FALLOUT
RESTRICTED
VAULT DWELLER’S
SURVIVAL GUIDE
ISSUED BY VAULT-TEC DOCUMENTATION
DEPARTMENT, JANUARY, 2077
NOTICE.––This document contains information affecting the
national defense of the United States within the meaning of
the New Amended Espionage Act, 50 U.S.C., 31 and 32. Its
transmission or the revelation of its contents in any manner
to an unauthorized person is prohibited by the law.
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CONTENTS
Section I. Welcome to the Vault of the Future
Page Page
General ................................................1—1
Important Vault Statistics ............1—1
Section II. Simulation (Tutorial)
SimTek Operations........................2—1
Section III. Vault Personnel (Characters)
General ..............................................3—1
Standard Personnel Records ....3—1
Creating a New Personnel
Record ..........................................3—3
Section IV. Instrumentation (Interface)
General ..............................................4—1
Main Menu ........................................4—1
Character Selection Screen......4—2
Game View......................................4—3
Interface Bar....................................4—3
Inventory Bar vs. Cursors..........4—8
Cursors ..............................................4—8
Action Icons....................................4—10
Inventory ........................................4—12
Skilldex ............................................4—16
Nuclear Blast Effects ....................1—2
Derived Statistics..........................3—7
Complete Skill List ......................3—10
Traits..................................................3—14
Character Editor Options ........3—18
Character Screen ........................4—17
RobCo PIPBoy 2000 ................4—20
Automap ........................................4—24
World Map ..................................4—24
Terrain ............................................4—26
Town Maps ..................................4—27
Dialogue..........................................4—28
Options ..........................................4—33
Preferences ..................................4—35
Section V. Conflict Resolution (Combat)
General ..............................................5—1
Starting Combat ............................5—2
Actions in Combat ........................5—2
Chance to Hit ..................................5—4
Ranged Weapons ........................5—6
Hand to Hand Combat ................5—8
Damage..............................................5—9
Armor................................................5—12
Ending Combat..............................5—13
Equipment........................................5—14
Experience ......................................5—21
Perks ................................................5—23
Section VI. Appendices
(1) Hints & Tips ..............................A—1
(2) Credits........................................A—4
(3) Customer Support ................A—6
(4) Warranty..................................A—7
Manual By: Chris Taylor Manual Design & Layout By: Ed Rubin
Manual Art By: Tramell Ray Isaac, Jason Anderson, Leonard Boyarsky,
and Scott Rodenhizer
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(5) World Wide Web Site ......A—8
(6) Survival Recipes ....................A—9
(7) Quick Keys..............................A—10
Section I. WELCOME TO
THE VAULT OF THE FUTURE
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GENERAL
Welcome to Vault-13, the latest in a series of public defense
works from Vault-Tec, your contractor of choice when it comes to the
best in nuclear shelters. Vault-Tec, America’s Final Word in Homes.
This document, VTB-001, the Vault Dwellers Survival Guide, is for
the events following a world-wide nuclear war. In the case of a limited scale nuclear war, or other world ending catastrophe, please
refer to the appropriate documentation (see also page 1—8):
End of World Cause Document # Title
Limited Scale VTB-002 Vault Dwellers Survival
Nuclear War Guide (abridged version)
Disease VTD-001 Coping with Mr. Virus!
Starvation VTR-003 How to Eat Rat
Flooding VTF-100 Flotation Homes & Seaweed
Meteor VTM-020B How to Dodge Falling Rocks*
*Document not available at this time, will be available the 3rd quarter of 2078.
While we hope that peace will prevail and the need for such
from the ground up to provide the best chance for a good life follow-
ing nuclear armageddon. It is the duty of every American citizen to
learn and use the skills necessary for a comfortable Vault life. The
best place to start is with a dek and if you try to read this than you.
ground up to provide the best chance for a good life following nuclear
armageddon. It is the duty of every American citizen to learn and
use the skills necessary for a comfortable Vault life. The best place
to start is with a description of your new home.
Don’t let what could have happened bother you. We have
enough problems to deal with in the here and now.
- Overseer
The Vault series of survival shelters are designed from the
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IMPORTANT VAULT STATISTICS
Vault Number ............................13
Starting construction date ....August 2063
Ending construction date ......March 2069
Starting Budget ........................$400,000,000,000
Final Budget, with interest ..$645,000,000,000
Total number of occupants ....1,000 (at capacity)
Total duration ..........................10 years (at capacity)
Number of living quarters ......100 (hot bunking required if at
maximum capacity)
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Door thickness..........................4 yards, steel
Earth coverage..........................3,200,000 tons of soil, at 200 feet
Computer control system ......Think machine
Primary power supply ............Geo-thermal
Secondary power supply........General Atomics Nuclear Power
backup systems
Power requirements................3.98mkw/day
Stores ..........................................Complete construction equipment,
hydro-agricultural farms, water
purification from underground
river, defensive weaponry to equip
10 men, communication, social and
entertainment files (for total
duration)
NUCLEAR BLAST EFFECTS
Vault-13 is designed to provide protection from the effects of a
nuclear blast. To better understand the protection provided, we have
included a section from the High Energy Weapons FAQ that explains
how a nuclear blast causes damage.
