[FO:E] Fallout Equestria OOC 3: Friendship Never Changes

[Rebonack]

Two hundred years ago war raged between Equestria and the Zebra Empire. A war ended decisively with megaspell strikes on each nation, devastating the land and poisoning it with necromantic radiation. The Pegasus sealed up the sky with an omnipresent curtain of clouds, shrouding the surface in perpetual gloom. Survivors retreated into the Stables, massive fallout shelters to protect them from the radiation storm above. Some offered salvation. Others became nightmarish death-traps. But the Stables opened and descendants populated the blasted, blighted wastes.

Some Stables remain closed, forgotten by the world.

The Princesses are dead.

Fell things watch from the Stars.

Unity seeks to consume all.

A new order rises on the backs of slaves.

Harmony is shattered and forgotten.

Discord warps fragile virtue.

And Friendship is dying in the hearts of ponies.

Can light be returned to the Equestrian Wasteland?

Or is suffering and hate its only future?

This can only be known in the course of time.

This is Fallout Equestria.

The Nation of Equestria

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Locations

Manehatten is a pretty happening place, its ruins containing the towns of Tenpony Tower (ritzy! Home of the Twilight Society and DJ-Pon3), Gutterville, Arbu (they hunt Radigators! And possibly other things...). The Buckland Cross (ruined bridge) serves as the headquarters of the Manehatten Steel Rangers chapter.

Fillydelphia is the home turf of the New Equestria movement, a growing dictatorship that is using slave labor in an attempt to rebuild Equestria's infrastructure. The Fillydelphia chapter of the Steel Rangers is set up in the StableTech HQ and they don't get along particularly well with the New Equestrians.

Ponyville is essentially a giant Raider nest. Those nasty nasty Raiders.

Maripony is the home turf of Unity, the seat from which The Goddess controls her Alicorn collective. Probably best not to go here unless one feels inclined to be mutated horribly.

Old Olneigh was previously the home of the miners who cleared out Maripony of its gem deposits. It is now home to an extensive pack of Hellhounds. Non-hellhound visitors probably won't be met with a warm welcome.

The Canterlot Ruins contains Stabletown, built from the remains of Stable1 and populated by Canterlot Ghouls. Zebratown, a suburb of Canterlot, can be found here as well. All these locations are choked with a blanket of necrotic fog. Visiting is highly discouraged unless one is undead already.

Appleloosa is one of the primary hubs of the slave trade. Slaves are auctioned off here before being shipped all over Equestria. Though mostly to Fillydelphia.

New Appleloosa is a scrap-town that survives mostly off the trade of scavenging, booze distilleries, and most notably Ditzy Doo's Mercantile. She sells everything!

Shatteredhoof was once the most infamous prison in all of Equestria. Now it's a mercenary city under the control of the Talons. If you need some tough as nails Griffons (and ponies!) to get a job done then look no further. Junction R-7 is an outpost of Shatteredhoof.

Saltlick City is a thriving community that makes quite the fortune in caps mining salts from both the nearby flats as well as the salt domes found under nearby mountains. An important ingredient in potions (as well as a number of drugs) these salts are an invaluable asset to Equestria.

Bridle Shores, paradise of the Wasteland!

Of course a place really doesn't have to be that spectacular to be considered a paradise when contrasted with the rest of the Wasteland. A small sea-side community on the west coast of Equestria, Bridle Shores wasn't large enough to warrant a MegaSpell attack. No important ministry hubs. No large military bases. No industrial centers. Just a community focused on tourism, farming, and harvesting the kelp forest that grows off shore.

Much of the farmland had been destroyed by irradiated runoff from White Tail Woods. However, the kelp fields are still thriving! Between sea weed and a much more recent fishing industry this town by the sea is one of the few places left in Equestria that holds some semblance of its former glory.

Vanhoover is located in the northwest of Equestria and is surrounded by a constant blizzard of horrific proportions. It's said that anypony who gets close enough can hear the haunting cries of Windigos amidst the driving snow. Vanhoover itself was long ago plagued by a terrible infestation of taint that warped anything that was still alive there.

