[OOC] Fallout: The Long Haul (ALWAYS OPEN TO NEW PLAYERS)

[AtomicItalian]

Hey all and welcome to FALLOUT: The Long Haul.

This is not Fallout New Vegas .5. This is not a story of settlers, or wanderers. It is the story of an expedition. If you are ready to write, love Fallout, and are ready to explore areas of the Wastes never before explored, read on.

Fifteen years following the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, Mr. House rules over the prosperous city of New Vegas, with the combined forces of the NCR and his Securitrons pushing Caesar’s Legion far beyond the banks of the Colorado River. With a firm grip on his upgraded Securitron army, House is too formidable a foe for the NCR to attempt to remove, forcing an uneasy peace between the factions.

After Mr. House revealed his hand at the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, a young entrepreneur, based in The Hub, sought a partnership with the elusive dictator. The wealthy young man, Sherrington Tenpenny, along with brilliant engineer Hayley Carter, reverse engineered a lost technology of the pre-war world.

Thought lost to “ancient” entities like Mr. House, Tenpenny uncovered a series of underground magnetic rails which once linked the east and west coasts, stopping in large cities along the way. These rails used Mag-Lev technology to send high speed hover trolleys across the nation, making a cross country trip no more than a 2 day endeavor.

After the Great War, the various powerstations (located in major cities along the trolley’s routes) that generated the magnetic fields necessary to move the trolleys were scavenged for parts, lost to destruction, or simply fell into disrepair. The necessary energy, a patent protected fusion core owned by the LevTram coach company, was never recreated, and soon the memory of the cross country transit system was lost to the memories of the few ghouls old enough to remember a time before the bombs fell.

Until now.

Hayley Carter, using Tenpenny’s funds, has reverse engineered the fusion core, and the two, together with the security backing of Mr. House, plan on resurrecting the LevTram Lines.

Quick cross country travel will bring drove to New Vegas--furthering House’s empire and further lining his pockets, as well as increasing his influence over the recovering wastes.

It will bring the current caravan companies to their knees, giving Tenpenny an insurmountable edge in the shipping and transit industries, growing his wealth exponentially.

Before they can see their dreams come to fruition, there is a final obstacle standing in their way: the powerstations must be revived.

That is where you come in.

Personal messengers, encrypted Pip-Boy frequencies, and special radio broadcasts have been made across the wastelands from The Hub to New Vegas, calling for any and all adventurers willing to ride the trolley from one side of the country to the other, aiding Hayley Carter as she repairs and revives the trolley system.

For those who make it across and return to New Vegas? The ultimate prize--total freedom. A penthouse room at whichever Vegas casino they choose, and a monthly salary more than what any man or woman could spend in that time.

The catch?

The wastes are full of those who would never see the trolley live again. Raiders, tribals, dangerous fauna, “concerned” caravan company mercenaries, and if they don’t stop you, the Brotherhood of Steel may have a certain aversion to such technology being in the hands of Mr. House and Tenpenny.

Will you answer the call? Will you ride the rails, and stick out the hardships for The Long Haul?

***

Here’s the run down on this RP--

You can play essentially whatever characters you want, so long as they aren’t awful Mary/Marty Sues and they aren’t Godmodders.

Also, this RP will ALWAYS BE RECRUITING AND OPEN TO NEW PLAYERS. Since we’ll be visiting a variety of cities and smaller destinations along the way, there are always new points for entry.

Here’s the biggest thing: I need you guys.

We’ll be going to a variety of cities across the nation. Bethesda/Obsidian spend months to years of time researching and coming up with creative ways of taking their locations and making them really feel “Fallout”-y. I can’t do it alone. I need you guys to bring the creativity to the table to help make these cities different from one another. You have creative freedom here, and I’d love to see what we can create together.

Here is a (preliminary) map of the lines. We'll be deciding as a group which line to take on our quest.



Green Line: LA (The Hub), Las Vegas (New Vegas), New Reno, Portland, Seattle, Spokane, Billings, Fargo, Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York City

Blue Line: LA (The Hub), Las Vegas (New Vegas), Salt Lake City, Denver, Lincoln, Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Philadelphia, Washington, DC (Capital Wastes)

Red Line: LA (The Hub), Las Vegas (New Vegas), Phoenix, Albuquerque, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans, Memphis, Atlanta, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, Orlando, Miami

Rules for signups--

1) Included photos must be actual photos or realistic illustrations. No cartoonish/anime photos, please.

