Fallout Wasteland Warfare Roleplaying Game
Fallout Wasteland Warfare Roleplaying Game is an expansion supplement for the Fallout Wasteland Warfare miniatures wargame, written by James Sheahan and published by Modiphius Entertainment.
By Aaron T. Huss
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Fallout Wasteland Warfare Roleplaying Game is an RPG expansion supplement for the Fallout Wasteland Warfare miniatures wargame, based in the Fallout video game setting. It is not a traditional tabletop role-playing game and really isn’t a role-playing game as designed. It is more intended to take your gaming experiences from the miniatures wargame and expand them for continued storyline gameplay within the same game world as the miniatures wargame. I say this because the characters and mechanics are actually designed to be compatible with the miniatures wargame and focus heavily on combat as opposed to the multitude of themes prevalent in tabletop role-playing games.
My take on this expansion is a bit simplified. You enjoy playing the miniatures wargame, but you want to delve deeper into the setting or storyline and find a way to bridge one miniatures game to the next. You then bridge that gap with the roleplaying expansion, allowing you to get more out of the game as a whole. It also provides you the ability to make new characters not available in the miniatures wargame, but still completely compatible. As such, the expansion isn’t really marketed towards traditional RPG players, but rather the wargamer who likes to get more out of their game. Being that the miniatures wargame is a skirmish wargame, this also gives you the opportunity to create a deeper in-story connection to your character as he or she delves in and out of combat during wargaming.
Fallout Wasteland Warfare Roleplaying Game is an attribute and skill-driven system, but heavily utilizes icons that translate easily onto character cards, as opposed to full-blown character sheets, that are more manageable in a wargame setting. You can then further detail your role-playing experience by using a character mat, which marries to the card, to better reference the character’s stats and follow their progression from game session to game session. Skills then translate into the use of specific custom dice (skill, armor, and effect dice) with various results that add some excitement to dice roll outcomes. These are the same dice as the miniatures wargame and keep the roleplaying expansion connected to the base game.
Fallout Wasteland Warfare Roleplaying Game is obviously set in the Fallout post-apocalyptic universe. The expansion really delves into the fun aspects of the setting by allowing you to create a variety of characters including robots, super mutants, and one of the human factions that exist in the game world.
How does the rest of the game and book stack-up? Well, character creation is obviously fully described, but it’s not the maximum flexibility you may be wishing for. The Overseer (i.e. GM) has the say in which Faction the PCs belong to. Additionally, the purpose of the game is somewhat dictated by the fact it is an integral part of the miniatures wargame and not a standalone role-playing game. I’m sure this will completely change with the upcoming 2d20 RPG set in the Fallout universe. But then, that’s a completely different approach. The book also contains a section to guide the Overseer, example characters, and introductory campaign, an introduction to the setting, and a lot of pictures featuring fully-painted miniatures in various combat scenes. It is a niche product and aims to bridge the gap between miniatures wargaming and tabletop role-playing. If you want to get more out of your Fallout Wasteland Warfare miniatures wargame, then this is the perfect way to do it!
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