# A First Look at 2d20 Fallout from Modiphius



## imagineGod (Apr 2, 2021)

Looks like a great game. Not sure why fans of the first Fallout computer game are hating this RPG on some community sites calling it a Fallout 4 type faill.I liked all the Fallout computer games.


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## Reynard (Apr 2, 2021)

imagineGod said:


> Looks like a great game. Not sure why fans of the first Fallout computer game are hating this RPG on some community sites calling it a Fallout 4 type faill.I liked all the Fallout computer games.



It is very definitely an adaptation of Fallout 4 specifically and given how divisive that game is for the fan community. While I like Fallout 4 and am excited to give this RPG a try (I already failed my save and preordered it) I am also somewhat disappointed it isn't a broader "Fallout Universe" RPG. Each game has a distinct tone and different focus and it would have been nice to have a big Fallout toolkit to build our own.


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## R_Chance (Apr 2, 2021)

Advice on converting your locale to a wasteland would have been cool. Hopefully they do setting books. One of the appeals of Fallout 3 for me was the familiarity I have with DC. Fallout 4 is not my favorite in the franchise, but it's pretty good. I could skip the emphasis on settlement building and spend more time on exploration though. 

I am not a fan of the 2D20 system they use, but I might have to pick this up for reading material. And who knows, a well done 2D20 Fallout game may convert me...


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## Jeff Carpenter (Apr 2, 2021)

Rolling low is just not something I can get into. I get that there is nothing wrong with it. I get being number 1 at something means your the best. I even get that for years i played 1e and 2e D&D with roll under mechanics. But psychologicaly i just dont like it. I want to roll high numbers.


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## Abstruse (Apr 2, 2021)

It's not surprising that Modiphius started with Fallout 4 as it's the most recent entry in the franchise (side-eyes anyone who brings up 76) and the best-selling title in the series. It's going to be the most recognizable entry in the franchise to more casual players because of its wide availability. Modiphius took a similar tack when developing the skirmish wargame Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, starting with Fallout 4. Considering they've expanded into the Capital Wasteland and the Mohave with that game, it's very likely that other settings will get their own books in the new future.

There's also the fact that this IS a licensed product and it may not have been Modiphius's decision to focus on the location and timeframe of Fallout 4 compared to the other games in the series since, well, Fallout 1, 2, 3, and New Vegas aren't available on current-gen consoles while Fallout 4 is. I mean it could be worse. They could've insisted on West Virginia.


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## Reynard (Apr 2, 2021)

I hope the game gets robust support and we get sourcebooks for those other regions and eras. I even want a FO76 book. I don't play that game because I like my FO single player, but it is still full of cool stories and beasties.


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## overgeeked (Apr 3, 2021)

Jeff Carpenter said:


> Rolling low is just not something I can get into. I get that there is nothing wrong with it. I get being number 1 at something means your the best. I even get that for years i played 1e and 2e D&D with roll under mechanics. But psychologicaly i just dont like it. I want to roll high numbers.



It's trivial to flip it. Just make a chart if you don't want to do the math every time. 

Formula: 21 - roll under # = roll over #. 

Chart:
RU / RO
1 / 20
2 / 19
3 / 18
4 / 17
5 / 16
6 / 15
7 / 14
8 / 13
9 / 12
10 / 11
11 / 10
12 / 9
13 / 8
14 / 7
15 / 6
16 / 5
17 / 4
18 / 3
19 / 2
20 / 1


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## Paragon Lost (Apr 3, 2021)

* "The designers are second only to Free League in adapting the basic engine to fit different genres and licensees. Sometimes the games are very grainy. Sometimes they are not." -Rob Wieland*

Honestly I feel that Modiphius is number one at doing this and not Free Leagues. Look at how many they've done in comparison.


