I had this idea a short while ago after playing the brilliant Reilly's Rangers quest and was wandering if anybody would be interested in doing a FO3 RP with me. My idea was that we play a bunch of mercenaries sent on a contract to either retrieve some kind of valuable artefact or to eliminate a target, but basically to go on a mutie blasting, raider killing, feral fragging trip around the capital wasteland, getting into a whole bunch of mishaps involving said nasties along the way.

So, anybody interested?

yes. Fallout 3 rules.

Excellent. I had the following ideas for character roles in the squad as well:

Leader (me)
Heavy weaponry guy
Scout/recon specialist
Medic
Explosives/demolitions specialist
Sniper
Mechanic
A robot (possibly)
And, of course, the rookie

You could try a ghoul if you wanted, and maybe a super mutant at a push, but you'd have to think up a good reason as to why a mutie wouldn't kill the mercs.

I'm not intrested but shouldn't you have someone who could convince people? A guy with high speechcraft skill.

i´m interested. i wanna be the heavy weaponry guy

I'm interested, but I don't know much about the Fallout universe. I mean, I do have the game but it always crashed after clicking 'new game'.

That said, I'll try a reinstall tomorrow together with an unofficial patch I downloaded from fallout nexus. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't.

Anyway, looking at the role-list, I call dibs on the mechanic. Preferably the near insane overengineering guy. You know, the kind of guy who ducttapes an improvised rocket-engine to a rowboat to make it faster. As opposed to...learning how to row.

Jack, I love that idea.

Anyhoos, here's the character sheet:

Name:
Age:
Role:

Equipment:
Weapons(s):
Skills:

Appearance:
Race:

History:

Let your imaginations run free!

Oh, and no equipment that's too powerful like Plasma Rifles, Gatling Lasers or Power Armour, because that would be silly.

And to get the ball rolling, here's character based on my own FO3 character (though admittedly without the power armour, because that would be silly).

Name: Sam Gorrose
Age: 31
Role: Team leader and price negotiator

Equipment: Pip-Boy 2500, combat armour, large leather greatcoat and sunglasses (he has to take them off in the dark, however as otherwise he falls over an awful lot).
Weapons(s): Combat Shotgun, .44 Magnum
Skills: Small guns, speech

Appearance: Tall and chunky, with scruffy blonde hair and a goatee. Also has tanned skin.
Race: South American

History: Sam's father was one of the Regulators, and as such was practically born with a gun in his hands. While he was bought up with a strong sense of justice, as Sam got older he often locked horns with Sonora Cruz over just how far they operated-she wanted to continue to hunt bounties, while Sam wanted larger operations against Raider encampments and other such places. After one argument too many, Sam took his shotgun and magnum and left, never to return.

Realising that he could put his skills with weaponry to good use as a hired gun, Sam began to work as a mercenary, eliminating targets or retrieving important or rare equipment. After he had established a network of allies and contacts and obtained plenty of caps, Sam eventually founded Flying Bullet Company, his own band of mercenaries. They aren't the best, but they'll do dirty jobs and they'll get them done well or die trying.

He just hopes he isn't one of those who dies trying.

Ah bean, could you please explain to me the functions of the pip-boy? That way I have an idea of what it does in case I can't get the game to run.

Edit: I see. Well, since I figure that I can check my own inventory without one here, I won't take one of my own. At least not right off the bat.

Anyway, here's mine. I'll update the missing bits later. Also, please tell me if he's too uber equipmentwise.

Name: Jonathan Guntherson
Age: 43
Role: Mechanic (Or in his words: Inventor of Extraordinary Brilliance!)

Equipment: A toolkit containing a hammer, (the small, one-handed version) a wrench, screwdriver,nails, small magnet on extendable pole (30 centimetres is the maximum length), screws. Five rolls of ducttape (30 metres of ducttape on each), a canteen filled with some crude oil.

Stuff that is not considered part of the toolkit: A labcoat that used to be white but is now a charred and tattered thing covered in stains of questionable chemicals. A pair of glasses with the glass missing. (so it's only the frame) A stainless steel watch that doesn't work and never moves passed 14:05. And don't forget the cowboy hat.
Weapons(s): .38 pistol, no ammo, carried in a holster at his hip and usually covered by the labcoat. (Not that the lack of bullets matters as Jonathan's shooting is horrible) Any other weapon is basically a part of the toolkit. (wrenches hurt!)
Skills: Building stuff. Taking apart stuff. Thinking he's a master gunslinger!

