Van Buren SPECIAL

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Van Buren gameplay
Van Buren SPECIAL
Information
Related	Weapons

This page describes the plans for SPECIAL implementation in Van Buren.

General information

A highly modified version of the SPECIAL character system, created by Joshua Sawyer.

Primary statistics

SPECIAL is an acronym of Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck. These were the seven basic attributes of every character in the game. They were used to determine the skills and available perks of the given character.

Primary Statistic	Description	Derived statistics and effects	Associated skills
Strength	A measure of your raw physical strength.	Carry Weight Melee Damage	Melee Weapons Unarmed
Perception	How well you use your five senses and notice unusual things.	-	Mechanics Medic Outdoorsman Security Sneak Steal
Endurance	Your health and overall physical fitness.	Healing rate, Hit Points	Outdoorsman Unarmed
Charisma	Your overall attractiveness and likeability.	-	Barter Deception Persuasion
Intelligence	Your basic intellect, curiosity in the world and adeptness at critical thinking.	-	Deception Mechanics Medic Science
Agility	A combination of the character's reflexes, balance, and coordination	Action Points Evasion	Security Sneak Steal
Luck	A combination of fate, karma, and general good fortune.	Critical Chance	-

Derived Statistics

Derived statistics were attributes of a character that were based on (or derived from) the character's primary statistics or attributes that the player could not influence directly.

Derived statistic	Description	Derived from
Action Points	The amount of actions your character can take during a combat turn.	Agility
Evasion	How good your character is at avoiding being hit in combat.	Agility
Biological Resistance	?
Carry Weight	The maximum amount of equipment your character can carry, in pounds.	Strength
Combat Sequence	Determines how soon in a combat turn your character can react.	Perception
Critical Chance	Chance to cause a Critical Hit.	Luck
Damage Resistance	Any damage taken is reduced by this amount.	-
Flash Resistance
Healing Rate	How much Hit Points you heal at the end of each day.	Endurance
Hit Points	How much damage your character can take before dying.	Endurance Strength
Melee Damage	Amount of bonus damage in hand-to-hand combat.	Strength
Perk Rate	How many levels must pass before you gain another perk.	-
Radiation Resistance	Amount of radiation your character is exposed to is reduced by this amount.
Skill Rate	How many skill points you gain per level.	Intelligence
Throwing Range		Strength

Skills

Skills started at 0 with Tag skills starting at 20.

The cost on a per-rank basis was:

• 1 for 1-50
• 2 for 51-100
• 3 for 101-150
• 4 for 151-200 (Max skill)

Each rank bought for a tag! skill was doubled. If you had a 55 Medic, it would cost you two points to increase it one rank—but you would get an additional rank for free.

Combat skills

• Firearms
• Melee
• Unarmed

Diplomacy skills

• Barter
• Persuasion
• Deception

Science skills

• Mechanics
• Medic
• Outdoorsman
• Science

Stealth skills

• Security
• Sneak
• Steal

Traits

Traits would have modified different aspects of gameplay, including (but not limited to): Primary statistics, derived statistics and skills. Traits would always have had both positive and negative results. One would have been able to choose up to two traits when designing a character (or none at all).

Trait	Benefit	Penalty
Bruiser	Damage with melee and unarmed attacks are increased by 20%	Action Point costs for melee and unarmed attacks are increased by 1
Chem Reliant	Faster loss of chem side effects	Double chance of addiction
Clean Living	50% less chance of chem addiction	effects last on 50% as long
Fast Shot	Action Point costs for firearms and thrown weapons attacks are decreased by 1	Cannot make targeted attacks with firearms and thrown weapons
Feral Kid	Throwing range = Strength x 4 in place of Strength x 3, and you move 20% faster on the world map	Can take one fewer companion than normal
Finesse	+10% chance on criticals	-30% on damage
Gifted	5 extra points on stats	-10% on all skills -5 skill points each level
NCR Background	Find NCR caches and get extra background info	No penalty
Good Natured	+10 on Medic, Persuasion and Science	-4 on Combat Sequence
Increased Metabolism	+2 Healing Rate	Radiation Resistance and Poison Resistance start at 0%
Kamikaze	+4 to Combat Sequence	-10 on Evasion
Night Person	+10% to all skill checks at night	-10% to all skill checks in daytime
One Hander	+10% chance to hit with one-handed weapons in Hand 1	-10% to hit with two-handed weapons and weapons in Hand 2
One In a Million	When you score a critical hit, the percentage is rolled again at 5 times the base chance. If it's successful, the strike is bumped up by 30 points.
Red Scare	+2 Perception for the purposes of sight range	-5 penalty to hit
Skilled	Additional Tag skill	-5 skill points each level
Small Frame	+10 to Evasion	-50 to Carry Weight

Perks

In Van Buren, perks would have depended on a character's statistics and skills rather than their level. As only high-level characters would have had high enough skills, powerful perks being dependent on said skills would have been an incentive to specialize in a given skill.

