War...war never changes [FALLOUT]

[OgreBattle]

I don't have a problem with the idea of a nuclear catastrophy bringing about a Dark Age, similar to the collapse of Rome. Suspension of disbelief and all that.

What I find ridiculous and slightly offensive is the idea that religious institutions would store and safeguard ancient knowledge from roving bands of 'Simpletons,' as opposed to leading the mob on a campaign of self-harm and ignorance.

irish monks were raped by vikings often.

[Username17]

So the more powerful you are, the bigger your stash gets, the more people try to take your stash, and more useful locations are occupied/desired by more powerful opponents who will try to shoot/stab/claw you in the face to get at your stash and the location's resources. That's a nice mechanic for autoscaling difficulty and scope of the game from guarding cans of spam from roving radscorpians to holding a settlement supermarket against bandit slavers to a securing a vault of lost-tech from super-mutants.

Yep. And since the people on the bigger invasion charts tend to have pretty good loot on them, the bottlecap value of your stashes will tend to go up if you just hold your ground, which in turn will eventually put you up to the next level on the chart.

Also, you'll get immigrants as your fame rises, which will increase your need for food, medical supplies, and ammunition (if you want them to be any good at fighting), and energy (if you want them to have a standard of living higher than "desert hermit" and/or want them to do any science). But which will increase the number of people you can delegate to tasks. Vehicles, in addition to being valuable and something you can put on the battle table, allow you to move people faster and to transfer really large amounts of stuff from place to place in relative safety - but they cost energy to run.

-Username17

[violence in the media]

Is this the part of the conversation where we dare Frank to write up some rules or a few tables for a FALLOUT mod of Necromunda/Warp Cult?

[JigokuBosatsu]

Sounds like you just did.

[Voss]

I don't have a problem with the idea of a nuclear catastrophy bringing about a Dark Age, similar to the collapse of Rome.

I don't have a problem with the idea of catastrophe leading to a collapse of civilization either. And given human nature and how people actually behave in the face of overwhelming crisis, it would definitely have a hellish effect on society

But the idea that the survivors would actively reject the basic building blocks of modern society and infrastructure and thereby make a concerted effort to make everything _even worse_, is utterly asinine. And that is the supposition that Lokathor is talking about in that book. Made worse by the idea that 'everyone' would do it, which is absurd in its own right. And at least in the industrialized nations, you have an entire population that grew up with vaccinations, clean water and everything else that is specifically and completely a product of science, so the idea that they would not want that for their society (and their children) is fucking idiocy.

[Lokathor]

Oh it's totally absurd from a setting design standpoint. People always look for advantage, they wouldn't stamp out the last remaining tools they had against the world. That particular part of the story made about as much sense as Warhammer 40K.

Good book though.

[Winnah]

The dynamics of people taking vacinations are unclear. It's easy to say people are motivated by health, but I would suggest most people are influenced by pressure and reccomendations from community leaders.

I personally think it's great that I had tetanus and measles shots. I probably would not have made it out of childhood without them. That is not to say that there are not plenty of bobble-heads around, such as Bill Maher and Jenny McCarthy, who think there is a conspiracy surrounding a simple health issue. The issue becomes even more confused in less developed societies, where disease prevention is hindered by fuckwits with stupid ideas (see Africa, Sacred Sperm, AIDS).

Same deal with anti-fluoride groups.

I don't care how asanine the scenario is though. My comment was simply that I found it slightly offensive that it was a religious order that was protecting ancient knowledge, as opposed to inciting the ignorance and self harm.

[Lokathor]

Oh, that. Well, it wasn't started by the church, it was started by a scientist guy who got Sanctuary in a Catholic church, and then he explained his plan to some others who didn't like the mobs destroying everything, and they thought it was a good idea so they all got it setup and turned it into an organization within the church. 400 years later, old knowledge is completely unintelligible to the Catholics, but treated as a sacred relic regardless. Because some guy in the past said so.

And that's something Catholics would easily do.

[Username17]

Basic Mechanics

When you perform an action, you roll a pile of d6s called a dicepool. Dice which come up as a 5 or 6 are hits. Those that show a number 1 are botches. When you have advantage on a test, rolls of 6 explode (grant an extra die) in addition to counting as a hit. A task will normally require a number of hits to succeed equal to the Difficulty Threshold, and throughout the game this will often just be abbreviated as “Threshold.” Any hits gained in addition to the difficulty threshold are Net Hits. If you get 4 or more net hits, you get a Critical Success. This basic terminology will be most familiar to those who have played Shadowrun, but it is really not much different from the Storytelling System (save that it uses d6s rather than d10s, and critical success is measured by how much you exceed the threshold rather than by getting an arbitrary number of hits and exceeding the threshold). Tasks also have an Error Threshold. If the total number of dice that come up as anything that isn't a botch match the Error Threshold, nothing happens. If they fall short of that, an error occurs whether the task succeeded or not.

There are also Table Checks, which are handled by d%.

Dicepools: Your dicepool is generally speaking Attribute + Skill + Equipment. The main characters are humans even if they are mutants, but remember that many of their opponents are super human. Daemons and Space Marines both have substantially larger attributes than do humans.

Setting Difficulties: In general, most tasks can be ascribed a difficulty – a number of hits required for them to succeed. Many tasks are predefined in difficulty, but some are must be defined in the middle of the game, which is generally the responsibility of the CO. If you need to ascribe difficulty to something in a very quick fashion, grab some difficulty from the following table:

1. Difficulty Table
2. - Easy
3. - Average
4. - Hard
5. - Extreme

Note that increasing difficulties have higher thresholds. Very often tasks will be best with complications that increase the thresholds, making them harder. It is important to note that +1 to the required threshold of a task is an increase to the difficulty of that task, rather than a bonus to the action.

Defaulting: If an action requires a skill and you don't have it, you can generally attempt to perform the action anyway and use -1 in place of your skill. So for example: an untrained man can still fire a bolt gun,he simply rolls Dexterity-1 instead of Dexterity+Firearms. Some skills cannot be defaulted on.

Extended Actions: An extended action has an extra piece of nomenclature on it: a time frame. This is because the action is expected to take some long amount of time. An extended test takes a variable amount of time. If the character meets the threshold for the action, the base time is divided by the total number of hits to determine how long it actually took to finish. If a character does not receive sufficient hits, then the action fails, and the character will know that it has failed after having spent half the base time on the project. And yes, this means that for very difficult extended tasks, it can take longer to not succeed than it does to succeed.

Buying Hits: When you are not particularly stressed, you may buy hits. Rather than rolling dice for a task, you may simply assume that you got one hit for every four full dice in your pool. This is less than you would expect to get on average by actually rolling, but sometimes consistency is its own magnitude.

Assisted Rolls: If two or more characters are helping to complete a single task, you may make a Teamwork Test. The assisting character makes a normal test, and their hits are added to the dicepool of the primary character. The primary character can at best double their dicepool like this. As such, the rule normally only applies for groups of 4-6 at the outside. For much larger groups you can figure that these teams are themselves individuals helping each other to create a ludicrously large dicepool. For the purposes of this game, this will usually not come up, and indeed most tasks are not amenable to such maneuvers.

Opposed Rolls: Sometimes it is necessary for an action to overcome active interference. In these cases, the opposing character or factor is also allowed a test, with hits canceling out hits in the primary test. Actions which assume interference such as swinging a thermic lance at a dude do not entitle the victim to roll anything to oppose unless something spectacular is going on. The inherent difficulty of trying to cut a guy's face off when they presumably don't want you to is already figured into the difficulty threshold. Also note that characters with larger Dexterity and Martial Arts ratings are harder to hit – the standard opposition is formalized in order to speed up play.

Errors: Not everything goes according to plan, and things often go awry – especially in the wasteland. Whenever a character makes a test, count the number of dice rolled that came up any number that wasn't a “1.” Every task will have an error threshold, and if not enough dice come up 2-6, then an error has occurred. In most cases, the error threshold is just twice the success threshold. Note therefore that it is entirely possible for a character to both succeed and have an error. This in no way negates the success, it just means that something untoward happened during the attempt. What happens because of the error is highly situational and is left to the CO to describe. Remember that a success is still a success and a failure is still a failure. So if the attempt is to jump across a gap, the fact that the character made an error while successfully jumping the gap may mean that they fall prone on the far side, but they won't fall down the gap because of that. Similarly, the fact that a character made no error while failing to clear the distance should be of little comfort if the way down is terribly far – though failing to make it across and making an error may involve an even more painful descent or a simple insult to injury as items fall out of pockets as the character falls themselves. The error threshold may go up or down depending upon the risk of the action, and the severity of an error depends upon the dangers present when an action is taking place. It is better to have an error when juggling kittens than it is to have an error while juggling hand grenades.

