A few months ago, me and a friend talked about picking up pen and paper role playing games again. We have both played before but not together. After a while I decided to game master a Fallout pen and paper campaign. Since I knew another guy who had never played the crpg, and I had never been game master before, I decided to make it easier for myself and put them in the role of the vault dweller from Fallout. We found a third player, which I think is perhaps still a pretty small group for PnP. He had played the game, so I decided to throw him in as a wastelander to make it easier for him to role play some vague knowledge about the wastes, but still try to limit his influence on storyline decisions. I will relay our experience with Fallout PnP here.
Player 1 plays the character Winston, a good-natured science nerd in his forties who is bored to death of the vault. The administration doesn't like his attitude, and grasps the opportunity to send him out to look for a new chip. Since they're not sure he's perfectly loyal to the vault, they send Player 2 along, Gabriel, a 35 year old jack-of-all-trades who has never caused any trouble and thinks living in the vault is great compared to the alternative.
----
The first session begins when they are both summoned to the overseer, who informs them of the vaults predicament. Gabriel is very pessimistic about their chances but for some reason seems to accept his new task for the good of the vault. The overseer ensures them that they should be able to make it to a nearby vault and back in a few weeks, and that they'll have provisions that will last the entire trip. Winston asks if they've sent anyone out before, but the overseer denies having done so. Winston is quickly briefed on how to identify the chip, and determine if it's in good condition. They're given some simple gear and the next morning they're shown the door.
As the vault door seals shut behind them and the lights outside in the caves come on, they discover the skeleton of Ed. Ed's dead. Winston, who is somewhat skilled in medicine, discover small bite marks on the skeleton, as if some rodent has gnawed on the bones of the ex-vault dweller. The duo becomes anxious and upon hearing sounds out in the cave Winston starts waving his 10mm pistol around like the amateur he is. Eventually they proceed through the cave to gaze at the rising sun for the first time in their lives.
The pair starts their journey east, discussing the possibilities of finding anyone alive on the surface. When night falls they have a hard time sleeping among unfamiliar sounds, on the hard ground. Winston finds a cactus, but quickly determines that it is extremely poisonous (critical failure in Outdoorsman :p).
In the afternoon of the second day they see a reflection in the distance, seemingly from a metal object. They decide to investigate, and in the evening the come upon a dehydrated man dressed in leather, clutching a near-empty bottle of whiskey and a double barreled shotgun.
After debating wether to steal the unlucky fellows weapon and gear, they decide to share some of their water with the man in hopes of gaining information about the outside world.
Tom (player 3, who has just had 2/3 of a bottle of wine and will soon smash one of my glasses under the influence) eventually comes to, wondering who the two blue-clad persons in front of him are. Tom is an alcoholic, and a priest of sorts, and starts rambling about a man in the sky. The vault dwellers think he's suffering badly from dehydration. Later Tom recalls travelling with a caravan from Junktown, their purpose was to locate any settlements to the north. They found only rocks and sand, and eventually ran out of water and got separated after encountering hostile wildlife. The duo from Vault 13 are surprised to hear that there have been people living on the surface for so long. Que questions about a water chip.
The duo decide to allow Tom to come with them for a while and aid them on their way in exchange for water, though they realize their provisions wont last to vault 15 and back with their new companion. They hope to be able to find somewhere to barter for more provisions.
Luckily they come upon shady sands a few days later. Tom asks how many caps they have, a very peculiar question to the men from the vault. They come to the conclusion that they cannot spare any of the things they could use to trade for food and water, but a man at the gate, Seth, informs them that the village has trouble with Rad Scorpions, and upon negotiating with the village elder they manage to get provisions in return for taking care of the critters that have been pestering the small village. Winston confers with the local backwater "medic" and agrees to try to bring back a scorpion gland to aid in the production of antidote. After insulting a young woman by the well, the trio find a wounded gun for hire recovering in a nearby building. They decide to pay Ian 50 caps, which Tom suddenly finds in his backpack, to help them clear out the Rad Scorpion cave.
----
So, I decided to let them fight a few scorpions to get a feel for the combat system. I decided NOT to let them fight the rats in the cave outside the vault because that would just be boring (like it is in the game). This fight was also rather uneventful, the scorpions were dispatched in short order by three men with guns (one who could shoot and two who pretty much couldn't) and one swinging his bare fists at the giant insects. Anyway, it gave me some idea of how they will handle themselves against other opponents.
I'd be grateful for any ideas or pointers on being the GM in this setting, since it's my first go at being GM ever. I've been trying to find shorter adventures from other games to use as side quests, but it has been somewhat difficult. I've decided to cut out a lot of meaningless combat, and xp gained from combat. The leveling system of SPECIAL doesn't suit PnP very well of course, but I'm going to try to make it work anyway. We're just excited to play right now.
I've also decided to make up my own simple modifiers for ammunition. Die rolling gets tedious in itself, and calculating DR and AC all the time gets old instantly. I guess I'll worry more about that when they come upon humans with armour, and different types of ammo.
My players are kind of roleplaying newbies. Sometimes when talking to people, they say stuff like "I want to use my speech skill to convince him to...". That's pretty setting breaking, and I guess I should just come out and say that they have to provide some form of argument and then I'll roll to see if the person buys it. It would be better if we'd had a more seasoned role player that could have encouraged the others to follow his example, but unfourtunately I lack one of those at present. I would really like them to develop their characters more, so any ideas on how to encourage that are most appreciated. Up until now they've been very neutral so to speak, trying to get caps for clearing the caves in addition to provisions for example. I think that might prove more interesting than a bunch of do-gooders who help anyone at will.
