Combat with the Wild Dogs

Soskaid sat in the dusty bed of a long river, the dimming orange glow of the campfire mixing with the green light of her pitboy, barely illuminating her crude needle and thread. She slowly but deftly sewed the tear in her increasingly She tied off the knot and carefully trimmed the end of the thread with her knife. Satisfied with her handiwork, she rolled up her homemade sewing kit in a scrap of Brahman leather and carefully returned it to its place in her backpack . She arched her aching back, wincing slightly as she rubbed the growing bruise on her left hip, courtesy of her recent fall. She'd better get some sleep. It was still easily a day and a half travel to reach the Brotherhood outpost Saya had scribbled on her map, if even she was in fact going the right way. Regardless, all she could do was rest as much as she could and keep pushing forward throughout the day. She absent-mindedly reached out her right arm as she heard a small yawn next to her. Good boy, she said quietly as she tickled the warm shape between the ears. There was a quiet but contented lapping sound and another yawn. Saskaiid held her pistol to her chest, tucked under her heavy coat, and lay down on her side to close her eyes. Hello and welcome back to a wasteland story, the show that combines live actual play solo role-playing with some voice narrative. My Pipboy tells me that we had a bunch of new listeners join last episode where Sasuke had found herself a prisoner and scapegoat in the very town she'd just helped save from a mutant attack. And if you're a new listener joining on this episode. Just so you know, this is an ongoing narrative and will make a whole lot more sense if you jump back and catch up from episode 1. Tension, politics, and the nasty plot are rising their greedy heads, and as we continue our story, our heroine is soon to find herself alone again in the desolate wastes. Well, not quite alone . Okay , episode four uh five. The wasteland story . Now last time was pretty interesting we had E. O. Riley's sister, who was sick, turn into a supermutant, come crashing out of the house , right ? Who clearly is involved in this. The character doesn't know, but we know that there's something to do with the FEV, which is turning people into supermutants, and this right character is clearly involved. Suske thought that she was going to be doing a few quests to help the settlement, but instead things got turned on their head, as I'm learning Mythic likes to do, which is really cool. And um the young charismatic leader of the settlement, A. O. Riley , was shot in the confusion, as he was trying to restrain his super mutant sister, and immediately Wright pointed to the outsider Soscaid, who had her gun drawn when the Supermutant came out as the shooter of the settlement leader. Clearly a political ploy for right to overthrow and take control of the settlement. When we left, Saskayid got dragged off into the uh prison or the cell in the sheriff's office or whatever. And as she went, youthful Corey slipped her some bobby pins and whispered midnight to her. And as she was being dragged off, Soskade noticed Corey and Saya north sharing a glance and a nod . They clearly knew something was going on and they were half expecting a political overthrow. So let's see what's gonna happen. The expected scene is that Saskai id is sitting in prison waiting the day out in order to see what happens at midnight. I think the expected scene is that at midnight um Corey is going to arrange... Corey and Sa ya are gonna arrange for a shift of of the guard shifts to change or something like that. And give Suskate an opportunity to escape and meet her on the outskirts of the city. That's what I expect is gonna happen . So just gonna write that down . Okay, so let's see if the expected scene plays out. The thin rays of dusty light that had been feebly squeezing their way through the boarded up window of her cell had now completely fad ed. Saskaiid pulled herself up and peered out at the letterboxed view presented there. From here, she could see through one of the gaps in the wall that hadn't yet been refitted after the explosion the day before. She could just see the glow of the red sun above the lip of the dust bowl in which New Ark sat. She figured it meant she had about two and a half hours until midnight. She counted under her breath. One little sussy. Two little sussy . Just like her father used to get her to do in her live fire training, as he'd called it. She remembered fondly struggling to hold up his rifle far too big for the little girl that she'd been . A sound outside the cell interrupted her memories, and she waited tensely, but nothing happened. She began marking off every 15 minutes by making a line in the dust with her boot and wiping it clean on the fourth line before starting anew. Trying to do it as subtly as possible so as not to alert the two bored-looking guards sat on rickety chairs outside the cell door . She thought back to the speech that bastard Wright had made to the confused and scared settlers before the sun had set. So Soskia's sitting there waiting in the cells, and while she's in there, she hears through the bars in the window. Wright has collected all the townspeople and he's making a speech about the danger of outsiders. He talks about the brewing conflict between the two raider gangs, the Awn Dogs and the Rent Boys, and the need for um a new leader who can maybe raise an army to defend the settlement of Newar k . And he says while they're finding a democratically elect a democratically elected leader who is strong enough to defend the settlement, he will