#Fallout4 #RPG – A Very British Fallout Pt 4

Over & Out

After they’ve finished messing around in Bone Temple – perhaps engaging in the various side-quests available there – Saxon will be ready to head out to Fort Over (a Monarchy outpost) where he intends to trade the fertiliser and other goods he’s traded for here at Bone Temple.

This is a hike of about ten miles, cross country (one country, one urban encounter chance).

Hiking in the Wasteland

The average human foot speed on good ground (paved) can be as much as 4mph if you’re fit and in a hurry. Travelling in the wasteland is unlikely to go at such a pace though as caution is needed and even the old roads are littered with rubbish, abandoned vehicles, fallen trees and thick undergrowth. It’s best to assume a normal foot-speed of 2mph at best. With each hex rated as a five-mile space, that means two-and-a-half hours to travel a single hex. In our journey above, assuming no distractions, that’s five hours of travel. Autumn/winter days – depending on the weather – have 8-10 hours of useful sunlight – or 3-5 hexes on foot. Mounted speeds (Brahmin, tame Radstag or horse) double this, and the few remaining off-road vehicles can maintain a safe average speed of 20mph and helicopters or vertibirds have a cruising speed of about 200 mph.

Arriving in Town

Much of the ruined town in which Fort Over is situated is still wild and untamed ruin, but within the centre of the ruin is The Chantry (the redoubt of the Monarchist forces) and this is surrounded by a fortified area that houses the population. Beyond this area the town is a ruin, but there are plenty of places to explore and plenty of side-quests to go after should the players be so inclined.

Saxon will be very pleased with their help and will pay them a further 25 caps each for helping him haul his cargo into town. He’ll then let them know that they’re on their own from here in, though he now considers them… acquaintances (Saxon doesn’t really ‘do’ friends. He’ll be staying at the Fallen Angel

Locations in Fort Over

Fort Over is a low level, disliked posting for soldiers and agents of The Monarchy. Low on the totem pole they are not high in priority for food, supplies or good soldiers. It’s even considered to be something of a punishment posting.

Fort Over
Population: 2500 (1 Knight, 1 Noble, 20 Yeoman, 100 conscripts, 20 support staff, 2358 civilians).
History: Former light-industrial, army town and commuter overspill.
Notable Features: Monarchy outpost, relatively unlooted outskirts, well defended.
Economy: Imports fertiliser, scrap, charcoal. Exports electronics, ammunition, weapons.

The Chantry

The Chantry is an old shopping centre with a ‘Y’ shaped concourse on a single level. One opens out onto the high street where the market is, one towards the old church and one marks the entrance to the car-park which is really a part of the chantry.

Sir Wilbur Pickles, Knight of Fort Over, quarters in an old coffee shop near the centre of The Chantry, close to repaired glass light-well where there’s plenty of light and rows of planters growing pre-war vegetables. The rest of the old shop-fronts and the ‘backstage’ areas are the lodgings for the Monarchy garrison here and the storage areas for their supplies – most of which are controlled via the Hermes warehouse.

Side Quest
The lower levels – the old service tunnels beneath the Chantry – are damp and largely unused. They regularly get infested with Uranifish which need clearing out, something for which The Monarchy prefers to use mercenaries for such duties, digging around in the dark and the wet. Some scrap and material may remain down there and burrowing uranifish bring in things from other tunnels.

The Library (Inside the Chantry)

The old library was largely ruined in the war and its aftermath, but older and more valuable (intellectually and financially) items survived as they were away in storage, as did the library’s microfilm stores of old news stories and other, limited, locally oriented material. Baronet Giles Hanforth, down from the capital and serving as an archivist for the Monarchy has come here to catalogue the stocks and to send anything worthwhile back to the capital. Sir Pickles is paranoid about his presence and feels undermined and threatened by the presence of someone of Giles’ rank.

Side Quest I
The Baronet has some concern that the old local newspaper may have some material embarrassing to the Monarchy from the pre-war, something that only ghouls really care about. Still, to deal with any potential problem he’s willing to pay 200 caps in scrip for someone to clean out the old newspaper office and bring back electronic, paper, film or microfiche supplies that remain there.

Side Quest II
After they’ve done a few missions and side quests within Fort Over The Baronet will call them to a private meeting. He has sensitive intelligence material that needs to be taken to the Monarchy outpost at Alfred’s Crater and can’t trust the Monarchy soldiers here due to the local commander’s paranoia. The message is an encrypted, unmarked holotape. Decrypting it – (Near Impossible) – reveals that it is an offer of parley to the Monarchy from a group within the Aldermasters.

Hermes (Inside the Chantry)

The Hermes building was both a shopfront and warehouse, using automation and masses of stock of similar items in order to sell fast and cheap as well as offering home delivery. That was then, now it is the main stores and armoury of The Monarchy fortress that is The Chantry. They’ve managed to repair and refurbish the system with their limited resources and now the whole warehouse is a nest of robotic arms and conveyors that can grab and deliver arms, armour or resources from the store with startling rapidity. The terminal that controls this is locked (Really Difficult) but could be subverted to deliver material to the rear of the store or made to attack the handful of support staff inside. The stores contain 500 person/days of food and clean water supplies and enough armour and weapons to replace the equipment of every soldier based in the Chantry.

The Barracks (Inside the Chantry)

The barracks for the soldiers are also set up within the chantry, inside the spaces in the old stores. Metal tubes have been crammed through the backs and ceilings to act as chimneys for cook fires and sleeping bags and purloined beds provide crashspace. Two units of soldiers claim a storefront each, while their Yeomen claim an upper or lower level to split between them – rank having its privileges.

The Car Park & Crown Radio Over (Part of the Chantry)

The old car park that joins on to The Chantry stood up to the war pretty well. It was stripped of metal during the aftermath for salvage and as a result safety rails are largely absent, or inadequate. Old car wrecks were long ago cleared out and the car park is now used as a lookout post, motor pool, garage and the base for the town’s radio station and communications centre.

The lower floor contains the garage, where technicians work on the Boadicea motorcycles and Crecy armoured cars. Fort Over has access to six Boadicea motorcycles with sidecars and three Crecy armoured cars – used for mounted patrols. The remaining floors are kept empty, but ready (the car park being intended to be the final shelter and redoubt during any large scale attack).

The roof is the site of the radio tower, broadcasting Crown Radio Over (pre-war music and current propaganda) over a ten mile radius, while a secondary tower carries encrypted military communications over a twenty-mile radius – reaching as far as Alfred’s Crater.

Side Quest
The radio isn’t the best and uses a lot of valves and other electronic parts to keep going. Supplies are always low and the radio technicians offer a bounty on radio-related electronic parts scavenged from the town. There is an old home electronics depot on the outskirts of town which may have the parts they need if someone wants to scavenge.

The Market

Out the front of The Chantry and past the Gildhaul is the marketplace. Gildsmen and other traders (scrappers, ‘respectable’ raiders, Monarchy suppliers, farmers and tribals) set up here to sell and barter their wares. The Monarchy presence means that trade in certain supplies – such as heavy weapons, power armour and home-made chems is severely restricted and disapproved of.

Albert (Trader 4D, Big Lad 3D, Big Personality 3D, Penny-Pincher) is the best known of the traders, a big, hearty barrel of a man with a voice that rings out over all other noises in the market, shouting out offers on his wares – which are many, varied and random. “Tahn millimetre pisto-lays, two ferra ‘under-ed cahps!”

The Gildhaul

The Gildhaul is a a square, three-storey building that was protected from the worst of the blast-winds by the rest of the town. It’s old, red brick and was very well built in the past. These days it looks a bit shabbier, no windows, a big gaz-burning generator rattling away outside and feeding power to the rooms inside. The Gildhaul is run by the Gild traders and was intended as their waystation but few Gildsmen actually stay there, preferring The Fallen Angel. As a result the Gildhaul is now mostly a flophouse for traders, scavengers and raiders down on their luck and habitual chem users. A night in a communal flop-room (which is at least warm and has light) costs two caps, a private room costs ten, but they only have a handful. Chem dealers, pickpockets and thieves prey on the guests.

Jack – an Hussar warbot refitted for civilian use, acts as the bouncer at the Gildhaul. A legged chassis he’s capable of – tentatively – mounting the stairs but mostly just stays on the bottom level to give people the bum’s rush. Jack has a stutter, the result of a head injury (A republican sniper shot during the civil war).

Jack: Man of Iron 3D, Fisticuffs 4D, Ornery Bastard 2D, 2D melee armour, 3D projectile armour, 1D energy armour, Steel fists do x2+1 damage)

The Fallen Angel

A very, very old pub the Fallen Angel is tucked low between other buildings – which shielded it in the war – and is tucked down a side alley which saved it from casual looting. It’s run by a ghoul, Robin Oddfellow, who claims to have been around since before the war. He brews his own beer and runs a still to make what he calls ‘Eau de vie’ – which is  a much nicer term than moonshine. Part of the building and the cleared-out old antiques store next door has been turned over to guest rooms. A stay overnight costs twenty caps, but is considerably more comfortable than any other options with real beds, oil lamps and charcoal burning stoves.

Robin Oddfellow (or is it Robyn?): Ghoul 2D, Innkeeper 3D, Excellent Liar 3D, Androgynous.

