So, situation report for the first (online) session of this worldbook in action as a tabletop campaign.
@Hardboiled Android @Dayglow Drifter
Our cast of characters for session 1:
Clove:
A mere child when the Oil Rig went up, they were raised by subsequently overprotective parents at Navarro who coddled them from even leaving the borders of Navarro, warning of the dangers of mutant contamination. When Navarro finally fell to the NCR and the Brotherhood, Clove's parents were killed and they were taken in by a band of surviving remnants, who holed out in the rural Sierra Nevadas, attempting to keep under the radar of the ever-growing NCR. Clove was sent East in 2253 with a primary objective of finding a suitable place for relocation of their small band (less than 16) of remnants, with a secondary objective of checking out the Cheyenne Mountain Complex for possible Enclave presence. Tags: Small Guns, Computer Science, Lab Science. They're a "soft", passive and highly germaphobic type who resents having been sent out into the filthy, scary Wasteland.
Theme:
Micky Silvers:
A kid out of New Reno who wanted to be a Follower of the Apocalypse but never made the cut, instead becoming a money minded combat medic for the various gang wars of New Reno. Eventually saddling up with a mercenary crew under the employ of the Van Graffs seeking out treasures in the Rocky Mountains that could be the ace in the hole for stopping NCR expansion north. Unfortunately, Uncle Sam's eyebots had different ideas. Tags: Small Guns, First Aid, Doctor
Theme:
Johnny Boy
Born into a band of nomads who salvage technology and sell it for well above their actual value, Johnny Boy has always been a freak of luck. Extremely bad and good luck have characterized his rocky life. Silver tongued, used to selling bullshit and talking his way out of deals gone wrong, he couldn't talk his way out of a raid by the slavers of Heartbreak Hotel on his nomadic band. They killed the men and enslaved the women, including Johnny Boy's sister, Rui, by a freak of luck Johnny Boy was too wounded to move but not enough to be killed, the bellhops believing him to be dead. By an even bigger freak of luck he was later dragged to a cave by a Mysterious Stranger who came, fixed him up, and left in a flash, without saying a word (
)
Tags: Small Guns, Prospecting, Persuasion
Traits: One In A Million, Jinxed
Theme:
Micky, Johnny Boy and Clover awoke in Van Buren Prison to find themselves with a foggy memory of how they got there, my introductory monologue.
“War. War Never Changes.
In 2077, the storm of world war had come again. The details are trivial and pointless, the reasons, as always, purely human ones. In two brief hours, the Earth was nearly wiped clean of life. A great cleansing, an atomic spark struck by human hands, quickly raged out of control. Spears of nuclear fire rained from the skies. Humanity was almost extinguished, their spirits becoming part of the background radiation that blanketed the earth.
A quiet darkness fell across the planet, lasting many years. Few survived the devastation. Some had been fortunate enough to reach safety, taking shelter in great underground Vaults. When the great darkness eventually passed, these vaults opened, their inhabitants setting out across ruins of the old world to build new societies, establishing villages, forming tribes. From the ashes of nuclear devastation, a new form of civilization would struggle to arise.
Each of you are travelers of this new world, this Wasteland, but now you have been pulled into a mysterious crypt of the Old World before the bombs. Each of your memories are foggy, dreamlike. You recall blinding lights, thoughts in your mind that weren’t your own, yet commanded you all the same.
You each have an individual but near-identical dream of standing in a rusted circular metal room before three great flickering screens. You have the sense you were being judged, a trial. Two of the screens presented inhuman caricature faces, one of an older man with wispy facial hair, a hat atop his head bearing stars and stripes. He is “Uncle Sam”, your prosecutor. The other a figure in a large coat and fedora, darkness obscuring their face. He is Red Menace, your defense. The third screen remained dark, barring a dim green triangular symbol, above it an ancient carving reading its name. It is Colossus, your judge and jury. Uncle Sam and Red Menace argued, but Colossus simply mechanically churned and whirred.