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## MGibster (Apr 3, 2021)

Does it still have that glitch that prevents you from walking through a door after an NPC walks through it?  I kid because I love.  I've been a big fan of the Fallout games ever since the original isometric games from the 1990s.  Fallout 3 was divisive because the tone changed quite a bit from the originals with Bethesda's first outing into the series.  In the original Fallout series I wasn't consuming centuries old pre-packaged mac 'n cheese or Salisbury steak, wasn't listening to kitchy music, and I don't recall any wood framed suburban housing standing after a century two of neglect.  But I still enjoyed Fallout 3, New Vegas, and Fallout 4 quite a bit.  Though by the end of Fallout 4 I've kind of felt like the franchise was getting a bit long in the tooth.  

It's a great setting though for a TTRPG though.  I'm going to seriously consider picking this one up.


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## cbwjm (Apr 3, 2021)

imagineGod said:


> Looks like a great game. Not sure why fans of the first Fallout computer game are hating this RPG on some community sites calling it a Fallout 4 type faill.I liked all the Fallout computer games.



People think fallout 4 was a fail? I love that game, people i know who play it love that game. Anyone who thinks it's a failure must be somewhat delusional. 

I'll probably check this out, not a fan of 2d20, but I am a fan of fallout. Might be like the Conan 2d20 game where I just buy the main book to check out though.


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## CubicsRube (Apr 3, 2021)

I feel like I should give 2d20 a shot sometime.

Psychologically roll under doesn't sit well with me either, but in play it may be fine.


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## Abstruse (Apr 3, 2021)

cbwjm said:


> People think fallout 4 was a fail? I love that game, people i know who play it love that game. Anyone who thinks it's a failure must be somewhat delusional.



There is a lot to complain about with Fallout 4. I absolutely love the game myself and I think the Silver Shroud side quest in particular is probably the most fun I've ever had in a video game. But it's not the best Fallout game in a lot of ways. The main quest has some serious writing problems - The biggest being that you are a parent on a quest to save your child who has been kidnapped...but if you barrel at that main plot like a real parent would, you will get stonewalled fast because you're too low level as the game expects you to do a bunch of exploring and side quests. "I must find the man who murdered my spouse and kidnapped my son! But first, let me find some paint for Fenway Park's wall then pretend to be a superhero from a radio serial then personally by hand reconstruct an entire town or five then track down baseball memorabilia across half the Commonwealth then sort out the radio DJ's self-confidence problem then--" 

Then there are more gameplay aspects. The engine in Fallout 4 is showing its age hard as they're trying to shoehorn in features it just wasn't built to handle. The simplified leveling system with perks means you lose a lot of nuance to character creation and advancement, plus it puts way too much emphasis on RNG for things like conversational skill tests. In FO3 and FONV, you either have enough skill to try the dialogue option or you don't. In FO4, it's randomized so there's more swinginess. Plus there are fewer opportunities to use those social skills in meaningful ways. Like rarely can you avoid combat altogether by talking your way out of it, but rather you just scare off half the mob of raiders or whatever.

On top of that, when people compare Fallout 4 to Fallout New Vegas, they're not really comparing the two. They're comparing Fallout 4 as it shipped at launch to the copy of Fallout New Vegas they've modded over the years with various patches, fixes, expansions, options, quests, gear, NPCs, companions, etc. And it's hard to for a new game to compete with one that audiences can literally cherry-pick what parts of the game they want to add in to make it the most fun for them personally. And granted, Fallout 4 has a staggering amount of mods now, that's not the game a lot of people are thinking of when they think Fallout 4.

So while I personally love Fallout 4 and it's neck and neck which one I prefer between that one and New Vegas...I can see why some people were disappointed in it. Though I don't think Fallout 4 deserves the level of hate it gets.

Then you've got the people who are still pissed that Fallout isn't an isometric turn-based 2D RPG like Fallout 1 and 2 were and nothing Bethesda ever does is going to be good enough for those particular fans.


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## Jeff Carpenter (Apr 3, 2021)

overgeeked said:


> It's trivial to flip it. Just make a chart if you don't want to do the math every time.
> 
> Formula: 21 - roll under # = roll over #.
> 
> ...



Maybe get a glass table with a camera underneath that shows the bottom of my dice. 

I've played enough CoC that if i converted it to percentiles i could probably get over the hump. Of course I would be playing the 4d10 system at that point.