The High Street

The old high street is where most of the citizens of the town live – in the old storefronts, pubs, cafes and apartments around them. Old shipping containers from the backs of trucks, as well as shacks, huts and greenhouses added to the roofs and hanging over the street, shading part of it. It’s crowded, noisy, smelly, a hardscrabble existence – but a reasonably safe one. The high street section is protected by barricaded, empt buildings, streets cut off with welded barriers alarms and traps and regular patrols, both of Monarchy soldiers and mercenaries between contracts – though the pay is minimal.

Locations in Fort Over’s Outskirts

The town’s outskirts are a mass of housing and light commercial properties, in relatively good shape. They’re rich picking grounds for bands of scavengers and provide many hiding places for raiders. There’s also plenty of wildlife and ghouls and clearing and scavenging is slow going, paid for by the consolidation of the Monarchy holdings and the ambitions of the Gild.

Tny Supermarket

An old supermarket directly outside Fort Over, The Tny was long picked clean but it’s a persistent observation post and staging ground for those thinking about attacking, infiltrating or stealing from Fort Over. It regularly needs patrolling, investigating and watching as a result.

Side Quest
The Tny Supermarket is currently playing host to a small gang of raiders who have been paid off by Republic agents to keep an eye on Fort Over and report back – it has been correctly identified as a weak point. They have a holo-recorder which records encrypted reports and a contact with a Republic agent who meets them once a lunar month during the period of the full moon.

The Commercial

The Commercial was the newspaper in the town before the war. Newspaper offices aren’t of particular interest to looters and the office still contains archives, rolls of printing paper and presses. A handful of ghouls (d6+1) nest undisturbed, in a dormant state, amongst the paper rolls in storage.

Cheap & Cheerful & the Deus Cinema

The Cheap & Cheerful was a huge supermarket, virtually a department store. In the aftermath of the war many sought shelter and supplies here but succumbed to fallout. As a result it is utterly infested with ghouls – many of which tramped there out of some instinct after they succumbed – and has a relatively large amount of untouched supplies. Split over two floors, the store has a lower floor of food supplies (many of them subject to the same preservation processes familiar from Fallout) while the upper floor is full of all sorts of home-store junk of all kinds. The floors are virtually littered with dormant feral ghouls.

Above and behind the Cheap and Cheerful is a pair of elevators and a stairwell leading up to the Deus Cinema. The cinema is in a similar state to the Cheap & Cheerful, overrun with ghouls, though it has little of interest to most looters other than stale popcorn.

The College

The old college buildings, attached to a ruined leisure centre, are the base-camp for many of the scavengers that work the town. The college building and its classrooms act as barracks for the varying bands of scavengers, who are – by no means – friends. They mark themselves and their claims with coloured paint to designate what belongs to who, then haul it back for processing. Smaller junk is heaved into the old swimming pool for sorting and picking, while larger scrap is broken up in the old pond between the college buildings or restored before sale.

CuppaCo Tea Factory

CuppaCo was one of the leading tea companies before the war and had a major manufacturing and distribution point in the town. The factory is a virtual ruin and has been heavily looted for tea, picked clean over and over but there may still be some stray teabags here and there. The research part of the building, secured behind a Near Impossible passcode remains untouched, nobody has resorted to blasting through the wall… yet.

Side Quest
The experimental section still contains a supply of preserved tea as well as some experimental brews. Both Baronet Giles and various scavenger crews have their sights set on procuring that tea and it will command a considerable amount of money on the market.

People & Enemies

Sir Wilbur Pickles

Knight of the Realm 4D (Arrogant, snooty, superior)
Politically Alert 3D (Staring eyes)
Master & Commander 4D (Cruel taskmaster)
Jealous

Health Threshold: 5

Royal Enfield Ray-Rifle MkI: 1D+2 damage and 1 radiation point on hits.
Royal Enfield Ray-Pistol MkI: 1D damage and 1 radiation point on hits.
Sabre: x3 damage

Interface Suit: 1pt against all attacks and radiation.
FAO1AR Power Armour: 4D Melee, 4D Ballistics, Energy 1D, Radiation 1 point. Bonus Die for Strength-based rolls.

Baronet Giles Hanforth

Noblesse Oblige 3D (the common touch)
Researcher 4D (short sighted)
Ghoul 2D (Slightly Glowing)
Detached

Health Threshold: 2

Royal Enfield Ray-Pistol MkI: 1D damage and 1 radiation point on hits.
Dagger: x2 damage

Noble’s Undersuit & Fine Clothes: 1D against all damage.

Monarchy Conscript Soldiers

Conscript 2D (Grumbling)
Peasant 2D (Sun-burned)
Grudging 2D (Stubborn)

Health Threshold: 4

Knife: x2
Royal Enfield LMR (Low Material Rifle): 1D+2
Body Armour and Tin Helmet: 2 points Melee, 2 points Energy, 1D+1 Ballistics.

Monarchy Yeoman Soldiers

Free Man: 2D
Command Presence: 2D
Professional Soldier: 3D

Health Threshold: 3

Knife: x2
M72 Gauss Rifle: 1D+2, Armour Piercing
Body Armour and Tin Helmet: 2 points Melee, 2 points Energy, 1D+2 Ballistics.

Monarchy Support Staff

Free Man: 2D
Technician: 3D
Professional Soldier: 2D

Health Threshold: 2

Knife: x2
PPK12 Gauss Pistol: x1D+1 damage, Armour Piercing, Full Auto.
Body Armour: 1D+1

#RPG #Fallout4 – A Very British Fallout Pt 3.

Bone of Contention, Part One

Fallout UK streaming playlist.

The morning after the night before the party find themselves approached, first thing, by a one-man caravan (A brahmin with shit tied to its back and – perversely – leather armour). The caravan is run by Dennis Saxon[1], a one-man eccentric trader (who can be used as a replacement character if anyone has died).

Dennis has a proposition.

“Merry meet my friends! You seem down on your luck, yet uncommonly clean and healthy. Perhaps you’d care to listen to a little proposal over a meal. I caught a rabbit this morning…”

He holds up a three-eared rabbit by its rear legs and grins.

Dennis’ proposition is fairly simply. He wants to open up more trade with Bone Temple, who are usually remarkably hostile to outsiders and only begrudgingly go along with The Monarchy or anyone else at the best of times. They dig at this site though, most notably the excavation at the hill.

Dennis wants to deal with the tribals here, jack their shipment of bones and then to return to Bone Temple presenting it as though it’s a favour – their people having been attacked by raiders (a half truth). If the players already dealt with the tribals – fantastic – otherwise Dennis will help them and travel with them to Bone Temple to speak on their behalf.

Assuming they can complete this without trouble, they can proceed to Bone Temple with Saxon and make their introductions.

Bone of Contention, Part Two

Bone Temple is the remnants of a small market town, mostly the old church and the old town centre. It is defended by a big chalky earthen bank around part of the old town, its entrance via a tunnel under an old railway bridge. A carriage, pushed into place over that entrance provides cover for a cadre of tribal warriors armed with bows and spears, to defend against wildlife and raiders. The area around the town is dotted with pit-traps, snares and other nasty traps to dissuade interlopers.

Saxon will be able to persuade the warriors to let the group in, with the bones, and will use the opportunity to form a grudging relationship with the Bone Temple Tribe.

Bone Temple
Population: 240 (80 warriors, 160 non-combatants).
History: Former market town.
Notable Features: Earthen defences, Temple, Watermill, the Bone Temple Stink.
Economy: Imports bone, food, charcoal. Exports: Water, fertiliser, glue, meat.

Bone of Contention, Part Three

Saxon will pay each of them 25 caps from his reward and will offer them more if they’ll escort him in transporting the cargo he’s buying in from the Bone Tribe to Fort Over in a couple of days. While he’s got the Tribe in a good mood he wants to capitalise on it. That leaves them free to explore and to do some ‘side quests’.

Bone Temple Locations & Side Quests

The Entrance

The guards are amongst the best the tribe has and aren’t impressed by outsiders. They will be scornful, rude and ask what claims to heroics the characters have – and that’s not going to be much at this point. If they want to impress the tribe and be considered an honourary ‘brave’ then…

Sidequest: There’s a white radstag, twice the size of a normal one, somewhere in the surrounding fields (first random radstag encounter they have after taking this mission). If they kill it and bring its corpse back the warriors will be impressed and make them honourary members of the Bone Tribe warrior caste. This will give them free, independent access to Bone Temple without Saxon and is worth a Experience Dice.

The Temple

The temple is an old church, plastered white with chalk and clay and bound and covered with animal and human bones, inside and out. Preach, the tribal shaman, resides here with his apprentices, giving blessings, ritually painting the warriors with chalk and bonemeal, and preaching the Bone Tribe creed, which is broadly anti-technology and about ‘Waste not, want not’ and ‘Make do and mend’.

Sidequest: Preach loves rare bones to add to the temple. Those of exotic animals, unique mutants and reknown enemies can be traded in for 10 caps and an Experience Dice each.

The Round

The Round is the central part of the town, an old roundabout surrounded by old shops and apartments. All have long since been cleared out and made into a communal living space. A great roof of tanned radstag hide covers the whole round, giving it the feel of a giant, stinking circus tent. The tribals work hard here, boiling down bones into glue, grinding bones into meal, all for their limited trade with other locations. The place stinks from the constant boiling and cooking, the smoke and the fine powder from the grinding.

Limited trade also goes on here. The Tribals don’t have a lot to trade but they do have jerky, glue, spears, bows, arrows and some scavenged materials from the uninhabited part of town. The characters can equip themselves with bows, arrows and spears, but more complex weaponry will have to wait. The Tribals don’t make them.

