Fallout: New Toronto

This is a discussion topic for the Fallout RPG I proposed, set in Toronto. The sign-up information is included below for convenience; post actual sign ups in the interest topic, since I'm not going to make a separate topic in the same forum for it.

RP topic.

—-

War.... War never changes.

Or does it?

Welcome to Toronto.◊

It is the year 2327, fifty years after the events of Fallout 3. While new nations form in the west, and humanity struggles to survive in the radioactive hell that is the east coast, there has been no contact from the middle of the US (which in this setting, includes all of what we know today as Canada). What happened in the Midwest, and the former Canadian states lying to the north? While these areas did not contain the core infrastructure of the US war machine, and so were not targeted by missiles to the same extent as, say, Washington D.C., they also lacked a mysterious benefactor who could divert most of the incoming missiles, so none of the major cities escaped unscathed, as Vegas managed to.

No great power or rising faction has appeared from the Midwest; those who travel there seldom return to civilization, and when they do, they have no tales to tell of anything but barren wastes and death. The Midwest, so far as anyone else knows, is a black hole. What lies out there? It's time for you to answer that question.

—-

Obviously, this RP is set in and around Toronto. How has the apocalypse affected Toronto? What's still there, and what isn't? We don't know—not yet, anyways. Since this is a setting more or less completely unexplored in Fallout canon, we'll be making up a lot of it as we go. I have neither the time nor the energy to sit down and list every single notable feature of post-apocalyptic Toronto, not to mention that I live in the southeast US and therefore have no clue at all what the city looks like.

Instead, more or less anything you guys can imagine for the area, goes. I'll make up locations as needed to suit whatever plot might develop, but past that, the world-building is in the hands of the players. In terms of pre-war culture in the area, the US annexed Canada, so assume that everything you've seen in previous Fallout games still applies—people were still drinking Nuka-Cola and watching cheesy 50's style ads in Toronto when the bombs hit, just like anywhere else in the US.

The RP does have to start somewhere, however: Vault 93.◊

What is life like in Vault 93? What horrific experiment awaited its inhabitants? None, so far as they know. The Vault's relatively large population lives in relative peace and happiness, or rather, as close to happiness as one can be in such a situation. People are born, live, and die entirely underground.

The Overseer is an eccentric man—or woman. No one knows, as he/she has not been seen in decades. The Overseer communicates with the Vault via the intercom system and orders relayed through a few of the most trusted and highest ranking members of the Vault's security personnel, who absolutely refuse to share any details about him/her, as if under penalty of death.

Despite this oddity, the Overseer is wise and fair, and life in Vault 93 is stable. There is only one exception—those who wish to venture out of the Vault. The Overseer teaches that the surface world is no more, a barren wasteland devoid of human life at best, or at worst, a highly radioactive and toxic hellhole that would kill anyone setting foot outside the Vault in mere minutes. There is no surface world, and those who express any interest whatsoever in it are punished severely. There is only the Vault.

Character Template (yes, I shamelessly copied a bit from Nman's signup topic)

Name:

Age:

Sex:

Appearance:

Personality: You can make a person that's a total lone wolf, or very hostile/hard to work with, but it's going to make life a lot harder for you. Other than that anything goes.

Background: Again, pretty much anything goes. You can be born in the wastes, or raised in a Vault, including Vault 93. Your character may have traveled to the Toronto area recently, or lived there for his/her entire life. If your character is from Vault 93, they will likely be living inside the Vault when the RP begins. If they are from anywhere else, like I said, pretty much anything goes.

One thing should be noted, if your character is a wastelander who has lived in/around Toronto for a long time and knows its layout, it's gonna be up to you to navigate the fact that your character knows more about the location than you the author do, since we're going to be making some of this stuff up as our characters discover it. It may be a lot simpler to write either a Vault inhabitant, or a wastelander who recently traveled to the area and doesn't know anything about it. Vault 93 may even be the first place they arrive at in Toronto.

Optional

You don't have to fill in any of these, but if no skills are tagged, it will be assumed that your character is just not good at anything.

Tag Skills: Pick three of these skills. For a quick idea of how this relates to the games, a tagged skill is like having 50 points in that skill.

[Skill 1]

[Skill 2]

[Skill 3]

==

Inventory: Items your guy/gal would reasonably be expected to have on them at any time, like a trusty weapon or a well-worn jacket. Temporary things like food items don't have to be included.

==

SPECIAL Scores: (You have 40 points total, each category has to be between 1 and 10)

Strength:

Perception:

Endurance:

Charisma:

Intelligence:

Agility:

Luck:

SPECIAL is fairly self-explanatory. I won't hold you to any rules here, like if your INT is 3 or lower, your character has to talk in broken speech, or something like that (though you certainly can if you want). This is pure optional flavor, I don't care how you interpret it for your character.

Since things like "Gun Nut" don't really matter in a pure freeform writing setting (instead of a game with actual mechanics), and just go under personality/background, Perks will refer to abilities or traits that take your character beyond the capabilities of a normal human. No one will have any Perks at the beginning of the RP, but as you explore the area, who knows what might happen? And yes, power armor is a perk—if your character has it, they don't know how to use it.

edited 3rd Aug '14 7:51:45 PM by CATS3688

Is there any limit on starting equipment? I know you can't use powered armor yet, but what about Heavy and Energy weapons?

