A Million Ways To Die In The Wasteland

War. War never changes…

Since the dawn of man, he has killed for everything - from God, justice, to simple psychotic rage, as in the past, when Romans have fought war to gather slaves and wealth and Spain built an empire from its lust for gold and territory. In the 21st century, war was still raged over its resources - petroleum and uranium, which however were also its weapons. For acquiring those two resources, China would invade Alaska, the US would annex Canada, and the European Commonwealth would dissolve into quarreling, bickering nationstates, bent on controlling the last remaining resources on Earth.

In 2077, the storm of world war had come again. On October 23, in brief two hours, most of the planet was reduced to cinders. A great cleansing, an atomic spark struck by human hands, quickly raged out of control. Spears of nuclear fire rained from the skies. Continents were swallowed in flames and fell beneath the boiling oceans. Humanity was almost extinguished, their spirits becoming part of the background radiation that blanketed the earth.

But it was not the end, as some may have predicted. It was merely the beginning of a bloody new chapter in human history. Lucky few have managed to seek shelter in great underground vaults.

It’s where you were born. Vault 117, near Springsfield, IL. It is where you were born. Your home.

Here we are, yet another day in the mindless everyday living in Vaullt 117. There’s a slight power outage, but you pay no attention to it. Since you were born, these have been a part of your life, although in recent times they’ve been fairly often occurring. As you’re playing Super Vault Boy, suddenly, your Pipboy’s turned off.

“C’mon here, it’s no gaming time. You’ve been picked. Out of all the 1000 residents here, you must go out and save us. Our power plant’s slowly dying out; whole wonder it has survived so long. ‘Arry has worked on it, but he’s gone now. You must go out and save us. To the north, near Chicago, a RobCo factory lies. There’s hope there, that perhaps there lie the parts we need…”

He also hands you out a survey.

“You’re SPECIAL. We all are. But what’s your...SPECIALty? Select 3.

1. Strength is what I am. My muscles are strong and allow to lift large objects!
2. Perceptivity allows me to see what others miss; loot caches hidden from people’s eyes.
3. Enduring things no one else can do and facing great punishment; that’s me, all right!
4. Charismatic, I am. I get around with ladies/gentlemen (circle as appropriate), and I can calm down people’s feelings.
5. Intelligence allows me to access and use the information I’ve learnt. I can hack into computers with ease and use scientific information to help myself and others.
6. Agile and stealthy, I can come behind you before you know it...and if you do, I can draw my gun and shoot you with deadly precision.
7. Lucky, I am. Lady Luck smiles on me nine times out of ten, resulting into interesting results.

And let’s move on to your learnt skills. You did learn something for all those 20 years, no?

First off are your...martial skills, so as to speak. Pick 2

1. Guns
2. Explosives
3. Energy Weapons
4. Melee Weapons
5. Unarmed

Second, your less-hurtful skills (well, all depends on the personality…). Again, select 2.

1. Medicine
2. Science
3. Repair
4. Lockpicking
5. Sneak
6. Speech

Well, are you done? If so, give the survey to your nearest Vault-Tec officer in your vicinity or to your Overseer directly.”

IF YOU CAME HERE BY SIG LINK AND DON'T FEEL LIKE DIGGING THROUGH THREAD TO READ ALL UPDATES


Well, before you take a dip into the scorching wastelands of the Prairie Wastelands (or the Windy Wastes, as the areas closer to Chicago are known as), here’s several things.

First, for stats:

Be wary of what you pick. You’ll gain extra points into the stats you pick, but the rest will be mothballed. So plan accordingly. Same applies for skills.

Second, for tone:

Expect...more Fallout 2/NV than Fallout 1 or 3. There’ll be wacky encounters which you’ll find either infuriating or weird. Although the cultural references ones will be most likely cut - expect no crashed Enterprise shuttles in the middle of nowhere!

Third: You have one year to find parts for the power plant. You need a new chip for the coolant generators, new set of turbines, and a new tri-processor motherboard. While game won’t be over, you’ll feel bad about it and stuff. I mean, probably.

Fourtly: This is a CYOA, despite any FUDs being spread around. Have trust in your Overseer!

Fiftly (yes, check this post often..): Your skills would be better put to use if you have the appropriate SPECIALs: i.e, AGI for Guns, Sneak, INT for Science and so on.

Charisma
Intelligence
Luck

Energy Weapons
Melee Weapons

Speech
Lockpicking.

Strength
Endurance
Agility

Guns
Melee Weapons

Sneak
Repair

Intelligence
Charisma
Luck

Energy
Melee

Snek
Speech

Strength
Endurance
Luck

Unarmed
Melee Weapons

Lockpicking
Sneak

Wanderer SMASH puny mutant!

