FAQ

[begin_again_mods]

SO - WHAT IS THIS PLACE?
This is the Sierra Madre Hotel and Casino (and Villa). Based off of the one of the same name from the Fallout: New Vegas expansion pack known as 'Dead Money', this game takes place approximately seventy years after the Courier first visited it; so be ready for some familiar sights as unfamiliar circumstances take place. This is a game with survival and horror elements - your characters are pretty much dumped unceremoniously into a harsh world where they will have to scrounge to survive. Teamwork is optional.

The Sierra Madre Casino is a legendary artifact from the glory days before a giant nuclear war between the US and China essentially wiped out the world. It was originally built by a man named Frederick Sinclair who wanted to create the ultimate vacation destination, and safety against the coming war. It is two things, really; the residential Villa, and the more exclusive Sierra Madre Casino proper. More on that in the Setting page.

DO I NEED TO KNOW NEW VEGAS AND DEAD MONEY TO PLAY?
No, hopefully everything we'll explain to you will cover what you need to know. Given this is long after the dust has settled from Dead Money, and is under completely new circumstances, knowledge of the expansion is not necessary.

WHAT NEW CIRCUMSTANCES?
Well, first and foremost... it's not clear who brought the characters here. They used the same Bomb Collars that were supplied in the original game, albeit with some modification, but they give no instruction as to what they're supposed to do, where they're supposed to go, or why they're even there. The gate to the casino seems to have rusted itself shut for now, so who knows what the goal could be besides 'survival'.

BOMB COLLARS?
Yes. They make sure that if the characters try to leave, their head gets blown up. They're no longer linked to the other players, so if one dies, they die alone, but you should still take care not to try to escape. Oh and... try to avoid radios. There's more on these in the Setting page.

WHAT ABOUT MY SPECIAL POWERS?
Stripped when the character arrived; world hacking, dimensional portals, pyrokinesis, anything that would separate you from the average, ordinary, everyday human being is gone.

BUT I AM A FIFTY FOOT LONG, TWENTY TON LIZARD!
You probably don't want to do that. Things whose strength owe naturally to their size and build will find themselves weakened by the Cloud, slow and sluggish and hard to move. Things with wings that are larger than, say, your average condor or so won't be able to fly, as they'll be too heavy and not have the muscle capacity to generate any lift. Honestly, particularly big and large creatures are not the target for the Mysterious Person who brought everyone here, so if they can't fit into a human-sized room/building at least somewhat comfortably, they won't be here.

WILL WE EVER GET OUR POWERS BACK?
Yes! Sometimes, through events, or other occurrences - rarely, and only in the most obscure places can they be found - a player will get a code for the Auto-Docs. There is no indication what that code might be for. Maybe it'll give them back a power. Maybe it will give them some debilitating and horrifying scars. Maybe it will give them something else - a strange amount of resistance to the Cloud, for instance, or the ability to eat even the most irradiated foods without getting sick or radiation poisoning or sickness. What it gives is more or less up to the player. There may be some restrictions put into place to begin with such as 'no flying until more things are opened up' but it's more or less flexible.

The only thing the Auto-Docs will not give back, no matter the circumstances, is any kind of immortality or bodily immunity to harm. They wouldn't want to put themselves out of business!

WHAT HAPPENS IF THE CHARACTER DIES?
No one really dies here, even the Sierra Madre survived when the rest of the world went to hell: the answer is simple, they wake up the morning of the next day, in an Auto-Doc at the Clinic. They may be perfectly fine, they may be carrying gruesome scars from their encounter, or they may be carrying scars that are completely unrelated to the injuries they sustained at their death.

Why?

Because the Auto-Docs have faulty coding of course! Again, this is left up to player discretion as to what happens when/where.

BUT I PLAY AN AVERAGE HUMAN CHARACTER, WHAT USE ARE THE AUTO-DOCS TO ME?
Well, there's more to it than just that. The Auto-Docs have their own section of the Setting page for details, but the short of it is; they can give your character some abilities that will make surviving in this environment easier, such as resistance to the Cloud, slight improvements to senses or strength, or even the ability to go longer without eating; or to survive eating more... questionable things. These things apply to characters that are both human, normal, or not human, or not normal at all.

WHAT ABOUT MY CLOTHING/WEAPONS/GIANT MECH FROM HOME?
That would have to be gained back from the vending machines. Well, the clothing and weapons. Things that are too big, such as cars, giant mechs, and the like, will not be able to be received.

Since the vending machines are currently off-line, however...

CAN THE VENDING MACHINES BE HACKED?
To an extent, but it seems there's a vital component of their programming missing that allows them to produce the items you would need or want. So your character would just be staring at a lot of incomplete coding with no idea what to put in. Messing with them too much might trigger a same sort of fail-safe override and reset them back to normal, like the Auto-Docs.

BUT IF THEY'RE VENDING MACHINES, WHAT KIND OF MONEY DO THEY TAKE?
They take Sierra Madre Casino chips. Yes, like poker chips. You can exchange the chips for items, or items for chips at the vending machines (when they reactivate). There's still some chips laying around, so if your character is smart, they'll probably pick a few up.

WHAT ABOUT PROPERTY DESTRUCTION?
The Sierra Madre is here to help you! Why would you ever hurt it like that? Still, if that happens to be your character's... thing, it is entirely possible. The Villa was constructed rather poorly, so it doesn't take entirely too much effort to expand the damage that's already there. The only IC consequences for it are that it's harder to find a place to sleep to escape the Cloud if there's holes in everything, so it may not be wisest to just destroy things all willy-nilly.

There's some construction equipment over in Salida del Sol to patch up the damage if a player causes it, but it won't repair on its own.



WHAT HAPPENS IF I NEED TO HIATUS?
Really, giving a heads-up via OOC comm and something your character is doing is for the best.

WHAT ABOUT CANON UPDATING?
It's a free game, just do it! Your character will just wake up in exactly the same place as when they first arrived if they do, and have to make their way from there. There's no maximum or minimum time they're going to be gone from the game, but it's recommended to give them a day or two to be gone so people can have the chance to wonder where they went. During this time, they will have no radio frequency - it'll just be static, as though they're gone.

AND DROPPING?
Your character drops off the map, their frequency disappears entirely and becomes inaccessible, and their stuff stays exactly where they left it. Just reply to your claim to let the mod know you're dropping and make an OOC comm post if you feel up to it, but just letting the mods know to update the claims page and delete your character to free it up is a good idea.


Have any other questions, comments, or concerns? Ask here and we'll answer to the best of our abilities!