Nopony goes to Vanhoover anymore.

Tall Tail was once a major shipping center for Equestria's west coast and the nation's capital for the fabrication of arcane technology. The Tall Tail Steel Rangers chapter has almost uncontested control of the city and its remaining resources.

The Factions

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-Steel Rangers are an elite group of power-armor clad Earth ponies committed to collecting and guarding the artifacts of the Ministry of Wartime Technology. While some Steel Rangers are kind hearted as an organization they value technology above the lives of ponies. Purges of whole Stables aren't uncommon as a means to gain old tech. In many ways the Steel Rangers are no better than Bandits with better training and toys.

-Unity is a collective hivemind of Alicorns controlled by the enigmatic Goddess out of her citadel in Maripony. They are known to capture ponies of exceptional magical power and convert them into Alicorns to augment the abilities of Unity. An alicorn's old memory is drowned out in the Dream of Unity, though their core personality is left intact. Despite common stories alicorns are not in fact without individuality. Some ponies worship the Goddess and see Unity as an improvement over the strife of the Wasteland.

-The Enclave is the military government of the Pegasus ponies. For the most part they keep to themselves above the cloud curtain, though there are a few mountain top Enclave Mining Outposts where contact and trade are possible. Pegasus that travel to the surface and associate with other ponies are written off as contaminated by the Enclave and killed if they attempt to return to Pegasus society.

-The Twilight Society is a cabal of powerful mages who seek to follow the legacy of Twilight Sparkle, arguably the most magical unicorn who has ever lived. To that end they seek out powerful magical objects and lore to increase their own knowledge and power base. The Twilight Society often employs other ponies to collect important objects of power for them.

-New Equestria is a brutal oligarchy using slavery to attempt to rebuild the infrastructure and former glory of Equestria. Though their leadership insists that their goals are laudable their methods leave quite a bit to be desired.

-The Talons are the most prestigious group of mercenaries in Equestria. Traditionally a griffon-only organization ponies also serve to lend a bit of extra hoof-power when the need arises. The Talons are known for a strong sense of honor, unwilling to break contract even if a more lucrative offer arises. Talons who break contract often find a bounty placed on their head by the organization.

-Raiders aren't strictly a faction, but they can be found scattered all over Equestria. These are ponies that have completely lost their Virtue and now have no anchor to keep themselves from becoming caught up in the maddening whispers of the Stars. They are driven in an ever deepening spiral of insanity and depravity ended only by the forfeit of their lives.

-Towns, Tribes, and Stables are likewise not a faction in the strict sense, but many ponies have no allegiance to an Equestria-spanning organization. Instead they may simply fight to protect their community or their own interests.

Creating a Character

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The Bio

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Name Your pony has one of these, right?

Race Pony (Earth, Unicorn, Pegasus), Zebra, Griffon, Hellhound, Bison, Dragon, Alicorn, Sheep, Goat, Minotaur, Donkey, Cow, Changeling. Are they a ghoul? Do we want Bat Ponies (Luna's royal guards) to be a separate race from Pegasus? What about Glimmerwing and Crystal ponies (season 3)?

Cutie Mark/Special Talent Pony and Zebra only. What is the one special thing that your pony is really good at? What makes them special? Decide and they get a pretty picture representing it on their butt. Oh. And their innate magic focuses on that talent as well. Zebras gain Glyphmarks rather than Cutie Marks.

Virtue What separates ponies with some degree of good left in them from completely irredeemable Raiders. Kindness. Laughter. Honesty. Generosity. Loyalty. Magic. Every Virtue can be a Harmonious and tempered by friendship or a Discordant, hollow mockery. Regardless of whether a pony's Virtue is Discordant or Harmonious it is their anchor against the steady erosion of their soul by the Equestrian Wasteland. This would be a swell place to expound on your pony's personality in general, too!

Appearance Your pony looks like something, right?

