After my last post about Fallout 2, I decided that I would create a new character and start over. Looking over my skills, I felt that perhaps the Bruiser trait might have had something to do with me missing more frequently than a sane person should allow themselves to believe that they're missing.
So I let go of the Bruiser trait thinking that the text description, "You may not hit as often. . ." meant that not only would you be hitting less frequently, due to decreased number of action points, but it would also alter your to-hit %, possibly without it being displayed. Well, with my new character (Judith), her to-hit percentages are about the same as my previous character at the same level and she hits about as often as Jude did, but possibly because I gave her 9 action points which allows for two strikes with the sharpened spear, or one shot with a gun and one strike with the spear, which can help make the misses when they happen feel a lot less dramatic. But I still ended up missing three 81% to-hits in a row against a rat and now I have photographic evidence:
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| The to-hit % didn't change between all the attacks and on the next attack I did kill the little bastard. |
And earlier Wednesday, I did miss a 95% to-hit, followed by two 77% to-hits. Missed all three in a row. Blarg.
But all of that is now why I'm here today, it's all pre-context for the story that I'm about to unfold on y'all. And just to be forewarned, there will be story SPOILERS.
So my new character I named Judith, and not because she's a Lil' Ass Kicker either, but because my previous character I had named Jude and I decided to stick with the Beatles theme (the origin of that was that some semblance, or scant memory of the song existed with the tribe in Arroyo and Judith's parents wanted to name her after this fragment of a song that had been once known). One of the main differences between Judith and Jude was that I gave Judith higher charisma and I had one of her main skills being in Barter in order to give me better prices on buying and selling, which may not come as quite in handy in the late game, but if I couldn't get to the late game, then what would it matter which skills I picked?
So my new character I named Judith, and not because she's a Lil' Ass Kicker either, but because my previous character I had named Jude and I decided to stick with the Beatles theme (the origin of that was that some semblance, or scant memory of the song existed with the tribe in Arroyo and Judith's parents wanted to name her after this fragment of a song that had been once known). One of the main differences between Judith and Jude was that I gave Judith higher charisma and I had one of her main skills being in Barter in order to give me better prices on buying and selling, which may not come as quite in handy in the late game, but if I couldn't get to the late game, then what would it matter which skills I picked?
So there's 18 year old Judith. And I chose 18, again as a throwback to what our modern day society considers an "adult" and this tribe has only vague memories of something being very important about turning 18 and has everyone at that age go through the Temple of Trials. To me it made more sense than creating someone who was at an older age, which might be harder to explain game-wise as to why they were still only level 1. Obviously, Judith passes the trial, is given the clothes of The [fabled] Vault Dweller and sets out to find the G.E.C.K. (Garden of Eden Creation Kit) so that you can save your village.
So the first town that Judith comes across, Klamath, she encounters a number of people who frequently make derogatory statements regarding tribals as being uncivilized and are worth less than Brahmin; or at least something to that effect. She decides to help them anyway because she needs money and information. Upon reaching the next settlement, The Den, After helping out a few residents and making enough money by selling duplicate equipment, she's able to release Trader Vic from captivity by the slaver Metzger. While in The Den, Judith continues to encounter distrust/disdain for "uncivilized" tribals, but now being equipped with leather armor, she doesn't stand out quite as much.
When she reaches the town of Modoc on her way to Vault City, she's told of a farm about a day north that's inhabited by glowing ghosts and that they killed a resident of Modoc named Karl, as well as countless travelers who were all put up on stakes, Vlad Dracula style. While talking with Grisham who owns the local slaughterhouse, she get recruited to guard the Brahmin from a pack of wild dogs. During this encounter, one Brahmin dies, eight dogs are killed and two run "off screen" (which I consider to be a victory since they're no longer present and I cannot trigger them to come back), but it turned out (due to a known bug with this quest) that the whole herd was killed and Grisham becomes upset and tells me to leave before he kills me. After this altercation, Judith meets Grisham's daughter Miria, being "the farmer's daughter" type character who, while trying to be nice to her (after hearing that men frequently have sex with her because why the hell not apparently), throws herself at Judith, they have sex, before which I was told that "[Your world will never be the same again.]" In the morning, Grisham finds out, and somewhat confusingly drags Judith and Miria to the local chapel and the two are forced to be married (which in-game terms meant that I ended up dropping Vic as my companion and picked up Miria as my new companion).
Judith eventually visits the aforementioned farm and it all looks like a giant bloody shit show. No, seriously, blood and guts and bodies up on stakes and more bodies and whatnot:
So Judith finds out that the "ghosts" are really just former vault dwellers (presumed vault dwellers as there was no vault. . .I guess they could have been a small community who hid in and underground shelter on the farm before the Great War) and have coated themselves with phosphorescent fungus to scare people away from stealing their crops/farm/Brahmin. Through a series of communications with Sheriff Jo in Modoc and the leader of the community at the farm, you find out that the bodies are basically scarecrows covered in Brahmin guts; that Karl is alive and ran away to the Northwest, and that you have 30 days (per Sherrif Jo) to prove that the farm community are good before the people of Modoc wipe out everyone at the farm.