• Ammunition: Firing weapons is a special case. Characters are expected to fire weapons many times during battle, and the difficulty threshold varies wildly. But the difficulty threshold doesn't usually go up because the character is pushing themselves to the brink or anything, it just means that one shot or another is less likely to land on target. Therefore weapon tests have an Error threshold that is set by the weapon itself, not by the difficulty threshold of the shot being attempted. Most weapons that have such an error simply stop functioning for the rest of the battle, and it is for this reason that the Error Threshold for a weapon is called its “Ammunition” number in its stats. Some weapons (notably explosives) are already “one shot” and do something special when they have errors, and this is noted in their text descriptions.

Advantage and Explosions: When conditions are generically favorable to performing an action, the character is considered to “have the advantage”. When a character has advantage on a task, then any sixes they roll will “explode” and grant an extra die. In combat, characters gain advantage on ranged attacks when they have time to take aim, and they gain advantage on melee attacks when their target is unaware of them or flanked.

The Character

Most characters are humans, but in the wastelands, not everybody is. Some characters used to be humans, some never were, and thus the first thing to describe a character in game mechanical terms is their race. Recognized as “people” in the wastes are Humans, Ghouls, FEVclaws, Super Mutants, Robots, and Cyberdogs.

• Humans - the most common and most familiar of the races, humans were around before the Great War.
• Ghouls - humans exposed to great amounts of radiation usually melt and die. But those who melt and live become Ghouls. These people are physically frail, but often quite intelligent (if more than a little insane). Ghouls have strange immune systems and are not damaged in the slightest by further exposure to radiation, and even thrive in highly radioactive environments.
• Supermutants - humans exposed to the Master's FEV-II became huge and monstrous. Supermutants are larger than normal humans and adept at skills of war. Many of them are of considerably reduced intelligence.
• FEVClaws - the deathclaw is a dangerous beast of the wastes, and when exposed to the Forced Evolution Virus, it apparently gains near human intelligence. Also, unlike other creatures exposed to FEV, the newly uplifted deathclaw is not sterilized and passes on its heightened intellect to future generations.
• Cyberdogs - man's best friend has been one of man's best test subjects for a long time. The cyberdog is a dog that has been uplifted through cybernetic implants. They do not breed true, requiring each new generation of puppies to be uplifted anew. Cyberdogs live for decades.
• Robots - artificial intelligence is a reality in the wastes. Some robots are controlled by the brains of humans or animals rather than computers. Some are controlled by a mixture of the two.

Race	Strength	Dexterity	Awareness	Intelligence	Charisma	Willpower
Human	1/6	1/6	1/6	1/6	1/6	1/6
Ghoul	1/5	1/5	3/8	1/6	1/5	2/7
Super Mutant	4/9	1/6	2/7	1/5	1/5	3/8
FEVClaw	3/8	3/8	2/7	1/4	1/4	1/5
Cyberdog	1/5	2/7	3/8	1/5	1/6	1/6
Robots	*	*	*	*	*	*

• *:Robots do not have standard attribute arrays.

Skills

Characters in the wastes have skills. Game mechanically, a skill is a bonus to a single facet of an Attribute. A character who is good at a bunch of similar tasks usually just has a high attribute. Someone described as savant could very plausibly have a high skill. Beasts and non-humanoids are often represented with very high skills and rather low attributes. This is because such beings are not able to do the kinds of things that a generally competent humanoid is capable of, but they are able to compete rather well with even very skilled humanoids in their fields of expertise. For example: a murderous cyberdog is generally to be expected to perform well in close combat, and as such has a very high total Martial Arts pool, but they are no good at using Heavy Weapons and as such do not have a high Strength score. As such, beasts of this type are built horribly inefficiently from a points perspective, because they are not built with points – they have completely arbitrary numbers that make their total dicepools work out properly.

Strength Skills:

• Athletics
  Athletics governs running, jumping, climbing, and swimming.
  • specializations: Running, Jumping, Climbing, Swimming.
• Construction
  Construction is used to make shelter, fortify or repair existing shelters, and even in some cases for producing new useful structures such as forts, roads, aqueducts, or bridges. With the exception of simple shelters, construction requires an architectural plan, which is produced with Logistics.
  • specializations: Shelter, Fortification, Repair, Public Works.
• Endurance
  Endurance governs persistence in the face of physical difficulties.
  • specializations: Poison, Privation, Strain.
• Heavy Weapons
  Heavy Weapons are used for any weapon which is directed more than targeted precisely. The flame thrower, the minigun, and the plasma caster all fall under this umbrella.
  • specializations: by weapon type.
• Martial Arts
  Martial Arts governs the use of melee weapons. From the humble fist to the noble kukri and awe inspiring thermic lance.
  • specializations: by Martial Art (and thus, by group of favored weaponry)

Dexterity Skills:

• Firearms
  Firearms is the skill one uses to fire weaponry at targets.
  • specializations: by Weapon Type.
• Larceny
  Larceny is a skill that allows characters to break into places they aren't wanted and take stuff that isn't theirs. Bypassing living guards still requires Stealth.
  • specializations: Security Systems, Pickpocket, Lockpicking
• Pilot Vehicles
  Pilot Vehicles allows a character to drive around with vehicles. Vehicles still ususally require energy cells each month (and each battle) they are used in. Unusual vehicles such as rockets and submarines require an appropriate specialization before than can be driven at all.
  • specializations: by vehicle type.
• Stealth
  Stealth allows a character to move and act without being seen or at least noticed.
  • specializations: Infiltration, Shadowing, Hiding

Intelligence Skills:

• Artisan
  Artisan is used to make things from scratch and to repair damaged devices. Artisan uses up junk in order to repair damaged devices or produce new working devices. Artisan can also be used to sabotage devices that are currently working in a manner that is either reverseable, unnoticeablem or both.
  • specializations: Weaponry, Computers, Vehicles, Sabotage
• Logistics
  Logistics covers planning and navigating the rules and regulations that are created in order to keep things functioning in post-war society.
  • specializations: Bureaucracy, Supply, Long Term Planning, Research
• Medicine
  Medicine is used to keep people alive. Sometimes it is also used to make horrible tailor made viruses and other bio-weapons that do the opposite. Without the non-human physiology specialization, medicine covers humans by default (and ghouls, if the skill is possessed by a ghoul), but suffers a defaulting penalty (of -2 dice) when used on any other type of person. Robots are not subject to medicine at all, and are repaired and diagnosed with Science.
  • specializations: First Aid, Long Term Care, Poisons, Diseases, non-human Physiology, Bioweapons.
• Science
  Science governs the knowledge of how to use advanced technical items and techniques. Unlike other skills, Technology must be taken with a specialization, and while it can be used to work on new research or identify scavenged goods from any pre-war tech, a character is at a defaulting penalty (-2 dice) when using anything they are not specialized in.
  • specializations: Plasma Physics, Computers, Posseidon Energy, Robotics, Bioengineering, Chemistry, or by radical technology path.

Awareness Skills:

• Empathy
  Empathy is one's awareness of the emotional states of those around you. It is used to intuitively understand emotions in others, and interpret the needs of animals.
  • specializations: Sense Motive, Animal Ken
• Investigation
  Investigation allows one to reconstruct events in the past from clues in the present.
  • specializations: Forensics, Tracking, by Environment
• Perception
  Perception governs physically noticing things.
  • specializations: by Sense.
• Tactics
  Tactics is used to evaluate the actions and movements in others. Setting up and anticipating ambushes are both done with the Tactics skill.
  • specializations: by Unit Type, by Terrain Type.

