[FO:E] Fallout Equestria OOC 2: Ante-Up My Little Ponies

[Chaotic Bob]

All surface activity is to be strictly regulated by the Enclave, for various political and safety reasons.

Generally speaking, it's trying to break that which can get you exiled. Trying to get out, going against the government council or the military, being dangerous, etc.
Any of those being severe enough can lead to execution instead.

Some of it depends on who exactly you're ticking off, as some members of the military are rather fond of the "execute" policy over the "brand" policy, and vice versa.


Going below the clouds at all, is incredibly risky. But if you're quick and know the right people, it's not uncommon to get by with little more than a slap on the hoof.


Some Dash-ites are also voluntary, as a note, branding themselves out of a peculiar pride.

Faint Edit: apparently you can't write Dash-ite as a solid word. Amusing.

[TheAmishPirate]

All surface activity is to be strictly regulated by the Enclave, for various political and safety reasons.

Generally speaking, it's trying to break that which can get you exiled. Trying to get out, going against the government council or the military, being dangerous, etc.
Any of those being severe enough can lead to execution instead.

Some of it depends on who exactly you're ticking off, as some members of the military are rather fond of the "execute" policy over the "brand" policy, and vice versa.


Going below the clouds at all, is incredibly risky. But if you're quick and know the right people, it's not uncommon to get by with little more than a slap on the hoof.


Some Dash-ites are also voluntary, as a note, branding themselves out of a peculiar pride.

Faint Edit: apparently you can't write Dash-ite as a solid word. Amusing.

I see, I see. This helps a great deal.

How about accidents? A few ideas I've had floating around for various NPCs and such revolved around those. There's a fight going on below the clouds, and a pegasus' wings are either incapacitated or there's simply too much enemy fire to safely return. So they try hoofing it for another Enclave outpost. For the average hoof-soldier, would they be allowed to return? It's not an intentional breach of security, but for the safety reasons you're alluding to, it can still be a risk.

[Chaotic Bob]

I suspect they'd be tossed into quarantine for awhile, but if it was the results of a sanctioned military action, or defense or somesuch, I imagine they could argue out of any actual punishment.

As long as their superior officer didn't hate them, for whatever reason.

[Lycan 01]

I see, I see. This helps a great deal.

How about accidents? A few ideas I've had floating around for various NPCs and such revolved around those. There's a fight going on below the clouds, and a pegasus' wings are either incapacitated or there's simply too much enemy fire to safely return. So they try hoofing it for another Enclave outpost. For the average hoof-soldier, would they be allowed to return? It's not an intentional breach of security, but for the safety reasons you're alluding to, it can still be a risk.

I would say your average hoof-soldier wouldn't be allowed to return if they've been down there more than a short amount of time. Too much risk of contamination, both physically from radiation and disease, and ideologically. Enclave troopers who go below the clouds have a chance of seeing what the Wasteland is really like. That there are actually remnants of society, ponies trying to survive, ponies who need help. If a trooper starts spreading that knowledge around above the clouds, it can leads to problems. And the best way to avoid those problems... is to silence the source. Be it with a brand, or a bullet.

[TheAmishPirate]

I suspect they'd be tossed into quarantine for awhile, but if it was the results of a sanctioned military action, or defense or somesuch, I imagine they could argue out of any actual punishment.

As long as their superior officer didn't hate them, for whatever reason.

I would say your average hoof-soldier wouldn't be allowed to return if they've been down there more than a short amount of time. Too much risk of contamination, both physically from radiation and disease, and ideologically. Enclave troopers who go below the clouds have a chance of seeing what the Wasteland is really like. That there are actually remnants of society, ponies trying to survive, ponies who need help. If a trooper starts spreading that knowledge around above the clouds, it can leads to problems. And the best way to avoid those problems... is to silence the source. Be it with a brand, or a bullet.

Eeeeeexcellent. Thought that'd be the case.

With that taken care of, I think I have the makings of a proper character sheet for Fleetwing. I know it's not necessary, but I saw Blade doing it with Ebon, and it struck me as a really good idea. That, and he already had a "Cowardly" trait written up for me to steal.

