QuintonBeck
2015-07-03, 07:31 PM
Greetings oh wonderful minds of the Playground! While I rarely venture these days from my cocoon of GMing Empire (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?413607-EMPIRE!-CWBG-XIV-To-Heir-is-Human-To-Faith-10-Divine) on these forums I have recently been working on a project for my RL gaming group, a Fallout Campaign set in the Southeast United States to start running this August. I have some rough ideas and various concepts rattling around that I'll share below in spoilers containing various level of detail (as some are hard ideas and some very loose concepts) but what I'm seeking is more ideas and more concepts for a Fallout campaign, more specifically one set in the South. Now, I (and my players) are all Southerners so we've got a good handle on US Southern culture but I think our immersion in it is also somewhat blinding to outside perception and picking up exactly what the quintessential "southernisms" are which in a game as culturally hyperbolic as Fallout demands.
Now, before the conversation moves in the direction I will preface that I am well aware that racism and segregation are the unfortunate defining characteristics of the 1950s US south and with recent events it makes addressing that subject all the more tense. I've got a possible idea to play on that with a ghoul stand in but even then I don't know how comfortable I am playing with that aspect being a straight white male southerner and not wanting to disrespect such struggles so for the purpose of this exercise let's operate under the assumption that by 2077 in the Fallout Universe such racial tensions had been mollified with redirection of such vitriol put towards nationalism and anti-communist outlook. If there are ideas on how that volatile and nation-changing movement known in our world as the Civil Rights Movement happened without killing the head-in-sand idealism of the 1950s I'm happy to hear any such ideas but that isn't the point of this thread. I'm looking to make a fun campaign for my players and while exploring deeper things such as Civil Rights should be done I'm not necessarily looking to handle it in this Fallout campaign.
So, onto the concepts I have.
2077, July – New Orleans is devastated by the New Plague and is quarantined by the US Military.
2077, October – 8 Nuclear warheads strike Birmingham Alabama, 3 target Huntsville but detonate prematurely for some unknown reason, irradiating northern Alabama but leaving it largely unscathed. A series of detonations are recorded along the Gulf Coast suspected of being short ranged dirty bombs launched from the Caribbean. Atlanta is destroyed by 13 Nuclear weapons. New Orleans status as an abandoned plague city spares it more than cursory nuclear bombardment. Florida and the United States Space Administration’s Nixon Space Flight Center is protected from nuclear annihilation by an unknown force.
2130 – Vault 57 opens in pre-war Centreville and Confederate Centre is established.
2140 – Centre recruits, kills, or enslaves the local raider gangs and free towns to establish plantations capable of producing enough food to feed the growing number of citizens and more to spare. The first Confederate coinage is minted.
2189 – The First Confederate Congress is held in Centre and the New Confederacy of the United South is formed with the Confederate Congress acting as the legislative representative of all member cities and the Confederate Army to serve as the executory under direction of the Congress.
2200 - 2204 – The Confederate Army defeats the forces of “The Kingdom of Hotlanta” out of Georgia and destroys the “Fifty Fiefs of Georgia” in a destructive total war military campaign of salted earth and house fires ending any possibility of expansion east until the land had recovered.
2239, August – Expeditions sent south to the Gulf fail to return, the first rumors of organized presence begin to filter back.
2239, November – Colonel Jebediah Moore attempts a military coup in Richardsville, ultimately failing and being subjected to discharge and banishment. The failure of the Confederate Army to carry out the convictions of the officers and soldiers who aided the Colonel in anything but name drives a rift between the Confederate Congress and the Confederate Army led by General Duke Vernon.