The first thing bomb victims experience is the intense flux of photons from the blast, which releases 70-80% of the bomb's energy. The
effects go up to third degree thermal burns and are not a pretty sight.
Initial deaths are due to this effect.
The next phenomenon is the supersonic blast front. You see it
before you hear it. The pressure front has the effect of blowing away
anything in its path.
After the front comes the overpressure phase. It would feel like
being underwater a few hundred meters. (At a few thousand meters
under the sea, pressurized hulls implode.) The pressure gradually dies
off, and there is a negative overpressure phase, with a reversed blast
wind. This reversal is due to air rushing back to fill the void left by the
explosion.
The air gradually returns to normal atmospheric pressure. At
this stage, fires caused by electrical destruction and ignited debris turn
the place into a firestorm.
Then come the middle term effects such as keloid formation and
retinal blastoma. Genetic or hereditary damage can appear up to
forty years after initial irradiation.
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ATMOSPHERIC EFFECTS OF BLASTS
The Mushroom Cloud. The heat from fusion and fission
instantaneously raises the surrounding air to 10 million degrees C.
This superheated air plasma gives off so much light that it looks
brighter than the sun, and is visible hundreds of kilometers (km)
away. The resultant fireball quickly expands. It is made up of hot air,
and hence rises at a rate of a few hundred meters per second. After a
minute or so, the fireball has risen to a few kilometers, and has
cooled off to the extent that it no longer radiates.
The surrounding cooler air exerts some drag on this rising air,
which slows down the outer edges of the cloud. The unimpeded inner
portion rises a bit quicker than the outer edges. A vacuum effect
occurs when the outer portion occupies the vacuum left by the higher inner portion. The result is a smoke ring.
The inner material gradually expands out into a mushroom
cloud, due to convection. If the explosion is on the ground, dirt and
radioactive debris get sucked up the stem, which sits below the fireball.
Collisions and
ionization of the cloud
particles result in
lightning bolts flickering to the ground.
Initially, the cloud
is orange-red due to a
chemical reaction
when the air is heated.
When the cloud cools
to air temperature, the
water vapor starts to
condense. The cloud
turns from red to
white.
In the final
stages, the cloud can
get about 100km
across and 40km
high, for a megaton
class explosion.
If you see the flash, duck and cover!
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Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP). A nuclear explosion gives off
radiation at all wavelengths of light. Some is in the radio/radar portion of the spectrum - the EMP effect. The EMP effect increases the
higher you go into the atmosphere. High altitude explosions can
knock out electronics by inducing a current surge in closed circuit
metallic objects - electronics, power lines, phone lines, TVs, radios,
etc. The damage range can be over 1000km.
OVERVIEW OF IMMEDIATE EFFECTS
The three categories of immediate effects are: blast, thermal
radiation (heat), and prompt ionizing or nuclear radiation. Their relative importance varies with the yield of the bomb. At low yields, all
three can be significant sources of injury. With an explosive yield of
about 2.5 kilotons (kT), the three effects are roughly equal. All are
capable of inflicting fatal injuries at a range of 1km.
The fraction of a bomb's yield emitted as thermal radiation,
blast, and ionizing radiation is essentially constant for all yields, but
the way the different forms of energy interact with air and target
vary dramatically.
Air is essentially transparent to thermal radiation. The thermal
radiation affects exposed surfaces, producing damage by rapid heating. A bomb that is 100 times larger can produce equal thermal radiation intensities over areas 100 times larger. The area of an (imaginary) sphere centered on the explosion increases with the square of
the radius. Thus the destructive radius increases with the square
root of the yield (this is the familiar inverse square law of electromagnetic radiation). Actually the rate of increase is somewhat less,
partly due to the fact that larger bombs emit heat more slowly which
reduces the damage produced by each calorie of heat. It is important
to note that the area subjected to damage by thermal radiation
increases almost linearly with yield.
Blast effect is a volume effect. The blast wave deposits energy in
the material it passes through, including air. When the blast wave
passes through solid material, the energy left behind causes damage.
When it passes through air it simply grows weaker. The more matter
the energy travels through, the smaller the effect. The amount of
matter increases with the volume of the imaginary sphere centered
on the explosion. Blast effects thus scale with the inverse cube law
which relates radius to volume.
The intensity of nuclear radiation decreases with the inverse
square law like thermal radiation. However nuclear radiation is also
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strongly absorbed by the air it travels through, which causes the
intensity to drop off much more rapidly.
These scaling laws show that the effects of thermal radiation
grow rapidly with yield (relative to blast), while those of radiation
rapidly decline.
In a small nuclear attack (bomb yield approx. 15kT) casualties
(including fatalities) would be seen from all three causes. Burns
(including those caused by an ensuing fire storm) would be the most
prevalent serious injury (two thirds of those who would die the first
day would be burn victims), and occur at the greatest range. Blast
and burn injuries would be found in 60-70% of all survivors. People
close enough to suffer significant radiation illness would be well
inside the lethal effects radius for blast and flash burns, as a result
only 30% of injured survivors would show radiation illness. Many of
those people would be sheltered from burns and blast and thus
escape the main effects. Even so, most victims with radiation illness
would also have blast injuries or burns as well.