Faction Who is your pony associated with? A city? A Stable? An ideological group? Or are they the lone timberwolf sort? Do they have Friends? Tell us here!

Primary Skills What is your pony good at? Aside from their special talent of course. A character should have five (or fewer) skills that they're VERY good at. These are the generalized skills applicable to life in the Wasteland. Armor, Battle-Saddle, Explosives, Fire-Arms, Medical, Melee, MEWs, Repair, Science, Speech, Stealth, and Survival. Especially powerful Traits should be included here as well (like, say, bending reality ala Pinkie Pie).

Secondary Skills Secondary skills can be viewed either as things that a pony is decent at, but not particularly amazing, as a specialization within one of their primary skills, or as a skill that doesn't really fall into the major categories (underwater basket weaving!) Secondary skills tend to be more focused than primary skills are (surgery/chem pre/potion making/first aid as opposed to Medical).

Equipment What kind of nifty gear is your pony outfitted with? Barding, tools, weapons, ammo, potions, books, alchemy ingredients, caps, vehicles, magical Ministry Mare statuettes. Good things to keep track of!

A Bit on Magic

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ALL ponies are magical. As is to be expected of magical talking pastel colored tiny horses. Unicorns are the only ponies that can actually cast spells (aside from Alicorns, more on them later).

Earth pony magic takes the form of an empathic bond between themselves and whatever their special talent is. To an observer it would appear as though they're just REALLY good at whatever it is they do, but it goes deeper than that. Fluttershy is a bit unusual in that she uses Earth Pony magic in addition to her (very weak) Pegasus magic. Her Stare is a form of empathic overload I would guess.

Pegasus pony magic allows them to fly despite their tiny wings, grants them the ability to mess with weather, and allows for interaction with clouds as if they were solid object. Griffons use the same flavor of magic that Pegasus do.

Zebras cast spells as well, but instead of using arcane magic like the Unicorns they instead create potions (and other objects) and pour the spell-effect into that. Obviously it takes longer to craft a potion than it does to cast a spell, but once the potion or artifact has been made anypony can use it.

Alicorns are a fusion of all three pony tribes and use all three forms of magic. However the Alicorns of Unity have no cutie marks since they have no individuality.

Weee, spell schools!

Destructive spells (arcane bolts, elemental beams, energy arrows)
Defensive spells (healing, shields, cleansing magic, wards)
Divination spells (sending and gathering information)
Illusion spells (sensory tomfoolery!)
Beguiling spells (attacking the target's mind, want it need it)
Alteration spells (making physical changes to both ponies and environment)
Translocation spells (teleportation, telekinesis, conjuring objects)
Necromancy spells (dark magic that attacks the soul and vitality)

On Weapons

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Weapons are an important tool in the hooves of anyone who feels inclined to survive in the Equestrian Wasteland. As such it's important to familiarize one's self with their properties and uses.

Magical weapons function much like their mundane counterparts, though injuries from magical weapons can't be healed normally. The scarred tissue must be cut away before healing is possible. Additionally magical energy weapons have a chance of completely disintegrating their target, reducing them to a heap of glowing pastel-colored ash. Magical weapons use Sparkle Batteries rather than bullets for ammo.

Melee Weapons have the benefit of requiring no ammunition, however one must get up close and personal with them. Hellhound-Claw weapons are of special note. Using their claws living Hellhounds are able to rapidly burrow through solid rock and even sheer through steel with little trouble. When weaponized they have a similar effect on armor and ponies.

Small arms (pistols, revolvers, and the like) are weaker and less accurate than larger weapons, but they're far less awkward in cramped conditions and easier to conceal. Additionally these weapons are easy for a Unicorn to wield via Levitation.

Long arms (shotguns and rifles) are more powerful and more accurate (or don't worry so much about accuracy in the case of shotguns) than their smaller counterparts. However they're quite a bit larger. Most long arms can be wielded via Levitation, though higher powered weapons are liable to buck themselves out of grip after being fired.