Charisma Skills:

• Deception
  Deception is used to disguise one's self or one's intentions.
  • specializations: Fast Talk, Forgery, Disguise
• Expression
  Expression is used to make art.
  • specializations: Evocative art, Persuasive Art, or by medium.
• Camaraderie
  Camaraderie is used to manage others. It is used to determine how someone can contribute to a team as well as to instill within them a desire to work with said team.
  • specializations: Schmoozing, Evaluation, Recruitment
• Persuasion
  Persuasion is used to convince others of things. It can be as simple as getting someone to sell you a rat burger for half price because of perceived flaws or as complete as changing someone's world view or allegiance.
  • specializations: Barter, Diplomacy, Propaganda

Willpower Skills:

• Command
  Command is used to get one's orders heard and obeyed. It can be used to organize or even reorganize when morale has broken.
  • specializations: Inspiration, Calm Emotions, Oratory
• Farming
  Farming is used to turn relatively nonradioactive dirt into food through the magic of growing plants and domesticated animals.
  • specializations: By terrain type.
• Intimidate
  Intimidation is used to bully and torture. Coercion of most any kind falls under the Intimidate skill.
  • specializations: Interrogation, Battlefield, Coercion
• Survival
  Survival mediates both the literal act of surviving in the face of deadly diseases and hostile environments, and finding the means of continuing to survive in the wastes.
  • specializations: Disease, Food Scavenging, or by terrain type.

Your Stash

Your group is going to have a primary base of operations, which is called the "Stash". The Stash is where you keep all the stuff you can use to make a better life in the wastes and increase the strength of the group. Unfortunately, the more you have in the Stash, the more tempting of a target it is, and the more ire it gets directed towards it. The Stash is composed of the following components:

• Bottle Caps (1 Bottle Cap)
• Food (5 Bottle Caps)
• Junk (1 Bottle Cap)
• Ammunition (20 Bottle Caps)
• Energy Cells (10 Bottle Caps)
• Medical Supplies (25 Bottle Caps)
• Equipment (Variable)

All of these have a value in Bottle Caps and the sum total of the value of all of it contained in the Stash itself, as well as the sum total of all of it that is the personal property of characters stationed at the Stash is added together to determine how the group's wealth is perceived.

Bottle Cap Value	Your Group is a...
0-10,000	Pack
10,001-100,000	Gang
100,001-1,000,000	Company
1,000,001-10,000,000	City
10,000,001-100,000,000	Tribe
100,000,001+	Nation

Every month, there is a chance of an incursion. An incursion is someone or some thing trying to take your stuff. If an incursion goes undetected, some things will be missing from the Stash at the end of the month. If the incursion is detected, there is an encounter at the base. More valuable Stashes attract more powerful incursions, as shown on the table below:

Incursions (d%)	Pack	Gang	Company	City	Tribe	Nation]
100	Roll for Gang	Roll for Company	Roll for City	Roll for Tribe	Roll for Nation	Rival Nation Declares War
2	Roll Twice	Roll Twice	Roll Twice	Roll Twice	Roll Twice	Roll Twice
3	2d6 Feral Ghouls
4	2d6 Raiders
5	2d6 Slavers
6	4d6 Bloat flies
7	3d6 Wild Dogs
8	2 Rad Scorpions
9	1 Rad Scorpion
10	2d6 Scavengers
11	d6 Slicer Gangers
12	d6 Cannibals
13	2d6 Child Soldiers
14	2d6 Slave Soldiers
15	d6 Hungry Plants
16	2 Giant Mole Rats
17	Addled Super Mutant
18	2d6 Giant Ants
19	Floater
20	2d6 Lesser Scorpions
21	d6 Mantises
22	d6 Mole Rats
23	2 Floating Eye Drones
24	d6 Scavenger Ghouls
25	4d6 Rad Roaches
26	2d6 Geckos
27	2d6 Wild Dogs
28	d6 Glowing Ones
29	d6 Ghouls
30	2d6 Cultists
31	d6 Cutter Gangers
32	d6 Androphags
33	2d6 Tribal Warriors
34	d6 Tribal Hunters
35	d6 Thieving Children
36	d6 Rabid Dogs
37	Lesser Centaur
38	2d6 Cannibal Children
39	d6 Phantom Tribe
40	d6 Pirates
41	d6 Crawling Mines
42	3d6 Pig Rats
43	2d6 Brahmin
44	2d6 Junkies
45	2 Rabid Dogs
46	2d6 Rabid Dogs
47	d6 Legionaires
48	8 Lesser Scorpions
49	4d6 Giant Ants
50	10 Giant Ants
51	Sniper
52	Head Hunter
53	20 Rad Roaches
54	d6 Spy Drones
55	d6 Raiders
56	d6 Hunters
57	Giant Possum
58	Albino Gater
59	d6 Gamblers
60	d6 Prostitutes
61	Courier
62	Shaman & d6 Tribals
63	2d6 Glowing Ants
64	Infected Mole Rat
65	2d6 Infected Pig Rats
66	d6 Floaters
67	2d6 Starving Dogs
68	d6 Prospectors
69	d6 Geckos & d6 Dogs
70	Thief
71	d6 each of rival gangs
72	d6 Cultists
73	10 Pig Rats
74	3d6 Pig Rats
75	d6 Lesser Scorpions
76	d6 Wild Dogs
77	d6 Junkies
78	d6 Slavers
79	d6 Raiders
80	Phantom Tribe Reject
81	Starving Family
82	2d6 Beggars
83	Crazy Naked Man
84	Drug Dealers
85	Scientist
86	Junk Dealers
87	Slave Traders
88	Miner Traders
89	Tribal Traders
90	Broken Robot
91	Raving Hermit
92	Lost Child
93	Hungry Dog
94	1 Enraged Brahmin
95	Peddler
96	Merchant Caravan
97	1 Waste Wanderer
98	2d6 Pig Rats
99	d6 Geckos
100	Rats (delicious), gain d6 Food	Roll for Pack	Roll for Gang	Roll for Company	Roll for City	Roll for Tribe

Places to Be[/size]

Every month, characters can work on scavenging in an area.

Workable Locations
Building	Caps	Food	Junk	Ammunition	Energy	Medical Supplies	Finds
Farmland	Low	Farmable	Low	None	None	None	Low
Military Base	Low	Medium	High	High	Medium	Low	High
Power Plant	Low	Low	High	Low	Farmable	Low	Medium
Parking Structure	Medium	Low	High	Low	Medium	Low	Medium
Hospital	Medium	Low	Medium	None	Medium	High	Medium
Apartments	High	Low	Low	Low	Low	Low	High
Junk Yard	Medium	Medium	High	Low	Low	None	High
Factory	Low	Low	High	None	Medium	None	Medium
Prison	Low	Medium	Low	Medium	Low	Medium	Low
Arena	High	Low	Low	Low	Low	Low	Low
Office Building	Low	Low	Medium	Low	Medium	Low	High
Grocery Store	High	High	Low	None	Low	Low	Low
Warehouse	High	Low	High	Low	Low	Low	High

[OgreBattle]

Well god damn, thats more game design done in one day than I've done in two years.

[Kaelik]

I don't care how asanine the scenario is though. My comment was simply that I found it slightly offensive that it was a religious order that was protecting ancient knowledge, as opposed to inciting the ignorance and self harm.

Don't get me wrong, I'm also offended by the portrayal of religion as the great wonderful thing that saves the post apocalypse, but frankly, all post apocalypses written by religious people do that, and most people are religious, so...

My thing is that it completely fucks over human nature in the dumbest possible way. Literally every single human being alive in the US right now knows that guns kill all the peoples. But you expect me to believe that in the post apocalypse where everyone is starving not a single fucking person thought of the idea "use a gun to shoot people and take their food" resulting in other people who had previously come up with the idea of "no guns" to switch to "use guns to shoot people who are trying to shoot us for our food."

And once you are using guns, any possible argument you had for not using tractors and indoor plumbing instantly disintegrates.

[JigokuBosatsu]

So who are the Phantom Tribe? All I got was a ridiculous group of ghost hunters from Pennsylvania and these guys.

[JigokuBosatsu]

Well god damn, thats more game design done in one day than I've done in two years.

That's our Frank...

[Username17]

So who are the Phantom Tribe? All I got was a ridiculous group of ghost hunters from Pennsylvania and these guys.

While I started working on that, I decided for no particular reason that the default setting was going to be based around the ruins of Kansas City. As such, there are river pirates, albino gaters, and different gangs and tribes than were present in New Vegas. The gangs I put into the early incursion list are not terribly interesting (the Slicers and the Cutters for fuck's sake), and just for the fun of it I wrote in the Phantom Tribe who inspired by El Hazard. So they are a group of people who have weirdly colored skin because they dose themselves up on chemicals that make them hard to notice. Game mechanically, they have stealth fields that you can't loot off their corpses, but which don't apply if you are far away. So they have to stick to relatively close quarters if they don't want to get picked off by rifle fire. Still, they are one of the worse encounters on the list.

-Username17

[Libertad]

Frank, you need rules for players who want to play "normal" dogs. No cybernetic implants, just lots of loyalty to their human companions and pack-mates. And who intuitively understand human speech. Like Dogmeat.