temporarily take charge and start creating plans and maybe building an army, which probably is going to be super mutants, is my guess, to defend the village. Wright hadn't wasted any time in capitalizing on the confusion and fear amongst the community. He had clearly planned for this moment. Just waiting for the set of circumstances that would allow him to make his play . So, testing the expected scene roller D10 compared to the Chaos Factor . We need some D10s . Black is the 10s. So we're gonna roll a D10. So the chaos is currently 6 . We roll a 10. So the expected scene plays out. It was now completely dark outside. She wiped the last tally clear with her foot and stood up, straining her ears against the rust of the bars, but heard nothing. She crouched and inspected the lock on the cell door in the pale moonlight, noticing that the guards seemed to have drifted off. She could see straight through. A pretty simple lock, hopefully, she thought to herself as she pushed the bobby pin that had been in her cheek out through her lips and hid it in her hand . Five more minutes, she thought. And if no sign came then she'd pick the lock and make a break for it. So Sasuke's sitting in the cell. The guards are there, she can see her backpack sitting on the desk outside her cell. She's not talking, she doesn't do anything, she accepts the food and water that the guards bring her. So she's still pretty rested and all that. And at midnight, do the guards leave? Is the distraction is the plan of young Corey that he manages to get the guards out of there for a shift change or something to give Saskaiid a chance to escape? I think it's very likely that that's the plan. So 85 . That is a five. So not only is it's an extreme yes. So basically there's some Soskaid's ears pricked up as she heard the door to the small shack which contained her tiny cell creak open. Both guards stood up abruptly and raised their pistols, and then suddenly relaxed as one said, Ah, it's you. Fucked you on freak . There were two soft little sounds, and both guards raised their pistols again. What the fuck and I think the guards don't actually just leave, but rather they both at the same time collapse and fall asleep. So Corey's done something to drug them. At practically the same time both guards collapsed back into their chairs, one of them cracking his head on the corner of the table as he sat . Ouch, came a familiar raspy voice. Youthful Corey came into view and winked at her as he tucked a strange, pointy looking pistol into the back of his belt. He bent down for a second and came to the cell door. We don't have much time, rasped the ghoul, the glint in his eye still there, but slightly buried under worry, and a bit of bubbling skin. It's an extreme yes, so ick, so the guards collapse and fall asleep, she hears snoring, and then there's a clank as the keys get thrown over to her cell and she sees Corey in the doorway The heavy keyring hit the cell floor and slid right up to the doorway. Corey was already back at the door of the shack, peering around the corner. I could have picked that lock, you know, said Soskade, somewhat unfairly irritated as she picked up the keys and opened the cell door. Corey didn't answer but beckoned with his finger. Soskade grabbed her backpack off the small crooked desk between the two incapacitated guards, carrying Doorway. So she quickly unlocks the um unlocks the cage. She has a bit of time because it was an extreme, yes. So she gets out and she follows him in the dark to the meeting point the place is completely empty around there, so whatever he did he managed to clear the way and knock the guards out. Sneaking through the deserted town, Saske had followed Corey closely, ducking between buildings and sticking to the shadows, they came out a small hidden gap in the back fence and made their way over the rise without speaking. And when they get just outside of town, they um also meet say a north who's also waiting there , and they say something along the lines of um, you know, we expected this was going to happen. Um, we can't let him take over and get a political hold because he's going to do bad stuff and it's gonna be bad for everyone. Outside the bounds of Newark, waiting for them under a lonely and long deceased tree, was Saya North, dimly illuminated in some kind of green light. Saya nodded at Corey as they both made their way up to her. We haven't officially met , she said as she extended a hand. Saskade took it. Say a north, she said gruffly. Suskade , she replied. After a few long moments, Saskade slightly awkwardly retrieved her hand. Saya was giving her a hard long stare and didn't seem fazed by Saskade's discomfort. We don't have much time, interjected Cory , ending the long moment. We need to get back to where we are expected to be so as not to raise any suspicion. Saya nodded and put her still outstretched hand in her pocket The Brotherhood were here recently, and although I don't have any particular love for those righteous bastards, we need their help to come and cool this mess before right gets a firm grip on our town. As she spoke, Saya was fiddling with a strange device unlike anything Soske had ever seen before. It looked like a miniature version of the terminal her father had kept on his workbench back in the village, but built into a kind of chunky armband. It emitted a sickly green glow . Why would the Brotherhood want to help Newmark? said Soskeyad as she watched the little screen with fascination as Saya ticked through various options and finally brought up a picture of a very happy-looking thumbs-up holding figure. Soskead could have sworn it