Fallout: Texas (The Great Wastes)

[Atomic Postman]

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


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

Boomtown have done it before, but their buses travel very slowly (20-30mph) and suffer from overheating issues. The cost to value ratio isn't high enough for them to bother. It's a similar story for the Dune Riders - they could, but there's not much to warrant the journey. Though if the situation in Texas becomes sour enough for them, they might.

Makes sense. So maybe just reverse Reconciliation and Absolution?

I would say swap them and then move Reconciliation a bit further north and Absolution further southeast a tad

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?

The Mayorate's claim over Austin is basically entirely symbolic rather than practical since Austin is a boneyard that's been completely picked clean and I had an idea for a plot regarding them trying to convince a non-ranching settlement to join, so it being Pleasant Hills actually works fine enough as is!

Also something I just noticed / remembered is that Kallos is actually a little further out from Houston, as Houston itself is largely flooded (there's a fishing community there that lives amongst rooftops and raised highways, prizing off of the mutant sealife)

 

[Hardboiled Android]

Boomtown have done it before, but their buses travel very slowly (20-30mph) and suffer from overheating issues. The cost to value ratio isn't high enough for them to bother. It's a similar story for the Dune Riders - they could, but there's not much to warrant the journey. Though if the situation in Texas becomes sour enough for them, they might.

Well this raises the question... if virtually no one can get there or wants to, why does The Pass exist as a community?

 

[Atomic Postman]

Well this raises the question... if virtually no one can get there or wants to, why does The Pass exist as a community?

The Pass is moreso connected to the Four Corners rather than the Great Wastes, is the reason. It's largely self-reliant too.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

The Pass is moreso connected to the Four Corners rather than the Great Wastes, is the reason. It's largely self-reliant too.

But why would it be known as "The Pass" as a gateway between the two regions if hardly anyone ever uses it?

 

[Atomic Postman]

But why would it be known as "The Pass" as a gateway between the two regions if hardly anyone ever uses it?

Well the name is something of a bastardised version of El Paso, but it's a fair point. Perhaps it's called that by those in Texas, but it holds another name elsewhere.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

Well the name is something of a bastardised version of El Paso, but it's a fair point. Perhaps it's called that by those in Texas, but it holds another name elsewhere.

I get the pun of course and found it quite clever, but it felt a little contrived since realistically it doesn't make sense that many people would pass through it. I think having Texans legendarily call it the Pass, but they thesmelves call it something different (maybe just Elp Paso) is a good compromise.

 

[Atomic Postman]

I get the pun of course and found it quite clever, but it felt a little contrived since realistically it doesn't make sense that many people would pass through it. I think having Texans legendarily call it the Pass, but they thesmelves call it something different (maybe just Elp Paso) is a good compromise.

Yeah that would make sense, I'd also be keen on El Paso having a surviving Spanish speaking population too.

 

[Atomic Postman]

Decided I'm going to merge Brahmaville/Mayorate with Overlord Colt and swap their location with Cooktown so that it's in north Texas. I've got other stuff to do but I thought I'd post the first part, will update the rest tomorrow.

Inspirations: Jericho (TV Show), Back To The Future (Sort of), Scrapheap (Fallout 1 Demo).

Brahmaville/The Mayorate

Pre-War Background:

Prior to the Great War, a company by the name of Pickett Domestics that dealt in nationwide commercial household products took a venture into space-age real-estate development, in conjunction with RobCo they began a scheme that would construct state-of-the-art "Pleasantvilles". These developments were intended to be pop-up fully automated "American Dream" suburbs. Each house in a Pleasantville would be fitted with a RobCo control unit that would run each household, and linked to all the other houses in the community. Mr. Handies working in unison across the town to mow everybodies lawn, take out the garbage, setting up town cookouts or drive-thru movie nights. Individual house units would regulate temperature, pour your bath, get your toast ready, brew your morning coffee and various other gimmicks of needlessly automated technology, and a full house-wide audio system to play radio tunes or broadcast news announcements to cultivate the perfect patriotic middle class lifestyle. A Pleasantville was fully equipped with an automated civil defense system - riot barriers/walls that would raise from the streets, small-scale permiter "Guard Dog" turrets, "Lockdown" systems to close off windows and barricade doors to seal innocent americans in their homes and play calming music (Chordettes- Mr Sandman ) - in the event of communist insurgency or dissident uprising. Your white-picket fence home could become a patriotic fortress to hunker through whatever the Reds or commie rioters might throw at you.