Appearance:
Jonathan is a somewhat short man with a thin frame. black hair mixed with grey struggles to cover his skull and fight the encroaching baldness. He also has a thin moustache and a long goatee.
Race: European

History:
Jonathan grew up in a village that was built right next to a Nuclear power plant that had been spared by the great war. However, general lack of maintenance combined with folks collecting shiny items from the complex machinery had caused the reactor to break down and start leaking radioactive materials, although a full meltdown was miraculously averted. The higher than average amounts of radiation has caused a large number of complications in the populace. In Jonathan's case, his brain has been damaged which makes him mentally somewhat unstable.

Regardless, Jonathan picked up his fellows love for taking apart old devices and trying to figure out how they worked. When there wasn't anything interesting left to salvage in his opinion, he simply left. A lack of money made him join up with the flying bullets where he took up the role of mechanic, charged with fixing everything that wasn't a firearm or an explosive (can't be trusted around those), or hilariously often, break things when he gets one of his bouts of mad scientist behaviour.

Your Pip-boy is Fallout 3's equivalent to Oblivion's inventory-there's a map on it, a list of notes you pick up, an inventory with weapons, medicines and other things such as ammo and even the ability to tune into the various radio stations that you can hear in the wasteland. It's basically a wrist mounted PDA, and if you look up Fallout 3 on wikipedia I'm pretty sure you can get a screenshot of it.

Alright, I installed fallout, updated to the latest patch, tried installing new graphics drivers, followed a tweak guide, nosed around on forums.

The result? Nothing except the repeated message that Intel sucks. And just to add insult to injury, an online system check revealed that I have everything way above the minimum specs including the only problem piece, the graphics card.

And even that one has like two to three times the minimum. For example, Pixel shader? I need 2.0 and I can do 4.0. Also, 285 mb and I have over 700. (Don't remember what that was for...ram?) But somewhere there is something in Intel graphics cards that just refuses to work.

Anyway, it seems I can't update drivers because the one I use now is custom made. (Nonsense, I got mine fresh out of the factory and standard everything.)

So that leaves me in a bit of a pinch. I guess I'll try to join in anyway and get all my info off of the fallout wiki. Which reminds me, I still haven't come up with a history for Jonathan.

Hmm. My only advice on that is to go to the shop you bought it from and try and get your money back. Or perhaps you could try getting a replacement copy and seeing if that works?

Anyway, try The Vault. It has plenty of information on what you can get there, but of course, playing the game is usually the best way to get the information you need.

Damn, double posted that. Sorry.

I would like to play but (unfortunately) the only part I've seen of Fallout 3 is my friend's guide, which sucks because it does look interesting. Any ideas on how I could join and still not have the game (can't afford it)?

Hmmm interesting. I'm interested, I really like the feel of the fallout universe.

For those without the game (or unable to run it) this place has some details: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_3

I'm not to fussed which character I go, explosives are most my thing probably but if someone else wants that I'm not fussed.

Name: Karelia AKA 'Eyes'

Age: 23

Role: Sniper

Equipment: her weapons are a sniper rifle, a 10mm pistol, and a switchblade. She's usually got jet, mentats, and cigarettes on her (if not, there are problems) as well as Fancy Lads Snack Cakes.

Skills: small guns, sneak

Appearance: Karelia is of average height and is a little too thin, probably due to heavy jet use. She has long black hair and ice cold blue eyes. She wears a pair of old ragged jeans, brahmin skin boots, and a faded black t shirt

Race: European

History: Karelia was born in a settlement near Springvale, but doesn't remember much about it. By the time she was five years old, raiders pillaged the place and Karelia was the only survivor. She was taken in by the raider gang where she did whatever labor she was told to do at the hideout for a few years. The violence and evil she witnessed from day to day nearly drove her mad at first, but with time and chems, she became accustomed to the raider lifestyle. Soon Karelia found that she had a natural affinity for guns. She was a crack shot and could generally fix anything that fired bullets. She was out on raiding parties by the time she was fourteen, and her place as a sniper in the gang was solidified.

