Fallout: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:25, 20 March 2018

This is a /v/ related article, which we tolerate because it's relevant and/or popular on /tg/... or we just can't be bothered to delete it.

"War. War never changes."

– Ron Perlman

"War has changed."

– Solid Snake, being a contrarian as always.

Fallout is a post-post-apocalyptic video game series, with a boardgame released in 2017 (see below), that takes place in America about a century or two in the future where America had been bombed so much that it has been left as a rotting, smelly and depressing wasteland that happens to have high as fuck raiders come up to you and attempt to have anal with a flaming chainsaw or a laser weapon.

Despite the setting, most of the games are fairly noblebright, with a darkly humorous streak and a series-long theme of rebuilding. The freedom of approach to how you interact with the world set before you is one of the main selling points of the series, though it has attracted criticism for becoming somewhat unfocused in both writing and gameplay, which many would argue only magnified once Bethesda got their hands on the franchise.

And that's all we'll say on that for now.

Plot and Setting

For those wanting an in-depth analysis of the Fallout storyline, the "Fallout Storyteller" Youtube series has a large number of (mostly accurate) episodes dealing with the subject and can be viewed here.

Basically, while technology continued to advance past the 50-60'es, the culture did not, which is one of the biggest sources of hilarity in the game. Imagine a lady in a pink diner dress, high heels and curly, blonde hair run up to you with a nuke-launcher on the back and try to sell some drugs to you that could enhance you to the level of a Space Marine for hours.

Transistors were invented in 2067 rather than 1947, and humanity encountered alien technology around the time of World War 2 resulting in a society with computers that barely had 1MB of data storage and television was still black and white, but robots would clean your house and police your neighborhood while you yourself could own a disintegration ray hanging above the mantlepiece in case undesirables move into your neighborhood.

Some events still happened, such as Ronald Reagan and Nixon both becoming president. Others, such as the entire world running out of oil all at once, didn't. The US still landed on the moon in '69, but set up a moonbase and fought a war there. Vietnam occurred, but the United States openly participated in combat operations rather than simply attempt to defend the South. There are other divergences that occurred much earlier as well (possibly because aliens were monitoring and abducting humans throughout Fallout history) evidenced by the altered architecture in Washington DC. Hippies and McCarthyism remained right up until the end.

The United States reorganized itself into 13 commonwealths with the states functioning as counties and the old Maryland Cowpens Flag with 13 stars replaced the 50 stars of Old Glory. The US progressed through the women's liberation and civil rights movements, so by the time of the bombs falling, racism and sexism were mostly forgotten. Religion and society's perception/treatment of it appear to have remained unchanged from the 60's; so no Catholic church scandals or atheism movement.

One of the biggest differences is the miniaturization of nuclear reactors in Fallout, to the point that everything from cars to ammo cartridges for laser weapons have them. The cars that still remain, mostly no longer functional, actually explode in a mushroom cloud if damaged sufficiently.

During the lead-up to the end of the world, oil became one of the last major resources in the world as supplies dried up. The Middle East oil reserves were drained dry and the region ceased to matter on a global scale when they pooled their uranium into weapons stockpiles and gave the world a preview of what was to come. Europe had united into the "European Commonwealth" rather than the European Union, but when the Middle East blew itself away they turned inwards in petty wars over remaining resources until they had depleted themselves and ceased to matter on a global scale. The same thing happened to the Soviet Union, leaving only the United States and China as the remaining superpowers, which stood alone. Alaska became the only source of oil left on Earth, resulting in the last great war occurring between China and the United States for control of it. The US annexed Canada in its entirety, turning it into one giant mobilization center to retain the great white Northwest. The South American nations were left to fend for themselves. China, along with deploying the expected numerical superiority, focused on small elite teams utilizing advanced stealth technology while the United States deployed atomic-powered robots and commandos in advanced powered armor.

To advance their chances of victory, the US took the greatest minds of the world and created a secret facility contained underneath a mountain which was dubbed "Big Mountain" somewhere in the deserts of the American southwest. There, scientists churned out amazing works straight out of science fiction, from technology that could keep a brain alive in a jar forever to teleportation to cracking the secrets of the Chinese stealth suits. They were given ample numbers of Chinese prisoners of war to experiment on, as well as American citizens (and hippies) who were disappeared during the paranoia of the extended Cold War. Despite the high casualties and useless horrors that came out of the Big MT, the six executives in charge of the site were given unlimited authority within.

Towards the end of the Resource War, American biologists were tasked with countering possible Chinese biological weapons, but their work took an unexpected turn. When the Army learned that test animals for the "Pan-Immunity Virion Project" gained mass and intelligence, it took over the project and renamed it the "Forced Evolutionary Virus," hoping to use tough, intelligent super-soldiers to smash the Chinese hordes. The Army soldiers tasked with protecting the project while it went through involuntary human trials mutinied a few days before the bombs fell. It would be almost a hundred years later that FEV would become a threat to the wasteland.

As nuclear paranoia grew, the United States government (or rather, the shadow government known as the Enclave) and the Vault-Tec Corporation initiated "Project Safehouse," a plan to build a number of underground bomb shelters known as Vaults across the country, each large enough to house around a thousand people until it would be safe to return to the surface and rebuild. Secretly, the Enclave designed most of the Vaults as social experiments to study how people handled long-term isolation and how suitable they would be for recolonizing Earth and potentially other planets. Those who couldn't get a place in the Vaults began coming up with alternatives, from personal fallout shelters to finding safe places for themselves and their communities to retreat to once the bombs fell.

Never the less America was able to push on to a seemingly inevitable victory, and American forces continued to fight deeper into Chinese territory. Although fourteen years of horrific war took it's toll American forces supported by incredible armor technologies, along with America switching to nuclear fusion (and eventually developing prototype fission engines) to eliminate the dependence on oil, meant that by the war's end American forces were laying siege to Beijing itself and pushing onward to many other cities.

The Enclave had planned on using a false alarm nuclear attack to drive populations into the Vaults, but the actual nuclear apocalypse occurred much sooner than expected. What caused it isn't entirely known and who fired first hasn't been declared canon. A computer in an underground army base, the switchboard, shows the Chinese fired first and the Enclave made the same claim, but according to fallout 3's DLC aliens manipulated humanity into nuking each other by either making China think a nuke had been launched, or by launching their own nukes. Whatever the truth the United States and China both unleashed their nuclear arsenals at each other. The United States was devastated, with many major locations annihilated. The people in the Vaults hid away within, all suffering from the experiments needlessly with most Vaults falling to catastrophe as a result. The people who didn't get into a Vault attempted to survive as best they could. Most of those who did manage to escape annihilation had hidden in mountains, natural caves, or wilderness so far from civilization no bombs were launched at them.

The humans who didn't turn into Ghouls mostly became tribal societies with varying degrees of friendliness and/or savagery. Few tribes retained the civilized knowledge from before and were oftentimes extremely hostile to those they encounter, although many can be civilized enough to maintain friendly contact with other peoples. Some "control Vaults" opened up once the worst was over, jump starting the reconstruction of civilization with advanced towns cropping up using the Vault as a central location.

Fallout 1

Eighty four years after the bombs fell, a resident of Vault 13 in California is chosen to leave the Vault to find a replacement unit for the Vault's damaged water chip, which controls the water recycling system. So begins the story of Fallout 1. This Vault Dweller, in his search for his prize, discovers that the world is (sort of) safe to return to, as many others had. He also discovers a major threat to the nascent human rebuilding: the Master's Army. This army of Super Mutants is the tool of the Master, who intends to turn the entire human race into Super Mutants. The Vault Dweller manages to stop the Master, though it is not known if he talked him down or blew him up, and return to the Vault with his prize, only to be exiled for being "contaminated" by contact with the outside world. Many other inhabitants of Vault 13 choose to leave with him, traveling north and founding the village of Arroyo.

Fallout 2

The Vault Dweller's grandchild comes of age, passes a series of trials, and is then selected to find an artifact from Vault 13: a Garden of Eden Creation Kit, which will rebuild the wasteland into a paradise. So begins the story of Fallout 2. This Chosen One, in his search for his prize, discovers that the United States government is (sort of) still around and had abducted the people of Vault 13. He later learns that they are called the Enclave and had also abducted his tribe in his absence when he found Vault 13 himself. So the Chosen One travels to the Enclave's base of operations, a Poseidon Energy oil rig, to free the captives, find the GECK, and destroy the Enclave, helping (or breaking) towns along the way.

Starting FAR more difficult than Fallout 1 with a capital F, the sequel had an incredibly hard early game hell until you can get decent guns and armor, made gun accuracies drop half per skill (so badly you miss next hex unless you have 60% minimum), but has virtually no time limit. Fallout 1 had a few hundred days until the epilogue would declare the towns in question lost to mutant armies and give a shitty ending.

In fallout 2 you have 13 years until the hard coded game gives a jumpscare and game over (But you can imagine the hard code game over as Enclave unleashing the FEV airborne to cleanse non-baseline humans), and you can recruit a staggering army on your own, from an old gunslinging trader, a leather-armored barkeep with an attitude and a sawn-off, a ghoul medic, a hulking tribal with a hammer attack that sends power armors flying, a HUGE FUCKING INTELLIGENT DEATHCLAW, a SUPERMUTANT WITH A MINIGUN, an Edgy weedy immature twat of a boy who makes drugs, fucks hookers and is a slave-torturing pervert, a dog, a CYBORG dog, ANOTHER CYBORG DOG, your wife and husband, and FUCKING SKYNET. Fourteen companions.

Now excuse me while I reinstall this bitch.

Fallout Tactics

In Fallout Tactics, the Brotherhood of Steel began inducting tribes into its ranks in small numbers while defending the Wasteland against threats such as an army of renegade robots. The main group of the Brotherhood is separated from this group, which takes over Vault 0 and continues pushing eastwards. Although the bulk of Fallout Tactics is non-canon, the basic story remained.

Fallout: Brotherhood Of Steel

In Fallout: Brotherhood Of Steel three Initiates to the Brotherhood, one strangely enough being a Ghoul despite how much the Brotherhood hates both outsiders and mutants, are sent to go find missing Paladins despite how illogical it is to send three fresh recruits after several high ranking veterans in power armor. They wound up being aided by the Vault Dweller, who was still alive at the time, and take out another Super Mutant army. At one point you wipe out the entire population of a town of Ghouls because they don't accept humans but you need to get to the other side and apparently can't be arsed to just walk around it, despite the fact you may in fact be playing as a Ghoul with absolutely no humans for miles who's entire backstory was humans wiped out his town...

The game constantly disregards existing lore worse than any entry of the series, abandons many existing Fallout staples like Nuka Cola and 1950's music and replaces them with early 2000's things such as Bawls energy drink and Slipknot music. That wasn't a joke, that was Brotherhood Of Steel. The game itself was just a poorly paced and uninspired version of the topdown adventure RPGs of the PS2 such as Champions Of Norrath or Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. According to Bethesda the game is 100% non-canon. No matter what anyone says about Fallout 4, remind them about F:BoS. Strangely, despite being named after the faction that is known for their Power Armor, its the ONLY Fallout game to not have Power Armor on the cover. In fact, the Power Armor doesn't resemble anything from past Fallout games when you do get it; its fucking purple (it's special Vault Tech brand power armour instead of the military grade stuff. Still shit though).

Fallout 3

The series turns into Skyrim/Oblivion with guns and good graphics. Many cheers were had...And sometimes RAGE. The beautiful graphics and faster pace was worth it...except the new power armor mechanics: a barely functioning FUCKING HUNK of metal that can't block damage for shit. Wear some leather jacket and inject your balls with heroi- I mean Med-X, and you'll have the same defense without carrying a ton of armor on you.

