[FALLOUT] Adventure Update
Sep. 15th, 2017 01:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jordangreywolf(section about Adventure #1 omitted -- I think I've got that one pretty well settled by this point.)
#2: THE NUCLEAR FAMILY
Adventure #2 is trippy. I started with a vague idea, and TuftEars had some great suggestions, and I'm trying to play around with them. Basically, I need to make TWO character sheets for each player. Why? Well...
When things start out, everything is like an old 1950s sitcom ... sort of. Characters consist of Dad, Mom, Little Jimmy, Darla, and possibly Little Sally the Precocious Neighbor Girl, and Jeeves the Robot Butler. I'm thinking of painting up minis for this stage of the game in greyscale -- and the "set," too. (It all depends. I'm kind of hurting for time and prep.) Players get "cue cards" with suggestions such as, "If you manage to find an excuse to bring up the wonders of Abraxo, and work in the following lines to plug it as a 'natural' part of conversation, you get a Benny." Or, "Your famous catchphrase you have to say every time you enter a room is 'Howdy ho there, neighbors!'" Or stuff like that.
Eventually, things go WRONG. And if they go WRONG ENOUGH, then everything RESETS, and it's back to the way we started, and everyone is supposed to pretend that NONE OF THAT REALLY HAPPENED. (Though I'll start handing out notes to people to hint that, yes, you are starting to remember that this has happened before.)
And eventually, things go haywire, and once they go strange enough, I swap out players' character sheets. Why does Little Sally have a d12+4 Strength written on her character sheet? Because Little Sally is ACTUALLY a huge hulking Super Mutant wearing a wig with pig-tails, and a patched-up frilly dress, making the floor shake every time she "skips" along (tra-la-laaaaaa! *CRASH*).
In actuality, this is all taking place inside a Vault that isn't part of the normal Vault-Tec experimental numbering scheme. Rather, this special Vault was originally set up with a number of actors and actresses and employees of Vault-Tec, whose purpose (other than continuing to live underground in the event of complete nuclear annihilation of civilization) was to continue to film and electronically distribute new holotapes of education, propaganda, and entertainment material. "The Nuclear Family" was intended as "light entertainment," with a deliberately ludicrous premise about a family living in the Apocalypse in a stereotypical sitcom neighborhood, but it would occasionally be interspersed with "educational tidbits" about survival (hence anachronistic references to giant mutant molerats and the like -- things that wouldn't have been known about Pre-War). A massive, room-sized computer by the name of TELEVAC oversaw the technical side of things, but over time, as the original Vault-Tec employees died off and were replaced by their progeny (who were simply BORN there, rather than volunteering for this way of life), and in some cases the people simply LEFT the vault to take their chances on the surface, TELEVAC ended up having to take over more of a leadership role. It didn't help that maintenance was spotty, and its logic circuits were a bit faulty.
Among TELEVAC'S resources would be a device known as the Mesmetron (a device that showed up in Fallout 3). Shortly before the Great War, versions of this device were undergoing testing as a sort of "nonlethal pacification device" to deal with rioters, delivering a signal pulse that scrambles signals in a human brain, rendering the subject open to suggestion -- or, in extreme usage, allowing for alteration or suppression of memories.
As in the game, there is a certain risk involved: rather than working as intended, the device might simply fail outright to have any effect, or it might induce a state of hostility/panic/hysteria in the target ... or it might simply cause the victim's brain to explode. (Or both of the latter, in which case the subject might suddenly attack you, THEN explode.)
At some point, TELEVAC, faced with a dearth of voluntary actors and actresses to help create these shows, ended up using the Mesmetron as a device to induce obedience and an attempt at "good acting" -- by allowing it to take abductees and force them to BELIEVE that they are the persons they are portraying, and to plant SUGGESTIONS in their minds about things to say, actions to take, etc. It's far from perfect, however, such that TELEVAC ends up requiring multiple retakes, and some "actors" don't survive the process, hence necessitating the acquisition of replacements.
The PCs are those replacements.
Now, there are some areas I am not completely decided upon.
1) Who are the PCs, really?
I figured "Little Sally is really a Super-Mutant" would be funny and weird. Some hand-wavy explanation for this would be that TELEVAC's facial recognition processes that allow it to do its best to match up new "actors" based on their appearances and similarities to the role model end up falling apart when faced with persons who fall into the "Uncanny Valley" of being human-LIKE, but not "conventionally" (or even truly) human (such as super-mutants, synths, and ghouls). "Dad" should probably be some square-jawed hero type. I thought of maybe making either "Mom" or "Darla" a raider/fiend type -- though she doesn't necessarily have to let everyone else KNOW that. Perhaps the other female character is a Ghoul -- perhaps even one who's on the razor's edge of going feral, and has to repress an urge to turn everyone else into a meal once the Mesmetron's influences wear off. Little Jimmy might genuinely be a Little Jimmy (perhaps a wastelander orphan), or maybe a S'lanter/Racree (bioengineered raccoon -- Fallout 1 cut-content) who got stuck in the role simply because of his size. (Another oddball idea I had was to have one of the characters be the FAMILY DOG ... who might actually be a dog, or perhaps a Cyberdog.) Jeeves might be best as an NPC -- ostensibly friendly and helpful, but secretly he's the one administering the Mesmetron.