The Hart

An old pub, the Hart is now covered in antlers from the many radstags the Tribals have killed over the past century and more. The whole place is now communal living, but very crowded.

Sidequest: The old cellar is locked up, infested with 2d6 uranifish that the warriors see it as beneath them to kill. The residents would be very grateful if the characters cleared it out – it hasn’t been explored and cleared in years, though occasionally it’s opened – just to be sure. If they do clear it, they’ll be rewarded with 10 caps, and will be allowed to keep the contents of the cellar. Most of it has been eaten and destroyed by the uranifish, but 2d6 bottles of ginger beer remain. Along with an old double-barrelled shotgun and a box of 12 shells.

The Watermill

An old tourist spot the wheel still turns here and is used by the Tribals to grind bone down into dust for sale as fertiliser. Grass is also woven by the women and elderly into sacks here, which are then used to store the fertiliser ready for export. The wheel is rattling and grinding, on its last legs, and the people there are very protective and defensive of it.

Sidequest: The wheel needs machine parts, which is against the teachings of Preach and the Tribal’s deliberately primitivist lifestyle. Those who keep it running are willing to make an exception. There are machine tools and parts in the technology centre of the old school – outside the defensive walls – but the school is overrun with 3d6 feral ghouls distributed throughout it [2].

Urban Encounters

Bone Temple

2d6

2. A fire breaks out in The Round.
3. The waterwheel breaks down, but is repairable.
4. An angry warrior takes exception to one of the characters and demands satisfaction in a fistfight.
5. A band of 1d6 charcoal burners arrives to do trade, putting everyone on edge.
6-8. Raggedy tribal children trail around after the characters, curiously.
9. A patrol of Monarchist soldiers 1d6 conscripts and a yeoman, turn up to collect their tithe. The mood is sour.
10. A tribal takes a fancy to one of the characters and tries to woo them in their primitive fashion.
11. Preach is conducting some sort of ritual at the temple.
12. The town is under attack by d6+1 raiders, trying to get in through the front gate.

No Man’s Land (Bone Temple/Small Towns).

Roll 2d6 for location
2. Hi-Radiation spot (re-roll).
3. Rubble.
4. Road (clear).
5. Road (ruined cars).
6-8. Ruined building.
9. Intact (looted) building.
10. Intact (relatively unlooted building).
11. Old encampment.
12. Old checkpoint.

Roll 2d6 for encounter
2-3. 1d6 Uranifish (interior), radroaches (exterior).
4-5. 1d3 wild dogs. [3]
6-8. 1d6 scavengers.
9-10. 1d6 Feral Ghouls.
11. 1d6 Raiders
12. 1d6 Monarchy conscripts, plus a Monarchy yeoman.

[1]. Dennis Saxon – Itinerant Trader

Wasteland Trader: 3D (Unimpressed)
Loner: 2D (Narrow trait, he’s a bit of a jack of all trades)
Gild Member: 2D (Technically neutral)
Negative Trait: Enormous racist (never fails to use a racial slur for ghouls and mutants)

Health Threshold: 4

Dennis carries a Browning 9mm automatic (13 round capacity, x1D damage) in a thigh holster and carries a knife (x2 damage).

He wears a shabby long coat and a battered bowler hat and has a long, scraggly beard.

His brahmin carries a bunch of basic trading materials (about 500 caps worth) – bags of charcoal mostly – and enough jerky, water and berries for 7 person/days of food. He also has an impressive collection of boardgames and a deck of cards.

Dennis is a trader who, up until this point, has preferred to work alone. It makes him seem less threatening to people and gives him access others can’t have. He hails from a town and a group called Gild in the east, a neutral trading group that moves about the wasteland.

A Note on Money

Trade via the Merchant Marines with other nations, including as far flung as the American Wastelands, has made the bottlecap a currency in the British wasteland as well. Bottlecaps have an approximate equivalent value to £5 in 2015 money. Both The Monarchy and The Republic issue pound notes, each note is worth about £1 in modern value in its home territory and half that in the other territory. Caps are a universal currency.

[2] Feral Ghouls

Abomination: 3D (horrific looking).
Feral: 3D (animalistic and violent).
Radioactive: 1D (immune to radiation, successful melee attacks also do 1 rad).

Health Threshold: 5

Claws and teeth: x2 damage.

Feral ghouls, if searched, are carrying…

D6
1. d6 Cigarettes/d3Cigars
2. A shiny trinket, worth a few caps.
3-5. Random junk.
6. A bottle of ginger beer.

[3] Wild Dogs

Dog: 3D (animal behaviour and senses).
Pack Beasts: 2D (good at working as a team).
Hard-bitten survivor: 2D

Health Threshold 4

Bite: x2 damage.

#RPG #Fallout4 A Very British Fallout – Pt 2

His Castle

Having emerged from their bunker (at location 1 on the map where the three rivers join), the characters find themselves in the midst of a copse atop a chalk hill. The first thing they need to do is to find shelter, water and food. The bunker’s power has run out and it is now slowly filling with water (since the pumps are no longer working) meaning it is flooding.

Once they clear the copse they’re greeted with an arresting view.

A slate grey autumn sky hangs over valley between two bone-white hills, sparsely covered in scrubby brown grass and mutated weeds. A muddy lake lays in the shelter of the valley, fed by a small river, surrounded  by the shattered remnants of an old village, most of its buildings long since ruined, but its church’s square steeple stubbornly still pointing at the sky. Atop the hill opposite is the blasted shell of a manor house and carved into its side, in glaring white chalk, is some sort of excavation. Night is drawing in, you’ll have to act fast if you want to claim food and shelter tonight – perhaps somewhere from which to explore.

This is an exploratory adventure, so there’s no real order to it. The goal is to explore and clear the village and to survive the night in something like comfort.

The Copse Hill

The hill that houses their bunker is sparsely covered with trees. A few mutated blackberries, hazelnuts and mushrooms are to be found here and there, enough for 1 person/day of food if they spend a great deal of time gathering them up (30 minutes assuming they split the party and there are 4 of them, roll a random encounter if they do).

Further across the hill are some dilapidated old farm buildings and the rusting hulk of a British Atomics tractor. It’s nothing now but scrap. A couple of sacks of nitrate fertiliser remain sealed and safe in a corner of the cobweb-encrusted barn.

The Mansion Hill

The wrecked mansion sits behind an overgrown wall that remains relatively intact – if covered in brambles and ivy. Past the wall the mansion is a ruin, but it is a neat ruin, not overgrown, no weeds, a pristine gravel path leading to the ruin of the house and the more intact garage building.

The main house’s roof has collapsed in and it is little more than a heap of rubble surrounded by grand walls. One pile of rubble has been moved back and forth several times but this is Hard to notice. Beneath that pile is a set of metal stairs beneath what was once the kitchen, leading down to a cellar. The cellar is stocked with old wine and spirits – no food – as well as three adult skeletons in fine clothing, immaculately cared for by Leicester, the butler robot[1]. An old emergency fusion generator continues to keep the cellar cool, lit and air conditioned. A robot charging station also occupies one corner, fed by the generator.

The garage houses a British Atomics Gallant family roadster with the vanity plate ‘Cheese1t’, it has no fuel and is only still pretty on a ‘skin deep’ basis. The engine is rusted solid and its fusion battery is missing (used to keep the generator going).

The mansion as a whole is guarded by Leicester, a paranoid butler robot who will brook no intruders.

The Church Building

The church building is surrounded by graves, but all of these look to have been dug up over the years, the bones missing. A few ancient, twisted yew trees survive to this day and while the church no longer has windows, it seems relatively secure. There’s even a tiny flicker of firelight coming from inside.

Inside the pews are long gone, a stinking fire of bones, wood and brahmin dung burns away in the centre of the old church, surrounded by three members of the Bone Tribe[2], who are complacently sitting around the fire, trying to keep warm, and cooking a couple of squirrels.

They are enraged by the presence of the characters, screaming at them as blasphemers and leaping to the attack with flint knives, spears and a bow.

The church is draughty – lacking windows and doors – but keeps the worst of the rain off. The two squirrels – along with some other scraps of jerky and other food they have (contaminated of course) provides two person/days of food.

[NB – If offered any particularly rare or lovely bones they might accept a peaceful approach]

The Bone Mine

The gaping hole in the side of the hill, at the bottom of the slope, far beneath the mansion, is a ‘bone mine’. Shortly after the war a plague spread across Britain’s farm animals, wiping many of them out and survivors were forced to make a cull. That mass of cattle and sheep were buried here. A rich vein of bones for the Bone Tribe to dig out. Their picks are here (antlers mostly) along with a wagon loaded down with animal bones. A brahmin grazes thistles and scrub nearby.

The Village Shop

Long-ago looted, the village shop is mostly a collapsed wreck, rusted tills, soaked shelving. Only the back storeroom is intact and that locked (Moderate). If forced or picked there’s a mostly cleared-out storeroom, though there’s still a couple of bottle of Nuka Cola and Blighter’s Ginger Beer, a bottle of scotch and a few packs of Rudyard’s snack cakes. Enough for two person/days of food.

d6 Uranifish (see previous adventure) lurk in the main, collapsed section, feasting on the wooden shelving and other rotten remains.

