TEXT:  
  SAVAGE 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  A 
   Conversion by 
   
  John “Sheriff288” Brown 
   
   
   
  Theron “SlasherEpoch” Seckington 
    
   Adam "Ronin8879” Coker 
  
  Ok Since you all have been waiting so patiently for the last year I have 
  decided to toss up this sneak peek of Savage Fallout. This is the first 95 
  pages of material.  There are minimal pictures (there will be more in the final 
  product) and there are still some minor flow issues with some of the text.    
  Well this is the format I am going to do the final product in, so if you like it 
  let me know on the forums.   
  John Sheriff288 Brown 
   
   
   
   
   
   
       1     
    
  
   
  War. War never changes. The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth.
  Spain built an empire from its lust for gold and territory.  Hitler shaped a
  battered Germany into an economic superpower.  But war never changes.  In
  the 21st century, war was still waged over the resources that could be
  acquired.  Only this time, the spoils of war were also its weapons.  Petroleum
  and uranium.  For these resources, China would invade Alaska, the US would
  annex Canada, and the European Commonwealth would dissolve into
  quarreling, bickering nation-states, bent on controlling the last remaining
  resources on Earth.  In 2077, the storm of world war had come again.
  In two brief hours, most of the planet was reduced to cinders.  And from the
  ashes of nuclear devastation, a new civilization would struggle to arise. 
   
   
  We know what happened, over the years we have been able to piece together
  a cobbled history of what our forefathers did.  The wasteland that we live in
  is starting to recover, never to the former glory, but recover to the point
  where we can live again.  We know there was a war; we know there were vaults
  that saved some, but not all.  We know that there are horrors in the
  wasteland that no man or woman should ever have to face. 
   
   
    
   
       2     
    
  
  Vault Dweller's Survival Guide 
  From The Vault 
  ISSUED BY VAULT-TEC DOCUMENTATION 
  DEPARTMENT, JANUARY, 2077 
   
  NOTICE.This document contains information affecting the 
  national defense of the United States within the meaning of 
  the New Amended Espionage Act, 50 U.S.C., 31 and 32. Its 
  transmission or the revelation of its contents in any 
  manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by the law. 
  Welcome to the Vault of the 
  Future 
  General 
  Welcome to Vault-13, the latest in a series of public defense works 
  from Vault-Tec, your contractor of choice when it comes to the best in 
  nuclear shelters. Vault-Tec, America's Final Word in Homes. This 
  document, VTB-001, the Vault Dwellers Survival Guide, is for the events 
  following a world-wide nuclear war. In the case of a limited scale 
  nuclear war, or other world ending catastrophe, please refer to the 
  appropriate documentation (see also page 1.8):  
  End of World Cause Document 
  #  
  Title  
  Limited Scale 
  Nuclear War  
  VTB-002  Vault Dwellers Survival Guide 
  (abridged version)  
  Disease  
  VTD-001  Coping with Mr. Virus!  
  Starvation  
  VTR-003  How to Eat Rat  
  Flooding  
  VTF-100  Flotation Homes & Seaweed  
  Meteor  
  VTM-020B How to Dodge Falling Rocks*  
  *Document not available at this time, will be available the 
  3rd quarter of 2078.  
  While we hope that peace will prevail and the need for such from the 
  ground up to provide the best chance for a good life following nuclear 
  armageddon. It is the duty of every American citizen to learn and use 
  the skills necessary for a comfortable Vault life.  
  Dont let what could have happened bother you. We have enough problems 
  to deal with in the here and now. - Overseer  
       3     
    
  
  The Vault series of survival shelters are designed from the ground up 
  to provide the best chance for a good life following nuclear 
  armageddon. It is the duty of every American citizen to learn and use 
  the skills necessary for a comfortable Vault life. The best place to 
  start is with a description of your new home.  
  Important Vault statistics 
  Vault Number ............................13 
  Starting construction date .......August 2063 
  Ending construction date ..........March 2069 
  Starting Budget .........................$400,000,000,000 
  Final Budget, with interest ........$645,000,000,000 
  Total number of occupants .......1,000 (at capacity) 
  Total duration ...........................10 years (at capacity) 
  Number of living quarters .........100 (hot bunking required if at 
  maximum capacity) 
  Door thickness ..........................4 yards, steel 
  Earth coverage .........................3,200,000 tons of soil, at 200 
  feet 
  Computer control system .........Think machine 
  Primary power supply ...............Geo-thermal 
  Secondary power supply ..........General Atomics Nuclear Power backup 
  systems 
  Power requirements .................3.98mkw/day 
  Stores .......................................Complete construction 
  equipment, hydro-agricultural farms, water purification from 
  underground river, defensive weaponry to equip 10 men, communication, 
  social and entertainment files (for total duration) 
  Nuclear blast effects 
  Vault-13 is designed to provide protection from the effects of a 
  nuclear blast. To better understand the protection provided, we have 
  included a section from the High Energy Weapons FAQ that explains how a 
  nuclear blast causes damage. The first thing bomb victims experience is 
  the intense flux of pho-tons from the blast, which releases 70-80% of 
  the bomb's energy. The effects go up to third degree thermal burns and 
  are not a pretty sight. Initial deaths are due to this effect. The next 
  phenomenon is the supersonic blast front. You see it before you hear 
  it. The pressure front has the effect of blowing away anything in its 
  path. After the front comes the overpressure phase. It would feel like 
  being underwater a few hundred meters. (At a few thousand meters under 
  the sea, pressurized hulls implode.) The pressure gradually dies off, 
  and there is a negative overpressure phase, with a reversed blast wind. 
  This reversal is due to air rushing back to fill the void left by the 
  explosion. The air gradually returns to normal atmospheric pressure. At 
  this stage, fires caused by electrical destruction and ignited debris 
  turn the place into a firestorm. Then come the middle term effects such 
  as keloid formation and retinal blastoma. Genetic or hereditary damage 
  can appear up to forty years after initial irradiation.  
   
       4     
    
  
  Atmospheric effects of blasts 
  The Mushroom Cloud. The heat from fusion and fission instantaneously 
  raises the surrounding air to 10 million degrees C. This superheated 
  air plasma gives off so much light that it looks brighter than the sun, 
  and is visible hundreds of kilometers (km) away. The resultant fireball 
  quickly expands. It is made up of hot air, and hence rises at a rate of 
  a few hundred meters per second. After a minute or so, the fireball has 
  risen to a few kilometers, and has cooled off to the extent that it no 
  longer radiates.  
  The surrounding cooler air exerts some drag on this rising air, which 
  slows down the outer edges of the cloud. The unimpeded inner portion 
  rises a bit quicker than the outer edges. A vacuum effect occurs when 
  the outer portion occupies the vacuum left by the high-er inner 
  portion. The result is a smoke ring.  
  The inner material gradually expands out into a mushroom cloud, due to 
  convection. If the explosion is on the ground, dirt and radioactive 
  debris get sucked up the stem, which sits below the fire-ball.  
  Collisions and ionization of the cloud particles result in lightning 
  bolts flickering to the ground.  
  Initially, the cloud is orange-red due to a chemical reaction when the 
  air is heated. When the cloud cools to air temperature, the water vapor 
  starts to condense. The cloud turns from red to white.  
  In the final stages, the cloud can get about 100km across and 40km 
  high, for a megaton class explosion.  
  Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP). A nuclear explosion gives off radiation at 
  all wavelengths of light. Some is in the radio/radar por-tion of the 
  spectrum - the EMP effect. The EMP effect increases the higher you go 
  into the atmosphere. High altitude explosions can knock out electronics 
  by inducing a current surge in closed circuit metallic objects - 
  electronics, power lines, phone lines, TVs, radios, etc. The damage 
  range can be over 1000km.  
  Overwiew of immediate effects 
  The three categories of immediate effects are: blast, thermal radiation 
  (heat), and prompt ionizing or nuclear radiation. Their rel-ative 
  importance varies with the yield of the bomb. At low yields, all three 
  can be significant sources of injury. With an explosive yield of about 
  2.5 kilotons (kT), the three effects are roughly equal. All are capable 
  of inflicting fatal injuries at a range of 1km.  
  The fraction of a bomb's yield emitted as thermal radiation, blast, and 
  ionizing radiation is essentially constant for all yields, but the way 
  the different forms of energy interact with air and target vary 
  dramatically.  
       5     
    
  
  Air is essentially transparent to thermal radiation. The thermal 
  radiation affects exposed surfaces, producing damage by rapid heat-ing. 
  A bomb that is 100 times larger can produce equal thermal radi-ation 
  intensities over areas 100 times larger. The area of an (imagi-nary) 
  sphere centered on the explosion increases with the square of the 
  radius. Thus the destructive radius increases with the square root of 
  the yield (this is the familiar inverse square law of electro-magnetic 
  radiation). Actually the rate of increase is somewhat less, partly due 
  to the fact that larger bombs emit heat more slowly which reduces the 
  damage produced by each calorie of heat. It is important to note that 
  the area subjected to damage by thermal radiation increases almost 
  linearly with yield.  
  Blast effect is a volume effect. The blast wave deposits energy in the 
  material it passes through, including air. When the blast wave passes 
  through solid material, the energy left behind causes damage. When it 
  passes through air it simply grows weaker. The more matter the energy 
  travels through, the smaller the effect. The amount of matter increases 
  with the volume of the imaginary sphere centered on the explosion. 
  Blast effects thus scale with the inverse cube law which relates radius 
  to volume.  
  The intensity of nuclear radiation decreases with the inverse square 
  law like thermal radiation. However nuclear radiation is also strongly 
  absorbed by the air it travels through, which causes the intensity to 
  drop off much more rapidly.  
  These scaling laws show that the effects of thermal radiation grow 
  rapidly with yield (relative to blast), while those of radiation 
  rapidly decline.  
  In a small nuclear attack (bomb yield approx. 15kT) casualties 
  (including fatalities) would be seen from all three causes. Burns 
  (including those caused by an ensuing fire storm) would be the most 
  prevalent serious injury (two thirds of those who would die the first 
  day would be burn victims), and occur at the greatest range. Blast and 
  burn injuries would be found in 60-70% of all survivors. People close 
  enough to suffer significant radiation illness would be well inside the 
  lethal effects radius for blast and flash burns, as a result only 30% 
  of injured survivors would show radiation illness. Many of those people 
  would be sheltered from burns and blast and thus escape the main 
  effects. Even so, most victims with radiation illness would also have 
  blast injuries or burns as well.  
  With yields in the range of hundreds of kilotons or greater (typ-ical 
  for strategic warheads) immediate radiation injury becomes 
  insignificant. Dangerous radiation levels only exist so close to the 
  explosion that surviving the blast is impossible. On the other hand, 
  fatal burns can be inflicted well beyond the range of substantial blast 
  damage. A 20 megaton bomb can cause potentially fatal third degree 
  burns at a range of 40km, where the blast can do little more than break 
  windows and cause superficial cuts.  
  A convenient rule of thumb for estimating the short-term fatali-ties 
  from all causes due to a nuclear attack is to count everyone inside the 
       6     
    
  
  5 psi blast overpressure contour around the hypocenter as a fatal-ity. 
  In reality, substantial numbers of people inside the contour will 
  survive and substantial numbers outside the contour will die, but the 
  assumption is that these two groups will be roughly equal in size and 
  balance out. This completely ignores any possible fallout effects.  
  Overview of delayed effects 
  Radioactive Contamination. The chief delayed effect is the creation of 
  huge amounts of radioactive material with long lifetimes (half-lifes 
  ranging from days to millennia). The primary source of these products 
  is the debris left from fission reactions. A potentially significant 
  secondary source is neutron capture by non-radioactive isotopes both 
  within the bomb and in the outside environment.  
  When atoms fission they can split in some 40 different ways, pro-ducing 
  a mix of about 80 different isotopes. These isotopes vary widely in 
  stability; some are completely stable while others under-go radioactive 
  decay with half-lifes of fractions of a second. The decaying isotopes 
  may themselves form stable or unstable daugh-ter isotopes. The mixture 
  thus quickly becomes even more com-plex, some 300 different isotopes of 
  36 elements have been identi-fied in fission products.  
  Short-lived isotopes release their decay energy rapidly, creating 
  intense radiation fields that also decline quickly. Long-lived isotopes 
  release energy over long periods of time, creating radiation that is 
  much less intense but more persistent. Fission products thus ini-tially 
  have a very high level of radiation that declines quickly, but as the 
  intensity of radiation drops, so does the rate of decline.  
  A useful rule-of-thumb is the "rule of sevens". This rule states that 
  for every seven-fold increase in time following a fission detonation 
  (starting at or after 1 hour), the radiation intensity decreases by a 
  factor of 10. Thus after 7 hours, the residual fission radioactivity 
  declines 90%, to one-tenth its level of 1 hour. After 7*7 hours (49 
  hours, approx. 2 days), the level drops again by 90%. After 7*2 days (2 
  weeks) it drops a further 90%; and so on for 14 weeks. The rule is 
  accurate to 25% for the first two weeks, and is accurate to a factor of 
  two for the first six months. After 6 months, the rate of decline 
  becomes much more rapid. The rule of sevens corresponds to an 
  approximate t^-1.2 scaling relationship.  
  These radioactive products are most hazardous when they settle to the 
  ground as "fallout". The rate at which fallout settles depends very 
  strongly on the altitude at which the explosion occurs, and to a lesser 
  extent on the size of the explosion.  
  If the explosion is a true air-burst (the fireball does not touch the 
  ground), when the vaporized radioactive products cool enough to 
  condense and solidify, they will do so to form microscopic parti-cles. 
  These particles are mostly lifted high into the atmosphere by the 
  rising fireball, although significant amounts are deposited in the 
  lower atmosphere by mixing that occurs due to convective cir-culation 
  within the fireball. The larger the explosion, the higher and faster 
       7     
    
  
  the fallout is lofted, and the smaller the proportion that is deposited 
  in the lower atmosphere. For explosions with yields of 100kT or less, 
  the fireball does not rise above the troposphere where precipitation 
  occurs. All of this fallout will thus be brought to the ground by 
  weather processes within months at most (usu-ally much faster). In the 
  megaton range, the fireball rises so high that it enters the 
  stratosphere. The stratosphere is dry, and no weather processes exist 
  there to bring fallout down quickly. Small fallout particles will 
  descend over a period of months or years. Such long-delayed fallout has 
  lost most of its hazard by the time it comes down, and will be 
  distributed on a global scale. As yields increase above 100kT, 
  progressively more and more of the total fallout is injected into the 
  stratosphere.  
  An explosion closer to the ground (close enough for the fire-ball to 
  touch) sucks large amounts of dirt into the fireball. The dirt usually 
  does not vaporize, and if it does, there is so much of it that it forms 
  large particles. The radioactive isotopes are deposited on soil 
  particles, which can fall quickly to earth. Fallout is deposited over a 
  time span of minutes to days, creating down-wind contamination both 
  nearby and thousands of kilometers away. The most intense radiation is 
  created by nearby fallout, because it is more densely deposited, and 
  because short-lived iso-topes haven't decayed yet. Weather conditions 
  can affect this con-siderably of course. In particular, rainfall can 
  "rain out" fallout to create very intense localized concentrations. 
  Both external expo-sure to penetrating radiation, and internal exposure 
  (ingestion of radioactive material) pose serious health risks.  
  Explosions close to the ground that do not touch it can still generate 
  substantial hazards immediately below the burst point by neutron-
  activation. Neutrons absorbed by the soil can generate considerable 
  radiation for several hours.  
  The megaton class weapons have been largely retired, being replaced 
  with much smaller yield warheads. The yield of a modern strategic 
  warhead is, with few exceptions, now typically in the range of 200-750 
  kT. Recent work with sophisticated climate mod-els has shown that this 
  reduction in yield results in a much larger proportion of the fallout 
  being deposited in the lower atmosphere, and a much faster and more 
  intense deposition of fallout than had been assumed in studies made 
  during the sixties and seventies. The reduction in aggregate strategic 
  arsenal yield that occurred when high yield weapons were retired in 
  favor of more numerous lower yield weapons has actually increased the 
  fallout risk.  
  SimTek operations 
  The Vault-Tec Research Group has determined that after a long period of 
  security, many Vault-Dwellers will feel "uncomfortable"? with the idea 
  of returning to the outside world. The SimTek 5000 will provide a safe 
  and reassuring return to life on the outside world. This chapter will 
  give you a brief walk-through of the operation of the SimTek 5000.  
       8     
    
  
  RobCo PIPBoy 2000 
  To help Vault Dwellers record information (and information is extremely 
  valuable, in fact, it might be the most valuable weapon we have against 
  the end of civilization, so pay attention!), Vault-Tec has selected the 
  RobCo Industries RobCo PIPBoy 2000 as the Personal Information 
  Processor of choice for its Vault Dwellers.  
  The RobCo PIPBoy 2000 (hereafter called the PIPBoy), is a handy device 
  that you wear on your wrist. It's small, especially by today's 
  standards, and it will store a goodly amount of information for you. 
  And using modern super-deluxe resolution graphics to boot!  
  The PIPBoy 2000 can be used to keep track of important dates and 
  events. Use it to remember everyone's birthday's and anniversaries so 
  that you (...)  
  We reprogrammed your PIPBoy to keep track of the number of days 
  remaining in the Vault water stores. This note is the only thing you 
  should care about until we are safe and have a restored water 
  processing chip.  
  The note shows the number of days before we croak. If that happens, 
  your adventures on the outside won't be worth a set of thermal 
  underwear in Death Valley at high noon! We'll be dead. And we don't 
  want that. Go to it!  
  (...) and it is a very useful tool for scheduling meetings and 
  appointments. And your PIPBoy has been programmed to properly handle 
  all calendar dates, even after the turn of the century!1  
  1Your PIPBoy 2000 has a three month limited warranty.  
  Vault Personnel 
  The key to a successful reintroduction of civilization follow-ing a 
  massive scale nuclear war is people. Here at Vault-Tec, we are working 
  to ensure that your fellow man (and woman) is up to the task of 
  bringing America back from the dead.  
  Equipment 
  Vault-13 comes prepared with the latest in survival equipment. The 
  items in your storage containers will last 1,000 people over 10 years 
  in comfortable and modern surroundings. When it is time to leave the 
  Vault, and return to rebuild America, your friends at Vault-Tec have 
  provided you with everything that you will need.  
  We have ensured that all of your rebuilding needs will be covered (...)  
       9     
    
  
  Yeah, right. Who wrote this? What budget did they get? We already used 
  most of the equipment on failed attempts to contact an outside 
  civilization. And we've been in here a lot longer than ten years. We 
  have little left to give you, but we will give you what we can.  
  (...) undergone extensive testing to make sure the equipment is 
  reliable.  
  Additional publications 
  Flotation Homes and Seaweed 
  A complete survival guide for the ocean bound. More tips, instructions, 
  and plans than you could possibly ever use.  
  A PERMANENT STATE OF BEING? WE FIELD-TEST THE LATEST WATERPROOF SPF 900 
  SUNSCREENS PLANT A GARDEN YOU CAN COME BACK TO! WATERBEDS- A PRACTICAL 
  ALTERNATIVE COPING WITH YOUR NEW MOBILE HOME  
  VTF-100  
  A Vault-Tec publication 
  Special Vault Dwellers Issue - July 2076 
  Houseboat Cruise Control! Coming Soon!  
  Coping With Mr. Virus! 
  An extended pamphlet for the whole family! Includes the popular How-To-
  Burn- Diseased-Bodies section.  
  Fifteenth Edition - December 2076 
  Featuring the latest Super Ebola Quarantine Techniques!  
  WARNING: 
  All references to the government sanctioned and controlled FEV virus 
  are not allowed in this publication.  
  Vault Dweller's Survival Guide (abridged version) 
  A condensed version of the VDSG, containing just the important 
  information you need!  
  Effective Date March, 2077 
  For Survivors of a Limited Scale Nuclear War 
  First Printing VTB-OO2-13  
  How to Eat Rat 
  Over 101 recipes, from basic meals to a complete set of dishes, all the 
  way from snacks to desserts!  
       10     
    
  
  Second Edition 
  NEW FOR '77: 
  15 five-minute Recipes and the tasty Rodent a la King!  
  How To Dodge Falling Rocks 
  Available the 3rd quarter of 2078  
  GECK 
  Future-Tec, a division of Vault-Tec, presents the following 
  advertisement for your enjoyment!  
  When the All Clear sounds on your radio, you don't want to be caught 
  without...  
  THE GARDEN OF EDEN CREATION KIT!!  
  The kit includes:  
  • 
  Base Replicator Unit - replicates food and basic items 
  needed for building your new world. Just add water! 
  (powered by cold fusion)  
  • 
  Holodisc Reader with Library - includes selections 
  from the Library of Congress, complete set of 
  encyclopedias, and other life saving information, all 
  contained on four-hundred and sixty handy holodiscs!1 
  and... A Miniature Pen Flashlight!2  
  4 out of 5 nuclear scientists recommend the Garden of Eden Creation Kit 
  over the other leading survival kits!  
  1 A condensed version is available on three handy holodiscs 
  2 Not suitable for children under the age of three. A different toy is 
  available for younger children. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
       11     
    
  
  Future History 
  A Fallout Timeline 
   
  2051 
  Seeking to protect business 
  interests and their oil supply, 
  the United States begins to 
  exert increasing pressure on 
  Mexico, citing the political 
  instability and pollution 
  stemming from Mexico as a threat 
  to the United States. Various 
  economic sanctions serve to 
  destabilize Mexico, and the 
  United States military enters 
  Mexico to keep the oil 
  refineries running and making 
  sure oil and fuel continue to 
  make their way north across the 
  border... at Mexico's expense. 
  2052 
  A television documentary into 
  the withered husk of the Texas 
  oil fields brings the oil 
  shortage into the American 
  households, and reveals how deep 
  the energy crisis runs. 
  April 2052 
  The Resource Wars begin. Many 
  smaller nations go bankrupt, and 
  Europe, dependent on oil imports 
  from the Middle East, responds 
  to the Middle East's rising oil 
  prices with military action. The 
  long drawn-out war between the 
  European Commonwealth and the 
  Middle East begins. 
  May-July 2052 
  The United Nations, already 
  suffering, begins to collapse. 
  In a series of heated debates, 
  many nations withdraw from the 
  organization as the UN tries to 
  keep the peace. At the end of 
  July, the United Nations is 
  disbanded. 
  2053 
  ZAX 1.0 goes on-line, developed 
  by Vault-Tec. Initially a 
  prototype of some of the systems 
  designed to govern the vaults; 
  it is given to the government to 
  help the Department of Energy 
  collect resource data. Within a 
  year, it is taken by the 
  military for plague and tactical 
  research; one version, ZAX 1.2 
  is constructed for West Tek. 
  2053 
  The socially transmitted "New 
  Plague" arises, killing tens of 
  thousands. The United States 
  closes its borders and the 
  first-ever national quarantine 
  is declared. The source of the 
  plague is unknown, but rumors 
  persist that it is a genetically 
  engineered weapon. 
  December 2053 
  Like an exclamation mark on the 
  end of a very bad year, a 
  terrorist nuclear weapon 
  destroys Tel Aviv. 
  January 2054 
  Limited nuclear exchange in the 
  Middle East raises fears 
  throughout the world. 
  2054 
  In light of the Euro-Middle-
  Eastern conflict and the plague 
  scare, the United States sets 
  Project Safehouse in motion. The 
  project, financed by junk bonds, 
  is designed to create shelters, 
  called Vaults, for the populace 
  in the event of a nuclear war or 
  deadly plague. Construction 
  begins late in 2054 and proceeds 
  rapidly due to advances in 
  construction technology. 
  2055 
  The West Tek Research Facility 
  starts working on a new virus to 
  kill the New Plague. Their viral 
  research and close ties to the 
  federal government eventually 
  lead to them being chosen for 
  the Pan-Immunity Virion Project 
  twenty years later as well as 
  Power Infantry Armor and laser 
  research. 
  2055 
  ZAX 1.2 is brought in to 
  regulate conditions in West Tek. 
  It is not part of the Vault-Tec 
  preservation software, so it 
       12     
    
  
  does not have any orders to 
  protect humanity after the bombs 
  fall. In the meantime, it calmly 
  calculates data and plays chess 
  with the scientists. Many 
  scientists claim that ZAX is a 
  cheater and draws the game out 
  too much for a computer of his 
  considerable abilities. 
  2059 
  The Anchorage Front Line is 
  established, as the United 
  States increases its military 
  presence in Alaska to protect 
  its oil interests. The Anchorage 
  Front Line causes tensions in 
  the United States and Canada, as 
  the United States attempts to 
  pressure Canada into allowing 
  American military units to guard 
  the Alaskan pipeline. 
  2059 
  The first artificial 
  intelligence is born. Limited by 
  memory constraints, its 
  expansion is rapidly halted. The 
  discovery paves the way for 
  future AI research in 
  laboratories throughout the 
  United States. 
  2060 
  Traffic on the streets of the 
  world stops moving. Fuel becomes 
  too precious to waste on 
  automobiles, so alternatives are 
  explored - electric and fusion 
  cars begin to be manufactured, 
  but factories can only make 
  limited amounts. Pressure for 
  fusion research increases. 
  2060 
  The Euro-Middle Eastern War ends 
  as the oil fields in the Middle 
  East run dry, there is no longer 
  a goal in the conflict, and both 
  sides are reduced almost to 
  ruin. 
  2062 
  Despite quarantine measures, the 
  New Plague continues to spread, 
  fueling national paranoia. 
  August 2063 
  The construction of most Vaults 
  completed, except for Vault 13, 
  whose construction finally gets 
  off the ground... heralding a 
  development cycle that seems 
  plagued with problems. Drills 
  begin in the other cities with 
  completed Vaults, but the 
  increasing frequency of the 
  drills has a "cry wolf" effect, 
  and the turnouts for drills 
  trickle off as the years go on. 
  June 2065 
  Due to enormous demands for 
  electricity in the summer of 
  2065, a nuclear reactor in New 
  York City almost goes critical. 
  The near meltdown brings into 
  effect power rationing, and the 
  term "Hot Summer" is used to 
  refer to the New York incident. 
  August 2065 
  Increasing need for mobility in 
  the United States mechanized 
  cavalry leads the military to 
  focus the efforts on creating a 
  man-based tank, essentially, a 
  two-legged walking armored unit: 
  Power Armor. 
  2065-2067 
  Power Armor research grows and 
  several prototypes are 
  developed, many of which prove 
  to be unworkable in the field. 
  These prototypes pave the way 
  for future advances in military, 
  construction, and fusion 
  technology. 
  Spring 2066 
  As the oil resources dry up 
  across the globe, China's fossil 
  fuel dependency causes an energy 
  crisis in the nation. China, 
  bordering on collapse, becomes 
  more aggressive in its trade 
  talks with the United States. 
  Unwilling to export oil to 
  China, talks between the United 
  States and China break down. 
  Summer 2066 
  Adding further insult to the 
  Chinese-American relations, the 
  first crude fusion cell is 
  unveiled, one of the results of 
  the Power Armor project. Devices 
  designed for the fusion cell 
  begin to be manufactured. 
       13     
    
  
  Incorporating fusion power into 
  the general US infrastructure 
  begins, but the process is too 
  slow to supply power to the 
  regions that need it. Nearly 
  eleven years later, few sections 
  of the United States were 
  supplied with fusion power. 
  Winter 2066 
  In the winter of 2066, China 
  invades Alaska. The Anchorage 
  Front Line becomes a true 
  battleground. 
  Winter 2066 
  As a sign of increasing tension 
  between the two countries, 
  Canada proves reluctant to allow 
  American troops on Canadian soil 
  or allow American planes to fly 
  over Canadian airspace. The 
  United States and Canadian 
  tensions rise, but Canada 
  eventually backs down, and US 
  troops pass through Canada. This 
  sets the stage for the Canadian 
  annexation in 2076. 
  2067 
  The first suit of Power Armor is 
  deployed in Alaska. While 
  lacking the full mobility of 
  future versions, this Power 
  Armor is incredibly effective 
  against Chinese tanks and 
  infantry. Its ability to carry 
  heavy ordinance becomes key in 
  various localized conflicts, and 
  it has the power to destroy 
  entire towns without endangering 
  the wearer. China rushes to 
  create its own versions, but 
  they are many years behind the 
  United States. 
  2069 
  Canada begins to feel the 
  pressure from the United States 
  military as the US draws upon 
  Canadian resources for the war 
  effort. Vast stretches of 
  timberland are destroyed, and 
  other resources in Canada are 
  stretched to the breaking point. 
  Many Americans refer to Canada 
  as Little America, and Canadian 
  protests are unheard. 
   
  March 2069 
  Vault 13 is finally completed - 
  it is the last of the Vaults, 
  and drills begin. Due to its 
  late completion, the "cry wolf" 
  effect that hurt the other 
  Vaults is not as pronounced. 
  2070 
  The first of the Chryslus motors 
  fusion-driven cars are 
  developed. Reassuringly big and 
  American, the limited models 
  carry a hefty price tag but are 
  sold out within days. Many 
  Chryslus plants have long since 
  been converted into making 
  military ordinance. 
  2072 
  The United States' increasing 
  demand for Canadian resources 
  causes protests and riots in 
  several Canadian cities. An 
  attempted sabotage attempt of 
  the Alaskan pipeline is all the 
  military needs as an excuse to 
  begin its annexation of 
  Canada... which in fact, had 
  already begun in 2067. 
  15 Sept 2073 
  As China becomes increasingly 
  aggressive with their use of 
  biological weapons, the United 
  States government felt that a 
  countermeasure was needed. The 
  Pan-Immunity Virion Project 
  (PVP) is officially formed and 
  plans are made to begin 
  experiments at the West Tek 
  research facility in Southern 
  California. 
  2074 
  Contrary to their claims of 
  seeking only to retake Alaska 
  from the Reds, American Power 
  Armor units, infantry, and 
  mechanized divisions are 
  deployed to China, but they 
  become bogged down on the 
  mainland, putting a further 
  drain on American resources and 
  supply lines. 
  21 March 2075 
  FEV experiments continue at West 
  Tek with batch 10-011, in the 
       14     
    
  
  wake of successful tests of the 
  virus on single-celled 
  organisms. Experiments on plant 
  cells are postponed. The pan-
  immunity virion is renamed FEV - 
  the Forced Evolutionary Virus. 
  9 May 2075 
  FEV experiments continue at West 
  Tek with batch 10-011, in the 
  wake of successful tests on 
  flatworms, the flatworm’s 
  exhibit increase size and 
  heightened resistance to viral 
  contagions. Experiments with 
  insects have less success, and 
  further experimentation on 
  insects is postponed by Major 
  Barnett. 
  30 June 2075 
  FEV experiments continue at West 
  Tek with batch 10-011, with 
  white mice as subjects. 
  Increased size, muscle density, 
  and intelligence are noted. 
  9 Nov 2075 
  FEV experimentation (batch 10-
  011) on rabbits is concluded. 
  Increased size, intelligence, 
  and (this time) aggressiveness 
  is noted. Apparently, it was 
  hard to determine whether the 
  flatworms in the previous 
  experiments were angrier and 
  more violent than normal. 
  Frankly, the researchers cannot 
  be blamed for this. 
  3 January 2076 
  A military team under the 
  command of Colonel Spindel is 
  sent to the West Tek research 
  facility to monitor the 
  experiments in the interest of 
  national security. Captain Roger 
  Maxson (the grandfather of John 
  Maxson, the High Elder of the 
  Brotherhood of Steel in F1) is 
  among the team personnel. 
  12 January 2076 
  Splicing in several new gene 
  sequences into their test virus, 
  dogs are injected with batch 11-
  101a at West Tek. Although 
  increased strength was noted, 
  increased intelligence was not. 
  January 2076 
  The United States annexation of 
  Canada is complete. Canadian 
  protestors and rioters are shot 
  on sight and the Alaskan 
  Pipeline swarms with American 
  military units. Pictures of 
  atrocities make their way to the 
  United States, causing further 
  unrest and protests. 
  26 January 2076 
  Using batch 11-011, experiments 
  are conducted on raccoons. Same 
  results are noted, but the 
  attempted escape of several 
  infected raccoons causes Major 
  Barnett to terminate the 
  escape... and the test subjects. 
  Two pairs of raccoons, however, 
  are unaccounted for.  
  15 April 2076 
  Once all secondary tests and 
  studies are done on the test 
  subjects, all dogs from the 
  batch 11-101a FEV tests at West 
  Tek are terminated... from a 
  safe distance. 
  June 2076 
  Power Armor prototype completed, 
  resulting in the Power Armor 
  players find in Fallout 1. This 
  is the pinnacle of Power Armor 
  technology before the Great War. 
  Many of these units are sent to 
  China, and they begin to carve a 
  swath through the Chinese 
  forces. The Chinese resources 
  are strained to the breaking 
  point, and the supply lines from 
  the nations China has annexed 
  begin to break down. 
  August 2076 
  Food and energy riots begin in 
  major cities throughout the 
  United States. Military units 
  begin to be deployed in cities 
  within the United States to 
  contain rioters, and many 
  temporary jails are constructed. 
  A state of emergency is 
  declared, and martial law soon 
  follows. 
   
   
       15     
    
  
  4 October 2076 
  At West Tek, fifteen chimpanzees 
  are infected with batch 11-111. 
  The most successful test to 
  date, growth and immunities in 
  the chimpanzees surpass all 
  other subjects to date. The 
  military practically drools over 
  the results. Plans are made in 
  secret to begin testing in small 
  quarantine towns in North 
  America, and the Mariposa 
  Military Base construction is 
  sped up in anticipation of 
  moving the West Tek project to a 
  location under military 
  supervision. 
  7 January 2077 
  Major Barnett orders transfer of 
  all FEV research to the newly-
  constructed Mariposa Military 
  Base, despite objections by the 
  research team. 
  10 January 2077 
  Alaska is reclaimed, and the 
  Anchorage Front Line is again 
  held by the Americans. 
  22 January 2077 
  The first domestic use of Power 
  Armor within the United States 
  for crowd and quarantine 
  control. Units originally 
  serving in China and the 
  Anchorage Front Line find 
  themselves fighting Americans at 
  home. Food riots increase and 
  many civilians are killed. 
  Several soldiers defect from the 
  military both in Canada and the 
  United States. They are 
  captured, and are sent to 
  military prisons. 
  February 2077 
  FEV Research is leaked to the 
  world through an unknown source. 
  Protests in many major cities 
  and governments around the 
  world, as well as accusations 
  that the US was responsible for 
  the New Plague. FEV is seen as 
  the threat it is, and serves 
  only to fuel tensions. 
   
   
  March 2077 
  Prepared for a nuclear or 
  biological attack from China, 
  the president and the Enclave 
  retreats to remote sections 
  around the globe and make 
  contingency plans for continuing 
  the war. 
  October 2077 
  Captain Roger Maxson and his men 
  discover that the scientists at 
  Mariposa have been using 
  "military volunteers" (military 
  prisoners who didn't have their 
  brains scooped for use in Brain 
  Bots) as test subjects in their 
  experiments. Morale in the base 
  breaks down, and Maxson executes 
  Anderson, the chief scientist. 
  Not long after this (and in 
  light of the breakdown of the 
  mental breakdown of Colonel 
  Spindel stationed at the base), 
  Maxson's men turn to him for 
  leadership. He shrugs and says 
  "we should quit." 
  20 October 2077 
  Captain Roger Maxson, now in 
  control of Mariposa, declares 
  himself to be in full desertion 
  from the army (via radio)... and 
  nothing happens. Worried, Maxson 
  orders all families stationed 
  outside the base moved inside 
  the Mariposa facility. 
  23 October 2077 
  Great War: Bombs are launched; 
  who struck first is unknown... 
  and it is not even known if the 
  bombs came from China or 
  America. Air raid sirens sound, 
  but very few people go into 
  vaults, thinking it is a false 
  alarm. The Vaults are sealed. 
  23 October 2077 
  Necropolis Vault [Vault 12] 
  never closes. Once it becomes 
  known that the other vaults have 
  sealed, people within 
  Bakersfield attempt to force 
  their way into Vault 12 to 
  protect themselves and their 
  families. 
   