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## Stacie GmrGrl (Apr 3, 2021)

Paragon Lost said:


> * "The designers are second only to Free League in adapting the basic engine to fit different genres and licensees. Sometimes the games are very grainy. Sometimes they are not." -Rob Wieland*
> 
> Honestly I feel that Modiphius is number one at doing this and not Free Leagues. Look at how many they've done in comparison.



Agreed. 

Compare Conan to Dishonored to John Carter to Star Trek to Infinity. Each is 2d20 but each is very different as far as crunch factor and setting goes. 

Dishonored has so little crunch and seems more Cortex than 2d20 yet is a 2d20 Light game, where Infinity and Conan are your 2d20 Heavy games and John Carter is like a 2d20 Supers/Narrative game in feel (all it needs is more powers). Star Trek is in the middle, yet feels just like Star Trek with all its sub-systems (and I can see an argument that because of its sub-systems Star Trek could be the most crunchy 2d20 game if you use all of them.)

Year Zero games are just tweaks in how you use d6's plus a few modified rules and retheming. They are more distinct from each other in many more nuanced ways compared to the 2d20 games, which truly range from super light to super crunchy.


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## Stacie GmrGrl (Apr 3, 2021)

CubicsRube said:


> I feel like I should give 2d20 a shot sometime.
> 
> Psychologically roll under doesn't sit well with me either, but in play it may be fine.



If you don't mine me asking, why does roll under bother you?


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## Abstruse (Apr 3, 2021)

Stacie GmrGrl said:


> If you don't mine me asking, why does roll under bother you?



I can't speak for CubicsRube, but I'm the same way. It just feels wrong to go "I rolled a 1!" with excitement. Mentally I know the statistics are the same either way. I know that I have the same probability of rolling a 1 as a 20 and it's an arbitrary distinction. I _know _all that.

But it still feels wrong to want to roll low and lament rolling high. It goes against everything I know about RPGs, likely because I never played much CoC or Hero or GURPS or other roll-under systems. I grew up playing Shadowrun, Vampire, MechWarrior, WEG Star Wars, etc. I didn't even really get into D&D until way later when 3rd Ed came out and everything was roll-over.

I can push through it and play a system that's roll-under, but it's never going to be a system I really get into just because I'm trained to want to roll high and I'm always going to have that initial half-second gut feeling of "Crap!" when I roll low before my brain kicks in and says "No, that's good in this system".


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## Morrus (Apr 3, 2021)

Abstruse said:


> I can't speak for CubicsRube, but I'm the same way. It just feels wrong to go "I rolled a 1!" with excitement.



Like everything in life, what you're used to feels right. Do it for a few weeks, and it'll probably feel just fine. Like visiting another country -- it feels weird at first, and then suddenly it's all normal and home sounds weird.


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## Ruin Explorer (Apr 3, 2021)

Abstruse said:


> There is a lot to complain about with Fallout 4. I absolutely love the game myself and I think the Silver Shroud side quest in particular is probably the most fun I've ever had in a video game. But it's not the best Fallout game in a lot of ways. The main quest has some serious writing problems - The biggest being that you are a parent on a quest to save your child who has been kidnapped...but if you barrel at that main plot like a real parent would, you will get stonewalled fast because you're too low level as the game expects you to do a bunch of exploring and side quests. "I must find the man who murdered my spouse and kidnapped my son! But first, let me find some paint for Fenway Park's wall then pretend to be a superhero from a radio serial then personally by hand reconstruct an entire town or five then track down baseball memorabilia across half the Commonwealth then sort out the radio DJ's self-confidence problem then--"
> 
> Then there are more gameplay aspects. The engine in Fallout 4 is showing its age hard as they're trying to shoehorn in features it just wasn't built to handle. The simplified leveling system with perks means you lose a lot of nuance to character creation and advancement, plus it puts way too much emphasis on RNG for things like conversational skill tests. In FO3 and FONV, you either have enough skill to try the dialogue option or you don't. In FO4, it's randomized so there's more swinginess. Plus there are fewer opportunities to use those social skills in meaningful ways. Like rarely can you avoid combat altogether by talking your way out of it, but rather you just scare off half the mob of raiders or whatever.
> 
> ...



