I had some ideas for social experiments that I would do if I were in charge of Vault-Tec. Since the plebbit thread for this kind of thing can no longer be posted to, I figured I might as well post it here. Might even inspire some mod ideas, who knows.

1. Constructed Language Communications

This experiment will take place in two different vaults. One will be the Klingon Vault and the other will be the Elven Vault. The populations will be raised so that their first language will be both Klingon and Tolkien Elvish respectively.

The primary difference between the two will be the fact that the Klingon Vault will utilize the standard Roman AKA English Alphabet for written communication and the Elven Vault will use the Tengwar alphabet for written communication.

The purpose of this experiment is obvious. It is to see if a population can thrive when a constructed language is the only known method of communication. The experiments in both vaults will last 150 years.

2. Wasteland Survival Readiness

In this vault, the population will be allowed 360 days to get fully settled in. After which, all residents will undergo complete training in the various skills of woodworking, leathercrafting, metalsmithing, melee and ranged combat, mounted combat, horsemanship, farming, natural medicine, various types of warfare, making clothes, building houses and fortifications from scrap, scavenging and other essential wasteland survival skills.

Training in each skill will be based on individual abilities. But combat and horsemanship will be mandatory for all residents. This will be a multi generational project to ensure complete skill retention across the entire vault society. Residents who become of age and are deemed ready by the computers and overseer will be permitted to leave the vault to settle the wasteland.

The vault will be located in an area that can easily have a new city/town be built around it and be fortified. With a mixture of both urban and rural regions surrounding it. Plenty of materials to harvest and scavenge.

To provide the materials required for creating new life, a GECK will be provided which must be deployed by the first people to emerge from the vault.

Also as a side project, a focus on crafting Demascus Steel bladed weapons will be included so that the residents have something valuable to use and trade.

3. Flagellation Punishment.

In this vault, law and order will be maintained by punishing offenders not with detainment but flagellation on the bare back with various types of leather whips.

The severity of the offence determines the number of lashes inflicted and what whip is used. Be it the bullwhip, scourge, cat o nine tails, snake whip, flogger, etc. Also if the skin should be broken, scars created, or just welts etc. is determined by the offence.

The purpose of this experiment is to see if flagellation is more effective at correcting criminal behavior then detention.

4. The Amish Vaults.

These vaults will be built near the nation's Amish communities and be dedicated to preserving their lifestyle and culture. The vaults will contain all of the materials and resources required for them to live their normal lives as best as they can.

When it becomes time to leave the vault and return to the surface, a GECK will be used to provide all the resources need for the Amish to resume their normal lives.

Preservation of the Amish lifestyle in the prime directive of these vaults. There is no experiment in these vaults unless you consider observing how they adapt to living in a semi-technological environment an experiment.

5. Gladiatoral Combat

In this vault, all disputes are settled via gladiatorial combat in the vault arena. Melee weapons and armor are the only things provided to the combatants. The winner in the dispute is the one who manages to get their opponent to surrender or render them unable to continue fighting.

Various vault positions such as security chief and overseer are predetermined at first. But anyone can challenge them to single combat in the arena for their position.

The vault will be equiped with the most advanced medical technology and equipment to treat combatants after they fight.

6. A more humane Vault 11

The experiment in this vault will be nearly identical to the one in Vault 11 but the only difference is that the sacrifice is forced to leave the vault and never return.

7. The Melee Vault

In this vault, all ranged weapons are removed and only melee weapons are supplied in the armory. So daggers, knives, one and two handed swords, flails, maces, axes, spears, halbards, etc.

Since most of the populations are mostly familier only with the ranged firearm and projectile based weapons, this vault is to see how they would react to and deal with melee combat being the only method of combat available.

Extra security and defenses on the outside since raiders are likely to be wielding more then melee weapons.

8. The Gorean Vault

This is a multi generational vault experiment in which all residents are to adhere to the culture and practices depicted in the Gor novels by John Norman.

All of the books and reference materials are placed on holotapes for reference. A holotape containing a complete legal, social, and cultural system will also be provided that distills the books into a working sociatal code. Yes, this includes the stuff about slavery as well.

The purpose of this vault is to see if such a society is sustainable in the long run.

9. The BDSM Vault

This is a multigenerational vault experiment which is designed to investigate the effects of a sadomasochistic population being sustained across generations.

Residents are all BDSM enthusiasts and must live with each other. The vault is equiped to satisfy all possible kinks but mostly ones involving whips and chains.

What experiments would you put in a vault?

Man you are creative really cool ideas for vault experiments
my favorite was the Gladiatoral Combat experiment because it would be cool to be in the fights ingame or something and the others were also interesting, that was all hope you are having a good day

Here are two more ideas that I have come up with:

10. A more humane Vault 75

Thie experiment in this vault is identical to the one in Vault 75 except there are some distinct differences:

First, the residents who are "graduated" to become "Up-top land heroes" are all required to actually leave the vault unless selected to be on the research team. They are free to use the school and town above as a settlement but are not allowed to reenter the vault. Exceptions to this can be made when required.

Becuase of this, there is an airlock and decontamination chamber that will remove all radiation from everything that passes through it before allowing entry into the vault proper. Also anyone who is not authorized to enter will be blasted by the vault security turrets should they make it pass the entrance.

People who reenter the vault are not allowed past the main entrance lobby. This is so that the children are not disturbed and thus not compromising the experiment.

Finally second, the genetic material of those who score well is harvested via the extraction of blood samples and reproductive materials as there is no need to kill someone to get samples of their DNA. After which they are also required to leave the vault unless selected to be on the research team.

