Fallout: Texas (The Great Wastes)

[Atomic Postman]

Boomtown (New Version) and The Celts

Overview:
Formed from the ruins of Brady, Texas, Boomtown is a hub of bartering and merchant trade that naturally emerged primarily due to its location: An intersection of major highways and trade routes, effectively an equidistant neutral point from Sidewinder, Meridian (AKA the Dynasty), Twin Graves, Brahmaville (AKA The Mayorate), Pleasant Hills and Cooktown. The city has little to no natural or raw resources of its own, relying on the flow of commerce as well as its own buisnesses.

The beating heart of the city is "The Pen", the large bazaar built on and around a huge old world six-stack interchange. Caravans swarm through here, pop-up stalls and tents come and go. The interchange has been repaired with scrap metal in areas, and has numerous platforms, make-shift elevators, staircases and ramps interconnecting the various raised highways, making sure there's always some way to change level. It of course stinks to high hell of Brahmin shit. This is where most of the wheeling and dealing of Brahmin caravans occur, more permanent buisness or other places of interest are located either in the surrounding shanty favelas of 'New Town' or the charred pre-war buildings of Old Town.

The city is largely anarchic with no ruling government, however as always there are major blocs of power. Lonestar Trading Company, The Playmaster, Bounty Bob, The Prospector Union and most recently (and very disruptively) with their immigration via the Western Expedition and settlement into the city, Cillian The Celt and his people accompanied by Archie Kidd

Lonestar Trading Company:

Once upon a time Boomtown was full of numerous competing caravan companies, but those days have passed. The Lonestar Trading Company is probably the most powerful single group in Boomtown, managing all Boomtown caravan companies and employing most Boomtown merchants (i.e taking a cut of their buisness) or buisnesses from armor trading to cafes. Lonestar were always the richest caravan company, but it wasn't until what's referred to as the 'Big Takeover' fifteen years back that they eliminated the competition either by buying them out, forcing them to submit or gunning them down in the spanse of three short days. Lonestar is run by a bickering council of 'Caravan Masters' that live in luxury in Old Town.

The root of Lonestar's power lies with their unique possession of the Highway Haulers, three functioning fusion powered pre-war buses that act as highly efficient super-caravans carrying hoards of only the most valuable supplies across the Wasteland in record time (By comparison to foot travel, that is). The buses aren't hugely fast, and the external armor added to the buses has only slowed them further, but they're still massively faster than Brahmin travel. Most often the buses are stuffed to the brim with supplies, with two drivers (Primary and backup) squeezed in at the front. Sitting in makeshift sidecars or harnesses on the roof and side are often 2 or 3 Sidewinder mercenaries hired by the Trading Company to protect their goods with Anti-Material Rifles and Grenade Launchers.

The Lonestar Trading Company also operates a salt-mine out of town (previously owned by the Salt Merchants) which is highly valued for its utility in preserving foods.

Since the recent collapse of the Prospectors Union (Breakdown in relations between the crews at the Twin Graves have left the Union offices in Boomtown high and dry), they've begun to predate on the junk trader market too. Their commercial tendrils are beginning extend and root in numerous spots across the Wastes.They have even begun to establish small "Company Towns" in areas to procure raw resources.

The Playmaster:

Eugene 'The Playmaster' is the oldest surving merchant in the city at about 80 years of age. His reprehensible sons (of wildly varying ages and mothers) run his buisnesses these days, and he lives a life of decadence and retirement, giving out orders from a fancy leather wheelchair. The backbone of his hedonistic empire is the Boomtown Brewery which creates a uniquely potent (and popular) moonshine, which has since expanded into a large sprawling bar with numerous poker, blacjack and roulette tables and a lounge for singers. He also owns Dusty's Desires, a large multi-floor pleasurehouse/brothel operating out of an old world court building, and The Kennel, a grim space used for animal racing and animal fighting.

Bounty Bob and Boomtown Radio:

Bounty Bob is a Saul Goodman-esque figure that runs Bob's Bounties, the nexus of all mercenary contracts, hired hits and bounties in the Great Wastes. If you want someone captured or killed for money, you go to Bob to sort you out. For the amount of traffic he has, Bob runs a fairly small operation in his offices with just him and a handful of exasperated secretaries. Bob effectively manages the admin and makes known bounties in exchange for a fraction of the reward money. Though there's no official law in Boomtown, it's a social no-no to organized hired guns without Bob. Bob refers to his hired guns as 'Headhunters' for obvious reasons.

Bounty Bob also owns Boomtown Radio, operating out of an Old World radio tower on the edge of the city, which other than doing the regular job of playing fancy tunes and announcing the news, also runs Bob's Bounty Show which announces and co-ordiantes bounties across the region, an invaluable asset for hired guns on the move. Additionally, they offer a weather service by radio - connecting with the rural northern settlement of Lighthouse at the border of Tornado Alley - to report on the movements of oncoming tornadoes and giant sandstorms. Information that's pretty invaluable to just about everyone in the Great Wastes.

