- Pronouns
- They/Them
True, that's definitely an element to include, but it's not one I can do much with! I mean, in the sense that I'm not actually a musician! I can say that, yes, various parties have made some music.
Fallout: Kansas City (Worldbuilding, Mechanics Building)
- Thread starter The Laurent
- Start date
- Worldbuilding
True, that's definitely an element to include, but it's not one I can do much with! I mean, in the sense that I'm not actually a musician! I can say that, yes, various parties have made some music.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Hrm, Sinatra and Elvis I can do, at least in some amounts. I also think that Kansas City would probably have at least a little of the more mainstream country-ish stuff. Not country-western though. Like, not that 'cowboy' feel of New Vegas, but Kansas City *Was* a cattle town.
Major Faction: The Archbishopric (KCK)
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Major Faction: Archbishop of Kansas City, Kansas
By far the largest and most powerful faction in Kansas City, Kansas, and powerful in their own ways even across the border, the Archbishopric is also the oldest, stretching back 120 years to 2160, when the Prophet Eliza discovered a buried private Vault filled with religious and medical texts, technology, and other such objects, and had a revelation that would found a religion and a government that would endure long after her death. The religion is known as Saintism.
Government: The government of the Archbishopric is somewhat feudal in nature. People are divided into Parishes, each one led by a priest. Though appointed from above, they can be males, and are expected to have community support. They have been removed by popular demand before, and tend to reflect the unique culture of the Parish they come from. Priests may set up any organization they want under them, whether sub-leaders or an entire bureaucracy, but they must be able to collect a tithe from the Parish, call up and maintain military forces if requested, obey and enforce all laws from above, and must make sure Saintism is the official Parish religion. Finally, and the clause that has led to the most removals, they must provide for the welfare and happiness of their people.
Parishes provide tithes, which may be exchanged on an individual basis for charitable labor building roads, homes, and otherwise volunteering, and must also provide soldiers for the protection of others. They must obey all laws just as the Priest must enforce all laws, but in exchange they receive protection, spiritual comfort, and material aid (including charitable labor from other Parishes). Nonbelievers who are not excommunicated may take part in the same advantages, but must pay an extra tax for the right to live in the Parish. But, at least usually, they are otherwise unmolested.
A Bishop rules between 3-5 Parishes, splitting her time between the capital and their various Parishes. Selected from among the female priests of the area, they are wealthy and powerful. There are always an even number of Bishops, currently ten, and they divide authority amongst themselves at the will of the Archbishop, who they select upon death of the last one. Most often from among themselves, though once, recently, a priest was chosen. There can only be one dissenting vote, and they keep on voting until at least nine of the people agree on one Archbishop.
Many feel that the Bishops and the Archbishop are distant and, some whisper quietly, corrupt, but most are quiet and accept their leadership, though there were riots last year in fear that the latest Archbishop, Andrea Conners, not a month in office, was crueler than the previous, beloved Archbishop Amelia West.
They also whisper at how the Bishops differing beliefs about the future of the state are often just as much political as religious, and have big impacts on the world. Impacts that seem to have only a little to do with their actual religion, and a lot more to do with their actual, proximate and temporal power.
Technology and economy: The Archbishopric has of course rediscovered agriculture (though they are not the Confederacy in this respect) and they make out well on internal trade, as well as trade with the River Market, Jayhawks, and others in normal goods (the Jayhawks provide some vital hallucinogens). But it is the advanced state of their medical, biological, and chemical knowledge that gives them the greatest trade capacity.
First, the leg-up their founder discovered and their belief structure all worked together with their theft of the Jayhawk's 'Teaching Circle' concept all mean that the best doctors in the Kansas City Wasteland came from, or were taught in, the Archbishopric. They are especially attentive to the problems of women, offering fertility, pre-natal, contraceptive, and abortive services for sale. But they are also skilled at treating a huge variety of illnesses, and so medical pilgrims, laden down with a death sentence by lesser doctors and their life savings, are as common as religious pilgrims to the Archbishopric. Often, one becomes the other.
In addition to that, their knowledge of chemicals and drugs gives them a vital trade good that they exploit to its fullest extent. Their apothecaries, for instance, ar the largest producers of chems in the local wasteland, by far, including the crucial supplies of Rad-X and Rad-Away that allow many marginal communities to survive.
There is also a conflict bubbling beneath the surface between certain factions of the economy. There are farmers, there are specialists, there is the priestly elite from top to bottom, and then there are merchants. Where does the profit motive fit into their religion and society? It is clearly central, and yet the Bishops seem content to ignore it, or pretend that they aren't ultimately profiting off their technology as much as they are helping people with it. Different communities struggle with how one is richer than the other, and underneath the surface of the placid and simple governmental and economic systems they've created, there is enough different from Parish to Parish that some are rich and influential, while others aren't so much.
Society: Life in the Archbishopric has its ups and downs. The feudal structure can easily hide abuse, and even the greatest charity doesn't' stop some from going hungry or dying from lack of medical care even in a place like this. To dissidents, it seems a land too unfree, and the Bishops too rich for their own good.
Yet it has provided much greater safety and stability than what existed before, the taxes are not that onerous, and the religion provides a purpose and a common culture to people who would be lost or dead without it. The people share holy days and holy books, their conversation, art, and even literature all reference the same bodies of theology and stories and affirmations, binding them together and helping them in situations where those alone, or without anyone to cling to, would fall apart.
There are also the government's actions. On top of the money spent on roads and the economy, expecting mothers are provided reduced doctor's costs, and the beloved Archbishop Amelia provided RadAway and Rad-X to all mothers, expecting or current, a monthly stipend that has greatly increased the health and happiness of families across the Archbishopric, even as some have called it too expensive, or impractical. It was fear that this would be revoked that led to the riots last year, in fact. Because of it, there has already been a huge boom in children, when mothers are now sure that their children can grow up as free of radiation as it is possible to be in such a wasteland.
In other words, it's a pretty good place to raise a family. Comparatively of course. Despite some corruption, some orthodoxy, some poverty and the fact that the rampant drug use isn't for everyone, and can be harmful, the majority of the Archbishopric's subjects wouldn't be anywhere else. You take the good and the bad when you pick where you live, after all.
Military: Each Parish is required to raise a small force, often named and patterned after a Saint they wish to emulate, and their forces are pretty simple. Body armor, usually, rifles and pistols, the rare energy weapon only among the elite...there's only so many ways to split the atom, after all. Their religious zeal serves them well, as does their habit of having a skilled and trained medical corps.
There are more men than women in the army because mainline Saintists sometimes consider war to be men's work, though there are plenty that buck that trend. And, notably, the Warrior-Sect worships an ideal of Sheevuh-Mary, a woman that both creates and destroys, and they are allowed to do so because they make up the most elite and the deadliest of the Archbishopric's shock troops.
But it has been decades since they've really fought more than bandits and dissidents, however.
By far the largest and most powerful faction in Kansas City, Kansas, and powerful in their own ways even across the border, the Archbishopric is also the oldest, stretching back 120 years to 2160, when the Prophet Eliza discovered a buried private Vault filled with religious and medical texts, technology, and other such objects, and had a revelation that would found a religion and a government that would endure long after her death. The religion is known as Saintism.
[To most people of the Wasteland, all that's known of their religion is that it's big and matriarchal and involves drugs. If you really want, you can skip past this section, but you'll be missing out on a lot of detail. Detail which might prove enlightening. Either way…]
Saintism is a monotheistic religion with an afterlife, and a secondary pantheon of Saints. It is matriarchal , and exalts the power of human creation, urging its followers towards optimism and rebuilding of the world. It also places special spiritual emphasis on the sacred qualities of drug-fueled visions. It has regular holidays and customs common across all believers, and it has had schisms in the past, and likely will have ones in the future.
Let me unpack that piece by piece. Because it says a lot.
It is monotheistic with an afterlife: They believe in one creator God who made the whole world. She has no sons, but all life and the world itself are her daughters, and were made in Her imagine, and she sends those who strive to create and follow her ways to a blissful afterlife that is believed to be previewed in some of the best drug visions as a spur to Her believers. Those who have not acted so are punished for some short time and then reincarnated along with new souls (only some souls are reincarnations, ideally) to learn to create again, a second and possibly even third chance.
It has a secondary pantheon of Saints: The cause of the popular name for them (other than "Archies"), this pantheon is believed to be people who deserved eternal bliss but chose to step away from it in order to serve the world and uphold everything, and thus they can be prayed to and invoked, and miracles happen to those who worship them, as well as religious revelations. Saints include historical ones that the old Catholic faith included that were female, women of note in the past before the bombs, as well as an ongoing parade since the Revelation of the Prophet Eliza. With only two exceptions, both post-Revelation, all Saints are female. Eliza is the only named 'Arch-Saint.'
It is matriarchal: While it does not declare that men are inferior holds that women have special creative and spiritual capacities granted by God that mean they are the natural moral and actual leaders. The Archbishop and Bishops are always women, and in tithe collections, unless known otherwise, women are believed and treated as the head of the household. The world would certainly be a less rich place without men, and the religion does not ignore them, but it grants a special ability for women to make life possible and to redeem the world. That said, in social situations and actual practice men can and do gain respect and power, and no society can work with one hand tied behind their back, but there is a ceiling on how high they can usually rise, certainly politics, and often in any area that is viewed as vital to the governance of the state. And some of this mindset can be seen at lower levels.
It exalts creation and optimism: Women's generative qualities are not merely biological, they are societal, and they are not in fact women-only, but open to anyone who makes the choice to create rather than merely destroy. The creation of families, the choices to control creation and do so wisely, the building of a society, and the redemption of the world are all placed as active goals to be striven for. Ones that grow closer with each person they help and each life they build. This mindset has certainly contributed to the religion's spread, specially because this optimism, while head, is not naive. The religion recognizes the necessity of sacrifice and the existence of those who respond only to destruction, and thus it places ample room for a military and for the idea of holy war against evil and defensive war against aggressors.
Drug-fueled visions: The Prophet wrote multiple books, one of them entirely filled with visions and visions alone, and was revealed to Saintism in the middle of one such early vision. Visions show the afterlife, possible futures or past, and guidance from the Saints, and it si the right of all believers to receive visions, as long as they respect the Primacy of The Prophet's Visions. Children of all ages are even inducted, though in the last decades the church has tried to discourage that, passing guidelines that say that vision-searching should occur only at sixteen or older.
Ostensibly this is because children are too young to properly interpret visions, but more likely because of the high addiction rate and the social consequences. Addiction among adults is unsurprisingly common, and while there are drugs that can kill the addiction and addiction itself is discouraged, it can be hard to separate a holy woman (or man) chasing visions from an addict after their next hallucinatory fix. It is a problem that the leadership have long considered without coming to a simple answer.
Many doctors (and as noted below, the Archbishopric has many doctors indeed) are beginning to be frustrated with the ambivalence of the leadership on this critical issue to the future of the faith and the good of the world at large, and this has begun to create a non-theological schism.
Regular Customs: They have a calendar of special holidays and feast, each unique and a chance to socialize and relax, though those in direr straits can only afford to celebrate the holiest of their days, of which there are several. They have common symbols, such as a fish, a wheel, and a pregnant woman with ten arms, and eggs. They also visit a temple, if possible, once a week, or hold private gatherings to affirm their faith and share stories of vision if it is not.
