Community:Fallout Writing Guide

Fallout Writing Guide

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sxZD1rJ2cHq3ixiEB9o-37L2Q573ZBmNiqWi54W2diY/edit?usp=sharing

Authors Note

In the aftermath of the mod Fallout the Frontier, it seems that even the biggest fans of Fallout are not aware or are not implementing the basic designs that made Fallout great in the first place. This document will act as an alpha guide for individuals to write Fallout gaming experiences or to review already existing experiences, whether this be official releases, mods, TTRPGs etc.

I call this document a FIRST DRAFT as I hope to inspire collaborators / imitators for this project so a better version or new Fallout Writers Guide can be developed to replace this one. I'm not the best writer, and anything I put in here would pale in comparison to what ideas and structures other people can collectively come up with, which I hope happens.

My main hope is that a Fallout Writing Guide is added to Fallout Fan Sites and Wikis, so it can be easily accessed as well as constantly updated and added to.

Contents Page

Media Inspirations Setting Design Quests Design Gameplay Design Misc

Media Inspirations

Inspirations for Fallout Writing (Needs Expansion) Retrofuturism

Atom Punk

Raygun Gothic

Look at art and predictions of the future from earlier eras to get a sense as to what the technology, weapons, robots, vehicles etc of Fallout should look like.

The Atomic Cafe Inspiration for old world views of the nuclear bomb, dark humour of the series, music and athestics etc.

A Canticle for Leibowitz

Explores Post Apocalypse world, fallout shelters etc. Monks are an inspiration for the Brotherhood of Steel, isolated from the world gathering knowledge The Postman

Lots of inspiration drawn from here, especially for New Vegas. About a mailman traveling america trying to re-establish a unified country between various factions.

A Boy and his Dog Scavenging, underground societies, bizarre pre-war cultures, dark humour and morality. When the Wind Blows Inspiration for pre-war attitudes of the apocalypse as well as the tragedy for the first survivors of the nuclear apocalypse. The Earth Abides

The determination of society and the end of American culture into something new. Forbidden Planet

Stalker movie and games

Gamma world

Mad Max

The Day After

La Jetee

I am Legend book

On the Beach

Ultima Series

City of Lost Children

Shape of Things to come - Enclave and other fascism. Dr Strangelove - satire of cold War Americn politics

Setting Design

Tone

The Wasteland can have jokes, but it mustn't be a joke. It's a serious setting with humour in response to the seriousness of it. Maintaining balance between seriousness and comedy is important. Shouldn't feel like a Saturday morning cartoon.

Retrofuturistic Apocalypse: Fallout is, generally, what people in tbe 1950s would imagine a nuclear wasteland to be like, mixed in with satire of that time period and the nationalistic capitalistic politics it represented.

Consistency

The Wasteland should feel consistent. Fallout 2 and Fallout the Frontier had seperate teams on each settlement which led to tonal inconsistencies. Must be an overarching and connected world that feels simmilar. Factions

Scope

the bigger the impact on the world, the less believable it will be to an audience it will be. Fallout 4 synths and Fallout the Frontier Helios 2 were huge changed to the lore, and therefore very controversial. Meanwhile a contained story in a settlement can be easily incorporated into headcannon and even offical lore.

Quality over Quantity

Make sure your quests, characters etc have lots of depth and choice rather than putting as much content in it as possible. Fallout 1 is shortest Fallout Game but still highly interesting. Avoid Binary Morality: don't have "good factions" like Fallout 3s Brotherhood or 4s Minutemen. Have factions, settlements, quests etc that make you think about whether you want to side with them and why Reference Humour - If the player doesn't get the reference, it won't impact on the players experience of the game. References aren't needlessly distracting or obnoxious (at least in base game, Wild Wasteland can be more leniant but still keep general tone) Cultural Decay - culture, including the norms and values of the pre-war, become lost and societies revert to tribalism. Deformed signs become the new names of places, cultural artificats become weapons or tools like Legions football gear and even simple concepts become lost or perverted. Inspiration

Don’t just look at the lore of Fallout for inspiration, look at what inspired Fallout itself as well as media that can be incorporated into the Fallout world.

