GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THE POST TO FIND MORE INFORMATION REGARDING CHARACTER EQUIPMENT AND WEAPON LORE
While the main GM is temporarily managing a different RP, I'll be doing some world building and filling in some other information here. All of this information is subject to change and will be finalized when the RP finally starts. This means it would be wise to re-read this post in its entirety before you make your first post in the RP.
Number one, we aren't using any mechanics from the game, only the lore and items/equipment contained in that lore. That means no SPECIAL, Skills, Tags, Perks, etc.
We're going about this more realistically, your skills are based solely on your character's past experiences and what they may or may not be trying to learn at the time of the RP starting, much like real life.
Straight up Bob Ross in here, "I believe talent is just a pursued interest."
What this really means is your character can't be born good at something. Obviously genetics play a moderate part in athleticism and intelligence, but you can't be born a master marksman, and unless your character is over 30 years old they'd be hard pressed to be a master of anything. This also comes into effect if you are going to take the time to come up with a plausible backstory that does have your character acing something, they will also have to be horrible at something of equal value, there aren't going to be any Big Boss or Rambo types here.
THE CURRENCY WE ARE USING IS CAPS
That should be obvious.
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Anything that isn't explicitly stated to be information from the official Fallout Wiki is applicable only to the world of the Dixie Rivermen RP. In other words, I made it the fuck up.
Historical Information
The Special Robotics Warfare Group was an Enclave project to insert near-sentient AIs into common robots. Sentry Bots, Mister Gutsys, and even Protectrons were subject to this testing. The project's success rate was about 50 percent, but this was enough for the group to conduct several covert operations. The human soldiers were trained to levels on par with pre-War special forces.
World Information
There isn't a lot of material about the southern wasteland. We can safely assume that most of the southern states would've been bombarded just as heavily as the rest of the country, mainly due to the sheer amount of warheads that were used on the nation as a whole, and also because there are many cities that would've been important strategic targets (Memphis, Atlanta, Nashville, Jackson, Mobile, Birmingham, and so on). With that in mind, we can expect the environment to be similar to other places present in the games.
Memphis will be our central RP hub, and it is going to be like any other large city to be struck with multiple warheads, there will be ruins aplenty and living creatures of all shapes and forms wandering the streets and inhabiting the darkest of alleyways and basements. Radiation will be present in some areas, as to be expected, but it won't be so prevalent that you need a ready supply of anti-rad equipment or items.
Along the river there are tens of square miles of swampland that may now have an atmosphere that reflects that of Point Lookout. This means Swamp Ghouls and Swamplurks will be relatively common in those areas, and some of these creatures have the possibility to show up in Memphis as well due to the city being right on the water. However, in our rendition, the Mississippi river is insanely irradiated, so much that even the swamplurks don't swim around in it for extended periods of time. This combined with the UAF outposts in the area means that we won't be encountering a large amount of them in or around the city, they will mostly be in the rural riverside areas where they belong.
The Mississippi river's water contains radiation levels anywhere from 2000 to 3000 rads/sec, which is enough to cause the near-instant death of a human. At the water's edge the most common amount is 15 rads/sec. The riverboat captains that do operate in the area wear radiation suits at all times, and since the riverboats are the only method of getting across the river, they rake in plenty of caps to keep their suits in pristine condition. The assumed reason for the river's high radiation is fallout that has continued to contaminate the water to this day. However, upriver tampering is not out of the question.
If for any reason your character needs to cross the river it is highly recommended to be in possession of a radiation suit first, or a considerable amount of RadAway. The riverboat price alone will be a lot of caps and those crossing the river unprotected on these boats take in 150 rads total on average, and that's being super safe, such as using an actual dock to embark on the boat. Most of the time a usable dock is a luxury travelers don't have. However, this does not mean the character groups will regularly be crossing the river (unless the leader of one of the groups decides this is a good idea for whatever reason), there's no real need to cross the river other than some kind of single-character suicidal adventure. So don't go trying to work in having a radiation suit already in all of your characters, unless you can reasonably justify it in your backstory. They aren't a common commodity.