Schism: Being a religion based on sacred visions and complex dogma they have had quite a few more schisms than they'd like to admit. If it is a matter of one straying lamb, they ignore it if it is harmless and punish it by increasing degrees ending in shunning and excommunication if they judge it is not. In large groups and communities, some are allowed unofficial tolerance, such as the Warrior sect (it being useful definition helps), or the group of Saintists who eschew drug-visions for less addictive dream-visions. These each have their backers and supporters, and there is conflict between them and the mainline, without being forbidden. Others, more harmful to the state, like a heresy calling for the enslavement of men or one denying the power of the Saints or calling the current government ungodly or corrupt, are excommunicated, undermined, and as a last resort, one that hasn't had to be used in well over a decade: attacked.
Saintism is a monotheistic religion with an afterlife, and a secondary pantheon of Saints. It is matriarchal , and exalts the power of human creation, urging its followers towards optimism and rebuilding of the world. It also places special spiritual emphasis on the sacred qualities of drug-fueled visions. It has regular holidays and customs common across all believers, and it has had schisms in the past, and likely will have ones in the future.
Let me unpack that piece by piece. Because it says a lot.
It is monotheistic with an afterlife: They believe in one creator God who made the whole world. She has no sons, but all life and the world itself are her daughters, and were made in Her imagine, and she sends those who strive to create and follow her ways to a blissful afterlife that is believed to be previewed in some of the best drug visions as a spur to Her believers. Those who have not acted so are punished for some short time and then reincarnated along with new souls (only some souls are reincarnations, ideally) to learn to create again, a second and possibly even third chance.
It has a secondary pantheon of Saints: The cause of the popular name for them (other than "Archies"), this pantheon is believed to be people who deserved eternal bliss but chose to step away from it in order to serve the world and uphold everything, and thus they can be prayed to and invoked, and miracles happen to those who worship them, as well as religious revelations. Saints include historical ones that the old Catholic faith included that were female, women of note in the past before the bombs, as well as an ongoing parade since the Revelation of the Prophet Eliza. With only two exceptions, both post-Revelation, all Saints are female. Eliza is the only named 'Arch-Saint.'
It is matriarchal: While it does not declare that men are inferior holds that women have special creative and spiritual capacities granted by God that mean they are the natural moral and actual leaders. The Archbishop and Bishops are always women, and in tithe collections, unless known otherwise, women are believed and treated as the head of the household. The world would certainly be a less rich place without men, and the religion does not ignore them, but it grants a special ability for women to make life possible and to redeem the world. That said, in social situations and actual practice men can and do gain respect and power, and no society can work with one hand tied behind their back, but there is a ceiling on how high they can usually rise, certainly politics, and often in any area that is viewed as vital to the governance of the state. And some of this mindset can be seen at lower levels.
It exalts creation and optimism: Women's generative qualities are not merely biological, they are societal, and they are not in fact women-only, but open to anyone who makes the choice to create rather than merely destroy. The creation of families, the choices to control creation and do so wisely, the building of a society, and the redemption of the world are all placed as active goals to be striven for. Ones that grow closer with each person they help and each life they build. This mindset has certainly contributed to the religion's spread, specially because this optimism, while head, is not naive. The religion recognizes the necessity of sacrifice and the existence of those who respond only to destruction, and thus it places ample room for a military and for the idea of holy war against evil and defensive war against aggressors.
Drug-fueled visions: The Prophet wrote multiple books, one of them entirely filled with visions and visions alone, and was revealed to Saintism in the middle of one such early vision. Visions show the afterlife, possible futures or past, and guidance from the Saints, and it si the right of all believers to receive visions, as long as they respect the Primacy of The Prophet's Visions. Children of all ages are even inducted, though in the last decades the church has tried to discourage that, passing guidelines that say that vision-searching should occur only at sixteen or older.
Ostensibly this is because children are too young to properly interpret visions, but more likely because of the high addiction rate and the social consequences. Addiction among adults is unsurprisingly common, and while there are drugs that can kill the addiction and addiction itself is discouraged, it can be hard to separate a holy woman (or man) chasing visions from an addict after their next hallucinatory fix. It is a problem that the leadership have long considered without coming to a simple answer.
Many doctors (and as noted below, the Archbishopric has many doctors indeed) are beginning to be frustrated with the ambivalence of the leadership on this critical issue to the future of the faith and the good of the world at large, and this has begun to create a non-theological schism.
Regular Customs: They have a calendar of special holidays and feast, each unique and a chance to socialize and relax, though those in direr straits can only afford to celebrate the holiest of their days, of which there are several. They have common symbols, such as a fish, a wheel, and a pregnant woman with ten arms, and eggs. They also visit a temple, if possible, once a week, or hold private gatherings to affirm their faith and share stories of vision if it is not.
Schism: Being a religion based on sacred visions and complex dogma they have had quite a few more schisms than they'd like to admit. If it is a matter of one straying lamb, they ignore it if it is harmless and punish it by increasing degrees ending in shunning and excommunication if they judge it is not. In large groups and communities, some are allowed unofficial tolerance, such as the Warrior sect (it being useful definition helps), or the group of Saintists who eschew drug-visions for less addictive dream-visions. These each have their backers and supporters, and there is conflict between them and the mainline, without being forbidden. Others, more harmful to the state, like a heresy calling for the enslavement of men or one denying the power of the Saints or calling the current government ungodly or corrupt, are excommunicated, undermined, and as a last resort, one that hasn't had to be used in well over a decade: attacked.
Government: The government of the Archbishopric is somewhat feudal in nature. People are divided into Parishes, each one led by a priest. Though appointed from above, they can be males, and are expected to have community support. They have been removed by popular demand before, and tend to reflect the unique culture of the Parish they come from. Priests may set up any organization they want under them, whether sub-leaders or an entire bureaucracy, but they must be able to collect a tithe from the Parish, call up and maintain military forces if requested, obey and enforce all laws from above, and must make sure Saintism is the official Parish religion. Finally, and the clause that has led to the most removals, they must provide for the welfare and happiness of their people.
Parishes provide tithes, which may be exchanged on an individual basis for charitable labor building roads, homes, and otherwise volunteering, and must also provide soldiers for the protection of others. They must obey all laws just as the Priest must enforce all laws, but in exchange they receive protection, spiritual comfort, and material aid (including charitable labor from other Parishes). Nonbelievers who are not excommunicated may take part in the same advantages, but must pay an extra tax for the right to live in the Parish. But, at least usually, they are otherwise unmolested.
A Bishop rules between 3-5 Parishes, splitting her time between the capital and their various Parishes. Selected from among the female priests of the area, they are wealthy and powerful. There are always an even number of Bishops, currently ten, and they divide authority amongst themselves at the will of the Archbishop, who they select upon death of the last one. Most often from among themselves, though once, recently, a priest was chosen. There can only be one dissenting vote, and they keep on voting until at least nine of the people agree on one Archbishop.
Many feel that the Bishops and the Archbishop are distant and, some whisper quietly, corrupt, but most are quiet and accept their leadership, though there were riots last year in fear that the latest Archbishop, Andrea Conners, not a month in office, was crueler than the previous, beloved Archbishop Amelia West.
They also whisper at how the Bishops differing beliefs about the future of the state are often just as much political as religious, and have big impacts on the world. Impacts that seem to have only a little to do with their actual religion, and a lot more to do with their actual, proximate and temporal power.
Technology and economy: The Archbishopric has of course rediscovered agriculture (though they are not the Confederacy in this respect) and they make out well on internal trade, as well as trade with the River Market, Jayhawks, and others in normal goods (the Jayhawks provide some vital hallucinogens). But it is the advanced state of their medical, biological, and chemical knowledge that gives them the greatest trade capacity.
First, the leg-up their founder discovered and their belief structure all worked together with their theft of the Jayhawk's 'Teaching Circle' concept all mean that the best doctors in the Kansas City Wasteland came from, or were taught in, the Archbishopric. They are especially attentive to the problems of women, offering fertility, pre-natal, contraceptive, and abortive services for sale. But they are also skilled at treating a huge variety of illnesses, and so medical pilgrims, laden down with a death sentence by lesser doctors and their life savings, are as common as religious pilgrims to the Archbishopric. Often, one becomes the other.
In addition to that, their knowledge of chemicals and drugs gives them a vital trade good that they exploit to its fullest extent. Their apothecaries, for instance, ar the largest producers of chems in the local wasteland, by far, including the crucial supplies of Rad-X and Rad-Away that allow many marginal communities to survive.
There is also a conflict bubbling beneath the surface between certain factions of the economy. There are farmers, there are specialists, there is the priestly elite from top to bottom, and then there are merchants. Where does the profit motive fit into their religion and society? It is clearly central, and yet the Bishops seem content to ignore it, or pretend that they aren't ultimately profiting off their technology as much as they are helping people with it. Different communities struggle with how one is richer than the other, and underneath the surface of the placid and simple governmental and economic systems they've created, there is enough different from Parish to Parish that some are rich and influential, while others aren't so much.
Society: Life in the Archbishopric has its ups and downs. The feudal structure can easily hide abuse, and even the greatest charity doesn't' stop some from going hungry or dying from lack of medical care even in a place like this. To dissidents, it seems a land too unfree, and the Bishops too rich for their own good.
Yet it has provided much greater safety and stability than what existed before, the taxes are not that onerous, and the religion provides a purpose and a common culture to people who would be lost or dead without it. The people share holy days and holy books, their conversation, art, and even literature all reference the same bodies of theology and stories and affirmations, binding them together and helping them in situations where those alone, or without anyone to cling to, would fall apart.
There are also the government's actions. On top of the money spent on roads and the economy, expecting mothers are provided reduced doctor's costs, and the beloved Archbishop Amelia provided RadAway and Rad-X to all mothers, expecting or current, a monthly stipend that has greatly increased the health and happiness of families across the Archbishopric, even as some have called it too expensive, or impractical. It was fear that this would be revoked that led to the riots last year, in fact. Because of it, there has already been a huge boom in children, when mothers are now sure that their children can grow up as free of radiation as it is possible to be in such a wasteland.
In other words, it's a pretty good place to raise a family. Comparatively of course. Despite some corruption, some orthodoxy, some poverty and the fact that the rampant drug use isn't for everyone, and can be harmful, the majority of the Archbishopric's subjects wouldn't be anywhere else. You take the good and the bad when you pick where you live, after all.
Military: Each Parish is required to raise a small force, often named and patterned after a Saint they wish to emulate, and their forces are pretty simple. Body armor, usually, rifles and pistols, the rare energy weapon only among the elite...there's only so many ways to split the atom, after all. Their religious zeal serves them well, as does their habit of having a skilled and trained medical corps.
There are more men than women in the army because mainline Saintists sometimes consider war to be men's work, though there are plenty that buck that trend. And, notably, the Warrior-Sect worships an ideal of Sheevuh-Mary, a woman that both creates and destroys, and they are allowed to do so because they make up the most elite and the deadliest of the Archbishopric's shock troops.
But it has been decades since they've really fought more than bandits and dissidents, however.
