Sunday, February 28, 2016

Off defending the Commonwealth

You might have noticed my blogging has been sparse lately. I blame my wife, who got me a videogame system for my birthday. I've been playing Fallout 4 over the past few weeks, and I'm having a (nuclear) blast.
(image from Wikipedia)
If you're a videogame fan, you know what I'm talking about. For you old-school analog gamers, it's pretty much a sandbox, slightly less gonzo, Gamma World-style exploration game, where you roam across a nuclear-ravaged Massachusetts some two centuries after an atomic war. You gain skills and levels while making alliances with various organizations. Or you can go around just shooting things. Just like when we played GW back in the day.

Either way, Fallout has me craving some post-apocalyptic tabletop minis gaming. For rules, I want something a little more rules-light than Gamma World and a lot more miniatures-focused. Something like Mutants and Death Ray Guns from Ganesha Games, or maybe something adopted from one of Ed's Two Hour Wargames rulesets, like After the Horsemen.

I already have plenty of prepainted Heroscape minis I can use for skirmishes, and I'm sure I can track down some Clix prepaints for various purposes as well. And Gunbird's blog 20mm And Then Some has lots of inspiration regarding terrain for Fallout games

Anyone else doing some After-the-Bomb gaming? If so, what rules do you recommend? Also, what minis?

3 comments:

  1. I'm enjoying Fallout 4, it's been a lot of fun so far (I'm still starting off, only level 16) and I think Bethesda has done a pretty decent job with the mix of serious and humor.

    I've got After the Horsemen, it is just like All Things Zombie, just with a bit more stuff added in. If you are looking for more Gamma World feel, I'm not sure those would be the best rules. I'm sure there is a rule set for Fallout floating around the web somewhere... I'm still enjoying a zombie apocalypse kick myself.

    Hopefully you find something fun!

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  2. Fun fact: there was an official (if not commercially released) set of Fallout tabletop miniatures rules called Fallout Warfare, written by none other than Chris Taylor of the Fallout founding team. It is very much rules-light, and, I mean, how much closer to the inspirational material can you get than completely inside of it?? A link to the BGG page:
    https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18251/fallout-warfare

    I messaged Chris about it several years ago. He'd planned to do a full-fledged pen-and-paper release, as opposed to this lightweight affair, but the rights to Fallout changed hands from Interplay to Bethesda, the latter of who had no interest in tabletop gaming.
    Can you fathom the breadth of the opportunity they're missing by not releasing official Elder Scrolls and Fallout minis and settings?

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  3. Nobody667: Yeah, I'm thinking ATH would be a good place to start, with maybe some 5150 New Hope City thrown in as well.

    Collin: I would love some minis of the Fallout robots. Protectron for the win!

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