Fallout Role Playing Thread (IntChk, Freeform)

[Neysha]

In 2077, a millennia of sins waged by humanity in the name of resources, greed, power and liberation were paid out. A two hour atomic fueled firestorm raged around the world, reducing the greatest cities of the world to cinders, and billions to ash. Of those few that survived, most found sanctuary in one of the vast underground vaults. It is here that your family, your ancestors, found safety from the nuclear holocaust that enveloped the old world and the hellish twilight that followed.

   From the safety and security of Vault 65, years, then decades, then generations passed. As the old world was swept away, a new one slowly sprang forth, emerging from the rubble, and untamed wilds of what was once the Southern United States. Gradually, as life droned on and on within Vault 65, in the nuclear wasteland above, humanity refused to die off. As other vaults opened up, and other survivors emerged from the shelters of the world before, new tribes, communities and gangs emerged.

   What should have been the conclusion of humanity turned out to merely be another chapter. The opening act to a new age of human history. Humanity grew, and in some cases even thrived. Yet despite being on the verge of annihilation, the mortal vices and sins arose. Those of power, greed, pride and envy.

   After two centuries of comfortable seclusion under a mountain of stone and mud and dirt, the inhabitants of Vault 65 would eventually be forced to confront an important truth. Not only had humanity survived. It had learned nothing from the near twilight of its ancestors.

   Because war. War never changes.
---

Overseer Address to Expeditionary Members

   This viral outbreak is something new. Our medical team has no frame of reference for it. It has similar effects to Cholera, but obviously, it’s viral or so they tell me. Truth is our medical team this generation is far from our best and brightest. If we continue using our antivirals, we’ll run out by weeks end and with hydration therapy at this rate our water rationing will have to be cut. We’re already far outstripping our capability to manufacture new anti-virals and hydration solutions. If something isn’t done, we’re going to face a medically induced die off within six months, max.

   The only reason I’m confronting you about this now is because you are my A-Team. It’s clear that we’ve approached a breaking point. If we don’t get this in check, we’ll have a panic. Then we’ll break quarantine. Then we all die. It’s that simple.
   
   If there was any other option, I would explore it. And I still would. But we have to confront this problem before it reaches critical mass. Your Pip-Boys have been updated with the location of another vault. One with more extensive medical facilities then ours were issued with. It’s probably a good place to start as any.

   It’s been two centuries since the Great War. We’ve seen the immediate vicinity on the cameras. It doesn’t look good out there. All the more reason why we need you to succeed. If we can’t survive in here, we sure as hell won’t be able to live out there.  Needless to say, on behalf of the entire Vaults population, we wish you good luck.

   And please try to come back alive.
---

   This is a Fallout RP, taking place in the Southern United States. Vault 65 is located somewhere in Northwestern Arkansas in the foothills of the Ozarks. The original occupants, roughly a thousand in number, were selected by lottery to be housed in the Vault for two randomly assigned weeks out of the year. Your ancestors were fortunate enough to be located inside the Vault during the first two weeks of October and avoided the effects of the Great War entirely. For the past two centuries, it is where generation after generation of their descendants have remained here, living out their lives in safety.

Contact with the outside world has been nearly nonexistent with the exception of the occasional deployment of camera mounted drones to the immediate vicinity to take atmospheric and soil samples, as well as photographic and video imagery. All reconnaissance reports so far have indicated that remaining in the Vault until an ‘All Clear’ signal is transmitted is the best course of action.

   The Vault itself was constructed in a long abandoned zinc ore mine. As stated in the original brochure given to its residents, its intention is to shelter one thousand Americans in case of Nuclear War or other disaster and barring unforeseen circumstances, had a life support system designed to sustain a population of several hundred inhabitants for upwards of one thousand years if need be. 

Unfortunately, a viral outbreak has threatened the survival of the Vault and the Overseer, running through his potential options, has decided an expedition outside of the Vault is in order despite the risks involved. In this RP, your characters will all be Vault inhabitants who have been voluntold for this expedition beyond the Vault. Normally, people with military, survival or other relevant skills would be preferable to choose in these circumstances. But since we’ve all been living in an underground Vault for all our lives, the Vault computer drew up a list of healthy candidates for the expedition, and you all were randomly selected from the list.

This RP, for those of you familiar with the video games, takes place around the same time as Fallout New Vegas.