Two hundred years after the Great War, a civil war breaks out in Vault 101 after its head physician, James, leaves. His child then escapes the chaos in search of him. So begins the story of Fallout 3. This Lone Wanderer, in his search for his prize- I mean father, discovers that he was not born in Vault 101 as he had been led to believe, but in Rivet City, and his father had been working on "Project Purity" to purge the radiation from the Potomac River. Following his father's trail finds the Lone Wanderer trapped in the Tranquility Lane VR simulation in Vault 112 and having to endure Stanislaus Braun's sadism to escape. When they return to the Jefferson Memorial, they find that the Enclave has decided to take over the project. James floods the Purity station with radiation to keep it out of the Enclave's hands. The Lone Wanderer and Dr. Madison Li flee to the Pentagon, which the Brotherhood of Steel has converted to their base of operations in the Capital Wasteland. Elder Lyons puts the Lone Wanderer on the trail to find a GECK in Vault 87. Upon finding it (with the help of a friendly super mutant named Fawkes), the Enclave captures him and the GECK. The Wanderer kills the President Eden during his escape and brings the GECK back to the Jefferson Memorial behind the Brotherhood's assault and the awesome, anti-Communist super robot Liberty Prime. After dealing with Colonel Autumn, the Lone Wanderer is supposed to sacrifice himself in the radiation-filled control room to activate Project Purity. But that's bullshit, so the Broken Steel DLC allowed the Wanderer to survive or order a radiation-resistant companion to activate it instead and continued the plot to eliminate the Enclave's presence in the Capital Wasteland.

The DLC campaigns for Fallout 3 were Operation: Anchorage, a simulation of the Battle of Anchorage from the Sino-American War; The Pitt, a trip to the ruins of Pittsburgh to resolve a crisis between slaves and raiders, Broken Steel, where you mop up the Enclave and open up post-game adventure; Point Lookout, a trip to the swamps of Maryland for open-ended adventure; and Mothership Zeta, where the Lone Wanderer is abducted by aliens, teams up with captives from across time, and takes over the ship.

Fallout: New Vegas

In 2281, the New California Republic and Caesar's Legion are staring at each other across the Colorado River, having fought over Hoover Dam once before. Against this backdrop, a courier is shot for his charge, a poker chip made of platinum, and buried in a shallow grave. He's dug out by a Securitron robot and taken to Dr. Mitchell of Goodsprings, who saves his life. So begins the plot of Fallout: New Vegas. This Courier, in his search for his prize, travels around the Mojave Wasteland in pursuit of his attempted murderer, Benny, the head of the Chairmen, who runs the Tops casino in New Vegas. Eventually, all three major players in the Mojave (the NCR, the Legion, and Mr. House) want the Courier to do their dirty work to gain control over the Mojave, but there is a fourth option: Benny's plan was to use a subverted Securitron named Yes Man to take over House's network and use the platinum chip (actually a data disc containing a firmware upgrade for the Securitrons) to secure control over New Vegas. Whatever the Courier chose, the Second Battle of Hoover Dam is inevitable and only one faction can win. Generally considered to be the best modern Fallout despite it's horrendously buggy state, often compared to the story rich earlier games instead of the more recent titles.

The DLC campaigns for Fallout: New Vegas were Dead Money, where the Courier is kidnapped by a mad Brotherhood of Steel elder to pillage the Sierra Madre Casino's vault and is forced to work with a ghoul lounge singer, a Nightkin super mutant with a split personality, and a mutilated, mute Brotherhood of Steel scribe to achieve the goal(so buggy that without extensive console jury rigging, it's IMPOSSIBLE to finish it); Honest Hearts, where a trip to New Canaan goes wrong and the Courier has to help Joshua Graham, Caesar's former legate, save the tribals of Zion Canyon; Old World Blues, where the Courier is abducted to the Big Empty and forced to help the Think Tank, a team of deranged brains in jars, fight a former member of their team; and Lonesome Road, where the Courier goes to the ruins of the Divide to confront his past.

Fallout 4

In Boston at the zero hour of the war, new parents are admitted to Vault 111 and placed in cryogenic suspension. One of them is murdered, their infant child Shaun stolen, and the other refrozen. When the cryo systems fail, the only survivor of Vault 111 heads to the surface in pursuit of the man who ruined a family. So begins the plot of Fallout 4. This Sole Survivor, in pursuit of his (or her) prize- I mean child, discovers that two hundred years have passed. As he travels, he encounters the last of the Minutemen and goes to Diamond City (built on the ruins of Fenway Park) following a lead. He finds the people paranoid about an organization called "The Institute" replacing anybody they know with near-perfect replicas called synths, and further investigation points to the Institute having abducted Shaun. He can work with the Minutemen, the Brotherhood of Steel, or the synth emancipation group known as the Railroad to fight the Institute, or choose to join it instead. Generally considered to be the worst of the modern Fallout games, in a sense that a 8/10 game can be the worst in a franchise.

Like Fallout Tactics, Fallout 4 contains several continuity errors. But unlike Fallout Tactics, these are considered canon. Thanks Bethesda. And it was Bethesda who declared Fallout Tactics canon for its continuity errors.

The DLC campaigns for Fallout 4 are Automatron, where the Mechanist comes to the Commonwealth with an army of robots and allows you to create your own custom mix-and-match robots to use as companions or settlers; Far Harbor, where a case from the Valentine Detective Agency takes the Sole Survivor to an island off the coast of Maine, where the locals struggle with the Children of Atom and a mysterious fog that blankets the island while runaway synths live in a refuge built inside an old astronomical observatory, and is the largest DLC campaign Bethesda has released yet, being even bigger than the Shivering Isles from Oblivion; and Nuka World, which goes to a pre-War Nuka Cola-themed amusement park for shenanigans.
- There is also a series of "Workshop" packs that add new settlement items. Wasteland Workshop adds more settlement items and allows you to tame and train wasteland creatures; Contraption Workshop adds weapon and armor racks and stuff with moving parts; and Vault-Tec Workshop allows you to build your own Vault and perform experiments on its inhabitants.

The Setting

This setting is fucking vast, with more to come with every game released.

Factions

New California Republic: The self-styled successor to the United States of America, the New California Republic started as an alliance of small settlements in northern California that now flies the former state/commonwealth flag of the two-headed bear. Through diplomacy and vigorous expansion, NCR controls most of old California and is currently (as of 2281) expanding into Nevada, intent on acquiring Hoover Dam to provide electricity to its citizens. NCR believes in liberty and justice for all, but staggers under its own bureaucracy, the corruption that comes with it, and high taxes to the point that its unpleasantly similar to the pre-war government, albeit without the Enclave (yet). It is, by all means, the nicest of the larger nations, providing support to their citizens in return for relatively heavy taxes and following strict laws; it's also the closest the post-apocalyptic wastelands of America have to a functioning Old World-style country. The NCR grew out of an alliance of settlements including Shady Sands (which later became the capital city), Vault City, the Hub, Redding, and Klamath. The west is largely a safe place to live because of them, but many individual towns aren't too happy about their desire to take everything for themselves. The economy of the NCR is primarily built on "Brahmin Barons," who are the owners of large-scale brahmin ranching operations that have considerable economic and political power, as well as powerful mercantile and scavenger caravan companies. Their military is based on the pre-War US military but with a more tribal feel; normal troops are volunteers and conscripts from around the west, while the Rangers are the Special Ops units primarily recruited from whatever region they specialize in and take on any tasks too delicate, tough, or convoluted to be resolved with raw power. The Rangers of Nevada wear the bad ass Ranger Combat Armour from the front of the Fallout: NV box which is scavenged police riot control gear while the California Rangers resemble park rangers of the pre-War wearing combat armor. The Nevada branch also took to using Heavy Troopers with big guns and salvaged power armor from their war with the Brotherhood, which, while cool, isn't as protective as the real deal and is loads heavier due to the fact that all of the robotic parts have been taken out leaving only the metal strapped directly to the body of the wearer.
- As far as inclusiveness goes, the NCR is the most welcoming militarized faction in the west. Although Ghouls suffer discrimination from citizens and officials, there is no actual legalized repression and a ghoul can still have NCR citizenship. The NCR has little to no peaceful experience with super mutants, and out of pure ignorance they can potentially come into conflict with Jacobstown in Fallout: New Vegas with the only peaceful solutions being keeping the two apart. NCR military is slow to forgive and it takes a great deal of finesse on the part of the player in New Vegas to get the NCR into an alliance with any faction as their commander in the area simply prefers outright genocide against them to be done with any potential threat forever. AI beings have absolutely no rights in the NCR, although the NCR has not yet encountered synthetic lifeforms and their attitudes towards them remains unknown. NCR citizens have a manifest destiny attitude, and are quick to settle new areas and come into conflict with local tribes; this ranges from the Freeside section of New Vegas where out of luck NCR citizens and the longtime residents hoard the few resources of the area to the NCR military becoming involved with wars against literally every desert tribe they encounter. Although the NCR is willing to work through issues using diplomatic channels on paper, it takes extraordinary individuals (read: player characters) to force the NCR to resort to something that isn't calling on NCR military police or a ranger attack to solve a given problem because of the aforementioned commander in the area being a bloodthirsty warmonger.
- The NCR, compared to many other factions of the wasteland, also has the benefit of being able to mass-produce their own weapons and ammo rather than forced to scavenge ruins from centuries-old firearms held together by duct tape and prayers. This has allowed them to become one of the few factions that can equip all its combat personnel with firearms. This also something to do with having the Gun Runners as the NCR's arms supplier; originally a gang of post-apocalyptic mechanics in Fallout 1 who got lucky and found a functional factory with intact gun schematics, they quickly became the post-apocalyptic equivalent of Pre-War military contractors.

