Wondering if anyone has thought through the end of “Once upon the Wasteland” scenario. If the players end up with a GECK and found a new settlement. I am assuming food, water and common resoruces would be plentiful? Say 25 each? Also how big of area would the GECK cover?
Also looking at the advert form the [GECK add] (file:///G:/My%20Drive/Game%20World/Fallout%20World/VDSG_GECK_page_34.webp) it seems to be more of a survival kit/replicator? The one ion the book seems like a matter rearranger?
I also am not fond of killing a player character to found the setttlement…how did people handle that?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts
Here’s a link to a transcript/image of the VDSG, that should go to the GECK section (you linked your personal drive path): Vault Dweller's Survival Guide/Transcript - Independent Fallout Wiki (and here’s the description from the games: G.E.C.K. - Independent Fallout Wiki). A replicator is a matter rearranger; and no matter what it calls itself or how much “SCIENCE!” it claims to have, it’s basically a magic terraforming box/macguffin.
We had Parcival, the robot, do it. In my campaign, I changed his name to Parse-IVL (stood for Parsing Integrated Vault Logic) and he was confused because of memory corruption with a game holodeck for Dark Age of Camelot. I gave the players a mission to help him recover his lost memory, and it turns out that it was a holodeck for Dark Age of Camelot that was in the lost and found section in the underground mass transit authority South of Diamond City. Once he loaded the cartridge, he restored his memory.
Unfortunately, once he found out about the GECK’s capabilities, he acquired it for safe-keeping and then tootled off to activate it at a safe location. He used it to recreate Camelot from the video game, complete with cobblestone taverns, a towering wizard tower, and he somehow modified it to also create a monster to defend it. The players had to defeat the beholder to liberate Camelot and make it their own. They were mad at him for doing that, but he did it because he thought the players were all mythic heroes and they needed a challenging quest to help build up their legacy. His logic reasoned that defeating the beholder gave the heroes providence and a legitimate claim to why they should be the rulers of Camelot.
Necro’ing this thread, but I’m in a similar boat. My table has just managed to fend off Dr. Rast (though he managed to escape) and is now deciding what to do with the G.E.CK.
My plan is to have Clements activate the G.E.CK. as a tribute to his lost friend, Mika. However, the module (like many things in the system) leaves a lot to be desired in what tangible, statistic form the activation takes in terms of mechanics. I understand leaving things open for tables to create on their own, but a simple point of reference or suggested rules would have been incredibly appreciated.
Reading through the Settler’s Guide Book leaves even more to have to be homebrewed, as it really does not appear to expect players to have the G.E.C.K from the intro story.
However, my rant side, to speak more productively, I feel that the G.E.C.K. simply trivializes the need for resources aside from People, Defense, Income, and Happiness. While they’re generally also implied to be easy to manage and create (the G.E.C.K gives you cold fusion, which lets you have limitless energy and creation), as the GM I’ll be testing the players on how they best utilize their resources and how they go about actually setting up the settlement. So I’ll let the players have X value in the other resources, but still have the time element come into play with the necessary skills and personnel cost.
Ultimately, I think the setting is better suited without the G.E.C.K. in play, as that really adds weight to founding and running a settlement. Starting from scratch really is more difficult but likely adds a lot more playability. Either way, though, I say using the G.E.C.K simply lets you GM handwave a bunch of mechanics, which may be a boon for your style of running.