The real kicker was that each Pleasantville would have its own central reactor on the public green outside the town hall, so that in the event of total grid failure each Pleasantville could remain totally self-sufficient. Pleasantville TX was the first prototype of such a development, and many had already moved into their new homes. The automated systems whilst fun were often malfunctioning and out-of-sync. However, the main reactor was still under construction when the bombs fell.

With sirens blaring and the EAS echoing across everyone's homes,the civil defense system went into effect - sealing everyone in. Those who were still outside couldn't get inside their homes, and fled to the town hall which had failed to lockdown due to malfunction. However, when the first of the bombs hit, the national power grid went the way of the dodo - and cut off Pleasantvilles power. These patriotic fortresses were now stainless steel coffins for those trapped helplessly inside.

Post-War Background:

Due to power failure, the food-vendotrons and water control systems in each household also failed. Despite the townhall survivors eventually cracking open a few of the homesteads, within a few days most sealed inside had died from dehydration. Over months and years to come, the survivors of Pleasantville would eventually open up all of the houses in order to scavenge them.

In the time after the Great War, the survivors would reach out to nearby surviving enclaves - nearby ranches and a USAF Satellite Station in the hills. Over this period they would trade, mingle and also brush against eachother in series of minor conflicts and petty squabbles. In time however they would unify in a single coalition headed from the former Pleasantville: The Mayorate.

By 2253 Pleasantville goes by another name, and has for some time: Brahmaville. The reason for this naming is three fold. The first being the Brahmin pens that surround the town, staffed by ranch-hands and a handful of rusty Mr. Handies. The second being the position of the town as a nexus point for the surrounding ranches, dealing in all Brahmin related goods: Leather products, high quality leather armor, Brahmin steaks and Brahmin milk. The third, and most prominent being the underlying stench of Brahmin dung, growing stronger as you reach the town's central generator. A great clugging Old World machine fixed and modified with Wasteland parts, powered by a constant funelling of Brahmin dung and the resultant extreme methane.

The town is partially re-powered by the generator, the pre-war homesteads lack most of their former functionality, but a handful of key systems still remain. Namely: lighting, refrigeration and air conditioning. A shadow of the former space-age fortresses, but practically palatial by Wasteland standards.

The town even has a partially functional drive-thru theatre, though gaps in the Holotapes mean the monthly airings have to be filled in by young volunteer theatre actors when scenes are missing. This has increased with time, with most "Monthly Movies" being mostly theatre performances with interjected out-of-context movie scenes.

Brahmaville also runs a school where basic arithmatic, literacy and whatever's left of Texan history are taught. This is restricted only to a particular class within the Mayorate, however.

In recent times, Boomtown and the Mayorate have come into conflict. The Mayorate have been increasingly protectionist and resistant to Boomtown's influence. There has been a "Cold War" of trade in progress for at least 3 years.

Government in the Mayorate :

The Mayorate is comprised of five settlements total including Brahmaville itself. Each of the settlements barring Brahmaville are run by a dominant "Stockman Family"

• Marwen Ranch
• Brittle Ranch
• Crow Nest Ranch
• Agri-Station: USAF Satellite Station now converted into a large-scale crop and lettuce farm.

Townsfolk in the Mayorate are largely born indebted to the Stockman Families, working off their "debt" through their labour and only being able to use Mayorate "Favour Slips" as payment until they work off their debt and earn status as Citizens, where they can use caps, own Brahmin and run buisnesses or choose to leave.

