Todd Howard clarifies 'Fallout' timeline confusion

Some fans of both Amazon’s Fallout series and the New Vegas game had questions about how the two timelines intertwined. Fortunately, a top Bethesda developer and executive producer on the show has set the record straight.

• READ MORE: ‘Fallout’ review: learn to love the bomb in this fun yet flawed adaptation

The confusion has been caused by the fate of Shady Sands, a town featured in the original Fallout game and mentioned in Fallout New Vegas. In the show, it’s gone, nothing but a crater where 30,000 people once used to reside.

A blackboard in the show has a note that states the fall of Shady Sands happened in 2277 and is followed by a drawing of a mushroom cloud. 2277 is four years before the events of New Vegas. In that game, the town is very much still up and running.

Speaking to IGN, Todd Howard confirmed that the fall of Shady Sands happened before the nuke was dropped on it and that the fall was referring to something else. “Just so people hear it, we’re careful about the timeline,” Howard told IGN. “There might be a little bit of confusion at some places, but everything that happened in the previous games, including New Vegas, happened. We’re very careful about that.

“The bomb falls just after the events of New Vegas. That’s when Shady Sands blows.”

Howard also said that the decision to blow up Shady Sands affected him quite a bit. “I had actually an emotional reaction to it given the history of that location in the franchise from Fallout,” he said.

Shady Sands is one of the main towns players visit in the original Fallout game, and in New Vegas it’s revealed to be the birthplace of the founder of the NCR, so it’s a spot that holds a lot of Fallout history.

In other news, the Fallout TV show characters’ SPECIAL stats aren’t that great. You can roleplay them now, so that’s a plus, but don’t expect any of them to be amazingly strong or charming.