Your recollections of the details are unclear: You are Victor Presper, Prisoner 13. Guilty of many crimes. You are not Victor Presper, you are not Prisoner 13, you are innocent and must be set free. Like a feverish nightmare, time seemed to pass at both a crawl and almost instantly. However, as each of you come to, heads aching and minds muddled, you will quickly realize that this was no dream.”
They quickly discovered the long dead corpses of many others in their adjacent panopticon style cell block, and that they were seemingly the only ones sharing the number 13 and equipped with Prison-Boys, but none the less they found one person barely alive on the verge of starvation named Freddy. Freddy explained he and many others had been trapped in the Prison for many weeks, if not months, and had been working in the lower level factories in order to earn slip cards to get their food, but a few days ago something happened and all their cells ceased up.
They moved into the central tower of the cell block and descended in an elevator, choosing to go to the CODE Learning Center, Gym, Cleaning Centre and Cafeteria floor (other options included Maintenance, Work Centre and Metro). They decided to split up and check different rooms. Clove went for the CODE center, where he found a classroom style room full of terminals, which offered to plug his pip-boy in for a quizz with the potential reward of either a recreation tape or a food ticket for a Level 1 beginner's quiz. The quizz (and its answers) were as such:
Quiz:
Q: Why Are You in This Prison?
A: Because I made myself an enemy to the American way of life and all those who enjoy it, either through terrorism, general dissidence or gross disobeying of orders
Q: What do you hope to gain from your sentence?
A: Challenge, Opportunity, Discipline and Ethics
Q: What are “American Values”?
A: Life, Liberty, Property and the Pursuit of Happiness
Clove did not get past the first question, however got VERY close on several occasions. Only after expending all their potential attempts for the day discovering the large textbook on the "teacher's" desk was an answer book with the brainwashing style answers required to proceed for each level.
Johnny Boy meanwhile checked out the cafeteria, finding dispensers and overturned tables, as he found the dispensers, he was approached by a cowering Prisoner, Larry, who explained to him that they'd all been working in the lower factories of the Work Centre until a group of Prisoners under a man named Jax secretly organized a rebellion with makeshift spears made of broomsticks and scrap metal fashioned into spears. They'd succeeded - but many prisoners, if not most, died, and the remaining including Jax had been "Flashed" with CODE Eyebots sending their brains into a scramble. Larry hid and survived - but the others went stark raving mad and barricaded themselves in the cleaning area, within the showers, blocking the laundry chute. Thankfully, Johnny Boy had the good sense to run and stop Mick before he went alone into the Cleaning Area. They decided to RZ at the CODE Learning Centre, where they all at the same time attempted to login as Prisoner 13 to the CODE Learning Program - which churned Red Menace into action, causing this to play over the intercom:
Following the trail of the music, they returned upstairs to the Cell Block, where they ascended the guard tower, using their combined strength as a team to wedge the sealed security door open, and entered the Security Hub where they found a dead Security Officer from before the War as well as a locker full of 10mm Pistols, they logged into the Security Hub and made first contact with Red Menace who informed them of their situation. From there, they deactivated their cardiac arrest protocols and debated over the three methods of escape Red Menace offered them - Clover ruled out as a matter of fact that they would not try the irradiated sewers (implicitly due to his fear of contamination) and they then debated the merits of facing Eyebots versus facing crazed Prisoners, of which they chose the latter, believing they could reason with them. They unlocked the cells, freeing Freddy. When they attempted to reason with the crazed Prisoners, the Prisoners did not like their (failed) attempt at Persuasion, citing that they bring them food or bring them the coward Larry to carve up and eat. Johnny Boy decided to pull his newly found 10mm Pistol and open fire, resulting in a battle that nearly killed them - Micky was severely wounded to the point of going down, only saved by expending his "Pip Point" playing his theme and auto-succeeding his death-rolls. Thankfully, the crazed prisoners failed their morale check after half of their numbers were downed and they fled into the showers in a frantic panic. So, they quickly headed down the chute with Larry, Freddy and themselves - passing a crazed Mr. Handy and escaping through a structural weakness into an old vehicular tunnel - emerging into the Wasteland with no supplies and a very wounded Micky, they decided to follow the signage to Grand Junction, seeking the closest refuge with hopes of food and medicine
