D&D 5E [Homebrew] Fallout d20

[Michael Morris]

I've been playing a lot of Fallout 4 recently and have become a little enamored of its character generation and advancement system and I've started wondering about translating it into a tabletop system. There's also a minis combat game coming out soon so there will be minis available to use. So, I have ideas sloshing around in my head, might as well throw them out.

The system foundation is 5e d20, with the concepts of bounded accuracy and the advantage/disadvantage. I'll eventually crib up some d20 modern materials as well but at the moment let's talk system core. No classes, but there are levels. All level determines is eligibility for some perks and hit points. There is no level cap.

For those not familiar with Fallout the seven attributes are what makes you S.P.E.C.I.A.L. --
Strength
Perception
Endurance
Charisma
Intelligence
Agility
Luck

The first six map almost directly to their D&D d20 counterparts. Strength, Intelligence, Charisma directly map in name, Edurance = Constitution. Perception encompasses Wisdom and manual dexterity, Agility is just that - so in effect dexterity is split up. Scores run 1-10. A beginning character has 21 points to distribute over the attributes. When making an attribute check roll d20 + 1/2 the ability, round down. There are no negative ability modifiers.

Character advancement centers around perks. A character gains a perk on each level up. Perks have a minimum ability score to gain them. There is no separate skill system, instead perks grant advanced (+2), expert (+4) or master (+6) proficiency. Expert proficiency requires character level 6 be reached, Master proficiency requires Level 12 be reached. Instead of gaining a perk a player can raise characters attribute by 1.

Hit points is endurance + level * 10 for levels 1-10, *5 for levels 11-20, and flat level beyond 20th. So a 25th level character with 5 endurance has 160 hit points. At 26th level he'll gain a hit point (big whoop) but more importantly, a perk.

I'll stop there, as that's about all I've rolled over in my head. Seems to be a fair to solid foundation. Thoughts?

 

[eayres33]

Man there are a lot of great out of left field topics on the forum today. If you want to keep it closest to 5E and make an easier transition I would just remove luck. It doesn't map well, and 5E has some of it covered with a luck feat.

I'd try to keep the numbers closer to 5E than Fallout, since the numbers are just crunch, I'd stay on the 20 high system rather then 10.

A solid start, though there is a lot of work still to do, as you well know.

 

[Tormyr]

Why not play the d100 fallout system?

 

[Satyrn]

I think making the modifier equal to half the ability score is a perfect solution. It really just having every ability score be somewhere between 11 and 20 in standard d20 so all the math/balance stuff will work pretty much the same - beyond the obvious that nobody has negatives.


I'd consider capping the starting scores at something like 7 or 8, just so there's room for growth in everything.

I'd like to see what you do with Luck - maybe just go as simple as make it so everyone has 5e's Lucky feat, with a number of uses equal to the Luck score.

 

[Valmarius]

My suggestion for Luck, to try and mirror the way it's used in Fallout:
Every time a PC misses on an attack or fails a roll, they get a luck token. At any time they can hold up to their Luck stat in tokens.
After any roll they can add luck tokens to increase the roll by +1 per token spent. This increase is considered part of the natural roll, so a 19 can be turned into a crit with the expense of one Luck token.

This mean Luck is essentially a mechanic to make sure you get more crits, and can be used as something of a 'get out of jail free' when things go wrong.

 

[Michael Morris]

I would just remove luck.

Then it wouldn't be SPECIAL. More importantly, if I'm not trying to preserve the acronym from the game why change the ability scores up so much at all. Luck will be tricky to work in, but I think it's possible.

Why not play the d100 fallout system?

Because d100 systems suck. Too much math for too little gain. Since most of those systems dole out bonuses in 5% increments anyway there's no real point in using d% beyond trying to avoid being sued by TSR, a problem that hasn't been real for decades.

I'd consider capping the starting scores at something like 7 or 8, just so there's room for growth in everything.

The video game doesn't cap so I'd prefer not to do so myself. It does make the high ability perks a little tricky to design though.

I'd like to see what you do with Luck - maybe just go as simple as make it so everyone has 5e's Lucky feat, with a number of uses equal to the Luck score.

My suggestion for Luck, to try and mirror the way it's used in Fallout:
Every time a PC misses on an attack or fails a roll, they get a luck token. At any time they can hold up to their Luck stat in tokens.
After any roll they can add luck tokens to increase the roll by +1 per token spent. This increase is considered part of the natural roll, so a 19 can be turned into a crit with the expense of one Luck token.