New perks

Name	Level req	Other requirements	Ranks	Benefit
Action Boy/Action Girl	X	X	X	X
Adrenaline Rush	X	X	X	X
Advanced Research	X	X	X	X
Ayyyyyy!	1	Luck 5 Lockpick 125	1	When failing to pick a lock, punch or kick the object with a bonus to the pass/fail check. Opens the object if check is successful and may alert enemies.
Animal Friend	X	X	X	Can enter feral dog lair to get a pup without being attacked, Devil Dog has slightly greater chance of liking you
Better Criticals	X	X	X	X
Banzai	X	X	X	Not much is known about the perk save its name and the fact that the non-player character Measles would have it.
Body Snatcher	X	Deception 100	X	When critters with outfits die near you, you will often be able to salvage a piece of their outfit for use with a disguise kit.
Bonus Move	X	X	X	X
Bonus HtH Damage	X	X	X	X
Bonus Ranged Damage	X	X	X	X
Born Killer	X	X	X	Davidson would have had this perk, making him a lot more deadly.
Born Leader	X	X	X	X
Bulk Trader	X	X	X	X
Bone Head	X	X	X	X
Cult of Personality	X	X	X	X
Detect Lies	X	X	X	Coleridge would have had this perk. It would have allowed him to see through most of the Prisoner's Deception, regardless of how well they might have been disguised.
Die Hard	X	X	X	When your Hit Points get below 25%, you get an additional 10% to Damage Resistances. Davidson would have had this perk.
Duck and Cover	X	X	X	Robert Briggs would have this perk. It enabled him to spam grenades a little more effectively. Ironically, he didn't have as many grenades as other soldiers, like Davidson.
Eye on the Prize	X	Perception 7 Steal 125	X	See inventory of character or container (even locked) on examine.
Forced March	1	X	1	Doubles the fatigue level a character has i.e. it gives them more stamina.
Gain	X	X	X	X
Gunsmith	X	X	X	X
In Your Face!	1	Melee 75 Unarmed 75	1	Opponents can't make called shots and suffer a -10% penalty to hit with thrown weapons or firearms when you are within 1 hex, and are only holding melee weapons or are unarmed.
Inventor	X	X	X	This perk gives Victor Presper +25% to all his Invention rolls.
Junk Merchant	1	Barter 75	1	All items with a base value of 1-5 caps are worth three times as much when you trade them.
Living Anatomy	X	X	X	X
Medic	X	X	X	X
Mental Catalogue	1	Perception 4 Barter 150	1	Get the identified name and description of any item you examine.
Master of Sciences	X	X	X	Little is known about this perk. All we know is that Victor Presper had it.
More Criticals	X	X	X	X
Nemean	X	X	X	Several projects were planned to appear, one of them being the Nemean implants. These were available for science-oriented characters to complete.
Pharmacist	X	X	X	X
Rad Child	X	X	X	X
Suicide King	1	Charisma 8 Persuasion 150	1	When standing within your area of influence, CNPC allies always ignore how wounded they are when you attempt to control them in combat.
Sharpshooter	X	X	X	X
Strong Back	X	X	X	X
Tag!	X	X	X	X
Thief	X	X	X	X
Tough Hide	X	X	X	X
Toughness	X	X	X	Even tougher than the old Toughness! No longer just bullets and punches, now you can resist fire, plasma, and grenades!
Triage	1	Perception 7 Medic 100	1	You see the exact hit points, fatigue, natural damage thresholds, primary statistics, and special health status (broken limbs, using chems, etc.) of any living creature you examine.
Unbreakable	X	X	X	You see dead people, swing away, and no one calls you Mr. Glass. How's that for a pop-culture reference, jackass? Critical hits against your head, arms, legs, torso, and groin have to do 50% of your total hit points to achieve a break.

Special perks

Name	Requirements/cost	Location(s)	Benefit
Devil's Tongue			Gives the Prisoner +5% to their Deception skill
Guidance Counselor			Gives give the Prisoner +5% to their Persuasion skill.
Flexible			Can use this to slip between the bars of the cells.
Hangdog Fighting Style
Living Toolset	Otto Steed only perk		Does not require a toolset to perform mechanics
Phoenix (implant)
Smartest Man on Earth	Victor Presper only perk		Presper is the smartest man on Earth, with the possible exception of the Prisoner
Sting Like a Bee			Gives the Prisoner a +5% critical with the Unarmed skill.
Visual Standard			Allows dumb character to learn basic machine language