
Atom's Bay is a coastal settlement about halfway between Flotilla and Scavver's Bay. It's built around a massive nuclear power station near the mouth of the Colorado River. Between the leaking power reactor and flooding, what was apparently once pleasant beachfront property is now mostly an irradiated swamp. The Children of Atom rule here over a population of about a hundred followers, with a good mixture of humans and ghouls. It's an irregular stop for traders moving between Flotilla and Scavver's Bay, as the RadAway gets expensive just to visit a fairly small community.
River City is the largest known community of super mutants near the Republic, and is considered highly dangerous and hostile territory. River City itself consists mostly of the area once called downtown Austin. Reports from escaped slaves suggest that the super mutants are led by a former commander in the Master's army known as “Gladiator”. They have a sizable enslaved population of humans, particularly the descendants of Vault 73. According to unconfirmed reports, the humans are kept around for their artistic skills - anyone who can entertain the super mutants is kept alive, while those who fail are killed and eaten. Particularly skilled artists, actors, and musicians are transformed into super mutants.
Whacko isn't a town that's particularly welcoming to outsiders. Most of the scouts sent to the area never reported back, but a few reported reconnaissance of a heavily-armed population in several fortified buildings, with a fair amount of good cropland. More information is required before the Republic approaches the citizens of this town formally.
Charnel House is the name of a ghoul community somewhere within the Scar. They are hostile to all non-ghoul outsiders, and believe that ghouls are the true inheritors of the wastes, an adaptation to the ruined world that humans caused. Members of Charnel House work to recruit other ghouls to their cause, and have been involved in several acts of human-ghoul terrorism, particularly several brutal punishments to ghoul mistreatment by humans.
New Eden is a primitive community several days travel north of the Scar. It is a haven for the members of the People's Collective, and is run by a collection of church elders who make most of the decisions for the town. The people there avoid modern technology, instead living off the bounty of Lake Eden (formerly Lake Conroe), hunting in the Great Piney Woods, and the farms that they tend on the western banks of the lake. They are highly suspicious of technology and distrust any who venture into their community openly flaunting it.
Acadiana is primarily a market community for the surrounding region where tribals and traders along the Big 10 interact, mostly to sell seafood and whatever crops the tribals grow for whatever technology the farmers need. Traders should be aware that the language of the locals is fairly different from standard English, especially among tribals and farmers, who often look down on those who lack their distinctive patois, a blend of English, French, and local native languages. Acadiana is the home of the Atchafalaya Traders caravan company, which primarily works along the waterways in the regions near Nawlins and up the Mississippi.
Tarberry Bridge, as the name suggests, is a farming town mostly known for its tarberry crops, though recently some of the locals have been experimenting with breeding mirelurks as a food source. There's also a sizable casino not far from the Big 10, which makes this a comfortable stop for caravans passing through between Nawlins, Acadiana, and Scavver's Bay. Republic intelligence sources suspect that it's also one of the most Gulfer-friendly ports in the area, though this has been difficult to prove as Gulfers are tough to distinguish from nomadic fishermen unless they're actively committing a crime.
Abilene is now known as the medical hub of the Republic. The Hendrick Healers is a group that recruits and trains the region’s greatest physicians who then travel the Red Wastes delivering healing to all...well all that can afford it.
Lakeside is a farming community made up of around fifty or so people. It has one of the cleanest water systems north of the Gulf. Despite their lake being relatively small they have been selling enormous quantities of water to the caravans recently. This has put quite the damper on San Alamo’s clean water monopoly. Authorities are starting to believe that everything is not what it seems in this small, backwater community.
Canyon Lake has been the region's primary source of clean water since the reinstatement of the Republic. Owned and guarded heavily by the NRA, the lake allows the Republic to sell clean water for quite the profit. Despite the majority of Republicans feeling a general sense of support for the Republic, this monopoly on clean water has been the cause of quite a fair bit of controversy. Recently, the small community of Lakeside has begun producing massive amounts of clean water for almost half the price that the Republic sells it for. Despite NRA claims that Lakeside water is inferior...people have begun to stray to the cheaper product.