The leader of the Mayorate, the Mayor, is effectively an elected Autocrat. Every ten years an election is held, but beyond that the Mayor is free to govern exactly as they wish. The leading governor for the past three elections has been Mayor Atticus McKinley Sr. until his untimely recent death from the New Plague, triggering a surprise election. Though conspiracy rages through the town as McKinley Sr.'s wife alledges that her husband was poisoned intentionally, not sick.

Votes in the Mayorate are restricted to those who are citizens, members of the stockman families, buisness owners and those who own over 10 Brahmin. Votes are also restricted to men only, and are weighted depending on social status, with those of the Stockman Families holding the heaviest weighting.

In the upcoming election, these are the major factions vying for power:

• Stockman Republicans: Led by the well-respected Abe Dowman, patriarch of Brittle Ranch. Dowman believes in decentralizing the Mayorate, and effectively rendering it so that decisions regarding the Mayorate are a result of representatives from each of the ranches making a vote, with the leader of each family having equal weighted votes. However, individual governance of the ranches is left to the families to decide, with the position of Mayor effectively abolished. Each family should internally vote to elect a Patriarch. He believes that they should also alter the pay-slip system to form their own coin currency in order to rival Boomtown, and as a way of maintaining the link between the settlements, loose as it may become.
• Free Citizen Coalition: Led by Anthony Evans of Agri-Station, he believes in abolishing the pay-slip system and repairing their relationship with Boomtown, allowing the Lonestar Trading Company to establish an outpost in Brahmaville and encourage active co-operation between the two cities. Communication is secretly on-going between LTC and Evans, with Evans planning to effectively merge the two (with a great position for himself) if he became Mayor.

• The Yellow Roses: Led by Atticus McKinley Jr, son of the former Mayor. He runs his own armed millitia (The Yellow Roses) out of the surviving ruins of The Alamo in San Antonio. Infatuated with shreds of Texan history from a young age, he believes it is the perogative of the Mayorate to progress and grow to greater heights, taking in new communities, laying claim to the former cities of San Antonio and Austin.

Atticus and his Yellow Roses fought alongside Sidewinder mercenaries and were partially responsible for repelling the Second Muto Wave. Now, Atticus hires a band of Sidewinders to help him train and supplement his men to greater strength. Atticus believes in abolishing weighted votes, extending the vote to women and making millitary service a requirement of citizenship. He also, more radically, believes in abolishing the debt system and instead purchasing slaves from Sidewinder in order to manage the grunt work. Although this belief is held more closely to his chest. He is a firm believer in the autocratic power of the Mayor, however. He also believes his father was assassinated, and seeks justice.

The Sidewinders at Atticus's side are grooming him in the case of an election loss, and it is growing more likely that he and his loyal Yellow Roses will attempt a coup in the case of loss.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

Decent set-up/framework, feels very Bethesda in a good way... now the trick is to outdo bethesda and make what comes after the war actually interesting!

EDIT: Reminds me a lil bit of

 

[Atomic Postman]

Decent set-up/framework, feels very Bethesda in a good way... now the trick is to outdo bethesda and make what comes after the war actually interesting!

EDIT: Reminds me a lil bit of

View attachment 18266

Yeah that was certainly an inspiration. I'm having a bit of writers block in how to handle Brahmaville's government because I've got several ideas for it and I'm not entirely satisfied with any of them. The original idea was that it'd be a form of illiberal democracy where Brahmaville and the surrounding ranches would basically operate like 19th century company towns where the townsfolk are born indebted to the families, work of their debt through labour and use their own internal currency of paper slips/favour cards in the meantime. Business owners, freed citizens or those who owned an arbitrary amount of Brahmin would be allowed to participate in mayoral elections every 10 years who is basically an elected autocrat. However, I didn't think this was inherently interesting and it retreads ground covered by NCR, in effect just being a smaller and more illiberal NCR, and the whole merchant-dominion part is kind of already covered by Boomtown. Players running into an ongoing election could be cool and I've run a similar story in my prior campaign that was fun, but I'm not entirely sure. I also think that in a Wasteland full of warlords, millitant theocracies, oppressive technocracy and merchant anarchy, players would lean to being in favour of a democracy even if its quite backward.