The major road connections into Memphis are Interstates 40 and 55. Both I-40 and I-55 have separate bridges that cross the Mississippi River, with I-55 having a railroad bridge running parallel with it. The Hernando de Soto Bridge carries I-40, while the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge carries I-55. All of these bridges were rendered unusable by the war. Within Memphis there is an interstate loop called I-240. You can get to nearly any important area in Memphis using this loop. It covers a ~5 mile radius. There is a rather large outer loop called Highway 385. This highway encompasses nearly every town close to Memphis. For comparison, 385 has a ~20 mile radius.
Information that follows concerns information about Memphis in real life, some of these locations will have obviously been partially destroyed:
There are three major counties in the area. Shelby County, which contains Memphis, and the other mentioned towns below. Fayette County lies to the east, and Tipton County is in the north. Both of these counties were mostly rural areas before the war.
There are four large towns located just outside of the I-240 loop. Bartlett, Cordova, Germantown, and Collierville. Bartlett lies to the northeast, Cordova in the direct east, Germantown and Collierville to the southeast, with Germantown being closer to the loop.
Notable landmarks are:
The Memphis Pyramid, located close to the banks of the Mississippi river.
The Clark Tower, which is the tallest building in midtown at 400 feet tall.
The Agricenter, which is located inside Shelby Farms Park and contains the Farmer's Market, the Show Place Arena, and the headquarters for Ducks Unlimited.
The FedExForum, the new arena built to replace the Pyramid, located in the Downtown area, about half a mile inland from the river.
The Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park is roughly twelve miles north of downtown Memphis. It includes some land at the bank of the Mississippi River.
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Faction Information
UAF
"The Unamerican Activities Force (UAF) was a pre-War organization consisting of federal, undercover agents that worked to ferret out communist sympathizers in the American population. They wore the stealth UAF armor." - Fallout Wiki
Due to lack of official info, everything that follows is canon for our RP only.
The UAF controls the entirety of pre-War Tennessee as well as the pre-War states of Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and South Carolina. However, they are normally spread out too far to cover their entire territory, and only control a few outposts in and around Memphis.
Outpost Giza: This camp is located at the Memphis Pyramid. By far the largest UAF outpost in the county, it is outfitted with everything the UAF needs to self-sustain. Living facilities, a hospital, weapons manufacturing equipment, running water, a trading marketplace, and a greenhouse on the observation deck. Since the pyramid is placed very closely to the river, there have been recent problems with keeping the water in the outpost free of radiation.
Outpost Mercator: A relatively small camp built out of an old convenience store/filling station. Despite its size, this camp shelters nearly three dozen UAF soldiers. It is about a half mile east from the super mutant settlement of Duck. This outpost is an impenetrable defensive position, having a wide view of every nearby road, and a deep river-filled ravine behind the building preventing any flanking maneuvers. The UAF will trade with people here every now and then, but only when it is most convenient to them.
Outpost Kennedy: An outpost built out of a ruined road vehicle dealership. This one is located in Collierville, across the street from a set of railroad tracks. With more than enough space to house over 50 UAF members, and a few bits of equipment to keep their weapons in perfect working condition, this is by far the largest UAF presence outside of the I-240 loop. They maintain a small trading post here.
There are many other much smaller camps spread throughout the ruined city and outlying towns, but not so much that the county could be considered inhabited.
Since the UAF are ex-federal agents, we can expect them to have some of the latest equipment and overall be very skilled in combat and various methods of survival. They have given up their aging stealth armor for heavily customized renditions of Reinforced Combat Armor. Their armor offers protection against almost every caliber of small arms, a notable exception being .50 MG. The only definitive cosmetic attribute of the armor is that it is colored black, and a pre-war American flag is painted on the left shoulder pauldron (the UAF emphasizes the left shoulder placement as anyone seen wearing it on the right or both shoulders is likely an impersonator, this has happened before). Other appearances vary wildly based on the particular soldier's needs.
Their weaponry consists of mostly projectile firearms, grenade rifles, and missile launchers. While the Enclave are supporters of Energy Weapons, the UAF are the opposite. Rarely, energy weapons can be seen in the hands of UAF soldiers but this is only because it is up to the individual soldier what kind of equipment he or she wants to use. For the most part they are faithful to gunpowder. Their signature weapons are the Barrett M107A1, the Colt M4A1, and the Colt M1911.
