Fallout Wastelands: A Post-Nuclear Role-Playing Game A Black Diamond Project - Version 2.0 Table of Contents 4… Notes About Fallout Wastelands #... 5. Adventuring in the Wastes #... 1. Introduction #... Exploration and Travel #... 2. Character Creation #... Maintaining Gear #... Character Terminology #... Trading and Barter #... Player Races #... Breaking and Entering #... Humans #... Hazards of the Wasteland #... Ghouls #... Energy and Power #... Super Mutants #... The Art of the Steal #... Robots #... Karma #... Character Statistics #... 6. Combat #... SPECIAL Stats #... Combat Begins #... Derived Stats #... Determining Initiative #... Traits #... Actions #... Finishing Touches #... Vehicle Combat #... 3. Skills #... After Combat #... Character Creation #... 7. The Armory #... Applying Skills #... Weapons #... Skill Tests #... Energy Weapons #... Skill Competencies #... Explosives #... Degrees of Success #... Guns #... Skill Contests #... Melee Weapons #... 4. Character Advancement #... Unarmed Weapons #... Perks #... Weapon Enhancements #... Ammunition #... Armor #... Traps #... Equipment and Gear #... Chems #... Vehicles #... Vehicle Enhancements #... 8. The Bestiary #... Appendices #... Index A Few Notes About Fallout Wastelands [Placeholder Text for that Inspiring Intro that Nobody Reads] 4 Page Section One: Introduction 5 Page Section Two: Character Creation “Ah, you’re here, good…” Overseer Jacoren of Vault 13, Fallout Character creation is the most intensive part of Fallout Wastelands. The decisions you make here with affect how you play for the rest of the game- or until your character dies and you make a new one. Luckily for you, the following step-by-step guide will help you through this phase of the game and let you walk out into the Wasteland ready for an adventure! First you have to think about what your character will be like. They will serve as your window into the post-apocalyptic world that is the Fallout series. Do you want to be a wise-cracking ghoul, a super mutant with the soul of a poet, a robot programmed to destroy all humans, or a fairly average Joe or Jane just trying to make his or her way in the wasteland? Character Terminology SPECIAL Statistics: There are 7 SPECIAL Statistics, or SPECIAL Stats, that describe the various attributes of a character: Strength (STR), Perception (PER), Endurance (END), Charisma (CHA), Intelligence (INT), Agility (AGL), and Luck (LCK). These are the character’s natural strengths and weaknesses, and are the limits by which other aspects of a character (such as Skills, Hit Points, and certain resistances) are determined. In general, SPECIAL Statistics are not greatly altered after the game begins. For more information on what specific Stats mean to the game, see “Character Statistics!” below. Skills: There are 18 Skills a character knows. These are the skills a character learns as he or she travels across the wasteland, encountering strange people with stranger customs. While some are skills that everyone is at least moderately capable in, there are some skills that require more specialized training to becoming truly capable. Fallout Wasteland’s Skills are: Academics, Athletics, Barter, Energy Weapons, Explosives, Gambling, Guns, Investigation, Medicine, Melee Weapons, Pilot, Repair, Science, Security, Sneak, Speech, Survival, and Unarmed. Skill can go up all the time, and sometimes they go down. For more information on what specific Skills 6 mean, see “Section 3: Skills.” Page Traits: Traits are an optional part of a character, selected during character creation or with the selection of the “Look at all these Traits!” Perk. A character can pick up to two traits. Traits are usually double-edge swords that provide a minor bonus balanced out by a penalty, but can help shape a character concept. For more information on what specific Traits mean, see “Traits” in Character Creation below. Perks: Perks are special abilities a character gains at each even-numbered level (2nd-level, 4th- level, 6th-level, 8th-level, etc.) for humans and every third level (3rd-level, 6th-level, 9th-level, 12th- level, etc.) for non-humans and sometimes as rewards for performing certain actions or role- playing well. Perks sometimes modify Skills, or they will provide an additional ability or option for a player to use to their advantage. Perks never penalize the character, they just provide benefits. For a list of Perks and more information about what each Perk does, see “Section #: Perks,” below. Derived Statistics: This is a catchall category for many of the other parts of a character that don’t fall under any of the previously mentioned slots. Many of these do not change all that often, except for those related to armor. Derived Stats include Hit Points, Armor Class, Damage Resistance, Radiation Resistance, Healing Rate, Nerve, Melee Damage, Action Points, Carrying Capacity, Initiative, and Critical Hit Chance. For more information on specific Derived Stats, see “Derived Stats” in Character Creation below. Damage Resistance (DR): Damage Resistance (or DR for short) is a character or item’s ability to (what else?) resist damage. DR comes from four sources: race, armor, Perks, and chems. Whenever an attack connects, a character reduces an amount of damage equal to their Damage Resistance to the type of damage dealt. An attack cannot be reduced below 0 damage, and if Damage Resistance reduces damage from an attack below 0, the attack deals 0 damage instead. For more information about DR, see “Section: Karma: Just like in the real world, the post-nuclear wasteland has a system of morals, although usually the guy with the bigger stick gets away with whatever he wants despite that system. Performing certain actions can raise and lower a person’s karma. Rather than an abstract idea of morality, punishment, and reward, karma in Fallout Wastelands is a numerical value of how many good or bad things a character has done. Karma helps determine a character’s reputation among other inhabitants of the wastes. Do enough good deeds (protecting children, helping grannies cross the street, blow a raider’s brains out, those sorts of things) and word gets around. Perform enough wicked deeds (selling children into slavery, shooting grannies in the kneecaps, and helping raiders attack caravans) and people will start to hear about it. Virtuous people tend not to associate with the wicked, and vice-versa. Most interactions between these two groups lead to violence and one or both parties becoming bloodstains on the 7 ground. If a character is really good or really bad, or performs an action that heavily affects their Page karma one way or another, they can sometimes get a karmic Perk. Most of the time, these just describe a well-known aspect of a character, but they can sometimes give bonuses for being especially good (or evil). A character’s Karma always starts at zero. 8 Page Character Races Every character belongs to a race, one of the several intelligent species in the post-nuclear world. However, of all these creatures, only four have managed to peacefully co-exist for any real amount of time, and it is from these four races that a player character can hail. The four playable races in Fallout Wastelands are Humans, Ghouls, Robots, and Super Mutants. While creatures like deathclaws have been known to possess degrees of intelligence, they are the exception and not the norm, and are therefore not playable races… for now. While humans are easily the most common species roaming the radioactive swamps and deserts of post-apocalyptic North America, they are not alone. Ghouls and Robots from the Old World and Super Mutant remnants of the Master’s Army and Vault 87 can also be found in civilized parts of the wasteland. Each race brings to the table its own benefits, usually in the form of resistances to certain hazards or access to a greater number of Traits during character creation. While each race has been created with the idea of not being any better or worse than any other race (just different), the Robot race is not as beginner-friendly as the Human, Ghoul, or Super Mutant races. If this is your first time playing an RPG, we suggest starting out as a Human until you get a feel for how things work. Choose wisely when you pick your race, as it cannot be reselected once your adventure begins! Unless you die, that is. Humans Your basic, run-of-the-mill, nothing outstandingly special, human. He’s (probably) got two 9 eyes, two arms, and two legs. He’s you, me, and everyone we know. The average human stands Page somewhere between five feet and six-and-a- half feet in height and weighs in between 110 to 280 pounds. Most humans live to be around seventy or eighty before they finally kick the bucket. Across the wastelands, humans are the most populous of intelligent creatures. They’ve formed tribes, established villages, and rebuilt some of the pre-War cities dotting the landscape. Some are hard-working, industrious men and women trying to build a better tomorrow, and others are scumbags content to kill and pillage for a living. While the actions of humans nearly ended the world in the past, it will be the actions of humans that will save the future. Humans have no bonuses or penalties to their Derived Stat. The biggest benefit of being a human is that they get a Perk every even-numbered level (2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, etc.), granting them the largest number of Perks. Ghouls When the bombs hit, some people were irrevocably changed (and not just atomized at ground zero, either). Ghouls are humans were alive during the Great War and managed to survive the dropping of the bombs. The radiation altered them at a cellular level, slowing their cellular mitosis rate and rendering them essentially immune to the effects of old age. However, their outward appearance has been forever altered, transforming them into hideous creatures by most anyone’s standards.