I had the character of Overlord Colt floating around, basically a post-nuclear king that rules a bunch of podunk towns and tribes as probably the first faction the players would encounter. He's living it up in a longhouse shaped from a bowling alley and is basically a young Robert Baratheon type. Fierce and powerful but more concerned with sticking his dick in things and getting drunk. His men basically travel around in roving bands to collect tithe from the villages as a basic warlord protection racket, and there'd be an issue of ""court"" intrigue and murder mystery, as well as an heir crisis as he hasn't been able to sire a son.

So I thought, why not combine the two? Brahmaville as an elective monarchy, when the reigning Mayor dies the ranch families and the "Sheriffs" that lead roving bands of soldiers vote on who's the next monarch, meanwhile all the surrounding ranches and podunk towns live in these pseudo-feudalistic company towns.

But I just don't feel satisfied with any of them.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

The original idea was that it'd be a form of illiberal democracy where Brahmaville and the surrounding ranches would basically operate like 19th century company towns where the townsfolk are born indebted to the families, work of their debt through labour and use their own internal currency of paper slips/favour cards in the meantime.

I like it, debt slavery is underemphasized when historically its been at least as important as chazttel slavery

Business owners, freed citizens or those who owned an arbitrary amount of Brahmin would be allowed to participate in mayoral elections every 10 years who is basically an elected autocrat.

I very much like this - kind of reminds me a little bit of the Hutu-Tutsi, where despite originally being a seperate ethnicity, eventually to become a Tutsi you just needed to own a certain number of cattle... that is until the Belgians came, and re-imposed the racial divide, removing all class mobility and frustratin relations between the two groups, leading to the Rwandan Genocide.

However, I didn't think this was inherently interesting and it retreads ground covered by NCR, in effect just being a smaller and more illiberal NCR, and the whole merchant-dominion part is kind of already covered by Boomtown.

Well for me its illiberal enough that it sets it apart - in Fo2 NCR is practically a paradise, it only in FNV that we see the flaws in it, but even these seem to be flaws in a democracy trying its best, even if they likely will be fatal. Whereas to me, Brahmaville seems pretty clearly corrupt and irredeemable.

To really set it apart, put a very strong emphasis on the misery of slums and company towns, lack of social mobility between the classes, and the arbitrary rule of the Mayor (prima noctae type shit)

As to Overlord Colt, I definitely do see your reasoning there and it could work, but to me it feels a little weird to have this brash barbarian as Mayor already. He feels more interesting to me as an independent ruler over his podunk towns, but if you really want to include him in Brahmaville, i'd suggest that instead of being Mayor he's running for Mayor. Maybe after completing the starter quests around his area he sends you to tBrahmaville to help him win, and here the players are really allowed to stretch their wings.

Sorry, dunno if this is particuarly helpful

 

[Atomic Postman]

I like it, debt slavery is underemphasized when historically its been at least as important as chazttel slavery


I very much like this - kind of reminds me a little bit of the Hutu-Tutsi, where despite originally being a seperate ethnicity, eventually to become a Tutsi you just needed to own a certain number of cattle... that is until the Belgians came, and re-imposed the racial divide, removing all class mobility and frustratin relations between the two groups, leading to the Rwandan Genocide.


Well for me its illiberal enough that it sets it apart - in Fo2 NCR is practically a paradise, it only in FNV that we see the flaws in it, but even these seem to be flaws in a democracy trying its best, even if they likely will be fatal. Whereas to me, Brahmaville seems pretty clearly corrupt and irredeemable.

