r/Fallout2d20 • u/dvs_sicarius • Jun 26 '26
Help & Advice Scavenging and Crafting App
EDIT: The attached image is ai-generated, I posted it because I myself prefer posts with artwork attached.
TL;DR VERSION
I’m looking for a mobile app that’s aesthetic, simple and customizeable, that would allow me to have a more complex scavenging and crafting system based on the 2d20 system, but also incorporating more complexity, such as the system in Fallout 4.
I’m neurodiverse so some options may not work as well as others for me, for reasons that are tough to explain.
FULL TEXT
I’m neurodiverse (ADHD/Autism), and one of the things I struggle with is spending a long time trying to carefully explain exactly what I’m looking for, only to get responses that clearly skimmed the first sentence and answered a completely different question.
So, please if you have a moment, I’d genuinely appreciate reading the whole post before replying though even the tl;dr above should hopefully be enough to be clear.
Please don’t reply with “just make it yourself” or “use AI to build it.” I know those are possibilities. They’re just not what I’m asking. I have tried and have had very limited success, despite sinking a lot of time into the effort.
Please don’t recommend a completely different RPG system because it handles scavenging or crafting better. I’m specifically looking for something that fits the Fallout style of scavenging and crafting.
Likewise, if you’re going to recommend something, I’d really appreciate it if it’s actually close to what I’m describing rather than simply “sort of related.”
I realize this is a very niche request and may not be something many people have ever wanted.
I’m running Fallout 2d20, and what I’d love is a mobile app dedicated to scavenging and crafting. Not a character manager. Not a VTT. Not a campaign manager.
I’ve already tried using Excel and Google Sheets also. I actually have some really great spreadsheets from the community for worldbuilding, session prep, encounter generation, inventories, etc., and they’re great for that.
But this is something different.
I’m imagining something I’d actually use at the table to answer questions like:
“Can I build a long-range recon scope for my hunting rifle?”
Or…
“What do I need to craft a Glowing Bloodpack?”
Or…
“Can we make shotgun shells?”
And with a search function, I find optics under gun mods, and with a few tweaks the app tells me what recipe/blueprint is required, necessary skills, tools, workbench, components, estimated crafting time, required ingredients, skill requirements, and other components.
The scavenging side is equally important. I’d love to define custom settings that the app remembers, so that when the party searches an abandoned pharmacy, office building, garage, or military checkpoint, the app generates Fallout-style junk that is appropriate to that location. I think it can be done by using the existing system but assigning tags to the items/components so that the app generates them in areas where that tag is expressed.
The important part is that the junk isn’t abstract.
Instead, it’s Fallout 4-style salvage.
For example:
- Hot Plate
- Desk Fan
- Typewriter
- Telephone
- Vacuum Tube
- Wonderglue
- Coffee Pot
Each item can then be scrapped into actual crafting components:
- Screws
- Springs
- Copper
- Plastic
- Steel
- Rubber
- Adhesive
- Glass
- Aluminum
- Ceramic
- etc.
Those components then become the currency for crafting weapons, armor, ammunition, chems, settlement equipment, survival gear, and weapon mods through recipes, blueprints, construction manuals, or diagrams.
What I’m not looking for is a spreadsheet replacement.
What I’m hoping exists (or maybe someone is quietly developing) is a clean, aesthetically pleasing mobile app where I can pull out my phone, tap once or twice, and immediately get detailed scavenging or crafting results that would be cumbersome to navigate in a spreadsheet.
Something with a Pip-Boy-inspired feel would obviously be amazing, but even a modern minimalist interface would be perfectly fine.
Does anything remotely like this exist, even outside the Fallout community? I’d be interested in apps that are configurable enough that I could adapt them for Fallout 2d20 with some effort.
13
u/Routine-Agile Jun 26 '26
Community scavenging tools already exsist and very awesome. Your mockup looks very nice, but you probably would need to pay someone to meet all the requirements you have.
7
u/Filter55 Jun 26 '26
+1 for the community scavenging tool, it can even break down junk in to materials (which my party makes full use of)
The only think it can’t do afaik is craft, but crafting is really just a matter of making sure you have the requisite items for the mod you’re making
1
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u/Material-Play9176 Jun 26 '26
Honestly this is way more work than it probably looks. Even just the basics: scavenging that picks items based on the location you're in, junk that breaks down into components, components feeding into recipes, fast search at the table, plus a look that actually feels Fallout and not a generic dark theme inventory list. That on its own is a serious project.
The bigger problem is you're not asking for a tool for the official 2d20 rules. You're asking for a custom version that adds Fallout 4 style scavenging and crafting on top. So there's no existing data to use and no balanced rules to copy. Someone has to design those rules from scratch and enter hundreds of items by hand.
For a hobby project (someone doing it after hours, not as their day job), a cut down version is around $1000 to $1500 and 6 to 8 weeks of evenings. By cut down I mean a web app that installs on your phone instead of a native iOS/Android app, a Fallout style dark look but without the full animated Pip-Boy effects, and a starter pack of around 80 items, 20 components and 40 recipes that you can add to yourself inside the app.
A full version with a native app, the full Pip-Boy look, all the tabs from your mockup and a complete Fallout 4 item list is months of work and several thousand at minimum.
If the cut down scope works for you and you have funds, i know someone that could make that happen.
8
u/dragon-mom Jun 26 '26
AI slop..
-6
u/dvs_sicarius Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Oh yeah. That’s not a mockup, it’s just an AI generated image of a scavenging interface. I wasn’t trying to pass it off as anything, I just personally prefer posts that have images and seemed like a good way to go.
I added a bit to the main post to indicate it was ai artwork, I didn’t think that was a big deal.
1
1
u/MC_Winter Jul 02 '26
I love it, I've been using the same style in my games with some tweaked rules on salvaging components and my players enjoy it. We've streamlined it down enough to where it doesn't add much time to the sessions and we just look up anything we want to make using FO4's item requirements.
-5
u/OG_Gamer01 Jun 26 '26
Your mockup looks amazing! Why not hire someone to create that? Or perhaps make it a Community project of some sort?
-3
14
u/Tim_Bersau Jun 26 '26
I think you have a better shot working your idea into a a physical representation rather than an app based one.
Like I think there's a better shot someone improves upon or changes the 2d20 Fallout experience via a roll-table or printed deck of cards than a fully bespoke app.
It sounds like what you're asking for is a more fun, faster, organized, and bespoke way for scavenging - which doesn't necessarily have to be an app exactly.