[OOC] Fallout: Memories of Tomorrow

[Lo Pellegrino]

Fallout: Memories of Tomorrow

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Memories of Tomorrow starts mere days prior to the Great War. The story is inspired by various missions within the Fallout Universe as well as fiction by Glukhovsky (Metro 2033), Philip K. Dick (Bladerunner), and Walking Dead. You will not need a deep knowledge of the Fallout series, but it having such isn't a bad thing either. I imagine this game exploring the scientific possibilities within this universe as well. While we start prior to the Great War, we will have the chance to explore the post-apocalyptic world. I don't want to spoil too much on that end though. If you're looking for a character driven, alternate history, science fiction, post-apocalyptic game with oodles of mystery and action, this is for you!

October 20, 2077
The door swings wide and you feel the calm of the sun’s warmth. A gentle gust of fresh cut grass fills your nostrils. Shading your eyes with your hand, you look down onto your porch. Clippings skip in the breeze around the newspaper at your feet with clumps stuck beneath the paper bundle. Despite the date typed in a small font unreadable from your height, you think to yourself first the date, and then read the headline aloud. VaultTec Invitations to be Sent Tonight! You bend down, picking up the paper with one hand and a cage of milk bottles in the other. Your neighbour smiles to you, but gnawing fear twisting your guts is blinding.

On the way to work there is a crowd. A nearby intersection is blocked by a mass of people shouting with clubs and signs in their hands. You find yourself grimacing. A quiet thought passes through your mind, unintentional but yours all the same. Rioters are no better than commies, blocking the streets as honest folk just try to make it to work. Exorbitant prices for fuel and a total of food -- that's what they're protesting. Again, you grimace, this time in with remorse. When the first metallic crack rings out you blink and hit the breaks. Cracks spider across your wind shield from a single open point. There are several more hollow pops before you find yourself driven into the brick wall of a shop. Dishevelled, you stagger from your car and stumble out amongst the rioters. They are screaming, holding their hands, and even bleeding. Meanwhile, your proud fighters, America's brave military men, are beating them with clubs, the stocks of their rifles, and even shooting some. Only narrowly do you escape the crowd. Only barely do you believe that things will work out. That you'll find yourself and your family down in one of VaultTechs underground resorts while the crazies duke it out. Only just barely do you really think that life -- life never changes.

Setting: The game will span from the Northernwest Oregon to Southwest Washington in what Fallout dubs the Northwest Commonwealth. We will focus on the communities around Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington, which border one another on the state-line, separated only by the Columbia River. Portland will provide the unique claustrophobia only a dilapidated, maze-like ruin of a city can provide. We will find secrets buried amongst the rubble here as well as some old world treasures. Meanwhile, the sprawling suburbia to the north, Vancouver, will go from hundreds of cookie-cutter homes to fragmented grasslands and forestry returning, if not taking over, the land. In reality you can find several headquarters to tech companies here, so expect this to play into the world (RobCo?). And because we are in the Pacific Northwest you can expect rain and lots of it! Expect a map.

Locations

Vancouver: The sprawling suburbia to the north, Vancouver, will go from hundreds of cookie-cutter homes to fragmented grasslands and heavy forestry that has returned, if not taken over. In northern Vancouver we will find various old headquarters once used by technology giants, perhaps some of which with a form of their continued even after the Great War.



Portland: Portland will provide the unique claustrophobia only a dilapidated, maze-like ruin of a city can. We will find secrets buried amongst the rubble here as well as some old world treasures. Bands of raiders as well as greater threats, and maybe even possible heroes easily live without notice in this dangerous area. There are a number of bridges connecting two halves of Portland, not to mention an extensive railway system that in some portion might even still be running.



Beaverton A western suburb of Portland forgotten amidst the chaos. Beaverton suffered like the all the rest from the Great War, but afterwards has been populated by disconnected towns that rely heavily salvage to stay afloat..

