DOs and DON'Ts of a Fallout fanfiction

Rest In Peace Star Paladin SteelHooves

Weird way to begin, but the thing about SteelHooves' death is that it was very touching - because it was unexpected, because there was literally no death scene and because it was so damn ordinary. (Well, Wasteland-ordinary, because I've never heard of someone killed by a Deathclaw irl). In Kkat's story, the Deathclaws just jumped out on our heroes, killed one of them and got killed by another. The whole thing took like a minute, maybe less.

The brilliance of that death scene was in the fact that it wasn't against any big enemy, in battle against the Enclave, but... just against the Wasteland itself.

And that's what people surprisingly often forget. The Wasteland is an enemy too.

Therefore, the topic of this chapter will be wildlife encounters and how to handle them to make them natural. Because - and forgive me for using the same example over and over again - the only reason why that sudden Deathclaw attack and death of my favourite character weren't off the hat was that it wasn't the only one in the story. If you describe wildlife encounters, don't just describe the "important" ones or else there'll be nothing to compare them to.

And, straying a bit from the main subject, just to clarify: when I say "wildlife encounters," I mean any interaction, be it a fight or not, between the characters and the Wasteland's fauna (counting feral ghouls and super mutants as animals here).

My ever-amazing chapter idea provider flipnoteriversong said something that you all should take to heart right now:

Balance. Heiko, as the Japanese say. Equal measure of everything. In this case, equal amount of wildlife encounters which go badly, those which go well and those which go meh.

For those which go meh, I'd still encourage you to hurt at least one of the characters at least a bit. Because if they go out of it without a scratch, it's never going to be believable. Even radroaches can hurt you.

I mean sure, this is all coming from me, a writer who's pretty much infamous by now for having "at least one character's arm broken at a time" (as one of my readers nicely put it), but still... I think it's good to show that your characters aren't invincible. They're human. They can be hurt.

How can they be hurt? Now, this... This is gonna be fun.

There are many, many and yet many more kinds of creatures in the Fallout universe, and they don't all deal out the same kind of damage. (I mean yes, if you're stubborn enough, you can get someone's leg crippled by a cazador... I'm not stopping your creative imagination.) It's good to know what kinds of injuries different creatures can cause.

First off, broken and cripples limbs. I live by a very simple rule: if you want a character out of the picture for a while, break their arm. Therefore yes, it does happen often in my stories. For bigger damage like this, I'd advise you to pick bigger enemies, like super mutants, Yao Guais, Deathclaws, centaurs and the such. (More on Deathclaws later.) It's hard for me to believe a small thing like a molerat can bite hard enough to break the bone - especially when the character knows how to fend for themselves. So big damage = big enemies.

Bites. All kinds of bites. Molerats, radroaches, feral ghouls, feral dogs, some other kinds of bugs? which I don't have the patience to count down right now... All those things can bite. Now, it's your place to decide whether it's just going to be a fleshwound or if it's going to get infected, or if the animal was venomous... And, since we're at it, next point.

Poison.

The most dangerous poisonous animals in the Wasteland are radscorpions and stingwings. Contrary to popular belief, Centaur saliva isn't poisonous - it only carries doses of radiation which are lethal to humans. But the point remains that both poison and radiation pose a completely different threat than ballistic damage - and that's why they're fun to write, too. Just something to consider.

Mirelurks. They have pincers which can prove fatal to somebody's hand or arm (but I hope you're not evil enough to actually do that), sure, but what I think is more interesting about mirelurks is that they always live by the water. So maybe consider some radiation damage? A prolonged sickness is always fun to write, and it only paints a better picture of how dangerous a place the Wasteland is.

And finally, Deathclaws. I saved those for the end to get a nice buckle composition (is that the right English translation?), as I started with Deathclaws, but also because I'm about to say something that I'm only going to say once (because it's gonna be a big spoiler for my stories).

If you want to kill someone by a wildlife encounter, have them killed by a Deathclaw.

Sounds simple, stupid and close-minded, but it's actually advice to live by. Out of all the dangers of the post-apocalyptic world, Deathclaws are the biggest one. They're the ultimate enemy, the embodiment of every way the Wasteland can hurt you, and no one will blame you if a character dies fighting one of them. Sometimes, it's actually kind of poetic (see: chapter 29 of my Fo4 book), being defeated by a Deathclaw.

And even if you don't want to kill, Deathclaws are good for long-time injuries. Get someone stabbed with those claws and they'll have to recover... Let's be realistic, "just a Stimpak" isn't always going to work. Open wounds are open wounds, for crying out loud. And Deathclaws are great at delivering them.

All in all, Wasteland wildlife is a Bad Thing™, but it's there and you have to acknowledge it. It's going to hurt your characters, that's inevitable, but you decide how badly. And, I can assure you, they will hurt it back.

Over and out.