winked at her. So Corey and Saya say that what Soskead needs to do if she wants to help the village, and can she please, she needs to go and find the brother hood of Steel , and they're the only ones who can come and uh get things back in order because they're aware of this FEV thing a little bit, and they know that the Brotherhood of Steel are on the case, as it were . Corey was looking nervous and kept peeking back over the rise towards the town . I don't mean to rush you, sir, but I think there's some I have some hard fought information on Wright that the Brotherhood will be very interested in. If they want to uphold their creed, they won't be able to ignore it. Damn it. Saya banged the side of the device a couple of times, and Soskey had noticed the little figure was now frowning and waggling his finger from the little screen. She must have disabled the map module so no one could track them. Clever. Saya muttered to herself and then stopped and looked up suddenly at Suskade. So let me see my map . Um I've got a map, said Soskade quietly. Does this help? She said as she handed it over. The meeting's finished. Whispered Cory. We gotta move, Sayah. And they say that the Brotherhood of Steel is located. Let's ask. I'd say it's a fair way away. Let's say it's up in so up north . That's a city. Let's say . Uh okay, so this they say that she needs to make her way northe ast to the town of Springfield, which is the Brotherhood of Steel base. So I'm gonna mark that on this map here . Here Springfield, said Saya, handing the map back roughly, thumb and forefinger, clutched on a spot a little north from the wonky circle with Newark scrolled above it. Soske had pulled a pen from her bag labelled Rob Co. Space Rider Pen of the F uture, and hastily circled the spot that Saya had been holding there. Here, grunted Saya as she slipped the strange device over Suskade's left arm. No time to show you how to use it, but you'll figure it out. It clipped tightly on to her arm and let out a happy little beep. Her elevated heartbeat started pulsing away on the top right corner of the little screen, with a little label saying, Relax, it might never happen, appearing underneath it. So it's just a small outpost . So I reckon that that is about using my very technical measurement of how many dice it is. One, two, it's three days travel. Um it's probably a couple of dried up rivers to cross. Okay. Soskiad is gonna set out. They also have for her um they bring her some supplies. There's a hunting rifle which I'm very excited about which is a modded hunting rifle given to her by say a North and a Pip Boy Also given to her by Sayonorth, something that she's been she'd found and she'd repaired or whatever. Suskaid could see a faint glow coming from back at Newark as some light started to come on. One last thing, said Saya. This is yours. She unzipped a long duffel type bag and pulled out Susqueade's hunting rifle, the one she'd used to defend New Ark. I got my hands on it in the confusion of your arrest. I uh tuned it up for you, made a few adjustments. And so that is gonna give Susquehid her hunting rifle, which we're going to do a nice little mod four. Let's see a random mod for the hunting rifle . So there are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven types of mods. I'm gonna roll a d8. It is a barrel mod. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight . So three . It is a long barrel, excellent. So that increases range by one step. A little note here on range and how it works in Fallout 2D20. For some background, there are a few different ways that you can play out things like movement and combat in an RPG. So when playing an RPG, there's generally a point in the story when characters' surroundings become important. Things like navigating a dungeon or having a tavern brawl , for example, and there are a few different ways that the GM can represent that for the players. Most basically, you have no physical representation at all. The GM can simply describe the scene and surroundings, giving you a basic idea of relative distances of things like enemies or doors or whatever. But another way that a lot of people like to do it is to have a grid of some sort with miniature figures or tokens or something to represent the players, enemies and surroundings and so on. And in this case, when you deal with range, whether it be movement or weapon range, it'll be represented as a number of squares that the character can move or fire. In this Fallout 2D20, it works a little bit like a combination of the two, so instead of having a grid and set distances, you break the general area down into things called zones. This will become important later. From the factory door to the first row of cars in the car park, might be one zone, for example, and beyond thoses c toast the oncoming Doom of the Death Claw might be the next zone. Weapons are most effective when used in their ideal range, same zone, one zone away, two zones away, whatever. And if shooting outside those ideal ranges, you'll increase the difficulty of the shot. Soskade's new modded hunting rifle, for example, will make her more effective at shooting into the next zone away from her, but less effective when enemies are right up close. Excellent, because I like the idea that she's a bit of a Soskaid took the weapon reverentially. It was beautiful work. The pitted barrel had been completely replaced with a harder, longer one, and she could immediately tell that the metal had recently been shiny but, that much care had been taken to sand it down and take the sheen off . So you don't glint in the moonlight and give yourself away so