Yet another thread, yet another approach, yet another FO PnP system...

Horrid

Horrid

First time out of the vault
Hi folks,

as fate would have it I stumbled over this new subforum on NMA while searching for a platform to release my own approach at a Pen and Paper game in the Fallout world, which I was working on the last 6 months or so. As Hassknecht already pointed out in his Community Effort thread, there are few to no reasonable PnP adaptations for Fallout available. In my opinion they at least lack in some substantial part, be it playability, consisency or simply Fallout's S.P.E.C.I.A.L. feel.

So I myself decided to finish what I had started some years before and make it presentable.
Basically an FO PnP game needed a compact character and combat system, that was workable and playable but felt similar to the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system. Although they are playable, GURPS or D20 just don't have the same feel since their mechanics differ largely from the original FO system. On the other hand the original system is just not playable without a computer calculating your chance to hit or the damage you do.
There is one game that I know, though, that has a similar feel and compact enough combat mechanics to be applicable to the Fallout world without losing the taste. And that is Cyberpunk.
So I decided to write some rules to adapt the Cyberpunk 2020 system to the Fallout Setting a fewe years ago already. I picked my old project up again, and since then it became bigger and bigger and at some point I wanted to make the thing public since I had put a lot of effort in it and I also like it very much!
Also I was very fortunate to be able to finish the project to a releasable state within the last 6 months, though it is not complete, yet. That means that the game rules are complete but the Bestiary has to be filled with many many more creatures to throw at the players, yet. But it will be happening.

I like the idea of a community made and driven, completely stand-alone NMA Fallout PnP and I surely do not want to undermine this project, if I was even able to do so. But if anyone likes what I created as well, I'd be very happy to hear. So please have a look at it and tell me what you think:

Horrid's Fallout for Cyberpunk 2020
- Editable Character Sheet - Female
- Editable Character Sheet - Male
- Bonus Sheet - More Possessions

Obviously I need to encourage you to legally obtain the Cyberpunk 2020 core rule book, if you actually want to play my Fallout PnP adaptation, but it is certainly possible to find the Cyberpunk rules in the web, if you want to have the full idea of how this works before you might actually buy the book.

That said, I hope you enjoy what I have made and I am open for any constructive criticism (destructive criticism will be ignored).

Humbly,
Horrid

EDIT 09/22/2016: I made editable character sheets. They don't calculate yet, but covering all possible modifications to the calculations will be a pain in the ass. -.-
For some reason the female sheet is much bigger than the male one. I have no idea why.
 
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Izak said:
Jason Mical's one? I thought Hassknecht said it was quite heavy on the math, though I guess that would explain the loyalty part.
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That is pretty much why I didn't want to use it before I decided to make my own thing. It had way too many %age calculations while in progress. I didn't playtest it, but it didn't appear fluid or simple to me when I read it some years ago. Don't know if it has been improved by now, but it doesn't seem so.
I tried to reduce calculations during play to a minimum and certainly tried to avoid the need for a calculator while in combat. In Pen and Paper play you should be able to do all calculations quickly in your head and I don't see that in Jason Mical's system. Also translating computer game systems to a tabletop game isn't that simple. So staying loyal to the original should be first priority, but since there is just a huge difference in gameplay of both game types, you have to compromise in way more than just calculations or number systems. A Karma system for example is completely redundant for a P&P game. That's part of the role playing. In a computer game you surely need something like it, so the computer can keep track of your actions and let the NPC's act accordingly. At the table, that is the GM's job. Jason's system is just too loyal to the computer game in to many ways for my taste. Others, like the d20 system, are too far away in my opinion.
Also I don't like level systems. They are fine for computer games or more combat oriented games like DnD, but in "SciFi"-P&P a certain amount of freedom in character development is important to me.