The Doctor’s Office

The Doctor’s Office is relatively intact, though its doors are missing and leaves and twigs have long flooded in. Under a pile of leaves in the reception office is a locked terminal (Moderate) which contains a diary from the village doctor describing the aftermath of the bombs and a riot of sick villagers who smashed their way into the office. He claims to have saved what few supplies he could by stuffing them behind the radiator in the waiting room. Sure enough there is a tin containing bandages, antiseptic, a dose of Radaway and two Stimpacks behind the radiator. Radaway removes d6 points of radiation. Stimpacks immediately heal a level of harm.

The Village School

Partially smashed, the remaining half of the school is a nest of 2d6 Uranifish. If they can be dealt with the intact classrooms contain a few patches of ancient carpet, masses of Uranifish eggs, a few old children’s toys and a couple of intact children’s books high on a shelf.

The Wrecked Houses

Most of the village is a mass of wrecked houses that could be picked over, but contain only rusted and rotten junk – and bricks. The larger houses play host to d6 uranifish but, otherwise, there’s no sign of life nor anything much worth searching out.

The Lake

The lake is a stagnant mass of radioactive sludgy water at all. A few mutated wading birds pick around the edge. An island in the middle has a couple of dead trees and a little rowboat on it. Swimming out to it will cause d6+1 rads, but the boat has intact fishing gear – though getting a fish out of this lake is Near Impossible and its very radioactive when you do.

d6 Bloatflies[3] hover over the water and will only attack if anyone tries to cross or takes a crack at them.

The River

The river is very low and shallow. It’s fresher than the lake, but not by much.

Random Wasteland Encounters

Roll for a Wasteland Encounter every five miles in the wilderness. You get one on a 5-6.

Encounter location d6
1. Ruined village.
2. Ruined farmstead.
3-4. Open ground.
5. Copse.
6. Woodland.

Encounter Roll 2d6 (+1 if travelling by road)

2. d6 Tribals
3. d6+1 Tribals and a brahmin cart
4. 1d3 wild dogs.
5. Harmless wildlife encounter: (1-3 radcrows, 4-5 wild radsheep, 6 radstag)
6. Harmless wildlife encounter: (1-3 glowcrows, 4-5 wild brahmin, 6 radstag)
7. Harmless wildlife encounter: (1-3 glowcrows, 4-5 wild radhog, 6 radstag)
8. d6 refugees/settlers
9. Monarchy military patrol d6 conscripts +1 yeoman.
10. d6 raiders in camp.
11. d6 raiders laying in ambush.
12. Wandering trader and two guards.
13. Mounted monarchy military patrol 1-3 – Two Boadicea motorcycles and sidecars (4 yeomen) 4-6 – Crecy Armoured Car (6 yeoman).

BoneTemple

BoneTemple is a ruined town and the home of the Bone Tribe.

Fort Over

An outpost of the Monarchy, Fort Over is a minor posting amidst the ruins of an old town.

[1]. Leicester the Butler Robot – A BRCA-J1 unit, considered a classic. Leicester is a legged model in British racing green, sporting a glued on monocle, a bowler hat and a black plastic moustache. Armed with a long-barrelled shotgun and ten spare shells he valiantly attempts to fight off any intruders and the rose garden has several intruders he has killed, buried in the rose garden. He hides out in the garage hoping intruders will go away and attacks if intruded upon.

Man of Iron: 3D (Clanking, whirring, heavy)
A Classic Design: 2D (Shiny green paint)
I live to Serve: 2D (Polite, butlery mannerisms).

Health Threshold: 3

Armour: 3D melee, 3D firearms.

Leicester is armed with a 12 gauge, double-barrelled shotgun capable of ‘semi automatic’ fire (letting off the second barrel).
His robot claw-hands can do x2 damage.

[2]. The Bone Tribe

The Bone Tribe claims Bone Temple as their home and base of operations. They are a relatively civilised tribe who owe fealty to the Monarchy and to Fort Over. Despite this, they lay claim to certain sites as holy – including this village. The Monarchy stays clear (there’s nothing of value here) and lets them do their thing.

Tribal Warrior: 2D (Ritually scarred, smeared white with chalk)
Religious Fanatic: 2D (bone charms)
Primitive Survivor: 2D (bad teeth)

Health Threshold: 4D

Armour: Hide – Melee 1D.

Flint knives: x2
Flint spears: x3
Shortbow: x3

[3]. Bloatflies

Bloatflies are hideous, flying, gigantic, mutated flies that barf acidic and poisonous vomit.

Small & Fast: 2D (bobbing and weaving constantly)
Disgusting: 2D (smell so bad)
Fat & Hairy: 1D (look so ugly)

Health threshold: 1

Armour: Chitin – All 1 point.

Vomit: 2m range, x3 damage, if it does any damage the poison does another d6 damage against Health Threshold on the following turn.

Bloatflies (and uranifish) provide 1 person/day of food for every three that are killed and harvested, but it’s disgusting.

#RPG #Fallout4 – A Very British Fallout Pt 1

White Heat: Part 1

The players should create a diverse bunch of pre-war people with a variety of useful skills for the aftermath. Military, scientific, construction and farming-qualified people are to be preferred. Armed guards from the Defence and Science Technology Institute have turned up at their assorted doors and insisted that they come along and that their country needs them. Whatever arm pulling, bribery or threats need to have been made in order to make this work. They are gathered together and loaded aboard a medium transport helicopter, painted in pale, anodised blue with the RAF roundel superimposed with a lightbulb and [DSTI] font beneath it.

Besides the two military pilots they are accompanied by two doorgunners, manning Light Support Weapons, an RAF general and a dapper, suited and hatted, member of the DSTI.

While they’re flying they get a brief rundown of what’s going on.

DSTI: “Welcome aboard, you’ve all been conscripted in accordance with the current Emergency Powers act, we’re terribly sorry that it has to be that way, but needs must eh? The thing is…

General: “The thing is, at this point, it’s only a matter of time before the balloon goes up between the Yanks and the Chinks, and that means things are going to go for a Burton for the rest of us as well.”

DSTI: “Uh… quite. Yes, the Americans and the Chinese are bound to resort to atomics at this point and as a key ally of the Americans and allowing them to be based here, we’re likely to come in for a fairly direct attack. As such certain contingencies such as the bunker program have been put forth, as well as more radical solutions.

General: Technical boondoggles, promising the bally Earth and delivering nothing more like.

DSTI: Project Moses is one such project and The Professor has requested volunteers for testing. That’s where you come in. I assure you that you’re extremely unlikely to be harmed in the process.

General: Quite, several dogs have survived the process unscarred so far.

DSTI: Anyway, a grateful nation appreciates your help.

After a short period in which they can useless ask questions, most of which will be met with a curt ‘top secret’ or ‘need to know’, the helicopter lands in the dim autumn light in a wooded area atop a rolling, wooded green hill somewhere in the south of England.

A bunker sits here, a single storey concrete and brick building with a pair of RAF guards standing outside, moving to attention as the general and his guests get off the helicopter and make their way to the pad. The general moves to tap a pass code into the console and one of the guards follows in after them, holding up the rear.

While there are side doors, the general and DSTI representative, having shown ID to another guard behind a security desk, pass straight on to the end of the corridor where another passcode is entered into an armoured airlock which they cycle, pass down a steep set of stairs deep into the hill.

A large central room filled with mixed vegetation and lit with bright ‘natural light’ bulbs seems out of place here, a few DSTI brainiacs in labcoats testing the soil and collecting fruit. The DSTI rep may happily and cheerily tell them “We’re working on long-term survival…” as they pass directly across and through another double-set of airlock doors into the area marked ‘science wing’.

Here they’re greeted in the corridor by a man in a wheelchair with a robot voice that emerges from the chestplate. The chair has a single robot arm, terminating in a human-looking robotic hand with which he will enthusiastically shake hands. He’s always accompanied by his assistant, Susan.

Professor: “I am professor Nebogipfel, which is why everyone simply calls me The Professor. I do apologise about the manner in which you were brought here, but you’re now passing from the military to a more… understanding jurisdiction.”

The characters will be put into blue, skintight flight suits, as used by RAF atom-jet pilots (these provide 1 point, not dice, of protection against all attacks) and subjected to a battery of blood test, medical examinations and other indignities but – on the other hand – they will also be given tea and scones. The only explanations they will get will refer to ‘interesting implications stemming from recent discoveries in Aldermaston’ and some handwavey references to tachyons.

After all the testing they will be ushered into the ominously titled ‘testing chamber’, filled with the hum of powering up devices. Through an armoured glass window they can see the Professor, Susan, the General and a bunch of other technical staff moving around.

The Professor will, after a while inform them that: “We’re just about ready to start…” and then he’ll cut off the intercom. Through the window they’ll see a soldier rush in and talk to the general, shock on everyone’s faces and then the general leans over and switches the intercom on.

General: “The yanks and the Chinese have gone nuclear. We’re at war. This facility is now under direct military control. I’m calling a halt to this experiment. All resources need to go to continuity governance and the preservation of this bunker and its personnel…”

He’s cut off by the angry professor. The door to this chamber is still shut as they angrily face each other, with the soldier moving to intervene and Susan also angrily interceding. All in silence through the window. The Professor’s robot arm lashes out and crushes the General’s throat, the guard pulls his pistol, Susan gets in the way, there’s another flash of a gun going off and the Professor’s robot hand slams down on the console.