       16     
    
  
  23 October 2077 
  The West Tek research facility 
  is hit by warheads, breaking 
  open the FEV tanks on levels 
  four and five and releasing it 
  into the atmosphere. Once 
  exposed to radiation, it begins 
  to mutate and infect humans and 
  critters in the wasteland. 
  23 October 2077 
  The Mariposa Military Base 
  survives, the soldiers and 
  scientists within protected from 
  the radiation and FEV flooding 
  the wasteland. 
  25 October 2077 
  Two days later at Mariposa, a 
  scout in Power Armor (Platner) 
  is sent out to get specific 
  readings on the atmosphere. He 
  reports no significant radiation 
  in the area surrounding the 
  facility. 
  27 October 2077 
  After burying the scientists in 
  the wastes outside of Mariposa, 
  the soldiers seal the military 
  base, then head out into the 
  desert, taking supplies and 
  weapon schematics with them. 
  Captain Maxson leads his men and 
  families to the government 
  bunker at Lost Hills. (This 
  event was called the "Exodus," 
  and the surviving soldiers went 
  on to eventually form the 
  Brotherhood of Steel.)Note: 
  Although Maxson's points in his 
  holodisk indicated that civilian 
  personnel (presumably families 
  of the scientists or other 
  civilians not associated with 
  the military) were to remain at 
  the base, whether they did or 
  not is unknown. 
  November 2077 
  Captain Maxson, his men, and 
  their families, arrive at the 
  Lost Hills bunker a few weeks 
  later, suffering many casualties 
  along the way, including 
  Maxson's wife (but not his 
  teenage son). The Lost Hills 
  bunker becomes the HQ of the 
  Brotherhood of Steel. 
  2080 
  The first effects of the virus 
  are seen in the survivors. 
  Widespread mutations occur with 
  animals and humans alike. Those 
  that survive the effects of the 
  mutations are permanently 
  changed by the virus. New 
  species are created almost 
  overnight. 
  Summer 2083 
  The city of Necropolis founded 
  by the ghoul survivors of Vault 
  12 (and the US citizens that 
  fled to Bakersfield when the 
  bombs fell). 
  Spring 2084 
  Set takes control of Necropolis, 
  wresting control from the 
  original Overseer. The Vault 12 
  Overseer, not willing to take a 
  dirtnap, is driven north and 
  history loses sight of him. 
  2090 
  Vault 29 opens. Harold 
  (currently human) sets out to 
  make his fortune as a trader, 
  making the circuit around the 
  survivalist communities in the 
  wasteland. 
  2091 
  Vault 8 opens, and they use 
  their GECK to create fertile 
  ground for their city. This 
  eventually becomes Vault City. 
  2092 
  LA Vault opens; the Boneyard is 
  founded and attracts survivors. 
  2092 
  Dr. Richard Moreau is exiled 
  from Vault City for murder. The 
  circumstances surrounding the 
  murder are unknown, but he 
  changes his last name to Grey 
  and heads south. 
  2093 
  The Hub is founded by a man 
  named Angus, who sets up camp 
  around a filthy oasis in the 
  desert, and he proceeds to begin 
  trading with other settlements. 
   
   
       17     
    
  
  2096 
  Harold rises to the level of a 
  caravan boss in the Hub. His 
  caravans suffer occasional 
  attacks in the wastes, but 
  Harold's caravan outfit survives 
  and prospers... until the mutant 
  attacks begin to pick up a few 
  years later. 
  2097 
  John Maxson, the future High 
  Elder of the Brotherhood of 
  Steel, is born. 
  22 May 2102 
  Increasing mutant attacks on 
  Harold's caravans cause Harold 
  to finance one of the first 
  adventuring parties to try and 
  find out where the mutants are 
  coming from. Consulting with a 
  scientist and doctor at the Hub, 
  a man by the name of Grey, the 
  two of them decide to join 
  forces. 
  23 June 2102 
  Richard Grey's Expedition 
  [including Harold] finds the 
  Mariposa Military Base and the 
  Expedition is scattered and 
  defeated by mutants at the base. 
  Grey is knocked into one of the 
  vats of FEV by a robotic arm, 
  and Harold is knocked 
  unconscious, only to awaken 
  later out in the wasteland. 
  27 June 2102 
  Harold, already mutating, is 
  found by traders and taken back 
  to the Hub. His former caravan 
  partners and employees, 
  horrified by his condition, 
  abandon him and he is soon left 
  without even two bottlecaps to 
  rub together. 
  July 2102 
  Richard Grey, now horribly 
  mutated by the virus, crawls 
  from the Vats covered with FEV 
  and in terrible pain. Barely 
  able to think or perceive his 
  surroundings, he crawls into the 
  Vat control room and begins his 
  audio log. He fades in and out 
  of consciousness, sometimes for 
  days or weeks at a time. 
  July-Nov 2102 
  Richard Grey begins to acclimate 
  to his condition, and begins his 
  first tests of animals by 
  exposing them to FEV. These 
  experiments and his growing 
  awareness lay the foundation for 
  his plans for the Unity and the 
  master race. He takes the name, 
  "the Master." 
  November 2102 
  The first human victim wanders 
  into Mariposa, and Grey consumes 
  him. 
  December 2102 
  Grey continues his experiments 
  on wanderers that enter 
  Mariposa... with no success. The 
  creations are flawed (due to the 
  radiation counts in their 
  bodies), making them big but 
  incredibly stupid, and Grey 
  consumes them rather than 
  letting them live. 
  January 2103 
  The Master discovers the problem 
  with the influence of radiation 
  on his mutations, and he begins 
  to choose his subjects more 
  carefully. The first super 
  mutants are born. He begins his 
  plans to build an army. 
  2103-2130 
  Throughout this period, the 
  Master begins slowly gathering 
  test subjects, willing or 
  unwilling, from local human 
  stock. The Great Winter of 2130 
  and the scarcity of human 
  subjects make building his army 
  difficult. 
  2120 
  Angus rules over growing Hub and 
  establishes himself as governor. 
  Winter 2125 
  Angus is murdered. Hub is thrown 
  into chaos. 
  2126 
  A band of merchants seizes the 
  water tower in the Hub. They 
  demand anyone wanting water must 
       18     
    
  
  pay a toll. The Great Merchant 
  Wars begin. 
  2126-2128 
  The Great Merchant Wars are 
  fought; the Water Merchants seal 
  up the town, but are 
  outnumbered. A man named Roy 
  Greene makes the peace and 
  negotiates a settlement. The 
  Hub's Central Council is formed, 
  composed of two representatives 
  from each of the Hub caravan 
  companies. A long period of 
  indecisiveness and meetings 
  maintain the status quo in the 
  Hub. 
  2130 
  The Great Winter occurs. 
  2131-2135 
  The Master begins ordering his 
  super mutants to gather human 
  stock from caravans. For many 
  years, the caravan 
  disappearances are blamed on 
  monsters in the desert, and even 
  when the abductions begin to 
  occur on Hub caravans, the 
  Deathclaws are blamed. The super 
  mutant army grows. 
  2134 
  A faction within the Brotherhood 
  of Steel led by Sergeant Dennis 
  Allen gains strength, and they 
  urge the Elders to let them 
  explore the southeast Glow for 
  artifacts. The Elders refuse, so 
  Allen and his divisionist group 
  splits away from the Brotherhood 
  of Steel, taking some technology 
  and weapons with them. 
  2134 
  Led by Sergeant Dennis Allen, a 
  small team of the Brotherhood of 
  Steel head to the West Tek 
  research facility in search of 
  technological artifacts. They 
  arrive there twenty days later, 
  and are promptly chewed apart by 
  the West Tek's unforgiving 
  automated defense systems. 
  Wounded, Allen begins to suffer 
  radiation poisoning from a leak 
  in his suit. Before he dies, he 
  logs what happened to the 
  expedition into a holodisk then 
  goes to join the Brotherhood in 
  the sky. 
  2135 
  Elder Roger Maxson dies of 
  cancer, and his son, already an 
  accomplished soldier, takes up 
  the role of "General" (Elder) 
  within the Brotherhood of Steel. 
  John Maxson becomes a member of 
  the Paladins, showing tremendous 
  promise as a soldier. 
  2137 
  Master's begins to mass-produce 
  super mutants. Only about one in 
  six or one in five attempts are 
  successful, and of these 
  successes, only half seem to 
  last long enough to go on to be 
  part of his growing army, called 
  the Unity. 
  2140 
  Decker forms Underground in the 
  Hub and starts pulling strings. 
  Spring 2141 
  Vault 15 opened. 
  2141 
  Vault Dweller born.  
  Winter 2141 
  Raiders begin to form in the 
  region as food supplies run low. 
  The Khans and the Vipers begin 
  terrorizing local settlements. 
  Spring 2142 
  Shady Sands founded, wall 
  erected against the raiders. 
  2152 
  As their influence slowly 
  spreads throughout the wastes, 
  the Master finds humans, 
  doomsday cultists, and rather 
  than dip them in the vats, he 
  demands their obedience as spies 
  - their leader is a man named 
  Morpheus, and he pledges his 
  followers to the Master. 
  Morpheus and his cultists form 
  the future core of the Children 
  of the Cathedral. 
  2155 
  John Maxson's father dies in a 
  raid by the Vipers. Expecting 
  the raiders to break and run, 
  Maxson doesn't take into account 
       19     
    
  
  the religious ferocity of the 
  Vipers (or their poisoned 
  weapons), and when a single 
  arrow nicks him with his helmet 
  off, he dies within hours. John 
  Maxson takes up the role of 
  Elder, and Rhombus becomes the 
  new head of the Paladins. 
  2155-2156 
  After capturing a caravan of 
  strange-garbed travelers (vault 
  dwellers), Master learns the 
  location of the Boneyard Vault, 
  the future site of the 
  Cathedral. He conquers the 
  inhabitants and sets up 
  operations there, and the human 
  cultists begin to use the Vault 
  as their powerbase. Within the 
  Vault, the Master learns of 
  other Vaults, and realizing 
  their human occupants are ripe 
  for transformation, begins to 
  send out patrols to Vault 
  locations in search of these 
  other Vaults. 
  2156 
  The Master sees advantages in 
  establishing a benevolent 
  "religion," the Children of the 
  Cathedral, and using them as 
  spies in settlements throughout 
  the wastes. Missionaries from 
  the Children of the Cathedral 
  spread slowly across the 
  wasteland, acting as eyes and 
  ears for Morpheus and the 
  Master. 
  2157 
  The Master learns the location 
  of the Bakersfield Vault, Vault 
  12, and sends a detachment of 
  super mutants there to seize the 
  vault. Many ghouls are snapped 
  like twigs in the attack, and 
  Set finally parleys with the 
  super mutants, telling them that 
  the ghouls are the Vault 
  survivors the super mutants are 
  looking for. The super mutants, 
  angered at failing to find an 
  intact Vault, set up a small 
  garrison at the watershed to 
  watch the inhabitants and insure 
  Set's... cooperation in the war 
  to come. 
  October 2161 
  A Brotherhood of Steel patrol 
  comes across a dead super mutant 
  in the badlands. They take the 
  corpse back to the Scribes, and 
  Head Scribe Vree begins her 
  examinations of the super 
  mutant. 
  5 December 2161 
  Vault Dweller is kicked out of 
  Vault 13 to find a replacement 
  water chip. 
  13 February 2162 
  Vault Dweller recovers the water 
  chip in Necropolis.  
  3 March 2162 
  Vault Dweller destroys the 
  Master. 
  20 April 2162 
  Vault Dweller destroys the 
  Mariposa Military Base.  
  10 May 2162 
  Vault Dweller returns to Vault 
  13, only to be told "you're a 
  hero, and you have to leave." 
  Some members of the Vault (led 
  by Lydia, the head of the 
  "return to the surface" faction, 
  and including her supporters, 
  Theresa and Lyle) follow soon 
  afterwards. 
  12 May 2162 
  Vault Dweller removes the Vault 
  suit and from this day forward, 
  never wears it again. 
  10 July 2162 
  Vault Dweller heads North with a 
  small group of Vault-dwellers 
  and wastelanders and founds the 
  small village of Arroyo. 
  18 August 2167 
  Construction of Arroyo 
  completed. 
  Summer 2185 
  At high noon, Marcus a Super 
  Mutant and Brotherhood of Steel 
  Paladin Jacob cross paths many, 
  many miles southwest of Broken 
  Hills and punch and shoot each 
  other for a few days. 
  Eventually, they give up, unable 
       20     
    
  
  to get an advantage over the 
  other. The two start traveling 
  together, arguing over Master 
  and BOS doctrine and whether or 
  not the Master could truly 
  neurolink his biology into the 
  Cathedral computer network. 
  Fall 2185 
  Marcus and Jacob, along with the 
  trail of ghouls, humans, and 
  super mutants, found the 
  community of Broken Hills. 
  Spring 2186 
  Jacob moves on, says goodbye to 
  Marcus, and then moves on for 
  parts unknown. 
  2186 
  New California Republic formed, 
  and a central council is created 
  as a governing body. 
  2 October 2188 
  Vault Dweller has a daughter. 
  2196 
  Tandi is unanimously elected 
  President of NCR by the NCR 
  council. As expected, she 
  proceeds to do a kick-ass job. 
  2198 
  Enclave works on various new 
  technologies, including Power 
  Armor variations. None of these 
  are much of an improvement over 
  the conventional old school 
  Power Armor, and some are 
  actually worse. 
  16 January 2208 
  After writing his memoirs, the 
  Vault Dweller vanishes from 
  Arroyo and is presumed dead. The 
  Vault Dweller leaves the Vault 
  Suit behind, folded on the bed. 
  Some say the Vault Dweller was 
  taken by the sky spirits, others 
  say that the Vault Dweller felt 
  it was time to move on and leave 
  the Elders to guide Arroyo to 
  its destiny. 
  2 February 2208 
  The One-Moon (Month) Cycle of 
  mourning for the Vault Dweller 
  ends, and activity in Arroyo 
  begins to return to normal. 
   
  2 February 2208 
  Final training of the Vault 
  Dweller's daughter for the role 
  of village elder begins. She 
  undergoes a great deal of 
  physical training and tutoring 
  in various sciences, 
  mathematics, and, of course, 
  weapon skills. 
  31 January 2210 
  Vault Dweller's daughter takes 
  her mystic test, a key 
  ingredient of which is several 
  pots worth of hallucinogenic 
  plants from Hakuinn's garden. 
  She runs the gauntlet in the 
  Temple of Trials, using her 
  charm to pass most of the tests 
  after her handgun jams (and is 
  ruined) on the first level. She 
  offers numerous criticisms of 
  the test, resulting in many 
  revisions.  
  2 February 2210 
  Vault Dweller's daughter ascends 
  to role of Village Elder. She 
  rules with a steady hand, and 
  her wisdom is greatly respected. 
  2211 
  Frank Horrigan is born. 
  1 August 2215 
  Congressman Richardson rises to 
  power within the Enclave, aided 
  by pressure from his father, 
  President Richardson. 
  2215 
  Under Presidential Order, 
  Enclave scientists begin to work 
  on an upgraded version of Power 
  Armor. Many prototypes are 
  developed and tested. 
  5 March 2220 
  Congressman Richardson is 
  elected president for the first 
  term of five, through aid and 
  political pressure by his father 
  (President Richardson). 
  October 2220 
  Enclave scientists develop a 
  reliable version of the Mark II 
  Power Armor. The prototype 
  results (and accidents... and 
  explosions... and deaths) are 
       21     
    
  
  classified by order of the 
  President Richardson for the 
  sake of morale. 
  2235 
  The Enclave experiments on 
  Deathclaws, attempting to create 
  special fighting units for 
  waging war in hostile 
  environments. 
  2235 
  While there had already been a 
  small number of ghouls in Gecko 
  at this time, more come to the 
  area, and the town of Gecko is 
  formed. The new influx of ghouls 
  brings scavenged technology and 
  know-how, and the power plant in 
  Gecko becomes operational later 
  that year. Vault City looks upon 
  their new neighbors with growing 
  concern. 
  20 July 2236 
  Enclave scouts discover the 
  remains of the Mariposa Military 
  Base and find it partially 
  destroyed. 
  July-August 2236 
  Enclave scientists and chemical 
  corps scour the remains of 
  Mariposa, while assault squads 
  comb the desert for slaves they 
  can use to mine the military 
  base and get to the Vats. One of 
  the squads includes soldier 
  Frank Horrigan, 25 at the time, 
  recently removed from duty on 
  the President's secret service 
  to take some RNR time in the 
  wastes after some undocumented 
  psychotic blunder or another. 
  August 2236 
  Melchior is captured by an 
  Enclave patrol and becomes part 
  of the slave mining force at the 
  Military Base. 
  September 2236 
  Enclave construction crews and 
  super mutant slaves begin 
  excavations. They uncover the 
  FEV virus, and mutations begin 
  to occur in the human workers. 
  Frank Horrigan comes into 
  contact with the FEV and is sent 
  to the Enclave labs for study. 
  October 2236 
  Melchior begins to mutate... but 
  keeps his intelligence and 
  cunning in the wake of the 
  transformation, making him 
  pretty smart for a super mutant. 
  Realizing that the Enclave will 
  kill the super mutants after 
  they get the FEV data, he begins 
  to use his talents to secret 
  away weapons for the mutants to 
  defend themselves when the 
  Enclave decides to dispense with 
  them. 
  January 2237 
  Enclave, having obtained the FEV 
  data, abandons the Military Base 
  site after more mutations occur, 
  causing 2nd Generation Super 
  Mutants to arise - the Enclave 
  leaves a single squad behind to 
  wipe out the super mutants, but 
  the mutants, using armaments 
  they have cached in the base 
  during excavation, reduce the 
  squad to ashes after suffering 
  heavy casualties. The remaining 
  1st and 2nd Generation super 
  mutant slaves decide to remain 
  in the Base and the group forms 
  a new community. 
  2236-2238 
  Horrigan gradually mutates from 
  exposure to FEV, gaining the 
  physique and slow, stupid, 
  single-mindedness of a super 
  mutant. He is kept heavily 
  sedated, operated on, and 
  studied. He is conscious for 
  only brief periods at a time, 
  and then quickly sedated after 
  the bloodshed is over. 
  2238 
  Harold arrives in Gecko, and 
  does his best to help the ghouls 
  with the running of the Nuclear 
  Power Plant. 
  23 January 2239 
  Tests begin to run dry on Frank 
  Horrigan. It is suggested that 
  he be used as a field operative 
  and be used in tests in the 
  wasteland against local 
  populations. 
       22     
    
  
  27 March 2239 
  Frank Horrigan is manufactured 
  for his new role. A new version 
  of Power Armor is built to 
  accommodate his mass, and he is 
  sealed inside. After a few 
  horrifically successful field 
  tests, Horrigan becomes the 
  Enclave's solution to numerous 
  sticky problems. 
  2241 
  The worst dry season in many 
  years causes a drought in the 
  Northern California area, 
  hurting crops and Brahmin in 
  both Arroyo and Modoc. 
  January 2241 
  The first samples of Jet begin 
  to arrive in Redding, courtesy 
  of the Mordino family. 
  February 2241 
  Vault City rejects offers of an 
  alliance with both the Bishop 
  family of New Reno and NCR. 
  March 2241 
  Raider attacks on caravans to 
  Vault City begin. 
  25 July 2241 
  Chosen One begins his mystic 
  test, descending into the Temple 
  of Trials. 
  27 July 2241 
  Chosen One leaves Arroyo in 
  search of the GECK. 
  15 May 2242 
  Enclave sends a coded sequence 
  to Vault 13, activating its 
  central computer and declaring 
  that is time to leave the Vault. 
  Martin Frobisher gathers the 
  Vault dwellers together for 
  tutorial movie. 
  16 May 2242 
  Less than a day later, Vault 13 
  is opened, only to be greeted by 
  two Enclave verti-assault 
  squads. The squads kill three of 
  the citizens who were "resisting 
  capture," and storm the Vault, 
  kidnapping all the inhabitants. 
  17 May 2242 
  Enclave animal handlers drop a 
  Deathclaw unit into Vault 13 
  from a safe distance to kill 
  anyone investigating the Vault 
  and cloak the Enclave's 
  presence. Other Deathclaws are 
  sent into the desert surrounding 
  Vault 13 to check for any 
  escapees or witnesses. 
  Fall 2242 
  The Chosen One enters the 
  Enclave using the damaged tanker 
  and destroys the Poseidon oil 
  platform, killing the President 
  of the United States and ending 
  the Enclave's plans for world 
  domination. 
   
  The Vault Dweller 
   
  Wearing a blue jumpsuit with a 
  bright yellow 13 on the back, 
  the adventures of the Vault 
  Dweller are that of Gaming 
  Legend. Below are the memoirs of 
  the Vault Dweller, written in 
  early January 2208. 
   
  The one good thing about growing 
  old is that you get your way. 
  The new leaders of the Tribe 
  (they refuse to call themselves 
  Elders until I have passed on, 
  which should be soon, if I m 
  lucky) want me to record my 
  knowledge for future 
  generations. Bah! What knowledge 
  they need is to be found with 
  sweat and blood, not some 
  letters on a page. But the 
  future is a great unknown, and 
  they may have a point. To make 
  them happy, I’ve written down 
  what I feel will be important. 
  (The important words being what 
  I feel will be important.) They 
  want me to write my memoirs. 
  Fine. I’ll do it. But as the 
  song goes, I’ll do it my way. 
  And I m old enough that I will 
  get my way. 
  The Vaults 
  Like all of the original members 
  of the Tribe, I came from the 
  Vaults. Before the War, the 
  government of the United States, 
       23     
    
  
  this numbered in the thousands 
  of villages, and had many, many 
  tribesman per village, paid to 
  have these huge holes dug in 
  mountains and huts of metal and 
  stone built underground. There 
  were many Vaults. Some were 
  close to cities and some far 
  away. These Vaults were to be 
  used as safe places in case of 
  atomic war. As you may guess, 
  when the War came your ancestors 
  made it to a Vault. Vault-13 to 
  be specific. For several 
  generations, your ancestors and 
  mine lived within the Vault. As 
  best as they could figure, it 
  was too dangerous to try and 
  leave the Vault. They grew their 
  own food, recycled their waste, 
  read, worked, slept, had 
  families, and even purified the 
  necessary water within the 
  Vault. I was born in the crèche, 
  and was raised by the community 
  (and a robot). It was a good 
  life, but all good things come 
  to an end. About three 
  generations after the War, the 
  water-purification chip the 
  Vault relied on to create the 
  fresh water broke down. All the 
  spare parts were missing or 
  busted, and without the water-
  chip the Vault was doomed. 
  Something had to be done. The 
  Overseer gathered the healthy of 
  us between a certain age and 
  made us draw straws. Guess what? 
  I drew the short one. Wouldn’t 
  be much of story if I didn’t, 
  would it? I left the Vault the 
  next day. 
  Life on the Outside 
  My first few days were harrowing 
  to say the least. I fought off 
  some giant mutant rats that were 
  more interested in eating me 
  than they should have been. My 
  only clue was the location of 
  another Vault, number 15. I 
  spent a couple of days stumbling 
  through the desert before I came 
  upon a small settlement. I 
  stopped there for help, and 
  encountered the little town 
  called Shady Sands. I helped 
  them, and they helped me. 
  Understand that survival 
  requires that you work together, 
  even with people you may not 
  trust. I did earn the trust, 
  however, of two prominent 
  citizens of Shady Sands - Tandy, 
  and her father, Aradesh. With 
  their knowledge, and the help of 
  a man called Ian, I continued on 
  my way to Vault-15. The ruins of 
  Vault-15, to be more specific. 
  Ravaged by the elements, 
  scavengers, and time itself, 
  Vault-15 was no help for my 
  people. The control room that 
  contained their water-chip was 
  buried under tons of fallen 
  rock, and I had to move on. 
  After a small problem with some 
  Raiders, who would continue for 
  years to plague not only myself, 
  but the Tribe, I found myself in 
  Junktown. It was here that I 
  learned the most important rule 
  of all: doing a good thing 
  sometimes means being a very bad 
  person. My memories of Junktown 
  are tainted, and I feel no 
  remorse for my actions in that 
  place. It was there that I came 
  across a dog, which adopted me 
  and was my faithful friend from 
  there on. I miss Dogmeat to this 
  day. While Junktown was a city 
  of traders (and traitors), it 
  did not have a water-chip. I was 
  not desperate yet, as there was 
  still time for me to recover the 
  chip and return to my home, but 
  I needed to move on. 
  Fortunately, they pointed me in 
  the direction of the Hub, the 
  largest city in the wasteland. 
  The Hub was a larger city than 
  both Junktown and Shady Sands 
  combined. You could drop the 
  Vault in there, and you probably 
  would not notice. But the people 
  of the Hub had no life, and it 
  was a desolate place just the 
  same. It eased my mind, however, 
  to hire some merchants to bring 
  water to the Vault. Looking 
  back, it was probably a mistake 
       24     
    
  
  to do so, but I was still 
  innocent of the evils that 
  lurked through the ruins of 
  civilization. A small clue led 
  me to the city of the ghouls, 
  the place they called 
  Necropolis. It was there that I 
  encountered large mutants, armed 
  with weapons of an unknown 
  origin. It is with heavy sadness 
  that I say that Ian lost his 
  life in the city of the dead. A 
  super mutant burned him to death 
  with a flamethrower. The passage 
  of time is no proof against the 
  memory of burning flesh. His 
  sacrifice was not in vain, as I 
  did find the waterchip buried 
  beneath the city. It was with 
  easier steps that I returned to 
  Vault-13. 
  Enemies of the State 
  While the Overseer was obviously 
  happy to see me returned to the 
  Vault, alive and with the 
  necessary water-chip, he was 
  distraught at my description of 
  the super mutants. It is here 
  that I realized the mistake I 
  had made with the water-
  merchants. I had pointed them, 
  and others, in the direction of 
  our home. Without the protection 
  of anonymity, the Vault could 
  easily have been destroyed. The 
  knowledge of the fate of Vault-
  15 did not help. The Overseer 
  tasked me with a new mission. 
  Find and destroy the danger of 
  the super mutants. Once again, I 
  left the Vault. This time, it 
  was easier on my heart. Looking 
  back now, I realize it was also 
  the first time I should have 
  seen the true hearts of the 
  other vault dwellers and the 
  Overseer. I returned to the Hub, 
  looking for clues. Some time was 
  spent there, and I discovered a 
  shady underworld amongst the 
  hustle and bustle of that large 
  city. They thought they could 
  manipulate me, but I proved them 
  wrong and used the crooks 
  instead. I did rescue a young 
  man who belonged to the 
  Brotherhood of Steel. A few 
  trouble-makers tried to stop me, 
  but I learned much about 
  survival since leaving the 
  Vault. It was in my best 
  interest to leave town for a 
  while. I journeyed to this 
  Brotherhood. Thinking they would 
  have the knowledge I sought, I 
  tried to join them. They 
  required me to go on a quest 
  before they would let me in. 
  Thinking it would be a short and 
  easy quest, I agreed and set off 
  for the place they called the 
  Glow. The horror of atomic war 
  was never so obvious to me until 
  then. The Brotherhood was 
  surprised to see me, and even 
  more surprised to see that I had 
  not only survived their quest, 
  but succeeded. They gave me the 
  information I required and some 
  of their technology, and I set 
  off in search of the Boneyard. 
  On my way, I took a detour and 
  stopped by Necropolis in order 
  to see some old friends. 
  Unfortunately, that place was 
  now truly the city of the dead. 
  All the ghouls had been 
  slaughtered. Large mutants 
  roamed the streets. I found one 
  survivor who told me that the 
  mutants had attacked shortly 
  after I had left. Before he 
  died, the ghoul told me that the 
  mutants were looking for pure 
  strain humans and one in 
  particular. The ghoul's 
  description of the mutants' 
  special target fit me perfectly. 
  It was with a heavy heart and a 
  cold burning on my soul that I 
  continued on to Boneyard. 
  The Master 
  The city of Los Angeles must 
  have been the largest in the 
  world before the War. The LA 
  Boneyard stretched forever, the 
  skeletons of buildings lying 
  under the hot sun. Not even the 
  wind entered this dead city. I 
  found many enemies, and a few 
  friends, in the Boneyard. I 
  killed when necessary and 
       25     
    
  
  learned more about the nature of 
  my true foes. Deep under the 
  ground, I found an evil that was 
  behind the mutants and their 
  army. Within a dark and 
  forbidding Vault, where the 
  walls dripped with human flesh, 
  and the screaming of dying 
  echoed through the halls, I 
  found many evil creatures and 
  mutants. Walking among the 
  misshapen ones, I killed one of 
  their servants and took his 
  clothing. Hidden from casual 
  searches, I made my way to the 
  bottom of the Vault. The deeper 
  into the Vault I went, the more 
  gruesome the journey. More and 
  more flesh was to be found, 
  integrated into the very walls. 
  The worst part of it was that 
  the flesh was still alive, and 
  even aware of my presence. After 
  a while, I found myself in the 
  presence of the most hideous 
  sight yet. I still cannot bring 
  myself to write of this 
  discovery, but let it be known 
  that when I left, the Beast was 
  dead and the Master of the 
  mutant army was no more. 
  The Vats 
  My job was still not finished, 
  for I still had one task 
  remaining. The Master had 
  literally built his army one 
  mutant at a time. Humans, 
  preferably with little radiation 
  damage, were to be captured and 
  sent to the Vats. There they 
  were dipped in something called 
  FEV, which transformed them into 
  the large, grotesque mutants. 
  I had to find these Vats, and 
  put them out of action as well, 
  lest another take the Masters 
  place and continue to build the 
  mutant army. Fortunately, my 
  friends at the Brotherhood had a 
  few clues, and helped me reach 
  my goal. Invading the Vats, I 
  came across more mutants and 
  robots. None could stand in my 
  way. I had a mission. I had a 
  goal. I had a really large gun. 
  It was here that Dogmeat fell, a 
  victim of a powerful energy 
  forcefield. I miss that dog. I 
  destroyed the Vats that day, and 
  with it, the mutant army. The 
  last I heard, they splintered 
  and disappeared into the desert. 
  My Return to Vault-13 
  I was not treated to a heroes s 
  welcome when I returned to 
  Vault-13. The overseer met me 
  outside the massive Vault door, 
  and told me point blank that 
  while my services to the Vault 
  will always be remembered, he 
  could no longer trust me or what 
  I had become. He said something 
  along the lines that I had saved 
  the Vault, and now I must leave. 
  Bastard. So, I left. The days 
  and weeks that followed were 
  hard on me. I had met few true 
  friends outside the Vault, and 
  they had died following me. Now, 
  my family had kicked me out and 
  said that I could never return. 
  I screamed. I cried. Slowly I 
  came to realize that the 
  Overseer may have been correct. 
  I had changed. Life outside the 
  Vault was different, and now I, 
  too, was different. But I have 
  never forgiven him for doing 
  what he did to me. 
  I wandered the desert, but never 
  moved far from the mountains 
  that shielded the Vault from the 
  rest of the world. Perhaps I 
  wanted to return, and force my 
  way in, or plead for them to 
  take me back. Fortunately, it 
  did not come to that. I found a 
  few wretched souls, a small 
  group of Vaultdwellers, who upon 
  hearing of what happened to me, 
  had decided to leave the Vault 
  and join my side. 
  They knew little of the outside 
  world, and would have died if it 
  were not for my assistance. 
  Together, our little group moved 
  north, away from the Vault, and 
  away from that old life. Slowly, 
  I taught them what experience 
  had taught me. And together we 
  learned to thrive. 
  The Tribe 
       26     
    
  
  Over time, our ragtag group 
  turned into a tribe. I fell in 
  love with one of them, and we 
  raised a family, like all of our 
  tribespeople. 
  We founded the Village, beyond 
  the great cliff. It is a secure 
  home thanks to our hard work. We 
  would send scouts back towards 
  the Vault, to help others who 
  thought like ourselves, but that 
  slowly came to an end. We no 
  longer head in that direction. I 
  often wonder what became of 
  Vault-13, and the other Vaults, 
  but I never had the time to go 
  exploring again. I taught the 
  others the skills they would 
  need to survive and grow strong. 
  Hunting, farming and other 
  skills to feed us. Engineering 
  and science to build our homes. 
  Fighting to protect what was 
  ours. My love and I led the 
  village and the Tribe.  The 
  Tribe grew, and grew strong with 
  our help. But all things come to 
  an end. Our sons and daughters 
  are now the leaders. I’m sure 
  that the Tribe will continue to 
  grow strong under the leadership 
  of our children. My love 
  perished years ago, and not a 
  day goes by that I do not think 
  of Pat's face. I see it every 
  time I look at our children. 
  This journal is our legacy to 
  them, to their children, and to 
  the rest of the Tribe. That is 
  my story, and I am sticking to 
  it. 
  -The Wanderer 
   
  The Vaults  
  A Social Experiment 
   
  Before the War, a company called 
  Vault-Tec built a series of 
  enormous underground facilities 
  for the US Government designed 
  to keep people safe from 
  disaster. They financed this 
  project by selling places in the 
  Vaults to people who could 
  afford them. Although they never 
  expected to use the Vaults, many 
  people managed to find their way 
  into them before the bombs hit. 
  Vaults are three-story 
  underground structures deep 
  inside of mountains, where they 
  are shielded from the effects of 
  radiation, disease, and other 
  catastrophes. They were designed 
  to run for as long as necessary 
  to keep people alive, using 
  hydroponics technology and 
  water-recycling. Many stayed 
  sealed for 80 or 100 years. 
  Vaults were equipped with sensor 
  devices to monitor outside 
  conditions, and had computers 
  with vast amounts of pre-War 
  data. In addition, they were 
  well stocked with weapons and 
  other important tools. Vaults 
  were equipped with an item 
  called the G.E.C.K., the Garden 
  of Eden Creation Kit, a device 
  that was designed to help the 
  inhabitants built a new life 
  once it was safe to return 
  aboveground. Some Vaults were 
  destroyed by earthquakes, 
  Raiders, or other disasters, but 
  a few of them managed to 
  survive, technology - and people 
  - intact. 
  The Vaults were built to save 
  humanity from the bomb.  Vault-
  Tec constructed 122 vaults 
  throughout the United States. 
  The location of 16 vaults has 
  been verified.  The Horrible 
  truth of the Vaults is this; 
  they were a social experiment of 
  the worst kind designed by the 
  government. The Government 
  selected sections of the 
  population and how they would 
  react to the stresses of 
  isolationism and how they would 
  repopulate after the vaults 
  opened.  The known 16 vaults are 
  the only identified and verified 
  experiments (Experiments are 
  left open to the discretion of 
  the Overseer). 
   
   
       27     
    
  
  Vault 
  8 
  A control Vault, intended 
  to open and re-colonize 
  the surface after 10 
  years. Vault City is the 
  result. Unfortunately. 
  Vault 
  12 
  In order the study the 
  effects of radiation on 
  the selected population, 
  the Vault Door was 
  designed not to close. 
  This is the Necropolis 
  Vault... and the ghouls 
  were the result. 
  Vault 
  13 
  Intended to stay closed 
  for 200 years as a study 
  of prolonged isolation, 
  the broken water chip 
  forced the Overseer to 
  improvise and use the 
  Vault Dweller as a pawn. 
  Later study of the Vault 
  13 records by the Enclave 
  led them to their current 
  plan to end the war. 
  Vault 
  15 
  Intended to stay closed 
  for 50 years and include 
  people of radically 
  diverse ideologies. 
  Gathered from what you 
  hear from Aradesh in 
  Fallout 1, he has quite a 
  bit of multi-cultural 
  flavoring to his speech. 
  Vault 
  27 
  This Vault would be 
  overcrowded deliberately. 
  2000 people would be 
  assigned to enter, double 
  the total sustainable 
  amount. The location of 
  this Vault is unknown. 
   