This mean Luck is essentially a mechanic to make sure you get more crits, and can be used as something of a 'get out of jail free' when things go wrong.

Luck will be the fun nut to crack so I'm going to leave it for later - try to get everything else in place first. One thing I will say, if luck is rarely checked as an ability perhaps its perks can be a bit stronger to compensate.

So let's look at the level 1 perks.

Melee
Strength 1

You are trained in all sorts of melee weapons combat (unarmed combat is a function of the martial artist perk).
Advanced: +2 to attack rolls with melee weapons
Expert: +4 to attack rolls with melee weapons and you may make an additional attack on your action.
Master: +6 to attack rolls with melee weapons and you may make two additional attacks on your action.

Sleight of Hand
Perception 1

You can pick pockets or perform similar tricks.
Advanced: +2 bonus
Expert: +4 bonus
Master: +6 bonus

Life Giver
Endurance 1
Advanced: +30 hit points
Expert: +60 hit points
Master: +90 hit points

(Not sure on those amounts)

Hard Dealer
Charisma 1

You drive a hard bargain in trading
Advanced: +2 bonus when haggling over price (items 10% less than list by default)
Expert: +4 bonus when haggling(items 20% less than list by default)
Master: +6 bonus, 30% reduction in prices.

I'm considering putting appraisal in this as well. Traditionally appraisal is Int based, but my reasoning is there is a charisma factor as well because there's always a "to the right buyer" component to an appraisal. To measure whether a person is the right buyer is a function of charisma. Trade is also a social interaction for the most part.

Language
Intelligence 1

Each time you take this perk you learn a language

(It's more useful than VANS in any case)

Gunslinger
Agility 1

Advanced: +2 to attacks with pistols
Expert: +4 to attacks with pistols, no disadvantage on second shot, third shot possible with disadvantage.
Master: +6 to attacks with pistols, no disadvantage on second and third shots, fourth shot possible with disadvantage

(A hint on how I intend to use advantage/disadvantage)

Fortune Finder
Luck 1

Advanced: +2 to treasure table rolls by the GM on the character's behalf (if multiple lucky characters are in the party these don't stack, just use the luckiest)
Expert: +4 to treasure table rolls
Master: +6 to treasure table rolls.

 

[Michael Morris]

So I've been doing some further work with this. First, unlike the game which is inconsistent about the minimum levels for perks, I figure it's easier to be consistent and to use the same level turn overs that 5e uses, so

Beginner +2 bonus
Advanced +3 bonus, 5th level
Journeyman +4 bonus, 9th level
Expert +5 bonus, 13th level
Master +6 bonus, 17th level.

There are 7 stats, 10 levels of those stats, so 70 perks that have 5 levels for a total of 350 perks. If the GM gives out a perk every session, one session is played a week then realistically it would take over seven years to play a character into earning every perk in the game. Note that if the normal point buy is used a character will have to use around 35 perks to get his stats up to all 10's.

Last thing to note - I've decided how to handle luck. I know some people are going to hate this and some are going to love it, but here goes and why: Luck is the saving throw stat. That is, if you have to make a saving throw in Fallout you make a luck check, you don't make an ability check.

Why?

Well, first off, there are no classes so proficiency in saves will cost a perk, a perk that could be spent on other things. Second, let's be realistic here, in the absence of spellcraft almost all the saves would have been agility saves, and the vast majority of the remainder would be endurance saves against poison. Agility will be one of the best ways to improve armor class in a world with guns, and attack rolls for pistols and assault rifles are agility based as well meaning agility is powerful enough without also boosting most saving throws in the game. Finally, the resultant perk "Fortunate One" (riff on the song "Fortunate Son") feels about right, power wise, with something like Gunslinger. For added measure, throw the ability of the Fighter class' indominatable into the mix.

Fortunate One
Luck 1
You have an amazing ability to avoid close scrapes. You gain a +2 bonuse to saving throws.
* Advanced: +3 to saving throws and you may reroll a missed saving throw once per day.
* Journeyman: +4 to saving throws and you may reroll a missed saving throw twice per day.
* Expert: +5 to saving throws and you may reroll a missed saving throw three times per day.
* Master: +6 to saving throws and you may reroll a missed saving throw four times each day.


Character Races
Players will likely want to play Ghouls and Super Mutants. I'm considering having these races have an ability point cost. So humans start with 21 ability points. Choosing a ghoul might cost 4 of those points. A Super Mutant might cost ten. Note these numbers are hypotheticals, I'm going to leave the races alone for awhile.

K, those are today's thoughts. If you're following this do try to comment to keep it from falling off the front page - I hate digging.