You can't have a Fallout game without this as a player option. It's kind of a tradition.

[Lokathor]

Tasks also have an Error Threshold. If the total number of dice that come up as anything that isn't a botch match the Error Threshold, nothing happens. If they fall short of that, an error occurs whether the task succeeded or not.

...

Errors: Not everything goes according to plan, and things often go awry – especially in the wasteland. Whenever a character makes a test, count the number of dice rolled that came up any number that wasn't a “1.” Every task will have an error threshold, and if not enough dice come up 2-6, then an error has occurred. In most cases, the error threshold is just twice the success threshold. Note therefore that it is entirely possible for a character to both succeed and have an error.

That is some of the most complicated wording, and I had to read it two or three times to be sure I was reading it correctly. Sadly, I can't think of an effective way to restate, "you need twice as many non-botch dice as the Threshold, otherwise you botch" in fancy language.

[Username17]

Combat

Battlefields in the wastes are preferably handled on the same kind of three dimensional terrain that one might play Necromunda in. During a character's turn, they will move their model around that terrain and movement and weapon ranges are measured with an actual tape measure. The scale of the battlefield is 1 meter in the world equaling 1 centimeter on the table. And yes, this means that weapons are very short ranged. Partially this is to represent the incredibly low hit rate of bullets at any reasonable range in real battles. Partly it's because the war was a long time ago and few weapons have spent the intervening time being well taken care of. But mostly it is to allow space for spears and beam swords. The wastes have fights that are supposed to look like the fights in Star Wars, and it is for this reason more than any other that the game has long ranged weaponry work so poorly.

An ordinary human-sized character fights within a 25 millimeter diameter circle and this area is represented by the base of the miniature. Large creatures are usually placed on a 40mm base that represents the larger area that they fight in. It is important to note that these areas are actually much larger than the actual characters that are fighting in them. This is because a combat round is 12 seconds long and people move around a lot.

Health and Consciousness: Everyone and everything has 10 wound boxes, and when they are lost they are incapacitated. Big things and little things both have 10 wound boxes, because a wound box actually represents being 10% of the way to being incapacitated. More resilient things lose less wound boxes from the same attack as would a less resilient thing. The 9mm pistol that might seriously main or kill a human would be lucky to do anything at all to a behemot or even an Enclave soldier's power armor. A character who suffers all 10 wound boxes has taken a deadly wound, and is incapacitated. Whether they actually die is a question of medical intervention and environment. A character who loses 15 boxes is just plain dead outside of brain transference craziness.

When a character is struck with an attack, they have the opportunity to soak the damage with their strength, armor, and abilities. Many advanced armor systems of the post war future actually provide automatic hits for soaking damage. If damage is unsoaked, it becomes a wound. And the more damage from an attack was unsoaked, the more egregious that wound is. Wounds are ranked in order of severity: Light, Moderate, Serious, Deadly, and Fatal. And they correspond to amounts of unsoaked damage. 1 unsoaked damage is light, 2 is moderate, 3 is serious, 4 is deadly, and 5 or more is a fatality straight out. Each wound takes off progressively more wound boxes than the previous wound did. So a Light wound causes you to lose just 1 box, a moderate 3 boxes, a serious 6 boxes, a deadly wound 10 boxes, and a fatality is nominally 15 boxes, but since that means that you're dead it hardly makes sense to worry over much about boxes at that point.

Being injured provides wound penalties. If you have lost wound boxes enough to qualify as Lightly Wounded, you are at -1 to all of your dice pools, if you are Moderately Wounded you are at -2, if you are Seriously Wounded you are at -3, and if you have a Deadly Wound you are at -4 but this scarcely matters because you are also physically incapacitated. If you have suffered a Fatality you narrowly escape having a -5 penalty to all dice pools on account of being totally dead.

A character can stay conscious so long as their Willpower is higher than their Wound penalty. And yes, this means that people with a Willpower of 5 can stay conscious even after being physically incapacitated with a deadly wound from a plasma caster. This is because they are hard core. People who are physically capable of moving but have had their Willpower exceeded by damage will eventually pull themselves together, but generally not within the time frame of a battle. They are casualties even if they aren't dead, though you still leave their models on the board in case they take further damage or receive medical attention.

Staging Damage: If an attack scores net hits, the additional hits are added to the base damage. A weapon (other than a close combat weapon) cannot gain more damage in this way then it has base damage to begin with. Once damage has been inflicted, the armor and soak roll will reduce it to determine the final inflicted Wound Level. This process is sometimes called staging damage up (and down).

Armor and Soaking: Most armor provides an Armor Value (AV) and a Soak Value (SV). AV reduces the damage value of a weapon (and thus how much it can be staged up). SV adds dice to the soak roll. Armor Piercing attacks treat an armor's AV as SV. Attacks which “ignore armor” or against which “armor does not apply” (like gas attacks) negate both the AV and SV of armor. On the flip side, Armor Negated attacks treat any SV as additional AV instead.

Some armors provide Immunity or Resistance to certain kinds of attacks. Immunity means precisely what it sounds like: a character in power armor or a containment suit (which provide “gas immunity”) simply are not affected by being in poison gas clouds. If armor provides Resistance to an attack, that is treated as 3 points of AV (that are not converted to SV if the attack is Armor Piercing).

Vehicles and Walls: Vehicles and walls don't have strength scores, but they can be damaged. Inanimate objects just have AV and SV and suffer damage normally. A vehicle's top speed is reduced by 10% for every box that is filled in, and when it hits 15 boxes it is no longer able to be repaired. A wall on the other hand never has a movement speed to begin with, so its damage state is measured merely in how much you can get through it. At Light damage, there is one or more holes (like bullet holes) in the wall, allowing sunlight to come through in artful rays if one side or the other is outside in the daylight. At Moderate damage, a wall has holes sufficient to fit a weapon through and fire at targets on the other side. At Serious damage, a character can crawl through holes in the wall with a climbing test and a primary action. At Deadly damage, a character can move through the wall normally. A wall that has received Fatal damage can be driven through with a vehicle.

Healing: Every day of rest, a character makes an Injury modified Willpower test and recovers a number of boxes of damage equal to the number of hits. A character with Medicine (Long Term Care) can improve those healing rates by taking care of them during that period, providing a number of bonus dice for the healing test equal to the hits. If a character's injuries are tended to within the first hour by someone with Medicine (First Aid), the wound condition may be reduced in severity (from Deadly to Serious, Serious to Moderate, Moderate to Light and Light to nothing). The first aid using character must succeed at an extended test with a time frame of 10 minutes and a threshold of the wound level (1 for Light, 3 for Serious). A character with a Deadly Wound must be stabilized before they can have their wounds reduced by any means. A wound may only be reduced in severity with First Aid once.

Medical treatment uses up medical supplies. A character who provides long term care uses up one unit of medical supplies every month for each patient they have. A character who provides first aid during a battle uses up one unit of medical supplies for that battle (no matter how many characters they end up treating). Characters can also use Stim Packs during battle, which heal a flat 3 boxes of injury to characters who are not unstable. Every stim pack used uses up a unit of medical supplies.

Deterioration: A character with a Deadly wound is incapacitated and in danger of dying. A character may bleed out and expire in as little as 4 minutes, so tending to the wounded is important. If a character does not stabilize, they will eventually die. A character with Medicine (First Aid) may attempt to stabilize a dying character by making an extended test with a time frame of 10 minutes and a threshold of 3. If this is not attempted or fails, then the victim may try to stabilize themselves with an Endurance or Survival test with a threshold of 3. If this also fails, the character is dead.

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Initiative and Actions

At the beginning of any combat, all participants roll an initiative check, which is a Dexterity + Awareness check. Characters act in order of their number of hits. Ties go in order of actual Dexterity Attributes, further ties go in order of actual Awareness Attributes, further ties go in order of actual Tactics Skill Ratings, any further ties are resolved with roll offs or negotiation.

Basic Actions: A character can move and shoot in a single turn, but they are better at shooting if they do not move around. In general, a character gets 2 primary actions during their turn. A primary action can be used to move 10cm on the board or attack with a weapon. There are many other actions that can be used as primary actions, and you can also take as many Free Actions as seem reasonable. Some creatures can move farther or less far with a move action.

Delaying Actions: Shooting first is not always as important as shooting last. A character who gets a higher initiative value may elect to take their action after other characters have taken theirs. A delaying character may cut in to the initiative order at any point between two other character's actions and take their action. If two or more characters are delaying, then the character has the better initiative value has the last word. Once the last character who isn't delaying takes their action, the delaying character with the worst initiative value must take their action or forfeit it.