The Celts and Archie Kidd :

Out on the West Coast in the year 2244, Cillian the Celt and his 'tribe' of nomads, The Celts, organized a large expedition intended to head East in search of somewhere called 'Boston' believed to be their homeland. The Celts are a unique group, originating with the lineage of a single man known as Patrick the Celt (Of Fallout 1 fame). They embrace, practice and preserve the culture of an ancient tribe that was born long, long before the Great War. Initially a volunteer group of friendly travellers adopting this culture, generations later they're "true" products of it. Most of them speak Irish and English both. Though they think their practice of Celtic culture is perfectly preserved, in truth a lot of it is real culture blended with American bastardizations or Irish cultural stereotypes/pastiches. Their version of Irish is their own broken, pidgin version.

Along with their tribe they gathered a band of vagabonds, merchants, warriors that were united in their desire to head east. Amongst these was a New Reno merchant named Archie Kidd, skipping town for crossing the wrong family, after attempting to start his own jet operation.

By 2248, this large nomadic expedition crossed the great stormlands at the Four Corners after an arduous odyssey led by Cillian the Celt, Archie the Silver Tongued and Bear the Super Mutant. With time they arrived in a great caravan on the outskirts of Boomtown, settling this place as their new home for the time being, seeking to make fortune and finally rest. This was much to the disruption and surprise of the residents of Boomtown, however, as they rooted themselves in New Town. Bear shortly left, despite urging, in search of the famed Battle Arena at Meridian, and hasn't been seen since.

The Celts run a successful buisness growing and selling tobacco on the outskirts of Boomtown (which they also additionally roll into cigarillos and cheap cigars as a seperate product), as well as operating a bar - Tábhairne - which specifies in musical performances and entertainment of all kinds, primarily their own traditional celtic songs (Which have rose to extreme popularity) but also allowing local performers and musicians to play, fostering Boomtown's growing post-war bluegrass scene. There's also a fairly popular bare-knuckle boxing ring.

Much to the ire of the Playmaster, they also brew their own recipe of whiskey which is far less likely to make you go blind than Boomtown Moonshine. Periodically they also run large events that are some combo of festival and circus called feis with all manner of spectacle that rake in cash and visitors from surrounding areas.The biggest being St. Patrick's Day, in which booze is sold at heavily discounted price, the Celts get massively drunk and paint their entire bodies luminescent green.

Archie Kidd is the real rising power of this expedition, however. Archie effectively established a Jet production operation in Boomtown - the first in the Great Wastes - spreading Jet like wildfire. Within five years he has risen to being one of the most powerful chem kingpins in the Great Wastes with his monopoly on Jet production, beginning to rival that of Foreman in Cooktown. Kidd and The Celts are effectively partners, watching eachother's backs and forming a bloc of power against any potential mistreatment from the other powers of Boomtown. Together they have begun to reshape the climate of Boomtown in just five short years.

Most commonfolk of Boomtown are fine with the Celts, but resentment has begun to foster amongst the oligarchical powers that be at their new rivals.

 

[Iprovidelittlepianos]

Bounty Bob is a Saul Goodman-esque figure that runs Bob's Bounties

Is his name a reference to Bob Odenkirk?

 

[Atomic Postman]

Is his name a reference to Bob Odenkirk?

It's actually a reference to an NPC vendor from Van Buren's Hoover Dam, but that works too.

I'm considering adding a Brotherhood faction in some form because one of my alternate setting pitches was a rewritten/clarified Midwest where the neo-feudalistic Tactics BoS experienced a shattering civil war which resulted in rebel loss, however overall collapse of their control and the leadership in Chicago were overthrown by popular revolt later anyway. I'd always written that the remnants of the BoS leadership had fled to Texas and I'd like to keep some of that.

I've got two ideas for how I could do it, the first would be that they're a warlord domain known as the 'Kingdom of Steel', they've basically totally abandoned the codex and are primarily focused on (re)building a new feudal empire because they've got a huge chip on their shoulder of being deposed rulers. They're digging their claws in by acting as 'mercenaries' protecting settlements in exchange for food, whilst training/indoctrinating their young into joining. They're very recent arrivals so at the moment their control extends to a central base less than a handful of podunk towns and tribal villages. They're basically a warlord faction with Brotherhood aesthetic flavouring.

