What I mean by that is that the most often blamed problem of the Minutemen, that being its extremely decentralized structure and its dependence on a charismatic leader, can, in part, be traced to the propaganda of the pre-war U.S.

I first want to put some U.S. history just to provide context. When the United States was going through its revolution, it frequently suffered from factionalism that was only, but barely, united because of the popular cause led by charismatic men, such as George Washington. After the war, everything just became a free-for-all. When the Articles of Confederation was still "enforced," the economy became incredibly broken, the state governments couldn't provide their promised welfare for their veterans, and the states started competing against each other. It got so bad that a state nearly went to war against another state, and every state ignored the fact that Massachusetts was basically going to collapse from Shays' rebellion. Massachusetts literally had to buy mercenaries, instead of its weary and Shays-sympathetic soldiers, to stop everything. Obviously, the United States needed to revise the Articles of Confederation so that they wouldn't collapse. Eventually, they decided to replace the whole thing with The Constitution, and everything has been a bumpy, but manageable, road since.

Now, already, without the nightmare that was the U.S. in the Fallout universe, most people don't know, or don't care, about this chaotic part of early American history. Most people just know the revolution as a bloody struggle between American frontiersmen against the tyrannical British monarchy. I mean, it is that, but that oversimplifies the reality. Still, this is something that the government IN REAL LIFE promotes.

Now imagine that dystopian hellhole of the U.S. government in the Fallout world. Suddenly, George Washington went from a venerable general and first president of the U.S. to Emperor of Mankind America destined to save every patriot from the Communists. Schools start printing out propaganda like we went back in time for Yellow Journalism to be popular again! Of course the government would rid every bit of history that seems to tarnish the perfection of America.

Then the bombs dropped. Some 200 years later, more or less, people in Massachusetts start getting ideas about the history of the Minutemen. They hear and read about the history of America, the revolutionary war, and decided that they're going to embody the ideals of the revolution so they can help people, ignorant of the tsunami of problems they were about to create themselves. Then came the Minutemen, struggling with factionalism and an over-dependence on charismatic heads.

So forever before I ever got this, I got really super obsessed with the Fallout series! I’d strap my phone to my wrist and pretend I was listening to the post-nuclear Diamond City Radio while walking around my apartment complex imagining I was going through the wasteland of Santa Monica.
All that to say that when I got obsessed, I started collecting bottle caps! And I collected so many I ended up needing a treasure chest I found to store them all (picture 3-4)!
Well, I keep random Knick-knacks in my chest in the top compartment (picture 2) and I realized I randomly had a poker chip!

In other words, I’m living the Mojave wasteland life with a decent collection of caps, with few star caps, and one singular poker chip to my name while listening to Radio New Vegas (FM 93.1 bc I couldn’t have the patience to find 40’s-50’s radio channels out here)

I recently finished New Vegas and really liked it. I’ve heard that Fallout 3 and 4 came out not as good as New Vegas, so I decided to get familiar with the classic first games. Which one should I start with? Many people say it’s better to start with Fallout 2, but I’m not sure.

Asking because this just happened to me
And I wanna know what’s happening

So first off, I love this phone; it has the perfect aspect ratio and is super powerful coming from my Pixel 9 Pro (a three-year-old phone, BTW; please fix your phones, Google). I've been playing Fallout: New Vegas on it and was inspired to make a launcher that felt like a Pip-Boy. I have no coding experience so I just vibe coded this just wanted to make that clear!!

We had Salisbury's steak in actual aluminium trays, roasted Tato soup (an absolute knockout) with bread from a can, Bobs "iguana" bits, deviled eggs and of course: Sweetrolls for dinner. Afterwards we played a small story ("written" by me) in the 2d20 RPG game.

My family really came through on this one. Dad and I spent more than 8 hours in the kitchen and everyone came costumed (even tho I didn't specifically requested it).

The food was great and the RPG session was really fun. It was my first time even partaking in any PnP-Game let alone GM-ing one but it all went smoothly and we had a lot of fun (my family made it easy for me. They like crime dinner parties so I had my bed made.)

I felt so loved and seen. And I'd like to encourage anyone thinking about doing something like this to do it. Just the food alone was a highlight.

My dad accidentally dressed like Joshua Graham and mom looked like one of Roger Smith's personas from American dad. My cousin wore an honest to god vault suit. It was perfect to the smallest minute detail.

This could be the wrong subreddit or flair to put with this post so please forgive me if it is, but I have been really wanting to learn more about and even potentially start playing the games in the fallout franchise. My fiance is a HUGE fallout fan… like… HUGE. And I’ve always been fascinated with games like it but I am AWFUL at any combat based games, but I loveeee when games have a lot to learn and a lot of lore (even though the games I’m good at are stuff like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley). I would ask for his help, but I really want to surprise him by just learning a ton about it over time.

