Fallout: The Roleplaying Game
How will you re-shape the world? Will you join with a plucky band of survivors to fight off all comers and carve out your own settlement? Will you team up with pre-existing factions like the Brotherhood of Steel or Super Mutants to enforce your own ideals on the wasteland? Ghoul or robot, paladin or raider, it’s your choice - and the consequences are yours. Create your own survivors, super mutants, ghouls, and even Mister Handy robots, and immerse yourselves in the iconic post-nuclear apocalyptic world, while gamemasters guide their group through unique Fallout stories. This 2d20 edition of Fallout is as close to the bottlecap-bartering, wasteland wandering, Brotherhood battling excitement of Fallout you can get.
Originally created by Nathan Dowdell, Donathin Frye, Sam Webb
Play Fallout: The Roleplaying Game online
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Fallout: The Roleplaying Game Reviews (6)
See what other Game Masters and players are saying about Fallout: The Roleplaying Game
Warren
New review
I love the Fallout video game series, a heady mix of humour and post-apocalyptic horror. Where you genuinely care for your character and those you meet wandering the wastelands. The Fallout tabletop roleplaying game by Modiphius Entertainment is their attempt to capture the feel of the video games (particularly Fallout 4) and place it in the hands of the GM and their players. It’s labelled as the “Post-Nuclear Tabletop Role Playing Game” and is available from Modiphius’ website for £45 ($58.37). Presented as a hefty 432-page tome, it has a striking cover depicting a close-up of a Vault 111 dwellers suit. The production quality is excellent throughout and is printed on high quality paper with a yellow ribbon bookmark in contrast to the blue cover. The book is sturdy enough to stand up to prolonged use. So far so good. The game uses the 2d20 system of which there is now a proliferation; Star trek Adventures, Achtung! Cthulhu and DUNE Adventures in the Imperium to name a few. The book is broken down into twelve chapters with an accompanying two-page illustration to set the mood. They book has a concise and easy to digest writing style, for which I’m grateful considering the page count. The front and end papers show a “Please Stand By” black and white television announcement screen though I would have preferred a map of the wastelands and the Commonwealth. In fact, there are no maps anywhere in the book which is disappointing and a missed opportunity. Visual aids to the setting are always appreciated by a GM and players. A short introduction explains the game’s setting before telling what you need to run it: This book, dice: d20s and d6s, character sheets (there’s one in the back of the book), tokens (ordinary poker chips will do), paper and pencils. Oddly there is no introduction to role playing in general, so I’m assuming this game isn’t aimed at beginners. Chapter One dives straight into the 2d20 rules system explaining how the dice are used and the concept of generating a target number against which you must roll equal to or under on each d20 to generate successes. Those familiar with d20 systems will have to realign their thought processes as a “1” is a critical success here and a “20” a complication. The usual concepts of opposed and assisted skill checks are covered along with group checks to save time. The d6’s are primarily rolled to determine the damage you inflict with a weapon. It’s not the standard 1-6 result either, a 1 and 2 inflicts that amount, 3s and 4s are nothing with a 5 and 6 inflicting a single point each and an effect. Effects let you trigger specific weapon qualities which are covered in chapter four: equipment. So, more page flipping. Player characters have two additional resources available to them: Action Points and Luck. If you generate more successes than you need when making a skill check you generate Action Points which are used to roll extra d20’s for future checks, obtain information from the GM about the current situation, reduce the time a skill takes, take additional actions in combat and dish out extra damage. It works well but requires some bookkeeping. Hence the need for tokens of some sort. You can only ever have a maximum of six at any time to be used by the whole players group. Luck is an attribute like any other which allows players to shift the odds in their favour. I find it strange that the first chapter covers the rules and not character creation as almost every TTRPG I’ve read starts with this. It’s confusing to read something in the rules at the beginning of the book which isn’t explained until character creation two chapters later. An example being how you must beat a target's defence rating before being told how to calculate it. Chapter Two is combat and again having this precede character creation is confusing. The rules are straightforward enough following a standard system where characters take turns in initiative order and are allowed a Minor and Major action. Minor actions include aiming, interacting with the environment in some fashion, moving, and taking chems, something you’ll be doing a lot of if you want to survive the rigours of the wasteland. Major