To begin your character in Fallout, you first must decide on several things for your character. You must first give your character a name, an age, a height, hair color (if she or he has hair), eye color, etc.
Once you have finished with your character’s fine points, you must choose his statistics. Every Character starts out with Fifty (50) stat points, which you must divide up amongst your character’s four sets of statistics: Hit Points, Strength, Action Points and Speed. There are no maximums or minimums to your stats, but you do have a maximum amount of stat points to divide amongst your statistics, which will be defined later.
The next thing you must do is choose your physical characteristics. There are 4 Physical Characteristics to choose from. Perception, Endurance, Intelligence and Agility. These stats also have no minimum or maximums, but you get significantly less Physical Characteristic points to work with. Instead of getting 50 points like you would with the Stat Points, you only get 20 Physical Characteristic Points.
The next thing you must do is choose your character's traits. There are several traits which will be defined later which you can choose from, however you are only able to choose two traits out of the batch. Any additional traits that you choose you will have to “buy” as it were, by spending 5 of your Stat Points on one of your traits. These stat points will be non-refundable, so buying traits isn’t always a good thing. Traits will have both their positives and their negatives on your character, and although you are able to choose two traits for free, you do not have to choose any traits at all.
The next thing you must do to start your character is figure out your characters starting skill levels. Your Starting Skills Points, and your Potential Skill Points are two different things. Your starting skill points all depend on your Physical Characteristics, and every level you gain in Fallout through experience you will get your Potential Skill Points. The amount of Potential Skill Points you gain per experience level all depends on your Traits.
Once you have your skill points all in order, you must pick three tag skills. Tag skills are skills you simply excel at, and thus you get an extra point every time you put a Potential Skill Point into that area. Meaning if you have 10 Potential skill points and you put them all into one of your tag skills, you’ll gain 20% instead of 10% like you would with a normal skill. Also, you instantly gain a 20% bonus to all three of your tag skills at the start of creation.
Then decide where you want your character to start out. To begin with, there will be very few places people may start, but this will change over time, as more members come into Fallout. In addition to this, there will be a maximum number of people that can start out at each city/village, because resources will run out if over population occurs.
The final thing you must do before you are able to sim is pick your starting equipment. Every character is given a certain amount of starting equipment points depending on where they start out at. Different items have different equipment point requirements. You effectively spend your equipment points on items you wish to start out with.
Once you have completed this, you will be finished with your character and will be ready to begin simming in Fallout.
There are four
statistics in Fallout, all of which play a very important role in
the game.
Note: The stat point examples such as putting 1
stat point into your Hit Points level will give you 6 hit points
is only for Humans. Super Mutants, Glowing Ones and all other
species out there will have different hit point levels. Humans
will be the common species of the game, which is why there are
only examples for humans on this page.
Hit Points
Your character’s hit points define how much power your
character has before you will fall into unconsciousness. You will
fall unconscious when you reach Zero Hit Points. There are
six places to distribute your hit points to, your Right
Arm, Right Leg, Left Arm, Left Leg, Head and Torso.
Your torso is your full Hit Point value. If your Head
or Torso is knocked down to Zero Hit Points, you will fall
unconscious. Your Legs each have two thirds the strength
of your full Hit Point Value. So if you have 60 Hit Points for
your torso, you will have 40 Hit points for each leg. If you have
120 Hit Points for your Torso, you will have 80 Hit Points for
each leg. Your Arm Hit Point Value is half of your Torso
strength. So if you have 120 Hit Points for your torso, you will
have 60 Hit Points for each arm. Your head strength is one third
the strength of your torso. So if you have 120 Hit Points for
your torso, you will have 40 Hit Points for your head.
If you reach Zero Hit Points for your Torso or Head, you will be unconscious. If you reach Zero Hit Points for your Arms or Legs, you will be unable to use that limb until you get it fixed, because for whatever reason the limb is broken, has lost too much blood, is shattered or is just completely numb, depending on the situation.
When starting out in Fallout, you are given a certain amount of Stat Points. For every One (1) Stat Point you put into your Hit Point level, you get Six (6) Hit Points. So if you put 20 Stat Points into your character, you will get 120 Hit Points for your character.
Speed
Your speed level defines how fast you are walking, and exactly
how many feet you have moved. For instance, if I move forward 10
feet, I would put down (Speed: 10). To see how fast you
are actually moving, you would look at your full Speed Stats. If
your Speed Level is 10, then in an all out sprint you move 10
Feet per round. Half of your Speed Level is considered a good
paced walk. One or two more of half your Speed Level is speed
walking. One or two less of half your Speed Level is considered
walking slowly. If you get down to less than a third of your
Speed Level, this usually means you are moving extremely slowly,
and are most likely using caution. Your speed can be encumbered
by heavy items that you are carrying on your person. For
instance, if you are carrying an item with 1 encumbrance, your
maximum speed is slowed down by One (1), and realistic players
will reflect this in their walking speeds.
