Fallout fans can return to the Commonwealth in Winter of Atom campaign

Fallout fans have a chance to return to the Commonwealth winter of the atoma new campaign book for Modiphius Entertainment Fallout: The RPG. winter of the atom builds on the foundation of the tabletop system and features plenty of lore and encounters in the post-apocalyptic society around Boston. With war brewing in the Commonwealth, it’s up to your brave band of heroes to save the day – or seize power.

As discerning lore fans might have guessed from the title, the Children of Atom – who appear in both Fallout 3 And 4 — play a prominent role in the campaign book.

“I went straight to the Children of Atom because they’ve always been one of my favorite groups,” Donathin Frye, lead narrative designer at Mophidius, said in an interview with Polygon. “I wanted to approach it in a way that you can see that there are sects other than the Children of the Atom and how they interact, have their different perspectives, how they might disagree with each other’s teachings – which is what you see in religious history even in the real world.”

A group of adventurers huddle around a warm campfire in the midst of a brutal Commonwealth winter in art for The Fallout Roleplaying Game.

The Children of Atom use many Christian imagery and feel the closest thing to a modern religion in the world of Fallout, but they worship atomic energy and radiation and see the explosion of an atomic bomb as a catalyst for new worlds and possibilities. Some cults are peaceful and benevolent, while others – like the antagonistic Last Son of Atom – aggressively try to win them over to their cause through doses of radiation.

“[He’s] a megalomaniac, narcissistic, possibly slightly insane villain who’s still very charismatic,” Frye said. “Players fight for the heart and soul of Commonwealth settlements. That’s where I started and it just built itself from there.”

It’s a tricky balancing act to make a campaign book feel like fallout without disrupting the main canon. “As a licensee, we have to be very careful about what we portray in the books that we publish for Fallout,” said Samantha Webb, director of product at Mophidius. “So whether it’s the classic games, Fallout 3, New Vegasor failure 4 In particular, we never want to corner Bethesda. And we never want to tell people that the Sole Survivor is going to make that choice, they’re going to side with the Brotherhood of Steel and screw the Minutemen or something.”

winter of the atom is structured like a Fallout video game – there are quest hubs, key fights and a main antagonist. The Last Son of Atom is wreaking havoc across the Commonwealth and players must build their party and pursue him through a multi-stage campaign. Along the way they help new survivors – like the ghouls who run the Big Top circus or the Sisters of the Forge at Mechminster Abbey.

There are three large set-piece battles that will test a player’s strategy without feeling like a miniature wargame. Instead, player choice matters. Once the party has found allies on their adventure in the Commonwealth, they can call on their new friends to kick some Atomite butt. It all culminates in a confrontation with the son himself, though the conclusion is rarely clean and easy in a Fallout game.

A bunch of ghouls run a circus in the Big Top, one of the locations players may encounter in the Winter of Atom campaign book.

“It also feels a lot like Fallout in that it’s not just black and white, These are the good guys and these are the bad guys‘ Webb said. “But we still have one big bad villain to fight and pursue – the structure of the book builds towards that boss fight at the end.”

Although the antagonist is set up from the start, players will need time to gather their strength and stop his plans. “This is a big campaign. It would take most groups quite a long time to play through if you play the entire campaign as written,” Frye said. “I wanted it to feel as big as a Fallout video game without contradicting what comes after.”

It’s a familiar format: main quests, side quests, and big boss fights. Players can customize and revamp the campaign to suit their needs, either removing parts that don’t appeal to them, redesigning the factions in a new location, or introducing new antagonists and threats. And once the plots unravel, a section of the book deals with the consequences of your choices. After all, dealing with the consequences is half the fun of making decisions.

Diamond City, Goodneighbor, the Brotherhood of Steel and others failure 4 Settlements and factions will be featured – but players will mainly deal with new and original threats. And if players don’t care about the Commonwealth, that’s fine too. “There are tools in the book that you can use to reset it elsewhere,” Frye said. “Take it apart, put it back together any way you like.”

winter of the atom can be pre-ordered in May, at which point the PDF will be available. Physical copies of the book are expected to ship in July 2023.