easily, said Saya, watching Soskaid carefully as she ran her hand over the dulled metal . I also took a bit of material off the stock so it fits your hands a bit better. Suska had lifted the rifle to her eye and tested out the new balance of weight distribution. I like it, she said. She sided over the ridge back at Newark and saw that there certainly was more movement there now. Corey was looking anxious. She'll give you a bit of extra range now, Saya said, nodding toward her handiwork as she picked up her th ings and started heading off with Corey . In my experience, if you have to get in a fight, you're better off being as far away from the bastards as possible. If they are still standing and get closer, make sure you give yourself time to draw your pistol Saya stopped and turned as they got to the top of the rise. Find the brotherhood. Tell them I sent you and what happened. Good luck . Before Suskade could answer, both figures disappeared over the rise, and she was once more alone . Collecting her new equipment together, Soskaid headed off in the direction Saya had pointed out as north. After walking for a minute or two, the Pip Boy beeped gently and she noticed that the screen had turned into a compass. She stopped to check her map and adjusted her heading slightly until the little figure on the screen's finger was pointing a few degrees to the east side of n orth. Now basically the Pip Boy is going to allow her to always have a torch, which will be useful. And it'll allow her to play holotapes, which will be important . And it has a Geiger counter in it, so she can tell if there's radiation nearby. Which is good. Okay. After a few hours of walking, the clicks of the built-in Geiger counter started becoming more numerous. She was familiar with this. Her father had had a simple Geiger counter for detecting radiation, but it had worked in much the same way. In the dim light in the middle distance, she could make out a depression in the ground where the radiation appeared to be coming from. She adjusted her heading again until she found a direction with less clicks so that she could go around the danger zone. She took a moment to make a note of her map of the radiation spot . Okay . And then they send her off. They mark on her map um Springfield where they say they think there's a Brotherhood of Steel outpost , and they say that she has to go and find them, explain what's been going on. It's gonna be tricky because they're kind of looking for her, they don't know what she looks like, but they know someone took the gear of six fish. She has his dog tags, so maybe she's gonna pretend to be him, I'm not sure . And so with that she, packs up her stuff and sets off on the three-day journey to the Brotherhood of Steel Outpost. Suskade had walked all through the night, her head simultaneously f ull of questions and empty. She felt again that hollow feeling of being alone . Pipboy. As she walked, Suscaid saw a little of interest. A few dried up riverbeds, some skeletons of trees, but no real landmarks to speak of. She hoped she was going the right way. Okay. So we got a three day journey here. Um I am gonna roll up some weather and I made a cool little weather chart, which is a work in progress , but I haven't printed it yet, so bear with me . He says to no one, because this will be edited out. Ha! Joke's on you past, PJ. The way this chart works is we're gonna roll a D6 um 2D6 , which will tell us what the starting weather is, and then each day the weather is going to move up or down that chart, creating a bit of a natural change in weather. So the weather today it's been fine, cool and clear. She's traveling northe ast um through the night until the early hours of the morning to get just outside of Newark to um she's sort of following a road so she gets up to Rice Hill? And we see if she encountered anything along the way. She was following the little pointing hand of the figure on her pit boy heading slightly northeast, but perhaps she'd gone too far off track when avoiding the radiation spot earlier? She'd thought she'd accounted for the detour, but now doubt started to creep into her mind. Let's see how far she gets . One centimeter is 60 miles. Is the terrain normal? Looks 50-50 on the map. Yep . The terrain's normal. In fact, that is a extreme yes, which means it's very easy to travel. So we'll say it's open to rain. She has nine plus agility, so she can do six miles an hour. And this far is about sixty miles . So she's travelling northeast for six miles an hour. Yeah, exactly. She gets to Rice Hill. After a while she found a pre war road that loosely ran in the direction she wanted to head. She stopped after a few hours when she finally came across a rusted and peeling sign. Ice high was all she could make out in the pale green light of her pit boy. Under a crude approximation of Fanged Teeth was scrawled the word dog s, and in a different coloured paint, an inexpertly sprayed phallic symbol pointing towards it. She stopped and checked her map. Sutherland, Elkton, there, Rice Hill. It was on the way to Springfield. She could continue along this road all the way there by the look of things . A breeze started to pick up all of a sudden. She had the feeling of the hairs standing on the back of her wrists. Just a breeze, she thought to herself. And then we roll to see if there's an encounter, and we do roll a random encounter. So let's see what that is . The breeze dropped suddenly and Suskade stood map in hand rooted to the spot. She became aware of a faint tearing sound off the side of the road. Eight wild dogs. So we come across a pack of wild dogs. The light was