For every Two (2) Stat Points you put into Speed, you get One (1) Speed Point. So if you put 20 Points into Speed, you will only have Ten Speed Points.
One Speed Point equals one mile per hour. So if your character has 15 Speed Points, they can run at a maximum of 15 Miles Per Hour.
Strength
Your Strength level determines several things. It determines how
much weight you can lift, how much damage you can do with your
body in attacks, and it also works as a modifier for encumbrance.
For every Strength Point you have, you are able to lift 25
pounds. So if I have 8 Strength points, I can lift 200 pounds. If
I have 10 points I can lift 250 pounds and so on. For every one
(1) Strength Point you have, you can deal out one (1) damage
point to your opponent. So if I have 8 Strength Points and I
punch you in the face, I will deal 8 Damage Points to your face.
If I have 10 Strength Points, I can deal out 10 Damage Points.
When choosing how many Strength Points to give your character,
Damage Points shouldn’t enter into the equation. You should
think of how much you want your character to be able to lift. If
you think he or she can only lift 100 pounds, then give the
character 4 Strength Points. When dealing with Damage, Full
strength hits are typically wild punches, and don’t have the
precision to always hit dead on. You will typically step into
full punch hits, and work your whole body into it. More precise
punches will typically be around half of your strength points,
and jabs and such should be only about a third or a forth of your
maximum Strength Level.
As far as being an encumbrance modifier goes, for every 100 Pounds that you can lift (4 Strength Points) you may half the encumbrance on one (1) item. If the item only has one encumbrance point, you may remove the encumbrance from that item. This works extremely well with back packs, as if you put ten 1 encumbrance items in a backpack, making the backpack’s encumbrance level 10, and you can lift 100 pounds, you can decrease the backpacks encumbrance level down to 5.
For every Stat Point you put into your Strength, you will get one (1) Strength Point. So if you put in 8 Stat Points into your Strength, you will have a total of 8 Strength Points.
Action Points
Your Action Point level determines several things in combat. It
determines how many times you can throw a punch, or kick, or do
whatever in hand-to-hand combat in your turn. It determines how
many overall moves you get in a combat situation during your
turn. It also determines how many times you may pull the trigger
on a hand pistol, rifle, or other sort or weapon. Action points
work with combat only, and effect nothing else. It also
determines how many times you are able to block in your turn.
During a combat situation, if your opponent swings three punches
at your head, and you are only able to block twice, you are most
likely going to have to take that third punch to your head. One
action point equals one round of punching, kicking or other
hand-to-hand combat movement that you may make. It also
determines how many times you may block or dodge in a
hand-to-hand combat situation. If you have 5 Action Points, you
are able to throw five consecutive punches at your opponent. Or
you are able to throw two punches and three kicks, or any
variation of the sort. You may do so to multiple enemies, or just
one enemy, completely your choice. Weapons have Action Point
modifiers, which will lower the amount of action points your
characters get when using that weapon each time per round. So if
I have 10 action points, and I am using an energy rifle that has
an Action Point modifier of 4, I am able to fire the weapon
twice, using 8 Action Points for that round. I will be left with
2 Action points which can be used for other things, or to reload
my weapon. A More Realistic Action Point level would be around 5
at the most, and if I’m using that same energy rifle,
I’m already lowered down to 1 Action Point, and I would only
be able to pull the trigger on my energy rifle once. NOTE:
That even if divided up your character is left with less than a
point for his action point level, you are still able to pull the
trigger at least once. For instance: If I choose to have only one
(1) action point, and a laser rifle has an Action Point modifier
of 4, which would lower my Action Points down to –3,
I’d still be able to fire the weapon at least once. Action
Points are meant only to grant additional attacks to a specific
player. Action points are important for defending against
extremely fast characters, but this is mainly just in
hand-to-hand combat, as during weapon combat, players will likely
only be able to pull the trigger once, twice at the most. For
every five (5) stat points that you put into your Action Points
Level, you will gain one (1) action point. Characters who wish to
have a very high action point level will quickly learn that the
cost of being fast will typically make your character weaker, and
will be easier to kill.
Perception
Perception has to do with several things. Mainly it is eye sight,
but it does have a lot to do with all of your 5 senses. Your
perception effects various skills, which will be defined in the
skill rules. Perception affects ranged weapon’s greatly.