Fort Laredo is home to one of the fastest growing raider groups in the area; the Scalpers. This Native American inspired group is ruled by three women of Karankawa blood. These women, who call themselves the Scalp Queens, believe that modern Americans were responsible for the ruination of the world, and that it’s time for the Natives to take back what is rightfully theirs. Anyone who brings them the scalp of a man can join their ranks. They are kind to their own, but brutal to their enemies. Despite seeming like absolute savages the three women are incredibly wise when it comes to strategy and politics. Thus far they’ve grown large enough to take the old military fort as their own, but they are still small enough that the Republic mostly dismisses them.
Arklatex exists in what was once the region connecting Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Now it stands as a massive settlement of harsh environmentalists called the “Huggers”. These nudist, hippie types protect what’s left of the trees and plant life in the area vehemently. They might be tree huggers, but they’ll skin you alive if you harm the earth in their presence.
The Scar is what’s left of the great city of Houston. It’s a massive ruined city apparently ripe with hidden treasures and danger. The radiation levels in the metro area are so high that even conventional radiation suits can’t withstand it. There have been reports of a group of glowing ghouls calling themselves the “Scarred” picking off travelers that get too close to the ruins.
Dafwo is what used to be two cities known as Dallas and Fort Worth is now nothing more than ruins and rubble. The place is highly irradiated, and rumor has it that something big...REALLY big has made a home there.
And then there is...
Independence. Independence is a community that was founded less than five years ago in and around the remains of a massive hotel nicknamed "The Tower". Dozens of people from many different walks of life have found themselves making Independence their home. It was created to be a place neutral from the faction elitism and political tension rampant in the Red Wastes. It is touted as a place for those that simply want to make something of themselves through hard work and togetherness. Not everything is perfect in the budding city despite its good intentions. In fact, they have already established unintentional tensions between the founders and better off settlers that have found comfort and shelter within the walls of the Tower and those that have had to forge their own homes and shelters in the area around the tall structure. This area surrounding the Tower has come to be called "Shanty Town", and is where the majority of the community's population resides.
San Alamo is the capital city, and was where the founders of the Republic met to form the fledgling government years ago. Not even the devastation of the Old World could make Texas forget the Alamo, and it was one of the few buildings in the ruins of downtown San Antonio (as the area used to be called) that survived intact. Most of the population lives in and around several sprawling university campuses north and east of the former city center, farming and grazing their livestock in old parkland in the middle of the city. The government has been rebuilt based on old maps and further expanded; now standing as a fortress and the seat of government for the National Regulator Alliance (Once affiliated with the vigilante group known as the Regulators, the NRA has broken away and thrived on their own). Both the NRA Rangers and the Army of the Republic have their headquarters in the Alamo, and the House of Representatives meets there. There is also a sizable Brotherhood of Steel contingent in the area; they occupy several significant military bases, with their local headquarters located at Camp Bullis, which reports to Fort Hood to the north. Most recently, a Nawlins Embassy has been built to include and house ambassadors of the newest partisan city.
Fort Hood is the southern operations center of the Brotherhood of Steel. It was a major Army base in the pre-War days, and its anti-missile defenses were apparently good enough to keep it reasonably well protected from nuclear attack. The base was a major center for the Army, and contained a massive stockpile of military ground vehicles. Unfortunately, a large portion of these were stolen by the raider gang known as the Road Hogs before the Brotherhood arrived in the area. It took a years-long war between the raiders and the Brotherhood of Steel before the Brotherhood was indisputably in charge of Fort Hood.
Flotilla is a floating community of fishermen, scavvers, and brahmin barons, built around the half-sunken remnants of the Old World aircraft carrier Lexington. There are a number of other ships that have been lashed to the Lexington over the years, forming a massive structure of metal and wood off the coast of the ruins of a town that was called Corpus Christi before the Great War. It has the largest navy of any of the Republic towns, mostly sailing ships and rebuilt trawlers, tugboats, and sportboats, which are used to either fish, trade, or defend against mirelurks and the raider gang known as the Gulfers. Between the fishermen and brahmin barons of the area, a large portion of the Republic's food moves through Flotilla. The place is governed by a group of important citizens known as the Captain's Council, with important naval captains and a few of the larger brahmin barons getting to sit on a council that makes decisions for the city and chooses their representative to the Republic.