To really set it apart, put a very strong emphasis on the misery of slums and company towns, lack of social mobility between the classes, and the arbitrary rule of the Mayor (prima noctae type shit)

As to Overlord Colt, I definitely do see your reasoning there and it could work, but to me it feels a little weird to have this brash barbarian as Mayor already. He feels more interesting to me as an independent ruler over his podunk towns, but if you really want to include him in Brahmaville, i'd suggest that instead of being Mayor he's running for Mayor. Maybe after completing the starter quests around his area he sends you to tBrahmaville to help him win, and here the players are really allowed to stretch their wings.

Sorry, dunno if this is particuarly helpful

Nah it is helpful, I think I'll stick to my guns with the original idea for Brahmaville and also keep Overlord Colt as a seperate figure. The election storyline I ran in my last campaign with a different settlement/town kind of flopped because it was going well and the players were invested right up until they learnt of the abolitionist terrorist faction - so they immediately sided with them to destroy the town and free the slaves. I think having the evil be a bit less obvious than chattel slavery and also not give an obvious moral solution might keep the election storyline on better track.

I'll update the post shortly.

 

[Atomic Postman]

Updated Brahmaville.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

And look at that, it came out great in spite of your writer's block. I really like the way that you balanced the three candidates against each other, I can see clear benefits and downsidxes to each. Feels like a better written version of Redding.

Though if I had one criticism, I'd say make the downsides of Dowman and Evans more clear - it feels a little unbalanced that Atticus gets all that space, including all his benefits and flaws, whereas the other two only get their upsides explicated, with the downsides being implicit. Further, their characterization is a little too shallow - Atticus is an interesting character with traits and flaws that clearly will play into the campaign, but the other two are represented only by their political stances. Doesn't have to be much, just a little bit more to get to know those two as individuals, because at the moment they just feel like names attached to political positions, albeit very interesting political positions in the context of the wider narrative.

 

[Atomic Postman]

And look at that, it came out great in spite of your writer's block. I really like the way that you balanced the three candidates against each other, I can see clear benefits and downsidxes to each. Feels like a better written version of Redding.

Though if I had one criticism, I'd say make the downsides of Dowman and Evans more clear - it feels a little unbalanced that Atticus gets all that space, including all his benefits and flaws, whereas the other two only get their upsides explicated, with the downsides being implicit. Further, their characterization is a little too shallow - Atticus is an interesting character with traits and flaws that clearly will play into the campaign, but the other two are represented only by their political stances. Doesn't have to be much, just a little bit more to get to know those two as individuals, because at the moment they just feel like names attached to political positions, albeit very interesting political positions in the context of the wider narrative.

Thank you! Yeah I agree, my bias for Atticus as a character idea is quite evident here, but fleshing them out as NPCs in terms of their personas would probably be something I'd do closer to an actual session where they'd appear as for now they are broadstrokes.

I picture for Dowman that as an individual he is probably quite pleasant, the oldest candidate and something of a fatherly figure. A Sam Elliott in the Big Lebowski type. His downside is more that it's preserving the pretty blatantly shitty status-quo for the majority population in the Mayorate, it improves the lives of the families but the fair-vote of the families and the rulership of the Mayor matter about as much the same to the average townsfolk. Similarly, weakening and isolating the Mayorate whilst at the same time making them more prickly to the rising power of Lonestar Trading Company is something that's bound to be troublesome. Best case scenario they step down the ladder in relevance permanently, worst case scenario they get flattened.

Evans I picture as being much more driven and sharp-pointed, a former debt-slave and now buisness owner. He's effectively a ruthless buisnessman, aspirational like Atticus but much more ""pragmatic"" than Atticus wanting to play warmongering cowboys. The downside to his choice is that the Mayorate effectively becomes a Lonestar Trading Company colony, as an outpost means Lonestar mercenaries for protection purposes, and it'll only grow from there with Evans as the Mayor to help it all along. If you think the Lonestar Trading Company are the least of all evils, not a bad choice. Especially since acquiring the Mayorate like that would mean they'd actually have to start turning into some kind of merchant republic rather than what they are now.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

Dowman just being a very nice guy works very well for the status quo option. As to Evans, I'm sure he is quite ruthless and is more than willing to throw people under the bus. Also, considering his connections to Boomtown, maybe he's a regular at Dusty Desires? With some peculiar tastes? Could be a fun blackmail element to the campaign.