If you have 4, 5 or 6 Perception points, your shots will be treated how they are supposed to be treated. If you have 7 or 8 perception points, all close ranged shots will be treated as aimed. If you have 9 perception points, all shots from close to medium range will be treated as aimed. If you have 10 perception points, all shots will be treated as aimed. If you have 3 perception points, all long ranged shots will be considered wild, unless you aim your shot. If you aim, your long ranged shot will be treated as a regular shot. If you have 2 perception points, then all long and medium ranged shots will be considered wild, unless if you aim. If you aim for 1 round, then your medium ranged shots will be treated as normal shots. You must aim for 2 rounds for your long ranged shots to be treated as normal. If you have 1 perception point, then all of your shots are treated as wild shots. You must aim for 1 round for close ranged shots to be treated as normal, you must aim for 2 rounds for medium shots to be treated as normal, and all long ranged shots are wild still. If you have 0 perception points, your character is legally blind.
Your perception also deals with finding people who are hiding. When dealing with the sneaking skill, you compare your Perception points with your opponents sneaking skill. For every Perception point you have, it gives you 10% Finding Skill. So if your opponent has a Sneaking Skill of 50%, and you have 6 Perception Points, you’ll be able to find them. If your opponent has a Sneaking Skill of 50% and you have 4 Perception Points, it will be near-impossible to find them, unless they do something stupid like step out into the open. If your Perception is the same as their Sneaking Skill, then it can go either way, but if they are hiding behind a wall, you can’t just say that you perceive them as being there. The stealing skill works the same exact way. If someone is trying to pick your pocket, you compare your Perception with their Stealing Skill. If they have a higher stealing skill than you do perception, then they’ll be able to steal from you without you having any say in it. If you have a higher perception, you’ll be able to tell that they’re stealing from you and you’ll get to react. If it is the same, then once again it can go either way.
In a very small way, your perception modifies your Unarmed Combat skill. For every perception point you have, you’ll get a 1% bonus for the Unarmed skill in Combat. This is due to the fact that you’ll know the different pressure points and vital spots in your opponent.
If you lose an eye, you lose half of your perception. If you lose both eyes you lose all of your perception points for a time. After a while you’ll be able to gain back some of your perception points, because your other senses will become stronger, such as hearing for example. Don’t expect to gain them all back though, if you started out with 10 Perception Points and you lose both eyes, even after several years you’ll probably only get a maximum of 3 Perception Points.
Your perception is reduced by half at night.
Endurance
Endurance has to do with quite a bit. Endurance doesn’t
effect many skills, but Endurance deals with resistances to all
sorts of damage, including radiation and poison damage. It will
also deal with how long chemicals effect you and whether or not
you’ll become addicted. For every 1 Endurance Point you
have, you gain 5% resistance against Poisoning, meaning if you
have 10 Endurance Points, you’ll take half damage from all
poisons. Also, for every Endurance Point you have, you’ll
have 100 points of resistance against radiation.
Endurance deals a lot with how many hit points you’ll recover as you heal. The more endurance Points you have, the more damage will be healed according to the chart below.
Intelligence
Intelligence deals with your skills, and nothing else. For every
Intelligence Point you get, every single one of your stats will
immediately get a 2% bonus. Meaning if you have 10 Intelligence
Points, you’ll automatically begin with 20% on all skills.
It also deals with how many Skill Points you start out with. For
every Intelligence Point you have, you start out with an
automatic 5 Skill Points. This also deals with how fast you can
be taught things from other people, how many experience points
you’ll earn depending on what you go on and do, and how many
Skill Points you’ll get as you gain experience. The quickest
ways to up your skills is through a high intelligence level.
Agility
Agility deals with your speed, dexterity and the ability to
manipulate small objects. Agility affects many skills that
require fine coordination. For every 5 Agility Points you have,
you’ll gain an extra Speed Point. Meaning if you have 10
Agility Points, you’ll gain an extra 2 Speed Points. If you
have 9 Agility Points though, you’ll only get 1 Speed Point.
The more agility points you have, the more acrobatics you’ll
be able to do, which helps you with your hand-to-hand combat
skills. Agility helps out a lot of your combat skills, and a lot
of other skills such as lockpicking and stealing. It also tells
you how fast you’ll be able to quickdraw your weapon.
Quickdrawing your weapon always takes 1 action point (it also
takes 1 action point to remove anything from anywhere that
isn’t already in your hands). To find out who will be able
to quickdraw their weapon faster, you simply compare agility
points. Whoever has the most will win the quickdraw.
Once you reach unconsciousness, you stay there for a minimum of 10 minutes, with a normal of 30 minute under most circumstances, but no definite maximum. There are ways to wake up faster, for instance stimpacks and other medical devices can cause you to raise back up to a few Hit Points, bringing you back to consciousness. If you are mortally wounded, like shot to the head or to the chest, or there are other things that would keep you asleep, you can be considered in a coma, and will not wake up. However if you have just been punched in the face several times, or were just pushed down a flight of stairs, or something of that degree, then you will wake up between 10 and 30 minutes. When you are knocked out, your Hit Points level is normally at Zero. When you serve your unconscious time, you will get back one point, just enough to bring you back to wakefulness. When you have this point, realistically you will be groggy and unable to see straight for a while. It could be considered moding if you were to wake up with one Hit Point left, and began fighting full strength.