Other: Raiders
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Other: Raiders
Defining Raids and Raiders seems an easy task, and certainly some examples are straightforward. The Arrowheads live off raiding and slavery and make no apologies for it. But are the armed and uneven 'trades' between the Housing Authority and their neighbors "raids"? And if a hard-up community has a few members who rob its neighbors for a time, but stop when prosperity returns, are they a den of raiders, or just another group trying to survive. Most communities have used force to acquire goods before, and most individuals are willing to do much to survive. This sort of 'raiding' is usually temporary and not a sole occupation, and those who do so would never consider themselves 'raiders.'
Of those who do take up that sort of mantle, it is usually very brief… one way or another. You don't see many old raiders, and they exist in the margins, too weak to challenge the powers of the wasteland and not remotely united. Theirs is a brutal existence in small robber bands that form around some opportunity, or a powerful figure, and split apart or self-destruct before too long. They live anonymously, and die from attention.
The oldest extant raider band, the Cooks, are a decade old. They are a murderous family with a ghoul mother and adopted children, who move around the south side of the Kansas City wastelands, hunted and hunting.
The largest band is the strange and stylish Black Purpse Brotherhood, which has existed for four years and is marked by care, caution, and intelligent strikes. But ever since a disgruntled member wrote a ballad that became popular on World Radio about their exploits (somewhere between valorization and villainization), they've been having a hard time. They have almost twenty members.
Raider groups and individual raiders come and go, but as long as there is want and desperation, and a government not strong enough to push them further intot he margins, they will surely exist, if they don't thrive.
Defining Raids and Raiders seems an easy task, and certainly some examples are straightforward. The Arrowheads live off raiding and slavery and make no apologies for it. But are the armed and uneven 'trades' between the Housing Authority and their neighbors "raids"? And if a hard-up community has a few members who rob its neighbors for a time, but stop when prosperity returns, are they a den of raiders, or just another group trying to survive. Most communities have used force to acquire goods before, and most individuals are willing to do much to survive. This sort of 'raiding' is usually temporary and not a sole occupation, and those who do so would never consider themselves 'raiders.'
Of those who do take up that sort of mantle, it is usually very brief… one way or another. You don't see many old raiders, and they exist in the margins, too weak to challenge the powers of the wasteland and not remotely united. Theirs is a brutal existence in small robber bands that form around some opportunity, or a powerful figure, and split apart or self-destruct before too long. They live anonymously, and die from attention.
The oldest extant raider band, the Cooks, are a decade old. They are a murderous family with a ghoul mother and adopted children, who move around the south side of the Kansas City wastelands, hunted and hunting.
The largest band is the strange and stylish Black Purpse Brotherhood, which has existed for four years and is marked by care, caution, and intelligent strikes. But ever since a disgruntled member wrote a ballad that became popular on World Radio about their exploits (somewhere between valorization and villainization), they've been having a hard time. They have almost twenty members.
Raider groups and individual raiders come and go, but as long as there is want and desperation, and a government not strong enough to push them further intot he margins, they will surely exist, if they don't thrive.
Mechanics: You are SPECIAL
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Mechanics: You are SPECIAL!
All people have these seven stats. You know them, you might love them from Fallout, and I decided to, more or less, keep them. There are a few differences, though. First, high scores and low scores are pretty uncommon. Someone with an Agility of 8 isn't,. "Pretty good, but better pump stats for that good build" they're, you know, amazing. Most people have stats between 3 and 7 for everything, with even a 7 being notable.
More detail on how this works will be explained in, "You are Skillful, but Challenged" but each point of a Stat adds to the bonus to dice rolls. Thus, for actions that require rolling and relate to Intelligence, an Intelligence 7 is a +7.
Characters will not have a selection screen where you assign values, but keep this in mind. Also, keep in mind that many skills are no longer governed by one skill, but by many. Drawing quick would be agility, while sniping might be Perception, and knowing the various makes and models might be Intelligence. Welcome to MAD, brothers and sisters, enjoy your stay.
Strength: Your ability to lift things, to carry things, to fight and hit others with your full power. Those who have a Strength of 4 are a little wimpy, those with a Strength of 3 are more like children, and those with a Strength of 7 are trained and highly powerful athletes. Super Mutants often have a strength of 9 or 10 by default, and can even increase it beyond that with special Super Mutant only Perks. Some weapons have requirements to effectively use, though even someone below the Strength requirement can use it, just with a warning of 'watch out for falling flat on your ass.'
Perception: The perfect skill for Scavengers, this helps you notice things, aim at distant or hard to see targets, and set up or discover traps that are placed in hard to reach locations. Snipers, those who hunt for loot, and merely people who pay attention all might have high Perception. A high Perception can allow you to use a non-melee weapon outside of its range-band, hitting someone with a shotgun blast at long range that does at least something despite the spread, or winging someone with a pistol from approximately forever away.
Endurance: Endurance covers how long you can keep on going, running and fighting past your physical and mental limits. Thus, it governs both non-mechanical things like how much licking you can take and keep on ticking, but it also governs the mechanical system of 'Wounds". More will be said when I make it in "You are Combative" but Wounds=Endurance, and thus a low Endurance means you go down far easier in a fight.
Charisma: The ability to convince others to do the work you'd rather not do. Charisma both functions in rolls, and has a non-mechanical narrative element. I will not be constantly rolling 'talk to people' checks with every conversation, but a low charisma character will be assumed to generally struggle with socialization, while a high-charisma character does well, and when it does come time to Speech checks, or just convincingly laying out the scientific evidence.
Intelligence: How smart you are! There are many checks that use Intelligence, though it does not govern Skill points in any way, and having it low is a real problem, one that can definitely come back to bite you. Intelligence is used with many of the skills at one point or another, if only for background information.
Agility: How fast you can run. How fast your fingers move. Hiding and shooting and running, all of the necessary skills for surviving in the wasteland. Agility also matters for complex but physical tasks, and it's the fast hand that wins.
Luck: Life can seem random sometimes, can't it? You search a house that's been looted ten times over, and find a gun that they forgot to take. You trip and a sniper shot misses you. People with a high luck find that the narrative and random events go their way, and whenever it's down to a coin toss, Luck comes in. Meanwhile, low luck means the world slams a door in your face, and the lower the luck, the harder the slamming. It does not, however, affect the results of skill-based dice rolls, at least not without special Perks.
All people have these seven stats. You know them, you might love them from Fallout, and I decided to, more or less, keep them. There are a few differences, though. First, high scores and low scores are pretty uncommon. Someone with an Agility of 8 isn't,. "Pretty good, but better pump stats for that good build" they're, you know, amazing. Most people have stats between 3 and 7 for everything, with even a 7 being notable.
More detail on how this works will be explained in, "You are Skillful, but Challenged" but each point of a Stat adds to the bonus to dice rolls. Thus, for actions that require rolling and relate to Intelligence, an Intelligence 7 is a +7.
Characters will not have a selection screen where you assign values, but keep this in mind. Also, keep in mind that many skills are no longer governed by one skill, but by many. Drawing quick would be agility, while sniping might be Perception, and knowing the various makes and models might be Intelligence. Welcome to MAD, brothers and sisters, enjoy your stay.
Strength: Your ability to lift things, to carry things, to fight and hit others with your full power. Those who have a Strength of 4 are a little wimpy, those with a Strength of 3 are more like children, and those with a Strength of 7 are trained and highly powerful athletes. Super Mutants often have a strength of 9 or 10 by default, and can even increase it beyond that with special Super Mutant only Perks. Some weapons have requirements to effectively use, though even someone below the Strength requirement can use it, just with a warning of 'watch out for falling flat on your ass.'
Perception: The perfect skill for Scavengers, this helps you notice things, aim at distant or hard to see targets, and set up or discover traps that are placed in hard to reach locations. Snipers, those who hunt for loot, and merely people who pay attention all might have high Perception. A high Perception can allow you to use a non-melee weapon outside of its range-band, hitting someone with a shotgun blast at long range that does at least something despite the spread, or winging someone with a pistol from approximately forever away.
Endurance: Endurance covers how long you can keep on going, running and fighting past your physical and mental limits. Thus, it governs both non-mechanical things like how much licking you can take and keep on ticking, but it also governs the mechanical system of 'Wounds". More will be said when I make it in "You are Combative" but Wounds=Endurance, and thus a low Endurance means you go down far easier in a fight.
Charisma: The ability to convince others to do the work you'd rather not do. Charisma both functions in rolls, and has a non-mechanical narrative element. I will not be constantly rolling 'talk to people' checks with every conversation, but a low charisma character will be assumed to generally struggle with socialization, while a high-charisma character does well, and when it does come time to Speech checks, or just convincingly laying out the scientific evidence.
Intelligence: How smart you are! There are many checks that use Intelligence, though it does not govern Skill points in any way, and having it low is a real problem, one that can definitely come back to bite you. Intelligence is used with many of the skills at one point or another, if only for background information.
Agility: How fast you can run. How fast your fingers move. Hiding and shooting and running, all of the necessary skills for surviving in the wasteland. Agility also matters for complex but physical tasks, and it's the fast hand that wins.
Luck: Life can seem random sometimes, can't it? You search a house that's been looted ten times over, and find a gun that they forgot to take. You trip and a sniper shot misses you. People with a high luck find that the narrative and random events go their way, and whenever it's down to a coin toss, Luck comes in. Meanwhile, low luck means the world slams a door in your face, and the lower the luck, the harder the slamming. It does not, however, affect the results of skill-based dice rolls, at least not without special Perks.
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- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
This seems like it'll be tricky to manage in a quest?
Although you could treat it almost like a difficulty setting. Low luck runs would be harder even just in terms of the narrative, so maybe it's a challenge mode to take Luck as your dump stat or so on?
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Heh I'd be kinda tempted to vote for a Luck 10; Inteligence 1 character just for the heck of it^^
- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Only if the dialogue changes like in the proper fallouts.
(I actually sort of did that in F4, with the idiot savant perk. It's interesting but not as flavorful as you'd like when the game doesn't really react to you being Int 1.)
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Wouldn't be an option. I'll post the first character creation post I whipped up in a bit, but it's not a full chargen. You vote for an origin, and then an Archetype, which is a pre-built character with a pre-built backstory.
For instance, The Survivor Origin includes the Parent Archetype, in which, yes, you have a kid.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
There will be some weapon modding at some point, though I'll need to think about how to make that work. But I will note that weapons won't have specific dice. Instead they'll have Wounds, Accuracy, Range, Condition: (How repaired they are), and special sub-perks to cover modifications that don't merely increase the range), and special sub-perks that affect how it works that aren't covered by modifying one of the above.
Mechanics (Rough Draft): You are Skillful, but Challenged
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Mechanics (Rough Draft): You are Skillful, but Challenged
Skills are very important in the world of Fallout. But as part of the general turn towards not having you max out everything in order to be any good, and thus Skills work like so. I'll be listing what they are in a moment, but 25 is a talented amateur, which is often all that's needed. Fifty is professional, skilled enough to do it for a living… in a world where most people don't have the time to get that good at all that much. Seventy-five is expert, one of the leaders of the field, and 100 is one in a million, in a world where the population has gone down enough for that to be a meaningful statement.