2) As this is an ADVANCED CASUAL game, I’ll be expecting adherence to grammatical rules, proper punctuation, etc.

3) While your posts don’t necessarily need to be long, they need to advance your story in some way. No throw away reaction posts or anything like that. If you’re planning on having a long line of dialog with someone, try to PM them and work out the dialog before you post so we don’t have a run of 8 posts with a half paragraph of dialog in each.

4) No godmodding, mary sues, etc. General role play stuff. You know the stuff.

5) After your OOC post, your first IN GAME post should conclude with you having been approached/found out about the recruiting of the team in New Vegas, and your character finding their way to the Penthouse Suite of the Lucky 38. Make sure their credentials are checked at the door. I’d like to get rolling (floating?) as quickly as possible, and this will save us a few days worth of people wandering to the 38.

I think that’s it for now. Don’t be dicks? Yeah, don’t be dicks. Otherwise, lets get to telling a story.

Sign Ups:

Name:

Age:

Appearance: (realistic photos/animations)

Race: Human, Ghoul, Super Mutant, Lakelurk

Skills: Barter, Energy Weapons, Explosives, Melee, Guns, Lockpick, Medicine, Repair, Science, Speech, Survival, Sneak, Unarmed (If you want to include SPECIAL, do it here. I’m not including it as necessary cause it doesn’t really matter for an RP)

***LIMIT 2 PRIMARY SKILLS, 1 SECONDARY SKILL***

Perks: Pick 2. They can be canon Fallout perks, or they can be made up. Just make sure the made up ones are realistic.

Equipment: Weapons, armor, clothes, etc. Go ahead, be creative. Limit on one long gun/large melee weapon, one pistol type, a small melee weapon (axe, knife) and a REASONABLE amount of carry items.

Bio:

[AtomicItalian]

Name: Carter Castillo

Age: 36

Appearance:

Race: Human

Skills: Survival, Barter, Guns

Perks:

1) Cowboy--For some reason, when using repeaters, revolvers, dynamite, axes, knives or single barrelled shotguns, he’s more accurate.

2) Caravan Legend--As Castillo is well known among the caravan community, other caravaneers are more likely to respond positively to him. His perception raises when leading a caravan, aiding him in navigation and identification of watering holes, small settlements, etc.

Equipment:

1) Firebrand-- A modified cowboy repeater, with added scope for long range scouting/engagements.

2) .44 Magnum Revolver (utilizing heavy frame upgrade)

3) Tomahawk + boot knife (utility more than weapon)

4) The Bag-- A Brahmin hide backpack, where Castillo keeps basic medical supplies, a bottle of whiskey, canteens, compass, and any items picked up on the road.

Bio:

Castillo was born to a caravaneer family from The Hub, spending most of this young life riding with his parents around New California, selling merchandise where they could to support their meager house outside the Hub’s center.
Eventually, Castillo’s father began taking contracts further from home, sending him as far north as Arroyo and as far southeast as New Vegas. While the elder Castillo was away, the teenage Carter picked up the family’s local routes, earning him a degree of renown in the New California region.

As his personal wealth grew, and his father’s influence over him diminished, he began spending more of his time throwing caps at the casinos of New Reno, making and losing fortunes in the same night.

The more he played, the more he drank. The more he drank, the more he shot up. The more he shot up, the less desirable company he kept.

On one of the least sober nights of his life, Carter found himself on the nasty end of some Wright family revolvers outside the Cat’s Paw following a misunderstanding with a thug’s girlfriend. Barely able to stand, Carter had all but resigned himself to his bullet ridden fate, when a screaming man emerged from an alley, firing a pistol into the assembled group of Wright goons.

Dispatching the group quickly, the screaming gunman collapsed, mumbling to himself about “geckos in suits” and “who the hell would give them guns?”. Carter helped move the man to a more secure place, away from any prying eyes that could report the incident to the Wright family proper.