Overwatch: A character may declare a primary action to be an Overwatch Action. An overwatch action has a declared trigger and takes place when and if that trigger takes place, interrupting any action currently taking place to do so. Overwatch actions are very difficult and require precision timing, and have their threshold of difficulty increased by 1. If the character's action comes up again, the overwatch action is lost, though there is nothing stopping them from declaring a new overwatch action at this point. A character may only have one overwatch action at queued up at a time.

• Example: Tribal Warrior Daisy knows that there is an enemy on the other side of the temple complex, but she can't see them right now. She declares an Overwatch Action to shoot the guy as soon as they come into view. As it happens, the enemy then moves from behind one pillar to a spot behind a closer pillar. Daisy takes the shot in the middle of the target's movement where there is no cover, but the threshold of difficulty is increased by one.

Tactics: Characters can improve their reactions in combat by working out a plan and sticking to it. When a group is operating under the supervision of a tactician who knows the rough layout of the opposition, the leader can make a Tactics test and improve every character's initiative rolls by the number of hits on that test. No plan survives in contact with the enemy, and the bonus will only last a number of combat rounds equal to the character's actual skill in Tactics. The number of characters that can be coordinated with the Tactics skill varies with the situation, and is largely in the hands of the CO to determine. Enclave soldiers have massive commlink arrays and tactical layouts on head's up displays in their helmets and their tacticians can coordinate groups of squads with fire support and whirlybirds, while most gangs are mostly stuck physically explaining a tactical plan with a stick in the sand, limiting their penetrance to the number of people they can physically fit in a huddle around the diagram.

• Primary Actions:
• Move 10cm (15 for cyberdogs, 20 cm for FEVClaws)
• Run
• Climb
• Jump
• Sneak 5 cm (7 for cyberdogs, 10 cm for FEVClaws)
• Crawl 2 cm (4 cm for FEVClaws, cyberdogs do not crawl)
• Fire Weapon
• Move 10cm and Fire
• Stand from Prone
• Prepare Heavy Weapon
• Aim Weapon
• Pilot Vehicle
• Close Combat
• Issue Commands
• Disengage From Close Combat
• Search for Hidden Targets
• Combat Looting
  Free Actions:
• Talking
• Intimidating
• Overcoming ZoT
• Going Prone

Taking Turns: Every turn entitles each characters to two primary actions. Every turn begins with an initiative roll for each character, with each character acting on their turn. Once everyone has acted, roll Initiative again, and proceed another time.

Mob Rule: If multiple characters want to act together, they collectively act at the lowest Initiative. Any sufficiently large group will therefore go on count zero. Mobs of people or crawling hordes of rad roaches will always act at Initiative zero.

• Optional Rule: Alternating Actions Sometimes having characters take both their primary actions in a row can be pretty unfair. “I move and shoot!” is a 4chan meme for a reason. It is for this reason that some games take alternating actions. That is, characters take their first primary action in order and then take their second primary actions in order. This makes killer combos more difficult, and makes Overwatch more powerful. It also takes slightly longer to resolve.

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Movement.

A typical battlefield of the wastes is as cluttered or more so as a Necromunda or Gorkamorka battlefield, and may in fact be a battlefield from one of those games. As such, it is reasonable to expect that there will be a number of places that a character will want to be that are not where they are. And to resolve that situation, moving is the preferred solution.

Movement Rates: A human has a movement rate of 10 cm. That means that with the expenditure of a primary action they can move themselves 10 cm. Moving at this speed a character can stay active for a long time, and won't get tired in any combat that is likely to occur. Furthermore, this movement rate is safe enough to not cause meaningful chances of falling down or jeopardizing one's defenses. Some species in the wastes have movement rates that are very much faster or slower than humans, and vehicular movement rates are often very different. Of most importance for the players: cyberdogs travel 50% faster than humans, while FEVClaws travel 100% faster. Super mutants and ghouls move at the same speed as humans.

Zones of Threat: People in battles are scary. An active combatant is very difficult to ignore, and it is often outright dangerous to do so. A normal character's Zone of Threat (ZoT) extends 20 cm in all directions. While a character is in the ZoT of an enemy character, they can't shoot at targets who are not threatening them, nor may they initiate a Running move to another point within enemy ZoT. A character may attempt to ignore the ZoT of another by making a Tactics+Willpower test (threshold 2), this is a Free Action that may be performed once per turn. A character can attempt to increase the magnitude of their ZoT by being especially intimidating. This is done by making an Intimidate test, with every hit increasing the radius of their personal Zone of Threat by 4 cm. Furthermore, if the Intimidate test gets more than 2 hits, then that becomes the threshold for enemies to overcome their ZoT. Intimidating foes is also a free action that may be done once per turn.
If a character is subjected to multiple ZoTs, then a single Tactics test made against the highest difficulty threshold is sufficient to last an entire turn. Monstrous creatures have a ZoT that extends to 40 cm in all directions, and the Tactics threshold to overcome it is 4.

Difficult Terrain: The movement rates assume that characters are moving through flat and open terrain. When this is not the case, characters move slower. Difficult Terrain “costs” 2 cm of movement to move 1 cm through. If a character is moving through regular terrain and difficult terrain, just double the distance of the difficult terrain to see how much of their movement is used. Terrain that is slower to traverse exists, in general take the standard threshold for a task and compare it to how difficult the terrain is to move through and that threshold is the movement cost of each cm of real movement. So “average” difficult terrain such as shallow water, tall grass, or a ladder costs 2 cm of movement per table cm; “hard” difficult terrain such as sucking sand, cluttered shops, and knee-deep water costs 3 cm of movement; and “extreme” difficult terrain such as heavy snow drifts, waste deep water, and gelatin blocks cost 4 cm of movement per cm of terrain moved through.

Dangerous Ground: Dangerous Ground is terrain which has no impact on movement speeds but may collapse, catch fire, trigger ancient laser traps, or in other sundry ways cause damage to people moving through it. In general, moving through Dangerous Ground requires a character to make a skill check, with a threshold set by the difficulty of the area to avoid being hit with a baleful effect. The skill used for most Dangerous Ground is set when it is defined on the board, and most dangerous ground has a key skill of Athletics or Larceny. Moving quickly through dangerous ground (such as running or jumping) increases the threshold to successfully navigate it by 1.
A character moving down a ladder may elect to count it as Dangerous Ground rather than Difficult Terrain – the key skill is Athletics (Climbing) in that case. Failing to make the test causes the character to fall to the base of the ladder. A character may voluntarily fail such a check and simply move to the bottom of a ladder by falling.

Impassable Terrain: Impassable Terrain is actually something of a misnomer, because it's not actually impassable. Actually impassable things such as enormous metal pillars and force fields exist in the setting, and even in the actual battlefields of the game, but those are called “obstacles.” Impassable Terrain is rather underwhelmingly the name given to any terrain where it would physically take long enough to get through it that it is not a meaningfully possible combat action. Things like very narrow spaced bamboo and air ducts are “impassable” in game terms because people aren't going to get through them during a battle encounter, even though characters with sufficient time totally can go through those.

Climbing: A character may climb any surface, with the difficulty of the surface setting the threshold for Athletics (Climbing) tests to maintain position with net hits setting the character's movement rate. Each net hit moves the character up or down by 2 cm. A character who fails to meet the threshold to maintain position, falls. A character who suffers any damage while climbing must immediately make a climb test (remembering the new wound penalties), and net hits don't move them – the only thing that can happen is staying on the wall or potentially falling.
Ladders are a special case in which characters only have to make climbing tests if they are attempting to move on them quickly or take damage while holding on. Characters are assumed to be able to move up and down ladders as if they were difficult terrain without penalty or dice roll.

Falling: Falling is a special form of movement in which you go downwards really fast and quite often stop very suddenly and painfully upon meeting up with a solid object of some kind. A character who lands on something rigid and capable of supporting their weight must resist damage based on how far the fall actually was. Every full 6 cm of falling, the character must soak 1 damage (to a maximum of 7). A character always ends any fall of more than 1 cm prone.
Falling most distances takes substantially less time than does a combat round, so in general it is OK to merely move a character all the way to the ground when they fall. But if a character is sent off a ledge when it is not their turn, they may make an Initiative test with a difficulty threshold of 8 minus one for every 6 cm of falling. On a success, the fall is resolved on their next action and they may take one primary action halfway down. Extremely long falls may take multiple combat rounds, in which case normal initiative rules apply.
Falling Damage is soaked with Dexterity rather than strength, and armor values generally do not apply.