The Brotherhood of Steel: A group of US Army personnel stationed in the Mariposa Military Base in California announced their desertion when they discovered they were guarding horrible experiments on POWs and American political dissidents. The survivors left the base after the bombs fell and trekked to the Lost Hills bunker, where they became the Brotherhood of Steel. Since then, the Brotherhood has evolved (or devolved) into a neo-chivalric order devoted to acquiring and maintaining the technology of the Old World while keeping it out of the hands of the undeserving (read: everyone else). The Brotherhood is divided into three major orders: the Scribes analyze and manufacture technology, and the Paladins and Knights form the core of the Brotherhood's military strength (the equivalent of officers and enlistees). Elders are those in positions of authority within their caste and the High Elder is the overall leader of the entire Brotherhood. Although they have the second-highest technology level of any faction in North America, the Brotherhood is slowly dying thanks to a combination of attrition, an unwillingness to recruit from the outside world, and generally being complete assholes to outsiders. Basically, they're Elves with short lifespans, crossed with the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Brotherhood of Steel has a VERY tight chain of command and many rules and traditions directly related to it, although out of necessity it is largely being forgotten already.
- After the Master's defeat, the Brotherhood sent a contingent east in pursuit of remnants of the Master's Army. This contingent consisted of Brotherhood members who wanted to reintegrate with the outside world and was conceived as a way to remove their dissenting opinions. While conducting operations in and around Chicago, this Midwestern Brotherhood, under the leadership of General Simon Barnaky, opened its ranks to tribals, ghouls, some super mutants, robots, and even sapient deathclaws. The Midwestern Brotherhood later comes into conflict with Caesar's Legion during operations in Colorado.
- Another group was sent east to reestablish contact with the Midwest chapter. The expedition never found them, making its way to Pittsburgh. Upon seeing the East's condition, the expedition's leader, Owyn Lyons, made it his mission to help the natives. He led an operation to eradicate the slavers that called "the Pitt" home and then marched to the capital of the old United States. They pushed the super mutants back into the city ruins, earning the gratitude of the human survivors, and converted the ruined Pentagon into their base of operations, the Citadel. After Elder Lyons's death, his daughter Sarah succeeded him, though she was killed in action soon after. Leadership of the East Coast Brotherhood eventually fell to Arthur Maxson, who became Elder before he was old enough to drink. By Fallout 4, the East Coast Brotherhood has not only since resumed contact with the original Lost Hills chapter, but under Maxson's rule grown much more in line with the old doctrines, though many elements of Lyons' reforms have survived.
  - Elder Lyons's deviation from his mission cost him his support from back west and a number of his subordinates sided with Protector Henry Casdin against him, leaving the Brotherhood to continue their primary mission to secure lost technology. Known as the Brotherhood Outcasts, Despite the fact that they follow the true ideals of the Brotherhood and the Brotherhood loyal to Lyons are actually the outcasts, they changed their emblem to only signify the strength and knowledge values (as well as paint their armor black with red iconography on it, the little rebellious edgelords) and supplemented their small forces with a large supply of robotic soldiers. After predictably failing to do anything more than survive against the Enclave, super mutants, and ghouls, and losing every engagement against the East Coast Brotherhood, they rejoined their kin under Arthur Maxson around 2283.
- In the Mojave Wasteland, the Brotherhood established their base of operations at the HELIOS One solar power station. When the NCR entered the area, they came into conflict. Though the Brotherhood has superior equipment and training, NCR has more bodies. Operation: Sunburst saw the Mojave Brotherhood devastated and forced to retreat back to the Hidden Valley bunker. Elder Elijah disappeared during the withdrawal and leadership fell to Nolan McNamara; nobody would know that Elijah had discovered HELIOS's connection to Archimedes II, an orbiting solar cannon. Elder McNamara instituted a complete lockdown and for a generation kept the Brotherhood completely contained within the bunker, exiling or making scavengers of those who disagreed. He prioritized repopulation and training, while breaking "the chain of command" to directly send out agents to monitor the activities of the NCR and Caesar's Legion. The bitterness at the NCR as well as their longterm seclusion made them even more bitter towards outsiders, viewing them as subhuman invaders. At the end of New Vegas, they either get wiped out completely via a neglected self-destruct sequence in the bunker (as all of the factions view the Brotherhood as a potential threat), flee their bunker into the Wasteland for parts unknown, or enter into a permanent alliance with the NCR as the local peacekeepers of Nevada after the Legion is wiped out or driven back.

The Brotherhood of Steel logo. The circle represents unity, the sword their strength, the gears their knowledge, and the wings the hope that enables the above.
The Brotherhood of Steel Outcast logo.
The flag of the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel.

Caesar's Legion: Caesar (pronounced internally according to the Latin pronunciation "Kai-sar", and otherwise in the Western manner "Sea-ser"), the self-styled son of Mars and formerly a Follower of the Apocalypse named Edward Sallow, the God of War, united eighty-six tribes under his banner (the bull) in the midwest, with undisputed territorial claims stretching as far west as the Colorado River. The Legion does not engage in diplomacy beyond "Join us or die." The Legion completely assimilates the people it conquers, destroying their old ways of life. To become citizens of the Legion means to throw away your heritage and traditions for security, prosperity, and continued existence. The Legion's army is a slave army composed solely of able-bodied men, owned entirely by Caesar. Women are confined to domestic roles and sexual slavery. Non-humans are killed without exception, and technology in general is shunned unless useful as a weapon, although even then it's limited to projectile weapons only. The discovery of Hoover Dam brought the Legion into direct conflict with the NCR, which drives the story of New Vegas. Ironically, despite the pretensions of invoking Rome, the Legion has more in common with some of the barbarian tribes the actual Roman Empire fought, something Caesar himself acknowledges; coincidentally, this is also why he wants to claim New Vegas so much as he intends to make it a proper "Nova Roma" from which his Legion could at last find solid grounding.

Followers of the Apocalypse: Despite the ominous name, the Followers are the most chill faction in the wasteland. They are devoted to understanding the mistakes of the past, helping people survive the harsh present, and building toward a noblebright future. While the Followers were instrumental in the formation of the New California Republic, they split over disagreements about the state's future and NCR poached many of the Followers' top people to staff their new Office of Science and Industry. Without NCR's backing, the Followers are chronically under-funded and over-worked, but hold on to their ideals in the face of harsh realities. Usually. There's one notable exception, a guy named Edward Sallow. His entry is right above this one.
- A tribe in Utah managed to survive the war in New Jerusalem before moving to Mount Zion National Park, and are the only remaining Christians known in the post-war world. Known as New Canaanites, after their town of New Canaan, they accepted refugees of all kinds, particularly from both the Brotherhood of Steel and the NCR during their war in Nevada. Edward Sallow had come to them in his journey as a Follower, taking one of their own known as Joshua Graham as a companion. Eventually the men returned to the area years later as the leaders of Caesar's Legion. Graham was lit on fire and throw into the Grand Canyon after being defeated by the NCR, and after learning he had survived and taken refuge in New Canaan again the Legion had a local tribe that wanted into their ranks, the White Legs, destroy the New Canaanites. Two survivors, one being Graham, took refuge with the other local tribes. Caesar tasked the White Legs with destroying all other tribes in the area to gain admission to the Legion, causing the other tribes to unite against them. By the time the player of Fallout: New Vegas becomes involved, only the Dead Horse and Sorrows tribes remain in opposition.

The Enclave: The Enclave's leadership is comprised of the descendants of US government officials from the Great War. They are the most technologically-advanced faction in the wasteland and take pride in being the only uncontaminated, mutation-free strain of humanity left outside the Vault experiments. Like the Brotherhood of Steel, the Enclave arms its soldiers with energy weapons and advanced armor systems and are generally jerks to the world at large. Unlike the Brotherhood, the Enclave are willing to innovate and work with outsiders. Unfortunately for those outsiders, "work with" generally means "enslave and work to death" or "act real friendly until they are no longer useful." They got properly curbstomped in Fallout 2 and 3, and are as of 2287 almost eradicated from the wasteland, save a few stubborn survivors (who can be recruited for the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, depending on your decision).

New Vegas: Thanks to billionaire industrialist Robert House, Las Vegas had a missile defense grid so it and the surrounding area survived the Great War mostly unscathed. Drawing power from the Hoover Dam and fresh water from Lake Mead, New Vegas is a small but successful community built primarily on providing entertainment to NCR citizens. As of 2281, House is still in control of Vegas. He maintains his iron grip on the three "rehabilitated" tribes that run the three major casinos. His Securitron robots maintain order supported by spies and informants inside various organizations. The people of New Vegas are secure from outside threats, but House demands absolute obedience from his subjects in exchange for the wealth and luxuries he provides. Robert House does not particularly care about the state of Freeside, the crime-ridden neighborhood built up outside the Strip, mostly because he does not yet have the resources to annex the surrounding area and bring it under his rule.
- The Chairmen: One of the three "rehabilitated" tribes. Real cool gigs, baby, real cool. Rules the Tops Casino, they act like top cat slicks with nice hair and fancy suits. They mostly just play the rules and foster leaders who want to take over Vegas, all cool. They ain't no finks, dig? The Chairmen may act like the typical 1950's "cool cat", but were originally a warrior tribe known as the Boot Riders, and this influences them in their sensibilities and notions of honor.
- The Omertas: One of the three "rehabilitated" tribes. Living in the Gommorah Casino and Brothel, they ain't no damn low time criminals, see? They respect only their family and them Securitron of House's, 'cause you don't wanna mess with the coppers. Sleazy bastards who are civilized only in appearance and even then it's a thin facade, they are similar to the massive crime families that plagued old Vegas. Originally known as the Slither Skins, they would live a semi-nomadic experience conducting raids, kidnappings, and slavery. They only ever had one rule: don't betray the family.
- The White Glove Society: One of the three "rehabilitated" tribes. The gentlemen and ladies of the Ultra-Luxe, they give only the most luxurious performance in whatever they do, be it their dresses (creepy porcelain-masks and pompous suits) or their cuisine. They were once known as the Sawneys and were rather infamous cannibals, although cannibalism is now illegal under the White Glove's laws.
- Freeside: House controls the Vegas Strip. This is the ruins of Vegas outside of House's actual territory. There are no official rulers in Freeside, but a few major groups carve out their own territory with the most influential being The King and his gang of Elvis impersonators called The Kings.
  - The Kings: An exception to the 50s theme. Two guys found a place called 'The King's School of Impersonation' filled to the brim with Elvis impersonation stuff like costumes, hairgel, and instructions on how to walk, talk, and act like "The King". They didn't quite understand who this "King" was but they liked the idea of everyone being his own man, a "King". They wore out the only tape of Elvis's voice they found so only Pacer and the newly-named The King can talk like him. So on the outskirts of post-WW3 Las Vegas you have a gang based on Elvis impersonators. Actually decent; they were shoved out of Vegas proper but keep a little bit of order in Freeside and act as a sort of government for most of the people there.

Shi: The Shi are focused around San Francisco. The Shi are led by the Emperor, though his chief adviser is the de facto head of the organization. The Emperor is actually the computer mainframe and A.I. of the Chinese submarine Qin Shi Huangdi (named after the historical emperor who first united China), which washed up on shore after the Great War. The Shi the descendants of the crew of the submarine and local SanFran survivors that turned (and still do turn) to the artificial intelligence for guidance. Although the Shi prefer to remain apart from wasteland politics, they come into conflict with the Hubologists of San Francisco. Their eventual fate is unknown, but they probably got conquered by the NCR.

Hubologists: a thinly disguised insult to Scientologists with armor, guns, a spaceship, and porn stars instead of Tom Cruise. WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN THINKING INTERPLAY!?!? Scratch that, it's fucking brave to do so.