This is all right but doesn't even address the biggest and most fundamental problems with FO4.

First off, unlike FO1 and FO2, the world doesn't make any sense, in ways it inherited from FO3, but didn't correct. It's supposed to 200+ years after a nuclear war, but there's trash everywhere (which makes zero sense - in RL apocalyptic situations and the like people absolutely do tidy up because it's important to survival), everything looks like it's 20-30 years after a war not 200, people haven't really started rebuilding in any real way, new societies are barely a thing and so on. There are no/few trees despite it being a temperate area. There's also essentially only one visual style, this faux-1950s one. And the whole game leans hard into a 1950s vibe, right down to the way people are still acting, the robot PI, and so on.

This is a really stark contrast to FO1/2, where they were a shorter time after the bomb, but people had started rebuilding, had tidied up, had formed new societies (some quite complex and advanced, like the NGR or whatever they were called), and where it was set in a desert, so it made sense that it was largely treeless etc. They also had multiple different aesthetics, as you might expect, with the faux-1950s one being a distinct pre-war one, not something still perpetuated. Fallout New Vegas goes the same basic way as FO1/2 - if people live somewhere, they've tidied it up, and there are entire new civilizations and so on. It also has a more varied aesthetic. Some of what I thought was in FO3 and was a varied aesthetic turned out to actually be in FONV. It does have a 1950s vibe, but only as associated with New Vegas itself, and it's an intentional vibe created and maintained by the being in charge of that.

This is a huge underlying problem with FO3/4. It's unreflected. Thoughtless. A copy from someone who profoundly didn't understand the originals at more than a superficial level.

Before anyone has a freakout, as they may, that doesn't make it automatically "a bad game", but it means that it doesn't really fit with the legacy of FO1/2/NV. It's quite a distinct thing, but it tends not to be obvious to people who started with FO3 or later, regardless of whether they eventually played the others. FO4 is a pretty good game in a straightforward sense, but it's a very very very shallow take on Fallout, which focuses entirely on the 1950s stuff and the Americana stuff, which were only a part of FO1/2/NV.

There's also the fact that FO4 has one of the most obnoxiously and ineptly forced stories in modern CRPGs (FO3 also had big problems here, particularly with the ending, which even after changes, was hilariously dumb and literally insulting to the player). I don't want to go on at length as we'd be here all day, but they force you to be these specific characters, force very weepy and overacted dialogue into your mouth, and force you to pursue a pretty dull quest... and then basically forget about it until it's time for the very end - it's not woven-through like any Bioware game - and it's not fun to engage with like, say, Cyberpunk 2077's main questline. It's just obnoxious and showed a lack of imagination on the part of the writers.

FO76 acknowledged/fixed the tree thing (despite being far closer to the bomb than even FO1 in time!) and I hear stuff is a bit tidier in lived-in places too (haven't played it), so maybe FO5 will make a bit more sense.

There are other criticisms too - the tacked-on settlement-building, the Diablo-esque "legendary" enemies and the literally magic equipment they dropped, and the ones you outlined. It all adds up with FO4 being really not an ideal game to base your Fallout game on if you want a "broad church" of  Fallout fans. The ideal game for a "broad church" would probably have been FONV, or better yet, probably getting a licence to use all the FO games.


Morrus said:


> Like everything in life, what you're used to feels right. Do it for a few weeks, and it'll probably feel just fine. Like visiting another country -- it feels weird at first, and then suddenly it's all normal and home sounds weird.



This is true but one thing that messes with it for me is if you play in a couple of games or more, if you're used to roll-over/roll-high, and you start playing a roll-under one you don't ever actually get used to it, because you're still playing roll-over/roll-high and I think given the vast majority of games are that way, you stick with that on some level.


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## MGibster (Apr 3, 2021)

As a wee lad GURPS was one of our regular games and you roll 3d6 and hope for the lowest results.  We also played a lot of Star Fleet Battles which was another game where rolling low was best.  It's weird to me that anyone would be bothered in the least about roll low versus low high but we all got our hangups.