Skills affect dice rolls, and add to them. Each skill, which goes from 1 to 100, grants a bonus of +1 for every five points invested in it. Thus, someone with Skill 100 has +20 to all rolls involving it, on top of all of the other advantages. But what is all of this about?
I'm glad you asked. When you roll for a challenge, you roll a certain formula.
Dice+Stat bonus+Skill Bonus+/- any situation bonuses or penalties=Roll.
You have a DC that you must meet, and if you succeed over it by enough, you can even make a certain task easier or faster. Trying to repair a rifle? Get high enough above what you need and you can do it faster.
What dice you roll depends on your skill level, and here is a handy chart.
0: Cannot roll, must take stat-3. That is to say, a person with Intelligence 7, Science 0 cannot, unless they have other bonuses, succeed in even a "Science DC 5" action.
1-10: Rolls a d5, -1 to stat when determining things, rolling a 1 subtracts 2 from the total.
11-24: Rolls a d10, 1s are -1s.
25: d10s, 10s roll again[1], 1s do nothing (other than being a low roll.)
50: May reroll 1s once, start unlocking special tricks.
75: May roll again with both 10s AND 9s.
100: Always reroll 1s, other special bonuses/etc gained to represent the capstone.
[1] Rule, you may not roll higher than the totality of your natural bonuses. Thus, if you have Skill 50, Stat 8, that's +18, so if you roll a 10, and then a 9, that's only actually 18, for a total of 36...which is still pretty impressive, mind!
Every task has a DC, and that DC can range from '5', for anyone with any experience can do it, all the way up to 50+, which is legendarily hard. Most things, however, fall somewhere between 10 and 30.
Thus a character with Intelligence 8, Science 50 would roll d10+18, meaning that with luck, they could possibly roll as high as 36, well above most challenges you face in the wasteland.
Combat is more complicated, but does function with the same basic system, in the sense that you roll relevant stat+skill, but there's Armor, and Wounds, and I need to build a functional Cover system, and figure out how 'aiming at the head' even works. So, yeah. That's going to have to wait a little bit.
But what are the skills?
Guns: How well you can shoot 'em up. Covering all forms of guns from pistols, to rifles, to bigger, more dangerous sorts of guns, though a rocket launcher might be a little much. Guns are a vital skill in the Wasteland, because Energy Weapons, while amazing, are rare and usually held by the powerful and the lucky, and few others. Thus guns, which are far more plentiful, make the staple of most combat.
Energy Weapons: Powerful things, Energy Weapons can chew up cover, often can have startlingly long ranges because they don't obey gravity's dumb laws, and can go through most of the basic armor that the wasteland has. On the other hand, it takes Science and Repair to constantly maintain them, it's very difficult to make new ones and too difficult for comfort to make ammo for it, all of which means that both the gun and the ammo can set you back a pretty penny. But the look on someone's face when you come after them with a laser shotgun? Priceless. Absolutely priceless.
Unarmed: In close quarters or in a pinch, being able to hurt someone with nothing more than your bare hands, or a powered glove, can be really, really cool. And also quite useful, considering few people have you check your fists at the door before entering the bar. Higher levels of Unarmed can allow you to unlock Perks that represent special fighting styles. More will be explained about Perks later, in "You are Perky" but just to note, Perks are a lot less common and meant as spice rather than sauce.
Melee Weapons: For when you want to hit someone in the face with a super Sledge until they are super-sludge. There's not much to say. Stab a guy in the kidneys and then tend to die, and melee weapons have a place. That place isn't running at a gun with a rifle screaming, but that doesn't change the fact that when someone gets the jump on you, there's often not room or time for a firearm.
Drive: Now here's a skill very few people have. A few people up in the Confederacy, some here and there, and of course, those damn Jayhawks have a 'Aerial Drive' of sorts. But most people? Cars and public transportation went extinct at the end of the world, and for the most part on foot or on the back of the Brahmin are how you move. But if you do have a car, or a bike, you can get a lot of places, really fast, if you're good and lucky.
Explosives: Talk about that big boom. Whether it's disarming mines or arming them, mixing up molotovs in the basement or setting up a network of traps to blow your enemy to kindgom come...or using grenades.
Medicine: Doctor, doctor, can you please help me deal with radiation injuries and make sure that this cut doesn't go septic and kill me? In the grim griminess of the Wasteland, the ability to treat wounds and deal with the sick is always useful. As is the ability to mix up drugs as well. Both helpful and...not so much.
Stealth: More than just hiding, it also can involve blending in, and can help you guess where others might hide. Sneak up on your enemies and kill them, or avoid a fight entirely. It also covers the ability to disguise yourself.
Larceny: The ability to pick locks, pick pockets,and burgle cats (not that cats exist anymore). The good criminal is stealthy and larcenous, so that they can steal anything and everything. Who needs keys, anyways?
Science: Your understanding of technology, including vehicles, energy weapons, physics, biology, and a whole host of other subjects. You can often get Perks that specialize your knowledge further, though some of that will be covered by common sense. It, combined with Repair, is needed to maintain Energy Weapons.
Repair: In the wasteland, everything breaks. Pipes, guns, machines, and people. But the last one is medicine. Having around someone who can repair weapons is really, really important, and even if someone doesn't have the knack, they have to know people who do. You can't survive in the wasteland on your own, at least not without a lot of luck.
Speech: How to win friends and influence enemies. Talk to someone to convince them of things they'd normally never do, but just remember, there is a limit. You cannot make someone do the possible, and even the most silver of tongues cannot help if the other person refuses to listen.
Barter: It's a tough world out there. World ends, and you still have to pay a fee. Everything runs on bottlecaps that doesn't run on friendship or force, and without bartering skill, you're left paying what the merchants will charge you. Hagging is an art, and one that anyone who survives long enough learns at least a bit of.
Survival: Make yourself at home. Know the animals and how to flee them, know the best places to scavenge food and know how to make tripwires and bear traps for your foes. If you want to live out on your own, you must survive any way you can, and that's where this skill comes in.
Skills are very important in the world of Fallout. But as part of the general turn towards not having you max out everything in order to be any good, and thus Skills work like so. I'll be listing what they are in a moment, but 25 is a talented amateur, which is often all that's needed. Fifty is professional, skilled enough to do it for a living… in a world where most people don't have the time to get that good at all that much. Seventy-five is expert, one of the leaders of the field, and 100 is one in a million, in a world where the population has gone down enough for that to be a meaningful statement.
Skills affect dice rolls, and add to them. Each skill, which goes from 1 to 100, grants a bonus of +1 for every five points invested in it. Thus, someone with Skill 100 has +20 to all rolls involving it, on top of all of the other advantages. But what is all of this about?
I'm glad you asked. When you roll for a challenge, you roll a certain formula.
Dice+Stat bonus+Skill Bonus+/- any situation bonuses or penalties=Roll.
You have a DC that you must meet, and if you succeed over it by enough, you can even make a certain task easier or faster. Trying to repair a rifle? Get high enough above what you need and you can do it faster.
What dice you roll depends on your skill level, and here is a handy chart.
0: Cannot roll, must take stat-3. That is to say, a person with Intelligence 7, Science 0 cannot, unless they have other bonuses, succeed in even a "Science DC 5" action.
1-10: Rolls a d5, -1 to stat when determining things, rolling a 1 subtracts 2 from the total.
11-24: Rolls a d10, 1s are -1s.
25: d10s, 10s roll again[1], 1s do nothing (other than being a low roll.)
50: May reroll 1s once, start unlocking special tricks.
75: May roll again with both 10s AND 9s.
100: Always reroll 1s, other special bonuses/etc gained to represent the capstone.
[1] Rule, you may not roll higher than the totality of your natural bonuses. Thus, if you have Skill 50, Stat 8, that's +18, so if you roll a 10, and then a 9, that's only actually 18, for a total of 36...which is still pretty impressive, mind!
Every task has a DC, and that DC can range from '5', for anyone with any experience can do it, all the way up to 50+, which is legendarily hard. Most things, however, fall somewhere between 10 and 30.
Thus a character with Intelligence 8, Science 50 would roll d10+18, meaning that with luck, they could possibly roll as high as 36, well above most challenges you face in the wasteland.
Combat is more complicated, but does function with the same basic system, in the sense that you roll relevant stat+skill, but there's Armor, and Wounds, and I need to build a functional Cover system, and figure out how 'aiming at the head' even works. So, yeah. That's going to have to wait a little bit.
But what are the skills?
Guns: How well you can shoot 'em up. Covering all forms of guns from pistols, to rifles, to bigger, more dangerous sorts of guns, though a rocket launcher might be a little much. Guns are a vital skill in the Wasteland, because Energy Weapons, while amazing, are rare and usually held by the powerful and the lucky, and few others. Thus guns, which are far more plentiful, make the staple of most combat.
Energy Weapons: Powerful things, Energy Weapons can chew up cover, often can have startlingly long ranges because they don't obey gravity's dumb laws, and can go through most of the basic armor that the wasteland has. On the other hand, it takes Science and Repair to constantly maintain them, it's very difficult to make new ones and too difficult for comfort to make ammo for it, all of which means that both the gun and the ammo can set you back a pretty penny. But the look on someone's face when you come after them with a laser shotgun? Priceless. Absolutely priceless.
Unarmed: In close quarters or in a pinch, being able to hurt someone with nothing more than your bare hands, or a powered glove, can be really, really cool. And also quite useful, considering few people have you check your fists at the door before entering the bar. Higher levels of Unarmed can allow you to unlock Perks that represent special fighting styles. More will be explained about Perks later, in "You are Perky" but just to note, Perks are a lot less common and meant as spice rather than sauce.
Melee Weapons: For when you want to hit someone in the face with a super Sledge until they are super-sludge. There's not much to say. Stab a guy in the kidneys and then tend to die, and melee weapons have a place. That place isn't running at a gun with a rifle screaming, but that doesn't change the fact that when someone gets the jump on you, there's often not room or time for a firearm.
Drive: Now here's a skill very few people have. A few people up in the Confederacy, some here and there, and of course, those damn Jayhawks have a 'Aerial Drive' of sorts. But most people? Cars and public transportation went extinct at the end of the world, and for the most part on foot or on the back of the Brahmin are how you move. But if you do have a car, or a bike, you can get a lot of places, really fast, if you're good and lucky.
Explosives: Talk about that big boom. Whether it's disarming mines or arming them, mixing up molotovs in the basement or setting up a network of traps to blow your enemy to kindgom come...or using grenades.
Medicine: Doctor, doctor, can you please help me deal with radiation injuries and make sure that this cut doesn't go septic and kill me? In the grim griminess of the Wasteland, the ability to treat wounds and deal with the sick is always useful. As is the ability to mix up drugs as well. Both helpful and...not so much.
Stealth: More than just hiding, it also can involve blending in, and can help you guess where others might hide. Sneak up on your enemies and kill them, or avoid a fight entirely. It also covers the ability to disguise yourself.
Larceny: The ability to pick locks, pick pockets,and burgle cats (not that cats exist anymore). The good criminal is stealthy and larcenous, so that they can steal anything and everything. Who needs keys, anyways?