There is a blinding flash of blue light and then, darkness…

White Heat: Part 2

It takes a moment for their eyes to adjust, but when they do they realise that they’re standing in the same chamber, but it is stained and old, the terminals spotted with rust and non-functioning. The glass window to the next room is grubby but intact, but the only light is coming from very small, yellowish emergency lights around the base of the floor. The door is ajar…

Exploring and leaving the very changed facility has its challenges…

Northern Section

Chrono-Chamber (upper left): Dilapidated machinery, rust-spotted and non-functional. The delicate circuitry is corroded beyond repair, many parts are entirely unidentifiable and various chambers contain the residue of strange glowing chemicals of unknown kinds. It simply isn’t going to work. The door to this chamber is ajar, but rusted and hard to move. At some point in the distant past someone has made a campfire in the southern part of the room and there are some charred bones where something was cooked.

Control Room (lower left): The machinery here is mostly intact, but not running – the whole base being on emergency power. Only a small terminal has power but is locked out with a Really Difficult passcode.

The log there tracks events since the war. The general, Susan and the Professor all died in the initial confrontation and only the mutual need to survive kept the scientists and military from going at each other’s throats. Twenty years of monotony faced the survivors, which included a few latecomers from above, pushing supplies to their limit over the twenty years they remained below, with three children being born amongst the civilian population and two military personnel being executed for ‘fraternisation and insubordination’. The final entry describes them gathering their remaining supplies and setting out to meet up with the ‘Continuity Government’ in 2097.

Research Lab (Right): This room has been methodically stripped of portable equipment and supplies and retains only the rust-spotted hulks of larger equipment such as sterilisers, centrifuges etc. A terminal here is locked with a Hard passcode, and contains some notes on Project Moses. The aim of which was to apply science to the principle of time travel – one way, into the future. According to the notes the time portal should have transported the subjects 20, 200 or 2000 years into the future – after the main atomic aftermath – with a margin of error of 10%. This means they could be anywhere from 18 to 2200 years into their future (it’s 2287 according to the chronometers in the terminals).

Hallway: The Professor’s old, powered wheelchair sits at the end of the corridor, empty. Its atomic batteries still work and though it isn’t suited to all-terrain travel and only has one arm it could be used as a very primitive vehicle. When ‘worn’ the wheelchair provides 3D of armour against melee and ballistic attacks, 2D against energy attacks. The robot arm does x3 damage. Otherwise there’s just scrap, broken glass and other trash piled up back here.

Eastern Section

Hydroponics (northern section): The plants here are long dead and the water, while stagnant, is pure an uncontaminated. It tastes bad, but won’t do you any harm. Some fungus and mould grows in here, the fungus could form a meal in a desperate pinch – enough for 1 person/day of food (roll a d6 1-4 edible, 5 psychoactive, 6 poisonous 2d6 damage). A couple of the UV bulbs are recoverable.

Civilian Bunk Room (southwestern section): Nothing but ancient mouldy beds and a handful of science magazines read to death and damp and mouldy.

Civilian Mess (southern central section): Microwave cookers and water taps are built into the wall. The taps provide a bare trickle of stagnant but safe water. The microwaves don’t work. A few items of cutlery and crockery remain.

Civilian Ablutions (southeastern section): Ancient toilets, showersand cisterns, there’s potable water in them – but would you? The decontamination chambers have been smashed with something.

Hallway: Ages ago some child appears to have covered the walls with scrawlings in crayon and pen depicting trees, flowers and people in white coats.

Western Section

Military Stores (northern section): Almost entirely cleared out these massive stores now harbour only a few empty boxes marked ‘egg powder’, ‘dehydrated rations’ etc. 2d6 ration packs (each a person/day of food) remain in various corners along with a single box of Rudyard’s Apple Pies[1]. The stores also contain the military control station and radio, by which it once kept in touch with other bunkers and local traffic. The radio gear has been sabotaged. Amongst the control station remains a Royal Enfield Penfold Revolver[2] with five remaining, chambered rounds. This one’s rusty and has reduced damage (x3) and a penalty to hit of -1.

Military Ablutions (southwestern section): A bunch of toilets, mostly intact and full of potable water. Some bleach and soap remains, shoved into a corner.

Military Barracks (southeastern section): A bunch of mouldy old beds and pitted formica tables. Microwaves (non functioning) and water taps (with a trickle of safe but stagnant water) are here.

Hallway: Stuffed with junk and trash, but nothing of any specific use.

Central Section

Life Support Gardens: Long dead and rotten, only mould and mushrooms remain (though a few seeds that could germinate remain in the soil). Some of the wood from the small trees and bushes could be used, it’s not too rotten once you get beneath the bark. Unfortunately for our players, a nest (2d6) of giant, radioactive silverfish[3] have nested here and will viciously attack, concentrating on anyone carrying food.

Above Ground Blockhouse

Hallway: Choked with leaves and twigs, soaking wet, thick with mud. This has been open to the elements for some time. A wrecked looking defensive turret hangs from the ceiling, dripping water. (The turret houses a .38 automatic pistol and a drum of 50 rounds. It can be scavenged while not active), but is hard to reach, being up on the ceiling. The security desk is a wreck. At the far end is the airlock to the outside, full power must be restored (or some other, clever method to open it. Opening the airlock and emerging wins this mission, for 2 experience dice.

Decontamination Chamber (northwest): Smashed, wrecked, filled with leaves and detritus – and the skull of a long-dead fox.

Men’s & Women’s Ablutions (far northwest): Smashed and wrecked toilets, the water in these is brackish and contaminated with radiation.

Ops Centre (southwest): Long abandoned, the stations are so rotten with rust you can push a finger through the casings – if you fancy tetanus.

Life Support (southeast): These ancient machines stopped working some time ago, but a fusion cell is still plugged in to the power centre, providing the bare minimum of power keeping the terminals and emergency lights going. Full power override can be enacted, but will only last an hour or so before the cell burns it – it’ll also turn the turret on which will fire two shots per turn at anyone in its range with 2D of skill and the second shot taking a penalty dice.

Administration (northeast): Whatever was once in here is now a soaking, rotten mass of mould, paper and wood.

Leaving

With the outer airlock open there is a sudden rush of cold, wet air. The light from outside is blinding even though, as their eyes adjust, they realise it is the honey-yellow of autumn, rather than the brightness of summer. Outside is the same old top of the hill, thick with trees now, parts of the block encrusted with roots and heavy with moss. Fallen trunks lay everywhere, the leaves are shin deep. Most of the trees here seem old and dead, the newer growth twisted and shrunken, covered in lumps and cysts of bark, coated with fungus. Piles of animal bones and straw dollies have been left near the door… some sort of offering perhaps? The rusted hulk of the old helicopter sits on its crumbling pad, smashed by fallen trees.

Welcome to the English wasteland.

[1]: Rudyards was a company that made irradiated snack cakes and other treats that could, hypothetically, remain fresh forever. Amongst other things Rudyards made Apple Pies, Battenbars (miniature battenburgs), Pre-Creamed Scones, Eccles Cakes and Fruity Cake Bars – amongst others.

[2]: The Penfold is a Royal Enfield revolver, chambered for .38 and issued to rear echelon staff in combat placements. It holds six bullets, does x1D damage. The design is unusual in that the barrel runs closer to the centre of your grip, hypothetically increasing accuracy. It resembles the Mateba.

[3] Uranifish (giant, radioactive silverfish): Uranifish can be found wherever there is damp and wherever there is starch or sugar. They do a great deal of damage to anything containing glue, starch or sugar and will also slowly chew their way through wood. When especially hungry they will attack and kill anything that wanders into one of their nests.

Scavenger: 2D (keen senses)
Survivor: 1D (quick, darting movements)
Atomic Monster: 1D (Immune to radiation)
Health Threshold: 4
Armour: 1D melee, 1 point against anything else.
Bite: x2

#Fallout4 – Tabletop #RPG using WaRP (Instead)

As a less rules-heavy alternative to things I’ve written on Fallout before, here’s a partial conversion for WaRP.

WaRP rules. WaRP-OGL&SRD

Fallout WaRP rules. WaRPFallout

I’ll add more in blog posts later, based around some adventure ideas from my UK Fallout post.

#RPG A Very British… Fallout

The British Isles often aren’t very well covered in the post apocalyptic genre, and it’s a shame because – at least for games – it makes for a much more controlled and isolated environment. Game worlds like Fallout and movie franchises like Mad Max, which largely own the post apocalypse in the public imagination, barely touch on what may have happened on our shores. It’s a little disappointing, because there is a whole genre of British post-apocalyptic fiction from The Day of the Triffids, through Survivors to The War of the Worlds, which helped define these other attempts.

Fallout

Fallout is a long-running computer game franchise, set in an alternative timeline where atomic technology (and physics) is much more that presented in Popular Mechanics in the 1950s, as a tool in everything from cars to planes and all points in between. The atom was very much tamed… apart from the war of course, which blew everything to hell. It’s as though WWIII took place in the 1950s and everything that remains is a smashed remnant of the 50s utopia of American exceptionalism.

What we know about the UK in the Fallout Universe

The point of divergence in the timelines is 1945, and so a great deal that happens after that point in our timeline can be questioned.

We do know that the UK was a member of the European Commonwealth in the Fallout universe. This Commonwealth was a federal European Union with a unified military which fought as a bloc in the resource wars and went to war with the Middle East from 2052 to 2060, the first major conflict of the Resource Wars. When that war came to an end, having been fruitless (the wells dried up) the Commonwealth fell into civil war, breaking apart into its pre-union countries for the most part.