With yields in the range of hundreds of kilotons or greater (typical for strategic warheads) immediate radiation injury becomes
insignificant. Dangerous radiation levels only exist so close to the
explosion that surviving the blast is impossible. On the other hand,
fatal burns can be inflicted well beyond the range of substantial blast
damage. A 20 megaton bomb can cause potentially fatal third degree
burns at a range of 40km, where the blast can do little more than
break windows and cause superficial cuts.
A convenient rule of thumb for estimating the short-term fatalities from all causes due to a nuclear attack is to count everyone inside
the 5 psi blast overpressure contour around the hypocenter as a fatality. In reality, substantial numbers of people inside the contour will
survive and substantial numbers outside the contour will die, but the
assumption is that these two groups will be roughly equal in size and
balance out. This completely ignores any possible fallout effects.
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OVERVIEW OF DELAYED EFFECTS
Radioactive Contamination. The chief delayed effect is
the creation of huge amounts of radioactive material with long
lifetimes (half-lifes ranging from days to millennia). The primary
source of these products is the debris left from fission reactions. A
potentially significant secondary source is neutron capture by
non-radioactive isotopes both within the bomb and in the outside
environment.
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When atoms fission they can split in some 40 different ways, producing a mix of about 80 different isotopes. These isotopes vary
widely in stability; some are completely stable while others undergo radioactive decay with half-lifes of fractions of a second. The
decaying isotopes may themselves form stable or unstable daughter isotopes. The mixture thus quickly becomes even more complex, some 300 different isotopes of 36 elements have been identified in fission products.
Short-lived isotopes release their decay energy rapidly, creating
intense radiation fields that also decline quickly. Long-lived isotopes
release energy over long periods of time, creating radiation that is
much less intense but more persistent. Fission products thus initially have a very high level of radiation that declines quickly, but as
the intensity of radiation drops, so does the rate of decline.
A useful rule-of-thumb is the "rule of sevens". This rule
states that for every seven-fold increase in time following a fission
detonation (starting at or after 1 hour), the radiation intensity
decreases by a factor of 10. Thus after 7 hours, the residual fission
radioactivity declines 90%, to one-tenth its level of 1 hour. After
7*7 hours (49 hours, approx. 2 days), the level drops again by
90%. After 7*2 days (2 weeks) it drops a further 90%; and so on
for 14 weeks. The rule is accurate to 25% for the first two weeks,
and is accurate to a factor of two for the first six months. After 6
months, the rate of decline becomes much more rapid. The rule of
sevens corresponds to an approximate t^-1.2 scaling relationship.
These radioactive products are most hazardous when they
settle to the ground as "fallout". The rate at which fallout settles
depends very strongly on the altitude at which the explosion
occurs, and to a lesser extent on the size of the explosion.
If the explosion is a true air-burst (the fireball does not touch
the ground), when the vaporized radioactive products cool enough
to condense and solidify, they will do so to form microscopic particles. These particles are mostly lifted high into the atmosphere by
the rising fireball, although significant amounts are deposited in
the lower atmosphere by mixing that occurs due to convective circulation within the fireball. The larger the explosion, the higher
and faster the fallout is lofted, and the smaller the proportion that
is deposited in the lower atmosphere. For explosions with yields
of 100kT or less, the fireball does not rise above the troposphere
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where precipitation occurs. All of this fallout will thus be brought
to the ground by weather processes within months at most (usually much faster). In the megaton range, the fireball rises so high
that it enters the stratosphere. The stratosphere is dry, and no
weather processes exist there to bring fallout down quickly. Small
fallout particles will descend over a period of months or years.
Such long-delayed fallout has lost most of its hazard by the time
it comes down, and will be distributed on a global scale. As yields
increase above 100kT, progressively more and more of the total
fallout is injected into the stratosphere.
An explosion closer to the ground (close enough for the fireball to touch) sucks large amounts of dirt into the fireball. The
dirt usually does not vaporize, and if it does, there is so much of
it that it forms large particles. The radioactive isotopes are
deposited on soil particles, which can fall quickly to earth. Fallout
is deposited over a time span of minutes to days, creating downwind contamination both nearby and thousands of kilometers
away. The most intense radiation is created by nearby fallout,
because it is more densely deposited, and because short-lived isotopes haven't decayed yet. Weather conditions can affect this considerably of course. In particular, rainfall can "rain out" fallout to
create very intense localized concentrations. Both external exposure to penetrating radiation, and internal exposure (ingestion of
radioactive material) pose serious health risks.
Explosions close to the ground that do not touch it can still
generate substantial hazards immediately below the burst point
by neutron-activation. Neutrons absorbed by the soil can generate
considerable radiation for several hours.
The megaton class weapons have been largely retired, being
replaced with much smaller yield warheads. The yield of a modern
strategic warhead is, with few exceptions, now typically in the
range of 200-750 kT. Recent work with sophisticated climate models has shown that this reduction in yield results in a much larger
proportion of the fallout being deposited in the lower atmosphere,
and a much faster and more intense deposition of fallout than had
been assumed in studies made during the sixties and seventies.