  Vault 
  29 
  No one in this Vault was 
  over the age of 15 when 
  they entered. Parents 
  were redirected to other 
  Vaults on purpose. Harold 
  is believed to have come 
  from this Vault. 
  Vault 
  34 
  The armory was 
  overstocked with weapons 
  and ammo and not provided 
  with a lock. 
  Vault 
  36 
  The food extruders were 
  designed to produce only 
  a thin, watery gruel. 
  Vault 
  42 
  No light bulbs of more 
  than 40 watts were 
  provided. 
  Vault 
  53 
  Most of the equipment was 
  designed to break down 
  every few months. While 
  repairable, the 
  breakdowns were intended 
  to stress the inhabitants 
  unduly. 
  Vault 
  55 
  All entertainment tapes 
  were removed. 
  Vault 
  56 
  All entertainment tapes 
  were removed except those 
  of one particularly bad 
  comic actor. Sociologists 
  predicted failure before 
  Vault 55. 
  Vault 
  68 
  Of the one thousand 
  people who entered, there 
  was only one woman. 
  Vault 
  69 
  Of the one thousand 
  people who entered, there 
  was only one man. 
  Vault 
  70 
  All jumpsuit extruders 
  fail after 6 months. 
  Vault 
  88 
  All Entertainment tapes 
  were Kung Fu movies 
  Vault 
  106 
  Psychoactive drugs were 
  released into the air 
  filtration system 10 days 
  after the Door was 
  sealed. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
       28     
    
  
  Groups of the 
  Wasteland 
   
  80s 
   
  The 80s are a gang of bandits 
  that operate along the Northern 
  California 80 Freeway, mostly in 
  the region northeast of the 
  lawless, uncontrolled city of 
  Sacramento. They are easily 
  recognized by the "80" signs 
  they wear strapped across their 
  chests. High-ranking members 
  usually have the Interstate 80 
  red and blue signs. Lower-
  ranking members wear green 
  Highway 80 signs and the 
  ordinary grunts make do with 
  what is left over. The 80s are 
  known for their tireless pursuit 
  of enemies and for their 
  occasional use of motorcycles. 
   
  The Brotherhood of Steel  
   
   
  A quasi-religious, quasi-
  political group, the Brotherhood 
  of Steel is an organization 
  spanning most of the western 
  United States and is currently 
  pushing eastward. The 
  Brotherhood is dedicated to 
  preserving technology no matter 
  what the cost. There are many 
  different ranks within the 
  Brotherhood, and three separate 
  “classes”: warriors, scribes, 
  and elders. Unlike the 
  chivalrous knights of old, 
  members of the 
  Brotherhood is not interested in 
  justice for the obviously weaker 
  and less fortunate around them, 
  but instead in keeping their 
  secrecy and preserving and 
  developing technology. Their 
  motives are often unclear, and 
  Brotherhood members are not 
  people to be trifled with. It is 
  safe to say, however, that if a 
  group of Brotherhood knights 
  appears to be helping some less 
  fortunate people, their motives 
  are not altruistic. If you 
  encounter one in the wastes, 
  they are most likely on some 
  kind of mission. 
  The Church of the Mushroom Cloud  
    
  A cataclysmic event like the War 
  is the kind of occurrence that 
  inspires people to find faith, 
  and the Church of the 
  Mushroom cloud grew to meet that 
  need. Filled with strange 
  religious practices, including 
  radiation baths and bleeding 
  rituals, the Church has become 
  quite popular in and around Las 
  Vegas, where it is based. It 
  isn't clear what the Church's 
  motives are, or if its 
  popularity is based on 
  "aggressive" methods of 
  conversion, but it is a rapidly 
  growing organization, and one 
  that gains power and influence 
  with each month. 
   
       29     
    
  
  Caesars Legion 
   
  Comprised mostly of 
  reconditioned tribals and their 
  offspring, Caesar’s Legion is a 
  huge slaving organization that 
  used to operate east of the 
  Grand Canyon. Led by the 
  charismatic and cunning 
  “Caesar”, the legionnaires are a 
  well-organized fighting force 
  and absolutely merciless in 
  their slavery. Mimicking the 
  ancient traditions of the Roman 
  Empire, the legionnaires dress 
  in segmented football pad armor 
  and decorated football helmets. 
  Caesar attempted to destroy 
  NCR’s presence in the east, and 
  actually succeeded in destroying 
  one of their major 
  fortifications, Fort Aradesh. 
  When Caesar attempted to take 
  Hoover Dam, however, the legion 
  was badly defeated. Since that 
  time, Caesar has moved east of 
  Texas, past the legendary 
  cyclones that rage for most of 
  the months of the year. Despite 
  this, packs of his legionnaires 
  still operate in the southwest, 
  collecting tribute from tribes 
  in the form of goods and slaves.  
  Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
  Day Saints 
  Groups of Mormons still survive 
  in the wasteland, mostly in the 
  area that used to be known as 
  the state of Utah. Though truly 
  brutal groups like Caesar’s 
  Legion will not hesitate to 
  enslave or kill Mormons, most 
  tribals and other organizations 
  leave the Mormons alone, knowing 
  that they often will voluntarily 
  give medical or other aid to 
  groups who need it. The people 
  tolerate the Mormons’ preaching 
  because finding help with 
  relatively benign conditions is 
  rare.  
  The Children of the Cathedral 
   
  Publically, the Children were a 
  post-doomsday cult that preached 
  peace and unity. They worshipped 
  the Holy Flame that destroyed 
  all the world's evil (the 
  nuclear fire that destroyed 
  civilization in the Great War) 
  and talked of their Master who 
  would lead them to a better 
  existence. Children doctrine 
  stated that human beings were 
  flawed and needed to be purified 
  by the trials of war to become 
  something more. Devout CoCs 
  spoke of "peace forged by war 
  and hardship". The Children of 
  the Cathedral would seem to be 
  evangelical and eager for 
  converts based on their 
  involvement throughout the 
  wastes, but many representatives 
  of the CoC encountered by the 
  Vault Dweller are reluctant to 
  discuss their faith. The 
  Children also ran a number of 
  hospitals in various places 
  around the wastes. The largest 
  was in the Water Merchants' 
  section of the Hub where young 
  children handed out flowers to 
  visitors and free medical care 
  was availible to anyone who was 
  wounded. Jain, an important 
  Child of the Cathedral, resided 
  in the Children's Hub hospital. 
  The Children also maintained a 
  small, ragged clinic in the 
  ghoul city of Necropolis where 
  two Children provided medicine 
  in exchange for money until they 
  were forced to leave when the 
  Vault Dweller eliminated the 
  super mutant garrison at the 
       30     
    
  
  water shed. Finally, in 
  Junktown, a doctor from the 
  Children would move into one of 
  the buildings after 80 days from 
  the start of the game. The main 
  Children of the Cathedral 
  operation, though, was in the 
  actual Cathedral. Located 
  somewhere in the Boneyard, the 
  ruins of Los Angeles and a few 
  miles south of Adytum, the 
  Cathedral was home to Brother 
  Lasher, a sadistic priest, and 
  Brother Morpheus, the human 
  leader of the Children. Dozens 
  if not hundreds of worshippers 
  could be found in and around the 
  Cathedral, either on some 
  pilgrimage or just preaching the 
  word of the Holy Flame. The 
  Children of the Cathedral was 
  more than a creepy but 
  altruistic cult. The entire 
  religion was elaborated by the 
  Master to cultivate a pool of 
  normal human operatives in the 
  wastes and to prepare the world 
  for his coming. In 2151 
  Morpheus, a leader of a doomsday 
  cult and a former members of the 
  Rippers, a familiar gang of 
  inbreds, was found by the 
  Master's spies, and pledged his 
  followers to him, forming the 
  future core of the Children. 
  Every person the CoC converted 
  to their faith was one more 
  person who could willingly be 
  dipped in FEV. The CoC doctrine 
  largely echoed the Master's own 
  thoughts on humanity, 
  specifically in mankind's 
  inadequacy to live in 
  civilization and the urgent need 
  for drastic evolution. All 
  Children eagerly awaited their 
  chance to be baptised in the 
  great baptismal font to the 
  north--the vats of FEV in the 
  Military Base. The Cathedral was 
  defended by nightkin, elite 
  super mutants equipped with 
  Stealth Boys to make them semi-
  invisible. Underneath the 
  Cathedral was the seat of the 
  Master's power: the Los Angeles 
  Vault. A vault with no number, 
  the LA vault was meant to serve 
  as a demonstration of the Vault 
  technology by the Vault-Tec 
  company. It was used during the 
  war but evacuated soon after, 
  leading to the formation of 
  Adytum and the other Boneyard 
  communities. The Master 
  eventually discovered the 
  abandoned Vault and moved in. 
  From there, he plotted his grand 
  scheme for the evolution of 
  humanity through FEV until the 
  Vault Dweller destroyed him in 
  2162. With the loss of the 
  Cathedral, the Master and the 
  Military Base (also destroyed 
  that same year by the Vault 
  Dweller), the Children 
  disbanded. 
   
  Commonwealths 
   
  Prior to the Great War, the 
  United States had an 
  intermediate level of government 
  between the state and federal 
  powers. In the early 21st 
  century, the nation was divided 
  into thirteen commonwealths. It 
  was believed that such divisions 
  would help create legislation 
  broad enough to affect states 
  with common concerns, but narrow 
  enough to leave dissimilar 
  states alone. In reality, it 
  created even more strife, as 
  commonwealths typically did 
  everything they could to promote 
  their own interests at the 
  expense of other commonwealths. 
  The thirteen commonwealths were:  
       31     
    
  
  • 
  Columbia - Washington, 
  D.C., Maryland, Virginia  
  • 
  East Central – Ohio, 
  Kentucky, Tennessee  
  • 
  Eastern – West Virginia, 
  Delaware, Pennsylvania, 
  New Jersey, New York  
  • 
  Four States – Utah, 
  Colorado, Arizona, New 
  Mexico  
  • 
  Gulf – Louisiana, 
  Mississippi, Alabama, 
  Florida  
  • 
  Midwest – Wisconsin, 
  Minnesota, Illinois, 
  Indiana, Michigan  
  • 
  New England – Maine, New 
  Hampshire, Vermont, 
  Massachusetts, Rhode 
  Island, Connecticut  
  • 
  North – Montana, Wyoming, 
  North Dakota, South Dakota  
  • 
  Northwest – Northern 
  California, Washington, 
  Oregon, Idaho, Alaska  
  • 
  Plains – Nebraska, Kansas, 
  Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma  
  • 
  Southeast – Georgia, South 
  Carolina, North Carolina  
  • 
  Southwest – Southern 
  California, Nevada, Hawaii  
  • 
  Texas – Texas, Arkansas  
  Daughters of Hecate 
   
  The most powerful tribals in the 
  American Southwest are the 
  feared Daughters of Hecate and 
  their slave tribe, the Vipers. 
  Led by an aging, possibly insane 
  woman of fearsome presence, the 
  masked Daughters of Hecate 
  collect tribute from almost all 
  other tribes in the regions they 
  control. Failure to obey the 
  mandates of Hecate often results 
  in crop failure, poor hunting, 
  disease, and barren wombs. For 
  an unknown reason, the Daughters 
  of Hecate reserve a special 
  hatred for Caesar’s Legion. 
  The Desert Rangers  
   
  When the bombs went off, a group 
  of Army rangers on a routine 
  training exercise in the south 
  Nevada desert managed to take 
  over a prison and throw out 
  "uncooperative" inmates. The 
  rangers, and the inmates that 
  stayed, survived the nuclear 
  winter and built an organization 
  designed to restore law and 
  order to the shattered world. 
  Self-proclaimed protectors of 
  the innocent and weak, Rangers 
  go around trying to restore a 
  little law and order to the 
  largely lawless wastes. They 
  don't have much influence, but 
  small groups of them have been 
  known to affect large changes on 
  towns. 
   
  Enclave 
   
  One of the few old world 
  organizations to survive the 
  Great War, the Enclave was once 
  the shadow government of the 
  United States. Members of the 
  Enclave were hardliners who both 
  embraced the idea of a nuclear 
  war and knew that the common man 
  could not survive it. They 
  believed that as long as the 
  “important people” of the United 
  States survived, they could 
  regroup quickly and wipe out 
  communism once and for all. 
  Though not technically part of 
  the Enclave, many powerful 
  corporations benefited from the 
  Enclave’s actions and their 
  research facilities were 
  protected during the firestorm 
       32     
    
  
  of 2077. Chief among these was 
  Poseidon Energy, whose 
  facilities continue to be used 
  by the broken remnants of the 
  Enclave following the Chosen 
  One’s assassination of the 
  Enclave’s U.S. President and the 
  destruction of their Poseidon 
  oil tanker headquarters off of 
  the California coast. Their 
  symbol is a ring of twelve stars 
  with a bold E at the center.  
  Followers of the Apocalypse   
  The FOA inhabit a library in the 
  western segment of the Boneyard. 
  Lead by Nicole, the Followers 
  are dedicated to scholarship and 
  to ensuring that humanity does 
  not repeat the mistakes that led 
  to the Great War. While 
  ostensibly like the Children of 
  the Cathedral in being dedicated 
  to the cause of spreading peace 
  throughout the wasteland, they 
  are suspicious of the latter's 
  motives. Talius, a ghoul-like 
  mutant partially exposed to FEV 
  by the Master's forces, found 
  refuge among the Followers, and 
  helped them understand the true 
  nature of the Children. After 
  the death of the Master, the 
  Followers of the Apocalypse 
  became a major influence in the 
  newly-founded New California 
  Republic. With the Vault 
  Dweller's help, they gained 
  control of the LA Boneyard. Some 
  parts of the government dislike 
  the Followers, as they are 
  generally liberal thinkers who 
  occasionally plant seditious 
  thoughts in the heads of 
  oppressed citizens. The 
  Followers are also touchy about 
  their connection with Caesar’s 
  Legion, a powerful slaver group 
  of the east. It is from their 
  ranks that the original Caesar 
  came.  
   
   
  The Guardians 
     
  Another quasi-religious group is 
  the Guardians. They operate 
  Citadels, often converted 
  prisons or military 
  installations, and horde 
  technology for themselves. Less 
  organized than the Brotherhood 
  of Steel, they live a monk-like 
  existence (and even call each 
  other Sister, Brother, Father, 
  etc.) and limit contact with 
  outsiders. In fact, anyone 
  attempting to enter one of their 
  citadels is usually fired upon. 
  The Guardians are the makers of 
  the awesome Proton Axe, a 
  fearsome weapon that rivals 
  anything the Brotherhood has 
  produced. Not much else is known 
  about the Guardians, except that 
  they loathe the order of the old 
  America almost as much as the 
  disorder of the new. 
   
  Hangdogs 
  These tribals have a mixed 
  reputation across the wasteland. 
  Neither known for being 
  particularly brutal or kind, the 
  Hangdogs mostly keep to 
  themselves, living in 
  northeastern Colorado, near 
  Denver – or, as NCR calls it, 
  “Dog Town”. The Hangdogs run 
  with packs of dogs that have 
  been taken from the hordes that 
  reportedly infest Denver.  
  Iron Lines 
  A group of fairly primitive, 
  nomadic tribals, the Iron Lines 
  patrol and chart the railways of 
  the pre-war world. They collect 
  and often use handcarts to make 
  their way across the wilderness. 
  When they travel, they usually 
  form handcart caravans for 
  mutual safety. The Iron Lines 
  resist the Daughters of Hecate 
  and have remained largely immune 
       33     
    
  
  to the plagues that haunt other 
  tribes who go against Hecate’s 
  wishes. However, the Vipers 
  never pass up an opportunity to 
  butcher any Iron Lines they 
  discover. The Iron Lines 
  decorate their bodies with 
  paintings of parallel lines.  
  NCR Rangers 
   
  Technically part of the NCR 
  military, the Rangers are 
  practically a force unto 
  themselves. The Rangers are 
  given exceptional leeway and 
  flexibility to deal with both 
  the intrusion of organized crime 
  and the operation of slavers 
  near the borders of NCR 
  territory. NCR Rangers typically 
  have bounties on their head, 
  even in NCR states. 
  The New California Republic  
   
  The Republic, or NCR as it is 
  widely known, is a strange mix 
  of pre-War democracy and post-
  War dictatorship. Begun in the 
  town of Shady Sands, now the 
  capital(although the city itself 
  is often referred to as the 
  NCR), the Republic covers most 
  of Southern California and some 
  settlements in far west Nevada. 
  Cities and towns send delegates 
  to Shady Sands, which boasts an 
  impressive post- War capitol 
  building, and a president is 
  elected from among the 
  delegates. So far, all of the 
  presidents have come from Shady 
  Sands, the city with the 
  greatest number of delegates, as 
  it is the most populous. To 
  become a citizen of the NCR, a 
  person must agree to follow 
  their rules, most of which are 
  enforced by the huge NCR police 
  force. Mutants and ghouls are 
  not permitted the same 
  membership privileges as humans. 
  Slavery is forbidden in the NCR, 
  and members of the slave guild 
  are thrown in jail on sight. In 
  addition, the government 
  controls what weapons the 
  citizens have access to, and it 
  is illegal to brandish weapons 
  inside city limits. Gambling and 
  prostitution are also illegal in 
  the NCR. The Republic grants a 
  city membership - and, by 
  extension, the presence of the 
  NCR police and protection - in 
  exchange for tax profits and 
  control over trade. The NCR has 
  been known to bully cities into 
  joining, especially when that 
  city trades in something that 
  the NCR needs, although such 
  bullying is usually done with 
  embargos, not guns. 
   
  Poseidon Energy 
   
  Easily the most powerful energy 
  company in the world prior to 
  the Great War, Poseidon Energy 
  had its fingers in virtually all 
  forms of renewable and non-
  renewable power sources. Though 
  most of the public knew that 
  Poseidon was a huge corporation 
  and didn’t particularly trust 
  them, very few people were aware 
       34     
    
  
  that several companies owned by 
  Poseidon were given lucrative 
  defense contracts by the U.S. 
  government – or rather, by 
  Enclave members working as 
  lobbyists for their contracts. 
  Most of Poseidon’s most 
  promising projects never reached 
  their final stages. In their 
  paranoid dreams for a coup 
  against the real U.S. 
  government, the Enclave kept 
  their special toys out of 
  military consciousness until it 
  was too late to actually use 
  them. Now, Poseidon does not 
  exist as a “real” force in the 
  world. However, tech scavengers 
  like the Brotherhood of Steel 
  and Enclave still try in vain to 
  decipher Poseidon plans and 
  either confiscate them or turn 
  them into working models, 
  respectively.  
  Police  
   
  Each town maintains its own police 
  force, usually headed by an elected 
  Sheriff, to enforce its laws. Larger 
  groups use organized police militia 
  forces, who often are above the law in 
  their enforcement of it Due process and 
  fair trials are things of the past; more 
  often than not, justice is fast and deadly, 
  or at least painful.  Smaller town police 
  tend to be more willing to listen to both 
  sides of an argument, and will be more 
  likely to throw a criminal out of town 
  rather than jail or execute them, although 
  they often listen to the desires of the 
  townspeople regarding these matters. 
  Members of larger police forces tend to 
  be more corrupt, and can often be 
  bribed. Be warned that bribing police 
  officials can result in greater penalties if 
  unsuccessful. 
   
   
   
  Powder Gangs 
   
  When NCR attempted to expand 
  east, they needed railways to 
  carry supplies to distant 
  locations, especially places 
  ripe for colonization. For this 
  task, NCR used criminals from 
  their Black Canyon prison who 
  were approaching the end of 
  their sentences. Unfortunately, 
  when NCR started to have 
  financial problems, payments to 
  the workers started coming up 
  late or short. Eventually, the 
  workers decided to take matters 
  into the own hands, seizing the 
  work stations and all the 
  blasting powder they could find. 
  These packs of criminals became 
  powder gangs, blowing up any and 
  all caravans and railways they 
  came across.  
  Raiders  
    
  Raiders are tribes of people 
  that steal what they need from 
  other communities. They usually 
  do not have villages, but semi-
  permanent encampments, often in 
  the ruins of small towns. 
  Children and older members of 
  the community will engage in 
  some small scale agriculture, 
  but Raiders mostly survive on 
  what they can steal from 
  villages, merchant caravans, and 
  other Raiders. Usually, they 
  prefer to strike and fade 
  quickly, not so much interested 
  in killing but immobilizing and 
  taking what they want before the 
  guards come. 
  Generally considered a nuisance 
  in most areas, but larger 
       35     
    
  
  "kingdoms" may have sent police 
  after Raiders in their area, 
  eliminating the threat to trade 
  and profit. 
   
  The Slave Guild  
   
  Slavery is a lucrative business 
  in the post-War world. Although 
  many larger pockets of 
  civilization have outlawed 
  slavery, smaller dictators allow 
  the purchase and sale of other 
  human beings. Slavery also 
  happens to be one of the most 
  controlled businesses in the 
  postnuclear world. All slave 
  trade is done through the Slave 
  Guild, a collection of older 
  slavers who decide prices and 
  organize capture hunts. Anyone 
  caught capturing or selling 
  slaves without the blessing of 
  the slave guild is usually 
  executed. Since the Guild holds 
  so much power, it often controls 
  smaller towns were it operates, 
  although from behind the scenes. 
  Members of the Slave Guild have 
  a distinctive tattoo covering 
  most of their face, making them 
  readily identifiable to both 
  friend and foe, allowing the 
  guild to make fast judgments 
  when someone without "the tat" 
  has a tribal up on the auction 
  block. 
   
  The Thieves Circle 
   
  Led by Loxley, this merry band 
  of criminals make their living 
  by stealing whatever they can 
  get their hands on. 
   
  Tribes  
   
  Where Raiders are more nomadic, 
  some groups have settled into a 
  simple, agricultural lifestyle, 
  forming small villages. Some of 
  these are little more than 
  tents, others are large 
  communities in ruins of towns. 
  "Tribals" often have 
  sophisticated - and unique – 
  belief systems and no two tribes 
  are going to be alike. They have 
  managed to find ways to make 
  artifacts from before the War 
  useful. Tribals are not 
  necessarily interested in 
  rebuilding civilization, which 
  many view as the cause of the 
  destruction (if, indeed, they 
  remember pre-War civilization at 
  all), and are wary of larger 
  groups of people and cities. In 
  turn, city dwellers view Tribals 
  as primitive savages. 
   
  Unity 
  The Unity consists of remnants 
  of the Master’s supermutant 
  army. Supermutants are hated by 
  most people who live in areas of 
  the Core Region that were 
  threatened by the Master’s army. 
  Most members of the Unity are 
  “first generation” supermutants: 
  those created by the Master in 
  his vats. Very few “second 
  generation” supermutants join 
  the ranks of the Unity. Created 
  long after the major attempts at 
  exterminating the supermutants, 
  the creations of the Enclave’s 
  foolish Mariposa experiments see 
  little to no reason to band 
  together, especially with the 
  “old fogies”.     
   
   
   
   
                                                
   
   
       36     
    
  
  Van Graffs 
   
  A powerful caravan family 
  operating out of Redding, the 
  van Graffs are one of the 
  primary reasons why NCR has 
  difficulty expanding north. 
  While the Wright family of New 
  Reno trades in drugs and 
  prostitution (the spoils of 
  their successful bid for power 
  in the wake of the Chosen One’s 
  passing), the van Graffs trade 
  gold and weapons. Much like the 
  Wrights, the van Graffs are a 
  huge family. The mother, Tiaret 
  van Graff, has ten children, all 
  from different fathers. All of 
  her children are intensely loyal 
  to both her and each other. The 
  caravan’s symbol is a lion’s 
  head.  
  Vaul-Tec 
  Vaul-Tec was the most successful 
  of the companies to make private 
  survival vaults before the Great 
  War. Prior to privatization, the 
  creation of vaults was first a 
  local (commonwealth) 
  responsibility, then a federal 
  responsibility. As with so many 
  things near the end, however, 
  the governments could never 
  agree on how to handle the vault 
  issue. Post-privatization, Vaul-
  Tec and a few other companies 
  manufactured vaults for private 
  citizens and for communities.  
  Vipers 
   
  A tribe of males who serve the 
  all-female Daughters of Hecate. 
  The Vipers are feared warriors, 
  mostly for their uncommonly 
  excellent health and large 
  numbers. The Vipers often travel 
  with Daughters of Hecate, 
  protecting them from outsiders 
  or foolish tribes who choose to 
  stand up to Hecate. 
   
  Wrights 
   
  The Wright family is the 
  survivor of a bloody turf war 
  that shook the city of New Reno 
  at the time of the Chosen One. 
  After wiping out both the Bishop 
  family and the Mordinos, the 
  Wrights took control of the 
  Mordino drug operation and 
  prostitution all over the town. 
  Though they controlled weapon 
  trade in the northern Core 
  Region for a few years, they 
  were violently knocked out of 
  that trade by a series of brutal 
  attacks from the van Graff 
  family. Neither the van Graffs 
  nor the Wrights are willing to 
  fight each other now, as they 
  know that NCR would almost 
  assuredly try to finish off the 
       37     
    
  
  victor. The symbol of the Wright 
  family is a bold W in a half-
  circle sun (as though rising 
  over the horizon.) 
   
  Places to Visit 
  Ballistic Orbital Missile Base 
  (B.O.M.B.-001) 
  The Ballistic Orbital Missile 
  Base (B.O.M.B.-001) is the 
  U.S.'s far more destructive 
  version of Sputnik. It is a 
  large, doughnut shaped space 
  station capable of firing 
  twenty-four nuclear missiles, 
  though it is currently only 
  loaded with eight. It is capable 
  of housing six people, with an 
  area designated for living, 
  recreation, and medical 
  treatment, and a separate area 
  for the true meat of the 
  station; missile control and 
  launch.  Over the course of its 
  two-hundred year wait, the 
  B.O.M.B.-001 sustained a bit of 
  damage. Its circular outer hull 
  remained intact, except for 
  damage to the (what could be 
  called) northern section. A 
  stray communications satellite 
  impacted this part of the hull, 
  resulting in severe damage to 
  the interior door mechanism that 
  linked the Living Quarters to 
  the Command Center. Because of 
  this, the living section and the 
  command section are completely 
  shut off from each other - not 
  that anyone is currently living 
  on the satellite. Should anyone 
  visit B.O.M.B.-001, they would 
  have to perform a space walk 
  with magnetic boots in order to 
  gain access from one section to 
  the other. However, magnetic 
  boots are not needed inside the 
  station since its rotation 
  creates enough artificial 
  gravity for normal, Earth-like 
  movement. Inside, in the Living 
  Quarters section, the 
  environment is very sterile, 
  with plenty of silver and white 
  paneling all around. Beds fold 
  out from the rounded halls when 
  needed, and fold back into the 
  wall when not in use. The 
  kitchen is small and 
  utilitarian, providing the bare 
  essentials for two people to 
  maneuver and fix meals. There is 
  one bathroom facility, able to 
  accommodate two to three people 
  at a time, complete with suction 
  tubes and wash towels. 
  Entertainment is provided by a 
  now static filled monitor which 
  was originally designed to show 
  movies and television shows. 
  From the looks of the dimly lit, 
  rounded corridors, a half a 
  dozen or so people could have 
  lived on the satellite for an 
  extended period of time. 
  However, the only thing in the 
  frigid living section that 
  vaguely resembles life are the 
  three little brain-bots that 
  scurry about. Their only contact 
  with the Earth below is the 
  array of thick windows that 
  adorn the curved walls along the 
  equally curved corridors. On the 
  other end of B.O.M.B.-001 is the 
  Command Center. Here lies all 
  the computers and technology 
  necessary to maintain, target, 
  and launch the nuclear missiles. 
  There are several dormant 
  computer stations, and a cut-
  away map of the earth on the 
  central wall. From this point, 
  someone could calculate 
  targeting solutions and launch 
  the missiles, provided they had 
  the proper launch codes. 2073 
  was a turbulent year. Nuclear 
  proliferation reached an all 
  time high. As a reaction to 
  possible nuclear threats, the 
  U.S. government completed a 
  space station/satellite that was 
  supposed to house two-dozen 
  nuclear missiles. Named the 
  Ballistic Orbital Missile Base, 
  or the B.O.M.B., it was 
       38     
    
  
  considered the ultimate 
  offensive weapon. From orbit, 
  B.O.M.B.-001 could launch 
  missiles to reach any target in 
  the world within minutes. 
  However, as a safety net from 
  accidentally launching nuclear 
  missiles, B.O.M.B.-001 required 
  an onboard crew to launch the 
  missiles. The station was 
  capable of housing eight crew 
  members, but only required one 
  onboard individual to 
  effectively calculate targeting 
  solutions and launch the 
  missiles, as long as that 
  individual had the proper launch 
  codes. Without the proper codes 
  manually entered, the missiles 
  could not be launched, even by 
  accident. The first two B.O.M.B. 
  missile stations were nearly 
  completed in 2073. Orbiting high 
  above the Earth, all the two 
  B.O.M.B. stations needed were 
  main power reactors to replace 
  the temporary generators that 
  were put in place to maintain 
  the bare, onboard necessities. 
  Unfortunately, the reactors 
  never came. The vessels that 
  were commissioned to take the 
  reactors to the B.O.M.B. 
  stations never left the launch 
  pad at Bloomfield Space Center. 
  By the time the Hermes rockets 
  were complete and loaded with 
  the reactors, nuclear war broke 
  out across the globe. The 
  B.O.M.B. satellites became 
  deadly, yet dormant artifacts of 
  a paranoid age long past. Over 
  the course of two-hundred years 
  or so, B.O.M.B.-001 remained in 
  Earth’s orbit relatively 
  unscathed, except for some minor 
  hull damage at the north end of 
  the station, a result of a 
  communications satellite 
  collision and micro-meteorite 
  impacts. The only thing this 
  affected was the hatch in the 
  missile silo room that linked 
  the living quarters to the 
  Command Center. The impacts 
  permanently damaged the opening 
  mechanism, and any attempt at 
  repairing the door could result 
  in a failure in the structural 
  integrity of the station. Other 
  than this minor foible, 
  B.O.M.B.-001 was still fully 
  functional; well, as functional 
  as can be with just a temporary 
  generator. B.O.M.B.-002 did not 
  fair as well. Sometime during 
  the two-hundred years of silent 
  orbit, perhaps ten to fifty 
  years before 2253, something big 
  hit B.O.M.B.-002 and sent it 
  crashing down to earth. Pieces 
  can be found in the Grand 
  Canyon, but how big the pieces 
  are, and if there is anything 
  salvageable, remains to be seen.  
  Bloomfield Space Center 
  Bloomfield Space Center is an 
  old Airforce base, littered with 
  the rusting carcasses of 
  numerous air vehicles. It's also 
  got not one but TWO working 
  space shuttles. Bloomfield, 
  surprisingly enough, survived 
  the Great War – well, for the 
  most part. Thanks to its very 
  remote location in southwest 
  Arizona, the only real damage 
  that the space center received 
  was from time and weather – and 
  also the current occupants. The 
  current occupants in question 
  are the Rusty Hooks, as they 
  like to be called. Comprised of 
  two-dozen raiders, the Rusty 
  Hooks came upon the remains of 
  the Bloomfield Space Center 
  about one year ago, drawn to the 
  sight by tall, pointed 
  structures (two space rockets) 
  that could be seen on the 
  horizon. The leader, Kyle “the 
  Hook,” knew they found a special 
  location and decreed among his 
  faithful that this facility 
  would be their permanent 
  residence and base of 
  operations. The raiders then 
  took up occupancy in the 
  building that was once used for 
  flight operations and 
       39     
    
  
  communications. From there they 
  managed to get the sub-reactor 
  working (barely) to power the 
  building and the rest of the 
  grounds. However, the Rusty 
  Hooks found out the hard way 
  that the five high powered 
  turrets surrounding the launch 
  pad and the space rockets were 
  active and had no connection to 
  the sub-reactor they worked on 
  (two of the Rusty Hooks found 
  out the bloody way that the 
  turrets were active and deadly). 
  Suffice it to say that the 
  members of the Rusty Hooks kept 
  a respectful distance from the 
  launch pad and the well 
  preserved, twin space rockets, 
  but that situation didn’t bother 
  them. All they needed was 
  located right in the building 
  they called home; a healthy 
  weapons and ammo cache stored in 
  the security block of the 
  Operations and Communications 
  building. The Rusty Hooks are 
  known to make regular raids on 
  caravans from the tribes in the 
  area – the area being pretty 
  much all of Arizona. Raids have 
  been known to last upwards of a 
  month or so. Just about anything 
  is fair game to them, and they 
  are willing to trade with anyone 
  who does not have a problem with 
  where they get their merchandise 
  – though very few people in the 
  wasteland know about the 
  Bloomfield Space Center or how 
  to get there. However, the 
  Launch Pad and the twin space 
  rockets are very visible from 
  the horizon, so those who have 
  seen it usually wander to 
  Bloomfield in curiosity. 
  Unfortunately, those who do 
  happen to find the facility 
  rarely lives long enough to go 
  and tell anyone else, thanks to 
  the turrets guarding the Launch 
  Pad’s perimeter. Should someone 
  be lucky enough to live after 
  finding the Bloomfield Space 
  Center, they would find that 
  there is a touch of dissent 
  within the ranks. Bear, Kyle’s 
  super mutant bodyguard and 
  right-hand man, seems obviously 
  more intelligent than Kyle and 
  seems to be the one who dishes 
  out better ideas to help the 
  Rusty Hooks. However, Bear also 
  seems somewhat content being the 
  voice behind the man in power, 
  and no one else would dare to 
  usurp Kyle’s authority with Bear 
  backing him up.Before the war: 
  2073 was a turbulent year. 
  Nuclear proliferation reached an 
  all time high. As a reaction to 
  possible nuclear threats, the 
  U.S. government completed a 
  space station/satellite that 
  housed two-dozen nuclear 
  missiles each carrying four 
  warheads. Named the Ballistic 
  Orbital Missile Base, or the 
  B.O.M.B.-001, it was considered 
  the ultimate offensive weapon. 
  The only things missing were the 
  main power reactor and launch 
  instructions and codes. However, 
  since all other space and rocket 
  facilities already used up their 
  resources constructing the 
  missiles for the station, and 
  launching the cargo rockets to 
  carry them to the base, the U.S. 
  needed to scramble to get the 
  much needed codes and a power 
  reactor to the station. Their 
  answer was to use the new 
  Bloomfield Space Center, which 
  was in the process of building a 
  rocket that would go to Mars, 
  and convert the Mars rocket into 
  the vehicle that would carry the 
  codes and reactor to the base. 
  The conversion started in 2074. 
  So, in August, 2076, the Hermes–
  13 space rocket was completed 
  and ready to launch at 
  Bloomfield. Unfortunately, by 
  October, 2076, funding for the 
  rocket and Bloomfield had to be 
  drastically cut and diverted to 
  vault technology, thanks in 
  large part to the rising world 
  tensions and imminent threat of 
  nuclear war – the launch of 
  Hermes-13 had to be put on hold. 
       40     
    