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## Ilgiallomondadori (Apr 3, 2021)

I’m a fan of 2D20 - Trek converted me, and the Achtung Cthulhu starter is bangin’.
I can’t get behind Fallout 4, though.  I know people do love it and that’s fine, but the lack of RPG and dialog hurt it for me.  Fallout 1, 2, New Vegas forever.  I do like 3, but 4 was more of a shooter with loads of crafting on top.


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## MGibster (Apr 3, 2021)

Ilgiallomondadori said:


> I’m a fan of 2D20 - Trek converted me, and the Achtung Cthulhu starter is bangin’.
> I can’t get behind Fallout 4, though. I know people do love it and that’s fine, but the lack of RPG and dialog hurt it for me. Fallout 1, 2, New Vegas forever. I do like 3, but 4 was more of a shooter with loads of crafting on top.



Fallout 4 also taught us the importance of helping Preston out with the militia.  

To be fair to the TTRPG, no GM is beholden to run the game in the same way Fallout 4 played.  You won't run into the same problems at the table that you ran into in a video game.  You'll just be using the same setting elements.


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## Reynard (Apr 3, 2021)

MGibster said:


> Fallout 4 also taught us the importance of helping Preston out with the militia.
> 
> To be fair to the TTRPG, no GM is beholden to run the game in the same way Fallout 4 played. You won't run into the same problems at the table that you ran into in a video game. You'll just be using the same setting elements.



The thing is it really hard coded a bunch of FO4isms into the rules. Luckily that didn't include the settlement system. As I think I stated upthread I am pro-FO4 (I just started a fresh playthrough to prepare myself for running the Modiphius game) but I still wish the game had been more broadly Fallout.


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## CubicsRube (Apr 3, 2021)

Stacie GmrGrl said:


> If you don't mine me asking, why does roll under bother you?



Exactly as abstruse said. It's conditioning. A 1 on a d20 (or bloodbowl on the dreaded go for it touchdown - if you know,  you know) feels like the worst thing you can roll.

But as Morrus said, after a few weeks I'd adapt.


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## xboxtravis7992 (Apr 4, 2021)

Reynard said:


> The thing is it really hard coded a bunch of FO4isms into the rules. Luckily that didn't include the settlement system. As I think I stated upthread I am pro-FO4 (I just started a fresh playthrough to prepare myself for running the Modiphius game) but I still wish the game had been more broadly Fallout.



Looking through the PDF, the mechanics are hardcoded in Fallout 4 yes, but the rest of the Fallout 4-ness can easily be homebrewed away by a creative GM. Not surprising since that was the same approach Modiphius seemed to take to Wasteland Warfare, a Fallout 4 themed launch with later releases for F3 and New Vegas (they just announced minis for Securitrons, Caesar's Legion, Joshua Graham, NCR Troopers, etc. for Wasteland Warfare only a few days before the 2d20 PDF was released)

A few things of note, while the book is set in Fallout 4 as the default setting; it reads very similar to the PHB in 5E being default set in The Forgotten Realms with little "sprinkles" of other setting teases. While discussing post war currency the game mentions the NCR Dollars as being accepted in that region. A blurb on the history of RobCo has a short but detailed segment on Robert House and the rumors "he is alive in the Mojave." The Hub and Vault 12 also get name drops. I even saw a few references to The Capitol Wasteland and Appalachia there. Every canon Fallout game (except Fallout: Shelter) has some tease somewhere in the book, again very similar to what 5E did in its own PHB.

Really my only complaints reading through is that Snyths and Securitrons aren't offered as playable races (sure Securitrons are New Vegas centric, but Synths are very key to F4 and only appear as NPC characters in the book).

Also, the segment on Mr. Handy's and hats is brilliant:


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## IndigoTraveler (Apr 4, 2021)

I wouldn't mind trying to play 2D20, but knowing me, because of how great Achtung:Cthulhu's version of the system is, I'd be basing all my 2D20 games on its take.


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## Abstruse (Apr 4, 2021)

xboxtravis7992 said:


> Really my only complaints reading through is that Snyths and Securitrons aren't offered as playable races (sure Securitrons are New Vegas centric, but Synths are very key to F4 and only appear as NPC characters in the book).



