Not to be too greedy, but is there any work being done to add more creatures and adversaries? I want to try to run a quick quest to test the waters and thought Radroaches would be a simple enough combat encounter.

It's Genesys, you can add them yourself later?

Phil, I just wanted to say that your theme performed quite well with actual play! The session I ran yesterday featured the deathclaw vs. power armor showdown. The power armor shrugged off damage from the raiders, with only one or two shots penetrating. But up against the deathclaw, it was a pretty even match. The deathclaw and BoS PC both gave each other two crits and around 75% wound threshold before "Sister Steel" lit it up with a massive minigun volley of 14 damage x 4 :D.

We haven't explored the Chem DLC yet, since we're still getting our feet wet with the setting, but I'm looking forward to it!

On 1/19/2018 at 4:00 PM, Bismarckghs said:

Not to be too greedy, but is there any work being done to add more creatures and adversaries? I want to try to run a quick quest to test the waters and thought Radroaches would be a simple enough combat encounter.

Yup, I'm working on more content as I type this. Here's the list of Adversaries I need to put stats to:

• Radroaches
• Stingwings
• Bloatfly
• Giant Ant
• Giant Fire Ant
• Giant Radscorpion
• Alpha Deathclaw
• Deathclaw Matriarch
• Molerat Matriarch
• Mirelurk Queen
• Mirelurk King
• Radstag
• Brahman
• Yao-Guai
• Brotherhood of Steel
  • Scribe
  • Initiate
  • Knight
  • Paladin
• Caravan Merchant
• Caravan Guard
• Children of Atom Acolyte
• Minuteman
• Synth Mk I
• Synth Mk II
• Synth Mk III
• Synth Courser
• Synth Infiltrator
• Institute Scientist
• Railroad Agent
• Settlement Handyman
• Settlement Leader
• Settler
• Vault Dweller
• Vault Security Guard
• Vault Scientist
• Vault Overseer
• Super Mutant Suicider
• Super Mutant Brute

With luck, I'll start having them available over the course of the next month, beginning with the "BUGS!" adversaries.

22 hours ago, verdantsf said:

Phil, I just wanted to say that your theme performed quite well with actual play! The session I ran yesterday featured the deathclaw vs. power armor showdown. The power armor shrugged off damage from the raiders, with only one or two shots penetrating. But up against the deathclaw, it was a pretty even match. The deathclaw and BoS PC both gave each other two crits and around 75% wound threshold before "Sister Steel" lit it up with a massive minigun volley of 14 damage x 4 :D.

We haven't explored the Chem DLC yet, since we're still getting our feet wet with the setting, but I'm looking forward to it!

That's great to hear! Sounds like the Power Armor is mostly working as intended; minor threats are nothing, but serious threats like Deathclaws, well armed NPCs, and Super Mutants are a challenge.

That's one **** of a shot with the minigun!
Keep me posted please!

@DarthGM - the fan of the original Fallout, and thus New Vegas, in me (at the expense of 3 and 4), made me put this together during a fairly boring teleconference. Keen to hear any feedback you or others had.

That Gun

.223 custom pistol

Skill: Ranged (Light)
Damage: 6
Crit: 2
Range : Short
Encumberance: 2
HP: 1
Price : 1750
Rarity : 9
Special: Pierce 2, Click Click (optional; see GM Huzz' sci-fi armoury for this rule)

Incredibly rare, this conversion of a rifle to a pistol was done with obvious love and care; both for the weapon itself, and its value in retiring synths from action. You shouldn't feel bad about as synths are like any other machine - a benefit, or a hazard. If they're a benefit, it's not your - our - problem.

The price and crit rating are derived from FNV stats. The Pierce 2 has to do with the game making .223 rounds innately armour piercing. The dmg 6 is high for a sidearm in this setting, but it's a one of a kind item so if a player does get it, well, it should be worth it!

Click Click is a rule the Dice Pool Podcast's GM Huzz (aka @KingNova3000 ) came up with for revolvers in his sci-fi arsenal that should apply here, to reference the 5 round cylinder in the game.

Quick note, Phil. The rules for fusion cores are split across multiple pages and have somewhat contradictory info:

Page 8: "Once drained, the Fusion Core can only be recharged by a large nuclear reactor (such as in a power plant, Pre-War warship, or Vault)."

Page 11: "Once drained, the Core’s charge cannot be replenished."

I just took page 11 to mean "under normal circumstances," but since these statements are separated by 3 pages, it might lead to some confusion while someone is skimming.

Also, this entire thing is excellent! Phil just ran a session for me yesterday and it was great fun, highly recommend giving it a look if you're into Fallout specifically or want a look at a totally viable way to handle power armor or radiation for other games

6 hours ago, verdantsf said:

Quick note, Phil. The rules for fusion cores are split across multiple pages and have somewhat contradictory info:

Page 8: "Once drained, the Fusion Core can only be recharged by a large nuclear reactor (such as in a power plant, Pre-War warship, or Vault)."

