For the past two months, I've been planning out a Fallout fanfic based in St. Louis. As a native of the area, I wanted to depict what I feel would be the ultimate outcome of the various ethnicities of the area after several generations of post-Apocalyptic survival. To give you an idea of my commitment, my main character, a descendant of the enormous St. Louis Bosnian population, was fleshed out after interviewing dozens of local religious leaders, refugees during the genocide and resulting diaspora of the 90s who came to St. Louis, and local students.

While the majority of the characters are ready to go (each complete with a full biography for the sake of consistency), the primary story-arc is very incomplete. I know where I want to start and where I want to finish, but everything between those two points - save for several key points - has yet to be planned. Since I plan on releasing this to the Fallout community, I would appreciate the communities opinion on what has been something of an impediment.

Fallout Tactics.

I would like to see this set about a decade after the events of Tactics, but the depiction of St. Louis in Tactics is horrible to say the least. While replaying, the majority of the mission set in St. Louis felt like it was being fought in a dusty parking lot rather than the ruins of an urban setting. This leads me (finally!) to the question I would like to ask the community before I begin plot development:

Should I stick to St. Louis as it was portrayed in Tactics? I only ask because I am writing for you, the FO community. If one thing can be said about the FO fanbase, it is that the fans of these games are some of the pickiest in terms of canon (I mean this as a compliment, honestly!).

I could honestly care less, canon or not canon. But why would stick to the St. Louis in Tactics if it looked like a dusty parking lot? If it weren't satisfied by the interpretation of St. Louis after a nuclear fallout, why would want to make a fanfic in such a setting? It sounds like this would be a great fanfic regardless of the setting.

East Louie looks most to be track housing and the airport. This sounds like ghoul/dog heaven to me.
Missouri side where the high rises are depict a ruined area somewhat similar to the dc ruins, but maybe less bombed, or differently bombed -neutron bombs, they kill everything, and leave most of it standing :woot:


ps never played tactic

East St. Louis is post-Apocalyptic already and doesn't require a lot of imagination to cast it as such. Just watch National Lampoon's Vacation. I was considering making the majority of East St. Louis, with perhaps the exception of the Afton Chemical Plant, under water. My thought is that after the Great War, most of the locks and dams along the Missouri River would have either been destroyed or abandoned. Since East St. Louis is flood plane, and St. Louis City has those stonking great flood walls, most of the people I've talked to (including 1 specialist from the Army Corps of Engineers in Alton (neat!)) are under the impression that after 150-200 years, if there is anything left at all in East St. Louis, it would have been reclaimed by the river.

Historically, the St. Louis area was labeled as being a "Secondary" target during the Cold War, meaning that if it wasn't taken out during the initial attack, it would certainly be attacked by any second nuclear volley or bomber fleets. Still, the major military installments are good distance from the Downtown area, so getting that DC/Necropolis look shouldn't be that unreasonable.