Fallout: Vault Archives PnP Revised Edition

Seems pretty solid, I was looking arround for a system to use for my upcoming campaign, and i might just use this, thanks and well done!
 
Cossuol said:
Seems pretty solid, I was looking arround for a system to use for my upcoming campaign, and i might just use this, thanks and well done!
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Thanks! Although you might want to wait around a few hours before downloading since I'm going to be putting up a huge update/revision in a few hours, just finishing last touches on it.
 
So I've uploaded the "Revised" edition of Vault Archives. There's about three billion minor miscellaneous edits that I won't bother listing, but here's an overview:

  • "Items" segregated into clean categories: Components, Chems, Rations, Armor & Weapons and Tools
  • Chems and Chem addiction revised and simplified to make them easier to track and more actively useful
  • Dedicated "Sneak Attack" rules that deal with pulling an assassination
  • Crafting completely overhauled and replaced with a system inspired by JSawyer's 'SIMPLE' RPG. Much easier, more intuitive and basically acts as the foundation for any kind of crafting at Overseer-Player agreement rather than trying to list everything you can possibly craft and where. McGuyvers and imaginative handymen of the Wasteland delight. This change has had a huge knock-on effect and synergizes with the rest of the system really well now.
  • Explosives crafting revised and simplified
  • Ammuniton crafting revised and simplified to be made actually useful and easy to track
  • Robotics revised and simplified
  • Totally revised Carry Capacity to a new, simpler and easily tracked system that takes an OSR approach. Should mean what you can fit on your person is a concern without it being any real bookeeping
  • Radiation revised and simplified
  • Weapons and Armor revised
  • Vehicles revised
  • Added Cybernetic Implant rules
  • Format of the PDF reorganized to reflect new revisions
  • New character sheets
Really happy with this. I've been sat on this for a while because I wanted to be 100% I was satisfied. The crafting/component overhaul was definitely the finall click piece on the jigsaw puzzle. It's both very simple and has vast potential, if the players so choose.
 
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Have you considered expanding fatigue to include attacks other than unarmed combos? I’m thinking fatigue could be drained from melee weapon “power attacks”, or using your gun as a melee weapon. Perhaps even using suppressive fire with a heavy weapon could drain fatigue, or just attacking with any weapon you don’t meet the strength requirement for.
 
Iprovidelittlepianos said:
Have you considered expanding fatigue to include attacks other than unarmed combos? I’m thinking fatigue could be drained from melee weapon “power attacks”, or using your gun as a melee weapon. Perhaps even using suppressive fire with a heavy weapon could drain fatigue, or just attacking with any weapon you don’t meet the strength requirement for.
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These are interesting suggestions. I'd considered implementing a "Full Sprint" mechanic that allows you to cover two hexes at 1 AP for the cost of 10 Fatigue, but my issue is that it would remove the major drawback of HtH characters who otherwise do huge damage: they have to run directly into gunfire. Similarly if this were in place, there's not much inventive for ranged fighters not to always do this.

The fatigue cost for the special move is an interest one indeed - perhaps a better trade off than the extra AP cost?

I'd prefer to keep Fatigue as a mechanic for HtH fighters however, as ranged fighters already have to track their (scarce) ammunition.
 
Atomic Postman said:
These are interesting suggestions. I'd considered implementing a "Full Sprint" mechanic that allows you to cover two hexes at 1 AP for the cost of 10 Fatigue, but my issue is that it would remove the major drawback of HtH characters who otherwise do huge damage: they have to run directly into gunfire. Similarly if this were in place, there's not much inventive for ranged fighters not to always do this.

The fatigue cost for the special move is an interest one indeed - perhaps a better trade off than the extra AP cost?

I'd prefer to keep Fatigue as a mechanic for HtH fighters however, as ranged fighters already have to track their (scarce) ammunition.
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Good points, and ultimately I agree that fatigue should probably be limited to HtH for balancing purposes. I still think that using a weapon you don’t meet the strength requirement for should drain fatigue, as that way you can’t just dump skill points to completely negate the chance to hit penalty.
 
Iprovidelittlepianos said:
Good points, and ultimately I agree that fatigue should probably be limited to HtH for balancing purposes. I still think that using a weapon you don’t meet the strength requirement for should drain fatigue, as that way you can’t just dump skill points to completely negate the chance to hit penalty.
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The STR penalties are pretty heavy. That combined with enemy AC means nobody is going to bother unless they do stuff like go prone or crouch, which is precisely what they should do with guns bigger than their standing capacity
 
Getting a printed version for personal usage. This is going to be the cover.

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And back cover

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A couple of home rulings that I'll be using which won't make it into the paper edition or be uploaded because I'm, as Sgt. Dornan would say, a moron.

-Burst Dice are 1d20, each five is another hit, 20 is a critical hit.
-Travel works by rolling 1d6 per hex/square/day travelled, a six results in a random encounter. When travelling in "rough terrain" e.g mountains travel takes 3 days, reduced to 2 by a successful survival check. The party must pass a collective three Skill checks related to travelling or face an extra encounter upon three failures. Players cannot stack on the same skill and must justify why their skill is useful for this check during travel.
-Roads allow you to circumvent rough terrain but the random encounters dice is a 1d4 instead of a 1d6
-2 Rations are 1 Capacity
 
In the weapon list, I've noticed many weapons have an S and T value. What does the S and T represent?
Atomic Postman said:
The system finally has a campaign module/worldbook :

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You've done a great job of taking ideas from Van Buren and making them good, frankly speaking. I'm not entirely sold on the main quest (its functional, but there are too many AIs as is), but pretty much everything else is very usable for a Fallout campaign.
 
Dr Fallout said:
In the weapon list, I've noticed many weapons have an S and T value. What does the S and T represent?

You've done a great job of taking ideas from Van Buren and making them good, frankly speaking. I'm not entirely sold on the main quest (its functional, but there are too many AIs as is), but pretty much everything else is very usable for a Fallout campaign.
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Single shot and targeted, for AP cost. and as for the main quest as you say I think it's good for function but the real meat and potatoes is the side stories. Especially if they TPK and the campaign has to start without the Prisoner gimmick. The New Plague story arc, Hecate Vs Caesar all work independently of VB Prison.
 
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Atomic Postman said:
Single shot and targeted and as for the main quest as you say I think it's good for function but the real meat and potatoes is the side stories. Especially if they TPK and the campaign has to start without the Prisoner gimmick. The New Plague story arc, Hecate Vs Caesar all work independently of VB Prison.
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Of course, thank you. Speaking of the New Plague story, I might actually start my players out as inhabitants of Boulder Dome. Most of the necessary ingredients of a compelling main story are there. An isolated community in danger, a quest for macguffin which takes you across the map, plenty of opportunities to get mixed up in local conflicts wherever you go.
 
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Dr Fallout said:
Of course, thank you. Speaking of the New Plague story, I might actually start my players out as inhabitants of Boulder Dome. Most of the necessary ingredients of a compelling main story are there. An isolated community in danger, a quest for macguffin which takes you across the map, plenty of opportunities to get mixed up in local conflicts wherever you go.
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I also wrote up a one shot (I'm writing up an anthology of one shots at the moment) based on the Ciphers document but adapted to NV lore (I.e them being in the "Hills of NCR territory) if you're interested

 
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