Does anyone know how to post images here? They're a bit small right now and it kinda breaks things up to have to link them. Anyways, let's do this: Poly's playthrough of Fallout 3, Broken Steel and Point Lookout.

—

The Vaults were never meant to save everyone. A series of sinister social experiments set up by Vault Tec, each vault was slightly different from the others. Some were filled with clowns, some were filled with millions of fire ants. Vault 42 was different yet again; it was equipped with state of the art cloning technology and gene samples of famous American leaders. The plan was to measure exactly how many cooks it would take to spoil the broth and (to quote the overseer's terminal) "for giggles". Unfortunately, a nearby bomb hit caused the lab to shake violently, and all of the gene vials smashed except one: Abraham Lincoln.

And so Vault 42 had a new mission: to clone an army of Abraham Lincolns, and one day bring peace to the world outside. Some were successful, and went on do great things. This story is not about them. This story is about Lincoln 18, one of the very first living Lincolns. His creation was a failure. He was the first living lincoln, and yet...he was not really alive. And yet, not dead either. Non-dead. Un-dead, you could say. This is Zombie Lincoln. This is his story.◊

—

Right, I used console commands to get my starting character Lincoln's Hat and a Ghoul Mask. And here's the fun part; you decide what his personality it going to be like. I'll be going by concensus; will he be a raving insane nutter, saintly despite his hideous face or fall somewhere in between?

Poly

edited 17th Sep '09 9:01:43 PM by polymphus

Hmm. Make his charismatic and friendly, except with a taste for human flesh.

I want him to be Ax Crazy, but also extremely verbose and well-read. And a bizarre refusal to kill people with hats.

I like the idea of 'no hat kills'.

Any more suggestions? Right now I'm thinking Cannabilistic/Ax-crazy yet also a Charming/Erudite Ladies' Man with yes, a crippling inability to hurt people with hats.

In addition, I'm also letting y'all decide what perks he has. There's a few set in stone, but most of it's very flexible. I've got the Broken Steel DLC, so the level cap is 30. Also, I'll be editing in skills as he levels up. The level that's sticking out is Lincoln's current level.

• 1: n/a
  • 2: Gun Nut
• 3:
• 4:
• 5:
• 6:
• 7:
• 8:
• 9:
• 10: Mister Sandman
• 11:
• 12: Cannibal
• 13:
• 14:
• 15:
• 16:
• 17:
• 18:
• 19:
• 20:
• 21:
• 22:
• 23:
• 24:
• 25:
• 26:
• 27:
• 28:
• 29:
• 30: Nuclear Anomaly

It's up to you guys to decide SPECIAL as well. As a note, intelligence, perception and agility seem to be much, much more useful than the other stats. However, for each stat there's a +1 bobblehead, so having more than 9 of a particular skill is a waste.

And finally, skills. If someone wants to go into amazing detail about how to spend skill points feel free, but I'm more looking for suggestions like "more sneak" or "try and max energy weapons". One of the great things about Fallout 3 is that it's much easier to level up than Oblivion and the way skill points work is a bit more logical: you get a number of skill points each level depending on your intelligence, and you can distribute them however you want. Get suggesting!

Poly

edited 23rd Sep '09 12:42:15 AM by polymphus

This is Lincoln we are talking about. Make him good (but batshit insane about it) with high intelligence and charisma. He's a zombie, so his luck has to suck to even be on that kind of situation. Zombies are not known for their grace, so agility should take a hit. I'm not sure on how to interpret endurance and strenght, maybe he'd be average on both.

Also, pick Child At Heart. Because I want to see zombie fucking Lincoln paying tag with little kids.

He needs to be awesome with rifles.

He should definitely have good barter, speech, and, being an abomination born from the pursuit of mad science, science skills.

Being a zombie, he can't exactly be very dexterous, so lockpicking and sneak should take a hit.

I second the last three posters.

You must, at some point, take Bloody Mess. It sorta fits in with the zombie thing. He should also be god with Assualt Rifles.

Also, zombies are not really known for their alertness. He should have bad perception.

The ad thing about this is that it leaves him with average-to-bad damage modifiers in for all 3 weapons types.