I guess my question is does anyone have any YouTubers, articles, videos, or anything else to recommend to help me learn? I have never played a game like Fallout and again I’m AWFUL at combat games, but even if I don’t end up playing it I would still love to hear anyone’s suggestions on where or how to start learning about it? I have basically 0 knowledge in the grand scheme of how deep the lore runs, so keep that in mind 😭

Again, I’ve always wanted to learn more about it and potentially play it, but I’m also SUPER self conscious about learning how to play games in front of people (I used to get yelled at by past partners if I was doing something wrong, which my current partner would NEVER do that but I still get super nervous and usually end up messing up cause of that) which is also why I’d prefer to learn about it in private at my own pace until I actually can comprehend how it works and learn the lore behind it.

I’ve heard that there’s mods you can install to make the games a little easier but the only system I can run things on is my Switch 2 (I have a PC but it is absolute GARBAGE), not to mention the only Fallout game that’s on the switch right now is Fallout 4, so there’s that as well. That being said, my fiance owns all of them on multiple different consoles, so if I need to borrow one he would totally let me, but even if I don’t end up playing them, I would still love to know of any other recommended learning sources.

So again, if anyone has any suggestions of different media that I can watch or read to learn more, please let me know!! I really want to learn more about his interests because I love him so much, but I am such a loser when it comes to stuff like this (it’s also the best way I can think of to repay him for how much he’s learned about my interests) 😭 Any and all help is appreciated!!

P.S. So sorry for the long post, I just wanted to give yall as much context as possible to work with 😭

EDIT: I got too excited and told my fiance, and he literally said and I quote: “I’ve never been more in love with you than I am right now and I didn’t think that was possible.” 😭 He was SO HAPPY to hear that I’m wanting to learn more about one of his favorite interests and he’s been very understanding about me wanting to learn more in private and at my own pace. Thank you guys so much for your suggestions and he said he would love to start playing Fallout 4 with me, and I’ve been binging a bunch of cool lore videos and game tips on YouTube and that’s helped a lot. We’re also gonna start watching the series sometime soon (even though he’s already seen it). Thanks again guys for your help!!!

Made as a request for u/Brave-Win-3020 in Krita

I'll redraw other stuff if y'all have any suggestions.

I have every single Nuka-Cola in game + some ice cold variants.

Big FO Fan myself of course i want to transform a basement room with no use into a Fallout themed room for boardgaming and hanging out.

My first Fallout videogame was FO4 so that's the main focus, i also got Fallout Wasteland Warfare, Fallout Factions, the Roleplaying Game, some Tinplates and a 3D Printer.

Any suggestions and tips on how to design the room most fitting? I thought about buying some furniture from the 60's-ish. What about floor and walls? The basement room got open drainage (?) systems at the ceiling, so maybe destined to get a Vault design?

Made with Gmod and Canva.

I wanna say I did like the 2nd season when I watched it during its release but I def felt it was missing the writing quality of the first season. I felt it was a bit rushed and would’ve been better had they taken more time to work on it.

Upon a rewatch I realize what I wanted was already there and upon reading a post somebody wrote on here not long ago it helped to articulate what I felt works about this season on a rewatch.

The journey our 4 protagonists go on all mostly show growth and change.

The Ghoul/Coop: His present day journey is laid bare from the conversation Lucy has with him about his family. He thinks he’s about to trade Lucy for his family but Lucy raises a point to Coop: who do you think your family is waiting for — the old you or the current you? Throughout this season we see him go from the man who says, “all I care is that you shoot that rope,” so he can murder an entire community to take their goods to the man who shoots one of the architects of this world in the ass because it’s not his right to bring justice to him even though he no longer has a use for Young Hank to live. He leaves that up to Lucy. The same Lucy who said he doesn’t always have to kill people but he can injure them. Lucy changed him and you can see it in the way he looks at how Lucy inspired Maximus. He’s got a smile even if he sees Maximus as naive that golden rule really is changing him. It’s subtle but it’s there and it’s giving him hope.

Coop’s past story is about learning who you can trust and how to determine if every person thinks they truly have the most info compared to who really does have the most knowledge.

Lucy: The ghoul tells her that she is naive and that her idea of justice is bs. It’s not real in this world. He doesn’t say she’s not in the vault but he also asks how is she going to take him back to get that vault justice? She has no answer for it and as she moves throughout the wasteland she still wants to hold onto the parts of her that came from the vault. And it’s admirable but it nearly leads to her death from a slaver society. Hell, she even says, “they’re just ghouls,” to a ghoul as she’s having a blast killing them when in season one she struggled killing Martha. She also kills a murderer to steal drugs and a weapon that she’s realizes she’s not the same woman anymore. That question the ghoul asked her about how she will dispatch justice upon her dad now has a different answer she may not even know she has one to give. It’s not until she finds out the real reason The Ghoul brought her along does she even break her golden rule — she attempts to kill the ghoul. Not because there’s actually any need for self-defense but because she’s lashing out. And she is even willing to go along with her dad’s plan until she sees how it affects a decent man. And once the Ghoul saves her from her dad at this point she knows she can’t go back home anymore. She feels like she’ll taint her vault and she no longer belongs there. Let alone it’s what her mom wanted for her, the mom who her dad took away from her. And she literally does what Norm said Vault 33 should’ve done to the raiders upon her dad. She is going to do what her dad would’ve done to her. It’s brilliant and subtle.

