Fallout Equetria PNP

[Kashin]

Borny Nerd mode Engage! Come Mighty Marshmallow Pony, The Sleeping Bag Spelunker, my faithful creation! We must dig up our many RPG books (D&D 1, D&D 2.5, D&D 3.5, D&D 4, Pathfinder, D20 Modern, World of Darkness, Exalted, Dark Heresy, Rouge Trader, Deathwatch, Song of Ice and Fire RPG, Serenity RPG, Gangbusters, Lord of The Rings RPG, Twilight 2000... Sweet Celestia, should I seek help?) and assist!

[Arcane_Scroll]

I think option 1 fits the show better myself. And welcome aboard Kkat!

[Imperiumofman]

I think option 1 fits the show better myself. And welcome aboard Kkat!

Wait, do you mean kkat Khat has joined us?

[Kitnoka]

Input from The Author? Hang on, need to write this down somewhere.

I lean towards Option 1 as well. That is an elegant way of allowing magic users and aerialists without making unicorns and pegasi awesome simply by existing. There is also some self balancing in there as perks sunk into flight and magic abilities would be available for, say, gun play perks. Unicorns already have a slight as gunners edge since I do not recall any other ponies being able to use shotguns or rifles with their teeth while unicorn telekinesis wields them just fine. Correct me if I am wrong on that, I am working from memory with 45 chapters of material.

I will also agree with Kattlarv, It is easier to work from the Fallout and Fallout 2 engine for a table top game. I remember seeing a designer note for the original game was supposed to act like pen and paper rules with the computer handling the dice. Fallout 3 and New Vegas... I don't think we can say the same.

Kattlarv? May if I ask what concerns you see in using the d20 system? I saw your work on the Fallout Equestria wiki a while ago and I would love to compare notes. A big part of the reason I used d20 as a base is because in many ways it is a d100 system with simpler math. Going over your work shows how much math goes on under the hood in SPECIAL. That's great when a computer handles the load but doing it by hand may bog down a table top session.

The other benefit I have found is that there are enough d20 games out there that it is not hard to find guidelines for things Fallout does not cover. The Force rules from the Saga edition of Star Wars work in a manner very similar to how Kkat described her version of unicorn magic. The Black Book? The Call of Cthulhu rules can help with that.

[Kkat]

Of course, I personally would craft a game system using the F3/FNV mechanics. Most of the work is already done (although I'm not sure how to calculate certain combat percentages). And more importantly, the system feels uniquely Fallout. I think that it would be crucial for a Fallout Equestria game to mechanically feel like you're playing a Fallout game.

The truest test of a system, of course, is whether you can faithfully recreate your favorite characters in the system. Of course, this is easily the case where Littlepip and friends are concerned. After all, I even have Littlepip's character sheet, developed over the course of the first 29 chapters. But there is also the question of whether you could create the Mane Six. And if they would all be of similar level.

Creation of perks and perk trees would be critical to forging a set of game mechanics that could do this. For instance, I imagine a Earth pony only racial perk "Magical Pony" which allows the pony to possess more extrovert inherent magical abilities, possibly randomly generated or worked out in advance between player and GM. Take enough perks in this perk tree and your Earth pony could be on par with Pinkie Pie.

[Kattlarv]

Well, I sadly never played 3 or NV, since my computer has way to good processor to even bother with such pitiful standards xD
But yeah, 1, 2 and tactics is what I know. As goes for hit chance, I think the current system is quite good. Ex: 67 gun skill, +20 for point blank. remove their ac from that score (67+20-34=54) roll d100+d20, get 21 and 15, hit, and in the torso.

As what goes for d20. The suggestion I got was "use skill rank, and add a d20. But that would more often just lead to a "yes or no" situation in most of the times. Like, I got 60 thowing, he got 10 ac, I hit automatically as I can't roll a miss. Thus, I always hit, or cannot hit, ever. Like, with 0 gun skill, you can impossibly hit something ex: 10 meters away from you as your skill can never get high enough if they're wearing at least 20 worth of ac. Or a worse example: Fire a minigun at a mob in front of you. And sorry, you skill is to low, you didn't hit a single pony. (I can see it as flailing and falling over, but every. single. time? Most protagonists in FoE stories have had blind luck at times.

So, compared to a d100, I've played ~2 games with similar systems (I used a game called Mutant for advice) and it works rather well tbh. Just compare bonus vs penalty, apply to your stat, and roll. And while a d20 would be simpler by only using 5 %, it would hinder a bit of things. Althou, I am using the d20 in this system for quite a few tasks.