Liquids and Swimming: Technically glass is a colloid, but that's sufficiently close to being a liquid that it inspires confusion on that point. Regardless, anything which flows slowly enough that characters can reasonably expect to walk on it rather than swim through it is considered “ground” by the rules. Even really sticky stuff like tar is just difficult, dangerous ground. Every primary action a character spends swimming they make an Athletics (Swimming) test, with a threshold of 0. Every net hit moves them 2 cm. If a character is carrying heavy or bulky items, the swimming threshold increases. A character who fails to meet the swimming threshold must either sink or drop their cargo. If a character spends 5 actions swimming, they must make an Endurance test. A character can fight from water, but it is very difficult. The character must “prepare” a primary action other than swimming by giving up a hit on their previous swim test (in short, they move 2 cm less on their last action). Swimming provides heavy cover against direct fire weapons, but no cover at all against blast weapons.
A character can walk through liquids if they come up to the character's waste or less. These areas count as difficult terrain, and only give cover from direct fire weapons if they are deep enough to cover substantial portions of the character's body.

Hiding & Sneaking: Characters can hide whenever they can get out of LOS from their enemies. A character who is literally fully invisible from opponents can “hide” themselves as a free action – it's mostly just a state of mind at that point. On the other hand, hiding when one is merely partially concealed requires a primary action to conceal one's self. A character is detected whenever they come within a number of centimeters equal to the spotter's Awareness + Perception. They need not be visible at that point, as they could be heard or even smelled. A sneaking character may make a Stealth check to reduce the distance at which they will be detected at the rate of 1 cm per hit. Sneaking characters can also be spotted from a long distance away if there are clear lines of sight or similar methods, in which case the characters simply make opposed Perception vs. Stealth checks. A character may take a primary action to look for an opponent they have some reason to believe is there, in which case they can make the same Perception vs. Stealth check, but the searcher gets a +4 dicepool bonus.
If a character uses any weapon that is not subtle, they are automatically detected for the next turn no matter what they do. It is suggested that each sneaking or hidden character make just one Stealth check for any round in which they might be detected by one means or another. A character who uses a quiet melee weapon alerts their target, but no other creatures.

Running: Most characters are physically capable of moving substantially faster than their standard movement rates. They don't do it because moving at those speeds is tiring and unsafe. But if a character wants to flat out run, they may do so. A character who runs and takes any damage in the following turn falls prone automatically. When a character runs during a movement, they may add an additional 4 cm of movement for each hit they make on an Athletics (Running) check. A character who scores no hits is still running, it just means that they stumbled at some point along the way and made no more progress towards their goal than had they moved more cautiously. If this happens on dangerous ground, the hazard happens automatically.
Running characters are difficult to hit with ranged weaponry, but very vulnerable to close combat attacks. The threshold for hitting a running target with shooting is increased by 1. The threshold to hit a running target in close combat is reduced by 1. Every turn spent running provokes an Endurance test.

Doors: A door that can be kicked in while a character is on the run can be past through at the cost of just 2 cm of movement. Doors which actually require a character to work latches or press buttons to open is opened or closed with a Primary Action.

Driving: Piloting a vehicle for a turn requires one primary action, which should be the character's first primary action of the round. The vehicle's path for the entire turn should be declared before a piloting test is attempted. If a character does not spend their first action of a turn making a piloting test, or the piloting test is less than the difficulty threshold, the vehicle goes uncontrolled. A character is free to spend their second action doing anything they want, and indeed firing weapons out the windows of vehicles is fairly popular in the setting. The threshold for getting a vehicle to operate properly is 1 plus the number of 45 degree turns you want it to make during its movement. If you want a vehicle to make its turns in a manner that is not even spaced between its two actions, the piloting threshold is increased by 1. If the vehicle is supposed to accelerate or decelerate faster than the safe levels this turn, the threshold is increased by 1.

Running Around on Fire: A character who is on fire has a profound difficulty in getting themselves to behave rationally. They have a tendency instead to run around like people on fire. A character must make a Willpower+Tactics test with a threshold equal to the base damage of the fire to act normally. Failure indicates that the character must make a run test and roll a direction die and move half their full run distance in that direction, while flailing their arms and shouting “Aaaaah!” Characters who move off of ledges while doing this fall and flail their arms around while on fire going “Aaaaaaaa...” Characters who run into walls stop. A character who keeps their senses can roll around on the ground with a primary action and attempt to reduce the strength of the fire by making a Martial Arts test. Every hit reduces the strength of the fire by 1, and if it hits zero, it's over. Alternately, characters who keep their wits can just take whatever actions they want while on fire. Being on fire carries a -2 penalty to all tests.

Combat Looting: During battles, you can spend a primary action to grab stuff off a fallen comrade, enemy, or shelf. Weapons that have been looted are less reliable than ones you brought to the battlefield yourself, and have their Ammunition numbers increased by one to three depending upon circumstances. A weapon carried by a guard that was just shot in the back of the head probably still works OK and has its ammunition number increased by 1. A weapon that you just pulled out of a moldering pile of refuse has its ammunition number increased by 3. If you don't know the past conditions of a weapon, just roll a d3.

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Shooting!
Perhaps the most important act in a firefight is putting your ammunition into other people. And firing a weapon requires a primary action. A weapon has a Firing Rate, which determines how often it can be fired in a round. A Rapid Fire weapon or Pistol weapon can be fired twice a round (that is, with each Primary Action); a Heavy Weapon can be fired only once in a round and requires two Primary Actions to fire (one to prepare it to fire and one to actually fire it); and an Assault can be fired only once a round but requires only a single Primary Action to fire. A character can combine a single primary action to move 10cm and fire a weapon, but they suffer a -2 dicepool penalty to their attack and they lose the benefits of aiming as if they had moved prior to firing.

The following is the basic checklist for firing

• Declare shooting: Say "I'm gonna shoot that guy, in the face."
• Determine Dicepool and Modifiers: So you're going to be adding your Dexterity to your Firearms to your Gun Accuracy to special bonuses that apply, and you're going to take off wound penalties, movement penalties, positional penalties, and whatever. This will determine a dicepool.
• Roll your dice, count your hits: 5s and 6s count as hits.
• Do you want to use an Edge? You can spend an Edge to reroll your missed dice.
• Does your target want to use an Edge? Your target can spend an Edge to make you reroll your hits.
• Determine Threshold: The standard threshold to hit a dude is 2. Range increases it, as does cover, movement (of the target), restricted visibility, and so on. If you get hits equal to threshold, you hit. If you exceed the threshold, you do boosted damage with the Net Hits.
• Soak Damage: The target rolls their soak pool, which is generally just their strength. But it may be modified by armor and magic powers or whatever.
• Does the target want to spend Edge? They can reroll missed dice on their soak, and possibly use magic power.
• Determine Wound Level: The Wound Level is the base damage of the weapon (example: many guns are 3) plus the number of Net Hits minus the number of hits on the soak test. A wound level of 1 is called Light and fills in 1 Box. A wound level of 2 is called Moderate and fills in 3 boxes. A wound level of 3 is called Serious and fills in 6 boxes. A wound level of 4 is called Deadly and fills 10 boxes. A wound level of 5 is called Fatality.

Range, Recoil, and Aiming: The threshold to hit with any ranged attack is 2. But for every 20 full centimeters the target is from the firing character's model the threshold is increased by 1. This is the Distance penalty, and it can be removed by taking Primary actions to “Aim.” Every Aim action reduces the Distance penalty by 1, and a character may take a number of consecutive Aim actions equal to their Firearms skill (not dicepool, skill). If a character has Aimed a ranged attack, they also benefit from advantage on that attack. Many weapons have a Recoil modifier. After being fired, a weapon subtracts the Recoil modifier from the number of Aim actions that are active. If a character moves from their position, their Aim actions are lost.

• For Example: Sister Mary is firing a rifle at a target 25 cm away. Because this is more than 20 cm away, she would have a Distance penalty of 1. This would raise the threshold of her attack to 3. Since she doesn't want to deal with this, she instead takes an action Aiming, which reduces her Distance Penalty to 0. She can now plug the target with her rifle as normal (and her 6s explode on that attack roll). Unfortunately, the rifle has a Recoil of 1, which means that her Aim action is negated for subsequent attacks.

