What and When is Fallout: Nukeland?

The Nukeland Area is located in old-world Oakland. The greater area is known as the Baylands, and includes Nukeland and Shi-Town (San Francisco), among other regions. The area is roughly 375 miles northwest of Shady Sands, seat of the New California Republic, and 400 miles north-northwest of the Boneyard, a prominent NCR town built on the ruins of old Los Angeles.

The Master and his army of Super Mutants (operating out of a secret Vault beneath the Boneyard) were destroyed in 2162 by unknown forces; the Enclave’s super mutant breeding facility at the Mariposa Military Base, just 150 miles east of Nukeland, was also destroyed in 2237, almost 40 years ago.

In the 2240s, tensions were high in San Francisco, as the Shi, descendants of Chinese submarine forces with advanced technology were being challenged by an influx of Hubologists who had settled at the Golden Gate Bridge. The Hubologists eventually perished in a space shuttle explosion, leaving the Shi unchallenged. Not long after, unknown forces stole a tanker from the Shi-Town harbor and destroyed the Enclave's offshore Poseidon Energy Oil Rig. Shi-Town itself was later nuked by remnants of the Enclave, who decided they had played a key role in the oil rig explosion.

By the 2270’s, the New California Republic had been expanding in all directions; their scouts and traders are beginning to poke around Nukeland and Shi-Town looking for expansion, scav, or trade potential.

2278: The territory of Nukeland has risen from the ashes of Old Oakland. The New California Republic is eager to absorb this territory, but they are overextended in the Mojave Desert. The Empire of Shi, built on the ruins of San Francisco, has one shot to claim Nukeland for its own before the NCR.

Note: mid-October 2281 is when “Fallout: New Vegas” begins, and late October 2287 is when “Fallout 4” begins.

Running Fallout: Nukeland

I prepared a lot of physical assets and other elements for the convention run of "Fallout: Nukeland".

System:
I used Retrocalypse, a simple set of rules based on the Old School Hack: essentially a stripped down D&D retroclone reskinned for Fallout.

I was also considering Fate Core, a system which I have a lot of experienced running, and participated in some great discussions on how to port it. Another game designer had started a draft using Atomic Robo's system of Modes, Mega-Stunts, and Inventions. That was a few years ago, and by the time I started back into it, the designer had moved on to adapting Mantles from the Dresden Files Accelerated ruleset.

I ultimately went back to Retrocalypse, though, as I had created a number of props and tools to run it, chiefly printing a set of custom playing cards with the rules and some example monsters from the game.

Characters:
I made 12 Archetypes for players to choose from. I wanted to make many more, but a good article recommended limiting character options to 10-12 for a convention. Each archetype had its own pick list of unique abilities. Players also roll for stats, and pick a Perk (another type of ability, many of which are based on perks in the video game series).

Retrocalypse was written with eight archetypes - I took four of them and added a spin:

• NCR Citizen - Charmer - a citizen of the New California Republic, focused on trading and social skills
• NCR Citizen - Scout - a veteran of the New California Republic army, more of a sniper 
• Raider - Chemist - a retired raider who settled down, and now crafts and deals drugs to anyone with caps
• Raider - Fixer - a retired raider focused on an all-around mercenary skill set
• Tribal - Outsider - the setting's generic term for groups which either shun technology, are isolationist, or otherwise aren't 100% on board with what "civilization" is doing
• Tribal - Settler - I reskinned the tribal archetype to create a generic "settler" archetype a la Fallout 4; someone helping reclaim the wasteland with industry and elbow grease
• Vault Dweller - the generic Vault-resident-turned-wanderer, with more of a focus on combat
• Vault Nerd - another Vault dweller, with more of a focus on science and engineering

And then I used the other four as listed:

• Brotherhood of Steel Initiate - hoarders of technology with a sacred duty to keep the apocalypse from happening again (by making sure only they have the tech)
• Follower of the Apocalypse - doctors, scientists, and other dreamers who are trying to build a better world by saving everyone
• Ghoul - a person who survived a fatal dose of radiation and subsequently looks like a zombie
• Super Mutant - a gigantic mutated human, a staple of the game setting

I then proceeded to flesh out the characters, leaving only a few things for players to customize at the table:

1. For each archetype, I specifically chose a certain number of archetype abilities and Perks to suit the kind of character I wanted to have in the game. 
2. I also made a list of "point buy" style stat lists and then distributed them among the archetypes, rather than rolling randomly as the game indicates. 
3. I then added weapons, armor, and other equipment, as well as about 5 levels worth of advancements, but I left 2 Perks unspent. I wanted the characters to be experienced, but not warlords in their own right. I made sure one of their abilities was another injury box to soak damage.
4. I printed out a and cut up a stack of notecards with established Perks, and gave players the option to pick from those, or pick another one of their remaining archetype abilities.
5. I gave them all names, but explained that these were negotiable.
6. I made tent cards for each archetype so players could keep track of each other.

