Vault 13: A GURPS Post-Nuclear Adventure

Vault 13: A GURPS Post-Nuclear Adventure was an early working title for Fallout, later changed to Fallout: A GURPS Post-Nuclear Adventure.

Background
A role playing game utilizing GURPS, Vault 13: A GURPS Post-Nuclear Adventure transitioned to Fallout following disagreements between Interplay and Steve Jackson Games eventually led to Interplay dropping the license and replacing it with its own system.

At the very beginning of production, Scott Campbell was named lead designer and the team decided on GURPS: Wasteland as a working title. In the Origins of Fallout, Scott Campbell shared his initial enthusiasm about GURPS, stating, "One of the brilliant things about GURPS is that it is genre-agnostic; you could have the game set in the old west, on a space ship, in a Lovecraftian universe, or a sword-and-sorcery fantasy. We all really wanted to emphasize this incredible flexibility in the system by making a story that touched on many different genres."

Shortly thereafter, Interplay's legal team was informed that Electronic Arts had the rights to the Wasteland name, and the team began to brainstorm a new title. Tim Cain proposed the idea of using vaults, and the team began working under the GURPS Fallout title.

Legal issues
As production accelerated in 1996, Interplay began to send concept art and screenshots to Steve Jackson Games. A press release was published on June 11, 1996, sharing news of GURPS Fallout, the "first GURPS computer role-playing game from Interplay Productions." Spokesperson Bob Apthorpe reported that the game will be "as true to the real GURPS as a computer version can be" and shared Interplay 's dedication to "fully supporting the reaction rules." On January 13, 1997, another press released was published, reporting an on-time game development schedule and anticipated April release date. The release also indicated that SJG had received an alpha version for in-house evaluation.

One month later, routine progress material was sent to SJG, but this time came back as "unapproved," the first design disagreement that ultimately resulted in the GURPS license's revocation. No Mutants Allowed, The Origins of Fallout by R. Scott Campbell, Part 1, page 6: "''So, Leonard and Jason had just completed the opening movie for the game. It was a slow pan-out from an old 50's style black and white television showing quick documentary style scenes that silently gave the player an idea of the dystopian future they were about to step into. In one of these quick scenes, two soldiers in power-armor shoot a kneeling and unarmed man in the back of the head, and then gleefully wave to the camera. It was a tiny scene, but one that let you know that you were about to play a violent game. We all liked the movie and, just to keep Steve Jackson Games in the loop, a copy was sent to them. And then it happened. The response came back "Unapproved". The reason? They stated that "The movie was too violent". Whaaaaa? Too Violent!? Haven't they been looking at the game we'd been making!? There was blood and violence all over the place! We had Head Of Gore TechnologyTM! You could split people in two with a chainsaw for chrissake!

Apparently they hadn't been looking at the game we'd been making. All of that "The more violence the better" stuff was long forgotten. With that rejection it became apparent the game would need dramatic changes to get approval from our IP holder. A decision had to be made: Keep GURPS, abandoning our creative freedom and yielding to the mercurial whims of the licensor - or throw out all of the mechanics and interface we made functional in the game and start over. And thus, the SPECIAL System was born, and both problems, IP rights and overly complex game system, were removed in one stroke. The SPECIAL system was almost identical to the "GURPS-Lite" system that we had been implementing, so in the end, what could have been a big setback was in actuality an enormous boon. " In a response to PC Gamer, Feargus Urquhart explained that the reason the license was dropped was to avoid red tape and legal conflicts regarding the game's content, including Vault Boy, the violent introduction, and a small character scale. Similarly, Scott Campbell claimed in The Origins of Fallout'' that Steve Jackson Games was satisfied with everything but the Vault Boy pictures in the character screen and the execution scene in the introduction - but also stated that the game would likely have to be remade in order to retain the license.

Dissolution
In response, Sean Punch, GURPS Line Editor at Steve Jackson Games remarked that he was "skeptical of claims that a single cut scene, loading screen, dialog line, etc. caused the parting of ways". He has also stated that the issue that was cited as a reason for the abandoning of the license was "that the license didn't word the approval process in a way that was good for either party" and that it was ultimately easier to remake the RPG elements than rewrite the licensing agreement with all the legal issues involved.

Interplay released an official statement on the mutually agreed decision but Steve Jackson, in a February 12, 1997, statement released through The Daily Illuminator stated that he wished he knew why Interplay decided to drop the license, and that no official correspondence to that effect was received by that date, and that it was a surprise to the Fallout development team as well. The Daily Illuminator: "February 12, 1997

Rumor Control about Interplay

Executive Summary: We wish we knew.

''I had problems with a couple of features of the otherwise very impressive alpha version of GURPS Fallout. As I corresponded with Interplay staff about this, I got handed up the ladder but their responses remained puzzling -- and that is the most detail I'm going to give for now.''

''Just before leaving for Europe last week, I got a call from a reporter asking me to comment on the Interplay decision to drop GURPS. I told him this was the first I'd heard of it. Calling Interplay, and talking with the last man I'd corresponded with, I got first "We haven't decided that, where'd you hear it?," then "Well, we have been talking about it and somebody must have gotten the idea it was decided," and finally "Yes, we have decided to drop it, so sorry.''"

''The statement on the Interplay web site, to the effect that this was a mutual decision of SJ Games and Interplay, is not true. Scott Haring tells me that no written correspondence from Interplay has YET been received at our office. We are not clear what their proposal to finish and release the game without the license entails, for us or for the game, and have absolutely not agreed to it.''

''I can't imagine how Interplay could take three years working on a GURPS. computer game, and then be able to create and install a completely dissimilar game engine in a few months. Nor have I read (or heard) any explanation of how they might plan to do that. So "no comment" on that for now, too.''

''I've been invited to meet with Brian Fargo, who I understand owns Interplay, when I'm in LA in a few days. I'll be very interested to see what he has to say. I hope we will be able to announce that this was a tempest in a teacup.''" Tim Cain was later apprised that the decision was made by executives of Interplay, and despite his best efforts to make concessions regarding the GURPS license, he was unsuccessful. On March 14, 1997, Steve Jackson received a phone call confirming that GURPS had to be dropped from the Fallout project per Interplay. Jackson shared in an interview shortly thereafter that he was frustrated and disappointed, especially after having worked together with the Fallout team over four years.

Skills
Based on the number of assets, the player would have been able to select a total of 56 skills. This was cut down to just 19, a little over a third of what the GURPS version featured.

Timeline
A timeline design document written by Scott Campbell and Brian Freyermuth was released on October 6, 2007 as part of Fallout's 10th anniversary celebration.