Heavy weapons (flamers, miniguns, rail guns, grenade launchers, rocket-pods, plasma cannons) are extremely powerful and deadly. And also, as the name suggests, extremely heavy. Wielding them without a Battle Saddle, powered armor, or a mounting is pretty much impossible.

Pony Archive.

Link to the ever-useful RPing guidelines!

[Dark Elf Bard]

Aw, I wanted to make it.

Eledwhen will exact revenge.

[Tychris1]

*Plants Flag*

I claim this thread for Ponyville!

[Benson]

*kicks flag and plants own*

I claim this thread for my own machinations.

[PurityIcekiller]

*would place a flag, but Flower Tail and Violetta are too busy arguing over which one to use*

I guess I'll just support whoever wins, or be Omnicidal Neutral.

[TheAmishPirate]

*Fleetwing is far too busy running to actually plant a flag*

On that note, Fleetwing is a-running to Swift in the Northern Thread.

[Tychris1]

A mare addiction? Where does Razoreye get these crazy ideas from. We might have to send him to the brig for sowing dissent.

Anyway, DEB, i'd rather just gloss over the tech babble. Most of it would be things I fabricate out of thin air that sound complicated, and the acene would pretty much be:
Lamia: Techno thingy XV
Eledwhen: Uh-huh.....

So I think we can just gloss over it. At this point once the tiny things have been ironed out, we'd just say what our characters would he doing for the next 3-4 days and set them on autopilot. Lamianos will probably be personally overseeing the reconstruction of Ponyville, listening in on any radio frequencies he can find (Hoping to latch onto any local Steel Ranger frequencies so he knows if he has to run or fight), and going on a loot raid or two on any places that might have old equestrian tech (Yay inner Steel Ranger angel sitting on his shoulder! Not that a Steel Ranger for an Angel is a good thing......) for the next few days. Oh, and laughing hysterically at DJ Pon3's assessment of himself, he's going to be doing alot of laughing.

Edit: Oh yeah. *Knocks over all other flags, plant one mega flag and guard it with Power Armor*

[Earl of Purple]

I've been doing some thinking about my donkey tribal. I've got a better name: Rhys. Not sure why I chose it, but it's been chosen. Also, donkeys aren't naturally a mountain species, so I was wrong there, they're actually a desert species. But looking at the map, the Mackintosh Hills have snow caps, suggesting they're quite high, and they're surrounded by desert. Which is good, because I'd been thinking about an animistic religion with evil Peak Guardians on the highest mountains, defending the most powerful spirits. In actuality, the Peak Guardians are Enclave troopers defending their farms. So it looks like I'll soon be writing up a character sheet and sending him somewhere in the far south of Equestria.

In other news, I was wondering what EMO stood for- there's a lot of those in that area, and I have no idea what they are. If it's a mystery lost to time, then that's fine too.

[Rebonack]

Enclave Mining Operation.

The Enclave mined mountain tops for their resources. Dunno about farming. Farming at that altitude might be possible for earth ponies, but it would be fiddly for pegasi.

[PurityIcekiller]

So Greta's been kicked out for her beliefs on slavery? Is she going to associate with Violetta and eventually become a major force in the rebellion against Red Eye and Unity?

No, you're thinking of the wrong Greta.

[Lycan 01]

She's not so much being "kicked out" as she is being "let go." But yes, her disdain of slavery is one of the (several) reasons Red Eye is firing her.

Not sure if she'd be willing to join a big rebellion though. While she's a very capable fighter, she's actually not too fond of violence. (Just don't make her angry.) She'd probably prefer something more low-key and laid-back... like working at a clothing store in Tenpony Tower. "Look at all the pretty colors!! ~squee~ Holy Icarus, is that actual lace?!"



Now, Chain Link? She'd love an excuse to kill slavers. Any excuse.

[PurityIcekiller]

I see. Well, that's still pretty cool, even if it means I can't make as many Geneforge jokes.

I want to meet that griffon. I think we'd get along quite well.