Karma Points:

Retrocalypse uses Karma Points - essentially themed Fate point analogues - which could be spent for various generic mechanical benefits. There were also Good and Bad mechanical effects that a player could activate by spending the appropriate type of Karma. I made sure to emphasize that bad Karma was a reward for entertaining in-game evil, not for being a dick to the GM and other players. Anytime the character would do something cool and bad that merited twirling a moustache or a "you bastard!", that earned Bad Karma. Likewise, certain game actions or out-of-game amusement could earn Good Karma points.

I spent a great deal of effort making Good and Bad Karma points to use for the game:

• about 50 craft bottlecaps (red for Good, and black for Bad) - 
• printed Nuka Cola (red) and Nuka Dark (black) labels on glossy inkjet label sheets (which are hard to find in small numbers)
• a sheet of epoxy stickers in the shape of convex disks

I assembled the Karma points by sticking the labels onto the bottlecaps, and then covering the label with the epoxy resin craft disk. Usually this method is used to create craft necklace pendants: artists clip out images or create their own, glue them to the bottlecap, seal them with the epoxy disks I mentioned, or pour in a mixture of clear resin, and then they attach jump rings and use them in a necklace, earrings, etc.. I didn't want to deal with pouring epoxy resin and waiting for it to dry, since I was making 50 of these, so expedience won out over quality.

Unfortunately, the smooth backs of the bottlecaps, when placed against the flexible and slightly concave epoxy resin disks, created a vacuum: bottlecaps stacked together tended to stick together, very strongly, and separating them occasionally pulled the label right off of the bottlecap along with the epoxy disk. If I did it again, I'd either use glossy paper and heavy adhesive to stick it to the bottlecap, rather than prepunched labels, and/or I would use liquid resin to seal the images.

Picture Tokens:

I printed a large number of 1-inch tokens on labels to represent the players and their opposition, with images taken liberally from Fallout wiki sites and other internet sources. These were adhered to a thin plastic backing used in binder covers; I then punched the tokens out using a 1-inch round die.

To store the tokens, I found a nice little bead supply box with small, stackable bead caddies that all screwed together. I was able to split up the tokens by opponent type (Raider, Mutant, Animal, Regular people, Mercs/Military, Brotherhood of Steel, etc.). 

Unfortunately, I either had really old labels with weak adhesive, or the thin plastic backing texture was not conducive to label adhesion: a lot of the labels pulled up at the edges. This may have been another case for a traditional adhesive.

Another mistake I made was trying to seal the inkjet-printed labels: when I left them out to dry, the edges of the label sheets curled up, and if I used too much fixative, it pooled up and totally fogged up the images near the center. Lightly-sealed labels were fine, but I had to reprint a lot, especially since these 1-inch round labels did not confirm to a standard Avery template.

I also took the player pieces from my Fallout board game, and used them for the players.

Using the Tokens:
One of the complications using the Retrocalypse game setting is they give you a cool countdown-style prop to coordinate when peoples' actions happen in the round. You could use a handful of action type cards for each player, so they can declare what they are doing - the GM can just run through the round one action type at a time. But the countdown prop is a nice visual. Unfortunately, this means players and GMs using a map need two sets of tokens: one for whatever game map is being used, and one for this countdown prop. I let the players use their 3-d miniatures on the game map, while I used the players' tokens to serve as their initiative counters. I did the opposite for the monsters: using their picture tokens on the game map, while tracking their initiatives on the countdown prop using colored generic game pawns and matching poker chips. 

GM Screen:

I created a series of cheat sheets (here and here) with the Retrocalypse rules, and inserted them in one of those four-panel, portrait-orientation customizable GM screens. I wish they were better made: they tend to break where they fold after prolonged use.

Fallout: Nukeland

I managed to run a game of "Fallout: Nukeland" at KublaCon 2018:

2278: The territory of Nukeland has risen from the ashes of Old Oakland. The New California Republic is eager to absorb this territory, but they are overextended in the Mojave Desert. The Empire of Shi, built on the ruins of San Francisco, has one shot to claim Nukeland for its own before the NCR. And then at the turn of the tide, a ragtag group of Wastelanders searching for a giant rabbit disrupts everything.  

Content Warning: the Fallout setting features themes of sexuality, drug use, violence, slavery, body horror, Cold War propaganda, racism, giant vermin, and unethical experimentation. Please know that many of these are likely going to come up in the game. We will be using the “Cut” and “Brake” mechanism as a safety tool, as well as the X-Card. 

I had a small group at first: of the six spots advertised, two showed up, and I let in a third auditor whose schedule had cleared to allow commitment to the full run. A fourth auditor showed up - a younger fellow - and he was cool enough that I felt comfortable handing him a character, too.

The final cast list:

• "Mojo Supermax", Raider Chemist (man) - ruggedly handsome
• Brotherhood Initiate Stoddard (man) - left the Brotherhood behind
• “Dibs” Hoshi, Vault Nerd (woman) - loves comic books
• William “Mr. Visionary” Langstrom, Ghoul (man) - smokes, sarcastic

The Initiate had been sent by the Brotherhood to get the lay of Nukeland and see what kind of job the Brotherhood had in store if they moved in: figured a Vault would be a good asset to reconnoiter, so he followed rumors of a Vault dweller-cum-trader.