This ensures that the vault serves both purposes. That is to repopulate the wasteland and improve the genome via selective breeding.

11. The Non-Experiment Experiment

In this vault, residents are told the true purpose of the vaults. That is, they are designed to conduct various social experiments in a controlled environment with information about the other vault experiments provided on the vault terminals that is accessed via a secured read-only network connection to the Master Vault. They are told about the normal "control" vaults and that this vault is not one of them. And that's it.

No, really, that's it. This vault works exactly like a control vault. The experiment is to see how the residents react to knowing that they are the unwilling lab rats of an experiment. They just don't know that not knowing what kind of experiment they will be subjected to is in fact, their vault's experiment. It is expected that the observation feeds and experiment logs accessed via the terminals in this vault will make them quite paranoid.

This master connection will provide access to feeds and info on every vault experiment except this one.

Quote :

1. Constructed Language Communications

This experiment will take place in two different vaults. One will be the Klingon Vault and the other will be the Elven Vault. The populations will be raised so that their first language will be both Klingon and Tolkien Elvish respectively.

The primary difference between the two will be the fact that the Klingon Vault will utilize the standard Roman AKA English Alphabet for written communication and the Elven Vault will use the Tengwar alphabet for written communication.

The purpose of this experiment is obvious. It is to see if a population can thrive when a constructed language is the only known method of communication. The experiments in both vaults will last 150 years.

Because the one thing that the post apocalyptic world is gonna need is more sci-fi nerds who like dressing in costumes and can't pick up girls?

Nah. Just kidding. To each their own. Actually, it doesn't sound too bad. But I would use more legitimate made up languages, like Esperanto.

Quote :

9. The BDSM Vault

This is a multigenerational vault experiment which is designed to investigate the effects of a sadomasochistic population being sustained across generations.

Residents are all BDSM enthusiasts and must live with each other. The vault is equiped to satisfy all possible kinks but mostly ones involving whips and chains.

Not gonna lie man, that sounds really cool, lol. Also, not deadly, which is more that I can say for most vault experiments.

Did you see I added a 10th and 11th one as well?

I just came up with numbers 12 and 13. Here they are:

12. Rats Watching The Rats.

This vault is divided into two sectors. A Residential and Research Sector. Observation windows and cameras allow the Research Sector to monitor the Residential Sector. The researchers are told that they are watching an experiment in progress and are instructed to observe and record every detail of the residents activities at all times on the terminals provided. At the end of each day they are to send their logs to an offsite location via email.

But there is a twist. What researchers are not told is that they are the once actually being experimented on. They are not told that the residents have been given an identical set of windows and camera to observe the Research Sector and will quickly stumble upon them. The ususual behavior of the residents as they also observe the reseachers should be unsettling to them.

In this case, the researchers are themselves lab rats watching the people they think are the lab rats. Only the overseer knows what's really going on and will not tell anyone. This experiment will be one of the shorter ones as the vault only needs to remain closed for a shelter period of 540 days.

After this period, the experiment will conclude and the overseer will reveal to everyone what is going on. He will then announce that the vault can now be opened and everyone is free to come and go as they see fit. Secret doors connecting the two sectors will open and merge them into one large vault.

The purpose of this experiment is to observe the reactions of scientists when they are unknowingly part of an observation experiment.

13. The Swan Vault.

The safety systems designed to keep the reactor in this vault stable are controlled by a terminal in the reactor control room and are designed to shutdown after 108 minutes. This can be prevented by entering the password into the terminal and activating the "System Reset" command. The password is "4 8 15 16 23 42" and is posted everywhere.

A timer in the reactor control room constantly counts down from 108 minutes. At 3 minutes left on the clock, a beeping sound will sound across the vault intercom speakers. This should prompt one of the people in the vault to head down to the terminal, enter the password, and reset the system.

At 1 minute left on the clock, an alarm will sound. The alarm will get faster during the last 10 seconds. Should the timer reach zero, the numbers will turn to warning symbols, and the safety systems will shutdown. During this time, the intercom will repeatedly announce "SYSTEM FAILURE!" as the reactor starts to overload.

During a system failure, it is still possible to reset the safety systems by entering the password and triggering the reset command. The other terminals nearby will have the message "SYSTEM FAILURE!" cascading down the screen endlessly liks this:

"SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE! SYSTEM FAILURE!..."

If the reset is triggered before the reactor melts down, the alert will stop and the timer will reset back to 108 minutes.

When the vault is closed, the overseer will explain that Vault-Tec discovered that the reactor safety systems have a serious defect which causes them to fail every 108 minutes unless it is reset before then. The residents will then be explained the protocols to reset the systems before and after failure occurs.

The purpose of the experiment is to see how residents will go about following a protocol that will keep them alive. It is also intended to be an easter egg for the Swan Station in TV Show LOST.

Hm this is interesting to think about. To play off of one of your ideas, language would be one of my experiments. More so lack thereof. I would create a vault in which spoken language was null and void and you'd have to communicate through other means such as writing or sign language.

I really liked the #5 suggestion of Gladiatorial Combat. If the vault was ever opened, due to generations of combat throughout the vault I could see it's residents becoming as Caesar's Legion-like organization. Violence is the way of many parts of the Wasteland and only the strong survive.

You suggestion of #2 Wasteland Survival Readiness also is a great idea. Having a skill is an easy way to create and contribute to any economy, if that vault was opened I can only imagine what kind of things those residents could contribute from professional made armor to more practical things like blankets and more.

Really good topic idea!