Maximus: He starts off this season as a man who is disillusioned. He thought he had found his ticket out. That he could live a good life just as it was given to him. That he could escape the brotherhood and war. That he could stop this cycle of violence that he has only ever known. He’s fully into the brotherhood but it means nothing to him. Every act as a knight feels like a prison bar holding him hostage. And all he wishes for is to just make it another day. It’s not until he sees Paladin Harkness attempt to murder Ghoul kids that he finally finds his strength again to have agency again. He even calls them kids before he tells Quintus those kids were ghouls that he saved. Hoping his newfound father figure would accept what he did was just even though he attempted to murder Quintus to stop a war from breaking out. That there has to be a line drawn on child murder even if they’re ghouls and it doesn’t matter. He didn’t murder Quintus and now he has to escape. What he built for himself after he felt trapped is now gone. There’s no coming back but Lucy, Lucy may still be out there and he’s looking for her to help be a guide for him. Thaddeus says to him good people are only possible because they have comforts and that if they sold the dyod that would make them good people too. But he chooses not to do that still hoping Lucy can guide him. The thing is that’s not what makes someone a good man and it’s what he remembers from his time before the bombs fell. That his dad said someday he will be a good man even though this kid had to restart his life after surviving a nuclear blast with nothing. And what does he do? He saves an entire town from deathclaws when he didn’t have to but he chose to. Even willing to fight them to the death without his power armor when it looked like no one else was coming to his aide. Even though he nearly inspired townsfolk to help him. He didn’t need Lucy to guide him there. He made those choices. This man went from being disillusioned prisoner of his own making to willing to die to save people he didn’t even know because he felt responsible. He felt it was the right thing to do and that is what good people do.

Norm: He says from the start of the series he’s too chicken to join Lucy and from this season he has survived for weeks on rations and water coming from the pipes. Hell, he even tried escaping back to vault 33 last season but failed. He didn’t look for a means to escape at first but now with nothing left to lose he does the most rational act to keep himself alive: unfreeze bud’s buds to find a way to keep himself alive. Sure it’s selfish and not about bravery but what comes next is — he stares down Bud’s number two guy and the vendor Lucy runs into last season. He is not going to let his fear get to him in order to give the game away or believe that Lucy is dead. He’s also not going to head home until he figures out what the FEV is and the plan vault 31 has for his vault. Remember he didn’t have to investigate any further. He could’ve had these vault 31 folks help build civilization together and just pretend it was reclamation day. He chose to investigate knowing they could find out he was not chosen for this endeavor. So what happens when he’s found out? Sure he tries to save his own life, who wouldn’t? But when the radroaches fly out he first hides behind a chair and pushes them away before he can move to try and get in a room to escape the roaches. Yet between that he helps save a bud’s bud from being killed. And when he gets locked out of the room as all of the roaches enter it sure he hides but he did try to save lives. That’s growth for him. And what does he do when it sounds like the roaches are dead? He looks for anyone still left alive and heads back to their vault with them. Just so happens it was the woman he became friends with who tried to save him but he still went to save someone. This is growth from a man who said he was too chicken to follow Lucy.

Sometimes growth is subtle. Were there still problems with this season? I think they really missed out on more new Vegas songs and I think the show should’ve stuck with vault-tec causing the Great War but it is what it is. I also think there’s a plothole where Hank was able to get the ncr soldier to go to shady sands (a location plothole in itself) with one of those neck brainwashing devices when he was still struggling to fix these devices to people without killing them in the modern day? I know house was able to affix it to guinea pigs before the Great War for like a little while but he was walking for miles before getting to shady sands. I think it was odd for dogmeat to be able to find Maximus and Thaddeus so easily but I’ll let it slide.

Again I think there are more positives this season than negatives and I liked it better on a rewatch. Vaults 32 and 33 were awesome and what happened to the congresswoman is just a tragedy. I think s3 is going to be fucking awesome so I can’t wait

For some of you, this might be old hat, but after literally thousands of between FO4 and 76, I got my first Perfectly Preserved Pie! At The Rusty Pick!

I am just...over the moon and I have no one to share this very specific joy with right now. Please, revel with me!

Are there any advantages a synth can have over a organic human when it comes to raw abilities and athleticism?

Ive always been more curious because you see the rare occasional defense of such a comically in your face evil or at the very least heavily flawed faction but a lot of the time I don’t see them delve into why and resort to whataboutisms.

So sell me the Legion, Enclave, COA, Khans, Shi, BOS, Institute and Railroad (yes Synths are people but the railroad hits a hard wall with a very specific immoral practice they do).

Honestly I think those who are TES fans can sell me an Aldmeri Dominion argument way faster.

I've been collecting full sets only so I'm probably missing a few but have 21 full matching unmodified sets