FO: NV Into the Abyss

War. War never changes.

When the Courier rose from the grave, she had no plan. No elaborate scheme, or vision for the Mojave. She had one, simple desire that drove her, one that had driven countless men before her to violence. The Courier, with a fury and hate that the world hadn't seen since it was first bathed in the blinding light of nuclear war so long ago, took to the Mojave like a wrecking ball after the man who'd try to send her to an early grave. No man, woman, or child was allowed to stand in her way. Without any care or consideration for the bridges she had to cross along the way, the Courier blasted her way to the strip and stumbled into the counsel of the enigmatic Mr. House, but even the cold calculating ruler of the New Vegas strip was unable to tame the raw, avatar of destruction that'd been unleashed on the Mojave.

Benny's blood was still warm when the Courier emerged from the recesses of the Top's Casino with a new victim in mind. With nothing other than the possibilities of personal power swimming through her head, the Courier killed Mr. House, and with Benny's hacked Securitron, Yes man, at her side, the Courier undertook her own bid for power in the Mojave wasteland. Although a sea of burning bridges raged behind the Courier, the Courier managed to rally enough of the locals under her banner that she was able to assert his dominance over the region at Hoover Dam, taking Mr. House's place as the feared New Vegas overlord, and beginning her new despotic rule over the Strip with an iron fist.

The Mojave is still reeling from the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. Although the fighting between the brutal war between the NCR and Legion ceased when the two factions were expelled from the Mojave, blood still gushes through the cracks of Mojave society. Anarchy has reigned ever since the Courier's blind bid for control of the Mojave and now more than ever, the Wasteland is being sucked into a crimson abyss by the vacuum of power left by the defeated powers. Although some, such as the King, had wanted to to see the Mojave independent and free, none had envisioned the Courier's New Vegas when they talked of an independent Mojave.

Now, only four months after January 17th, 2282, the Courier's short sightedness has returned, and war again looms on the horizon. Those who had formerly rallied beneath the Courier's banner, have begun to fracture, and sew their own flags. In the shadows, the NCR and Legion still slither, biding their time, licking their wounds, and preparing for another push into the Mojave. Locals and foreigners alike sense weakness in the Mojave, and like sharks, they've begun to swarm the Mojave, eagerly seeking out their own fortunes, like the Courier had mere months ago when she entered the Lucky 38 and assumed the throne of Mr. House.

Starter character types
Every player will be required to choose one of the following list of starter player character (PC) types. Your starter player character type will effect a number of things, such as your capabilities, logistics, and connections. Some character types will be stronger than others in a fight, while others will allow you to have better equipment in the beginning, and others will impact your interactions with NPCs for better or worst. As the game goes on, you will acquire additional perks and traits, whether by choice, or as determined by fate based on what you've done, and who you've allied yourself with. Most of the character types won't have a cap for the amount of players starting with them.

• Mercenary. Made Man You've paid your dues and now you want your money's worth. After a seasoned career as a Mercenary, working for one company or another, you've finally decided the time had come for you to strike out on your own and try to make your own mercenary dynasty. You might not be a washed up soldier, but you know how to fight, and you know how to fight well enough the other mercenaries of the Wasteland respect you. Veteran mercenaries will be willing to work with you sooner than other character types and at cheaper prices due to the connections you've made over the years.

• Caravaneer. The Midas touch. You've got "it". After years of cut-throat negotiations and voracious bartering you've honed your skills and fortune to a Rockefeller-esque peak. No other starter character can hold a candle to your wolfish trade instincts nor your powerful purse strings. Of all the starter characters, you handle situations requiring guile and diplomacy the best, and have bonus starting funds.

• Former NCR soldier. Veteran's benefits. It's been a tough few months since the Battle of Hoover Dam for the NCR's Mojave veterans. Still, opportunity abounds, and you're set to seize that opportunity. You've made more than a few friends in your time, and so you start with some of the best weapons and men of all the character types. Unfortunately though, war has taken it's toll. While you and your fellow NCR veterans are some of the best trained when it comes to fighting, the NCR's defeat at the Dam has sewed bitterness and discontent among the ranks of active duty and retired soldiers alike. Keeping up morale is as much a battle as the firefights, and unless you manage to give your men a sense of purpose, you'll be hard pressed to keep them motivated to stay with you.

• Former legion soldier. Alea iacta est. While the NCR broods and stews over it's loss of the Dam, you've taken Caesar's words to heart. There is no going back now. You and other Legion veterans, along with Legion sympathizers, are determined to continue to do your part for the Legion even now, months after the Legion has retreated back across the river. What your men lack in tactical innovation, they make up for in morale, stamina, and sheer tenacity. With you leading from the front, your men will rarely break, and with veteran legionnaires at your back, your disciplined band of warriors will make the enemy quake in fear.

