Fallout Pnp, Crunchy mechanics

E said:
I think this would work, maybe toned down a bit from your version though. It fits with fallout quite well fallout 1 had vault dweller as the background, fallout 2 had tribal as the background and so on.
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But wouldn't background be a thing more defined by the player, and not mechanically? Like, being a Vault Dweller and a Tribal had no effect on your stats in Fallout 1/2. Like, the effects of your background would be your starting SPECIAL, skills, and traits right? Backgrounds just feel like an unnecessary layer of mechanical abstraction.
 
Garbagecrone said:
But wouldn't background be a thing more defined by the player, and not mechanically? Like, being a Vault Dweller and a Tribal had no effect on your stats in Fallout 1/2. Like, the effects of your background would be your starting SPECIAL, skills, and traits right? Backgrounds just feel like an unnecessary layer of mechanical abstraction.
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I was thinking the background would be along the lines of, a bonus to some skills maybe a penalty to others, access to higher quality starting gear. That kind of thing. No added mechanics. Just a way of adding flavour.
 
Garbagecrone said:
But wouldn't background be a thing more defined by the player, and not mechanically? Like, being a Vault Dweller and a Tribal had no effect on your stats in Fallout 1/2. Like, the effects of your background would be your starting SPECIAL, skills, and traits right? Backgrounds just feel like an unnecessary layer of mechanical abstraction.
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Well I'm using it because I'm not planning to have perks or levels which makes the background and traits a good way of making your character unique. Also, I like to think that the background is pretty important in life, because it allows you do things that others can't. Only a doctor should be able to do complicated medical procedures (so no doctor's skill, first aid yes, but no doctor's skill) because he's trained and experienced for that. A tribal should be better at survival, but in a funner way then merely having a better survivor skill.

To make the game funner each background provides a special ability, which should help make the group more reliant on each other. Not fighter, fighter, talky guy, sneaky guy, fighter, fighter type parties.
 
Do people have a preference between point based/choice based character creation and random character creation?
 
E said:
Do people have a preference between point based/choice based character creation and random character creation?
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Choice based/Random Character Creation.
Random is nice when you want to have a party full of supermen, weaklings and average joes.
 
Ideas for backgrounds
  1. Tribal, +10 outdoors, +10 throwing, -10 science, limited starting gear.
  2. Raider, +10 melee, -10 speach, some limits on gear
  3. Hunter, -10 speach, +10 Small guns. +5 outdoor, start with a rifle (?)
  4. Town folk, -10 outdoor, +10 speach bonus starting cash.
  5. Thief, +10 sneak +10 speach. -10 small guns,
  6. Vault dweller, -15 outdoor, +10 science, good starting gear.
  7. Military brat, +10 small guns, +5 big guns, - 10 speach.
  8. Farmer
  9. Traveler
  10. Ghoul (?) Include races as backgrounds to add simplicity?
Keep them fairly balanced against each other and if the Overseer desires they can be random. Add three tag skills,
 
E said:
Ideas for backgrounds
  1. Tribal, +10 outdoors, +10 throwing, -10 science, limited starting gear.
  2. Raider, +10 melee, -10 speach, some limits on gear
  3. Hunter, -10 speach, +10 Small guns. +5 outdoor, start with a rifle (?)
  4. Town folk, -10 outdoor, +10 speach bonus starting cash.
  5. Thief, +10 sneak +10 speach. -10 small guns,
  6. Vault dweller, -15 outdoor, +10 science, good starting gear.
  7. Military brat, +10 small guns, +5 big guns, - 10 speach.
  8. Farmer
  9. Traveler
  10. Ghoul (?) Include races as backgrounds to add simplicity?
Keep them fairly balanced against each other and if the Overseer desires they can be random. Add three tag skills,
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Kinda boring but they work.
 
Dr Fallout said:
Kinda boring but they work.
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I wasn't looking to do any thing beyond the generic at this stage. Though when I was chasing up the link for the TP-82 I did consider having a start point/background of "Spaceman, was in stasis, you just landed, you get a bonus to science and the TP-82". It may go in the expanded list of backgrounds

Edit
Any opinion on having the various races included in the background list? It is NMA after all.
 
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E said:
I wasn't looking to do any thing beyond the generic at this stage. Though when I was chasing up the link for the TP-82 I did consider having a start point/background of "Spaceman, was in stasis, you just landed, you get a bonus to science and the TP-82". It may go in the expanded list of backgrounds

Edit
Any opinion on having the various races included in the background list? It is NMA after all.
Click to expand...
I like that!

Ehh they should be separate. Ghouls have jobs too.
 
Injury
4 or 5 points of damage to incapacitate a limb.
Double damage for head shots
Every 5 points of damage is a "wound level" (or something like it)
  1. Uninjured
  2. Wounded, Endurance check before each round or double AP costs.
  3. Major Wound, Bleeding (?) penalties to stats (?) skills (?)
 
Perks and traits are the last major part of the Fallout character sheet to convert into a PnP mechanic.
While personally I would like to avoid levels they do seem fairly integral to the Perk and trait mechanics

My feeling is to have up to 2 traits selected from a slightly modified list of standard fallout traits.
To avoid levels it might be possible to have character rewards paid in skill points. These points can be spent on skills, specialized skills or perks that the Overseer has ruled are "open" to the character. Maybe 10 points for a perk(?). As in fallout some perks are received regardless.

Exhaustion, starvation, radiation and dehydration.
These conditions are to some an integral part of the wasteland, how to handle them? The simplest way is probably a temporary reduction in Endurance. A slightly more complicated method would be reduction in physical stats. Does anyone have any thoughts or opinions on the matter?
 
Ok
I think most of the mechanics are worked out. If anyone can see anything I have missed let me know. The next task will be generating some items and other content.
 
Weapons and technology levels
  1. Spears, crude melee weapons, bows, crossbows, Crude leather armour
  2. Zip guns, pipe rifles, better melee weapons, better leather armour, Bandages
  3. 10mm semiauto pistols, .38 revolvers, hunting rifles, Bulletproof vests, stimpacks
  4. Sawn off shotguns, Basic Smgs, cheap assault rifles, metal armour, plastic armour, Tyre armour, stimpacks and combat drugs
  5. Assault rifles, Nasty melee weapons, high quality leather and metal armour, explosives, high grade stimpacks.
  6. Heavy weapons, high quality smaller weapons, combat armour,
  7. Energy weapons, high grade heavy weapons, powered armour
  8. High grade energy weapons, high grade powered armour.
 
Forgot Races
What races to include
Definite
- Human
- Ghoul
- Dwarf
Maybe
- Super mutant (it is NMA)
- Other mutant
Probably not, but deserve a write up.
- Deathclaws
- Robots
- Superintelligent raccoons (obscure fallout lore)
 
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