Securitrons I can see them holding back for a sourcebook. Hopefully an entire robot sourcebook where you can completely build and customize your own (either for PCs or NPC companions). 

As far as synths go...wouldn't that just be a cosmetic choice? For the Type III synths, they're indistinguishable from humans (well, unless you kill them and dig around in their brain to see if there's a synth component in there). They may not "need" to eat or sleep, but they can duplicate those actions, either voluntarily to maintain their cover as humans or involuntarily for those who don't know they're synths (either due to reprogramming following liberation or their initial programming via the Institute as sleeper agents). So as far as game mechanics go, there's no reason to have them as a starting character type.


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## robowieland (Apr 4, 2021)

Abstruse said:


> Securitrons I can see them holding back for a sourcebook. Hopefully an entire robot sourcebook where you can completely build and customize your own (either for PCs or NPC companions).
> 
> As far as synths go...wouldn't that just be a cosmetic choice? For the Type III synths, they're indistinguishable from humans (well, unless you kill them and dig around in their brain to see if there's a synth component in there). They may not "need" to eat or sleep, but they can duplicate those actions, either voluntarily to maintain their cover as humans or involuntarily for those who don't know they're synths (either due to reprogramming following liberation or their initial programming via the Institute as sleeper agents). So as far as game mechanics go, there's no reason to have them as a starting character type.




You could probably hack together something decent from the Mister Handy rules and gear tables. The mechanics part of character types are a pre-selected perk and random equipment tables and that's it. 

I still felt like I shouldn't have to hack that myself since they are a character type that exists in the Commonwealth setting and one it seems like people would want to play.


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## Abstruse (Apr 4, 2021)

robowieland said:


> You could probably hack together something decent from the Mister Handy rules and gear tables. The mechanics part of character types are a pre-selected perk and random equipment tables and that's it.
> 
> I still felt like I shouldn't have to hack that myself since they are a character type that exists in the Commonwealth setting and one it seems like people would want to play.



Automatron was DLC for the video game, makes sense to make it a sourcebook for the RPG.


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## Stacie GmrGrl (Apr 4, 2021)

Ilgiallomondadori said:


> I’m a fan of 2D20 - Trek converted me, and the Achtung Cthulhu starter is bangin’.
> I can’t get behind Fallout 4, though.  I know people do love it and that’s fine, but the lack of RPG and dialog hurt it for me.  Fallout 1, 2, New Vegas forever.  I do like 3, but 4 was more of a shooter with loads of crafting on top.



And the crafting in Fallout 4 didn't matter. It really didn't matter. Neither did any of the settlement building. It all detracted from what little story there was.

Had the game not have the forced story of you being a parent who is searching for your son and instead presented a core plot later in the game after waking up and you ventured into the world for a while, like a sandbox, then the game would have been better. 

Fallout New Vegas is my favorite Fallout game, it had the most cohesive world.


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## Bacon Bits (Apr 5, 2021)

Jeff Carpenter said:


> I've played enough CoC that if i converted it to percentiles i could probably get over the hump. Of course I would be playing the 4d10 system at that point.




That would really, really not work well without a computer to do your math.

If it works like Conan 2d20, then normally you roll 2 dice. But it's also a bit like a dice pool game. The PCs build the dice pool and can then roll up to a cap of 5d20. This is how in combat and out of combat tests work.

Your target number is based on two things: 1) your ability, which ranges from I think 7-8 up to 14-15. In Conan, attributes higher than I think 12 you as more powerful than everyone else... like NPCs specifically notice that you're more powerful and act accordingly. You actually didn't want that at all until quite late in the game. Then there's your skill in whatever you're attempting, which usually varies from 0 to +3, with either 4 or 5 being the cap.

So if your skill is +3 and your attribute is 12, your target number is 15. That means a 15 or under is a success, and a 16-20 is not a success. You need a certain number of successes to succeed. The difficulty is the number of successes you need. 1 success is low, 2 is average, 3 is difficult, and it goes up to 5 successes needed for near-impossible, and 6 being an impossible task. Extra successes go into the collective pool as dice others can pull from, but disappear in a round or so. However, because your skill is a +3, if you roll a 1-3 you get a crit, which means you get an extra success. Further, if you roll a natural 20, you suffer a complication. A complication is not a failure; it's just something unexpected happening. They can be minor or major, but they're almost never good.