• Prospector. Atomic cowboy. Some hid from the apocalypse. Some embraced it. Some, like you, donned a cowboy hat, jumped on it's back, and rode it like a bull for most of your life. For weeks at a time you ventured out into the radioactive sands of the Mojave in search of treasure, and so you're no stranger to the dangers of the Wasteland or the intricacies of an Old World security system. Your survival skills are unmatched, your lock-picking skills are impeccable, and you're not half bad with a wrench. You're a practical man; you might not have three dog's voice, or Frank Horrigan's trigger finger, but you know how to survive tough times.

• Supermutant. Mean and green. You were one of the lucky ones. While you're no Einstein, as a first generation mutant, you're smarter than most mutants, while being one of the toughest sumbitches to ever grace the Mojave. Since you're... humanity challenged, you'll be faced with a great deal of intolerance from the humans of the Mojave, but you're acceptance by the local supermutant population help compensates for this. You, and you alone, will start with access to mutant hirelings, and be able to use low quality heavy weapons from the beginning. You might not be able to crack a safe or craft stimpacks, but if there's something you can do really, really well, it's smash things.

• Brotherhood of Steel scoundrel. Prodigal son. Elder McNamara might be open minded, but he is no saint. Your constant questions and free-thinking has forced the Elder to isolate you from the rest of the Mojave BoS chapter like he did Veronica Santangelo before you. While officially, you're gathering intelligence for the Chapter and keeping an eye on the Chapter's "ally", the Courier, unofficially, you've been exiled to help defuse tensions in the bunker. As such, you are uniquely free yet not free at the same time. While you can visit, you're not welcome to stay in the bunker, and while you're not welcome to stay in the bunker, trying to leave the Chapter would be... complicated, at best. Your funds and connections on the surface are limited, but your skillset is priceless. You know how to use power armor and are innately familiar with energy weapons, unlike the vast majority of the outsiders. You're as intelligence as any pre-war scientist, and would give any soldier a run for their money in a fight. Still, outmanned and possibly outgunned, you're search for purpose on the surface is a tenuous one.

• Vault Dweller. The Iron Sanctum. A former denizen of Vault 26, you grew up living and working with machines on a daily basis. Your Vault was originally designed as an experiment to test human tolerance of supercomputer superiors, which ended when excessive human liquidations "for the good of the vault" led to a human revolt against the vault's AI overseer. Although the vault was so damaged in the ensuing civil war that it had to be opened, as a former inhabitant of Vault 26, you have access to the remaining robots in Vault 26 and know you can always find a place to rest there. You're also familiar enough with scientific and engineering subjects you might be able to get a running start on research with Vault 26's surplus science facilities.... NOTE: This character type has been capped.

Sign ups open
At the moment, I'm still finishing some of the mechanics for the game, but it's about ready to go. I thought I'd post up the first part here as a feeler and see who's interested. I'm capping the game at 10 players currently, including the 5 reserved spots for players who've signed up already. If you're interested, could you please post your interest here, along with your preferred starter character type, a name, and some brief information regarding your character's such as goals or alignments? When everything's ready to go, we'll finalize things like hiring mooks, choosing starting points and skills, and buying equipment.

Example
Name:
Character start type:
Character motivations:

Player 1: (BoS Scoundrel)
Player 2: MightyDwarf (Mercenary)
Player 3: Asmo (Caravaneer)
Player 4: Gray Area (Vault Dweller)
Player 5: Happerry (Vault Dweller)
Player 6: Usandru (BoS Scoundrel)
Player 7: Aceraptor (NCR)
Player 8: Hyperion (Legion)
Player 9: Necron lord (supermutant)
Player 10: Duzzit (NCR)
Player 11: Lone fury (NCR)

New Vegas inventories.
New Vegas IC.

It's finaly here.

Okay, never got around to actually playing New Vegas but I'm very interested, just give me a little bit to choose a character type.

Character Name: William 'Bill' Smitts

Character Type: Prospector. Nuclear cowboy. Some hid from the apocalypse. Some embraced it. Some, like you, donned a cowboy hat, jumped on it's back, and rode it like a bull for most of your life. For weeks at a time you ventured out into the radioactive sands of the Mojave in search of treasure, and so you're no stranger to the dangers of the Wasteland or the intricacies of an Old World security system. Your survival skills are unmatched, your lock-picking skills are impeccable, and you're not half bad with a wrench. You're a practical man; you might not have three dog's voice, or Frank Horrigan's trigger finger, but you know how to survive tough times.