On one such raiding party, Karelia abandoned her gang and left them to die at the hands of Regulators. She could have helped them from a distance (that was her job, in fact) but she chose to simply walk away and live her own life. Her plan didn't work out as expected; she was captured by the Regulators and was forced to live with them for a time. The Regulators treated her well enough, but she was still their captive; nobody trusted or even liked her. When Sam left the Regulators to create the Flying Bullets Company, he helped her escape, so she's been tagging along ever since.

Karelia may seem insane to some. She doesn't do so well in social situations, she's addicted to Jet and Mentats, her sense of humor is distasteful, and extreme violence seems to amuse more than bother her.

I have my character posted in the character thread instead

A good bio, but a slight fluff issue-how could Gunnar's father move from Sweden to America when there are no planes or boats to cross the Atlantic with?

Anyway, what have we got so far? We have the leader (me), the sniper (Dantrag), the mechanic (Jack) and the heavy weaponry specialist (Badda). So we need a medic, a scout, a robot, a rookie and a demolitions expert. Anybody interested?

Well, we could roll scout and robot into one, at least till we can get a real scout out on the field. I mean, building a robot sounds like it would be right up Jonathan's alley. Although, it wouldn't be a good scout, what with the constant breaking down and questionable upgrades. And it would be more like one of those remote controlled toys than a machine that can think for itself.

The medic...I don't think I can play one. My knowledge of the healing arts is pretty much zero and we can't use magic here to handwave our way around things.

For demolitions expert, Olen expressed interest in explosives, so maybe we should ask him if he's willing to roll up a character.

Then for the rookie, I don't know if he/she's really necessary.

PS: I think you misunderstood the problem with Gunner. The ones that crossed the ocean's where his forefathers, not his actual father. So the whole thing probably happened before the world got nuked.

Ah yes, so they did...

Anyway, the scout-bot idea does sound like a good one-perhaps a cannibalised Mr Handy or Mr Gutsy.

As for the medic, if push comes to shove I could try him as well-after all, Stimpacks fit the bill for healing spells and I've learnt some battlefield first aid at my school's army cadets, so I know what to do, say, if one of our teammates was hit by a bullet.

Yup I can do explosives. I like explosives.


Name: Aidan Farran
Age: 25
Role: Exploding things

Equipment: A few grenades, a frag mine and some loose explosives. Some sort of spirit - he doesn't much care what. Gauntlets, goggles and an apron for protection while mixing explosives. Anything else he just finds when he needs it or does without.

Weapons(s): Explosives. If they fail he has a 10mm pistol with one clip which isn't completely full, he always keeps one in the breach. He's a pitiful shot though so prefers close quarters where he fights with whatever's to hand, if he knows there'll be fighting he tries to get a lead pipe.
Skills: The manufacture and use of explosives. Hitting things, hard.

Appearance: He's of normal height but strongly built. He's missing the last two fingers from his right hand where a mixture exploded while he was making it. The hand still bothers him in the cold so he often wears a fingerless glove and tapes up his wrist, in extreme cold when he needs dexterity he uses med-x. He has short brown hair.
Race: European

History: He was born in a backcountry village and grew up among the mines they laid to defend themselves. He learned a lot about exploves there and developed an obsession bordering on pyromania. He would often take his concoctions to abandoned buildings and see how much he could bring down. It was in this time that he lost two finers and damaged his right hand, however he quickly developed sufficent dexterity in his left.

The townships water supply became slowly more erratic and the populace dwindled. One summer it failed and he and his family were forced to leave, he was sixteen. In the wilds they contracted radiation sickness and only he and one sister survived. A few years later they made it to megaton but he was encouraged to leave after taking rather too much interest in the bomb in the citycentre - it wasn't that he wanted to blow up the city, just that the fascination of the bomb drew him to it. After that he traveled around living off what he could find, making bombs and starting fires, occasionally he would do jobs where people needed them done. He developed a skill for finding what he needed in the wastes and travelled ever lighter just finding whatever he wanted. Eventually he ran into the flying bullets while needing cash and agreed to join up.

He's certainly an oddball, but most wastelanders are. He will start fires if he sees the oppertunity and feeld compelled to do so, he also likes explosions slightly too much.