...unless we was a fast zombie, then he can have as much agility as he well damn plases. Just not a lot of ranks in sneak or lockpick.

I demand that he pick up a Fat Man at some point.

I mean, for Heaven's sake. Zombie Lincoln with nuclear rockets.

He'll also need the railway rifle.

Hokay. How's this for SPECIAL? It seems to me that, being a zombie, he should be able to shrug off damage that would cause serious hurt in a normal man. He's also slightly stronger, what with not feeling pain and being able to thus push his muscles further. However, he was low perception and luck along with abyssmal agility. Being Abraham Lincoln, he has high charisma and intelligence.

• S6
• P4
• E8
• C8
• I7
• A4
• L3

Skills that will get special attention are:

• Speech
• Barter
• Small Guns
• Science
• Big Guns
• Unarmed

His primary weapons will likely be Lincoln's Repeater, Chinese Assault Rifle and a Railway Rifle. He'll also likely lug about some heavy weapons (fat man, missile launcher, heavy incinerator) just for the hell of it.

Personality-wise, I think the best way to combine the suggestions is like this: He's a charismatic, highly intelligent individual with a certain childlike naivete about the reality of the wasteland. He'll try and tame mole rats or convince villains of the error of their ways. Then they'll shoot at him, which will end with him devouring their still-warm corpses. As we go along, he'll start to realise the reality of things and his sanity will start to slip away.......

Anyone have any more thoughts, or should I begin tommorrow?

edited 20th Sep '09 3:01:31 AM by polymphus

I think all that's a good way to go.

Sounds grand! Just as long as we also go with the 'no hat kills' thing, then this will be perfect!

Do helmets count as hats? Cause otherwise both the Enclave and the Brotherhood of Steel will own Lincoln-18.

Helmets shouldn't count. Hats= stylish. Helmets /= stylish.

Helmets are not hats for the reasons described. In fact, Lincoln 18 holds a particular hatred of helmets, for they prevent good, honest hat wearing from occuring. In other news, expect post #1 within the hour.

War. War never changes.

The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth. Spain built an empire from its lust for gold and territory. Hitler shaped a battered Germany into an economic superpower.

But war never changes.

In the 21st century, war was still waged over the resources that could be acquired. Only this time, the spoils of war were also its weapons: Petroleum and Uranium. For these resources, China would invade Alaska, the US would annex Canada, and the European Commonwealth would dissolve into quarreling, bickering nation-states, bent on controlling the last remaining resources on Earth.

In 2077, the storm of world war had come again. In two brief hours, most of the planet was reduced to cinders. And from the ashes of nuclear devastation, a new civilization would struggle to arise. A few were able to reach the relative safety of the large underground Vaults. Ostensibly bunkers to protect humanity's future, each vault was secretly designed as a social experiment. Some had no lighting. Some had no women. Some were filled entirely with clowns. Vault 42 was different again; vault 42 was a vault of heroes.

Cloned heroes to be exact. Vault-tec had spent decades collecting gene samples from American heroes, with the intention of cloning them in the event of America's destruction to help bring America back to its once held glory. It was an impossible dream that went out the door about five minutes after the bombs fell. A lab tech forever known as 'Bruce' left the gene samples on a desk in the lab. When the earth shook, the vials fell and broke. Only one remained; Abraham Lincoln.

Further disaster struck; the blast above ground had wrecked most of the cloning chambers. Those that were still operational were faulty at best and just plain lethal at worst. After many months of radio silence, the men and women of vault 42 began trying to repair the machines. Only three could be salvaged. With their primary objective compromised, the Overseer hatched a new plan: instead of cloning one Patton or Washington, why not clone hundreds and hundreds of Abraham Lincolns? The work began in earnest. About twenty minutes and a dazzling explosion later, it ended in Lincoln 18.

Lincoln 18 was not like the other Lincolns. He was alive but...not. Neither living nor dead. Unliving. Nondead. Un...dead. This is Zombie Lincoln.◊ This is his story.

Lincoln 18 was a good student in the vault: intelligent, charming and polite to his elders. If not for the constant smell of rotting flesh, he could have easily clambered up to the position of overseer. The team that created him looked after him with love and affection, shielding him from the nasty whispers of the other vault dwellers. They were known by the overseer as 'team◊ screwup'◊, and they were the best parents a zombie could have had. Even when Lincoln 18 flew into what they called 'a little tiny blood frenzy'◊, they were understanding and kind.