Tribals: Small independent tribes still persist in the wasteland, ranging from primitive Native American-esque clans to more civilized and advanced cultures. Some are peaceful, while others take to raiding and pillaging to survive or simply for lulz.
- Assorted Towns: Take some less-than-usually-ruined buildings, a bunch of people looking for a peaceful place to carve out a living, and a few guns, and you've got a city. Most towns have everything from ten to hundreds of citizens, and each one is often ruled by an unofficial leader of sorts (people rarely live long enough that it makes sense to elect some idiot). Notable cities are Megaton in Washington DC (a town build around an atom bomb that hasn't detonated yet), Shady Sands, Rivet City, Primm, Novac, and many others.
- New Caananites: A Mormon tribe centered around the city of New Caanan in Utah, these bible-reading badasses kept Christianity alive with Tommy guns, .45s, and pure stubbornness until the White Legs razed the city to the ground and salted the earth. Now destroyed, their only surviving members are two guys of very different beliefs arguing over whether to save or to save a bunch of underdeveloped tribes in Zion. That is not a typo. Unique compared with the usual tribals in that they more or less reverted to the 19th Century frontier lifestyle of their Mormon pioneer ancestors rather than become like the Zion tribes below.
- Zion Tribes: The Dead Horses and the Sorrows are a bunch of real tribals who had reverted to something resembling Native American tribes. They are the tribes the aforementioned New Caananites are arguing over.
- White Legs: A tribe based near Salt Lake City, the White Legs are trying to join Caesar's Legion. The price for joining the Legion is the destruction of New Canaan and all of its inhabitants. They succeeded at the first task, but two escaped their genocide and they followed them to Zion Canyon to finish the job. What they don't know is that Caesar will simply annihilate their culture and he's just using them to kill Joshua Graham. Dealing with them is the main plot of the New Vegas DLC campaign Honest Hearts.
- Boomers: A tribe descended from dissident exiles from Vault 34 who've not only retained much of their Pre-War knowledge, but also the trigger-happy obsessions of the Vault they came from. Based from a relatively intact US Air Force base outside New Vegas, their culture is heavily based on the Pre-War military and on blowing the crap out of anything even remotely close to said airbase.
- The Great Khans: Formed by a cool guy named Papa Khan after the Chosen One murdered the New Khans (who were dicks), the Great Khans are one of the oldest raider groups in Fallout still active, about the same age as NCR as they both came from the same Vault. Unlike most raiders in the game, they're fairly friendly and figure it's better to just sell drugs and run protection rackets to villages than raiding. When they followed the old ways, the New Khans were led by the paranoid 90-year-old son of the leader of the Khans, who were the original group who came out of the Vault. They were also dicks who got stomped by the Vault Dweller. Their new leader Papa Khan was cool enough to stop all that dickery and replace it with drugs (although the Fiends, who get high on Khan drugs, make up for the lack of violence tenfold). They were decimated by the NCR after continuous raids on NCR supplies led to a large NCR force attacking the Bitter Springs camp. Due to the confusion of battle NCR soldiers attacked Great Khan civilians trying to escape the war zone their home had become, which is still something of a black mark on NCR history.
The Institute: MIT turned evil with a capital E. This is what happens when you don't play Big Mountain for laughs. Over the last forty odd years they've been pumping out artificial humans known as Gen III synths into the wasteland in an attempt to control it. Widely feared and despised throughout the Commonwealth, wastelanders have been known to gun down family members out of paranoia that they've been replaced by Institute synths, but next to nothing is known about exactly what's inside the Institute or how it operates, as nobody is even really sure where the place is as it is in an inaccessible location underneath the MIT building, guarded by the Institute's weird technology. The Institute commits many atrocities, but depressingly enough started out wanting to rebuild teh Commonwealth. Unfortunately prolonged isolation and separation from the surface (coupled with more than a few "misunderstandings") resulted in an increasingly isolationist faction that began to see the surface dwellers as "savage barbarians". Most of the ills that plague the Commonwealth can be traced back to the Institute, mostly because they tend to invent things first, then try to look for a reason to make the things they've invented. Beautiful white architecture, haughty and murderous due to a distant chance of suffering on their behalf, sounds familiar?)
The Minutemen: Based on the historical group of the same name who protected townships in the Boston region in the opening days of the American Revolution, the Minutemen were a defence force made up of civilian volunteers, able to respond to crises at a minute's notice. They came very close to actually forming a sort-of proto-NCR in the Commonwealth, but after a series of disasters (including infighting within the top of their command structure, being betrayed and massacred by one of the brass who were sympathetic to the Gunners, and losing their base of operations to... something), they've been reduced to about three members by the time the Sole Survivor emerges. Easily identifiable by their mock-up colonial dress and their iconic weapon, the Laser Musket.
The Railroad: An organization opposing the Institute and seeking to free all Synths, no matter the cost. They have very little in the way of direct military might beyond a handful of "heavies", being only a loose collection of free synths, scientists and other idealists operating in underground safehouses, constantly trying to avoid discovery by the Institute. The Railroad are not perfect, however, as they ignore the plight of the Commonwealth to focus on Gen III Synths.
Raiders: A bunch of drugged out sadistic Mad Max backup dancers with no ambitions besides getting high and attacking settlements and people wandering the wastelands. Good for target practice and as a source of ammo for small guns. Occasionally group into larger, more organized gangs.

Species

Regular Humans: Nuff said, in general at least. The people living in Vaults or Oil Rigs are "pure" compared to those who survived outside though basically this is nothing more than something for bigots to be bigoted about.
Ghouls: A few people who get hit with a crapload of radiation don't die (despite appearances), but mutate into ghouls. Corpse looking dudes and dudettes, ghouls don't age and thrive in radioactive environments but are sterile, and have no noses and ears (cartilage on face is gone, and kneecaps suffer in a ghoul's body). A lot of wastelanders hate ghouls because many of them "go feral," losing their minds either as part of the transformation or afterwards and becoming little better than your standard brain-eating zombies. Even intelligent ghouls aren't necessarily nice guys/gals, and Fallout 4 emphasizes this with ghoul raiders, basically like non radblasted people. Lore tucked away in Fallout 1 implies that ghouldom actually is a combination of radiation damage and exposure to FEV.
Super Mutants: Result of old USA experimenting with an airborne Hulk virus for soldiers, FEV enhances humans with incredible strength and durability, causes them to grow to about nine feet tall, and turns their skin green. It also makes them sterile, although this was designed to be a feature and not a bug. The problem is that many humans living in the wastes have been exposed to weaker strains of FEV and radiation, causing concentrated FEV to damage these subject's intelligence. There are three known sources of super mutants in America: the Mariposa strain (created by the Master from the FEV vats in the Mariposa Military Base), the Vault 87 strain (created by Vault-Tec from the FEV stored in Vault 87), and the Commonwealth strain (created by the Institute and dumped on the surface for disposal).
- Nightkin: The Master's stealth specialists, Nightkin use Stealth Boy modules to turn invisible. The exotic radiation from the Stealth Boys damages parts of the brain with prolonged exposure and Nightkin invariably end up going insane in one way or another, usually some sort of schizophrenia. A human and a ghoul live in Jacobstown to research the disorder and find a way to treat it.
- Friendly Super Mutants: After the fall of the Master, some super mutants figured out how to interact with humanity peacefully. One notable example is Marcus, who founded the town of Broken Hills with his friend, Paladin Jacob, and later named the Mount Charleston Ski Lodge "Jacobstown" in his honor. Another is Mean Son-of-a-Bitch, who protects Westside New Vegas from raiders, though the loss of his tongue makes communication difficult.
Centaurs: These are what you get out of an FEV vat when you throw a bunch of different creatures in at the same time. Hideous blobs of living fuckno meat, they show about as much intelligence as a dog. In New Vegas, they are found with super mutants as their watchdogs, while Fallout 4 introduced mutant hounds (likely because the origin of Commonwealth super mutants precluded centaurs' existence). They are also attracted to most forms or radiation and (depending on the location) can have multiple heads.
Deathclaws are not casually named. They will fuck up your shit. They were an FEV experiment from before the bombs dropped, an experiment to turn Jackson's chameleons into bioweapons. Guess what? It went fucking horribly right. In Fallout 3, the Enclave got their hands on some and implanted mind control devices in their brains. New Vegas introduced deathclaw variants in the form of matriarchs, infants, and alpha males. Fallout 4 added a bunch of new variants, including albino deathclaws, radiation-emitting glowing deathclaws, and the paranoia-inducing chameleon deathclaws, which can turn fucking invisible at will. Fallout 2 had an intelligent talking deathclaw named Goris as a companion. The only FEV experiment that didn't turn out sterile so they are not disappearing from the wasteland any time soon.
Robots: America had a variety of atom-punk themed robots running around before the bombs fell and many are still kicking around in the wasteland. These range from civilian droids like Eyebots, Protectrons, and Mr. Handys to more deadly combat models, like Securitrons, Mr. Gutsys, Sentry Bots, and Assaultrons. Some of them have been salvaged and put to good use, others are wandering about killing people.
Synths: Developed by the Institute over the centuries since the bombs dropped, synths are true androids, machines made in the image of men. The Institute has developed three generations of synth: the endoskeletal first generation; the artificial flesh-covered second generation, and the all-but-indistinguishable-from-born-humans third generation. It is this third generation that has the Commonwealth gripped with the paranoia that anybody they know could be replaced without their knowledge. The Railroad considers them a slave race and wants to bring down the Institute and emancipate them.
Aliens: Grey/Little Green Men types with space blasters. They first appeared in random encounters in Fallout and Fallout 2, where you had a chance each game of stumbling across a crashed saucer and recovering a unique, powerful energy weapon from the corpse of the former occupant. This tradition continued in the 3D games; Fallout 3 even had an entire DLC campaign, Mothership Zeta, dedicated to being abducted by the little bastards and having to kill your way off their ship. This DLC is the primary source of info about aliens in Falloutverse and is highly contentious because of it, as fans are split on whether or not aliens should be taken as canon, similarly to the random encounter where you see the Doctor's TARDIS. This DLC implies that the aliens may have actually triggered the nuclear exchange that blew the planet apart.

Long time fans did not approve.

Dwarves: Short stocky humanoids common in the first few games. They're pretty self explanatory, though it should be noted that unlike other mutants (if they ARE a result of mutation) they're treated pretty much like any other person. Probably because they don't look like a burnt corpse or a cross between a Ork and the Hulk. Have vanished from recent titles for unknown reason. Could be extinct (These games DO take place hundreds of years apart after all), could be a West coast thing or perhaps other communities aren't as progressive as California.

Timeline

1945: Someone forgot to make the transistor and ultimately screwed it up for everyone.
2077: Humanity screwed up this year.
2161: The plot of Fallout 1, back when there were only about 3 deathclaws and lasers actually CUT. Vault 13's water chip breaks, someone has to fix the problem.
2241: The Plot of Fallout 2, mega badassery and improvement of pretty much everything from Fallout 1 but the atmosphere, which took a 90 degrees turn from classic post-apoc towards dark comedy at that point. Arroyo needs a GECK and sends out the Chosen One to find it. Enclave shows up, gets its HQ blown the fuck up.
2277: The Plot of Fallout 3, the beginning of full 3D FPS, slow as fuck plasma weaponry and mega debuffed power armour, also tried to turn up the Grimdark but failed. Enclave shows up on the other side of the continent without an explanation and for no apparent reason. Everyone's thirsty.
2281: The plot of Fallout New Vegas, what Fallout 3 should have been. Made by Obsidian. Get shot in the head, wake up, set out for vengeance, take over Hoover Dam for the faction (or lack thereof) of your choice. Factions, raiders, and tribals actually have history, backstory, and character.
2287: The plot of Fallout 4, a more Call of Duty-style combat system with a voiced main protagonist, base building, as well as a dialogue wheel, gutting the dialogue choices to no more than four choices, with barely any indication of what the character will actually say. It's a Fallout game by Bethesda, which means it's mechanically inferior to the previous games and with overall worse writing, a forced role, like in Fallout 3, and continued systematic slaughter of RPG elements and mechanics in the name of 'streamlining'.

Technology

Now, the weapons tech used in this can be explained in many, many ways, but the easiest way is to think of all the WH40K tech, but more convenient with the added bonus of not blowing up in your face once in a while but with the downside of guns jamming every 3 seconds and guns that rot before your eyes. Still, the weapons tech can be badass in an alternate universe (if you accept the 37,933 year difference between the universes) so the Fallout tech is still considered cool. The Fallout universe also incorporates REAL LIFE GUNS into the series (and a whole bunch of them) such as the Skorpion, MP5, MG60, M9, etc. This then changes in the later games (and in the 1st, but that was the 1st) to 'Hunting Rifles', '10mm Sub-Machine Guns' and 'Miniguns'. Oh well. It's easier to just say the tech in Fallout swings between Mad Max weapons, to real weapons, to 50's ray guns, to crazy shit like an infinite ammo shotgun fist and a weapon that fires eight mini nukes (a shotgun of nukes if you will). Also one of the deadliest weapons in the 2D games was a BB gun. No, really. Aim for the eyes.