Science: Your understanding of technology, including vehicles, energy weapons, physics, biology, and a whole host of other subjects. You can often get Perks that specialize your knowledge further, though some of that will be covered by common sense. It, combined with Repair, is needed to maintain Energy Weapons.
Repair: In the wasteland, everything breaks. Pipes, guns, machines, and people. But the last one is medicine. Having around someone who can repair weapons is really, really important, and even if someone doesn't have the knack, they have to know people who do. You can't survive in the wasteland on your own, at least not without a lot of luck.
Speech: How to win friends and influence enemies. Talk to someone to convince them of things they'd normally never do, but just remember, there is a limit. You cannot make someone do the possible, and even the most silver of tongues cannot help if the other person refuses to listen.
Barter: It's a tough world out there. World ends, and you still have to pay a fee. Everything runs on bottlecaps that doesn't run on friendship or force, and without bartering skill, you're left paying what the merchants will charge you. Hagging is an art, and one that anyone who survives long enough learns at least a bit of.
Survival: Make yourself at home. Know the animals and how to flee them, know the best places to scavenge food and know how to make tripwires and bear traps for your foes. If you want to live out on your own, you must survive any way you can, and that's where this skill comes in.
Mechanics: You are Perky
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Mechanics: You are Perky
Perks are a lot rarer in the Wasteland. I'm still trying to figure out if the limit on the number of Perks should be tied to anything, but right now, most people have a maximum of five perks, and have far, far less than that. One or two is more the norm for skilled characters, and a random person might have none at all. They're meant to represent great skill or strength, and I'm not going to make an exhaustive list, that'd be a foolish idea. Instead I'm going to just give you some examples.
Strength:
Box-Carrier (8): Your Strength counts as two points higher when you are doing regular, manual labor of some kind in a non-combat context. Lifting a car to have someone get under it and loot that sweet battery, etc, etc.
Squish (10): When you hit someone, they don't just ask what the license plate on the truck is. No, they're squashed flat. Deal 2+ wounds when attacking unarmed or with melee.
Perception:
- It's not Paranoia if They're Really Out to Get You (8): re-roll failed Perception checks to notice hidden enemies.
- Night Owl (8): Darkness-related penalties to perception are reduced by up to two points.
Endurance:
- Rasputin Ain't Got Nothing on Me (9): Any time something inflicts damage on you, reduce that damage by 1 wound, down to a minimum of 1 wound.
Monkish Exterior (8): You no longer need as much food or water, and can survive to the very human limits and still be fighting to the end.
Radiation Sink (10): Radiation just doesn't get you down, you're too tough for it! Halve all radiation from all sources.
Charisma:
Charming Grifter (8): On your first meeting with a mark...erm, I mean, a future friend an ally, gain a +3 bonus to all Speech and Barter checks, as well as any check that involves Charisma in general.
Eyes On Me (8): You gain a bonus to Charisma when performing or entertaining people, in whatever medium...including song.
Intelligence:
Seen It All, Known It All (9): You suffer no penalties to rolls when introduced to a new aspect of it. Normally, even an Energy Weapons specialist might need time or might take a penalty in analyzing some new weapon, for instance. You? You know what it is just by looking at it and using your noodle.
Agility:
Light On Your Feet (8): Really, dear, you must eat more. You're so light that most mines and other such weapons don't react to you. But watch out, because a skillful enough explosives expert can counteract that, but at least walk in a little more safety, knowing you can avoid triggering things.
Record Holder (9): You are fast. Really fast. Maybe you can't keep it up for long bursts, but when it comes to the fine art of running away, your Agility is counted as two points higher.
Luck:
Oops (9): Once per combat, you may declare that an attack missed you or did no damage, no matter how much it would have done. You trip just in time for the shotgun blast to miss, the gun jams for just long enough to dock out of the way, the possibilities are endless.
Sometimes Nothing's a Good Hand (10): On any skill where you have a skill level of 10 or lower, you may use Luck instead of what stat you'd normally use. You still roll using the rules established by the Skill level.
Guns--
Deadeye (Perception 6, Guns 30): When using a sniper rifle, one's perception counts as one point higher.
Quickdraw (Agility 6, Guns 50): When not ambushed, gain a +2 bonus in the first round of combat, representing getting off the first shot, one way or another.
Energy Weapons
Assault and Battery (Energy Weapons 50, Repair 25): Through trial and lots of error, you have discovered a way to turn batteries into bombs. It's certainly not cheap, but it can make a decent trick when you're low on shot and a few bullets won't matter. These bombs are highly explosive, and ignore everything short of power armor.
Jury-Create (Energy Weapons 75, Repair 25): You can modify energy weapons into different forms. While making a new one is likely beyond you without significant tools and time, you can take an energy pistol and take apart the insides and put it in a larger frame and amp up the power, or cut down a rifle into a pistol without breaking anything.
Unarmed:
Stunning Blow (Unarmed 50): When you succeed by more than five points during a struggle with someone else, you can penalize them for the next round by one point for every three points over their score you rolled.
- Don't Want No Trouble (Unarmed 75): You gain +5 to all Unarmed rolls as long as you're not the aggressor).
Melee Weapons
Batter Up (Unarmed 50): Your skill counts as 15 points higher when using a baseball bat as a weapon.
Drive
All Terrain (Drive 75): You no longer take any penalties from terrain, though you cannot pass totally blocked off areas, and are not immune to traps or other unnatural features.
Too Fast (Drive 50): All attacks against you that have to target you (as opposed to traps and mines), take a penalty equal to half your Drive modifier, as you're speeding past them.
Explosives:
Cooking the Shot (Explosives 25): You can control the length of detonation for a grenade down to a fine art, can cut a stick of dynamite short, and can use all of this talent to trick your friends and surprise your enemies to death.
Medicine:
Just A Flesh Wound (Medicine 25): Even if you're not the best doctor, you're surprisingly good at patching people up...for a little while. Even without adequate supplies, you can restore someone's wound points and physical health, but only for a little while. Soon enough their body will realize the con and you'll need to perform better options.
Midwife Extraordinary (Medicine 50): You are an amazing Midwife. With the right equipment, or even without the right equipment, the DC for delivering a baby is decreased significantly. (Totally an NPC thing, I admit).
Stealth:
- Nothing to see here! (Stealth 50): You get a bonus of +3 to stealth checks that involving remaining unnoticed in a crowd.
Larceny:
Infiltrator (Larceny 50): You have a real skill at faking being people. Even without the right equipment. Ignore all equipment penalties when making a disguise.
Black Market (Larceny 25, Barter 25): You may add your Larceny modifier when making any rolls to work the black markets…
Science:
Walter White (Science 50, Medicine 25): When creating addictive chems, add half your science modifier to your Medicine.
In a Cave, With A Box of Scraps (Intelligence 8, Science 50): Ignore all penalties to science checks based on a lack of equipment. You'll find a way to make do.
Repair:
Fake-Rig (Repair 35): You can take an broken object and make it seem to work for the casual onlooker. Whether it is a weapon used as a trap, or so that your enemy will think they're armed when it's a broken piece of shit, it's quit ethe skill, making something look like it works...but not actually fixing it.
Plumber (Repair 25): Gain a +5 bonus to all rolls that involve working with plumbing, pipes, or other such systems. (Total NPC Perk)
Speech:
Give Me Liberty (Speech 40): Gain +3 when making a formal speech!
The Long Con (Speech 50): During a social interaction, if you pass a proper DC check, and provided you don't act in a hostile way since, you can store up one 'Favor' point. You can store up to your number in Charisma, and then can cash them in all at once for a +Favor to all rolls with someone during one conversation, calling in every nice thing you said, every kind word that was all for this moment, when you needed them to do what you wanted.
Barter
Open for Business (Barter 25): You have enough skill at buying and selling things that you could probably manage to open your own shop without going bankrupt, and are allowed to do so at this point.
Best I can do… (Barter 35): While it might not be accepted, you may make even the most insultingly low offer imaginable without actually insulting the other person, and suffering no penalties from "Hey, are you trying to rip me off?!"
Survival:
Amateur Zoologist (Survival 25): You may add your Survival bonus to any Science check that involves animals.
Perks are a lot rarer in the Wasteland. I'm still trying to figure out if the limit on the number of Perks should be tied to anything, but right now, most people have a maximum of five perks, and have far, far less than that. One or two is more the norm for skilled characters, and a random person might have none at all. They're meant to represent great skill or strength, and I'm not going to make an exhaustive list, that'd be a foolish idea. Instead I'm going to just give you some examples.
Strength:
Box-Carrier (8): Your Strength counts as two points higher when you are doing regular, manual labor of some kind in a non-combat context. Lifting a car to have someone get under it and loot that sweet battery, etc, etc.
Squish (10): When you hit someone, they don't just ask what the license plate on the truck is. No, they're squashed flat. Deal 2+ wounds when attacking unarmed or with melee.
Perception:
- It's not Paranoia if They're Really Out to Get You (8): re-roll failed Perception checks to notice hidden enemies.
- Night Owl (8): Darkness-related penalties to perception are reduced by up to two points.
Endurance:
- Rasputin Ain't Got Nothing on Me (9): Any time something inflicts damage on you, reduce that damage by 1 wound, down to a minimum of 1 wound.
Monkish Exterior (8): You no longer need as much food or water, and can survive to the very human limits and still be fighting to the end.
Radiation Sink (10): Radiation just doesn't get you down, you're too tough for it! Halve all radiation from all sources.
Charisma:
Charming Grifter (8): On your first meeting with a mark...erm, I mean, a future friend an ally, gain a +3 bonus to all Speech and Barter checks, as well as any check that involves Charisma in general.
Eyes On Me (8): You gain a bonus to Charisma when performing or entertaining people, in whatever medium...including song.
Intelligence:
Seen It All, Known It All (9): You suffer no penalties to rolls when introduced to a new aspect of it. Normally, even an Energy Weapons specialist might need time or might take a penalty in analyzing some new weapon, for instance. You? You know what it is just by looking at it and using your noodle.
Agility:
Light On Your Feet (8): Really, dear, you must eat more. You're so light that most mines and other such weapons don't react to you. But watch out, because a skillful enough explosives expert can counteract that, but at least walk in a little more safety, knowing you can avoid triggering things.
Record Holder (9): You are fast. Really fast. Maybe you can't keep it up for long bursts, but when it comes to the fine art of running away, your Agility is counted as two points higher.
Luck:
Oops (9): Once per combat, you may declare that an attack missed you or did no damage, no matter how much it would have done. You trip just in time for the shotgun blast to miss, the gun jams for just long enough to dock out of the way, the possibilities are endless.
Sometimes Nothing's a Good Hand (10): On any skill where you have a skill level of 10 or lower, you may use Luck instead of what stat you'd normally use. You still roll using the rules established by the Skill level.
Guns--
Deadeye (Perception 6, Guns 30): When using a sniper rifle, one's perception counts as one point higher.
Quickdraw (Agility 6, Guns 50): When not ambushed, gain a +2 bonus in the first round of combat, representing getting off the first shot, one way or another.
Energy Weapons
Assault and Battery (Energy Weapons 50, Repair 25): Through trial and lots of error, you have discovered a way to turn batteries into bombs. It's certainly not cheap, but it can make a decent trick when you're low on shot and a few bullets won't matter. These bombs are highly explosive, and ignore everything short of power armor.
