Anybody play the fallout rpg?

[Shades of Eternity]

I got the books, and am curious.

What have you done?

What would you like to do?

What should we be aware of in the system?

 

[MGibster]

I've managed to run two campaigns, the first my own creation and the second Modiphius' Winter of Atom. It's not a bad system, but I think I'd rather play using Savage Worlds. Here are the problems I have with the system.

1. Combat can get dull. In the video game, it typically takes a single pistol shot to kill a rad roach, but in the TTRPG it might take 2-3 to take one out. That's just silly. Combine that with the abstract nature of having zones and combat just gets dull rather quickly.

2. Scavenging is time consuming because it's overly complicated. The full rules for scavenging aren't even in the rulebook, you need the GM's Tool Kit. It takes a while to go through all the steps and rolls which just isn't fun.

3. Managing inventory can be a pain. It's not so bad in a video game, but that doesn't translate very well to a TTRPG in my opinion. (That's just me though.)

The game isn't broken or anything and I had fun playing it. I'd rather use another system though.

 

[John R Davis]

I think it is my favourite 2d20 game. I have run the starter set and 3 or 4 other published things and a couple adventures I made up , to two groups and a third starting soon.

Given it's a game of survival and bean counting there is a lot of resource management.

Don't find the combat dull at all and all modern games should have the too and fro of momentum tokens or similar. I'm starting to find games without them very dull and static

Not a great fan of it's set initiative system but other than that no complaints

 

[Scott Christian]

We played, but it was someone's online version of the game. It was the only campaign we've ran in five years that fizzled out after a couple months. It might have just been our table, but it didn't go well for us.

 

[Golden Bee]

I love the Cali/Nevada campaign. Great ideas and actual options.

 

[haileris23]

I love the 2d20 system and I love Fallout. That being said, I do not enjoy Fallout 2d20. I think because, unlike their other licensed properties, there was already an existing system in the video games Modiphius had to smash the two engines together and it made it far too fiddly for me. Every time I have tried it I think "I'd rather be playing Dune or Star Trek" or "I'd rather be playing Fallout 4".

 

[aramis erak]

I got the books, and am curious.

What have you done?

What would you like to do?

What should we be aware of in the system?

My campaign was a PNW specific area, and involved uncovering a split in the BOS... with only one member of the party having BOS ties.

We had no issues at all with combat - that's probably far more about the players' preferences than the system being inherently dull. Then again, we were also comfortable with Dune and STA prior. And many of the games we play use zones (FFG SW, FFG L5R, STA, Alien, Vaesen) or even lack combat (Tales from the Loop).

There's one standard rule from 2d20 missing from Fallout - adding it in really opens up the system:
In most, it's 2 momentum to create a scene duration trait; 4 for a session duration one. Or a difficulty 2 or 4 task, respectively.

The ghoul found his history, and his badge and cruiser...
The BOS guy solved the issue of the splinter sect...
The Vaultie got the part he was sent out for...
The Mr. Handy fulfilled his mission, too.
They found a still working McDonalds... run by a bot.
And a private vault from the local Uni...

The system plays as well as STA or Dune (I playtested some DUNE material for Modiphius, so I may have a pro-2d20 bias); just the one missing rule.

The classless leveling was nice, worked well.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

My son has been running a campaign. For me, it made me appreciate the 2D20 system at last, a game system I have sort of avoided despite wanting to run Star Trek Adventures some day. Fallout proved a decent introduction to the mechanical conceits.

Unlike an earlier poster suggested, combat in the game has been really fun. My son has sometimes used maps and minis, but usually the range bands work fine for us.....I am a TotM type of GM so our players are accustomed to this; I feel maps and minis (when I GM) detract from the RPG aspect of gaming and move it too close to wargaming, so I have a lot of techniques and approaches to keep theater of the mind engaging. My son is still experimenting with his preferred style so has been mixing it up. But the actual combat rules feel fine to me, and don't feel too off from the spirit of the RPG. We had little trouble killing rad roaches, for example.....maybe we're doing something wrong?

The main gripe I have on the Fallout RPG is the rules are atrociously organized. Exploring other 2D20 products has only hammered this issue home. The entire system needs a clean rewrite and reorg. They need a better section on explaining the oddball dice mechanic, too.....I think we were two sessions in before we realized we had been doing it wrong.

Other than that, it's been a lot of fun!

 

[Benjamin Olson]

The main gripe I have on the Fallout RPG is the rules are atrociously organized. Exploring other 2D20 products has only hammered this issue home. The entire system needs a clean rewrite and reorg. They need a better section on explaining the oddball dice mechanic, too.....I think we were two sessions in before we realized we had been doing it wrong.

This was a major issue for me with 2d20 Star Trek Adventures. The corebook has chapters on Star Trek lore and all the character building lifepath stuff before it explains what the core mechanics are (or at least before it explained them clearly enough for me to make sense of), and generally I struggle to find things when I need them. I think it might work better if you come to it from the previous edition or starter set, but that's a major failing nonetheless.