The other is a more traditional approach, 'Brotherhood Remnants" wherein the escapees after their loss decided to rethink and "Return to tradition" as adherents to the codex and the ancient order. They're an extremely spartan but very aggressive operation from a small bunker, effectively waging guerilla warfare/terrorism on Kallos and manning a three-man station at the edge of the Fractured Lands. They are known raiders of Prospecting caravans.The only reason they survive despite their miniscule numbers is because they are the best armed people in the Wasteland and they take exceptional care to cover their tracks.

I was thinking there might be a way of combining these two approaches, but the overall question is whether they should be included at all or whether there's an interesting way to handle them to legitimize their presence.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

Personally I'd prefer the latter option. I really like the idea of them hovering around the edge of the Fractured Lands. It'd be especially fun if you keep coy with your players exactly who they are, with varying stories of a group of well-armed raiders, ghosts of the oil fields, or Super-Mutants. There would be clues the players could piece together about the identity of this group. Presumably Bear would be one of the only NPCs to have any idea who the Brotherhood is at all, so if they've gathered some clues but not all and they've heard the Super-Mutant rumor they could bring it to him and he could put it together. I guess some of the old-timer Celts might know, too.

I especially like the idea of them inhabiting an old Poseidon facility, maybe with something plot-critical inside, or at least very plot-useful, meaning the players will have to either kill them (tought fight!) or figure out their identity beforehand, and then figure out a way to arrange a peaceful meeting in order to get something.

All of that said, I'm ambivalent as to whether they need to be included at all, but I DEFINTELY wouldn't want any kind of "Kingdom of Steel." Leave that to the midwest!

 

[Atomic Postman]

Personally I'd prefer the latter option. I really like the idea of them hovering around the edge of the Fractured Lands. It'd be especially fun if you keep coy with your players exactly who they are, with varying stories of a group of well-armed raiders, ghosts of the oil fields, or Super-Mutants. There would be clues the players could piece together about the identity of this group. Presumably Bear would be one of the only NPCs to have any idea who the Brotherhood is at all, so if they've gathered some clues but not all and they've heard the Super-Mutant rumor they could bring it to him and he could put it together. I guess some of the old-timer Celts might know, too.

I especially like the idea of them inhabiting an old Poseidon facility, maybe with something plot-critical inside, or at least very plot-useful, meaning the players will have to either kill them (tought fight!) or figure out their identity beforehand, and then figure out a way to arrange a peaceful meeting in order to get something.

All of that said, I'm ambivalent as to whether they need to be included at all, but I DEFINTELY wouldn't want any kind of "Kingdom of Steel." Leave that to the midwest!

Yeah I was leaning towards that since I've already got a neo-feudal faction with Overlord Colt.

BoS would also give interesting reason to explore the fractured lands. Their outpost there would be a reworked version of Burham Springs that acts as a repelling beacon to surrounding Gehenna mutants.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

Oh, I had figured that the Fractured Lands was the haunt of the Mutos. Not sure I'm crazy about Gehenna mutants, cool as they are I've never heard a good explanation for them and they seem kind of stupid

 

[Atomic Postman]

Oh, I had figured that the Fractured Lands was the haunt of the Mutos. Not sure I'm crazy about Gehenna mutants, cool as they are I've never heard a good explanation for them and they seem kind of stupid

I'm not sure I'll keep their exact backstory but I wanted some kind of industrial Hedorah esque monsters produced from the polluted toxins of the fractured lands, I'd considered placing it as the Muto point of origin but since they're genetically engineered you could put them anywhere and I thought having environmental pollution nightmare monsters would be neat as some variety

I also had the idea for there being some kind of human society there that live in buried pockets. Perhaps Vault 42 lies there and produced some subterranean society. They surface occasionally armed and geared in gas masks, frightening the rest of the Wasteland with the idea of any human that could survive that landscape.

But yes Posideon Energy is a natural fit for fracking, and I'd planned to have some kind of millitary installation there too, perhaps West-Tek if not another Sierra Army Depot. Enticing but deadly.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

I'm not sure I'll keep their exact backstory but I wanted some kind of industrial Hedorah esque monsters produced from the polluted toxins of the fractured lands, I'd considered placing it as the Muto point of origin but since they're genetically engineered you could put them anywhere and I thought having environmental pollution nightmare monsters would be neat as some variety

I also had the idea for there being some kind of human society there that live in buried pockets. Perhaps Vault 42 lies there and produced some subterranean society. They surface occasionally armed and geared in gas masks, frightening the rest of the Wasteland with the idea of any human that could survive that landscape.

But yes Posideon Energy is a natural fit for fracking, and I'd planned to have some kind of millitary installation there too, perhaps West-Tek if not another Sierra Army Depot. Enticing but deadly.

Yeah, some kind of industrial mutant is probably a good diea - I've just always found Gehennas specifically quite mystifying and non-sensical, sort of similar to the reaction to Wannamingos prior to their origin beiung addressed in the Bible. Just not sure what/why they are.