Jury-Create (Energy Weapons 75, Repair 25): You can modify energy weapons into different forms. While making a new one is likely beyond you without significant tools and time, you can take an energy pistol and take apart the insides and put it in a larger frame and amp up the power, or cut down a rifle into a pistol without breaking anything.
Unarmed:
Stunning Blow (Unarmed 50): When you succeed by more than five points during a struggle with someone else, you can penalize them for the next round by one point for every three points over their score you rolled.
- Don't Want No Trouble (Unarmed 75): You gain +5 to all Unarmed rolls as long as you're not the aggressor).
Melee Weapons
Batter Up (Unarmed 50): Your skill counts as 15 points higher when using a baseball bat as a weapon.
Drive
All Terrain (Drive 75): You no longer take any penalties from terrain, though you cannot pass totally blocked off areas, and are not immune to traps or other unnatural features.
Too Fast (Drive 50): All attacks against you that have to target you (as opposed to traps and mines), take a penalty equal to half your Drive modifier, as you're speeding past them.
Explosives:
Cooking the Shot (Explosives 25): You can control the length of detonation for a grenade down to a fine art, can cut a stick of dynamite short, and can use all of this talent to trick your friends and surprise your enemies to death.
Medicine:
Just A Flesh Wound (Medicine 25): Even if you're not the best doctor, you're surprisingly good at patching people up...for a little while. Even without adequate supplies, you can restore someone's wound points and physical health, but only for a little while. Soon enough their body will realize the con and you'll need to perform better options.
Midwife Extraordinary (Medicine 50): You are an amazing Midwife. With the right equipment, or even without the right equipment, the DC for delivering a baby is decreased significantly. (Totally an NPC thing, I admit).
Stealth:
- Nothing to see here! (Stealth 50): You get a bonus of +3 to stealth checks that involving remaining unnoticed in a crowd.
Larceny:
Infiltrator (Larceny 50): You have a real skill at faking being people. Even without the right equipment. Ignore all equipment penalties when making a disguise.
Black Market (Larceny 25, Barter 25): You may add your Larceny modifier when making any rolls to work the black markets…
Science:
Walter White (Science 50, Medicine 25): When creating addictive chems, add half your science modifier to your Medicine.
In a Cave, With A Box of Scraps (Intelligence 8, Science 50): Ignore all penalties to science checks based on a lack of equipment. You'll find a way to make do.
Repair:
Fake-Rig (Repair 35): You can take an broken object and make it seem to work for the casual onlooker. Whether it is a weapon used as a trap, or so that your enemy will think they're armed when it's a broken piece of shit, it's quit ethe skill, making something look like it works...but not actually fixing it.
Plumber (Repair 25): Gain a +5 bonus to all rolls that involve working with plumbing, pipes, or other such systems. (Total NPC Perk)
Speech:
Give Me Liberty (Speech 40): Gain +3 when making a formal speech!
The Long Con (Speech 50): During a social interaction, if you pass a proper DC check, and provided you don't act in a hostile way since, you can store up one 'Favor' point. You can store up to your number in Charisma, and then can cash them in all at once for a +Favor to all rolls with someone during one conversation, calling in every nice thing you said, every kind word that was all for this moment, when you needed them to do what you wanted.
Barter
Open for Business (Barter 25): You have enough skill at buying and selling things that you could probably manage to open your own shop without going bankrupt, and are allowed to do so at this point.
Best I can do… (Barter 35): While it might not be accepted, you may make even the most insultingly low offer imaginable without actually insulting the other person, and suffering no penalties from "Hey, are you trying to rip me off?!"
Survival:
Amateur Zoologist (Survival 25): You may add your Survival bonus to any Science check that involves animals.
Minor Faction: The Dead Poets' Society
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Minor Faction: The Dead Poets' Society
Overview: Despite the fact that in the wasteland the dead outnumber the living a million times over, the Kansas City Wasteland isn't a place to be dead… especially if you are still walking around. With little community, ghouls are often lonely. Augustus Pierce (not his real name, he admits) didn't intend to start a movement when he wrote a poem, "Zombie" on a wall. But a week later, there was a reply poem on that lonely wall, from another ghoul, Melissa Matters. They started playing a game of sorts, writing poems or stories and putting them at dead drops to read and exchange.
Soon other ghouls joined in and even met face to face on rare occasion. Their poems were often about wasteland life, the old world, or being a ghoul, and so this seemed to bind them together. Before they knew it, dozens of ghouls were contributing, and added to fiction and poetry was non-fiction, philosophy and even drawings. Spurred into openness by a welcoming community and clever rules to keep them from danger, they flourished. They drew attention, yes. Some of it was negative, but that's why they mostly relied on letters sent via friends, and dead drops or brief meetings or writing up on walls. But they also drew positive attention.
In this case, the admiration of Clarissa Bucks, the self-made wealthy wife of Bigg Bucks (not his real name, either), one of the richest men in the River Market. She convinced them to publish a collection of the best stories, poems, etc, and it sold like all heck, powered by an expensive printing press, a decent price, and a lot of publicity, by the limited standards of post-war books.
While Mrs. Bucks made plenty, so did Pierce and the others, and Pierce, with convincing, turned this group into a society. He'd call it "The Dead Poets' Society" because, in his words, "All the best poets are dead. Including us."
The Society was open to all ghouls who submitted at least one 'interesting' work, and comes with a cool button of a wilting flower and a quill pen. Humans cannot join, but a yearly donation could get them "friend" status.
It worked.
Now the society is larger and more popular than ever, with fans across the Wasteland. Some members of the society are wondering and arguing what they should do with all of the money, recognition and admiration, whether they should be activists, or archivists recovering the culture or the path, or scholars, or… what?
Mrs. Bucks has bought a building, and once a month the members of the society who can come, and those who can't send letters and share everything they've written or drawn. This is often before a surprisingly large crowd who pay to get in and listen, and who shower the Poets with rather more admiration than they're used to. The contents of these meetings are pruned for the best, and an every-two-months journal has been released for the past year, including photos of the statues and paintings some ghouls have branched out into.
There are debates on whether or not to include scholarship in the Society, or whether it would dilute their mission and meaning or not.
Either way, thus far it seems a surprising success story in a wasteland filled with stories that end, rather than begin, with death.
*****
A/N: On a bit of a roll.
Overview: Despite the fact that in the wasteland the dead outnumber the living a million times over, the Kansas City Wasteland isn't a place to be dead… especially if you are still walking around. With little community, ghouls are often lonely. Augustus Pierce (not his real name, he admits) didn't intend to start a movement when he wrote a poem, "Zombie" on a wall. But a week later, there was a reply poem on that lonely wall, from another ghoul, Melissa Matters. They started playing a game of sorts, writing poems or stories and putting them at dead drops to read and exchange.
Soon other ghouls joined in and even met face to face on rare occasion. Their poems were often about wasteland life, the old world, or being a ghoul, and so this seemed to bind them together. Before they knew it, dozens of ghouls were contributing, and added to fiction and poetry was non-fiction, philosophy and even drawings. Spurred into openness by a welcoming community and clever rules to keep them from danger, they flourished. They drew attention, yes. Some of it was negative, but that's why they mostly relied on letters sent via friends, and dead drops or brief meetings or writing up on walls. But they also drew positive attention.
In this case, the admiration of Clarissa Bucks, the self-made wealthy wife of Bigg Bucks (not his real name, either), one of the richest men in the River Market. She convinced them to publish a collection of the best stories, poems, etc, and it sold like all heck, powered by an expensive printing press, a decent price, and a lot of publicity, by the limited standards of post-war books.
While Mrs. Bucks made plenty, so did Pierce and the others, and Pierce, with convincing, turned this group into a society. He'd call it "The Dead Poets' Society" because, in his words, "All the best poets are dead. Including us."
The Society was open to all ghouls who submitted at least one 'interesting' work, and comes with a cool button of a wilting flower and a quill pen. Humans cannot join, but a yearly donation could get them "friend" status.
It worked.
Now the society is larger and more popular than ever, with fans across the Wasteland. Some members of the society are wondering and arguing what they should do with all of the money, recognition and admiration, whether they should be activists, or archivists recovering the culture or the path, or scholars, or… what?
Mrs. Bucks has bought a building, and once a month the members of the society who can come, and those who can't send letters and share everything they've written or drawn. This is often before a surprisingly large crowd who pay to get in and listen, and who shower the Poets with rather more admiration than they're used to. The contents of these meetings are pruned for the best, and an every-two-months journal has been released for the past year, including photos of the statues and paintings some ghouls have branched out into.
There are debates on whether or not to include scholarship in the Society, or whether it would dilute their mission and meaning or not.
Either way, thus far it seems a surprising success story in a wasteland filled with stories that end, rather than begin, with death.
*****
A/N: On a bit of a roll.
Game: First Chargen options
- Pronouns
- They/Them
SSo, in the game, you'd have four origin options. Two of them are local, which has its advantages and disadvantages, and two are foreign, one coming from the east (in MIssouri) and another from the West (in Kansas)
The Rebel
Born under the authoriatiran rule of the Housing Authority, the largest government in the Kansas City wasteland, you rebelled against the rules, you committed crimes of both housing, thought, and many other ones, and yet you lived, safe and unjailed, to tell the tale. Now, running away north of the river, you seek a new, freer home, or even the downfall of the tyranny of the HA.
Archetypes: Tinker, Scholar, Soldier, Spy.
The Survivor
There are many small communities in the Kansas City Wasteland, ranging from a single family to dozens and dozens of people, all fiercely independent from the major powers. Not long ago, you were part of one such group. Now you are the last survivor. But vengeance and a new life await in River Market, and you will survive. You will thrive.
Archetypes: The Ghoul, The Gunsmith, The Scavanger, The Parent, The Trader
The Saboteur
From the west you come, on a mission of anything but mercy. A lost chance for glory, or power, or perhaps even the life of those you care for. But perhaps it is also a hope for a new life, or for your own sort of revenge. The orders: learn of the Kansas City wasteland. And then...and then comes the hard part. One thing at a time: first you must make it to the city alive, and ready to learn and act.
Archetypes: Brutal General, Conniving Politican, Night Rider, Corporate Executive.
The "Manchurian Agent"
To the east is your home, but you have begun the journey of a thousand (really, less) miles with the first steps. The Directorate and the people it represents and consists of have decided to know about their neighbors. Are they amiable to trade, will they be friends and allies, or are they monsters or chaotic enemies to be fought against or even conquered? Just what are they, and can they be trusted? You will be the first of your kind in Kansas City in centuries. For the honor of your Ancestors, and the good of the People, you must not fail.
Archetypes: Diplomat, Warrior, Merchant-Adventurer, Scout
The Rebel
Born under the authoriatiran rule of the Housing Authority, the largest government in the Kansas City wasteland, you rebelled against the rules, you committed crimes of both housing, thought, and many other ones, and yet you lived, safe and unjailed, to tell the tale. Now, running away north of the river, you seek a new, freer home, or even the downfall of the tyranny of the HA.
Archetypes: Tinker, Scholar, Soldier, Spy.
