THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design

[Reynard]

I decided that I was going to play HERO, and that my second favorite genre -- post-apocalyptic science fantasy goodness -- was going to be where it is at. This thread will detail my trials and tribulations as I attempt to piece together a campaign and force it on my poor players.

I look forward to comments and suggestions on how to get the most out of the HERO system in this.

 

THE FALLOUT BRIGADE Campaign Pitch

 

BACKGROUND

 

The century of conflict known collectively as the Resource Wars that precipitated The Big Drop fueled an unprecedented period of technological advancement. Robotics, cybernetics, biotechnology, genetic engineering, near-Earth space travel and artificial intelligence all saw massive leaps undreamed of by those who lived in the Unquiet Time between the second and third World Wars. Al of these advancements, however, were directed toward one purpose: war.

 

By the time The Big Drop came to be, the world was ravaged by war and depleted of resources. Tens of millions had died in convention, biological, chemical and nuclear conflicts around the globe. The billions that lived were scarred not only by the trauma of constant battle, but by the ever increasing techno-shock . In the end, super-powers had broken down into private fiefdoms struggling for the last remaining deposits of fossil fuels and tracts of arable land, with everyone else caught in the crossfire.

 

Some few saw the end coming, moving families and sometimes entire towns to the most desolate places they could find to escape the chaos. Others, knowing their massive wealth was soon to become useless, built subterranean vaults, undersea domes and mountaintop refuges in which to wait out Armageddon. There were even some who, seeing no way to survive, collected themselves and all their experiences into time capsules and digital fortresses, in the hope that someday the descendents of the survivors might learn something of what the world had been.

 

Despite all preparations and plans, all hopes and prayers, the end did come. The asteroid known as Mjolnir, captured as it passed close by the earth some years before and meant to be mined for precious ore to continue the construction of the machines of war, was pushed into the atmosphere by a faulty control program. It struck the mid-Atlantic, first drowning the east coast of the Americas and Europe and west Africa. The seismic trauma caused earthquakes and volcanic eruptions the world over. Madmen with their fingers on button, in last ditch efforts to be declared “winner” before the end of all things, launched their deadliest weapons.

 

When the roar of the fires and the shaking of the earth stopped, there was quiet for a long time.

 

The, a mere 50 years ago, the world woke. Survivors crawled out of their distant communities and their secured shelters to see what man had wrought in his quest for resources and power. And sadly, the quest started up again almost immediately.

 

THE CAMPAIGN

 

The Fallout Brigade is a post-apocalyptic campaign inspired by the likes of Gamma World, Fallout, and Mad Max (with shades of everything from Cherry 2000 to Hell Comes to Frogtown to Six String Samurai).

 

Rather than being simply survivors and scavengers scrounging to survive, the PCs will be members of the Fallout Brigade, a loose affiliation of activists that share the common goals of 1) bringing law and order to the ruined world, 2) uncovering the lost wonders of the former age and 3) helping those in need in whatever fashion that takes. It isn’t a powerful organization (yet) and can provide only the most modest support to its members. But as those members garner both respect and treasures for the Brigade, it may one day serve as the foundation upon which a new world is built. In the meantime, however, there are mutant raiders, would-be warlords, and uncontrolled war machines out there that need stopping, caches of old world technology and history that need recovering and struggling survivors that need protecting.

 

As a post-apocalyptic campaign, the Fallout Brigade will resemble traditional RPG-style adventuring in many respects, with touches from the Western, Sci-Fi Horror and Pulp gaming genres. The PCs are adventurers and heroes in equal measure. The typical PC will be capable and, while filling a party niche, self-sufficient. Some characters may be more-than-human in some respect, but only marginally. The big mutations, psionic powers and mega-tech will be more commonly encountered in enemies and possibly allies. At least in the beginning, the characters will be wanderers, but may find a place to call home as a base of operations relatively early on. They will have the opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of survivors, even as they defeat enemies and uncover lost technology and weapons. And while there will certainly be powerful forces at work against the PCs, the only ‘big story’ is that of the PCs and what they build or tear down.

 

Next Up: PC Generation Guidelines.

[Reynard]

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design

 

Character Creation Guidelines Part I: Points and Backgrounds

 

I figure I will use 75/75 for PCs in THE FALLOUT BRIGADE. The first thing in creating a PC will be choosing a "cultural" background.

