Fallout

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"War. War never changes."

– Ron Perlman

"War has changed."

– Solid Snake, being a contrarian as always.

Fallout is a post-post-apocalyptic video game series, with a boardgame released in 2017 (see below), that takes place in America about a century or two in the future where America had been bombed so much that it has been left as a irradiated, smelly and depressing wasteland that happens to have high as fuck raiders come up to you and attempt to kill you with a flaming chainsaw or a laser weapon.

Despite the setting, most of the games are fairly noblebright, with a darkly humorous streak and a series-long theme of rebuilding. The freedom of approach to how you interact with the world set before you is one of the main selling points of the series, though it has attracted criticism for becoming somewhat unfocused in both writing and gameplay. Some say that this was magnified by Bethesda, while others say it's always been like that. And that's all we'll say on that for now.

Plot and Setting

For those wanting an in-depth analysis of the Fallout storyline, the "Fallout Storyteller" Youtube series has a large number of (mostly accurate) episodes dealing with the subject and can be viewed here.

Basically, while technology continued to advance past the 50-60's, the culture did not, which is one of the biggest sources of hilarity in the game. Imagine a lady in a pink diner dress, high heels and curly, blonde hair run up to you with a nuke-launcher on the back and try to sell some drugs to you that could enhance you to the level of a Space Marine for hours.

From there, imagine the future as depicted in 1950s-era sci-fi media, then picture the US and China nuking the shit out of each other. Between that, the release of a bio-weapon that mutates living things which was itself mutated, and the general inability of anyone to get civilization's shit together for more than ten minutes at a time, the world remains for the most part a radioactive shithole even after over 200 years since the bombs dropped.

Fallout 1

I'm here to kick ass and chew bubble gum. I'm all out of gum.

Eighty four years after the bombs fell, a resident of Vault 13 in California is chosen to leave the Vault to find a replacement unit for the Vault's damaged water chip, which controls the water recycling system. This Vault Dweller, in his search for his prize, discovers that the world is (sort of) safe to return to, as many others had. He also discovers a major threat to the nascent human rebuilding: the Master's Army. This army of Super Mutants is the tool of the mutant known as The Master, who intends to turn the entire human race into Super Mutants to untie mankind into one whole and bring an end to conflict and war. The Vault Dweller manages to stop the Master, though it is not known if he talked him down or blew him up, and return to the Vault with his prize only to be exiled for being "contaminated" by contact with the outside world. Many other inhabitants of Vault 13 choose to leave with him, traveling north and founding the village of Arroyo.

Fallout 2

You get to visit New Reno, the scummiest of all pits in Fallout games.

The Vault Dweller's grandchild comes of age, passes a series of trials, and is then selected to find a sacred artifact from Vault 13: a Garden of Eden Creation Kit, which will rebuild the wasteland into a paradise. This Chosen One, in his search for his prize, discovers that the United States government is (sort of) still around and had abducted the people of Vault 13. He later learns that they are called the Enclave and had also abducted his tribe in his absence when he found Vault 13 himself. So the Chosen One travels to the Enclave's base of operations, a Poseidon Energy oil rig, to free the captives, find the GECK, and destroy the Enclave, helping (or breaking) towns along the way. Despite being regarded as the best of the classic Fallout games it was rushed to meet a Christmas deadline with large sections of the game cut for time. These have since been re-added and bug fixed through modding and is considered required to get the full and proper Fallout 2 experience.

Fallout Tactics

"Fuck em"...*pukes*

In Fallout Tactics, the Midwestern Brotherhood of Steel began inducting tribes into its ranks in small numbers while defending the Wasteland against threats such as an army of renegade robots. The main group of the Brotherhood is separated from this group, which takes over Vault 0 and continues pushing eastwards. Although the bulk of Fallout Tactics is non-canon, the basic story (and some elements such as airships and Nuka Cherry) remained canon.

Fallout: Brotherhood Of Steel

Unintentionally meta.

Three Initiates to the Brotherhood, one strangely enough being a Ghoul despite how much the Brotherhood hates both outsiders and mutants, are sent to go find missing Paladins despite how illogical it is to send three fresh recruits after several high ranking veterans in power armor. They wound up being aided by the Vault Dweller, who was still alive at the time, and take out another Super Mutant army. At one point you wipe out the entire population of a town of Ghouls because they don't accept humans but you need to get to the other side and apparently can't be arsed to just walk around it, despite the fact you may in fact be playing as a Ghoul with absolutely no humans for miles who's entire backstory was humans wiped out his town...

Completely non-canon.

Fallout 3

"Scenic overlook". Gotta love them 4th wall breaches!

