Duck and Cover

here we go again... post your questions or comments about OTB's sexyupcoming MOD

I got one. When can we play the demo?

How many new weapons are there, if any? And what are they?

Are the two demo maps linked together or totally seperate missions with no interconnected storyline/characters?[/u]

What's the size of each map compared to Quagmire?

How many pop culture references are there?

Slider wrote:How many pop culture references are there?

One that I can think of, and it was something that I just coudn't resist.

For the most part the references/allusions I make aren't to what you could call "pop culture". For instance, one of the squad members in the demo is named "Miles" and his description mentions that he's always patting himself on the back. That would be a reference to "Miles Gloriosus", the braggart soldier, one of the characters in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which was a Broadway musical made into a film in 1966.

In the actual campaign you will find a lot of references to Heinlein's books, though. That has something to do with the fact that he's probably my favorite Sci-Fi author, as well as the fact that a goodly portion of the campaign itself was inspired by his novel Friday. I've tried to avoid shoe-horning everything and anything that I've ever wanted to see in the FO universe into IOOI, though. That's the road to ruination right there.

OTB

OnTheBounce wrote:

Slider wrote:How many pop culture references are there?

One that I can think of, and it was something that I just coudn't resist.

For the most part the references/allusions I make aren't to what you could call "pop culture". For instance, one of the squad members in the demo is named "Miles" and his description mentions that he's always patting himself on the back. That would be a reference to "Miles Gloriosus", the braggart soldier, one of the characters in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which was a Broadway musical made into a film in 1966.

OTB

As long as it doesn't get too Pythonesque with Biggus Dickus, Sillius Soddus and Naughtius Maximus showing up !!!

On a serious note; what cultural influences do you guys think the BoS would have???

As TV and radio are long gone, I guess it would come from whatever books/records/CDs/videos/holodisks survived the war and the airship fleet disaster...

Would the scribes hoard just technical and scientific knowledge or would they have an interest in fiction/history/biographies/philosophy???

I can imagine that philosophical and religeous texts might be proscribed just in case the BoS rank and file started thinking outside of established BoS doctrine...

If Fallout universe history parted company from our Earth history in the 1950's, I can Greek mythology (Homer and the story of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae) being popular along with the history of the Crusades for the more learned and pulp westerns/American Civil War/WWI/WWII stories being favourites for the troops....

In reply to Victor

Viktor wrote:
As long as it doesn't get too Pythonesque with Biggus Dickus, Sillius Soddus and Naughtius Maximus showing up !!!

Hey, Monty Pythons is a good thing! Remember FO1?

Viktor wrote: Would the scribes hoard just technical and scientific knowledge or would they have an interest in fiction/history/biographies/philosophy???

I can imagine that philosophical and religeous texts might be proscribed just in case the BoS rank and file started thinking outside of established BoS doctrine...

Normally, i would say that after such a catastrophy, the last thing people would think of for a very long time would be science. However we already learned that this is a huge amount of the culture, so one has to assume that since they're having the time to revive/restore old technology one can only assume the would also restore some of the old tech related to literature and philosophy in general, even creating new masterpieces. Also since life in the ranks of BoS is kind of modern military, I would imagine people resorting in philosophy and literature to make their spare time more enjoyable.

Viktor wrote: If Fallout universe history parted company from our Earth history in the 1950's, I can Greek mythology (Homer and the story of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae) being popular along with the history of the Crusades for the more learned and pulp westerns/American Civil War/WWI/WWII stories being favourites for the troops....

I would also add Destorted History, since you have all these B-movies(which people if not having a history buff background would tend to believe), mixing Hercules and the lost Atlantis and so on. I wouldn't be surprised if in such a community you found books with titles as "Hercules vs Atlantis-A historical Analysis of the known Documentary".

Viktor wrote: As long as it doesn't get too Pythonesque with Biggus Dickus, Sillius Soddus and Naughtius Maximus showing up !!!

Don't worry, I'm taking care to avoid that. While I'm a fan of MP, I have to say that they really went overboard on the MP references, especially in FO2.

Viktor wrote: On a serious note; what cultural influences do you guys think the BoS would have???

I'm actually putting thing into my campaign that deal with this sort of thing. I'm basically giving the Scribes a bit more to do than simply wandering around the halls of bunkers jabbering on about how they just got back from a long march, or how they kept a bandit ear for good luck.