 

Each of the following cultural backgrounds provides a list of Everyman Skills, as well as 1 or 2 free Weapon and Transport familiarities. Cultural background is intended to describe, in very broad terms, the social and technological environment in which the character was raised, and may not have any bearing on where the character is right now.

 

Survivor: Typical citizen scratching out a living in one of the towns and villages that dot the landscape of the ruined world.

Everyman Skills: Animal Handler, Climbing, Mechanics, Navigation, Paramedics, Persuasion, Survival, Trading

Weapon Familiarities: Common Melee Weapons, Small Arms

Transport Familiarities: Common Motorized Ground Vehicles, Two-Wheeled Motorized Ground Vehicles, Carts and Carriages

 

Sheltered: One of the lucky few who was raised in a sheltered community – be it an underground Vault, and undersea dome or a mountaintop retreat – with access to pre-Fall technology and culture.

Everyman Skills: Bureaucratics, Computer Programming, Electronics, KS: Pre-Fall History, KS: Pre-Fall Technology, Oratory, Paramedics, Systems Operation

Weapon Familiarities: Small Arms

Transport Familiarities: Small Motorized Ground Vehicles, Grav/Hovercraft Vehicles

 

Primitive: Raised among the wasteland communities that have retreated back to hunter-gatherer and/or subsistence farming and have rejected or lost nearly all connection to pre-Fall technology and culture.

Everyman Skills: Animal Handler, Breakfall, Concealment, Navigation, Riding, Stealth, Survival, Tracking

Weapon Familiarities: Common Melee Weapons, Common Missile Weapons

Transport Familiarities: Riding Animals, Carts and Carriages

 

Outcast: Truly alone, the outcast is a wanderer, a hermit or an exile that has learned to survive on his or her own, but sacrificed the ability to live within civilized society in the process.

Everyman Skills: Breakfall, Climbing, Concealment, Disguise, Shadowing, Streetwise, Survival, Trading

Weapon Familiarities: Common Melee Weapons, Common Missile Weapons, Small Arms

Transport Familiarities: Common Motorized Ground Vehicles, Riding Animal (any one)

 

Next Up: "Professional" pack deals and "Racial" package deals.

[Scion Zane]

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design

 

Fallout was one of my favorite games. I wish you luck on you up coming game

[Lord Liaden]

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design

 

Hey, Reynard, nice to see you bringing your project over here.

 

Post-Apoc HERO is actually a fairly popular subject on this forum. Here are a few representative threads, with interesting and potentially useful opinions, info and links:

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44337

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42505

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39248

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37278

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34861

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13531

[Reynard]

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design

 

Hey' date=' Reynard, nice to see you bringing your project over here. [/quote']

 

I figure that between here and RPG.net, I can get full coverage of response and opinions.

 

Post-Apoc HERO is actually a fairly popular subject on this forum. Here are a few representative threads, with interesting and potentially useful opinions, info and links:

 

Thanks for the links. Some interesting reading there.

 

Hmmm... I wonder if Steve would get mad if I wrote this up as a genre Book. it has been a couple years since I worked on game stuff for publication, and I got a hankering to flex those muscles. plus it is a solid excuse to watch entirely too many PA movies and delve into some books I have always meant to read.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design

 

From Steve's remarks here on the boards, I believe that PA HERO is likely to be the next genre book from Hero Games. I do know that Steve definitely intends to write the book himself, both because he likes the genre and feels he can do it justice, and because HG doesn't have a lot of money for freelancers right now.

 

So while I doubt that Steve would mind you writing it, I don't think you can look forward to him publishing it.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design

 

Say, Reynard, given what you say your favorite game genres are, here's a campaign premise from our boardmates that may interest you: Apocalypse Champions.

[Reynard]

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design

 

So while I doubt that Steve would mind you writing it' date=' I don't think you can look forward to him publishing it. [/quote']

 

I was partially joking. if I learned anything writing for RPGs, it was that I much prefer developing settings/NPCs/adventures than producing rule books. I think if my HERO campaign ends up being The Fallout Brigade, I am going to use the opportunity to write and playtest my Big Fat Epic Post Apocalyptic Mega-Module that I have had in mind since I first worked on Gamma World d20.

[Reynard]

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design

 

We finally settled on The Fallout Brigade (yay!) and so BL and GS came over to create their characters -- with the help of HEro Designer.