The reduction in aggregate strategic arsenal yield that occurred
when high yield weapons were retired in favor of more numerous
lower yield weapons has actually increased the fallout risk.
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ADDITIONAL PUBLICATIONS
VDSG
VAULT DWELLER’S
SURVIVAL GUIDE
ABRIDGED VERSION
For Survivors of a Limited
Scale Nuclear War
ISSUED BY VAULT-TEC
DOCUMENTATION DEPARTMENT
VTB-OO2-13
First Printing
Effective Date March, 2077
Coping With Mr. Virus!
An extended pamphlet for the whole
family! Includes the popular How-ToBurn-Diseased-Bodies section.
HOW TO
EAT RAT
NEW FOR ‘77:
15 five-minute Recipes and
the tasty Rodent a la King!
VTR-OO3
Second Edition
Flotation Homes and Seaweed
A complete survival guide for the ocean
bound. More tips, instructions, and plans
than you could possibly ever use.
VDSG (abridged version)
A condensed version of the VDSG,
containing just the important information
you need!
Coping
With Mr. Virus!
WARNING;
All references to the government sanctioned and controlled FEV virus are not
allowed in this publication.
Featuring the latest Super Ebola
Quarantine Techniques!
Fifteenth Edition - December 2076
VTD-OO1
How to Eat Rat
Over 101 recipes, from basic meals to a
complete set of dishes, all the way from
snacks to desserts!
DROWNEDA PERMANENT
VTF-100
STATE OF BEING?
WE FIELD-TEST
THE LATEST
WATERPROOF
SPF 900
SUNSCREENS
PLANT A GARDEN
YOU CAN COME
BACK TO!
WATERBEDSA PRACTICAL
ALTERNATIVE
FLOTATION
HOMES &
SEAWEED
Special Vault Dwellers Issue - July 2076
HOW TO DODGE
FALLING ROCKS
Available the
3rd quarter of
2078
VTM-O20B
Houseboat
Cruise Control!
COPING WITH
YOUR NEW
MOBILE HOME
A Vault-Tec publication
Coming Soon!
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Section II.
SIMULATION
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SIMTEK OPERATIONS
The Vault-Tec Research Group has determined that after a
long period of security, many Vault-Dwellers will feel “uncomfortable” with the idea of returning to the outside world. The SimTek
5000 will provide a safe and reassuring return to life on the outside world. This chapter will give you a brief walk-through of the
operation of the SimTek 5000.
Experienced Vault Dwellers may want to start with
Character Creation, and skip this tutorial chapter. For beginning
Vault Dwellers, this tutorial will prepare you for the outside world.
After starting the Fallout process on your terminal, click on
the NEW GAME button from the Main Menu.
The character selection screen will appear. For now, keep the
personnel record of Max Stone displayed and select TAKE. This
will choose Max as your character. In the future, you may want to
select another character, or even create your own character.
The simulation will now start. After a briefing by the Vault
Overseer as to your immediate task, you will appear outside the
Vault Blast Door.
2
Figure 2-1:
Starting out,
right outside the
Vault Door. Click
the INV button to
open your
inventory and
equip yourself.
Your first action should be to equip yourself with armament.
All Vault-Tec prepared Vaults come with the latest in offensive and
defensive equipment. You will be supplied with the most lethal
self-protective devices available.
Click the INV button on the interface bar at the bottom of the
screen. The hand cursor allows you to move items around in your
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inventory. Click and drag the pistol to the ITEM 1 slot. Release
the mouse button. You are now armed! Move the brass knuckles
to the ITEM 2 slot. Click on the DONE button. You will return to
the main game view.
The hex cursor is a movement cursor. Move it to where you
want to walk, and left-click to start walking there. For now, move
your mouse until the movement cursor is adjacent to the computer next to the door. Left-click once to walk there. As you are walking, you can move the movement cursor to another location. If you
want to interrupt your current walk, simply left-click again.
Once you are standing next to the computer,
right-click once. This will
change the cursor from
the movement cursor to
the command cursor. The
Figure 2-2: The Movement, Command
and Targeting cursors respectively.
command cursor is how
you interact with items/objects in the environment and other people. Right-click once on the computer. This will make your character “use” the computer. Now look at the display window in the
lower left-hand corner of the screen. Try using the computer again.
Figure 2-3:
Using the Vault
door computer.
Left-click on your character a couple of times. Notice that it
rotates you around. Your facing generally does not matter, as your
character will turn to face whatever direction is important when
needed. For now, right-click again to change the cursor back to the
movement cursor. Walk to the right side of the large vault door.
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Now change to the command cursor. Left-click on the computer. If
you are standing too far away from an object, you will automatically walk or run there when you attempt to use the object.
Walk south, moving further into the cave. Watch out for
vermin!
If you move too close to a rat, it will decide to attack you.
