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What would be a good a RPG system if I wanted to recreate the Fallout setting into a Pen & Paper version?

There was supposed to have been one:



But there were legal problems. The game was developed anyway, under the title of Exodus. It's basically Fallout with the names changes (no "Brotherhood" of Steel, for example -- but there are still rules for power-armored monks).



If you've played/read about d20 Modern, you'll find Exodus pretty familiar.

The original Fallout was going to be a licensed GURPS game for a while, too.

There's a d20 RPG called "Darwin's World" that can be played with a bunch of Fallout tropes added as desired. It focuses on a somewhat similar 'picking through the ashes' post apocalyptic feel but can be tweaked for closer to the apocalypse games, or farther-future new civilization stuff.

Also, there's DeGenesis, which people seem mixed about.

There are actually many, many post-apocalyptic games. Twilight 2000, old Gamma World, Reign of Steel, etc, etc, etc.

For an exact translation of Fallout to d20, Exodus is your best bet.

Version 2.0 can be found here:
http://nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=775

They're working on 3.0 right now. The best thing is it's free.

Thanks for the replies, I think I'll look up Exodus or just home-brew it (with influences from Agnosto's suggestion of course) .

Exodus looks ripe for a Pathfinder conversion to get rid of the old clunk...

I think I might actually do that up.

Requia wrote:Exodus looks ripe for a Pathfinder conversion to get rid of the old clunk...

I think I might actually do that up.

Hey, if you do would it be alright if you post your changes on here? It would be much appreciated.

Yeah, may take a bit, there's a fair bit I need to rip out and replace. The gun rules from d20 modern have always driven me flying rodent gak.

Requia wrote:Yeah, may take a bit, there's a fair bit I need to rip out and replace. The gun rules from d20 modern have always driven me flying rodent gak.

Thanks mate, any help is appreciated.

As long as I'm using this as my base of operations for the subject...

Is there some kind of overriding hatred of the wealth check system? I notice they don't use it, but it seems ideal for a world where your wealth is going to be as much about trinkets you can trade stuff for or how good you are at scavenging as whatever passes for currency. So I'd like to use it, but not if it means people will hate it.

Requia wrote:As long as I'm using this as my base of operations for the subject...

Is there some kind of overriding hatred of the wealth check system? I notice they don't use it, but it seems ideal for a world where your wealth is going to be as much about trinkets you can trade stuff for or how good you are at scavenging as whatever passes for currency. So I'd like to use it, but not if it means people will hate it.

If it's based off of Fallout 3 and New Vegas bottle-caps is the most common currency, I would use barter skill instead of a wealth check personally. The higher your barter, the bigger your profit is when selling and the

bigger the discount when buying.

@Requia: A wealth check is better for modern or sci-fi settings where a (rich) characters' worth is not solely based on possession of currency but rather is measured by the amount of "buying power" available to them. Think of credit cards. In fact, using a credit card is the IRL equivalent of a wealth check.

This trope doesn't really fit in a fantasy world or any world where centralized macro-economic finance is impossible -- like a post-apocalyptic setting.

Manchu wrote:@Requia: A wealth check is better for modern or sci-fi settings where a (rich) characters' worth is not solely based on possession of currency but rather is measured by the amount of "buying power" available to them. Think of credit cards. In fact, using a credit card is the IRL equivalent of a wealth check.

That's what I was thinking. Additionally, modern characters tend to have a lot of minor stuff (furniture, silverware, appliances, etc.) that might be liquidatable if they need a quick couple of bucks in a pinch that it isn't worth micromanaging. Making a Wealth Check could be explained as "OK, you pawned your TV and stereo to get the money you need for that plane ticket/ticket/occult artifact/whatever." and if the character makes it back, it's assumed that during down-time between adventures they recover or replace said items. It's not worth tracking and detailing it, thus Wealth Checks.

Post Apocalyptic characters tend to be nomads that carry their possessions on their back (or in their car, truck, or cyborg horse for the well-off) so it's a bit different story.

hrm, in that case this is going to take a great deal more time than I thought, balancing cash values is tricky as hell, and balancing it in a system that's meant to maintain scarcity is even worse.

My lesson from running Hell on Earth is be stingy, but not too stingy. If your players can handle it, set expectations: For example, I had one player who insisted on stealing boots. At the time I (wrongly) treated that as an annoying way of maximizing loot. Now I'd make it a quirk or character trait.

Still, in games sense that era, I've basically said, "This is a heroic action/adventure story. If you play along (I.E. only looting when appropriate, etc.) I won't get fiddly about food (unless it's a plot point) and small change.