Wild Wasteland

Wild Wasteland allows developers to add more comical / obvious references as options for players while allowing players a more serious experiance if they want. Wild Wasteland should not be a trait but seperate opt in feature so players can still choose trade offs. Cultural references - Tim Cains rules for jokes and references, if the player doesn't get them, they shouldn't even notice them. implemented in a way where it doesn't overly distract from the game. Don't literally have characters, quests etc that are based off of other media, make the references more subtle, so that it would not be ommidiatly obvious what is referenced. This allows for references to be made without them being distracting or confusing. For example, Securitrons saying exterminate when attacking. Reference to Doctor Who, but its something the securitrons could say regardless, not out of character etc. Name your raiders

Raides should be characters too, even if its just in their style, weapon choice, location etc. New Vegas raiders had tribal names and references to the previous games etc. Sound:

cheery music and sound effects to contrast with the bitter reality of the wasteland. Omonous ambient music in the original Fallout builds tension and atmosphere. Frontier of Civilisation

The Frontier, the gateway between anarchy and civilisation makes great writing opportunities, providing both interactions with formal settlements and factions as well as anarchy and terror of raiders, mutants etc.

Fluid societies don't have static societies where without the players involvement they seem to be doing nothing. Have quests, setting etc that is active with or without the player involvement. Have ending slides where if the player does nothing on the quest, the faction, town etc try to do it themselves with various results. If the player doesn't rescue a hostage, the end slide shows the hostage dead or the raiders richly rewarded and continuing to terrorise the setting. General and Specfic action reputations -

get a general reputation with a town or faction by helping or hutting them, but also reputation for specific actions You've done. For example killing ceaser triggers quest outcomes and dialogue from people, perhaps buying or selling will have NPCs either respect or turn hostile to a player etc. Scepticism of Government:

Tim Cain "a big part of Fallout is the government lying to you, army and corporations take over. Basic Living - what do they eat, drink, live, trade, work etc.

Death is Grim - shouldn't be silly sound effects when you murder someone. It should feel brutal and bleak, not like a slapstick comedy.

Fallout Pre War Lore / Log Writing

Optimism Pre-War optimism in the logs, magazines, posters etc. Contrast with the post-nuke world as well as the problems the Pre-War world had.

Naivety Both at what the realities of pre-war America was and the realities of what a post-apocalyptic world will be like. Naivety gets them murdered, robbed and generally in a bad position for survival.

Propaganda What the government and individuals portray as the American Dream, nuclear family, politics etc and the realities are different. “Perfect family” is hiding something, the government is betraying its citizens and own ideals etc.

Imperialism

Paranoia

Greed

Regret

Immediate aftermath of the war should be regret and sadness at what was lost and how little the materialism of the world actually meant.

Quest Design

No Bypassing Quests

Speech and other skill checks shouldn’t bypass quests, they should add to them or keep the quest available for bonus reward

Skills

Moral Ambiguity: there are no good, bad quest outcomes, there are outcomes that can be considered good or bad depending on the players world view. What if Megaton was a slave city, and the choice of blowing it up could mean the rest of the wasteland is more secure, rather than murdering an entire population for no reason.

Dialogue:

styalistic and substantive from both NPCs and the player character. Substance informs the player what they're dialogue options are and what is being asked of them while style adds worldbuilding, tone, characterisation to the player, NPCs and the world at large.

Karma

Good / Bad choices should not be the primary quest concern but can nonetheless be used as a factor in them. Can also unlock quests, options, items etc if high, low, neutral.

Factions

Reputation gained / lost depending on quests. Can also unlock quests

Disguises

Can be used to get unique dialogue, quest outcomes and quest unlocks

Playstyles

Kill everything, pacifist, speedrunning Hide options from player.

If the player doesn't have the right skill level (34/35), faction reputation, item etc to do a quest, don't tell them in dialogue. Letting players be suprised by options in subsequent playthroughs gives them greater joy. Allow funny failed checks when appropriate, but not always. Far more repayable if the players don't know what the other options they old have done are, good surprise.