After it moves up to you and bites, combat will start. Notice that
the combat buttons in the lower right-hand corner of the interface
bar open up. It’s now combat! Left-click on the pistol. The cursor
will change to a target and the rat will be outlined in red. Move
the target cursor over the rat. The number next to the cursor is
how likely you are to hit it. It should be a pretty big number. Leftclick the mouse button to shoot the rat. The closer you are to your
target, the easier it is to hit them with a ranged weapon.
If you miss it, or it takes the bullet but doesn’t die, click on the
big red button that is attached to the button with the pistol. It
should change the active item from the pistol to the brass knuckles. Left-click on the brass knuckles to attack with them. Target
the rat again. You can continue to attack until you run out of
action points. The number of action points you have remaining is
displayed by the row of green lights above your weapon. The cost
to use a weapon is displayed in the lower left-hand side of the
weapon button. When you have just a few action points remaining, end your turn by clicking on the END TURN button.
Everyone else involved in the combat will get a chance to act, and
then it will be your turn again. When your turn starts, your action
points are restored.
2
Figure 2-4: The combat button. The END TURN
button will end your current turn. The END CMBT
button will attempt to stop the combat. If there are
hostile creatures still involved, the fight will continue!
If the rat dies, combat will end. If the rat lives after your
attacks, it will get another chance to attack you. You know it is the
rats turn when the lights on the interface bar turn from green to
red. Don’t worry, you’ll get a turn soon enough. If the rat starts to
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run away, you can end combat by clicking on the END COMBAT
button.
Once the rat is dead, continue south through the caverns.
Hold down the shift key and click on a hex to run instead of walking.
If you encounter rats, use a variety of weapons to attack
them. You will notice that some weapons are easier or better to
use. Due to the darkness of the caves, it is difficult to hit creatures
at a distance. To increase the amount of light, and make it easier
to see the rats, you might want to use one of your flares. Open
inventory, right-click to change from the hand cursor to the inventory command cursor. Left-click and hold on the flare. A list of
options will appear. From the top, the list of icons are: Examine,
Use, Drop and Cancel. Move the mouse down to the Use action
icon. Release the mouse button. The flare has now been activated. To keep it separate from the un-activated flare, it is moved to
the bottom of your inventory list. Scroll down to the bottom of the
list. Left-click and hold on the activated flare. Select the drop
action icon. The lit flare will be dropped to the ground. Any
attacks within the zone of light are easier than in the pure darkness of the cave. Experiment.
You might get hurt. If so, you need to heal yourself. Open
your inventory and use a Stimpak. Stimpaks will heal your current hit points, but never over your maximum hit points.
Another method of healing is to rest. Press Z on the keyboard.
This will display the PIPBoy clock. Click on the Until Healed
line in the display. You will spend time resting until all of your
hit points are restored. Another way to access the clock is to click
on the PIP button on the interface, and then click on the alarm
clock icon in the upper left-hand corner of the PIPBoy. There are
usually a couple of different ways of performing the major functions in the game.
When you get into another combat, select the pistol. Rightclick once on the button. This will display the targeted attack symbol in the lower right-hand corner of the weapon button. When
you make attacks now, you will make a targeted attack. This will
let you attack specific locations on your target. Clicking on a target with the target cursor will display a new window. Select the
location you want to attack by clicking on the name of the location.
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Some areas of a rat are harder to hit. However, the chance of you
doing more damage or some other effect is increased by making a
targeted attack.
When you are tired of killing rats, you can try Sneaking past
them. A good sneak will let you avoid the rats. Press the Skilldex
button on the interface bar. Click on the Sneak skill. You will see
Sneak printed just above the interface bar. As long as you are
Sneaking, the rats will have a more difficult time of seeing you. If
the rat does see you, they will start combat as usual. There is no
combat penalty for trying to Sneak and getting caught at it.
Do not run. If you run, you cannot Sneak anymore. Sneak
carefully around the rats.
There are other skills on the Skilldex that can be used. The
First Aid and Doctor skills allow you to heal yourself and other
characters in the game. All the skills except Sneak require that you
give a target to use the skill on. If you are hurt, open the Skilldex
and select First Aid. The targeting cursor will turn yellow. Click
on your character. Depending on how good of a medic you are (the
better your First Aid skill, the better you are at performing that
skill), you will heal some hit point damage or do nothing.
2
Figure 2-5: The Skilldex bar.
When you have explored enough of these caverns, go to the
south and then to the west. The Automap, which can be accessed
by clicking the MAP button or pressing the TAB key, will show
your location in the caves. You are looking for a long tunnel in the
southwest corner of the caverns.
When you reach the edge of the tunnel, you will see natural
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light. Walk into the light. This will take you to the world map.
The world map is how you get around the vast outdoors. Click on
the Vault-15 button on the right-hand side of the screen. This will
start walking you to your first destination.
Figure 2-6:
Exiting the
Vault caverns.
The patch of
darkness in the
light is the “exit
grid”. Walk into
the exit grid to
leave the map.
The world is dark to start. As you explore, areas will be
revealed. A green circle on the world map denotes an important
area. Vault-13 has a green circle since it is so important. You
should stop and explore any other important areas that you come
across. Be careful exploring. If you spend too much time looking
for new areas, you could find that the Vault has run out of water.