 

BL's Character: Jodiah Forelon

 

Jodiah Forelon is a mutated human from Bunkertown, a community that managed to survive the Big Drop mostly intact and eventually became the birthplace of the Fallout Brigade as its citizens sought to determine what else had survived. Jodiah is a little funny looking with round black eyes and big mouse-like ears, but they afford him greater than normal human sight and hearing. Raised a hunter and town defender, he is a stealth sniper type armed with a long range -- though conventional -- rifle and scope. He isn't much good in a close up fight, but his motto is if you're that close, you've already lost.

 

GS' Character: Thomas Edison Grey

 

Thomas Edison grey was born in the Forge. Before the Big Drop, the Forge was a miltary research facility cranking out advanced weaponry for the Resource Wars. When the Drop came, the Forge sealed its doors and its miltary-scientist leaders continued their work so that they could one day open the doors and retake the world. Being a genius and near-savant with technology, Grey became one of the Forge's researchers at a very young age. As he studied the Pre-Drop world, however, he came to realize that the Forge was a threat to whatever civilization might still exist beyond the blast doors. He "defected", escaping one night through the ventilation system and wandering out into the broken world. The Forge doesn't take kindly to defectors, however, and is hunting him. In addition, Grey has become something of a scavenger of Pre-Drop technology and has accidentally crossed the Scavenger's Guild -- temporary name -- who are looking for him as well. The character is loaded with skills relating to technology, but isn't mcuh of a combatant (though he does carry a laser pistol with which he managed to escape).

 

One thing I have always liked about table-top RPGs -- as opposed to the computer kind, even super cool ones like Fallout -- is that players often come up with ideas that inspire me, as the GM, to create setting elements that I might not have otherwise thought about. In the above, Bunkertown, the Forge and the Scavenger's Guild were all player-inspired and will all feature prominently in the campaign.

[Reynard]

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design

 

While creating characters last night, we discovered that among the prefabs for Hero Designer v2 I had downloaded there was little to nothing in the way of armor. So I decided to make some. This isn't an exhaustive list by any means, but it is a start.

 

A couple of notes: The "Piecemeal" armor listed below is your ty[pical Mad Max style tires/metal bits/leather/etc... stuff and all has an activation roll. You might also notice some of the the armor has a +1 Advantage called "Advanced technology". this is simply to increase the cost, because what I did was base the $ cost on Real Cost x 10 + Active Cost, since I really couldn't find any guidelines on how to set the $ cost for things in heroic games. I will determine how much money the PCs have at the start once I get a good idea of what things cost once I have a more complete equipment list.

 

Without Further Ado -- Post Apocalyptic Armors

 

Piecemeal Armor, Light

Value: $39 Weight: 6.10kg

Armor (3 PD/3 ED) (9 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1), OIF (-1/2), Activation Roll 14- (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4)

 

Piecemeal Armor, Medium

Value: $68 Weight: 17.50kg

Armor (6 PD/6 ED) (18 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1), Activation Roll 14- (-1/2), OIF (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4)

 

Piecemeal Armor, Heavy

Value: $107 Weight: 49.00kg

Armor (9 PD/9 ED) (27 Active Points); Normal Mass (-1), Activation Roll 14- (-1/2), OIF (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4)

 

Combat Armor, Light

Value: $49 Weight: 3.50kg

Armor (3 PD/3 ED) (9 Active Points); OIF (-1/2), Half Mass (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4)

 

Combat Armor, Medium

Value: $98 Weight: 10.00kg

Armor (6 PD/6 ED) (18 Active Points); OIF (-1/2), Half Mass (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4)

 

Combat Armor, Heavy

Value: $147 Weight: 28.00kg

Armor (9 PD/9 ED) (27 Active Points); OIF (-1/2), Half Mass (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4)

 

Rad-Zone Trooper Armor

Value: $362 Weight: 80.00kg

(Total: 72 Active Cost, 29 Real Cost) Armor (8 PD/8 ED), Advanced Technology (+1) (48 Active Points); Double Mass (-1 1/2), OIF (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4) (Real Cost: 15) plus Life Support (Safe in High Radiation), Advanced Technology (+1) (4 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) (Real Cost: 3) plus Life Support (Self-Contained Breathing), Advanced Technology (+1) (20 Active Points); OIF (-1/2), 1 Recoverable Continuing Charge lasting 1 Hour (Recovers Under Limited Circumstances; Recovery requires extra oxygen tank; -1/4) (Real Cost: 11)

 