2240, August – A band of travelers depart Centre to investigate the Gulf Coast. (This is where the game will start)
The New Confederacy – Following the Great War the southeast fell into a squabbling and disparate wasteland of various militia groups and city states. With nuclear warheads targeting the region concentrated in a few key industrial and military sites much of the land is still in its natural state as it was prior to the war. Even those who failed to make it to Vaults survived in greater numbers than elsewhere in the country. Many of these survivors were country folks, those who had feared the growing government and corporate dominance prior to the war, those too poor to move to the bustling cities, and those owning large tracts of land that fed and clothed the Pre-War world with their crops. Anarchy reigned in the decades that followed the bombs, with some communities remaining immune to the changes or even unaware while others forming into armed raider gangs patrolling the remnants of the pre-war south looking to loot and pillage what was left. In the early 2100s, Confederate historians mark it as 2130, Vault 57 opened its door in the woods outside Pre-War Centreville, what would come to be known as Confederate Centre. The residents of the vault, provided with false and altered history books of the Pre-War world had been raised on an entirely alien and untrue mixture of oral tradition taught by the residents and textual records of false occurrences and had developed a rabid passion for the ideals exemplified by their Vault’s texts. Armed and educated, even if their understanding of history had been skewed, the vault dwellers’ appearance in the post-war south marked the beginning of a revolution. Angling the modern and unblemished technological wonders of pre-war America as a prize while defending their home vault with a well-trained and well supplied corps of vault soldiers the vault dwellers were able to convince the local raiding bands to pledge themselves to the vault.
The vault dwellers and the local gangs soon became one people and the vault expanded to dominate Pre-War Centreville, knowledge of farming techniques saw plantations formed around the area and the militant and armed forces saw to it that local raiders not part of the growing city state were kept at bay with those foolish enough to attempt a raid killed or captured and forced to serve as labor on the plantations. Eventually news of this growing hub spread across the southeast and contact with other city states was established and trading began to occur between them. The raiders who had stalked the no-man’s lands for nearly a century were driven back from the roads and more and more were captured to serve as labor on the plantation farms across this new civilized land. In 2189 a Confederate Congress was convened in Centre to represent the 5 largest free city states across the southeast who exerted the most control over the surrounding areas: Richardsville in former Kemper county Mississippi; Bama in former Tuscaloosa County Alabama; The Hill in former Montgomery County Alabama; River Bend in former Wilcox county Alabama; and of course Centre in former Bibb county Alabama. Representatives from these 5 city states signed a constitution and an agreement to unite under one banner, the New Confederacy of the United South.
The New Confederacy in 2240 stands as the most well-known and believed largest civilization operating in the southeast. Slavery is legal under Confederate law only with proper documentation from the Confederacy. The majority of those living within Confederate lands are free and it is illegal to enslave a Confederate citizen. The 5 major city states of the polity are considered mostly civilized and safer than anywhere else in the region. Much of the land along the roads connecting the cities and the roads themselves are settled by various small towns and farms offered limited protection by Confederate soldiers and local militias. Outside the main thoroughfares however there are those who refuse to accept Confederate rule who still operate independently and serve as a constant source of consternation for the Confederacy.
In recent years the Confederacy has faced greater internal strife as lawmakers and the settled people of the cities begin to question the harsh methods still employed by the Confederate Army and the continued enslavement of captured outsiders to provide labor for the large plantations. Many of these plantations are owned by high ranking military personnel who insist the methods are necessary, an insistence backed up with threat of force. This division between civilian and military authority has become more apparent as the cities have begun to rely more and more on contractors to carry out matters formerly under the direct jurisdiction of the military and the Army has begun to abduct labor from more and more questionable sources than simply raiders. This at a time when rumors have begun to filter north of an unknown organized force having established itself along the gulf and threatening Confederate expansion and dominance of the region. For the enterprising adventurer the situation offers plenty of opportunity to improve themselves in whatever way they deem fit…
Slavery in the New Confederacy – New Confederate slaves are, de jure, the property of the Confederate government, on loan to various plantation masters and factory operators to use as they see fit and to be provided for as payment for their lending. De facto, Confederate slaves are the property of various masters who treat them, or mistreat them, as they see fit to do so. The Confederacy must license and approve all slaves used to work Confederate land and using unlicensed slaves is an offense punishable by death. Slaves are only licensed if they are brought in by an officer of the Confederacy and convicted of a crime befitting enslavement. While intended to serve as a short term solution to the raider gangs and to providing labor for the plantations while maintaining a sizable army the lack of Confederate judges and the authorization by the Confederate Congress to allow Confederate Officers to convict any suspects with a summary trial has led to a growth in the slave industry and forging Confederate documents for a captured person for those without the cash to bribe an officer but able to afford manhunters is not uncommon.
Centre – Capital of the Confederacy, thinking somewhat like a southern Vault City.
The Hill – I'm thinking very old timey plantation owner Colonel Angus types as common here and around.