Anyway, any ideas for encounters or events that could occur are welcome, as well as general wasteland GMing pointers.
(I was not sure where to post this, feel extra free to move it to a better forum if suitable)
Cheers!
Player 1 plays the character Winston, a good-natured science nerd in his forties who is bored to death of the vault. The administration doesn't like his attitude, and grasps the opportunity to send him out to look for a new chip. Since they're not sure he's perfectly loyal to the vault, they send Player 2 along, Gabriel, a 35 year old jack-of-all-trades who has never caused any trouble and thinks living in the vault is great compared to the alternative.
----
The first session begins when they are both summoned to the overseer, who informs them of the vaults predicament. Gabriel is very pessimistic about their chances but for some reason seems to accept his new task for the good of the vault. The overseer ensures them that they should be able to make it to a nearby vault and back in a few weeks, and that they'll have provisions that will last the entire trip. Winston asks if they've sent anyone out before, but the overseer denies having done so. Winston is quickly briefed on how to identify the chip, and determine if it's in good condition. They're given some simple gear and the next morning they're shown the door.
As the vault door seals shut behind them and the lights outside in the caves come on, they discover the skeleton of Ed. Ed's dead. Winston, who is somewhat skilled in medicine, discover small bite marks on the skeleton, as if some rodent has gnawed on the bones of the ex-vault dweller. The duo becomes anxious and upon hearing sounds out in the cave Winston starts waving his 10mm pistol around like the amateur he is. Eventually they proceed through the cave to gaze at the rising sun for the first time in their lives.
The pair starts their journey east, discussing the possibilities of finding anyone alive on the surface. When night falls they have a hard time sleeping among unfamiliar sounds, on the hard ground. Winston finds a cactus, but quickly determines that it is extremely poisonous (critical failure in Outdoorsman :p).
In the afternoon of the second day they see a reflection in the distance, seemingly from a metal object. They decide to investigate, and in the evening the come upon a dehydrated man dressed in leather, clutching a near-empty bottle of whiskey and a double barreled shotgun.
After debating wether to steal the unlucky fellows weapon and gear, they decide to share some of their water with the man in hopes of gaining information about the outside world.
Tom (player 3, who has just had 2/3 of a bottle of wine and will soon smash one of my glasses under the influence) eventually comes to, wondering who the two blue-clad persons in front of him are. Tom is an alcoholic, and a priest of sorts, and starts rambling about a man in the sky. The vault dwellers think he's suffering badly from dehydration. Later Tom recalls travelling with a caravan from Junktown, their purpose was to locate any settlements to the north. They found only rocks and sand, and eventually ran out of water and got separated after encountering hostile wildlife. The duo from Vault 13 are surprised to hear that there have been people living on the surface for so long. Que questions about a water chip.
The duo decide to allow Tom to come with them for a while and aid them on their way in exchange for water, though they realize their provisions wont last to vault 15 and back with their new companion. They hope to be able to find somewhere to barter for more provisions.
Luckily they come upon shady sands a few days later. Tom asks how many caps they have, a very peculiar question to the men from the vault. They come to the conclusion that they cannot spare any of the things they could use to trade for food and water, but a man at the gate, Seth, informs them that the village has trouble with Rad Scorpions, and upon negotiating with the village elder they manage to get provisions in return for taking care of the critters that have been pestering the small village. Winston confers with the local backwater "medic" and agrees to try to bring back a scorpion gland to aid in the production of antidote. After insulting a young woman by the well, the trio find a wounded gun for hire recovering in a nearby building. They decide to pay Ian 50 caps, which Tom suddenly finds in his backpack, to help them clear out the Rad Scorpion cave.
----
So, I decided to let them fight a few scorpions to get a feel for the combat system. I decided NOT to let them fight the rats in the cave outside the vault because that would just be boring (like it is in the game). This fight was also rather uneventful, the scorpions were dispatched in short order by three men with guns (one who could shoot and two who pretty much couldn't) and one swinging his bare fists at the giant insects. Anyway, it gave me some idea of how they will handle themselves against other opponents.
I'd be grateful for any ideas or pointers on being the GM in this setting, since it's my first go at being GM ever. I've been trying to find shorter adventures from other games to use as side quests, but it has been somewhat difficult. I've decided to cut out a lot of meaningless combat, and xp gained from combat. The leveling system of SPECIAL doesn't suit PnP very well of course, but I'm going to try to make it work anyway. We're just excited to play right now.
I've also decided to make up my own simple modifiers for ammunition. Die rolling gets tedious in itself, and calculating DR and AC all the time gets old instantly. I guess I'll worry more about that when they come upon humans with armour, and different types of ammo.
My players are kind of roleplaying newbies. Sometimes when talking to people, they say stuff like "I want to use my speech skill to convince him to...". That's pretty setting breaking, and I guess I should just come out and say that they have to provide some form of argument and then I'll roll to see if the person buys it. It would be better if we'd had a more seasoned role player that could have encouraged the others to follow his example, but unfourtunately I lack one of those at present. I would really like them to develop their characters more, so any ideas on how to encourage that are most appreciated. Up until now they've been very neutral so to speak, trying to get caps for clearing the caves in addition to provisions for example. I think that might prove more interesting than a bunch of do-gooders who help anyone at will.
Anyway, any ideas for encounters or events that could occur are welcome, as well as general wasteland GMing pointers.
(I was not sure where to post this, feel extra free to move it to a better forum if suitable)
Cheers!