As for armor, well...
The majority of the wasteland has rags as 'armor' and a baseball glove as a 'pauldron', although some people have done better (and some creatures too). Let's go over the basics:

NCR has your mass produced, easily recognizable uniform that has a desert color (no, not dessert, but I wish it did. That is, if the dessert wasn't so IRRADIATED!). The most technologically advanced armor they have is the other 'mass-produced-but-not-produced-as-much' NCR veteran combat amour, which is basically riot armour with a trench coat over the top and a riot helmet with glowy eyes, though they also have T-45d power amour with the tech ripped out of it so untrained users can wear it without killing themselves, leaving an empty and sad metal shell behind. Though they do put an AC in it. Feels like you're wearing a truck, though, since "tech" includes "internal motors".
BoS has power armour (don't get your hopes up, this is Fallout 3/New Vegas power armour we're talking about), lasers, miniguns and laser miniguns.
The Master armies have super-human toughness instead of hi-tech armour, miniguns and rocket launchers flying out of their asses, stealth technology, utilized by their spec-ops "nightkin" super-mutants, and of course a whole bunch of horribly mutated beasts they use like attack dogs. Oh, and let's not forget psykers.
Legion has football gear since its the closest thing to roman armor they can find. Higher ups do have better armor, mostly just scrap-metal plates but a few like the Legate have sweet forged armor.
Raiders have stuff stolen from: women they've raped, people they've slaughtered, houses they've raided, prospectors they've held up then slaughtered etc. Later in the series, the homemade pipe guns become almost synonymous with Raiders.
- Khans you get biker gear you bought with the drug money you make.
The Enclave have power armor far superior to that of the brotherhood (still Fallout power armor), plasma guns that turn you into a goo and sweet gauss rifles that can blow your brains out from ten miles away through a power armour.
Various mercenaries have 'combat armour'. Supposedly the stuff average troops wore in actual military things. Usually mid-level gear for you in the games, and pretty decent when it comes to letting you not get killed.
Minutemen, going with a colonial American Revolution appearance/theme, have made ~~laslocks~~ laser muskets to help recreate the ensemble. You crank the firing mechanism up to build up a charge to make its single shot more powerful, but each crank will consume more ammo than the last when fired, and requires prior upgrade to allow more cranks. Nevertheless as the damage builds up it surpases even nuke launchers in terms of single-target damage, unless you miss your super-mega-overcharged tank-killing shot.

Notable People

Protagonists
- The Vault Dweller: From Fallout 1. Sent out of Vault 13 to fix the 'water chip', ends up saving humanity (or at least the bits of it in that part of California).
- The Chosen One: From Fallout 2, grandkid of the Vault Dweller. Foretold to do cool stuff, and does. Breaks the water chip in Fallout 1 during a random encounter with a time portal.
- The Warrior: The Fallout Tactics main character. The player can create their own character like in the other games, but can also go with the presets called "Mick", "Snake", "Peter", "Wilma", or "Betty". All were Tribals recruited by the Brotherhood of Steel army that moved east, and by the end of their career was appointed General of the pacified Chicago.
- The Lone Wanderer: From Fallout 3. East coast, lived in Vault 101. No-one ever enters, no-one ever leaves. (Yeah, right. Plot kicks off when your dad bails on the place, and you follow him.) Until the Broken Steel DLC, it was possible to actually not survive the 'good' ending at the end.
- The Courier: From Fallout: New Vegas. Not from a Vault at all, just some Courier who gets shot in the head by some hip creep in a checkered suit during the opening cutscene. You get better, then get to decide who controls Hoover Dam. Has the option to become a cyborg, raid the Sierra Madre for gold, kill multiple nation's leaders, take control over Vegas and even deal death-dealing nuclear blows to said nations, ending them through starvation. Becomes something of a myth to the western US if you play all the DLC.
- The Sole Survivor: From Fallout 4. Boston area, Vault 111. A pre-War American citizen, either a US Army veteran or a law-school-grad-turned-housewife (depending on your choice between male or female), and got thrown in cryo with most of the Vault members when they got in, oldest living person in the Fallout universe who isn't a mutant or a robot (Or alien abductee). Woken up by a couple of douchebags who shot their spouse and kidnapped their son, ~~starting the plot~~ who then knocked him out for a bit again, until he woke up and left, starting the plot CORRECTLY this time. First voiced protagonist, and as such generally most easy to play as a slightly snarky, but ultimately good-natured hero guy.
Allies:
- Companions: The player character of each game can befriend certain characters who will then join the quest. Just like regular NPCs, companions are mortal and will die if you don't take care of them (until New Vegas made them essential by default (except for hardcore mode.)). Generally, you can only have one companion at a time, though Fallout 2 allowed you to have more based on your Charisma and New Vegas let you take one humanoid and either Rex or ED-E at the same time.
  - Arcade Gannon "I'm really very boring, you'd get better stories out of a Freeside Junkie." Easily one of the most moral of all companions, and the most naive, Arcade is a medical doctor doing research for the Follwers of The Apocalypse. He's clever, as handsome as the melted plastic graphics allow, and has a sharp wit to hide his caring nature. Unfortunately for all the women, he's also gay, although this never really comes up. He prefers independence because he thinks it's the best thing for everyone, although he'll take NCR rule as a close second.
  - Craig Boone "life has a way of punishing you for the mistakes you make." A salty ass recon sniper, Boone retired after NCR made a bad call in the fog of war and killed fleeing refugees. Boone found work in Nipton as a sentry and killed any threat to the town. Later he shot his pregnant wife because it was the only way to stop the Legion taking her and his unborn child as a slave.
  - Lily Bowen "Hush, Leo, it's medicine time now!" Born in a Vault over a hundred years ago, Lily lived for a long time under ground. She married, had children, and watched her children grow up and start families of their own. Then the Master's army came and took her away. She was Dipped and turned into a powerful supermutant Nightkin. Unfortunately like many other Nightkin Lily has schizophrenia; Lily has vivid hallucinations of another person called Leo who tells her to hurt others. lily does know she is sick, and takes her medicine, although at a half dose so she can remember her days in the Vault.
  - Rose of Sharon Cassidy "Damn NCR and their nicknames..." Cassdy is down on her luck after the ruthless "caravan wars" left her caravan a smoking ruin. Tough, smart, and deadly with a gun Cassidy has some of the most memorable (and foul mouthed) lines in the game. Cassidy has a serious drinking habit, which has earned her the name "Whiskey Rose" after the blush she gets when drunk. Shortly after people call her that they call her "crazy bitch" when she starts to fight whoever called her Whiskey Rose.
  - Raul Tejada "Oh good, now there's an army of robots." Raul is a sarcastic Ghoul who was born in the year 2046, making him one of the few people alive before, during, and after the Great War. He's seen the worst of humanity when his family was killed by vengeful men, and later when his sister was murdered in such a brutal fashion she could only be recognized by the scar on her leg. Age (and Ghoulification) has caught up with him, making Raul slow from arthritis. He used to be a fantastic gunslinger, but stopped to be a mechanic after the last of his family died. Having lived out west he's seen the tribal savages that humanity became after the war and the order that the Legion brought, and is less critical of the Legion because of it. Voiced by DANNY TREJO.
  - Veronica Santangelo "Do me a favor. Make sure they bury me in a nice dress." Born into the Mojave Brotherhood of Steel, Veronica has a very rocky relationship with her extended family; although she does care for them she knows that the Brotherhood will die if they don't change and adapt to the world around them. Though she is sarcastic and irreverent she thinks that if she can convince the Brotherhood act more like The Followers they would become an unstoppable force. Basically a lesbian Mechanicus priestess who fists everything.
  - Joshua Graham: "I don't enjoy killing. But when done righteously it's just a chore, like any other." Although technically not a follower it is worth mentioning him for one reason: Joshua Graham is awesome and terrifying in equal measure. Formerly Cesar's Legate, Joshua failed at the First Battle for Hoover Dam and was punished by being covered it pitch, set on fire, and thrown into a canyon while still on fire. He survived because death was too scared to take him (although he claims it was God's love that saved him), and the incident rekindled his faith in God and made him rather less evil, although no less terrifying. Notable for being a borderline invincible murder machine capable of mulching almost anything in the game and having a deep baritone more fitting for a villain than a hero. Rather fitting because his plan for his enemies The White Legs is to hunt down every last one and kill them all.
  - Dogmeat: "Woof!" In a nod to the post-apocalyptic Mad Max films and the movie "A Boy and His Dog", there is a canine companion named 'Dogmeat' in every canon Fallout game except New Vegas but it does appear in Fallout Shelter (as well as several non-Fallout games). In Fallout 1, a character alluded to be Mad Max is killed and the dog follows you because you either look like him or feed it. In Fallout 2, Dogmeat is revealed to have died in Mariposa, but the same dog appears anyway for an easter egg. In Fallout 3, Dogmeat is a cattle dog with heterochromia whose master is killed by raiders. He is a bullet sponge, can sniff out items and if you have the Broken Steel DLC and a certain perk, his puppies show up if he dies. In Fallout 4, he is a german shepherd who tags along with the first settlers you're scripted to encounter but apparently prefers you, a stranger, to anyone else he's ever met.
- Mysterious Stranger: In Fallout 1 & 2, a male or female character (depending on player gender) with a randomized inventory. After that, some guy in a trenchcoat and fedora (not a trilby mind you). He appears when protagonists who are extremely lucky (and have the prerequisite perk) need him to take a few shots at their foes then disappear again. In Fallout: New Vegas, a guitar-playing man is hinted to be the Mysterious Stranger's son and carries his special pistol that he can give to the player. In Fallout 4, the Mysterious Stranger sticks around a bit longer and can actually be interacted with for a short time. Currently under investigation by a robotic detective.
- Miss Fortune: Only appears in New Vegas. Shows up the same way as the Mysterious Stranger, except as a woman wearing an elaborate showgirl costume. Despite using the same model of gun as the Mysterious Stranger, hers doesn't directly cause much damage; instead, she has a bunch of (very fun) randomized effects based on percentage chance, ranging from knocking the gun out of their hands to detonating all the explosives in their inventory. Also, she'll probably empty all six shots (assuming they survive) with each one going through the random effect roll.
Antagonists/Villains:
- The Master "I am the Master. Will you join us or die? Join! DIE! Join!" : formerly known as Richard Moreau/Richard Grey. He is some kind of bizarre mutant that somehow got itself hooked up to computers after being infected by FEV. Believing in the idea of unifying the wasteland, he created the super mutants using the contained FEV that he had found on humans he had abducted. He is fun to talk to since he speaks in multiple recorded voices (even a feminine tone). Sadly, he was defeated by the Vault Dweller, either in a straight fight or by convincing him his plan to repopulate with super mutants will fail. Fun Fact: He is voice by Jim Cummings, a famous voice actor who voiced various famous cartoon character like Winnie the pooh and Dr. Robotnik from that awful meme worthy sonic cartoon. His name should be meme worthy by itself, if you are a sick fuck that is.
- Dick Richardson "Hello. I am the President of The United States of America.": President of the United States and head of the Enclave in Fallout 2. He plans to wipe out the wasteland and repopulate it with genetically pure humans.
  - Frank Horrigan "Time to die, Mutie": Richardson's enforcer. Formerly a Secret Service agent, he was exposed to FEV and gradually became an "ultra super mutant in power armor." Twelve feet tall, fused to a customized suit of power armor, and even more violent than he was before the transformation, the Enclave considered him the nuclear option for operations in the wasteland. Defeated by the Chosen One, but Horrigan tanked a shit ton of damage in the process, including being cut in half at the waist.
- The Calculator "Countermeasures activated. Defenses engaged.": The overseer of Vault 0. Actually a gestalt of eight human brains hooked together into a neural network. Damage to Vault 0 and its brains ruined the Calculator's intended purpose of reuniting all the Vaults with the surface world. Instead, it started building robots to purge the surface of all life.
- Attis "Ah, at last I meet the mouse that stalks lions.": A survivor from the Master's army. He built his own army and went east in search of the Secret Vault, which supposedly had stores of FEV modified to prevent sterility in its subjects. Though the Brotherhood of Steel pursued him, he managed to find and open the Secret Vault, access its FEV, and use it on himself. Rather than making him fertile again, it turned him into a fuckhueg mass of flesh.
- John Henry Eden "God Bless you, America, and God bless the Enclave": Richardson's successor in the Capital Wasteland. Same plan. Voiced by Malcolm McDowell. Broadcast his speeches throughout the Capital Wasteland over the radio and via roaming eyebots. Turns out he's actually a ZAX supercomputer that gained sapience, so the Lone Wanderer can logic bomb him in their encounter.
- Caesar "I was taught it was my responsibility to bring the torch of knowledge to the wastes. What a waste of fucking time!": Formerly a Follower of the Apocalypse known as Edward Sallow, Caesar drew on his somewhat limited knowledge of the Roman Empire to unite a number of tribes by force. Seeing his work, he kept on conquering until he had assimilated eighty-six tribes with former Mormon missionary Joshua Graham as his legate. When the NCR pushed them out of the Mojave at the Battle of Hoover Dam, Caesar had Graham executed (it didn't stick) and promoted Lanius to his position.
- Elijah "I'll kill them until it's only me, me alone in a quiet world." An old and insane Brotherhood Elder gone roughe Eligah fled to the Seirra Madre resort and casino to steal technology that will allow him to take over the Mojave. He is a control freak that wants everyone to obey and to force compliance he's put an explosive collar around your neck. Since he's too old to face the horrors of the Seirra Madre alone he's enslaved you and a number of others to work for him.
- The Think Tank "FWOOSH! THAT IS THE SOUND OF FLUSHING!": The Old World scientists in charge of Big MT. Or rather what's left of them, given that they're all little more than brains in a jar at this point. And batshit insane.
- Ulysses "This isn't your road. When you come, you'll walk it alone.": An intelligent if rather sociopathic loner formerly part of Caesar's Legion. Wearing the Old World American flag on his back he managed to set up a community in an intact US military town and would have been content until the Courier brought a package one day that accidentally triggered the nuclear warheads right under said community. Fueled with vengeance, he's been a major figure behind the scenes in screwing over the Courier and unless he's stopped would launch the remaining nukes over either the NCR, the Legion's homeland or both to "begin again."
- Father "The Institute... it's important, it really is humanity's best hope...": The director of the Institute. Genuinely believes that he's going to improve humanity's lot in the wasteland, even if that includes creating a slave race (synths) and crippling every attempt by the Commonwealth to create a viable government on their own.
- Desdemona "Yould you risk your life for your fellow man? Even if that man is a Synth?": Mama Railroad. She doesn't reveal any personal details in order to protect herself and the Railroad from Institute spies and collaborators. She becomes your ally if you join the Railroad and your enemy if you side with the Institute or the Brotherhood.
- Arthur Maxson "The Institute and it's creations need to be destroyed in order to preserve our future.": The Eastern Brotherhood of Steel's leader. He ascended to leadership after a series of ill-equipped Elders that succeeded Elder Lyons. He brought the Brotherhood to the Commonwealth to fight the Institute and keep their technology out of the hands of those who would abuse it. His uncompromising attitude toward his mission will put him at odds with you if you align yourself with the Railroad or the Institute. Killed a super mutant at age 10, a Deathclaw at age 13 with no support and only got a few scars from its claws which cut armor like paper and became an Elder at age 16. So he is a well, you know what.