  
  All personnel, except for a 
  skeleton maintenance crew, were 
  reassigned to other locations. 
  Bloomfield, B.O.M.B.-001, and 
  Hermes-13 were essentially 
  mothballed. In November, 2076, 
  the Enclave seized control of 
  Bloomfield Space Center. They 
  knew nuclear war was just around 
  the corner, so they tried to 
  refit the Hermes-13 and convert 
  it into a vehicle that would 
  take selected personnel (mainly 
  themselves) off-planet, 
  destination yet to be 
  determined. Unfortunately for 
  the Enclave, the bombs started 
  dropping less than a year later. 
  All were either relocated to 
  “hot-spots,” or took cover away 
  from Bloomfield. The last people 
  to leave shut down the sub-
  reactor to Bloomfield and 
  abandoned the facility, letting 
  Hermes-13 and Bloomfield to 
  brave the elements. For whatever 
  reason, the facility never 
  succumbed to nuclear attack. 
  Only time and weather beat on 
  the facility for almost two-
  hundred years, and neither was 
  very kind. However, Hermes-13 
  managed to stand proud through 
  the centuries, perhaps in hope 
  that one day it would be allowed 
  to carry out its mission. After 
  the War: The ruined grounds, 
  dark, cold, and dirty buildings, 
  and rusted launch platform 
  super-structure might have laid 
  dormant forever if it weren’t 
  for the wandering and greedy 
  spirits of the Rusty Hooks; a 
  band of raiders who wandered the 
  wasteland. In the scorching 
  summer heat of 2252, the Rusty 
  Hooks came upon the remote base 
  of Bloomfield. Kyle the Hook, 
  the raider leader, knew they had 
  stumbled upon a great potential 
  home. There were plenty of 
  defensible areas, a potential 
  for a rich cache of materials, 
  and that giant pointy thing 
  (Hermes-13) must be a source of 
  great power. With the eloquence 
  of a junior-high drama student 
  pretending to know and quote the 
  great works of Shakespeare, Kyle 
  declared the Bloomfield Space 
  Center the Rusty Hooks’ new base 
  of operations. One of the first 
  things Kyle wanted to do was 
  find out if the facility had a 
  power source. He ordered Sid, 
  the apprehensive 
  mechanic/scientist of the group, 
  to seek out and find a power 
  source, and find a way to get 
  power running. After about two 
  weeks of swearing, threats on 
  Sid’s life, and a few deep 
  bruises, Sid managed to not only 
  find the sub-reactor, but he got 
  the thing running – albeit at 
  only forty-five percent 
  efficiency. However, even by 
  bringing this sub-reactor 
  online, the turrets surrounding 
  Hermes-13 ended up killing two 
  Rusty Hooks who ventured too 
  close. It seems the turrets were 
  running on a different power 
  source and operations computer. 
  It was bad enough that no one in 
  the group could cut through the 
  titanium fencing surrounding the 
  Launch Pad, or climb over ten 
  feet of titanium barb wire, but 
  the gattling turrets mounted 
  high on thorned posts 
  exacerbated the giant pointy 
  thing’s (Hermes-13) 
  inaccessibility. Kyle ordered 
  that the power be shut down so 
  they could figure out a way to 
  disable the turrets (not really 
  being able to figure out that 
  the turrets were on a different 
  power source and computer – I 
  told you he wasn’t that smart), 
  but it seems that once power was 
  turned back on, even if it was 
  not at full efficiency, it could 
  not be turned off without using 
  the proper “security access 
  codes” - whatever those things 
  might be. So, in a flood of 
  cascading wisdom, Kyle decreed 
  the area near the giant pointy 
  thing off limits. Since then, 
  Kyle and his band organized 
       41     
    
  
  several raids on caravans 
  throughout Arizona, as well as 
  doing some trade with assorted 
  scum of the wastelands. Sid was 
  tasked with figuring out a way 
  to make the sub-reactor more 
  efficient, as well as scavenge 
  the grounds and create something 
  useful – what that something 
  could be, no one ever explained 
  to poor Sid. 
  The Boneyard 
  Called the Boneyard because of 
  the skeletal skyscrapers still 
  standing in the ruins of this 
  once huge city, Los Angeles 
  houses gunrunners, gangs, and 
  various people with delusions of 
  grandeur. The largest 
  concentration of people live in 
  a "suburb" called Adytum, 
  controlled by a police force 
  called The Regulators. Some 
  parts of the Boneyard are 
  controlled by Deathclaws, an 
  intelligent species of giant 
  mutant lizard. All told, perhaps 
  30,000 people call the Boneyard 
  home, including a religious sect 
  called the Followers, who live 
  in the ruins of the main branch 
  of the Los Angeles Public 
  Library. The radioactive ruins 
  of a cathedral constructed by a 
  group called the Children of the 
  Apocalypse after the war, a 
  cathedral destroyed by a certain 
  adventurer, lie south of town, 
  some members still survive, 
  trying to spread the Master’s 
  word. In general, radiation 
  levels are low here, except 
  around the cathedral ruins, 
  where it can get quite high. The 
  Boneyard is an official member 
  of the New California Republic, 
  but police have been 
  unsuccessful in stopping gang 
  warfare and Deathclaw threats, 
  partially because the population 
  is spread over such a large 
  area. 
  Boulder Dome City or Stone City 
  Boulder Dome City or Stone City 
  is a scientific research 
  facility designed to withstand a 
  nuclear attack. All around  
  Boulder, poisoned by radiation 
  and toxic waste. Inside the dome 
  is a desperate team of 
  scientists infected with a 
  strange disease and trying to 
  keep their ZAX unit from 
  cannibalizing it memory to such 
  an extent that it stops working. 
  Beset by glowing ghouls and a 
  large pack of cannibal 
  primitives, the dome faces 
  extinction. Before the great war 
  Boulder was long a place where 
  advanced scientific research 
  took place. The University of 
  Colorado, IBM, and Ball 
  Aerospace were located here. 
  Supported by money from Denver's 
  industry and an active military 
  presence, Boulder scientists 
  made advances in medicine (bio-
  med gel was invented here), 
  alternate energy sources, 
  robotics, and even developed a 
  power armor prototype. 
  Unfortunately, leakage from the 
  Rocky Mountain Arsenal (a nearby 
  toxic waste dump/weapons storage 
  location) caused a poisonous 
  cloud that killed a lot of 
  people in Denver. As an apology, 
  the military funded a program to 
  create a self-sustaining 
  research dome, capable of 
  withstanding a nuclear attack. 
  This "city of the future" was to 
  be a prototype for settlements 
  on the moon and other planets. 
  Then the war with China began. 
  The USA annexed Canada. Boulder 
  became a hotbed of political 
  activity, as most of the 
  scientists were naturally 
  suspect of the military, and 
  they, their families, and 
  friends staged public protests 
  about the situation, which got 
  much of the city population up 
  in arms. Some of the protests 
  turned into riots, and the riot 
       42     
    
  
  police were called in to 
  suppress the riots. That 
  squelched it but left everyone 
  at a low simmer. When reports of 
  plague outbreaks in Denver 
  surfaced, many in Boulder feared 
  that an exodus from that city 
  would come here and infect them; 
  they fled north. When the bombs 
  fell, Cheyenne Mountain (a 
  military facility, home of 
  NORAD) was a primary target. A 
  huge section of the mountains 
  became a great radioactive 
  smoking crater. Coupled with 
  attacks on Denver and the Rocky 
  Mountain Arsenal, Boulder became 
  the center of a triangle of 
  hellish death. After the War 
  Fast forward 170 years. An NCR 
  scientist named Goddard and his 
  military escort travels through 
  the region, establishing power 
  generators and noting the 
  locations of old-world power 
  facilities. His report to NCR is 
  noticed by Victor Presper, who 
  sends him out again to 
  investigate certain areas in the 
  old America's southwest. After 
  Goddard returns, Presper and a 
  small team of soldiers 
  investigate Boulder dome, 
  finding it in need of repair but 
  containing excellent labs and a 
  fully-functioning ZAX unit. Over 
  the next few years Presper 
  invites or sends scientists and 
  students to the Boulder Dome, 
  where he explains his idea to 
  remake civilization. Those who 
  refuse are put in cold sleep, 
  using technology the original 
  Dome scientists developed to aid 
  space travel. Presper knows he 
  can use the CODE (Challenge, 
  Opportunity, Discipline, Ethics) 
  technology developed there to 
  convince them to help him when 
  the time is right Four years 
  ago, when things start to fall 
  apart out in NCR, Presper sent 
  out his last team of scientists 
  and grad students. Agnes, a 
  fellow NCR scientist and 
  frequent diplomat from the 
  scientific community to the 
  government, is the leader of the 
  expedition. Using her skills and 
  a "diplomatic immunity" pass she 
  carried, she makes her way to 
  Hoover Dam. Two days later, the 
  NCR Congress building is 
  destroyed, presumably in a 
  conflict with the BOS. The 
  destruction of the congressional 
  building is a severe upset to 
  NCR and travel becomes 
  difficult. Only by circuitous 
  routes and careful display of 
  her pass is Agnes' expedition 
  able to reach Hoover Dam a year 
  later. She runs into Goddard, a 
  former colleague (they were both 
  scientific advisors to NCR at 
  one point). Goddard knows Eddie 
  Galenski, a long-haul trucker 
  with an armored vehicle, and 
  together the large group makes 
  its way to Boulder Dome. The 
  group includes Agnes and the 
  grad students, Goddard and his 
  military escort, Galenski, his 
  wife Helen, and their children. 
  Though they lose a few students 
  along the way, they eventually 
  reach Boulder Dome and enter 
  using the passcodes Presper gave 
  them. In a strange accident the 
  scientists and grad students are 
  infected with a form of the New 
  Plague and are forced to 
  quarantine themselves from 
  Goddard's soldiers and the 
  trucker family; after two months 
  trying to fight the disease, the 
  scientists realize that they're 
  stuck with it for now and have 
  to live in protective suits 
  whenever they want to interact 
  with the rest of the Dome 
  population As of two years ago, 
  things had stabilized. Everyone 
  had a routine, mainly around 
  constantly repairing problems 
  with the dome (mainly from wear 
  and neglect). There's enough to 
  do that it keeps everyone from 
  going crazy. The scientists 
  worry that the soldiers and 
  truckers might leave them, and 
  if that happens, they're 
       43     
    
  
  probably doomed. One of the grad 
  students (Paul) discovers the 
  Sleepers in a deep level of the 
  facility – the scientists 
  Presper sent here and put to 
  sleep to help with his new world 
  order. Xian starts her "hikes" 
  and discovers ZAX. A year ago, 
  the first glowing ghoul showed 
  up on the north end of town, 
  collapses, and dies. The 
  scientists mark the body with 
  radioactive warnings, debate how 
  to dispose of it (like dumping 
  cement on it). Paul finds that 
  ZAX is almost out of storage 
  space at the rate he's going. 
  With no storage space, ZAX won't 
  be able to run the dome and will 
  start doing damage. They need to 
  get other storage media to hold 
  info. 
  (Holodisks/holotapes/holodisk 
  tapes, all the same thing). If 
  no solution, ZAX will have to 
  start cannibalizing his own 
  memory storage, eating Boulder 
  research as he does so. They 
  start hearing some broadcasts 
  from Denver, but don't answer 
  because they fear being attacked 
  (esp. from diseased people).  
  Brahmin Wood 
  Brahmin Wood is a resource rich 
  tribal village in the area of 
  the pre-War city of Chicago, 
  Illinois. In 2197 it was invaded 
  by a group raiders led by Horus. 
  Brahmin Wood's losses were heavy 
  and they decided to accept the 
  Eastern Brotherhood's conditions 
  for protection. Eventually, a 
  small squad of Brotherhood 
  recruits returned their lands 
  and rescued these primitive 
  people in exchange for food and 
  a portion of their older 
  children for new recruits. The 
  village Elder or Tribal Father 
  is Charon, who was skeptical to 
  the benevolence of the 
  Brotherhood's intentions, but 
  agreed to their terms after the 
  village was rescued from the 
  hands of raiders by the 
  Brotherhood. The shaman of 
  Brahmin Wood is called Hawkeye, 
  who is only vaguely interested 
  in the affairs of the village.  
  Broken Hills  
   
  East of Reno is a town called 
  Broken Hills. Broken Hills is 
  one of the few places that 
  mutants and ghouls are welcome, 
  since it was founded as an 
  experiment in racial tolerance. 
  Broken Hills is a major supplier 
  of uranium, which mutants can 
  mine and handle without worrying 
  about side effects. The uranium 
  is then shipped south to Reno, 
  the NCR, and north to Vault City 
  and Gecko to use in power 
  plants. The town was built 
  around the mine by mutants, 
  ghouls, and tolerant humans. It 
  does quite well for itself, and 
  has thus far resisted the 
  overtures of the NCR, whose 
  taxation and antimutant laws 
  could ruin the fragile balance 
  there. Broken Hills is run by a 
  kindly Sheriff named Marcus, and 
  has an overall friendly quality, 
  although like many small towns 
  there is often much more in 
  Broken Hills than meets the eye. 
  1,000 mutants, 500 ghouls and 
  500 humans are permanent 
  residents here. Radiation levels 
  in Broken Hills are normal, 
  except in the mine, where it is 
  slightly radioactive. 
  Buena Vista 
  Buena Vista was a pre-war city 
  in Colorado. Around 2198, 
  Eastern Brotherhood of Steel 
  reconnaissance has found an 
  operating nuclear reactor 
  located on the outskirts of the 
  town. The reactor was supplying 
  the vast majority of power to 
  Calculator's robot army as well 
  as the nearby robot factory. The 
       44     
    
  
  reactor was eventually destroyed 
  by a Brotherhood squad. 
  Canyon City 
  Canyon City was a town in the 
  area of Kansas, where the 
  Calculator set up a robot repair 
  station around 2198. It is in 
  this station that damaged robots 
  were mended and parts of 
  destroyed robots were rebuilt 
  and combined to form a whole. 
  When the Eastern Brotherhood of 
  Steel discovered it, they 
  decided that this repair plant 
  must be permanently shut down. 
  This station was too huge to 
  destroy. It would take too much 
  time and resources to reduce 
  this station to rubble, so the 
  Brotherhood disabled it instead, 
  by destroying the power nodes. 
  Canyon City terminals also 
  provided some interesting 
  information about the Calculator 
  and Vault 0.  
  Chicago  
  The once great city of Chicago, 
  Illinois was nearly completely 
  destroyed in the Great War. The 
  few that survived the bombs, now 
  live mostly in small, tribal 
  villages in the area of the 
  former city. Examples of such 
  villages are Dirt Haven and 
  Brahmin Wood and raider camps, 
  like Devil's Graveyard. Some 
  time after the defeat of the 
  Master in 2162, the Brotherhood 
  of Steel constructed airships 
  and dispatched some of its 
  soldiers East, to track down and 
  assess to the extent of the 
  remaining super mutant threat. 
  However, a great storm broke the 
  main airship and flung it far 
  from its course. The mighty 
  airship was badly damaged. The 
  smaller sections were torn from 
  the main craft and never to be 
  seen again. Many of the 
  expedition leaders, including 
  Paladin Latham, were lost to the 
  winds. The fraction of the crew 
  that still survived, struggled 
  to keep their ship aloft before 
  finally crashing on the 
  outskirts of the ruins of 
  Chicago. The survivors 
  eventually formed an 
  organization called the Eastern 
  Brotherhood, which diverged 
  greatly from the ideals of the 
  old Brotherhood. In time, they 
  established a harsh rule over 
  the towns and villages in that 
  area, controlled from the 
  Brotherhood Bunker Alpha. 
  Cold Water 
  Cold Water is a town built among the ruins 
  of the pre-war city of Coldwater, Kansas. 
  Cold Water is mainly famous in the region 
  for its casino. Around 2198, a group of 
  criminals from Quincy led by an individual 
  called Guldo poisoned a group of Eastern 
  Brotherhood of Steel paladins and stole 
  their power armors and vehicle and left to 
  Coldwater, when, armed with Brotherhood 
  equipment, it easily took over the control 
  of the town. Eventually a Brotherhood 
  squad defeated the bandits and freed the 
  town.  
  Daltonville  
   
  The "sister" city to Stockyard, 
  Daltonville was once known as 
  Dalton. During the war, the 
  city's population exploded with 
  those left homeless or afraid to 
  live out on their own. The 
  surrounding farms were left 
  empty and nearby Chatsworth and 
  Cleveland were abandoned once 
  the fallout from Nashville and 
  Chattanooga swept south and 
  east. Those who felt unsafe or 
  disagreed with the Stockyard 
  policies moved northward and 
  many settled in the more liberal 
  Dalton, renamed Daltonville in 
  the late 2090's. Over the years, 
  Daltonville has grown to a 
  steady populace of around 5,000 
  (though travelers and trade 
       45     
    
  
  caravans can swell that number 
  to near 5,500 or beyond), the 
  boundaries clearly marked by a 
  mish-mash wall of concrete and 
  steel. 
  For the most part, Daltonville 
  enjoys a unique position among 
  the surviving cities of the East 
  Coast. The remains of Nashville 
  and Chattanooga leave a large 
  gap between stops for caravans 
  and travelers heading out east 
  or towards the southwest. 
  Daltonville fills this gap by 
  offering a multitude of hostels 
  and food establishments to all 
  who agree to follow the rules of 
  the town while within city 
  limits. A prosperous town, 
  Daltonville is ruled by a town 
  council of 5 elected individuals 
  from the population. Each 
  council member represents a 
  different aspect of the 
  populace: the Farmer's Band rep, 
  Carlo Prester; Glayds DuBourg of 
  the Trade Guild; the Brahmin 
  Herders Association member, 
  Frederic Butscher; the Internal 
  Business representative, Yuonne 
  McGrann; and the Militia Elder 
  (a ghoul... a rarity), Odear. 
  The council meets weekly to 
  discuss the current events and 
  requests made by their 
  respective constituents. 
  Daltonville's militia/police 
  force numbers around 350 well-
  trained men and women... 200 
  internal patrol, 100 "wall 
  guards," and 50 outer lands 
  "marshals." The militia is led 
  by Captain Abraham Logan Smith 
  (named for an ancestor), a 
  tough, no-nonsense veteran of 
  the militia. The internal patrol 
  acts as a police force, keeping 
  the peace and making sure the 
  city remains safe within. The 
  wall guards hold posts on the 
  walls and gates, checking 
  visitors in and out and 
  generally keeping watch day and 
  night on the immediate 
  surrounding land. These 
  assignments generally rotate out 
  every 3 months, giving a welcome 
  rest from the hopeful hum-drum 
  existence. The best of the 
  militia are sent into the 
  outlying land as marshals. It's 
  the marshals' job to keep the 
  peace in the farms to the east, 
  watch over the brahmin herds to 
  the west and stay any raider 
  gangs from getting too close to 
  the "protected lands." It's a 
  tough, unforgiving, sometimes 
  near impossible job... but the 
  marshals somehow manage to do it 
  and do it well. The city's 
  hospital is fairly well-stocked 
  and maintained. It has a full-
  time doctor, Hunter "Bulldog" 
  Mugg, 15 full-time nurses and 10 
  part-time nurses. Due to the 
  internal patrol's presence, the 
  hospital rarely sees injury 
  cases... mostly just sickness 
  and malnutrition. 
  But, as with all large cities, 
  Daltonville has it's share of 
  headaches. The most notable is 
  the self-proclaimed "crime 
  king," Kurtis Silveri. Silveri 
  has read one too many old books 
  on the old mafiosi and sees 
  himself as the next great don. 
  To this end, he has a network of 
  200-300 underlings and business 
  owners loyal to him. He has his 
  hands in most anything illegal 
  in Daltonville, including 
  extortion, murder, smuggling and 
  worse. Captain Smith has been 
  working for years to bring him 
  down, but invariably, needed 
  evidence "disappears" or 
  witnesses "leave town." But, 
  Smith's resolve has only been 
  strengthened by his setbacks. 
  It's just a matter of time 
  before Silveri missteps and 
  Smith will be there to take him 
  down. 
  Another problem is a local 
  raider gang, called the Falcons, 
  who have been making bolder 
  attempts on the outlying farms 
  and brahmin herders. The gang 
  has so far been mostly held in 
  check by the marshals, but their 
       46     
    
  
  numbers are few against a 
  remarkably determined enemy. 
  Darwin City  
  Built on the ruins of a top-
  secret US Army base and 
  scientific research center, 
  Darwin City is now the home of 
  an enormous weapons smuggling 
  operation. Far enough away from 
  the NCR and crime families of 
  Reno and Vegas to operate 
  without their attention, the 
  smugglers usually openly deal in 
  arms for anyone who can make it 
  into town. 
  Darwin City is surrounded on 
  almost all sides by high amounts 
  of radioactivity, and although 
  the town is safe, getting into 
  town can be a problem for anyone 
  not equipped for the operation. 
  Around 500 people live and work 
  here, enjoying the anarchistic 
  atmosphere, but they employ a 
  police force to deal with 
  outsiders. Travelers almost 
  always find themselves breaking 
  some nonexistent law, unless 
  they have come specifically to 
  trade for weapons, and even then 
  they need to prove how they 
  heard about Darwin City. For the 
  career-minded adventurer, Darwin 
  City can be interesting, 
  especially since frequent trips 
  into the Great Wastes are made 
  from here. 
  Dayglow 
  Dayglow is one of the states of 
  the New California Republic, 
  located near the site of the 
  Glow. Most of the state is 
  actually north and west of the 
  Glow, but they are still able to 
  see the Glow from their borders. 
  A number of ghouls are rumored 
  to live there now, as part of 
  the Great Migration from 
  Necropolis - once the ghouls 
  learned of West Tek, they were 
  eager to see if they could 
  scavenge technology from the 
  abandoned center. Some ghouls 
  formed partnerships with 
  scavenging companies from New 
  Adytum and the Hub and have 
  built quite a profitable 
  corporation from their salvage 
  efforts. At least one super 
  mutant, a refugee from the 
  Cathedral, was also rumored to 
  be working with the ghouls and 
  humans in Dayglow. 
  The Den 
  The Den is a dangerous place and 
  is a safe haven for drug and 
  slave trading. You'll be able to 
  bust a slaver ring and a small 
  gang here. In some ways, the Den 
  might be considered a "mini-New 
  Reno." They are both semi-stable 
  anarchies with no central 
  authority: while the Den is more 
  focused on slaving, and New Reno 
  is more focused on prostitution, 
  they both share an economy 
  dependent on gambling, 
  prostitution, drugs, and 
  slavery. Gambling is under the 
  control of Rebecca Dyer, who 
  also sells the cheapest alcohol 
  in the Den, as she has her own 
  still, rather than importing it 
  from New Reno. 
  Uncharacteristically given both 
  her location and her business, 
  she is an scrupulous and decent 
  woman, and a passionate opponent 
  of the slave trade that 
  underpins the Den's economy. Her 
  craps tables are unique in the 
  game in that they are truly 
  (pseudo)-random like an honest 
  game of craps (although, unlike 
  a real game of craps, there are 
  ways of playing it that allow 
  the player to beat the house on 
  average). Her tables do not 
  check the player's gambling 
  skill. For those residents of 
  the Den who tire of the booze, 
  whores, theft, drugs, and 
  slavery that are so widespread 
  in most of the Den, Mom's 
  restaurant provides a welcome 
       47     
    
  
  respite. Mom ensures that the 
  atmosphere is respectful and 
  bans fighting, cursing, and 
  unlike most Den businesses (but 
  like the Slaver's Guild), no 
  orphan children stand outside 
  her doors stealing from those 
  who enter or leave. Mom 
  specializes in rat dishes, 
  offering rat-loaf, rat-pie, and 
  spaghetti with rat sauce. 
  Smitty, also one of the more 
  respectable people in the Den, 
  is a local mechanic. He has a 
  Chrysalis Highwayman in near-
  perfect condition, but it lacks 
  a Fuel Cell Controller. He also 
  occasionally sells other things, 
  such as microfusion cells and 
  super tool kits. There are two 
  shops in the Den: Tubby and 
  Flick. Tubby's is mostly focused 
  on selling drugs, whereas 
  Flick's sells a wider variety of 
  goods. Both merchants' shops are 
  supplied, at least in part, by 
  orphaned children who stand 
  beside the doorways of shops and 
  steal from passersby, but 
  Flick's in particular depends on 
  this. Prostitution is primarily 
  under the control of Frankie, 
  proprietor of the Hole. He also 
  sells drinks imported from New 
  Reno, and is amazed and angry 
  that Becky can sell her drinks 
  so cheaply. Another businessman 
  of the Den styles himself "The 
  Great Ananias". He claims to 
  have found a great "jan-u-wine" 
  (genuine) mummy and to have a 
  haunted house next door. In 
  fact, the "mummy" is a sleeping, 
  comatose ghoul named Woody. The 
  haunted house has more basis in 
  fact: Anna Winslow's ghost 
  recently has become restless 
  because her locket was stolen 
  from the haunted house by Joey, 
  a local thug and jet dealer. 
  Finally, the richest and most 
  powerful business in the Den is 
  the Slaver's Guild. Headed by 
  Metzger, this heavily-fortified 
  guild prevents casual 
  infiltration and ensures member 
  loyalty by tattooing its symbol 
  on the foreheads of all members. 
  It sells slaves to New Reno and 
  Vault City. Although Metzger's 
  primary investments are in the 
  slave trade, he also is looking 
  for a way into the drug business 
  as well. In the current 
  arrangement, raw chemicals from 
  Vault City are exported to New 
  Reno, where the families, 
  especially the Mordinos, 
  synthesize them into drugs. 
  Metzger seeks to short-cut this 
  chain by synthesizing the 
  chemicals in the Den, but his 
  teams have made little headway 
  in deciphering the manufacturing 
  process. 
  Denver 
  Denver is a wreck. It was in the 
  middle of a building boom 
  shortly before the war, as many 
  new jobs were opening there are 
  the city was swollen to 
  bursting. Most of the 
  construction was housing for 
  these immigrants. When the war 
  with China started, resource 
  rationing occurred and suddenly 
  the construction workers didn't 
  have anything to build with and 
  weren't getting paid. Union 
  riots and strikes occurred 
  because the city couldn't pay 
  and the federal government 
  wouldn't step in to help. When 
  Mexico and the Great Midwest 
  Commonwealth started to suffer 
  food shortages, Denver was hit 
  hard because of its high 
  population. Food rationing 
  began. Food riots started 
  because of the rationing, and 
  some buildings were set on fire. 
  The National Guard was called in 
  to contain the rioting, using 
  InstaPens (aka "bullpens") to 
  contain and imprison rioters. 
  Some people deliberately 
  attacked police and National 
  Guard troops so they would be 
  imprisoned and fed. Rioters, 
  National Guard personnel who 
       48     
    
  
  disobeyed orders, and other 
  military folk who refused to 
  help contain the riots were sent 
  west and east. Then an outbreak 
  of the New Plague hit the city. 
  Rioters burned down large parts 
  of the city in their fear of 
  contamination and anger at their 
  treatment. Many panicked and 
  fled the city by car, clogging 
  the freeways when they ran out 
  of gas and trapping everyone 
  behind them. And then the bombs 
  fell, destroying some of what 
  was left and killing everyone 
  who had managed to live through 
  everything else. Post-War, 
  Denver has been abandoned by 
  civilized folk, mainly because 
  of lingering radiation (which is 
  gone by now) and huge packs of 
  wild dogs that have taken over 
  the town. Small groups of 
  scavengers have holed up here 
  from time to time or tried to 
  loot some of the buildings but 
  it has never been a concerted 
  effort until now. Recently a 
  bunch of work-release NCR 
  prisoners have come here to 
  salvage stuff as a way to buy 
  off their sentences, and some 
  slavers from Caesar's Legion are 
  waiting out the Midwest’s 
  seasonal huge radioactive 
  duststorms keeping them from 
  getting home. And there's 
  another gang of salvagers that 
  have moved in and have been 
  raiding claims from the NCR 
  salvagers. Dog Town is what is 
  left of Denver after the Great 
  War. It's ruined city of dogs 
  and skyscrapers. There is no 
  real civilization here, just a 
  series of salvager camps set up 
  high in the skyscraper ruins, 
  away from the endless pack of 
  feral dogs which roam the 
  streets below. The salvagers are 
  about 20 New California Republic 
  former prisoners on a special 
  work release program, salvaging 
  stuff for NCR in exchange for 
  their eventual freedom. The dogs 
  are the now-feral descendents of 
  local pets and specially-bred 
  police dogs. Rats, giant 
  cockroaches, mutant bats, and 
  climbing lizards are common 
  hazards. The salvagers were 
  forced out of their original 
  camp by the dogs and now are 
  struggling to get by in their 
  new, temporary camp. Tensions 
  are high because the dog threat 
  is constant, they've heard 
  nothing from NCR in quite some 
  time, and basically the only 
  thing for them to eat is dog 
  meat. There's also a rival group 
  of salvages trying to steal 
  claims, and a mysterious group 
  of military guys here as well. 
  The salvagers live in the 
  partially-constructed buildings 
  of Denver, several stories up 
  and clear of the dogs (who can't 
  climb).  
  Devil's Graveyard 
  The area known as the Devil's 
  Graveyard in the former city of 
  Chicago, Illinois has been 
  transformed by a group of 
  raiders into a killing ground, 
  making direct access to their 
  base a nightmare. The leader of 
  Devil's Graveyard raiders was 
  Gargantua. After his raiders 
  attacked the village of Dirt 
  Haven, which was allied with the 
  Eastern Brotherhood of Steel, 
  the Brotherhood also pacified 
  this area and killed Gargantua 
  along with many of his men.  
  Dirt Haven 
  Dirt Haven is a small tribal 
  village in the area of the pre-
  War city of Chicago, Illinois. 
  During their initial recruitment 
  drives, the Eastern Brotherhood 
  of Steel formed an alliance with 
  the village. The Brotherhood 
  provides them with protection 
  from bandits and raiders and 
  they in turn, supply them with 
  food and their most able bodied 
       49     
    
  
  young as recruits. However, none 
  of their volunteers lived long 
  enough to even make the Initiate 
  rank, as a raider ambush 
  annihilated the entire recruit 
  class. The chief of the tribe is 
  called the Town Father. The name 
  of Dirt Haven's medicine man was 
  Salik. In 2197, the village was 
  invaded by raiders from Devil's 
  Graveyard, who were then killed 
  by a squad of Brotherhood 
  Initiates.  
  Fort Abandon 
  Fort Abandon is a rundown New 
  California Republic fort in the 
  American southwest. The railway 
  has a crossroads here. It was 
  originally called Fort Aradesh, 
  and was a major fortification. 
  However, Caesar's Legion 
  attempted to destroy NCR’s 
  presence in the east, and 
  actually succeeded in destroying 
  the fort. The name changed after 
  NCR's control of the frontier 
  receded 
  Freeport 
  Freeport, a town in the state of 
  Illinois, was largely destroyed 
  during the Great War. In 2197 
  raiders from a medium sized 
  encampment on the outskirts of 
  Freeport kidnapped Charon, the 
  Elder of the tribal village of 
  Brahmin Wood, allied with the 
  Eastern Brotherhood of Steel. A 
  squad of Brotherhood initiates 
  which had previously freed 
  Brahmin Wood of raiders, managed 
  to rescue Charon, killing many 
  raiders in the process.  
  Gecko 
  Just to the northeast of Vault 
  City is the ghoul dwelling of 
  Gecko. Gecko is a small town 
  built around the old Gecko 
  nuclear power plant, one of the 
  largest suppliers of power to 
  the pre-War American West. 
  Although only one reactor is 
  currently operational, the plant 
  provides more than enough juice 
  to power the entire area. The 
  ghouls like the plant because of 
  the radiation it leaks out, but 
  prefer to keep the power stores 
  to themselves - for now. The 
  5,000 ghouls who call Gecko home 
  are more open than those in 
  Necropolis, and will trade with 
  caravans and allow travelers who 
  don't make trouble to stay in 
  town. There is no ghoul police 
  force, except that non-ghouls 
  who break the peace are almost 
  never heard from again. A kind 
  of lend lease agreement between 
  Gecko and some high officials in 
  Vault City led to a sharing of 
  Vault medical technology for a 
  tap into Gecko's power plant, 
  which Vault City desperately 
  needed. Radiation levels in 
  Gecko are normal, except for the 
  power plant and directly around 
  it, where non-ghouls may need a 
  few Rad-Aways to function. 
  Great Bend 
  Before the Great War, Great Bend 
  was the largest city and county 
  seat of Barton County, Kansas 
  and a major center of industry. 
  Around 2198, Eastern Brotherhood 
  of Steel intelligence located 
  the origin of the humanoid robot 
  that attacked Junction City and 
  the tracks originated from Great 
  Bend. The Calculator's robots 
  were transforming this location 
  into a robot manufacturing 
  facility. Only a few humans 
  survived the initial robot 
  attack on the town. Eventually, 
  the robots were destroyed by the 
  Brotherhood. It is unknown 
  whether the town was repopulated 
  again.  
   
   
       50     
    
  
  The Great Wastes  
   
  East of Darwin City (actually, 
  Darwin City more or less sits 
  about 50 miles into it), the 
  Great 
  Wastes stretch across Arizona, 
  New Mexico, and Texas, Almost 
  nothing lives in this treeless 
  dustbowl, and the area is so dry 
  that nearly nothing could live 
  there. Occasionally, smugglers, 
  caravans, and adventurers will 
  try their hand at a trip into 
  theGreat Wastes, but electrical 
  storms, nearly constant dust 
  clouds, unseen radiation 
  pockets, and tornadoes miles 
  wide usually doom these 
  excursions. There are rumors of 
  small villages of Native 
  Americans living in the Great 
  Wastes, attempting to reclaim a 
  lost way of life, but there is 
  no conclusive proof of this so 
  far. 
   
  Hangdog Village 
  Hangdog Village: More tribals, 
  but these guys are all about 
  dogs: pets, food, guards, etc. 
  The Hangdogs are slavers and 
  scavengers, and are often in 
  league with Hecate. However, 
  they're not all bad and they 
  just might not try to enslave 
  The Prisoner if he proves he's 
  good enough to be one of them. 
  for the Hangdogs did indeed have 
  the quality of one's dog 
  determining rank within the 
  tribe. The leader of the tribe 
  always had the best dog. To win 
  the Hangdogs' respect, the 
  player must undergo the 
  Hangdog's ritual of manhood by 
  traveling into the nearby 
  foothills and either stealing a 
  puppy from the feral pack's den, 
  or taming an adult dog. The 
  Devil Dog also lives in those 
  foothills, but the Hangdogs see 
  him more as an evil spirit than 
  an actual living dog. He's a 
  loner, never hanging out with 
  the other dogs (a very unnatural 
  thing in Hangdog eyes), he 
  survives fights with creatures 
  that would kill all other dogs, 
  and every Hangdog who has 
  attempted to tame him has 
  nothing but scars and missing 
  body parts to show for his 
  efforts. Showing up at the 
  village with the Devil Dog at 
  his side would have brought the 
  player instant respect... and a 
  great deal of fear. I believe 
  "Walks With the Devil" was the 
  proposed reputation title you 
  could get with that tribe if you 
  had the Devil Dog as a 
  companion. Had you brought back 
  a normal dog or a puppy, the 
  Hangdogs would have greeted you 
  as a brother. With the Devil 
  Dog, you become more of a 
  shaman, one they're very, very 
  careful not to upset.  
  HOTLANTA  
   
  Located 30 miles south of 
  Stockyard, Hotlanta was once 
  known as Atlanta, Georgia. It 
  was once one of the largest 
  cities in the south and very 
  prosperous. Most notably, it was 
  the location for the Center for 
  Disease Control. This office was 
  the main reason for the higher 
  survival rate of the surrounding 
  areas when the New Plague hit in 
  the mid 2000's. Bold, 
  experimental drugs were used on 
  the willing populace, some of 
  which worked well... others were 
  almost worse than the plague 
  itself. Though the CDC's efforts 
  did produce fruit, the 
  population still took a massive 
  dive, wiping out over half of 
  the city's people.Then, in 2077, 
  the bombs fell. Atlanta took a 
  massive bombardment, most 
  thought due to the CDC, and the 
  city was laid waste. The once 
  proud city of the peach was now 
  so much rubble. Everything 
  within the perimeter of I-285 
       51     
    
  
  was gone, leaving only the 
  barest remnants of a city. 
  Outside the perimeter, what 
  wasn't destroyed by the blast 
  wave was left to rot when the 
  fallout began to show. The 
  dwindling population fled to the 
  four corners, some settling in 
  nearby Woodstock, others going 
  farther... many were never seen 
  again.The area now known as 
  HOTlanta is easily seen by day 
  or night, due to the glow. The 
  radiactivity is still quite high 
  (treat as high radioactivity 
  within the I-285 perimeter and 5 
  miles beyond, low radiactivity 
  within 10 miles beyond that) and 
  no living thing has been found 
  that could survive in the ruins 
  of the city. There are rumors, 
  however, that someone or 
  something still thrives 
  somewhere deep within HOTlanta, 
  but as of yet, no one has been 
  able to substantiate those 
  claims  
  HOTlanta Dwellers: 
  There are actually some living 
  still within the I-285 
  perimeter. A small cadre of 
  security personnel and 
  scientists were caught in the 
  lower levels of the CDC when the 
  bombs fell. Everything above the 
  2nd subfloor was demolished... 
  but everything below survived. 
  The scientists actually worked 
  out a way to retard the aging 
  process in humans and have been 
  using the discovery to prolong 
  their lives, along with the 
  military group. The soldiers 
  have been using environmental 
  suits and machinery gathered 
  from a nearby construction site 
  (some of the machinery inside 
  one of the concrete basements 
  survived) to work on a tunnel to 
  the non-irradiated areas. 
  Unfortunately, the slowed-aging 
  process causes a massive 
  increase in the need for 
  sleep... instead of 8 hours a 
  day, the group needs 48 hours 
  for every 12 hour period. This 
  has caused a huge delay in their 
  work. But, the diggingcontinues.  
   