Nawlins is a massive city to the east, at the mouth of the Mississippi River. It's a town run by the Saints, a religious faction that has loose control over city’s significant criminal element. It’s a place where just about anything can be had for a price, but it's also a major trading center, sending caravan ships west to the Republic, upriver, and farther east. The swamps around it are dangerous, but the Big 10 is well-patrolled - just don't venture off the raised highways, and watch out for sadistic swampfolk, massive irradiated gators, and carnivorous plants.
Big Rocket is the largest community on the road between San Alamo and Scavver's Bay. It has a sizable Republic military presence, but it's mostly a caravan town, hosting traders, tribals, and all other sorts from around the Red Wastes. This was once the location of the first Red Rocket station, and a massive (nearly eighty feet tall) red rocket structure marks the location of Big Rocket for miles around. It's the head of Big 10 Traders, a caravan company that makes most of its money from large-haul caravans making their way along the ruins of Interstate 10 from Nawlins to west of San Alamo.
Scavver's Bay is a town located on the edge of the Scar, the ruins of Houston. The Old World city was hit directly by a pair of nukes, and so most of the city was either leveled or horrifically irradiated. Scavver's Bay is a community of scavengers, madmen, and ghouls that call the area east of the Scar home. It was once a part of the industrial complex of Houston; the main body of Scavver's Bay was an oil refinery centuries ago. If you're in need of tech, this is a good place to look - the markets of Scavver's Bay have the most Old World valuables you're likely to see outside of maybe a Brotherhood vault. The place is run by a small group of scavver bosses; they tend to quarrel among each other over salvage rights and choice tech, but they know it's in their best interests to keep the caps flowing through the marketplace of Scavver's Bay, so they deal with any trouble that could disrupt the town itself quickly.
Atom's Bay is a coastal settlement about halfway between Flotilla and Scavver's Bay. It's built around a massive nuclear power station near the mouth of the Colorado River. Between the leaking power reactor and flooding, what was apparently once pleasant beachfront property is now mostly an irradiated swamp. The Children of Atom rule here over a population of about a hundred followers, with a good mixture of humans and ghouls. It's an irregular stop for traders moving between Flotilla and Scavver's Bay, as the RadAway gets expensive just to visit a fairly small community.
River City is the largest known community of super mutants near the Republic, and is considered highly dangerous and hostile territory. River City itself consists mostly of the area once called downtown Austin. Reports from escaped slaves suggest that the super mutants are led by a former commander in the Master's army known as “Gladiator”. They have a sizable enslaved population of humans, particularly the descendants of Vault 73. According to unconfirmed reports, the humans are kept around for their artistic skills - anyone who can entertain the super mutants is kept alive, while those who fail are killed and eaten. Particularly skilled artists, actors, and musicians are transformed into super mutants.
Whacko isn't a town that's particularly welcoming to outsiders. Most of the scouts sent to the area never reported back, but a few reported reconnaissance of a heavily-armed population in several fortified buildings, with a fair amount of good cropland. More information is required before the Republic approaches the citizens of this town formally.
Charnel House is the name of a ghoul community somewhere within the Scar. They are hostile to all non-ghoul outsiders, and believe that ghouls are the true inheritors of the wastes, an adaptation to the ruined world that humans caused. Members of Charnel House work to recruit other ghouls to their cause, and have been involved in several acts of human-ghoul terrorism, particularly several brutal punishments to ghoul mistreatment by humans.
New Eden is a primitive community several days travel north of the Scar. It is a haven for the members of the People's Collective, and is run by a collection of church elders who make most of the decisions for the town. The people there avoid modern technology, instead living off the bounty of Lake Eden (formerly Lake Conroe), hunting in the Great Piney Woods, and the farms that they tend on the western banks of the lake. They are highly suspicious of technology and distrust any who venture into their community openly flaunting it.