Characters: The beauty of this genre is that despite who you are in the beginning, when society crumbles and challenges arise you may well find yourself an entirely new person. You may well dislike this person too. Remember when you look back at these Character Sheets that the best characters evolve with time.

Roster
Perry Basquiat by Lo Pellegrino
Icarai Hawthorne by Uffizi
Otto Sommer by Maengun
Primo Corallo by Wired
Maximillian Tyrant by Leos Klien
Nathan Vikowski by Zombie Dude

Character Sheet

[ B ] Name: [ / B ] Name Namelin Namesson, Sr
[ B ] Date of Birth: [ / B ] Game begins on October 2077, so decide accordingly. Don't forget, age diversity is sexy.
[ B ] Physical Description: [ / B ] Concise, visual, and believable.
[ B ] Image: [ / B ] Anime will result in immediate pitch-and-set-a-blazing. Illustrated or otherwise non-photo images welcome though!
[ B ] Profession: [ / B ] Garbage Person ftw
[ B ] Background: [ / B ] Spark notes spanning a lifetime. Give us the highlights of what's made you you, whether devastating and traumatic, or subtly shaping. Be creative!
[ B ] Personality: [ / B ] How does your character see the world? Are they mentally strong, or is it likely they will mentally break sooner than later?
[ B ] SPECIAL: [ / B ] You have 5 points to add as you please. Just like in-game, feel free to subtract from one category in order to add to another. 10 is your cap in any one category. These will help us all keep to character strengths and weaknesses along the way. To be clear, just because you have very high endurance does not mean you can take a firing squad or go Deathclaw wrestling.

[ I ] Strength [ / I ] 5
[ I ] Perception [ / I ] 5
[ I ] Endurance [ / I ] 5
[ I ] Charisma [ / I ] 5
[ I ] Intellligence [ / I ] 5
[ I ] Agility [ / I ] 5
[ I ] Luck [ / I ] 5

Don't worry about the Post-Apocalyptic portion of the game just yet. Invest into this character, trust me, it'll be very worth it!

Current Events:

• Fuel & Food Riots in Downtown Portland - 20 October 2077


• Gang Tensions in Seattle coming to Peak - 20 October 2077


• Upcoming Vault-Tec Conference in Portland -20 October 2077

[Imperfectionist]

Well, I'm here, fleshing out my character concept. :) Hopefully you'll like it, once the time comes.

[Lone Wanderer]

Sure, I'll join in on this. Didn't post on the IC, but I'm sure interested.

[Lo Pellegrino]

Simple character sheet added. If you'd like to add a category, go for it, I'm not one to scoff at tasteful overachievers. The OP will be cleaned up and organized on Monday.

Also, welcome Lone Wanderer! You've played Fallout and Metro? I thought your name was just a convenient, extremely fitting bit of happen-stance! ;)

[Leos Klien]

Yup I'm up for this one, I'll start on my character soon.
Probs have it up by tomorrow.

[Lone Wanderer]

Indeed sir, you would be correct.
I've played a few fallout games, the two metro games, and also the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series.

[Zombiedude101]

Been on a few Fallout RP's on Garry's Mod before, and I've always been a fan of the series since spending most of Summer 09 playing through FO3. Also, bonus props for referencing TTG's Masterpiece.

So yeah, I'm fairly interested.

[Lo Pellegrino]

Can't wait to see everyones' character sheets! You all sound very interesting, it'll be wonderful to build this world together.

@Probs: I'll be reviewing Monday, so you've got time. Post it up and feel free to edit too, if you edit after Monday give me a heads up though so I read the latest version.

@Lone: So you've got more than enough creative exposure under your belt, huh? I expect many a smirking reference to fat people vaults, dark ones, and horrible libraries of death.

@Zombie: I did quite a bit of Half Life RP and GMOD too, never for Fallout though. I always found the servers very lagged from all the content they loaded on, though it was always fun. Also, can't wait to see your character sheet!