As to Mutos - I figured it would make sense not that it would be their point of origin, that would be the lab, but rather this is their refugium. The environment of the Cracked Lands are essentially alien and inhospitable - well, since the Wannamingos are based on aliens, I assume that they would probably be able to survive some incredibly harsh environments alien to life. Muto's spread here and integrated with whatever alien ecology exists during the First Wave, but after they got wiped out just about everywhere else they weren't wiped out here, just severely weakened. Consequently, most of the new muto waves start here, and a persistent population remains.

Good idea to put the Vault here, sort of similar to the Modoc ghost people. It would be fun if they figured the whole world looked like this and have never ventured far beyond the Fractured Lands, though that's probably stretching realism a bit since they'd have radio.

Maybe to explain how anything survives there, we could say there was a Greenway Hydroponics facility designed to design plants and animals that could survive here to reclaim the land after the last drops of oil were consumed? Further, you could say that the whole region was given over to the military and high-tech firms since it became absolutely useless for civillians to live on, doing tests too dangerous to do near living areas, and trying ways to find the environmental devestation... and accidentally making it worse. Consequently, you can explain novel mutants, strange phenomena, and a plentitude of high-level gear.

Fo76's Ash Heap is probably a good model.

 

[Atomic Postman]

Yeah, some kind of industrial mutant is probably a good diea - I've just always found Gehennas specifically quite mystifying and non-sensical, sort of similar to the reaction to Wannamingos prior to their origin beiung addressed in the Bible. Just not sure what/why they are.

As to Mutos - I figured it would make sense not that it would be their point of origin, that would be the lab, but rather this is their refugium. The environment of the Cracked Lands are essentially alien and inhospitable - well, since the Wannamingos are based on aliens, I assume that they would probably be able to survive some incredibly harsh environments alien to life. Muto's spread here and integrated with whatever alien ecology exists during the First Wave, but after they got wiped out just about everywhere else they weren't wiped out here, just severely weakened. Consequently, most of the new muto waves start here, and a persistent population remains.

Good idea to put the Vault here, sort of similar to the Modoc ghost people. It would be fun if they figured the whole world looked like this and have never ventured far beyond the Fractured Lands, though that's probably stretching realism a bit since they'd have radio.

Maybe to explain how anything survives there, we could say there was a Greenway Hydroponics facility designed to design plants and animals that could survive here to reclaim the land after the last drops of oil were consumed? Further, you could say that the whole region was given over to the military and high-tech firms since it became absolutely useless for civillians to live on, doing tests too dangerous to do near living areas, and trying ways to find the environmental devestation... and accidentally making it worse. Consequently, you can explain novel mutants, strange phenomena, and a plentitude of high-level gear.

Fo76's Ash Heap is probably a good model.

The Fractured Lands being the respite of the Mutos is a great idea! Makes total sense.

As for the Vault, we see most vaults aren't connected to the outside world in the series anyway and them being Slag style mole people with no outside contact makes sense to me tbh. I also like the idea of them expanding beyond their vault size and digging subterranean communities outside of their own vault.

As for millitary testing, also a great idea! I had plans for several dungeons relating to experimental weapons so it's a natural locale for them

 

[Hardboiled Android]

As for the Vault, we see most vaults aren't connected to the outside world in the series anyway and them being Slag style mole people with no outside contact makes sense to me tbh. I also like the idea of them expanding beyond their vault size and digging subterranean communities outside of their own vault.

I'm struggling to think of many vaults that remain isolated from the outside world for a very long time with no contact... Vault 101, but there the leadership did know about the outside world, they were just trying to hide it... I guess the Robobrain Vault in Far Harbor, but they're so self-absorbed that it would make sense they wouldn't care to even check if there was anything going on in the surface.

Still, I think it is an especailly cool idea that they think that the entire surface idea looks like the Cracked Lands.

I can think of a few ways to justify it. One, the gas and dust of the region is electrostatically charged in such a way that it blocks the entrance of outside radio signals... a little handwavey, but hey. Another possibility would be that either some old miltiary base or some current faction (possibly the brotherhood?) is using some kind of radio jammer. As to why I'm not sure, and it would vary depending on whether its pre-War or current. Again, depending on which explanation you go with, you could either have it so the party needs to find the facility and shut down the radio, or convince/force whoever is using it to turn it off. This could tie into any number of quests, though the most obvious would be that by getting them access to the radio you could convince the vault-dwellers to open themselves up.

