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There’s an interesting symbiotic relationship between tabletop games and video games. From titles inspired by TTRPG systems to straight adaptations, it feels as though there’s a continual dialogue occurring between these two worlds of play. When it comes down to it though, they’re still distinctly different mediums, and what makes for the best tabletop RPGs doesn’t always equate to the best CRPG or action RPG. Yet, with a New Vegas campaign book for the Fallout TTRPG on the way, I’m reminded that my favorite Fallout game is the kind of gem that’s primed to work perfectly for both formats.
No doubt every entry to the series shares some DNA with the classic TTRPG system GURPS thanks to the role it had in Fallout’s early development. Still, Fallout New Vegas in particular – for a lot of the same reasons it has developed its cult classic status – offers a lot worth bringing to your tabletop roleplaying.
The Mojave Wasteland is built different
When you’re a game master, there’s nothing more frustrating than players sidestepping and missing content that you’ve prepared for them and leading themselves into a deadend. Of course, maintaining a sense of sandbox freedom makes for the most satisfying roleplaying, but you do to some extent need to breadcrumb your party towards the good stuff. Doing that in a way that feels organic is the real magic. While the Mojave Wasteland certainly isn’t in tip-top shape Post-War, it does present players and GMs alike with a whole host of landmarks that stretch towards the sky and draw the interest of players.
Rather than relying on the stiffness of a quest-giving NPC or just brute forcing them on the right path, you can pretty much plonk your party at a random point in New Vegas’ map and describe the horizon to them. They might be caught by the bright lights of the Strip, the tower at HELIOS One, or even the big bloody dinosaur that stands in Novac; but either way, you can leverage the eye-catching map design of Fallout New Vegas to your advantage. Whether you’re playing through a twist on the original game’s plot or developing your own story that takes place in the setting, you can use the visual eminence of these locations (that also happen to be closely linked to the world’s factions) to structure your journey in a way that means players won’t even realise they’re being corralled.
You can be a good guy, but there are no *good guys*
Alongside being an absolute menace with an M42 Fat Man and trying to figure out how the hell to actually play Caravan, you actually spend a solid chunk of your time in Fallout New Vegas dedicated to the delicate art of diplomacy. The ravages of post apocalypse life have really greyed morality in New Vegas though, which makes a lot of player decision making feel less like good vs evil and more like the trolley problem.
Even outside of the story beats presented and the flawed motivations of pretty much every faction, the game is mechanically set up to accommodate moral contradictions. In a system that is notably unique to New Vegas, you have two separate metrics that respond to your actions: Karma and Reputation. While many players may see Karma as redundant given that it’s Reputation that actually dictates how NPCs treat you, it’s a really fascinating way to capture the duality of a player’s internal vs external character. People might not notice a folk hero like you rifling through their belongings (they might not even know it was you who reverse-pickpocketed a landmine into that guy’s pants) but your character sheet will.
The light and dark side of the Wasteland
A lot of what makes Fallout New Vegas such an excellent game and in particular an excellent piece of post-apocalypse media is its ability to simultaneously capture the brutality of its setting without losing touch with the absurd and enduring human spirit. Even when you don’t opt for the Wild Wasteland trait (you totally should), there is just so much humor and warmth tucked away in random parts of New Vegas. Without being tonally jarring or undercutting the seriousness of the stakes, there's plenty of strange and wonderful scenarios that can be weaved into your adventure to offer players a much-needed reprieve from the doom and gloom of the end of the world.
The circumstances in the Wasteland are certainly bleak and sometimes you'll encounter topics that may even become too much for your party to handle. I recognise that a lot of people use tabletop RPGs to escape the real world and I’d always advocate for the presence of consent and safety tools. That said, if you do feel equipped to deal with the darkness, I think the world of New Vegas offers plenty of opportunities to explore a narrative that is gritty, mature, and ultimately really rewarding.
And if all of that isn’t enough to convince you: let me just say there aren’t enough cowboy western vibes in tabletop gaming. I guarantee that every New Vegas TTRPG session I’m ever involved in will contain some kind of Victor-esque yeehaw Securitron and it will be made all the better for it.
For a look at even more off-beat tabletop roleplaying games on the horizon, check out 6 of the most metal tabletop RPG campaigns being crowdfunded right now.
