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Rising from Rad-ridden Ashes [Fallout/CK II-ish Quest]

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[Note: One of the inspirations for this is actually Fallout Monstergirl Quest so some elements...

Nyrath

I trust you know where the happy button is?
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[Note: One of the inspirations for this is actually Fallout Monstergirl Quest so some elements of how mutations are handled there are leaked over. Ghouls and Supermutants are still, you know, the usual outcomes (apart from death of course), but the wide and varied assortment of other mutates are possible in the right circumstances for the right kind of subject. And yes, it is an option for char gen.]

It's 2141, this will mark the 64th year since the world burned in atomic fire. The people who remember a time before that are dying off, the attrition of this new world having claimed oh so many even before the Great Winter of 2130. Now the survivors are either ghouls or already elderly, and in a world lacking in good healthcare the later are quite vulnerable.

[Startup will consist of choice of group, character generation and group customization. The latter two will be point based with flaws and penalties you may take (such as more hostile wildlife or xenophobic neighbors) to net you more points to work with.]

You yourself however are many years away from having to personally worry about that. At the tender age of eighteen there are many who would claim you're too young lead. But such are the wonders of nepotism. And it's not likely you'll let yourself prove them right now is it? But just which group is it you've achieved leadership of?

Tribal
Your people are descended from a mix of survivalists, lucky rural farmers and some migrant workers. Lacking proper industry and power generation their technical skills atrophied over the generations, but damn if you haven't inherited a robust agricultural and pastoral base.
Being somewhat spread out over your territory your populace haven't been able to rely on professional guards or soldiers to defend them. At least this has your people having a higher than average skill at combat; your people is your army.
Pros
- Stable: While your techbase is lower you can count having plenty of just about everything you know how to make. You lack the devise political machinations of the townies and the brutal and blood-soaked struggles for power found in raider leadership. Instead you have a clear sense of kinship and shared burdens with your people. (Low unrest, dissent will voice itself peacefully if notable)
- Food: You have no need to trade, scavenge or outright raid for food. In fact you produce something of a surplus. Alongside a supply of, mostly, clean water you're rather secure on the two most basic of needs. (Food surplus, safe from malnutrion and increased disease resistance, slight trade income from food surplus)
- Nativity: Inherent population growth is nice, very nice given the attrition of mere day to day life. Not to mention skirmishes and raiders. While every death is tragedy, at least it's one your people as a whole can survive. (No reliance on immigration or active recruitment for population growth)
Cons
- Low Tech: While guns are available it's only due to trade, scavenging and looting. Ammunition replenishment is very slow indeed for your meagre industry to manage at all. Crossbows, bows and healing powder is the order of the day rather than rifles, shotguns and stimpacks. (Higher tech requires trade or notable internal buildup to utilize on significant scale)
- Meddling Elders: You are only barely the most influential and important person in your group. Most of your power is shared with the council of elders. And while their wisdom and experience is significant, they can at times be recaltry and reactionary. "In my day" indeed… (Many actions require council majority consent. Increased popularity and proven success, among other things, improves likelihood of agreement)
- Insular: What with the raiders and all one might forgive your people for being inherently distrustful of outsiders. It does however put a crimp on your ability to politically or culturally influence your neighbors. Diplomatically incorporating outside groups is similarly hampered as distrust can easily breed resentment. (Malus to actions involving close action, ties or incorporation of outside group, may be mitigated by previous favorable actions.)

Townie
Your people have never quite managed to get a robust food supply going, for decades trade has been supplementing their efforts. Fortunately your position as a proper town with working power has allowed for the kind of specialist knowledge and labor to produce valued commodities to be produced. Whether guns, fine armor, recreations of prewar medicine or less wholesome goods such as 'recreational' drugs your people make and sell something smaller rural settlements can't manage nearly so easily.
While most raider groups are too weak to threaten the town itself they harass trade and bleed profit from you. And some groups, well, it's good that you can placate them with tribute so that they don't overrun you.
Pros
- Industry: While nothing compared to pre-war capabilities you nonetheless have what can be called industrial capacity. Ammo supplies are plentiful enough to trade, guns are kept in fine working order and genuinely new goods are produced alongside refurbishing prewar salvage. There's always room for improvements, but you have something to work with. (Higher quality goods, independent arms manufacturing etc. possible)
- Shiny, shiny caps: As one of the few actual towns in the region you're something of a center for trade. Preserved food, prewar salvage, leather and other rural goods flow into or through your market as ammunition and other goods of your own flow out. Managing this flow and keeping circumstances, raiders or just plain bad decisions from constricting it is hard, but vital to your wellbeing. (Trade! Bonus to trade income)
- Regional hub: With traders comes news, with them it leaves. Information flows in and out of your settlement quite well given the harsh post-nuclear conditions. Whether through a fluke of local history or some inevitability of geography your town is the hub around which many happenings in the local region revolve. (Bonus to intel, weaker settlements view you more favorably initially. Unfortunately news regarding you travels faster as well)
Cons
- Please don't hurt us: While it hurts to admit it, your military capacity is weak. While on the defensive you can break most raider groups, on occasion some come around that you simply have to bribe to go away. And even the smaller raider bands can be a threat away from the towns defenses; mercenaries are a sad necessity to deal with many trade disruptions. (Militarily weak)
- Fuckin' Politics: However much you loathe it it's a fact; there's plenty of people who think they can do your job better than you. It's also true that plenty of people in town are plenty happy to merely see to themselves rather than some nebulous greater good. (Action difficulty may fluctuate due to popularity of action, internal faction opposition)
- Food Imports: For a variety of reasons your town has never quite managed agricultural self-sufficiency. This quite naturally hands your neighbors a notable advantage when negotiating with you, and expansion sure as hell isn't gonna happen until food can reliably be put on the table without risking some unruly tribal cutting you off. (Okay-ish food supply, bad luck may cause temporary shortages. Reliant on trade to maintain adequate supplies)