Alternatively, and this is my favorite, you could say that the geological shenangians involved in whatever Fallout-world's equivalent of fracking is have done so much damage that they've actually disrupted the local magnetic field, creating a massive electromagnetic anomaly. This would allow a lot of potential - in addition to making it so radio's don't work, you could have it selectively mess with the party member's more advanced gear, and could make robot's go hay-wire. Lot of fun possibilities with that, its hand-wavey but feels more substantial and "SCIENCE!"-y than just having the dust be charged. Only downside compared to the radio-jamming is that it might be impossible to "shut it down," as it were... unless the party has some PhD genius level knowledge of geology and might be able to figure out some way to to some extent repair the geological disturbances of the region. Might be too grandiose a sidequest, but there might be potential there.

 

[Atomic Postman]

I'm struggling to think of many vaults that remain isolated from the outside world for a very long time with no contact... Vault 101, but there the leadership did know about the outside world, they were just trying to hide it... I guess the Robobrain Vault in Far Harbor, but they're so self-absorbed that it would make sense they wouldn't care to even check if there was anything going on in the surface.

Still, I think it is an especailly cool idea that they think that the entire surface idea looks like the Cracked Lands.

I can think of a few ways to justify it. One, the gas and dust of the region is electrostatically charged in such a way that it blocks the entrance of outside radio signals... a little handwavey, but hey. Another possibility would be that either some old miltiary base or some current faction (possibly the brotherhood?) is using some kind of radio jammer. As to why I'm not sure, and it would vary depending on whether its pre-War or current. Again, depending on which explanation you go with, you could either have it so the party needs to find the facility and shut down the radio, or convince/force whoever is using it to turn it off. This could tie into any number of quests, though the most obvious would be that by getting them access to the radio you could convince the vault-dwellers to open themselves up.

Alternatively, and this is my favorite, you could say that the geological shenangians involved in whatever Fallout-world's equivalent of fracking is have done so much damage that they've actually disrupted the local magnetic field, creating a massive electromagnetic anomaly. This would allow a lot of potential - in addition to making it so radio's don't work, you could have it selectively mess with the party member's more advanced gear, and could make robot's go hay-wire. Lot of fun possibilities with that, its hand-wavey but feels more substantial and "SCIENCE!"-y than just having the dust be charged. Only downside compared to the radio-jamming is that it might be impossible to "shut it down," as it were... unless the party has some PhD genius level knowledge of geology and might be able to figure out some way to to some extent repair the geological disturbances of the region. Might be too grandiose a sidequest, but there might be potential there.

I'd consider Vault 13 which by 2161 had zero outside contact nor knowledge of the outside world. Their contact came through random necessity, so I'd say it's feasible to say that Vault 42 could surface and believe the Fractured Lands are all that's up there in the late 2100s and still be ignorant by 2253

I like the idea of the polluted nightmare fucking with electronics in a suitably vague fashion however. If they split off into seperate subterranean communities it might explain a breakdown in communication.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

I'd consider Vault 13 which by 2161 had zero outside contact nor knowledge of the outside world. Their contact came through random necessity, so I'd say it's feasible to say that Vault 42 could surface and believe the Fractured Lands are all that's up there in the late 2100s and still be ignorant by 2253

I like the idea of the polluted nightmare fucking with electronics in a suitably vague fashion however. If they split off into seperate subterranean communities it might explain a breakdown in communication.

Any idea on experiment? Light bulb thing seems kind of stupid, but I guess it sort of goes along with them being mole people

 

[Atomic Postman]

Any idea on experiment? Light bulb thing seems kind of stupid, but I guess it sort of goes along with them being mole people

For Vault 42 I was planning on being consistent with the FO Bible and having them be very low light levels yeah. Not enough to make them be unable to stand sunlight but enough that cave dwelling isn't psychologically unnatural. I had some ideas about their vault having natural disaster forcing them to dig outward over the course of years so that they were more mine-shaft dwellers than Vault Dwellers, giving them a harsher edge.

Other than my Vault 40 idea which I've posted in other threads with the Brazil movie homage, I'm not a huge vault experiment person. Any other vaults I'd have would either be control or abandoned to the point their experiment was meaningless.

I have an idea for a military experiment which crosses venn diagram with a vault with the objective of preserving people but I'm not sure whether to make it two separate things or not.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

For Vault 42 I was planning on being consistent with the FO Bible and having them be very low light levels yeah. Not enough to make them be unable to stand sunlight but enough that cave dwelling isn't psychologically unnatural. I had some ideas about their vault having natural disaster forcing them to dig outward over the course of years so that they were more mine-shaft dwellers than Vault Dwellers, giving them a harsher edge.

Other than my Vault 40 idea which I've posted in other threads with the Brazil movie homage, I'm not a huge vault experiment person. Any other vaults I'd have would either be control or abandoned to the point their experiment was meaningless.

I have an idea for a military experiment which crosses venn diagram with a vault with the objective of preserving people but I'm not sure whether to make it two separate things or not.

