Community:Fallout Writing Guide

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.

Media Inspirations
Inspirations for Fallout Writing (Needs Expansion)

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. / 6. 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.

7. 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.

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.

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.