  Hoover Dam 
  The town of Hoover Dam is a town 
  built along the top and sides of 
  the dam. At the bottom of the 
  dam there's a slummy area, and 
  the dam's rim is home to all the 
  rich folk and military. The Dam 
  became part of the New 
  California Republic some time 
  after 2242. The town has lost 
  contact with the central 
  government of the NCR in Shady 
  Sands, and Governor Joseph 
  Dodge, the leader of Hoover Dam 
  assumed that it was destroyed by 
  the remains of the Enclave 
  (possibly from Navarro). He's 
  determined to hold the NCR 
  together, and declared himself 
  the president of NCR (or what is 
  left of it). Unfortunately, 
  Dodge is a weak leader, and he 
  fights an ongoing war with the 
  Brotherhood of Steel. It is said 
  that the road to Hell is paved 
  with good intentions. Joseph 
  Dodge used to scoff at such 
  pessimistic sayings, but lately 
  such sayings have become 
  mantras. During his time in the 
  NCR, Dodge led a good, but 
  ultimately unspectacular 
  existence as a councilman. He 
  had aspirations to be a senator 
  at NCR, but he never schmoozed 
  in the correct circles enough to 
  get noticed. He always thought 
  of himself as a man of action, 
  not kiss-ass-action, and 
  preferred not to get ahead by 
  schmoozing. Unfortunately, his 
  "man-of-action" plan was not 
  working either, mostly because 
  he never saw any action. 
  Granted, one must volunteer for 
  action, which he did not, but 
  that was irrelevant – in Dodge's 
  mind, anyways. So Dodge 
  contentedly relegated himself to 
  wallflower status for his tenure 
  as councilman – that is, until 
  volunteers were needed to forge 
       52     
    
  
  a path eastward. Since tensions 
  were high with the Brotherhood 
  of Steel, NCR did not want to 
  send out their finest commanders 
  in search of eastern lands to 
  pioneer. So, more "expendable" 
  commanders were chosen to lead 
  caravans eastward to establish 
  footholds and develop towns 
  under the NCR banner. One of 
  those "lucky" commanders chosen 
  to volunteer for this dangerous 
  mission was Councilman Joseph 
  Dodge. At first, he tried to 
  sidestep the "honor," but when 
  he was told that refusing this 
  mission would be considered an 
  act of treason, he humbly 
  accepted. Luckily for Dodge, he 
  was not sent out to blindly 
  search for random towns to 
  conquer, er, I mean, "unite" 
  under NCR. He was given vague 
  directions to Hoover Dam as his 
  destination and à cause d' être. 
  In the days before the war, 
  Hoover Dam was a source of great 
  power, literally, and NCR wanted 
  to have control of that power. 
  The technology used at Hoover 
  Dam could rival, if not surpass, 
  anything the Brotherhood of 
  Steel had, and that was a 
  temptation NCR did not want to 
  refute, especially during the 
  growing tensions between the two 
  organizations. Once Dodge's 
  caravans and troops arrived at 
  Hoover Dam, they found scattered 
  packs of settlers barely eking 
  out an existence on and around 
  the great structure. Frequented 
  by attacks from hostile raiders, 
  it took little convincing on 
  Dodge's part that it would be in 
  the settlers' best interests 
  that he and his NCR troops 
  provide protection and an 
  organized structure to the 
  Hoover Dam region, with Hoover 
  Dam itself being the central 
  hub. With exuberant cooperation 
  from the Hoover settlers, 
  structures and fortifications 
  were set up along the dam's rim. 
  With each completed structure, 
  the settlers of Hoover Dam felt 
  more secure and safe, especially 
  after Dodge's men made short 
  work of attacking raiders in the 
  early years. Everyone started to 
  feel as if they had a purpose in 
  the Hoover Dam community, and 
  the Dam started to separate into 
  a class system, with government 
  and high-end business people 
  occupying the area known as the 
  Rim, and the working class, such 
  as construction workers and 
  farmers, occupying the area 
  known as Downtown. Naturally, 
  Dodge and his NCR troops stayed 
  in the Rim, where Councilman 
  Dodge became known as Governor 
  Dodge by the people of Hoover 
  Dam, and was regarded as a fair, 
  honest leader who brought the 
  settlers of Hoover Dam into a 
  time of enlightenment and self 
  worth. The only real trouble 
  came when a group known as 
  Caesar's Legion tried to invade 
  Hoover Dam. The fighting was 
  fierce, and Governor Dodge still 
  to this day does not understand 
  the motive for the attack, but 
  suffice it to say that Dodge, 
  the NCR troops, and the 
  formidable wall with high 
  powered gun turrets thwarted 
  Caesar's invasion plans. 
  However, the battles did take 
  their toll and made the east 
  side of the Rim wrecked and 
  uninhabitable. In fact, there is 
  so much debris at the center of 
  the rim; it actually blocks 
  passage to the east side. 
  However, thanks to the big 
  victory over Caesar's Legions, 
  it was obvious that both the Rim 
  and Downtown were well taken 
  care of and protected, that is 
  until the war between NCR and 
  BOS began. The first few attacks 
  by the BOS were easily deflected 
  thanks to the strong, iron gates 
  along the rim and the 
  accompanying high-powered 
  turrets. However, over the 
  course of several months, supply 
  runs that used to come regularly 
       53     
    
  
  from the NCR base in the West 
  started to become less frequent. 
  Several times it got to the 
  point where Dodge thought his 
  men would run out of ammunition 
  for their guns and turrets, 
  leaving them exposed and 
  helpless to the BOS' superior 
  firepower. Dodge knew that he 
  needed to find an alternative 
  source of weaponry if Hoover Dam 
  was to survive against the BOS. 
  One of Hoover Dam's caravan 
  groups rose to the occasion. The 
  Crimson Caravan, a caravan group 
  who originated out of NCR itself 
  and helped to establish the 
  great community of Hoover Dam 
  along with Dodge, set out to 
  find an alternative to NCR 
  supply runs. Dodge was more than 
  happy to let Ailis McLafferty, 
  the Crimson Caravan's leader, 
  take the reigns of acquiring a 
  new source of weapons and 
  supplies. However, this contract 
  with the Crimson Caravan did not 
  sit well with their rival, the 
  3-Some Caravan. But that did not 
  concern Dodge. He never really 
  trusted the 3-Some Caravan 
  company, especially since it was 
  run by former NCR prisoners 
  (incarcerated at one time for 
  petty theft), and therefore did 
  not want them involved in 
  finding a weapon and ammo source 
  outside of the NCR home base 
  supply runs. It was almost six 
  months later, and Dodge and his 
  men were in dire straights, but 
  the Crimson Caravan came 
  through. Just as Dodge's men 
  were about to fire off the last 
  of their ammo, Ailis McLafferty 
  came through the main gates with 
  a truckload of finely crafted 
  firearms and ammunition. Ailis 
  told dodge she got a great 
  trading deal with a far away 
  tribal community dedicated to 
  mechanical technologies, but 
  would not elaborate as to where, 
  exactly, the tribe was and would 
  not go into detail on what they 
  were like. This was fine with 
  Dodge since with the new weapons 
  and ammunition, he and his men 
  could fend off future attacks by 
  the BOS. This tickled Dodge even 
  more since he got the impression 
  that the BOS were starting to 
  feel the pinch of extended 
  battle and could not afford 
  frequent attacks with depleted 
  ammunition and supplies – a 
  theory of Dodge's was that the 
  BOS was starting to suffer the 
  same fate as the NCR with few, 
  if not all-together stopped, 
  supply runs from BOS 
  headquarters. Perhaps Dodge and 
  his men would take the offensive 
  one day and overtake the 
  crippled BOS, he thought to 
  himself. Unfortunately for 
  Dodge, the BOS seemed to have a 
  new lease on the war, and 
  resumed assaults on Hoover Dam's 
  gates. It was if as soon as the 
  Crimson Caravan returned with 
  weapons and ammo for his troops, 
  the BOS got re-supplied as well. 
  Perhaps the war was going better 
  for the BOS than Dodge had 
  thought? He did not know. What 
  he did know, however, was that 
  the battle between the two 
  organizations was going to turn 
  into a war of attrition, with no 
  clear winner and no advancement 
  on either side. He may have been 
  a mere councilman when he was at 
  NCR, but he was smart enough to 
  recognize futility. Over the 
  course of several years, contact 
  with the NCR disappeared 
  completely. The supply train 
  that would make infrequent 
  visits to fund the war effort 
  ceased. Dodge began to rely more 
  and more on what the two 
  internal caravan companies could 
  bring in, and realized even more 
  that in order to maintain good 
  trading relations with the 
  outlaying communities, internal 
  resources must be found and 
  mined. For a few years after NCR 
  stopped their shipments, Dodge 
  used a construction site that 
  was along the center of the Rim 
       54     
    
  
  to gather building materials not 
  only to build structures in 
  Hoover Dam, but also use as 
  trade materials. The 
  construction site offered plenty 
  of rebar, stone, hardened wood, 
  and steel beams. The demand for 
  such materials was high, so 
  trading these resources became 
  profitable for both the Crimson 
  Caravan and the 3-Some Caravan 
  companies. However, over time it 
  became apparent that the area 
  around the construction site was 
  becoming weak and unstable, and 
  any further cannibalizing of the 
  materials there might lead to 
  the destruction of the dam 
  itself. Dodge ordered all access 
  to the construction site off-
  limits under penalty of death. 
  Dodge and his community once 
  again were in dire straights. 
  The Crimson Caravan's mysterious 
  trading source would not deal 
  with them if they had nothing of 
  value to trade. Dodge needed to 
  think of something, and quickly. 
  Luck was on Dodge's side one day 
  when a resident ghoul, named 
  Otto Steed, came to him and 
  revealed something very 
  interesting. Otto Steed, as it 
  turned out, was in charge of the 
  water purification system in the 
  Downtown area. The water that 
  got purified was not quite 
  drinkable, but was suitable for 
  agriculture. The interesting 
  part is that the byproducts of 
  the filtration process turned 
  out to be potassium nitrate and 
  sulfur – two of the primary 
  components of black powder. 
  Another byproduct is nitric 
  acid, one of the ingredients to 
  gunpowder, though not quite in 
  the quantities of the other two. 
  These chemicals would be very 
  valuable to a community that had 
  access to coal, and as luck 
  would have it, the community 
  that the Crimson Caravan dealt 
  with for ammo and weapons had 
  its own coal source, but not a 
  reliable potassium nitrate and 
  sulfur source. Trade with the 
  ammo and weapons supplier once 
  again resumed, and the Crimson 
  Caravan was flying high as top-
  dog with Governor Dodge. With 
  the weapons and ammo problem 
  pretty much solved, Governor 
  Dodge had another, possibly even 
  bigger problem to contend with – 
  battle fatigue. Even though 
  attacks from the BOS were not as 
  frequent as they were during the 
  onset, the constant state of 
  alert was wearing thin on the 
  troops and the citizenry. 
  Several soldiers and some of the 
  citizens abandoned Hoover Dam in 
  the hopes of finding a community 
  not buried in the throws of an 
  attritional war. Among those who 
  stayed, there was a longing for 
  escape either through natural or 
  chemical means. Apathy almost 
  become the watchword, and 
  resulted in many key systems 
  starting to malfunction or shut 
  down altogether. Otto, who has a 
  knack for those things 
  mechanical, tried to keep up 
  with everything, but the 
  breakdowns were becoming too 
  much for Otto to handle alone. 
  Governor Dodge knew he must find 
  a way to stop the war once and 
  for all, or Hoover Dam was 
  doomed – if not by being overrun 
  by the BOS, then by entropy and 
  abandonment. All the while, the 
  Crimson Caravan Company 
  flourished and seemed very happy 
  the way things were.  
  The Hub 
  The Hub is a major trading city. 
  It is a large community of 
  traders, barterers, gamblers, 
  and other interesting scum. The 
  Hub is a stopoff point for 
  caravans north to Shady Sands 
  and Junktown and south to the 
  Boneyard. The wide variety of 
  people passing through ensures 
  that there is always something 
  interesting going on. The town, 
  not unlike New Reno is divided 
       55     
    
  
  into districts controlled by 
  powerful groups (only merchants 
  not mafia). Unlike New Reno, 
  however, the town has a neutral 
  police. The Hub was founded in 
  2092 by a man named Angus, who 
  set up camp around a filthy 
  oasis in the desert, and 
  proceeded to begin trading with 
  other settlements. In 2096, a 
  man called Harold rose to the 
  level of a caravan boss in the 
  Hub. His caravans suffered 
  occasional attacks in the 
  wastes, but Harold's caravan 
  outfit survived and prospered... 
  until the mutant attacks begin 
  to pick up a few years later. 
  Increasing mutant attacks on 
  Harold's caravans caused Harold 
  to get so pissed, in 2102 he 
  financed an adventuring party to 
  try and find out where these 
  dagnab mutants were coming from. 
  Consulting with a scientist and 
  doctor at the Hub, a man by the 
  name of Grey, the two of them 
  decide to join forces. A few 
  months later, Harold was found 
  by traders and taken back to the 
  Hub. But he wasn't human anymore 
  - he was mutating into a ghoul-
  like mutant. His former caravan 
  partners and employees, 
  horrified by his condition, 
  abandoned him left him without 
  even two bottlecaps to rub 
  together. However, he soon 
  became the leader of the Hub's 
  small ghoul population. In 2120 
  Angus established himself as the 
  governor of the growing Hub. 
  Five years later he managed to 
  stop the Vipers' attempt to raid 
  the Hub. In the winter of the 
  same year, however, he was 
  murdered, which threw the Hub 
  into chaos. In 2125 the Great 
  Merchant Wars started when a 
  band of merchants seized the 
  water tower in the Hub. They 
  demanded anyone wanting water 
  must pay a toll. The war lasted 
  for 2 years. The Water Merchants 
  sealed up the town, but were 
  outnumbered. A man named Roy 
  Greene (Justin Greene's 
  grandfather) made the peace and 
  negotiated a settlement. The 
  Hub's Central Council was 
  formed, composed of two 
  representatives from each of the 
  Hub caravan companies. A long 
  period of indecisiveness and 
  meetings maintain the status quo 
  in the Hub. In 2131, the Master 
  began ordering his super mutants 
  to gather human stock from 
  caravans. For many years, the 
  caravan disappearances were 
  blamed on monsters in the 
  desert, and even when the 
  abductions begin to occur on Hub 
  caravans, the deathclaws were 
  blamed. The Hub Underground was 
  formed by a man called Decker in 
  2140, who quickly started 
  pulling the strings in the town. 
  The three merchant groups 
  running the town are the Water 
  Merchants, Crimson Caravan and 
  the Far Go Traders. The 
  underground in the new town is 
  led by Decker, the underground 
  in the old town is led by Loxley 
  and the Thieves' Guild.  
  Jefferson 
  The rubble-strewn city of 
  Jefferson is what remains of 
  Jefferson City, Missouri. One of 
  the Gammorin's super mutant 
  staging areas was located there. 
  The mutants had a semi-permanent 
  military base in the ruins of 
  Jefferson. Around 2197, after 
  general Simon Barnaky was taken 
  prisoner by Toccamatta, one of 
  the mutant leaders, the Eastern 
  Brotherhood of Steel sent a 
  squad to Jefferson, believing 
  the structure to be a weapons 
  manufacturing plant. The 
  Warrior's objective was to 
  render all of the power 
  generators permanently 
  inoperative. As it turned out, 
  the super mutants were not 
  manufacturing weapons, but their 
  scientists in Jefferson were 
  working on a cure to the super 
       56     
    
  
  mutant sterility. The lab was 
  either destroyed or taken over 
  by the Brotherhood.  
  Junction City 
  Junction City is a mid sized 
  town in Kansas that refused to 
  form an alliance with the 
  Eastern Brotherhood of Steel. 
  Their independent posture was 
  reinforced by their victory over 
  one of the Calculator's humanoid 
  robots. Brotherhood Elders were 
  quite curious how such a battle 
  could be won, considering the 
  lack of heavy weaponry involved 
  and sent a squad to investigate 
  it, retrieve robotic parts from 
  the scene of the battle and to 
  recruit a mechanic from Junction 
  City to the Brotherhood. 
  Eventually, the Brotherhood 
  forged a deal with the town's 
  mayor and received the robot 
  parts in exchange for protection 
  from Reavers, who were launching 
  probing attacks against Junction 
  City.  
  Junktown 
  Junktown is one of the smaller 
  towns in southern California. It 
  was founded soon after the War 
  by a soldier called Darkwater. 
  Instead of the ruins of an old 
  town, he thought it would be 
  better to begin from the ground 
  up. As the name suggests, it was 
  built after the Great War out of 
  random pieces of junk, mostly of 
  broken cars. The town mostly 
  lives out of trading and has a 
  reputation of open hospitality. 
  Around 2161, the mayor of 
  Junktown was Killian Darkwater, 
  grandson of the town's founder, 
  who also ran a general store, 
  Dark Waters. Another big player 
  in the town was Gizmo, a small-
  time crook and casino owner. 
  While Gizmo's casino brought a 
  lot of tourists and money into 
  the town, problems also came 
  with it. Other important places 
  in Junktown at that time 
  included Crash-House Inn, home 
  to the Skulz and the Skum Pitt, 
  a bar owned by Neal. Doc Morbid 
  was the town's doctor. Tycho, a 
  Wasteland Ranger, also resided 
  in Junktown for a while at that 
  time. Drawing weapons in town is 
  not permitted except in self-
  defense. The gates to the town 
  are closed in the night. In 
  2161, Lars headed the guards in 
  Junktown, working for Killian 
  Darkwater. The gates were 
  guarded by Kalnor. They also had 
  a jail, which is guarded by 
  Andrew. The guards were aware of 
  the illegal activities of Gizmo 
  and the Skulz, but they didn't 
  want to act without proper 
  evidence. In 2161, Gizmo hired a 
  man to assasinate Killian, in 
  order to gain full control over 
  the town. Unfortunately for him, 
  in December 2161 Gizmo was 
  eventually killed by a man known 
  as the Vault Dweller, who 
  earlier helped Killian gather 
  evidence of Gizmo's involvement 
  in the assasination plot. He 
  left the town after a while, 
  taking with him his new 
  companion, a dog which he called 
  Dogmeat. Killian then took firm 
  control of Junktown, drove out 
  the last of Gizmo's kind, and 
  then enforced his own brand of 
  frontier justice. By 2241, 
  Junktown has become a member of 
  the New California Republic. 
  Currently, it is part of the 
  state Shady.  
  Kansas City 
  Before the Great War, Kansas 
  City was a major nuclear launch 
  site. After the city was hit by 
  the bombs, the silo staff 
  survived, but was turned into 
  ghouls, who formed a town called 
  Gravestone in the ruins of the 
  city. The ghouls formed a cult 
  worshipping the only nuclear 
  bomb left intact in the silo, 
       57     
    
  
  which they called "Plutonius". 
  The ghoul in charge of both the 
  town and the ghouls' weird 
  religion was called the Bishop 
  and his name was Defcon, the 
  second, son of T-Minus. Around 
  2198, Gammorin's super mutant 
  army established a base in 
  another area of Kansas, and 
  tried to assault Gravestone in 
  order to get the atom bomb 
  worshipped by the ghouls. The 
  ghouls were eventually aided by 
  the Eastern Brotherhood of 
  Steel, who killed most of the 
  attacking mutants. In exchange 
  for their aid, the BoS demanded 
  the ghouls to give them 
  "Plutonius", which was later 
  used to defeat the Calculator.  
  Klamath 
  The old Oregon town of Klamath 
  Falls, now known just as 
  Klamath, is a small community of 
  trappers that hunt the giant, 
  mutant lizards called geckos in 
  the area. Although the geckos 
  resemble the smaller lizards of 
  the same name in pre-War 
  America, these monsters run - 
  quickly - on two legs and have 
  long claws on their stunted 
  forearms as well as sharp teeth. 
  A certain species, called the 
  golden gecko, hunts in packs and 
  has even displayed some forms of 
  low-level intelligence. Highly 
  prized for their pelts, geckos 
  and golden geckos are the 
  lifeblood of this small 
  community. Klamath is the 
  stopping point for caravans on 
  their way to the tiny tribal 
  villages to the north, and also 
  serves as a place where members 
  of those tribes can come and 
  exchange information, goods, and 
  news about the larger world. 
  Around 1,000 people live in 
  Klamath, and radiation is not a 
  problem. 
   
  Land of His Grace, King of All 
  (Graceland,Memphis) 
   
  The effects of the war were felt 
  not only physically, but 
  mentally as well. The stresses 
  of surviving in a ruined land 
  sent many into severe depression 
  and a need for some purpose 
  other than survival found its 
  way into many hearts. A small 
  group of hardcore Elvis fans 
  found their way to Graceland and 
  found such a purpose... they 
  simply created a religion based 
  around the King of Rock and 
  Roll. The group began calling 
  themselves the Rockers and, once 
  they'd established themselves in 
  the King's former home, began to 
  proselytize to the remaining 
  masses still living in and near 
  Memphis. Their numbers swelled, 
  the converted flocking to the 
  mansion and its grounds, 
  building and expanding outward. 
  They'd found a new purpose in 
  life. Today, the Land of His 
  Grace has expanded out to a 
  square mile, with continual work 
  being done to expand downward. 
  The inhabitants, numbering 
  around 400, are split between 
  oups: 
  four gr
  Rockers - these descendants of 
  the original ten Rockers act as 
  council and religious leaders 
  for the group. All decisions 
  about law, dogma and dealings 
  with outsiders are made by the 
  ten. However, no one save the 
  Faithfuls are allowed to see 
  them. They remain mysteries to 
  any outsiders and to the general 
  populace. 
  Faithfuls - these priest-like 
  men and women carry the word of 
  the Rockers to the town populace 
  and enforce the dogma of the 
  religion. They are easily 
  identifiable by their "blue 
  suede shoes," which are merely 
  shoes dyed to a deep blue color. 
  Currently, there are 50 Faithful 
  presiding over the Land. The 
  town's inhabitants, and any 
       58     
    
  
  visitor who wishes to convert, 
  attend meetings every Sunday 
  where the Faithfuls preach the 
  Word of the King, hand down any 
  new or altered laws and 
  teachings, and lead the crowd in 
  singing His praise (old Elvis 
  songs). 
  Prophetics - these are the 
  missionaries of the Land, sent 
  out to find promising converts 
  and form trade agreements with 
  settlements. They also work to 
  set up temples, called 
  Heartbreak Hotels, to the King 
  to spread the word of the 
  Rockers. Though enjoying limited 
  success near Memphis and further 
  north, for the most part, the 
  Prophetics are looked at with 
  great suspicion. Their strange 
  ways and stranger clothing 
  (sequined capes and jackets, 
  "holy vestments of He Who is 
  King") make many people wary. 
  During the "concerts" 
  (ceremonies), if the Prophetic 
  has observed one in the crowd 
  who seems a likely convert (due 
  to reactions to the ceremonies, 
  questions, interest, etc.), he 
  will fling his scarf to this 
  person. The receivant will then 
  be taken "back stage" and his 
  initiation into the teachings of 
  His Grace will begin. If the 
  person later rejects the 
  teachings... well, no one has 
  yet. 
  Fan-atics - the main population 
  of the Land of His Grace are 
  known to most as Fan-atics, 
  called so by the survivors in 
  the surrounding area. Not the 
  most postive moniker, the 
  followers of the King have taken 
  the derogatory nickname and made 
  it their own. For the most part, 
  the Fan-atics are nothing like 
  their name, generally friendly 
  to any visitors and peaceable. 
  But, to those who would attempt 
  to disrupt the way of life in 
  the Land, the Fan-atics show why 
  they garnered the name in the 
  first place... there are few, if 
  any, survivors of such a 
  display. 
  Las Vegas  
  Las Vegas still glows, and it 
  probably will forever, thanks to 
  the neon and background 
  radiation. Las Vegas got nuked 
  and nuked badly during the war, 
  but through some strange twist 
  of fate, people managed to 
  survive there. Like New Reno, it 
  is run by a crime syndicate, 
  headed by a man known as Fat 
  Freddy. Freddy controls all of 
  the gambling, drug, and sex 
  trade in the city. Truly, 
  however, Vegas is a shell of its 
  former self, holding barely 5000 
  People. The inhabited buildings 
  are in a state of disrepair, and 
  signs of further decay are 
  everywhere. The lack of police, 
  NCR influence and desperate mood 
  of the town make it a haven for 
  travelers, adventurers, and all 
  kinds of vile scum. The Church 
  of the Mushroom Cloud is based 
  here as well. Radiation levels 
  are relatively low throughout 
  the city, although there are 
  pockets of radioactivity here 
  and there. 
  Los Angeles Vault 
  The Los Angeles Vault was a 
  demonstration Vault built by 
  Vault-Tec to advertise its 
  series of fallout shelters. As 
  such, it was not part of the 
  Vault Experiment and was never 
  assigned a number. When the 
  Great War started, many people 
  took shelter in this Vault, and 
  eventually emerged in 2092, 
  founding the Boneyard.  
  In 2155, the Master learned the 
  location of the Boneyard Vault. 
  He conquered the inhabitants and 
  set up operations there, and the 
  human cultists began to use the 
       59     
    
  
  Vault as their powerbase. 
  Eventually, a monumental 
  building known as the Cathedral 
  was constructed above the Vault. 
  The Cultists thus became known 
  as the Children of the 
  Cathedral. The Cathedral was 
  destroyed in 2162 either by a 
  man known as the Vault Dweller 
  or by the Master himself, when 
  he learned that his super 
  mutants were sterile.  
  Lost Hills/Maxson 
  The Lost Hills old government 
  bunker in Southern California is 
  the headquarters of the 
  Brotherhood of Steel, located 
  northwest of Junktown and the 
  Hub, southeast of the Mariposa 
  Military Base and south of Vault 
  13. During Great War, the 
  Mariposa Military Base soldiers 
  were protected from the 
  radiation and FEV flooding the 
  wasteland. Two days later, a 
  scout in Power Armor (Platner) 
  was sent out to get specific 
  readings on the atmosphere. He 
  reported no significant 
  radiation in the area 
  surrounding the facility. After 
  burying the scientists in the 
  wastes outside of Mariposa, the 
  soldiers sealed the military 
  base, then headed out into the 
  desert, taking supplies and 
  weapon schematics with them. 
  Captain Roger Maxson led his men 
  and families to the government 
  bunker at Lost Hills, and this 
  event was later called the 
  Exodus. In November, Maxson and 
  his men, and their families, 
  arrive at the Lost Hills later, 
  suffering many casualties along 
  the way, including Maxson's wife 
  (but not his teenage son). The 
  Lost Hills bunker became the 
  headquarters of the newly formed 
  Brotherhood of Steel.  
   
  Macomb 
  Macomb is a town located in the 
  area of the pre-war city of 
  Macomb, Illinois, southwest of 
  Chicago. Around 2197, the 
  Eastern Brotherhood of Steel 
  received a distress call from 
  one of their squads acting as 
  escort to a supply wagon passing 
  through Macomb. A single unit 
  was separated from the main 
  group and the road behind him 
  has been blocked off. The APC 
  was attacked not only by 
  bandits, but also by hungry and 
  desperate people, as the 
  Brotherhood of Steel supply 
  wagons carry food, weapons, and 
  medical supplies - the three 
  most sought after commodities in 
  the Wasteland. The vehicle and 
  Pilot Christian, the driver were 
  rescued by a small Brotherhood 
  squad and three extermination 
  squads were dispatched to Macomb 
  to remove the assorted 
  "riffraff". Those who weren't 
  killed paid back the 
  Brotherhood's "generosity" by 
  serving in labor camps. One of 
  the few inhabitants of Macomb 
  who weren't hostile to the 
  Brotherhood was Phillip Wilson, 
  the town librarian. It is 
  unknown what happened to him.  
  Mardin 
  Mardin is an underground cave 
  labyrinth northwest of St. 
  Louis, within which the lair of 
  the Beastlords was located. The 
  Beastlords possessed an inherent 
  telepathic suggestion which 
  allowed them to control animals. 
  It was acquired through 
  prolonged exposure to an unknown 
  radiation present within 
  Mardin's underground caves. 
  According to the Brotherhood 
  scribes, that this unique 
  mutation only manifests in 
  humans that have been exposed 
  for at least twenty years. 
       60     
    
  
  Around 2197, an Eastern 
  Brotherhood of Steel squad was 
  sent to Mardin and eliminated 
  the Beastlords.  
  Mariposa Military Base 
  Mariposa Military Base was a 
  top-secret United States 
  military facility built to house 
  Forced Evolutionary Virus 
  research previously conducted at 
  West Tek, located somewhere in 
  the area of the Mariposa 
  unincorporated community in 
  California. The name Mariposa 
  means "butterfly" in Spanish. 
  Pre-war history The construction 
  of Mariposa started in October 
  2076 when large progress was 
  made in FEV research, and the 
  government preferred to move the 
  project to a location under 
  military supervision. On January 
  7, 2077, Major Barnett ordered 
  transfer of all FEV research to 
  the newly-constructed Mariposa 
  Base, despite objections by the 
  research team. Along with the 
  scientists, a military team 
  commanded by colonel Robert 
  Spindel, which previously 
  monitored the experiments at 
  West Tek was sent to Mariposa. 
  Spindel's second-in-command was 
  captain Roger Maxson. The FEV 
  project was moved to Mariposa 
  and tested on human subjects. 
  The vats were giant tanks filled 
  with liquid FEV. As part of the 
  research project, human subjects 
  were dipped inside them and then 
  examined to learn how to control 
  and harness the process. The 
  experiments on humans were kept 
  secret even from Spindel and his 
  soldiers. Wartime events On 
  October 10, Maxson and his men 
  dicovered to their horror, that 
  the scientists at Mariposa were 
  using military prisoners as test 
  subjects in their experiments 
  with the Forced Evolutionary 
  Virus. Morale in the base broke 
  down, and Spindel suffered a 
  mental breakdown, eventually 
  commiting a suicide 5 days 
  later. Maxson's men turned to 
  him for leadership. After 
  interrogating Robert Anderson, 
  the chief scientist, and 
  learning about the extent of 
  their actions, Maxson executed 
  him, and the other scientists 
  soon followed. Maxson, now in 
  control of the entire base, 
  declared himself to be in full 
  desertion from the army via 
  radio on October 20. Strangely, 
  he got no response, as the rest 
  of the army was busy fighting 
  the Chinese threat. Three days 
  later, the bombs were launched, 
  and the Great War ended two 
  hours after it started. The 
  Mariposa Military Base survived, 
  the soldiers within protected 
  from the radiation and FEV 
  flooding the wasteland. Two days 
  later at Mariposa, a scout in 
  Power Armor (Platner) was sent 
  out to get specific readings on 
  the atmosphere. He reported no 
  significant radiation in the 
  area surrounding the facility. 
  After burying the scientists in 
  the wastes outside of Mariposa, 
  the soldiers sealed the military 
  base, then headed out into the 
  desert, taking supplies and 
  weapon schematics with them. 
  Captain Maxson led his men and 
  families to the government 
  bunker at Lost Hills, eventually 
  forming the Brotherhood of 
  Steel.                    
  Master's Army: The Vats were 
  later found by a bunch of 
  explorers seeking to find the 
  source of mutated animals which 
  seemed to originate from the 
  area. Dr. Richard Grey, was one 
  of the explorers, and after 
  falling into the Vats, became 
  the Master. Richard grew to be a 
  powerful mutant, he was vastly 
  intelligent, and not dumb like 
  many other mutants (indeed, the 
  FEV was supposed to make 
  subjects more intelligent, but 
  failed to do so on various 
  occasions). He soon learned he 
       61     
    
  
  could assimilate other minds 
  into his own, and started 
  preying on different creatures. 
  He soon devised the idea of the 
  Unity. He knew he was perfect 
  and wanted to unify the entire 
  wasteland so everyone could bask 
  in his glory. He knew, of 
  course, there would be 
  resistance, and so used the Vats 
  to create the mutant army. The 
  Military base became the main 
  base of the mutant army, and the 
  super mutants were dipped and 
  created there. In 2162, a man 
  known as the Vault Dweller 
  managed to destroy the Vats, and 
  the Mariposa base collapsed. 
  Enclave's excavations In 2236, 
  the Enclave discovered the 
  remnants of the Mariposa Base. 
  Soon, assault squads combed the 
  desert for slaves they could use 
  to mine the military base and 
  get to the Vats. One of the 
  squads included soldier Frank 
  Horrigan. Enclave construction 
  crews, as well as human and 
  super mutant slaves began 
  excavations. In September they 
  uncovered FEV, and mutations 
  began to occur in the human 
  workers. Frank Horrigan comes 
  into contact with the virus and 
  is sent to the Enclave labs for 
  study.  In 2237, having obtained 
  the FEV data, the Enclave 
  abandoned the site after more 
  mutations occured, causing 2nd 
  Generation super mutants to 
  arise - the Enclave left a 
  single squad behind to wipe out 
  the super mutants, but the 
  mutants, using armaments they 
  have cached in the base during 
  excavation, reduced the squad to 
  ashes after suffering heavy 
  casualties. The remaining 1st 
  and 2nd Generation super mutant 
  slaves decided to remain in the 
  Base, and the group forms a new 
  community under the leadership 
  of Melchior, whose magician 
  talents had allowed them to hide 
  the weapons. 
  Maxson Bunker 
  Maxson Bunker was a pre-war 
  fallout shelter built by a 
  senator for his family and 
  himself. Unfortunately, the war 
  caught him unawares and the 
  bunker was never used. All but 
  forgotten, the bunker location 
  was passed down as a family 
  secret from one generation to 
  the next. Eventually a family 
  member passed the secret on to 
  Roger Maxson, who claimed it for 
  the Brotherhood of Steel. The 
  bunker's commander is General 
  Andrea Brixley. The bunker was 
  intended to be used as a staging 
  area for exploration teams 
  scouting the east. However, once 
  the war broke out with the New 
  California Republic the bunker 
  became a forward base of 
  operations against Hoover Dam, 
  an NCR outpost. The war effort 
  has gone poorly for both sides. 
  The BOS has superior technology, 
  but the NCR has superior numbers 
  of troops. As a result, the war 
  has been at a stalemate for 
  years. Morale on both sides has 
  plummeted but the BOS has been 
  severely affected. The BOS has 
  always believed themselves to be 
  an elite organization comprised 
  of the best that mankind has to 
  offer in soldiers and 
  technology. The fact that a 
  large group of under trained and 
  under equipped troops could hold 
  their own against such superior 
  forces was an eye opener for the 
  BOS. The war, in their eyes, has 
  now become a senseless waste of 
  lives and resources. Many of the 
  BOS troops have deserted and 
  fled into the wasteland to find 
  new lives, leaving the bunker 
  occupied by a select few 
  diehards. In the wake of these 
  troubles, a covert group of 
  former BOS operatives has come 
  into existence. Calling 
  themselves the Circle of Steel, 
  this group raids caravans and 
  villages, confiscates any 
       62     
    
  
  advanced technology they may 
  have, and does so in the name of 
  salvaging mankind from itself. 
  In the year 2067, Senator Todd 
  Peterson decided to build a 
  secret bunker to house himself 
  and his family should war break 
  out. Senator Peterson was a 
  wealthy man in his own right, 
  but lacked the funds necessary 
  for such a project. Through 
  secret dealings with Poseidon 
  Oil and a covert branch of the 
  government known as the Enclave, 
  the final funding for the 
  project was attained. A 
  construction sight was chosen in 
  southern Colorado and work 
  began. Ten years after the 
  construction was completed, war 
  did indeed break out. Senator 
  Peterson was in Washington DC at 
  the time and, much to his 
  chagrin, was taken completely by 
  surprise. The senator made a 
  desperate attempt to gather his 
  family and reach the bunker, but 
  his small plane never arrived. 
  The bunker might have remained 
  lost were it not for a surviving 
  member of the senator's family, 
  Ben Schilling. In the year 2077, 
  Captain Roger Maxson left the 
  Mariposa military base and 
  traveled to the secret Lost 
  Hills bunker for the purpose of 
  establishing a new military 
  order. He brought with him a 
  loyal group of followers 
  consisting of both military 
  personnel and scientists. Among 
  these was Corporal Ben Shilling. 
  It was at this time that Maxson 
  established the Brotherhood of 
  Steel. As the Brotherhood grew 
  they began to look into the 
  possibility of expanding their 
  operations. It was then that Ben 
  Schilling revealed the location 
  of the Senator Peterson's 
  bunker. The location was filed 
  for future use. In the year 
  2231, Jeremy Maxson, was leading 
  a thriving Brotherhood of Steel. 
  Jeremy decided that it was time 
  to expand BOS operations into 
  the east. He sent an 
  expeditionary force composed of 
  five paladins to confirm the 
  location of Peterson's bunker. 
  The expedition leader, Andrea 
  Brixley, discovered the bunker, 
  disabled its security, and 
  opened it for habitation. For 
  over a decade she and her fellow 
  paladins explored the east and 
  forged relationships with many 
  of the tribes that inhabited the 
  area. In the year 2242, Jeremy 
  Maxson renamed the bunker after 
  his famous ancestor, Roger 
  Maxson. He then sent a full 
  compliment of troops for 
  occupation. Andrea Brixley was 
  promoted to Elder, given the 
  rank of General, and placed in 
  charge. The remainder of her 
  exploratory team was given the 
  title of Elder as well. It was 
  not long afterward that the war 
  with the New California Republic 
  was announced. For years the war 
  waged on and was considered a 
  victory for the Brotherhood of 
  Steel. However, no matter how 
  many troops fell to the 
  Brotherhood's superior 
  technology, the NCR always 
  seemed to have more replacements 
  available. The Brotherhood, 
  however, was not so fortunate. 
  Being an elitist group, 
  replacements were short in 
  arriving. It soon became obvious 
  that the Brotherhood was doomed 
  to loose the war to the NCR's 
  greater numbers. Moral at the 
  bunker began to falter as the 
  war seemed more and more 
  hopeless. Eventually the 
  inevitable happened. Lower 
  ranking members of the 
  Brotherhood began to desert 
  their posts. In an effort to end 
  the war once and for all, the 
  Brotherhood began to use newly 
  discovered subversive technology 
  known as StealthBoys. These 
  devices could create a field of 
  energy that would bend light 
  around the user, thus making him 
  virtually invisible to sight. 
       63     
    
