Fallout: Commonwealth

Plautus

Angry Preacher
Hello, Fallout community.

I've been playing the game for years now, but this is my first time on the Forums. I was thinking about what a good Fallout spin-off would be, and I thought of this little piece. It's set in the post-nuclear Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The plot is as follows:

You are the overseer of an unopened Vault, and are leading your people on an unremarkable day, when all of a sudden, your security chief comes running into your office with news that your front doors have been breached by a mysterious faction of savages. He rushes you to the Vault's armory, where, through your equipment choices, you determine your tag skills and traits. A two more officers arrive at the armory, asking for instruction. Depending on how you deal with your subordinates, your quality of character is determined. Once you are properly equipped with security armor and your choice of weapons, you and your officers head for the Vault doors. Along the way, you watch helplessly as your population of Vault Dwellers is ripped apart by the savages, who wear deer-hide pants and moccasins, and attack with whooping cries, machetes, and bows and arrows, accompanied by their vicious mutated attack dogs. Thanks to your leadership, however, the savages are pushed back. The remaining Vault Dwellers are saved... but the natives have forever damaged your vault. The water purifier, air filtration system, and food generation devices of the Vault will die within your lifetime. You alone must head out into the world and find a new home for your people. Your security officers give you the best your Vault's meager armory has to offer and wish you luck. You open the doors and look out on the dreary forests of post-nuclear New England for the first time...

Factions:

Puritans

The residents of another Vault, the Puritans are ultra-religious Anglican Protestants who used a GECK to re-create their colonial world of absolute religiously-dominated agrarianism. They are run by a board of landowners and priests, and their GECK-cultivated land allows clean food to be grown with pure water on clean soil. Their houses are all made of wood after a colonial fashion, but they still use Auto-Doc and Mr. Handy robots, regarding them as gifts from God. Puritans allow any to enter their city of New Salem, so long as they convert to Christianity and swear never to take chems, smoke tobacco, or drink alcohol. The Puritan city of New Salem is a haven from the radioactive world of post-nuclear New England, but its strict religious mindset is not for everybody.

The Centurions of Christ

The militant branch of the Puritans, these soldiers fashion themselves after their patron Saint Longinus, the Roman Centurion who pierced Christ's side with a spear at the Crucifixion. They wear golden, pseudo-Roman style Power Armor, called the Armor of God, and are marked by their undying loyalty to New Salem. They look to protect the devout, but destroy any who disagree with their unflinching moral standards.

the Witches

These women are enigmas wrapped in mysteries. Exiled from Salem, and persecuted by the merciless Centurions and their Inquisitors, the Witches are an all female part Ghoul, part human faction of misfits, rumored to wield magic to their advantage. Lord knows what secrets they hold in their cavernous underground lair of Tartarus...

the Institute

Long-time rivals of New Salem, these reclusive Technocrats reside in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where they conduct experiments of a highly secretive nature. Their synthetic men are, in theory, able to mimic real humans in every way imaginable. They may be the key to humanity's salvation or destruction, depending on your personal ideology. The Institute's scientific examination of the world and decidedly agnostic philosophy draw the ire of New Salem and their Centurions, who very much wish to assault the institute. If only the Centurions had the numbers to fight the Synthetic Men...

Government: Education is central to the Institute's ideology, and that principal is clearly reflected in its government. The Institute uses a feudal caste system to structure its society. At the bottom are the Synthetic Men and Test Subjects, on whom the Institute experiments. Slightly above them are the Assistants, wasteland inhabitants detoxified and trained to complete tasks unworthy of a true academic. Then are the Professors, each of these men is brilliantly educated, and chooses a field to enter. Either he enters an Arcane Study, like history, mathematics, literature, or philosophy, or he enters a Practical Study, such as Physics, Biology, Robotics, or Synthetic Robotics. Each of these nine departments as a Head. In order to keep the Heads from gaining too much power, they are not allowed positions as Deans.