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Fleetwing
Level ? Pegasus

Strength: 4
Perception: 5 (3 Min) (7 Max)
Endurance: 8
Charisma: 4
Intelligence: 5
Agility: 8
Luck: 6

Traits:
Near-Sighted: You're don't have four eyes, but you might just think that tall cactus does! You suffer up to a -2 penalty to PER when looking at far-away objects, and gain up to a +2 bonus to PER for close-up examinations. Glasses can normalize these penalties (and benefits!), or remove them entirely.
Cowardly: You are a yellow-bellied coward, and always have been. On the bright side, sometimes fear is the right reaction, and you gain a bonus to all resistances due to your caution! Unfortunately, you are also easily cowed and intimidated.
Enclave Exile: Those stuffed-up cloud-lovers may have turned their back on you or your family, but you're getting the last laugh! You've still got a head full of random, insider tidbits about the Enclave! The downside? They'll blast your unclean flank straight to Tartarus if you even think of coming back. Then they'll hike all the way to Tartarus and blast it again, just to be sure they got you this time.
Light Sleeper: It's hard to catch you napping; in fact, you can't even catch yourself napping! You don't suffer the usual penalties to PER from your average snooze, but you need a few hours more shuteye than the average pony to catch some quality z's. And unless you're sleeping on a bed crafted from the down of Celestia herself, the only time you'll be Well-Rested is in your dreams.

Perks:
Racial Perk (Pegasus): You're a pegasus! That means you get a nice pair of wings for flying, and you can manipulate clouds and other weather effects.
Cutie Mark (Running): Run run run! You never stop! Your land speed is faster than most, your fast reflexes mean you're not likely to stumble into trouble while booking it, and you don't tire as easily as most.
Weapon Freak: You just looooooove them weapons! You get a small bonus to each of your weapon skills, except Unarmed. Only nerds fight with their bare hooves.
Scrounger: You've got a nose for ammo; you'll be finding a bit more in the Wastes than the average Donut Joe.
Twitchy Reflexes: You might mistake a leaf for a tripwire, but at least you'll still have all your legs at the end of the day! Traps just can't seem to catch you off-guard, and you always manage to dodge a bit of their bite.

Tagged Skills: Repair, Lockpick, Hacking, Knowledge (Weapons and Armaments)

Skills invested in (but not tagged): Survival, low points in Small Guns, Big Guns, Magical Weapons, Melee Weapons

If there's anything that seems off, just let me know.

[Chaotic Bob]

I'll give that my blessing.

...also was amusing.

[Lycan 01]

Eeeeeexcellent. Thought that'd be the case.

With that taken care of, I think I have the makings of a proper character sheet for Fleetwing. I know it's not necessary, but I saw Blade doing it with Ebon, and it struck me as a really good idea. That, and he already had a "Cowardly" trait written up for me to steal.

Spoiler

Show

Fleetwing
Level ? Pegasus

Strength: 4
Perception: 5 (3 Min) (7 Max)
Endurance: 8
Charisma: 4
Intelligence: 5
Agility: 8
Luck: 6

Traits:
Near-Sighted: You're don't have four eyes, but you might just think that tall cactus does! You suffer up to a -2 penalty to PER when looking at far-away objects, and gain up to a +2 bonus to PER for close-up examinations. Glasses can normalize these values, or remove them entirely.
Cowardly: You are a yellow-bellied coward, and always have been. On the bright side, sometimes fear is the right reaction, and you gain a bonus to all resistances due to your caution! Unfortunately, you are also easily cowed and intimidated.
Enclave Exile: Those stuffed-up cloud-lovers may have turned their back on you or your family, but you're getting the last laugh! You've still got a head full of random, insider tidbits about the Enclave! The downside? They'll blast your unclean flank straight to Tartarus if you even think of coming back. Then they'll hike all the way to Tartarus and blast it again, just to be sure they got you this time.

Perks:
Racial Perk (Pegasus): You're a pegasus! That means you get a nice pair of wings for flying, and you can manipulate clouds and other weather effects.
Cutie Mark (Running): Run run run! You never stop! Your land speed is faster than most, your fast reflexes mean you're not likely to stumble into trouble while booking it, and you don't tire as easily as most.
Weapon Freak: You just looooooove them weapons! You get a small bonus to each of your weapon skills, except Unarmed. Only nerds fight with their bare hooves.
Scrounger: You've got a nose for ammo; you'll be finding a bit more in the Wastes than the average Donut Joe.
Twitchy Reflexes: You might mistake a leaf for a tripwire, but at least you'll still have all your legs at the end of the day! Traps just can't seem to catch you off-guard, and you always manage to dodge a bit of their bite.

