Fallout
1997 · RPG · PC
Overview
Fallout was a post-nuclear RPG with turn-based combat, free-form character building using the SPECIAL stat system, and a moral structure that allowed — and sometimes rewarded — decisions that conventional RPGs would block. Players emerged from Vault 13 to find a water chip in a world of mutants, raiders, and irradiated wilderness. The 1950s Americana aesthetic made the apocalypse distinctively American.
Deep Dive
Fallout was designed by Tim Cain at Interplay and used the GURPS role-playing system before the licensing deal fell through, requiring the team to design their own SPECIAL system. The game's open approach to problem-solving — quests with multiple solutions including violence, diplomacy, stealth, and skill checks — made it one of the most designed RPGs of its era. The tone — atomic-age Americana filtered through nuclear anxiety — distinguished it from the medieval and science fiction RPG templates.
Developer Story
Fallout was designed by Tim Cain at Interplay Productions and developed in approximately two years. The SPECIAL system was created after the GURPS licence fell through, designed to replicate GURPS's core concept of attribute-based character building in a proprietary system. The game launched in October 1997.
Did You Know?
- Fallout was originally licensed to use the GURPS role-playing system — when the deal with Steve Jackson Games fell through late in development, the team designed the SPECIAL system in approximately two months.
- The game allows players to be an evil character throughout — joining the Master's army, selling people into slavery, and ending the game having done more harm than good — a moral flexibility unusual in 1997 RPGs.
- Ron Perlman's narration — 'War. War never changes.' — was written for the intro and outro of the original Fallout and has been used in every mainline Fallout game since.
- Fallout was designed with a time limit — players had 150 days to find the water chip before Vault 13's inhabitants died — a pressure system that subsequent Fallout games removed after player feedback.
