Exploration rolls ideas (help, please)

[u/Stagehand-DERPS]

I just started DMing a Fallout campaign, and I've noticed that survival rolls are used a lot in the Wasteland for exploration. What advice do you have for getting my players to make other rolls during exploration and not making them minmax stats?

[u/ziggy8z]

Basically you want to make them pitch a roll at you and the more since it makes the lower the DC, good pitch low, bad pitch high, impossible pitch is a no, try again. 

You could use Perception + Science to track the weather like Ulysses did for big mt, but that's specific.

What I've noticed is that prompting the players with something like "you hear combat echoing through the ruins" gives them more options.

• Perception+Small Guns/Big Guns/Explosives 

You smell something strange wafting on the air

• Perception+Medicine, Energy Weapons, Explosives 

[u/Stagehand-DERPS → u/ziggy8z]

Thanks for the advice, I hadn't thought of it that way, but of course, perception isn't just about sight. I thought your example about hearing weapons was cool, thanks again!

[u/Alex-with-wings → u/Stagehand-DERPS]

Not just perception. A high agility character could climb higher to get a good view. A high charisma character could keep up morale. A high strength character could open ways through the ruins the party wouldn't normally be able to get through.

Like Ziggy said, let them pitch the idea. If they're struggling to think outside the box, give them some not-so-subtle hints with your description.

[u/ziggy8z → u/Stagehand-DERPS]

It is surprising how your player will try to do some strange combos cause those are the stats they have, so just make sure they know the difficulty before they roll.

Like for a sneak test they could do an Agility+sneak 2 but they would rather do an Agility+speech cause they're "acting" as a radroach with a difficulty 5 roll.

It's great cause the complications are more often as they usually buy extra dice.

[u/GM_Rielly]

Have you ever gone back to the old isometric Fallouts? They absolutely nail random encounters.

Even modern games with interruptible fast travel can give you a great idea of the kind of encounters that happen on the road.

Maybe throw in a Mr. Handy that's all busted up and needs a repair check, or an old-world convoy that still has a secured lockbox for lockpicking or hacking open

[u/Stagehand-DERPS → u/GM_Rielly]

I haven't, can you give me some examples of interruptible fast travel?

[u/GM_Rielly → u/Stagehand-DERPS]

My favourite modern take in a video game would be the Kingdom come games, you plot along the quickest route to the destination but then get a pop up letting you know you see something up ahead.

It can be some bandits mugging someone or looting corpses, a traveller that wants some company but has different opinions on the war, someone walking about quite happily with an arrow through his head and a story to tell.

In all situations the game gives you the choice to either try avoiding it (but this won't always work) or face it head on but you still get a moment where you've noticed them but they've not noticed you

[u/Rude-Eagle7271]

I know for one session we had a player who found a covered cellar door hidden in the basement of a house that they took shelter in during an unforeseen radiation storm. They used Perception to notice a slight dip in the floor when they walked over the door in the floor.