Since your mission is to save the Vault from this terrible end, you
should do everything you can do to avoid it.
Good luck!
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Section III.
VAULT PERSONNEL
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GENERAL
The key to a successful reintroduction of civilization following a massive scale nuclear war is people. Here at Vault-Tec, we
are working to ensure that your fellow man (and woman) is up to
the task of bringing America back from the dead.
Characters are people in the game world. A player character
represents you in the game world. We will sometimes refer to a
player character as personnel. The terms personnel and player
character are interchangeable. Other types of characters are
called non-player characters (NPCs), so that you won’t confuse
them with you. NPCs can be other vault dwellers, people from the
outside world, or even mutants.
STANDARD PERSONNEL RECORDS
Fallout comes equipped with three pre-made characters, for
your use and enjoyment. These personnel are prepared for most
conditions in the outside world.
MAX
"Stone" to his friends, Maxwell
is the largest person currently
living in the Vault. He is known
for his physical strength and
stamina. He would make the
ideal volunteer due to his
tremendous size and strength.
It is unfortunate that his
intelligence was affected after
Figure 3-1: Max Stone
VID 208-197-88-125
birth when the labor bot
dropped him on his head. He
doesn't care that he might have
to leave the Vault.
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Figure 3-2: Natalia
Dubrovhsky
VID 208-206-49-229
Figure 3-3: Albert Cole
VID 208-206-49-227
NATALIA
Natalia is the grand-child of a
Russian diplomat who worked
at the Soviet Consulate in Los
Angeles. She is a talented
acrobat, with excellent
coordination and reflexes. She
is extremely intelligent and
resourceful. Her only difficulty
as a young child was
understanding personal property
laws. Natalia is very interested
in leaving the Vault, and curious
to explore the outside world.
ALBERT
Albert is a charismatic leader
of a small, vocal minority of the
Vault population that is
considering life on the outside
world. Dedicated to the role of
a negotiator, he is often able to
communicate efficiently
between different parties. His
professed occupation is closest
to what was once known as a
"lawyer." Albert is often able
to convince others that his ideas
are correct.
We appreciate the fact that you are reading the Vault Dwellers
Survival Guide, but would prefer that you use the Fallout interface,
so we have implemented a special way of viewing these personnel:
From the character selection screen, select MODIFY. You
can now examine these characters in detail, actually changing
their statistics. But more importantly, you can view every item in
their personnel record using the enclosed information card in the
lower right-hand corner.
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CREATING A NEW PERSONNEL RECORD
For maximum enjoyment, a character creation system has
been implemented. This will allow you to make a character of
your own choice. The following instructions will guide you
through the character creation process.
Figure 3-4:
The character
creation screen.
Your character is a representative of you in the game world.
Your character will follow your commands, and perform actions as
you require. It is up to you to make the character that best suits
you and suits your style of play. Fortunately, with the Fallout
Survival Kit, your happiness is assured. Vault-Tec guarantees it!
We will often refer to you and your character as the same
person. That is the beauty of a role-playing game - you are your
character. Your actions as the player will control the actions and
consequences of the little character on the screen. Obviously, we
don’t condone some of the actions performed in the game world as
appropriate, or even legal, actions in the real world. Don’t confuse
the two.
Characters are defined by various statistics and skills.
During the character creation stage, you will adjust the primary
statistics, and in turn, the statistics will determine your skills.
If you want to see what a particular statistic or skill does,
click on the item name with your mouse pointer, and the card in
the lower right-hand corner of the screen will display the pertinent information.
1
Guarantee not available in all states, or after any of the following: flooding, drought,
famine, nuclear war, or other acts of God.
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To make your own character, do the following:
(1) Spend Character Points
on Statistics
(see page 3—5)
(2) Select three Tag Skills
(see page 3—10)
(3) Choose up to two Traits
(see page 3—14)
Figure 3-5: The
information on this
card will help
answer any
questions you may
have. It’s an
important resource
that you should
pay attention to.
(4) Select your Age
(see page 3—17)
(5) Select your Sex
(see page 3—17)
(6) Name your character
(see page 3—17)
(7) Optional: If necessary,
select any Options
(see page 3—18)
(8) Congratulations! Your
character is finished;
press DONE to continue!
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Always test the air for
radiologicals and viruses.
A containment suit is your
best friend!
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STEP #1: SPEND CHARACTER POINTS ON STATISTICS
All characters have seven primary statistics:
Strength. Raw physical strength. The ability to lift weights,
have stronger punches, carry more equipment and use larger
weapons. Stronger characters will be able to lug around more items,
do more damage in combat and so on. If you want to play a big, physical character, choose a high Strength.
Perception. The ability to notice things. A combination of
your senses, including touch, sight, taste, smell and hearing.
Perception affects your ranged weapon distances, small details that
you have a chance to notice and other sense related tasks. Perceptive
characters will get more information about the world. If want to play
a character that can shoot guns at targets really far away, buy up
your Perception.
Endurance. The ability to withstand punishment and physical exertion. A high Endurance will let you survive and carry on
where other, weaker people would have to stop. It affects your hit
points, and your resistances. Acharacter with a high Endurance will
be able to fight longer, and be less likely to die in combat.