 

[Atomic Postman]

Dowman just being a very nice guy works very well for the status quo option. As to Evans, I'm sure he is quite ruthless and is more than willing to throw people under the bus. Also, considering his connections to Boomtown, maybe he's a regular at Dusty Desires? With some peculiar tastes? Could be a fun blackmail element to the campaign.

Oh yeah if they ended up actually getting involved in that storyline I'd write lots of hooks and sabotage depending on which candidate they decided to work for.Dusty Desires one is great. I also would want to involve the Church in some capacity, a lot of the Mayorate being latently religious.

I've not quite decided who killed the Mayor yet, but my bet is on Sidewinders, covering their tracks to blame Evans.

I do worry generally about doing something I am critical of Bethesda of doing in The Pitt and Skyrim's Civil War, which is making moral greyness by making it "Sophie's Choice" as Josh Sawyer uses the term: i.e the world is full of varying degrees of shitty and evil and the player is choosing what does the least damage instead of what they truly want from their perspective, which is what the New Vegas factions do.

I think that becomes less of a problem if the main story isn't faction based and they're just there to colour the world - after all Mad Max is a great post-apoc setting and everyone there is awful, but I can't see any players wanting to carry the flag of any of my factions outside of being paid to do it.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

Oh yeah if they ended up actually getting involved in that storyline I'd write lots of hooks and sabotage depending on which candidate they decided to work for.Dusty Desires one is great. I also would want to involve the Church in some capacity, a lot of the Mayorate being latently religious.

Great idea!

I've not quite decided who killed the Mayor yet, but my bet is on Sidewinders, covering their tracks to blame Evans.

That seems like the obvious answer, and would give the players a good way to get an optimal outcome for Atticus.

I do worry generally about doing something I am critical of Bethesda of doing in The Pitt and Skyrim's Civil War, which is making moral greyness by making it "Sophie's Choice" as Josh Sawyer uses the term: i.e the world is full of varying degrees of shitty and evil and the player is choosing what does the least damage instead of what they truly want from their perspective, which is what the New Vegas factions do.

I think that becomes less of a problem if the main story isn't faction based and they're just there to colour the world - after all Mad Max is a great post-apoc setting and everyone there is awful, but I can't see any players wanting to carry the flag of any of my factions outside of being paid to do it.

All very good points. The constant demand for moral grayness is such a big meme that got promulgated by people who liked NV but couldn't articulate why or did so poorly, which than lead Bethesda apologists to (rightly) turn around and point out that compared to some parts of Fo3 (the Pitt, Tenpenny Tower) NV didn't have much grayness - after all, the Legion is very clearly evil. What matters about a faction (or character) is that their philosophy/actions makes sense to them in their context, even if it may seem alien from our sensibilities.

As a part of this, some level of Sophie's Choicery is needed because this is, y'know, being artificially written not only to spark interesting discussions but to get interesting gameplay. Every group should have trade offs and benefits, it's just a question opf not contriving them and designing an entire scenario to "subvert your expectations," at least not all the time, and if you do justify it well. In the case of the Mayorate, it doesn't feel especailly contrived, it just felt like the other candidates didn't have much texture.

And very good point on the role of factions. That's another bad effect people who liked NV but can't articulate why had on the discourse, into Fo4 - every game now, it seems based on most fan ideas/proposals/mods, must be centered on an epic confrontation between factions. They *can* be, but that's not what Fallout is about at the end of the day/

 

[Atomic Postman]

Great idea!


That seems like the obvious answer, and would give the players a good way to get an optimal outcome for Atticus.