The series turns into Skyrim/Oblivion with guns and good graphics. Many cheers were had...And sometimes RAGE. The beautiful graphics and faster pace was worth it...except the new power armor mechanics: a barely functioning FUCKING HUNK of metal that can't block damage for shit. Wear some leather jacket and inject your balls with heroi- I mean Med-X, and you'll have the same defense without carrying a ton of armor on you.

Two hundred years after the Great War, a civil war breaks out in Vault 101 after its head physician, James, leaves. His child then escapes the chaos in search of him. This Lone Wanderer, in his search for his father, discovers that he was not born in Vault 101 as he had been led to believe, but in Rivet City, and his father had been working on "Project Purity" to purge the radiation from the Potomac River. Following his father's trail, the Lone Wanderer eventually comes into conflict with the resurgent Enclave which wants to take the project for itself.

Fallout: New Vegas

The cold, cold road to hookers, drugs, street violence and rock 'n roll.

In 2281, the New California Republic and Caesar's Legion are staring at each other across the Colorado River, having fought over Hoover Dam once before. Against this backdrop, a courier is shot for his charge, a poker chip made of platinum, and buried in a shallow grave. He's dug out by a Securitron robot and taken to Dr. Mitchell of Goodsprings, who saves his life. This Courier, in his search for his prize, travels around the Mojave Wasteland in pursuit of his attempted murderer, Benny, the head of the Chairmen, who runs the Tops casino in New Vegas. Eventually, all three major players in the Mojave (the NCR, the Legion, and Mr. House) want the Courier to do their dirty work to gain control over the Mojave, but there is a fourth option: Benny's plan was to use a subverted Securitron named Yes Man to take over House's network and use the platinum chip (actually a data disc containing a firmware upgrade for the Securitrons) to secure control over New Vegas. Whatever the Courier chose, the Second Battle of Hoover Dam is inevitable and only one faction can win.

Jokes aside, this is one of the most atmospheric settings in all of games out there.

Fallout 4

Colours in a Fallout game? What a time to be alive.

In Boston at the zero hour of the war, new parents are admitted to Vault 111 and placed in cryogenic suspension. One of them is murdered, their infant child Shaun stolen, and the other refrozen. When the cryo systems fail, the only survivor of Vault 111 heads to the surface in pursuit of the man who ruined a family. This Sole Survivor, in pursuit of his (or her) prize- I mean child, discovers that two hundred years have passed. As he travels, he encounters the last of the Minutemen and goes to Diamond City (built on the ruins of Fenway Park) following a lead. He finds the people paranoid about an organization called "The Institute" replacing anybody they know with near-perfect replicas called synths, and further investigation points to the Institute having abducted Shaun. He can work with the Minutemen, the Brotherhood of Steel, or the synth emancipation group known as the Railroad to fight the Institute, or choose to join it instead.

On the Tabletop

Fallout: The Board Game

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A 1-4 player game produced by Fantasy Flight Games.

RPGs

There are a few systems for Nuka-Cola addicts to get their fill on the tabletop. The first is Exodus, licensed under the d20 System, which was originally going to be an official Fallout RPG until the license-holders saw how shitty the final product was copyright disputes with Bethesda and Interplay prompted the publishers to file off the serial numbers and call it a "spiritual successor". It departs heavily from the canonical setting, and is mechanically weak, but a flexible GM will find it otherwise serviceable.

For purists, there is also J.E. Sawyer's Fallout Role-Playing Game, an original system that uses d100 rules, much like Dark Heresy only a thousand times more complicated. It is still in development and will probably never be finished, but all material can be found for free on its official wiki.

Originally, Fallout was going to be mechanically based on GURPS but due to Steve Jackson's signature controlling nature (the GURPS licence was pulled because SJ didn't like the vault boy icons) the GURPS licence was dropped and the series went with the SPECIAL system that is in use today. GURPS fans have created a Fallout suppliment that can be found here.

In addition, some cool anons have created a scenario book for Fallout that focuses on the Louisiana wastes. Check it out here. It's pretty good.

What appears to be the first official tabletop adaptation comes from Modiphius Entertainment in 2017: Fallout: Wasteland Warfare.

A new homebrew tabletop RPG based on Fallout, called Fallout d40, was released on the internet on Oct. 23rd, 2017, 60 years prior to the bombs dropping. It aims to give people a true Fallout tabletop RPG experience. The website for it is: https://falloutd40.wixsite.com/mainpage

Gallery

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  A Vault Girl pinup, wearing common Vault Tec clothing

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  A naive young girl from California with stars in her eyes and a pneumatic gauntlet on her hand. And an Enclave eyebot.

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  A common Mr Handy domestic robot

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  T-45 version of Power Armour

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  X-01 version of Power Armour

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  Power Armour modified by raiders

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See Also

• The Fallout Wiki
• Brother Vinni for not-Fallout miniatures.