2) Why are we doing this?
One idea I had at first was that "The Nuclear Family" was a show recorded some time ago, but recordings have been corrupted or damaged, and so TELEVAC is attempting to make replacements for the missing shows. The trouble is, the SCRIPTS were damaged as well, so there are just a few keypoints: certain rules for "things this character always does," and precedents set for later episodes. (E.g., perhaps Neighbor Ned never showed up after this episode, and TELEVAC therefore thinks we need to have an explanation as to WHY he never showed up again. Death would of course be a convenient and LOGICAL explanation, don't you think? Pity whoever is playing Neighbor Ned....) Hence, the idea could be that at least one PC has a strong incentive NOT to get through an episode successfully.
Otherwise, it's just that it's a continuing story, and new "episodes" are needed to be put into circulation on a regular basis (for whatever Vaults are still in operation and still receiving signals from this one), so The Show Must Go On. TELEVAC has a few "rules" in mind for how characters should behave and directives (remnants of Pre-War programming) to slip in plugs for certain products (never mind that the manufacturers don't EXIST anymore, and aren't paying for these spots), but other than that, there's a good amount of room for improvisation.
3) How do the PCs get out of this?
My rough idea is that the PCs are expected to "stay in character," but players being players, someone is going to say something out of character or anachronistic. In the unlikely event that everyone is perfect, I'd probably fabricate some situation. (E.g., Dad picks up the telephone, which is just a prop, and there's no dial tone. He, being flawlessly "in character," notices this fact, and comments on it, though he's "supposed" to pretend there's nothing wrong.) If the PCs score enough "Mishap" points, TELEVAC gives up, issues the order to Mesmetron everyone, and "resets" the set for another attempt at the same scene. People have their "memories reset," but things are starting to break down. Perhaps there's an actor who recently got replaced, and the janitorial bots are slacking on the job, and there's actually still a headless corpse on set, or just outside the front door, or some such. Whatever the case, the second time through or so, I should be racking up opportunities for people to accumulate "clues." Enough clues, and you "remember" who you are (get the correct character sheet) and you start getting details on what's going on and how you got here (to your own recollection, anyway).
The "right" way to get out of this would be to outwardly "play along" with the script, while looking for opportunities to surreptitiously pass notes to one another, talk to each other "in code," or perhaps get someone else to distract the cameras while you slip off-stage to pow-wow together, and figure out a plan. Somehow, the truth comes out about the Mesmetron (maybe there's an instruction manual lying about?) and the PCs could figure out that Jeeves has it, so they need to overpower Jeeves and destroy it before anyone racks up enough "mistakes" that TELEVAC decides to "reset" them all again.
At that point, I'm likely to be a bit vague as to the consequences of "resetting." It could be annoying to force players to repeatedly "forget" things. What I might do instead is to "fast-forward" through the next iteration, to some point further in the "story" that they regain their wits and memories. Theoretically if this happens too many times, they run the risk of brain-burst ... or if the show actually reaches *completion*, they'll all get brain-zapped again, only this time it'll be to put them into a stupor for easy "storage" until next time.
There's the possibility of one player being the spoiler -- the sort who, if we all absolutely must be quiet and sneaky, he's going to start TALKING LOUDLY and being a nuisance, to the point where the only sensible thing to do is to SHOOT HIM DEAD. (Or maybe Mesmetron him yourself and hope for the worst, rather than waiting for the mass reset. Buh-bye! "The part of Little Sally will now be played by ... Goreguts the Ginormous.")
There's also the possibility of "EVERYBODY ATTACK!" (Mindlessly.) I could just let it all fail (if the dice roll that way), institute another reset, and then hope people reconsider their tactics next time, but ultimately the rule is, "What would be most entertaining to the players?" A momentary frustration is okay, but I don't want to block everything the PCs do with brick walls. (I just don't want the bad guys to roll over and play dead at the first opposition, either.)
Alas, this adventure needs a LOT of work.
...