Themes And Continuity

The following section will list continuity deviations and/or plot holes in the newer entries in the series (as well as the usual kind of 1d4chan ~~bitching~~ INFORMATIVE INFORMATION, which may save some headaches for those trying to run a tabletop version of Fallout. This section can be viewed by clicking "Expand" to the right.

This article contains spoilers! You have been warned.

This article is a stub. You can help 1d4chan by expanding it

Fallout has had two major studios, with vastly different philosophies for story, write the bulk of the lore. Obsidian Fallout lore is largely Grimdark softened in places with black comedy and the ocassional woobie character; the settings are unpleasant representations of vice and the strife causes by business and private interest, and the player (IF and only if they choose to be a hero) is the sole beacon of light who uplifts those they meet in an otherwise dark world (or a piece of shit who fucks it all up for everyone on purpose). Bethesda by contrast prefers to set the player in a place of past glory, a large ruin rather than a ruined expanse, and connect the player directly to the vision of hope which railroads them into at least a neutral effect on the world if not a massive improvement to the state of humanity. Bethesda lore tends to step on the feet of established Obsidian lore, although Obsidian reconciled the two somewhat in the collaborative Fallout New Vegas...then made even more oversights in Fallout 4.

Regarding continuity, Fallout unfortunately has its own version of Matt Ward with some shades a certain Irish leper (many may also find the situation similar, if not worse, to the relative lore rape found in TES: Oblivion and not only because its the same culprits). His name is Emil Pagliarulo, the lead writer of Bethesda. He has proved several times to be an absolutely inept writer, but Bethesda for some reason just can't find anyone better. While the settings for the Bethesda games may not be completely irredeemable hogwash on their own, Emil has contradicted the fluff of previous Fallout games frequently and repeatedly, and otherwise writes shit that makes about as much sense as a Slaanesh-worshipping Eldar. For some baffling reason, he won the game developers choice award for the best writing for Fallout 3.

In addition to that, certain design choices made by Bethesda themselves end up clashing with the general setting (and its tone in particular). All the points of contention are listed below by game.

Fallout 1/2

Technically speaking, the Fallout bombs are implied to be hydrogen bombs (which are even mentioned in songs that play on the radio, so they did exist by this point). Unlike an atomic bomb (the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombs) which produces a large amount of nuclear fallout, a hydrogen bomb actually consumes most of its fallout in the explosion itself resulting in a much "cleaner" bomb with a MUCH larger explosion. Technically regardless of the invention of the hydrogen bomb both the US and Soviet Union still had a number of atomic bombs, and both China and the US deployed most of their arsenals, but the Fallout universe doesn't take place in the 1950's, it takes place in 2077 with 1950's/60's Sputnik culture meaning the arsenals would have been upgraded to mostly if not entirely hydrogen bombs by that point. As a result the Fallout world should actually have MUCH larger craters with relatively little radioactivity outside of the craters themselves.

Expanding on the above, both the Middle East and Europe nuked themselves to the stone age before China and the US did. Assuming that somehow both regions had atomic arsenals instead of hydrogen ones, then the fallout in Fallout would have affected the entire world long before 2077.

Fallout 3

The game is set 200 years after the Great War, but between the lack of rebuilding and the weird green filter used by the game, it looks more like the Great War ended 200 hours ago. Several locations also contain pre-war stashes of food that 'somehow never expired. Now in the games you can find some post pre-war food that survived via comedic levels of preservatives, but it is never actually FRESH; this approaches cooked turkey in an ancient castle wall level of ludicrousness.

An important plot point in the main storyline is the lack of water, the root of two particularly big issues. Apparently, other than the irradiated sea water, there is almost no water to be found in the Capital Wasteland - and yet, it still has a decent population despite this and without the importance in economy found in Fallout 1. Said population also seems to be unaware that that filtering water through earth removes almost all radioactive impurities.

In an interview, Emil Pagliarulo said that he wanted players to make tough decisions. There are no tough decisions in the main storyline and the few decisions in side quests aren't that tough either (except for two particular quests, which also stand out as the absolute worst fucking quests in the game). All the while the karma system in general seems to be a result of the industry's "follow the leader" approach to this system which results in most games boiling down into your character being a knight in shining armor or evil incarnate. The player can massacre everyone in a town to become very evil, and then donate money to the church and give water to hobos to raise karma back to very good. Need I remind you that Fallout 3 is supposed to be an RPG? While it is possible to maintain a neutral conduct in Fallout 3, the entire main questline revolves around delivering water and purifying what little remains. This means it's geared almost entirely towards good conduct (or at least a villain who really believes in their father's goals and can't really say 'no' to anyone, even if their life was depending on it), with literally just one moment where you could make an outright evil decision. Of course, that moment is at the questline's very end, meaning that anyone looking to play a dedicated evil character may just have to ignore the main questline altogether (of course you can nuke an entire town simply because you can, but wiping out a double-digit percentage of the population in the region doesn't seem to amount to much in such a crazy world).

- For some details on the aforementioned shitty quests, in the vanilla game, you have the Tenpenny Tower quest. To boil it down, an elitist group ranging from arrogant snobs to a cool old ex-adventurer live in a really nice "town" built out of a former luxury hotel. A band of ghouls wants to move in, but are being refused, partly on account of their race, partly on account of the inhabitants' not-unjustified fear that they're a bunch of murderous raiders who'll kill them all if they do open the doors. You can either kill the ghouls for the Tower's leader (Evil), kill the Tower's inhabitants for the ghouls (Good) or, and this is the really fucked up part; you can negotiate a peace treaty (Good)... after which the racist marauder prick who leads the ghouls kills all of the humans. That's it. You can't ever call him out, and if you kill him in return, you lose Karma and get the local DJ Three Dog calling you out as a bigoted scumbag on the radio all the time... whilst never once mentioning that the ghoul leader deserved what he got. So not only are you railroaded into good in the main storyline, you're railroaded into being a piece of shit in the side quests.
- Then there's the whole plotline of The Pitt, where the raiders and the slaves are fighting over a mysterious cure to a local mutation problem. Thing is, it turns out that the cure needs to be synthesized from the genetic material of the raider boss's infant daughter, who has a mutation that's protected her from transforming. You can either let the raider boss stay in power as he slowly works towards a cure without hurting his daughter and in the mean-time still uses slave labor to try and build the Pitt into a legitimate power base, or you can lead a slave rebellion that ends up with the raiders dead, the slave "scientist" (who is implied to have fuck-all in the way of necessary skills and equipment) trying to figure out what to do with the little girl and strongly implied to be perfectly happy with killing her in the process, and the knowledge that the slaves are basically all going to just mutate into more mindless mutant troglodytes anyway. Yay.

Rivet City is a grounded aircraft carrier converted into a town, which, cool as it is, begs the question of where they get their food from - Brahmin meat and farming are more or less the only viable forms of food in the wasteland, yet only a couple of Brahmin are seen in the entire game, which isn't anywhere near enough to sustain a community. And the farms? As for farming, Rivet City only has a tiny hyroponics bay, which should be no where near enough to support a settlement that size. Yet it's mentioned in the game that RC apparently has enough surplus to sell their clean vegetables to outside traders. If that wasn't enough, the bay itself was founded only 19 years prior to the time the game takes place with the settlement being 38 years old, witch begs the question: what the inhabitants were eating beforehand?

Bottlecaps were used in mid-22nd century California as a farmers money for the Hubs merchants, their value was based on the value of water, one bottlecap, one water bottle. By some amazing coincidence, the people on the east coast of US in late 23rd century are using the same currency as the one that was used in California over a century ago. While this was somewhat lampshaded in a New Vegas DLC with a joke about a pre-war scientist successfully predicting that bottlecaps were the most likely currency for the post-apocalyptic future, its still an oversight.

