March 28, 2025

Fallout Zones (S4E17)

38 minutes

Fallout 2d20 uses zones instead of conventional battle maps or theater of the mind to describe where your characters (and their enemies) are in the game world. In this episode, we talk about how Fallout zones work, offer advice on how to use them, and take a peak at some other games that use zones.

After fighting our way through the wasteland, we geek out about Alien: Isolation, the excellent survival horror game now available on the Switch, and the Foundry Virtual Table Top.

Fallout 2d20 Campaign Page: An overview of the campaign, plus links to episodes and related game resources.

Fallout 2d20 Resources: Links to community forums, wikis, rules, podcasts, and cheatsheets.

Chapters

0:00 Intro – Welcome to the Lair of Secrets
1:00 What Are Fallout Zones?
3:45 How Zones Improve Tactical Combat
9:30 Obstacles, Cover & Hazards in Zone-Based Play
15:20 Zone-Based Games – Fate, Shadowdark, Alien, and More
19:45 Jump Scares – Playing ALIEN: Isolation in the Dark
26:30 How Alien: Isolation Preps You for Running an Alien RPG
31:10 David’s New Obsession: Foundry VTT
34:50 Foundry vs. Roll20 – Which Virtual Tabletop is Better?
37:45 Final Thoughts & Sign Off

Listen to the Episode

Watch to the Episode

Watch Fallout Zones on YouTube.

Show Notes

Main Topic

Overview of zones in Fallout 2d20

What and why?

Abstract way of representing regions and distances in a game.

Half-way between battle map and theatre of the mind … sort of.

Great for RPGs featuring more abstract locales.

Lets you avoid infinite 5-foot-squares.

Fallout 2d20 zones

Reach – Arms reach (within close, but not an actual zone; minor action to close; confusing wording)

Close – Any distance within the zone you’re in.

Medium – Distance of one zone

Long – Distance of two zones

Extreme – Distance of three or more zones

How do they impact movement / weapons?

Difficult terrain: “A zone may be filled with difficult terrain, slowing anyone attempting to cross it.” Fallout 2d20 core rules (p. 38)

Obstacles are similar in that they hinder your movement, but they exist between zones—attempts to move from one zone to another where an obstacle is present may slow your progress. Fallout 2d20 core rules (p. 38)

Hazards are parts of the environment that inflict damage to creatures caught in them. A hazard may be present in a specific zone, or it may be spread among multiple zones. Fallout 2d20 core rules (p. 39)

How to Represent Zones

Theater of the Mind

How far can you take it in theatre of the mind?

Visual Zones

Use index cards or draw out boxes representing zones.

Battle Maps

Create your map. Draw lines on it indicating zones

Outside Example:

Zone 1: The near battlefield, on the shores of a stream.

Between zone 1 and 2: the stream that must be crossed

Zone 2: The field on the far side of the stream

Zone 3: A stand of broken boulders & battle tank

Zone 4: The edge of a forest. Hulks of buildings looms in the distance

Inside Example:

Zone 1: The Library

Zone 2: The Entrance Hallway

Zone 3: The Kitchen

Zone 4: The Basement

Zone 5: The Balcony and second for overlooking the dining room

Prior experience with zones in other systems

FATE

Index Card RPG

Professor DM / Dungeon Craft

Alien (Year Zero system)

Forbidden Lands

Adjacent

Shadowdark

Fallout scenarios we ran

The Lab (small scale zones)

Surface Fight (open range)

The Dungeon (larger, longer-range zones)

Advantages & Disadvantages

Advantages

Makes range more abstracted; in Cyberpunk RED, if I want to give the solo a chance to use his sniper or assault rifle skills, I probably need to scale up my map.

With zones, the distance gets abstracted … and the map doesn’t even need to exist.

Disadvantages

Breaks your brain a little.

Can be hard to conceptualize (particularly if you come from a minis-based game.

Reach vs. Close

Building-as-a-zone vs. floors as a zone

Banter

ALIEN: Isolation

Released 10 years ago

And now it’s out for Switch!

How to play: On the sofa, in the near dark, with AirPods in.

FoundryVTT

My favorite so far

It has lived up to the hype I have heard from others

Easy to pick up and start running with

Very extensible

Featured Image Meta

The muddled background is the local map for Vault 88 in Fallout 4. Credit: Bethesda.

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The post Fallout Zones (S4E17) appeared first on Lair Of Secrets.

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