Thus my own approach... ;-)
 
Ah I see Kohno already suggested the Cyberpunk 2020 system for the community project... should have read the forums more thouroghly I suppose... :-P
 
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Horrid said:
That is pretty much why I didn't want to use it before I decided to make my own thing. It had way too many %age calculations while in progress. I didn't playtest it, but it didn't appear fluid or simple to me when I read it some years ago. Don't know if it has been improved by now, but it doesn't seem so.
I tried to reduce calculations during play to a minimum and certainly tried to avoid the need for a calculator while in combat. In Pen and Paper play you should be able to do all calculations quickly in your head and I don't see that in Jason Mical's system. Also translating computer game systems to a tabletop game isn't that simple. So staying loyal to the original should be first priority, but since there is just a huge difference in gameplay of both game types, you have to compromise in way more than just calculations or number systems. A Karma system for example is completely redundant for a P&P game. That's part of the role playing. In a computer game you surely need something like it, so the computer can keep track of your actions and let the NPC's act accordingly. At the table, that is the GM's job. Jason's system is just too loyal to the computer game in to many ways for my taste. Others, like the d20 system, are too far away in my opinion.
Also I don't like level systems. They are fine for computer games or more combat oriented games like DnD, but in "SciFi"-P&P a certain amount of freedom in character development is important to me.

Thus my own approach... ;-)
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Hi I really like your version of Fallout and next week me (GM) and my friends are starting a campaign using your rule book, I would like to ask you a question when are you planning to release rest of the monsterbook?
 
Hi,
cool someone writes back, I'm so excited! ... :-D
No, seriously, thanks for trying it out! :-) Till now it seemed that nobody was really interested.

About the Monsters... I'll be doing this piece by piece when I have the muse and the time. At the moment I am really caught up in my Degenesis group... :dance:
But maybe if you need a certain creature or creature complex to be finished I just could do that next. It is pretty much the same to me which one I do next, but if you need a certain creature for your campaign, I could do just that one. But I do not know how quickly I can finish the entry. Could take some time, depending on how much work it is and how much time I have.
Super Mutants could take a while, however, since it is a very large chapter and there are a lot of inconsistencies in canon lore that I have to even out and even more holes I could have to fill. :aiee:

But generally speaking, if there are any questions, problems, balancing issues, etc. just ask. It made a whole lot of sense in my head when I wrote everything, but I don't know if it all makes sense for someone else.
I'm also glad for any word on mistakes, inconsistencies, problematic or annoying mechanics, character creation issues, etc. so I can correct or improve them.
Anything really! No matter how small.

Thanks again! And have fun playing. :)
 
Thanks for fast reply, we are going to try an experiment with my online group playing as Brotherhood of Steel patrol and on other day with my regular Real life group playing psycho raiders from Vault in the same world and time. where at the end they will have final battle. I will post my review after few sessions but already I can see you put a lot of time into this rule book with nice graphics and one of the best looking char. sheets. If you will have time i would appreciate Robots. I am happy that you continue to work on this project and will have further updates.

Good bless the enclave! God bless America!
 
Hehe, sounds like a cool experiment. Tell me how it went when it is all over. :D
And thanks for the compliments!

Ahh robots... yeah. sure I'll see what I can do. Any models in particular? I have a huge list of models that appeared in the games that I'd want to have an entry for...
  • Floating Eye Bot (or Eyebot) (standard variant)
  • Repair EB
  • Medical EB
  • Liberty Prime
  • Mister Handy(Miss Nanny)
  • Mister Gutsy
  • Mister Orderly
  • Protectron (Many Variants! Variable Weapons and Skills depending on Variant)
  • Securitron (Many Variants! MK I, MKII stronger, better weapons, Berzerk (not a variant, changes in behavior when damaged or electrocuted))
  • Sentry Bot (Variants? different weapons?)
  • Roboscorpion (maybe later)
  • Blaster
  • Bomber
  • Pincer
  • Giant
  • Robobrain
  • Behemoth
  • Pacification Robot (Stuns Targets)
  • - Hover robot (nope, => Eyebot)
  • Humanoid Robot (= Assaultron?)
  • Loadlifter Robot
  • Security Robot (= Mr. Gutsy?)
  • Tank Track Robot
  • Kamikaze Robot
  • Tesla Robot
  • Assistant/Maintenance/Service Robot (all variants of the same small robot)
  • Spider Drone / Scurry robot
  • Y-17 trauma override harness
  • Auto-Cannon / Gun Turret / Automated Turret (Mk. I to VIII) (all turrets generalized in small/medium/large/huge?)
  • A.I.s / Supercomputers (later, only fluff, no actual combat entry, INT score and skills)
  • Androids / Synths (Playable Race entry)
  • - Assaultron (absolutely not, sheer existence does not make sense, completely contradicts all other canon info on the War)
 
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would you include some of tactic robots? i know some of us consider it unfit in '55s retro setting of fallout, but it does fit enough in a post-post apocalyptic fallout where there is a faction that still continue the development of robots (like the shi).
 