Page 11: "Once drained, the Core’s charge cannot be replenished."

I just took page 11 to mean "under normal circumstances," but since these statements are separated by 3 pages, it might lead to some confusion while someone is skimming.

Good catch. One was written well before the other, I think, and missed in the proof-reading.

You know, originally my thought was that they could be recharged, but the more I think about it Fusion Batteries use nuclear material for power. It's not like they're lithium-Ion fuel cells. To recharge one, you'd probably have to put in more nuclear fuel, which means safely opening up the container.

I'll likely change it to the ruling on page 11; once empty, you have a nice possibly radioactive paperweight.

Had a few design questions for ya @DarthGM . More curiosity than worry or anything really.

I'm playing in @verdantsf 's Community Fallout game, worth mentioning just to plug that he is a fantastic GM =P, and that your fallout theme is super awesome.

On to the Questions.

Was it intended that super mutants cannot start with a brawn of 5, where as as the Human, Laborer can? SMs fall 10xp short (3 starting brawn, 80 starting xp). I don't feel this is a balance issue because of the increased starting willpower, higher strain/wound thresholds and the Radiation immunity (which is really really powerful). Just more of a cognitive disconnect that a human can be Brawnier than a Super Mutant at chargen.

Brass Knuckles have differing stats from the Modern Setting in the core book. Which is worth mentioning because of the notation of "In addition to those listed below, any weapon from the Modern Setting (Genesys Core Rulebook Page 168) is available with the exception of the Portable Missile Launcher (replaced by the Missile Launcher below)." within your fallout setting. Specifically they are 10 cheaper on cost, and have Disorient 1 instead of Disorient 3. Was this intentional or a copy/pasta error? If intentional what was the reasoning?

Similarly, what was the reasoning for the combat shotgun not carrying over the Knockdown and vicious ratings of the shotgun? I assume it was intended to be a "better" shotgun with higher blast and cost, just curious on the reasoning for the differences.

1 hour ago, Wisconsen said:

Had a few design questions for ya @DarthGM . More curiosity than worry or anything really.

I'm playing in @verdantsf 's Community Fallout game, worth mentioning just to plug that he is a fantastic GM =P, and that your fallout theme is super awesome.

On to the Questions.

Was it intended that super mutants cannot start with a brawn of 5, where as as the Human, Laborer can? SMs fall 10xp short (3 starting brawn, 80 starting xp). I don't feel this is a balance issue because of the increased starting willpower, higher strain/wound thresholds and the Radiation immunity (which is really really powerful). Just more of a cognitive disconnect that a human can be Brawnier than a Super Mutant at chargen.

Brass Knuckles have differing stats from the Modern Setting in the core book. Which is worth mentioning because of the notation of "In addition to those listed below, any weapon from the Modern Setting (Genesys Core Rulebook Page 168) is available with the exception of the Portable Missile Launcher (replaced by the Missile Launcher below)." within your fallout setting. Specifically they are 10 cheaper on cost, and have Disorient 1 instead of Disorient 3. Was this intentional or a copy/pasta error? If intentional what was the reasoning?

Similarly, what was the reasoning for the combat shotgun not carrying over the Knockdown and vicious ratings of the shotgun? I assume it was intended to be a "better" shotgun with higher blast and cost, just curious on the reasoning for the differences.

Super-Mutants: My thinking there was primarily that the Super Mutants tend to be really brawny and...slow in the mental capacity department. So to sort of stick with that; if you want a SM with a Brawn of 5, it's a choice you can make and it will likely fit in to what we see in the game. Like Strong ; he clearly is a physical titan but...yeah, not so much in the brains department. We see that theme a bit in Fallout through the years.

Brass Knuckles: I'm fairly certain I just overlooked that Brass Knuckles were in the core book. I'll have them updated to match the core book (or to keep it consistent, remove them from the Fallout doc and let you all use the ones from the core)

Combat Shotgun: The shotgun is a double-barreled hand cannon that shreds targets at close range with buckshot. The combat shotgun to me is a more tactical, focus-fire weapon. As more folks get their hands on my theme and get it on the table, I'll be making re-evaluations and updates to it. I can see adding Knockdown to the Combat Shotgun, but I'm not sure if I'd want to throw Vicious on top of it too since that might make it too good (but I'm not saying no!)

Awesome, TY for the insight. I can totally see those points =)

I was More mentioning that it is "feels" odd having a human able to start stronger than a SM. Not that there is any mechanical problem with that at all. I actually really like the SM stat spread and think it's pretty spot on. I was more wondering if it was a implicit design choice, or just a side effect of how they were stated out.

Because in the long run, it really doesn't matter as they can get there with their first t5 talent via dedication if that is the direction the player wishes to go.

As always, appreciate the insight and the awesome setting.

2 hours ago, Wisconsen said:

I was More mentioning that it is "feels" odd having a human able to start stronger than a SM. Not that there is any mechanical problem with that at all. I actually really like the SM stat spread and think it's pretty spot on. I was more wondering if it was a implicit design choice, or just a side effect of how they were stated out.

