Fallout: Neue Devblogs

Das Fallout Tabletop biegt langsam in die Zielgerade ein: mehr Infos gibt es von Modiphius.

DEVELOPMENT BLOG #5: Armour and Leaders

Welcome to Development Blog #5. Presenting the first look at our Fallout: Wasteland Warfare dice set as well as renders of the Minutemen Survivor’s Expansion, there’s plenty to keep you going till next time!

Dice

We’ve given you a run down on Effect and Skill Dice in Blogs #3 and #4 and in the section below, we’re outlining the Red Armour dice. All of our dice will be beautifully engraved and available in the two-player starter set, but also as a separate set in case you would like more. The 2-player starter set will include 2 each of blue (formerly pictured as purple in our demo pictures), green, yellow and black and then 1 each of white and red.

Armour

In the world of Fallout, there are many dangers and few, if any, can be ignored even by the hardiest of wasteland travellers.  Wearing lots of armour may make you resist damage better but, given enough time, being outnumbered, and/or a lucky strike, means even small threats can prove dangerous, if not deadly.  In addition, the range of armour levels in Fallout is very wide with the simplest Raider armour at one end of the scale and the incredibly tough power armours at the other.  This variety in Fallout was an interesting design challenge as the usual mechanics for armour were not suitable; for example, if a model’s armour rating purely blocked damage equal to its armour value then high armour values would be immune to some of the weaker weapons, whilst weaker armour would be almost irrelevant against powerful weapons.  The goal had to be that better armour was more protective but still sometimes fallible, and enough hits would usually wear a target down.

In Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, armour ratings range between 1 and 4.  When an attack causes damage, the player rolls the Armour dice which is a d12 showing results of 1, 2, 3 and 4.  (Like the Effect dice described in one of the previous development blogs, a d12 is used as it gives more granularity in its results compared to a d6.)  Like Skill rolls, a player wants to roll equal to or lower than the number required.  For Armour rolls, if the Armour roll is equal to or below the armour rating, the number rolled is the amount of damage blocked; otherwise, no damage is blocked.  This means high armour ratings are more likely to block some damage (and an armour rating of 4 always blocks at least one), but still have have moments when they block a lower amount, or maybe none at all. For example, a Super Mutant with an armour rating of 3 which rolls a 2 on their armour dice would block 2 damage; however, if they had rolled 4, it would have blocked no damage.

Models have an armour rating for each type of damage – physical, energy and radiation – so some are more susceptible to specific types of damage than others.  Power armour is much tougher than regular armour so its armour rating is followed ‘+1’ by which means it blocks 1 damage in addition to whatever was blocked by the armour roll (even if that was zero).  It may not sound like much but Power Armour is tough – just as it should be.

Any target with a high armour rating is often best tackled with attacks that are likely to include armour reduction icons, as each icon reduces the target’s armour rating by 1 (just for that specific roll) .  As is common throughout Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, you need the right tool for the right job and a weapon that adds armour reduction dice is usually more useful against an armoured target than a weapon that adds damage dice because armour reduction can make the target completely fail their armour roll.

Leaders

Units can be equipped with different weapons, gear and (as we saw in the previous development blog) some can be Heroic too; however, a player also has a further opportunity to give their force a bit of extra flavour via their Leader.  Each player can make one single model their Leader by allocating a Leader card to it which gives some extra abilities.  A player can choose what sort of Leader they want for their force – maybe they are a Hunter who is skilled at long-range shooting and improves the searching abilities of their team, or maybe they specialise in hacking, or brawling.  Some Leader cards will only be useable by specific factions too.

In Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, some abilities affect any friendly model which is close-by (with the distance determined by the model’s Presence) – these are referred to as ‘Aura’ abilities.  Many Leader abilities are aura abilities so the position of the Leader and those it leads is important, and a Leader can influence a side rather than just be a single model with extra abilities.  Also, Leaders can add extra diversity for players both using the same faction.

• das Starterset wird je zwei Würfel jeder Farbe beinhalten
• Der Rüstungswert (Armour Rating) geht von 1 (schwache Rüstung) bis 4 (schwere Rüstung)
• der Armour-Würfel (rot) ist ein D12 der die Ergebnisse 1 bis 4 zeigt
• eine Mini hat mehrere Rüstungswerte, je nach Schadenstyp (Physisch, Energie, Strahlung)
• ein Würfelergebnis das größer als der jeweilige Rüstungswert ist, blockt keinen Schaden, ansonsten entspricht das Würfelergebnis der Anzahl des Schadens der verhindert wird
• bei Power Armour wird der Rüstungswert mit einem +1 Modifikator  kombiniert, d.h. es wird immer mindestens ein Schaden geblockt
• Würfelt der Angreifer Anti-Rüstungs Symbole, wird die Rüstungsklasse des Ziels pro Symbol um eine Stufe reduziert.
• man kann eine der eigenen Figuren durch eine passende Karte zum Anführer aufwerten – jede Karte bringt andere Boni und Fähigkeiten.
• Anführer habe oft Aura-Fähigkeiten, die sich auf mehrere Modelle auswirken können

DEVELOPMENT BLOG #6: Pre-Order Update

18th Sept. 2017. Here’s an update on progress towards the much anticipated pre-order plus a preview of the first character expansion for the Survivors which includes a more experienced Sole Survivor (you can use the male or female figure with the card), Codsworth and Dogmeat with goggles and bandana! The scale of the Behemoth has also been updated – he’s quite a monster now! Click on the images to enlarge them!