Anyhow, I'm progressing way to slowly for my own taste. But at least traits are done now. I think. I both feel so bad and laughed so hard on the immature joke a friend of mine tossed in with the traits however xP But in either way, please feel free to improve something or suggested skills that might be missing or so. And if it wouldn't be to much to ask, please try to always include a argument or opinion on how or why x is bad. It'd be helpful to balance out for my inferiority complex. (not sure if it's of any use to know about that thou)

[Kitnoka]

No disagreements there. Feel is important, especially for a world this atmospheric. The ability to “faithfully recreate your favorite characters” is a good goal to aim for. Besides, you have given us over 30 perks for Fallout: Equestria and many more pop up in the side stories. It would be a shame not to use them.

The problem that comes up with converting a computer game to a pen and paper game is that most computer RPGs would make very restrictive rule sets. I mentioned the lack of an ability to climb in Fallout and for a game that emphasizes exploration that is a major deficiency. Fortunately this one is an easy fix but little like these pop up all the time. Some perks also do not transfer well. One that sticks in my mind is Light Step. The ability to avoid traps is way too good. It takes options away from the gamemaster for challenging players. Combined with a good Explosives skill it also changes traps from dangers into free loot. Great for the players, a pain for the gamemaster.

My notes to date are in the URL below. It is definitely a work in progress and there are plenty of bits not yet on paper. Anyone with questions or confusions let me know way and I will provide clarification.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17su ... n_US&pli=1

Kattarv: I have not heard of Mutant before. Who publishes that?

Yes/No situations are certainly a concern and I have been trying to iron out such glitches as I find them. Fortunately the system has features to address such cases. Things like minigun attacks do not go totally into the ether on a bad roll. The rules also work on a “20 always works, 1 always fail” principle so that grenade attack will still have a 5% miss chance. By happy coincidence this is similar to how the old Fallout limited the hit chance to 95%. There is a surprising amount of overlap between the two systems.

I’ll take some time to go over your work this weekend. I may be able to find some helpful thoughts.

[Kattlarv]

I'm trying to include as many perks as possible from both the games and the fics, some might need to be balanced however. And I am aiming for creating so you'll be able to re-create your favourite character. A current ponder for Telekinesis is for the starting tk to be ~5-10 kg so you can at least carry the basic weapons with it. Then for each rank of tk, maybe count as +2 str for your tk. Was an example I was suggested by one. So for each rank, you could carry 50 ibs more. And maybe after ex, every 3'rd rank the "+2" would increase an additional "+1" so at 3 it would be +3 and at 6 +4. Not sure how many ranks in it there should be thou, nor how strong of increase it needs. Since it should be a few of them, but still not to many.

Anyhow, like mentioned with clim, that could be a Str+Agi check or something. As for light step, changing it to like 50 % chance to not trigger mines would be more balanced in that case. But like said, traps are a double edged sword. Sure, they are worthy to collect, but failing to disarm would leave your character more torn open then if 30 raiders would have had a go with them... possibly, depending on trap and armour+defence. And for that matter, the "Crazy Bomber" perk would also need to be re-done, to instead, possibly allow a re-roll or a 50 % chance to not be blown.

And I will look through them (with great vengeance) and say what I think of them in a while. Gotta do some irl stuff at first.
Regarding Mutant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutant_%28 ... ng_game%29 covers most of it, or well. The basics. Allot of really great Swedish RPG's (and also mainly swedish rpg's) follow the "logical, progressive" way of gaming. Your character has this or that, and doesn't gain levels nor are able to take 2 more shots to their face every time they progress a "level"/adventure. Eon is the mother of all RPG's in this matter, or well, when it comes to freedom, realism and whatnot. It just takes FOREVER to do stuff almost haha. In Eon, if you have 9 Str and want more, you exercise ~40 hours, then you get to roll against Str, if you roll above it, you get to increase it. If you flail a sword around, you eventually get to raise your sword skill.

Unlike ex: D&D in which you can spend 2 weeks drinking beer in a tavern (or stabbing goblins), and thus, gain a level in monk/wizard/paladin, learn how to do blacksmithing as well as how a heavy repeating crossbow works. Despite never even coming close to these things. Or to make a example closer to fallout: I shoot 100 raiders in the head. Now I know more about traps, science and how to pick locks. Also, I gained the perk: Bonus HtH damage. But as said, don't worry. I will have that in the "alternative" system I'll create once done with the first one.

