All the fear and the fire of the end of the world. Wasteland, baby.
The Game: Wasteland Sagas
The Publisher: The Polyhedral Knights
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one
This game comes to use from the same company as Renegade City. A lot of the same criticisms apply, mostly that it badly, badly needs an editor. The interstitial fiction is...not great, but it's understandable. I have this feeling it's a game session or two fictionalized, and like, I can't say I've never done that, but I also can't say it's ever really worked.
Like, that's not great fiction. Lots of telling rather than showing. It sounds more like someone telling someone else about what happened in a movie (or a game session) than an evocative description of this very exciting scene, and all the fiction is like that - not great from a technical standpoint, not very well edited.
But with that said, this game is worlds better than Renegade City. I got the vibe the author was going for right away, there's a vibrant and fleshed-out world and setting. It doesn't get into how we got to this post-apocalyptic point (the setting chapter basically says "I dunno, probably bombs or diseases or something") but that almost doesn't matter because that's not what's interesting about games like this anyway.
I'm not saying I'm interested in playing this game necessarily, but that's mostly because there are other games that do this better. But if I wanted a post-apocalypse, mutants-n-motorcycles, radiation and deprivation style RPG with a trad system, I could do worse. (I could also do better, of course, but that's not the point.)
Yeah, the system is percentile-roll-low, so that's fine. Let's make a character and see how long it takes me to figure out that I actually do hate it.
PDF's not bookmarked, that's not a great start. (Rather, it is, but the bookmarks are just chapter headers and they're not labeled, they're just "Chap 1", so that's pretty useless.)
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| Always happy to have this chart, though |
Right, let's pick an origin type. I think I wanna be a mutant today. BLEARGH. That means I get:
OK, well, guess I should think a little about concept. I get a free minor mutation, so maybe I'll pick that and see where it takes me. Ooh, I want Illuminations. I can light up a particular part of my body. As much as it's tempting to make it my butt...
I think I'll say I can produce bioluminescent chemicals in my salivary glands and light up my head. I can control the color and brightness, which is silly, but whatever, it's cool as hell that I'm a human glowstick. My mutant's name is Rave (he's not sure why).
OK, back to Attributes. I think Rave is a scamp, y'know? He's a rascal. Prankster, not above lighting his head up and pretending to be a signal flare or something. Yes, that might get someone killed, but Rave doesn't necessarily understand that (I think he's fairly young). I think we can spread points out pretty evenly, maybe pump Charisma up a little? There are 7 Attributes, dividing the points evenly would give me 6 in each, but I think I'll drop Technical (which shouldn't be an Attribute) down to 3 and pump Charisma up to 9. That means my Skills in everything except those two will start at 3%, Charisma skills will start at 5%, and Technical skills start at -1%.
Derived traits. That means these can't change right? (Ha, I'll bet.) Hit points is (Str x 2) + (Con x 3) + Will (well, actually it's written without the parentheses, but I suspect they're meant to be there). For Rave, that means 30 HP.
Defensive Bonus depends on whether I'd like a bonus to dodge and parry, or damage resistance. Um, Dodge/Parry, please. I get a +3% to Dodge/Parry.
Heal rate is half my Con, or 3, HP per day.
Perception is Willpower x 7, plus or minus anything from Benefits or Weaknesses WHICH WE HAVEN'T DONE YET grr. I know, I know, change the fuckin' record. Anyway, Rave's Perception is 42.
I speak two languages, so English and Mutant, I guess? (Why is "Mutant" a language? Are they a culture? Are they not allowed on the surface of New New York? Is Turanga Leela their leader?)
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| TWO! FOUR! SIX! EYES! MUTANT PEOPLE SHALL ARISE! |
Anyway. And then there's a section called "Additional Derived Traits." What...?
Shock is 12 (I have to roll 12 or better on a d20 to not be in shock if I lose too many HP. Why is this a d20 when everything else is a d%? Why, many things?)
Movement is twice Agility (12) plus a third of Strength (2), or 14. Where are you getting these formulae?
Initiative is Agility plus half of Intelligence (15 in my case).
Toxicity is, in addition to a song by System of a Down, (Con x 3) + Str + Will + 3 (because I'm a mutant). So 51, for me.
Damage bonus (GOOD GRIEF WHEN WILL IT END) is nil because my Strength is just average.
I start with 3 Luck, but actually 4 because I'm a mutant and they are famously lucky.
Finally on the next bullet point! Weaknesses and Benefits. I can take the former to give me points for the latter, but only to a maximum of 10. Well, let's get Weakin'!
Let's take Bioware Rejection, since I wasn't gonna take any anyway. Curious, sure, I'll take the 3 point version. Impulsive, sure. That's 7 total. That's fine. For Benefits, let's take Literacy (in English), Night Vision (since I can always have a little light as I need it), Read Person (I have insights!) and Professional Talent (I get a +10% to 4 skills from a list).
For the Professional Talent, I'm gonna take Child of the Wasteland and take my bonus in Climbing, Navigation, Plant Lore, and Tracking.
And now, I get 83 Skills Points. Each point spent on a Skill gives me +10%, to a maximum of 70%. I get bonuses from Attributes as mentioned, plus the bonuses for Professional Training. Let's do this.
I think I'll do what I normally do and list the Skills I want and then assign points. I want:
Athletics
Blades
Bow
Climbing
Dodge
Fast Talk
Lock Picking
Mutant Power
Navigation
Plant Lore
Persuade
Riding
Sleight of Hand
Tracking
So, I could put 5 into each one of these and still have 13 left over. Oh, wait, I need Stealth. There we go, now I only have 8 left over. Let's crunch the numbers. I'd start with 53 in everything except Fast Talk and Persuade (57) and Lock Picking (49), before considering my Professional Training bonuses. With 8 points left, I can take Traps up to 49, and with the remaining 3 points, I'll bump Fast Talk to 67, Dodge of 63, and Sleight of Hand to 63. Cool.
Oh, this is cute. There are also non-leveled skills which you either have or you don't, but I don't have any idea how to buy them - no costs listed. Guess they're not that important! (Also, there are a bunch that should be leveled. You're telling me Crafts is a skill with no gradation?)
Let's do Mutations real quick. These work like Benefits and Weaknesses; I can take negative ones to get points to buy positive (but my Illuminations doesn't count).
Well, I'll take Dependency as a minor. I need to eat certain plants to keep my lightshow working (also my body needs them to survive). There's another one called "Nervous Ticks," which I'm not going to take, but it annoys me that no one edited this game. Anyway, I'll also take Seizures, which isn't something I think would necessarily be fun to play, but what the heck. That gives me 4 points for positives.
I like Imitate Sounds; being a mimic sounds good for Rave. And then..ooh, Venom Spit. That goes with my theme, actually. We'll assume that in addition to creating luminescent spit, I can create poison spit.
And finally, I get a Combat Technique for Blades and Bows, because they're over 50%. For Blades I'll take Close Quarters (I get a bonus to fighting in, well, close quarters) and for Bow I'll take Critical Shot (I can't move, but I can do extra damage).
And that's it! I think Rave is pretty normal-looking for a mutant, but his jowls are slightly enlarged (he kinda looks like he has the mumps). He has a habit of humming, but with his extra mass there it makes a rhythmic "oomp oomp ommp" kind of noise. He's got thin red hair and blue eyes, but when he lights up his head you can see his skull and he's got a habit of imitating a preacher he grew up around who had a really deep, scary voice.