actions include assisting another PC, melee, and ranged attacks, defending yourself, administering first aid, sprinting and any other other skill tests you might want to perform. Following this the actual combat mechanics are explained in detail, with hit locations, range, and damage which come in the forms of physical, energy, chemical and radiation. Combat is lethal, especially without some form of protection. Radiation damage can cripple your character and critical hits and injuries can quickly kill. The system uses a descriptive range category with PCs in zones relative to their opponents. You can move across the battlefield quickly, especially if you take your major action to sprint. The chapter concludes with the various environmental conditions you will encounter in the wastelands. A short, concise chapter. Chapter Three is character creation. Your character’s attributes are denoted by the S.P.E.C.I.A.L acronym standing for: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. They each have a minimum value of 4 and a maximum of 10, though certain perks can raise them above this. If we cast out minds back to Chapter One a successful skill check is determined by adding your attribute score to your skill score and rolling equal to or under that value on a d20. Luck isn’t associated with skills, rather it allows you to alter the circumstances in your favour by spending luck points with a starting amount equal to your Luck attribute. There are seventeen skills covering everything you're likely to need. They range in value from 0 to 6 and each one is associated with a specific attribute to determine your target number when you make a skill check. They are all a short descriptive paragraph, its default S.P.E.C.I.A.L attribute and an amusing accompanying picture of a comic vault dweller in a snappy blue-and-white uniform utilising said skill. You select any three skills as tag skills, areas of expertise which allow you to generate more successes if you roll equal to under their value when making a skill check. Have a Small Guns skill of 3 and it’s tagged? If you roll 3 or less on a d20 then you generate 2 successes, if you’re lucky enough to do the same on the second d20 then its four successes. You then choose from one of six origins: Brotherhood Initiate, Ghoul, Super Mutant, Mister Handy Robot, Survivor and Vault Dweller. Their backgrounds and histories are covered, with each one giving your character a specific trait. Pick the Vault Dweller for example and you’re pretty much immune to disease. The next step is to choose a perk, specific advantages which will give you an edge. Most of them have requirements which must be met such as a minimum attribute value or character level. Some can be taken multiple times, others only once. I counted ninety-four, and they all seem useful. Characters have six derived statistics: weight allowance, damage resistance (physical, energy, radiation, and poison), defence, initiative, health points and melee damage and are simple to calculate. After all this you choose your gear as determined by your origin and you’re ready to enter the wastelands. Chapter four covers equipment and it’s the longest at 103 pages. Most of it is taken up with descriptions of all the weapons you could possibly lay your irradiated hands on. It begins with explaining the standard currency: caps from Nuka Cola bottles. Their availability, rarity, how to haggle for a better price and bartering. Encumbrance is mentioned and kept simple. Weapons have damage effects such as Burst fire, damaging cover, and stun, then they’re broken down into four damage types: Physical, energy, radiation, and poison. Weapons also have qualities. They might be accurate, easy to conceal or unreliable. If we cast our minds back to Chapter One when you roll a 5 or 6 on your damage dice these qualities are triggered. This is a lot to remember, especially in the heat of battle so expect your first fights to take longer as you acclimatise to the rules. There is a huge selection of guns on offer, everything from pistols and energy weapons up to the Fat Man mini nuke launcher. We have melee weapons, grenades, and mines. Next up is armour and if you expect to survive in the wasteland, it’s a must. Armour is rated by damage resistance ratings against physical, energy, and radiation-based attacks. Get hit by a bullet and your physical resistance is applied, a laser then it’s energy resistance. There is a large selection including power armour such as the T-45 and 51 variants. Armour and weapons can be modified in a multitude of ways if you have the caps and pass a skill check. The chapter rounds out with all the irradiated food and drink you will find in the wasteland and their effects. There are Chems which come in the form of drugs, stimulants, and medication. Books and Magazines which provide a temporary perk and a miscellany of items such as: Bobby Pins, First Aid Kits, Multi-tools, and the Pip-Boy. A comprehensive and pretty much exhaustive chapter. Chapter Five is survival. It provides the GM with optional systems covering fatigue, hunger, thirst, sleep, exposure, and disease. Scavenging rules include random loot tables when players search an area. Crafting and