Don't Hold the Player's Hand, but make the difficulty serve a purpose -

the world of Fallout should be difficult, but presenting that difficulty should be thematic and make sense. Is having difficulty finding rope in Fallout 1 doesn't really serve the theme that the Wasteland is harsh and more frustrates the player. Having deathclaws, scorpions etc be difficult does serve the theme, since these creatures are difficult for the NPCs too and are genuine concerns for them. The player then understands why the NPCs fear them, because they find such creatures difficult to fight too. Choice and Consequence clear - there should be a clear logical consequence for your choices. Fallout 1, telling people about the Vault leads to bad actors being able to find it. However in Mass Effect 2 a character will die via a stray bullet while a door is closing if you dont complete his loyalty missions, which there is no logical connection as to why it happens in game. Don't add random outcomes to player pathways just to increase replayability, make the differences relate to player choices.

Manage the Choice Scale - balance the amount of changes your choices in quests will make with manageable expectations for writing. Having 100s of choices with huge impacts will be necessarily require huge writing and coding to implement. Therefore manage the levels of choices and keep track so it doesn't get overwhelming. Karma + Reputation reactions

Good Karma and Reputation - extra rewards from quests, characters seeking you our for quests, seen as a pushover and easy target by bandits

Bad Karma and Reputation -

extra rewards by bad characters and factions that are rival to those you are hated for (Extra Legion bonus for being hated by NCR etc), characters don't trust you, or they seek you out if they need something violent or evil done, bandits leave you alone as you are dangerous. Perks

Perks should make playthroughs different each time. Making them dependent on SPECIAL stats, skill levels, factions, karma and on combinations of these factors allows players that do a different playstyle to be able to do different things each playthrough. When creating Perks, such things should be accounted for, and Perks that are just reliant on being a certain level (which all players can achieve regardless of anything else) are discouraged.

Boss Fights Not Just Speech Box -

Speech should be used in conjuction to other skills or things you have discovered. Example Master in Fallout 1 needs speech and the holotape in order to convince him to surrender, not just speech skill.

NPC Design What is the character doing? Doc Mithcell: Doctor in Goodsprings How character is tied to World Building Comes from a Vault, resident in Goodsprings How does character encourage player roleplay Medicine and Speech checks, tutorial in house.

Gameplay Design

Fallout Modding Vision Statement

1. Mega levels of violence. You can shoot everything in this game: people, animals, buildings and walls. This is the wasteland. Life is cheap and violence is all that there is.

Fallout 3 had invincible characters that couldn’t be killed in order for the story to be completed. Fallout New Vegas had zero invincible characters except Yes Man, an immortal AI that allowed the player to complete the game even if they murdered every NPC.

2. There is often no right solution. Like it or not, the player will not be able to make everyone live happily ever after.

Outerworlds often had a 'best' solution, the obvious correct choice that was more complicated but overall better than the other choices the player could make. Although skills, creative thinking should improve the players quest outcomes, there shouldn't be as rigid a correct decision as this. Every quest outcome should have some arguably negative outcome, and the player decides if this is worth it. Compromise should have kts own negative externalities, not be the best solution. Fallout New Vegas Endings by contrast has each faction have positives and negatives, Legion with pure order but slavery, the NCR with citizenship but bureaucracy, Mr House with personal freedom but structural autocracy and Yes Man with Liberty but Chaos. Players still debate which ending is the best to this day.

3. There will always be multiple solutions. No one style of play will be perfect.

Fallout 4 Taking Independence: Have to kill the Mirelurks, with no option to use science or any other skill to avoid combat. Players must fight the Mirelurks to complete the quest. Fallout New Vegas Come Fly with Me: even the hostile feral ghouls and nightkin don't have to be killed in order to complete the quest. Instead stealth and agility can be used to run past or Sneak past enemies in order to complete quest objectives.