Character Motivations: Born in a small Settlement and trying to get enough money and supplies to keep it going on the side but mainly wandering and finding relics of the time before the holocaust because it's something he loves to do. Willing to help people in need but won't go out of his way to find those people.

I'm interested in this but pretty sleepy so at best I'll have profile tomorrow.

Name: Jack Smith
Character start type: Brotherhood of Steel scoundrel. Prodigal son. Elder McNamara might be open minded, but he is no saint. Your constant questions and free-thinking has forced the Elder to isolate you from the rest of the Mojave BoS chapter like he did Veronica Santangelo before you. While officially, you're gathering intelligence for the Chapter and keeping an eye on the Chapter's "ally", the Courier, unofficially, you've been exiled to help defuse tensions in the bunker. As such, you are uniquely free yet not free at the same time. While you can visit, you're not welcome to stay in the bunker, and while you're not welcome to stay in the bunker, trying to leave the Chapter would be... complicated, at best. Your funds and connections on the surface are limited, but your skillset is priceless. You know how to use power armor and are innately familiar with energy weapons, unlike the vast majority of the outsiders. You're as intelligence as any pre-war scientist, and would give any soldier a run for their money in a fight. Still, outmanned and possibly outgunned, you're search for purpose on the surface is a tenuous one.

Character motivations: The world needs technology to return. If the Brotherhood is going to stay underground instead of doing what needs to be done, then I'll have to do it myself.

Name: Arabeth D`Silva

`Class`: Vault Dweller, A former denizen of Vault 26, you grew up living and working with machines on a daily basis. Your Vault was originally designed as an experiment to test human tolerance of supercomputer superiors, which ended when excessive human liquidations "for the good of the vault" led to a human revolt against the vault's AI overseer. Although the vault was so damaged in the ensuing civil war that it had to be opened, as a former inhabitant of Vault 26, you have access to the remaining robots in Vault 26 and know you can always find a place to rest there. You're also familiar enough with scientific and engineering subjects you might be able to get a running start on research with Vault 26's surplus science facilities....

Character Motivations: Having lived through The Great Vault War Arabeth has decided to see how bad outside could be. With some hard learnt lessons in how to use a weapons, she sets out into the harsh landscape eyes wide open and ready for the new experiences it would bring.

I'm interested. Thinking about a BoS or Prospector. Will have everything worked out in a few hours. Please, please, please don't discard me.

Why don't we just have one of everything? Go Merc or Caravaneer.

There's bound to be duplicates seeing as there's only eight archetypes.

We should only have around 8 players to keep things from getting too big and clogging the GM.

True, there will be at minimum 2 over laps. Though come `classes` are more forgiving for overlap.

Prospector is one I see as more overlap, along with Merc, NCR, Legion, Merchant...

I'm letting this sit a bit before I say yes or no on a lot of these. If there is an excess of applicants, I'll be giving priority to the best applicants, including on capped character types.

For example, Cloak, while you've applied for BoS Scoundrel, as your application stands it might not be accepted. His motivations, for example, don't jive with being a Scoundrel as a character. While Scoundrels are progressive thinkers in the BoS, they aren't alien thinkers, which is what your characters thinking would be considered. Alien. Honestly, as evidenced in the game during the Veronica plot, they wouldn't have kicked him out for his kind of thinking. They'd have tried to kill him. A Scoundrel can only go so far against the BoS, because as I spelled out in it's description, you are "uniquely free yet not free". You're both a part of the BoS, yet you're not.

No one ever said the BoS was reasonable.

What would a Super Mutant's motivations be?

It happened in the Capital Wasteland BoS, albeit in reverse. Besides, nobody would know unless I tried to organize a rebellion. BoS tech lover or not, I still have a self-preservation instinct.

That would depend on the character. Your mutant might want to be the second coming of the Master, he might just want equality and happiness for all like Marcus, he might just want lots of shiny bottle caps, and he might just be running around looking for a good fight. There will be some leeway on your character, so long as your character is not as I said OOC or "alien" in his behavior.

Will we be starting out alone or have companions out of the gate?

Question: For the NCR soldier, can I be a former 1st Recon member?

Name: Ryan Blake
Character start type: Former NCR soldier
Character motivations(bio): Blake was born amidst a shoot-between his parents carravan and a group of raiders looking for an easy score. His father took a poison spear to the chest as he tried to protect his six month pregnant wife. Most of the carravan was wiped out before NCR troops arrived and drove off the raiders.

But the sudden trauma sent his mother into labor. With no doctor amongst the group, they had to make do the best they could. Ryan was saved but his mother bled out, her last breath spilling from her lungs as the young boy cried for the first time.