repairing gear are briefly described, then there’s lists of recipes you can cook up and chems you can concoct. The chapter is rounded out with an extensive list of power armour, robot, and weapon modifications. Chapter Six details the corporations of pre-war America approximately 200 years prior to the game's setting. We’re given a brief rundown on fourteen corporations, covering their business before the great war and what’s left on them now. All the favourites from Fallout are here: Red Rocket, General Atomics, and the ubiquitous Nuka-Cola. And while their corporations are gone, their legacies live on in ruined warehouses and deserted buildings dotting the landscape. Who knows what you may find lurking inside their hidden depths? There are over a dozen brief quest seeds provided to form the kernel of an adventure when the players explore and I for one am grateful for their inclusion. They are a great help to the beleaguered GM when improvising encounters, and it’s easily my favourite chapter. Chapter Seven discusses the government vaults which were constructed to protect its citizens from the bombs and eventual fallout. How they were advertised and what they became are two separate entities. While some were sanctuaries away from the horrors of war, many were clandestine centres for secret government experiments on those poor individuals who desperately sought refuge inside them. The doors to these facilities closed on October 23, 2077, with many poorly equipped and under-engineered to handle the flood of people. Some became prisons where mutants were actively created through experimentation or as genie pigs for devices and techniques destined for commercial release once the radiation had fallen to acceptable levels. Five vaults are described with Vault-Dweller player characters coming from Vault 111 after having been cryogenically frozen for two centuries. There is advice on what each might contain and how to incorporate them into your campaign. There are a couple of random vault encounter tables, some plot devices and two plot seeds. A short but informative chapter. Chapter Eight concerns the Commonwealth, the games setting. Multiple locations are described in detail. We’re given vaults, industrial plants, airports and even a UFO crash sight. Interspersed here and there are some simple quests to complete. It’s essentially a sandbox of ideas for encounters, with more than enough to keep your players occupied. Some generic locations are listed towards the end of the chapter such as Bunkers, factories, and Settlements. They’re only given a paragraph each, so they’ll have to be fleshed out. What’s really missing are maps. I don’t expect one for each location, but a few would have been welcome. There aren’t any so you’ll have to download some from the internet or sketch your own. The chapter ends with two random encounter tables and some commonwealth metaplots. Chapter Nine is gamemastering. How to manage the rules, setting skill difficulties, handling Action Points and opposed rolls. There is guidance on safety and consent, important issues in modern, inclusive gaming, especially for online play. Advice is given on conveying the Fallout experience, what makes it unique with its grim settings and dark humour. We’re on to designing quests and adventures then how experience is handled in the game. You gain levels and receive a small award upon doing so but nothing like D&D where your power levels can go through the roof. Here gaining a level means an incremental increase in the form of a health increase, increasing a skill by 1 rank and gaining a single perk. Chapter Ten in the game’s bestiary and the second longest at sixty-four pages. All manner of creatures are presented and given a short description with their relevant game statistics. Each one has a level so you can match it up to your PCs without overwhelming them or making an encounter too easy. There are Animals and Insects, Mutated Humanoids, Robots, Super Mutants, Synths, Turrets. The Brotherhood of Steel, Raiders and Wastelanders. Most have an illustration to show your players. Chapter Eleven is a short sixteen-page introductory adventure without giving the plot away its serviceability and should provide a couple of evening’s entertainment for beginning characters. Chapter Twelve are the appendices with a comprehensive index and a colour character sheet. And we’re done. Overall thoughts and my final review score: A valiant effort to recreate the tone and feel of the computer game, with a plethora of character and equipment options. Is it perfect, no, is it a good game, yes. What can be done to improve it? Well, the inclusion of maps as I mentioned before and some thorough editing as I did pick up some typos on my initial readthrough, nothing too glaring, but still off-putting. But nothing an erratum can’t fix. This is not a game for beginners to role-playing or game mastering as it’s a complex system. But if you’re prepared to invest the time and effort then this will be a unique role-playing experience. Not many games can pull off a darkly humorous post-apocalyptic setting, but Fallout manages to do it in spades. I give Fallout the Role-Playing Game a final review score of 7 out of 10.