I've also always struggled with writing good Vault experiments - and honestly, it feels like the devs do too a lot of the time.

 

[Atomic Postman]

I've also always struggled with writing good Vault experiments - and honestly, it feels like the devs do too a lot of the time.

It's certainly very hard to walk the lines between social experiment, fun sci fi and absurd gimmick. If you forced me by gunpoint I'd continue to water down dystopian premises ala Brazil but yeah I tend to stay away.

Even if you write them as legitimate social experiments, they're not going to be interesting to players so they'll just be flavour for an abandoned vault.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

Weren't therer originally two or three more major factions in Boomtown? Why remove them?

 

[Atomic Postman]

Weren't therer originally two or three more major factions in Boomtown? Why remove them?

I felt Boomtown was too kitchen sink and boring for it.

They've been extrapolated into larger factions. The Brahmin Ranchers have been expanded into a series of ranches tied by one town with a would be government claiming egotistical ownership over the whole state and running an oligarchical form of democracy named The Mayorate.

The water family have been expanded into a warlord dynasty with a huge reservoir and a large gladiatorial arena with famous tournaments every few years where the final prize is a huge supply of fresh water (to be sent home to your respective town). I'm considering adding in the subplot of the younger sister of the current monarch being a mild pysker ala The Forecaster but I'm not entirely sold on that.

The chem merchants have been expanded into Cooktown and Foreman, basically a huge chem factory monopolistically controlling the chem trade in the region with the eccentric foreman and his "zoo" of mutant creatures. They've recently had their trade upset by Archie Kidd introducing Jet, the only drug they don't produce.


They've still got the stalemate element because each of these settlements (including Sidewinder in the equation) are somewhat co-reliant as they each have a part of the resource jigsaw puzzle, bound by Boomtown itself as neutral ground. I just thought making them regional players with their own character would be interesting.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

Something I quickly whipped together as I wait for your next update.

Obviously this is purely speculative, so let me give you some of my justifications -

Reconciliation: All we're told is that its about a hundred miles away from D-FW. As its a desert city this might indicate West, but then considering post-apocalyptic climate change maybe not. When I was looking at what fell within a hundred miles of DFW, I saw that Waco was almost perfect, so I placed it over the site of the Branch Davidian compound. Too good to pass up. Problems include that its now firmly in the midst of the "core" region's affairs, despite the fact that it was not mentioned as being on Boomtown's itinerary.

Pennance: Placed on a place called "Big Springs" in a part of Texas I imagine must be encompassed as part of the Dune Sea.

Boomtown: One of two places where we know exactly where it is. Serves as a useful reference for other locations.

Sidewinder Tribe: Originally I wanted to place this at Big Bend, since its on the border and has the most dramatic canyons in Texas, but looking at it it seems like this would be to ofar away from the action and in the Dune Sea. So I placed it in a rocky region called Devil's Canyon instead. Remain unsatisfied with this placement for several reasons.

Kallos: Placed a little to the east of Houston, though you could place it to the west as that part of the map is pretty empty so far. Plus, it would put it further away from the bayous and more in core Great Waste.

The Box: Placed it in Huntsville, as that is the site of the most infamous prison in Texas. In reality, this is probably too close to Reconciliation, and especially Kallos which would've picked through it by now I'd think. In reality I imagine it's further out in the Dune Sea.

Absolution: Basically arbitrary, placed it on a sort of nearby to Reconciliation because its name was "Palestine," and it seemed like this sector of the map was a little empty. Might be too far away from the action.

Meridian: The other location that we're told exactly where it is.

Brahmaville: Placed it on New Braunfels, because its suitably rural and the name is very mildly similar. Plus, like many other settlements, it fits within the round profile that would be Boomtown's itinerary.

Pleasant Hills: As its a dump, I placed it outside of Austin, again to be in keeping with the itinerary. It could be placed to the south instead of the north since thats the location of Austin's actual landfill, though this would put it too close to the current placement of Brahmaville. Another advantage of placing it more to the south is that you could have the ant-lions be native to the Cracked Lands, migrating north and finding the dump is inhospitable enough to suit them.

Cooktown: this part of the semicircle around Boomtown seemed empty here, so I placed it on a spot called "Sweetwater." Probably too far out into the Dune Sea.

Lighthouse: Placed what seems to me to be the edge of tornado alley and the dune sea, but this could be a lot of places.

Stardust: Placed near to Houston for two reasons - firstly, USSA, secondly, Astroworld Amusement Park. Downside to this is its too close to Kallos. Could be a lot of places, including the Cracked Lands to go along with my "set aside for research and development, especially for the purposes of reclaiming the land" which research into arcology would do, plus the Cracked Lands are probably pretty similar to a lot of planets. Still, too close to Kallos like the Box.