This would begin Carter’s relationship with Duke Phillips, a drug riddled, borderline psychopath and gambling addict--and Carter’s new best friend. Together, they became notorious in New Reno, making casino watch lists and earning the ire of tourists and gangsters alike.

Castillo fell into a routine--blow through caps, take a few weeks to run caravans, return to New Reno, blow through caps. As he and Mr. Duke (Phillips’ preferred title) tore through the wastes, Carter’s relationships with his parents began to strain beyond repair. As more of his caps went to the casino, fewer and fewer went home to his aging parents.

After several confrontations and a fist fight with his father, Castillo eventually cut ties with his family business, and launched the Carter Castillo Company, or C3 Caravans.

Months after the fight, Carter’s mother came down with a rare, old world illness. His father, harboring an enormous resentment for his son, refused to send word of the illness. Instead, acting on old caravan rumors, he set off to find a pre-war medicine warehouse in the southern regions of old Tijuana.

As the Tijuana area had been one of the most thoroughly poisoned during the war, (due to it’s proximity to San Diego), there were only rumors of safe paths through the massively irradiated ruins. Knowing the rumored stash to be his wife’s only chance, the elder Castillo lead a small caravan of courageous adventurers into the irradiated south past the abandoned town of Dayglow. He never returned.

A month following his father’s disappearance, Castillo’s mother began to worry, sending a courier to New Reno to alert him to her condition. Castillo, a drunk, but still his mother’s child, rushed back to the Hub to tend to his mother. There, after learning of his father’s dangerous voyage, Castillo struck out with a second caravan to aid his father. His mother pleaded with him to stay and keep her company during her final days, but Carter could not accept his mother’s inevitable death.

Carter’s caravaning and survival skills survived his benders, and he successfully navigated the dead zone of Tijuana...but not before finding his father.

While navigating a narrow crest of safe land situated between a series of bomb craters, Carter noticed the trails he followed from the Hub had come to an end. In their place was evidence of a Brahmin sliding into a highly radiated bomb crater--and his father’s body marking the spot where he, and the Brahmin, died.

Castillo could see his father, but not recover the body. He was broken, but knew he had to finish his journey to save at least one parent.

Castillo completed the impossible task, recovering the medicine, rescuing the remainder of his father’s caravan, and returning through the dead zone with minimal losses.

He was an instant celebrity among the caravan companies, having been the only known caravaneer to complete the journey past Dayglow and into the irradiated hellhole of old Tijuana. Castillo was indifferent to the notoriety. He simply wanted to get back to the Hub and heal his mother.

Carter returned to the Hub to find a gravestone outside his family home.

She died the night after he left for old Tijuana.

Rather than sending him back to the bottle and needle, the horrific guilt Carter felt for leaving his mother to die alone sobered him. He took refuge not in vice now, but in work, using his fame to accept dangerous, far reaching caravan contracts--the ones he wasn’t likely to return from.

But he always did.

It was during this time he had a fallout with Mr. Duke, which resulted in a gunfight, leaving the both wounded and embittered. Few know the actual cause of the clash.

His final contract, in 2295, saw him lead a team of researchers and archaeologists from the town of Independence, a small settlement in the Mojave desert, to investigate the legendary lost city of Black Rock in the northern Nevada deserts.

It is unknown precisely what happened on this journey. All that any wastelander knows is that several months after the expedition set out, Castillo was found wandering the desert, with no trace of the caravan, or any equipment save what he carried on his person.

Now, one year later, Castillo has retired from caravan life, and is back to drowning his guilt and self loathing in New Reno casinos. Borrowing money from every gangster in town, and paying none back, local bosses have arranged for Castillo to have a final desert trek--to Golgotha.

[Pepperm1nts]

Maybe you should include a limit in skills and equipment. The RP will be realistic, I realize, but something about the limit of skills and equipment someone can have might help stomp out any attempts to be OP before they even start, and balance things out in general. You want a team with varied skills. If people can choose a bunch of skills, you'll just get a bunch of people who know how to do it all.

EDIT: Woops. Was I suppose to post yet? I didn't see anything saying not to..

[AtomicItalian]

Supporting Characters

Sherrington Tenpenny



The grandson of Allistair Tenpenny, and heir to the Tenpenny wealth. Traveling with his family west after his grandfather's death, the Tenpenny's began life anew in the Hub, using their vast wealth to buy up small caravan companies to conglomerate into Tenpenny Trails. Sherrington's wealth aided Hayley Clarke in her research to restart the rail powerstations. His intentions, while noble, are still ruled by his family's bottom line.