They have the resources and the means to manufacture weapons and armor of their own, much like the Gun Runners, but cannot produce nearly as many at a time and only their soldiers use this equipment. Unfortunately, some of these like-new weapons make their way into the hands of raiders and other wastelanders due to lone UAF scouters or supply runners meeting their deaths.
They are not hostile to passersby or common wastelanders, but will defend themselves with lethal force from anything that acts aggressively towards them. They trade with all manner of people but do not sell any of their own technology or pristine equipment. Everything they sell is either second-hand, or worn down a considerable amount, i.e., damaged beyond repair. They are hostile towards Caesar's Legion and anyone who may have been associated with them. No excuse has been successfully used (most don't even get to attempt an excuse, as the offenders are killed before they have a chance to explain), they will not even tolerate merchants that have done business with the Legion. Legion spies never succeed, as the UAF are masters of seeing through any disguise due to their passed down teachings of routing communist sympathizers.
They are neutral towards every other faction, including Super Mutants, provided said mutants are not hostile towards them.
Caesar's Legion
(Since the year is 2285, the Second Battle of Hoover Dam will have already happened, and will have played a crucial part in the Legion's current state. In our timeline, the NCR, with the combined forces recruited by the Courier, won the battle. Caesar died from his brain tumor, and Legate Lanius was killed in battle against the Courier.)
The Legion's territory extends to the eastern border of Arkansas. The Mississippi river is the only thing that keeps the UAF from conducting operations against the Legion. The Legion, on the other hand, are currently underestimating the UAF, and do not consider them a sizable threat. Having lost the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, they cannot expend the resources they would need to make a successful beachhead across the river, and even that does not guarantee that they would claim victory against the UAF.
They have a single medium-sized camp located in West Memphis, Arkansas. West Memphis, despite the name, is on the other side of the river. The only connection is/was the bridges. No, this is not a joke. Yes, it is dumb.
Any other important information about their equipment can be read in these excerpts from the wiki:
"Caesar firmly believes that reliance on technology weakens humans, and was responsible for the Great War. As such, his Legion is mostly a low-tech organization, relying on numbers, physical fitness and discipline to achieve their objectives. A typical legionary will wear armor mimicking the Roman lorica hamata or lorica segmentata, usually created from pre-War sports gear (mostly if not exclusively football gear) armored with metal plates, including the helmet, worn over a tunic. In combat, they use either simple firearms (typically revolvers or lever-action rifles), power fists, or melee weapons in the form of machetes and throwing spears, crafted from scavenged materials that mimic the ancient Roman short sword (gladius) and javelin (pilum)."
"However, it is incorrect to treat their technology as primitive. As simple as regular combat gear is, the Legion is capable of erecting large fortifications out of scrap (e.g. Fortification Hill encampment) and mass producing standardized weapons and armor for its footmen. In fact, the armor and weapons of higher ranking soldiers compares favorably to the NCR. In major battles, centurions will use rather advanced weaponry such as anti-materiel rifles, Marksman carbines, and super sledges. The personal guards of Caesar themselves are equipped with high tech ballistic fists to complement their martial prowess."
"While no Legion member wields energy weapons, they show interest in purchasing them from the Van Graffs. The Legion is also never shown using power armor, though pieces of what appears to be T-45d power armor are used in centurion armor. Oddly enough, the Legion has huge amounts of Stealth Boys. These Stealth Boys are never seen used by legion soldiers in the Mojave, but are used by the legion at Dry Wells and the legion Marked men at the Divide."
"The only mentioned opposition to military technology is combat robots. Caesar dislikes the thought of having robots win a war fought by men."
"The Legion appears to use radios as shown at Cottonwood Cove HQ but overall opts for devices that use no power. The Legion does not need or truly desire power sources like the NCR, but at no point oppose its usage as they do with chems, alcohol and combat robots. The Legion is overall a very Neo-Luddite organization hoping to return to the days of the Roman Empire, and this idea conflicts with using "old world" technology. While the Legion uses technology when appropriate, there is no interest in the pursuit of technology in any aspect like there is with most other major factions in the wasteland."
