Review: Wastewalkers - Apocalyptic rules light fun

The Lone Toad - Ribbiting Adventures Issue 8

Oct 18, 2024

Welcome to Ribbiting Adventures Issue 8!

Today we take a look at Wastewalkers by

Inspired by Borderlands, Fallout, and Mad Max, Wastewalkers is a rules-bright, solo-friendly and OSR-inspired post-apocalyptic TTRPG where you and your fellow scavengers carve out a living in the ruins of civilization.

Summary

🎲 - Wastewalker by René-Pier of Fari RPGs

⏰ - Released in 2024

💵 - Free

🐸 - Solo Friendly

The Good

Sharp easy to read and play 4-page RPG
Interesting card-based mechanics that go beyond standard D20+ modifiers
Lore you can take up or you can play in your own apocalyptic world
Solo-friendly mechanics and a built-in solo oracle
Incoming game jam that will create lots of Wastewalker content.

Feedback

It may lack depth with longer campaigns.
Would like to see more solo tools and mechanics.

Assessment

A fun, easy-to-understand, easy-to-play RPG that would suit well for short campaigns with friends or solo.

I Don’t Want to Set the World On Fire.

Bone Tooth peers over his pipe rifle at the dune buggy coming down the canyon. He grimaces at the Orbital patrol. Those damn space bastards, coming down from their gleaming space stations, trying to spread ‘knowledge’ and the old way of doing things.

The old ways are dead, just like how the world died. We must do things the new way or die. These Orbitals are not welcome here. I shoulder my rifle and prepare a shot.

- Difficulty 12, I draw 2 cards for the difficulty level of the area. One black card, +2 to difficulty. Bone Tooth rolls a Fast check (+0) and gets a 10. Fail! -

The shot rings out through the canyon but goes wide. The dune buggy stops and two Orbitors sprint out. They are full-armed enforces. Things just got complicated.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

I love apocalyptic stories. I’m a die-hard fan of the Mad Max films, and the Fallout series is one of my favourite video games. There is something about the desperate struggle that fascinates me. I love the fact that even when everything has gone to shit, there are still people out there that give everything to try to make a broken world a bit better.

So when

René-Pier Deshaies

put out the call last month for people to take a look at his new apocalyptic RPG, Wastewalkers, I put my hand up right away. René-Pier is a machine that has been extremely prolific over the last couple of years. He’s done Dwarfs in Space (Stoneburner), Dark Fantasy (Tales of the Burned Stone), and Viking Fantasy (Songs and Sags). And that’s just his recent work.

René-Pier sent over a code to access Wastewalkers and like a scavenger looking for a couple of gallons of guzzaline, I snapped it up. Wastewalkers is an easy-to-pick-up, easy-to-play game that uses a D20 and a deck of cards to resolve challenges.

The first thing that will strike you when you download Wastewalkers is it is only 4 pages long. 4 pages! Yes. You may look at a 4-page RPG, especially when you compare it to another apocalyptic RPG (Fallout RPG clocks in at an eye-watering 438 pages) and think, “How can René-Pier fit a whole game into 4 pages?'“. Well let me tell you, RP can do it. It’s kinda his thing.

Are there compromises? Yes. Is it a full RPG experience? Yes. And you don’t have to spend 10 hours reading a massive core book.

And I feel fine.

The Orbitals break up, trying to flush out Bone Tooth. Good, he thinks. Nobody knows those canyons better than Bone Tooth. He grew up amongst these cracked rocks and dying grasses. He sits in wait, patient.

An Orbital stumbles close, uncomfortable with the gravity of the planet. Bone Tooth sees his chance, charging forward, his Pipe Rifle ready as a club.

- Difficulty 12. +2 for drawing a black card. But lowered by two for using the pipe rifle. Bone Tooth rolls a Tough +3 and gets a combined 20!-

Bone Tooth slams the rifle butt into the face of the Orbital thug, cracking his visor and breaking his nose. He goes down hard and doesn’t move. Just one Orbital left…

Wastewalker is easy to pick up, with mechanics that will be easy for anyone who has played an RPG before to understand. Again, this is quite intentional from our friend René-Pier.

You have four stats, which you add to a roll of a D20. A GM or solo player sets a difficulty level and you try to beat it. Pretty easy right? Well, there is also this deck of cards. Depending on how risky the area your character is in, the GM draws cards. A black card and the difficulty is raised by 2. Weapons and items can be used to lower the number you have to beat.

Wastewalker plays smooth and quick. It shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes to explain the rules to your players. Another 5 minutes to create characters and then you are ready to roam the wasteland. Perfect for nights when you are taking a break from your campaign or for play in a public space like a bar.

We Will Become Silhouettes

You won’t find anything in Wastewalkers lore that you haven’t seen before. You may think that is a negative but I don’t think it is. There is enough there to grab onto if you want to go with what is on offer. The world has ended, and things aren’t good for those who are still alive.

You can play as a Hollower (living deep in the caverns of long-dead cities), Duners (roving the endless deserts), Streeters (people who are trying to put a bit of civilisation back together) and Orbiters (those rich bastards that hide in space stations while everything went to shit).

Or you can take what Wastewalkers has given you and put it in a familiar world like Mad Max or Fallout. Up to you!

Do you really want to live forever?

Bone Tooth knows there is just one Orbiter left in the canyon. The invader, the coloniser will pay with their life for attempting to control these lands. Nobody can control these lands and the people who live here.

A crunch of boot on rock and Bone Tooth spins around. The Orbiter is there, gun aimed at Bone Tooth’s chest, finger on the trigger…

With a four-page RPG, you’ll have to make some compromises and that is the only feedback I would have for Wastewalkers. I’d like to see more of it! More solo rules. A lot of the game lends itself to solo play naturally and there is a small oracle, but I’m left wanting more tools for it.

René-Pier has done a fantastic job with the real estate he has to work with in Wastewalkers. Putting a full-fledged RPG into that format is an impressive feat, one I wish I could achieve.

It’s like when you're in the Wastes you need to decide what to grab. The jerrycan filled with gasoline? The jugs of water? Food? Medicine? If you grab them all you turn into a slow-moving monstrosity (438 pages). So keep it lean, keep it easy to grok and get it to the table.

Forever Young. I want to be Forever Young.

Bone Tooth moves first, his feet kicking up dust. The orbiter fires wildly but inaccurately. Bone Tooth crashes into the foreigner, knocking both their guns over a cliff. They tumble in the dust, clawing, punching, choking. Both know it will end here. One will be getting up and the other will be left dead in the dust.

So what do I think of Wastewalkers? I think it’s a sharp game you can pick up, read, explain to your friends and then start playing within 30 minutes of downloading it from Itch. And you and your friends will have a great couple of sessions roving through the wastelands, free and dusty.

Or grab it and have a good play solo, you’ll probably get several great hours out of it.

Either way, you’ll probably start thinking about wanting something more. And good news on that front! René-Pier just launched a game jam where dozens of new games and supplements based on Wastewalkers will be created! You should put your hat in the ring. Yes, you. I’m talking directly to you reader.

I jump onto my road bike and gun it down the abandoned road. There are more Solo RPGs to write about…

Next Month

Next month I’m finally getting back to my article with tools and tricks to playing Dungeons and Dragons solo.

Tune in next month!

Thanks to everyone who reads this and all my posts! I write because you read them, and I thank you for that.