Bama – Obsessed with and revering American Football. Led by The Coach.
River Bend – Nothing yet
Richardsville – Nothing yet
Orlands/Disney* World - The party will of course end up going to Disney World though it will be the Fallout version. I'm thinking "Vault World" with the Vault Boy as the charming mascot? I think this could be a lot of fun but I need ideas for it.
Nixon Space Flight Center - Fallout Universe's Kennedy Spaceflight Center down in Florida. Has a functional spaceship/shuttle on the launchpad to play a role in some quest. Likely going to crib a bit from Van Buren docs and the B.O.M.B. orbital facility.
Nawleans - Rebuilt New Orleans. Independent city state. Heavy on trade, producing the finest alcohol, has limited trading contact all the way up and down the Gulf from Florida to Texas and maybe even Mexico. Under threat by the People's Front.
Cuba - Communist state that more or less survived the Great War though suffered great upheaval when the larger nations no longer were making contact. Eventually the internal strife settled. Now led by a Ghoul President and a small cabal of other Pre-War ghouls. The ideals of Communism have fallen a bit by the side in place of imperialism. Not bad guys not good guys. Have built a fleet and are beginning invasion/occupation of the Gulf region.
Main Quests
Red Scare - The party's first quest will be going down to the Gulf to investigate the presence of an organized force making its presence known down there. The party will run into a trader/someone from Nawleans to offer a quest leading them there. The Gulf is being occupied by Cuban soldiers, most speak Spanish and a potential mistranslation leads to a firefight and the party may be forced to retreat. If they communicate successfully they are brought to the leader of the expeditionary force, a ghoul who speaks English and explains who he and his people are and their purpose here and tells the party to go and inform the Confederacy the Cubans would like to speak with them. So the party is either shot at and assumes they're baddies or talks to them and its unclear. Either way they will need to go back to the Confederacy with the intel.
Internal Strife - Whatever the party brings back the Confederacy will react in tow different ways with the civilian government wanting to pursue caution and parley while the military wishes to go to war and drive the Cubans back. The party can pick a side and persuade one to victory or choose to stay out of it. If they back the civilian government the military attempts a coup but are defeated however in doing so many officers abandon the confederacy and form their own gangs making the civilian government's parley with the Cubans even more important. If the party backs the military in a coup the civilian government is arrested/killed and the General/dictator readies the Confederacy for war on the Cubans. If the party stays out of it the Confederacy divides into civil war with some cities falling to military occupation and some repelling the military in favor of civilian governance. If the civilians are supported or none are supported the Cubans will begin to move inland and begin to conquer Confederate territory, either fusing with the civilian government and liberating it if the civilian government successfully gets the party to parley for them or just annexing it for themselves and bringing the cities under Cuban rule if the Confederacy is in civil war. This latter option will also be available if the party wishes to support the Cubans exclusively in expanding their territory.
Space Quest - A quest that will come up when following the main quest (either from the Confederacy Military or Cuban extremists for activating and launching it or Confederate Civilians/Scientists or Cuban leaders seeking to disable it for peace) The party is informed that recently records from a recovered USSA/US Military computer have revealed the presence of an orbital station carrying nuclear weapons in Earth's orbit that was never activated due to the Launch codes needing to be manually entered and the station never being manned before the Great War. The Launch Codes and maybe another MacGuffin are in Huntsville, Alabama (a major aerospace town in our world and in this Fallout) and the party is sent north to recover them from our Fallout expy for Marshall Space Flight Center/Redstone Arsenal. The Arsenal is under the jurisdiction of a US Government holdout (not sure if Enclave or not) and there's sidequests here to manage to get the codes.
Once the codes are acquired the next step is to go down to Florida and the Nixon Spaceflight Center where space launches took place and the operable spaceship has been sitting for the last 150 years. The party is forced to go through Orlando and an expy Disney World* Nixon is also under Enclave(?) control though they are mostly scientists and not soldiers allowing the party to talk their way through if they aren't shooting first at the sign of the Old World flag. The ship will conveniently fit the party who can then go up to the B.O.M.B station in orbit around the earth which will be filled with robots and puzzles. The party will have the choice to launch or permanently disable the nuclear warheads.