Whispering Grass: Placed sort of near to the Cracked Lands, see above. It being kind of out in the desert/mountainous territory is in line with the idea that its an oasis, but it seems weird that it would remain isolated so long when it is right along the Boomtown semicircle, and so close to where I've placed the Sidewinders. A potential upside here, though, is that its roughly equidistant between Boomtown, Sidewinder, and Brahmaville - trade of fruit with Boomtown, and the two options of either supplying the tree with human slaves from the Sidewinders or cows from Brahmaville.

Science Station Tethys: Name I've arbitrarily assigned to the research station occupied by a very small brotherhood contingent. Placed at what I imagine the edge of the Cracked Lands are, though I'd rather it were a bit further north as the escapade where Sidewinders are located as this highland is a more sensible border for the Crack Lands, and would put the Brotherhood near to Boomtown caravans to raid. Ideally this would be about a little south of Whispering Grass. Obvious problem is that this places it far too close to the Sidewinders and Whispering Grass, so I placed it to the south, but am not totally satisfied with this.

Vault 42: Placed outside of Corpus Christie, as it makes sense to put a vault near a major city, but it might be better to have it further inland.

Like I said, most of this is probably wrong, but it was a fun exercise.

 

[Atomic Postman]

Something I quickly whipped together as I wait for your next update.

View attachment 18228

Obviously this is purely speculative, so let me give you some of my justifications -

Reconciliation: All we're told is that its about a hundred miles away from D-FW. As its a desert city this might indicate West, but then considering post-apocalyptic climate change maybe not. When I was looking at what fell within a hundred miles of DFW, I saw that Waco was almost perfect, so I placed it over the site of the Branch Davidian compound. Too good to pass up. Problems include that its now firmly in the midst of the "core" region's affairs, despite the fact that it was not mentioned as being on Boomtown's itinerary.

Pennance: Placed on a place called "Big Springs" in a part of Texas I imagine must be encompassed as part of the Dune Sea.

Boomtown: One of two places where we know exactly where it is. Serves as a useful reference for other locations.

Sidewinder Tribe: Originally I wanted to place this at Big Bend, since its on the border and has the most dramatic canyons in Texas, but looking at it it seems like this would be to ofar away from the action and in the Dune Sea. So I placed it in a rocky region called Devil's Canyon instead. Remain unsatisfied with this placement for several reasons.

Kallos: Placed a little to the east of Houston, though you could place it to the west as that part of the map is pretty empty so far. Plus, it would put it further away from the bayous and more in core Great Waste.

The Box: Placed it in Huntsville, as that is the site of the most infamous prison in Texas. In reality, this is probably too close to Reconciliation, and especially Kallos which would've picked through it by now I'd think. In reality I imagine it's further out in the Dune Sea.

Absolution: Basically arbitrary, placed it on a sort of nearby to Reconciliation because its name was "Palestine," and it seemed like this sector of the map was a little empty. Might be too far away from the action.

Meridian: The other location that we're told exactly where it is.

Brahmaville: Placed it on New Braunfels, because its suitably rural and the name is very mildly similar. Plus, like many other settlements, it fits within the round profile that would be Boomtown's itinerary.

Pleasant Hills: As its a dump, I placed it outside of Austin, again to be in keeping with the itinerary. It could be placed to the south instead of the north since thats the location of Austin's actual landfill, though this would put it too close to the current placement of Brahmaville. Another advantage of placing it more to the south is that you could have the ant-lions be native to the Cracked Lands, migrating north and finding the dump is inhospitable enough to suit them.

Cooktown: this part of the semicircle around Boomtown seemed empty here, so I placed it on a spot called "Sweetwater." Probably too far out into the Dune Sea.

Lighthouse: Placed what seems to me to be the edge of tornado alley and the dune sea, but this could be a lot of places.

Stardust: Placed near to Houston for two reasons - firstly, USSA, secondly, Astroworld Amusement Park. Downside to this is its too close to Kallos. Could be a lot of places, including the Cracked Lands to go along with my "set aside for research and development, especially for the purposes of reclaiming the land" which research into arcology would do, plus the Cracked Lands are probably pretty similar to a lot of planets. Still, too close to Kallos like the Box.

Whispering Grass: Placed sort of near to the Cracked Lands, see above. It being kind of out in the desert/mountainous territory is in line with the idea that its an oasis, but it seems weird that it would remain isolated so long when it is right along the Boomtown semicircle, and so close to where I've placed the Sidewinders. A potential upside here, though, is that its roughly equidistant between Boomtown, Sidewinder, and Brahmaville - trade of fruit with Boomtown, and the two options of either supplying the tree with human slaves from the Sidewinders or cows from Brahmaville.

