Fallout: Baltimore is set in a post-apocalyptic, retro-futurist world following the Great War mainly between the US and China. The Great war was a conventional and nuclear war that occurred on October 23, 2077 and lasted less than two hours despite causing immense damage and destruction. Before the Great War were the Resouce Wars , during which the United Nations disbanded, a plague rendered the United States paranoid, and Canada was annexed. The story now takes place around the turn of the 24th centuty. The United States have ceased to be united at all. What's left of the government has withdrawn to lick it's wounds and makes efforts to reorganize. Large cities are ruined husks of what they had once been. Even remote locations have felt the burn of radiation. Humans and animals exposed to too much radiation have mutated into ungodly creatures, some bearing little to no resemblance to what they'd once been. Very few things still alive have remained unchanged by the effects of the poison. Paper and coin money is a thing of the past; though occasionally traded for nostalgic purposes. The predominant trading currency is bottle caps.

Around a week after the initial nuclear explosions, rain started to fall, however none of it was drinkable. The rain was black; tainted with soot, ash, radioactive elements produced by the nuclear explosions and various other contaminants produced by nuclear weapons. This rain marked the start of the terrible fallout that marked the true, permanent destruction caused by the Great War. The rain lasted four long days, killing thousands of species that had survived the initial destruction of the bombs, be they animal, plant or micro-organisms. Those few living things, human, animal or plant, that survived after the rain ended were left to live in the now barren Wastelands that had spread across the Earth, where nearly all pre-War plant life had died either in the initial explosions or from the intense radiation produced by the fallout.

The main story revolves around Duke's Travelling Emporium, a haven in Southern Baltimore where merchants and survivors congregate to exchange necessary goods. Duke's hosts a number of specialty and general shops as well as a handful of rooms to rent, a couple social watering holes, a brothel and even a circus. The headquarters building is where Duke and the people closest to him live and do business. It was set up in a pre-war hotel building on a hill overlooking a good portion of the public venue.

Nearby locations of note are the D.C. Ruins about 30 miles south along I-95 and Pittsburgh (The Pitt) , many days journey northwest along I-70.

.plot.

War broke out between Duke and the Raiders that used to be under his "employ." Both sides took heavy casualties. Underprepared and blinded by the comfort he'd gotten so used to, Duke was lucky to not have lost more. He's become more of a recluse in the days following the assault. Pouring his money into security and defense, he's otherwise shut himself up in the hotel.

Not everyone had a home to return to when all was said and done. Some people moved on, in search of security in the bigger cities. Talon Company has been hired to provide overwatch for the time being. Still, the soldiers' mentality doesn't always mesh well with the inhabitants just trying to scrape their lives back together. Uncertainty is everywhere. With Duke making fewer and fewer appearances, the people are starting to talk and rumors are growing daily.

Construction on the wall is taking every able bodied person in the city. Across the ravine the Raiders watch closely, but quietly. A mysterious woman seems to hold their reigns. Though their attacks have become almost nonexistant, the taste of blood is still on their lips.

.characters.

_{As always, all premade characters are NPC's, until they aren't. NPC's can be picked up as playable characters for sure.}

• Residents

Duke - Duke started out as a typical caravan merchant. The same as many others, he scoured the wasteland for items of value and went on to trade them for supplies. He was a resourceful man, able to turn a profit on most any piece of junk he scrounged up. Before long, he acquired a pack mule, then a guard, a couple brahmin, some more guards... His expansions continued until he could no longer transport his wares on the backs of even the toughest mutated animals.

In all of his travels, he'd seen vehicles in working order from time to time, and envisioned his caravan redone - completely on wheels. It wasn't something that happened overnight. First he needed to have the caps to finance such an endeavor. Second, locating functioning vehicles to be purchased was a daunting task. Third, he'd need a crew with the proper knowledge to keep the vehicles in good working order. Last - fuel.

It took his years to realize his dream, but finally it did come together, and his caravan achieved instant fame throughout the wastes. You could hear him coming from a mile away, engines churning and coughing. At this point, drawing negative attention to himself wasn't an issue. Anyone stupid enough to try to raid his caravan would find themselves severely outmatched. Duke had taken the time to plan his trade through years of trial and error. He didn't simply employ random survivors to man his vehicles and run his business. He had taken the time to hand pick his retinue, all men of many skills - intelligent folk with experience in the wastes - fighters, thinkers, tinkerers, and others. Each one of them more than happy to defend what was essentially their home on wheels. Through all their travels, they had acquired superior weapons and equipment, and when faced with an enemy, would deploy almost militarily to defend their livelihood. It was a grand existence compared to what the rest of the world had to offer. They were grateful for the opportunity to succeed in this way and recognized that they owed their success to Duke.

Duke found Deja during his travels. She was young, afraid, and alone, only able to scratch enough food together to keep herself alive. Still, she radiated energy, a vibrancy that reminded him of his youth, and enough tenacity to originally refuse his offer to join his crew. She'd been naturally afraid of being sold into slavery among other things, but after spending a few hours with Duke, he'd soothed her to the point that she'd agreed. It was a strange relationship at first, her constantly challenging him, prodding to find his purpose for recruiting her, ever suspicious of his intentions. In the end, however, after long talks over longer drives, she finally realized that he was simply a good man who enjoyed her antics and her company. She wasn't like the rest of the crew. She was playful and chaotic, a polar opposite to him in most cases, but it was her unpredictable nature and her zeal for life that made them fast friends. He took her under his wing, gave her everything she needed, and left her free do to as she pleased. Secretly, Duke felt as if he somehow lived vicariously through her, wishing he too would have been afforded the option to be so carefree in his younger years. But allowing her to enjoy herself pleased him. She became like a daughter to him.