I´ve just noticed but isn´t everybody choosing to be european?
ps. I changed my bio but I maybe change it more. It got some minor flaws.

Yeah, shouldn't it be Caucausan or something like that? At least, it should be if we're setting it in the Capital Wasteland.

we're just too PC to say 'white'.

What we really need to PC this group up is a super mutant.

Now that is ethnic!

I don't have fallout (my son has) and I haven't played, just watched my son play, so my knowledge is qite small...

I do have some knowledge of radiation (hehe), and medical stuff, so the question is, is it possible for me to join as a medic???

Remember, it's just a question, if you guys don't see me skilled enough, then I won't join! NP

I don't have a problem with you joining but be warned, it looks like it will be a combat-heavy rp. I mean, we've got a mercenary company with the word 'bullets' in the name, and three different people who specialize in ruining other people's days.

As for why I picked European, I basically remade my Arcanum character, then added a healthy dose of insanity. Jonathan always looked like a stereotypical british sir to me.

We always need a medic.

agreed. minque, you'll be fine even without too much fallout expertise. the setting is really just a ruined earth.

I don't think anyone could argue that you're not skilled enough, I'd be glad to have you onboard. But yes I can see ther being quite a lot of killing stuff (this is fallout where everything seems to have a psycotic desire to kill you), but I dare say there'll be some peaceful interaction too. And a medic who knows about medical stuff would be great, I never know where to start in a first aid kit.

Fallout! Seriously?
Can I sign up for this? I'll even play with the sparkly lasers!

Of course you can sign up. I think the open slots are scout and rookie, but you may want to check with colonel mustard first.

Ok, thanks guys....I'll come up with a medically skilled one, one that even knows about radiation-poisoning and milliSieverts and stuff!

Silver, you're welcome to join. There's a scout, a rookie and a robot slot taken.

And Minque, for your son's sake, don't play Fallout

Though seriously, you'd be welcome to try a medic slot.

I'm going to have to go with the scout, for the sake of my life and back.
(I'm not lugging those crates of ammo around, thanks. )

Name: Linda
Age: 22
Role: Scout

Equipment: Recon Armour, (Oasis Druid) hood, a (grey-green) camo-patterned cloak, bottles of purified water, and a few pulse grenades.

Weapons(s): Her weapon of choice is a laser rifle with a jury-rigged scope, and enough cells to last a long time, along with a .32 pistol, though she only has a few rounds for it.

Skills: Sneaking around, and hacking computers.

Appearance: With a lithe body, and just below average hieght, she would have been pretty in a different era, but instead her hair is dry and frayed, and she doesn't often bother to scrub the dirt of the wasteland off her skin. Small, slight, and almost unnaturally light on her feet, she prefers to go by the alias of 'Shadow.'

Race: Hispanic

(NEW!) History: Growing up wasn't so bad for her as a child, deep in the fortified caverns of Raven Rock with both her parents there intermittenly, though they would go out into the wasteland on the mandatory patrols... one day, the Vertibird her parents were in was shot down by Super Mutants, the details never really got back to her, but she always had hope that they had survived one way or another. After spending years training in Raven Rock, she finally left to go out into the Wasteland and find her long-lost parents. Armed with a laser rifle and a recon armour, she headed out optimistically. Soon enough, though, her supply of fresh water ran out, and unable to find any other source she tried the water of a sludgy stream. Her palatte was nowhere near degenerated enough to filter out the poisons of radiation, and she was unprepared for the effects, her tongue was burned badly, and never completely healed. Now almost mute, she rarely bothers to say anything that could be otherwise communicated, and only interacted with people when she had to deal with the wandering traders in order to get replacement parts for her rifle, using her last name so little that it has been lost from her memory.

In game they got this quite spectacularly wrong... You could take 200rads (why they used rads is beyond me) with no illeffects at all, which would in reality have a fair chance of being fatal, and survive up to 1000rads which would be very fatal. Also it didn't matter what timescale you got the radiation over...

Anyway my point was how will we deal with radiation/injuries, the game really magiced them away with miricle cures - and fair enough its a game - but we could deal with them more accurtiely in an rp.

Just a thought.