Charisma
Agility
Intelligence

Guns
Melee

Speech
Sneak

Intelligence
Agility
Luck

Melee Weapons
Explosives

Lock-picking
Sneak

Charisma
Intelligence
Luck

Guns
Unarmed

Sneak
Speech

Perceptivity, Intelligence, Charisma

Explosives, Energy weapons

Speech, lock picking.


Hello! No idea what I'm doing, but willing to be there for the ride.

Well, currently you're creating a character, for which I'll write the narrative. After that, I'll give you choices. Via the power of democracy, you'll choose whether our dear Wayfarer (the name we'll use. if anyone has any better ideas don't be afraid to call!) will die or live.

Charismatic, I am. I get around with ladies/gentlemen (circle as appropriate), and I can calm down people’s feelings.
Intelligence allows me to access and use the information I’ve learnt. I can hack into computers with ease and use scientific information to help myself and others.
Lucky, I am. Lady Luck smiles on me nine times out of ten, resulting into interesting results.

Guns
Melee Weapons

Science
Speech

Link to video.



3rd April, 2260

You're preparing yourself to leave Vault 117, possibly forever. All that greets you is the night sky of the wasteland. It sure is dark. Your eyes have adapted to the Simu-Sun lightning system in the Vault, which supposedly was simulating the sun, but at moments you thought it was just straining your eyes. And while the power outages made you attuned to the darkness to a degree, the night makes you uneasy. It'll be a long night, and you have no idea if you'll ever return again to Vault 117.

You thought about your friends left in the Vault. Surely, you are doing this for them, no? It is not a mere chance that picked you, right? You were destined...to be doomed. Or perhaps not. With each step you're remembering the life you've been chosen to leave behind.

You remember the GOAT test, according to which, you were supposed to be a Shift Supervisor. That probably wouldn't have helped you much in life, as nobody likes these people, always sneaking around and surprising people while they're supposedly "working". So, one of your peers, Brad, who never liked you for being a "bloody damned charismatic bastard" (That you were one charismatic bastard was true), who also probably hated you for stealing his girlfriend Betsy, a wound that never healed, has decided that they would teach the future Mr. Shift (He wasn't the brightest bulb.) a good lesson (But he was strong in the muscles, sadly.) that they should be left alone to smoke their cigarettes and drink whiskey. Probably.

So, their plan was to surprise you in the tens of toilets in the Vault with the pants down, then beat you down. That will teach Mr. Shifty a damn good lesson, ey? Unfortunately, you sure did have an effect on women when you were 16 (and you hope to God that even in your 20s you still do!). One of the...groupies, so as to speak, had decided to give away their plan. Of course, getting beaten up with your pants on the ground was something less-than-optimal for you, as you'd be the joke of the Vault 117. And since the potential for interesting things in a bunker underground filled with 500 people who haven't seen the outside for the last 180 years is rather nil, that story would be told on and on for generations, until it becomes the Illiad of Vault 117.

Fortunately for you, ya were a smart one, and devised a clever ploy. All you needed was the key to bathroom 18, and brinkmanship for the ages to see. Also smooth agility, which perhaps was one of the few things you lacked, but, on the other side, you were a damned lucky bastard at times, honestly!

So, you invited Brad and his "band" called The Flaming Molerats (coming from a weird accident where Brad set on fire a molerat while in the sewers) into bathroom 18. You let them in, but you stood close to the door, something they perceived as fear. And they really were stupid; probably someone smarter would have left a guard on the door. You slid out of the door, locked it down, and they raged on for hours until Vault Security unlocked the door, which had jammed. As whether that was luck or not, only one God could know. Since then, they left you alone, and once you did indeed become a Shift Supervisor, they left you all alone. That stupid nickname did stick, however; Mr. Shifty. Goddamnit.

But that's in the past. You gotta prepare...for the future!

1) The Overseer instructed you that your first destination must be the city of Springfield, as surely some sort of organized rabble would have appeared. Plus that, it's only 10km away, it should be 2 days walk at worst.

2) You hear a faint call for help. "IS 55, 55, 55...55...55...". Must be someone on the road (Perception/Intelligence Challenge: Moderate). 1-2 days (best case scenario) or 1-2 weeks (slightly less-than-optimal case scenario)

3) Or you could go for something completely different. Select a direction and go!

Option 2. How can we be sure Springfield isn't just a decaying ruin? How can the Overseer actually know anything?

Option 2

Overseers are universally tools, let's do our own thing.

Option 2

screw you Brad

Option 2:

Radios are better than vaults.

Option 2 sounds like a adventure!

Option one: Screw people in trouble. It's their own damn fault.

Well, actually, I just want to go against the grain, and point out that we might miss more interesting adventures down the road if we chase this relatively uninteresting adventure. Unless Tolni can guarantee that there won't be something more interesting lost in order to pursue this, then I say go for it.

Option 1: Just to be different.