All very good points. The constant demand for moral grayness is such a big meme that got promulgated by people who liked NV but couldn't articulate why or did so poorly, which than lead Bethesda apologists to (rightly) turn around and point out that compared to some parts of Fo3 (the Pitt, Tenpenny Tower) NV didn't have much grayness - after all, the Legion is very clearly evil. What matters about a faction (or character) is that their philosophy/actions makes sense to them in their context, even if it may seem alien from our sensibilities.

As a part of this, some level of Sophie's Choicery is needed because this is, y'know, being artificially written not only to spark interesting discussions but to get interesting gameplay. Every group should have trade offs and benefits, it's just a question opf not contriving them and designing an entire scenario to "subvert your expectations," at least not all the time, and if you do justify it well. In the case of the Mayorate, it doesn't feel especailly contrived, it just felt like the other candidates didn't have much texture.

And very good point on the role of factions. That's another bad effect people who liked NV but can't articulate why had on the discourse, into Fo4 - every game now, it seems based on most fan ideas/proposals/mods, must be centered on an epic confrontation between factions. They *can* be, but that's not what Fallout is about at the end of the day/

Yeah I don't think I want to do a faction conflict. I think either something very personal /player driven or something big end of the Wasteland will probably be it

 

[Atomic Postman]

After some thinking combined with recently playing Fallout: Yesterday and the Old World Blues mod for Hearts of Iron, I've decided to scrap the Texas setting in favour of the Four Corners.

My original campaign was set in approximation of this region, but not really (Didn't include Colorado, Arizona or New Mexico in any meaningful extent). It was heavily constricted by basically being a direct NV prequel set a few years beforehand (The Legion swallowing up the majority of the Four Corners being an elephant in the room). To me if I ran this campaign I'd want it to be in the vibe/theme of the West Coast games and I felt I was drifting too far away into complete and total "New page of the book" style for me to get the Fallout taste I wanted. Also, my complete lack of familiarity with Texas compared to my own fond memories and roadtrips in the actual Four Corners states meant that this setting lacked the Americana touch that I loved in the first place. Similarly my lack of geographical/local knowledge as well, which I believe either Avellone or Sawyer points out as a pretty vital creative touch when you're making a Fallout game.

Instead, I'd set this campaign in the Four Corners in 2253. The Legion basically only controls the Grand Canyon, being this newly-risen powerful faction that at the moment is still in the cradle, their only interactions with the Wasteland outside of the Canyon being skirmishes with surrounding tribes and buying LOTS of young slaves in order to populate an army for the years to come (bringing in their commercial slave trade aspect from VB). New Canaan being a few decades back is also free of the baggage of their immediately impending doom.

This wasn't all for naught however, as I'm likely going to end up reworking and adapting much if not all of this to the Four Corners in some way. The Terrestrial Children will be actually based out of Roswell. Phoenix will be a Boomtown/Hub style trade city with the New Celts immigrating in and introducing Jet. Places like Sidewinder and Pleasant Hills can remain effectively unchanged (though I'd probably split some of the Boomtown content to move it to Pleasant Hills to make it more of a hive of scum and villainy). Brahmaville/The Mayorate can be moved to New Mexico. Kallos will be downsized in scope to be the Boulderdome in the shadow of Dog-Town. Albuquerque can take on the scavenger city "Twin Graves" role. Warlords like Overlord Colt can be placed just about damn anywhere. The White-Liners can be rewritten to be The Twisted Hairs. Vault 42 and it's mole-people society can be reworked.

Also means I can play with very cool factions in this region like The Ciphers, Twin Mothers, Diana/Nursery, New Canaan,The Reservation (The Rebirth?) The Iron Lines and the Arizona Desert Rangers as well as some dribbles of West-Coast groups like the Followers of the Apocalypse, Sgt. Granite's Squad and the VB iteration of the BoS (as well as the Circle of Steel). Hecate can also make an appearance and actually pose a threat to the Legion, (Compared to her basic cameo in my prior campaign where her aspirations to destroy the Legion with her cult was laughable at that stage). The HoI OWB Mod also provides an incredibly rich canvas of tribes and groups across that area for me to vulture and adapt.