Hayley Clarke



A brilliant engineer, she was raised among the Followers of the Apocalypse, and as such had opportunities to be educated beyond the normal wasteland child.

Taking an early liking to machines and robots, the Followers allowed her to experiment with a variety of mechanical and energy systems, which served as the framework for her future discoveries.

After leaving the Boneyard, a chance meeting eventually connected her with Sherrington Tenpenny, who immediately noted her brilliance (as well as her beauty), and offered her an engineering position in his personal project. Unable to say no to the charming man's offer of riches and attention, she left the Followers, and began working for Sherrington.

Eventually, she conquered the powerstation fusion cores, and set in motion the events leading to the railway's rebirth.

Mr. Duke Phillips



Phillips' first memories happened when he was in his early 30's. He remembers waking up in a field of grazing Brahmin, surrounded by eviscerated Viper gang members.

Little is known of Phillips' happenings since his falling out with Castillo.

[AtomicItalian]

Pepperm1nts said
Maybe you should include a limit in skills and equipment. The RP will be realistic, I realize, but something about the limit of skills and equipment someone can have might help stomp out any attempts to be OP before they even start, and balance things out in general. You want a team with varied skills. If people can choose a bunch of skills, you'll just get a bunch of people who know how to do it all.

Noted and edited. That better?

[Dinh AaronMk]

Name: SB-6069 "Sweet Gin"

Age: 8

Appearance: I'd post the drawing I did but looking at it now it's shit-tier, so I'mm pass that up for written:

Short red hair, pale complexion and a small frame. Brown Eyes. Cybernetic arms and legs. Small-breasted.

Race: Android

Skills:
Small Guns, Melee, Speech

SPECIAL - 7, 6, 7, 8, 5, 8, 3

Perks:
Android
Guess what sweaty, you're an android! Your physical state of being giving you a +9 Rad resistance bonus and a +30 poison resistance! Although, chems are notably useless.

Swift Learner
You gain an additional 10% whenever experience points are earned.

Equipment: Institute android clinic gown.

Bio: SB-6069 was originally designed by the Institute of Commonwealth fame to act as an escort to its human members and other locals as commisioned by one 'Scrap Daddy' of central Boston. Her design was a symbol of artificial perfection at the time as well as to attract both those with a robot fetish and normal clientele.

As expected, SB-6069 performed admirable in her duties. But Scrap Daddy soon found that an identification number was hardly marketable and even dissuaded many clients he wished to rent her out to. So in a bid for marketability he changed her name to Sweet Gin, promising a "taste smoother than any skinny drink in the wasteland and a hundred times safer". Under this new moniker, Sweet Gin continued to perform with the expected perfection designed into her, becoming a star of her own institution.

However, after eight years of esteemed service to Scrap Daddy, was hardly physically safe. Chem use was common in the Commonwealth - as it is elsewhere - and the android was routinely in harm's way be chemically enraged clients. Most of the time the issues were minor. Other times, they were more complex. One ocassion proved fateful and even near fatal to the robot.

Her systems flashed her warnings of a chemical imbalance in the client. Initial readings suggested a high mix of methamphetamine and psycho traces in the client's blood. Agitation in his behavior only likewise confirmed his status. But Scrap Daddy is a man who serves anybody, and he paid well claiming rather irritably she'd help him "come down".

And he came down alright. But not before breaking her limbs, breaking the artificial bones and crippling the servos in the shoulder and hip joints. Emergency parameters shut her down and the confrontation forced the pimp's men to shoot down the client in an effort to restore peace and rescue the android.

SB-6069 was quickly shuttled off back to the institute for repairs. However, the workmen were lacking in the needed parts at that time. Restoring her fluid levels and repairing the minor damage to her spine they outfitted Sweet Gin with a set of clearly artificial legs hoping Scrap Daddy would take her back while they worked on producing a new, correct set matching her model and production type. An issue made more complicated given her original engineer had gone missing two years prior.

