Fallout: Vault Archives PnP Revised Edition

Atomic Postman

Atomic Postman

Vault Archives Overseer
Hello,

In early 2019 I began planning a Fallout Tabletop Campaign, and wasn't satisfied with the systems I could find. Originally I began just welding a Frankenstein's monster of various PnPs together, but with time it mutated into its own thing entirely as it went through numerous revisions and major overhauls.

Eventually I ran a full campaign with four players from September 2019 to March 2020, undergoing constant playtesting of the rules and revisions. In the end, I'm extremely happy with how the final product ended up, although I still tinker with it every now and then. I'm not really trying to "get this out there" as such since this started as and remains for personal usage but I thought I would upload stuff on here anyway, because why not. The new rulebook post-playtest I named "Vault Archives"

[New Files Uploaded On May 22nd 2021]

I've uploaded the 2nd, "Revised" edition of Vault Archives. It's classic Fallout with inspiration from Fallout: Van Buren and Fallout: New Vegas.

Included is the Vault Archives Rulebook, the Overseer's Guide (Bestiary, Random Encounters Tables and a 500 "Junk Item" loot list.) and character sheets.

There is also a full Campaign module/worldbook/setting for the system on page 3.

 

Attachments

  • VaultArchivesRulebookRevised.pdf
    VaultArchivesRulebookRevised.pdf
    3.9 MB · Views: 1,265
  • FalloutPnPCharacterSheet1.png
    FalloutPnPCharacterSheet1.png
    380.7 KB · Views: 1,086
  • FalloutPnpCharacterSheet2.png
    FalloutPnpCharacterSheet2.png
    152.8 KB · Views: 747
  • MutantManual.pdf
    MutantManual.pdf
    310.7 KB · Views: 643
Last edited:
Hello,

Interesting implementation of Fallout PnP, could you provide some gameplay feedback from your sessions with this system?
- What difficulties did you face?
- Is the narration altered by the system?
- How your fights run with this system?

By the way, I'm interested by your combat calculator, implementing something of my own for my teams. ;)

All the best.
 
marc said:
Hello,

Interesting implementation of Fallout PnP, could you provide some gameplay feedback from your sessions with this system?
- What difficulties did you face?
- Is the narration altered by the system?
- How your fights run with this system?

By the way, I'm interested by your combat calculator, implementing something of my own for my teams. ;)

All the best.
Click to expand...

Hey! Sorry for the slow reply.

>- What difficulties did you face?

Primarily? Getting the balance right between having varied and fun esoteric builds, against players who would want to minmax or abuse statistical exploits. Eventually much of that was ironed out. Getting the economy right was also an issue, but I also worked that out in the end.

>- Is the narration altered by the system?
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this.

>- How your fights run with this system?

I have since uploaded the final version, updated to this post with a HEAVILY revised combat system that I am very happy with and proud of. Fights ran very well. Especially with the calculator.
 
Here was the map I also used originally for my campaign, set in 2273 (Turns out I actually should have set it a lot earlier, 2253 maybe, but it worked out alright) within Idaho/Utah/Wyoming and Nevada.

LyRIQuK.jpg


The players drew on the map themselves when they found locations. I had a seperate digital version with all the locations correlated to the grid.
 
Wow, this an impressive body of work.

Flicking through the rules, it all looks very well-put together and thought out. Congratulations, I might just use this.
 
Considering adding a system with regards to random mutation. In situations of exposure to particularly nasty types of toxic waste or DM decided irradiation you have a chance (Based on Rad Resistance? Luck? Endurance?) of recieving a Mutation which effectively acts like a Trait (Inspired by the Phobia system of The Outer Worlds). Which mutation you get is randomly rolled for on a table, and there'd also be a distinction between minor mutations (An extra toe, loss/gain of SPECIAL) and major mutations (Growing a third arm, mouth producing acid etc).

Similarly I was thinking of resigning this to a race of its own, "Mutant" that would allow the player to roll for a Major Mutation and they'd recieve a Perk every two levels instead of 3, but would be capped in their Charisma and their Hit Points would be far lower than other races by comparison to represent their malformed bodies.

May check in and post something related to it if I get around to it, but just an idea for now.
 