#3: PLEASE STAND BY
"The Nuclear Family" actually mutated into what this adventure was going to be ... from another direction. Initially, I thought of having the "TELEVAC" vault being discovered by some PCs underneath a TV broadcast station. There would be various "sets" and mesmerized (or robotic) actors/actresses, and the PCs would be encouraged to "play along" to sneak their way through the sets and perform a rescue, loot the central armory, or whatever their primary mission was.
However, "Nuclear Family" is so focused on the "TV land" idea that I think it'd be redundant to essentially run the same scenario but with the PCs coming at it as outsiders rather than being in the thick of it.
Now I'm just trying to figure out a situation where the PCs might have cause to explore a Vault (I've got that playset I've been working on to represent a "cutaway" view of a multi-level Vault, after all), and some idea of what sort of strange experiment that took place there, and therefore what sorts of traps and treasure and monsters might be there in its aftermath. (E.g., perhaps the vault is inhabited by descendents of Vault Dwellers. Perhaps they're all clones. Perhaps they're all feral mutants.)
I've had a few very, very vague ideas.
* Vault 66:
Built atop an underground particle accelerator track, the loop was transformed into an underground driving track. The vault has been equipped with several fusion-powered vehicles, with the tools, parts, and gear to maintain them for 200+ years. The experiment? See if America's spirit of automotive enthusiasm and mechanical know-how might be preserved and even stimulated by preserving automobile usage in an artificial environment.
The outcome? Uhm ... the vault-dwellers here are a bunch of motor-heads? Seriously, though, there needs to be something to fight down here. Maybe the vault-dwellers left the vault a long time ago, and became road-warrior types, raiding the highways. The PCs could be investigating the home base of these "highwaymen," and they discover this vault, and it's an excuse to fight them all the way down to the bottom. Or maybe something crazy happened, and the vault is home to a bunch of crazed mutant cyborg half-man/half-motorvehicle ... things? (Not sure if I've got the minis for that, though.)
* Vault 122:
(Numbering chosen as a reference to 12/2 -- the UK designation for "Darwin Day" -- February 12th. Of course, a more American rendition would be 212, but Darwin was English, so....)
The official vault numbering system went from 0 to 120 at the time of the Great War, but a few "auxiliary" vaults were prepared that WOULD NOT have humans as its primary occupants. Vault 121 was a somewhat pointless vault "populated" entirely by robots. Vault 122, however, was populated by genetically-altered animals based on the same FEV experimentation borne from Batch 11-011 (the experiment that created the S'lanter or Racree -- the "not-raccoon" people).
Some of the inhabitants have found a way out of the vault, and have begun "hunting" in the area -- resulting in the destruction of a nearby (human) settlement, and attacks on caravaneers. The PCs are sent to investigate, and put a stop to the raids, one way or another. (I.e., lots of animal-mutants to fight! Yay! Although a bit awkward if someone plays Ranger Ricky, the Not-a-Raccoon Ranger.)
* Vault ### (number undecided)
Vault populated by ... clones. Or mutants. Or psychopaths. Or they WERE nice people, but there's some sort of parasitic brain-snacker head-crab thingie going around and taking over their bodies and turning them into monsters/zombies. Whatever the reason, they still look humanish, and still wear those silly blue and yellow jumpsuits, but they're hostile and present some sort of a threat to the neighborhood. I'm not really certain about this one at all, save that if I needed a whole mess of people in jumpsuits, I could REALLY easily kitbash a bunch of HeroClix minis to paint them blue and yellow -- but if I want "a bunch of Vault Dwellers," for adventure purposes they'd have more of a purpose as adversaries than for me to bother to make minis for a whole bunch of *friendly* people. I could potentially have some objective where you figure out why they turned out nasty and you try to bring an end to it, but if it's a matter of "They're all being mind-controlled," it could kind of sour the "happy ending" if you realize that all the Vault Dwellers you shot on the way down here didn't really "deserve" it, per se.
... and, sadly, that's about it. I mean, a vault could just as easily be unpopulated, and simply full of feral ghouls, radroaches, psycho robots, or any number of things, but if I'm going to have a vault, it's a lot more interesting if I at least attempt to figure out what was "special" about that vault, and what brought about its doom (or, in the case of the "road raiders," what turned its inhabitants into potential adversaries for the PCs).
no subject
Date: 2017-09-15 07:19 pm (UTC)The characters can still be the Nuclear Family, it's just that they'd be starring in a set of short episodic infomercials rather than a long-running soap opera.
So example infomercials would be things like, "Bugs Off!" - characters are trying to have a picnic but get invaded by (giant) bugs, or "Loose Lips Sink Ships" - someone is given a message and told to deliver it to someone else, and everyone suddenly seems to want to know what the message is, but if the message gets revealed, it turns out to be the password for the local nuclear submarine's launch codes and *BOOM*.
no subject
Date: 2017-10-13 03:20 am (UTC)