October 23rd 2077 was when The Great War exploded, with the USSR (still existing), China and the USA all going nuclear. We know that the UK was also targeted, despite the EC being a largely spent force, which suggests that it was still considered a priority target for Easter Bloc forces. Even though the 2076 annexation of Canada is likely to have strained US/UK relations to the absolute limit. Perhaps the UK had been operating as a base of operations for the USA in exchange for technology and resources – one way the UK could have stayed powerful and relevant.

We know that Alistair Tenpenny came to the USA from the UK (somehow) implying that there is now some contact – however fleeting – between Europe and the USA and that a rich man may avail himself of it in order to seek his fortune in the USA – implying that the UK is not in good shape at all. Tenpenny is also entirely accepting of slavery as a concept, further implying the harshness of post-apocalyptic Britain.

Desmond Lockheart was once a member of British Intelligence and controlled radiation exposure turned him into an immortal ghoul. He is part of a ‘great game’ of spying and secrets still being fought between survivors and descendants of pre-war industrialists, politicians and intelligence agents.

Martin (first or last name?) was a ghoul whose ancestor ran a successful software company in the UK, until it foundered.

Sten Guns (developed from the old WWII SMG exist in the Fallout universe).

The LSW, a squad support version of the SA80 exists in the fallout universe.

The XL70E3, an experimental 5mm assault rifle was manufactured by the British.

The Bren Gun exists in the Fallout universe.

The Boudicca 78/S – An energy-powered motorbike with sidecar – was manufactured and used by British forces.

British 1950s

Postwar Britain was a grim place, recovering from the war. Glamour and ‘shininess’ came from the USA, a holdover from both American troops stationed there during the war and the effect of Hollywood films. Rationing came to an end in 1955 but Britain didn’t really escape the shadow of the war or the sheer intensity of ‘propriety’ and the class system until the youth revolution of the 1960s.

A Britain trapped in the mindset of the 1950s will still see itself as an imperial power, its life and relevance extended – reluctantly – through the European Commonwealth and a stronger – in this timeline – connection with the British Commonwealth.

Britain was still arrogant and had not adapted to its new position or crumbling power in this period and sank a great deal of money and effort into technological progress, capitalising on wartime advances in jet technology, radar and computing especially. It seems likely in a Fallout timeline that this attitude would have continued with the UK determined to keep up with – or exceed – US technological advances especially in computing, robotics and aeronautics. This would include solutions like Vault-Tec.

The British 1950s science-fiction, which would inform any design cues in a British Fallout universe was all rayguns and brushed, anodised blue steel. This is, perhaps, best exemplified by Dan Dare, a character in The Eagle comic, lovingly illustrated in fantastic detail by Frank Hampson.

A British-themed Fallout is likely, then, to fixate on certain key issues.

• Class
• Imperialism
• Continuity

Speculation

Britain has always been deeply skeptical of the European project and much closer to America and the Commonwealth in our world. It seems likely that despite membership of the European Commonwealth into the Resource Wars, Britain was never, truly, fully committed to that cause despite sending troops and material in the Middle East.

When the EC fell upon itself following the Resource Wars it seems likely that the UK distanced itself further and renewed ties with both the USA and its British Commonwealth friends. Links with Canada and Australia would have ensured the UK some trickle of the remaining Uranium and the North Sea oil and gas fields would have enabled it to hoard some energy resources, especially if it renewed its alliances with the USA.

Having withheld from EC action in the Middle East the UK would have retained much of its military might and as a key producer of military gear it would have been in a relatively good position after the Resource Wars, especially as an island nation, largely free of the civil war that followed. In that Civil War, Britain’s chief economic and military rivals – Germany and France – are likely to have formed the core of a loyalist alliance, embroiled in the European Civil War until it was interrupted by The Great War.

For seventeen years then, 2060-2077, Britain would have stood aloof from the European civil war and would have been forced to forge stronger links with former British Commonwealth allies (most especially Australia and Canada) and with the American superpower. The Americans are likely to have had bases in Britain, as they did during our cold war, and Britain is likely to have maintained its own atomic missile ‘defences’ and a robust military technology base, bolstering Australia against the Chinese threat with elements of the Royal Navy in exchange for preferential trade on the remaining Uranium.

When the war came, then, Britain would have taken a severe battering from Soviet and Chinese atomic weapons, though it is unlikely to have been invaded (having little worth taking save shrinking gas/fuel resources in the North Sea).

Fanon

Wartime Events

Things unfold as above. The UK stands apart from the EC Civil War, despite pleas and demands and even threatens to use its independent nuclear deterrent when factions in the war threaten them. Refugees are not accepted and the UK turns away from Europe to look elsewhere to secure its future. Bonds with useful British Commonwealth countries are renewed and various guarantees and promises of protection – largely from a very well equipped and effective Royal Navy and Royal Airforce – are exchanged for uranium supplies and food. Bonds with the USA are also renewed and the UK makes a perfect staging point for American nuclear powered bombers to threaten the USSR and China.

When the USA annexes Canada the UK is forced to pick between sides but despite posturing and protest simply cannot afford to go against its American allies. Protests and riots within the UK do nothing to change the government’s mind and seeing the writing on the wall preparations for nuclear war move to top speed with emergency powers installed and a vicious government crackdown involved.

There wasn’t truly time for this matter to resolve before the war exploded full force and the UK was subjected to considerable bombardment from Soviet rocket forces and bombers, while RAF, Royal Navy, BRF (British Rocket Forces) and USAF forces simultaneously battered the USSR and China. Under a secret directive – Operation Agincourt – the British also hit select targets in France and Germany in order to try and lessen any postwar threat from the continent.

Losses were enormous, especially across the South of England and any hope of contact with Australia, Canada or the USA was immediately lost.

USAF/RAF joint bases across the country were nuked along with the main Royal Navy bases at Portsmouth, Plymouth and Glasgow.

In total a hundred different cities and sites were targeted across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, most located in the South of England – the greatest population, communication and governmental centre. The largest city to escape bombardment was Bradford, a de-industrialised town to the North while virtually every industrial city or major population centre was hit.

In the aftermath, nothing was the same.

Postwar Events

Britain reeled, utterly leaderless, destruction on a massive scale. Large parts of the navy and elements of the Royal Air Force had survived – along with the USAF – but they had few bases left to return to. Surviving airfields in more remote locations filled up with returning pilots and the American elements were attacked by rioting civilians who blamed the USA for the war. The RAF pilots were largely spared such attacks but their landings – largely at surviving commercial and military training fields – would spawn new settlements, powered by bomber reactors, at places like RAF Barkston Heath.

There was no leadership, no continuity of governance, no orders and so the UK fragmented. Scotland grabbed its independence, Ireland fought a bloody war for unification, Wales fractured away and England broke apart into rough segments with internal warring between warlords and former military elements warring over the remaining resources and sections.

Surviving military elements established their own centres of operation, the RAF setting up camp at their newly militarised stations, the surviving army elements taking over several old market towns and fortifying them. The Royal Navy returning from the seas and from around the globe took over Falmouth and took stock, establishing themselves as the dominant power in the Southwest of England.

For twenty years the warlords and the military fought for control with the average citizen caught between the two. Waves of feral ghouls swept out of the cities in waves, hunting for food, as did waves of non-mutated refugees and survivors like locusts, stripping the land of supplies, stores and anything edible.

It was a dark and horrible time of danger, cannibalism and strife and led to the rapid emergence of a feudal system, fortified towns protected by the military or the militias and toiling for their superiors in terms of military might and technology. An uneasy peace eventually settled, roughly along the lines of the old Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, constrained by geography in much the same way.

• Kernow (Devon and Cornwall) under the protection of the Royal Navy.
• Mercia (the Midlands) under the protection of army and air force factions in uneasy alliance.
• Anglia (the east) under the protection of army factions.
• The North (northern England) a scattered collection of warlords and rogue elements.
• Scotland – A loosely united nation though with no industrial base left, constantly pressing south.
• Wales – In a similar situation to Scotland.

By 2097 an uneasy peace or détente had been reached and the former military elements were back in communication, coordinating on plans to rebuild and reunify the country as best they could. Postwar children were now beginning to reach the age of majority and with them came the emergence of tribal cultures in the less ‘civilised’ parts of the country, Wales, Scotland and The North.

Nascent hopes of unity were destroyed when the bunkers opened under London and the other major cities, where the great and the good from before the war – the luminaries, the royal family, the industrialists, re-emerged, some of them rendered immortal via deliberate ghoulification to ensure their survival. Suddenly some 40,000 pre-war leaders and their guards, soldiers and pristine technology and equipment emerged. In constant communication via secret, secure lines and with good intelligence on the surface world from robotic scouts this group, calling itself the Continuity Government emerged in force, retook the otherwise abandoned cities and sought to re-establish itself as the ruling class using the power of their bunkers, technology and carefully hoarded supplies.

The older generation was split between duty to the old government and disgust at having been left to rot. Many were also disgusted by the ghoulification of the pre-war Royal Family and government leaders. The younger generation, many of them ‘squires’ to the old military, navy and air force powers were even less inclined to give in.

A civil war broke out between the two factions in the military protectors, the remaining civilian population and those few elements of the newly emerged bunker survivors who had developed a conscience.