slowly starting to brighten and Soske had thought she could see a hint of silhouettes. No, just a stump or a bush, she thought. She slowly slid the map back into her suit and with the other hand drew her pistol. It's just now coming up morning . Let's see what the scene is so let's see what she's come across. D4 . It's a small location, tiny location . Let's say it's it's small. So it's it's uh some sort of traveller or a ghoul or something like that that these dogs are ripping into. The hair stood up tall on the back of her neck now. She tried desperately not to move a muscle. Always know the fight you're getting into before you make your move. She repeated her father's words to herself and fought the urge to run . Let's see how many dogs there are . Wild dog s . So dogs are common across the wasteland, one of the few creatures who've not succumbed entirely to mutation as a species . Okay , are the dogs aggressive? I think it's likely that they're aggressive . Are the dogs aggressive? Because they are chewing into a wastelander, but maybe they're distracted from the eating, so are they aggressive? 36, yes, they are aggressive. Sasuke closed her eyes and focused on where the sound was coming from, straining her ears against the increasing volume of her own heartbeat. Does she see the dogs ? Does she see the dogs before they see them? So that's perception survival is eleven. Difficulty one. Two, okay, so she does see the dogs before they see them. There. Over to the right. She turned her head towards the sound and opened her eyes. A low huddle of shadows pulsating slightly about thirty meters away next to a small mound that she'd mistaken as a stump. She heard a faint growl. Docks. Suske had clenched her pistol before reminding herself to remain in control. Her grip relaxed slightly So she sees the dogs and I wonder is she gonna try and fight them ? There are two dog s. Is she gonna try and fight them? And maybe so that she she can scavenge the little tent and the body? Or is she going to sneak past? Sosuke had relaxed a little further as she noticed the breeze was taking her scent away from the wild animals. They seemed to be too busy tearing into some luckless soul to have noticed her yet. She could probably change tack and make a wide b erth around them. She could only count two, but if she took them on, she knew it could quickly get out of control. On the other hand, if she left them there, they could maybe track her to where she ended up camping. Now they have eight hit points. She could probably take one out with her new rifle before they come. I think she's gonna try and take them out. No. She should secure her advantage while she has it. Anyway, perhaps there was something useful on the body, or what she now realized was a tent. She had no idea how long she'd be out here, if the Brotherhood were even going to be at Springfield, and she didn't have many supplies as it was. Okay , she thought to herself, you can do this. Make it count. At this stage she doesn't know how long she's gonna be travelling. She's gonna want to maybe get some more food, so maybe some dog meat. No pun intend ed, and she really wants any help she can get. So she is going to she's on a little ridge, she's at long distance from the dogs. Um she positions herself there. Is she able to sneak in order to get in position? Soska ahead carefully lay her backpack down and settled herself as quietly as possible onto her elbows. She reached to the strap on her shoulder of the newly modified hunting rifle to get it off her back. She could see shapes more clearly now as the sun made its way above the horizon . I think it's likely so we're gonna say difficulty one. That'll be agility . So that's a twelve . So she doesn't. As she went to unsling the rifle, it slipped and hit the ground with a gentle thud next to her. Shit, she said to herself as she noticed one of the shapes look up. A bone chilling growl filled the air before being joined by another one. She tries to sneak around to get in position of the dogs, and they catch her scent or they hear her something, and the dogs look up. Do the dogs stop what they're doing and attack? I think it's very likely . Yes they do. Sasuke had scrambled to her feet now that her cover was blown and picked up the rifle, breathing heavily. So both immediately the dogs start running up towards them. Okay. Two dark shapes moved in a coordinated pattern towards her, one pulling off slightly to the side as the other came in a straight shot. So now we're in combat, the dogs are fast and they're dashing at this stage, which means per turn they can cover two zones. We're only two zones away because we didn't get a chance to get in the ideal position for long range. This is this is really not very good for Soskaid. Soskaid sighted down her rifle at the dog coming on the left, then at the one straight ahead of her. They were moving too fast. If they got in close range before she was able to draw her pistol, she'd be in trouble. Fuck it, she said, and she dropped the rifle to the dust at the same time she drew her pistol. They have four hit points, initiative ten, so she gets them on initiative at least. She's gonna use a minor action to draw her ten millimeter , um, and she's going to shoot at one of the dogs. Pick your target, don't get distracted, she whispered to herself as she tried to ignore the ever nearing dog on her left and concentrate only on the one coming at her. The 10 millimeter has a fire rate of two, which means we can spend more bullets to do more damage. At the moment we're rolling four things, so I think we're gonna do that . We're gonna spend two bullets . 