Duke had seen his age creeping up on him. He knew that he couldn't live the life of the travelling merchant forever, yet he couldn't see giving up the thing that had taken all his life to build. He decided that the best compromise would be to settle into a permanent location, somewhere central and yet far enough from other settlements that his own flock could grow into a colony all their own. He chose Baltimore. Camped along the old route I-95, he was a hub between major cities. D.C. was less than 40 miles south along I-95, Philadelphia about 100 miles northeast, and New York was another 100 miles past that. Though some of these distances made for a long journey, people came regardless. Duke had built an empire in his years on the road, and a reputation to match. People could find things in his shops that they couldn't get anywhere else. No one was turned away. His prices were more than reasonable, causing other merchant caravans to come to him to trade and supply their own business. He didn't need to scour the wastes much any more to find items to populate the shelves in his stores. The items came to him. The rarer, the better. He made a habit of securing the most hard to find items, and this further increased his business from further and further away.

Though armed to the teeth, and manned by hardened fighters, Duke's settlement was much harder to defend as a collection of buildings rather than vehicles. Raiders began to take pot shots at the encampment, sneaking in to cause just enough trouble that they could still get away mostly unscathed, but doing lasting damage to his business. Duke puzzled for days over the solution to this problem, but in the end, Deja had been the one to come up with an answer. There was a never ending supply of Raiders in the wastes. No matter what they did to hunt down their attackers, they would always be replaced by more. They needed their own guard force, more than simply the people who operated the businesses. They would need bodies, a lot of them, fighters willing to take a small wage as well as room and board for their services. How better to combat the raiders than to assimilate them? Though disorganized and hard to rein in, if they recruited enough of the Raiders to their aid, they could create a defensible fortress, one which other Raiders and outsiders would shy away from attacking.

Deja had gone on her own to the nearest Raider camp to convey their offer. Duke would have never agreed to let her do so had he known ahead of time. Still, amazingly she'd succeeded. Word spread like wildfire through the gangs in the area. In exchange for their services, they would receive a salary, a place to sleep and a steady supply of food and necessities. It wasn't a bad deal.

Deja - The 'adopted' daughter of caravan merchant Duke. Compared to most people living in the post-apocalyptic world, she's spoiled rotten and lives in the lap of luxury. It's been a long time since she ever had to hunt or scavenge for food.

Deja's history starts in Little Lamplight. However, like all other children there, she was forced to move along to Big Town on her 16th birthday.

Deja was fresh meat in Big Town. As the new guy, she was subjected to a sort of 'hazing' by the other members of the community. She was introduced to sex within the first week of her arrival. She learned early on that her body could be used as a tool to get what she wanted. In a world of uncertainty, what she wanted more than anything was security and protection. Big Town was different than Little Lamplight. Instead of caverns and caves for security, they had rickety shacks out in the open, barely guarded from the hazards of the Capitol Wasteland. Motivated by fear, she latched on to any and everyone who she thought could help protect her. Sex was a means to an end and also happened to be a convenient way to forget the ever present problems if only for a short time. Eventually Deja wore out her welcome in Big Town however and she was unceremoniously expelled from the settlement.

Her life in the DC Wasteland was like most. There was little clean water to drink and scavenging for food was almost a lost cause. After some time on her own, she had a chance encounter with a travelling caravan and was all but adopted by the man in charge. Deja traveled with Duke until he decided that he wanted to settle down. Choosing an area surrounded by freeway lanes in Southern Baltimore, Duke finally set up shop permanent and retired from his caravanning days.

Deja had enjoyed playing Raider for a time but it all ended with the news of the coming attack and when she was kidnapped by a formidable member of the Raiders. She was rescued weeks later by a mysterious man.

Deja has quite an addictive personality. She'll try anything once and keep going back to it if it proves to help her remain oblivious to the wrecked world around her. She's a heavy drinker and smoker, and does drugs (commonly referred to as "chems") as often as is practical. Though sex is one of her favorite highs, she shows a surprising amount of restraint by keeping the number of her partners much lower than is commonly believed. When she's not using sex as a tool to get what she wants, she prefers to reserve for those she feels have earned the privilege.

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• Merchants
• Raiders
• Talon Company
• Others

.factions.

• Brotherhood of Steel
• Brotherhood Outcasts
• The Enclave
• New California Republic
• Raiders
• Scorpions
• Slavers
• Talon Company

.locations.

• Capital Wasteland - Travel is common between the D.C. Ruins and Duke's. Some survivors are still too afraid to live away from the city, yet make trips to Baltimore for specialized goods and services not available in the generally law abiding Capital Wasteland. D.C. business is integral in funding operations at Duke's.
• Duke's Travelling Emporium - Various shops of all types as well as beds to rent, brothels, a slave market and other oddities. Check the map for other locations.
• The Pitt - Though many days travel away, The Pitt still has a strong influence on trading at Duke's. Duke's is one of a few way points used to escort slaves back and forth between The Pitt and Paradise Falls in D.C. (The slave trade is also common further northeast along I-95 in Philadelphia and New York.)

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