Sidequests
Moonshine running - Something that will come about when dealing with Nawleans. They have one of the most powerful mercenary outfits devoted solely to protecting shipments of their regionally famous Moonshine. The party will have a chance to prove themselves worthy to call themselves Dukes of Hazard.
Strangers in a Foreign Land - As captives/guests of either the Cubans or the Enclave(?) at Nixon are 'Knights' from England sent to explore for the English King the state of things in the colonies. The party will have to help them escape/fix the atomic submarine they came in to get them back to England to fill out their report.
Now, before the conversation moves in the direction I will preface that I am well aware that racism and segregation are the unfortunate defining characteristics of the 1950s US south and with recent events it makes addressing that subject all the more tense. I've got a possible idea to play on that with a ghoul stand in but even then I don't know how comfortable I am playing with that aspect being a straight white male southerner and not wanting to disrespect such struggles so for the purpose of this exercise let's operate under the assumption that by 2077 in the Fallout Universe such racial tensions had been mollified with redirection of such vitriol put towards nationalism and anti-communist outlook. If there are ideas on how that volatile and nation-changing movement known in our world as the Civil Rights Movement happened without killing the head-in-sand idealism of the 1950s I'm happy to hear any such ideas but that isn't the point of this thread. I'm looking to make a fun campaign for my players and while exploring deeper things such as Civil Rights should be done I'm not necessarily looking to handle it in this Fallout campaign.
So, onto the concepts I have.
2077, July – New Orleans is devastated by the New Plague and is quarantined by the US Military.
2077, October – 8 Nuclear warheads strike Birmingham Alabama, 3 target Huntsville but detonate prematurely for some unknown reason, irradiating northern Alabama but leaving it largely unscathed. A series of detonations are recorded along the Gulf Coast suspected of being short ranged dirty bombs launched from the Caribbean. Atlanta is destroyed by 13 Nuclear weapons. New Orleans status as an abandoned plague city spares it more than cursory nuclear bombardment. Florida and the United States Space Administration’s Nixon Space Flight Center is protected from nuclear annihilation by an unknown force.
2130 – Vault 57 opens in pre-war Centreville and Confederate Centre is established.
2140 – Centre recruits, kills, or enslaves the local raider gangs and free towns to establish plantations capable of producing enough food to feed the growing number of citizens and more to spare. The first Confederate coinage is minted.
2189 – The First Confederate Congress is held in Centre and the New Confederacy of the United South is formed with the Confederate Congress acting as the legislative representative of all member cities and the Confederate Army to serve as the executory under direction of the Congress.
2200 - 2204 – The Confederate Army defeats the forces of “The Kingdom of Hotlanta” out of Georgia and destroys the “Fifty Fiefs of Georgia” in a destructive total war military campaign of salted earth and house fires ending any possibility of expansion east until the land had recovered.
2239, August – Expeditions sent south to the Gulf fail to return, the first rumors of organized presence begin to filter back.
2239, November – Colonel Jebediah Moore attempts a military coup in Richardsville, ultimately failing and being subjected to discharge and banishment. The failure of the Confederate Army to carry out the convictions of the officers and soldiers who aided the Colonel in anything but name drives a rift between the Confederate Congress and the Confederate Army led by General Duke Vernon.
2240, August – A band of travelers depart Centre to investigate the Gulf Coast. (This is where the game will start)
The New Confederacy – Following the Great War the southeast fell into a squabbling and disparate wasteland of various militia groups and city states. With nuclear warheads targeting the region concentrated in a few key industrial and military sites much of the land is still in its natural state as it was prior to the war. Even those who failed to make it to Vaults survived in greater numbers than elsewhere in the country. Many of these survivors were country folks, those who had feared the growing government and corporate dominance prior to the war, those too poor to move to the bustling cities, and those owning large tracts of land that fed and clothed the Pre-War world with their crops. Anarchy reigned in the decades that followed the bombs, with some communities remaining immune to the changes or even unaware while others forming into armed raider gangs patrolling the remnants of the pre-war south looking to loot and pillage what was left. In the early 2100s, Confederate historians mark it as 2130, Vault 57 opened its door in the woods outside Pre-War Centreville, what would come to be known as Confederate Centre. The residents of the vault, provided with false and altered history books of the Pre-War world had been raised on an entirely alien and untrue mixture of oral tradition taught by the residents and textual records of false occurrences and had developed a rabid passion for the ideals exemplified by their Vault’s texts. Armed and educated, even if their understanding of history had been skewed, the vault dwellers’ appearance in the post-war south marked the beginning of a revolution. Angling the modern and unblemished technological wonders of pre-war America as a prize while defending their home vault with a well-trained and well supplied corps of vault soldiers the vault dwellers were able to convince the local raiding bands to pledge themselves to the vault.