Tagged Skills: Repair, Lockpick, Hacking, Knowledge (Weapons and Armaments)

Skills invested in (but not tagged): Survival, low points in Small Guns, Big Guns, Magical Weapons, Melee Weapons

If there's anything that seems off, just let me know.

Sounds good to me!

[Rebonack]

Hmmm...

That character entry got me to thinking. We've got the primary skills of characters mentioned, but that doesn't mean they're totally inept with other skills. I think using a set of (say four?) secondary skills might be a decent way to either represent a character's diversity in minor things or their more focused specialization.

Take, say, Rainbow Dash. She has Speed Flight at her special talent. She's got Flight as a primary skill. And she has both Trick Flying and Speed Flying as secondary skills to represent her focus on those skills.

Or Blackjack from Project Horizon. Contrabass Playing is hardly one of her main skills, but she's still pretty decent at it. Basically the secondary skillset would be for fairly focused things.

Make sense? Good idea?

[Lycan 01]

A Major and Minor Skills list would probably be a good idea, yeah. That way there's less instances of characters being stuck in a situation where they're either clueless, or somehow an expert in something they've shown no previous inclination towards....

[BladeofObliviom]

Or Blackjack from Project Horizon. Contrabass Playing is hardly one of her main skills, but she's still pretty decent at it. Basically the secondary skillset would be for fairly focused things.

Actual Spoilers.

Spoiler

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I should probably note that it is strongly implied (and later shown via memory orb) that Octavia was a voluntary subject of Rarity's Early Soul Jar projects. That Contrabass contains a still-semiconscious piece of Octavia's soul, which is probably helping Blackjack out quite a bit.

In other news, I apparently started a thing.

[TheAmishPirate]

I'm absolutely in favor of this. It seems weird to put "Weapons Knowledge" as a primary, tagged skill next to things like Repair, Explosives, and Barter. Those things can apply in almost any scene, whereas things like Knowledge have very limited applications. This makes it so that you can have other capabilities and not sacrifice a precious Tagged slot.

Four or so sounds good, as there shouldn't be much that isn't covered by the primary skillset. If we can settle on a number, I'll edit up my character sheet with that in mind.

[Lycan 01]

I'm absolutely in favor of this. It seems weird to put "Weapons Knowledge" as a primary, tagged skill next to things like Repair, Explosives, and Barter. Those things can apply in almost any scene, whereas things like Knowledge have very limited applications. This makes it so that you can have other capabilities and not sacrifice a precious Tagged slot.

Four or so sounds good, as there shouldn't be much that isn't covered by the primary skillset. If we can settle on a number, I'll edit up my character sheet with that in mind.

Though, why are you using Weapons Knowledge, when there are 3-4 specific skills for weapons in the Fallout games?

-Guns (pistols, rifles, shotguns)
-Explosives (landmines, grenade launchers, grenades)
-Energy Weapons (lasers, plasma, railguns)
-Heavy Weapons (minigun, missile launcher, fat man)
-Melee Weapons (knives, rippers, baseball bats)
-Unarmed (hooves, power fists, hellhound gauntlets)

[Dark Elf Bard]

When are the RGFF getting back their daughter/honorary niece?

[Rebonack]

In fiddling with my characters and puzzling over what they seem like they are decent at/specialized in I was consistently coming up with 5 secondary skills to better define them.

Though honestly?

I don't think I'm going to say we really need a hard and fast limit on secondary skills. For that matter, a character's list of secondary skills can grow over the course of the game as they learn and perfect new abilities. These won't be the things they have natural talent with, but still!

[Tychris1]

Is Eleyew a girl? Because she's got wrecking ball balls. I mean seriously, Lamianos would probably take a dump on himself at the prospect of Stern's anti tank rifle, let alone keep up a antagonizing conversation.

Edit: And she'll return when the Raiders grow 2 brain cells and learn the expression Might means Right.

[Dark Elf Bard]

Uh huh. Sister.

When are the RGFF getting back their daughter/honorary niece?

[Lost_Deep]

Okay...

After disappearing a while back, I think I'm going to step back up to the plate. However, it's obvious things have changed. Anything important I need to know before I head back in?

[Rebonack]

As in major story points? There haven't been any huge over-arching changes to anything. Just folks wandering around the Waste and getting into trouble. Probably the most important question to ask would be 'what would be a good place to jump in?'