Those are fine. The only thing to consider is weight—if you have a missile launcher, that is super heavy, and so is the ammo. You won't be able to carry many rounds for it.

What about high-end nonpowered armor, like reinforced combat armor?

Also fine. I only make an exception for power armor because it not only gives unparalleled protection, but also superhuman strength.

Alright, we're just exploring for now? I like it!

Could I make a protectron? Or a securitron? Or a cyberdog? Or a deathclaw?

Or a ZAX that claims to be mayor of Toronto?

I like how supposedly deathclaws can talk, they just disdain humans too much to bother. My character's done and submitted, but can people be ghouls?

No deathclaws or super mutants.... those others are fine, including ghouls. Though I dunno how you'd write a cyberdog xD

If I recall, most deathclaws are still just animals, but there were certain strains that developed intelligence in California; they only appeared in FO 2.

Cool. Mayor Rob(ot) Ford, coming up. Well not really, but if you ever need a Canadian Enclave, there you go

Anyway I'll work on a sheet later when I'm back from work and can use a real computer.

Speaking of factions, I actually had an idea for a new faction called the FLC (Front de libération du Canada) that's trying to get rid of any encroaching Enclave forces and once again "free" Canada from all outside American influences (eg. the Brotherhood, the Followers, any stray Raiders that have been coming up over the Falls) as part of the rebuilding effort. Being the Fallout universe, of course, they ultimately mean well, but there's obviously be a fair amount of moral ambiguity in their tactics and ideology.

I like that idea.

Perhaps the Legion might try to invade Toronto.

Since this is Canada, we totally need lumberjack tribals

Yea since it's a while after the main games, it's possible the Legion has spread this far north. If there are Enclave remnants as well then we'd have a black and black conflict for once, not just grey and black.

My friend pointed this out. It might be significant for this game.

Edit: Changed my bio to accommodate the name.

edited 30th Jul '14 6:43:16 PM by StygianEmperor

here, have a few more interesting Toronto locations 'cause I'm bored.

• St. Lawrence Market◊, which is a major grocery store + organic local food outlet (think of F3's superdupermart as a rough comparison). It'd probably be one of the first things to go under in the war, though, what with all the fresh food and vegetables there.

• University of Toronto◊: My alma mater. I can definitely see this being a major player in the RP (and not just because I go there every day); not only does it have quite a lot of pre-war knowledge stored within its confines but it's also a big stone building that could be made easily defensible. Also, they filmed the Hulk there.

• Osgoode Hall◊: Big building that's currently a courthouse, filled with wonderful books to get into bloody murderous firefights over.

• Harbourfront◊: Also a fairly large cultural center built over an abandoned power station. I guess it's up to the GM if the power station was never torn down in the Falloutverse, but I can say that this place would probably be largely flooded, and completely infested with mirelurks/lakelurks/other things ending in "lurk"

• Ontario Place◊ Technically, it was built in the 1970s, but it reeks of that "THE WORLD OF TOMORROW WILL BE SWELL!" kind of optimism that characterizes the pre-war Falloutverse. Also used to be a part of the Canadian Exhibition, the yearly carnival/fair best known for selling some of the most horrible, artery-clogging foot on the planet (eg. deep-fried Coca-Cola, hamburgers that use donuts for buns, and deep fried sticks of butter)

One thing that I think should be mentioned is that Toronto, compared to most American cities, is extremely culturally diverse and tolerant, as far back as the 1950s-60s. I'm not sure how much of this attitude would be quashed out by pre-war American occupation forces, but I feel like that, even after the war, most native-born Torontonians would probably welcome and accept things like friendly mutants and ghouls (so long as they're not trying to kill them). Just throwing that out there.

edited 30th Jul '14 7:51:20 PM by Locoman

Deep-fried nuka cola?! Ewww.... it gives you radiation poisoning and heart disease!

But yea, I could see the wastelanders in Toronto being tolerant of intelligent ghouls, instead of forcing them to live in separate communities like in some of the games.

It's "Ronto." Call it Ronto.

edited 30th Jul '14 9:24:10 PM by StygianEmperor

Honestly, I'd rather call it Toronto, since "the true location of Ronto is unknown".

Either one works. One possibility to explain the term "Ronto" would be that the map they're using in Pittsburgh, being hundreds of years old, had the letters "T" and "O" faded or rubbed out at some point.

@ Inceptiond: Bullshit. That's like saying you don't know what The Pitt is supposed to be, or who The Kings are styled after. The fact that they have any background on the place is exciting, and we should use what little there is.

Edit: They couldn't have only read it off a map, they clearly had interactions with the people since they're envious about their city.

edited 30th Jul '14 10:21:23 PM by StygianEmperor

But if their maps and signs aren't faulty, then they'd know the proper, pre-war name was Toronto, as well. Ronto might be used to distinguish the dominant faction inhabiting the area from the landscape itself.

Yeah, I'm fine as long as someone uses it.

How about

(New) Ronto=Toronto and the countryside around it

(New) Toronto=the city itself

edited 30th Jul '14 11:31:27 PM by Inceptiond

Time of day?