Its not so much being fiddly about food (which is more of a how much can you carry question, if you can't *afford* to eat then people are probably dying of starvation) as being fiddly about bullets. The video games handle this by giving you piddlingly small number of bullets (at least until you learn to game the system), but there's a higher minimum standard for realism in a P&P game, if the shops only sell 80 bullets, players aren't going to be terribly happy about getting shot at all the time.

Hrm, how do people feel about EL6 (for those not aware, this is a d20 varient with 6 levels instead of 20, and non leveled epic rules for continuing past level 6)? If I limit the cash necessary to buy top end equipment the problem is easier to solve.

Well I'm going to start giving some of my own input for a Fallout RPG. I won't post all my ideas at once but I'll start off with S.P.E.C.I.A.L and races.

Ability Scores:
Fallout uses the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. (strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and luck) system unlike D&D and other RPG's. Each ability is rated on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being the worst and 10 (ability score cannot go higher than 10) the best. All ability scores start at 1, players begin with 33 points to spend on these ability scores and for every point you spend you get to raise a S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat of your choosing by one. Once you spent your 33 points you can't increase your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. anymore, except through perks or items. All ability scores are list below:

Strength
Strength is a measure of your raw physical power, it affects how much you can carry.
Affected skills: Melee, athletics

Perception
Affects passive perception and perception checks.
Affected skills: Energy Weapons, explosives, thievery

Endurance
Modifies hit Points, Poison Resistance and Radiation Resistance.
Affected skills: Unarmed, survival

Charisma
How likeable you are.
Affected skills: Speech,barter

Intelligence
Number of skill points per level and knowledge checks.
Affected skills: Science, repair, Medicine

Agility
Number of Action points for the day.
Affected skills: Gun, sneak, acrobatics

Luck
Unlike other S.P.E.C.I.A.L. scores, Luck has no specific skills associated with it.
Affected skills: All

Races:
I only have 2 races so far but I'm thinking about adding robots as a third but I want to know what you guys think first.

Human
Train in 3 skills
33 points on Ability scores

Ghoul
+1 Luck and Perception, -1 Charisma and strength
Train in 3 skills
33 points on ability scores
Radiation resistance
Live longer than humans

Comments, suggestions and criticisms are welcomed. Thanks for reading.

Well, you certainly know where you are going with this...

However, have you considered minis?

My mate just opened his own webstore for custom terrain, though he also stocks "Lead Adventure Miniatures"

Check out some of their ranges:

The Last Project (Post-Apoc)
http://www.intergalacticgames.com.au/LAM_1.html#topLP

Victorian Sci-Fi (Steam-Punk)
http://www.intergalacticgames.com.au/LAM_2.html#topSP

AvatarForm wrote:Well, you certainly know where you are going with this...

However, have you considered minis?

My mate just opened his own webstore for custom terrain, though he also stocks "Lead Adventure Miniatures"

Check out some of their ranges:

The Last Project (Post-Apoc)
http://www.intergalacticgames.com.au/LAM_1.html#topLP

Victorian Sci-Fi (Steam-Punk)
http://www.intergalacticgames.com.au/LAM_2.html#topSP

Thanks Avatarform I not sure if I'm going to use minis or just use little circular markers representing various enemies and NPC's in the game, plus the idea of gluing and painting minis is unappealing to me. Googling "Fallout Minis" brought up some impressive results as well I'll make sure to post those sometime too.

Anyways I've done some slight alterations to the Ghoul race what do you thinks guys?

Ghoul
+1 Luck and Perception, -1 Charisma and strength
Train in 3 skills
33 points on ability scores
Radiation resistance (haven't decided how strong the resistance should be because I haven't added radiation to any items yet, also I could make ghouls immune to radiation as well)
Live longer than humans

Racial Power: Ghoul regeneration
Encounter, healing, minor action, personal
Special: You must be bloodied (1/2 health) to use this power.
Effect: Until the end of the encounter or until rendered unconscious, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls. In addition, for as long as you are bloodied, you gain regeneration 2 (regeneration 4 at 10th level, regeneration 6 at 20th level)."

I'm also wondering if Chems should have reduced effects on ghouls.

Chems have less effect on ghouls, that is canon.

However I'm confused as to why they are luckier or more perceptive? from what I understand they have more endurance but are less charismatic with most of the rest of the stats unchanged.

I mean look at a ghoul, there is little muscular atrophy in essential area's and the decomposition is mostly superficial.

corpsesarefun wrote:Chems have less effect on ghouls, that is canon.