[Earl of Purple]

On Farming:

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The Single Pony Project is enabling the Enclave to farm on top of the clouds; those are the farms I meant, and there are cloud-walking spells. Although I suppose if there were real hills with actual soil, the Enclave wouldn't turn those down.

Enclave Mining Operations, though, would also need guards, and chances are any juicy pre-war tech would have been claimed by Enclave patrols. Does mean that the local tribes have a low technology base, and the Enclave would probably want to discourage people from mining in the same areas as they do, just in case a Wastelander tunnel hit an Enclave tunnel or vice-versa.

[TheAmishPirate]

May want to keep that mess spoiled, Earl. Just in case somebody hasn't gotten that far in FOE.

[Earl of Purple]

Thank you for pointing that out, Amish. I actually got slightly interested in this before I read the stories and opened the wiki to get a better idea of the setting and got a bit depressed. It took a few weeks before I actually read the story and I spent a while collecting other FO:E fics before I actually joined up here again. Glad I did read the story, though; it's brilliant.

[Luka]

Hi guys, I'm back, missed all of you while I was away, did I miss something about Greta?

[Lycan 01]

You could just read the last OOC thread. It was only, what, a page or two since you left?


Greta likes clothes was the gist of it, and Chain would be a better choice for Night Jewel's little rebellion plan than Greta would be. Oh, and something's up with New Appleloosa. *shrug*

[Luka]

Oh... Odd, someone else than me caused noise, whatever I came to pwn bad guys just like in every Fallout anyways

I mean, whenever I make some "Roleplaying" thing is trying to achieve something like this or so, the rest?.... shoot and pwn EVERYTHING, which then turns into this and the starting part of this and it's really freaking fun, never really cared that much about lore as the main thing, rather as a condiment or something like that for the fights' awesomeness.

About NA.... Dunno, nearest character is mister badass griffon on the south but he's busy and probably would get more awesome in not much time cuz dual SMGs, though I'm thinking I may have held him back a bit too much to evade damage?

........And what is this with Greta getting fired?

Also, if I may add, shouldn't the OOC's OP have links to previous in-game and OOC threads put in it just in case too?

[MCerberus]

Rebonack

I think we both left the Paladin-Star Paladin conversation hanging a while back. It may be vital for causing an insane amount of trouble for TRSG!

[BladeofObliviom]

About NA.... Dunno, nearest character is mister badass griffon on the south but he's busy and probably would get more awesome in not much time cuz dual SMGs, though I'm thinking I may have held him back a bit too much to evade damage?

........And what is this with Greta getting fired?

Alright, in order:

Something unclear has happened in New Appleoosa, and presumably Bob will put up a post describing the radio broadcast soon enough. I dunno whether your griffon would be well-suited to whatever the mission is because it hasn't been defined yet.

I'm planning on sending in Bauhaus though, who is competent with machines, medicine, and combat, so those bases, at least, are covered.


Greta has been "fired" by Red Eye, in the sense that she has been released from her contract as a Talon. Presumably the organization still gets their pay, he's just saying she doesn't have to do the job she was hired for. She's been asked to make sure Luka doesn't get himself killed and see him safely to Tenpony, though.


On a side note, it's your turn to post for Ray and Blaster in North.

[Chaotic Bob]

Just waiting on one or two other details to resolve before I place my little pieces in the Southern thread for New Appleoosa.

Shortly to be introduced: Mild Tune, an earth pony who spends far too much time playing with a silly little radio setup he fixed in his home.
He tends to run on a fairly nocturnal schedule, all the better for avoiding weird guests.

Also noticing strange happenings about New Appleoosa.


In the nature of realism (pff, what?) the NA Incident hook isn't going to be a particularly instantaneous thing. It'll be updated on an in-game nightly basis.

Which may or may not take awhile, but such is the way of things.

[PurityIcekiller]

I think having a few witnesses is good. Not really fair to sneak it on us when no one's around to see it, after all. This may actually be an opportunity to introduce a new character I thought of.

