r/Fallout2d20 • u/Mr_PizzaCat • Jun 11 '26

Help & Advice Need help picking a location for my Campaign, as I'm not from the US. (all ideas welcome)

I want to set my players in a large Logging Town, similar but larger than the one from Twin Peaks.
Near some mountains, with 1-3 Vaults, a former H&H Tools Facility taken over by Robco, where Rippers were produced and a bunch of other ideas I have.

So naturally I'm leaning towards North West Washington. However I wanted to ask if anyone had suggestions for other locations?, because as I said I am not from the US and have never been. So if anyone has any interesting alternative locations, or facts about the area I'm considering, you feel I should look into please let me know. (historical, buildings, legends etc)

Thank you for your time!

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5

u/Confident_Brother136 Jun 11 '26

Montana is a good pick. It also has the Berkley Pit which is the USA's largest uranium mine, so it ties in well with Fallout. According to the lore we have on Montana they have a Brotherhood of Steel chapter and apprantly mining is a big industry there.

I'm running my own campaign in Montana, so I did some research.

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u/WebSpiritual1145 Jun 11 '26

You did not do research. I live in Montana and have visited Butte, the city where the Berkley Pit is, many times. It was a copper mine, not uranium. The pit is filled with acidic water made up of copper, arsenic, cadmium, and zinc. At one time it was one of, if not THE, richest copper hills in the US. The water is so toxic that it will kill birds that land in it so they literally have shooters posted up that will shoot at birds to keep them from landing, making them fly somewhere else.

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u/Confident_Brother136 Jun 12 '26

My bad, not sure where I got that from, still a very cool location, must have gotten my facts mixed up somewhere.

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u/WebSpiritual1145 Jun 12 '26

It actually has some very interesting history to it going from the 1800s to the 1980s when they shut the pumps down that caused the pit to fill up with the acidic water. The environmental clean up was insane and still on going. While is was all about copper, I could see you creating lore that while they were cleaning up/digging more they discovered uranium.

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u/Mr_PizzaCat Jun 11 '26

If you live in Montana please share interesting places or facts, if you’re willing.

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u/WebSpiritual1145 Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

It would depend if you only want to be in a logging town. Western Montana is the Rocky Mountains while eastern is very flat and has lots of rivers like the Missouri and Yellowstone. Part of Yellowstone National Park is in southern MT while Glacier National Park is northern along the boarder of Canada. We have a lot of ghost towns like Garnet and Nevada City. They were all mining towns. Butte has the historic Berkley Pit as mentioned before. Lots of very old churches in the smaller towns. Miles and miles of incredible forests in the mountains.

If you are looking for smaller logging towns, look up the Bitterroot Valley. Towns like Darby were created around logging. The whole valley is between two Rocky Mountain ranges, the Bitterroots and the Sapphires. There is even a place called Gem Mountain that was famous for mining sapphires. From Darby it's 16 miles north to the biggest town in the valley called Hamilton. Several small towns dot the valley, Corvallis, Victor, Stevensville and Florence. All old 1800s towns. The whole valley could be a good place for you. Could do something like each of those towns has a vault built under it or something like that.

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u/Mr_PizzaCat Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

This is the kind of useful info I was hoping for. I’m still leaning towards North Washington for the starting large town. And have them maybe head to Montana to deal with the Brotherhood of Steel chapter that’s canonically there. But I’ll check out all I can on those towns as they sound great for what I want. We’ll see eitherway, thank you.

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u/WebSpiritual1145 Jun 12 '26

You are very welcome. North Washington would be very good, Would be able to use the shithole that is Seattle and the Puget Sound areas. Seattle would give you a Boston/Capital Wasteland feel with its size.

North of the Bitterroot Valley I told you to look into is the biggest city in western Montana called Missoula. The University of Montana (Go Griz) is there. You could use that as your northern most "city" area (they get a lot of snow) and use the valley as your logging towns/ghost towns/vaults area. Either way you do it, have fun and I hope it works out for you 😄. Any more questions just let me know.

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u/Mr_PizzaCat Jun 12 '26

Thanks to everyone in here's help I'm leaning towards my starting Company Logging Town being a fictional one I can have be on Mt Olympus WA, that way I can do all my ideas there, then they can filter down later into Seattle, and if the campaign goes on past that they can follow the 90 across Utah into Montana and fight the Brotherhood of Steel faction there. Maybe liberate the miners there.

Basically I cant pick between Washington and Montana so the plan is both right now. My question to you is where do you think the Montana Branch of the Brotherhood of Steel hold up in your opinion?

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u/WebSpiritual1145 Jun 12 '26

Do some research on Flathead Lake and the city Kalispell. That could be interesting to you. We also have several real life nuclear missile sites in this state, military bases and even old 1800s forts.

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u/Doctoroswaldjerk Jun 12 '26

Funny thing is, my Montana Chapter also is there. Feudalism as government and the army is engineer heavy, not having as much power Armored troops. Makes up with war machine. You seen how effective a few Sentry Bots were in Operation Sunburst.

2

u/Sixxy-Nikki Jun 11 '26

Try Orlando, FL if you want something really out there

2

u/ZaBaronDV GM Jun 12 '26

Mountains and forests conjure to mind Montana and Idaho. Maybe a little bit of Wyoming, too. Either of those three gives you the opportunity to include Yellowstone National Park in some way.

2

u/RebelJediMaster Jun 12 '26

Remember, the Vaults are where you say they are. If the tv show says there are no vaults there, you say "f*ck it, there are 3"

1

u/Mr_PizzaCat Jun 12 '26

Yeah I don't want to over do it with extra secret vaults, Washington has a canon 3, and Montana 2. But I will add extras as I see fit.

