5e: Hacking the Game, Fallout Part X

Today we’re continuing  the D&D 5e system hack for games played in the world of Fallout. The topic of the week is backgrounds. Following that, I’ll be talking about the plans I have for this system hack’s future, including a compatible product I’ll be releasing soon.

If you’re new to the series, check out the earlier articles here.

Backgrounds in Fifth Edition Fallout.

Backgrounds work essentially the same as they do in the core game, with the following exception: because the starting packages listed for classes aren’t appropriate in this setting, players will be purchasing their character’s equipment. However, starting equipment is still listed for the backgrounds below, and should be given to characters in addition to the caps they gain from their class.

Most of the backgrounds in the Player’s Handbook can work with some effort to update them. The ones I feel are most appropriate for the setting are included in the list below, although they are not reproduced in full as they aren’t included in the System Reference Document.

The list is mostly new backgrounds created especially for the setting.

Background List

Tool Proficiencies: One type of gaming set, Vehicles (Land) 
Equipment: an iron pot, a lighter, a set of traveler’s clothes, a symbol of your affiliation to your caravan company, a pouch containing 15 caps.

Feature: Caravanner’s Contacts

As a member of a caravan company, you can expect to receive room and board at any of that company’s own wayhouses, if it has any. You also establish relationships with in major settlements, allowing you to find a place to stay at a 50% discount. Finally, you understand the caravanner’s code, and know how to approach other traders out in the wastes. You can almost always persuade other travellers to share their fires, their shelter, and sometimes their food with you and your comrades. Of course, you are expected to offer the same courtesies. 

Charlatan

This background is as the Player’s Handbook background of the same name and is appropriate with the following change.

Equipment: a set of fine clothes, tools appropriate to the con of your choice (examples include: ten bottles or needles of fake chems, a deck of marked cards, or a set of weighted dice), a pouch containing 15 caps.

Child of Atom

You belong to the Church of Atom, a post-nuclear religion that believes that each atom contains an entire universe within it, and that splitting an atom is therefore an act of creation. Nuclear blasts such as those that created the wasteland, far from destructive horrors, are therefore to be desired as a holy event. Life in the wasteland is a mere trial until the true believer can do Atom’s work and be brought into its divine light.

Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Persuasion
Tool Proficiencies: Calligrapher’s Supplies, one type of gaming set.
Equipment: A holy symbol of Atom, a book of Atom’s doctrine, a set of common clothes.

Feature: Atom’s Grace

You know the religious lore and practices of the Children of Atom, and are accepted by other faithful as a true believer. You can perform the religion’s ceremonies, and you and your companions can expect to recieve hospitality and succor from other Children of Atom, within their means to do so.

You might also have ties to a specific church or mission and be considered a resident there. While near this place, you can call upon the other Children who live there for assistance, provided the assistance you ask for is not hazardous and you remain in good standing with them.

Zealot Ware (Screenshot from Fallout 4: Far Harbor DLC © Bethesda Softworks)

Criminal

Larger settlements in the wasteland are often plagued or even run by large criminal families such as the Chairmen and the Omertas. You belong to one of these organisations.

This background is as the Player’s Handbook background of the same name and is appropriate with the following changes.

Equipment: a crowbar, a set of common clothes, a pouch containing 15 caps.

Feature: Family Connections

Your position and influence within your crime family is recognized by other members, as well as among the family’s rivals. Members of the organization defer to you if they are of a lower position and you are able requisition simple equipment for temporary use.

You can also get messages to and from other criminals you know, even over great distances, by exploiting vast networks of contacts including sympathetic or blackmailed couriers and caravan masters.

Follower of the Apocalypse

You are a member of the Followers of the Apocalypse, a beneficent organisation devoted to the care of the needy, to preserving precious knowledge, and to ensuring that the follies that led to the Great War are never repeated. They are never shy about speaking out against those in power when they believe that the best interests of the common man are not being protected, which sometimes has them branded as seditious anarchists.

Skill Proficiencies: Insight, either Medicine or Science
Tool Proficiencies: Two types of artisan’s tools
Equipment: healer’s kit or herbalism kit, a set of commoner’s clothes.

Feature: Follower’s Favour

You command the respect of other Followers, as well as many citizens of the wasteland who appreciate the work that the Followers do. You and your companions can expect to receive hospitality and succor from other Followers, within their means to do so.

You might also have ties to a specific mission and be considered a resident there. While near this place, you can call upon the other Followers who live there for assistance, provided the assistance you ask for is not hazardous and you remain in good standing with them.