This actually works with Gen-3 synths in mind. Despite being organic, they are incredibly strong. Since this is the one character creation choice in our campaign that is a secret both IC and OOC, having a single data set that encompasses this variance is an unexpected, but welcome bonus.

6 hours ago, DarthGM said:

Super-Mutants: My thinking there was primarily that the Super Mutants tend to be really brawny and...slow in the mental capacity department. So to sort of stick with that; if you want a SM with a Brawn of 5, it's a choice you can make and it will likely fit in to what we see in the game. Like Strong ; he clearly is a physical titan but...yeah, not so much in the brains department. We see that theme a bit in Fallout through the years.

The exception to the rule on strength and intelligence is probably this guy:

But, given Marcus had been around for years and years, and spent time with the BoS Paladin Jacob, you can infer there's a lot of sunk XP into his stats which includes using Dedicated more than once. A PC being Marcus-like would be at least 4-500 XP in and require a player to plan out their path well in advance.

Update to the Theme; I've added more talents based on several Perks in the game.

You can find them here !

Awesome stuff, been looking them over and, once again, had some design questions. If you would be so kind as to indulge me again.

Pain Train - Was this intended to not work with Blitz? or accidentally worded to not work with blitz? "When you perform a Move maneuver to engage a target ...." where as Blitz makes the engage a incidental.

Blitz - love the talent, it opens a lot of possibilities for melee characters, though it does feel significantly weaker than the t4 talents for ranged weapons. Curious on the reasoning for it being t5

Commando - I really liked that you reduced the difficulty instead of messing with the advantage costs ala jury rig from FFGSW. no problems with the talent just wanted to mention that =)

As always, love the material, and really look forward to using, and seeing it be used, in our fallout game.

Pain Train - It was unintentional. Interesting; I'm going to have to think on the implications of those two talents working together...

Blitz - In a running melee battle, one of the advantages to slowing down your opponent is disengage to short range and move to medium range; that way the melee fighter needs to move twice to engage you again. This prevents the melee fighter from using Maneuvers for anything else, and burns 2 strain to keep the pressure on. Blitz saves the melee fighter from needing to burn that second maneuver, either saving them strain or allowing them to use their second maneuver for aiming or other maneuver-based talents. Finally, if you are immobilized you can still, by RAW, use Blitz to engage an opponent at Short range.

Commando - While I wish I could take credit, I totally stole that one from the Talent in the Heavy specialization tree from Star Wars.

Outstanding (in my best Danse voice)!

Session 4 of my Fallout campaign is this weekend. I look forward to seeing these talents in play!

Nevermind, must be thinking of a custom talent from a setting.

Hey Phil, I noticed the following in the radiation rules:

Quote

Three threats or a despair on the roll can result in the character suffering from Radiation Poisoning; they add a setback to every skill check until their Radiation Level is reduced to zero. This effect is cumulative, so failing three Radiation checks results in three setbacks on all checks until the Radiation level is reduced to zero.

Were the setbacks on failures part of an earlier iteration? As it is now, the failures don't stack setbacks, but rather the threats and despairs.

13 hours ago, verdantsf said:

Hey Phil, I noticed the following in the radiation rules:

Were the setbacks on failures part of an earlier iteration? As it is now, the failures don't stack setbacks, but rather the threats and despairs.

Ooops...good catch there. Failing just means you take all the radiation damage from the source; Threat or Despair means you get Rad Poisoning until cured.

I'll fix it in the next update...assuming I remember...

The next DLC content is now available. This week it's the Institute, and rules for playing Generation 3 Synths!

Enjoy!

Fragments from the Rim Blog: DLC #3 - The Institute

Thanks, Phil! My group is looking forward to incorporating the new content!

...and finnnnallly, I had a chance to go over this one. Interesting, so far... I am interested in the creature bits, honestly. I will print out this one and try a second one shot this weekend using it.

@DarthGM Maybe some rules, or alterations for cybernetics from the core rules, to fit fallout. Not that there is any particular reason ...... nothing like my supermutant might have "lost" both of his arms somewhere in episode 5 of @verdantsf 's Community Fallout game. =P

Played the one shot, my group(s) -ran a second one shot with another group for another ruleset- enjoyed the play for the most part as a general thing, but... There is a guy in our group that can break pretty much any system, and he was quick to ask about the soak values of the power armor. To quote him, he said, "Do I really get something that starts with an 8 soak?" He got ahold of the armor at some point, and the armor mods quickly made it reeeeeeally hard to damage him which is on par for fo4, but it seemed to break from the New Vegas power armor playstyle.

Anywho, I was wondering if you were going for the fo4 vibe more than the earlier editions of the game?

Otherwise, the system played well as a cohesive unit for the most part. The group I hosted is a young crowd, and they got most of the references from the fo4 side of things. It was fairly fast paced, and the mechanics clicked in all the right places without too many questions.

*Disclamer - hopefully, it does not come off rude! - J