Well, we could say that Stimpacks will vastly increase the healing process, but at a cost to the user's metabolism (as they would vastly increase it temporarily). So, you could use a stimpack and some bandages on a bullet wound, and the wound would heal, but whoever had been shot would feel exhausted and constantly hungry for the next few days. That way we could still keep things balanced and realistic, but still mean that we wouldn't be completely debilitated by bullet wounds and the like. And of course a limited supply of Stimpacks means that we couldn't waste them and would implement an interesting choice of being careful or entering potentially raider/ghoul/super mutant infested buildings to see if we can scavenge supplies and ammo.

How's that sound?

And don't forget, your downing an entire IV bag of Anti-Radiation in all of a half-second. Normally, you'd probably insert it and wait for it to slowly drain over hours, instead of emptying it like a blueberry slushie.

...blueberry slushie.... Mmm...

nah, horsemeat slushie would be tastier.

btw, should we use med-x and if do what effect would have. make the skin hard as stone?

Well, seeing as they were originally going to call Med-X heroin before the outcry around the world (especially with Australia's ultra-strict videogame standards) forced Bethesda to change the name, I say that Med-x should do what heroin does and act like a painkiller.

Oh, the things that this could lead too...

"It's just a flesh wound!"
"Your arm's off!"
"I've had worse!"

Of course, as soon as it wore off:

"My arm!"
"I told you."
"So cold..."

Anyway, any ideas for a plot? I had an interesting idea for an alternative style Fallout 3 plot, in which the company are asked to retrieve the GECK by a shadowy employer (an Enclave representative, of course) for a substantial payment of caps. So the company set off to try and find the GECK and get into a whole load of mishaps along the way. Of course, they may well be captured by the Enclave and have to fight their way out, like in the game, and of course get involved in the dramatic battle with the Enclave, the Brotherhood of Steel and Liberty Prime at the end.

Your thoughts?

sounds good, but can´t we also fight the talon company. Maybe the brotherhood (or someone else) hires us to exterminate som super muties in a village or city

Hmm..it bothers me that they handle radiation in that way! I mean there could be some reality, it would be more interesting imo.....hrrmmppfff

Aaaaayway, if I'll join I'll be more serious about radiation and stuff....if you guys disagree, then tell me...'cause then I won't join at all..

I don't mind at all-we'll be trying to avoid irradiated areas anyway. I that Bethesda mainly used that system for radiation for the sake of balancing the game.

shouldn´t buffout be painkillers, and in the game it gives your character 60hp boost for a short period of time, med-x just raise your damage resistance. But this is your RP so you deicide what it should be.

med-x was supposed to be morphine, not heroine. Both opiates, but one's slightly more medicinal. I think Buffout is supposed to be along the lines of steroids, and i think maybe we should make radaway a little more rare than in the game. maybe radiation will be a little bit bigger issue.

If we're going to handle radiation in a more realistic way (and I say we do) we have to decide a few things because handling in full accuricy would be too complex (and fallout 3 was 200years after the bombs were meant to have fallen so there wouldn't actually be that much left of the real nasties anyway if we were being fully accurite).

I suggest that in normal living a pack of radaway is something they might use periodically (every few months before any symptoms develop to reduce risk of cancer) but if you went though a contaminated area or ate something dodgy you would get radiation sickness to match. Areas where there is likely to be more ratidation would be in slow flowing water (the particles are heavy so would sink and be less likely to be washed away then sand), depressions in the landscape (craters etc) and beaches. Also anywhere which had a lot put down on it (say a bomb didn't fission then the conventional explosives would probably spread it over a fair area).

Fish would certainly be a food to avoid, though most meat, especialy higher in the foodchain (eg human), would concentrate radiation.

Thats my thoughts on the best system.

Does radaway remove radioactive elements from the body or treat radiation sickness, or both?

In the game it does both, if you take enough.

I.e., enough to take you below the radiation 'level', which is 200 (Minor), 400(Moderate), 600 (Advanced) and... 1000. (Dead) There's probably one for 800, but I can't remember it.

The problem with doing the realist radioactivity, is that we'll be dying from having the munchies... Sugar Bombs, your favorite fatal, sugary, breakfast cereal! Then again, thier probably not effected by the radiation as much as they should be ; they were born, grew up and live in the radioactive wasteland thier entire lives, most people have probably adapted to it. (Except the Enclave, who are the only 'unmutated' humans.)