Looks like my Fallout campaign has come to a close.  Everyone had a really good time, but ultimately it’s been hard assembling the entire group on a regular basis.

I’m creating this post as a discussion on the various moments that made playing PIE some of the most enjoyable role-playing we have ever done.  The intent is to keep the write up of each moment short and sweet; providing just enough background that the situation can be understood.  No effort is being made to place the moments in chronological order.  We’ll just keep adding them as we recall them.

The moments need not be limited to my Fallout campaign, anyone who has play tested PIE is encouraged to join in.

Click here http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=26838.0
for a discussion on the PIE mechanics.

Gabriel and Johnson have just been (correctly) accused of murder by the friends of their victims.  Through desperate gun-point negotiations Gabriel talks them out of the situation.  Everyone is heavy armed, but neither party holds the advantage and no-one wants to die.

There is only one man who knew of the murders; Drug Dealer Jimmy whom they sold the victim’s armour to.  Gabriel is enraged be this betrayal.  Gabriel busts into Jimmy’s apartment, SMG at the ready.
As GM I roll for Jimmy’s reaction; the result is below average and includes a Local Failure on Self.  I decide Jimmy immediately realises what happened and is so shocked his expression becomes transparent and he loses all capacity for deceit for the scene.
Jimmy looks up in alarm; “Oh crap!  You’ve been found out, they’re on to you!”
This was the last thing Gabriel (or the player) expected, and the rage dissipates into confusion.  I find it amusing that a bad roll probably saved Jimmy’s life.

Johnson is sneaking into a military base.  He’s approached the turrets while employing the rather unorthodox tactic of crawling through a field of dead bodies while pushing a truck seat in front of him.  Having reached a blind spot behind a building, Johnson is able to observe the turrets movements more closely.  After careful timing of the turret’s sweep Johnson sprints for the cover of the next building.  A bad roll here will kill the character.  The roll is “Above Average” but includes a “Local Failure” on environment.  As GM I rule that Johnson has made cover by diving onto a patch of landmines.  Fortunately for Johnson the mines are well past their best-before date and the resulting explosion is non-fatal.

Gabriel has sneaked into a raider camp at night.  He bursts from cover yelling “NOBODY MOVE!” while firing a “warning shot” past a raider’s nose with his SMG.  Unfortunately the roll comes up as “Dismal Performance” (5 or less on 3D6).  Group consensus is that Gabriel accidentally blew the raider’s head off.

In the resulting gunfight three more raiders emerge from their cave with assault rifles.  Gabriel dives for cover behind a nearby rock.  The roll is “Above Average” but includes a “1” on Environment.  Gabriel’s player declares that he easily makes cover, but he’s landed in the middle of an inch-ant nest.  As GM I rule that any future action with a Local Failure on Self will force Gabriel out of cover regardless of other factors.

Gabriel (my character) and Carick have kidnapped Saul, second in command of an old slaving ring responsible for the deaths of Gabriel's wife and daughter, and able to give information on the location of the old gang leader, Davidge. Gabriel's intention is to pump Saul for information on Davidge - location, weaknesses, old dirt, etc - then dispatch him. His roll on intimidate is quite high, but includes a local critical on Self. I declared that Gabriel was being very intimidating, but that he was so enraged that he was at risk of losing control and killing Saul before he could give up enough information.

Carick's player therefore declared that he would attempt to restrain Gabriel and save Saul's life. His roll was average, but included a critical success on Opposition, and a critical failure on Self. As a group we concluded that as Carick grabbed Gabriel's shoulder, Gabriel spun and punched him in the face, knocking him sprawling over an old chair behind him. These two roll combined nicely to further intimidate Saul, and the GM (Altaem) stated that I now had the right to invent a certain amount of information that would be useful in pursuing Davidge. Also, Gabriel later had to buy Carick a drink...

Having located the daughter of Davidge (see my previous post) Gabriel kidnaps her, and takes her out of her town. He does this by floating down the river with the unconscious young girl on his chest. His roll was 13, critical successes on opposition and environment (the guards and the river) but with a critical failure on self.

As a 13 was more than sufficient to accomplish this action, and there was no obvious way to immediately interpret the mix of successes and failures, the GM and I decided between us that, though Gabriel had accomplished his action, having this young girl rest on his chest in the dark took him back so strongly to his own lost daughter that it affected how he felt about her and about life. Though he had never intended to hurt the girl (indeed, he had sworn to her mother that he would return her unharmed before tranquilising them both!) he now wondered if he would have the strength to give her back, and had to adopt a much more protective style of play, putting his own safety in jeopardy to keep her alive if it became necessary.

A lot of these highlights seem to be based largely around dramatic situations, like "sneak into a military base guarded by turrets through a field of dead bodies.  You have a truck seat."  How do you generate these situations?  Unstructured prep?  Structured prep?  During play?

Altaem wrote:
Gabriel dives for cover behind a nearby rock.  The roll is “Above Average” but includes a “1” on Environment.  Gabriel’s player declares that he easily makes cover, but he’s landed in the middle of an inch-ant nest.  As GM I rule that any future action with a Local Failure on Self will force Gabriel out of cover regardless of other factors.

David wrote:
A lot of these highlights seem to be based largely around dramatic situations, like "sneak into a military base guarded by turrets through a field of dead bodies.  You have a truck seat."  How do you generate these situations?  Unstructured prep?  Structured prep?  During play?

David wrote:
I really like the way the GM uses one resolution result to feed into the next.  I'd probably look for every possible opportunity to do that if I ran it.  Is that what you do?  Or do you hold yourself to rules about what kind of roll against what kind of difficulty equals "this doesn't screw you (or save you) THIS time, but maybe on the next one"?

I think, to add to Altaem's comment, that it's important to note that the thing that works really well so often in PIE is the fact that, while

Altaem wrote:
As GM you get used to making up rulings on the fly, to accommodate player narration.