Raider
In the band people don't care much where you came from, what you can and will do matters rather more. Communal history ain't much people care about either usually, but your band has at least been around for longer than you've been alive. You were born into it in fact. Before your father ate a missile from a surprisingly well armed caravan guard he'd kept over a hundred of the hardest, toughest raiders for a hundred miles in any direction in line for over a decade.
Sure, the Great Winter hit you hard, but it hit everyone hard. More recent trouble has been the whole succession crisis thing. I mean, when your father died he had two dozen kids and half that in reasonably trustworthy lieutenants. Now, three months later, you're down to ten siblings and three of your fathers inner circle. And that's counting the brats.
Pros
- Armed to the Teeth: For all their faults, you and yours know how to fight. With fighting, and looting, being arguably the most important skills of any raider your decades old band of ne'er-do-wells can match and likely beat just about everyone you're likely to run into any time soon. Arms and armor are both plentiful and reasonably good too; your pa didn't keep winning against other raider groups by being sloppy with maintenance. (Strongest militarily)
- Straightforward: You, unlike some leaders in the wastes, don't have to worry too much what others think about every little thing. While you may choose to listen to their opinions and make use of specialist advisors, in the end what you say goes. If they got a problem with that they can speak to you face to face. If they think they can do a better job than you they're welcome to try and claim your place. It's not like you just got done crushing nearly a dozen other claimants. (Dissent is clear in nature, intrigue based opposition scarce)
- Formidable: On a personal level you're exceptional, really you are. If you were older you're certain not nearly as many would have even seriously considered trying to dispute your claim as pa's heir. Raider life can easily be harsh, and hunting during off-seasons ain't no walk in park even though your target ain't packing heat. Those golden-gecko-skin boots of yours? Strangled the fucker to death with your bare hands. The yao-guai head mounted outside your quarters? You, it and a combat knife. That protectron guarding the foodstores? Reprogrammed it yourself. (Bonuses to character generation, including substantial combat bonus)
Cons
- Uncertain Foodsupply: You don't farm or ranch anywhere near enough for your not so merry warband to live off. Hunting, scavenging pre-war supplies and raiding are the mainstays of your foodsupply, and unfortunately those aren't the most reliable. (Worst food situation of the groups, work needed to keep group afloat)
- Recruits Needed: Unless you become something more than a raider warband it's unlikely you'll ever even reach replenishment level with population growth. And while your warband's long lasting nature is a clear plus when it comes to attracting hopeful ne'er-do-wells it's hardly unheard of for your numbers to shrink during some years as there simply aren't enough recruits to fill the gaps. (Higher attrition and mostly random replenishment until organization changes)
- Fuckin' Raiders: People tend to get cross when you nick the stuff, possibly after pummeling them and shooting their friends and family. Who knew? As a result you've got a hard time doing normal negotiations with other groups. (Penalty to diplomacy, except gun-boat diplomacy)

So, initial vote and I'm open for questions. I do not garantuee that I will answer them, but I shall endeavor to at least reply.
[ ] Tribal
[ ] Townie
[ ] Raider
 
[X] Townie

Bringing civilization back to the wastes.
 
[x] Tribal

Yeehaw. We can just steal tech from those we conquer with our massive armies.
Remember ceaser legion
 
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[X] Raider

I live! I die! I live again! :D
 
. . . Tempted to make these Raiders into the Psychos from the Borderlands.
. . . Eh, why the heck not?

+puts morals out of the thread+

[X] Raider

Let's put on some meat-bicycles!
 
