Fallout followers have an opportunity to return to the Commonwealth in Winter of Atom, a brand new marketing campaign e-book for Modiphius Leisure’s Fallout: The Roleplaying Recreation. Winter of Atom builds on the muse of the tabletop system, offering tons of lore and encounters within the post-apocalyptic society constructed round Boston. There’s a warfare brewing within the Commonwealth, and it’s as much as your plucky gang of heroes to avoid wasting the day — or seize energy for themselves.
As discerning lore followers might have guessed from the title, the Kids of Atom — who present up in each Fallout 3 and 4 — play a distinguished position within the marketing campaign e-book.
“I went to the Kids of Atom instantly as a result of they’ve at all times been one in every of my favourite teams,” mentioned Donathin Frye, lead narrative designer at Mophidius, in an interview with Polygon. “I wished to method it in a method the place you’ll be able to see there are completely different sects to the Kids of Atom, and the way they may work together, their completely different views, how they may disagree with one another’s doctrine — which is one thing you see in non secular historical past in the true world too.”
Picture: Mophidius Leisure
The Kids of Atom use numerous Christian imagery and really feel essentially the most like a current-day faith on this planet of Fallout, however they worship nuclear vitality and radiation, seeing the explosion of a nuclear bomb because the catalyst for brand spanking new worlds and prospects. Some sects are peaceable and benevolent, whereas others — just like the antagonistic Final Son of Atom — are aggressively searching for to transform these to their trigger by way of doses of radiation.
“[He’s] a megalomaniac, narcissistic, probably barely out-of-his-mind villain, who’s nonetheless very charismatic,” mentioned Frye. “The gamers combat for the center and soul of the settlements within the Commonwealth. That’s the place I began, and it constructed itself from there.”
It’s a difficult balancing act to make a marketing campaign e-book really feel like Fallout however not intrude with the primary canon. “As licensees, we now have to be very cautious about what we painting within the books we put out for Fallout,” mentioned Samantha Webb, head of product at Mophidius. “So whether or not it’s the traditional video games, Fallout 3, New Vegas, or Fallout 4 specifically, we by no means wish to paint Bethesda right into a nook. And we by no means wish to dictate to those that the Sole Survivor will make this selection, they’ll facet with the Brotherhood of Metal and screw over the Minutemen or one thing.”
Winter of Atom is structured like a Fallout online game — there are quest hubs, key battles, and a principal antagonist. The Final Son of Atom is wreaking havoc throughout the Commonwealth, and gamers might want to construct their social gathering up and pursue him in a multi-stage marketing campaign. Alongside the way in which, they’ll assist new survivors — just like the ghouls who run the Huge Prime circus, or the Sisters of the Forge at Mechminster Abbey.
There are three large set-piece battles that take a look at a participant’s technique with out feeling like a wargame with miniatures. As a substitute, participant selection components in. If the social gathering has made allies of their journey throughout the Commonwealth, they’ll name their new mates in to kick some Atomite ass. All of it culminates in a confrontation with the Son himself, though the conclusion in a Fallout recreation is never clear and easy.
Picture: Mophidius Leisure
“It feels very Fallout as properly, that it’s not a easy black-and-white, These are the nice guys and these are the dangerous guys,” Webb mentioned. “However we nonetheless have an enormous dangerous villain to combat and go after — the construction of the e-book heads in the direction of this boss combat on the finish.”
Despite the fact that the antagonist is about up from the start, it can take gamers time to assemble their power and cease his plans. “It is a large marketing campaign. It could take most teams, for those who play your complete marketing campaign as written, a fairly very long time to undergo all of it,” Frye mentioned. “I wished it to really feel simply as large as a Fallout online game, with out contradicting something that comes after.”
It’s a well-known format: principal quests, facet quests, and massive boss fights. Gamers can retrofit and rework the marketing campaign to go well with their wants, by both eradicating bits that don’t enchantment to them, reframing the factions in a brand new location, or introducing new antagonists and threats. And as soon as the plots resolve, a bit of the e-book offers with the fallout of your decisions. Coping with the results, in any case, is half the enjoyable of creating the alternatives.
Diamond Metropolis, Goodneighbor, the Brotherhood of Metal, and different Fallout 4 settlements and factions are featured — however gamers will largely be regarding themselves with new and authentic threats. And if gamers aren’t within the Commonwealth, that’s OK too. “There are instruments within the e-book so that you can reset it some place else,” mentioned Frye. “Take it aside, put it again collectively the way in which you wish to.”
Winter of Atom will probably be accessible to pre-order in Could, at which level the PDF will probably be accessible. Bodily copies of the e-book are set to ship in July 2023.