Atomic Postman said:
Considering adding a system with regards to random mutation. In situations of exposure to particularly nasty types of toxic waste or DM decided irradiation you have a chance (Based on Rad Resistance? Luck? Endurance?) of recieving a Mutation which effectively acts like a Trait (Inspired by the Phobia system of The Outer Worlds). Which mutation you get is randomly rolled for on a table, and there'd also be a distinction between minor mutations (An extra toe, loss/gain of SPECIAL) and major mutations (Growing a third arm, mouth producing acid etc).

Similarly I was thinking of resigning this to a race of its own, "Mutant" that would allow the player to roll for a Major Mutation and they'd recieve a Perk every two levels instead of 3, but would be capped in their Charisma and their Hit Points would be far lower than other races by comparison to represent their malformed bodies.

May check in and post something related to it if I get around to it, but just an idea for now.
Click to expand...
I made a system like that for my PnP system I'm making (it's not a Fallout system, but Fallout can be played in it).

I used tiers for mutations: light, medium and heavy mutations.
You can only get a higher tier mutation if you already got 3 ones from the previous tier (you need 3 light mutations to start getting medium ones and 3 medium ones to start getting heavy ones), if a character gets the 9 maximum mutations ( 3 light + 3 medium + heavy), they instantly die if their mutagen level reaches 10 again when they would get a 10th mutation (their body can't deal with so many mutations).

Mutations are random from tables, but each type of mutation source has a different table. For example a mutant dog can deal mutagen damage, if it deals enough damage to raise a character's mutagen level to 10, the character will then get a mutation from the mutant animal (dog) list. If the character gets damaged by gamma mutagens, it gets a mutation from the gamma list. etc.

Using mutations is fun, but it can become unbalanced if there's not enough drawbacks to compensate for the bonuses, or vice versa. In my PnP, mutants are usually not allowed in settlements, they are hated and can even be shot on sight. All of this is because mutants have a chance of going berserk and attack anyone near them (friends and foes). The more mutations a character has, the higher the chance of going berserk is, to a total of 90% when they have all 9 mutations.
 
Atomic Postman said:
Hello,

In early 2019 I began planning a Fallout Tabletop Campaign, and wasn't satisfied with the systems I could find. Originally I began just welding a Frankenstein's monster of various PnPs together, but with time it mutated into its own thing entirely as it went through numerous revisions and major overhauls.

Eventually I ran a full campaign with four players from September 2019 to March 2020, undergoing constant playtesting of the rules and revisions. In the end, I'm extremely happy with how the final product ended up.

[New Files Uploaded On November 5th 2020] Below is the main Rulebook, "Moribund World", the "Overseer's Manual" which contains all GM resources (Bestiary, NPC template, Random Encounters Table, Junk Item Loot Table) and two Excel Calculators which help with Character Creation and running combat way smoother. Character Sheets are later in the thread.
Click to expand...

I...
This is amazing. Its DnD but its freaking Fallout! Oh boy, time to break out the d20 dice again. Oh wait, no... I'm having flashbacks OF Dnd... The pain... Its... Too... Much.... ARGHHHH, HEEELLLLLP!!
 
Atomic Postman said:
It's referred to that as a shorthand, but technically it's two d10s with one of the d10s marked with an extra decimal (So instead of 1, 2, 3 its 10, 20, 30)
Click to expand...

Zocchihedron
Zocchihedron is the trademark of a 100-sided die invented by Lou Zocchi, which debuted in 1985. Rather than being a polyhedron, it is more like a ball with 100 flattened planes. It is sometimes called "Zocchi's Golfball".

Zocchihedra are designed to handle percentage rolls in games, particularly in role-playing games.

Got this from Wikipedia. Guess its time to get my wallet and purchase something...
 
falloutfan01 said:
Zocchihedron
Zocchihedron is the trademark of a 100-sided die invented by Lou Zocchi, which debuted in 1985. Rather than being a polyhedron, it is more like a ball with 100 flattened planes. It is sometimes called "Zocchi's Golfball".

Zocchihedra are designed to handle percentage rolls in games, particularly in role-playing games.

Got this from Wikipedia. Guess its time to get my wallet and purchase something...
Click to expand...
I think that thing is more of a novelty than an actual item. When I ran this system, I always used the 2d10 method.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top