All the models for Wave 1 and about 50% of Wave 2 are approved, the starter box cover art is approved, the only thing holding back the pre-order now is some costings from factories. We want the best price for everyone and if we rush we could get it wrong and that doesn’t help anyone. The whole of wave 1 is 3d printed or being 3d printed right now as masters for the production process. We have done test production which you’ve seen in the photos of GenCon and now Jon our wargame manager is better (he had to go to hospital whilst demoing at Insomnia in the UK so truly was hurting for the hobby) we’ll be doing some videos this week to show off how the rules work. The rules are now with the editor so they’re complete and we’re just working on final stats and balancing. The dice are going to production this week as the longest lead time and we’re currently getting the design of the cards and counters approved, the rulebook layout design has been approved. Final testing and dev work is happening on the settlement building and solo gameplay as well as scenario writing.

Bethesda has given the go ahead for the pre-order as soon as we’re ready so it’s all about the costs at this moment. This is a mix of UK resin production, cardboard packaging, China production on dice, cards and counter sheets, UK production on rulebooks and bringing them all together to be packed and shipped. As you can imagine that is a logistical mind maze but we’ve got a good team on it. We’ll aim to get some videos in the meantime so you can start getting to grips with how the game plays but bear with us and we’ll get that pre-order going.

Below you’ll find a list of what products we have planned for the pre-order – we’re aiming to give you the option of picking up everything from wave 1 which is the first 2-3 months releases. There will be some special bonuses for pre-ordering – some special bundle deals and for those who go all in a familiar but special character with unit and gear cards (and perhaps some other bonuses). With pre-order bonuses they are NOT exclusive – you’ll be able to get them on the next pre-order or at special events like conventions we attend etc. I want to make sure it’s special but everyone has a chance to get them no matter where you are, and no one misses out.

The plan is to do a big pre-order for each Wave so you can get in early, get some deals and get your order early so if you want to, you can support your local community and stores. It looks like we’ll be shipping in January (being realistic with the number of different products we’ll be producing for the pre-order), and you can pre-order from us soon, or from your local gaming store from around November. We’ll be shipping into retail in late Feb or March so this will give those people involved in the demo team time to paint up their collections to help support their local stores. Remember to click the sign up to the Vault Dwellers demo team top right if you want to be involved.

There will be a Vault map so you can find the nearest store that is stocking or running demos and encouraging stores to get themselves on the map. Stores will get access to pre-order bonuses, we’ll be giving them lots of support and there will be organised play kits.

We’re aiming for the Pre-order to include the following items. There maybe some changes still and some items added in so use this as a rough guide, in particular some of the creatures, scenery and robots may be available separately outside of the retail sets.

​Two Player Starter Set
Sole Survivor Character Set

Brotherhood of Steel Faction Set
Brotherhood of Steel Character Set

The Survivors Faction Set
The Survivors Character Set

Super Mutants Faction Set
Super Mutants Character Set

Wasteland Scenery Set
Wasteland Creature Set #1
Wasteland Robots Set #1
Red Rocket Scenery Set
Red Rocket Gaming Mat

Settlement Expansion Deck
Acrylic Tokens Set Upgrade Set
Acrylic Measuring Stick Upgrade Set
Nuka Cola Bottle Cap Set
Wasteland Modding Sprue

Example play through videos coming next!

Zusammenfassung Devblog #6:

• der Behemoth (Größenvergleich oben) ist nun deutlich größer
• Modiphius ist dabei die besten Preise auszuhandeln um alle Komponenten für das Spiel möglichst kostengünstig anbieten zu können
• alle Modelle der Welle 1 und die Hälfte von Welle 2 haben grünes Licht vom Lizenzgeber Bethseda und die Produktion kann bald starten
• die Vorbestellaktion wird je nach nach Umfang der Bestellung Extras enthalten
• die Vorbesteller-Boni werden nicht exklusiv sein, sondern bei jeder neuen Vorbesteller-Welle bzw. bei Events wird man die Specials auch bekommen
• die Vorbestellerphase wird bald beginnen – und der Versand wird ca. im Januar erfolgen, die reguläre Veröffentlichung wird dann Februar/März nachziehen
• organisiertes Spiel wird von Modiphius durch Angebote für Demo-Geber und Shops unterstützt
• die Liste der geplanten Releases für Welle ist oben ersichtlich

Link: Modiphius