Which of course depends on what pony you're sending and what you want that pony to be doing.

[BladeofObliviom]

Okay...

After disappearing a while back, I think I'm going to step back up to the plate. However, it's obvious things have changed. Anything important I need to know before I head back in?

Well, the Goddess has mobilized a bit more and Red Eye's probably going to be showing up in the near future, but the differences are otherwise pretty minor.



...Yeah, I know, I'll go post now.

[Lost_Deep]

Hmm... anyone in Shatterredhoof? I think my character could have a reason to poke around there.

[Rebonack]

Rusty, Heimdalr, and the two griffons in his wing are there. In addition to a bunch of other Talon mercs. And anypony (or griffon) else that anyone feels inclined to toss in. It's a pretty happenin' place.

Also: Eleyew has been declared DEAD. Them's the breaks.

[Luka]

Uh.... Eleyew's dead now?.... Wow, isn't that like.... Wait how many posts did she even exist in-game?

(is just comenting on fast send-out after introduction, not whinning)

Oh... Welp, if Luka finds out, he's going to kill Stern SO MUCH!!

Also, mind how Stern didn't just comment on the group's escape... Isn't Red Eye just going to send others to look for them or is he going to forget about it?

[Dark Elf Bard]

So, before I respond...

Would it be OP for Eleyew's magical necklace to teleport her away? It's made from Unicorn bone. It's supposed to teleport her to her nearest relative.

I like her, and don't want her to die.

[MCerberus]

So, before I respond...

Would it be OP for Eleyew's magical necklace to teleport her away? It's made from Unicorn bone. It's supposed to teleport her to her nearest relative.

I like her, and don't want her to die.

Well unfortunately, there's also the matter of the bomb collar if that happens.

[Dark Elf Bard]

????????????????????

[Chaotic Bob]

...kinda curious as to why she wouldn't have used that necklace before...

But yes, with a bomb collar, her head will just explode in a slightly different fashion upon leaving.


Really, insulting Stern of all characters, to her face, while unarmed...
Apologies, but Eleyew was asking to die.
Repeatedly.

[Rebonack]

All of her gear (including potentially magical trinkets) was taken by the Slavers. It was one of the first things they did. Right before clamping bomb collars on everypony. Even if she COULD teleport away she could still get asploded with the push of a button.

Eleyew has been declared DEAD.

We warned you about mouthing off to Stern and everything!

[Lycan 01]

Uh.... Eleyew's dead now?.... Wow, isn't that like.... Wait how many posts did she even exist in-game?

(is just comenting on fast send-out after introduction, not whinning)

Oh... Welp, if Luka finds out, he's going to kill Stern SO MUCH!!

Also, mind how Stern didn't just comment on the group's escape... Isn't Red Eye just going to send others to look for them or is he going to forget about it?

Stern's getting there, don't worry.

So, before I respond...

Would it be OP for Eleyew's magical necklace to teleport her away? It's made from Unicorn bone. It's supposed to teleport her to her nearest relative.

I like her, and don't want her to die.

The slavers took all the characters' possessions when they were captured. That necklace would have been included. And if the necklace does teleport her away, the bomb collar the slavers slapped on her will blast her head off. And I don't recall you ever mentioning a necklace, especially one that powerful. It seems she would have used it a long time ago if that were the case.

Also, I warned you, repeatedly, that you needed to be careful in this situation. I made it very clear that Stern killing Eleyew was an extremely real possibility, and one I couldn't help. Stern is a character from the main FO:E fics, one of the main BBEGs in fact, and I have to keep her in-character. Eleyew crossed the line, repeatedly. And the only thing keeping her alive was Stern thinking she was involved with the Old Appleloosa situation. Once Stern found out that wasn't the case.....

I'm sorry. I really am. But Eleyew signed her own death warrant, and there's nothing I can do about that.

[Luka]

Hey... If Eleyew was with them, why didn't Stern just hold her as a hostage? I mean, wouldn't they just have held her and sent some radio message or something (assuming they could broadcast) and asked that they turn themselves in and she goes free? I mean, if they do guess the Old Appleloosan party is a bunch of "heroes"...

[PurityIcekiller]

Wow. The penalty for being sassy in this game is pretty harsh, isn't it? Still, at least this time, you gave plenty of warning. I'm instead going to object to the fact that certain GMs are unnecessarily blunt about saying that a character should be killed.

Also, Bob, Bright Eyes needs you.