What's your guys' preferred system for Fallout-style games?

[that_one_kobold]

Hello all!

I've always been fairly interested in playing a Fallout-style game, seeing as the first few games seemed to lend themselves to the pnp style so well. I've looked at a few systems, like exodus and Fallout pnp 3.0, but aren't quite sure what system seems the most fun/balanced.

Interested to hear your guys' experience with a few of these systems, what works and what doesn't, etc.

[LibraryOgre]

My usual response is "Savage Worlds", though it depends on what you want out of a game. I think SW is flexible, allows the games to be gritty, and has some built-in race building guidelines to let you quickly bash out Super-Mutants and ghouls. It doesn't have a robust crafting system, but you can find them.

[Friv]

I think it depends on your goal. Savage World is a good choice, and I ran a pretty fun Fallout game using Fate as a framework with a post-apocalyptic skill set.

(Ironically, Apocalypse World is not very good at emulating Fallout. You can do it, and I've played a Fallout game with it that basically worked, but its strong lean into "violence ends badly for everyone involved" and heavy use of weird psychic stuff both kind of don't mesh with Fallout's "50s sci-fi" approach to the apocalypse.)

[Gnoman]

There's lots of systems that support a Generic Post Apocalypse game.

There's lots of systems that can be adapted into fitting a specifically Fallout-style 50s SCIENCE! pulp game.

For something that can handle most of it out of the box (albeit requiring multiple sourcebooks), the only one I can think of is GURPS.

[kyoryu]

GURPS is always a good call, as the first Fallout game ran on GURPS through most of its dev cycle.

[Wraith]

Just to be a little different, I'd suggest Dark Heresy.

It has a variety of stats not entirely dissimilar to S.P.E.C.I.A.L. for the purposes of min-maxing/optimising, there's a big variety of often-weird weaponry and futuristic equipment (including Power Armour) and even includes penalties for having limb damage which is true to the Fallout games.

Some of the stuff - Psychic Powers, for example - can just be left out as I don't recall them having an equivalent in Fallout, but you could modify the Corruption system to work as Rads if you want stat-damage and mutations on your characters. Just slap a pseudo-1950's skin over it and you're good to go.

[Grim Portent]

Just to be a little different, I'd suggest Dark Heresy.

It has a variety of stats not entirely dissimilar to S.P.E.C.I.A.L. for the purposes of min-maxing/optimising, there's a big variety of often-weird weaponry and futuristic equipment (including Power Armour) and even includes penalties for having limb damage which is true to the Fallout games.

Some of the stuff - Psychic Powers, for example - can just be left out as I don't recall them having an equivalent in Fallout, but you could modify the Corruption system to work as Rads if you want stat-damage and mutations on your characters. Just slap a pseudo-1950's skin over it and you're good to go.

Fallout does have psychic power type stuff, telepathy and prophecy are possessed by several NPCs throughout the franchise. The original Fallout had a pyrokinetic, electrokinetic and photokinetic as well. Even called them Psykers.

[LibraryOgre]

Fallout does have psychic power type stuff, telepathy and prophecy are possessed by several NPCs throughout the franchise. The original Fallout had a pyrokinetic, electrokinetic and photokinetic as well. Even called them Psykers.

New Vegas and Fallout 4 both had clairvoyants.

[swordchuck11]

Savage worlds is pretty much my go to for things like this

[Psyren]

Starfinder could probably be modified for this - all the core elements like guns, radiation, power armor, and computers/hacking are there, just leave out the overt magic and space opera stuff.

Fallout does have psychic power type stuff, telepathy and prophecy are possessed by several NPCs throughout the franchise. The original Fallout had a pyrokinetic, electrokinetic and photokinetic as well. Even called them Psykers.

New Vegas and Fallout 4 both had clairvoyants.

Brief aside - why are these sorts of paranormal abilities never usable by the player character in Fallout? I'd be a lot more interested in the games if they had something besides guns and tech (and personality I guess). I suppose I could fluff the walkthrough I'd be following as clairvoyance though

[aglondier]

Having never played Starfinder, I would have to recommend Shadowrun for a Fallout setting. Lots of guns, muties, armours, toys (pocket secretary = pipboy), critters, etc...

[Morty]

Just to be a little different, I'd suggest Dark Heresy.

It has a variety of stats not entirely dissimilar to S.P.E.C.I.A.L. for the purposes of min-maxing/optimising, there's a big variety of often-weird weaponry and futuristic equipment (including Power Armour) and even includes penalties for having limb damage which is true to the Fallout games.

Some of the stuff - Psychic Powers, for example - can just be left out as I don't recall them having an equivalent in Fallout, but you could modify the Corruption system to work as Rads if you want stat-damage and mutations on your characters. Just slap a pseudo-1950's skin over it and you're good to go.

Dark Heresy is an unusual choice, but it could work. After all, plenty of places in the Imperium make the Fallout-verse look downright idyllic. The rules for Xenos and Daemons could be adapted for various mutants. You'd just need to skip the psychic power rules. Or most of them, at any rate. I'd still probably use Savage Worlds if it came down to it, but Dark Heresy could offer a crunchier option. Wrath & Glory might work by the same token.

[Powerdork]

One might try Atomsworn, a third-party expansion for Ironsworn. The base game has a strong focus on heroes completing quests to make a harsh land a better place for all involved (in addition to a long-term personal quest), so it's a natural fit, and most of the work Atomsworn does is to codify the palette swap for ease of use.