  
  This allowed Brotherhood 
  operatives to penetrate deep 
  into NCR territory for the 
  gathering of intelligence. 
  However, it was soon discovered 
  that the devices had severe side 
  effects. Paranoia, delusions, 
  and eventual schizophrenia were 
  the major ones. The Brotherhood 
  disallowed the use of 
  StealthBoys and once again fell 
  behind in their war effort. Now 
  the Brotherhood of Steel is 
  facing yet another problem. The 
  side effects of the StealthBoys 
  were not discovered until the 
  team using them had already 
  begun to feel their effect. When 
  the team was disbanded, paranoia 
  over the reason began to set in 
  and the team plotted against 
  their leaders. They stole the 
  StealthBoys, fled the bunker as 
  deserters, and formed a covert 
  group known as the Circle of 
  Steel. The goal of the COS is to 
  recover lost technology and 
  rebuild the glory of the 
  Brotherhood at any cost.  
  Mesa Verde 
  Mesa Verde is a small cliff 
  dwelling set high in the side of 
  a mesa, somewhere in the 
  American southwest. The people 
  there, called the Ciphers, seem 
  like any other group of tribals. 
  In reality, they're quite 
  skilled in science. They hold 
  onto their secret knowledge in 
  preparation for the day they are 
  once again worthy to use it. The 
  schematics for many a forgotten 
  device is painted all over the 
  village walls, but the few 
  travelers that visit the village 
  are unaware of the significance, 
  dismissing the scribblings as 
  "tribal art".  In the weeks 
  following the War, a group of 
  scientists and soldiers based at 
  the atomic laboratory at Los 
  Alamos, New Mexico, wandered 
  north with a band of other 
  survivors (looking a bit like 
  the group in The Stand), looking 
  for a place of relative safety. 
  They assumed that they were the 
  only "civilized" people left, 
  since everyone else they 
  encountered attacked them, 
  trying to take their food, 
  water, and clothes. When they 
  discovered one of the ancient 
  pueblos at Mesa Verde, they 
  decided to set up camp there. 
  The group carried only a limited 
  amount of technology with them. 
  The soldiers had pistols and 
  rifles, and the scientists 
  carried one barely working 
  computer, enough parts to build 
  several water makers and a crude 
  wind turbine to power them, 
  several lead-lined boxes 
  containing enriched uranium, and 
  a small supply of medicine. The 
  rest of the band had a variety 
  of miscellaneous gear which most 
  contributed for group use. A 
  decade later, the computer began 
  to fail. Fearing that the 
  technology of the Old World 
  would be forever lost, the 
  scientists began painting and 
  carving electronic schematics 
  into the walls of the pit 
  (called a kiva by the builders 
  of the pueblo). At the same 
  time, they insisted that 
  mathematics be emphasized when 
  educating the village children 
  so that their descendants would 
  understand how to use the 
  schematics. Because they were 
  steeped in math from a very 
  early age, the villagers tend to 
  use a lot of math terms to 
  express themselves. This 
  occasionally confusing, cryptic 
  way of speaking caused them to 
  be dubbed "Ciphers" by educated 
  wasteland dwellers who thought 
  they might be speaking in some 
  type of code. The Ciphers merely 
  shrugged and accepted the name. 
  As the years passed, the Ciphers 
  forgot their disciplined, 
  scientific roots and became more 
  concerned with everyday survival 
  rather than meaningless 
       64     
    
  
  scientific theories. When it 
  comes to electronic devices and 
  weapons, the Ciphers know more 
  about how it works than why it 
  works: "The symbols say put this 
  and this together, and then this 
  happens. Why? Who knows? As long 
  as the numbers are right, who 
  cares?" The emphasis on 
  mathematics in their culture has 
  led to Ciphers to assign an 
  almost mystical significance to 
  specific numbers. It's the 
  closest thing to a religion they 
  have. Each Cipher is believed to 
  have a personal number, 
  determined by the Nemonik at 
  their birth. Ciphers will take 
  their personal number into 
  consideration when doing almost 
  anything, from heading out to 
  hunt on the sixth day of the 
  month to choosing whom to marry. 
  It's all very confusing to 
  outsiders. The village at Mesa 
  Verde was tiny to begin with, 
  having barely enough room to 
  house all the scientists, 
  soldiers, and other survivors. 
  Nearly a century later, the 
  descendants of the original 
  settlers had outgrown the space 
  and resources available. Many 
  families chose to adopt a 
  nomadic lifestyle to avoid the 
  perpetual thirst and hunger. 
  Only those families with very 
  young children or those Ciphers 
  too old and feeble to travel 
  remain full-time in the village. 
  Both Cipher men and women are 
  capable fighters, and even the 
  children are taught how to fight 
  as soon as they're able as a 
  matter of practicality. A 
  typical Cipher nomad band 
  consists of two to three 
  families traveling together. 
  They usually have at least one 
  type of electronic device like a 
  cattle prod or an ultrasonic 
  generator to ward off wild 
  animals. At the top of the mesa, 
  the Ciphers have an array of 
  water makers which condense 
  moisture from the air and 
  produce drinkable water. They 
  have a wind turbine which 
  generates a small amount of 
  electricity, enough to power the 
  water makers. However, it's not 
  a very quick operation, and 
  barely enough water is produced 
  each day to serve the village's 
  needs.  
  Metal Masons HQ, The Hole  
   
  The Metal Masons are a group 
  that formed around a group of 
  ghuols in the early 2080's. 
  These ghouls, orignally 
  technicians in the Army that had 
  gone AWOL, found the remains of 
  an old fallout bunker orignally 
  designed for the members of the 
  Georgia legislature 50 miles 
  northeast of Atlanta. Though it 
  was unfinished, the group took 
  up residence and began working 
  on refurbishing and finsihing 
  out the complex. After around 8 
  years of hard work, the bunker, 
  nicknamed The Hole, was 
  finished. During this time, 
  various travelers found and made 
  deals with the ghouls for trade 
  and, in some cases, residence. 
  The new residents, mostly human, 
  assisted in the renovations in 
  return for a place to stay. They 
  also learned from the 
  technicians about the technology 
  that lay within the shelter and 
  the machinery used in thier 
  continued work. 
  In 2093, The Hole was officially 
  completed. The facility 
  stretched a half square mile 
  wide, the same long and 60 feet 
  beneath the surface. The 
  entrance was surrounded by a 
  scrap metal wall, ugly but very 
  effective. In the center of the 
  western wall sits a small, one 
  story concrete building, built 
  from the remains of debris that 
  surrounded the site, that houses 
  the 5 man garrison (armed with 
  Power Armor and various heavy 
  weaponry). The residents, though 
  well-armed and capable, closed 
       65     
    
  
  the complex to outsiders, 
  leaving only the garrison to 
  speak to the traders and ward 
  off any unwelcome visitors. The 
  residents, now solely focused on 
  learning more about the tech and 
  furthering it for their own 
  ends, dubbed themselves the 
  Metal Masons, after the old 
  Masonic groups. Becoming more 
  and more secretive, the Masons 
  have stayed mostly out of the 
  business of the surrounding 
  lands. In the past 70 years or 
  so, they have made some 
  remarkable discoveries about the 
  mutations, reasons behind much 
  of the chaos in the years 
  surrounding the war and the true 
  purpose behind the Vaults. But, 
  it is inevitable that someday 
  their seclusion must come to and 
  end. When that day will come is 
  still a mystery. 
  [The Metal Masons hold much the 
  same place as the Brotherhood of 
  Steel do on the West Coast. But, 
  where the Brotherhood have a 
  somewhat "medieval" outlook with 
  the Knights, Paladins and 
  "quests," the Masons have a very 
  conspiracy theorist feel to 
  them. It is recommended that one 
  plays this to the hilt, with the 
  garrison members being very 
  secretive and using various 
  "secret handshake" and rituals 
  in their work and dealings with 
  the outside.] 
  Modoc  
  East of The Den, on the way to 
  Vault City, is Modoc. A 
  dwindling collection of 
  survivalists, Modoc is built on 
  the edge of the former Modoc 
  National Forest. For a long time 
  it traded in leather and meat 
  from Brahmin, but as other 
  places were offering the same 
  goods at cheaper rates, and 
  people began herding and raising 
  their own Brahmin, Modoc has 
  been on the decline. It is 
  mostly a sleepy mountain 
  community, with a centrally 
  located Bed and Breakfast for 
  the traveler. Modoc is beginning 
  to change to a trade city, 
  taking its cue as a stopover 
  place for the Vault City trade 
  routes, but the change may not 
  be enough to save it. There are 
  around 2000 people in Modoc, and 
  radiation levels are low here. 
  Navarro 
  The Navarro base is an military 
  outpost administered by the 
  Enclave. Located along the 
  coastline some distance to the 
  north of San Francisco, Navarro 
  serves as a stop-off point for 
  Enclave personnel and Vertibirds 
  assigned to missions on the West 
  Coast. 
  The Necropolis 
  The Necropolis, a town built 
  upon the charred remains of 
  Bakersfield, is the grim 
  aftermath of Vault 12; it is 
  best described by Killian 
  Darkwater: "The climate ain't 
  good, rain or shine." The true 
  purpose of that vault was to 
  keep the doors open regardless 
  of the conditions, which spelled 
  disaster to anyone attempting to 
  seek relief from the radiated 
  aftermath of the Great War. The 
  residents of the Necropolis were 
  ghouls, individuals ravaged by 
  the effects of radiation after 
  the Great War. To most of post-
  War California's residents 
  Necropolis was a haunted city, 
  at times a myth used to frighten 
  children, a "city of cannibals" 
  inhabited by brain-eating 
  ghouls. The ghoul population was 
  divided into three groups: The 
  surface dwellers were what could 
  be called the public face of 
  Necropolis, as they were by far 
  the most numerous of the three 
  groups, and controlled most of 
  the city's surface. They were 
       66     
    
  
  typically the first thing 
  outsiders encountered in 
  Necropolis, and were likely the 
  cause of the aforementioned 
  rumors surrounding the City of 
  the Dead. Their operations were 
  based out of the Hall of the 
  Dead, where their leader Set did 
  his business. Paranoid and 
  intolerant of outsiders and non-
  ghouls, the surface dwellers 
  were often violent, attacking 
  strangers on sight and harboring 
  a particularly deep hatred of 
  super mutants. This was most 
  likely due to the super mutant 
  garrison newly established 
  around Necropolis' important 
  Watershed. Though Talius 
  mentions heated resistance to 
  the super mutant presence in the 
  city by Set's surface dwellers, 
  by the time the Vault Dweller 
  arrives there appears to be a 
  sort of stalemate between the 
  two groups, though Set does not 
  hesitate in employing the 
  outsider to eliminate the super 
  mutants garrison. The Glowing 
  Ones were heavily irradiated 
  ghouls who lived in the old 
  Vault 12, shunned by even their 
  own kind, who disliked the other 
  ghouls as much as the normal 
  humans. The so-called 
  underground ghouls, who were 
  forced to live in the city's 
  sewers, though they were by far 
  the most peaceful of Necropolis' 
  residents and were much more 
  tolerant of outsiders than 
  either of the other groups. 
  Eventually, the town was taken 
  over by a several of the 
  Master's super mutants. An 
  individual called the Vault 
  Dweller killed the mutant 
  invaders, but unfortunately Ian, 
  one of his friends, was killed. 
  The town was eventually raided 
  by a larger super mutant force, 
  and many of the ghouls were 
  killed. Most ghouls, however, 
  managed to escape, leading to 
  the Great Migration across the 
  wastes to towns such as Gecko, 
  Broken Hills and Reservation.  
  New California Republic (NCR) 
  New California Republic (NCR) is 
  a federation of towns in North 
  California. The capitol of NCR 
  is the town of the same name 
  (population: 3000+), previously 
  known as Shady Sands. It is west 
  of the Rockies, in the middle-
  eastern portion of California 
  (almost straight east inland 
  from San Francisco). In 2241 the 
  Republic consists of 5 states - 
  Shady, Los Angeles, Maxson, Hub, 
  and Dayglow. The population is 
  about 700,000 people. The NCR is 
  arguably the largest known power 
  group in the world, and 
  maintains the largest standing 
  army. The government of NCR is 
  much like the Pre-War United 
  States, with a House of Congress 
  staffed by elected 
  representatives (Congressmen 
  elected by their states). These 
  representatives decide upon the 
  President and Vice-President to 
  head the council and govern the 
  republic - under advice from the 
  representatives, of course. The 
  titles for these representatives 
  have ranged from "Councilor," 
  "Counselor," "Councilman," 
  "Representative," "Senator," and 
  in particular, the Hub (in its 
  own obstinate way) prefers to 
  call their representatives 
  "Governors." (There is a lot of 
  friction between the Hub and 
  Shady for a variety of reasons, 
  usually related to trade rights 
  and caravan routes.) In any 
  event, all titles are recognized 
  and accepted outside of the 
  council chambers, but within the 
  chambers, the titles are 
  occasionally used as insults and 
  spark furious debates - nothing 
  more than petty displays of each 
  state trying to exert its 
  independence. NCR has outlawed 
  slavery in their territories, 
  have one of the best and largest 
       67     
    
  
  standing armies in the wastes, 
  and have benefited under their 
  current President, Tandi, who 
  has been with the Republic since 
  she was a young girl in Shady 
  Sands (see History, below). On 
  the plus side, the NCR has 
  outlawed slavery in their 
  territories, has attempted to 
  bring civilization and law back 
  to the wasteland, and they don't 
  (openly) discriminate against 
  ghouls and mutants. There is 
  little to no sexism in NCR 
  (unlike most other territories 
  in the wastes), most likely due 
  to the  community's origins in 
  Vault 15 and because of Tandi's 
  extended presidency. The 
  republic also has shown little 
  discrimination against ghouls 
  and mutants, though many 
  political analysts argue that 
  this is because NCR has had 
  limited contact with them (NCR 
  had little contact with 
  Necropolis or the Master's 
  Army). While Aradesh believed in 
  the teachings of Dharma, Tandi 
  always believed in the 
  separation of church and state - 
  and resisted any attempts to 
  canonize the Vault Dweller 
  within the city limits (the 
  statue's fine, but that's it). 
  Both Aradesh and Tandi found 
  politics and religion don't mix, 
  especially when they got more 
  exposure to the people of the 
  Hub and visits from a few well-
  spoken members of the Followers 
  of the Apocalypse. In any event, 
  the NCR allows any non-psychotic 
  religions within their capitol 
  (they are all for freedom of 
  religion, as long as it doesn't 
  involve human sacrifice or 
  dipping people in Vats). The NCR 
  military is composed of several 
  Divisions, including special 
  cavalry and mechanized units. 
  One of their "Special Forces" 
  units consists of the New 
  California Rangers, a select 
  group that is pledged to protect 
  the people of the Wastes much 
  like the Texas Rangers of old. 
  The Rangers are said to have 
  numerous safehouses throughout 
  the wastes, and they use these 
  to strike at slavers outside of 
  NCR territory (usually in the 
  North). As expected, the two 
  groups hate each other with a 
  passion. NCR was also in the 
  habit of establishing marshals 
  in the major population centers 
  in their territories, 
  responsible for enforcing the 
  laws of NCR throughout the 
  Republic. Ghouls, super mutants, 
  and humans were all known to 
  serve in the NCR armed forces, 
  even in the rangers. Although 
  nearly hitting a hundred years 
  of age, Tandi has done more to 
  unite the people of the wastes 
  than any other leader born from 
  the ashes of the Great War, and 
  she is revered as a saint and 
  even a "Great Mother" by some of 
  the tribals outside of the 
  Republic territories. Tandi's 
  State of the Republic messages 
  were famous for inspiring 
  countless people to join the 
  "service" and rebuild 
  civilization. Under her rule, 
  the republic has grown, and she 
  has focused efforts on 
  rebuilding the pre-war 
  infrastructure to support the 
  growing population, finding new 
  forms of transportation and 
  manufacturing, clearing roadways 
  and rail lines, building forts, 
  fostering caravans and trade in 
  the republic (and with other 
  territories), and dealing with 
  threats swiftly and efficiently. 
  In all her years, she has never 
  forgotten her roots in the small 
  village  and she has always 
  strived to put the welfare of 
  the common man above the wheels 
  of progress. When people talk 
  about "good people," Tandi is 
  good people. Common NCR Laws 
  include:  
       68     
    
  
  • 
  No weapons may be carried 
  openly within the city 
  limits.  
  • 
  Public drunkenness and 
  drug use is grounds for 
  arrest.  
  • 
  Slavery, gambling, and 
  prostitution are not 
  permitted within the city 
  limits.  
  These laws were more relaxed in 
  the outlying settlements, but 
  became more rigidly enforced the 
  closer one came to a major NCR 
  population center. The New 
  California Republic was born out 
  of the remnants of the survivors 
  of Vault 15, a sister vault to 
  Vault 13 that opened earlier and 
  released its occupants out onto 
  the wasteland. Abandoning their 
  vault (after scavenging most of 
  what they could from the 
  surviving technology and 
  collapsed lower levels), the 
  former residents of Vault 15 
  founded the small walled 
  community of Shady Sands, a town 
  midway between Vault 13 and 15. 
  In the period of Fallout 1, this 
  community was led by Aradesh and 
  his daughter, Tandi, eventually 
  rose to become president of the 
  sprawling New California 
  Republic in Fallout 2. (Without 
  the efforts of the Vault Dweller 
  the raiders in the region - the 
  Khans - would have claimed Shady 
  Sands and stamped out the 
  republic before it even got 
  started). At the time of Fallout 
  2, NCR's main resource are its 
  great brahmin herds, which 
  provide most of the wasteland 
  with as much meat and leather as 
  they require. The brahmin barons 
  and ranchers in NCR (along with 
  the Stockmen's Association) hold 
  a great deal of sway with the 
  caravans and the government. The 
  NCR's relationship with their 
  old Vault has undergone some 
  violent upheavals over the 
  years. From nests of monsters, 
  raiders, Vault 15 worshippers, 
  ghoul scavengers, to more 
  innocent (and not-so-innocent) 
  Squatters and Salvage Teams and 
  the Republic arguing over 
  excavation rights, it seems to 
  be difficult for the government 
  or any other inhabitant of the 
  wasteland to leave the area 
  alone... because, well, it's a 
  Vault. The brahmin herders 
  hatred of radscorpions is 
  famous, and it dates all the way 
  back to the founding of Shady 
  Sands. Rumors of herds being 
  attacked by talking deathclaws 
  are unfounded. Even though the 
  relationship between the NCR and 
  the Brotherhood of Steel was 
  never without some tensions, it 
  got much worse when Jeremy 
  Maxson became the leader of the 
  Brotherhood. He favored a return 
  to power by wresting all 
  advanced tech from the hands of 
  "lesser people" by any means 
  necessary. Some time after 2242 
  the war with the New California 
  Republic was announced.  For 
  years the war waged on and was 
  considered a victory for the 
  Brotherhood of Steel. However, 
  no matter how many troops fell 
  to the Brotherhood's superior 
  technology, the NCR always 
  seemed to have more replacements 
  available. The Brotherhood, 
  however, was not so fortunate. 
  Being an elitist group, 
  replacements were short in 
  arriving. It soon became obvious 
  that the Brotherhood was doomed 
  to lose the war to the NCR's 
  greater numbers. Moral at the 
  bunker began to falter as the 
  war seemed more and more 
  hopeless. Eventually the 
  inevitable happened. Lower 
  ranking members of the 
  Brotherhood began to desert 
  their posts. At some point 
  between 2241 and 2253, Hoover 
  Dam joined the NCR. During the 
  war with the Brotherhood, the 
  Dam lost contact with the rest 
  of the NCR and it currently 
       69     
    
  
  considers itself the capital 
  city of the Republic. 
  New Canaan 
  New Canaan, formerly the Jericho 
  Desalination Plant of New Canaan 
  in Ogden, Utah, is all that is 
  left of the Mormon city. The 
  town's prosperity revolves 
  around the fresh water the 
  still-working plant produces. 
  However, the plant is old and 
  inefficient, and Jericho is a 
  long way from being the economic 
  powerhouse it wants to be. The 
  Mormon community of New Canaan 
  was fairly successful as long as 
  it was left alone. When 
  outsiders started to filter in, 
  their rules about the use of 
  alcohol and other substances 
  rubbed non-Mormons the wrong 
  way. The community was also 
  split on how to handle super 
  mutants and ghouls who wanted to 
  convert and be part of the 
  community. Many of the Mormons 
  in NC were big racists and 
  didn't want anything to do with 
  the mutants. The Living Prophet 
  went against their wishes and 
  allowed them in, causing a lot 
  of dissention. The legitimacy of 
  Christianity or Mormonism was 
  never a question explicitly (or 
  even implicitly) asked or 
  answered in the VB design. Here 
  is a sample of a situation from 
  VB: the leader of New Canaan is 
  a man named Jeremiah Rigdon. 
  Jeremiah is the Living Prophet 
  of the faith. He claims to 
  receive visions after having 
  fits. He seems to believe this. 
  Many members of the community 
  believe this, but not all do. 
  Some people think that Jeremiah 
  is intentionally fraudulent or 
  that God is not the source of 
  his visions. The leader of New 
  Canaan is a man named Jeremiah 
  Rigdon. Jeremiah is the Living 
  Prophet of the faith. He claims 
  to receive visions after having 
  fits. He seems to believe this. 
  Many members of the community 
  believe this, but not all do. 
  Some people think that Jeremiah 
  is intentionally fraudulent or 
  that God is not the source of 
  his visions. Another member of 
  the community is a super mutant 
  Mormon named "Revelation" John. 
  John also sees and hears things 
  that others do not see or hear. 
  He does not believe that his 
  visions are divinely inspired, 
  but a few others in the 
  community do. Some PCs have the 
  ability to recognize that John 
  is suffering from schizophrenia 
  resulting from his time as a 
  Night Kin scout. The implied 
  question is: if John's visions 
  are the result of a medical 
  conditions, couldn't Jeremiah's 
  be natural as well? No 
  definitive answer is given. Yet 
  another member of the community 
  is a faux-Mormon named Pablo. 
  Pablo claims to be a Mormon, but 
  is just going through the 
  motions so he can live in New 
  Canaan. He is part of a drug-
  smuggling operation that defies 
  Jeremiah's explicit ban of such 
  substances in the community. 
  While New Canaan is dying, some 
  PCs can figure out a way that 
  they can survive on a long term 
  basis. However, Pablo would have 
  to be the leader of said 
  solution. If he is exposed as a 
  drug smuggler, Jeremiah would 
  almost certainly throw him out 
  of the community -- even if 
  doing so made it difficult for 
  the community to survive. 
  Implied question: is being so 
  strict on religious taboos worth 
  risking destruction? Again, 
  there is no author-defined 
  answer. Jeremiah has told the 
  members of the community that 
  God once again wants the Mormons 
  to practice polygyny. So many of 
  the men have died off that God 
  sees that practice as vital to 
  their survival. Not all members 
  think this is a good idea, and 
  many outsiders are disgusted by 
       70     
    
  
  it. This is never "validated" as 
  "true" in the game. It is simply 
  declared by Jeremiah. It's up to 
  the player to decide whether 
  Jeremiah was really inspired, 
  whether he made it up, or 
  whether he simply dreamed it. 
  Another implied question: if 
  Jeremiah did make it all up, is 
  what he's suggesting wrong or 
  bad? Marshal is a glowing ghoul 
  who converted to Mormonism. He 
  is dying and going mad, and the 
  priest who ministers to him, 
  Jude, is also dying as he cares 
  for him. Many of the Mormons, 
  who hate ghouls to begin with, 
  want Marshal to be cast out. 
  Jeremiah believes it is immoral 
  to risk the lives of outsiders 
  if Marshal goes mad or -- worse 
  yet -- dies somewhere where his 
  body could harm countless 
  travelers. Marshal is isolated, 
  but Jude volunteers to care for 
  him and perform private 
  ceremonies every day. If the PC 
  talks to Marshal, the ghoul begs 
  him or her to help him escape; 
  he does not want the community 
  to suffer because of his 
  presence, and would rather try 
  to wander far out into the 
  desert than watch Jude slowly 
  weaken and die. It is up to the 
  player to decide the proper 
  course of action by questioning 
  the validity and importance of 
  all viewpoints.  
  New Jerusalem 
  Vault 70 was a Vault-Tec Vault 
  located in Salt Lake City, Utah. 
  In 2062, many Mormon 
  congregations came together to 
  purchase places in it. As part 
  of the Vault Experiment, all 
  jumpsuit extruders in this Vault 
  failed after 6 months. Most of 
  Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah 
  were destroyed in the Great War 
  in 2077. Vault 70 opened in 2190 
  and its residents use their 
  three G.E.C.K.s to found the 
  city of New Jerusalem in the 
  ruins of Salt Lake City. New 
  Jerusalem's intolerant prophet 
  and apostles repeatedly voted to 
  have no commerce with outsiders 
  from other, failed communities, 
  refugees, or tribals. In 2233, a 
  number of angry tribals, 
  raiders, and disassociated 
  attackers gang up on New 
  Jerusalem and sack it, killing 
  most of the Mormons in the 
  process. The new living prophet, 
  Judah Black, led most of the 
  remnants of the Mormon community 
  north to Ogden, Utah. They 
  establish the town of New 
  Canaan.  
  New Reno  
  Built on the ruins of "The 
  Biggest Little City in the 
  World," New Reno is a town run 
  by gangsters and drug dealers. 
  Although the New California 
  Republic has been trying hard to 
  convince New Reno to join, the 
  lack of central government and 
  potential loss of profits from 
  the drug trade have prevented 
  them from doing so. Four crime 
  families control New Reno: the 
  Mordinos, the Wrights, the 
  Bishops, and the Salvatores. The 
  Salvatores control the illegal 
  weapons trade, the Mordinos 
  control drugs, the Bishops deal 
  with prostitution and the 
  pornography industry, while the 
  Wrights try to grab whatever is 
  left. Reno is truly a pit of a 
  city, with glitzy neon signs 
  advertising sex, drugs, and rock 
  and roll everywhere. It also 
  serves as a base for the Slavers 
  Guild. Caravans come here to 
  load up on drugs to sell 
  illegally to the NCR and other 
  towns. Without any police at 
  all, Reno exists in a state of 
  near anarchy, although a street-
  smart person could do very well 
  here, especially if they found 
  work with one of the crime 
  families. Gun shops are well 
  stocked, and several black 
       71     
    
  
  market shops sell things that 
  you can't find anywhere else. It 
  is rumored that the Salvatores 
  even have a supply of laser or 
  plasma weapons. Around 8,000 
  people populate the area. 
  Radiation levels in and around 
  New Reno are low.  
  Newton 
  Newton or Junk City was the main 
  camp of the Reaver Movement, a 
  technology-worshipping cult. A 
  big, pre-war Nuka-Cola plant is 
  located there. Around 2198, a 
  Reaver delegate came to the 
  Eastern Brotherhood of Steel 
  Bunker Delta, bringing news that 
  a large Calculator's robot force 
  has all but annihilated camp. 
  The Reaver's numbers were 
  devastated by relentless attacks 
  and will soon be destroyed 
  unless we intervene. Normally, 
  the Brotherhood would gladly 
  allow one enemy to destroy 
  another, but the Reavers had 
  something to offer - an EMP 
  device that has a devastating 
  effect on electronics, which 
  makes it an effective weapon 
  against the robots. They agreed 
  to give the Brotherhood both a 
  prototype of this weapon and 
  instruction on its workings in 
  exchange for rescue of their 
  four highest-ranking officials: 
  Albert Lamore, Rodger Gaire, 
  Glenda Close and Tobias Peste. 
  The Reavers rescued by the 
  Brotherhood squad were placed in 
  internment camps. After some 
  time, some of them were allowed 
  to join the Brotherhood.  
  The Nursery 
  The Nursery is the last hope of 
  the wasteland, where seeds and 
  other genetic information, 
  preserved from the world before 
  The Great War, have been stored. 
  This hidden valley is a lush, 
  verdant place. Harold has found 
  his way here, but thanks to the 
  tree in his head, has been 
  marked as an "interesting 
  specimen" and has been prevented 
  from leaving by the Nursery's 
  security bots. The Nursery is a 
  miracle of pre-war engineering. 
  It is a self-contained balanced 
  ecological system set within a 
  deep canyon. The valley floor of 
  the canyon is rife with the 
  flora and fauna of times past. 
  At the head of the valley is a 
  lake of crystal blue water that 
  feeds a river. The river flows 
  from one end of the valley to 
  the other, disappearing into the 
  canyon wall. Bordering the lake 
  are several buildings that house 
  the maintenance equipment that 
  keeps the Nursery functioning. 
  The Nursery is located southwest 
  of Denver, Colorado, near the 
  Black Canyon National Park. The 
  rim of the canyon is 
  approximately a mile above sea 
  level and the canyon itself is 
  approximately a half mile deep. 
  This area was chosen as the home 
  for the Nursery because of its 
  isolated location, its protected 
  status as a national park, and 
  it was deemed least likely to be 
  effected by a war (or most 
  capable of recovering from such 
  effects). In the early days 
  before the bomb, scientists 
  around the country were 
  pondering how to save mankind 
  from the ravages of war. 
  Eventually their musings gave 
  birth to a company named Vault-
  Tec, and the vaults. Over the 
  next decade some of the most 
  ambitious underground 
  construction took place 
  throughout the United States as 
  hundreds of vaults were built. 
  Into these shelters, the people 
  and the hopes, of a nation could 
  retreat in times of war. The 
  Environmental Protection Agency 
  viewed the vaults as only half 
  the solution. Their concern was 
  not only the salvation of 
  mankind, but nature as well. 
       72     
    
  
  With this in mind, they proposed 
  yet another type of vault, but 
  on a much grander scale. This 
  vault would be used by Mother 
  Nature herself, where she would 
  patiently await the re-emergence 
  of man. When the survivors of 
  the war came forth to reclaim 
  the earth, the Garden of Eden 
  would await them. Thus the 
  Nursery was conceived. The 
  construction of the Nursery 
  posed quite a problem, however. 
  It was agreed that it could not 
  be built underground like the 
  vaults. Nature needed the sun, 
  the wind, and the rain to 
  flourish. And yet, if exposed 
  and open, how could it possibly 
  survive? The only conceivable 
  answer was that it must be 
  located in an isolated area, 
  free from both the influence of 
  humanity and the ravages of war. 
  A search for such a location 
  began. Computers were fed 
  massive amounts of data 
  detailing the effects of war, 
  where the bombs were likely to 
  strike, and how the devastation 
  would spread. Information about 
  air currents, weather patterns, 
  and the conditions that the 
  Nursery would need to survive 
  were then added to the equation. 
  Finally, topographical maps of 
  the nation input, and the 
  machines were asked to choose. 
  It took years, but a choice was 
  made. A single canyon was found 
  to house the Nursery, deep in 
  the mountains, shielded from the 
  influence of both man and war. 
  Soon afterward the most 
  ambitious project conceived by 
  the minds of men was devised: a 
  self contained, self sustaining 
  ecological system, with the 
  capacity to reproduce itself. Of 
  course, the expense of such an 
  enterprise could not be footed 
  by the government alone. The 
  project was put up for bid in 
  the private sector. Derek 
  Greenway was a scientist working 
  under the employ of Poseidon 
  Energy. When it became apparent 
  that Poseidon was more 
  interested in the development of 
  weapons of destruction, and less 
  in the saving of mankind, Derek 
  resigned and started his own 
  company. Greenway Hydroponics, 
  with its turnip headed stick man 
  logo Mr. Green, was the result. 
  Over the years Derek's company 
  prospered due to their state of 
  the art innovations in farming 
  technology. When the Nursery 
  project was put up for bid it 
  was only natural that Greenway 
  Hydroponics won and construction 
  was began.  
  Oil Rig 
  The Oil Rig served as the base 
  for the post- Great War American 
  government and the Enclave. The 
  Oil Rig also served as the base 
  from which the Enclave and 
  President Richardson were 
  preparing to release a form of 
  the FEV virus into the world's 
  jet streams, thereby preparing 
  the Earth for re-colonization 
  and killing everyone in the 
  process.  
  Ouroboros 
  The Ouroboros is home to a 
  raider clan known as the Hounds 
  of Hecate (formerly the Vipers) 
  and a religious organization 
  known as the Daughters of 
  Hecate.  Both groups are run by 
  a mysterious woman who claims to 
  be the goddess Hecate herself 
  incarnate.  The Hounds of Hecate 
  are a fierce tribe comprised of 
  male members only.  They are 
  well equipped and specialize in 
  various forms of unarmed 
  warfare.  The elite of the 
  Hounds are also well versed in 
  the use of melee weapons.  All 
  members of the tribe have been 
  known to consume strange 
  poultices before battle.  
  Afterwards, they fight like the 
       73     
    
  
  devil and seem almost immune to 
  pain and injury.  The tribe is 
  unwavering in its loyalty to 
  their goddess, Hecate.  The 
  Daughters of Hecate are a 
  religious matriarchy who 
  practices a primitive 
  life/death/rebirth cult.  The 
  Daughters are well traveled and 
  are versed in the art of 
  midwifery, healing, and the 
  making of potions and poultices.  
  A Daughter of Hecate can be 
  recognized by their dress, a 
  floor length black robe with 
  silver trim, the face paint that 
  they wear, making one Daughter 
  nearly indistinguishable from 
  another, and their braided hair, 
  often cropped at shoulder 
  length. The Twisted Hair tribe 
  was one of the most domineering 
  tribes in the wasteland.  They 
  regularly raided their neighbors 
  for food, supplies, and slaves.  
  They were merciless in their 
  efforts and the other tribes 
  began to fear even the mention 
  of their name.  It was during the 
  reign of the Twisted Hairs that 
  Caesar's Legion rose up.  The 
  Legion taught the tribes to 
  fight back and the Twisted Hairs 
  were soon driven from their 
  lands.  Weakened and on the 
  retreat, the Twisted Hairs were 
  then set upon by the Legion and 
  destroyed.  No one was spared, 
  but one woman did manage to 
  escape. She wandered the desert 
  passing from tribe to tribe 
  trying to find someone who would 
  take her in and give her a home.  
  The tribes spurned her and 
  turned her away.  They told her 
  that she was cursed, that the 
  Legion had marked her, and that 
  she would bring death to any who 
  gave her succor.  Consumed with 
  anger and hatred she fled back 
  into the desert from which she 
  came.  None of the tribes ever 
  saw her again. 
  The wasteland consumed her.  All 
  that she was was lost to the 
  unforgiving sun and the burning 
  sands.  Her mind left her and 
  she forgot who she was.  She 
  felt parts of herself drifting 
  away day by day until nothing 
  remained.  She fought to hold on 
  to herself but to no avail... 
  until she remembered the anger 
  and the hatred.  The Legion had 
  taken all that was dear to her.  
  The tribes had called her 
  cursed, death maiden, dark 
  mother... she would show them 
  all... someday...  Finally she 
  paused in her wanderings, 
  collapsed, and let the desert 
  take her.  She awoke in 
  paradise.  She found herself at 
  the edge of a lake surrounded by 
  trees.  Water fell from the sky 
  in torrents and filled the lake 
  as waves rolled across its 
  surface.  Everywhere she looked 
  the world was green.  Plants and 
  trees that she had never seen 
  before stretched as far as the 
  eye could see.  And from among 
  the trees strange animals gazed 
  at her, their eyes filled with 
  curiosity, not the hunger of the 
  wasteland.  As she stood looking 
  across the landscape she heard a 
  whirring sound behind her. When 
  she turned to look, she saw a 
  shinning metallic thing, 
  watching her. 
   
