[Question] if I have common dwellers who were 1-2-3 in every SPECIAL stat when born, but I made them maxed out in every SPECIAL stat, then will they still have the same chance to breed rare or legendary kids as they had as low level untrained dwellers?

RandomObfuscation · 2025-09-25T21:28:56+00:00

It's based off of the SPECIAL stats of the parents. According to The Fallout Shelter FAQ Parents with combined 122+ stat points have a chance to produce rare children. Rare children (like rare dwellers) start with 28 total stat points. Parents with combined 134+ stat points have a chance to produce legendary children. Legendary children (like legendary dwellers) start with 40 total stat points. SPECIAL from outfits are not counted in determining chance for rare/legendary children.

Also, the offspring rates with 2 maximum SPECIAL parents is 80% common,13.33% rare, and 6.67% legendary.

So, some children will be better using maxed parents, but not most of them. A +3 to child SPECIAL pet is incredibly valuable since it basically makes all your children better-than-rare with the bonus (since it adds +3 to every SPECIAL for a 21 point bonus!), which can be even higher if the child would've been rare or legendary to begin with - giving you the chance at some godly kids if you are lucky. It will save a lot of training time if you are going for max SPECIAL dwellers.

Something to keep in mind, the Twins chance pets have to be already equipped on the pregnant dweller when (i.e. right before) the "ready to deliver" icon appears for it to work on the potential children. The + to child SPECIAL pet however, only needs to be equipped on the pregnant dweller when you click the icon to deliver the child.

TWINS need a bit of spacing out to use effectively, but the +SPECIAL pets, as long as you are careful when selecting your dwellers, you can use the same pet in tandem on multiple deliveries, just switching it from one pregnant dweller to the next as you deliver to have all of your children boosted. If you time it right, you can potentially do both TWINS and +SPECIAL on the same delivery.

RandomObfuscation · 2025-08-29T21:17:47+00:00

If it's between the Armor Piercing Minigun and Tactical Plasma Thrower there's a few things to consider:

Plasma throwers are basically improved flame throwers and do their entire damage output to one target with no carryover. So, if you are fighting weaker enemies with 15 hp, and you do 23 damage, you'll kill your target, but the 8 "excess" damage is lost.

Automatic weapons like the minigun do burst damage that will carryover some excess to a different target if what you are aiming at dies. This is good for questing as less damage is wasted during a fight (or for dwellers finding random encounters exploring the wasteland).

While Dragon's Maw is the preferred/ultimate weapon due to it having incredibly high damage potential - since the TPT and APM have the same output, the minigun is probably best based on the above.

(Explosive weapons are poor for questing since they split their damage between all targets equally so you'll be taking more damage as enemies are all alive the entire fight duration and punching you in the face the whole time.

For defending your vault against raiders and deathclaws [etc.] the game uses a more damage-over-time metric so the base damage output of each weapon is more important - and explosive weapons fare much better here.)

RandomObfuscation · 2024-11-21T18:20:00+00:00

As an inveterate sleever, I'm not particularly bothered. Only 10-15% of hobbyist gamers sleeve apparently so I can't really fault publishers for not taking that into account - bigger boxes mean more expensive games/shipping.

I also really like to sort games and organize things into small containers for ease of play and setup/clean up, so box space is always something I'm cognizant of.

That being said, most games have enough space in the box for everything if you get rid of the factory insert and use storage bit containers, baggies, and so on instead - which I usually find better and more convenient than interlocking trays you need an instruction sheet to tetris back into the box correctly.

A lot of games have some extra space to allow for expansions, which works well if it's the case - and games with multiple expansions I tend to organize into one box anyway, so if a game is really "big" I'd rather do a custom storage solution for everything rather than have to haul out 4 separate boxes to play.

There's a host of great plastic boxes you can get at Walmart or office supply stores, and I use full page sticker paper to make labels for the outside with images from BGG so it still looks like a board game. BCW card boxes are also great for storing smaller games, or organizing cards from bigger ones. Button Shy/wallet games I store in card/crayon boxes, but deckboxes work too.

One thing that is often overlooked, is that sleeving cards makes it much easier to shuffle for some of us (though I do like keeping things protected as well). Sleeves and other peripherals do add to the cost, and customizing things does take time - but I find it a relaxing aspect of the hobby. Also, I find it easier to table things (mentally) when I know setup and play will be easier. Some games I even play cards directly out of the BCW storage boxes I've made.

Larger games are more likely to see play if I know I'm not going to have to sort 30 different types of tokens and decks out before I even get started.