Dyer
I loved the 2d20 system when I discovered it via Star Trek Adventures, and a great thing with Modiphius is how they adjust and tailor the system to the setting and franchise that they are using it with. Each 2d20 is so subtly, or not so subtly different than the others and this is a very good thing. Fallout's system definately feels like Fallout 4, however part of that comes at the expense of it being far to fiddly and crunchy for me. If you like fallout and a sizeable bit of crunch and number management, I think the Fallout RPG is likely to be a 5-star for you!
DM Disaster
Do you like Fallout? Do you like post apocalyptic stories? Do you wish you had your own Dogmeat companion? Then this is the game for you. This system brings the classic Fallout themes to a tabletop setting where you have a variety of factions to choose from. Be a Knight of the Brotherhood of Steel, a Ghoul, a Mr. Handy, or even a Vault Dweller coming up for the first time in 200 years. And that's not even covering what's left over in the expansion books (such as a Child of Atom or Super Mutant) It's immersive, it's expansive, and it allows you to not play known storylines and interact with known NPCS (like the absolutely horrible Preston Garvey) but you can build on it and explore everything outside of known locations. You can create tales of places untouched and establish/protect communities you built with your own hands.. or robotic arms.
Suz PhDM
I really love the 2d20 system, but I will admit, I'm not sure I'd love this game as much if I hadn't played the video games. That being said, the art and flavor are very distinctive and if you enjoy the retro-vibe aesthetic, you'll usually love the world.
Paul
Played 8 sessions
This is one of the most detailed game systems I've ever had the pleasure of GMing. While something as complete and detailed may not appeal to some, that's what I love about it. Every perceivable aspect of the collection of video games is represented in the rules. It's no surprise that you use point allocation to your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. list of attributes, but you also get to expand on them, and add the fun PERKs as you level up. The mechanics also make use of AP (action points) and Luck, two important features carried over from the video franchise. Every imaginable is offered in terms of inventory and scavenging. Popular weapons, various ammo, medical additives, kits, post-apocalyptic consumables, and even all the junk that you can find along the way, for sale or crafting, are offered. It's an absolutely complete game system, painstakingly created to give you everything that you enjoyed about the online game experience in an RPG format. As such, the only drawback, is the learning curve. Once you figure out the mechanics, they make a lot of sense and they become easy to apply, but the dice roll options are going to take some time. Every weapon has several stats to consider before you roll, then cover, range and Damage Resistance (armor). Next you roll hit location, and damage, and possibly use AP or Luck to adjust the odds. It's not one roll it's several. There's consequences and complications if you roll poorly. There are mods for the weapons, there's ammo to consider, and the rate of fire, range, and a variety of other interesting qualities (or defects) to consider. This ability to customize and modify your weapons, armor, and just about anything else, creates a vast array of possible rolls in combat our out. That's what makes this world truly open to seemingly limitless combinations and crafty creativity. For the realist and the completionist this will be a godsend. For those looking for a quick simple game that's rules light, you might want to consider some kind of Homebrew variation.