Native American Tribes

To the East, operating to the West in places like the ruined city of Springfield and its miraculously somehow-intact armory, the Native American tribes are as numerous as they are diverse. One of these groups may be responsible for the sacking of your vault.

LOCATIONS

New Salem: Puritan/Centurion hub

Holy Sepulcher: Centurion Haven

MIT: Institute city

Tartarus: Witches' coven

Springfield Armory: A Native American village

Boston Ruins: (Self-Explanatory)

And there's more where that came from!

Plot details

Try to find the tribe that assaulted your people. Make and break alliances based on your personal beliefs. Find refuge with Salem or enlightenment with the Institute, or forgo civilization and return to a lifestyle similar to those of the Natives. Be careful, though, Vault Dwellers make easy prey, and not everybody wants to be your friend. Just you could be a friend, you could be a Heretic... or a test subject.

I would gladly accept any feedback or any suggestions. Thanks for reading!
 
Sounds interesting, but I would like to see the science and religion both have good and bad traits (I see you make a brief mention of it in the Institute) and maybe the inclusion of a middle-of-the-road group (maybe it could be a small or one the the bigger NA tribes).

And possibly have some inclusion of fallout lore (like FEV, BoS, Followers [they will most likely fit and we don't see too much of them] and of course Super Mutants and robots).
 
could definitly work
what time frame were you thinking?
2240 say? roughly around fallout 2

or abit earlyer?
 
I was thinking post-Fallout 3, because I wanted to have a crashed vertibird in the corner of the map, but Fo2 era would be good, because it's before Bethesda messed with the license.

My ultimate goal was to have absolutely none of the factions from Fallout 1, 2, or 3 in this part of the country.
 
i never really was for religion in a fallout game, especially Christian or any real world religion for that matter. Otherwise, sounds pretty badass. Check out mine (Nuclear Winter)
 
The "Native American" tribes seems vaguely racist. Are they actually American indians? Or are they just tribals who act sort of like native American tribes did?
 
They're people of various ethnic backgrounds who've banded together and mimic American Indian customs. Based on old history books they found in ruined libraries, they've taken the names and customs of tribes that used to inhabit the areas in which they live at the time of the game.
 
Little Robot said:
The "Native American" tribes seems vaguely racist. Are they actually American indians? Or are they just tribals who act sort of like native American tribes did?

Just wait until I cry, "fucking savages!" as I obliterate them. :D

Plautus said:
They're people of various ethnic backgrounds who've banded together and mimic American Indian customs. Based on old history books they found in ruined libraries, they've taken the names and customs of tribes that used to inhabit the areas in which they live at the time of the game.

This seems so... contrived, doesn't it? Why must everything be unilaterally multicultural today? Native American reserves exist, don't they? I had assumed that these tribes descended from the populations on these reserves.

You want suggestions, here's one: ethnic homogeneity among the Native American tribes, it will give the mod an authentic atmosphere.
 
Point taken. In terms of logic, it could work either way.

In this instance, perhaps, we can see Native American peoples banding together and seizing an opportunity to reclaim their lost heritage, striking back at the ones who destroyed their ancient customs. This ethnic homogeneity would also explain why the Natives hate the Puritans so much.
 
I have to agree with Thomas. They should be authentic native americans - Like the Nevada Rangers did, they could have survived the holocaust through superior survival skills, maybe they built a fortress like Mesa Verde?

Of course, a (by the time the game begins failed, of course) vault experiment with only people from reservation would also be possible...
 
So, homogeneous Native Americans are in. I was thinking that the Pre-War government shoved whole reservations into shoddy second class vaults, which opened sooner than those open to the public. For this reason, the Natives have been adapting surviving longer than all others, and so the other factions seem like intruders on their land.

I am glad that the Native Americans have garnered so much interest, but out of curiosity, how do you find the other factions? What's good as is? On what should I expand? Are there any elements that should be removed?
 
I think that too many of you factions are based in pre-war history. You need to make some that are brand new post-war groups that built themselves and their ideology from the ground up. And of course there should be independent towns that are their own faction.
 
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