Jet (a drug that was developed by a child prodigy called Myron around the 2240s in New Reno, California) somehow made its way all the way to the Capital Wasteland, despite a) Caravans being the only viable mode of transportation and b) the Wasteland between two points being chock full of mutants, raiders and savage tribals, with frequent radioactive dust storms strong enough to skin people alive for additional charm. Again lampshaded later, some people in Mojave have been crossing across the US as traders, conquerors, and travelers.

The Brotherhood of Steel is another thing from California that made its way to the Capital Wasteland. Sure, they have their Power Armor so they are better equipped to deal with the dangers of the Wasteland than most are. But several of them somehow made their way to the Capital Wasteland, through the post-apocalyptic mideastern states. How much food and water does an expedition like that need? How long again does it take to walk across the United States? The questions Emil Pagliarulo seemed, eventually, to have asked himself by Fallout 4 with him retconning the Brotherhood's on-foot trip (and the entire plot of The Pitt with it, apparently) with Flight of the Vertibirds. Good job. If only he'd also be kind enough to ask himself where exactly the Brotherhood acquired those vertibirds, lacking a production base to make their own, even with the blueprints, since the only know place (that wasn't blown up, that is) they could was Navarro - if only it wasn't successfully sacked and looted by NCR prior to their war with Brotherhood; how did they manage to fuel those hypothetical Vertibirds without a functioning oil rig or Shi's know-how of an alternative fuel sources; why would the Brotherhood assume that the headquarters of the United States Department of Defence survived a nuclear war and would consider an occupation of its ruin a worthy goal to cross the entire United States of Wasteland; and finally - WHY IN OPPENHEIMER'S NAME IS THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE, A PRIME MILITARY TARGET, IS NOT A RADIOACTIVE CRATER AFTER A NUCLEAR WAR?!
- Oh, and apparently, despite the incredible dangers of both the road to and the Capital Wasteland itself, the mother of Arthur Maxson decided that it would be a good idea to send there her ~10 year old son, the last in line of almost religiously revered by the Brotherhood Maxsons, for tutoring under a known rogue that, by popular opinion among Brotherhood elders 'has gone native'. "Because he was developing a tendency for timidity."

The Enclave also made its way to the Capital Wasteland from California. They have Vertibirds so they had the means to fly to across the United States. But before this, they used to have their base on an oil rig not too far from the coast of California. Immediately after reaching the coast from the oil rig, they had to land on the Navarro air base for refuelling. Somehow, the Enclave still managed to fly to the Capital Wasteland, even though the distance between Navarro and D.C. is much, much longer than Navarro and the oil rig. Not to forget that Enclave was utterly destroyed at the end of Fallout 2 so there shouldn't be an Enclave to go to the east coast in the first place. While it is possible there's an Enclave-controlled area somewhere between, then just like with the Brotherhood there's a lore inconsistency.

FEV, the virus that turns people into Super Mutants (and Centaurs for the less fortunate), was originally created by West Tek who among other things also created the Power Armor. It was originally made as a vaccine for possible chemical weapons, was called Pan-Immunity Virion Project (PVP), and it was a top secret military project. When it was found out that test subject showed increased strength and intelligence, the military took over the project and moved it to Mariposa military base and renamed it Forced Evolutionary Virus. Once again, this project was top secret. Yet for some reason, it was given to Vault-Tec; this technically could have been because of the Enclave, but the unanswered question remains of why.

To make the water purifier work, the player needs to find a Garden of Eden Creation Kit (GECK) which can turn even the worst types of land into an ideal location for a settlement. Keep in mind that the residents of Vault 8 in California used a GECK to turn the area around Vault 8 into one of the best places to live in California, at least as long as you are citizen of Vault City. People in the Capital Wasteland seem to have been doing quite well without the water purifier so far so it makes perfect sense to waste the GECK into the purifier instead of using it to create food; then again as discussed above they're somehow also doing well without food, who who knows.

Noticing a theme of recycled story-elements from Fallout 1 and 2? Tim Cain, the creator of the original Fallout certainly did, calling it lazy, saying that if his studio at the time, Troika Games, would have acquired the license in the auction, he would have come up with something original. There's no word on his opinion of New Vegas though.

In Fallout 1, the Brotherhood of Steel were a bunch of xenophobes who sent anyone who wanted to join them to retrieve something from a high tech location called The Glow, which is actually the pre-war headquarters of West Tek and as the name suggest, is highly irradiated. While they certainly allowed them to join if they actually managed to find something, the purpose of it was really to send them to die an irradiated death and never come back. In Fallout 3, they instead became knights in shining armor helping everyone in the wasteland. Worst yet, plenty of people in the Fallout community are completely fine with this, thinking this is how Brotherhood should have always been and should always be. Now keep in mind this is NOT the same group, since these are the result of the Brotherhood Of Steel game storyline, but there's not even a hint at their former xenophobic ways even mentioned. (To be fair, there is another faction of the Bortherhood in this game, calling themeselves the Outcasts, that act much like the Brotherhood actually should and did in 1 and 2.)

Then there's the Mothership Zeta DLC, which divides the community somewhat. Aliens until then had been just an easter egg and some feel that's all they should have been. This DLC makes them canon. The Fallout series is all about mankind living and rebuilding after a great disaster they themselves caused. Aliens have no place in this. To make aliens more important in the fluff, Emil Pagliarulo wrote the following: the aliens had abducted a soldier who knew the nuclear launch codes, forced him to tell them the launch codes and used them to start the Great War. Not even motives are given for the aliens, nothing except that Aliens are evil because of course they are. It should be noted, however, that the soldier was being overly frantic and paranoid, with nothing suggesting that the aliens were actually looking for the launch codes. Furthermore, there's no indication that the aliens even used the codes, and Fallout has to date given no less than four different explanations on how the war started.

Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout 4

Emil Pagliarulo once again returned to write Fallout 4, this time retconning some the fluff he himself wrote.

Ah, October 23, 2077 - what a good day to be alive! Only it's not. United States, by that time, is a dystopian totalitarian military dictatorship, oil is almost up and introduction of fusion energy began less than a decade ago and progressing slowly due to various lobby interest groups in American government and overall rampant poverty, crops fail and hunger becomes a major problem for US, the outbreak of the most deadly plague in human history has ended only a couple of ears prior, a non-stop war rages with China for almost a decade now, all of the above and more leads to massive and brutal civil unrest among the populace of the States, including newly-annexed Mexico and Canada, leading the government to put martial law in effect to "keep the peace", mostly via scheduled summary executions of "dissidents", and then said government, seven month prior to the apocalypse, "retreats" to the last functioning oil rig in Pacific, effectively leaving the country to "run itself" by momentum, with all that entails... Not that any of it would stop a certain award-winning writer to paint a picture of "Pre-war Paradise", to contrast against it the post-apocalyptic future, even if said "paradise" could not possibly exist in-universe. Then again we only see a short amount of time in the prewar, in a small suburb through the perspective of a soldier back from active duty in Alaska and a lawyer.

Ever since the first game in the series, T-51b power armour has always been described as the most advanced power armour from the pre-war era. Well Emil Pagliarulo wanted to add a new Power Armor into the game so he came up with a T-60 Power Armor that just has to be pre-war. There's plenty of reasons for the existence of a T-60 without breaking the fluff, such as somehow making it so that the Brotherhood of Steel developed it, considering that they are the only faction that uses it anyway. Brotherhood of Steel being on the East Coast doesn't make sense in the first place but at least it doesn't break the fluff.

Power Armor manufacturing is beyond the technological reach of even the Brotherhood of Steel 200 years after the war, and it's nigh impossible to find outside of US military, from which the Brotherhood hails in the first place, yet the player character stumbles upon it within the first hour of the game in a fucking garage, and gets to keep it right off the bat. Given the high population of the Commonwealth, its absolutely shocking how much Power Armor in the game there is to be found; by the end of a thorough playthrough a player could have enough Power Armor to outfit an entire settlement, despite the fact that it was never produced in such quantities in the first place.

In Fallout 3, it was established that one needs Power Armor training in order to use the suit at all, the justification being that the user must learn how to control the servos (this wasn't a thing in games before 3, where player characters can use them with no training whatsoever, but whatever), this is kept in Fallout New Vegas with the NCR troopers carrying the Armor without the servos resulting in nothing more than literal heavy-ass armor. In Fallout 4 the player character can just hop into one no problem. This along isn't strange for a male character, who's backstory is military service, but the female character is a lawyer who was only married to the ex-soldier; unless he told her absolutely every detail of classified information gained during his service in letters (since he's only just returned home) then she shouldn't be able to use it. Going beyond that there is implications that military manuals and magazines provided a great deal of information to the American public (you can find magazines that tell all about use of laser weapons for example) just like real life 1950's America did, but Power Armor is relatively new while the actual basis for widespread knowledge of military gear was about World War 2 gear rather than what was being used in the Korean War at the time; so while it can be said that perhaps the 3 protagonist simply didn't have access to such reading material and the character in New Vegas was an illiterate son/daughter of tribals, in Fallout 4 everybody and their mums (and Raiders) use the servo part of the Armor, which is the very thing you need training for. God knows why Bethesda decided to retcon away a concept that they invented in the first place, particularly one so easy to handwave away.

Suits of Enclave Power Armour, now called XO-1 for some reason, can be found across the Commonwealth. Again, Enclave being on the east coast doesn't make sense in the first place but one thing that was always very clear is that Enclave was never in the Commonwealth. There are no signs of Enclave ever being there besides the Power Armour, nor does it make much sense anyway that they would leave behind a perfectly functioning Power Armor that's much more advanced than anything from the pre-war era. An explanation was given in the Nuka World DLC, which is that the US government had literally just created prototypes and had sent them to the Commonwealth for testing, including some which had been sent to competing soda pop companies Vim and Nuka Cola for promotional use; while a somewhat insane explanation, it does function as a joke about military endorsements and the pervasive Cold War era overreach of the military industrial complex. The actual issue is that the rest of the suits are said to have been actually built in the post-war by US military survivors.

In literally every previous Fallout game, you never had to recharge your Power Armours, ever, as the back-mounted TX-28 MicroFusion Pack, by design, packed enough juice for a few hundred years of active use. In Fallout 4? They last 30 minutes, even less if the player runs in it or uses VATS. How does the player acquire the "Fusion Cores" used to power them? By taking them from the power generators of buildings, that have supplied the building with power for the last 210 years. You can buy them from vendors charged, and have little else to use them for but selling once finished, so its possible that someone has found a lucrative way to refill them. Player mods allowing a resource-intensive (or not for cheaters unconcerned with balance) generator to recharge them came out not long after the game, but these aren't canon and despite Bethesda ~~stealing~~ making official many of the things found in the most popular mods for their Workshop DLCs the recharging Power Cores wasn't among them (possible for balance).

The player might run into a fridge and hear a kid called Billy screaming from inside to let him out. Turns out, Billy is a Ghoul, which has somehow allowed him to live inside a fridge for 210 years. Its true that Ghouls have longer lifespans than humans but only as long as their basic needs are met. This means that they need food, water and this little thing you may have heard about, called AIR. Ever wonder why fridges today can be opened from inside? That's because back when they couldn't, kids used to lock themselves inside and suffocated. You know how much Bethesda cares? This wouldn't be so bad if Fallout 4 had a Wild Wasteland feature, a Trait you picked in previous games to make non-canon joke things (like dogs playing poker, or Holy Hand Grenades) appear, but it doesn't and is in the main game.

A crashed alien UFO can be found, and the player can follow drips of blood to a cave where the alien opens fire on you; after killing him you can take his laser gun and have a limited amount of ammo to use to disintegrate things with. While technically Mothership Zeta already made aliens canon, its still the kind of thing that really should only appear in a Wild Wasteland game.