Former Enclave 

You were raised among the Enclave, a group descended from political and military officials who saw out the bombs from the safety of their bunkers, and now believe themselves to be the rightful successors to the governance of the United States. The Enclave are known for being extremely isolationist, unsympathetic, and often violent toward all other factions due to their belief that exposure to radiation and the FEV virus has made other humans “impure”. However, you abandoned the teachings that you were raised to believe and found a way to escape the oversight of the Enclave and make your own way in the world. Such treason would naturally make you a target for reprisals from your comrades of old.

Skill Proficiencies: History, Intimidation
Tool Proficiencies: Vehicles (Land)
Equipment: Enclave dog tag, a set of fine clothes, 20 salvage (Pre-War Money).

Feature: Ex-Enclave 

You are a former member of the Enclave, and still have useful knowledge about their operations. You know the location of local facilities other than top-secret sites above your old clearance level.

Additionally, when you are in an Enclave location, there is a 30% chance that you know or can guess the access codes for terminal-locked doors to non-critical areas when their Hacking DC is 15 or less.

If you encounter other former Enclave, they are predisposed to offer you assistance if it doesn’t unduly endanger them and is within their means.

Finally, duing any physical conflict in which you are opposed by members of the Enclave, they always attempt to take you alive unless you leave them no choice but to kill you. Some officers might simply want to see you interrogated and punished for your betrayal, while others might be sympathetic towards you. The exact reason for your attempted capture is left to GM discretion.

Former Brotherhood

You are a former member of the Brotherhood of Steel, a militant organisation formed in the wake of the apocalypse from remnants of the Armed Forces and government scientists. In spite of the high-minded ideals of the group, their heavy-handed approach to dealing with other factions and tendency to hoard technology that would help right now to be preserved for a purely hypothetical future turned you away from their doctrine.

Skill Proficiencies: Investigation, Athletics (Knight only), Persuasion (Paladin only), Science (Scribe only)
Tool Proficiencies: Mechanics’ Tools
Equipment: Brotherhood dog tag, a set of traveler’s clothes, a minor technological widget, a pouch containing 15 caps.

Feature: Brotherhood Intelligence 

You are a former member of the Brotherhood, and still have useful knowledge about their operations. You know the location of local facilities other than top-secret sites above your old clearance level.

Additionally, when you are in an Brotherhood location, there is a 30% chance that you know or can guess the access codes for terminal-locked doors to non-critical areas when their Hacking DC is 15 or less.

If you encounter other former Brotherhood, they are predisposed to offer you assistance if it doesn’t unduly endanger them and is within their means.

Finally, duing any physical conflict in which you are opposed by members of the Brotherhood of Steel, they always attempt to take you alive unless you leave them no choice but to kill you. Some officers might simply want to see you interrogated and punished for your betrayal, while others might be sympathetic towards you. The exact reason for your attempted capture is left to GM discretion.

Initiate of Steel

You are an active member of the Brotherhood of Steel, a militant organisation formed in the wake of the apocalypse from remnants of the Armed Forces and government scientists. Their goal is the preservation of technology they see as necessary to revitalise civilisation, but over the years some factions of the Brotherhood have also sought to police attempts by other groups to use technology they perceive as dangerous.

Skill Proficiencies: Investigation, Athletics (Knight only), Persuasion (Paladin only), Science (Scribe only)
Tool Proficiencies: Mechanics’ Tools or Vehicles (Land)
Equipment: Brotherhood dog tag, a set of traveler’s clothes, a minor technological widget (refer to the trinket table for examples), a pouch containing 15 caps.

Feature: Bond of Brothers

You are a loyal and respected member of the Brotherhood of Steel. Other members of the Brotherhood recognize your authority and influence, and they defer to you if they are of a lower rank. You can invoke your rank to exert influence over other soldiers and requisition simple equipment. You can also usually gain access to friendly military encampments and fortresses where your rank is recognized.

Paladin Danse (Screenshot from Fallout 4 © Bethesda Softworks)

Raider 

You are, or were, affiliated with one of the many raider gangs that group together for mutual survival in the wastes at the expense of other, less unscrupulous souls.

Skill Proficiencies: Intimidation, Survival
Tool Proficiencies:  Three types of gaming set
Equipment: A set of traveler’s clothes, a trophy from a past victim (refer to the trinket table for examples), a pouch containing 15 caps.

Feature: Part of the Gang

You know how to behave among Raiders to ensure you are treated with respect, or at least caution. You are usually able to gain access to camps belonging to your gang (or former gang), as long as you remain on friendly terms with them. Additionally, you can generally negotiate access to raider camps for your comrandes and yourself, provided the gang in question can be reasoned with and they are not aware ofyour own gang affiliation if  you happen to be rivals.

Railroad Agent

You are a full agent of the clandestine organisation known as the Railroad, and assist them in their goal of freeing Gen-3 Synths from the control of the Institute.

Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Stealth
Tool Proficiencies: Disguise kit
Equipment: A set of traveler’s clothes, a disguise kit, a pouch containing 5 caps.