Furthermore, all weapons have a Range value. A Rapid Fire weapon can be fired out to that range normally; and be fired out to double that range with a threshold increase of 1. An Assault weapon can be fired out to its range in centimeters without penalty and cannot be fired past that. A Heavy weapon or Pistol can be fired out to the range at no penalties, at double range at +1 threshold, at triple range at +2 threshold, and quadruple range at +3 threshold.

Autofire: Weapons capable of Autofire can be fired in one of two ways: suppressing fire and sustained fire. Suppressing Fire targets an area rather than a specific person. Sustained Fire targets a number of enemies directly.

• Suppressing Fire: A suppressing fire attack covers an area in bullets, hot rivets, or whatever it is that your weapon fires. The purpose of suppressing fire is to keep people out of the area. Anyone who is in the area during your turn or who moves into the area has a chance of being hit unless they are prone or in cover. Roll a single die, on a hit, they are hit (do not stage this damage up). Make an attack roll as normal. The number of hits sets the threshold of Tactics checks for characters to voluntarily move into harm's way (better gunners are better at keeping heads down), and also allows you to nominate a number of characters who are not subject to getting hit. The act of laying down suppressing fire on an area while allies move through it is also called “covering fire.” The area covered by suppressing fire is a triangle whose apex is the firing character, whose base is a number of centimeters equal to the base range of the weapon, and whose height is any distance more than short range and less than extreme range for the weapon.
  Example: Brother Maynard has a machine gun and only vaguely knows how to use it. So he decides to spray a hallway being used by hostile enemies. He chooses to put his cone of death out to 50 cm, leaving him with a triangle of interdiction that is 25 cm wide at the far end and 50 cm long. He makes his Heavy Weapons check and gets only 1 hit. This means that if any of the raiders want to charge down the corridor they will have to get 1 hit on a Tactics check (or their commander will have to get 2 hits on a Command check). It also means that Brother Maynard can nominate one of his allies to be exempt from catching a bullet. In this case, Brother Maynard will halt firing just long enough for Tribal Warrior Daisy to run into a covered position partway down the corridor.
  
  Sustained Fire: A sustained fire attack is made in the same manner as a normal ranged attack, save that you can declare your attack against any number of enemies in a 45 degree arc. If your attack succeeds against the easiest target you declared, you hit that target. Net hits do not stage up damage as normal. Instead your attack roll is compared to the next most difficult target with a +1 threshold modifier, if your attack meets this higher threshold, it strikes an additional target. Repeat this process until your attack does not meet the threshold for the next target. Roll 3d6 for each target struck, and stage the damage up for each hit. Then roll a single d6 for each target (friend or foe) within 3 cm who is not in cover, and if the die comes up a hit, they are hit (no staging).
  Example: Caelin is firing a gatling laser at three enemies in close range. Two are in light cover, and one is not. If Caelin gets 2 hits, the target out of cover is struck. If she gets four or more hits, she can hit the second target (threshold 3 +1 for second target), if she gets five hits, she can tag the third target (threshold 3 + 2 for third target).

Template Weapons: A template weapon can be placed anywhere with the narrow end in contact with the shooter. Everything under the template to any degree except the shooter is hit. The shooter may make a shooting test and split up the hits any way desired to stage up damage to any targets under the template. Template weapons ignore cover entirely.

• Example: Tribal Warrior Daisy has a flame thrower and has moved up to a position where she can use it on some enemies. She can touch three targets with her template, so she does. All three are hit. She makes her heavy weapons test and gets 3 hits. The flame thrower does a base 4 damage, so all three opponents are going to have to soak at least 4 damage. She can distribute the hits any way she likes. So one opponent could have to soak 7 damage while the other two soaked 4; or one could soak 6, one 5, and one 4; or they could all soak 5. She does not even have to distribute all of the hits (if for example, she is worried about outright killing one of the targets with a Fatality).

Blast Weapons: A blast weapon has a circular area of effect, and is subject to scatter. A weapon scatters a variable number of centimeters in a random direction. The base scatter is a number of d6s of centimeters equal to the threshold of striking a target at the desired range with a direct fire weapon. The scatter is reduced by 2 cm for every hit on the attack roll. Every target within the area of effect of the blast is hit by the weapon, with the base damage being staged up by the number of hits rolled on 3 dice. Targets in cover from the center of the blast may be protected from blast weapons. Reduce the number of hits to stage up the weapon by 1 for cover and 2 for heavy cover. If the remaining hits to stage up the damage are now negative, the entire hit is negated.

• Example: Brother Maynard is firing a grenade launcher at a group of enemies some 55 cm away. This is Medium Range for the weapon and more than 40 cm away regardless. Brother Maynard has not spent any actions aiming, so the threshold to hit a target at this range would normally be 5. He rolls his own heavy weapons check and gets only 2 hits. The weapon then scatters 5d6 minus 4 cm in a random direction. This pushes it 13 cm towards the frying machine. As there happens to be an enemy behind the frying machine, the blast nails someone. The blast rolls its own dice to stage up and gets one hit, unfortunately the would be victim is in heavy cover (-2), and so escapes being shredded by the grenade. The frying machine on the other hand takes the full brunt and is reduced to slag.

Realism Note: sometimes a blast weapon may deviate to some place where it is literally impossible for it to go. Most deviations can be explained, for example there's nothing literally stopping a shell from going past the “maximum range” if it gets a favorable wind. But while a shell may indeed go around a corner by bouncing before detonating, it's not going to phase into an enclosed space nor escape from one. It is best in such a circumstance for the CO to just ad hoc something, with a good baseline being to draw a line from the shooter to the impossible location and have the shell go off when it hits something it couldn't go over or through.

Thrown Weapons: Thrown Weapons are resolved as Assault Weapons and the dicepool is Strength + Martial Arts. Many thrown weapons are blast weaponry.

Vehicle Weaponry: A vehicular mounted heavy weapon does not require an action to prepare and can be fired straight off (though still only once per turn). In this manner a single character can pilot a vehicle and fire one of its guns in the same turn.

Shooting Modifiers

• Distance: +1 Threshold for each full 20 cm.*
  Target in Close Combat.*
  Range: +1 Threshold for each range increment of the weapon.
  Poor Visibility: +1 Threshold✦
  Blindfire: +3 Threshold
  Cover: +1 Threshold✦
  Heavy Cover: +2 Threshold✦
  Target Moving Quickly: +1 Threshold✦
  Target Running: +1 Threshold✦
  Target Prone: +1 Threshold (-1 if within 10cm)✦
  Target Large: -1 Threshold✦
  Target Huge: -2 Threshold✦
  Target Stationary: -1 Threshold✦
  *: Aiming can reduce this modifier.
  ✦: Does not affect shooting tests for Blast or Template weapons.

Cover: A character counts as having cover when there is a physical object between the attacker and the target. Cover increases the threshold for normal shooting by 1 difficulty. If the attacking character “owns” the cover, they are not penalized on their attacks against enemies who do not own that cover. A character owns cover that they are within 5 cm of it and they can plausibly point their guns out or across. Template weapons ignore cover whether owned or not. Blast weapons ignore cover during the initial targeting test, but their staging roll is reduced if a target has cover from the center of the blast. Blasts never own cover. If cover is especially defensive and/or the target is about 10% visible (or less) from behind it, the cover is considered Heavy Cover and the penalties are doubled.

• Example: Caelin is in a building firing out of the window. Since she can reach her gun through the window, she owns the cover provided by the building and suffers no penalties shooting out. On her opponent's turn, she has cover from their attacks. On the next turn, Caelin kneels down, meaning that she is now displaying less than 10% of her body and she has Heavy Cover from enemies. If an opponent got into the room with her, she would have no cover from that enemy, only from any opponents still outside.

Moving Targets: If the target moved more than 30 cm last turn, the threshold to hit them with a ranged attack is increased by 1 difficulty. Template weapons are not affected. Blast weapons are usually not affected, since they target the ground rather than any particular target. If however the ground itself is what is moving (for example: the character is attempting to land a rocket on an aircraft such as an nclave whirlybird), then the penalty applies. A stationary target on the other hand reduces the threshold by 1 difficulty. A target is considered stationary whether or not they literally moved any distance on the table if they took no evasive action. A character taking any kind of combat action is considered to be taking some kind of evasive action as well. Note that a vehicle driving down a road at a fixed speed may be considered both fast moving and stationary.

Prone Targets: An opponent who is prone is hard to hit with ranged weaponry unless they are very close. Hitting a prone target with a ranged attack requires attaining a 1 higher threshold on your shooting test. If the target is within 10 cm though, this effect is canceled and even reversed: the angle is good enough that the target is easier to hit and the required threshold is reduced by 1 instead.