Charisma. A combination of looks and charm. The higher
your Charisma, the better you are able to communicate with other
people. Highly Charismatic characters are more likely to be able to
get their way without resorting to violence, and to be able to get better deals in trading. Characters who like to talk to people should buy
up their Charisma.
Intelligence. Your mental strength and abilities. The higher
your Intelligence, the more skills you will excel in, and the more
options you will have in dialogue. A high Intelligence is important to
any character. Characters who want lots of choices in dialogue
should pick a higher Intelligence statistic.
Agility. Your speed and dexterity. Physical manipulation ability. Your Agility will affect many skills requiring fine coordination. It
will also adjust many combat related statistics. Agility is important
to any type of character. Combat and thief characters should have a
higher Agility than diplomatic or scientific characters.
Luck. Luck is the odd statistic. It is a combination of fate,
karma and, in general, how the universe views you. Luck will modify many things… All characters will benefit from a high Luck, and
will suffer a little more with a lower Luck.
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All primary statistics have a value. The values range from one,
the lowest, to ten, the highest, and five is average. All characters
start with average values in all statistics. Fortunately, you get five
character points to spend on your statistics to improve them. You can
spend one character point on any five statistics, put all character
points into one statistic, or any combination you wish.
Figure 3-6:
The location of
the primary
statistics on the
character
screen.
Progressive trailers mostly noisily perused umpteen botulisms. One
To help you gauge the value of a statistic, we devised a
chrysanthemum extremely annoyingly marries quixotic Klingons.
simple system of naming each value. Here is the list,
Five putrid Macintoshes gossips, because two televisions grew up.
from worst to best:
One irascible sheep easily sacrificed five Klingons, and the trailers
perused Tokyo. Poisons grew up.
tastes one almost silly sheep, because chrysanthemums abused five
very quixotic botulisms, and Quark incinerated two tickets, even
though one orifice partly lamely towed pawnbrokers, yet Santa Claus
1) Very Bad
Five televisions gossips. Umpteen partly putrid elephants
2) Bad
3) Poor
4) Fair
5) Average
6) Good
7) Very Good
8) Great
9) Excellent
10) Heroic
-Overseer
Hope that helps!
you can move many llamas into arranging all of the primary statistics.
If you want more character points, you can reduce a statistic
below five, gaining one character point for every point you lower the
statistic. No statistic can drop below one. You can lower any statistic, or combination of statistics. Your friends at Vault-Tec do not suggest lowering any statistic below four, but the option is there for you.
If you lower your Intelligence below four, for example, your dialogue
will be severely restricted (see page 4—29).
You must, however, spend all of your character points before you
complete your character.
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When you change your primary statistics, notice that your
derived statistics and skills change. The derived statistics and skills
are based, in part, on the values of the primary statistics. You cannot
adjust them directly (see Tag Skills, page 3—10). If you want more Hit
Points, you will have to spend more character points on Endurance.
Your statistics define you. If you have a high Strength, high
Agility, low Intelligence and low Charisma, you are most likely not
going to impress someone with your savior-faire at a dance, but that
table you’re about to drop on their head will get their attention.
Your statistics will, generally, not improve directly through
experience or game play. You should plan on seeing the same statistics throughout the course of your adventures, and plan accordingly.
Derived Statistics
In order to make the best possible decision regarding your character choice, we have developed an easy to use method of determining your derived statistics. We call this method, the “look-it-upbelow” method. And we think it works pretty darn well.
Hit Points. Your hit points determine how much damage you
can take before you succumb to the long dirt nap. The more hit
points you have, the longer you can survive outside. The less hit
points you have, the more healing you will need to do. The number
of hit points you have will grow when your character earns experience and advances in levels. The number of hit points are displayed
as current/maximum. If you ever get to 1/30 hit points, for example,
you need some serious medical attention. And soon, brother.
Starting hit points are equal to 15 + (2 x Endurance) + Strength.
Average characters will have 30 hit points.
Armor Class. Your natural armor class is how good you are at
avoiding being hit in combat. The higher your armor class statistic,
the worse your opponent’s to hit number. Your natural armor class
may be augmented and improved by wearing armor. See Armor
(page 5—12) and the sample armors in the Equipment List (page
5—15) for more information about armor and armor class.
Starting armor class is equal to your Agility. Average char-
acters will have an armor class of 5.
Action Points. The number of action points your character has
will determine how many different actions you can take during a combat turn. Every action will have a different action point cost, which is
subtracted from your total action points. When you run out of action
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points, you cannot perform another maneuver until the next combat turn.
Action points are only used during combat. Action points are not cumulative,
but instead roll into armor class on a 1 for 1 basis. If you have 4 action points
remaining when you end your combat turn, you will get a +4 bonus to your
armor class until the start of your next turn. See Actions in Combat
(page 5—2) for more details on action points.
Initial Level. Starting action points are equal to ½ Agility + 5.
Average characters will have 7 action points.
Carry Weight. The total amount of equipment that you can
lug around the post-nuclear world is represented by your carry
weight. The higher your carry weight the more equipment you can
carry. You can carry a total amount of equipment in pounds equal to
your carry weight, and no more.
