r/falloutlore • u/SpareCountofVukograd • 4d ago
Can team sports exist in Fallout? Question
Basically this. I got a player in my campaign who wants to revive sports in Washington post events of 3. I have a hard time believing it is possible, as it would just become the targets of scammers trying to get quick cap. Thankfully, he will start with proven stuff first, like arena and mole rat racing.
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u/KNDBS 4d ago
I guess so, we see gambling and other games of chance have survived in Vegas so i wouldn’t be surprised if some team sports still exist to some degree, either new ones or pre-war stuff, although from what we see in 4 with so many records being lost it’s likely a lot of the rules have “diverged” since then.
Then again doubt most wastelanders even have the time or energy to devote to sports, maybe in larger and safer settlements where people don’t have to spend every waking moment worrying about surviving another day and if they have some leisure time im sure some sporting events do happen.
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u/SpareCountofVukograd 4d ago
Yeah, that's my problem. Most people don't have neither time nor energy. Hell, they don't even have knowledge on how sports are played. And he wants to basically throw money at it to work.
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u/KNDBS 4d ago
I still believe some games/sports would take place in settlements, specially if there are vaults nearby where some of the knowledge on how these sports should be played some people could learn and have the time to play them.
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u/AnMuricanPrayer 4d ago
The NCR probably is the best place for postwar sports, I can imagine everything from casual pick up games to major league stuff happening in the major cities
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u/Galagoth 4d ago
They would in a post game Capital wasteland due to the brotherhood taking the entire area over
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u/Chinohito 3d ago
That's not really how humans work.
We've had sports in some form or another since we've been humans, in every corner of the globe, living in conditions similar to the wasteland.
Hell, you could argue animals like wolves playing is kind of a primitive form of sports.
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u/SpareCountofVukograd 3d ago
That's not the issue. The issue is that he wants to profit from it.
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u/TakeMeToThatOcean 3d ago
Let him lose out money on it, but get praised by locals. Or let him get sponsors from local shops, that is how sports arenas really earn money.
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u/Dexchampion99 4d ago
Vault Dwellers have knowledge of how they work. Doesn’t solve the other two problems though.
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u/italian_olive 4d ago
"Comfort, recreation, healthy competition - all will live again! This country WILL live again!"
Many sports don't require too many resources to get going and are feasible to do in the wasteland. What I find to be less likely is that being a member of the team would be a full time job, likely more like a few people doing it in their free time in a not very professional way without some real caps flowing in (unless this is some kind of charity funded thing). And for scammers trying to make a quick cap would require there to actually be any caps to flow in the first place to this team, which would only happen if they could somehow secure a location where people have to pay to see a game, and actually have enough people who would pay money to watch a team sport for hours. In other words, to revive proper professional team sports as we know them would require a proper stadium or enclosed building that security can keep other people out of. So in this post Fallout 3 Washington you would need a large enough group of people who will pay caps to watch sports, a secure location these people can get to, and players with equipment for them to watch. Might I suggest they try and open a gym that hosts Team sports events as a side attraction? maybe try and cater to BOS members as they are the most likely to have a want for a gym, and the caps to use it. Look at the Jungle Gym in Reno for example. I don't know the best choices for this situation because it seems you are asking about post-game events and I'm not sure what else has changed in this campaign.
TL:DR Yes sports teams can exist, but don't expect to start bringing in tons of caps if the citizens of the Washington area don't have disposable income and time, so they would likely start as a side operation of a Gym or club.
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u/toxicbooster 4d ago
There are pickup games in forward deployed units. I can imagine a place with relatively safe towns would be able to have some form of organized sports. If I were GM in the campaign, I'd make sure the player can justify having the knowledge of historical sports or makes a new simple game up.
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u/EzEuroMagic 4d ago
There are basketball hoops and basketballs still existing I can see places like the BOS having different teams per chapter. Of course it’s probably more like football on a basketball court but I could see it.
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u/EzEuroMagic 4d ago
Also can’t remember but I swear in the background of the show they have a hoop on the base where they are training.
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u/Hopalongtom 4d ago
They were playing basket brick!
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u/EzEuroMagic 4d ago
Okay so I wasn’t crazy, I swore they were playing something.