[Nyther]

Name: James "With a Z" (That is how he always introduces himself, even though he spells his name with an 'S')
Date of Birth: March 5, 2046
Physical Description: 5ft 8in. 165lbs. Medium build.
Image:
Profession: Hunter
Background: He grew up in Wyoming on a ranch. Isolated from most the world. He learned everything needed to make a ranch thrive. Hunting, breaking horses, and basic labor. He lived on the ranch for many years. One day bandits tried to take over the ranch. He wasn't strong enough to save his ranch and bandits burned the ranch to the ground. They killed everyone, save for James. Wandering the wastelands he learned to fend for himself and became distrustful of all people. While he eked out a living as a hunter and trapper he lost touch with humanity.
Personality: He is an outdoors man. He has been surviving alone and isn't quite all there mentally when it comes to interacting with others.
SPECIAL:
Strength 5
Perception 6
Endurance 6
Charisma 5
Intelligence 5
Agility 6
Luck 5

[Imperfectionist]

To be completely honest, Pellegrino, I am not a fan of numbers in this kind of game. I don't think they're necessary. The SPECIAL system is about game balance... Which we don't need in the slightest. This is an abstract game, we don't need to compare numbers between each other and the NPCs, we don't have derived statistics or hit points or anything at all. The numbers make the characters limited, when they really don't need to be.

Can we just say which of our character's SPECIALs are above average, or below average, or really good, or really bad? More wriggle room, less "well, my Strength is seven and yours is six, so obviously I can overpower you, and you can't argue against it!"

EDIT: Then, we as a group and you as a GM can decide whether a character is realistic/reasonable or not.

[Lo Pellegrino]

@Nyther: I put my foot in own mouth, apologies. Can you bulk up the Background a bit more? When I said Sparknotes give us the highlights, I did want an idea of what made them who they are and anything that helped shape them along the way. It doesn't need to be long in any way, but it'd be nice to see even one specific event that shaped James-z. I love that sketch by the way!

Imperfectionist said
To be completely honest, Pellegrino, I am not a fan of numbers in this kind of game. I don't think they're necessary. The SPECIAL system is about game balance... Which we don't need in the slightest. This is an abstract game, we don't need to compare numbers between each other and the NPCs, we don't have derived statistics or hit points or anything at all. The numbers make the characters limited, when they really don't need to be.Can we just say which of our character's SPECIALs are above average, or below average, or really good, or really bad? More wriggle room, less "well, my Strength is seven and yours is six, so I can overpower you, and you can't argue against it!"EDIT: Then, we as a group and you as a GM can decide whether a character is realistic/reasonable or not.

I hear you, but please, humour me a little. The idea to using the SPECIAL system in this way is to give a clear reference point not just for your mates, but for me as a GM to use throughout the game. It's really easy to say someone walks with a bit of limp in a game and yet that limp never seems to get them caught when it counts. If adding values seems a bit rigid I apologize, but don't think people are going to be allowed to just dominate others simply because their strength is higher and what not. It does mean, though, that you can't be highly skilled in too many things without creating weaknesses too. I find all too often that we are pretty optimistic about our characters, bulking them up as needed more often than not. This should help with that.

That said, I'm down for the group deciding what's reasonable after the fact. I like nothing better than to see the group reviewing one another's character sheets!

[Nyther]

I edited it. Let me know if that's ok.

[Imperfectionist]

I'm sorry, I'm just not going to be able to make a sheet, then. You've made it an arbitrary, min-maxing-heavy numbers system, and that's not how my characters (or real people) work... Trust me, you can absolutely enforce character flaws and weaknesses without something like this, and all it does is stifle creativity in favor of "balance", which (again) we don't need. This isn't a D&D game.

So, yeah. Good luck with the game, everyone. I guess I have to bow out.

[Sifter]

Hey there! I am a big fan of the Fallout series.

My idea would be a character whom had reserved a spot in one of the vaults, yet stayed on the surface with his family.
However, he would survive the bombardment only to begin a ghoulification process (Intelligent Ghoul) from exposure to radiation.