As what goes for d20, the 5 % and whatnot, I made a similar system here. 1-5 is always (if possible) hit, 96-100 is always miss. And a second roll to "confirm" a critical or fumble can be made. If critical, does more damage or succeeds more flawlessly (ex: if using barter, get it cheaper, and maybe a free sarsaparilla or something). If it fails, then it's just a hit. If fumble, attack or skill fails, if it fails, then you botch it (ex, shoot/cut yourself as you trip or accidentally cut an artery or etc if using doctor, or ruin components if using repair)

Hope I made sense with all of that. Gonna try to finish the skills today.

[Kitnoka]

Thanks for the link. d20 is my usual group’s preferred system so my experience with other rules is... can I save face by merely saying “limited?”
Out of curiosity, are you aware of fallout.wikia.com? Just about every skill, perk and item from Fallout through New Vegas is on the site. It is a fantastic reference for this sort of thing.

The Climb and Light Step things are easy fixes but I like using them as examples for the weird things that happen in computer games that feel weirder around a table or over Skype. I have tried turning computer games into pen and paper before. Funnily enough it was another Tim Cain project. Anyone here play Arcanum? My first draft was an unplayable mess because these sort of problems. I find it a good starting point to bring up such glitches to potential players and get a sense of the kinds of changes from the source material they would be okay with.

I am still putting together a detailed commentary for your rules but I can say they look solid. Most of my thoughts so far are not “will this make a good game?” but “will this make a good Fallout game?”
For example, using “logical, progressive” advancement instead of “kill raiders, learn science” advancement. I am with you, I would love to play more games with that kind of progression. It is great for building a world that feels real and less artificial. It would be a good game, no question. Where I see a possible issue is that Fallout is precisely a kill stuff, get a level, put skill points anywhere kind of game. That maybe the experience players are looking for. Putting skill points into Energy Weapons when you have never seen a laser is not the most realistic thing ever, but you can do that in Fallout. Taking the option away may detract from the “Fallout feel” that I am hearing maybe important. Of course it is hard to tell if this is a problem as we are lacking players to get opinions from.

Hint-hint to the readers of this thread. What do you want out of a FO:E pen and paper game?

[Kkat]

The problem that comes up with converting a computer game to a pen and paper game is that most computer RPGs would make very restrictive rule sets. I mentioned the lack of an ability to climb in Fallout and for a game that emphasizes exploration that is a major deficiency. Fortunately this one is an easy fix but little like these pop up all the time. Some perks also do not transfer well. One that sticks in my mind is Light Step. The ability to avoid traps is way too good. It takes options away from the gamemaster for challenging players. Combined with a good Explosives skill it also changes traps from dangers into free loot. Great for the players, a pain for the gamemaster.

Actually, I think this illustrates good reasons to stay with the Fallout mechanics and tweak or adjust them as necessary. First, let's take Light Step. There's nothing inherently wrong with abilities that limit a gamemaster's options. That's what a lot of abilities are actually there for. (And let's face it, how limiting is a feat like Light Step compared to the existence of pegasi as a PC race? When a GM could face a party made up completely of pegasi, complaining that a party member might have Light Step seems silly.)

That said, Light Step was one of the perks I would never take in the Fallout games because it is one of the perks that just seems designed to make the game less fun and challenging for the player. In Fallout: Equestria, Light Step has been replaced by Light Trot. By tying the ability into levitation, I have changed it from a passive.ability to an active one. Littlepip might have Light Trot, but that doesn't do her any good if she's not levitating. And as self-levitation is one of the most strenuous of telekinetic acts, she can't be levitating all the time. A character with Light Trot needs to anticipate or otherwise be aware of the danger in order to bypass it. Or just be phenominally lucky enough to have been levitating at the right time. And frankly, if I was a GM throwing players into a situation like Minefield, I would prefer somepony have Light Trot to the utter, mind-numbing tedium of "roll" playing their approach to each mine they try to collect.

Climb is another great example of why I would be hesitant to jump to a different system. The skills in Fallout are the most basic and most necessary for the setting. When jumping to another system, it would be tempting to adopt the skills list of that system by default, and that would likely give you a game with things like the climb skill. If you stick with the Fallout mechanic and modify form there, at least you are likely to critically examine each new skill that you are tempted to add. Does the Fallout computer game need a climb skill? No. You either can climb something or you can't. Does My Little Pony need a climb skill? No. Pegasi aside, look at the characters walking up the mountain cliff in Dragonshy. Climb skill is simply not a factor in MLP any more than it is in Fallout... and thus it really shouldn't exist as a skill in a Fallout: Equestria game. What's worse, adding Climb would effectively be adding a skill that Earth ponies would need to sink points into in order to just keep up with the other members of the party, and that sort of racial nerfing would actually be detrimental in a Fallout: Equestria.game.