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u/Hopalongtom 4d ago
Injuries sustained by using a brick instead of a ball probably explains the low intelligence of this chapter!
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u/EzEuroMagic 4d ago
I figured it was the fact that they rountiely beat each other in the face. As evidenced by the moron who used razor blades instead of just like broke their foot.
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u/pierzstyx 4d ago
Goalie LeDoux was making it work.
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u/MarkoDash 4d ago
I thought of those guys too, but from what I remember they're more of a hockey themed gang than an actual team.
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u/MarkoDash 4d ago
It's kinda funny that some random ass raiders know how to play baseball in 3, but in 4 the self proclaimed baseball expert who lives inside a baseball stadium hasn't got a clue.
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u/Daynebutter 4d ago
Boxing is still around in New Reno in Fallout 2, so IDK why something like soccer or baseball couldn't still exist.
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u/Brave-Equipment8443 4d ago
Absolutly. People Can still play soccer when at War, lr when in concentration camps. People need activities to relax, especially when things are grim.
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u/Snoo_72851 4d ago
Huh, my own character has shades of this. His backstory is he fell in love with baseball, joined the army after being convinced by recruiters that helping secure the wastes would mean the NCR would be strong enough to have, say, a national league, then got PTSD from chucking grenades at Legionnaires.
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u/SirSirVI 4d ago
Bring back motorcycle football!
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u/NotBurtGummer 2d ago
Motorcycle chariot racing in the Legion territory.
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u/Robot_Graffiti 4d ago
I saw some Raiders playing baseball in one of the games.
With live grenades.
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u/ArisePhoenix 4d ago
It's probably possible, but I doubt the Brotherhood would be very into it, because I think the Capitol is probably loyal enough to the Brotherhood for that they don't need Circuses yet, but probably sometime between 4 and the TV show they probably made some kind of sporting event
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u/purpleblah2 4d ago
The Legion are wearing football gear, so they’re one severed head away from accidentally playing football.
Speaking of severed heads, Mayans used to play a ballgame with severed heads as far back as 1000 BC, the Olympics began in 776 BC, you do not need a lot of “civilization” to get people together to play sports. People with a stable enough existence would likely want to play after work. He could try offering free food and water/sports drink for people who show up, and out of like 100 people who show up for free food, maybe like 25 are going to stay out of curiosity.
But of course people are going to try to cheat and rig the game and make side bets because it’s a lawless wasteland, and that should just be part of the story.
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u/rviVal1 4d ago
Sudden Death Overtime is a gang that wants to bring hockey, an ancient ice sport played by Goalie Ledoux's ancestors, back to America.[Non-game 1][Non-game 2] They believe that teams were called "icegangs" which they claim to be the last of, and that their sole purpose was to "duke it out" in arenas.[1] Fallout 3 Wiki: https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Sudden-Death_Overtime
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u/Nova-Drone 4d ago
We see brotherhood soldiers playing brick basketball in the show, so hell yea I'm sure sports or games similar to a sport exist
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u/BabyBread11 4d ago
I mean, Moe wants to revive Baseball.
He doesn’t really understand the first thing about it…. But he’s got the right spirit.
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u/Knighty-Night 4d ago
In fo4 there is post-war robot racing track
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u/SpareCountofVukograd 4d ago
Wait, WHAT?!
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u/Knighty-Night 4d ago
Yeah! It's a really cool idea, raiders bet on them and they have a stadium announcer too. Makes a bit more sense than other sports in the wasteland as it takes less effort and planning than traditional sports. Plenty of people have their own robots they might want to bring to the track.
Unfortunately Bethesda didn't flesh it out and when you get spotted everyone there attacks. If you sneak you can watch the race with a scope as long as they don't see you. I suspect they cut most of it to meet release deadlines as they put a lot of effort for it to just be another shoot-out.
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u/Overdue-Karma 3d ago
In the same way, the Atom Cats have a race but the trigger for it runs before you get there so you can't see them doing a 'Power Armour race'.
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u/rocketrobie2 4d ago
My thought process is there’s been sports since at least Ancient Greece (probably earlier too, I’m just stupid) so I figure some form of sports would keep going.