While I don't want to give anything of substance away, I will say that there is one Scribe in particular that you can talk to for more background information on missions, and he also expounds on things like the campaign background and the BoS (as I see them). He is also one holodisk hording mofo.

Viktor wrote: As TV and radio are long gone, I guess it would come from whatever books/records/CDs/videos/holodisks survived the war and the airship fleet disaster...

One thing I'd add is that since Mariposa survived the war unscathed and the BoS had its beginnings in the US Army, Field Manuals and regulations would probably have some cultural significance to them. This would hold most true for those manuals dealing with things like "AR 670-1 Wear and Appearance of the Uniform" and those ARs dealing with customs and courtesy. While I think that these would undoutedly have been rewritten over the course of roughly 120 years to deal with the BoS' particular circumstances and structures I think that some of these would probably be elevated to near religious levels. Basically, what Bertrand Russell termed "secular religion".

If you want to delve a little bit deeper into the BoS' Canon, you'd probably also find On War by Carl Maria von Clausewitz. Hell, they'd probably make Clausewitz the patron saint of Order of Knights, tacitly, if not explicitly.

Viktor wrote: Would the scribes hoard just technical and scientific knowledge or would they have an interest in fiction/history/biographies/philosophy???

People don't do well w/o recreation, and hence I think that the Scribes would latch onto "highbrow" entertainment and/or "geek culture" through their exposure to Antedeluvian technical literature.

One thing about Philosophy, since it's the mother of Science, I can't see how the Scribes could seperate the two after a while. After all, all of the things attributed to "scientists" or "mathematicians" prior to the 19th Century was really the work of philosophers, although in the some cases they were referred to as a type of philosopher, i.e. scientists were known as "Natural Philsophers". The subdivisions we're used to are a product of of our over-specialized conceptualization of things like career fields. I think that Scribes would tend to be more along the lines of "Rennaissance Men" (or Women).

I don't want to give anything away here, but you will see modified Real World titles from books popping up here and there. Some of them will simply be eye-candy/barter fodder while others will be improvement manuals.

Viktor wrote: I can imagine that philosophical and religeous texts might be proscribed just in case the BoS rank and file started thinking outside of established BoS doctrine...

I'm not sure about this. It really could go either way. On one hand, you have an organization that sends single squads in to clear out entire encampments of Super Mutants and it would seem that an organization that operated like this would rely heavily on personal initiative and creative thought. On the other hand, we have an organization that - at least as portrayed in FoT - can and will brutally put down any sign of rebellion.

Basically, I'd say that the BoS encourages "thinking inside the box", while also encouraging the "if you ain't cheatin' you ain't tryin'" ethic. Hey, it's a human organization, and as such suffers from the same contradictions - in some cases hypocracy - that individual humans do.

Personally, I'm playing the BoS along the lines of Neo-Liberals verging on Puritanism. (Remember that blackmail thing we (sort of) discussed, Viktor?)

Viktor wrote: If Fallout universe history parted company from our Earth history in the 1950's, I can Greek mythology (Homer and the story of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae) being popular along with the history of the Crusades for the more learned and pulp westerns/American Civil War/WWI/WWII stories being favourites for the troops....

If you ever get the chance, pick up the unabridged/uncensored version of Aesop's Fables put out by Penguin Classics. Basically, this edition undoes the damage done by the Victorians who took a set of classical works aimed at adults and turned them into children's fables. No sign of The Camel That Shat in the River in that edition you read as a child, eh? I can see the BoS having engaged in some of that sort of behaviour over the past 120 years.

Cheers,

OTB[/quote]

[quote="OnTheBounce]

If you ever get the chance, pick up the unabridged/uncensored version of Aesop's Fables put out by Penguin Classics. Basically, this edition undoes the damage done by the Victorians who took a set of classical works aimed at adults and turned them into children's fables. No sign of The Camel That Shat in the River in that edition you read as a child, eh? I can see the BoS having engaged in some of that sort of behaviour over the past 120 years.

[/quote]

That I just HAVE to read!! Cheers for the tip!

Those Victorians were a bunch of two faced bastards IMO....all decency and morals in public and 'enjoying' boys and goats while out of their faces on gin behind closed doors!

Guess that's what happens when you make an ugly, frigid old witch the Empress of half the planet....we were damn lucky Thatcher never got that much power!!