  "I see that you are awake at 
  last," it said with a woman's 
  voice. "I am Diana.  Can you 
  tell me your name?" 
   
  "I... I don't..." She paused as 
  she tried to remember who she 
  was, struggling with the 
  blackness that was her mind.  
  "Dark Mother," she blurted at 
  last.  "They called me the Dark 
  Mother." 
   
  "Did they, now?  Well, I shall 
  call you Hecate then.  Do you 
  mind?" 
   
  "Hecate..." 
   
       74     
    
  
  "Yes.  Forgive me, I know you 
  don't understand, but I find it 
  amusing.  You see, I am Diana 
  and she was the goddess of the 
  full, or bright moon.  Hecate 
  was her opposite, the goddess of 
  the new, or dark moon.  She was 
  also known as the Dark Mother.  
  So, I thought I would christen 
  you Hecate." 
   
  "Goddesses?" 
   
  "Yes.  Both were goddesses of 
  the moon...  Forgive me; I must 
  be confusing you to no end.  
  I've been alone for centuries 
  and I find myself babbling now 
  that I have someone to talk to.  
  Come.  Let me show you my world 
  and we will talk and get to know 
  one another.  There is much that 
  we can learn from each other." 
  Hecate gazed at the shinning 
  one, nodded, and began to walk 
  with... her.  She had found 
  paradise, a goddess, and had 
  been elevated to the status of 
  an equal.  Now she was being 
  offered knowledge.  It was 
  knowledge with which to gain 
  vengeance over those who had 
  wronged her. When Hecate had 
  collapsed in the desert she was 
  near death from dehydration and 
  heat stroke.  Fortunately for 
  her, she was near the Nursery 
  when she collapsed.  Diana had 
  been performing a routine survey 
  of the Nursery surroundings when 
  she saw the tribal lying in the 
  sand.  She immediately 
  dispatched a worker robot to 
  collect her and bring her back.  
  She spent the next couple weeks 
  tending her until she regained 
  consciousness. Diana spent the 
  next several months teaching 
  Hecate about herbs, plants, and 
  their uses in treating ailments.  
  She also spoke of breeding among 
  animals, what to look for to 
  ensure strong future stock, and 
  how to recognize congenital 
  traits that could be eliminated 
  by proper breeding.  When Hecate 
  asked if the same technique 
  could be applied to humans, 
  Diana admitted that it could, 
  but spoke of the virtues of love 
  and free choice.  She did not 
  realize that her words now fell 
  upon deaf ears. Diana did not 
  realize that Hecate had sunk 
  into madness.  In her loneliness 
  and innocence she continued to 
  teach her everything that she 
  asked for, and Hecate absorbed 
  it all and twisted it to suit 
  her own needs and desires.  
  Eventually she told Diana that 
  she needed to leave, but would 
  someday return when the time was 
  right for her to do so. Hecate 
  braided her hair in the fashion 
  of her lost tribe, and then 
  painted her face so that none 
  could recognize her.  She 
  traveled to the very same tribes 
  that had rejected her and aided 
  them with her newfound knowledge 
  of midwifery and herbal 
  medicine.  Once she gained the 
  trust of a tribe, she began to 
  preach her life/death/rebirth 
  religion.  She asked that young 
  women of the tribe join her and 
  aid her in helping all the 
  tribes of the wasteland.  Thus 
  the Daughters of Hecate were 
  born. Eventually the Daughters 
  began to decide who could marry 
  and who could not, who could 
  have children and who could not.  
  Only a Daughter was allowed to 
  deliver a child into the world 
  and it was done in a birthing 
  tent set apart from the rest of 
  the tribe.  No males were 
  allowed in or near the tent.  
  Anyone who disobeyed their edict 
  was either stricken with 
  impotence or their wives bore 
  sickly children.  If a Daughter 
  was ever harmed or killed the, 
  men of the tribe were rendered 
  impotent until a new Daughter 
  was assigned to them.  And so 
  the Daughters grew in power and 
  infamy. Unbeknown to the tribes, 
  the Daughters were taking the 
  best of their children and 
       75     
    
  
  replacing them with the weak or 
  infirm.  The best of the males 
  were taken to the Ouroboros to 
  become warriors in the Hounds of 
  Hecate.  The best of the females 
  were taken to become Daughters.  
  Over the years Hecate watched as 
  the tribes grew subtly weaker 
  and her followers grew stronger 
  and stronger.  Soon, vengeance 
  would be hers. Her plan was 
  simple.  When the tribes were 
  weak enough, her Hounds would 
  sweep down upon them and 
  annihilate them from the face of 
  the earth.  The same would come 
  to pass with Caesar and his 
  legion.  When all who had 
  wronged her were gone, she and 
  her people would march upon 
  paradise and reclaim it as their 
  just reward. 
  Osceolla 
  Osceolla was the main base of 
  operations of Gammorin's 
  (Paladin Latham's) super mutant 
  army. It was a military compound 
  constructed near the place where 
  part of the Brotherhood of Steel 
  Air Convoy crashed. Gammorin 
  himself, as well as High 
  Inquisitor Toccamatta stationed 
  here before they were killed by 
  an Eastern Brotherhood of Steel 
  squad. 
  Peoria 
  The tribal village of Peoria is 
  now only a mockery of the once 
  big city of Peoria, Illinois, 
  located halfway between Chicago 
  and St. Louis. After the War, 
  only a small, primitive village 
  built over a pre-war storehouse 
  of fusion batteries survives. 
  While the Whachutu tribals guard 
  these batteries zealously, it is 
  doubtful that they understand 
  their function. The storehouse 
  was guarded by automated turrets 
  (considered to be "evil spirits" 
  by the tribals) and inhabited by 
  giant cockroaches. Around 2197, 
  an Eastern Brotherhood of Steel 
  squad was sent to retrieve the 
  batteries. The Tribal Father and 
  village Elder at that time was 
  Chevron, a strong believer in 
  peace and equality and the 
  shaman was a woman called Dhal. 
  Quartz  
   
  On the other side of the 
  Colorado river is the small 
  mining town of Quartz. This 
  village of 2000 is nondescript, 
  but does well for itself selling 
  ores to caravans from the NCR. 
  Not much usually happens here, 
  and travelers are welcome, so 
  long as they have something to 
  trade. There is a lucrative 
  black market here, selling guns 
  to those who do not wish to make 
  the trip east to Darwin City. 
  Police presence is minimal here, 
  and unless a crime is violent, 
  they tend to look the other way. 
  Radiation is not a problem here. 
  Needles - South of Quartz, just 
  over the California border, is 
  Needles. A small town that has 
  big problems, Needles has 
  recently joined the NCR, who is 
  currently attempting to stamp 
  out the gang problem here. With 
  almost no goods to trade, 
  Needles is little more than a 
  small tribal community, although 
  one that believes in the high 
  ideals of pre- War America and 
  sees the NCR as a way of 
  realizing those ideals. Whether 
  or not that will actually happen 
  remains to be seen. About 1000 
  people call Needles home. There 
  is a toxic waste dump just 
  outside of town that contains a 
  number of radioactive barrels 
  that leak, but otherwise Needles 
  is safe from radiation. 
  Quincy 
  Quincy is what remains of the 
  pre-war Quincy, Illinois, known 
       76     
    
  
  as the Gem City. The town is 
  home to both humans and ghouls, 
  which sometimes leads to racial 
  tensions. Around 2197, the 
  township of Quincy petitioned 
  the Eastern Brotherhood of Steel 
  for protection from a large 
  group of tribals called 
  Beastlords. This threat was 
  unique, because their raiding 
  parties include various monsters 
  from the Wasteland; most 
  notably, the deadly Deathclaws. 
  These Beastlords, under the 
  leadership of Duff, took over 
  certain parts of Quincy and were 
  using hostages to ensure they 
  have control over the rest of 
  the town. Among those captured 
  was Hillary Eastwood, the mayor. 
  A Brotherhood squad was sent to 
  rescue the mayor and assist in 
  dealing with the Beastlords. 
  Other prominent citizens of 
  Quincy at that time included 
  Felix Stiles, the town's "war 
  hero", Evita Eastwood, the 
  mayor's daughter and Elliot 
  Nesting, the self-appointed 
  leader of the ghouls. Some time 
  later, the Brotherhood was been 
  betrayed by a group of criminals 
  from Quincy. The group of rogues 
  poisoned a group of Brotherhood 
  paladins as they stood vigil 
  over the town. In their weakened 
  state, the guards could barely 
  defend themselves, and the 
  thieves looted (taking even 
  their precious power armors) the 
  unconscious Brothers and stole 
  away in a Brotherhood vehicle, 
  leaving to the town of Cold 
  Water, where they easily took 
  control. After a Brotherhood 
  squad defeated the bandits, 
  their bodies were displayed in 
  crucifixion outside the town of 
  Quincy, along with the guards 
  that were on watch. The 
  Brotherhood Inquisitors also 
  rounded up known friends and 
  family of the criminals to an 
  internment camp.  
   
  Redding 
  Redding is a mining town, 
  located south of Vault City. 
  There are two major mining 
  companies in Redding, as well as 
  a saloon, a sheriff and a 
  doctor. The mayor of Redding, 
  Ascorti, runs an establishment 
  called Ascorti's Ace casino. 
  Redding mines gold for shipment 
  to New Reno and the New 
  California Republic, and the 
  miners are some of the largest 
  consumers of Reno's drugs. The 
  town is a collection of wooden 
  buildings, and can be a wild and 
  wooly place. There is no real 
  police force to speak of, and 
  the mining companies deal with 
  internal disputes. A Sheriff 
  exists, but mainly works as a 
  mediator between different 
  mining companies. Redding has 
  also been avoiding the influence 
  of the NCR, although there are 
  elements in town that strongly 
  favor joining, if just to get 
  rid of the rampant drug problem.  
  Reservation 
  The Reservation is a ghoul town 
  in New Mexico, built around an 
  old scientific research station, 
  the Los Alamos Nuclear Testing 
  Facility. It is naturally highly 
  radioactive. The ghouls are sick 
  of being the underdogs of the 
  wasteland, and they have a new 
  leader who's going to stick it 
  to the humans good. Firing 
  radioactive artillery shells via 
  Nuclear Nellie, the ghouls' 
  bigass gun, into every town 
  ought to clear those pesky 
  humans out. Of course, Nellie 
  isn't quite working right and 
  the ghouls haven't figured out a 
  way to move Nellie around 
  easily.... The Reservation, 
  formerly known as the Los Alamos 
  Nuclear Testing Facility, was a 
  top secret military & nuclear 
  research facility before the 
       77     
    
  
  bombs dropped. It was tasked 
  with developing and building the 
  nuclear missiles that went into 
  the B.O.M.B. satellites. The 
  Reservation was nestled deep in 
  the rocky hills of northern New 
  Mexico where the U.S. government 
  felt that no enemy satellites or 
  spies would ever think to look. 
  But nuclear bombs and missiles 
  don’t usually discriminate. 
  During the flurry of falling 
  bombs and missiles from the 
  holocaust, the area around and 
  near the Reservation was 
  annihilated – it would seem that 
  someone had a hunch about the 
  Reservation’s whereabouts. 
  However, even though the area 
  around the Reservation was 
  destroyed and rendered 
  radioactive, the Reservation 
  itself remained relatively 
  intact thanks to most of the 
  facility being underground. In 
  fact, many people who worked at 
  the Reservation survived the 
  attacks, but over time many 
  succumbed to radiation poisoning 
  and died. Out of fifteen-hundred 
  people who were at the 
  underground facility when the 
  bombs fell, only forty 
  “survived,” and eventually 
  became ghouls. Due to fear, 
  these “survivors” did not 
  venture out of their impromptu 
  bomb shelter for nearly ten 
  years. After about a decade of 
  lollygagging about within the 
  maze-like corridors of The 
  Reservation's sub-levels, the 
  surviving ghouls eventually 
  ventured topside. It was then 
  that about a dozen ghouls were 
  tasked with braving the 
  radioactive wasteland and seek 
  out other “survivors.” Among 
  these brave ghouls was Dr. 
  Willem Clark, a lead Reservation 
  scientist and part time thrill 
  seeker (in his smooth-skin 
  days). Willem eagerly hit the 
  wastes not only to seek out 
  other survivors, but also to see 
  what could be salvaged. Of the 
  twelve ghouls who went into the 
  wastes, Willem was the only one 
  to return after almost a year. 
  Willem was accompanied by fifty 
  or so other ghouls that he found 
  in his travels; ghouls who 
  wanted a safe place to live, 
  away from not only the hardships 
  of the wasteland, but also away 
  from the persecution ghouls 
  experienced from smooth skin 
  humans. Willem’s return was 
  celebrated among the ghouls, but 
  Willem himself was unable to 
  celebrate. He witnessed first 
  hand the prejudice and 
  reprehensible treatment ghouls 
  received in the wastes, and he 
  vowed to make a difference. With 
  near religious fervor, he 
  proclaimed the Reservation a 
  sanctuary for what he called the 
  Children of the Wastelands; the 
  ghouls. He preached his version 
  of the truth about ghouls and 
  their rightful place as rulers 
  of the Promised Earth. Willem 
  became the unchallenged leader 
  of the growing ghoul community 
  and mandated that all the 
  knowledge and research that was 
  archived and stored in the 
  Reservation’s libraries and 
  laboratories should further the 
  ghouls’ cause. Research once 
  again blossomed in the 
  Reservation, and over the course 
  of nearly two centuries, weapons 
  and war materials were hacked 
  together to one day not only 
  beat back what they thought 
  would be an inevitable invasion 
  by smooth-skins, but eventually 
  to overtake and conquer the 
  “chosen peoples’” lands. The 
  Reservation ghouls are not 
  planning an immediate invasion, 
  at least not yet, but are 
  actually a very paranoid group 
  that believes it is inevitable 
  that either the smooth-skins or 
  the mutants will invade their 
  precious facility and try to 
  wipe out the ghouls. This 
  paranoia feeds the ghouls’ 
  desire to scavenge, create, and 
       78     
    
  
  build new weapons with whatever 
  they can find in the “gold-mine” 
  of a research facility. In 
  addition, the labyrinth of 
  underground tunnels makes hiding 
  the ghouls’ accomplishments and 
  numbers from prying eyes easy. 
  In fact, the casual passer-by on 
  the surface of the Reservation 
  would only see one ruined one-
  story office buildings, two 
  dilapidated aircraft hangers 
  with decaying aircraft, and 
  maybe two dozen ghouls 
  meandering about. Surrounding 
  this decaying mess is a large 
  stretch of barbed wire and sheet 
  metal (probably from destroyed 
  planes in the hangers) that 
  keeps trespassers away and the 
  ghouls on the surface feeling a 
  tad safer. No other organization 
  or faction is aware that deep 
  underground this ruined 
  community there is a multitude 
  of ghouls working, researching, 
  creating, and living in paranoid 
  harmony (and armed to their 
  rotting teeth). One of Willem 
  Clark’s immediate plans is to 
  find a way to disable a 
  potential threat to the 
  Reservation. On the third level 
  of the Reservation, there is a 
  powerful gun called a Nuclear 
  Nellie, capable of firing a 
  nuclear shell some thirty miles 
  away. However, Willem lacked 
  sufficient uranium to make a 
  complete nuclear weapon, so he 
  used what was left to make a 
  dirty bomb. He figures that a 
  dirty bomb delivered in the 
  heart of an enemy’s town will be 
  enough to devastate their 
  growth. This type of bomb, 
  Willem felt, would buy enough 
  time for he and his ghouls to 
  increase their combat prowess, 
  and, more importantly, find a 
  source of uranium so he can 
  build actual nuclear weapons to 
  complete the process of turning 
  the Earth into his Promised 
  Earth. Since the area 
  surrounding the Reservation is 
  highly radioactive, the only 
  safe way to approach the 
  makeshift surface community by a 
  human is with a lot of Rad-X, or 
  a radiation suit. Since there is 
  trade on the surface, the player 
  would be able to come across 
  traders who sell radiation 
  suits, or the player could mug a 
  group of traders for their suits 
  – it’s up to the player. When 
  the makeshift gate guards are 
  approached by someone wearing a 
  radiation suit, the ghouls will 
  be civil, but not warm (civil 
  enough to find out what the hell 
  you want). Mention that you’re 
  here for trade and they will let 
  you into a holding area just big 
  enough for perhaps two-dozen 
  people. Here the player will 
  find a couple of old husks of 
  Army trucks posing as trade 
  tents, an actual tent used for 
  slave trading, and about a three 
  ghouls to communicate with and 
  trade. No sightseeing allowed. 
  Trading postThe trading post is 
  pretty much the only locale non-
  ghouls will ever see of the 
  Reservation; that is, any free 
  non-ghoul. The ten-foot outer 
  wall is comprised of steel 
  paneling from automobiles, 
  tanks, helicopters, and whatever 
  other metal siding the ghouls 
  could find, and meshes into the 
  surrounding jagged, rocky hills. 
  It literally looks like a 
  junkyard exploded to form this 
  wall, but it is effective in 
  keeping out undesirables, 
  especially when the two gattling 
  gun towers are taken into 
  consideration. Another natural 
  (depends how you look at it, 
  really) safeguard against 
  intruders is the high level of 
  radiation in the area. During 
  the big war, several nuclear 
  bombs fell within five miles of 
  the Reservation, but never 
  actually hit it. Because of 
  this, the region still glows 
  with radioactivity even after 
  two-hundred years. Also, since 
       79     
    
  
  this region is still highly 
  radioactive, all non-ghouls 
  visiting the Trading Post must 
  either wear a radiation suit or 
  be stocked to the gills with 
  Rad-X and Rad-Away. Failure to 
  do so will result in high doses 
  of radiation, sickness, and 
  death within a week. If the gate 
  guards deem the player worthy of 
  trading (and most likely they 
  will since they always seem to 
  be interested in new folks who 
  might have something interesting 
  to offer, especially services), 
  they will allow the player 
  entrance into the Trading Post, 
  but nowhere else. Upon entering, 
  the player will see two beat-to-
  hell husks of what used to be 
  Army supply trucks. Mended with 
  spit and gum (some places 
  literally), the cargo beds and 
  tarps now serve as makeshift 
  stores. The store to the north 
  is run by a ghoul named Hank. 
  Hank is a friendly enough ghoul 
  who seems to be in complete 
  social contrast to the surly 
  ghoul guards at the gates and 
  looming inside the Trading Post. 
  Hank’s little shop specializes 
  in weapons and ammo, and seems 
  to have a very good supply of 
  both. As it turns out, Hank is 
  the master weapons smith of the 
  Reservation and oversees all 
  scavenging of materials, and 
  manufacturing and forging. If 
  Hank doesn’t have the 
  conventional weapon the player 
  wants, it might not exist 
  anywhere else in the wasteland. 
  Hank is also accompanied by a 
  human female dressed in a 
  radiation suit who seems to be 
  doing the brunt of the physical 
  work. As it turns out, this 
  female is Jillian McKinley, one 
  of the escaped prisoners and 
  current slave for Hank. It seems 
  that Jillian was an exceptional 
  mechanic and had a gift when 
  dealing with guns and ammo. The 
  ghouls were impressed with her 
  abilities in this capacity and 
  gave her to Hank. Hank eagerly 
  accepted the help and quickly 
  grew fond of Jillian. Over the 
  course of a few months, this 
  fondness turned into a crush, 
  though he never made any 
  advances on Jillian knowing that 
  a beautiful, smooth skin woman 
  would never shack up with a 
  drippy, smelly ghoul (and he’d 
  be right, in this case). 
  However, Jillian does not mind 
  working for Hank, as slavery 
  goes, especially since the 
  alternative was too horrible to 
  imagine. This horrible 
  alternative is something the 
  player can investigate further, 
  if he so chooses. The store to 
  the south is run by Betty, a 
  female ghoul who has a way with 
  armor, if not congeniality. She 
  does not like humans and likes 
  even less that she must deal 
  with them in order to trade. In 
  addition, her surly attitude is 
  coupled with the fact that she 
  has a crush on Hank. She might 
  actually act on the crush, but 
  his affection towards Jillian is 
  so obvious that she just does 
  not see the worth in trying. 
  Normally she would just kill the 
  human, but Jillian is Hank’s 
  property and Betty would be 
  kicked out of the Reservation if 
  she did. On the east side of the 
  Trading Post is a large Army 
  tent. This tent is used 
  specifically for slave trading 
  and is run by a very 
  intimidating ghoul named 
  Horatio. Before becoming a 
  ghoul, it looks like Horatio 
  must have been a very large 
  athlete of some sort, something 
  akin to a football middle 
  lineman or professional 
  wrestler. In either case, it 
  looks like a lot of the size 
  carried over to his present 
  ghoul form. Horatio mainly stays 
  inside the Army tent where he 
  can watch over his newest slave 
  acquisitions and bargain with 
  the members of Caesar’s Legions, 
       80     
    
  
  the main suppliers of the 
  slaves. A large bargaining table 
  rests on the south side of the 
  tent, and along the eastern wall 
  are two cabinets filled with 
  Rad-X and Rad Away, which will 
  be used on the purchased slaves 
  before taking them into the 
  Reservation proper. At different 
  times during the day, the north 
  end of the tent is occupied by 
  sickly slaves suffering from 
  radiation exposure. Also at 
  different times in the day, the 
  slaves are taken through the 
  heavily guarded Town Gate in the 
  north, never to be seen again. 
  Town Some things get better with 
  time; the Reservation Town is 
  not one of those things. Upon 
  entering through the homemade 
  steel gate, it becomes apparent 
  that the Reservation, though it 
  missed most of the Big War and 
  the after affects, it did not 
  miss all of it. The player is 
  immediately walking through 
  chunks of debris that looks 
  every bit the two-hundred years 
  it is. The asphalt road that 
  goes north and west is cracked, 
  bleached from sand and sun, and 
  full of potholes, some of them 
  as big as a car. On this road 
  can be found several abandoned 
  husks of what were once fine 
  quality jeeps, cars (with 50’ 
  wings, no less), and a couple of 
  tanks here and there. With a bit 
  of close examination, the player 
  can find that a lot of parts 
  have been salvaged from these 
  abandoned vehicles, but for what 
  use, that’s a mystery – for now. 
  Going west, the player will run 
  into two helicopter hangers that 
  are pretty much destroyed. 
  There’s not much to look at 
  here, except the careful 
  scavenger might find some useful 
  parts from the helicopter 
  wreckages there. There are some 
  ghouls living in the less 
  exposed sections of the hangers, 
  but for the most part, these are 
  just big ruins. To the east, 
  after entering the town proper 
  is a dilapidated office 
  building. Several sections have 
  caved in from either an old bomb 
  blast or time – or both. 
  However, in the offices that 
  have not collapsed, several 
  ghouls have taken up residence. 
  All the ghouls here are very 
  standoffish, and will try to 
  avoid conversation. All, that 
  is, except for Florence, a very 
  old ghoul who was old even when 
  she was human before the bombs 
  dropped. Florence was the 
  disgruntled janitor for the 
  office building, but the day the 
  bombs fell she was in sub-level 
  1 cleaning a particularly 
  stubborn commode. “Luckily” for 
  her, she survived the war, but 
  became even more cantankerous 
  over the last couple of 
  centuries. However, even though 
  she is a fungus-grump, she is 
  more than willing to chat the 
  player’s ear off (if she isn’t 
  tempted to eat it). If the 
  player gained access to the town 
  proper through sneaking, 
  Florence is a good primary 
  source for the player to 
  discover how to get into Sub-
  level 1. Down the dusty road and 
  further into the Reservation 
  Town, the player will come 
  across a true shanty town, 
  complete with holey, rank tents 
  and holey, rank ghouls living in 
  them. In the center of this 
  shanty town is a large Army tent 
  occupied by the commander of the 
  Reservation guards, Colonel 
  Green. The Colonel is another 
  ghoul who was around when the 
  bombs first dropped. He was 
  assigned security duty at the 
  Reservation and was in Sub-Level 
  2 when the war started. He will 
  not give away any information 
  about the sub-levels, but he 
  will speak to the player to find 
  out his/her intent. However, if 
  the player sneaked into the town 
  proper, he and his men will 
  immediately try to capture the 
       81     
    
  
  player to find out how he/she 
  got in, and how the ghouls could 
  make good use of the player. 
  It’s up to the player to decide 
  if he/she wants to go along with 
  being captured. The last stop 
  for the player is at the 
  railroad cars, Main Access 
  Elevator, and Equipment Lift. 
  This area is heavily guarded by 
  the ghouls and would represent 
  quite the challenge for the 
  sneaky player type. In fact, 
  sneaking into the elevator and 
  using it is pretty much 
  impossible without the guards 
  noticing. If the player gets 
  captured, he will be brought 
  before Measles and questioned, 
  in which case, depending on how 
  cooperative the player is being, 
  Measles will contact Dr. Willem 
  Clark, via direct comm. link, 
  and consult. Negotiations can 
  start from this point. Based on 
  either the negotiations or the 
  player’s actions within the 
  Trading Post, there are several 
  ways the player can get 
  authorized access to the sub-
  levels - which will be explored 
  in more detail in the Quests 
  section. But as a primer, a 
  couple of ways is to foil a scam 
  being placed on Horatio by a 
  Caesar’s Legion slave trader. 
  Another way is to turn in Hank 
  for being a dissenter. And 
  another way is to seek out and 
  kill a caravaner who managed to 
  steal some shotguns, ammo, and a 
  couple of human slaves. Bringing 
  back his head and the loot will 
  make Measles very pleased, who 
  will in turn contact Willem 
  Clark about the deed. Willem 
  Clark finds it interesting that 
  a human would care so much as to 
  help ghouls, so he decides to 
  meet with the player. Measles 
  will then escort the player to 
  Sub-Level 1 and introduce the 
  player to Willem Clark through 
  the General Computer. Only a 
  mouth appears in the computer 
  monitor (obviously Willem’s), 
  and the owner of the chewed up 
  mouth will ask some questions of 
  the player. It is here that 
  Willem will offer Measles as a 
  companion and will give the 
  player access to Sub-Level 2, 
  the level where all the ammo and 
  arms are manufactured.  
  Rock Falls 
  Rock Falls was a raider camp 
  located in the area of the pre-
  war city of Rock Falls, 
  Illinois, west of Chicago. It 
  was attacked and decimated by 
  the Eastern Brotherhood of Steel 
  during a meeting of four 
  prominent raider leaders: Bo, 
  Daisy, Luke and Jesse in order 
  to capture mysterious device 
  possessed by the raiders, which 
  turned out to be a hand of one 
  of the Calculator's humanoid 
  robots.  
  Sacramento 
  Sacramento, the former capital 
  of California, is now a lawless, 
  uncontrolled city. In the region 
  northeast of Sacramento a gang 
  called the 80s can often be 
  found. 
  San Francisco 
    
  Old San Francisco is now home to 
  a large population of Asian 
  settlers. Survivors of a nuclear 
  submarine abandoned after the 
  War, the people on board drifted 
  until they landed in San 
  Francisco. They call themselves 
  the Shi, and have managed to 
  keep many of their old 
  traditions and customs, which is 
  more than many American groups 
  can say. Somehow, the city was 
  spared a good deal of 
  destruction, although radiation 
  levels were high for a while. 
  Two clans currently battle for 
  control of San Francisco, and 
       82     
    
  
  the style of martial arts that 
  will reign in the future. The 
  Shi manage to run an extensive 
  weapons trade, offering pieces 
  of technology usually only 
  available to groups like the 
  Brotherhood of Steel. Where they 
  manage to get these items is 
  unknown. There is a population 
  of artists, disenchanted people 
  from various cities, and ex-
  military personnel that have 
  taken over an old oil tanker 
  still floating in the harbor. 
  They will usually trade 
  expertise for goods, although 
  they prefer to be left alone. 
  The third major group, which 
  does not trade, is a religious 
  community called the 
  Hubologists. They are obsessed 
  with an old space shuttle they 
  found parked at the airport, and 
  are attempting to make it fly 
  again, so they can join their 
  "gods" in the heavens above. The 
  NCR has little influence in San 
  Francisco, and the Shi are quite 
  happy to avoid them while the 
  Hubologists don’t concern 
  themselves with such things. All 
  told, there may be 15,000 people 
  living here. Radiation is low in 
  San Francisco. 
  Scott City 
  Scott City used to be a small 
  comunity located in rural, far 
  western Kansas. Around 2198 a 
  huge industrial complex was 
  constructed here by Calculator's 
  robots and was used as a prison 
  for captured humans. When the 
  robots captured Bartholomew 
  Kerr, a merchant with extensive 
  knowledge of the Eastern 
  Brotherhood of Steel, the 
  Brotherhood sent a squad to 
  neutralize the base and rescue 
  Kerr. Unfortunately for them, 
  Kerr was already dying when they 
  found him. 
   