Shooting Into Close Combat: If you aren't super concerned about hitting the wrong dude in a close combat, by all means fire away. Simply resolve the attack as normal, but separately roll 2 dice. If you score at least one hit, your attack successfully targets the guy you were after and if none of them do it is resolved against the other guy. If you would like to be more certain of hitting your proper target and not an ally, you may take any dicepool penalty you want on your attack and roll an equal amount of extra dice on the test to target the correct combatant.

Ammunition: Most shooting weapons have an Ammunition number. When making an attack roll, count the number of dice that do not show the number 1. If this number exceeds the Ammunition number, then the weapon can still be used. If it falls short, then the weapon has either run out of ammunition, jammed, malfunctioned, or in some other way become unusable. Weapons with a an Ammunition value of “Auto” are always expended when they are used. So if you throw a flash grenade at something, it explodes and you aren't getting it back. Note that weapons use up one unit of ammunition (2 for Heavy Weapons) each fight they are used in, whether or not that actually run out of ammunition in that battle.

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Close Combat
“The most powerful and advanced laser in the world is of little use when a foe is breaking your skull with a rock.”

Close combat assaults begin when characters are in base contact. A character may make close combat attacks as a primary action. Each close combat attack's threshold is one plus one for every four rating points the target has in Dexterity and Martial Arts together.

• Example: Daisy has a rating of 3 in Dexterity and Martial Arts. The two added together are 6, which is at least 4 but not 8. So the base threshold to strike her in close combat is 2. If she had specialized her Martial Arts in Defense, the threshold to strike her in close combat would be 3.[/i]

Charging Into Close Combat: A character may run directly into an enemy and attack them in close combat all as a single primary action. If the target is on Overwatch, not only do they not suffer an increase in the threshold for firing on Overwatch or at a running target, their threshold is actually reduced by 1. It's not hard to guess where an enemy will be when they just seem to be getting larger and large in your view.

Intercepting Runners: A character who is running is actually quite vulnerable to close combat assaults. If you can charge and catch a running opponent your threshold to strike them is reduced by 1.

Attacking With Two Weapons: Everyone and their dog runs around the wastes with a chain saw in one hand and a pistol in the other. Normally speaking, pistols are not used in close combat save as a club, but merely having two weapons of any sort gives an attack in close combat a +3 dicepool bonus. If a character attacking with two weapons scores net hits on their attack, they may sacrifice one hit to resolve a basic hit with their secondary weapon. Otherwise, they only strike with one weapon of their choice. If a character is not ambidextrous and they are fighting with two weapons, the threshold to strike them in close combat is reduced by 1.

Disengaging From Combat: If you attempt to disengage from combat and your opponent has a pistol weapon, they can shoot you in the back. They may make an immediate shooting attack with a base to-hit threshold of 1. Either way, a disengaging character spends a Primary Action to move their normal movement rate out of close combat.

Close Combat Modifiers:

• Target running: -1 threshold.
  Target's movement restricted: -1 threshold.
  Attacker's movement restricted: +1 threshold.
  Friends in Melee: -1 threshold.
  Lots of Friends in Melee: -2 threshold.
  Ignored: -3 threshold.
  Target dual wielding and not Ambidextrous: -1 threshold.

Restricted Position: If the target is in difficult terrain, dangerous ground, climbing, or in some other position where movement is limited (such as being in a trench or attempting to protect an innocent), the attacker's threshold is reduced by 1. If the attacker is in such a position, the attacker's threshold is increased by 1.

Multiple Attackers: When a character is attacking an enemy in close combat and has one or allies also in base contact with that enemy, their threshold to strike their opponent is reduced by one. If there are three or more additional allies in an assault, the threshold is reduced by 2.

Ignored: If a character is attacking an opponent in close combat who is ignoring them, their threshold is reduced by 3 and they have advantage (6s explode). The most common cause for this is probably sneaking up on a target, but a character can also voluntarily ignore an enemy in order to concentrate on other (presumably more dangerous) foes. An ignored enemy does not count as an enemy in base contact for purposes of calculating multiple attacker bonuses.

[Wrathzog]

The only thing that's missing is a table for called shots. Fallout isn't fallout unless I can super sledge someone in the groin/tentacle until they die.

[Lokathor]

Now I want a Gamma World / Mutant Future writeup of this...

[OgreBattle]

"That's a pretty long chart, but is it thorough for Fallout?"

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ctrl+f "whore" 0 results
ctrl+f "prostitute" 1 result
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Yep, that's a thorough Incursion Chart alright.

[Libertad]

The only thing that's missing is a table for called shots. Fallout isn't fallout unless I can super sledge someone in the groin/tentacle until they die.

I second this notion.

[Aryxbez]

I will note, when I first checked this thread, it had 2 pages in one day, found that rather surprising. As well the current Fallout-y creation that's been made, I'm hoping to see statblocks of enemies, people getting the values inputted for various stash values in places (how much is taken in an encounter,amount to feed new blood etc), and way much more content on Incursion table for stuff that isn't just a "pack". I also share concern on all the packed details within the current system, measuring all the cms for Zone of fear/control, some wordings needing to sound more approachable. Otherwise, I find this a great start in design for 2013, and awesome to see something Fallout related.

As per Tactics and Dogmeat, Dogs are the animal race you'd want for the game. It's arguable as to whether you'd want to make Tribals their own race.

Not sure Dogs would make a compelling player character, they'd lack large amount of interaction with the game. I can't say I'd see a reason for Tribals to be a race, qualities or traits to represent them sure, but they're just humans like any raider/wastelander/Trader.

Fallout was originally going to be made on a GURPS engine, if that means anything.

Ah yes, I'm aware that were gonna use GURPS, if I recall, even some of those designs in the first game.

Yeah, I hated Hardcore Mode. It's very fiddly and I find it hard to take an "ultra-realist postapocalyptic survivor" mode seriously when you're an almost bulletproof mutant shooting insane jingoist robots with a machine gun whose targeting system utilizes a dog brain.

One of the best resources I found for this were a series of tables and geomorphs done by someone running a Fallout game.

I don't mind Hardcore mode at all, makes the game bit more interesting, and nice to see a little survival element. As for bulletproof comment, I look at it as the limitation of the game engine, and imagine the attacks you see aren't their literal depictions. Like V.A.T.S. to someones head isn't necessarily you blasting their head,perhaps scraping past their face, chipping off their helmet, or whatever till it's a true shot culminating in their head exploding.

As for the tables, would you be able to link/provide them? I'd imagine would be rather useful to the discussion.

To Frank:

First off, the Fallout games are surprising incoherent when you try to stick them together.

whether you are playing a game about creating a civilization or whether you're playing a game about a small group of badasses wandering the wasteland shooting fools and solving episodic problems. For the latter you just need a game that handles shooting fools, for which there are many options.

Pardon if I am being obtuse, but I never really saw a problem with coherency, and seemed feasible enough when things got referenced (and likely have an explanation).

Though the former is rather interesting sounding, and the focus of current discussion as of right now. I would like to inquire what would be "good" options for an "episodic shooting fools Fallout game"?

Disagree. You want to do it Warp Cult/Necromunda style on a gridless battle table using tape measures.

Though I suppose the original games were rather gridless, is this why you made this decision in regards to Fallout Frank? I myself have used miniatures, though never been too big on gridless, seems be little tedious dealing with such smaller measurements (I recall MageKnight miniatures,being only gridless experienced I've had).

Well god damn, thats more game design done in one day than I've done in two years.

If it makes you feel any better, the rules were carried from an older game he posted on here Warp Cult

[Wrathzog]

Not sure Dogs would make a compelling player character, they'd lack large amount of interaction with the game. I can't say I'd see a reason for Tribals to be a race, qualities or traits to represent them sure, but they're just humans like any raider/wastelander/Trader.

Tactics still gave us Dog as a PC race. It's arguable that they should be relegated to Retainer/Follower status, but you totally put down Gecko as a potential playable race? That was confusing.

As for Tribals, yeah, you're probably right. I guess it'd be covered under background traits or something (Tribal vs. Vault Dweller vs. whatevs).

[violence in the media]

Should the Encounter table include more stuff than just things trying to roll up and take your stash? Should it include severe weather like tornadoes or hazards like un-exploded ordinance?

[Darth Rabbitt]

Wouldn't Cyberdogs already pretty much fill the PC dog niche?

EDIT: This game is awesome and I want to play/run it.