This second English Civil War lasted ten years, from 2097 until 2107. The Republican or ‘Roundhead’ forces were pushed to the north by the Monarchist or ‘Cavalier’ forces, loyal to the Continuity Government emerging from the bunkers. The war only came to an end when the mysterious forces of Aldermaston – protected from a direct atomic strike by an experimental shield – launched a nuclear weapon from an Isle of Wight facility and detonated it on the edge of space as a show of force, demanding that hostilities cease.

The treaty of Castleton cemented the peace, the Commonwealth of Great Britain (CGB) now occupied the old area of Northumbria – contested by the Scots to the North, while the Royal Domain of Great Britain (RDGB) occupied everything south of that with the independent ‘Aldermasters’ maintaining the peace under threat of renewed atomic fire.

This has been the uneasy but ongoing situation for a hundred and seventy years, but things are about to change.

A second emergence, a plan put in place by The Enclave 200 years ago, will see some 14,000 zealous Americans, raised over generations to be fanatically loyal, with advanced technology and fighting zeal, emerge from the long forgotten Vault-Tec bunkers beneath the atomic hellholes of the USAF bases in an attempt to conquer the UK as a new base for The Enclave and with atomic powered aircraft like the Vertibird other Enclave Forces may even be able to cross the Atlantic to join them.

The World

In the world of Fallout the climate is pretty universal, dry and desertified. Britain is likely to be cooler and wetter, being further north, a lot cooler if the Gulf Stream has been diverted by the ecological collapse. Here and there sheltered valleys allow for some growth and despite the radiation reforestation is underway, albeit with twisted and mutated plants.

It’s a hardscrabble existence with most civilians living close to the fortified towns of the factions, scrabbling in the dirt to grow enough food to feed themselves and to support their protectors.

The south is more exposed and drier, but the seas still produce some food and the old bunkers are still able to feed the elite while some sheltered valleys support the warrior class.

The north is a grim, post-industrial wasteland, more equitable and class-free but employing slavery of tribals and criminals to dig out coal – the only really remaining fuel source – to be converted to ‘gaz’ to run powerplants. The Republic is also in constant conflict with the north.

Scotland is relatively green and able to produce a relatively large amount of agricultural produce. Though it is divided between warring clans and tribes they unite, regularly, to raid The Republic or to repel incursions by The Republic seeking to alleviate their food problems.

Creatures

• Ghouls are still extremely common, especially in the cities. Many of the poor, reduced to taking shelter in metro systems, were turned into ghouls and some intelligent pre-war ghouls survive amongst the ‘serf’ classes, an irony since many of the ruling class are also ghouls.
• Trogs, or something very similar to them, can be found – often in old mine tunnels or caves.
• Dogs and cats are relatively common, albeit often mutated and feral.
• Rats can be found in huge numbers, especially in the cities, sometimes grown enormous by mutation.
• The stable Brahmin mutation is especially common, both wild and domesticated.
• Bloatflies can be found everywhere.
• Giant Ants can be found everywhere.
• Mirelurks and Swamplurks can be found wherever there is water and around much of the coast.
• Boom Bugs are common in the summer months, especially in the south.
• Vicious mutant badgers are a real threat in the mutated woodland.
• Giant wasps are a horrible plague, especially in the summer.

The Factions

The Scottish Tribes are divided by clans, each clan taking in several tribes and with tribes moving between clans on occasion. The scots tribes value prowess and might and often vie with each other by contests of strength and violence, heading south to claim trophies or competing during ‘The Games’ to establish dominance. Were they united they would be a truly dangerous force.

The Welsh Tribes have no such similar organisation to the Scots tribes and raid less often into the East. They are largely content to keep themselves to themselves, raising mutated sheep in great herds and battling each other over grazing land. As with the scots, were they united they could be a significant force.

The English Tribes are scattered in the wasteland between the settlements of The Republic and The Monarchy. Unable to draw any real strength they are highly mobile scavengers and raiders, frequently resorting to cannibalism.

The Warlords rule small settlements beneath the notice of the major powers or  paying tithes to them to be left alone. Warlord settlements may profess all manner of different political and economic arrangements but in practice are all led by one strong leader.

The Aldermasters are the remnants of the technological and industrial researchers. Aldermaston was untouched and had access to the most advanced atomic and other technology of the pre-war period. The Aldermasters still have access to rocketry and atomics and claim Oxford, Aldermaston, Bletchley and The Isle of Wight as their own. Abetted by the descendants of their old guards (Templars) the ‘Venerable’ Aldermasters fight to preserve and hoard old technology and to create new technology and advance knowledge. Unlike The Brotherhood they are not primarily a military order but a scientific one. Their leaders – The Elders, go by letter designations and their current, mysterious leader ‘Professor Q’ is said to date back to the pre-war and to be advised by a sentient computer housed at Bletchley, called Newton.

The Republic is a military dictatorship that occupies what was once the North of England. Life in The Republic is austere and brutal, under constant threat from the Scottish Tribes. Everything is rationed, military conscription runs everywhere, the land beyond the settlements is lawless anarchy, full of tribals and outlaws and in the settlements life is ruthlessly controlled. The Republic is justifiably paranoid and on a constant war footing, just in case. The Republic enslaves tribals and criminals, putting them to work in coal mines and in other jobs, working them – frequently – to death. The only way they can maintain the rest of their society at a functional level.

The Monarchy controls what was once the Midlands and the South of England. It is relatively wealthy and stable but utterly constricted by class with virtually no social mobility. The ruling class dwells in the remnants of the cities, in their luxurious bunkers. Many of them are ghouls or otherwise preserved against the depredations of time and so they are not going to be displaced any time soon. Below this ruling class the military class is the fist of the monarchy, protecting the people but also enforcing the will of the leaders. Below them, the traders and ‘yeoman’ and beneath them the serfs, who are considered property of the higher classes and who toil – scavenging, digging and growing – to keep the system fed.

The Enclave is ready to emerge from their bases, mostly in the South of England. Their presence and interference is likely to spark a third civil war when their disruption of The Monarchy may lead The Republic to make a desperate push South, Aldermasters or no Aldermasters.

The Merchant Marine is an independent faction of smugglers, pirates and traders. Atomic powered merchant vessels from before the war have been fitted with weapons and travel globally, slow and steady, based from old Anti-Aircraft platforms at sea, Napoleonic forts and scattered islands. For the right price you can even travel to America – or further.

Technology and Armaments

The United Kingdom retained its own technology base, even while part of the European Commonwealth, as well as incorporating some American weapons. As well as conventional bullet-firing technology laser weapons are quite common, including British variants on the standard laser pistol and laser rifle that look more polished and ‘science fictiony’ than the standard.

Plasma weapons are not present in UK forces but may become known as The Enclave emerges.

British mastery of radar did, however, lead to the development of the RE2 Microwave fun, a heat-based rifle weapon also capable of messing up electrical systems.

Gauss weapons, supplied during the Resource Wars by German allies are also relatively common.

Shotguns, used widely by civilians pre-war, are absolutely the most common firearm to be found.

Many tribals have resorted to the longbow and spear.

Body armour and tin helmets are relatively common, still able to be manufactured in the ruling class’ bunkers, along with ammunition, supplies of food, drinking water etc.T

Gyrojet weapons were experimental and cutting edge technology and may be found in the hands of Aldermasters.

Androids can be found amongst the Aldermasters, apparently independently created to those found in the United States, though communication is not impossible between the two groups. Aldermasters see them as true equals – even better than human – but outside their enclaves they’re treated with superstitious terror.

A scattered few American robots can be found, imported private purchases or survivors from American airbases. Mr Handy/Gutsy and Protectotrons being the most common. The British Robotics Corporation built most British robots however, though there were competitors. None were ever built as hovering, this being regarded as wasteful of limited energy supplies. All British robots were tracked, wheeled or legged. The Jeeves valet model and Hussar military model both being derived from the Archibald industrial chassis. The Valiant robot-tank, a tracked robot, was built atop the Jacktar loaderbot chassis and this re-use and reinvention was common for robotics in Britain. Robots were much sought after status items and nowhere near as common as those in the US. British advances in computing technology also made them much more reliable and much more loyal and those built by prewar ruling classes had failsafes, making robots a powerful supplementary arm of the royalist forces during the second civil war.

British power armour development began after the deployment of T45d power armour by the Americans in 2067 was confirmed. The Americans would not share this technology and so began a rapid development process, independent to the American effort, knowing only what could be gleaned from espionage and propaganda. After five years the prototype FA01 (Fighting Armour) ‘Arthur’ power armour was complete. Heavier than the T45d and slower, but with a much more efficient atomic powerplant, the FA01 was only ever made in small numbers, it was rapidly followed by the creation of more advanced variants for each of the armed forces. The FA01AR ‘Lanceleot’ was the army variant, with heavier armour, the FA01NV ‘Tristan’ was the amphibious version, intended for the Navy and Royal Marines, lighter of armour but fully sealed with an effective rebreather while the FA01AF was the model intended for the airforce, lighter, faster and with short range atomic gas jets allowing it to jump short distances or be airdropped without a parachute. Large numbers of these were never manufactured as Britain didn’t expect to engage in a land war, though more have been manufactured since, exclusively by The Monarchy and the Aldermasters, who also produce FA01X, prewar experimental armour which incorporates technology derived from their ‘force field’, for limited extra protection and immunity to energy weapons and radiation.