Super Mutants
There are a few small groups of Mariposa super mutants that have explored their way into Memphis. They have set up camps and outposts of their own. Some of these groups are neutral or even friendly to travelers, while others are hostile to anything living.
The only known friendly camp is simply called Duck and is located in the ruins of the Agricenter. The name originated from the Super Mutants seeing the half-destroyed Ducks Unlimited sign and decided to run with what they had found. They have a rather large trading post where almost any kind of food or equipment can be found of various qualities.
Extreme caution should be used around any other super mutants in Shelby County.
Brotherhood of Steel
At the current time the only Brotherhood presence in the RP's setting is in southeastern Missouri. They have strong control over St. Louis and defend their territory with aggression. This particular faction is a splinter that also call themselves simply the Brotherhood of Steel but they are usually more tame when it comes to dealing with those who are neutral to them.
The Brotherhood has recently been sending small groups of Paladins to Memphis and other nearby towns to report on the status of the area. They seem to think that they are conducting these missions with discretion, but the UAF knows full well of these operations.
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VAULTS
Vault 201: Built below the Shelby County jail as an experiment to see how the current prisoners would react to being given universal life sentences and moved underground. In hindsight, this was one of Vault-Tec's dumbest experiments. The prisoners inevitably broke free of the correctional staff in the vault, and formed a raider town called Slum 201 in the ruins of the jail above. They maintain population by kidnapping women from traveling caravans or nomad groups. Slum 201 is located relatively close to Duck, and every so often the super mutants there have to fend off attacks from the raiders.
Vault 258: A control vault built under the Oak Court Mall in Midtown. The entrance tunnel was installed behind a sliding wall in the main atrium. The vault opened 20 years after the War, just like the other control vaults. A common legend states that when the vault opened, the entire population emerged into the pitch dark atrium of the partially intact mall. They gathered into a large crowd, and from there they disappeared without a trace.
The UAF has a record of a scout that found Vault 258, with the enormous blast door still open, and spoke through his radio about the mall and the vault being completely devoid of sound. Everyday items in the vault were still in place, as if the citizens had been going about their daily lives up until the instant they disappeared. This scout's radio went dark that night without a word, and the man hasn't been seen since.
Vault 222: This vault was installed with a vault door over ten times stronger than the standard issue door. Due to special fittings, when the door to Vault 222 closed, the 'teeth' of the door partially melted and fused with the frame. The vault was intended to be run without an overseer, instead operating more in the style of a commune. Before the war, this would've been seen as a deliberate act of furthering Communism. It is unknown how this project slipped past the government's eye.
The UAF are the only ones that know the location of this vault, and they have made several attempts to open it. Eventually they assumed that there must have been a power failure. Since the people that built the vault are long dead, and no-one has managed to get in, the purpose of this vault is completely unknown to everyone on the outside.
Vault 293: This vault is located in Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park. The vault was built with a skeleton crew of humans. Just enough to further one or two more generations to keep the vault in working order. The main purpose was to preserve the many animal species that called Shelby Forest their home. Almost all of these animals were a commonplace in the world before the war, such as deer and beavers, but the builders of the vault did not rule out the possibility of the war rendering these animals extinct. There were over 300 species of animals inside the vault when it closed. About 65 percent were birds.
This vault was built with several enormous flat rooms -each about the size of a square kilometer- that were covered in soil, had ceilings five hundred feet tall, housed artificial rivers, and simulated sunlight during the proper hours. How they had the funding for such a technological marvel is unknown, but a common rumor is that an immensely rich individual who was very passionate about nature paid for most of the vault.
The vault was programmed to automatically open in exactly one hundred years after the war. However, when the remaining humans walked outside, they found that the once-thriving state park had been devastated. When the nearby city of Memphis was struck with several nuclear warheads the forest was mostly vaporized. What was left ended up being consumed by a raging wild fire. One hundred years later and the forest still had yet to recover, likely due to the radiation burn. The engineers chose to close up the Vault for another hundred years. However, by this time they did not have enough diversity in their group to continue to reproduce effectively. Instead of risking inbreeding, they decided to let their lives come to an end. The vault door opened automatically in the year 2277. Due to the design of the vault, the habitats all funneled into one hallway leading to the vault door. Some animals were eager to leave, drawn by the intense sunlight outside, but most stayed in. Whether this was out of fear or instinct is unknown.