With no blood relatives, the boy was to be given up for adoption. However, the remnants of his parent's carravan crew, feeling guilty that they couldn't save either parent, took the infant into their care.

Years passed. Ryan became a valued member of the group, selflessly rendering aid whereever it was needed. Along the way, he developed strong senses for danger. Just as well, he took to learning the arts of combat, having a natural talent for weapons and hand to hand combat. During a stop at the Hub, he acquired an old Watts-1000 laser rifle and instantly fell in love with beam weapons.

At the age of sixteen, he decided to do something more with his life. Having been told the tale of his parent's demise over the years, he joined the NCR army. With his natural aptitude, he quickly advanced through the ranks, earning his sergeant's stripes by the age of twenty-two.

He loved his job, especially when he was able to put down rabid raiders like the one's who killed his parents. When Caesar's Legion made it's appearance, he knew that they had to be utterly wiped out, less they slink away and rebuild. And when they attacked Hoover Damn, he was proven right.

Shortly after, he joined the Rangers and began patrolling the Mojave. However, he was not present for the Second Battle of Hoover Damn, having been on an extended recon mission to the north. When the orders to withdraw were announced, he voiced his opinion, stating that whatever the Courier's intentions for New Vegas, they couldn't simply abandon everyone else. His CO refused to budge on the issue.

In the dark of night before he was scehduled to depart, he organized a "supply run" and stole away into the night. Now, alone and without the sanction of his homeland, he wanders across the Mojave. Ready to deliver justice and protect the innocent.

Name: Nicholas (Nick to his less intelligent comrades.)

Class: Supermutant. Mean and green. You were one of the lucky ones. While you're no Einstein, as a first generation mutant, you're smarter than most mutants, while being one of the toughest sumbitches to ever grace the Mojave. Since you're... humanity challenged, you'll be faced with a great deal of intolerance from the humans of the Mojave, but you're acceptance by the local supermutant population help compensates for this. You, and you alone, will start with access to mutant hirelings, and be able to use low quality heavy weapons from the beginning. You might not be able to crack a safe or craft stimpacks, but if there's something you can do really, really well, it's smash things.

Motivations: Nick just wants a haven for the Super Mutant race, a place where he can keep the Mutants and the Humans from going at each other's throats (Kind of like Utobitha, an isolationist haven, without the insanity and caste system.), and to eventually find a way to make more Super Mutants without mutating humans. (Cloning technology exists in Fallout 3, he wants something like that, so expect him looking for some BOS members or Vault Dwellers.)

You'll have companions out of the gate. Basically, you'll all have a small armed band in the beginning of varying size and make up. A vault dweller will have a fundamentally different posse than, say, a supermutant, and a scoundrel will have a much smaller posse than a caravaneers.

That'll be handled during the next phase when the mechanics are finished and we'll start purchasing gear or hiring underlings.

Except they would, because your character would have had to get kicked out because they excessively went on about their beliefs. The Capitol Wasteland BoS had a civil war over it, and the situation was significantly different. If it was the Capitol Wasteland BoS, the firefight between those paladins and Veronica wouldn't have been allowed to happen.

At the moment, you're already skating on thin ice. I'm giving you one warning regarding OOC behavior and I want to make sure everyone sees this. The game hasn't even started, Vault 26 has barely opened, your characters as far as you know have never even met yet and your scoundrel (IF you got a scoundrel slot) wouldn't even know of the existence of the vault right off the bat. I'm all for bullshitting, plotstorming, and speculating, for the sake of roleplay, but you're not going to game the system and scheme OOC. Do not try to pressure people OOC into doing something IC or try to preteam. That's excessively bad sportsmanship. This is your warning, C&D, and if this happens to anyone else, please tell me.

Sure Ace. I won't give you any free points for it to start with though. I'll give you consideration for it however in both NPC interactions, and possible future perk awards. I'll just highlight this for everyone.

This is my wink-wink-nudge-nudge. There is the possibility of rewards down the line for people who, for example, develop their characters and put in that extra thought like Ace just did. Or at least try to.

Another question regarding companions. Will it be limited like in the game where you can have one human and an animal companion? And is it a requirement to have any at all because I'd really prefer going solo to start with.

Was Utobitha raided by the Courier?

No. As the game will go on, your posse is expected to grow, honestly, and some of the character types could start with quite a few more companions than that if they wanted to. There isn't any requirement at all to have any, either, really. If you wanna blow all your money on equipment or a better safe-house, that's perfectly fine as well.

You won't be forced to do a lot.

Nope. He blew right past Black Mountain and ignored it.

How many Super Mutants will I get compared to Tabitha?

I think Black Mountain needs a regime change.