Acadiana is primarily a market community for the surrounding region where tribals and traders along the Big 10 interact, mostly to sell seafood and whatever crops the tribals grow for whatever technology the farmers need. Traders should be aware that the language of the locals is fairly different from standard English, especially among tribals and farmers, who often look down on those who lack their distinctive patois, a blend of English, French, and local native languages. Acadiana is the home of the Atchafalaya Traders caravan company, which primarily works along the waterways in the regions near Nawlins and up the Mississippi.
Tarberry Bridge, as the name suggests, is a farming town mostly known for its tarberry crops, though recently some of the locals have been experimenting with breeding mirelurks as a food source. There's also a sizable casino not far from the Big 10, which makes this a comfortable stop for caravans passing through between Nawlins, Acadiana, and Scavver's Bay. Republic intelligence sources suspect that it's also one of the most Gulfer-friendly ports in the area, though this has been difficult to prove as Gulfers are tough to distinguish from nomadic fishermen unless they're actively committing a crime.
Abilene is now known as the medical hub of the Republic. The Hendrick Healers is a group that recruits and trains the region’s greatest physicians who then travel the Red Wastes delivering healing to all...well all that can afford it.
Lakeside is a farming community made up of around fifty or so people. It has one of the cleanest water systems north of the Gulf. Despite their lake being relatively small they have been selling enormous quantities of water to the caravans recently. This has put quite the damper on San Alamo’s clean water monopoly. Authorities are starting to believe that everything is not what it seems in this small, backwater community.
Canyon Lake has been the region's primary source of clean water since the reinstatement of the Republic. Owned and guarded heavily by the NRA, the lake allows the Republic to sell clean water for quite the profit. Despite the majority of Republicans feeling a general sense of support for the Republic, this monopoly on clean water has been the cause of quite a fair bit of controversy. Recently, the small community of Lakeside has begun producing massive amounts of clean water for almost half the price that the Republic sells it for. Despite NRA claims that Lakeside water is inferior...people have begun to stray to the cheaper product.
Fort Laredo is home to one of the fastest growing raider groups in the area; the Scalpers. This Native American inspired group is ruled by three women of Karankawa blood. These women, who call themselves the Scalp Queens, believe that modern Americans were responsible for the ruination of the world, and that it’s time for the Natives to take back what is rightfully theirs. Anyone who brings them the scalp of a man can join their ranks. They are kind to their own, but brutal to their enemies. Despite seeming like absolute savages the three women are incredibly wise when it comes to strategy and politics. Thus far they’ve grown large enough to take the old military fort as their own, but they are still small enough that the Republic mostly dismisses them.
Arklatex exists in what was once the region connecting Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Now it stands as a massive settlement of harsh environmentalists called the “Huggers”. These nudist, hippie types protect what’s left of the trees and plant life in the area vehemently. They might be tree huggers, but they’ll skin you alive if you harm the earth in their presence.
The Scar is what’s left of the great city of Houston. It’s a massive ruined city apparently ripe with hidden treasures and danger. The radiation levels in the metro area are so high that even conventional radiation suits can’t withstand it. There have been reports of a group of glowing ghouls calling themselves the “Scarred” picking off travelers that get too close to the ruins.
Dafwo is what used to be two cities known as Dallas and Fort Worth is now nothing more than ruins and rubble. The place is highly irradiated, and rumor has it that something big...REALLY big has made a home there.
And then there is...
Independence. Independence is a community that was founded less than five years ago in and around the remains of a massive hotel nicknamed "The Tower". Dozens of people from many different walks of life have found themselves making Independence their home. It was created to be a place neutral from the faction elitism and political tension rampant in the Red Wastes. It is touted as a place for those that simply want to make something of themselves through hard work and togetherness. Not everything is perfect in the budding city despite its good intentions. In fact, they have already established unintentional tensions between the founders and better off settlers that have found comfort and shelter within the walls of the Tower and those that have had to forge their own homes and shelters in the area around the tall structure. This area surrounding the Tower has come to be called "Shanty Town", and is where the majority of the community's population resides.
You will be invited to the Discord once your concept has been approved. This is where you will find the Raider's & Radroaches PDF Rules, Character Sheet, and other resources for the game.
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