For example, you have 12 attribute and 3 skill to open a lock. First, another character searches for traps. They roll well and get 3 successes out of 2, so they add 1 die to the pool. The GM says there are no traps found. You say you want to open the lock. The GM says it's a difficult lock and you need 3 successes to open it. You pull the die from the pool and burn one of three session benefit tokens to get a fourth die. Your target number is 12 + 3 = 15. You roll 16, 8, 2, 20. Fail, success, critical success, and complication. Your three successes manage to open the lock, but the GM determines you break your lockpicks while doing so. You won't be able to open any more locks until you get your tools repaired or replaced. The complication could have been anything from making noise to alert nearby guards, a missed trap springing, part of the treasure being damaged, etc. Whatever the GM wanted.

It's actually a bit more complex than that (skill bonus is technically two different values, but that doesn't matter until quite far into the game), but that's the jist. Oh, and feats -- which are very cheap initially so the early/mid game you'll spend all your XP on feats and nothing on skills and attributes -- feats often give you die rerolls.

Bottom line, I would absolutely not want to convert those odds to d% at the table on the fly. I wouldn't even want to write a program to calculate those odds.

It's very fast and flows very well while you're playing it, but there's a lot of decisions and planning in the game system.


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## Argyle King (Apr 5, 2021)

I highly enjoyed Fallout 4. I enjoyed the settlement building; I wish the rumored similar system would have been part of Skyrim. Yeah, the interface was clunky, but it could be a fun management sim. Also, having an established settlement with a working economy (and adequate defenses) was a good way to get money and resources.

I'll likely check out the 2d20 rpg sometime in the future.

For the time being, GURPS After the End does a good job of providing my Fallout fix.


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## swiftbombay-gm (Apr 5, 2021)

imagineGod said:


> Looks like a great game. Not sure why fans of the first Fallout computer game are hating this RPG on some community sites calling it a Fallout 4 type faill.I liked all the Fallout computer games.



The Fallout fandom can be ridiculously toxic at times (I haven't seen that here on ENW yet, the criticisms that I read seem rational to me). Those who hate Bethesda are very vocal about it and I advise avoiding r/fallout if you want help with lore and sticking to either r/fo4 or r/falloutlore.
That said, my perfect campaign for this would be the main story of FO4 with people who have never played it. Then I could let them do as they would without the railroading (puns are fun) into specific outcomes that are... problematic (this from a guy who loves the crap out of FO4 and has logged more hours on it than any other single-player game).
The Commonwealth is a great setting with huge potential. I love the area and the way they structured the factions. To address  the criticism of it still being too dirty for so long after the bombs, I'd just compress the timeline a bit and set it in 2200ish. Long enough for all of the events to happen and all prewar humans to die off and necessary events to occur.
This is where taking Fallout to your tabletop shines. You can tweak and mold the meta to your liking and not be trapped by design decisions made by Bethesda (or Interplay or Obsidian for that matter) that you don't like.


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## Reynard (Apr 6, 2021)

I don't worry too much about the timeline. Fallout is so goofy that it's like complaining about castles and full plate in D&D when dragons exist. It's just not worth the trouble, and so many other setting elements are unrealistic that it just doesn't make sense to focus on a trash world. Hell, Gamma World is thousands of years after the End and mutants are still walking around with street signs as armor, so Fallout is hardly the worst offender.

As I am doing another playthrough of FO4 in anticipation of running the TTRPG, the thing that I am more worried about is how combat/shooter focused it is. I haven't played FO3 in a while because it's unstable on Win10, but New Vegas for sure is more RP focused. Tone wise, FO4 takes a "kill em all" attitude that is less adaptable to tabletop play, especially given that you can't just reload a save point when you've gotten in over your head.

Although it would have been fun to see a Save Scumming feature in the RPG just for giggles.


