Step 1: Choose Your Origin

Choose an origin from the following options. Your origin describes your character’s background—their
birth, upbringing, community, and way of life. Each origin defines limits on your character’s S.P.E.C.I.A.L.
attributes, skills, and gives them a unique bonus to surviving in the wasteland.

Brotherhood Initiate

Born from the terrible revelations of the Mariposa Rebellion, Roger Maxson formed the Brotherhood of
Steel so that his people—and eventually the rest of the survivors in this new world—would have
something to believe in. With its own mythology, creed, and hierarchy, the Brotherhood of Steel’s
primary goal is the recovery and preservation of the technology of the pre-war world. With the Great
War disrupting humanity’s access to technology, the Brotherhood’s knights and scribes do all they can to
secure the technology of the past, for the needs of future generations.

You may be a descendant of a knight or paladin, born into the Brotherhood and a firm believer of their
doctrine, or you may be a new recruit, pledging yourself to their cause and looking to rise through their
ranks.

Although the Brotherhood share a common goal, their chapters across the wasteland can have different
beliefs and protocols, and they aren’t as unified as they seem from the outside. While the West Coast
Brotherhood of Steel warred with the New California Republic over reclamation of technology and the
NCR’s expansion efforts, the East Coast chapter was effectively isolated when it prioritized charity over
the exchange of technology and the preservation of pre-war equipment. Elder Lyons’ mission became
humanitarian, and while that earned them isolation at first, Arthur Maxson led their expansion of
influence from Washington D.C. to the entire Eastern Seaboard, refocusing their efforts on technological
recovery and development.

Trait: The Chain that Binds

You gain one additional Tag skill, which must be one of Energy Weapons, Science, or Repair.

As a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, you are bound by the chain of command: The Chain that
Binds. You must carry out the orders of your immediate superiors, and you are responsible for your
subordinate siblings. If you do not carry out your duty, you are expelled from the Brotherhood and your
technology will be reclaimed—by any means necessary.

Ghoul
Prolonged exposure to the effects of background gamma radiation—part of the fallout of the Great War
—can spontaneously mutate humans. You are one of those mutants. Either slowly, or strangely
spontaneously, your body changed into that of a rotting, living corpse. You no longer age the same way,
and appear unaffected by radiation. Your skin peels from your flesh but seems to be sustained by your
mutated metabolism.

You are a “ghoul”—a necrotic post-human—one of many rag-tag survivors who weren’t lucky enough to
get into a Vault-Tec facility. You may have been born after the war, and over time developed the necrotic
mutation. You may have come from Vault 12 in Bakersfield, California, whose vault door did not close,
exposing the population to the radiation from outside. You may have taken refuge in a ghoul settlement,
like Underworld in the Capital Wasteland, and have ventured out recently to explore, scavenge, and
survive.

Civilized ghouls, such as yourself, also fear a possible degeneration into a frenzied, feral nature. Feral
ghouls are necrotic mutants like yourself who have lost higher brain functions, and reverted to a primal,
violent state. They attack non-ghouls indiscriminately to defend their territory or feed. Whether this loss
of reason is due to acute levels of radiation or the inevitable outcome of the mutation, you’re not sure,
and that makes it all the more terrifying.

Trait: Necrotic Post-Human

You are immune to radiation damage. In fact, you’re healed by it—you regain 1 HP for every 3 points of
radiation damage inflicted upon you, and if you rest in an irradiated location, you may re-roll your dice
pool when checking if your injuries heal. In addition, Survival becomes a Tag skill, increasing it by 2 ranks.

You age at a much-decreased rate, and you’re probably older than your unmutated companions—you
may even have survived the Great War of 2077—but you’re sterile: “the first generation of ghouls is the
last” as the saying goes. You may face discrimination from “smoothskins” (humans who aren’t ghouls),
increasing the difficulty or complication range of Charisma tests depending on your opponent’s beliefs.