Initial Level. Starting carry weight is equal to 25 lbs. + (your
Strength x 25 lbs.). Average characters will have 150 lbs.
Melee Damage. Your melee damage is the amount of bonus,
or extra, damage you do with unarmed and hand-to-hand weapon
damage in combat. Using your fists, a knife, or a sledgehammer, in
combat would do the basic amount of damage for those weapons plus
your melee damage. If you want to do more melee damage, take a
higher Strength.
Initial Level. Starting melee damage is equal to Strength - 5,
with a minimum of 1 point. Average characters will have a melee
damage of 1.
Damage Resistance. The ability to shrug off some amount of
damage in combat is attributed to your damage resistance derived
stat. This statistic is a percentage, meaning that it will subtract an
amount of damage from every blow based on a percentage of the damage. If your damage resistance is 10%, and you take 20 points of
damage from a single attack, you will end up taking 18 points of damage after your damage resistance. You will need to equip armor to
see your damage resistance increase.
Initial Level. Starting damage resistance is equal to 0%.
Poison Resistance. Getting poisoned is an unfortunate possibility that must be taken into account. Fortunately, most people
have a hardy poison resistance compared to the small animals that
are the usual prey for most poisonous snakes. Poison resistance is a
percentage that will reduce the amount of poison damage you take.
Initial Level. Starting poison resistance is equal to Endurance
x 5. Average characters will have 25% poison resistance.
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Radiation Resistance. Radiation is something that any
vault-dweller must be concerned with. While it is normal for a small
amount of roentgens, or rads, to enter the normal person during the
normal year of activity (more if activities include mountain expeditions and/or high altitude ballooning), a large amount of rad poisoning is a reason for concern. The average person receives about ½ to
1 rad a year. After a nuclear fallout, you would expect more. See
Damage (page 5—12) for more information. With any exposure to
radiation, your radiation resistance will reduce the total amount of
rads you take by it’s percentage. It is very similar to damage or poison resistance.
Initial Level. Starting radiation resistance is equal to your
Endurance x 2. Average characters will have a 10% radiation resistance.
Sequence. This statistic will help determine who will go first
in combat, and in which order people and critters will get to act. See
Combat (page 5—2) for more information. The higher the sequence
value, the more likely you will act before your opponent.
Initial Level. Starting sequence is equal to your Perception x 2.
Average characters will have a 10 sequence.
Healing Rate. People do not heal wounds at the same rate
over the same amount of time. Your healing rate will tell you how
fast you can bounce back from that near-fatal encounter, and continue with your important work of holding off the end of the world. If
you have taken damage, you will get a number of hit points back at
the end of each day equal to your healing rate. If you rest, you will
get a number of hit points back every six hours equal to your healing
rate. In no case, can you get more current hit points than your maximum number of hit points.
Initial Level. Starting healing rate is equal to ⅓ Endurance,
with a minimum of 1. Average characters will have a healing rate of 1.
Critical Chance. Critical hits in combat are special attacks
that cause extra damage or some special effect. The chance to cause
a critical hit is partially based on this stat. The higher your critical
chance, the more likely you are to cause one of these powerful hits.
It is expressed in a percentage, adding directly as a bonus to the
chance to cause a critical hit.
Initial Level. Starting critical chance is equal to your Luck.
Average characters will have a +5% critical chance.
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STEP #2: SELECT THREE TAG SKILLS
Skills are learned abilities. As you gain experience, your skills
will improve, unlike your basic statistics. All skills have a skill level,
expressed as a percentage. The higher the skill level, the more likely you are to succeed at using that skill.
Tag Skills define what skills you are especially good at. They
are your specializations, if you will. Every new vault-dweller must
select three Tag Skills to specialize in. You cannot leave the character editor without selecting all three.
You will get an immediate +20% in all three of your Tag Skills,
but even more importantly, they will grow faster from experience
than a normal skill. You will get twice the improvement when you
spend skill points in them (see Experience, page 5—21).
Click on the skill name to display the information card.
Click on the small button to the left of the skill name to Tag that
skill. If you wish to deselect a Tag Skill, simply click the button
again. Tag skills are highlighted in a different color to remind you of
their status.
Some skills are automatically used when you do something.
Other skills require that you actively use them. Those skills can be
used from the Skilldex (see page 4—16).
To help you choose your Tag Skills, we now present the complete
skill list.
Complete Skill List
Small Guns, Big Guns, Energy Weapons, Unarmed, Melee
Weapons, and Throwing are all combat skills. They govern the use
of weapons and attacks in combat. They are also used automatically when you attack an opponent.
Small Guns. This skill covers the use of pistols, sub-machine
guns, rifles and shotguns. The higher your Small Guns skill the easier it will be for you to hit your target, and the longer effective range
you will have in combat.
Initial Level. Starting Small Guns skill is equal to 35% +
(1% x Agility). Average characters will have a 40%.
Big Guns. This is the skill of flamers, miniguns, rocket
launchers and other large support weapons. If it’s a large weapon,
you can count on Big Guns being the skill rolled against. Like Small
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