Thom
Ran 55 sessions
Fallout the Roleplaying Game, also called Fallout 2d20, is a fantastic system by Modiphius entertainment that captures the dangers of the Fallout world. With its primary sourcebook following the Boston Commonwealth from Fallout 4, there are also smaller campaign books featuring the Mojave Wasteland, and a robust homebrew community to ask questions of for monsters, S.P.E.C.I.A.L. items, and regions (such as Lone Star!) At its core, Fallout has you roll 2d20, with either die falling under an Attribute + Skill Threshold equating one success. Sometimes a task may require multiple successes, and you can purchase additional dice through the generation of Action Points. In combat, you'll see dice that can deal anywhere from 0 - 2 damage, and Special Effect symbols for everything from irradiating your opponents to penetrating armor to setting them ablaze with persistent flame! If the action isnt enough, settle into town and manage your factions and settlements; or break out the Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform to see who comes wandering to meet you. Modify your weaponry, pick out the best Perks to survive the Wasteland as you level up, and don't forget to do a little light reading for temporary Magazine Abilities!
How to play Fallout: The Roleplaying Game
In Fallout: The Roleplaying Game, the Game Master comes up with the story and sets a challenge in front of the players. The players decide how they want to tackle the challenge, and if the players’ actions lead to an uncertain outcome, the dice must be rolled to decide. Fallout: The Roleplaying Game uses a 2d20 system, which means you roll two twenty sided dice and hope they are low numbers. Each number lower than whatever limit the Game Master sets counts as a success.
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Frequently asked questions about Fallout: The Roleplaying Game
Explore Fallout: The Roleplaying Game Classes
Super Mutant
You are a brutal, mutated human, forced to evolve from thoughtless experiments by the twisted science of the pre- and post-war world. Infected with the Forced Evolutionary Virus (F. E.V.), your body has mutated into a tall, muscular killing machine, filled with a rage.
Mister Handy
The General Atomics International robot “Mister Handy” exploded onto the robotic market as a reliable construction robot, known for its durability and ease of maintenance, but its real breakthrough came in a collaboration with RobCo to produce a domestic model. Many models exist, and you could come from any of the Mister Handy, Mister Gutsy, Miss Nanny, or Mister Orderly series. You are powered by a nuclear core, can replace your own fuel, and repair yourself or other Mister Handy units. Your model has three mechanical arms and three mechanical eyes on stalks, and your jet propulsion keeps you hovering above the ground, providing you have all the fuel you need. With this rugged design, you have survived so far.
Ghoul
You are a “ghoul”—a necrotic post-human—one of many rag-tag survivors who weren’t lucky enough to get into a Vault-Tec facility. You may have been born after the war, and over time developed the necrotic mutation. You may have come from Vault 12 in Bakersfield, California, whose vault door did not close, exposing the population to the radiation from outside. You may have taken refuge in a ghoul settlement, like Underworld in the Capital Wasteland, and have ventured out recently to explore, scavenge, and survive.
Brotherhood Initiate
Born from the terrible revelations of the Mariposa Rebellion, Roger Maxson formed the Brotherhood of Steel so that his people—and eventually the rest of the survivors in this new world—would have something to believe in. With its own mythology, creed, and hierarchy, the Brotherhood of Steel’s primary goal is the recovery and preservation of the technology of the pre-war world. With the Great War disrupting humanity’s access to technology, the Brotherhood’s knights and scribes do all they can to secure the technology of the past, for the needs of future generations. You may be a descendant of a knight or paladin, born into the Brotherhood and a firm believer of their doctrine, or you may be a new recruit, pledging yourself to their cause and looking to rise through their ranks.
Survivor
You are the living legacy of the people who prepared for Armageddon on their own. You are only alive in the post-nuclear apocalyptic landscape because your forebears dug in, survived, and found community enough to continue humanity’s existence. You could be from any number of settlements, isolated shelters, or traveling groups that sparsely populate the wasteland from West Coast to East Coast.
Vault Dweller
When the bombs were falling, you or your predecessors were lucky enough to be safely secured in one of the one hundred and twenty-two Vault-Tec facilities, deep underground protected by thick blast doors and layers of rock and concrete. Your family either had enough money to buy their space or were randomly selected to enter the vault to be saved from the nuclear devastation above—perhaps only to be condemned to immoral experiments run by Vault-Tec on unwitting participants.
