Vault-Tec experiments!
For those of you running your own homebrew settings, what kinds of experiments was/are Vault-Tec running in your vaults?
I have four different vaults in the region I’ve set my game, but I haven’t really decided what was/is going in all of them. I’m pretty sure I’ll have one be a control vault or “good” vault, as Barb put it, in the show.
So share your ideas! Let’s do some experimentation!
I made up a Vault experiment in which the food production systems were meant to fail after a decade, but the vault would have an advanced system of cloning like Vault 108, able to produce large quantities of useless clones with no real cognitive function. This was Vault Techs idea of a long term test on the effects of clone based cannibalism, sort of a soylent green scenario.
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I have a Vault in my setting where the overseer is a RoboBrain, who constantly runs RPGs for the inhabitants. The RPGs are meant to emulate the classic “Hero’s Journey”. The hope was that years of gaming in all sorts of hypothetical situations would better prepare the dwellers for Reclamation Day.
The catch is that the Vault Dwellers have been conditioned to see themselves as the heroes of the story. The problem comes in when the NPCS don’t see the dwellers as anything special. Just a bunch of fortunate, pretentious, jerks that had luxury and safety while the world burned.
I know this is pretty basic, but I think it has the potential to get really meta, really fast!
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Considering the Vaults with experiments were always intended to be tests relating to hardships / situations one could face in space travel I try to think of things that would be useful to know. Most Fallout 3 and 4 experiments tend to be either very short term, doom to fail on it’s face (everyone dies or similar outcome), logically don’t fit with the og game’s cannon (such as the use of FEV), or provide no real scientific / psychological data. Sure some are funny, but that’s about it. The cryo in vault 111 and the white noise experiment of vault 92 are actually not bad. Though the cryo experiment seems to be largely unnecessary considering the military in FO2 are using biogel and cryo to freeze people. Still not a bad experiment considering Vault Tec doesn’t have access to much of any military tech or data unlike the Robco or West Tek side of things.
One Experiment I made has every person between the ages of 18 and 80* (give or take mental capabilities) solve logic puzzles, mazes, word games, riddles, and other similar problems to earn that days meals / tokens that can be traded for goods and other things. These sorts of puzzles and problems are also naturally part of the vault’s school system. A large section of the floor on the same level of the overseers office (near the vault’s control systems) is full of computers and terminals for the puzzle solving. Each vault dweller’s room also have a computer for room to room communications, games, submitting you own mazes / puzzles, and so on. This isn’t simply learning to survive, but rather also learning TO survive. No one has ever starved, but there have been days folks have gone hungry. Without the voucher they would have to spend tokens for food. Either they didn’t have the amount needed, were unwilling to spend them on food in favor of other goods, and or were just saving / hording them.
In a few sections of the vault for recreation there are pods based of the BattleTech Cockpit Simulator pods the included BattleTech combat and Red Planet racing. These pods have some racing, space salvage / repair, and battle games; using AR and VR (not like the memory den). Have fun and or learn new useful skills like how to repair a broken communication dish in space!
Need to brush up on your marksmanship, but don’t have the tokens for live ammo on the range? Use a simulator and other AR / VR games!!!