I couldn't really find a time span that I particularly liked to explore some nice dystopic kind of steam punk ish stuff.

So...I want to make one of my own, and I want your help.

I'm thinking a world that had become greatly advanced, a New World Order kind of thing, where the world was for a time quite peaceful and set on making further and further advancements.

Somewhere amid all that something happened to end all this and bring about the near destruction of the human race and most of nature.

Today there are a few who have discovered how to use a small portion of this stuff and they are essentially gods among men. Most people have no idea what to do with any of the technology as it has been decades and decades since anyone has used it and much it may well be and most likely is non-operational.

The few people who do understand how to use some of the technology are essentially this world's version of the Brotherhood of Steel except that they are Fallout 1/2 BoS rather than 3 or NV versions.

For those unfamiliar with Fallout 1/2 BoS...they are rather isolationist and essentially hoarders of technology. Their thought process being that the unwashed masses can't really be trusted with technology as they would inevitably form it into weapons to use against each other. Of course the BoS themselves are heavily armed and armored.

I think this can be used to really showcase the difference between those who have power and those who do not. Being surrounded by technology you just don't know how to use is an interesting idea to me as well. Might die of dehydration or radiation poisoning with a water purifier right there at home if you don't know what it does or how to operate it.

Any input? Questions, ideas, issues, etc. I'm planning on just adding a few little stories to build on this idea until I can get a feel for it and how people react to it.

Hey Smiley, I like the concept but I think we need some more information. But first, I must nitpick about my favorite faction. The Brotherhood was the same in NV as it was in Fallout 1 and 2, reclusive keepers of high-technology. Though, they weren't at full-form either.

Anyway, what will the group be called? Is this still the Fallout Universe, with a twist? Will the group be techno-religious like the Brotherhood and what technology do they have exactly? What will their goal be, to reeducate and reintroduce or hide their technology to prevent another catastrophe?

I think that subject is also what really fascinates me about the post apocalyptic scenario. Humanity has lost so much and basically has to start all over. What do they do with any technology they find? And yes, who knows how to use tech gadgets and will they share their knowledge?

It would also be interesting to explore how the ones with technology will co-exist with the "unwashed wastelanders". Do they intermingle or mark their territory? Create "do not enter" zones?

When you talk about advancement of the human race at the beginning and a peaceful time, I immediately thought of the Star Trek Utopian Earth. Maybe an alien race tried to destroy our planet? Or like a Defiance kind of scenario, where aliens tried to settle on earth. A space battle ensued and terrible alien technology "rained" down on earth, terraforming the planet.

Anyway, interesting topic. Can't wait to read your first story.

Honestly I barely remember the BoS in NV. They had that bunker. Asian dude wanted to stay in it, white dude wanted to lead people out, Fisty Girl wanted to get a new dress.

I'm not quite sure if I want it to be on the West Coast or East Coast but I wanted to have a chance to kind of delve into a similar but different world.

Very much a Utopia in some ways but with a bit of the old 1984 Big Brother thing going. Kind of a forced Utopia, like as long as you get along everything is Peachy Keen. Theft, unapproved drug use, murder, etc. etc. and you'll likely be caught almost instantaneously due to eyes in the skies and summarily executed. You weren't going with the program, you were putting this grand Utopia at risk so there was really only ever one way this could end.

I'd want to expand on the idea of the pre-war government developing and testing new weaponry. Part of that being that while everyday life had plenty of technology that was cutting edge or futuristic to us today, the military had stuff that was really out there. I don't know if it's exactly steam punk...but I imagine more angular Power Armor beside people in dirty clothes with improvised holsters and gas masks.

This version of the Brotherhood I imagine as power hungry isolationists. Not entirely evil, but adamant in their belief that the unwashed masses would corrupt or destroy any valuable technologies they came across. I'd imagine them exploring the wastelands in small parties with little worry about their own safety and little regard for the lives of the unwashed masses.

I wouldn't necessarily want them to be the bad guy because to a large degree they would be right. The world as it is now would be dangerous and there would be plenty of people preying on each other.

I love the Brotherhood too...I just miss them being more isolationist. The first time you meet them, if I recall correctly, only one of them at one of their outposts will really offer you a way in and that way in is a suicide mission. A suicide mission I died doing several times before amassing enough Rad Away and Rad X to survive the trip.

Can kind of play on an idea of ignorant bliss and hope versus informed despair and callousness.

The BoS, or perhaps a secondary group, having a lot of knowledge about what we were and what went down representing the informed despair and callousness and the unwashed masses representing ignorant bliss and hope. Bliss might be too strong of a word though.

I think I'm going to take the approach of just changing the point at which this world Diverged from ours.

In this world a certain genocidal tyrant kills a certain forgetful genius when that genius tries to leave his lands for more hopeful shores. This event prevents the invention of the Atomic Bomb.

I got to say Smiley, that's going to be interesting.

Hell, this kinda inspiring to make my own divergent Fallout story.

Are you talking about Einstein? He never fled Germany, he was visiting the US and decided he would stay when Hitler took over.

If you are talking of someone else ignore that.

I did mean him....

I guess my story will diverge when he backs to find his missing McGuffin and then....no more Atomic Bomb.

I'll say...

He was working on the Manhattan Project but when he realized the potential power of the weapon and what would result if it fell into the wrong hands in the future...he left the program and returned home.

There as he learned what was going on, shortly before he disappeared, he made one speech. I'll just use Charlie Chaplin's speech from The Great Dictator.