However I'm confused as to why they are luckier or more perceptive? from what I understand they have more endurance but are less charismatic with most of the rest of the stats unchanged.

I mean look at a ghoul, there is little muscular atrophy in essential area's and the decomposition is mostly superficial.

Well this is quoted from Fallout wiki.

"Although lacking strength due to decayed tissue, Ghouls have heightened senses making them more perceptive and lucky than other wasteland humanoids. As a result, Chems like Jet barely effect them."

Do you thinks chem effects should be halved or just suffer -2 (or greater) when playing a ghoul. Also do you think androids and robots should be added as playable races?

Cheesecat wrote:

corpsesarefun wrote:Chems have less effect on ghouls, that is canon.

However I'm confused as to why they are luckier or more perceptive? from what I understand they have more endurance but are less charismatic with most of the rest of the stats unchanged.

I mean look at a ghoul, there is little muscular atrophy in essential area's and the decomposition is mostly superficial.

Well this is quoted from Fallout wiki.

"Although lacking strength due to decayed tissue, Ghouls have heightened senses making them more perceptive and lucky than other wasteland humanoids. As a result, Chems like Jet barely effect them."

Do you thinks chem effects should be halved or just suffer -2 (or greater) when playing a ghoul. Also do you think androids and robots should be added as playable races?

Weird That doesn't come up in any of the games...

As for chems, I would say half their effects and make half as addictive.

corpsesarefun wrote:

Cheesecat wrote:

corpsesarefun wrote:Chems have less effect on ghouls, that is canon.

However I'm confused as to why they are luckier or more perceptive? from what I understand they have more endurance but are less charismatic with most of the rest of the stats unchanged.

I mean look at a ghoul, there is little muscular atrophy in essential area's and the decomposition is mostly superficial.

Well this is quoted from Fallout wiki.

"Although lacking strength due to decayed tissue, Ghouls have heightened senses making them more perceptive and lucky than other wasteland humanoids. As a result, Chems like Jet barely effect them."

Do you thinks chem effects should be halved or just suffer -2 (or greater) when playing a ghoul. Also do you think androids and robots should be added as playable races?

Weird That doesn't come up in any of the games...

As for chems, I would say half their effects and make half as addictive.

Thanks mate, also what about withdrawal effects?

Withdrawel is just as bad for ghouls, I think in the underworld in fallout 3 there are some ghouls addicted to a souped up version of jet.

corpsesarefun wrote:Withdrawel is just as bad for ghouls, I think in the underworld in fallout 3 there are some ghouls addicted to a souped up version of jet.

Alright I'll keep the withdrawal effects the same, what are your thoughts on adding robots, super mutants and androids as playable races? Also forgot to add movement to races.

Human
Train in 3 skills
33 points on Ability scores
Movement: 6
Weak-spot: Head
Vision: Normal

Ghoul
+1 Luck and Perception, -1 Charisma and strength
Train in 3 skills
33 points on ability scores
Radiation resistance (haven't decided how strong the resistance should be because I haven't added radiation to any items yet, also I could make ghouls immune to radiation as well)
Live longer than humans
Movement: 6 (should it be 7?)
Weak-spot: Head
Vision: Low-light

Racial Power: Ghoul regeneration
Encounter, healing, minor action, personal
Special: You must be bloodied (1/2 health) to use this power.
Effect: Until the end of the encounter or until rendered unconscious, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls. In addition, for as long as you are bloodied, you gain regeneration 2 (regeneration 4 at 10th level, regeneration 6 at 20th level)."

Android and super mutants yes, robots no.

My reasoning is androids can be multi dimensional characters, robots can't really.

Aren't the androids in the fallout verse Electric Sheep style ones that can't really be distinguished from humans?

Requia wrote:Aren't the androids in the fallout verse Electric Sheep style ones that can't really be distinguished from humans?

Yeah they look pretty much the same and are capable of the same emotional ranges.

You can still get data from star trek styled androids though.

corpsesarefun wrote:Android and super mutants yes, robots no.

My reasoning is androids can be multi dimensional characters, robots can't really.

Super Mutant
+1 Strength and Endurance, -1 Charisma and Intelligence
Train in 3 skills
33 points on ability scores
Immunity to radiation and disease
Immortal
Height: 7-10 ft
Weight: 300-800lb
Movement: 6
Weak-spot: Head

Racial Power: Hardened Skin
Encounter, minor action, resist, personal
Gain resist 5 to all damage until the end of your next turn.

I'm wondering if I should just change "Hardened Skin" to a +1 racial bonus to fortitude and armour.