Wasteworld Redux & Sunday Actual Play

Sunday finds me with my back against the wall.. again! Three of my players aren't making it for my Carpathian campaign. Yet the players want something old school & more then slightly new. I came across some notes about a post I did back in June about the Wasteworld Rpg. You can read some of my thoughts about the game  right Here

What is Waste World?
Here's what the setting is about: 

Waste World is a planet ravaged by ten millennia of total war, where five gigantic city-states are locked in a deadly struggle for control of the most precious substance in history: Drakonium, the ultimate energy source. Everyone knows that without Drakonium their automated factories will cease to function. Their lights will go out. Their air will become unbreathable. Their people will starve. And everyone knows that Drakonium is running out.

On Waste World five warrior cultures, forged in the crucible of a ten thousand year conflict, fight for survival. The samurai defend the Shogunate with swords of light. The mighty Cyborg Legions slay the foes of the enigmatic Machine Gods of Prometheus. The decadent aristocrats of Ikarus descend from their flying city in razor-winged battlesuits to plunder and slay. The genetically-engineered soldiers of Hydra are bred only for battle. And the Xenogens of Janus wield the terrifying power of their alien technology.

Beyond the megacities life is short and brutal. The air is poisonous. The seas are dead. The land is a desert. The world is littered with the ruins of extinct civilizations. Mutants roam the poisoned wastes. Mechanized barbarians plunder the scattered settlements. Sentient death machines stalk the survivors.

Waste World RPG is 288 pages of pure adrenaline-rush, radical cyberfantasy action. The easy-to-use character generation system allows you to design any character you want. You can choose from over 60 skills, 40 special powers, 100 pieces of equipment, and 20 psionic abilities.

Alternatively you can select one of the many pre-generated adventurers and get straight into the slaughterfest. The combat system is ultra-fast, slick and deadly with four of the most spectacularly brutal critical hit tables you are ever likely to encounter. There are comprehensive sections on skills, special abilities and psionic powers as well as a complete background for the Waste World setting. The equipment section lets you purchase anything from bionics to chainswords to a custom mega-cannon, as well as robots and vehicles.

For the Narrator there is a complete Bestiary and a comprehensive guide to running Waste World adventures.
The game itself uses a D20 combat system & its fast, lethal, & nasty in that 40K style of gaming. That's the problem actually. Its too damn lethal. I love the setting but I want something to replace it that can handle the :
The setting includes cybernetic warriors, powered armor, samurai with energy swords, giant robotic war machines, flying cities, psionics, alien species, and armies of undead. Immortal samurai with energy blades. Powered armor with razor-sharp wings. Armies of mad robots bent on destruction. Hardened wasteland warriors. Demons. Undead. Mutants. Ridiculously large guns.

This can handle some of what I'm looking to do.

This can handle the rest with little problems. What's actually in the setting's toybox?
Waste World Products 

Besides the main rulebook which clocks in at 288 pgs with color temples. Its really all you need & provides information on the five high tech city states. The other books provide more details.

Hydra

Hydra is a seething cauldron of factional strife ruled by the genclans. These ancient bloodlines, part clan, part corporation, are each adapted to perform one specific function. They use advanced biotechnology to grant their people superhuman powers. Explore the city of the Posthumans and discover the darkest secrets of biotechnology and genesculpting. This 176 page sourcebook contains all you need to join the genclans in their war for survival and dominance, including new rules for bioweapons and psionics, as well as loads of new special powers.

Cover: Martina Pilcerova. Author: Bill King.

Product Code: #1003. Price: $20.00.
The hydrians are great & provide a really weird alien feel to them akin to a society mixing post humanism & Giger 

The Shogunate

The mighty Shogun rules a land riddled with hidden factions, psychic sorcerers and stealthy ninja. All of them covet the great reincarnation machines that make his followers virtually immortal. He is served by the samurai clans, masters of the forceblade and the martial arts. These clans scheme against each other as they struggle to maintain their place in the Shogun's favor, and outdo each other in power and influence.

In this indespensible sourcebook you will find complete rules for ninja, samurai, and the savage martial arts for which the Shogunate are famous.