When you take damage from a certain weapon, you will eventually heal from it unless it is impossible to do so. Below is a chart of how you will heal from most damages on your own. (This is how fast you’ll heal with only 1 Endurance Point. How many hit points you’ll recover is the number it says below multiplied by how many Endurance Points you have, meaning if you have 5 Endurance Points, you’ll heal 5 Hit Points per minute from a stun blast. If you have 6 Endurance Points, you’ll heal 6 Hit Points per minute from a stun blast).
| Type of Damage | Healing Rate | |
| Energy Blast | 1 Hit Point every 25 Hours | |
| Disruptor Blast | 1 Hit Point every 40 Hours | |
| Plasma Burst | 1 Hit Point every 50 Hours | |
| Bullets/Slugs | 1 Hit Point every 25 Hours | |
| Explosions | 1 Hit Point every 20 Hours | |
| Blunt Physical Damage | (punches, baseball bats) | 2 Hit Points every 5 Hours |
| Edged Physical Damage | (knives) | 1 Hit Point every 15 Hours |
| Broken Bones | 1 Hit Point every 5 Days | |
| Shattered Bones | 1 Hit Point every 5 Weeks | |
| Flame Burn | 1 Hit Point every 35 Hours | |
| Heat Burn | 1 Hit Point every 5 Hours | |
| Cold Burn | 2 Hit Points every 5 Hours |
Broken and shattered bones can heal wrong if they are not properly treated by a doctor. Also, almost every type of damage taken can result in internal bleeding, which will cause you to actually lose Hit Points instead of healing. Any stabbing, or energy weapons fired to your stomach or chest will cause internal bleeding and you will slowly begin to die unless you receive treatment. If you are shot, stabbed or cut in your arms, but it is not severe, you must first stop the bleeding before you can begin to heal on your own. Most medical technology can heal you fairly quickly, but if none is available you must do what you can to heal yourself. Paper cuts or thin cuts from knives will cause you to bleed out 1 Hit Point per hour, per wound. However in most cases just applying pressure will allow you to stop the bleeding, and begin the healing process.
If you are cut deeply, then high amounts of pressure must be applied, such as tying a sleeve or a belt around your arm tightly (although not tourniquet tight) will stop the bleeding within an hour or two. With deep cuts, you will bleed out 2-5 Hit Points per hour, per wound.
When dealing with bullets, you must apply pressure to stop the bleeding, and pressure must be applied for a minimum of one hour. With bullets you will bleed 5 to 7 Hit points per hour, per wound. If you apply pressure and stop the bleeding, you will not heal, but you will no longer lose Hit Points either. The only way to begin the healing process is to remove the bullet from its wound, and then you will slowly begin to heal.
With energy weapons, or explosions, you must apply pressure for at the very least, 20 minutes or you will lose 1-10 Hit Points per hour, per wound. If you apply pressure for 30 minutes to an hour, you will begin to heal.
Once you reach 0 Hit Points to your torso or head, if you are still bleeding you have a maximum of 24 hours to live. You will have at the very least 30 minutes. After your .5-24 hours are up, if you have not received medical attention, you will be considered dead.
Once you reach 0 Hit Points to your arms or legs, if you are still bleeding you have a maximum of 12 hours before the limb must be amputated. You will have at the very least 1 hour. After your 1-12 hours are up, if you have not received medical attention, your limb will have to be amputated. If it is not, then your torso will get an infection, and you will start to lose 1 Hit Point per hour until you reach Zero Hit Points. If the infection gets you down to 0 Hit Points, you have 5 hours to live. If you have two limbs that are infecting you, then you have 4 hours to live. Three limbs will only leave you with 3 hours to live, and if all four limbs are causing you the infection then you will only have 2 hours to live.
Your AIM or AOL profile must have the following information in it:
Your stats are not required in your profiles, nor are they encouraged. That is Out of Character information, and people should not be taking OOC information In Character, and by not having your Statistics in your Profile, you are making it harder for people to mode that information IC.
Any additional information you wish to put in your profile is acceptable.