Until July 4th. That day, the other kids were bullying Lincoln, pushing him around and calling him 'Stinky Linky'. Everything went red, and when Lincoln awoke, something horrible had happened...◊

edited 20th Sep '09 9:51:47 PM by polymphus

This is gonna be hilarious. I can't wait for more!

Cloned zombie Lincoln. This can only bring amusement.

A quick ooc note: does anyone know how to change the setting for the Print Screen button so it redirects into a folder of my choice? Having to minimise and paste every screenshot into paint is time consuming and fallout seems to hate being minimised. Every 2 or 3 times I try and bring it back up again, it crashes. Anyone know how to deal with this?

EDIT: Fix'd.

edited 22nd Sep '09 4:17:06 AM by polymphus

It started like any other day. Lincoln 18 awoke at 9am sharp and tried to remember a strange dream he'd had. A girl was leaning over him◊ and whispering things to him. It made Lincoln feel a little dirty, so after waking up and putting on his vault suit, he went and polished his hat for a while. That always made him feel better.

Class time. The other kids were teasing him. They always did. "Stinky Linky! Stinky Linky! Picks his nose and finds a pinky!" they would sing, over and over again until Lincoln would imagine their heads exploding like balloons full of ketchup. Today he did just that. After several second contemplating how nice ketchup is, Lincoln got up and left. Out in the hallway the childrens' jeers were starting to die away. Lincoln gave a sigh and began to wander back to his room. But alack! In a thin hallway, he encountered Officer Hannon.◊ The two men did that little 'oh bugger I'm in the way' dance. There was an awkward pause. Lincoln stared at his feet. He felt sick and a little dizzy, the kids' taunts still ringing in his ears. Everything◊ went◊ red.◊

When the haze lifted, everyone was dead.◊ A powerful urge to vomit rose in Lincoln's gut, followed quickly by a powerful urge to barbeque. He wondered if it was right to eat his friend's bodies. He wondered if they would mind. Above all, he wondered if Officer Mack would be better with ketchup or mayo.

After crying for about an hour and then feasting like a king, Lincoln realised that the vault was completely out of condiments. He new little of the outside world, but old maps put a 'super duper mart' nearby. Maybe they had ketchup? It was worth a shot. And so Lincoln 18 pushed the console to open the vault door, and prepared to step out into the wasteland.◊ What's the worst that could happen?◊

Oshi-◊

Twenty minutes, five exploding cars and a snazzy new outfit later, Lincoln stumbled across a certain something jutting from the desert sand. It looked like a city◊. Maybe they knew where the super duper mart was.

The inside of the town looked disappointing. There would clearly be no ketchup here◊. Lincoln sighed and prepared to leave when he was approached by the stupidest looking hat he'd ever seen.◊ Clearly, this man was a master of the way of the hat. Awestruck by the sheer sillyness, Lincoln let the man finish his introduction and wander off again. So enraptured had Lincoln been that he'd only caught salient words. "Moriarty's Saloon"? There was a likely looking building in the distance, so Lincoln set off.

The dingy pub was yet another disappointment. Not a hat to be seen. Or was there? A man in the corner waved Lincoln over. His name was Mr. Burke◊, and he had a proposition.

---

Right. A choice for you guys. For those who haven't played the game it goes like this. The town we're in (Megaton) has a giant undetonated nuke in the centre. It's a public attraction, although very much live. Mr. Burke will give us a decent amount of money, a nice apartment and huge negative karma to detonate the bomb and kill everyone in the town. Or, we could hand him in to the sheriff and get good karma, no caps, and a cosy little house in Megaton.

Whatever will Lincoln do? With which hat will he side? Will he spare the town and hope to get on the Sheriff's good side? Will he visit tenpenny tower (Burke's hangout) to see which place has the greatest hat concentration? Will he kill Burke and the Sheriff and steal their hats? The choice is up to you.

Poly

edited 22nd Sep '09 4:57:44 AM by polymphus

Lets be nice. Turn the guy in.