Quick-Start Saturday: Fallout

Quick-starts are means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps too. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game for the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

—oOo—

What is it?
The Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart Guide is the quick-start for Fallout: The Roleplaying Game, the post-apocalyptic roleplaying game based on the computer game, Fallout 4, developed by Bethesda Game Studios. It is set in the year 2287, two centuries after a nuclear holocaust that ended a war between the United States and China, in the remains of New England, including Boston, an area called ‘The Commonwealth’.

It is a sixty-four-page, 119.56 MB full colour PDF.

The quick-start is very nicely illustrated with artwork taken from the computer game that captures the retrofuturism of the Fallout 4 setting. The rules are clearly explained and are a moderately complex version of the 2d20 System.

How long will it take to play?
The Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart Guide and its adventure, ‘Machine Frequency’, is designed to be played through in one session, two at most.

What else do you need to play?
The Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart Guide requires at least two twenty-sided dice per player, four six-sided dice, and tokens to keep track of Action Points.

Who do you play?
The six Player Characters in the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart Guide consist of a Vault Dweller skilled in computers, a charismatic Survivor with gambling debts, a Ghoul who fears mental degeneration, a Super Mutant bibliophile with long history, a Brotherhood Initiate with medical training, and a Mister Handy with personality problems.

How is a Player Character defined?
A Player Character in the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart Guide—and thus the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game—will look more familiar to anyone who has played Fallout 4 than anyone who has played a 2d20 System roleplaying game. A Player Character has seven ‘S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Attributes’. These are Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. These are rated between four and ten and will be familiar to anyone who has played Fallout 4. He will ratings in skills including Athletics, Barter, Big Guns, Energy Weapons, Explosives, Lockpick, Medicine, Melee Weapons, Pilot, Repair, Science, Small Guns, Sneak, Speech, Survival, Throwing, and Unarmed. Skills are ranked between zero and six. Some skills are marked as Tag skills, indicating expertise or talent. Tag skills improve a Player Character’s chances of a critical success. Each twenty-sided die rolled for a Tag skill that gives a result equal to or under the skill rank is a critical success, counting as two successes rather than one.

One noticeable difference between Fallout: The Roleplaying Game and other 2d20 System roleplaying games is that the Player Characters have hit locations. This reflects the nature of the computer game. A Player Character will also have several Perks and Traits, essentially the equivalent of advantages and disadvantages, and he will have Luck Points equal to his Luck Attribute. He does have a biography and a list of gear as well.

How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart Guide—and thus the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart Guide—uses the 2d20 System seen in many of the roleplaying games published by Modiphius Entertainment, such as Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 or Dune – Adventures in the Imperium. To undertake an action in the 2d20 System in Fallout: The Roleplaying Game, a character’s player rolls two twenty-sided dice, aiming to have both roll under the total of an Attribute and a Skill to generate successes. Each roll under this total counts as a success, an average task requiring two successes, the aim being to generate a number of successes equal to, or greater, than the Difficulty Value, which typically ranges between zero and five. Rolls of one count as a critical success and create two successes, as does rolling under the value of the Skill when it is a Tagged Skill. A roll of twenty adds a Complication to the situation, such as making noise when a Player Character is trying to be stealthy or breaking a lock pick when opening a safe.

Successes generated above the Difficulty Value are turned into Action Points. Action Points are a shared resource and a group can have up to six. They can be used to purchase more dice for a Skill test, to Obtain Information from the Overseer, Reduce Time spent on a test, or to take an Additional Minor Action or Additional Major Action.

With Luck of the Draw, a player can spend his character’s Luck Points to add a fact or detail or item to the area he is in that would benefit him. Other uses include Stacked Deck, which enables a player to substitute his character’s Luck Attribute instead of another, Lucky Timing, which lets a survivor interrupt the Initiative order, and Miss Fortune to reroll dice.

The Overseer—as the Game Master is known—has her own supply of Action Points to use with her NPCs.

How does combat work?

Combat in the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart Guide is quite detailed in comparison to other 2d20 System roleplaying games. A Player Character can attempt one Minor Action and one Major Action per round, but Action Points can be spent to take one more of each. Minor Actions include Aim, Draw Item, Move, Take Chem, and more, whilst Major Actions include Attack, Command an NPC, Defend, Rally, Sprint, and others. During combat, Action Points can be expended to purchase more dice for a Skill test, to Obtain Information from the Overseer, to take an Additional Minor Action or Additional Major Action, or to add extra Combat Dice.

Damage is inflicted per random Hit Location and it is possible to target a particular Hit Location. The number of Combat Dice rolled to determine damage is based on the weapon, Action Points spent to purchase more Combat Dice, Perks, and other factors. Combat Dice determine not only the number of points of damage inflicted, but the ‘Damage Effects Trigger’ of the weapon used. This has an extra effect, such as Piercing, which ignores a point of Damage Resistance or Spread, which means an additional target is hit. Both damage inflicted and Damage Resistance can be physical, energy, radiation, or poison. If five or more points of damage is inflicted to a single Hit Location, then a critical hit is scored. Ammunition is tracked.

Radiation damage is handled differently. It reduces the Maximum Health Points of a Player Character rather than his current Health Points. Until cured, this reduces both his Maximum Health Points and the number of Health Points which can be cured.

What do you play?

‘Machine Frequency’ assumes that the Player Characters are travelling when they encounter Scribe Galen Portno, an elderly member of the Brotherhood of Steel. he operates a listening post and recently monitored a distress call from a Brotherhood Vertibird which crashed. He is awaiting reinforcements, but asks the Player Characters to go to the rescue of the downed crew. They have a chance to conduct some scavenging before reach the Vertibird where they find it being attacked by robots. Further clues will lead them to the controller of the robots as well as provide opportunities to explore and scavenge.

‘Machine Frequency’ is a good mix of exploration, scavenging, and combat. Players who have played Fallout 4 will feel right at home.

Is there anything missing?
No. The Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart Guide includes everything that the Overseer and six players need to play through it.

Is it easy to prepare?
The core rules presented in the Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart Guide are not too difficult to prepare. A Overseer who already run a 2d20 System roleplaying game will need to adjust for the extra complexities and details of the system used in Fallout: The Roleplaying Game, but will otherwise have no problem with this.

Is it worth it?
Yes. The rules and the scenario presented in allout: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart Guide really do feel like you are playing a tabletop version of Fallout 4. It is grim and gritty, with a little bit of knowing humour. Fans of both the computer game, the post apocalypse genre, and the Fallout television series will enjoy the chance to play this.

Where can you get it?
The Fallout: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart Guide is available to download here.