I'm looking to write a Fallout crossover now that uni is done for the year. The problem is I've been trying to figure out what parts of Fallout I can remove that are purely gameplay elements and don't work well in a story.

I have a particular hatred for people who make their fanfic character level up, gain experience points and have perks. At the same time though I'm not sure what else I can take out from the game to make it work better for example VATS.

Similarly some other fanfic writers have had the Pipboy act as a dematerialisation device for storing items instead of just being an inventory management device.

I'm sort of trying to get a feel for what other people think of removing these things.

 

Honestly, the best thing to do is to treat the game mechanics as what they are: abstractions of physical/necessary things that aren't very fun to do.

For example, there's no reason for there to be any sort of inventory management in the PipBoy. It doesn't make any sense. Do you have a list of everything your carrying in your phone? No, because that would be stupid and unnecessary. Including that kind of thing in written works is incredibly idiotic. The only reason it exists like that at all is because of the restrictions inherit to the medium.

Those limitations don't exist in written work, so there's zero reason to break the universe to shoehorn it in. The way to handle it is to treat the abstraction as whatever real-world process it replaces. Instead of using a PipBoy to manage what they're carrying, the character would just pick up, wear, use, or drop whatever, just like we do IRL. Level ups are abstractions of growth, made quantifiable so the game can track and measure it, and are functionally equivalent to someone getting actual experience with something and becoming better at it. Fast Travel is not teleportation, just the screen going black to skip all the tedious walking required. Etc, etc.

Pretty much anything that's explicitly game-y or unrealistic (for the setting/lore) is something to come up with a reasonable facsimile of that isn't either of those things.
Off the top of my head, VATS would be a PipBoy app that projects AR holograms over nearby combatants to assist with aiming and properly leading the target, Perks are little tricks the character picks up in their adventures (for example, they accidentally press the wrong button and their power armor's fusion core goes shooting out and explodes), Stimpaks actually take a few days to work fully, etc.

Things like that are the only way to go for things like that.

PS - Sorry if this is a little rambling, I'm falling asleep as I type it.

 

Anything like experience points or levels or whatnot definitely has to be stripped out of any adaptation, since that's all an abstraction for just learning new things, or how to do things better.

I have no idea how confused those people have to be for thinking the Pip-Boy has that function. It's just a portable computer, like a PDA. As for VATS, the original Fallouts just had targeted shots without any supposed Pip-Boy function for doing that. I'd leave VATS out and just have characters aim the old-fashioned way, but that's just me.

 

Alright, I was thinking of making the Pip-boy only have these functions:

*Map.
*VATS which helps identify targets and suggests good points of aim. I'm considering including the feature of it making the user feel as if time has slowed - maybe some sort of short acting drug, and the drug running out and replenishing is AP?
*Computer hacking is done through the Pip-boy using the cord seen and used in FO4 for opening vault doors.
*Other basic personal computer functions like advertised in the loading slides in FO4 such as recording audio and other signals along with analysis, typing, watching holotapes, a diary which is used for current objectives etc.

The story will probably be set in the Mojave and the New Vegas era but I'm including some slight FO4 Pip-boy retcons.

 

Keep the Pip-boy as solely a computer interface. No VATS and if there is a map on the thing it'd be pre-nukes and lately useless.

And for the love of God don't use health bars.

 

VATS exist to mask terrible shooting mechanics. Don't use them.

 

I've been trying my hand at Skyrim fanfiction, so I don't know to what extent this has any relevance to what you're writing, but here goes:

Your job here is to expand on the story behind the game in a way that is not constrained by gameplay mechanisms. Obviously everything that is communicated through the player through the interface in the game itself goes out of the window -- levels, hit points, controls, perks, inventory and so on.

But I'd be tempted to expand this to grinding. (For instance, in Skyrim this tends to mean Bandit Cave #85251 and/or Draugr Tomb #96157.) We know that, in the game, you have to engage in thousands of random fights with no importance to the larger plot (killing shit is part of why we play them after all), but don't make it as prominent of a part in a story as it is in actual gameplay. I sometimes like to say that the mortal sin of writing is gratuity. This is an instance of it you want to avoid. Keep the plot-irrelevant killing to a minimum required to show the usual level of violence in your world.

Use your imagination to fill in the gaps left behind by the need of the developers to stick to the gameplay-relevant aspects. (E.g. just because your game has no toilets for obvious reasons, don't write the story as if there were no need for toilets in this world. Stupid example, but you can think of others - the economy, families, whatever.)

 

I think I remember reading that the Pip-Boy gets data from satellites that are still in orbit, so the maps are current.

Consider first: why would a civilian portable computer even have this elaborate targeting system built into it? Second, do you see any way for the Pip-Boy to even hold this supposed drug, or any means of delivering it to the user? Not to mention the likelihood of getting addicted to this drug.