As previously mentioned, it didn't make much sense for Jet to find its way to the east coast in the first place and was even found in sealed pre-war areas (though this could be attributed to unintended results from random generation). You know what couldn't? Its mentioned in a pre-war terminal that Jet has been transferred to Vault 95, a Vault where every dweller is a drug addict. Now it should be stated that the reason the fantastic drugs exist in Fallout is because they were literally unable to release the game worldwide unless they changed the original intended use of morphine to Stim, cocaine to Jet, and so on, but Jet actually has an origin in the Fallout universe. Its a bit of a stretch, but technically plausible, that Jet did exist prior to Fallout 1 and that the creation of it using Brahmin shit is new...but unless they use that as a lampshade hanging later in Fallout 5 or some New Vegas-like game using the same engine, its a retcon. Also, see above for Bethesda's response to this tiny issue.

Institute are said to be the greatest minds of the Wasteland, their motto being "Mankind, Redefined". Their way to redefine mankind is to make synths that are better than Humans in pretty much every way that also look just like humans, which they use to replace real humans with their synthetic copies. How does this redefine mankind as much as it replaces it with machines? The Institute also had a fairly successful cyborg program that made people stronger, smarter and gave them a greatly increased lifespan. That sounds like actually redefining mankind. Institute cancelled it.
- When the Obsidian writing team was working on New Vegas, they actually regretted making Caesar's Legion as villainous as they did given how there's almost no reward for the difficulty it puts on the player and very little redeeming about them as a faction. The Institute is in a similar boat in Fallout 4, being basically the Enclave from Fallout 2. They are an enemy of everyone on the surface, who they see as being a corrupted form of humanity and from the start of contact with the rest of the human race again they actively sabotaged their every attempt to organize, although, unlike the Enclave, for some reason didn't try and wipe them out entirely (most likely because gameplay-wise that would be very difficult to achieve and allow the player to keep playing). They also show as much contempt for the pre-war humans, killing the last group of survivors left other than a single child and a backup to use as a template for a new experiment. So as a result joining them puts the entire rest of the planet on your kill list as you hide away and work towards a poorly defined goal for your xenophobic underground race...making a faction you can join that is might actually be worse than both the Enclave and Caesar's Legion together (although admittedly you're more rewarded gameplay-wise than you were with the Legion).

As if it wasn't enough that Vault-Tec had access to FEV before the war, now the Institute has access to it as well. The Institute, which back before the war was still the Commonwealth/Massachusetts Institute of Technology we actually have in real life, yet for some baffling reason, even they were given access to a top secret military project. I guess it just ain't Fallout to Emil Pagliarulo without super mutants. Yet when the FEV experiments didn't turn out as they hoped, they decided to let these very aggressive and hostile super mutants roam free in the Wasteland. Despite the fact that as stupid as most of them are, they might know about their secret facility or they might destroy things in the Commonwealth that Institute wants to save. Keep in mind that Institute are supposed to be the "greatest minds of the Wasteland". The only logical explanation is their aforementioned hatred of the rest of the human race and their desire to prevent a eastern NCR-like group from ever forming, as well as the fact that the Super Mutants have no real way of creating more of themselves and are about as dismissed as being as meaningful as letting loose a bunch of starved dogs into an enemy country.

The Institutes leader is slowly dying from cancer and even with all of Institutes advanced technology, there is nothing that could be done. Except that they had FEV (yes, they shouldn't have but they have so bear with me) and Super Mutants are immune to cancer and as can be found out in Fallout 1, it is possible to reverse the effects of FEV if you have subjects DNA from the time when they were still human. You may die in process, but hey, it's still better than "you WILL die from cancer". The recurring theme unfortunately of most Institute plot holes is that the Institute is full of racist morons, and that once you've gone Super Mutant you're tainted forever in their eyes.

In the beginning of the game, the player character will witness a nuclear detonation not too far from where they are standing. At this distance, anyone who sees the explosion should be blind because a detonating nuke creates an extremely bright light. Another thing is that the Institute wanted Shaun, the players son because he is pure, not affected by radiation. A moment a nuclear weapon detonates, it sends around a wave of radiation that travels at the speed of light. This means that Shaun was very much affected by radiation, just not a lifetime of it. Sure it could actually be possible that this is the reason for Shaun's cancer (meaning guess what's in your future!) but you would think that Institute would have found out that he is not pure. Also, it may be doubtful that Emil Pagliarulo actually thought about it this much. We have already given the series continuity more thought than he did when he was writing it.

It was made clear in the previous games that the hardware of robots is incapable of developing true artificial intelligence or self-awareness, be it by accident or design. The only machines that could were massive ZAX supercomputers. Even Robert House's "robo-girls" neuro-computational matrices are merely copies, incapable of venturing from their extremely sophisticated, but still limited, programming. And yet in Fallout 4, pretty much every robot seems to be self-aware from domestic robots to Synths. This wasn't originally much of an issue given that Curie was highly modified by some of the top minds in the world, and that the Institute Synths are the product of 200 years worth of additional research by other great minds, but then the Automotron DLC was released and...yeah, robots have AI now. In a universe that never invented transistors. Then Far Harbor happened too. While there's plenty of ways to attempt to handwave this, one of the more popular being that the works of the Fallout 3 Mechanist character resulted in some expansive work into the field of robotics, its too big a band-aid to cover plausibly.

Vertibirds are seen flying around shortly before the Great War. It was stated in previous games that Vertibird was only a prototype before the war. The Commonwealth seems to just have been full of prototypes of everything it seems despite the real life area not exactly being a hotbed of military testing (which largely happens in California and other western states, or island bases in the Pacific).

It is said that Brotherhood of Steel gained access to Enclave's Vertibird fleet after the latter's defeat. These Vertibirds look completely different from the ones the Enclave was seen using in Fallout 3. It is also unknown how do they even fly, considering that Brotherhood has no access to fuel unless they have some kind of reactor that they also are using to charge their Power Cores...but during the game you're involved in taking a powerful reactor component which then gets immediately used to resurrect Liberty Prime rather than used for fuel, so who knows.

The Brotherhood of Steel has built themselves a Zeppelin called Prydwen and the game makes it very clear that it uses hydrogen instead of helium. Well, that's it. They build a fucking flying Vertibird carrier in post-apocalyptic US. Only one generation has happened between the Fallout 3 Brotherhood and the Fallout 4 Brotherhood, basically Maxsons's entire life.

If the player sides with the Brotherhood of Steel, they will destroy the Institute. Keep in mind, that Maxson supposedly has returned to the Brotherhood's original mission to preserve technology, as opposed to Lyon's "white-knighting", and Institute is the most advanced location in the Wasteland. No one in the Brotherhood seems to disagree with Elder Maxson that Institute shouldn't be destroyed but preserved instead. In the Brotherhood, destroying the most advanced location on the Wasteland without looting it first would be the worst type of Heresy and Elder Maxson should be BLAMMED. To be fair the Brotherhood is very much portrayed as being even more zealous ~~with robotic adherence to the chain of command than was already ridiculously high in other Fallout games~~ scratch that - Maxson routinely breaks "The Chain That Binds" and demands loyalty to him personally (smth that western Brotherhood finds unacceptable), but its still a stretch to not have ANY dissent in the ranks.

On the Tabletop

Fallout: The Board Game

This article is a stub. You can help 1d4chan by expanding it

A 1-4 player game produced by Fantasy Flight Games.

RPGs

There are a few systems for Nuka-Cola addicts to get their fill on the tabletop. The first is Exodus, licensed under the d20 System, which was originally going to be an official Fallout RPG until ~~the license-holders saw how shitty the final product was~~ copyright disputes with Bethesda and Interplay prompted the publishers to file off the serial numbers and call it a "spiritual successor". It departs heavily from the canonical setting, and is mechanically weak, but a flexible GM will find it otherwise serviceable.

For purists, there is also J.E. Sawyer's Fallout Role-Playing Game, an original system that uses d100 rules, much like Dark Heresy only a thousand times more complicated. It is still in development and will probably never be finished, but all material can be found for free on its official wiki.

Originally, Fallout was going to be mechanically based on GURPS but due to Steve Jackson's signature controlling nature (the GURPS licence was pulled because SJ didn't like the vault boy icons) the GURPS licence was dropped and the series went with the SPECIAL system that is in use today. GURPS fans have created a Fallout suppliment that can be found here.

In addition, some cool anons have created a scenario book for Fallout that focuses on the Louisiana wastes. Check it out here. It's pretty good.

What appears to be the first official tabletop adaptation comes from Modiphius Entertainment in 2017: Fallout: Wasteland Warfare.

A new homebrew tabletop RPG based on Fallout, called Fallout d40, was released on the internet on Oct. 23rd, 2017, 60 years prior to the bombs dropping. It aims to give people a true Fallout tabletop RPG experience. The website for it is: https://falloutd40.wixsite.com/mainpage

Gallery

A Vault Girl pinup, wearing common Vault Tec clothing
A naive young girl from California with stars in her eyes and a pneumatic gauntlet on her hand. And an Enclave eyebot.
A common Mr Handy domestic robot
T-45 version of Power Armour
X-01 version of Power Armour
Power Armour modified by raiders

@@ Line 222: / Line 222: @@
 ** '''John Henry Eden''' ''"God Bless you, America, and God bless the Enclave"'': Richardson's successor in the Capital Wasteland. Same plan. Voiced by Malcolm McDowell. Broadcast his speeches throughout the Capital Wasteland over the radio and via roaming eyebots. Turns out he's actually a ZAX supercomputer that gained sapience, so the Lone Wanderer can logic bomb him in their encounter.
 ** '''Caesar''' ''"I was taught it was my responsibility to bring the torch of knowledge to the wastes. What a waste of fucking time!"'': Formerly a Follower of the Apocalypse known as Edward Sallow, Caesar drew on his somewhat limited knowledge of the [[Roman Empire]] to unite a number of tribes by force. Seeing his work, he kept on conquering until he had assimilated eighty-six tribes with former Mormon missionary Joshua Graham as his legate. When the NCR pushed them out of the Mojave at the Battle of Hoover Dam, Caesar had Graham executed (it didn't stick) and promoted Lanius to his position.
+** '''Elijah''' ''"I'll kill them until it's only me, me alone in a quiet world."'' An old and insane Brotherhood Elder gone roughe Eligah fled to the Seirra Madre resort and casino to steal technology that will allow him to take over the Mojave. He is a control freak that wants everyone to obey and to force compliance he's put an explosive collar around your neck. Since he's too old to face the horrors of the Seirra Madre alone he's enslaved you and a number of others to work for him.
 ** '''The Think Tank''' ''"FWOOSH! THAT IS THE SOUND OF FLUSHING!"'': The Old World scientists in charge of Big MT. Or rather what's left of them, given that they're all little more than brains in a jar at this point. And batshit insane.
 ** '''Ulysses''' ''"This isn't your road. When you come, you'll walk it alone."'': An intelligent if rather sociopathic loner formerly part of Caesar's Legion. Wearing the Old World American flag on his back he managed to set up a community in an intact US military town and would have been content until the Courier brought a package one day that accidentally triggered the nuclear warheads right under said community. Fueled with vengeance, he's been a major figure behind the scenes in screwing over the Courier and unless he's stopped would launch the remaining nukes over either the NCR, the Legion's homeland or both to "begin again."

Fallout: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:25, 20 March 2018

Contents

Plot and Setting

Fallout 1

Fallout 2

Fallout Tactics

Fallout: Brotherhood Of Steel

Fallout 3

Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout 4