FFG: Fallout – Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
The choices you make in Fallout: The Board Game will determine the story you’re going to tell – come see out how!
Fantasy Flight Games will be releasing Fallout: The Board Game soon and one of the key features will be how players and their decisions will shape the story they play. It’s all about choices and consequences in post-nuclear wasteland!
“To begin any game of Fallout, you’ll select one of the game’s four scenarios: The Commonwealth, The Capital Wasteland, The Pitt, or Far Harbor. Each of these scenarios tells a complicated story of factions versus faction, offering two distinctive ideologies you can side with. An example we’ve considered a few times is that of The Commonwealth, which considers the core conflict of Fallout 4: Synths, or synthetic humans. In The Commonwealth, you must choose between two sides: the Railroad, which believes synths are sapient and deserve independence, and the Institute, the organization responsible for the creation of synths that seeks to maintain control over them. Each of the three other scenarios features a similar battle between freedom and security.”
If you’ve played Fallout 4, then you’re familiar with this struggle – but it’s the way that FFG has incorporated these factions into the board game that is the most interesting. As quests are issued and completed, different effects will come into play. These can change how the rest of the game flows and depending on which side you’ve chosen to align with, they can impact how you go about winning.
On top of that, these two factions aren’t going to sit by idly – they also gain influence and their agents will start to populate the board as well. All of this happens as the players advance the main quest line – as you complete more and more of the scenario, the board-state will change based on the factions that are taking place. Choosing to complete these quests in different ways will directly impact each players experience creating a myriad of ways the game could play out.
One of the big ways this can play out is when a player actually chooses to declare their loyalty. Early on, you might notice another player pushing the agenda of a particular faction – the same faction you’re also interested in. This gives you a reason to ally with them as you both support the game faction. Could this be a clever ploy to gain your trust or were they just in it for the loot? Don’t forget – each player still has their own goals and motivations due to the influence cards. So how will you know who’s side they are actually on? You can choose to flip your faction-based influence cards face-up and thus declare your loyalties to the world.
When you DO declare your loyalties, you gain the added benefit of becoming immune when you encounter the different agents of your preferred faction. This has some major repercussions as the game starts to get towards the end and faction agents are populating the board.
It’s not just factions that will have you making game-altering decisions, the locations you uncover will also be places where you can make an impact. When you uncover a location you’ll have the chance to face an Encounter there. These Encounters are different that quests because you’re not entirely sure how they will affect the board-state. This is because another player will read the choices to on the card without revealing the results of those choices to you!
“The outcomes of both quests and encounter can be numerous. Some will influence the game itself, asking you to add a card to one of the encounter decks, stage a card by placing it face-up for all to see, advance one of the factions along the Power Track, or permanently removing a card from the game. Other results may influence your survivor individually, granting you XP, Caps, new Traits, Influence Cards, Loot, Special Items, or, in the case of Settlements, the opportunity to Shop.”
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Shopping is a big deal in Fallout: The Board Game. How else are you going to get the equipment you need to succeed in the harsh wasteland? As a player completes quests or succeeds in encounters they may be rewarded with Caps, the currency of the wasteland. You can use those Caps to purchase gear at settlements. The stock within the shop is rotated during the game and is visible to all players – it’s more of a “universal shop” where all the settlements have the same goods…until a player buys it from the shop that is! If you want something your best bet is to get the caps and head to the nearest settlement and buy it ASAP!
Vaults are the last area where you’re going to have to make some tough choices. However they aren’t on the game board at the start. To find Vaults, the Vault deck must be introduced to the game. This will be done based on how the game unfolds. Maybe it’s a rumor a player picks up that introduces it to the game. Maybe a quest will send you on the hunt for a Vault. Or maybe an ally will ask for your aid – whatever triggers it, the Vaults are equal parts deadly and rewarding. Just because you learn of one’s location doesn’t mean you are prepared to face the dangers within. Then again, if you don’t go exploring, you’ll never find out.
Fallout: The Board Game will be arriving November 30th but you can pre-order it from your FLGS or online via FFG now!
Fallout: The Board Game $59.95
Fallout is an adventure board game based on the hit video game series by Bethesda Softworks. In the game, one to four survivors will begin at the edge of an undiscovered landscape with one primary objective: to survive. Staying alive, however, is just the beginning. Players must explore the hidden map, fight ferocious enemies and build the skills of their survivor as they attempt to complete challenging quests and balance the feuding factions within the game. To win the game, players must collect influence, thereby securing their spot in a society struggling to thrive in a world forever changed. Welcome to the Wasteland.