Combat is a major part of Fallout. It is imperative that everyone in Fallout read over these rules, so that combat within Fallout is able to go quickly and painlessly and without needing to contact the board with help on moding issues. The different types of combat are as follows:
Hand-to-Hand
Combat
Hand-to-Hand Combat is likely both the most difficult and
the most simple form of ground combat in Fallout. On the one hand
it is very simple for you to know your distance from your
opponent, because if you’re going to punch them, they are
going to be nearby. There is a simple formula for making an
attack in hand-to-hand combat in Fallout which is as follows:
:: (description of the attack) + (bodypart making the attack) + (place you’re trying to hit on your opponents body) :: ((Damage Done))
An example of a simple attack would be:
::wildly swings his right fist at Toq’s nose:: (8 Damage)
Another example of a simple attack would be:
::snap kicks his right foot forward at Somik’s groin:: (5 Damage)
There can be several different variations of your attack, and you can format it however you’d like, just as long as you have at least those four pieces of information down.
Melee Weapon
Combat
Fighting with weapons such as swords, staffs, knives,
brass knuckles, metal pipes, tree branches and so on all deals
with Melee weapon combat. The formula with melee weapons is
similar to both Ranged Weapons and Hand-to-Hand combat, and is as
follows:
:: (description of the attack) + (weapon making the attack) + (place you’re attacking on your opponents body) :: (Damage Done)
An example of a good melee weapon attack would be:
::slashes horizontally with his sword at Simas’ belly:: (20 Damage)
Another example of a good melee weapon attack would be:
::snaps the right end of his staff toward Fismo’s nose:: (15 Damage)
Variations to your attacks is encouraged, but you must at least have those four pieces of information down in your attacks.
Ranged
Weapon Combat
Fighting with weapons such as guns, disrupters, laser
guns, throwing weapons, etc. deals with Ranged Weapon Combat. The
formula for ranged weapon combat is some of the most simplest in
the game, which is as follows:
:: (weapon you’re attacking with) + (place you’re attacking on your opponents body) :: (Damage Done)
OR
:: (weapon you’re attacking with + (who you’re attacking) :: (Damage Done)
The first post was a normal shot. The second was a wild shot. An example of a normal shot is as follows:
::fires a round at Turkmak’s head:: (50 Damage)
OR
::throws a rock at Smitty’s torso:: (10 Damage)
An example of a wild attack would be as follows:
::fires a bullet at Sloan:: (50 Damage)
OR
::fires a bullet in Sloan’s direction:: (50 Damage)
The biggest difference between the two posts is that with a wild attack you do not post where you are attacking your opponent. There are three types of ranged combat attacks. Aimed attacks, normal attacks, and wild attacks.
The only difference between a normal attack and an aimed attack is you must spend one round aiming prior to making your attack. Aiming does not count as an attack move, so your turn will not start when you aim.
Combat in most Role Playing games is a very difficult procedure, because some people throw out several consecutive moves and it is difficult to respond to them all, especially if your opponent can type extremely fast. Because of this, Fallout’s combat system will be turn based.
You are allowed to make as many moves as you want, be it running, aiming, blinking, whatever you have it, just so long as you are not making an attack. Everything you do that is not an attack must come before you make the attack. When dealing with ranged weapons in ground combat, if you fire your weapon, your turn will almost always be over with. Only characters with extremely high Action Points will be able to fire their weapons multiple times. When you run out of action points, your turn is over. Once your turn has ended, you are not able to do anything else until your opponent uses all of his Action Points. You are both able to attack and block simultaneously, but once you run out of action points, you must wait for your opponent to run out as well. Once he runs out of Action Points, all of your action points are replenished, as are his, and the attack can continue. The opponent may use his action points to block or dodge, and then return fire in a counter attack, although most characters won’t have enough action points to pull off such a maneuver.
In Hand-to-Hand combat, even with a relatively low Action Point count, just so long as you have more than one, you can throw multiple punches or kicks or whatever you wish to do with just your body. Once you’ve exhausted your Action Points, you are out of attacks, and your turn ends. In most circumstances, whoever has the most actions points is going to have the advantage during hand-to-hand combat. If I have 4 action points, and my opponent decided to only go with 1, I can throw out four consecutive punches at him, and he only gets 1 block/dodge. If he can’t find a way to get out of being hit in that one move, he’s going to have to take damage to at the very least the following 3 attacks, and that’s if he’s able to block the first one. There are ways to get out of every attack, which is where skill comes in. During hand-to-hand combat, if the attacker has 2 action points, and his opponent has 5, and the attacker throws out 2 punches, his opponent will be able to block twice, and follow it up with three blows for a counter attack. This is where action points really play their part. Sheer muscle can win over speed though, and characters with high Action Points will typically have low Strength and Hit Points, so will be easier to kill.
A character’s action points may be spent on running away. For every action point you have, you may use half of your Speed Points. So if you have 4 action points, you may run twice full speed. For non-combative moves, it typically takes 1 action point to do things, such as shooting up a stimpak, or shooting up period. For things that require time, like lockpickers, it can take 2 or 3 action points.