The Survivor
There are many small communities in the Kansas City Wasteland, ranging from a single family to dozens and dozens of people, all fiercely independent from the major powers. Not long ago, you were part of one such group. Now you are the last survivor. But vengeance and a new life await in River Market, and you will survive. You will thrive.
Archetypes: The Ghoul, The Gunsmith, The Scavanger, The Parent, The Trader
The Saboteur
From the west you come, on a mission of anything but mercy. A lost chance for glory, or power, or perhaps even the life of those you care for. But perhaps it is also a hope for a new life, or for your own sort of revenge. The orders: learn of the Kansas City wasteland. And then...and then comes the hard part. One thing at a time: first you must make it to the city alive, and ready to learn and act.
Archetypes: Brutal General, Conniving Politican, Night Rider, Corporate Executive.
The "Manchurian Agent"
To the east is your home, but you have begun the journey of a thousand (really, less) miles with the first steps. The Directorate and the people it represents and consists of have decided to know about their neighbors. Are they amiable to trade, will they be friends and allies, or are they monsters or chaotic enemies to be fought against or even conquered? Just what are they, and can they be trusted? You will be the first of your kind in Kansas City in centuries. For the honor of your Ancestors, and the good of the People, you must not fail.
Archetypes: Diplomat, Warrior, Merchant-Adventurer, Scout
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- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
P sure it's Saboteur?
And incidentally that sounds the coolest. It would be sort of the opposite of how most SV quests go, tearing down a structure instead of building it up.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I don't want to tell too much about the foreign options, but you can sorta guess a little about each option from the Archetypes offered. They reflect the possible range of things that fit that I could put in each category.
For instance, the Housing Authority Rebel has the most "normal" modern Archetypes. Though, as you'll see, they're far from normal or modern. But there's a facade that is reflected in the Archetypes.
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As usual all of these sound incredible cool^^
You have a real talent for crafting cool characters. Personally right now the Survivor archetype sounds the most interesting to me though all of them sound awesome^^
You have a real talent for crafting cool characters. Personally right now the Survivor archetype sounds the most interesting to me though all of them sound awesome^^
Major Faction: The Housing Authority
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Major Faction: The Housing Authority
Overview: Arguably the most populated (few keep exact track) and certainly one of the most powerful groups in the Kansas City Wasteland, the Housing Authority, also known simply as the Authority, has thousands of citizens, living in the apartments, homes, and barracks they have built and modified, covering the heartland of the city itself. They live their whole lives, most of them, in a system that is by now ninety-nine years old.
The Housing Authority was founded to remove chaos from the wasteland. For the true problem was clearly the individualism and lawlessness of the people. They prevented society from rebuilding in the aftermath of the end of the world, and so the people needed a strong leader and strong rules. These rules are for their benefit and their benefit alone, and help them know exactly how they must live, act, think, breed, eat, sleep and die in a manner that brings prosperity to all.
(This is Samuel, chiming in with what you need to know. I'll be providing a little context to some of what they're saying, in this broadcast recorded below. It's a test run, and the actual speech is a little more convincing. But it covers the basics pretty well.)
Life Cycle of the Happy Citizen:
Our care for You begins at birth. Mothers not doing vital functions are allowed to reduce their duties considerably and live in birth creches in order to ensure proper action and results. When you are born, you are given a name chosen at random to make sure there is no bias, and placed in one of our raising-places, where attentive guardians raise you and others at no greater a ratio than six to one. You are, as you know, taught the basics of socialization and the rules of society until you are six, at which point it is the time for a fuller education in the nature of the Authority and your place in the world.
You no doubt fondly remember the many lessons, and the friends and comrades you gained as you learned to be a proper citizen, as well as all appropriate foundational knowledge, such as basic mathematics, literacy, and logic.
(It is true that they provide schooling. It was certainly one of the draws earlier on).
At twelve, we test all citizen for loyalty skills, as well as for moral weaknesses and mental illnesses such as split-mind, hallucination, and excessive and harmful individualism. We also test for Class 1, 2, and 3 Deviances of all types, including sexual deviances, and provide a helpful course of indoctrination and mindful education towards your strongest skills and attributes from twelve to eighteen.
(Classes of deviance are complicated, though when it comes down to it, the whole system sort of disgusts me. Class one deviances are things like homosexuality, different tastes in music or fashion, or other such things. Class ones that they have a record of correcting via punishment and encouragement, such as music, they do. Those that they don't, they don't, but monitor, though a class one can never lead to a culling.
Class twos are various sexual fetishes, open complaints about the leadership, highly antisocial tendencies or mental illnesses, violence, etc, etc. These are punished and corrected
Class threes are acts such as rape, pedophilia, assault, crippling mental illness, and of course declaring that the Housing Authority is wrong or incorrect in something more important than a very minor point of fact. It leads to confinement, 'prison' time, and only rarely any attempts to rehabilitate such people.
Class four is murder, treason, and other such things. It almost always leads to culling and death.
So in a way, tons of people have minor deviances, but these are tolerated and used as a stick over their heads…)
The glorious Authority promises all citizens a place to live, food to eat, and the promise of usefulness and the potential for genetic survivor. This all depends, though, on proper behavior, and particularly deviant teenagers have been culled and removed from the group or cast out to live on their own. But you were not that deviant, were you? Nod now. Very good. So you will be assigned to a living quarters and your fitting profession.
Most of our citizens work as food production technicians, raising a variety of crops--
(Mushrooms. Potatoes. Other things…)
And creatures for consumption.
(Radroaches, actually.)
Our basement and rooftop farming is innovative and always needs more help, and our breeders and animal-tenders as well could always use a new assistant. These are all worthy endeavors that anyone could spend a lifetime on, and that are needed for our community.
(Honestly, it is kind of impressive how far they stretch those mushrooms and rooftop crops. As many people as they have, it's a pretty important job, so of course it gets most of the citizens. It's not really even that low status, not like menials.)
Or you could be a menial manager, helping to clean, serve, and feed the populace, as well as keep the building working. Whether lifting valuable goods, carrying supplies or messages, cleaning housing units, or making meals for the good of all, our Menial Managers are very important!
(And very low on the totem pole. Though with the rise of some primitive 'putting-out' factories, that's changing a little.)
Of course, so are our specialists! The repairmen, gun-smiths, education specialists, doctors, guardian units and others are important. They are a broad category bout they should receive a round of applause. Clap now.
OUr Defense Experts help keep our people safe from external foes as our Housing Inspectors, if you should have the honor of being one, make sure that deviance and dissension from individual, selfish troublemakers doesn't ruin the happiness of our loyal citizens. Like you!
(Alright, spooks and soldiers. Their soldiers are usually armed with firearms and grey body armor. They're pretty good working together in groups, but except for the more independent-minded of them, they struggle when they can't use group tactics and don't have proper leadership. These soldiers are the core, but in times of conflict, they usually recruit heavily from the menials, who are often eager to prove themselves worthy of inclusion and increased rank. Some do. Many die.
The spooks, well. They're nasty business. They recruit spies amid the people, and drag away dissidents and those who break too many of the laws. They have eyes everywhere, they watch for everything, and they aren't above doing some pretty nasty things to their prisoners. The only good news is that they lack any sort of brainwashing technology. They'd abuse it even more than some have in the past. They're also in charge of propaganda.)
Finally there are our Overseers, should you be declared one. They help guide our people for the good of the whole.
(There's a reason that not much is said about them. And it isn't lack of importance.)
All citizens are guaranteed enough food to live on as well as housing, the quality and quantity of both determined by circumstances and the usefulness of the citizen to our community. Hard workers are allocated special tokens that can be exchanged for approved amenities. Possession of bottlecaps is a class two deviance, and will be punished.
(For the lower status menials, it's often four or so to a single room, with bunk beds and other menials in the next room as a sort of work barracks, with Radroach meat being the main delicacy. It, and the lodging, gets better the further up you get, but if you're a Citizen, you are at least not out on the street.
They don't have bottle caps because that might encourage outside contact, and the tokens can be exchanged for, as they said, better quarters, permitted radio time to designated stations, alcoholic beverages and more SROs (Sexual Relaxation Opportunities) among other things.)
All citizens have the right to a minimal amount of medical care until they turn fifty, at which point, care may vary based on the needs of the many. This care includes treatment for wounds, and preventative care, but there are some illnesses that we cannot treat for everyone for default.
(Such as cancer.)
In addition to the comradeship of fellow workers, the Authority understands--and yes, I know you were going to ask--that people have physical needs. Each citizen is allotted one Sexual Relaxation Opportunity per month, and may earn more. Citizens are paired up by random lot to fulfill each other's SROs. Citizens with a class 1 sexual deviance are randomly paired only with those who share complementary deviances, if it is possible. SROs, are not mandatory and may be waived by any citizen if they so desire, but cannot be saved up. Contraceptives are provided because unwanted life is a strain on our resources and the lives of our citizens.
(The Housing Authority almost never provides its people more than general details about the outside world. Even names aren't mentioned, though citizens are not stupid. These contraceptives, for instance, are clearly from trade with the Archies.)
All citizens, regardless of their other status, must be available as an inseminator/child-bearer upon demand of the community as a whole. This is chosen through random lottery at such times, at at such times only, that our wise Overseers deem that the population should be increased or maintained.
(They throttle it back or ramp it up based on need, and other than exempting higher-ranked Overseers, who are barred from having children because it might create favoritism, it truly does seem random. It's a damn clinical way to choose parents, especially when they aren't parents. They don't raise the kids at all, or even necessarily know who they are, after birth of course. It's pretty distasteful, but it actually does work in preventing starvation and so on, at least usually. But the fact that they lack indirect methods to make babies and thus… )
As you can see, our glorious and eternal Authority has seen to all of your needs from cradle to grave.
(The biggest lie is that it is eternal. Much of this has only been true for the last two or three decades, at most.)
Foreign Policy:
(Despite their token economy, they trade quite a bit for what they need, which means that, yes, Overseers have access to quite a few bottle-caps. Smaller communities near the Housing Authority are often forced to trade unfavorably, and those those conquered are usually deemed 'non-citizens' for some time and exploited for the good of the citizens. In the current Confederacy, they made entire towns virtual slaves to improve the lot of "their people." It is a cycle, where over time, non-citizens are absorbed into Citizenry, and the band spreads.
They're currently trying to improve relations with River Market (despite what they did) and the Archies for their push against the super mutants. It is clear they intend to protect and exploit nearby communities to save their system, for after the loss two years ago, the standard of living is lower than it has been in decades for everyone.
Appeal: As a proud do-gooder without borders or allegiances, I think it's important to try to understand why people still live like this. I think that security is tempting and against the wastes, the assurances they offer can be too tempting, at least at the start. And once you're in, once they've started spreading, there's no choice but to join or run. Citizens have a right to eat enshrined in the founding lawbooks, and the promise of a system that can avoid the mistakes of the wasteland is tempting, if ephemeral.
Because they offer, however twisted, a vision of 'normalcy' and 'regularity' of sorts. You work a hard day, "buy" a cold brew, sign up for an SRO in a few days at most, and then return to an apartment provided by the state to listen to approved music and then fall asleep. It is limited, yes, but doesn't include unscheduled mutant dog maulings or Arrowhead raids... at least in theory.