Rad-Zone Trooper Armor, Advanced

Value: $634 Weight: 80.00kg

(Total: 104 Active Cost, 53 Real Cost) Armor (12 PD/12 ED), Advanced Technology (+1) (72 Active Points); OIF (-1/2), Half Mass (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4) (Real Cost: 32) plus Life Support (Safe in High Radiation; Safe in Intense Cold; Safe in Intense Heat), Advanced Technology (+1) (12 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) (Real Cost: 8) plus Life Support (Self-Contained Breathing), 1 Recoverable Continuing Charge lasting 6 Hours (Recovers Under Limited Circumstances; Recovery requires extra oxygen tank; +0), Advanced Technology (+1) (20 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) (Real Cost: 13)

 

HardShell Armor-in-a-can

Value: $118 Weight: 20.00kg

Armor (8 PD/8 ED), Advanced Technology (+1) (48 Active Points); 1 Charge which Never Recover (-4), OAF (cannister; -1), Ablative BODY Only (-1/2), Half Mass (-1/2)

[Reynard]

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design

 

What's a post-apocalyptic game without the walking dead?

 

Zomborg

Val Char Cost Roll Notes

15 STR 5 12- Lift 200.0kg; 3d6 [1]

12 DEX 6 11- OCV: 4/DCV: 4

14 CON 8 12-

16 BODY 12 12-

6 INT -4 10- PER Roll 10-

0 EGO 0 9- ECV: 0

0 PRE -10 9- PRE Attack: 0d6

4 COM -3 10-

 

4 PD 9 Total: 4 PD (0 rPD)

4 ED 9 Total: 4 ED (0 rED)

2 SPD 0 Phases: 6, 12

0 REC -12

28 END 0

Total Characteristic Cost: 14

 

Movement: Running: 4"/8"

Leaping: 3"/6"

 

Cost Powers END

60 Automaton (Takes No STUN)

15 Life Sense: Detect Living Things A Large Class Of Things 15- (Unusual Group)

5 Nightvision

 

Skills

24 +3 with All Combat

7 Breakfall 13-

7 Climbing 13-

7 Stealth 13-

9 Tracking 13-

2 WF: Small Arms

 

Total Powers & Skill Cost: 136

Total Cost: 150

 

100+ Disadvantages

25 Distinctive Features: Shambling Corpse (Not Concealable; Extreme Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses)

15 Psychological Limitation: Only capable of killing. (Uncommon, Total)

10 Vulnerability: 2 x Effect Electro-Magnetic Attacks (Uncommon)

 

Total Disadvantage Points: 150

 

Background/History: During the waning days of the Resource Wars, goverments were not just running out of food, fossil fuel;s and potable water. They were also running out of soldiers. While a number of research groups and governments experimented with stop gap measures -- genetically enginner and fast-grown clones, superior battefiled medical care, improvements in armor, advanced robotic drones, etc... -- one organization created the Zomborg. The dead littering the theaters of war were of no use to anyone, but those same dead reanimated and turned into unrelenting killers were the perfect weapons. Especially when it didn't matter whose side the deceased had been on, since zomborgs could be programmed with specific instructions regarding who was the enemy.

 

The key to the zomborg wasn't the dead; there were so many of them that they hardly mattered at all. the key was the Necrobot -- a 2" diameter, disk shaped robot. The necrobot, using flexible tendril limbs, would seek out deceased or near-deceased victims on the battlefield and, after analyzing the bodies for suitability, would attach themselves to the back of the heads of the corpses. the tendrils would then enter the central nervous system and send out thousands of monfilament tendril throughout the entire nervous system. A quick spark later and the body was mobile again, a Zomborg under control of the Necrobot.

 

Necrobots are still found in the wastelands, and whenever they get the chance, they reanimate the dead in an attempt to complete their programmed goal -- which is usually to kill every living thing with detectable distance (often during the end of the Resource Wars, living soldeiers were fitted with Transponder Chips that told allied Zomborg's to leave them be, as well as attracting Necrobots should the soldier perish in battle). Worse yet, Necrobots are self replicating -- given the right raw materials -- which can create "zomborg plagues" in entire communities given the right set of circumstances.

 

Powers/Tactics: Zomborgs pick up whatever weapons are available to them and immediately seek out living targets to kill. They often "swarm", all targetting the same nearest living creature. This makes them very dangerous in large groups, but at the same time predictable and relatively easily fooled.

[Reynard]

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design

 

First Actual Play Session!

 

On Sunday night, BL and LS came over and we played the first session of the Fallout Brigade.