4. The player's actions affect the world.

Fallout 3 Blowing Up Megaton: destroying an entire settlement does not affect the main Quest despite such an action should alienate you from your father, rivet city and the Brotherhood of Steel (especially them). Such a choice should either have had reproductions or not been included. Fallout New Vegas Killing Caesar: Not only does it make the Legion hostile towards you for the rest of the game but it can effect quests such as Return to Sender.

5. There is a sense of urgency. / 7. The player will have a goal.

All Fallout games have a quest hook to inspire urgency, however: Main quests goals such as Fallout 3 and 4 whose stories limit character freedom and identity such as saving father / son are dissuaded as this limits what your character is to specific character details such as family, role, sexuality etc. Main quests goals such as Fallout 1 and New Vegas whose stories do not touch on the players background except in general ways. Being a vault dweller tasked with getting a water chip and being a wastelander who took a courier job leaves lots of rooms for players to roleplay a background / character for themselves.

6. It's open ended.

Fallout the Frontier NCR quest and Operation Anchorage was linear, with people complaining that it felt like a corridor shooter with little way to explore and have a sense of freedom. Fallout games in general allow players the freedom to explore their surroundings and given freedom to choose what they want to do, even if such locations are filled with difficult enemies.

8. The player has control of his actions.

Fallout New Vegas: you are a nameless courior who is shot in tbe head Fallout 4: you are a parent with a wife who has his child kidnapped

9. Simple Interface.

Simplicity in terms of what the player can do / quests etc is preferable to confusing them. There should be multiple options but the way they are found should be due to the players creative thinking, not through sheer accident when interacting with an over complicated system.

10. Speech will be lip-synched with the animation.

Forcing the character to watch cutscenes / dialogue such as Fallout the Frontier cutscenes or Mr House’s Basement is dissuaded Giving the character freedom to skip cutscenes / dialogue and making sure they are a reasonable length if they are engaged with,

11. A wide variety of weapons and actions.

Randomised weapons in the style of Fallout 4 where players are randomly rewarded with weapons and items rather than it being earned / giving based on their actions such as killing a character, completing a dungeon etc. Unique weapons in the style of New Vegas where they are designed with a purpose and are related to the world building, characters and situation of the game.

12. Detailed character creation rules.

Fallout 4 where there is restrictive character development and its impact on the world is minimal and can be changed anytime. Fallout 1 where traits, SPECIAL, TAG skills allow lots of creative character builds that can influence the world as well as what you starting equipment is.

13. Just enough GURPS material to make the GURPSers happy. The game comes first.

Take inspiration from TTRPGs without adapting things that don’t translate to a video game. For example having a %chance to succeed or fail speech checks works with tabletop games and dice rolls but feel clunky in Video games such as Fallout 3, since it encourages save scumming and makes players feel useless with something they can't control. Fixed point system like New Vegas meanwhile feels better in a video game.

14. The Team is Motivated The team is motivated

See dysfunctional team example, see Fallout the Frontier development team. Lack of communication, different design philosophies for the NCR and other quest lines etc.

General Principles Rule #1: Multiple Decisions. We will always allow for multiple solutions to any obstacle.

No Fallout 4 dialogue wheel Yes multiple choices Multiple Ways of doing missions. Even if the mission is killing someone there be multiple routes and options to use your skills to complete the mission. And a killing quest must be optional / skipped.

Rule #2: No Useless Skills. The skills we allow you to take will have meaning in the game. Not every quest will directly involve every skill, but indirectly they can. Repair can give you a gun, Speech a companion etc.

Rule #3: Dark humour was good. Slap-stick was not. Humour revolves around the world, it doesn’t distract you from the world

Rule #4: Let the player play how he wants to play. Numerous gameplay styles accounted for, good, bad, pacifist, kill everything, speedrun etc.

Rule #5: Your actions have repercussions. Your karma, reputation, quest outcomes etc effect how people interact with you and the paths you can take in the game.