The UAF has visited this vault only once, a short time after it opened for good. The forest was just beginning to replenish from the devastation. They saw plants of all kinds growing just inside the vault opening, and brilliant white light at the end of the tunnel. They knew full well of the Vault 22 incident and, fearing a similar thing had happened here, they left.
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That information you needed regarding weapon lore:
Before you choose your weapons and equipment, make sure they exist in the lore by checking the Fallout Wiki first. Companies like Beretta, Sig Sauer, and Colt do exist in the Fallout world, but in the Fallout timeline they did not make the exact same or amount of weapons as in real life. If the weapon isn't on the wiki, we aren't going to just ASSUME that it exists because it does in real life, no excuses. Given the amount of mods for Fallout 3 and New Vegas I may make some exceptions to this rule soon.
Fuck it, I'm gonna make my own list instead of making people follow a link and figure it out for themselves. The hell kind of Co-GM would I be if I didn't outline everything myself.
I realize that some of these weapons are in Fallout Tactics, but we are sticking with the Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, and New Vegas continuities only.
Here's the list of weapons (with their respective cartridges) that we are including in our lore that aren't from the above games (to my knowledge):
1. 9A-91 9x39mm
2. AEK-972 5.56x45mm NATO
3. AK-47 7.62x39mm
4. AK-74 5.45x39mm
5. AKS-74u 5.45x39mm
6. AN-94 5.45x39mm
7. AS "Val" 9x39mm
8. Beretta 92FS 9x19mm Parabellum
9. Bushmaster M4A1 5.56x45mm NATO
10. Colt M1911 .45 ACP
11. Colt M4A1 5.56x45mm NATO
12. Colt Pocket 1849 .31 Ball
13. Beretta 87 Target .22 LR
14. Browning P35 9x19mm Parabellum
15. Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife
16. FN FNC 5.56x45mm NATO
17. GSh-18 9x19mm Parabellum
18. HK CAWS 12 Gauge Belt
19. HK G36K 5.56x45mm NATO
20. HK G3SG/1 7.62x51mm NATO
21. HK USP 9x19mm Parabellum OR .45 ACP
22. Homemade SMG "Borz" 9x18mm Makarov
23. IMI UZI 9x19mm Parabellum
24. KA-BAR
25. KS-23 23x75mmR (4 Gauge)
26. L96A1 7.62x51mm NATO
27. M14 7.62x51mm NATO
28. M37 Ithaca 20 Gauge OR 12 Gauge
29. Makarov 9x18mm Makarov
30. Winchester 1892 .44-40 Winchester
31. Mateba Model 6 Unica .357 Magnum OR .44 Magnum
32. Mauser C96 9x19mm Parabellum
33. MBA Gyrojet 13mm Rockets (Don't even bother with this one, ammo would be literally impossible to find)
34. MP-412 REX .357 Magnum
35. Pancor Jackhammer 12 Gauge
36. PB-6P9 9x18mm Makarov
37. PPSh-41 7.62x25mm Tokarev
38. Remington 870 12 Gauge OR 20 Gauge
39. S&W Model 10 .38 Special
40. Sten Mk. II 9x19mm Parabellum
41. Steyr AUG A1 5.56x45mm NATO
42. Taurus Raging Bull .44 Magnum
43. TOZ-34 12 Gauge
44. TT Tokarev 7.62x25mm Tokarev
45. VSS Vintorez 9x39mm
46. Winchester M1897 12 Gauge
47. M16A2 5.56x45mm NATO
48. TOZ-66 12 Gauge
49. Steyr Scout 5.56x45mm NATO
50. IMI Desert Eagle .50 Action Express
51. Serbu Super-Shorty 12 Gauge
52. PKM 7.62x54mmR
53. SVU 7.62x54mmR
54. WA2000 7.62x51mm NATO
55. CZ805 5.56x45mm NATO
56. SR556 5.56x45mm NATO
57. Suomi KP/-31 9x19mm Parabellum
58. OTs-33 Pernach 9x18mm Makarov
59. FAMAS 5.56x45mm NATO
60. Barrett M107A1 .50 BMG (Browning Machine Gun)
61. A-545 5.45x39mm