 

The setup was simple: The PCs (uber-techie and mutant ranger/sniper) are on their way to Bunkertown -- home of the Fallout Brigade -- for the Brigade's annual meeting and information exchange. They have some time to get there (a month or so) and so they can continue their mandate of exploration, recovery and aid while they go. The setup here allows us to get a few sessions in before the other guys start school again and then everyone can meet in Bunkertown and the 'real' campaign can start.

 

As the PCs walked a cracked and broken road in northern Texas, they saw a bright glimmer ahead. After some semi-paranoid creeping up, they saw a small town with two unusual features:

 

1) In what looked like a corral, there were giant worm like creatures undulkating in a deep, stinking muck, and

 

2) there was a squat, perfectly square building made of shining metal.

 

Upon entering town (GS's character walked in while BL's covered him with the sniper rifle) they met the town's Sheriff Grey -- an older but very competent looking man that BL easily identified as a frmer (?) special forces type. He gave them a warm enough welcome, but a stern warning to stay out of trouble.

 

While talking, they saw two men poke and prod one of the giant undulating worm things into the sliding doors of the metal building. After the doors closed it just started to hum. Sheriff Grey explained that the worms were Steakums -- giant boneless slabs of frankenbeef created near the end of the Resource Wars as a way to feed troops. the building -- which no one knew how to work, really -- was an Automated Meat Processing Facility. Steakum goes in -- cut and packaged beef comes out.

 

The PCs explored for a little bit, meeting some of the locals (Mayor Lippitz the Used Car Salesman, Ma Rainey the owner of the converted Applebee's, and Bill the Mechanic with a conpiracy theorist side). They learned the town was called Cudchew (after the horrible slop the Steakum's ate) and had survived the Big Drop relatively unscathed. Cudchew did good trade in beef, but only locally: no one knew how to make the AMPF produce preserved stuff. Even the wasters and raider paid for the beef, lest some little war over the town ended up destroying it all. They also learned that the power for the AMPF -- and the town in general -- was somehwere to the west (some townsfolk had uncovered a conduit going to the facility but never followed it back far). Also, a raider army called The Steel Vipers from a military base about 25 miles east basically strongarmed Cudchew into feeding their troops. A lot of this was just laying ground work for future events.

 

The next day, while GS is working on fixing a Scavbot for Bill the MEchanic -- now micro-fusion battery! -- BL heads out to hunt rabbit (everyone is town is damn tired of beef). That's when he sees the Recyclotron heading toward town. It is a robot on tracks the size of a dump truck with 6 arms covered in saws, laser torches and other implements, with a huge bin for "recycling" tech. The Recylcotron looks like it is pretty bad shape. Swarming around the Recyclotron like fish following a shark are a half dozen Scavbots (imagine a Segway with four similarly equipped arms and a UFO for a head).

 

The PCs figure out pretty quickly that the thing is going for the AMPF. they try and delay it and distract it by having a Steakum drag a junk car to the edge of town. Both car and steakum get pukped. GS decides to turn on his radio, which does get the thing's attnetion, while BL takes shots at it that can't quite pentrate its armor. GS realizes he has to get close and deactivate it, so he convinces Sheriff Grey to take his blaster and irritate the thing. While BL gets in close with the Scavbots -- which view the locals' homes as a smorgasborg -- GS runs up to the Recyclotron and, after afew turns, manages to pop the control panel and shut the thing down.

 

That's pretty much where we ended, with the following things happening in the "downtime" before the next time we play:

 

1) GS will finish fixing Bill's Scavbot and program it for him (spare parts and extra batteries galor) for a high end toolkit (+2).

 

2) GS will also examine the AMPF and figure out a way to get it to produce preserved meat and then both PCs, when they get to Bunkertown, will help negotiate a deal between Cudchew and the Brigade.

 

3) They'll work on turning the Recyclotron into their very own Armored Personelle Carrier.

[Super Squirrel]

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design

 

Not bad. I'm gearing up in the aspects of Post-Apoc. Steve Long's decision to do that for the next big book has moved me to a project of my own. The project is, however, top secret. I like your theme. It certainly fits well in the genre.

[Toadmaster]

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design

 

Looks good, I am a huge fan of PA but am also very fussy about the PA worlds I like to game in.

 

All I can say is I wish you guys were playing near Fish Camp.

 

If you want to move I'm sure you could find a nice Unibomber shack for a half million or so.

[Badger]

Re: THE FALLOUT BRIGADE: Ongoing P-A HERO campaign design

 

Just had to throw in zombies didnt you.

 

 

On a serious note, it is interesting.