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u/rfisher1989 4d ago
Raiders play baseball in 3, raiders have robots racing each other in 4, there’s basketballs and courts in boston, I don’t see why you can’t roleplay with sports in fallout.
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u/MU5CULAR_B3AV3R 3d ago
Combat sports such as cage fighting do exist (combat zone in 4 , pitt fights in NV with the Khans and legion IIRC) so it wouldn’t be too far fetched to start out small with box/wrestling/mma have gambling on the fights charge vendors a fee to set up shop and slowly expand your sports empire from there. You could also host races. Organized team sports could always come about maybe not with the same rules as today but today’s sports all started out different. Professional athletes used to get paid very little and maintained other occupations outside of sports until it became what it is today where they make millions
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u/Hopalongtom 4d ago
The show has an exciting game of basket brick!
That counts as a team game right?
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u/Disco_Bones 4d ago
Vault in FO3 mentions a vault baseball team, it's entirely possible ex vault dwellers know the rules and pass them down to kids
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u/Parson_Project 4d ago
Doubtful.
There's no civilization out there that could sustain the kind of leasure for organized sports.
The NCR is a failed state, the Commonwealth is a complete crap hole that's apparently been occupied by the BoS (who are completely insane), the Capitol Wasteland never really recovered from the bombs to the point the BoS seems to have abandoned it (and probably most of the people, they're dicks), the Legion? No idea, but maybe a version of the Olympic Games under Caesar? Don't think that'll continue with him gone.
Vegas had gambling only to drain the coffers of the NCR, and we saw how that looked in the show.
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u/Choice-Ruin710 4d ago
I remember seeing a basketball hoop with a severed head stuck in the net where some raiders were hanging out.
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u/krag_the_Barbarian 4d ago
I think there were plans for sports mini games in FO4 but they didn't finish the animations and everything before launch.
I've taught myself to shoot pool and play basketball. Nuka World has the skee ball.
People would definitely unwind after work doing something other than the gymnastics horse.
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u/CaptainCipher 4d ago
Sure, even in the wasteland people aren't spending literally ALL of their time in pure survival mode, they're bound to have some amount of time for leisure activities and humans have been playing games for thousands of years
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u/TheNormacian 4d ago
I played a version of Blood Bowl in a Fallout campaign once. It seemed to suit the environment to me.
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u/CptnPeanutsButters 4d ago
I wana see a gauntlet or some 1v1 arena we can bet on. Have a trusted courier hold the bets and see who triumphs. Maybe everyone pitches in for a groll and winner takes 5-10% of the pot.
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u/TangentMed 3d ago
Wasnt there a raider group doing robot races in 4?
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u/Overdue-Karma 3d ago
Yeah, East City Downs I believe. Kind of a shame they had to be hostile and you couldn't just go there and make bets.
There's also a Robot Fighting Arena in 76 with the Rust Eagles, I think.
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u/contemptuouscreature 3d ago
The issue isn’t that sports can’t exist.
There’s so much prewar media on baseball for example— oceans of tapes, games, commentaries— magazines, score cards, computer terminals still displaying old baseball data.
It’s hard to imagine people don’t know at least visually what baseball is if they’re in a big settlement with a lot of trade. People are gonna know what it is at least visually just by scavenging.
The issue is selling them on actually playing it when main means of entertainment run from music, cards and drinking to bloodsport and combat betting. Team sports aren’t really a thing except in vaults, mostly, and probably the NCR.
Especially with no caps involved until you can get big tournaments going.
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u/JKillograms 3d ago
I mean there’s the guy that sells you “swattahs” in FO4 so there might be a little bit of breakdown in understanding the actual rules of the game. Also, you have The Kings in NV, that had plenty of holotapes, etc of Elvis, but no proper context. So it might not be the best preserved knowledge possible.
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u/RelicBeckwelf 3d ago edited 3d ago
Honestly I could see soccer making a comeback, same with volleyball ball. Low equipment need, easy to play. Fills time. Soccer is very common in third world/war torn countries. All you need is a ball and some bodies.
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u/Pizzamovies 4d ago
Of course, bring back baseball. First team to incapacitate the other wins.