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## JoeBright (Apr 6, 2021)

I wonder if there will be a "bloody mess" perk, where the GM is required to describe your opponents exploding in horrible ways.


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## Paragon Lost (Apr 6, 2021)

JoeBright said:


> I wonder if there will be a "bloody mess" perk, where the GM is required to describe your opponents exploding in horrible ways.



 Of course, it's mandatory!


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## Reynard (Apr 6, 2021)

JoeBright said:


> I wonder if there will be a "bloody mess" perk, where the GM is required to describe your opponents exploding in horrible ways.



I have always been a proponent of Tarantino class of damage description, mostly informed by the original Wasteland. "Your enemy explodes like a blood sausage."


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## swiftbombay-gm (Apr 6, 2021)

JoeBright said:


> I wonder if there will be a "bloody mess" perk, where the GM is required to describe your opponents exploding in horrible ways.



Bloody Mess is there, but it just makes critical hits nastier, no narrative requirements. That said, I'll be very disappointed in any GM who runs this and DOESN'T narrate the explosive gore.


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## wicked cool (Apr 7, 2021)

I love the lore of the series , creatures etc-There really inst anything else out there like it in other mediums (books, tv etc). the vats system is great but its a very shallow game compared even to skyrim. 

I do however hope we get a fallout 5 in the next 10 years (Bethesda delays in games are maddening as their games aren't that complicated fun but not complicated)

2d20 doenst bother me but I want good combat and good adventures


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## MGibster (Apr 7, 2021)

swiftbombay-gm said:


> The Fallout fandom can be ridiculously toxic at times (I haven't seen that here on ENW yet, the criticisms that I read seem rational to me). Those who hate Bethesda are very vocal about it and I advise avoiding r/fallout if you want help with lore and sticking to either r/fo4 or r/falloutlore.



I've been a pretty big fan of Bethesda for a number of years but they pretty much squandered all the goodwill I had for them with the ongoing debacle that was the release of Fallout 76.  They didn't just release a bad game but they were willing to engage in false advertisement, sell shoddy merchandise, failed to protect the personal identification information of their customers, and just treated their customers like dirt.  It soured me on Bethesda and I didn't even buy Fallout 76, miss out on a canvas bag promised to me, or get a really crappy bottle of rum for $80.  I've become so soured on Bethesda that it's a factor in whether or not I'll purchase this game from Modiphius.  If it wasn't for the fact that I like Modiphius I probably wouldn't even consider purchasing this game but I am thinking about it.


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## smiteworks (Apr 29, 2022)

Sorry for the thread necro, but we just released this in digital for play on Fantasy Grounds Unity. We incorporated automation of combat with hit locations, rolling skills using your SPECIAL, modding weapons, scrapping components and skinning of creatures. As this is fully licensed from Modiphius, the FGU version also includes the full reference manual.

The new posting his here:








						Release - Fallout: The Roleplaying Game Ruleset  (FG VTT)
					

New Releases Fallout: The Roleplaying Game Ruleset Modiphius Entertainment Ltd. $44.99  In 2077, the storm of nuclear war reduced most of the planet to cinders. From the ashes of nuclear devastation, a new civilization will struggle to arise. A civilization you will shape. How will you re-shape...




					www.enworld.org


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## Reynard (Apr 29, 2022)

smiteworks said:


> Sorry for the thread necro, but we just released this in digital for play on Fantasy Grounds Unity. We incorporated automation of combat with hit locations, rolling skills using your SPECIAL, modding weapons, scrapping components and skinning of creatures. As this is fully licensed from Modiphius, the FGU version also includes the full reference manual.
> 
> The new posting his here:
> 
> ...



I just picked it up and will be running a Fallout campaign this summer!


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## SAVeira (Apr 29, 2022)

smiteworks said:


> Sorry for the thread necro, but we just released this in digital for play on Fantasy Grounds Unity. We incorporated automation of combat with hit locations, rolling skills using your SPECIAL, modding weapons, scrapping components and skinning of creatures. As this is fully licensed from Modiphius, the FGU version also includes the full reference manual.
> 
> The new posting his here:
> 
> ...



Hoping to see a Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 for FGU in the future as well.


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