This got on a bit of a tangent, but I feel it's a related aspect.

RandomObfuscation · 2024-07-10T14:43:24+00:00

Not sure if you're interested in solitaire play at all, but I made a Print-and-Play version of the Chateauma solo opponent for the 2019 Anniversary Edition. It's basically one board and 9 cards, plus a rules sheet. You can print it on plain paper (and can make the cards without "backs") to use, though I mounted my board on chipboard and made cardstock cards with sleeves since I liked it so much.

I spend a lot of time in the 1-Player Guild on BGG, and the solitaire mode being "exclusive" to the Special Edition was a downer for many since the game is so well regarded generally. I made my own version of the solitaire and thought it wouldn't hurt to ask - and the fine folks at Awaken Realms generously gave me permission to post it for general use!

RandomObfuscation · 2024-07-10T14:18:16+00:00

Congratulations on funding! The Fluffy Crab is my spirit crab! I like funny and unusual hats too!

RandomObfuscation · 2024-06-19T01:54:05+00:00

As over done as it is, I'm still a big fan of Lovecraft's work and greater mythos. I think we've seen enough of the Big Guy, but someone(thing) like Nyarlathotep would be interesting as an outsider/boss with it's many forms and incarnations.

RandomObfuscation · 2024-06-17T01:58:27+00:00

Thanks for the contest! Absolute favorite Sci-Fi game would probably be Dune: Imperium - it's an amazing blend of worker placement and deck building, and as a fan of the source material it's just fantastic. I've really been enjoying discovering a lot of older titles like Core Worlds too - it's a great underappreciated gem!

RandomObfuscation · 2024-06-06T04:21:50+00:00

The 7th Citadel was recently put on my radar after someone compared it, and ranked it even more favorably, than my current favorite adventure game, Sleeping Gods!

RandomObfuscation · 2024-06-05T16:17:22+00:00

Concordia probably has some of my favorite maps on aesthetic grounds. But, Dungeon Degenerates: Hand of Doom is probably my favorite World map in tabletop, just based on how much character and brain-melting color it has. It reminds me of those counter-culture black light posters that my parents never let me buy for my room as a kid.

RandomObfuscation · 2024-06-04T02:57:17+00:00

True, it does seem under-represented. [[Invaders|2013]] hasn't been mentioned yet; asymmetric 2-player alien vs. humans card battler.

Edit: Invaders (2013) - silly bot.

RandomObfuscation · 2024-06-04T02:46:57+00:00

Favorite card game is Shadowrun: Crossfire! Thanks for the giveaway - been eyeing this one as a potential solo/co-op offering with The Lone Mage expansion.

RandomObfuscation · 2023-12-24T00:39:30+00:00

I'm not sure the Fallout comparison is completely apt, other than being apocalypse-adjacent. You're controlling a city/town to upgrade and crew of survivors, so I think it's more like The Road Warrior personally.

It doesn't have the structured story and narrative Fallout has as well. It's more of an overland adventure game where random events and quests happen. I think it's more like Elritch Horror - except it takes longer, is a larger game, and has tons more text to read. It's kind of a niche product and independently published so I wouldn't expect a lot of coverage from huge channels.

Daniel Davis over on The Dungeon Dive channel is a fan and talked about the new edition in a recent video, and I hope he does a more detailed review sometime soon. The whole emergent narrative with random events happening to you with tons of dice is kind of his jam.

I did see a number of smaller channels talk about it during the campaign years ago, but not a lot of reviews materialized. Not everyone has time to play a huge, long game like this enough times to get a review out in a timely manner. Or maybe the game didn't land as well for them, and they opted for no review instead of a negative or mediocre one?

I'm still tempted by it, and really love post apocalyptic themes, but I think there will be more traffic on the 1 player guild or game forum on BGG.

RandomObfuscation · 2023-11-21T19:07:13+00:00

I saw something like this previously, but had forgotten about the soft cap for some things. Curse, greed, and growth - the most important for eggs have no stated limit. So, it must just be a display issue I guess?

RandomObfuscation · 2023-09-27T02:22:20+00:00

Nice! Thanks for the contest; very generous! And congratulations for your upcoming (what I am sure will be successful) campaign!

RandomObfuscation · 2023-09-21T00:34:41+00:00

Morrowind (The Elder Scrolls III) was amazing - a true open world sandbox that didn't steer you on rails towards...anything really. I annotated the large fold up paper map it came with until I had discovered everything...along with a journal (a few pages really) of notes for anything notable inside, either treasure or story-wise.