Feature: Railroad 

You know up-to-date countersigns used to identify other members of the Railroad, and understand codes used to encrypt communications between cells. You are also fluent in Railsigns, symbols used by the Railroad to mark caches, dead drops locations, safe houses, and the presence of allies or danger.

If you encounter other Railroad Agents or sympathisers, they are predisposed to offer you assistance if it doesn’t unduly endager them and is within their means.

You also know the location of your local cell’s current headquarters and are always welcome there as long as you don’t compromise it to outsiders. In addition, you know the location of dead drops currently used by your cell.

Scientist

You are one of a rare few individuals actively trying to preserve and restore the advances of pre-War science and have dedicated your life so far to the pursuit of scientific achievement.

Skill Proficiencies: Medicine, Science
Tool Proficiencies: One of Chem Cook’s Tools, Herbalism Kit,  Mechanic’s Tools.
Equipment: Tour choice of chem cook’s tools, healer’s kit, herbalism kit, or mechanic’s tools. A set of traveler’s clothes, a set of fine clothes.

Feature: Scientific Enquiry

You intuitively grasp the purpose of most old world devices, technologies, and scientific experiments you encounter without needing to make any kind of ability check to identify them, though you may sometimes require an hour to read through relevant materials. This does not confer any special ability to make use of the things you identify without appropriate skills.

Additionally, you are generally afforded the respect and goodwill of other members of the scientific community, provided you don’t waste it. Other scientists you know generally agree to assist you with tasks that won’t be hazardous or significantly costly to them in resources or time, provided you remain in good standing with them.

Curie (Screenshot from Fallout 4 © Bethesda Softworks)

Soldier

You are an active or former member of a military force. Examples include the Minutemen, an armed forces from the people and for the people dedicated to protecting the citizens of the Common Wealth, andt he NCR Army, whose members defend the territories and people of the New California Republic. Mercenary companies such as the Gunners or Talon Company also find employment in the wastes. Unfortunately, when not legitimately employed many squads within such companies often turn their training and armaments to ill use, behaving no better than common raiders.

This background is as the Player’s Handbook background of the same name and is appropriate with the following changes.

Equipment: Dog tag, a trophy taken from a fallen enemy, a set of common clothes, an iron pot, a lighter. a pouch containing 15 caps

Vault Dweller

You emerged into the wasteland from one of Vault-Tec’s extraordinary fallout shelters. You likely came from a shelter running one of their less dangerous experiments, explaining the continuing survival of the community within your vault. It’s also possible that the intended experiment was never begun. If you’re unlucky, the sudden activation of a nightmarish experiment may have been what forced you out into the wastes to begin with. For such a character, the horrors of the wasteland might be as nothing compared to what they have escaped from.

Skill Proficiencies: History, Science
Tool Proficiencies: Pip-Boy
Equipment: A numbered vault suit, a Pip-Boy

Feature: Secrets of the Vault

Due to access to superior education, you intuitively grasp the original purpose of most old world locations, devices, and practices without needing to make any kind of ability check to identify them. This does not confer any special ability to make use of the things you identify without appropriate skills.

Additionally, you possess a secret which could dramatically alter the local balance power or the unfolding history of post-nuclear America. The secret should have something to do with your vault of origin, and can be determined in conjunction with your GM. Examples might include the location of the vault itself if it is currently hidden, knowledge that you brought with you when you left the vault, or a device or other piece of significant technology.

Vault Dweller (Screenshot from Fallout 4 © Bethesda Softworks)

Next for Fifth Edition Fallout

With everything we’ve discussed so far, it should now be possible to run a game set in the Fallout universe provided you are willing to homebrew monster statblocks. Of course, I’ll be providing statblocks of my own making—The original outline for the series calls for a final week of monsters while the series is still weekly (that’ll be next Wednesday). It’s too much to expect statblocks for every type and variant of creature in the wasteland in one go, but the idea is to revisit the series  with more monsters every so often after I move on to other topics. That’s still the plan, but I’ve come to some other decisions over the course of this series, and I want to discuss those with you now.

Fifth Edition Fallout Guide

Firstly, while it’s true that we’ve covered all the rules necessary to play in the Fallout setting using D&D 5e, those rules are broken up over a length series of articles. They are also interspersed with discussion, and not necessarily in the ideal order. With that in mind, I have been compiling the actual game content from this series into a single PDF document called Fifth Edition Fallout, which I’ll make available to download from this site. Currently, the plan is to release this next Wednesday (30/08/2017, or 08/30/2017 for any Americans reading), the same day I post the first set of monster statblocks. Following the completion of the series, the  Fifth Edition Fallout PDF will be the definitive way to access the rules, and it will be much easier for me to keep it up to date with any errata that may turn out to be necessary. As I post additional monsters in the future, I’ll also add them to the PDF, expanding the bestiary.