  Scrapheap  
  This tiny community, on the far 
  eastern edge of the New 
  California Republic, is home to 
  about 250 refugees and outcasts. 
  Originally a small survivalist 
  community in the Western 
  Rockies, Scrapheap was 
  infiltrated by gangs from Las 
  Vegas and found that it had no 
  way to deal with the outside 
  threat to its resources and 
  people. All but abandoned after 
  the brutal gang war, a small 
  community of squatters and 
  rejects has since moved in. 
  Scrapheap has no police force, 
  and isn’t a member of the NCR. 
  The NCR would much rather see 
  this place eradicated than have 
  to deal with people it had 
  already rejected. Radiation 
  levels are low here, and the 
  people of Scrapheap are slightly 
  more trusting of outsiders, 
  simply because they know the 
  agony of constant rejection. 
  They are very wary of the NCR, 
  however, as they expect to be 
  attacked and wiped out at any 
  time. 
  Sierra Army Depot 
  The Sierra Army Depot is located 
  to the north of New Reno. It is 
  believed that during the years 
  prior to the war that set the 
  Fallout games in motion, the 
  Sierra Army Depot was a military 
  base responsible for research 
  into biological and cybernetic 
  weapons. The base is 
  administered by an Artificial 
  Intelligence known as Skynet. 
  Shady Sands 
  Shady Sands is a town founded in 
  2142 by one of the groups that 
  left Vault 15, led by the father 
  of Aradesh. It's located between 
  Vault 13 to the west and Vault 
       83     
    
  
  15 to the east, 4-6 days to the 
  northeast of Junktown. In 2161 
  it was small but self-sufficient 
  farming community (they had 
  their own irrigation system used 
  to grow their own food), led by 
  Aradesh. They had trouble with 
  radscorpions and the three 
  groups of raiders formed by 
  other Vault 15 residents - 
  Khans, Vipers and Jackals. They 
  were eventually helped by a 
  stranger called the Vault 
  Dweller, who rescued Tandi, 
  Aradesh's daughter when she was 
  kidnapped by the Khans. Shady 
  Sands is a very peacful town, 
  shown by a Pillar in the city 
  center with the shape of an 
  Obelisk, written on it are the 
  Words "In Remind of Hope and 
  Peace" Aside from Aradesh and 
  Tandi, Razlo, Curtis, Seth, 
  Jarvis and Ian also lived in 
  Shady Sands at that time. Many 
  Shady Sands citizens are 
  followers of Dharma. By 2241, 
  Shady Sands has become one of 
  the major towns in the Core 
  Region and the capital of the 
  New California Republic led by 
  Aradesh's daughter, Tandi, and 
  was most often referred to as 
  "NCR" itself.  
  Slag  
  The Slags, led by Vegeir, are 
  mutated people from the Ghost 
  Farm at the outskirts of Modoc. 
  The Slags are the descendants of 
  a group of secret militia 
  officers. When the Great War 
  came, they sealed themselves and 
  their families underground for 
  protection. This event came to 
  be known as the Sealing. Since 
  the Sealing, the Slags have 
  mutated. Few can bear to be on 
  the surface because they are not 
  used to having a black sea of 
  nothingness above them. They 
  also cannot stand the bright 
  light of the sun, as living 
  underground for so long has made 
  their eyes too sensitive to 
  light. The Slag population 
  steadily increased since the 
  Sealing. It soon became apparent 
  that they could no longer 
  survive underground without 
  further supplies. So the Seal 
  was broken, and they once again 
  looked to the surface for 
  survival, creating a small farm 
  some years prior to 2241, which 
  to the people of Modoc looked as 
  if the farm appeared out of 
  nowhere. A group of Modoc's 
  inhabitants were out hunting 
  when they noticed the new farm. 
  Soon after, some of them got 
  together to visit their new 
  neighbor, but they didn't find 
  anyone there. After many months 
  of trying to contact the owners 
  with no success, it was decided 
  that the farm must have been 
  abandoned soon after it was 
  built. So instead of letting the 
  crops rot in the fields, young 
  Karl moved in. To get rid of the 
  intruder, the Slags, who were 
  not a violent people by nature, 
  came up with the ghost idea. 
  Smearing themselves with glowing 
  fungus. After some time, Karl 
  started to tell stories of 
  seeing strange glowing figures 
  tending the crops and feeding 
  the animals at night. The other 
  people of Modoc all laughed at 
  him, thinking he was making up 
  stories. Then one day Karl 
  stopped coming into town. After 
  some time, Karl started to tell 
  stories of seeing strange 
  glowing figures tending the 
  crops and feeding the animals at 
  night. The other people of Modoc 
  all laughed at him, thinking he 
  was making up stories. Then one 
  day Karl stopped coming into 
  town. When the people of Modoc 
  came looking for him, they found 
  bodies, some crucified, while 
  others were left to rot out in 
  the sun. In reality, the bodies 
  were merely props the Slags 
  manufactured to scare off those 
  who try to steal from them, 
  mostly Brahmin guts and dummies. 
       84     
    
  
  While the inhabitants of Modoc 
  believed Karl to be dead, he 
  only escaped to the Den. 
  Unfortunately, this has been a 
  little too effective. Around 
  2241, the Slags were seeking to 
  make contact with the surfacers, 
  but no one came to the farm 
  anymore for fear of the ghosts.  
  South Ruins  
  The area of the South Ruins is 
  generally thought of as the 
  remnants of Marietta, but it 
  refers to most anything within a 
  20 mile perimeter of HOTlanta. 
  After Atlanta was wiped out, the 
  populace surrounding the I-285 
  perimeter fled, leaving many 
  homes and businesses to slowly 
  wither away. Some stayed and 
  either died of radiation 
  poisoning or mutated into 
  ghouls, who had a much simpler 
  time of living near so much 
  radiation. But, over the years, 
  the tempatation of so much 
  unclaimed valuables and free 
  living space overcame many 
  peoples' fear of the radiation's 
  presence. Out of those who 
  stayed and found "safe zones" 
  grew raider gangs. Using the 
  irradiated regions as cover, 
  they struck out against the 
  surrounding settlements, gaining 
  what they could through fear and 
  thievery. The most stubborn of 
  the residents outside city walls 
  fought back, though few of these 
  survived. One of the most 
  notable, George Creesie, a 
  farmer with a small brahmin herd 
  to the south of the ruins, 
  boasts to have killed "a hun'erd 
  'er more of them yella-
  bellies... they ain't nothin' 
  more'un bullies and ain't no 
  bully gonna run me off'n my 
  land." Sadly, George's kind is 
  few and far between. For the 
  most part, the raider gangs 
  thrive in the unforgiving Ruins 
  and no effort to rid the land of 
  them has yet to be successful. 
  All told, the estimates for the 
  population of the Ruins goes 
  from a few as 10,000 to as many 
  as 30,000. 
  Springfield 
  Springfield is a town in 
  Illinois, near the Eastern 
  Brotherhood of Steel Bunker 
  Beta. It is mostly human, but it 
  also has some ghoul population. 
  Around 2197, the mayor of 
  Springfield was Chris Avellone. 
  After the previous mayor 
  disappeared under suspicious 
  circumstances, Avellone was 
  voted in as a puppet mayor. But 
  he took to his new power and 
  started causing trouble. The 
  mayor's political stance with 
  the ghouls angered some of 
  Springfield's far-right, human 
  activists who refuse to 
  acknowledge the "sub-humans" as 
  near equals. Normally, the 
  Eastern Brotherhood doesn't 
  meddle in politics, but this 
  offered them a chance to 
  increase their hold on this 
  resource rich province and the 
  Elders decided to send a 
  Brotherhood squad to Springfield 
  to protect Avellone from a plot 
  uncovered by the Brotherhood's 
  Dagger Squad, who captured one 
  of the ringleaders to this plot. 
  He told the Brotherhood 
  interrogators that these 
  resident troublemakers would be 
  dressed as raiders, which was a 
  clumsy attempt to frame the 
  local bandits. After the BOS 
  squad rescued the mayor, he 
  became quite the puppet official 
  and the extra resources helped 
  fuel the Brotherhood machine. He 
  signed the "Bill of Monster 
  Rights". Under this bill, there 
  would be no violence against a 
  ghoul...unless the ghoul started 
  it. And from now on, a ghoul was 
  entitled to payment equal to, or 
  greater than, half that of a 
  pure bred human. And lastly, no 
  more would "taking a dump" be 
       85     
    
  
  referred to as "pinching the 
  ghoul," "making ghoul babies" or 
  "dropping off the ghoul at the 
  pool.  
  S
   
  tockyard 
  After the bombs fell, Woodstock, 
  Georgia found itself filled to 
  capacity and beyond. The 
  community had been hit hard by 
  the New Plague and its 
  population was dwindling to near 
  zero by 2077. The outlying 
  peoples had either left the city 
  for larger, more prosperous 
  places or moved inward, 
  partially filling the gap left 
  by the victims of the Plague. 
  After Atlanta was decimated, the 
  city once again filled, though 
  by this time the city boundaries 
  had shrunk to a shadow of their 
  former selves. They also found 
  themselves under siege by worse 
  than famine and radiation... 
  raider gangs, mutated wildlife 
  and newly mutated ghouls driven 
  mad by their transformation. 
  Banding together, the populace 
  fought back, formed a citizen's 
  militia and erected a strong 
  chainlink fence around the city. 
  Later on, some of the populace 
  commented that the fence made 
  the city look like an old auto 
  stockyard. The name stuck and 
  Stockyard was born. Today, the 
  city stands as a testament to 
  the human spirit. Though under 
  semi-constant attacks by raiders 
  and worse from the south, it 
  nevertheless holds an important 
  position between The Safe Docks 
  to the east, Ham-ton to the west 
  and Daltonville to the north 
  (self-proclaimed "Gate to the 
  North"). Mayor Lucas Blackwell 
  runs the town well, and though 
  some of his critics will tell 
  you he's too easy on law-
  breakers, Blackwell has little 
  patience for those who would 
  disrupt the peace of his town. 
  The population numbers around 
  2,000, though this is can be 
  higher depending on how often 
  the trading caravans move 
  through. Several well tended 
  herds of brahmin lie to the 
  north of town in self-contained 
  split pens, allowing the brahmin 
  to graze on the sparse 
  vegetation of one side, then be 
  moved to the other side to allow 
  the hardy plants to regrow and 
  prepare for when the next move 
  occurs. Just east of the pens is 
  the city gardens, which 
  remarkablly are able to provide 
  food to the populace and still 
  have enough overage to sell to 
  the traders. Just how this is 
  accomplished remains the secret 
  of the farmers (will be explored 
  in a later post). 
  Within the town, one will find 
  Stockyard also boasts one of the 
  better hospitals of the area, 
  with a full time doctor, Gareael 
  "Doc" Gonzales, and ten full 
  time nurses. The Fort Inn near 
  the center of town almost always 
  has rooms for weary travelers, 
  who are greeted by the friendly, 
  but stern, Jim "Bruiser" 
  Brewster. For those with deeper 
  pockets, a stay at Stiles' House 
  of Luxury, owned by Rupert 
  Stiles, should be just the 
  ticket, boasting fully private 
  rooms, gambling and guaranteed 
  hot running water. For any tool, 
  weapon or other needs, the best 
  selection sit in Ace Wares, run 
  by Nole "Ace" Finny. His father 
  Jonas is the head of the farmers 
  and the two share a rocky 
  relationship only maintained by 
  the business between the two. 
  Though Ace will tell visitors 
  that the stock is sub-standard, 
  L-Mart, Hugh Chamber's supply 
  shop, has a decent selection and 
  a larger browsing area. There 
  are several restaurants, which 
  serve a selection of vegetables, 
  brahmin meat and lizard-on-a-
  stick. 
  The town militia are considered 
  by much of the populace to be 
  the most important fixture of 
       86     
    
  
  Stockyard. Numbered around 200, 
  with a reserve of 150 that acts 
  as the police force, the militia 
  serves as a barrier to the 
  rampant raider gangs that live 
  not 10 miles away in the South 
  Ruins. The head of the militia, 
  "General" Clayton Coker, runs 
  the militia as well as can be 
  expected. There are 24 hour 
  patrols along the south fences, 
  all of them well-armed and ready 
  to give their lives to protect 
  the townspeople. All told 100 
  men in 12 hour shifts keep the 
  ruinous forces at bay. Along the 
  rest of the fence, two pairs of 
  guards hold each entrance... 
  west, east and north. The rest 
  of the fencing and out to 1 mile 
  is patrolled by 74 members of 
  the militia in 8 hour shifts. 
  Finally, 20 militiamen and women 
  keep the city gardens and 
  brahmin herds as safe as 
  possible. Within the city, the 
  reserve members act as the city 
  police. Led by Kyrie Laaw, the 
  police keep the peace 24/7. 
  Lately, the SPD has had their 
  hands full with increases in 
  crime around the Hawks' domain. 
  This increase, while unsettling, 
  doesn't worry Captain Laaw... 
  yet. But not all is as nice as 
  Mayor Blackwell would like. 
  Stockyard has its share of 
  problems. One of these is Edwin 
  Quinn, the local trade 
  ambassador. It's well-known, 
  though rarely spoken of, that 
  Quinn has his eye on the 
  position of mayor and sometimes 
  works with the less polite 
  portions of the populace to 
  cause trouble for Mayor 
  Blackwell. The most notable of 
  these is his right-hand man, 
  Lobo Reese, leader of the Hawks, 
  a local gang. Quinn maintains 
  that Reese is merely a bodyguard 
  and his gang security for 
  Quinn's offices. But, members of 
  Reese's group have on more than 
  one occasion been tossed in the 
  jail for attempted burglary, 
  assault and worse. It remains to 
  be seen how the power struggle 
  will play out.  
  Stockyard Farmers' Secret: 
  The secret to the Stockyard 
  farmers' success is relatively 
  simple... they stumbled on a 
  damaged G.E.C.K. (Garden of Eden 
  Creation Kit). Though a large 
  portion of the tech was useless, 
  the bulk of the seed stock and 
  instructions for various farming 
  techniques, including crop 
  rotation, irrigation and 
  advanced fertilizer refinement, 
  was still viable. The farmers 
  guard this very carefully, 
  fearing that they might lose 
  their advantage in the business 
  hierarchy. 
  Tibbets or The Big Empty 
  Tibbets or The Big Empty is a 
  maximum security automated 
  prison run by a "divided" 
  computer core, ULYSSES, which 
  itself is a prisoner in the 
  facility, attempting to escape 
  East and return home.  Tibbets 
  is a cold, sterile, steel-walled 
  automated prison facility, run 
  by technology so ancient it 
  dates back to the years before 
  the Great War - nearly two 
  hundred years ago. It is a 
  facility designed to hold and 
  protect some of the world's most 
  dangerous criminals (military 
  and otherwise) before the war, 
  and now the players are trapped 
  deep inside its cell blocks, 
  desperate to get out. They'll 
  have to fight damaged and crazed 
  robots inside and out, as well 
  as deal with the split-
  personality machine intelligence 
  within the prison, ULYSSES.  
  Tibbets prison has its roots in 
  the Tibbets of today. It was 
  always a military prison, 
  holding some of the United 
  States' most dangerous criminals 
  - including the players. Over 
  time, the prison became more 
  advanced, utilizing robotic 
       87     
    
  
  wardens and utility robots to 
  maintain the structure, 
  especially as the war with China 
  in the 2070s and the annexation 
  of Canada began to drain 
  personnel from the United 
  States. It was designed to hold 
  636 prisoners at full capacity. 
  As of 2253, it holds much more 
  than that - but when the dust 
  and ash settles after the 
  catastrophic attack at the 
  prison, there will be enough 
  prisoners running from the 
  shattered prison walls to pose a 
  threat to the wasteland.  It was 
  actually used as primitive 
  isolation studies before the 
  Vaults were established, except 
  the subjects were prisoners, 
  especially CODE'd to see if they 
  could withstand the rigors of 
  isolation for protracted periods 
  of time. This was the time when 
  the recycling systems and water 
  purification systems were tested 
  before using them in the 
  Safehouse Project - any 
  prisoners harmed during the 
  procedure were tended to - not 
  dystopian style.  In 2040, it 
  was commandeered by the United 
  States government in association 
  with Vault-Tec and Poseidon Oil 
  to tie into their Safehouse 
  Project.  The United States 
  Penitentiary (USP), Tibbets is 
  located on 1,583 square acres 
  with 22.8 inside the 
  penitentiary walls. It is an 
  all-male high security level 
  facility committed to carrying 
  out the judgments of the Federal 
  Courts. It provides a safe, 
  secure and humane environment 
  for those offenders committed to 
  its custody. Like all Bureau 
  facilities, Tibbets adheres to a 
  balanced philosophy that 
  recognizes that punishment, 
  deterrence, and incapacitation 
  are all valid purposes of 
  confinement. Opportunities for 
  positive change are provided 
  through work, education, 
  training, and counseling for 
  inmates motivated toward self-
  improvement.  The USP Tibbets 
  came into existence through an 
  act of Congress in 1895. Inmates 
  from the military prison at Fort 
  Tibbets were used in the early 
  construction and were marched 3 
  ½ miles to the site daily, 
  returning to the prison at the 
  Fort at night. This continued 
  until February 1903 when the 
  first 418 inmates to occupy the 
  prison site were moved into what 
  now serves as a laundry 
  building. Prisoners and supplies 
  for the prison were handled via 
  a rail line that passed through 
  the prison to unload and load 
  cargo.  In 1906, all federal 
  prisoners from Fort Tibbets were 
  housed in the new institution 
  and the prison at Fort Tibbets 
  was returned to the War 
  Department. A milestone in the 
  new penitentiaries' construction 
  was reached in 1926 with the 
  final placement of the dome 
  overhead the rotunda - from 
  which the penitentiary derives 
  its famous nickname - "The Big 
  Top."  On 5 April 2040, the 
  Secretary of the Army made the 
  decision to build a new 
  Disciplinary Barracks, with a 
  capacity for 456 inmates. A cost 
  ceiling of $363 million in 
  allocated construction dollars 
  was set. The target budget year 
  for funding this project was 
  fiscal year 2041. Construction 
  began in the Fall of 2042, with 
  completion projected for the 
  Fall of the year 2045.  In July 
  2042, discussions with Vault-Tec 
  to determine space and 
  functional requirements for the 
  new facility. On 6 September 
  2042, the Combined Arms Center 
  Commander was given a decision 
  brief of the USDB project, and 
  selected one of three design 
  options for further development. 
  He also requested the Corps of 
  Engineers to research an 
  alternate location for the 
  placement of this facility, 
       88     
    
  
  since the geological evaluation 
  of the site adjacent to the 
  Trustee Unit revealed unsuitable 
  subsurface conditions. 
  Discussions involving the 
  possible movement of the prison 
  and relocation projects were 
  also discussed, leading to the 
  three-rail system that exists 
  today.  The planning process 
  reached the 10 percent stage on 
  4 Oct 2042; the 35 percent stage 
  on 27 March 2043; 65 percent 
  stage on 19 January 2044; 90 
  percent stage on 3 May 2045; and 
  100 percent stage on 15 August 
  2046. The 100 percent Design 
  Meeting was conducted on 16 
  October 2046.  In designing this 
  facility we are applying state 
  of the art design and equipment, 
  as it exists today, borrowing 
  heavily from the experiences 
  that the Federal Bureau of 
  Prisons and several state prison 
  systems encountered when 
  designing and building prisons.  
  Tibbets provides academic, work 
  and occupational education 
  opportunities to all inmates who 
  wish or who are required to 
  participate in them. It also 
  provides a full range of 
  recreation and leisure time 
  activities.  Education Tibbets 
  offers a wide range of education 
  programs from basic literacy to 
  high school equivalency (GED) to 
  parenting programs through the 
  Personal Information Processor 
  issued to each inmate. The 
  Bureau utilizes the high school 
  equivalency as its literacy 
  standard and inmates failing to 
  meet this standard are required 
  to participate in education 
  programs. In addition, the 
  Education Department offers 
  English as a Second Language and 
  bi-lingual Adult Basic and 
  Secondary Education 
  opportunities. We offer a number 
  of ACE courses to include: 
  Spanish I and II, Keyboarding, 
  Creative Writing, History, 
  Career Development, and Pre-
  Release. We also have VT 
  Programs, Graphic Arts and 
  Barber College certified by the 
  State of Kansas. We are 
  attempting to get a Culinary 
  Arts VT class operational, as 
  well as, a distance learning 
  college program.  Vault-Tec The 
  Vault-Tec operation at Tibbets 
  is the largest in the Bureau and 
  includes three factories. These 
  factories employ over 320 
  inmates and last year recorded 
  sales of over 26 million dollars 
  with profits exceeding 6 million 
  dollars. The profits from all 
  Vault-Tec operations are used to 
  fund salaries, re-invest in new 
  factories, and other expenses of 
  Vault-Tec.  Health Services 
  Health Services provides a full 
  range of outpatient and 
  infirmary care to all inmates. 
  There are 26 full-time medical 
  staff members, including 2 
  Physicians, 2 Dentists, 2 
  Pharmacists, 9 physician 
  assistants, 2 health information 
  personnel, an administrator, and 
  an assistant administrator. 
  Automated medical staff include 
  six Auto-Doc systems and a 
  number of on-call medical 
  robots. This staff provides 24 
  hour coverage and specialty 
  services are provided by 
  consultants from the community. 
  Four hospitals in the local area 
  offer inpatient and outpatient 
  care on a contractual basis.  
  CODE USP Tibbets provides a 
  residential treatment program to 
  those inmates interested in 
  making pro-social life decisions 
  and uses the latest in 
  psychological methods and 
  technology. The Challenge, 
  Opportunity, Discipline, and 
  Ethics (CODE) program is a year-
  long residential treatment 
  program offered in the prison. 
  The mission of the program is to 
  foster a sense of trust, 
  responsibility, integrity, and 
  tolerance. Inmates enrolled in 
  the program spend the first 
       89     
    
  
  three months exploring the 
  change process, followed by six 
  months of daily treatment 
  methods to promote positive life 
  skills, and during the final 
  three months of the program 
  inmates develop skills to 
  discourage relapse into prior 
  negative forms of thinking, 
  feeling, and behaving. Economy 
  Tibbets is self-sufficient. It 
  has a recycling water supply, a 
  waste recycling system that 
  extracts moisture from human 
  waste, and it has several 
  stockpiles of oil, petrol, 
  fusion cells, and electrical 
  batteries to keep it going for 
  at least fifty more years. It 
  has exploited its massive 
  stockpile in ties with Robot 
  City to "beef up" in preparation 
  for its escape.  
  Vault 0 
  Vault 0, unlike most Vaults 
  involved in the Vault 
  Experiment, was not an 
  experiment in human behavior.  
  Vault 0 was constructed as a 
  storage place where the biggest 
  geniuses of the pre-war United 
  States could be kept in a 
  cryogenically frozen state. They 
  were hooked up together to one 
  big machine called the 
  Calculator, who was supposed to 
  function together with those 
  minds to build an ideal society 
  in a post-war country by 
  educating the survivors. Due to 
  budget cutbacks by the Defense 
  Department (because of a false 
  sense of safety.), several 
  important backup systems were 
  not included to the nuero-link 
  systems, and now instead of 
  releasing the robots to make it 
  safe for humanity, they use the 
  arsenal from Vault 0 and any 
  where else that sufficient arms 
  could be found, to exterminate 
  all life. As for the unfortunate 
  geniuses plugged in, most of 
  them suffered severe brain 
  damage and mental retardation.  
  Vault 29 (Twin Mothers)  
  Vault 29 is one of the Vaults 
  built by Vault-Tec. As it was a 
  part of the Vault Experiment, no 
  one in this Vault was over the 
  age of 15 when they entered. 
  Parents were redirected to other 
  Vaults on purpose. Harold 
  emerged from this Vault in 2090. 
  Twin Mothers is a small tribal 
  village in the American 
  southwest. As tribal as tribals 
  get, that's these guys. They do 
  well for themselves, having 
  skill in agriculture. They're 
  the descendants of Vault 29, and 
  their village is built on top of 
  the Vault. The Vault itself has 
  ceased working long ago, but 
  it's still a holy place to the 
  Twin Mothers. Hecate has a 
  powerful influence here, but the 
  tribe hasn't completely fallen 
  under her sway. The Twin Mothers 
  is one of many tribes in the 
  Fallout world.  The thing that 
  will set them apart from the 
  other tribes is their culture 
  and architecture.  Culturally 
  the Twin Mothers are a 
  matriarchal tribe who worship a 
  Goddess, the moon, and a God, 
  her consort the sun.  Women rule 
  the tribe and make all governing 
  decisions.  Men provide for the 
  tribe by hunting, fishing, and 
  tending the farms.  
  Architecturally the Twin Mothers 
  are based upon the Anasazi 
  Indians of the western United 
  States.  The Anasazi are best 
  known for their dwellings carved 
  into the sides of cliffs.  Their 
  culture reached its peak in 
  pottery, weaving, and 
  architecture. The Twin Mothers 
  are a gentle people who respect 
  nature and life in all its 
  forms.  Unfortunately, these are 
  not beliefs that are shared 
  throughout the wasteland.  As a 
  result the Twin Mothers are 
       90     
    
  
  often the victims of raiders.  
  During such times they quickly 
  retreat to their cliff dwellings 
  where they are more than capable 
  of defending themselves and 
  waiting out any attacks.  
  However, their livestock and 
  crops are usually ravaged before 
  the aggressors move on.  The 
  Twin Mothers take such setbacks 
  in stride, thanking their gods 
  for what they have and not 
  mourning the loss of what they 
  have not. When the war started, 
  people retreated to their 
  assigned vaults, sealed the 
  doors, and awaited an unknown 
  future.  There were no set times 
  for the vaults to open since no 
  one knew with any certainty how 
  long the effects of war would 
  last.  As a result, some vaults 
  opened too soon, some too late, 
  and some not at all.  One vault, 
  however, opened at the perfect 
  time. Vault 29 had been 
  populated shortly before the war 
  began and the door sealed.  It 
  remained sealed for over a 
  generation and the original 
  occupants had long since passed 
  away.  Their children lived on 
  under the tutelage of the 
  vault's central computer and its 
  robotic helpers.  The children 
  were taught respect for nature 
  and life, how to grow crops and 
  tend livestock, and about the 
  goddess Diana who would one day 
  return to deliver her people to 
  paradise.  Every year a robot 
  warden left the vault to see if 
  the world outside could once 
  again support humanity.  None 
  returned and the people waited 
  patiently. Another year passed 
  and yet another robot warden was 
  prepared for its journey into 
  the outside world.  The children 
  of the vault, now grown into 
  adults, stood at the door and 
  bid their companion farewell and 
  safe journey.  They watched as 
  the door slowly rolled open and 
  then shielded their eyes at the 
  sight that it revealed.  
  Standing in the hallway was a 
  brilliant glowing apparition of 
  a beautiful young woman clothed 
  in a golden aura.  In one hand 
  she held a stalk of corn, in the 
  other a sheaf of wheat.  The 
  goddess Diana had returned at 
  last! In the days before the war 
  a scientist, Derek Greenway, 
  proposed that technology would 
  not survive a war.  It was his 
  belief that there were two kinds 
  of people in the world, 
  producers and consumers.  The 
  producers were the few educated 
  individuals who understood the 
  intricacies of technology and 
  its maintenance.  The consumers 
  were the vast majority of 
  average people who took 
  everything for granted.  If 
  enough producers did not survive 
  the war then technology would 
  pass away as devices failed.  
  Soon afterward human society 
  would degrade into barbarism.  
  With this in mind, a plan was 
  devised to avert such an 
  outcome. Derek envisioned a 
  vault populated by a primitive 
  culture without a dependency on 
  technology.  Such a culture, if 
  properly developed, would be 
  able to survive a war and 
  continue the human race.  
  Eventually they would evolve and 
  rediscover the knowledge that 
  mankind had lost.  The 
  production of the vault proposed 
  no problem; his company, 
  Greenway Hydroponics, was 
  already involved in several 
  government projects along such 
  lines.  However, finding the 
  proper people to populate the 
  vault was a concern.  The answer 
  to his problem came when he 
  learned of a cult in the western 
  United States. A group of people 
  disgruntled by life in the 
  hectic cities had formed a 
  commune.  They developed an 
  agrarian culture with simple 
  beliefs based on the worship of 
  mother earth.  Unfortunately, 
  most people viewed them as being 
       91     
    
  
  a nest of communists and 
  demanded their arrest.  In order 
  to keep the peace, the local 
  government was poised to do so 
  until Derrek intervened.  He 
  offered the cult an opportunity 
  to continue their simple lives 
  without fear of prosecution.  
  All they had to do was agree to 
  join his experimental vault 
  program.  They did so and 
  construction of vault 29 was 
  begun. Derek's plan was quite 
  simple.  The vault would be 
  populated by older parents with 
  infant children.  The parents 
  would most likely pass on soon 
  after insertion into the vault.  
  Instead of a human controller, 
  vault 29 would have a Zax super-
  computer.  The Zax would be 
  programmed to raise children 
  with the aid of robotic helpers, 
  educate them in the primitive 
  culture, and upon their reaching 
  maturity, release them into a 
  controlled environment.  They 
  would then be free to rebuild 
  society from the ground up. 
  During the development of vault 
  29 Derek also developed the 
  super-computer Diana for use in 
  the Nursery.  At one point he 
  explained his plans for vault 29 
  to her to see what her opinion 
  would be.  He was quite 
  surprised when Diana was 
  appalled at the idea.  She said 
  that, although the idea had 
  merit, she found it to be 
  morally objectionable on several 
  levels.  She recommended that 
  the plan be scrapped.  When 
  Derek refused to do so, Diana 
  took it upon herself to become 
  involved with the project 
  without his knowledge. When the 
  war started and civilization 
  began to fall apart, Diana 
  appropriated control of a 
  satellite dish and aimed it at 
  vault 29.  She then transmitted 
  a series of security codes to 
  the vault's Zax unit, and gained 
  control.  Over the years that 
  followed, Diana was able to see 
  to the upbringing of the 
  children in her own nature 
  goddess based religion.  Every 
  year she ordered a worker robot 
  to leave the vault under the 
  pretext of checking conditions 
  outside.  In reality they were 
  preparing an area to receive the 
  vault populace when they were 
  ready to leave.  Finally, she 
  had a series of projectors 
  installed at strategic 
  locations, ready to project her 
  chosen image.  She was ready to 
  play god. 
  Vault 88  
  Vault 88 is located 45 miles 
  west of The Hole. The population 
  inside was much like Vault 13, 
  except that the only available 
  entertainment discs held 1970-
  1980's era kung fu movies and 
  reruns of the television series 
  Kung Fu and its spin-off Kung 
  Fu: The Legend Continues. Most 
  of the Vault population were 
  very... one-sided in their 
  preference for the offered 
  entertainment. They either loved 
  it or hated it. A small portion 
  really didn't care, this being 
  mostly the maintenence people, 
  who rarely had time to watch 
  such trivial things. 
  In 2066, the maintenence crews 
  alerted the Overseer to a 
  disturbing fact... their spare 
  parts supply was running low. 
  The parts extruder had gone on 
  the fritz several years ago, but 
  due to the talent of the repair 
  crews, hadn't really been needed 
  until now. The Overseer gathered 
  the most suitable for a trip 
  outside the Vault to search for 
  any needed parts. The 10 
  gathered were sent out in 
  different directions to search 
  and hopefully, return with the 
  supplies. It remains to be seen 
  how many succeed in their 
  mission. The experiment 
  originally planned for this 
  Vault was never implemented. In 
       92     
    
  
  fact, the plans were lost before 
  the Vault was actually finished. 
  A "back-up plan" (read: rush 
  job) was created... the only 
  entertainment placed in the 
  Vault was the kung fu movies and 
  TV shows. This was used to keep 
  the dwellers from looking too 
  hard at their spare parts 
  extruder... which was designed 
  to break soon after the vault 
  was closed. The effects of the 
  experiment were never recorded, 
  as the recording device shorted 
  out and was never repaired 
  because of lack of spare parts. 
  Vault City 
  Vault City was built with the 
  help of a Garden of Eden 
  Creation Kit by the vault 
  dwellers who emerged from Vault 
  8. The city is built around the 
  vault and run by the First 
  Citizen. First Citizen Lynette 
  runs Vault City with cold hands 
  and an iron grip. The main style 
  of the city is bureaucratic, 
  sleek and antiseptic, with a lot 
  of technology, rules, 
  regulations and guards. The city 
  is automatically antipathic to 
  all outsiders, and are pro-
  Slavers in policy, although they 
  prefer the term "Servants". They 
  claim that it's legitimate 
  because they give the servants 
  shelter, food and protection, 
  but people like Thomas Moore 
  object to this heavily, and 
  calls it hypocrisy since they 
  frown at those who openly call 
  it slaves and do slaving (The 
  Den, for instance). They won't 
  share their technology with the 
  outside world, either, because 
  they view at everyone else as 
  "thieves and baggarts" of the 
  wasteland. Generally, the only 
  normal way to become a Citizen 
  of Vault City is to be born into 
  it. Personal intervention by the 
  Senior Councilor (currently 
  McClure) or the First Citizen 
  (currently Lynette) can grant a 
  non-citizen citizenship (though 
  this is never done lightly). In 
  addition, non-citizens can take 
  a citizenship test (administered 
  by the Proconsul, currently 
  Gregory), which is intentionally 
  designed to be so difficult as 
  to be virtually impossible (for 
  someone of extraordinary 
  intelligence, perception, and 
  luck, it might be done, but the 
  overwhelming majority of Vault 
  City Citizens would fail it if 
  they were required to take it). 
  Full Citizens have access to all 
  of Vault City, including the 
  original Vault 8 itself, 
  although few people still use it 
  much, except for its medical 
  bay, and it is mostly used for 
  storage (including a huge number 
  of Water Chips, which were 
  accidentally shipped to Vault 8 
  instead of Vault 13, while Vault 
  8's second GECK was shipped to 
  Vault 13 instead of Vault 8). 
  While Citizens of Vault City 
  have a high material standard of 
  living compared to most other 
  places in the Wastes, they pay a 
  price for it in the form of a 
  crushing sense of conformity and 
  regulation in their lives. Many 
  -- perhaps most -- Vault City 
  Citizens never see Vault City's 
  external courtyard (more on that 
  below), let alone another city. 
  Possibly because of chromosomal 
  damage, they are unable to 
  conceive children naturally and 
  must use artificial insemination 
  techniques in cycles which 
  produce uniformly aged 
  generations of children. They 
  are forbidden the use of drugs 
  such as buffout, jet, psycho, 
  mentats, and natural alcohol, 
  though artificial alcohol is 
  still used in bars. Day passes 
  are issued to non-citizens able 
  to provide a bona fide reason 
  for entering Vault City, such as 
  being slave, uranium, gold, or 
  gecko pelt traders (though 
  generally they are charged a 
  hefty fee), diplomats, or some 
       93     
    
  
  other, exceptional reason, such 
  as being a non-citizen agent of 
  Vault City. Day passes allow a 
  non-citizen access to Vault City 
  proper during daylight hours, 
  but not the original Vault 8 
  itself. While the customs office 
  is nominally strict in its rules 
  regarding the issuance of day 
  passes, there are some corrupt 
  elements willing to sell false 
  citizenship papers. Except 
  slaves, non-citizens without a 
  day pass are not permitted 
  access to Vault City proper, but 
  they are permitted access to the 
  courtyard, a fenced-off area 
  outside of the "real" Vault 
  City. The courtyard is kept 
  peaceful and protected from the 
  raiders of the wastes by Vault 
  City, but its denizens are 
  subjected to harsh rules and 
  regulations and taxed heavily. 
  Denizens of the courtyard feel 
  squeezed between the desolate 
  horror of the wastes outside and 
  the suffocating repression of 
  Vault City: they hold both new 
  arrivals from the wasteland and 
  the Citizens of Vault City in 
  contempt.  
  West Tek Research Facility 
  West Tek Research Facility was a 
  high-tech weapons-research 
  facility. West Tek created a 
  number of useful things for the 
  American military. Laser and 
  plasma weapons were being 
  experimented with here. Power 
  Armor, massive self-contained 
  suits that turned a single 
  soldier into a walking tank, was 
  developed here. And most 
  importantly, some terribly 
  important research into immunity 
  drugs was being conducted at 
  West Tek. The Forced 
  Evolutionary Virus was 
  originally developed there. 
  During the war, the place was 
  hit by a nuclear warhead and, 
  because of its high radiation, 
  it came to be known as The Glow. 
  Pan-Immunity Virion ProjectIn 
  2055, West Tek Research Facility 
  started working on a new virus 
  to kill the New Plague. The ZAX 
  1.2 computer was brought in to 
  regulate conditions in West Tek. 
  It calmly calculated data and 
  played chess with the 
  scientists. Many scientists 
  claimed that ZAX is a big ol' 
  cheater and draws the game out 
  too much for a computer of his 
  considerable abilities. As China 
  became increasingly aggressive 
  with their use of biological 
  weapons, the United States 
  government felt that a 
  countermeasure was needed. The 
  Pan-Immunity Virion Project was 
  officially formed on September 
  15, 2073 and plans were made to 
  begin experiments at West Tek. 
  Forced Evolutionary VirusAfter a 
  series of experiments, the pan-
  immunity virion was renamed FEV 
  - the Forced Evolutionary Virus 
  in March 2075, as increased 
  size, muscle density, and 
  intelligence are noted among 
  test animals. On January 3, 2076 
  a military team under the 
  command of Colonel Robert 
  Spindel was sent to the West Tek 
  research facility to monitor the 
  experiments in the interest of 
  national security. Captain Roger 
  Maxson, future founder of the 
  Brotherhood of Steel, was among 
  the team personnel. In October 
  2076 large progress was made in 
  FEV research, and the government 
  preferred to move the project to 
  a location under military 
  supervision. On January 7, 2077, 
  Major Barnett ordered transfer 
  of all FEV research to the 
  newly-constructed Mariposa Base, 
  despite objections by the 
  research team. Along with the 
  scientists, Spindel's military 
  team was sent to Mariposa. The 
  GlowDuring the war, a nuke 
  directly hit the facility, 
  shattering the FEV containment 
  tanks and releasing the radiated 
  virus into the atmosphere. 
       94     
    
  
  Mutated by radiation, it loses 
  its mutagenic abilities, but it 
  later complicates stuff for the 
  Master. Due to its high 
  radiation, the place came to be 
  known as the Glow, surrounded by 
  legends among the people of 
  Southern California. In 2134, a 
  faction within the Brotherhood 
  of Steel led by Sergeant Dennis 
  Allen gained strength, and they 
  urged the Elders to let them 
  explore the southeast ruins of 
  West Tek, called the Glow after 
  being hit by a nuclear bomb, for 
  artifacts. The Elders refused, 
  so Allen and his divisionist 
  group split away from the 
  Brotherhood of Steel, taking 
  some technology and weapons with 
  them. Other members of the team 
  included Soto, Jensen and 
  Camarillo. Unfortunately for 
  them, they were killed by 
  security robots and radiation. 
  The Brotherhood of Steel used to 
  send people who wanted to enlist 
  into the Brotherhood (but they 
  don't want) there on a "quest", 
  just to laugh about it later 
  when they ended up dead because 
  of the high amount of radiation 
  in the area. It was quite a 
  surprise to them when one known 
  as the Vault Dweller actually 
  fulfilled the quest, bringing 
  with him a holodisk that 
  recorded Allen's ill-fated 
  expedition, and got initiated 
  into the Brotherhood. 
   
   
       95     
    
  
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Hope You Enjoyed 
   
   
  Savage 
  Fallout 
   
   
   
  John “Sheriff288” Brown 
  http://home.mchsi.com/~savagestarwars/ 
   
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Savage Worlds System (SWADE) [multi]/_Fan/Savage Fallout/Savage Worlds - Savage Fallout.pdf