Tribal and raider are both tempting. We would need to work on military with the tribal path and work on food supply if we go raiders...

Plus that sexy character generation bonus
[X] Raider
 
Leaving the vote open for another day.

Currently Townie has a slim lead, but no certain victory by a longshot.
 
Tribal and raider are both tempting. We would need to work on military with the tribal path and work on food supply if we go raiders...

Plus that sexy character generation bonus
[X] Raider
Remember that raiders are a bunch of scum without loyalty that will backstab us. Taking tribal and making the tribe go to war is doable since there is loyalty to the tribe and warrior honor and all that stuff. A town can yet be turned feudal.
But raiders are just a bunch of exploitative selfish cowards without an ounce of loyalty
 
Remember that raiders are a bunch of scum without loyalty that will backstab us. Taking tribal and making the tribe go to war is doable since there is loyalty to the tribe and warrior honor and all that stuff. A town can yet be turned feudal.
But raiders are just a bunch of exploitative selfish cowards without an ounce of loyalty
Well, yes, but Raiders that want to rule will only try to stab us from the front.
They don't have honor, but they know that the only way to lead is to be stronger.

It is stated in Pro: Straightforward (Dissent is clear in nature, intrigue based opposition scarce).
 
You know, i really wish this was a ranked vote. I want tribal but have to vote townie so that raider doesn't win

Vote Tally : Rising from Rad-ridden Ashes [Fallout/CK II-ish Quest] | Questionable Questing
##### NetTally 1.5.9
[X] Townie
No. of Votes: 4
[X] Raider
No. of Votes: 3
[X] Tribal
No. of Votes: 1
Total No. of Voters: 8
 
[X] Tribal

Triple tie with 3 v 3 v 3
 
Huh, that's a 3-4-4 tie.

I might just go and frankenstein up a solution.

Maybe having the Great Winter of 2130 hit everyone a bit harder than it would have otherwise. As a result the Raiders rather forced a merger of sorts with them ending up the defacto warrior class supported by artisanal and merchantile townies (probably relocated a bit) and the tribals (and some of the townies) struggling to expand their agricultural efficiency to account for it.

So, taking most of the advantages with a bit of lessening to them, some of the flaws (of which some are also decreased in magnitude) and add in a new one of 'class' tensions that need adressing. Probably have the advisory body be made up of bits from each group with tensions sparking there a bit until unity can actually be achieved. Until unity is achieved there's always the option of trying to play the various factions against each other, or attempting to form a dominant block of some sort or whatever. Politics! in short.

Hmmm, sounds interesting actually.

Unless there's some notable outcry against it I think that's the way to go. Can be taken in so many directions.

Oh, and all the worst Raider elements would have either moved elsewhere or gotten themselves executed at one point or another in this one. So rather less worry about disloyalty there, and you'd still get the Formidable bonus.
 
Alright, while I finish up my attempts at balancing various possible starting mutations to other traits and flaws here's something to vote on.

Stats.

Your six attributes are as follows.

COMBAT - Easy enough, your personal capacity for violence. An agregate of skill, fitness, gear and possibly mutations and other things that contribute killing things while not getting killed. Helps with legitimacy amongst your ex-raiders (and outside raider groups) and influences your contributions when personally lending a hand in various actions. Or just surviving if someone tries to kill you.
MILITARY - The martial of the 22nd century, this ain't the 12th after all. Leadership, strategic thinking and tactical acumen. This is what you want if you intend to personally ensure your fighters are the toughest around as it helps you train them too. Won't allow you to do mil-tec research on its own, but does lend a little synergy bonus to it as knowning the intended working end of a projects end result can be useful.
DIPLOMACY - The gift of the gab and the art of the compromise. A good diplomacy score helps tremendously with sothing wounded egos and frayed tempers, or just getting a better deal when trading while letting the other side walk away happy thinking they got the better bargain. If you just want people to get along, so they can help you kill those sons-of-bitches over there instead of each other this one is for you.
AMINISTRATION - If there were any trains still running, you'd make them run on time. Administration is that mix of art and science concerning getting people, systems and systems of people to run smoothly. A good administrator stretches supplies further and wastes less, letting them accumulate more. Finding the right people for the right job is a wonderful skill, and a productive one.
SCIENCE - From steam engines to plasma guns science is the key to getting them running. Both the knowing of the many fields of technical know-how and the skill of learning more, science in even small doses is what seperates you from the savages eating their fellow man and scavenging for even the merest handfuls of ammunition. Whether it's more and better medicine and crops you want or killier guns and snassier armor you're after Science will let you know how to make 'em.
INTEL - The art of subterfuge, the cloak and the dagger. Deducing hidden intent and ferreting out secrets are certainly useful things for a ruler of even the meanest little shanty town in the wastes. Knowing the plots and the skeletons in the closets of every player in town, or even just who all the players are, is certainly helpful when it comes to leveraging people into supporting your own agenda or ending a possible threat quietly.

