RPGWatch does a retrospective on Fallout

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Brother None

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RPGWatch has done an article on Fallout entitled "Falling For Fallout: A (Post-Nuclear RPG) Retrospective", a highly sentimental and nostalgic piece that nonetheless highlights things that modern gamers often forget:<blockquote>Some have speculated that Fallout came about as a social commentary in relation to real world terrorism and growing fears of the end of days with the fast approaching new millennium. An intriguing notion, but seriously folks, it’s a game, not CNN. Anyway, it’s certainly no coincidence that Fallout was released during the 10th anniversary of Wasteland.
(...)
Wasteland’s obvious influence on Fallout’s uniquely eclectic style is just a drop in the bucket compared to that of other forms of pop culture media. Subtle and not so subtle references to 1950’s and 1960’s television, movies, comics and literature all made their way into Fallout in one form or another. Inspired by heroic multi-media icons of the era such as Batman, Superman and Flash Gordon, we clearly see brightly colored jumpsuits, vacuum tube computers and, of course, gitchy, oversized toy-like ray guns. Even Fallout’s overall story and artwork are heavily inspired by the “duck and cover” nuclear scare era of a frightened 1950’s America.</blockquote>For a bit more spark, we'll quote this bit on the success and future of Fallout:<blockquote>Fallout’s overwhelming achievement spawned Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (for the Xbox and PlayStation 2) and Fallout: Warfare (a board game based on the Fallout: Tactics storyline). What the future holds for the Fallout franchise remains to be seen, but there exists the possibility of a Fallout MMO under the banner of Interplay which, if done right, would stand a very good chance of hanging tough with the big boys like World of Warcraft and EverQuest. Speaking of “if done right”, Fallout 3 is currently in pre-production, but being developed by Bethesda Softworks, this incarnation of a beloved series has raised a great deal of controversy and concern among fans, myself included. Only time will tell if Bethesda lives up to the quality and complexity Fallout 1 and 2 are known for, or sells out to the lowest common denominator for a quick buck.</blockquote>Link: Falling For Fallout: A (Post-Nuclear RPG) Retrospective on RPGWatch
 
Images, by way of note, used with permission.

Also by way of note, news posted here within half an hour of the article's release. Oh yeah, oh yeah, we good, we good, who's yo daddy, who's yo daddy, oh yeah, oh yeah.
 
"has raised a great deal of controversy and concern among fans"

controversy no, concern YES!
 
Would anyone care to explain to me How different Fallout would have been if it had kept the GURPS system instead of converting to the SPECIAL system? I looked into gurps very little and all I found out that its an alternative to dnd rules/setting.
 
I will highlights you things that modern gamers often forget: CORE

Olways got feeling that every new stuff around is made only for use all possibilities of new very fast coputers. Mostly i see great 3D graphic.. but thats all, i dont see anything genius inside.
 
Gurps (3rd edition) VS Special

7 linear statistics become 4 logarithmic Statistics + a few modifiers
Special Strength = Gurps Strength
Perception + Intelligence = Gurps Intelligence
Endurance = Gurps Health
Agility = Gurps Dexterity

Gurps stats fall in between 3 and 18 with 10 being average
(normally 8-16 for human characters)
Costs are calculated from 10 (0 points) Scores below 10 provide the player with points. Scores over 10 cost points. The further from "average" the greater the cost/reward per point.

Charisma is a "semi stat" (5 point per level). Other semi stats are willpower, hitpoints, perception bonus'.

Luck is an advantage (perk)

With no agility stat (In gurps all (combat) actions take the same time to complete regardless of who performs them) every one would have the same number of action points. (perks/drugs/advantages may still alter them)

Gurps has far more skills than special but the transition to cRPG may have shortened the list.

Gurps skill values are Stat + Skill bonus (logarithmic factoring skill difficulty)
i.e. Tracking (13) might be Intelligence (11) plus 2 (IQ hard skill with 4 points invested) or Cooking (14) might be Intelligence (11) plus 3 (IQ easy skill with 2 points invested)

A gurps skills
3 = %2.3
10 = %50
18 = %98.7 (ish)
25 = %98.7 (ish) (but can soak up negative conditional modifiers i.e. poor lighting (-6) would have no effect (by it's self) on a person with 25 skill

16+ is considered a professional skill level.

Few diverse perks/traits would become many specific advantages and disadvantages.

Special has "heavy handed" with its pro's and con's and no "cost".
Gurps would have "extra damage HtH" (no con's) at a cost of say 10 points.
And separately "reduced manual dexterity" (no Pro's) for a "refund" of say 10 points.

If fallout had been Gurps the biggest change would be character creation. rather than distribute stats, choose 2 traits, choose three skills. You would have distribute 100 points on Stats,Skills and advantages. then you could gain points by taking disadvantages i.e. Ugly, Missing an arm, dwarfism, skinny and albinism (for the twisted player) To gain more points for stats,skills etc.


I've GMed GURPS for ages and the system is a bit big to describe here. I have also probably explained it badly. But Gurps is a lot different to DnD. Especially pre D20.
 
E said:
With no agility stat (In gurps all (combat) actions take the same time to complete regardless of who performs them) every one would have the same number of action points. (perks/drugs/advantages may still alter them)
Click to expand...
Skill levels, as well, could effect combat actions. Quick draw and quick load were GURPS skills and would leave you with enough action left to do something else in that turn. For a computer game they would have been likely tossed out and put as side effects of the skills or just left out altogether or made into perks, and for some firearms (typically muzzleloaders and such) it was already in that you were faster at reloading as your skill and familiarity with the weapon increased.

Also for a melee fighter using the Chambara rules, the number of attacks and parries possible per turn were based off the weapon skill used.

Your primary stats Dex and Int primarily affected how quickly you learned skills and what they started as whether they were physical or mental skills, as well as Dex being used in the Speed secondary stat equations (which determined your Dodge skill and your Move score or how many hexes you went) and Int being used for Magery and to determine your Will and Perception secondary stats.

Str determines your damage, encumberance, and Hit Points (which don't level with you, they are more or less fixed, unless you buy additional to a limit. Defending is life.). Health determines your fatigue and is rolled against for many resistance, conciousness checks, and death checks.

Gurps used skills for everything. I'm not even remotely joking. Every weapon was a skill, many combat manuevers were practiced special skills, everything from cooking to stealth to bomb defusal was a skill.

Truthfully, I'd have rather liked the GURPS rather than SPECIAL used for Fallout. Humans having 9123987 hit points is rather silly. Special did do skills fairly well though, but would have worked just as well with regular GURPS rules.

Combat was an exersize in math, still is in fourth, but far less so. Perfect for computers, takes some getting used to for people, but once you get the hang of it, it goes real quick and offers a ton of flexibility.

Honestly, GURPS isn't nearly as difficult as it is made out to be, it just looks a little intimidating at first. I've been GMing and playing it for quite some time now. You can get a new player to fully understand the system in less than an hour. With the newer 4th ed it is quite a bit more intiutive and lost very little to none of its flexibility.
 
I have played in campaigns using the GURPS system before, and I have to say that I feel it's far too dumbed down to use in Fallout, or anything that's not targeting children. As for Fallout systems, I think SPECIAL was, and still is, perfect.
 
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