A Solo Fallout RPG Faction/Settlement Table

[FlukeboxHero]

I want to have a table so that I don't have to encounter the 727th section of the Brotherhood of Steel. To design this, I'm trying to categorize factions/settlements from FO1, 2, and VB into Species, Origin, Technology, Attitude, and Goal.

Species:
- Human
- Ghoul
- Mutant (catch all term)
- Robotic (To cover Robot City from Van Buren)
- Roll on table twice (Covers Broken Hills)

Origin:
- Vault-founded (Shady Sands, Vault City, Necropolis)
- Pre-War - (Enclave, Reservation)
- Madness - Something bad happened, and they broke (The Unity)
- Nihilism - Burn it all (Presper)
- Military - BoS

Technology:
- Tribal
- Subsistence
- Basic
- Developed
- Advanced
- Roll Twice, take lower (Tribal groups that worship knowledge, i.e. The Abbey or the Ciphers)

Attitude:
- Friendly
- Cautious
- Neutral
- Hostile
- Arrogant (?)
- Roll twice

Goal:
- Protection
- Isolation
- Purge
- Expand
- Survival


Thoughts? Ideas to improve/expand this? I'd appreciate any suggestions or feedback!

 

[Iprovidelittlepianos]

I once had a similar idea to categorize factions. This is a good start, a couple of things come to mind though:

As far as origins, I’m not sure if Pre-War and Military are much of a distinction. Seems military-descended organizations could be lumped in with any other faction that is rooted in pre-existing pre-war organizations.

Also, there doesn’t seem to be an origin that describes most of the settlements and tribes that were formed by groups of people that (presumably) survived the war outside of Vaults. May I suggest a Survivor origin that describes towns like Junktown, the Hub, etc, and tribals like the Dead Horses and the 80s?

I think Tribal can be removed from technology (maybe replace it with Hunter-Gatherer or something), as it describes societal organization more than it describes technology level. Like you say, Ciphers are tribals but possess advanced technology, even if they don’t fully understand it.

I’d suggest a new column called Society. In this category you’d have the aforementioned Tribal, along with Settlement (for towns, cities, and villages less close-knit than typical tribes), and Nation (for federations/empires of settlements/tribes like the NCR and Caesar’s Legion). Possibly have one called Criminal or Gang, which would cover all the groups of thugs, punks, outlaws, and mercenaries that exist within (or at least come from) Settlements and Nations, like the Hub Underground, the Skulz, the New Reno Families, the Morton brothers’ gangs, Bishop’s mercenaries, etc.

 

[Resardiv]

Besides what's written above, I'd suggest adding a category for nomadic societies. Pastoral tribes and post-apocalyptic khanates would probably sprout up where agriculture is not sustainable and access to grazing is abundant. Imagine huge herds of Brahmin and Bighorners herded across the Great Plains.

If you want to add another dimension for factions, add faith and religion. It doesn't have to be a binary choice of Reddit-atheism or Joshua Graham's kill-the-White Legs infants Mormonism. Some societies are a bit religious, where it isn't their defining feature - but a tenant of their life. Mix and match the old world's faiths - and how they were affected by 2077 with new cults born afterwards.

 

[FlukeboxHero]

Thanks! Here's a first draft of the table:

d8 Roll	Species​	Origin​	Tech Level​	Society​	Attitude​	Goal​	Belief​
1	Human	Survivors	Primitive	Vagabonds	Friendly	Survival	Athiest
2	Human	Survivors	Subsistence	Raiders	Courteous	Survival	No Official Belief
3	Human	Vault/Vault-Founded	Subsistence	Vault	Neutral	Isolation	No Official Belief
4	Ghoul	Vault/Vault-Founded	Basic	Nomads	Neutral	Protection	Technology
5	Ghoul	Pre-War	Basic	Settlement	Wary	Expansion	Animism
6	Mutant	Madness	Developed	Nation	Wary	Growth (?)	Ancestors
7	Robot	Nihilism	Advanced	City-State	Hostile	Purge	Pre-War Religion
8	Roll 2x	Roll 2x	Roll 2x	Roll 2x	Roll 2x	Roll 2x	Roll 2x

As before, any suggestions/feedback/criticisms are appreciated!