238, we have 21 of them. So we're gonna expend an additional two bullets, meaning do ing three shots , do we hit ? We have small guns , agility, and small guns. So target number 13. It is a difficulty one, but I think because it's running at her, it's going to be more difficult. It's a difficulty two. We're going to spend an action point to try and get it. Time slowed again as Sosuke had tracked the snarling animal with her pistol. She could see the second one out of the corner of her eye swerve from the side to come at her flank. She had to ignore it. If she could take one out, she might have a chance. So we need to hit a 13 . Two successes. Sasuke let her breath go as she squeezed the trigger in three rapid shots, accounting for the recoil and maintaining the trajectory of the dog's path. She could see the yellow in its eyes and the drool on its jaw. Excellent, so we get a six and eleven, so those the two successes. She does hit. The dog whimpered as it fell face first and slid slightly from its momentum, throwing up a small cloud of dust into the morning twilight. We're doing four dice worth of damage plus an extra two because she spent two extra bullets. The dogs have four hit points and no damage resistance. One, two, three, four, five, six. So that is definitely a kill . She hits the dog, not that it matters, but she hits the dog in the right leg. So she takes a couple of shots, she's aiming as the dogs come over the hill, and she aims at the dog, she's terrified at this point, she takes bam bam bam three shots, it hits the dog in the leg, it falls, and then the second two shots hit the dog in the head and it lies still dead. Soskade allowed herself just a second to see if the animal would get up. It didn't even twitch. She turned to face the now dangerously close second opponent. It does not phase the second dog. The second dog keeps running at her. It spends its turn moving into position and then it attacks her. So it leaps at her, and let's see if it hits. It is doing a bite. Target number eight. Soskiad has a defense of two, so it has two difficulty . It does not attack. So it jumps for her. She swung her pistol around to the side with both hands just as the dog leapt for her throat. She turned again just before it connected and it hit the ground running on her opposite side. a tight arc in the dust for a second attack. Suskaraide manages to dodge out of the way and the dog kind of stumbles and slides behind her and turns around. Suskaraid's turn again, it's now in close range. Is she gonna go with the knife ? Or she's gonna go with a gun again. So she's shooting, she's gonna use an extra fire r ate. It's now difficulty one to hit because it's sort of stationary, and she uses an extra Trigger twice in a row. That is one hit. So that is a success. Get to re-roll one . Okay, so one success. She does hit the dog. She gets to use four, five dice for damage . One, two, three. So she hits it for three. It still has two hit points left. And she's now spent five bullets. The dog whimpered as the two shots hit it in its side. It already had moment um, however, and kept on coming, this time rising on its back legs to try and grab her torso and drag her down . The dog then gets up and it's gonna attack again. So difficulty two to hit her . Oh, it gets her. It rolls a crit . Just to clarify things here, since I've been throwing the word crit around somewhat willy-nilly in this episode, in most RPGs, specifically those that work with a bit a target number to hit mechanics such as DD, rolling the best possible value on a die usually means that you automatically succeed on the attack and generally get to add another bonus of some sort, extra damage for example. Since Fallout 2D20 adjusts the difficulty by asking players to roll a number of successes, as opposed to decreasing the odds of hitting or besting a target number, rolling the best result on a die, in this case a one, isn't necessarily a critical hit. It does mean you get two successes on that one die, which certainly increases your chances of successfully hitting, but since a difficult task could require three or even four or five successes, it's not an automatic hit. In this case, instead, a hit is considered to be critical in fallout when you roll five or more damage in a single roll of the damage dice, and then you get some extra benefit depending on whereabouts you hit the enemy . My heart is yours . Despite herself, Suske Ed let out her own whimper as she felt the dog's jaws close around the heavy jacket hanging just above her hip . She felt the weight of it catch her as it engaged its back legs and tried to swing her to the ground with a strong twist of its lean but powerful neck. Leaps at her again and it is attacking her in the torso, so it leaps straight at her body and it is straight up do ing three points of damage. Happily, she has three physical damage resistance. So it doesn't go through. Um I think I'm gonna I'm gonna make it so that her armor and stuff can be damaged . So yeah, so that's it. Hits her in the torso, it doesn't go through. Thankfully, she has her heavy coat on and she has a couple of other layers of clothing underneath and the dog's teeth aren't able to penetrate it. But does it knock her over? I think it's likely . Y Yes, 62. Sasuke had felt her centre of gravity shift as her legs lost contact with the ground and she fell heavily on her side. The dog, letting go for a second, having achieved its goal of bringing her down, paused as it seemed to realize the pain from the earlier shots, and snarled again, ready to go in for the kill on its prone victim . So it does although it doesn't