Inspired by a recent playthrough of Fallout 1&2 I had recently decided to introduce my RP group to the Fallout universe, however upon watching the television program Oz and remembering the semi prominent part that the Prison played in New Vegas, my plans changed.
Imagine a huge Supermax prison somewhere in the badlands of America, a self sustained metropolis, with wells, gardens, cattle herds, crafts that the inmates practise and the various strata of factions and groups that inhabit it. The Warden and his guards, the Aryan Brotherhood, the Muslim alliance, the Mafiosi, the Bikers, the small township that serves the guards and long since vanished visitors with a bar, a brothel maybe, a general store etcetera.
Now set this in the Fallout universe, and theorise what changes might occur after the great silence blanketed the land, this quiet beacon of supreme law and punishment left all alone in the midst of the Wasteland, overlooked by the enemy nukes due to its remote locale. How will the society evolve as life changes due to the new paradigm? Will the various power groups persist, or will they fracture and forget their past?
There are numerous possibilities inherent in the setting, and ways that the unique Fallout setting might affect it, such as: Rockerbillies and Greasers having turf wars, similar to the Kings of Freeside. A benign AI overseeing the facility, its circuits slowly degrading, but still insisting on its inane chatter. The Padres, a bloodthirsty gang feared by all whom once served as the prisons chaplains, but whom now weild hog legs and righteous wrath in one hand and holy books in the other, fanatical preachers in the style of Jon Shannow.
My minds is aglow with whirling ambient nodes of thoughts cascading into a whirlpool of invention. Do you think the setting has legs? Do you have any advice? Do I start the party as inmates, lost travellers, guards put down? Is the Enclave still monitoring the facility? What part of the timeline do I set it in, Fallout 1, 2 or New Vegas?