But if they can be resisted, and if more can be offered than they do, and maybe they'll finally…
Well, a guy can hope.
--Samuel "Tommy" Day.)
*****
A/N: So, the last major faction! And an introduction to a somewhat important NPC. Especially important if you're the "Manchurian Agent" or dealing with the east, but important even without that.
Overview: Arguably the most populated (few keep exact track) and certainly one of the most powerful groups in the Kansas City Wasteland, the Housing Authority, also known simply as the Authority, has thousands of citizens, living in the apartments, homes, and barracks they have built and modified, covering the heartland of the city itself. They live their whole lives, most of them, in a system that is by now ninety-nine years old.
The Housing Authority was founded to remove chaos from the wasteland. For the true problem was clearly the individualism and lawlessness of the people. They prevented society from rebuilding in the aftermath of the end of the world, and so the people needed a strong leader and strong rules. These rules are for their benefit and their benefit alone, and help them know exactly how they must live, act, think, breed, eat, sleep and die in a manner that brings prosperity to all.
(This is Samuel, chiming in with what you need to know. I'll be providing a little context to some of what they're saying, in this broadcast recorded below. It's a test run, and the actual speech is a little more convincing. But it covers the basics pretty well.)
Life Cycle of the Happy Citizen:
Our care for You begins at birth. Mothers not doing vital functions are allowed to reduce their duties considerably and live in birth creches in order to ensure proper action and results. When you are born, you are given a name chosen at random to make sure there is no bias, and placed in one of our raising-places, where attentive guardians raise you and others at no greater a ratio than six to one. You are, as you know, taught the basics of socialization and the rules of society until you are six, at which point it is the time for a fuller education in the nature of the Authority and your place in the world.
You no doubt fondly remember the many lessons, and the friends and comrades you gained as you learned to be a proper citizen, as well as all appropriate foundational knowledge, such as basic mathematics, literacy, and logic.
(It is true that they provide schooling. It was certainly one of the draws earlier on).
At twelve, we test all citizen for loyalty skills, as well as for moral weaknesses and mental illnesses such as split-mind, hallucination, and excessive and harmful individualism. We also test for Class 1, 2, and 3 Deviances of all types, including sexual deviances, and provide a helpful course of indoctrination and mindful education towards your strongest skills and attributes from twelve to eighteen.
(Classes of deviance are complicated, though when it comes down to it, the whole system sort of disgusts me. Class one deviances are things like homosexuality, different tastes in music or fashion, or other such things. Class ones that they have a record of correcting via punishment and encouragement, such as music, they do. Those that they don't, they don't, but monitor, though a class one can never lead to a culling.
Class twos are various sexual fetishes, open complaints about the leadership, highly antisocial tendencies or mental illnesses, violence, etc, etc. These are punished and corrected
Class threes are acts such as rape, pedophilia, assault, crippling mental illness, and of course declaring that the Housing Authority is wrong or incorrect in something more important than a very minor point of fact. It leads to confinement, 'prison' time, and only rarely any attempts to rehabilitate such people.
Class four is murder, treason, and other such things. It almost always leads to culling and death.
So in a way, tons of people have minor deviances, but these are tolerated and used as a stick over their heads…)
The glorious Authority promises all citizens a place to live, food to eat, and the promise of usefulness and the potential for genetic survivor. This all depends, though, on proper behavior, and particularly deviant teenagers have been culled and removed from the group or cast out to live on their own. But you were not that deviant, were you? Nod now. Very good. So you will be assigned to a living quarters and your fitting profession.
Most of our citizens work as food production technicians, raising a variety of crops--
(Mushrooms. Potatoes. Other things…)
And creatures for consumption.
(Radroaches, actually.)
Our basement and rooftop farming is innovative and always needs more help, and our breeders and animal-tenders as well could always use a new assistant. These are all worthy endeavors that anyone could spend a lifetime on, and that are needed for our community.
(Honestly, it is kind of impressive how far they stretch those mushrooms and rooftop crops. As many people as they have, it's a pretty important job, so of course it gets most of the citizens. It's not really even that low status, not like menials.)
Or you could be a menial manager, helping to clean, serve, and feed the populace, as well as keep the building working. Whether lifting valuable goods, carrying supplies or messages, cleaning housing units, or making meals for the good of all, our Menial Managers are very important!
(And very low on the totem pole. Though with the rise of some primitive 'putting-out' factories, that's changing a little.)
Of course, so are our specialists! The repairmen, gun-smiths, education specialists, doctors, guardian units and others are important. They are a broad category bout they should receive a round of applause. Clap now.
OUr Defense Experts help keep our people safe from external foes as our Housing Inspectors, if you should have the honor of being one, make sure that deviance and dissension from individual, selfish troublemakers doesn't ruin the happiness of our loyal citizens. Like you!
(Alright, spooks and soldiers. Their soldiers are usually armed with firearms and grey body armor. They're pretty good working together in groups, but except for the more independent-minded of them, they struggle when they can't use group tactics and don't have proper leadership. These soldiers are the core, but in times of conflict, they usually recruit heavily from the menials, who are often eager to prove themselves worthy of inclusion and increased rank. Some do. Many die.
The spooks, well. They're nasty business. They recruit spies amid the people, and drag away dissidents and those who break too many of the laws. They have eyes everywhere, they watch for everything, and they aren't above doing some pretty nasty things to their prisoners. The only good news is that they lack any sort of brainwashing technology. They'd abuse it even more than some have in the past. They're also in charge of propaganda.)
Finally there are our Overseers, should you be declared one. They help guide our people for the good of the whole.
(There's a reason that not much is said about them. And it isn't lack of importance.)
All citizens are guaranteed enough food to live on as well as housing, the quality and quantity of both determined by circumstances and the usefulness of the citizen to our community. Hard workers are allocated special tokens that can be exchanged for approved amenities. Possession of bottlecaps is a class two deviance, and will be punished.
(For the lower status menials, it's often four or so to a single room, with bunk beds and other menials in the next room as a sort of work barracks, with Radroach meat being the main delicacy. It, and the lodging, gets better the further up you get, but if you're a Citizen, you are at least not out on the street.
They don't have bottle caps because that might encourage outside contact, and the tokens can be exchanged for, as they said, better quarters, permitted radio time to designated stations, alcoholic beverages and more SROs (Sexual Relaxation Opportunities) among other things.)
All citizens have the right to a minimal amount of medical care until they turn fifty, at which point, care may vary based on the needs of the many. This care includes treatment for wounds, and preventative care, but there are some illnesses that we cannot treat for everyone for default.
(Such as cancer.)
In addition to the comradeship of fellow workers, the Authority understands--and yes, I know you were going to ask--that people have physical needs. Each citizen is allotted one Sexual Relaxation Opportunity per month, and may earn more. Citizens are paired up by random lot to fulfill each other's SROs. Citizens with a class 1 sexual deviance are randomly paired only with those who share complementary deviances, if it is possible. SROs, are not mandatory and may be waived by any citizen if they so desire, but cannot be saved up. Contraceptives are provided because unwanted life is a strain on our resources and the lives of our citizens.
(The Housing Authority almost never provides its people more than general details about the outside world. Even names aren't mentioned, though citizens are not stupid. These contraceptives, for instance, are clearly from trade with the Archies.)
All citizens, regardless of their other status, must be available as an inseminator/child-bearer upon demand of the community as a whole. This is chosen through random lottery at such times, at at such times only, that our wise Overseers deem that the population should be increased or maintained.
(They throttle it back or ramp it up based on need, and other than exempting higher-ranked Overseers, who are barred from having children because it might create favoritism, it truly does seem random. It's a damn clinical way to choose parents, especially when they aren't parents. They don't raise the kids at all, or even necessarily know who they are, after birth of course. It's pretty distasteful, but it actually does work in preventing starvation and so on, at least usually. But the fact that they lack indirect methods to make babies and thus… )
As you can see, our glorious and eternal Authority has seen to all of your needs from cradle to grave.
(The biggest lie is that it is eternal. Much of this has only been true for the last two or three decades, at most.)
Foreign Policy:
(Despite their token economy, they trade quite a bit for what they need, which means that, yes, Overseers have access to quite a few bottle-caps. Smaller communities near the Housing Authority are often forced to trade unfavorably, and those those conquered are usually deemed 'non-citizens' for some time and exploited for the good of the citizens. In the current Confederacy, they made entire towns virtual slaves to improve the lot of "their people." It is a cycle, where over time, non-citizens are absorbed into Citizenry, and the band spreads.
They're currently trying to improve relations with River Market (despite what they did) and the Archies for their push against the super mutants. It is clear they intend to protect and exploit nearby communities to save their system, for after the loss two years ago, the standard of living is lower than it has been in decades for everyone.
Appeal: As a proud do-gooder without borders or allegiances, I think it's important to try to understand why people still live like this. I think that security is tempting and against the wastes, the assurances they offer can be too tempting, at least at the start. And once you're in, once they've started spreading, there's no choice but to join or run. Citizens have a right to eat enshrined in the founding lawbooks, and the promise of a system that can avoid the mistakes of the wasteland is tempting, if ephemeral.
Because they offer, however twisted, a vision of 'normalcy' and 'regularity' of sorts. You work a hard day, "buy" a cold brew, sign up for an SRO in a few days at most, and then return to an apartment provided by the state to listen to approved music and then fall asleep. It is limited, yes, but doesn't include unscheduled mutant dog maulings or Arrowhead raids... at least in theory.
But if they can be resisted, and if more can be offered than they do, and maybe they'll finally…
Well, a guy can hope.
--Samuel "Tommy" Day.)
*****
A/N: So, the last major faction! And an introduction to a somewhat important NPC. Especially important if you're the "Manchurian Agent" or dealing with the east, but important even without that.
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- Pronouns
- They/Them
Ah, as always when someone describes an heavily collectivist regime I struggle to consider it a really bad thing
It does offer some positive elements, and it's meant to feel both familiar and unfamiliar. Like there are parts that are very typical "You could read about this and think that you were reading about a 20th century communist dictatorship" and then there are SROs and carefully classing sexual deviances but not directly punishing the minor ones.
Ultimately, are they bad for the wasteland at large? Probably. But, like, they're not meant to be some special kind of evil that, because it is collectivist, is especially horrifying or disgusting.
- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
How do SROs work? Like, do you cash in one and then you're provided with a partner, or do you have to spend one anytime you have sex, or?
Also interesting that fetishes are more of a deviance than homosexuality. That's technically open minded ness?
- Pronouns
- They/Them
You can only have sex through SROs, yes. I mean, other than procreative mating. You cash one in, and then you're provided with a partner who also cashed one in. Or a random person (remember, it's chosen randomly) with an uncashed SRO is like, "Hey, if you want you were randomly chosen, wanna spend it?"
You can obviously just say, "Hey, not interested in sex." Or whatnot. Though not for the mating thing.
There have been some discussions about the idea of a specific, "SRO-provider" position, but it's been judged inefficient and with the coming of the hard times after the loss to the Confederacy, any ideas in that regard have been shelved.
The random choosing, note, takes in mind 'sexual deviances'. So, say, if you're a gay man, your SROs are chosen from a pool of others who are the same. Because it's a sexual relaxation opportunity, so they want it to provide happiness.
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