hurt her, it does knock her over Ah Soske had grunted as she tried to push the gnashing jaws far enough away from her neck to be able to get her gun into position. Her whole world was engulfed in a hot, wet snarling and the stink of rotting meat from the steaming jaws of the wild dog. She wasn't strong enough to hold the beast off for more than a couple of seconds, she knew. She couldn't even get to her knife if she wanted to. Her arm is still free, she's still using her gun. I'd say it's more difficult to hit because it's on top of her, so it's now a difficulty two. Tag skill of 13. I don't think we can aim because let's see if she can push the dog off first with the minor action to throw the dog. Difficulty two to throw the dog off. Seven and eight. Difficulty two to hit with the small guns. Um we will use an action point to roll an extra dice because we really can't afford to get injured too much. We don't know what else is gonna happen. So 13 to hit, we have six, two, fifteen. Okay, this is great. She felt the short barrel of her 10mm press up against the flesh of the crazed animal just as the strength in her arm left her. As she felt the weight of the dog rise on her chest yet again, she closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. Three successes, gaining as a hit point, uh, an action point back, and she hits the dog for five. That's a critical shot to the dog. So the dog is lying on top of her in the right leg, and she manages to sort of hold it still with one arm and then bring her gun up around. I'm doing all the actions here. Bring the gun up around and aim up through the right leg of the dog, which is and she pulls the trigger and the bullet goes through the chest of the dog, killing it instantly. She had only just gotten lucky. The dog had nearly slipped past her gun on its way to her throat, and she had managed to pull the trigger just in time to perform the killing shot. But she's tired now. So she picks herself up. She's pretty sh aken . Um she looks around to see if there are any more dogs . Are there any more dogs? I think it's unlikely because they were all there forty seven There is another dog Sosuke had pulled herself up and sat heavily in the dirt, breathing hard . Her side hurt. She threw off her jacket and unzipped the faded blue vault suit, wincing as she pulled out her left arm, then her right out of the tight sleeves. Pulling the top down, she appreciated the cool morning breeze evaporating the thin layer of sweat on her skin. She inspected her skin where the rip was and where it had hurt the most. Thankfully, there was just an already forming bruise. The dog's teeth hadn't gotten through the two layers of clothing. At least she didn't have to worry about rabi es. She blew out a deep breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. It was then she heard another faint whimper. I wonder if it's dog meat. I think it is. So as she's picking herself up and looking around, she notices that lying with its head just outside of the tent, while the other dogs were ripping apart this body the Suskey had froze. Her pistol was out of immediate reach, inadvertently dropped to the dust to her right. The hunting rifle lay a few meters further away where it had fallen when she'd drawn the pistol. Stupid, she thought to herself, relaxing before making sure the threat was entirely gone. This is where Susqued meets Dogmeat. Dogmeat, for those who don't know, is a famous companion from both the original Fallout games. I think Dogmeat's probably in all the Fallout games. I'm not sure what type of dog just yet. I sort of have a picture of her in my head. I'll come back to that. Sosgayed and the prone animal looked at each other, both panting. She slowly got to her feet and watched the dog's reaction. It flapped itself even further to the ground, and so she slowly took steps towards it, handheld out, trying to make her movements calm and unthreatening. So she goes up and she can really she can tell that um the dog is is not aggressive. She goes up and puts her hand out and the dog meat comes out and then licks her hand and she gives it a bit of fo od . Let's say she had a squirrel on a stick that was given to her by s by um young Corey and Sayonorth. And so she feeds it to the dog and says, There you are, boy. And he happily licks her hand , wolfs down the food and licks her hand, and sits down in front of her and wags. I think it's a boy. Good boy. Good boy, Suske had said as she tickled the dog's head while it gratefully gulps down the crispy squirrel she'd shimmer offed its stick. He finished his snack, more energetic now, and sat in front of her, panting expectedly. That's a good boy, she repeated. She patted him again and said quietly, Sorry about this, but I'm hungry too. So this is as good a spot as any for her to rest a bit. So she can do an endurance plus survival test with a difficulty of zero. Uh so I can roll for it if I want to generate action points, or I can just not and take it. So that will be five , eight. I do risk a complication. Let's try it. I'm gonna roll one die . No, okay, doesn't matter. We get it. So she gets one portion of mongrel meat from the first dog . 