Critical Hits are when you hit something important, such as an eye, an internal organ, or your boy or girl parts. Critical hits can occur anytime by the defenders say so. For instance, if I shoot at Bob, Bob can decide to take the shot to the eye ball, even if I wasn’t aiming for his eye. In order to not give Bob much say-so in the matter, you must actually aim for the specific organ. You must take 2 rounds, or 2 action points to do this, unless your Perception skill is above 8. If it is above 8, then you may do it in 1 round, or 1 action point, but you still must aim. Damage for critical hits all depends on how many perception points the attacker has. For every 1 Perception Point the attacker has, you can tack on an additional 10 Hit Points worth of damage for critical hits. Which means if your attacker has 5 perception points, you will be hit with an additional 50 Hit Points worth of damage. This only deals with ranged weapons. Explosives don’t cause critical hits, although it is easy to lose an eye. Critical hits with melee and hand to hand weapons is possible, but in those cases you only deal out 1 additional point of damage per perception point you have.
Sequence
During a one on one fight, it is easy to tell who takes the first turn and who takes the next one. Whoever initiates combat will take the first move. But when you’re dealing with a fight with more than two people involved, it starts to get complicated. Whoever initiates the attack goes first… but who goes second? Speedy typing is never going to be relied upon in Fallout. Who goes second is very simple to figure out. You simply compare agility scores. Whoever has the most agility will go second. Whoever has the second highest agility will go third and so on. If the agility score ties up, you add in perception. If for some god awful reason the perception score ties up as well, you look at action points, then speed, then strength, then intelligence. If somehow every single damn statistic is the same, then whoever is defending will go first. If you both are defending, then you are on the same side, work it out yourself.
Everything in Fallout is kept track of. Weapons, equipment, gum, cattle, houses, dresser drawers, bullets, dirty magazines, condoms, drugs, bottle caps, glass bottles, old junky cars that aren’t worth anything to anyone and will likely never be used in the game, even the clothes on your back is kept track of. It is done in a very organized fashion. Whenever you gain an item, you report it to the board. Whenever you lose an item, you report it to the board. Whenever you use an item, you report it to the board. If you shoot one of your cattle in the head, report it to the board. You have 48 hours to report the loss/gain/use of anything that happens in Fallout. After that, if you have not reported it, you may be removed from Fallout and your character will be considered dead. It is also in your best interests to report everything to the board, even if you aren’t directly involved in something, but are just witnessing something. For instance, if you are watching two people fist fight, and you send that into the board, you could gain experience points just by watching that occur. Just by firing off one bullet at something, whether you hit or miss you’ll gain experience points. So if you waste 100 bullets shooting at a target board, you’ll gain a ton of experience points. You’ll also run out of bullets. Also, if someone fires 20 bullets at you, it is probably a good idea for you to report that to the board so that we can remove 20 bullets from his inventory. The board will keep track of EVERYTHING in Fallout. You are required to keep track of everything you own, and the condition of everything you own as well, because the board is keeping track of this as well. If you have run out of bullets, but you are caught using bullets that you do not have, expect to be removed from Fallout.
Everything should be submitted in logs, and there is a special space on the website just for this purpose. Every time you shoot up, kill something or someone, use a bullet, drink some beer, buy some food, etc. etc. this should all be reported to the board. Likewise, report anything you see with the logs. If you see someone do some drugs, or heal themselves by using a stimpak, and you log it and send it in but they don’t report that they’ve used this equipment, you can be rewarded greatly through experience points, extra equipment and so on and so forth while the other person will be removed from the game for moding.
Drugs have both their positives and their negatives. Many drugs will allow you to temporarily raise your stats or skills or will have other such benefits. The downside is that you can overdose on drugs and get sick or killed from them, or suffer some side effect. The most dangerous of all is getting addicted to a particular drug. Some drugs have 100% addictive rates, which means that just by taking it once, you will be permanently hooked. Whenever you take a particular drug, you must inform the board of this, and they will reply with the side effects of the drug. If you attempt to break your addiction, several side effects could occur, such as the permanent or temporary lowering of stats and/or skills. Drugs are not for everyone, but they are very popular, and they definitely have their benefits.
Vehicles in Fallout will be extremely rare, and even more rare to find one in good working condition. Finding a car would be easy, they are laying around everywhere, but finding one with its engine in tact, or anything in tact for that matter would be extremely unlikely. Each vehicle will have its own rules, but the basics to it is that Vehicles will need power, and if you run out you will be stranded. The plus side is they will get you from place to place fifty times faster than it would take you to walk. Each vehicle has its own Speed level, along with Hit Points. Different vehicles require different piloting skills to use it. Your piloting skill will tell you if you can use a certain vehicle or not. It will also tell you how well you’ll be able to drive it. If you are firing weapons in the vehicle while driving it, such as going on a drive by, one of your skills will be halved. Either your piloting skill will be halved, or your small arms skill will be halved, and all your shots will be considered wild.
