MGibster
Legend
I just wrapped up running Winter of Atom (WoA), a full campaign for the Fallout 2d20 RPG published by Modiphius. The long and short of it is as follows: This campaign is worth playing. I'm going to avoid meaningful spoilers as best I can, placing them in the bubble of shame, at least in the opening post. If you're interested in participating in this campaign as a player, you might want to avoid reading anything past the opening post.
In WoA, the PCs start out as refugees attempting to escape the brutal winter conditions gripping the Commonwealth (ruins of Boston) by gaining entry into the settlement of Diamond City. Snow blankets the ground making trade difficult, food is in short supply, equipment breaks down in the extreme cold, and everyone's feeling the pinch as raiders figure it's better to die by gunshot than wait to starve or freeze to death. But if that's not enough, a new force threatens the entirety of the Commonwealth and it's up to the PCs to do something about it.
What's in the book? In addition to the campaign, the WoA contains new character options and rules for surviving under harsh winter conditions. The new character backgrounds includes:
Generation 3 Synth: A bio-synthetic humanoid effectively indistinguishable from a normal human. Their former masters at the Institute may have sent hunters to recover their property. I didn't have anyone play a synth in my campaign, but it's an option.
Protectron (see picture): These fine robots produced by Robco for various utility purposes including protection, medics, firefighting, and even a Nukatron dedicated to providing the people of the Commonwealth with refreshing Nukacola products.
Child of Atom: The children of Atom are a religious group who, as you might guess, worship the might of the Atom. You believe an entire universe exists within every atom in all of creation with Atom using Division to create new worlds. The Great War was a holy event and most outsiders look at you as a religious nut bag.
WoA has new rules for traveling through winter terrain, dealing with extreme environmental conditions, preparing a camp, and of course random encounter tables. Of particular note is the addition of Settlement Reputation. The PCs can gain or lose reputation with the various settlements throughout the Commonwealth based on their actions. While this is especially important to the WoA campaign, it's something you can use in any Fallout game. In a nutshell, your reputation with a settlement is based on whether your actions help or hurt them. If your reputation is high, character might receive a discount on goods purchased or other considerations and if it's low enough they might attack you on sight. This is a great addition to the game.
A little about my game. I only had three players and their style of play affected the campaign in some serious ways. They had a habit of shooting first and asking questions later, stealing, or otherwise alienating people who might have otherwise been allies. They managed to keep at least one settlement very, very happy, so the PCs were heroes in one place at least. As a GM, I failed in two areas: I did not level them up in a timely fashion nor did I provide them opportunity to get better equipment as frequently as I should have. With only three players, there were times when combat grew tedious because they were so underpowered. That's on me.
What I like least about the campaign is keeping track of food and looting. I dislike immensely the tedium of keeping track of the minutia of resources. The looting tables in Fallout out are ponderous and take forever to resolve. I found a loot table on RPG-Tools that would have been helpful, but I didn't discover it until the end of the campaign. I recommend the RPG-Tools loot table for any Fallout game.
Overall we had a good time with this campaign. The players have plenty of opportunity to make their own choices which I think is the hallmark of a good campaign. Even if they choose to shoot someone in the face 9/10 times.
In WoA, the PCs start out as refugees attempting to escape the brutal winter conditions gripping the Commonwealth (ruins of Boston) by gaining entry into the settlement of Diamond City. Snow blankets the ground making trade difficult, food is in short supply, equipment breaks down in the extreme cold, and everyone's feeling the pinch as raiders figure it's better to die by gunshot than wait to starve or freeze to death. But if that's not enough, a new force threatens the entirety of the Commonwealth and it's up to the PCs to do something about it.
What's in the book? In addition to the campaign, the WoA contains new character options and rules for surviving under harsh winter conditions. The new character backgrounds includes:
Generation 3 Synth: A bio-synthetic humanoid effectively indistinguishable from a normal human. Their former masters at the Institute may have sent hunters to recover their property. I didn't have anyone play a synth in my campaign, but it's an option.
Protectron (see picture): These fine robots produced by Robco for various utility purposes including protection, medics, firefighting, and even a Nukatron dedicated to providing the people of the Commonwealth with refreshing Nukacola products.
Child of Atom: The children of Atom are a religious group who, as you might guess, worship the might of the Atom. You believe an entire universe exists within every atom in all of creation with Atom using Division to create new worlds. The Great War was a holy event and most outsiders look at you as a religious nut bag.
WoA has new rules for traveling through winter terrain, dealing with extreme environmental conditions, preparing a camp, and of course random encounter tables. Of particular note is the addition of Settlement Reputation. The PCs can gain or lose reputation with the various settlements throughout the Commonwealth based on their actions. While this is especially important to the WoA campaign, it's something you can use in any Fallout game. In a nutshell, your reputation with a settlement is based on whether your actions help or hurt them. If your reputation is high, character might receive a discount on goods purchased or other considerations and if it's low enough they might attack you on sight. This is a great addition to the game.
A little about my game. I only had three players and their style of play affected the campaign in some serious ways. They had a habit of shooting first and asking questions later, stealing, or otherwise alienating people who might have otherwise been allies. They managed to keep at least one settlement very, very happy, so the PCs were heroes in one place at least. As a GM, I failed in two areas: I did not level them up in a timely fashion nor did I provide them opportunity to get better equipment as frequently as I should have. With only three players, there were times when combat grew tedious because they were so underpowered. That's on me.
What I like least about the campaign is keeping track of food and looting. I dislike immensely the tedium of keeping track of the minutia of resources. The looting tables in Fallout out are ponderous and take forever to resolve. I found a loot table on RPG-Tools that would have been helpful, but I didn't discover it until the end of the campaign. I recommend the RPG-Tools loot table for any Fallout game.
Overall we had a good time with this campaign. The players have plenty of opportunity to make their own choices which I think is the hallmark of a good campaign. Even if they choose to shoot someone in the face 9/10 times.