Price: $20, 144 pages (8 in full color), Product Code: #1001.

The Shogunate are one of my favorites its the sort of setting where you mix Dune, The Shogun mini series, & 80s martial arts action!

Force Shield

This beautifully illustrated four section screen lets a Narrator see all the rules and tables needed for the Waste World RPG. It comes with a 48 page booklet of adventures introducing the remote habzone of Toxic Springs and the wild wastelands that surround it. Give your players a chance to hunt down brutal Skavengers and do battle with huge Apokalypse Virus infested war-machines. You'll find all you need to kickstart a campaign in the barren deserts of Waste World in this one package.

Cover by Martina Pilcerova. Adventures by Paul Beakley. New rules by Bill King.  

Product Code: #1002. Price: $12.00.

Its a DM's screen which seems like not essential piece but actually this screen contains a great location, gangs, & the town of  Toxic Springs

A Fist Full of Credits (Adventure/Demo Pack)

A Fist Full of Credits doubles as an Adventure Pack and Demo Kit. In it there is an adventure, a brief back-ground of the game world, a stripped down version of the rules (4 pages), and pre-generated character templates that can be pulled out from the book and used immediately. Try the game with virtually no preparation time!

 Cover: Martina Pilcerova.  Author: Bill King

Retail Price: $5.  40 pages.  Product Code: #1004

Possibly one of the best things to come out for the game was this little booklet. Seriously this packs a location, npcs, premade PCs, monsters, & everything you need to get started! You can read the rules & adventure Here

Sounds like all of your post apocalyptic fantasies!  Right!  

Waste World & The OSR 

 

The problem with Waste World is the system. It works a bit too well. Its lethal.  This is the reason I'm switching out the system. All of the post apocalyptic tropes are there with one exception. The reason for politics, warring city states, mutants, etc. 
The world is running out of power & there's only one power source from the pen of Bill King 

"Drakonium, an organic crystal that uses solar power to grow. It is a product of ancient nano-technology that blooms in the desert and needs to be harvested by enormous fleets of factory crawlers. Raw Drakonium is poisonous but when processed it is an incredibly potent energy source. In fact, in a world where fossil fuels were long ago exhausted and nuclear reactors proved too dangerous, it is the only energy source.

Everybody needs Drakonium. Without it their city will be blacked out. The great recycling machines that keep the air pure will stop. The factories that produce food and weapons will grind to a halt and the city will die. So the landfleets of the megacities scour the world looking for Drakonium, and they fight wherever they encounter each other."

So exploration & all of the usual post apocalyptic tropes are colored by the pursuing of  Drakonium

So far this setting sounds like Gamma World on roids. Not really.. Its several tech. levels above Gamma World.  This is an intergalactic world cut off from the rest of the universe. The Galactic Compact left & they cut off Advernus off from the rest of the universe. They're not letting you off of the planet... Ever. Just to make sure they left defense droids  & battle stations armed with rail guns. 

The Ultimate Kitchen Sink Setting 

 

So you want post apocalyptic science fantasy with the party starting out some place that doesn't  have them blowing holes at each other? A place where Vulcan traders & Eldar might be found in the shadow of a giant ruined space elevator?
Welcome to Janus! Here's a blurb about a source book that never made it out. 

Janus

Amid the rubble of Janus, the last remnants of the alien Xenogen races dream of their days of glory. They dwell in the shadow of the Startower, a titanic elevator that rises into the darkness of outer space. Janus is the home to merchants and mercenaries, and many others who have come here seeking their fortune in the world’s last open trading city. It is a place where everything has its price, even the human soul. Visit Waste World’s largest free trade zone. Involve yourself in the deadly skirmishes of the Trading Houses. Start your own mercenary company. All of this and much more is covered in this detailed supplement.

Available: fourth quarter, 1998. Price: $20.

The rule book fleshes out just enough so that you can use Janus as your jumping off point. A mixed party is best for this type of a game actually. This is where my party will be starting from.
Another point is about the map of the planet. We are given a rough map of the city states & that's it. The sky is the limit to add other countries, mutants, etc.  Well me & three other people on the planet have actually heard of this game.