The Main Quest of Van Buren

Pax

Pax

First time out of the vault
Ho there, long time visitor, first time poster. My question is this: do we know what the main quest of Van Buren was going to be, from the player's perspective? I know the leaked docs go over what Presper's plan was pretty thoroughly, but so far I can't find anything on what the player's overall goal from the beginning of the game is, e.g. travel around looking for a water chip, a GECK, or some various idiot family member. Right now what I know is you escape prison and run away from robots , and at some point later in the game you learn enough about Presper's plot to presumably want to do something to stop it.

The reason I ask is that I'm gearing up to run a tabletop Fallout game based on the Van Buren leaks, and I'm missing that one vital component for player motivation. I can come up with something (seeking a cure for the New Plague the players will be infected with comes immediately to mind) but I just wanted to know if this was information that was already out there somewhere. I know a lot of info about Van Buren randomly ends up in various forum posts, or on a podcast, etc., so I thought I'd crowd source #1 best Fallout site for an answer. Thanks in advance.
 
Just wait for inXile finished Van Buren so we will know what will be the main quest of it.
 
Plot

SPOILERS AHOY

The game would have begun with the player character in a prison cell. Because of this, the player was given a choice. The prisoner could be an innocent that was imprisoned because of some misunderstanding, or they could choose to be a criminal and take bonus traits that would bolster some of their skills.

The player would awaken in a prison cell, but not the one they remembered falling asleep in. Suddenly, the floor rocks violently from an explosion and the player is knocked unconscious. When they awaken, they find their cell door open and a hole in the wall leading outside. Leaving the prison, the character is under attack by some unknown assailant. Deciding that discretion is the better part of valor, the player flees into the night to explore this new world.

Unfortunately, this newfound freedom may be short lived. The player is relentlessly pursued by robots who want to return them to the prison. As they explore the world and try to outwit their pursuers, they begin to uncover an underlying plot. Why was the character in a different prison than the one they fell asleep in? Why can't they remember being transferred? What was the attack on the prison about in the first place? Then they find out about NCR's problems, and a few things don't add up....

Just like all the titles in the Fallout series, the story ends with multiple different endings for every community and faction that you interacted with. Their outcome depends on your actions.

Presper's plan

Victor Presper

Eventually, the player would discover the true reason behind the prison and the attack on it. It turns out that, through extensive research, the mad scientist called Presper, disgusted with what the world turned into after the War, discovered the history of New Plague, the virus that FEV was initially created to cure, and its genocidal potency, and also discovered a viable means to cleanse the world. Using ULYSSES, the quarantine prison, and a ballistic satellite known as B.O.M.B.-001, the way to human planetary domination and order became clear. He needed to get to B.O.M.B.-001 and use the nuclear weapons to clean the filth and wretch that currently have occupied the surface.

Presper and his followers released the New Plague virus in the remote areas near Boulder and Denver. It was close enough to the quarantine prison to spur ULYSSES into action, but not near enough to cause huge populations to start a general panic. Once enough people were infected and ULYSSES “arrested” enough people to just about fill up the prison, Presper’s men would stage an attack on the prison which would allow everyone to escape. This event would start a countdown of sorts for missile launch on B.O.M.B.-001. ULYSSES would assess the viral spread, try to gather up the escaped prisoners, and, once 90% of the prisoners had been retrieved, launch nuclear missiles to “clean & prevent” any further infection. By the time this happened, Presper had planned to be on, and in full control of, B.O.M.B.-001 and reprogramming targeting solutions to clean the areas he wanted. Humans of his choosing would wait out the second nuclear holocaust in the Boulder Dome, until the day came where he declared the Earth safe for pure blood humans once more.
 
Pax said:
Ho there, long time visitor, first time poster. My question is this: do we know what the main quest of Van Buren was going to be, from the player's perspective? I know the leaked docs go over what Presper's plan was pretty thoroughly, but so far I can't find anything on what the player's overall goal from the beginning of the game is, e.g. travel around looking for a water chip, a GECK, or some various idiot family member. Right now what I know is you escape prison and run away from robots , and at some point later in the game you learn enough about Presper's plot to presumably want to do something to stop it.

The reason I ask is that I'm gearing up to run a tabletop Fallout game based on the Van Buren leaks, and I'm missing that one vital component for player motivation. I can come up with something (seeking a cure for the New Plague the players will be infected with comes immediately to mind) but I just wanted to know if this was information that was already out there somewhere. I know a lot of info about Van Buren randomly ends up in various forum posts, or on a podcast, etc., so I thought I'd crowd source #1 best Fallout site for an answer. Thanks in advance.
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Perhaps for motivation, it could be a simple case of wanting to distance yourself from your former prison initially (maybe even try to describe the prison as a horrific place no one would want to stay in). I presume Phipps found the wiki so the idea of being pursued by robots to be recaptured could be an additional motivation to keep moving deeper into the Wasteland.

Unfortunately, this newfound freedom may be short lived. The player is relentlessly pursued by robots who want to return them to the prison. As they explore the world and try to outwit their pursuers, they begin to uncover an underlying plot. Why was the character in a different prison than the one they fell asleep in? Why can't they remember being transferred? What was the attack on the prison about in the first place? Then they find out about NCR's problems, and a few things don't add up....
Click to expand...
This could be added in as more player motivation (wanting answers to these questions).
 
It's interesting how Wasteland 2 salvaged a lot of these ideas.

I am a bit leery about another "cleanse the Wasteland" plot but I like a lot of the factions they came up with like the Mother's Children.
 
Thanks for the reply, Phipps, but yeah, I'd found that bit already. And that and being hunted by robots are absolutely going to be factors, but in a more background way at first, the same way running across Super Mutants in Fallout 1 foreshadows your ultimate goal. No, I need a tangible quest for my players to be on for at least the first act or so. The overall goal, after all, is to get the players to travel around and spread the plague all over, of course.

I was hoping for something like the intended players paths in Van Buren, ala ->Shady Sands->Vault 15->Junktown->Hub, etc. in F1. If that detail was never revealed, I'll come up with something. Maybe another NPC prisoner in the same block who was mortally wounded in the attack will ask the PCs to complete some task, find his family, etc., and let them goosechase that around for awhile while hiding from robots.
 
a721402 said:
Just wait for inXile finished Van Buren so we will know what will be the main quest of it.
Click to expand...
Right, because InXile is definitely going to remake the game, even though we have no idea, whatsoever, when it will be released. Forgive me, but waiting God knows how long just to find the answer to the question is pointless to me. We already have a fan project dedicated to restoring the game, and we already have a sequel (NV) based on the original plot of Van Buren.
 
5545Trey said:
Right, because InXile is definitely going to remake the game, even though we have no idea, whatsoever, when it will be released. Forgive me, but waiting God knows how long just to find the answer to the question is pointless to me. We already have a fan project dedicated to restoring the game, and we already have a sequel (NV) based on the original plot of Van Buren.
Click to expand...
A little hope about something like that never hurt anything.
 
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