Traveling from place to place can take a long, long time. Since most people do not have a vehicle in which they can cut down the time to get from one village to the next closest village can take days, or weeks or longer. There are several dangers from moving from place to place, which you will be notified of when you leave a city/village. When moving from Village A to Village B, you will have to notify the board that you’re leaving, and when you expect to arrive. If there are dangers in your way, such as Rad Scorpions or mutated rats, the NPC board will sim out your fighting with these creatures. The board may also elect to NPC raiders. The plus side to this is that if you come out alive, you’ll be able to loot the NPC’s bodies. Also, if anyone else would come along your path, you’ll be informed of it, as will they, so if they decide to mug you, they can set up times to do this with you.
If a raider comes along, but you do not have time to sim, then everything for you will be put on hold until you can sim, so there will be no OOC conflicts with traveling through the waste lands.
To do any tinkering, building or repairing of items, you must first have the skills to do it. If you have the skills, then you must request permission from the board on what it is you wish to do, along with how you intend to do it. Your request will be approved or denied within a few days.
Armor rules are fairly simple. When wearing body armor, such as a helmet, a vest, gloves or what have you, the armor will absorb a certain amount of damage from all weapons. You will still take damage most of the time, but most of the damage can be absorbed into your armor. To figure out how much damage was absorbed by your armor, you simply take the Damage Points from whatever is attacking you, and minus the armor points of your vest, helmet, knee pads, etc. and whatever is left is how much damage you take. So if my helmet has 10 Armor Points, and I am shot in the face with 15 Damage Points, I remove 10 points of damage from my head, and what is left I take normal damage to my person with, which in this case would be 5 points. If my helmet has 10 Armor Points, and I am hit with 8 Damage Points, I will take no damage, because whatever has hit me, it didn’t penetrate my armor to cause me physical harm. There are several types of damage that your armor will have different armor points for.
Armor has Hit Points too though, and if armor takes enough damage, it can be destroyed. Do not confuse Armor Points with Hit Points for Armor. If my Bullet Proof Vest has 50 Hit Points, and 10 Armor Points, and I take a blow to the chest for 12 Damage Points, I am going to take 2 Damage to my torso, but my vest will take a full 12 Damage Points to it, and will be reduced to 38 Hit Points. Once armor is damaged to Zero Hit Points, it is considered useless, and likely has either been vaporized, or completely destroyed. It no longer will protect you, even if you pick up the remains and hold it in front of your body, it will just vaporize if ever hit again, and the bullet will keep flying at you. Punching metal and cement items with your bare hand will not do any damage to it. Punching wood and other hard substances that can crack, such as plastic will do half damage to it if you’re punching with your bare hands. Glass, and other easily destroyable items will still receive full damage. If you have any questions about this topic, contact the board.
A long time ago a lot of atomic bombs went off and blew up the entire planet. There is still radiation left over from those bombs. There is different amounts of radiation from place to place. People can take quite a lot of radiation before they are actually damaged by it. For every endurance point your character has, he or she can easily take 100 radiation points of damage without being harmed. Meaning if your character has 1 Endurance Point, he can take 100 radiation points worth of damage without actually becoming damaged. If he has 6 Endurance points, then he can take 600 radiation points worth of damage without becoming damaged himself. For every 10 radiation points above your resistance level, you’ll receive 1 damage point per minute. So if you have 6 Endurance Points, but you are in a zone of 700 points of radiation, you have 100 points of radiation effecting you since your 6 Endurance points resist against 600 of those radiation points, and you will take 10 Damage Points from that 100 radiation points left over. For every month that you are in the wasteland, you will gain 1 radiation point for every 100 radiation points that are in the area. This radiation point will be permanent, which may or may not have an effect on your character at all. But maybe it will.
Traits are characteristics that better define just exactly who your character is. They all have a good and a bad impact on your character. If you want the good side of a Trait, you must take the bad with it. Fortunately, traits are optional. You do not have to take a trait to finish your character. If you do want to select traits, you may select up to two, or purchase more than two traits by paying for a trait with 5 stat points per trait. There are only a dozen or so traits to choose from, and the board recognizes the small amount of choices to choose from. Therefore, if anyone can think of something to add to the traits list, you can bring it up to the board and we will approve or deny it on a case by case basis.
Perks are special abilities that your character can occasionally select when your character gains an experience level. These rewards are similar to traits, except everything is good. You get a perk every 3 Experience Levels. The list of perks that you can choose from are based on your character’s characteristics. Some perks are only available if your character is of high enough level, for example. Your character must meet or exceed all of the requirements. Some perks have no requirements. Every time it is time to gain a perk, you will be emailed by the board with a list of perks to choose from, along with their descriptions. To gain the perk, you simply reply to the email with which perk you wish to have.