Super Mutant

You are a brutal, mutated human, forced to evolve from thoughtless experiments by the twisted science
of the pre- and post-war world. Infected with the Forced Evolutionary Virus (F. E.V.), your body has
mutated into a tall, muscular killing machine, filled with a rage.
You could have originated from the Master’s army at the Mariposa military base, California, created as
he experimented on unwilling human victims, splitting into one of the factions upon his death to attack
or rebuild the wasteland with its survivors. Your origins could be rooted in the Evolutionary
Experimentation Program of Vault 87, whose super mutant groups terrorize the Capital Wasteland. You
could have been abducted from the Commonwealth and exposed to the F.E.V. by the Institute and
disposed of back into the wasteland to fend for yourself in small bands of raiders. Or finally, you could
have been a resident of Huntersville, Appalachia, whose water supply was contaminated with the virus
and the mutations went unchecked.

Although these super mutants share the same qualities, the groups formed from the three strains
haven’t mixed, and there is little evidence they have met one another. While some groups have migrated
or moved in their lifetime, none have travelled far enough to encounter one another, so where your
quests take place will likely dictate your origin.

Trait: Forced Evolution

Your initial Strength and Endurance attributes are increased by +2 each, and your maximum Strength and
Endurance are increased to 12, but your maximum Intelligence and Charisma are both reduced to 6. You
may not have more than 4 ranks in any skill. You are completely immune to radiation and poison
damage.

You stand over seven feet tall, and your body is bulky and muscular. Your skin is green, yellow, or grey,
regardless of what color it was when you were human. You do not seem to age, but you are sterile. You
can only wear armor which has been made to fit a super mutant.

Mister Handy

The General Atomics International robot “Mister Handy” exploded onto the robotic market as a reliable
construction robot, known for its durability and ease of maintenance, but its real breakthrough came in a
collaboration with RobCo to produce a domestic model.

You are one of these domestic automatons, produced some time between 2037 and 2077, seeking to
provide every household in America with butler-like servitude. Equipped with state-of-the-art
programming, you have initiative and can adapt your own coding to learn more from your environment.
This capacity for self-determination is what has enabled your survival beyond the Great War; where
other robots may have broken down, you have managed to shake loose from the shackles of your
programming and find a life for yourself.
Many models exist, and you could come from any of the Mister Handy, Mister Gutsy, Miss Nanny, or
Mister Orderly series. You are powered by a nuclear core, can replace your own fuel, and repair yourself
or other Mister Handy units. Your model has three mechanical arms and three mechanical eyes on stalks,
and your jet propulsion keeps you hovering above the ground, providing you have all the fuel you need.
With this rugged design, you have survived so far.

Hit Locations

As you aren’t humanoid in construction, your hit locations are different than normal.

D20 Roll Hit Location

1–2 Optics (injury as per Head)

3–8 Main body (injury as per Torso)

9–11 Arm 1

12–14 Arm 2

15–17 Arm 3

18–20 Thruster (injury as per Leg)

Trait: Mister Handy Robot

You have 360° vision and improved sensory systems that can detect smells, chemicals, and radiation,
reducing the difficulty of Perception tests that rely on sight and smell by 1. You are also immune to
radiation and poison damage, but you cannot use chems, nor can you benefit from food, drink, or rest.
You move by jet propulsion, hovering above the ground, unaffected by difficult terrain or obstacles. Your
carry weight is 150 lbs., and it cannot be increased by your Strength or perks, but it can be increased by
modified armor. You cannot recover from your own injuries or heal health points without receiving
repairs (see Healing Robots).

You cannot manipulate the physical world like humans do, instead you have three of the arm
attachments in the Arm Attachments table, determined by your choice of equipment pack. If you select
an arm that features a weapon, you also gain 20 shots of ammo for that weapon.

Attachment Effect

10mm Auto Pistol You can make ranged attacks using a 10mm auto pistol (see 10mm pistol, with
an automatic receiver mod.

Buzz-Saw You can cut objects and make melee attacks with a circular saw. The buzz-saw inflicts 3
Piercing 1 physical damage.

Flamer You can set objects alight, cook food, or make ranged attacks with a short-range flamethrower.

Laser Emitter You can cut objects or make ranged attacks using a laser (see laser gun).