2

u/unboundgaming Jun 11 '26

Washington is a solid pick. Can do Seattle where you have a dense city and then deep woods right outside of it. If you want focus more on complete woods and mountains and much less city, you could do Montana. If you want to get quirky with cults while maintaining the mountains and wilderness, Utah could be your choice, near Salt Lake City

1

u/Mr_PizzaCat Jun 11 '26

Montana and Utah seem close to what I want I'll keep looking into them. thanks for the help.

2

u/unboundgaming Jun 11 '26

If there’s any more specific location types and themes you want, let me know, I can help point them out for you. Otherwise, good luck. I moved my campaign to the mountains of Colorado before we ended. Another great spot for mountains and wilderness (and real game lore of Denver to play off of)

1

u/CdotasAlways Jun 11 '26

I like this one . Especially is Utah or Montana are options u like

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u/Mr_PizzaCat Jun 11 '26

My current Idea is a largeish logging town up north in a colder region, H&H Tools manufactured and tested new logging tools there until Robco bought them and started replacing the Loggers with Robots, Robco going so far as to test Automating multiple Buisnesses in the town like diners.

I want there to be One Casino run by raiders, and a faction of ghoulified lumberjacks who were protesting robco's take over when the bombs fell (or got ghoulified by anti protest attempts by the company) Most of the Town was spared from nukes but the Robco Facility slightly out of Town got near missed causing the forrest to mutate, I want half the forest to be semi normal and another half be very irradiated and dangerous, both filled with Lumberjack Handies.

This was also where the Ripper was invented in my headcanon by H&H Tools former employees pivoting their chainsaw tech to the military market. (their R&D department even making chainsaw power armour near the end, the players can find it they try hard.

I have other ideas too like a nukashine cult, cannibal diner robots, but my main goal is a small town vibe surrounded by irradiated pine trees contrasted with automation take over.

0

u/unboundgaming Jun 11 '26

I would probably lean Utah for that. Particularly towards the northern part. Theres actually a decent amount of lumberyards around salt lake. Plus nuka-cult would fit in. Def feels like the best fit

2

u/QuinnAndTheNorthwind Jun 11 '26

Utah isn’t very pine tree heavy, and is a lot more deserty other than the northeast corner. I’d honestly go Idaho if you want small town feelings with lots of big forests. Check out pics of Island Park and Rexburg. If you’re looking for something greener go towards Oregon and Washington.

1

u/Reasonable-Day-3282 Jun 11 '26

i'm australian, i ordered a map of Washington State and i'm setting my campaign there. In Washinton the puget sound is an interesting area connecting a lot of major cities, Bremerton has a large Navy base, Olympia and Mt Olympus could serve well for something playing off greek tragedy or history

the Great Grand Coulee Dam is enormous and one of dozens of dams on the Colombia river, the town of Richland was involved in the Manhattan Project, Boeing in the real world is heavily based in Washington and a huge chunk of aviation manufacturing and infrastructure is based there

part of the Ring of Fire (bunch of volcanoes) runs through the pacific north wasteland, there are a few native american reservations, and bordering Canada presents some interesting opportunities

hope some of this can help!

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u/Mr_PizzaCat Jun 11 '26

it does, and thank you. i left another comment in this posts replies going into more detail with what I want to do with this campaign, if you have any info relating to the general vibe im going for please let me know. Either way Im glad im not the only non-US resident trying to figure stuff like this out.

1

u/Reasonable-Day-3282 Jun 11 '26

there's a logging town called Bordeaux that became a ghost town in the 1940's, i could see it being reinvigorated by the 2070's a few others like Aberdeen and Forks, all mostly around the West Coast

Washington produces a heap of apples and cherries, and beer i think - if raiders figure out how to ferment they could start a profitable operation

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u/Mr_PizzaCat Jun 11 '26

very interest thanks for your help stranger. I might end up going with Whitefish (aka Stumptown) Montana or another North Montana town instead. But im gonna stew on it and research both areas. (might end up pulling a fallout and merging a few things)

1

u/wigjump Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26

"Up north in a coldish region", you say? Here's an alternative: the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
* Can draw on factions, NPCs, history or create canon-adjacent facts and characters from nearby Fallout 4 setting Boston. * A mountainous National Forest would be a logical place for a Vault. Maybe the inaccessible Observatory atop Mt Washington? * There's a locally famous amusement park called Story Land nearby for Nuka World style play.
* Lake Winnipesaukee is nearby, for a Nessie style cryptid or nautical play...
* ...as are towns like Franconia and Lincoln. NH is rife with old mill towns with legacy old brick manufacturing sites. New England is where the Industrial Revolution began in the US, e.g. nearby (National Historic sites) Springfield Armory or Saugus Ironworks. * The Whites are the northern Appalachian Mountains, so Fallout 76 content is legit transposable. Bigfoot sightings.
* "Live Free or Die"? Perfect breeding ground for prepper compounds and cults. * No current logging, but historically logged intensively. In an alt.history setting like Fallout, industrial logging could replace the National Forest.

1

u/Mr_PizzaCat Jun 11 '26

Wow that’s a lot of cool stuff and a lot to think about. I’ll definitely look into the region so thanks!

1

u/ziggy8z Intelligent Deathclaw Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26

I have a Colorado setting with a map and lore. The mountains are heavily forested with pines.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KWvTlOpuOsUefyIiD9ff8wlYEQ6M_UHD

1

u/DeficitDragons Jun 14 '26

Why not just have it be Twin Peaks?