VATS is just a silly gameplay thing. Just get rid of it.

The FO4 computer cord thing is kind of neat, but the hacking they show in the game, without the Pip-Boy, is supposedly based on a real method for old computers.

 

MURIKA! Also, if you really wanted to use the Pipboy as a drug injection system then have it be used as an auto-doc type thing. You insert a drug of your choice and the Pipboy analyses it and then gives you the most useful dosage for what you need. You could explain it as the reason why the PC never seems to be as severely affected by addiction as a real life addict would.

 

Honestly writing a fallout fanfic should be no different than writing any other fanfic with guns. You don't see Shephard messing around with his equipment loadout in Mass Effect fanfics for example.

 

Because it's not really civillian? If I remember correctly it was designed to help vault-dwellers survive on the surface. It's basically military tech with a civilian interface.

There's no way someone would use computer security like that. It's a gameplay mechanic I was going to handwave as actual hacking and not bother explaining.

 

I might have to double-check the wiki or the Bible, but I believe the Pip-Boys were released first as civilian products by RobCo, and were later just given out by Vault-Tec.

Do what you want, lol. I just heard that the method used for hacking terminals in FO3/NV/FO4 is something that used to be possible on older computers. Though that might've been bullshit for all I know.

 

It was bullshit, mostly. The hacking in FO games is kinda sorta maybe similar to trying to manually decipher corrupted or encrypted files back in the day, but only in the same sense that playing Fallout is kinda sorta maybe similar to living your life.

 

Fair enough. I probably just misread something somewhere.

Some Google-fu tells me the minigame might actually be based on an old board game called Mastermind. Case closed, I guess.

 

I honestly don't see the need to retain any of gameplay elements outside any character abilities that determine how he/she can react to a (story) situation. So it's more about what the character can do, rather than how he/she goes about doing it.

 

There is no need to retain any kind of elements of gameplay. The only thing that you need to retain is the lore and atmosphere of the world. And you need to decide if you're using only the original games (F1, F2) or are you accepting the retarded stupid shit created by Bethesda - my advice would be to drop Bethesda shit and concentrate on the originals with some stuff from New Vegas and maybe Fallout: Tactics.

 

It totally depends on your theme and your audience.

For one, game references in your story can be funny. You can allude to glitches found in games, or parody the way game mechanics fail to imitate real life. This can over quite well if your story is humorous in nature and you expect your audience to suspend their disbelief for the sake of their amusement. A joke's a joke. For a more serious story it can lighten the mood too, especially if the characters are unaware of that element (it's all reality to them, anyway).

At the same time, if you're trying to write a serious drama please for the love of god stay away from 'perks and powerups'. Nothing kills my mood than Ryuugi-inspired (well, he's the most popular culprit of late) "Gamer" bullcrap in what could be a perfectly fine/interesting action/drama story. You don't need "levels" or other stupid nonsense to convey a good story, in-fact it just gets in way most of the time... Of course, it works for Ryuugi, but I'd say that's more because he did at least devote some words to crafting a narrative and not just spewing video game lingo like I've seen in some people's attempts to imitate him.

If you want to write a Fallout story, you just need to keep the theme consistent. Fallout is grim at the same time frankly silly/corny. Do borrow from New Vegas's themes - holding onto the old world and not letting go. You don't need to allude to any of the mechanics of the game, just treat it like you would any other post-apoc setting.

I'd say just use New Vegas for inspiration, in general:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSNDtLj6J8w

 

I'm aware of this. My question really is what in Fallout is a game mechanic and not part of the Fallout "experience"?

Is VATS part of the experience? How integral is the Pipboy? The Pipboy and some of its function blur the line a bit. I'm certainly not including levels and perks unless I was going for a comedy (I'm not).

 

I'd have the Pipboy as an accessory designed to handle the myriad problems that could exist on the surface. It'd be the equivalent of strapping a supercomputer to your wrist, which could be used for everything from an AR interface for VATS (there wouldn't be an auto-guide feature, only a targeting reticule and a chance to hit label) to analysing chemicals to ascertain what they do and if they're safe to be imbibed.

 

Drop the game mechanics, would be my suggestion. VATS doesn't serve any purpose other than to hide shitty shooting mechanics, as has been previously stated. I enjoy shooting myself, and something that all my classes for concealed carry and whatnot have emphasized is "go for center mass." Making those bullshit shots in the legs or arms is Hollywood and Fallout trash.

As for Skyrim, the fights felt too damn gamey, to me. And for a people inspired by the Scandinavians of the Viking Age, the Nords sure do like to avoid shield walls. That's something I'd do, actually, is emphasize the nature of Nordic warfare being built around the shield. A man or woman might only own one axe for wood-cutting or head-chopping, but they'd sure as shit own two or three shields.