The Vault Nerd was sent out by the Overseer to follow up on a missing trader, a Vault expatriate named Harvey.

The Raider Chemist was having a hard time getting the components he needed to create his drugs because Harvey was nowhere to be found, so he, too, was looking for the former Vault dweller. The three converged on Boxport, a settlement on Harvey's trading route, and a likely place to find someone who might know something. 

They later picked up Mr. Visionary, a stylish ghoul looking for adventure.

It ended up being SO open world weird. I had way too much plot for six hours, so I didn’t successfully outline the power struggle between NCR, Shi, independence, and chaos - not to my satisfaction, anyway. 

I started out way too hard - certainly too hard for the 2 players who started the game. A Mirelurk Queen, accompanied by a Mirelurk King running interference for her, attacked Boxport shortly after some strange tone made everybody's ears pop. The Vault Nerd blundered into the battle and got taken out by the creature's acid spray; the Initiate held his own; the Chemist found a safe spot in some nearby wreckage, and managed to stumble upon a secret Enclave genetic experimentation facility buried in the wreckage. They dragged the fallen Vault Nerd to safety, and began looking around.

They started ransacking the computer stations for information, learning of a failed genetic experiment on mutated beavers, river otters, and sea otters, which resulted in an insurrection which eventually drove the Enclave to abandon the site. They disarmed the sonic device agitating the local mirelurks. The players also found a stealth-suited Chinese scout (a member of the Shi, a San Francisco faction introduced in Fallout 2 which, in my setting, had been targeted by the Enclave and driven underground - the Enclave wiping out the Shi was a plot detail which the failed Van Buren game project was going to establish, which I took as inspiration). They recovered the stealth suit, as well as his notes about scouring Nukeland for a rare computer component for the Shi Emperor.

After the players left Boxport, they headed towards a raider-controlled where Harvey had been rumored to have gone, hoping to loot Highland Hospital for specific chemicals that some of his customers needed. 

On the way, they stopped by The Sarcophagus, a Ghoul settlement with a post-apocalyptic Egyptian theme (looted from the Egyptian exhibit in the convention center they were occupying). They encountered Mr. Visionary outside, who confirmed the rumors about Harvey heading into the raider-controlled area. He successfully petitioned to join the group, so they continued onward with their new pal.

En route, the players encountered representatives of the Shi (cloaked in stealth suits, though the Initiate noticed their outlines). Their leader parlayed with the players, who traded for information about the dead Shi scout; she then offered 750 caps continue their fallen comrade's mission to recover a computer component from any nearby military base.They decide to investigate further, and that side quest essentially ended the game.

After asking around, they found someone at another settlement called The International who could boat them over to Federal Island, where a Coast Guard facility (a plot element I had already set up) was rumored to include military-level computer hardware. The players helped the guy acquire more lead to line his boat hull so it could be safe from the radioactive Bay water.

When they reached the Coast Guard facility, they fought their way in looking for the computer component, only to find that it was currently installed in a functioning, self-aware, PAM-style forecasting AI that was lonely, suffering from insufficient information, but still knew true things about the world’s evolution after the bombs dropped (PAM is a forecasting robot in Fallout 4 which uses probability algorithms to help the Railroad operate). 

They dropped everything and dug into this facility, resolving to defend and fortify, then start feeding the AI better info, inadvertently setting out on an independent Nukeland. Had to narrate the fight with the BBEG, but it was fun! I dubbed them the "Federal Island Forecasters."

I gave out Nuka Cola caps and stickers at the end!

What I had planned:

I had set up four possible outcomes for the fate of Nukeland:

• Shi control - the small but technologically advanced Shi successfully unite Nukeland under their banner, providing nominal protection from other threats.
• NCR control - the lower-tech but massivee New California Republic are able to move in and absorb Nukeland into the rest of their holdings in California, providing nominal protection from other threats.
• Independence - much like the same outcome in Fallout: New Vegas, the players cleverly unite and strengthen the various factions of Nukeland against the Shi, the NCR, and any other threats.
• Chaos - the raider elements of the Nukeland area manage to seize control of the area and turn it into their terrible fiefdom.

I gave each outcome an Influence Track with a number of boxes based on how easy each faction could make a bid for subduing or incorporating Nukeland. Easiest was the NCR, followed by the Shi, then Independent Nukeland, then Raider-controlled Nukeland. I also gave each outcome a set of guidelines for the types of missions and resources it would need to take Nukeland: wooing settlements, recovering tech, bullying settlements, taking out critical elements of a rival faction, completing this or that fetch quest. These would escalate organically.

The players would be given plot hooks into each of the major factions, which would offer missions that would strengthen that faction's position in Nukeland; eventually the players would woo various settlements and smaller factions to one side or another, and each of these places had their own bonuses or penalties to the influence they provided for each major faction, depending on how aligned they would be. 

The first faction to fill up its Influence Track would trigger the endgame and determine the outcome.

But I had time for NONE of that in a six-hour convention game.