A Date with the Queen 

I don’t know if any of the people who’ve followed this series are considering running their own Fallout campaigns using the rules we’ve talked about. I hope so, and I know I for one will be running a game next time I get a chance! Maybe it will be a little more tempting when the compiled guide is available next week.

If you are interested in running games set in the world of Fallout, you should know that I’m working on a 1st level adventure which can be used as the launching point of your campaigns or as a one-shot. The adventure concerns the problems suffered by a small settlement after their mayor’s son becomes the unwilling romantic interest of a super mutant gang leader!

I’m still working on the adventure. The hope is that it will be finished in time to coincide with both the other releases described above, although I can’t be certain that will be the case. Failing that, it should still be released within the next fortnight or so.

As with Fifth Edition Fallout, A Date with the Queen will be downloadable from this site (once it becomes available).

A Date with the Queen Preview 1	A Date with the Queen Preview 2

Wasteland Wanderers

Secondly, while looking at solutions for modifying classes and archetypes I became inspired to create some explicitly designed for use in a non-magical, post-apocalyptic setting. I’ve been quietly plugging away at that project ever since, and the result is a product I’m calling Wasteland Wanderers. It is unrelated to Fallout but compatible with Fifth Edition and the 5e Fallout rules I’ve created for this blog. Wasteland Wanderers includes six classes, including the Savage, the Scientist, the Scoundrel, the Scout, the Shepherd, and the Soldier, which you could use in Fallout and other campaigns in place of D&D’s usual core classes.

The Scientist and its archetypes are all-new. The Scout and the Shepherd are balanced against the Ranger and the Bard, respectively, and are a mixture of brand new and existing features. There are significant differences in both, the biggest of which is the removal of magic. Additionally:

• The Scout makes use of an expendable resource called Scout’s Instinct to improve upon certain rolls, and wields a signature firearm known as their Old Reliable.  
• The Shepherd is intended to be a natural leader rather than an entertainer. Members of the class have access to Command  (a points resource discussed in Part 3 of this series as a solution to the non-magical bard) which it can use to deal psychic damage, restore hit points, and charm or frighten foes. Another interesting feature of the class is the Comrades’ Bond, which allows nearby allies who are adjacent to each other to suffer damage on each other’s behalf. 

The core chassis of Savage, Scoundrel, and Soldier are reskinned from the Barbarian, Rogue, and Fighter respectively with minor changes eg. proficiencies. They are included primarly for the aforementioned changes and to make Wasteland Wanderers a self-contained reference book for the players. The important part of these classes’ sections are the all new archetypes!

All told, Wasteland Wanderers is 30 pages of actual game content, including:

• Three new classes: the Scientist, Scout, and Shepherd.
• Three SRD classes (with post apocalyptic setting-appropriate updates): the Savage (Barbarian), Scoundrel (Rogue), and Soldier (Fighter) included for convenience of reference. 
• Three new archetypes for the Savage (compatible with the Barbarian): including the Implacable Hunter, the Mad Gunner, and the Survivor. 
• Three new archetypes for the Scientist: the Chem Cook, the Engineer, and the Programmer.
• Two new archetypes for the Scoundrel (compatible with the Rogue): including the Con Artist, and the Hitman. 
• A nonmagical variant of the Thief archetype for the Scoundrel (compatible with the Rogue).
• Three new Scout archetypes: the Beast Hunter, the Bounty Hunter, and the Guerilla.
• Three new Shepherd archetypes: the Chronicler, the Commander, the Regent, and the Tyrant. 
• Three new Soldier archetypes: the Fist Fighter (previously seen on this blog!), the Pit Fighter, and the Sharpshooter.

Although designed for post-apocalyptic play, many of the classes and archetypes in Wasteland Wanderers will work just as well in other settings, including fantasy games.

I will be self-publishing Wasteland Wanderers on drivethrurpg at $3.99. The PDF is finished save for a final editorial pass, so all being well it should be released on the same day as the Fifth Edition Fallout pdf. Whether you’re considering running a Fallout 5e game, want to use some of the classes and archetypes for another campaign world, or simply want to help support this blog, please consider purchasing it on release.

Wasteland Wanderers Preview (Cover)	Wasteland Wanderers Preview (Scientist)
Wasteland Wanderers Preview (Scout)	Wasteland Wanderers Preview (Shepherd)

Will You Visit the Wasteland? 

Whether you’ve followed this series from the beginning or just found it, I want to hear from you. Share your own thoughts about the ideas presented in the series or how you would  run a game of wasteland survival. Let me know if you’re excited for one or more of the releases described above. And if you’re thinking of running your own Fallout game when I post the compiled guide, it would make my day to know that and talk to you about your campaign ideas! Please comment or tweet me @spilledale!