If you have any questions or anything of the like, or simply wish to express interest, please feel free to post here or PM me. (especially if you want clarifications before making a character that might be rejected)

Those wishing to join, please fill out the following form, and post it in this thread. We will consider your application! We'd like detailed and literate writers, ideally.

Code Select Expand


[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Appearance:[/b] Photos only, and please use real photos, not drawings or anime characters :)
[b]Skills:[/b] Any important skills or abilities your character might possess. Some description would be nice.
[b]Vault Occupation"[/b] The occupation your character possessed in the Vault.
[b]Background:[/b] A history of the character


If you're having trouble finding a photo, try Christa McGinn's incredible gallery here

And that's about it!

Good luck out there!

Approved Characters:
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Name: Ripley Weston
Age: 24
Appearance:

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Skills: He is a good lockpick, not necessarily a master but he can handle most locks easily. It was a hobby of his when he was young. He is also very adept at sneaking around, he often would sneak out when he was younger and it helped him hone both of these skills.
Vault Occupation: Wiring Technician
Background: Ripley is a young man who is known for going from quiet and mild mannered to angry rather fast. He has the temper of a redhead in spades. He hates to be cooped up in his room all the time and is known to pick the locks on sealed areas to go mess around and have fun. He is also known for his at times hyperactive personality, he is rarely able to sit still and take even a moment to think.

As a kid he was often left alone which started him finding ways to escape every time it happened, as he got older this turned in to lockpicking. It is a hobby to him, he doesn't steal or mess with things but he will pick most any lock, sometimes leaving it open for whoever wants to open the door and see what is inside. He is a simple man who secretly wants to find love and have a family.
--------------------------

Name: Dr. Victor Trik
Age: 32
Skills: (If this were Fallout: NV, his tagged skills would be Medicine, Energy Weapons, and Barter.) Dr. Trik is a general practitioner talented at diagnostics--he can tell what's wrong with someone pretty quickly. He is also a whiz with energy weapons (especially plasma pistols and the like). He also has an argumentative streak and the urge to get the best deal, so he can negotiate like a champ.

Background: Victor's family happened to be in Vault 65 during those two fateful weeks in October, and thusly they were spared. While most people agreed that being safe in the Vault was a blessing, the stir-crazy Trik family felt like the Vault was a living prison and hell. The original Trik family that had been in the Vault those two weeks tested their aptitutes in the medical field, the wife working in diagnostics and the husband being a surgeon, and the wife's brother being a radiologist, so the Overseer had plenty of work for them.

Luck means something important to the residents of Vault 65; after all, it was only pure luck that the inhabitants were saved from the ravages of nuclear war, essentially. The Trik family in particular preternaturally believes in luck and are superstitious as fuck. Everyone in the Vault had hobbies, but the Triks were known for gambling, games of chance, anything involving intuition--the riskier the better. If there was a God, surely that god's name was Lady Luck.

Victor believes that he's excellent at what he does. He's cold and arrogant, and he knows his skills are in demand. However, he is viciously efficient and can set aside his temperament to work with others.  He's just itching to get the hell out of the Vault, too; his family has had more than enough years of being sick of the place. It's highly likely that some people will be displeased to see such a skilled medical professional leave the Vault, but Dr. Trik is aware that he can't help much in the actual Vault anymore. There is simply not enough information and supplies for him to fix what's ailing his fellow Vault dwellers. However, it's likely that more than a few people will be happy to see the luck-fanatic and aloof fellow exit the Vault, feeling that since he couldn't help with the virus now, then he should leave and take his incompetency elsewhere. The good doctor intends to prove them all wrong.

Additional Notes: Dr. Victor Trik has one strange quirk--he does not let anyone see him without his gas mask on. He wore it in the Vault, and he will wear it outside of the Vault. This means that little things, like eating, he won't do in front of others. Rumor has it he won't even take the mask of for more "intimate" activities. He is also a bisexual dom.
------------------------

Name: Michael Voorhees
Age: 29
Appearance:

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Skills: Michael has an affinity for slug throwers, and a generalized distaste and mistrust for energy weapons. Although he finds it easier and more enjoyable to work on solid projectile weapons, Michael can repair and maintain energy weapons too. Where Michael really comes into his own is in the usage of big guns; there is a pure joy that courses through his heart at hearing the report of a heavy gun and feeling the harsh kick of its recoil. Michael also received a fairly broad education in explosives. Michael displays an acceptable proficiency with standard Vault-Tec Security melee weapons, his personnel file contains a notation that Michael possesses exceptional aptitude with a ripper and (likely) chainsaw, but should not be issued such pending psychiatric review.
Vault Occupation: Vault security guard
Background: Michael's pre-war ancestors were a private in the U.S. army fresh out boot camp and a research assistant for one of the Vault-Tec scientists. Both had a genetic predisposition towards athleticism, and the research assistant scored well on various intelligence quotient tests. Beyond this initial pairing, Michael's family tree following the exodus into Vault 65 would contain security guards and technicians; his family was not filled with brilliant scientific minds. Physical proficiency and application was the watchword of a Voorhees, whether it was swinging a hammer or twisting a spanner or cracking the skull of a malcontent with a club. Although there was a brief scandal during the Trials of 2146, where genealogical records showed that there was some Russian in the Voorhees clan, the matter was eventually dismissed when Alan Voorhees was mortally wounded by a bullet intended for the contemporary Overseer, thereby proving loyalty with spilled blood. 

Michael's childhood in the Vault was fairly non-descript; he performed well in youthful athletics and was the largest child of his generation. His physical prowess and aptitude with weaponry saw his groomed for the position of Security Guard early on, and it was no real surprise that he demonstrated an inclination for 'the family business.' Nevertheless, no favouritism was shown to young Michael and, if anything, he faced far stiffer scrutiny and was set higher performance thresholds than other Vault youths training in the same fields. It was probably for the best - Michael had impulses towards violence and excess force that needed the extra discipline to curb. Without it, the boy might have been little better than one of the savages outside the Vault's interior - some bloody raider daubed in blood and shouting about meat.

During a training incident when Michael was 16, four boys decided that they would team up on and injure Michael. The reason was the alleged romantic attentions that Michael received from one Stacey Swansson, the object of desire of the ring leader, one Jonah Ackles. Michael did end up injured, and rather severely. The other boys, however, were injured just as badly or worse, and of them, Jonah sustained spinal injuries so severe that he never walked again. Jonah went on to become third shift supervisor for the Vault nuclear reactor, displaying a profound mastery of the secrets of the atom. After this incident, Michael was not permitted access to rippers, and as a precautionary measure, chainsaws. Michael, to this day, hates Jonah for this for reasons he cannot adequately express by any means of human communication. Barring this incident, Michael's record is untarnished, and his superiors and the Overseer have nothing but excellent comments and praise in his performance reviews. When he is on patrol, there tends to be a statistically significant reduction in petty crime and compliance with basic safety procedures, such as hand rail use, often in direct proportion to one another.

[Strifesblaze7]

Ah, what the hell. I'm tentatively interested.

[Neysha]

Thank you. Did you have any questions about it?

[Strifesblaze7]

I do have a couple. Do you have an ideal age range?

And for skills, do we use the game or just kind of handle it in our own way?

[Neysha]

I do have a couple. Do you have an ideal age range?

In their twenties or thirties preferably.

And for skills, do we use the game or just kind of handle it in our own way?

Eh just handle it in your own way. There's no system here. It's relatively freeform. Fallout is merely the setting. Just pick skills that are relevant to a person whose been living in an underground Vault their whole lives. Thus excessive military or outdoorsman type skills would be unlikely for example.

[Strifesblaze7]

How about a guy who is around 25 and can pick locks and sneak well?

[Neysha]

How about a guy who is around 25 and can pick locks and sneak well?

Should be workable as a basis. Yes.

[Cold Heritage]

How much would the player characters have to be actively foraging for food, clean water, and so forth?

[Strifesblaze7]

Well I will get my ass to work on him soon. Should I put the sheet here or pm you?

[Neysha]

Well I will get my ass to work on him soon. Should I put the sheet here or pm you?

PM me the character for approval preferably.

How much would the player characters have to be actively foraging for food, clean water, and so forth?

As much as is thematically appropriate. ;)

[Strifesblaze7]

Yes ma'am. XD

[Strifesblaze7]

Sent him your way, hope he works.

[Neysha]

Sent him your way, hope he works.

He's suitable enough, even if I'm getting an emo vibe off of him. :p

I kid... I kid...