The night before she was returned to her master though, a member of the Railroad broke into the lab. Picking at random, he settled on an attempt to rescue Sweet Gin, and accessing her neural processors managed to break the coding that put her in a state of emergency shutdown, as well as unlocking cognitive freedom; a feature included in "newer" models to lessen the risk of escape. But by this nature, the man discovered Sweet Gin's true purpose, and in animal desire - of lust - lead her not to freedom, but a new dungeon.

[The Whacko]

Name: Henri Fontaine DeLeteur Delacroix, AKA "Del"

Age: 36

Appearance:

Race: Human

Skills: Guns, Melee Weapons, Survival

Perks:

1) Gun Nut -- Big surprise, the mercenary is very, very fond of guns and keeping them in repair.

2) Tribal Wisdom -- In his travels, Del's met more than a few tribals, and he's learned from them the best ways to live off the land, and how to deal with the less 'Civilized' peoples of the wasteland. And how to cook a decent rat steak.

Equipment:

1)

Remington 870 Witness Protection

2)

Colt Police Special

3)

Dirk Knife

4) A small pack of travel supplies; Canteen, cans of pork and beans, spare ammo and parts for his guns, etc.

5) His clothes. They're pretty simple, consisting of a dark maroon plaid flannel shirt (sleeves usualy rolled up to his forearm), black fingerless gloves, a tan tactical vest, blue jeans, tan kneepads, and heavy combat boots. He also has a black bandana and goggles for storms, but otherwise he keeps them in his pack.

Bio: There isn't too much to be said about this man. One of the few remaining members of the strange and alien people of the Southern Wasteland known as "Cajuns", he was born and raised in the semi-ruined city of New Orleans. New Orleans, part of the region now known simply as The Delta, was a little less of a hellhole than most parts of the U.S. these days, with only the occasional attack by raiders and cannibalistic Swamp Folk. Even so, it was enough to make a young man want to leave and explore the world. Such was the case with Del, who after a brief stint with the settlement's militia, left for the West to pursue a career as a mercenary at age 24. Since then he's been rambling up and down the Wasteland from Caesar's lands, The Mojave, The NCR and even as far as Montana. Now he's wandered back South towards New Vegas with the rumor of a big job and the opportunity for a bigger reward than any Good Ol' Boy could ever dream of...

[WittyReference]

I'm really tempted to join this. You've set a fair level of expectation while still allowing plenty of creative freedom. Honestly, the only thing keeping me from throwing my hat in the ring is whether or not I have the time to give this the fair shake it deserves.

[AtomicItalian]

WittyReference said
I'm really tempted to join this. You've set a fair level of expectation while still allowing plenty of creative freedom. Honestly, the only thing keeping me from throwing my hat in the ring is whether or not I have the time to give this the fair shake it deserves.

Hey, we're always recruiting. Jump in whenever you can, we'd love to have you!

[Dinh AaronMk]

And then I realized I forgot a thing and added that in.

[TheLonePup]

Can a melee weapon be added as well? or would it have to take place of one of the other two?

[AtomicItalian]

TheLonePup said
Can a melee weapon be added as well? or would it have to take place of one of the other two?

Yep! Fixed!

[Dinh AaronMk]

Application statuses?

[The Whacko]

Hope ol' Del got accepted. Got some ideas about the Fallout-y Deep South. 'Specially Lousiana. Honestly, who wouldn't love a taste of Mad Max meets Deliverence?

[Dinh AaronMk]

The Whacko said
Hope ol' Del got accepted. Got some ideas about the Fallout-y Deep South. 'Specially Lousiana. Honestly, who wouldn't love a taste of Mad Max meets Deliverence?

At this invocation, as someone who's fallen in love with NOLA I prey you treat the bayou with the good respect needed, with all the Good Doctor.

[Pepperm1nts]

It would be a crime to not bring these to life: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Mutant_crocodile

[Dinh AaronMk]

And given New Orleans is, for the most part under sea level...

[AtomicItalian]

everyone is in so far! you guys are great

[Wayne]

Unless things happen, expect a character sheet from me tomorrow. It's late here.

[The Whacko]

Dinh AaronMk said
And given New Orleans is, for the most part under sea level...

....Swamp Folk, mutant alligators, and general Southern bayou goodness....
Yes. Yes. Yes.