Interest Check: Dungeons & Fallout?

So, I've been toying with an idea for a bit now, and I've fleshed it out enough that I started wondering if anyone (or perhaps 4-5 anyones?) would be interested in trying out my little fever dream.

I'm thinking of a game with a very loosely "Fallout" inspired setting (or maybe Mutant Year Zero-esque?) using D&D 5E mechanics.

But even then, that's overly simplified. Worth noting, a lot of focus would be on building a settlement for survivors and the things that come with keeping the survivors safe and the settlement growing.

The short version: A year or so after some cataclysmic event killed off 90% of the planet, the remnants of humanity are struggling to hold on. Your PCs would be survivors, leading a group to the location you think you can establish a foothold to begin coming back from the brink.

To start, there would be a list of locations with ratings for pros and cons for different aspects of survival. The PCs would settle on one spot, and the game starts with your weary band arriving at their chosen home. A former Noble would take the roll of Lord, while PCs would form a Council to advise and handle whatever was needed. (This keeps PCs equal.) From tracking down needed resources, to possibly recruiting more survivors, to leading the people in defense of their home -- and more.

From there, plans need to be made on how to improve your land and keep it.

Thoughts? Questions? Interest?

Oh, since location would be the essential first choice the PCs make, just examples so you sort of know what I was thinking.

Each spot would have a variety of qualities, rated 0 to 5. 1 (low) to 5 (high) is normal, but some places may have a 0 if some espect of survival simply isn't there. There may also be a perk and/or a drawback to a location.

Qualities I'm looking at would include:
Size (Overall room for growth)
Defensible (How easy it is to repel attacks)
Location (In relation to other points of interest)
Water (How much is available)
Agriculture (Ease of farming)
Livestock (Ease of ranching)
Timber (How much wood is easily available)
Mining (How much rock, ore, and minerals are available)
Travel (How easy is the trek to and from)

Some overlap is to be expected... a location that has a low Travel score (meaning it's hard to reach) is likely to have a higher Defensible score. A location with a low Size score will also likely have a low Agricultural score, since it takes room to grow crops. Setting up in a ruined town may have a perk of increased speed to build (due to existing infrastructure) but may be a hotbed of activity from people wanting to scavenge, thus seeing regular attacks.

Of course, part of the game will be finding ways to overcome those bad scores and capitalize on the good ones.

I was just about to pitch a Mutant Year Zero game! :) :) And there's also a Fallout game out using the Year Zero engine. Looking forward to see where you take this, sounds fun!

Color me interested :)

I have a M:YZ character from an abandoned game I'd love to convert and play again.

Very Interested.

Sounds fun and a interesting approach with the location ratings. I'd like to join, but I better not put my hat in. If this one goes up public I'll enjoy reading how it develops.

Do you think they'd convert to a D&D 5E character? Some of the mutant powers don't seem like they'd translate well (needing some real creative license at the very least).

It shouldn't be too hard to find something comparable to the mutations from material for 5e characters.

*tentatively raises a hand in interest*
Depending on what level you want to start at, there are lots of comics hero and villain 5e conversions out there.

My inquisitive mind always have them :)
- Would players know exactly how will game we affected by location scores? Do they affect game quest content? For example would low "Ease of farming" mean foraging missions and rolling survival checks. Maybe they influence quest locations, i.e. low Mining would bring PCs to Mountain and caves.

- Does a good Defensible score mean combat quests to defend location will be too easy to be satisfying? Or would DM adjust combat difficulty by throwing more/bigger enemies?

- Do you think the game would consist of missions each aimed to overcome an issue of a bad score (or a combination)? Or maybe it wouldn't always take a PC party effort to solve some problems - maybe player individual knowledge of survival/construction/mining practices would make significant amount of game content?

That's true, but we aren't really looking at superheroes. Equinox was talking about a post-apocalyptic game (Mutant Year Zero) where characters each have a quirky mutation that provides a power of sorts. While it does feel a bit like very low-end X-Men, it's more like Fallout with a one-off weird ability.

He was curious about adapting a character from that game system to 5E for this game (as the setting is similar-ish).

GreyWord, I was waiting for you to pop in! Lol

Alright, some answers:
- I would make it pretty clear what each location "quality" represents, and what the ratings mean. More or less at any rate -- remember, since this is a work in progress some things may need to be sorted or revised in play.

- Potentially, yes. Combat to defend the settlement may get easy. But that may not be bad, since you have limited people and long-term survival gets harder with fewer people.

Combat on quests and so on would remain unaffected. (You don't get the benefit of walls if you aren't behind them.)

- Missions will vary, and be largely player-driven. I mean, there will be lots of possibilities, but it's up to PCs to choose what to pursue. Some may just require skill checks, others may require days or weeks away from the settlement. Improving the settlement is something of a given, and at least some potential quests will focus on that. But the PCs will have to prioritize.

So how Fallout-y would this be? Will this be a modern times game and will it take place in the USA like Fallout does? With guns and such?

Fallout-y in the sense that the entire world was pretty much wiped clean due to a catastrophic, apocalyptic event, with the last remnants of civilization holding on for dear life in the ruined remains of the world that used to be.

Still a generic D&D-esque fantasy setting though, instead of a future-retro United States.

Posting interest.
Never played MYZ, but I did play Gamma World a couple times as a kid. I think my character was a mutated raccoon, who was like 12 feet tall. I remember bc the book (which in retrospect I guess the game came from the UK?) said my character was "four meters" tall, and I think that was this young US kid’s first encounter with the metric system.
Good times. :)

Ahh, metric... another thing I am convinced the US refuses to adopt strictly because the rest of the world uses it. 🤣

I mean, you're not wrong. When you believe you are superior in every way...you do not cave to an entire planet having moved on to something else. (Just an observation/opinion of a Canadian...so take it with a grain of salt...it's just the only reason I can fathom that a country would cling so strongly to something the majority of the rest of the world has/is trying to abandoned).

Honestly? I always saw it as more a matter of defiance. You know... "We intentionally left the rest of you, why would we want to be like you?"

Think of it like a break-up... your next partner is probably not going to be a clone of who you just left, y'know?