Let's Make: A Fallout Louisiana

[Mad Oracle]

I've been thinking, what would happen if Fallout took place in Louisiana? This has been on my mind for a while, and I was wondering what kind of mutants, people, and factions would live here.

My first idea is a Muck-Gator, which descended from the American Gator. They only attack if provoked, and are a bit lazy unless they're hunting prey. In which they're terrifyingly fast, and capable of crippling a person. Gatorclaws also exist, and they're the result of early Deathclaw experiments.

What do you think?

 

[thepsyborg]

It would be fucking awful to play in survival mode; other than the port, it's not really a significant military or industrial powerhouse (few industrial areas with significant supplies of prewar chems, and most of those are under ten feet of muck and thirty of water after centuries of no levee maintenance), and it's wet and swampy as fuck. Combine that with the usual Fallout "water is radioactive" issue, and radiation management becomes a huge problem.

Muckgators would totally exist, though. Not sure what they'd prey on- probably a local Mirelurk variant, based on crawfish instead of crabs. Slightly smaller, significantly less armored, slightly faster, dramatically more numerous, I think. The "disgustingly-armored-except-for-face-shots" niche is probably filled by a mutated alligator snapping turtle of some kind.

Too wet for radscorpions, sadly. Also probably too wet for cazadores, thank fucking God. Bloatflies might appear in cliff-racer-tier swarms, though. Will this finally be the Fallout where shotguns are actually useful?

I'm also not sure how you'd manage the usual coming-out-of-the-vault intro sequence, as swamps are pretty fucking terrible terrain for underground construction.

 

[Cataphract]

I would definitely make some pseudo-Lovecraftian cult a major secondary faction. It just fits the scenery too well. Perhaps they're a strain of mutant peculiar to the region, and forged a community based off of this. Bonus points if their questline involves finding out that, yeah their Elder God doesn't exist, it's just a religion formed by the first few mutants in order to give their community something to focus on. Or maybe not, it might not work depending on how they comport themselves (perhaps they're reclusive and creepy but not outright hostile, though they've butted heads with other factions... or they can be the homicidal crazy cultists that make trouble for everyone, especially themselves.)

There should also be a mercantile-oriented faction that's almost entirely based off a fleet of riverboats... gambling is a popular (and lucrative) pastime with them.

 

[Avernus]

There should be a region that's a highly radioactive glowing swamp full of feral ghouls that like to hide in the water and rise out of it in mobs when you get close. You can handwave away their need to breathe by saying the radiation sustains them somehow.

 

[Aliexster]

I'd like to see a town built up around the warehouses where all of the old Madi Gras parade floats and supplies were stored and set up this sort of pseudo religion about the various old gods the krewes are named after. There would likely be some sort of oligarchy/republic, made up of the various krewes that have turned the floats into armored war rigs to protect their territories and to make supply runs to other settlements. There's always some political rivalry between the krewes about who's the best, though it mostly boils down to who's the most profitable in trade, throwing the best parties, and getting the most resources than out right combat. Of course they'll dress in outlandishly bright colors and do their best to cater to traveller's needs off food with some acting troops to put on little skits based on their history or what they think it was like in Pre-War Louisiana.

The weird thing, it actually works. The town is functional and a major trade hub of the area with everybody around wanting to go down there for at least a night of fun to escape the drugery of scraping by in post apocalyptia.

 

[Lone Courier]

There should be a region that's a highly radioactive glowing swamp full of feral ghouls that like to hide in the water and rise out of it in mobs when you get close. You can handwave away their need to breathe by saying the radiation sustains them somehow.

Click to shrink...

I think I have a name for that, the Glowing Stretch.

As for how they breathe, they might not need to. Their lungs must be torn to hell and back, meaning that they most likely sustain themselves wholly on radiation.