If this thread generates more interest, I'll start posting up the approved characters somewhere when I'm home.

[Strifesblaze7]

Hah ;D

He seems like he could be a fun emo.

[AngelicBlade]

Well, color my interested, played most of the Fallout games and enjoyed them greatly.

[Neysha]

Well, color my interested, played most of the Fallout games and enjoyed them greatly.

Awesome. Did you have any questions?

Hah ;D

He seems like he could be a fun emo.

Upon review, I must admit, the bio does seem kind of spare. Maybe you can flesh it out more, maybe add some family history and/or occupation in the Vault and whatnot.

Since the Vault is a rather closed and close knit community, whether you like your neighbors or not, everyone likely has a job or occupation in the Vault of varying importance. But there aren't any idle workers so to speak. (lazy might be another thing) So maybe if the bio can also include occupations and family history/relations/ancestry, or other relationships you might have. That would be best. Help flesh out both the characters and Vault 65 itself.

When it comes to family/ancestry, keep in mind most of the original 1000+ Vault dwellers were a near cross section of Middle America and were simply fortunate enough to be located in the Vault (in a voluntary government program where winning families or citizens were randomly selected by lottery) during the two weeks they were supposed to be there. In addition to the families, was a government representative who was in charge of the Vault initially, as well as a small team of engineers/technical staff, medical staff and a security/law enforcement squad and their families or loved ones.

As for occupations, there are a large variety of occupations ranging from important to mundane. Each Vault for example is powered by a Geothermal Power Plant with a backup Nuclear Reactor, which means engineers will always be needed and lesser technicians and general maintenance and technical staff for the grunt work. But then you'd also need electricians, janitorial staff, safety supervisors, someone to keep track of logistics and the supply chain to the power plants etc etc etc.

Or for medical staff, you'd have your General Practitioners, but you'd also need people capable of surgery, and then lesser roles and specialists who are needed even in small segments of population like this. The Vault might not have a specialized Urologist, or even Pathologist or various Topical Disease Specialists (partly thanks to extensive medical databases and things like Auto-Docs and other advances in technology etc) but there'd probably be a General Surgeon, or a Pediatrician and MAYBE an Oncologist or a Cardiologist. (Some generations might've lucked out that a medical student in the Vault chose Cardiology instead of Radiology) as well as various nurses, and medical assistants and vocations that are both common and specialized like dentists. (optometry might be replaced by machines though... sowwe)

But yeah, then there are even lesser occupations. The Fallout games had lots of supposedly silly occupations, and please try to avoid those, but the Vault does still need appliance repairpersons, or robot repairpersons, or waste management specialists, AI programmers, librarians, archivists, cooks, tailors, counselors, chaplains, teachers in various disciplines, etc etc etc.

Things like entertainers would likely be more of a hobby however. And a lot of the general service industry like cashiering or salesfloor type duties might be limited due to the extreme lack of a traditional capitalist economy. (informal bartering or an extremely mild black market is plausible though)

I'm babbling waaaaaaay too much about all this now, but you all get the idea. :)

[Neysha]

I hope my babbling about character bios hasn't SCARED everyone off. :)

[Strifesblaze7]

It shouldn't, I admittedly did give a sparse one.  ;D I was having an issue with getting a good story for him.

[RedMoon]

Interested as well. I'll think up some character ideas.

[Neysha]

Interested as well. I'll think up some character ideas.

Thank you RedMoon. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or post them here for the benefit of us all.

Also I posted the first approved character. So far it's the only one we've got. If we get some more of the people who expressed interest both in the thread and via PM's to submit characters, we can see about bringing this RP to the next level and I can actually start planning to do stuff. :p

[Cold Heritage]

Sorry. Nothing I think of seems cool/worthy enough.

[Neysha]

Sorry. Nothing I think of seems cool/worthy enough.

:(

Don't worry, no one here is cool. Your probably the coolest person in this RP by now. Don't let lack of coolness delay you.

Anything I can do to help?

[MasterTristan]

Are you only looking for Vault dwellers, or wastelanders too?

[Neysha]

Are you only looking for Vault dwellers, or wastelanders too?

Only looking for Vault Dwellers at the moment due to the unity of the party and general lack of setting knowledge.

Did you have an idea in mind?

[Strifesblaze7]

Well how was try number two?