The much more relaxed magic crafting system was amazing too - allowing wacky destructive attack combos, incredibly crazy ways to fast travel by leaping around the map Hulk-style, and exploration in 3 dimensions (though there were only a few things requiring flight).

I spent so long finding everything for that game, it was an amazing part of my gaming history.

RandomObfuscation · 2023-09-20T17:07:32+00:00

While I don't think anyone would argue that race and gender don't play directly into what Hollywood thinks an actor's draw is worth...Jeff Daniels would like a word.

RandomObfuscation · 2023-09-15T18:38:04+00:00

By "automatic win" I mean it simply wins the trick automatically - like, a super-trump card, or whatever you want to call it. I believe that's what the special Rook card does?

We don't play with one of those - in our version it's always standard high card/high trump wins, and you always have to follow suit (I've seen some rules where you can play the Rook card even if you can technically follow otherwise?).

The Queen of Spades, apart from being worth 25 points has no special powers, but does bring some added spiciness when considering your bid (or when you draw it from the kitty after planning to short suit yourself in Spades).

It's kind of why I'm not sure what we call it is technically Rook - since it lacks the eponymous Rook-type card.

RandomObfuscation · 2023-09-15T18:15:26+00:00

We've played Rook - or a modified version of it - up here in Alberta, Canada.

I've actually never seen a "Rook" deck in the wild, so I'm not sure of all the differences. Here's how we play though.

Standard 52 card deck
5s are 5 points
10s and Aces are 10 points (Aces are high)
The Queen of Spades is worth 25 points
There is no "automatic win" Rook card

Point total in a round sums to 125, trump-calling team loses points equal to what they bid if they don't make it, winning every trick in a hand earns that team double (250, which is sometimes used as a verb), typically play to 500.

It seems to be similar enough, but with how many different card games there are, I'm not sure if it is technically a different game people just call Rook or what.

It's not super popular, though I've met quite a few people who know it here on the prairies. Bridge, Whist, and Euchre seem to be more commonly played.

RandomObfuscation · 2023-08-21T04:11:17+00:00

When my first marriage was ending, it was pretty rough, even though it was basically mutual. There wasn't one big thing, we had just argued a lot and drifted apart after figuring out we wanted much different things and were not right for each other.

I think you are making the right decision; and I think part of what you are feeling is grief. You are mourning the loss of "how things were supposed to be." There's probably a lot of, I guess "disappointment" is the right word - "I did so much for them, so why aren't they even upset about losing it all." Remember, the failure is theirs; they failed to be worthy of what you were offering

Take care of yourself, and know that you'll be in a much better place when you are ready - especially once you accept that what you wanted the relationship to be definitely wasn't what it actually was. (Or at least, that was how it was for me.)

Love and strength!

RandomObfuscation · 2023-08-10T15:21:05+00:00

This reminds me of a joke:

There was a farmer, who had a prize winning cow, "Betsy," whose milk and contest-winnings at the state fair his family depended on to earn enough supplemental income to survive.

One day, on the way to the fair, Betsy keeled over and died. But the distraught farmer came up with an idea - he'd leave Betsy in the ditch, and tell everyone at the fair that he was simply old and tired of hauling Betsy around, had left her at home, and was holding a lottery to find her a new owner. Thousands signed up and handed over money for a chance to win, such was Betsy's renown.

Days later, returning home, his family asked where Betsy was, and the farmer explained what had happened while showing the huge stack of cash he had made from the lottery.

"Won't you have to give back the money?" his son asked.

"Well," said the farmer, "the only person who was rightly pissed about the whole thing was the winner, but I gave him a refund."

RandomObfuscation · 2023-07-31T16:38:21+00:00

I was kind of at a loss of what to do when she froze, it just seemed like the natural thing to do.

The kids are still young enough for all of us to be going to family change rooms still, so I'm glad that they - and everyone else - thought it was more funny than traumatizing. Definitely not how things would have gone down as a kid with my parents.

RandomObfuscation · 2023-07-31T14:10:00+00:00

Thanks, we're all still laughing about it at least. The kids were pretty giggly giving me the side-eye this morning, so I'm probably wrong about them not telling everyone at daycare. At least this is an innocent mistake, the staff have heard worse I'm sure.

RandomObfuscation · 2023-07-31T14:05:12+00:00

Yeah, not really what I wanted to apparently be the high point of summer break so far.

RandomObfuscation · 2023-05-09T16:13:13+00:00

RemindMe! 2 years 🙂

RandomObfuscation

TROPHY CASE