Playstyles Combat Skills Energy Weapons Explosives Guns Melee Weapons Unarmed Complete missions through combat. Fighting directly with enemies or even killing non hostile NPCs to complete missions. Diplomacy Skills Barter Speech Complete quests through the speech and barter skill to either persuade, intimidate, lie or bribe. Science Skills Medicine Science Survival Repair Use knowledge to complete missions. Pass a knowledge speech check or use technology in the environment such as a terminal to pass quests. Stealth Skills Repair (Traps) Explosives (Traps) Lockpick Sneak Science (hacking) Sneak through enemies and non-hostile NPCS to get to an objective. Steal quest items, avoid combat etc.

Bartle Taxonomy of Player Types Killers: killing everything, difficult bosses, hard dungeons, tackling difficult enemies earlier than intended. Examples: Quarry Junction, crashed vertibird, red death. Rewars by: loot, xp, Perks etc for going out for their way to face danger and win

Achievers: challenge runs, difficult trophies, unusual ways of dealing with quests, weapons specific runs Examples: Gun Runner challenges, personal challenges runs on YouTube etc, Bug Stomper Reward: xp and perks for completing challenges

Socialisers: helping factions, repairing, clearing out threats, watching town grow and prosper, opportunities to Reward by: end slides showing the factions and NPCs they helped, being thanked and rewarded for helping NPCs in the best way possible.

Explorers: environmental storytelling, taking in the world discovering interesting sites, feeling of an interconnected worlds Examples: Republic of Dave, Great Khan Armoury, cat cabin. Reward by: achievements for finding hard to find places such as loot, quests, NPCs and weapons in unusual locations

Specific Playstyle Considerations Both average players and especially YouTubers do challenge runs of games, and accounting for these is important considerations, although obviously cannot fully be accounted for. Kill Everything Fallout is an RPG, and so killing everybody will not be as satisfying as playing the game normally. However both because of the kill everything playthrough and other playthroughs such as killing a certain faction it should be accounted for. A way to complete your quest if everyone is dead should be possible, even if the solution necessarily has less content. Quest items can either be given in return for task or looted from their body. Yes Man kill everyone is much shorter than standard quests helping factions, but it is possible. Pacifist Fallout 3 forces the player to murder a radroach with a BB Gum and supernatants at the water purifier. Without these quests Fallout 3 can be completed without killing anyone, and thus these oversights are particularly silly.

Speedrun Accounting for speedrunning isn't just for speedrunners themselves but also for the game design in general.

Weapon Only Melee only, pistol only etc are playstyles that exist so specificing a quest has to be done with a weapon (without providing an alternative to completing it) is not advised.

Miscellaneous

Black Isle / Obsidians Fallout design and Bethesda Fallout design are NOT contradictory. You can have deep RPG mechanics, multiple Ways of solving quests, immersive writing etc and have environmental story telling, exploration, fun loot and weapon combat etc. These things can be combined for the best of both worlds and does not need to alienate either fans of 1,2 and NV or 3,4 and 76. Both mechanics can co-exist.

No power armour on cover art. Done to death.

Power Armour should feel special. Be difficult to be able to use with power armour training and power to back it up as well as difficult to find in good condition.

No time Limit- Players should be fully immersed into the world, not looking at and worrying about a countdown wondering I'd they have the time to explore interesting parts of the world. Time keeping distracts players from immersion by making discovery and investigation a choice and not core feature.

Fallout 1 feels like the 50s nuclear propaganda while Fallout 2 feels like 80s Post Apoclyptic media. More interesting to explore the realities of Fallout then it is to treat it as genre schlock.

Make tutorial quick and skippable. Worst aspects of Fallout 2 and 3 was linear boring tutorial.

Sex shouldn't be implemented into the game in gratuitous, simplistic and silly ways. It should be taken seriously if implemented at all.

Nuclear warfare should be taken seriously. Even nuke launchers should be found in locations reflecting the loss the war caused and the irresponsibility of pre-war America. Fallout 76 making nukes a gameplay mechanic turns the tragedy of the apocalypse into a comedy.

Restrict Aliens to Wild-Wasteland / non-canon. The tragedy of earth’s destruction is diminished when alien worlds that do exist are also in the universe. The blue marble on its own destroyed is tragedy.

No unskippable cutscenes. Mr House’s Bunker, Fallout the Frontiers cutscenes annoy players and halts gameplay.