The vault dwellers and the local gangs soon became one people and the vault expanded to dominate Pre-War Centreville, knowledge of farming techniques saw plantations formed around the area and the militant and armed forces saw to it that local raiders not part of the growing city state were kept at bay with those foolish enough to attempt a raid killed or captured and forced to serve as labor on the plantations. Eventually news of this growing hub spread across the southeast and contact with other city states was established and trading began to occur between them. The raiders who had stalked the no-man’s lands for nearly a century were driven back from the roads and more and more were captured to serve as labor on the plantation farms across this new civilized land. In 2189 a Confederate Congress was convened in Centre to represent the 5 largest free city states across the southeast who exerted the most control over the surrounding areas: Richardsville in former Kemper county Mississippi; Bama in former Tuscaloosa County Alabama; The Hill in former Montgomery County Alabama; River Bend in former Wilcox county Alabama; and of course Centre in former Bibb county Alabama. Representatives from these 5 city states signed a constitution and an agreement to unite under one banner, the New Confederacy of the United South.
The New Confederacy in 2240 stands as the most well-known and believed largest civilization operating in the southeast. Slavery is legal under Confederate law only with proper documentation from the Confederacy. The majority of those living within Confederate lands are free and it is illegal to enslave a Confederate citizen. The 5 major city states of the polity are considered mostly civilized and safer than anywhere else in the region. Much of the land along the roads connecting the cities and the roads themselves are settled by various small towns and farms offered limited protection by Confederate soldiers and local militias. Outside the main thoroughfares however there are those who refuse to accept Confederate rule who still operate independently and serve as a constant source of consternation for the Confederacy.
In recent years the Confederacy has faced greater internal strife as lawmakers and the settled people of the cities begin to question the harsh methods still employed by the Confederate Army and the continued enslavement of captured outsiders to provide labor for the large plantations. Many of these plantations are owned by high ranking military personnel who insist the methods are necessary, an insistence backed up with threat of force. This division between civilian and military authority has become more apparent as the cities have begun to rely more and more on contractors to carry out matters formerly under the direct jurisdiction of the military and the Army has begun to abduct labor from more and more questionable sources than simply raiders. This at a time when rumors have begun to filter north of an unknown organized force having established itself along the gulf and threatening Confederate expansion and dominance of the region. For the enterprising adventurer the situation offers plenty of opportunity to improve themselves in whatever way they deem fit…
Slavery in the New Confederacy – New Confederate slaves are, de jure, the property of the Confederate government, on loan to various plantation masters and factory operators to use as they see fit and to be provided for as payment for their lending. De facto, Confederate slaves are the property of various masters who treat them, or mistreat them, as they see fit to do so. The Confederacy must license and approve all slaves used to work Confederate land and using unlicensed slaves is an offense punishable by death. Slaves are only licensed if they are brought in by an officer of the Confederacy and convicted of a crime befitting enslavement. While intended to serve as a short term solution to the raider gangs and to providing labor for the plantations while maintaining a sizable army the lack of Confederate judges and the authorization by the Confederate Congress to allow Confederate Officers to convict any suspects with a summary trial has led to a growth in the slave industry and forging Confederate documents for a captured person for those without the cash to bribe an officer but able to afford manhunters is not uncommon.
Centre – Capital of the Confederacy, thinking somewhat like a southern Vault City.
The Hill – I'm thinking very old timey plantation owner Colonel Angus types as common here and around.
Bama – Obsessed with and revering American Football. Led by The Coach.
River Bend – Nothing yet
Richardsville – Nothing yet
Orlands/Disney* World - The party will of course end up going to Disney World though it will be the Fallout version. I'm thinking "Vault World" with the Vault Boy as the charming mascot? I think this could be a lot of fun but I need ideas for it.