Science Station Tethys: Name I've arbitrarily assigned to the research station occupied by a very small brotherhood contingent. Placed at what I imagine the edge of the Cracked Lands are, though I'd rather it were a bit further north as the escapade where Sidewinders are located as this highland is a more sensible border for the Crack Lands, and would put the Brotherhood near to Boomtown caravans to raid. Ideally this would be about a little south of Whispering Grass. Obvious problem is that this places it far too close to the Sidewinders and Whispering Grass, so I placed it to the south, but am not totally satisfied with this.

Vault 42: Placed outside of Corpus Christie, as it makes sense to put a vault near a major city, but it might be better to have it further inland.

Like I said, most of this is probably wrong, but it was a fun exercise.

This is fucking amazing man, thank you so much for that! And actually, you aren't that far off of what I was already picturing. Like, at all. You got more right than you got wrong. I have not attempted a map for myself just because I don't know how much the prospects of the map would change by the time I'm done writing, but I will definitely use yours as the template.


The Dune Sea is moreso to the west, stetching out toward El Paso. I had an idea for El Paso, "The Pass" basically being the gateway to the four corners, but getting there would require either a vehicle or dedicated people in environment-sealed power armor because of how inhospitably dry, hot and barren the dune sea is as well as periodical twisters and sandstorms that rage through. I'd pictured that Penance effectively lied in a southernly "break" in the dune sea where the climate is more hospitable and out of range of the storms, but you're basically surrounded. It'd be further south, and further west.

The Box is completely unplaced as of now, so I wouldn't sweat that.

As for Reconciliation, I do picture that the USA went through severe desertification in Fallout so the majority of Texas is a desert wasteland (as well as Oklahoma and Arkansas being dustbowls). I'd had similar thoughts about Waco, but my current feeling was somewhere east or northeast of the Twin Graves. It also gives Meridian some nice breathing room (with them being something of a warlord realm) and also allows Absolution to be the city that's more connected with the heartbeat of the regional commerece, which is what's causing them to drift.

Lighthouse I would say is further to the north, I've cut the tail-end on Tornado Alley as I'm planning on making north texas more tribalistic (This is where Overlord Colt's "kingdom" is, his capital is probably about where you've put Lighthouse) with lots of podunk towns as the low-level area where the players will likely begin their campaign.

Stardust and Kallos are precisely the right spot, Stardust actually isn't of massive value to Kallos as it was largely a tourist trap and they couldn't crack open the primary space colony after multiple repeat attempts, and resigned it to being another gimmick like the rest of the tour-amusements in the area.

Whispering Grass, Sidewinder, Brahmaville and Pleasant Hills are all in the perfect spot. Brahmaville particularly because their "claim" to the twisted ruins of Austin is part of their faux-legitimation for being the official government of the state.

I am working through an assignment right now, but it will be finished tomorrow. I was planning on whipping up a post regarding the warlord kingdoms of the state next, so I'll probably crack that out tomorrow afternoon.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

This is fucking amazing man, thank you so much for that! And actually, you aren't that far off of what I was already picturing. Like, at all. You got more right than you got wrong. I have not attempted a map for myself just because I don't know how much the prospects of the map would change by the time I'm done writing, but I will definitely use yours as the template.

Good to know! I'll definitely be touching up this map as you continue to post updates.

The Dune Sea is moreso to the west, stetching out toward El Paso. I had an idea for El Paso, "The Pass" basically being the gateway to the four corners, but getting there would require either a vehicle or dedicated people in environment-sealed power armor because of how inhospitably dry, hot and barren the dune sea is as well as periodical twisters and sandstorms that rage through.

Presumably the only ones capable of reching it with any regularity is Boomtown and the alluded to Dune Riders?

As for Reconciliation, I do picture that the USA went through severe desertification in Fallout so the majority of Texas is a desert wasteland (as well as Oklahoma and Arkansas being dustbowls). I'd had similar thoughts about Waco, but my current feeling was somewhere east or northeast of the Twin Graves. It also gives Meridian some nice breathing room (with them being something of a warlord realm) and also allows Absolution to be the city that's more connected with the heartbeat of the regional commerece, which is what's causing them to drift.

Makes sense. So maybe just reverse Reconciliation and Absolution?

Whispering Grass, Sidewinder, Brahmaville and Pleasant Hills are all in the perfect spot. Brahmaville particularly because their "claim" to the twisted ruins of Austin is part of their faux-legitimation for being the official government of the state.

Technically I've put Brahamaville a little closer to San Antonio than Austin, and Pleasant Hills is basically right next to Austin. So maybe reverse their positions a little bit?

I am working through an assignment right now, but it will be finished tomorrow. I was planning on whipping up a post regarding the warlord kingdoms of the state next, so I'll probably crack that out tomorrow afternoon.

Excited to see it!