So Judith travelled Northwest of the farm (I was hoping to come across a settlement or a small shack) and find nothing. I eventually head back to The Den, find Karl who is still alive and proceeds to drink himself into a stupor after every conversation. (I determine that this is good enough so I head back to Modoc). When Judith returns, she heads to Sherriff Jo to tell him that Karl is alive and that they don't have to attack the people at the farm.
When she reaches the town of Modoc on her way to Vault City, she's told of a farm about a day north that's inhabited by glowing ghosts and that they killed a resident of Modoc named Karl, as well as countless travelers who were all put up on stakes, Vlad Dracula style. While talking with Grisham who owns the local slaughterhouse, she get recruited to guard the Brahmin from a pack of wild dogs. During this encounter, one Brahmin dies, eight dogs are killed and two run "off screen" (which I consider to be a victory since they're no longer present and I cannot trigger them to come back), but it turned out (due to a known bug with this quest) that the whole herd was killed and Grisham becomes upset and tells me to leave before he kills me. After this altercation, Judith meets Grisham's daughter Miria, being "the farmer's daughter" type character who, while trying to be nice to her (after hearing that men frequently have sex with her because why the hell not apparently), throws herself at Judith, they have sex, before which I was told that "[Your world will never be the same again.]" In the morning, Grisham finds out, and somewhat confusingly drags Judith and Miria to the local chapel and the two are forced to be married (which in-game terms meant that I ended up dropping Vic as my companion and picked up Miria as my new companion).
Judith eventually visits the aforementioned farm and it all looks like a giant bloody shit show. No, seriously, blood and guts and bodies up on stakes and more bodies and whatnot:
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| Told ya. |
So Judith travelled Northwest of the farm (I was hoping to come across a settlement or a small shack) and find nothing. I eventually head back to The Den, find Karl who is still alive and proceeds to drink himself into a stupor after every conversation. (I determine that this is good enough so I head back to Modoc). When Judith returns, she heads to Sherriff Jo to tell him that Karl is alive and that they don't have to attack the people at the farm.
When I read this, I genuinely felt remorse and guilt for basically having an entire community counting on me to work out a peace for them. Now I know that I could have reloaded from an earlier save, looked online (which I did) to figure out how to save the community (or both for that matter), but in the end, I figured that this outcome was going to be part of Judith's story. I decided that her interactions with the handful of prejudiced residents of Klamath and The Den, coupled with the intollerant and fearful people of Modoc, and not being able to save a community that she felt akin to ("lowly" and "uncivilized" tribals compared to a thriving community of mutated and alienated humans living underground), she snapped. And so happened the Massacre at Modoc of 2241.
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| There're only four bodies on screen here, and many more that I couldn't fit into a single frame, but you get the idea. |
The massacre started with Sherrif Jo, during which Miria fled and ran back home. Judith chased after Miria to explain herself and ran into Grisham whom Judith killed, followed by Miria's brother Davin. I had no way of knowing who participated in killing off the community at the farm, but there well over 20 people, not including more than half-a-dozen children, so I assumed the entire town of Modoc was in on it. In the end, only one trader was able to escape, Miria "left" and remained at her late father's house, everyone else was killed.
I did feel a little bad about this dramatic turn of events, but I didn't feel that it was out of the realm of possibility. That Judith had taken over a month of her time that she could have spent not helping and focus on saving her own community, and in the end, it didn't matter because the people at the farm were all killed anyway. All because a small town of fearful people chose not to understand their neighbors to the north. Sure my actions aren't going to bring back that underground farming community, but I (as a player) was just so infuriated, that I made the decision that Judith would exact her anger and frustration with how she had been treated on these people. Not a great resume builder I grant you. . .
So now Judith is vilified in the town of Modoc [what's left of it anyway], she's "Separated" from Miria, and is labeled as a "Childkiller" (there was a stable boy who worked at Rose's Bed & Breakfast).
This is where I am at with Judith now. She's on her way to the Vault City out east to find out about the G.E.C.K., which is where Trader Vic says that he's acquired Vault technology before, so it's my best (and probably incorrect) option. I'm sure the omnipresent Vault 13 jumpsuit will come in handy as I hear that the citizens of Vault City can be uppity and are probably isolationists to a certain extent. She is currently Level 7, both her small guns skill and melee weapon skill are at or just over 100, and I am still missing the occasional 95% at a rate that seems more than 1:20, but things are getting better, things are getting better every day.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
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