Nixon Space Flight Center - Fallout Universe's Kennedy Spaceflight Center down in Florida. Has a functional spaceship/shuttle on the launchpad to play a role in some quest. Likely going to crib a bit from Van Buren docs and the B.O.M.B. orbital facility.
Nawleans - Rebuilt New Orleans. Independent city state. Heavy on trade, producing the finest alcohol, has limited trading contact all the way up and down the Gulf from Florida to Texas and maybe even Mexico. Under threat by the People's Front.
Cuba - Communist state that more or less survived the Great War though suffered great upheaval when the larger nations no longer were making contact. Eventually the internal strife settled. Now led by a Ghoul President and a small cabal of other Pre-War ghouls. The ideals of Communism have fallen a bit by the side in place of imperialism. Not bad guys not good guys. Have built a fleet and are beginning invasion/occupation of the Gulf region.
Main Quests
Red Scare - The party's first quest will be going down to the Gulf to investigate the presence of an organized force making its presence known down there. The party will run into a trader/someone from Nawleans to offer a quest leading them there. The Gulf is being occupied by Cuban soldiers, most speak Spanish and a potential mistranslation leads to a firefight and the party may be forced to retreat. If they communicate successfully they are brought to the leader of the expeditionary force, a ghoul who speaks English and explains who he and his people are and their purpose here and tells the party to go and inform the Confederacy the Cubans would like to speak with them. So the party is either shot at and assumes they're baddies or talks to them and its unclear. Either way they will need to go back to the Confederacy with the intel.
Internal Strife - Whatever the party brings back the Confederacy will react in tow different ways with the civilian government wanting to pursue caution and parley while the military wishes to go to war and drive the Cubans back. The party can pick a side and persuade one to victory or choose to stay out of it. If they back the civilian government the military attempts a coup but are defeated however in doing so many officers abandon the confederacy and form their own gangs making the civilian government's parley with the Cubans even more important. If the party backs the military in a coup the civilian government is arrested/killed and the General/dictator readies the Confederacy for war on the Cubans. If the party stays out of it the Confederacy divides into civil war with some cities falling to military occupation and some repelling the military in favor of civilian governance. If the civilians are supported or none are supported the Cubans will begin to move inland and begin to conquer Confederate territory, either fusing with the civilian government and liberating it if the civilian government successfully gets the party to parley for them or just annexing it for themselves and bringing the cities under Cuban rule if the Confederacy is in civil war. This latter option will also be available if the party wishes to support the Cubans exclusively in expanding their territory.
Space Quest - A quest that will come up when following the main quest (either from the Confederacy Military or Cuban extremists for activating and launching it or Confederate Civilians/Scientists or Cuban leaders seeking to disable it for peace) The party is informed that recently records from a recovered USSA/US Military computer have revealed the presence of an orbital station carrying nuclear weapons in Earth's orbit that was never activated due to the Launch codes needing to be manually entered and the station never being manned before the Great War. The Launch Codes and maybe another MacGuffin are in Huntsville, Alabama (a major aerospace town in our world and in this Fallout) and the party is sent north to recover them from our Fallout expy for Marshall Space Flight Center/Redstone Arsenal. The Arsenal is under the jurisdiction of a US Government holdout (not sure if Enclave or not) and there's sidequests here to manage to get the codes.
Once the codes are acquired the next step is to go down to Florida and the Nixon Spaceflight Center where space launches took place and the operable spaceship has been sitting for the last 150 years. The party is forced to go through Orlando and an expy Disney World* Nixon is also under Enclave(?) control though they are mostly scientists and not soldiers allowing the party to talk their way through if they aren't shooting first at the sign of the Old World flag. The ship will conveniently fit the party who can then go up to the B.O.M.B station in orbit around the earth which will be filled with robots and puzzles. The party will have the choice to launch or permanently disable the nuclear warheads.
Sidequests
Moonshine running - Something that will come about when dealing with Nawleans. They have one of the most powerful mercenary outfits devoted solely to protecting shipments of their regionally famous Moonshine. The party will have a chance to prove themselves worthy to call themselves Dukes of Hazard.
Strangers in a Foreign Land - As captives/guests of either the Cubans or the Enclave(?) at Nixon are 'Knights' from England sent to explore for the English King the state of things in the colonies. The party will have to help them escape/fix the atomic submarine they came in to get them back to England to fill out their report.