Is Fallout 1 a good reference for DM ideas?

[0Megabyte]

I cracked open my old Fallout 1 game last week and was playing it, and I came to thinking: the amount of choice in the game is pretty staggering.

Taking the early "rescue the chick from the bandits" piece, I notice there were a ton of ways to go about it, from kicking in the door and killing them all, to acting mysterious to convince the leader to let her go, to convincing them you want to join, to battling the leader in a one-on-one boxing match.

Stuff like this seems pretty good, and I wondered if situations like that from Fallout are good ones to use as inspiration (i.e., steal from ruthlessly)?

[slaydemons]

imo yes, yes it is anything you can draw ideas from is good

[Cealocanth]

I find that video games, especially old ones, are great sources for inspiration because it puts you in touch with the visuals and the story as well as the experience of solving the problems given. Fallout provided for my campaign the system in which to measure the amount of Astral Energy the characters have absorbed and the mutations that followed. I use the term RADs just like they do.

[kyoryu]

Should be. The Black Isle guys were heavy roleplayers. One of the designers got fired for going back to work to get his books to DM a game on the weekend before they shipped. That should say something.

[0Megabyte]

Huh! I'd love to hear more about that story. Sounds pretty crazy.