[Lycan 01]

Will post South shortly, after dinner and such.


However, I'm waiting to make sure I have posts from Finder, Elestre, and Luka before moving the Fillydelphia scene forward. Luka, is your character not going to react even slightly to Greta being fired and assigned to be his de facto bodyguard? That's kind of a big deal.

[Luka]

However, I'm waiting to make sure I have posts from Finder, Elestre, and Luka before moving the Fillydelphia scene forward. Luka, is your character not going to react even slightly to Greta being fired and assigned to be his de facto bodyguard? That's kind of a big deal.

I actually kind of have no idea of how I should make him react, I mean, yeah she got fired but she didn't.... Actually I think I may kind of have an idea, but I'm not sure so I'm gonna try putting it anyways to see

edited and added a reaction part, is it ok there?

[Lycan 01]

Luka, you need to pick a single action and go with it for the train yard. You can't tell me you're going to lockpick the padlock, or smash it, or shoot it. Those are three drastically different things, and I don't know what your definition of "too long" is for lockpicking, or how he would be shooting it. So please, pick a single action to go with, and be more specific about your actions. I can't read your mind.

[Luka]

I actually meant that to fill all cases, just in case the next post is "he starts lockpicking SUDDENLY SHOOTING RAIDERS!", but if that's too many failsafes then just go with the lockpicking, "too long" would mean "too long like to possibly get the others to notice him"

[Lycan 01]

Yeah, but "too long" isn't something your character can really account for. He can't just know how long it'll take to unlock the padlock or for enemies to show up, and then know whether or not to do an action based on that. Your character can only act on information they know as a character, not stuff that you yourself know as a player.

You can't just say "I want to do action A, but if that's going to end up take too long or be too much trouble, then I just want to skip to action B instead." You can can say "I want to do action A, but if it doesn't work, then I'll do action B next after I've done action A." But your character wouldn't know if it would take too long or not, so they wouldn't be able to just say "oh nevermind I'll just do this instead" without trying first. That's using OOC knowledge, and kinda metagame-y. Which is cheating.

[Luka]

Yeah, but "too long" isn't something your character can really account for. He can't just know how long it'll take to unlock the padlock or for enemies to show up, and then know whether or not to do an action based on that. Your character can only act on information they know as a character, not stuff that you yourself know as a player.

You can't just say "I want to do action A, but if that's going to end up take too long or be too much trouble, then I just want to skip to action B instead." You can can say "I want to do action A, but if it doesn't work, then I'll do action B next after I've done action A." But your character wouldn't know if it would take too long or not, so they wouldn't be able to just say "oh nevermind I'll just do this instead" without trying first. That's using OOC knowledge, and kinda metagame-y. Which is cheating.

I think it's more like common sense, I mean, he would just try to lockpick the padlock, but if he starts to take long then he would smash it, but if that doesn't work then shoot it off.

[Lycan 01]

Yes but "too long" is a subjective measurement of time. You may think "too long" is 10 seconds. I may think "too long" is 1 minute. Somebody else may think it's 30 seconds. So if I post and say he gave up after 30 seconds, you may get mad and say that's not long enough. Or if I post and say he tried for a minute and then the raiders saw him, you may get mad and say I made him work for too long.

You have to be specific. I'm not a psychic. I can't work with vague measurements of time in a situation where every second matters.

[Luka]

Yes but "too long" is a subjective measurement of time. You may think "too long" is 10 seconds. I may think "too long" is 1 minute. Somebody else may think it's 30 seconds. So if I post and say he gave up after 30 seconds, you may get mad and say that's not long enough. Or if I post and say he tried for a minute and then the raiders saw him, you may get mad and say I made him work for too long.

You have to be specific. I'm not a psychic. I can't work with vague measurements of time in a situation where every second matters.

That's kind of the thing, I have no idea how long would it be "too long" for raiders to start looking around, but k then would use a "would attempt until he hears movement close by".... Though maybe that would make him easier to catch