Well, and then there's Health. You aren't gonna use that anywhere near as much, and it's rather more of a derived stat than the others.

As your attributes are partially randomized, I want you to vote on which you prioritize. Rank them in order from 1 to 6, and for my ease of totaling up the result you put the 6 in the priority one and the 1 in your chosen dump stat.

[ ] Combat
[ ] Military
[ ] Diplomacy
[ ] Admin
[ ] Science
[ ] Intel

For example:

[6] Admin
[5] Science
[4] Combat
[3] Diplomacy
[2] Military
[1] Intel

Doesn't matter if you order from highest to lowest like that, I'll simply total up numbers at the end and assign the dice based on that. I'll probably only show the results after you've voted on traits as well though, so fair warning there.
 
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[6] Combat
[2] Military
[3] Diplomacy
[1] Admin
[4] Science
[5] Intel
 
[1] Combat
[4] Military
[3] Diplomacy
[6] Admin
[5] Science
[2] Intel
 
[6] Combat
[5] Military
[2] Diplomacy
[1] Admin
[4] Science
[3] Intel
 
[1] Combat
[4] Military
[2] Diplomacy
[6] Admin
[5] Science
[3] Intel
 
Personally I would like completely randomized traits because it creates some really amusing scenarios
 
Well, you know that these kind of votes tend to leave none winning. :)

[6] Combat
[3] Military
[2] Diplomacy
[5] Admin
[1] Science
[4] Intel
 
It's a compromise thing really, and keeps a bit of activity going as I do a little polishing on the char gen section.

And the difference is hardly insurmountable between the lowest and the highest dice assignments here. Even if, say, Intel ends up with the lowest dice it could end up the highest score (excepting combat, the curve is a bit different there).
 
[1] Combat
[4] Military
[3] Diplomacy
[2] Admin
[6] Science
[5] Intel
 
Alright, unless some new people come in and upset the vote (which I'll leave open for now, this can be left open until traits have been voted on after all), it looks like you'll be favoring Science, dumping Diplomacy and by a margin of 1 favoring Military and Intel over Combat and Admin.

Now that's all still up in the air, and the dice haven't been rolled, there are other things to decide upon. First, some information. I'm starting you off in Oregon. Why Oregon? Because it's something different from the endless dustbowl of the Mojave and California (mostly) of Fallout 1 and 2 while still being relatively close by. Secondly it is essentially terra incognita as far as Fallout Lore is concerned, so I can play around some without trampling established lore.

But where in Oregon you might ask? Well, part of that is what I want you to vote on in a moment. Broadly that is. Before that I figure it best I mention that the balancing I mentioned earlier ain't happening. After spending two days on and off trying to work out a decent solution I did arrive at two conclusions.
One, balancing as many mutation variants as I'd like to offer is finicky and probably not worth the effort since most of 'em are fairly similar at the level this is abstracted to and assigning point costs would be a small hell.
Secondly, I realized I really did want to do a mutated MC. So what'll happen is that I'll doodle up a chart (do a lot of stuff on paper still) of variants I'm willing to work with then just roll. If you get a weak, lesser variant it might just be possible to work your way upwards in game.
And if I haven't mentioned this before, you're female. Just, you know, a detail that's fixed itself in my mind during my prep work for this.

Now, to voting ladies and gentlemen. As it happens names are kind of important, so perhaps you could help by supplying some?

(Tribal name)
[ ] Write in?

(Town name, pre 2130; aka the old town)
[ ] Write in?

(Town name, post 2130; aka the new town)
[ ] Write in?
[ ] New [Old Name]

(Raider name)
[ ] Write in?

(Did you father push for a new identity for the Raiders or the Collective as a whole?)
[ ] Yes
-[ ] Raiders Only
--[ ] Write in?
-[ ] Whole collective
--[ ] Write in?
[ ] No

Your people live in what was the state of Oregon, but where?
[ ] The Coast – Easy to supplement farming and hunting with fishing, and perhaps one day seaborne trade or just exploration might be a thing. Little shelter from the storms though, which is a bummer.
[ ] Inland, near the old cities – Pickings for scavengers are richer here, though so are the rads. Most of the old farmland is still useable though, so food can be found. And while the greater density of other groups in the region can be both opportunity and danger, the greater number of feral ghouls is only the latter.
[ ] Forested mountain slopes – While the farming may be harder, so is attacking you. The woods have their uses as well, and while the critters might be ornery they at least keep most feral ghouls cooped up in their high radiation homes.
 

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