19, that was close, and one portion from the second. Soske looked over her shoulder as she cut some chunks of meat from the other dogs. The dog was happily chewing on the discarded stick from the squirrel she'd left on the ground. Do you have a name? She said absent mind edly over her shoulder. I never thought I'd be so excited to eat dog meat, she said to herself. The dog looked up. Dog meat? she said again. The dog tilted its head to the side. Okay, dog meat it is, she said as she collected her things and started to clear a small patch in the dust to light a cooking fire. She has two portions of mongrel meat. Immediately I'm only gonna write down one because she is going to um cook one of them up while she rests. She's also gonna drink some water , purified water , and she's just gonna rest for a few hours in and around the tent. Before she does though, she's gonna scavenge this tent. So it's a small, a tiny thing, say it's residential. Um it's untouched, it hasn't been searched because it was just set up by this guy . That's gonna be a it doesn't have two four six. There's no beverages and there's no clothing. So there's one food, two junk , and one other. Let's see what the other is . The other is armor. We're gonna see what that armor is in a minute. I like that she maybe is going to build up some leather armor on top of her vault su it and under her coat. There's also two junk . Let's see what the armor is . I don't think it was a raider this guy. Let's say leather armor . He wasn't a soldier. So there's one piece of armor. Let's see on the rarity. Man, how does rarity work ? Okay, so rarity is you roll equal to your luck sk ill, and how many effects you roll. So we have five luck , we get one effect. So there is only either a chess piece, a leg, or an arm . It is a leather chest piece . Food, there was food, there was some, so the food there is a food packet . Um there was two junk . So there's a potential of wow thirty two pieces of junk. It's crazy . Okay, so then we're gonna roll 32 dice. See how many we get. So there is one, two , nine , ten. 10 pieces of common junk. So scavenging is an aspect in Fallout that I really love and wanted to utilize in this campaign. I really like the survival aspect, so I wanted things like food and ammunition to be quite scarce, and things like junk, which can be broken down to modify equipment to be meaningful. Because this RPG is based on the later games, the survival component is a little underplayed compared to the older ones. So in order to give me that feel, I just reduce the amount of stuff that my character actually found, both because I'm only playing one character and things would usually be split between a larger party, but also because if you play rules as written, you tend to end up walking around with a backpack full of weapons and metal armour and whatnot, which is exactly what happens in the later games. That's fine. But for me, it kind of takes away that survival experience. So just an example that if your RPG is not giving you quite the flavor you're looking for, you can always just change it. It's great. This junk Soscaids collecting can be turned into useful items and mods if she can find a workbench somewhere, something that I get deeper into in later episodes, especially when I add some elements from one of the supplements, but we'll talk about that when it all happens. Okay . So she's made a friend. She's got a bit of meat. She's now rested . Um, with dog meat. Eat up some food, hopefully be well rested, and then see what happens. Does anyone come into the camp as something happen? Or will she be free to continue her journey? Soscaid sat in the still bed of a long dried-up river, the dimming orange glow of the campfire mixing with the green light of her pitboy as it barely illuminated her crude needle and thread. Satisfied with her work and feeling rested, she stood up and stretched, picked up her backpack, slung her rifle over her shoulder, and looked off towards the midmorning sun. Dogmeat stood up, wagged his tail, and looked at her expectantly. Excuse me, young lady. Sasuke jumped at the voice and swung around, pistol in hand. Dogmeat growled. Thank you for joining me today on another episode of A Wasteland Story. I had a heap of fun making this episode as always, and if you enjoyed it, let someone know. You can let me know by emailing me at awastelandstorypodcast at gmail.com, or you can find me, PJ Sack, hanging around in the solo RPG Reddit threads. You can let other people know as well, and you can do that by giving the show a rate and a review, going over to someone's house and telling them, post about it somewhere perhaps, anything like that that will help more people find the show and continue to grow and support this wonderful community of solo roleplayers. Speaking of solo roleplayers, I've launched another show. You can find the Solo RolePlayers podcast on the radio channel of your Pip Boy and listen into some great interviews I did with some of the content creators in the community. So far, I've got up chats with Man Alone and board games with Thomas, but I've got future episodes coming featuring John from Tale of the Manticore and Tana Pigeon, the author of Mythic herself. I've also done a more live-style actual play of Dragonbane, which I plan to release soon , and a few other interesting ideas as well. That's the Solo Roleplayers podcast, give it a search, give it a listen, and reach out if there's any particular interview or game that you'd like to hear about on there. Next time on a Wasteland story, we'll continue Suskade's journey with her new companion to find the Brotherhood of Steel outpost and tell them what the hell has been going on down in Newark. With absolutely no complications whatsoever. Thank you as always to the wonderful Fallout Cascadia for letting me use some of their great music, and check out all the links and credits in the description for more detail on everything that I used in the episode. I've been your host, PJ, and until next time, while wandering in the wasteland, don't forget to be nice to the dog. Good boy.