[Lo Pellegrino]

@Imperfectionist: If literally one area where you have to provide a number is too much for you then this is obviously not where you belong. Flexibility is a big deal in any game, and if stepping that marginally out of your comfort zone is more than you can do then it's a good decision for you to bow out now. Yes, one can totally enforce character flaws in various ways and this is just one of those ways, which I've made pretty clear is far from dice rolling or stats crunching.Thanks for the well wishes!

Sifter said
Hey there! I am a big fan of the Fallout series. My idea would be a character whom had reserved a spot in one of the vaults, yet stayed on the surface with his family.However, he would survive the bombardment only to begin a ghoulification process (Intelligent Ghoul) from exposure to radiation.

I like the idea, but you're going to want to focus on the present prior to the actual exposure. Not saying this won't be possible though, in fact, that's something we can definitely work out in one form or another as the story comes to that point. I was actually imagining a character like this, so good on you. Looking forward to seeing your sheet!

[Lone Wanderer]

Having trouble deciding on an idea of a character. I do like the idea of a RobCo engineer, but I'd prefer something more "unique".

[VATROU]

Lone Wanderer said
Having trouble deciding on an idea of a character. I do like the idea of a RobCo engineer, but I'd prefer something more "unique".

Perhaps a Milk Man? You know the guy who goes around and delivers to all the lonely women?? Joking.. Anyways love this, however until my schedule is freed up I can't join. But I will be watching and reading. I was in five other Fallout RPs in another site, but with summer ending most of them have slowed to a crawl. Hopefully they pick back up, if they don't then I'll join.

[Imperfectionist]

Lo Pellegrino said
@Imperfectionist: If literally one area where you have to provide a number is too much for you then this is obviously not where you belong. Flexibility is a big deal in any game, and if stepping that marginally out of your comfort zone is more than you can do then it's a good decision for you to bow out now. Yes, one can totally enforce character flaws in various ways and this is just one of those ways, which I've made pretty clear is far from dice rolling or stats crunching.Thanks for the well wishes!

Mm. :( I guess you've shamed me into making an attempt. I also have a really great character concept, and I would love to be in a Fallout RP... -ahem- Flexibility. That's me. I'm with you.

Um, I have a question about it, though. I haven't played Fallout 2 in forever, so correct me if I'm wrong there, but in 3 and New Vegas you started out with 5 in each and 5 more to allocate, making it an even 40 overall. It's only a couple of points, sure, but it makes a difference. Why would we have 38 instead? Seems a bit odd (I mean, if it's going to be arbitrary, it might as well be in-canon arbitrary).

As a corollary, since I'm accepting that we're going to use the SPECIAL stats, why not include Skill numbers as well? Then you can really enforce what people are able to do and not do. It would force us to work as a team, as each character would have certain well-defined capabilities, at least some of which would be unique to them. That's really all I'm saying, here, now that I think about it. If you're going to go for this method, it works best to go all the way.

[Capt Kiwi]

I'm interested! I've been a fan of Fallout since the release of Fallout 3 and a fan of post-apocalyptia since before that. I just picked up Fallout 3 again for old time's sake a few weeks ago and this seems like a lot of fun while I'm in the apocalyptic mindset! Give me some time to (try to) come up with an interesting character and I'll have a post.

[Lo Pellegrino]

Come on in Kiwi! I will start reviewing character sheets on Monday.

@Nyther: I'm a bit confused, honestly. The story begins before the Great War, but somehow James is a wanderer in some American wastelands already. I know there were food and fuel riots and tons of conflict with the Chinese prior to the Nuke Day, but I'm not sure what you included there makes too much since time-wise. Also, it seems a bit thrown in. Give it some time and thought, there's no big rush here, and background is important. I'd rather something intentional than slapped together.

@Imperfectionist: Decide if you want to do this, really. Your immediate reaction before was to quit because it didn't fit your exact idea, and no judgements, if that's how you feel follow that path. Otherwise, remember that being flexible doesn't mean then suggesting an overhaul to fit yet another expectation. Cool, we can alter SPECIAL Points to total to 40, but we won't be going the whole stats way.