Pincer You can pick up objects with an individual pincer that weighes no more than 40 lbs. and
manipulate objects in your environment. You may also make unarmed attacks (2

physical damage) with the pincer.

No Pincer?

You can choose not to have a pincer attachment as a Mister Handy, but in doing so, you will be unable to
make unarmed attacks, manipulate objects, and you cannot make attempt tests that use the Lockpick,
Repair, or Throwing skills.

Survivor

You are the living legacy of the people who prepared for Armageddon on their own. You are only alive in
the post-nuclear apocalyptic landscape because your forebears dug in, survived, and found community
enough to continue humanity’s existence.

You could be from any number of settlements, isolated shelters, or traveling groups that sparsely
populate the wasteland from West Coast to East Coast. You could be from the New California Republic,
carrying on the legacy of Vault 15 and Shady Sands. You could fight to protect others, calling a group of
survivors like the Minutemen or the Regulators your home. You could also be a merciless raider or be
born into one of these groups but escaped in order to rehabilitate and reform.

Wherever you are from, or wherever you travel, making connections and laying down roots can be hard.
Survivors are naturally wary of others, and are always on the lookout for the next conman, raiding party,
or thief that will take their hard-earned resources. Travelling vast distances is difficult too, and many
travelling survivors—particularly trading caravans—move between large settlements within their area of
the wasteland, rather than travelling from coast to coast.

Traits

You may choose two of the following traits, or one trait and one additional perk. Each trait has a benefit
and may have an accompanying penalty.

Trait Benefit Penalty

Fast Shot If you take a second major action in combat, and use it to make a ranged attack, the
additional major action only costs 1 AP, rather than 2. You cannot benefit from the Aim minor action—
you’re too impatient.

Gifted Choose two S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes and increase them by +1 each. Your maximum number
of Luck points is one fewer than your Luck attribute.

Heavy Handed Your Melee Damage bonus increases by +1

. Your melee and unarmed attacks suffer a complication on a 19 or 20, rather than only a 20.

Small Frame You may re-roll 1d20 on all AGI tests which rely on balance or contortion. Your
carry weight is 150 + (5 x STR) lbs., rather than 150 + (10 x STR) lbs.

Vault Dweller

When the bombs were falling, you or your predecessors were lucky enough to be safely secured in one
of the one hundred and twenty-two Vault-Tec facilities, deep underground protected by thick blast doors
and layers of rock and concrete. Your family either had enough money to buy their space or were
randomly selected to enter the vault to be saved from the nuclear devastation above—perhaps only to
be condemned to immoral experiments run by Vault-Tec on unwitting participants.

You are free from mutation and disease. The Vault-Tec program has afforded you a safe home for some
time, but not without some cost. The vault you came from used you as a human test subject,
manipulating your understanding of the world and your behavior in order to study you. That’s left you
with a profound psychological change, compared to the survivors on the surface you now know, and
affects how you make your way through the wasteland.

Whether through design or poor planning, many of the vaults were not well stocked or prepared for the
long wait until nuclear fallout had reached safe levels outside, and many fell into disrepair or out of
supplies. Due to these shortcomings, many vault dwellers sought help from the surface, and many vaults
opened in order to allow supplies to reach them. By opening their vault doors, the isolated societies
inside opened themselves up to mixing with the survivors above, and established a permanent
connection with the surface—the most notable example being the residents of Vault 15, who split up
and went on to establish the settlement Shady Sands, as well as the raiding gangs of the Jackals, Vipers,
and Khans when their vault opened.

Ghoul Vault Dwellers

Trait: Vault Kid

Your healthier start to life at the hands of trained doctors and sophisticated auto-docs means you reduce
the difficulty of all END tests to resist the effects of disease. In addition, your carefully-planned
upbringing means you have one additional tag skill of your choice.

You may also work with the Gamemaster to determine what sort of experiment took place within your
Vault. Once per quest, the GM may introduce a complication which reflects the nature of the experiment
you unwittingly took part in, or introduce a complication related to your early life of isolation and
confinement within the Vault. If the GM does this, you immediately regain one Luck Point.