In general I tried to include all Fallout lore somehow, but the main problem with translating a computer game setting to PnP is that in computer games a lot of things, if not most, are single instances of ides someone had, usually localized to one ingame site with many loose ends to fill for your imagination. They do not have to make sense or be perfectly consistent with any other lore, as long as they make sense in their specific appearance. That is a pain in the ass, because if you try to translate that to a PnP game, you have to try and generalize the lore, because else you have to cut 80% of the setting's content, because by lore it appears like "only in Vault 22" and nowhere else in the world or is produced only by one faction in one specific location, like the Shi as you said. Or it appeared in one game only and isn't mentioned in any other part of the franchise, which makes the lore completely inconsistent...
BUT! PnP is in your head. :) and that's its major advantage, so there was only one conclusion for me: I include everything that I reasonably can and try to give a concrete idea of how it all fits together and into the existing lore, and the GMs and players decide what they like and include it into their game. If someone doesn't like the Tactics Robots or their looks, they can just leave them out of their game or describe them accordingly. But for some reason that completely eludes me, some people (I don't mean you ^_^) can only read the Rules As Written way and think that everything has to be played and included or simply BE as it is written in their rulebook.
So I don't fear the haters. :)
Good example for myself is the completely stupid Assaultron... if such powerful robots existed even for a brief period during the war, they would have completely changed the outcome. They only run around the FO4 wastes, because the game relentlessly focuses on Power Armor and powerful weaponry so they had to create enemies that are strong enough for the player. But they completely contardict any lore of the War. And I personally really hate when lore has to adapt to some fancy feature driven game style. :mad:

As for the Tactics Robots: I had the same problem with the way they look and that many of them duplicate robot design that already existed. That's why I boiled the much longer list of actual robots that appeared in the games down to a list of their actual function. The Behemoth or the Loadlifter, for example, are basically unique in their function and so I decided to include them as templates for robots with that specific function. What such a robot actually looks like in the mind of the players playing the game is completely up to them.
So like I said, I don't fear the haters, they just lack imagination! ;-)

Sry for the long answer, but that is actually something that always was a problem during the whole writing process... what to include and why, and does it actually fit the setting or is it just some weird developer idea or just an easter egg, how to generalize creatures or other content so they could appear anywhere, etc. etc. etc. ... not so simple ^_^
 
Just common robots, for Capital Wasteland campaign : protectrons, mr gutsy/handys, sentry bot and robobrain. I will probably eradicate Super mutants at the begining of campaign so need for them.
 
Hi Mazdar,
sorry I didn't write back yet, life's been busy lately... unfortunately also too busy for writing stuff, but I'll just link you what I wrote before revising the whole system to version 2.
it should mostly compatiblebe still, though I will probably change many things to be more consistent to version 2 as soon as I revisit these sections.
will be next year at least... :/

here you go:
Turrets
Robots
Androids/Synths if you like (not finished and relies only on information from before FO4 (not necessarily a bad thing), but it should suffice)
Super Mutants & Centaurs
Other Mutants
I also have some other stuff from before v2.
canines and rodents...

Cheers,
- Horrid
 
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Hi horrid, thank you for your reply, our game is still on with most of Capital wasteland destroyed by players, thank you for sending me more varied enemies to throw at them.
I would be glad if you sent me also canines and rodents, one of the players wish to have a friendly dog
 
Hi! edited the original post... see there ;-)

Mazdar said:
... our game is still on with most of Capital wasteland destroyed by players...
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That's great to hear! :D And you're welcome...
But WTF did they do?? ... don't tell me they pushed the red button... ^.^

As soon as you think to have a good impression of the system and how everything works out for you and your players, I'd be more than happy to hear about it, btw. Feedback would be more than great! :D
But all in due time...
 
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Great job! How did you make the .pdf? Did you take something as a template and what program did you use?
 
Hi, thank you very much! :)
Actually I own Word 2010 and Acrobat 9... so ... I just saved the Word document as a PDF with the right settings :)
Ok I minorly edited the PDF in Acrobat afterwards, but that is basically it.

If you are asking about design or anything, I did all that myself... well except for the artworks obviously, I did not draw or create those, but most of the text and stuff I arranged myself...
90% I wrote myself... but I used some passages out of the FO wiki and integrated them into my own text and ideas...
 
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