Vehicles, especially the Boudicca and its derivatives are much more common in the UK and most now run off coal-gaz or energy cells, replenished by the atomic powerplants of grounded planes or naval resources.

Summary and Adventure Ideas

The UK in the Fallout setting is going to be relatively crowded and relatively orderly, despite having been nuked into oblivion. You have a ruling class of industrialists, politicians and royalty from before the war, now immortal and with relatively high access to resources from stockpiles and an industrial base from their bunkers. The class system there is stultifying, while elsewhere the military government is absolute and as oppressive as Orwell’s worst nightmares.

You can be free elsewhere, but you run the constant risk of being attacked – and possibly eaten – by tribals or wild beasts and any remaining scavenging areas are likely to be hotly contested by the Aldermasters, serfs or warlords.

This would be why Tenpenny left.

Still, there might be room for mercenaries and freelance scavengers. The pirates are still free, the outlaws beyond the walls are still free and rivalries within the ruling factions could provide opportunities for intrigue. The cities are still barely under control, even two centuries later, and there’ll always be work clearing out ghouls or recovering resources. In the north revolution – from the slaves or amongst the common people – is a possibility. Then there’s the Enclave, about to emerge, about to start a new war and everyone will have to pick a side then.

• Delve into the irradiated wasteland of Cambridge to scavenge the university.
• Aid in clearing out sections of the London Underground of ghouls (some of which turn out to be sentient, pre-war survivors).
• Assassinate a key leader of The Monarchy on behalf of the The Republic, or vice versa.
• Recover an important artefact from a pirate gang.
• Avenge a slaughtered settlement on the Scottish barbarians.

Fallout Xpress Fanbook – Index

Since edits have put things out of place here’s an index. If/when I get time I’ll consolidate this into a PDF fanbook as I did for Bioshock and I may even write up some UK based fan material 🙂

Plenty of paying stuff to be getting on with in the meantime…

Rules

• Rules Index
• Skills
• Traits & Perks
  
• Experience
• Heroes, Villains & Minions
• Radiation, Quality & Pistols
• SMGs
• Rifles
• Melee Weapons
• Thrown Weapons
• Heavy Weapons
• Unusual Weapons
• Explosives, Mods & Ammunition
• Armour & Clothing
• Consumables

Villains

• A
• B
• C-D
• E-G
• H-N
• O-R
• S-Z

Fallout Xpress Fanbook: Villains S to Z

Securitron
Str: 3 Res: 4 Dex: 2 Spd: 3 Int: 2 Per: 2 Chr: 2 Con: 2 Rsl: 2 Rst: 2
Skills: Big Guns 2, Energy Weapons 2, Guns 2, Security 1, Speech 1, Unarmed 1.
Special: Armour 12
Attacks: Twin 9mm SMG and Twin Gatling Laser (damage +1)

Sentry bot
Str: 3 Res: 4 Dex: 3 Spd: 3 Int: 2 Per: 2 Chr: 1 Con: 2 Rsl: 3 Rst: 3
Skills: Big Guns 3, Energy Weapons 3, Guns 3, Security 1, Speech 1, Unarmed 2.
Special: Armour 20
Attacks: Missile Launcher, Minigun OR Gatling laser.

Slags
Normal character creation rules.

Spore carrier
Str: 3 Res: 3 Dex: 3 Spd: 4 Int: 3 Per: 3 Chr: 3 Con: 3 Rsl: 3 Rst: 3
Skills: Melee Weapons 2, Sneak 3, Survival 2, Unarmed 3, Armour 2.
Special: +1 bonus Sneak dice in vegetation. Explode when killed like a fragmentation grenade.
Attacks: Unarmed.

Spore plant
Str: 3 Res: 3 Dex: 2 Spd: 2 Int: 0 Per: 2 Chr: 0 Con: 0 Rsl: 0 Rst: 0
Skills: Throwing 2, Unarmed 3.
Special: Armour 4.
Attacks: Seed spike Damage 2, Bite, damage Str +2, +1 Armour.

Super mutant
Normal character creation rules.

Super mutant behemoth
Normal character creation rules

Support drone
As guard drone, but no ranged weapon.

Swampfolk
As normal humans.

Tank track robot
Str: 6 Res: 6 Dex: 2 Spd: 1 Int: 1 Per: 1 Chr: 1 Con: 1 Rsl: 1 Rst: 1
Skills: Melee Weapons 2.
Special: Armour 30.
Attacks: Autoflail, Str +6 damage, autofire.

Tesla robot
As a gun robot, but armed with a Tesla cannon.

Trog
Str: 2 Res: 2 Dex: 2 Spd: 3 Int: 2 Per: 2 Chr: 2 Con: 2 Rsl: 2 Rst: 2
Skills: Survival 2, Unarmed 3.
Special: None.
Attacks: Strength +2, +1 Armour.

Wanamingo
Str: 4 Res: 4 Dex: 4 Spd: 4 Int: 1 Per: 3 Chr: 1 Con: 1 Rsl: 2 Rst: 2
Skills: Survival 2, Unarmed 3.
Special: Armour 4.
Attacks: Str +3 bite.

Yao Guai
Str: 4 Res: 4 Dex: 3 Spd: 3 Int: 1 Per: 3 Chr: 2 Con: 2 Rsl: 3 Rst: 3
Skills: Survival 2, Unarmed 3.
Special: Armour 4.
Attacks: Claws Str +12 damage, Armour +1

Fallout Xpress Fanbook: Villains – O to R

Pacification robot
Str: 5 Res: 4 Dex: 2 Spd: 2 Int: 2 Per: 2 Chr: 1 Con: 2 Rsl: 2 Rst: 2
Skills: Big Guns 3, Energy Weapons 3, Guns 3, Speech 3.
Special: Armour 20.
Attacks: Pulse Rifle.

Pig rat
Str: 1 Res: 1 Dex: 2 Spd: 2 Int: 1 Per: 2 Chr: 1 Con: 1 Rsl: 1 Rst: 1
Skills: Survival 1, Unarmed 2.
Special: Armour 1
Attacks: Bite, Str +1 damage, Armour +1

Protectron
Str: 2 Res: 3 Dex: 2 Spd: 2 Int: 2 Per: 2 Chr: 2 Con: 2 Rsl: 2 Rst: 2
Skills: Energy Weapons 2, Lockpick 2, Repair 2, Science 2, Security 2, Speech 2, Unarmed 2.
Special: Armour 8
Attacks: Laser pistol.

Radroach
Str: 1 Res: 2 Dex: 1 Spd: 2 Int: 1 Per: 2 Chr: 1 Con: 1 Rsl: 1 Rst: 1
Skills: Survival 3, Unarmed 2.
Special: Armour 4
Attacks: Bite, Str, +1 Armour.

Robobrain
Str: 4 Res: 3 Dex: 2 Spd: 1 Int: 2 Per: 2 Chr: 2 Con: 2 Rsl: 2 Rst: 2
Skills: Energy Weapons 2, Lockpick 1, Medic 1, Repair 1, Science 1, Security 1, Speech 2, Unarmed 1.
Special: Armour 8
Attacks: Plasma pistol.

Fallout Xpress Fanbook: Villains – H to N

Hover robot
As per Eye-Robot but with Big Guns 2, a Missile Launcher and a Str +5 Melee attack with a Melee skill of 2.

Human
Create using the normal character creation rules.

Komodo dragon
Str: 4 Res: 4 Dex: 2 Spd: 1 Int: 1 Per: 2 Chr: 1 Con: 1 Rsl: 2 Rst: 2
Skills: Sneak 1, Survival 2, Unarmed 2.
Special: Armour 6
Attacks: Bite – Str +2 damage, Resilience at -1 or contract a nasty disease.

Laser robot
As per gun robot, but with twin gatling lasers (+1 damage).

Liberty Prime
Str: 10 Res: 10 Dex: 3 Spd: 3 Int: 2 Per: 2 Chr: 1 Con: 2 Rsl: 2 Rst: 2
Skills: Big Guns 3, Melee Weapons 3, Speech 1, Throwing 3, Unarmed 3.
Special: Armour 30.
Attacks: Liberty Prime is armed with gatling lasers, missile launchers and thrown mini-nukes.

Mirelurk
Str: 3 Res: 4 Dex: 2 Spd:1 Int: 2 Per: 2 Chr: 1 Con: 1 Rsl: 3 Rst: 3
Skills: Sneak 1, Survival 2, Unarmed 3.
Special: Armour: 15
Attacks: Claw Str +9, +1 Armour.

Mole rat
Str: 2 Res: 2 Dex: 2 Spd: 2 Int: 1 Per: 1 Chr: 1 Con: 1 Rsl: 1 Rst: 1
Skills: Survival 2, Unarmed 2.
Special: Armour 1.
Attacks: Bite, Str+1 Damage.

Mr. Gutsy/Handy
Str: 2 Res: 2 Dex: 2 Spd: 2 Int: 2 Per: 2 Chr: 2 Con: 2 Rsl: 2 Rst: 2
Skills (Gutsy): Big Guns 2, Energy Weapons 2, Guns 2, Security 2, Speech 1, Unarmed 1.
Skills (Handy): Big Guns 1, First Aid 1, Lockpick 1, Repair 1, Science 1, Security 1, Speech 1, Unarmed 1.
Special: Armour 10.
Attacks: Gutsy’s are armed with a flamer and a plasma pistol, Handy’s with a flame pistol.

Nightstalkers
As dogs, but with the bonuses of a stealthboy.