As your character survives, and succeeds at overcoming the obstacles in his path, he will gain experience points. When a certain number of experience points are obtained, your character will increase in level. When that happens, your character will gain more Hit Points, more skill points, and the occasional perk.
Experience points can be given to your character for killing critters in combat, solving problems, and using skills successfully. The more difficult the critter, problem or skill use, the more experience points your character will be awarded with. Therefore, it is extremely important to email the board with a log every time you even potentially do something that could gain you experience. You email the board with a log and a brief explanation as to what you’ve done to gain experience, and your email will be replied to with how many experience points you have gained, and how many are now in your total experience point pool. The board will keep track of this, as the board keeps track of all your statistics, including everything you own. You will gain a different amount of experience points depending on who it is you have killed. The more experience points your enemy has, the more points you’ll get for killing them. It is possible to increase several Experience Levels just by killing one person.
It requires more experience points to increase in level, the higher level your character is. Go up in levels, and you need even more experience to get to the next level. You are always informed of how many experience points is left before you will be granted another experience level.
Every new Experience Level will gain you the following:
--Potential Skill Points: Gain 5 potential skill points +double your Intelligence points. So if you have 5 Intelligence points, you will gain 15 Potential Skill Points. If you have 6 Intelligence points you will gain 17 Potential Skill Points.
--Perks: Gain 1 perk every 3 levels
Note: There is no maximum level. You can continue to gain experience and improve your character, but it takes more and more experience to increase levels as you play.
Karma
Karma is simply a score that can go up or down to
infinity. It somehow shows the results to your character
depending on the choices you make. Your Karma score must be shown
in your profile. Karma is both IC and OOC. People will take your
Karma score OOC, and decide how to react to you IC from this
score. Since they have absolutely no idea what you have done to
get the score that you have, they are only able to make a
decision on whether or not they like you. Your score can be in
the negatives, or in the positives. If you have a positive score,
you are shown as basically a good guy. If you have a negative
score, you are a bad guy. A Karma score that is around zero
basically means that you have very little experience with the
outside world, or have stayed pretty neutral throughout your
life, or you haven’t yet had the chance to prove yourself to
the world. The higher your count is, the better (or worse
depending on your point of view). It becomes more and more
difficult to raise your skill as it gets higher up, and it
becomes much easier to lower your skill. There is a maximum of
1,000 points you can get, in either direction. A thousand
positive points can only be earned if you have never done
anything wrong, and you have saved the people of the wasteland a
thousand times. A thousand negative points can only be earned if
you have done only truely evil things with your character. Upon
entering the game, you start out with a Karma level of 0.
Reputation
Reputation is sort of like Karma, except not really.
It works the same way as Karma, as far as point values go, but it
is different for every town. For instance, it is possible for you
to have a really high Reputation count in the village of Shady
Sands, but a really low Reputation count for you in the city of
Junktown. Your reputation level will be recorded by the board,
but you do not have to have this information in your profile.
Only yourself, the board, and the city leaders will have this
information. Although the information won’t be crossed. For
instance, the Shady Sands leader won’t get your reputation
level for Junktown, or the Brotherhood of Steel. You can only
gain reputation in a particular city by going there, although it
is possible for your reputation to precede you, since word does
get around. Also, with Karma, what you do to get your Karma Score
isn’t recorded. What you do to get your reputation score IS
recorded.
Special Reputation
By doing some things, you can earn special
reputations. These special reputations go in your profile, so
that you are widely known for what you have done. These can be
both good things, and bad things. Killing children for one, is a
way to earn you a Special Reputation. Special Reputations are
only titles, they don’t have a point system.
Traveling through the wasteland isn't ever supposed to be an easy task. To show the difficulty in the game, the Board will elect to NPC special encounters for your character at random points in time. These encounters aren't always bad either. You might stumble upon a dead body and you'll be able to take supplies from their body. On the other hand you might stumble upon a band of gangsters or raiders. The board may call on other players in the game to NPC these acts, since the board probably couldn't sim out the actions of 10 different raiders all at the same time. Really strange encounters can happen. You might find a band of aliens running around, or perhaps stumble upon a nuclear warhead just sitting in the middle of no where. There are hundreds of possible random encounters that can and will occur while you're traveling, and since traveling can take several days, and sometimes several weeks, you might have a dozen random encounters in just one trip.
Just some things that didn’t really require their own field. It takes 1 round or action point to remove something from a pouch, a pocket, a holster or anything that isn’t already in your hands. It also takes one round or action point to stand back up after being knocked down.