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25 comments
!::! Fred
!::! Fred
Ironically, the armored knights are the ones who get to leave the bunker and explore the world. They're possibly the only ones who might experience first hand that there's the possibility of another life outside the bunker. So the knights, though they're the top of their sect and have the most power and rank., possibly have the best chance of being lured away. On a related note to that, the Fallout TV series last year captured that idea well.
Knights aside, though, I think the group you labelled as unskilled is by far the most likely to dream of a better life. They're brought up in that society from youth to adult, and they weren't taught skills, weren't given opportunities for advancement, weren't treated with as much respect as every other caste in the bunker and were relegated to menial duties.
So as a group, I would set the percentage of them dreaming of a better life being 95% with knights and scribes maybe the remaining 5%.
On side note, your images are wonderful :)
Not sure if this helps, but in situations I can think of where I've been a leader or a manager, I could generally break the team into thirds - 1/3 were happy to be part of the team and the mission and would work towards a worthy goal without prodding; 1/3 were apathetic, but would go along; the last 1/3 had to be prodded to do anything because they had their own agenda and/or were lazy. The things mentioned above (quality (or even the attitude) of the leadership, environmental stress, etc.) would move those numbers up or down.
I think you've done a great job of your characters expressing why they wanted to leave or stay, btw.
I think you've already summed it up in the last entry, the scribes are probably bored to pieces with a sort of limit on things for them to dissect and pore over. They may have their needs met, but aside from folks who are content to be maintenance workers (in chapters that actually allow them to perform those tasks - in some chapters the knights do all the labor) with zero prospect for promotion or advancement, they're probably not content to live out a pointless existence where every day is the same as the last.
I suspect it's mostly the same for the casteless unless someone comes up with a leisure activity that everyone can enjoy, maybe give everyone a PC terminal and start making video games? I doubt the establishment would allow that, they'd likely be just as unwilling to let someone read books or something every day instead of contributing to the community despite the lack of actual jobs available. The closest analog we have is Vault 101 in Fallout 3, but without the GOAT. I know for sure that Butch probably wouldn't be allowed to be a barber if Vault 101 was a Brotherhood facility.
Knights could go either way, depending on the chapter. In chapters where scribes do the physical labor knights are likely to see a lot of combat and may feel fulfilled in their duties IF they believe in the cause being fought for and their lives aren't being thrown away. In chapters where knights are the physical laborers, some would be content to live a safe existence but I suspect that just like the casteless, they would soon become bored with routine monotony.
Paladins would be much like militant knights, as long as they have faith in their cause they would likely be happy being at the top of the food chain if they don't get bored.