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Waste World is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi role-playing game published in 1997 by Manticore Productions Limited. It was created by Bill King, perhaps more widely known as William King, the author of the popular “slayer” series of novels for Warhammer Fantasy such as Trollslayer and Skavenslayer which chronicle the adventures of Gotrek and Felix.

Wait, This Game is Old

You might be asking yourself why, in 2008, I’m reviewing a game published 11 years ago. Waste World is essentially my “desert island” game. A lot of us probably have that one RPG which just speaks to us more than any other; it gets the creative juices flowing and its system just makes perfect sense and flows naturally for us. That one game that we would want with us if stranded on a desert island. Waste World is that game for me. This is the game I want to hug after reading and put under my pillow to ensure a fantastically wild post-apocalyptic dreamtime. Given that, you can guess the overall tone of this review, but I will also be upfront about the flaws that Waste World does have. Sadly, my play experience with Waste World has been limited to running the introductory adventure printed in one of the supplements and also a play-by-email game which lasted a few years before finally winding down.

Post-Apocalyptic, You Say?

The setting is post-apocalyptic, but not necessarily in a low-technology sense where characters are constantly scavenging for their next meal and spare parts for their vehicles. That sort of thing absolutely exists out in the wastes--such people are known as Skavengers--but there are also a lot of higher-technology science-fiction elements. The setting includes cybernetic warriors, powered armor, samurai with energy swords, giant robotic war machines, flying cities, psionics, alien species, and armies of undead. So it’s not post-apocalyptic in the same manner as the Mad Max films, but you can definitely play a game more in that tradition by setting the action in a corner of the wastes far away from most of the elements mentioned above. The setting is probably closer to Gamma World in feel, but without the emphasis on finding artifacts from the world before the apocalypse.

A Setting Primer

The setting of Waste World is Avernus, a planet ravaged for generations by the Armageddon Wars. Avernus was once a prosperous planet in a golden age of man and machine working together, but it has been reduced to endless deserts and chemical seas. The Apokalypse Virus, the most feared weapon of the ancient wars, causes machines which once served the populace to go rogue; rogue panzers roam the deserts killing anything that moves. One of the remaining population centers is controlled by a group of insane, competitive artificial intelligences known as the Machine Gods. Due to this virus, Avernus has been quarantined by the Galactic Compact and anything trying to leave the planet is blasted into dust by a series of orbital fortresses.

The population of Avernus is mostly huddled in five great metrozones, which are detailed later in the review. They are all fueled by a substance called drakonium, without which they would quickly fall to the hostile environment outside their walls; the desert is littered with the abandoned ruins of cities which failed to find enough drakonium to keep operating. Each megacity constantly sends out fleets looking for new supplies, but new fields are becoming harder to find and there are constant battles over the drakonium fields that remain.

Waste World is a “big guns” game. The art throughout the book is full of warriors in big armor blasting away with enormous weapons. It’s gloriously over the top and is one of the things I love about the game. I’m a bit surprised that this appeals to me as much as it does, since in one corner of my brain it leans a tad bit toward an adolescent fantasy. But I think it’s exactly that aspect that draws me in – it unlocks that schoolkid inside me that still wants to play the most badass character possible and blast anything that gets in my way, while still having enough substance to the setting to tell great stories at the same time.

Everything about Waste World is big; the metrozones each have insanely huge populations and the wastes are large enough to contain any crazed post-apocalyptic idea that a GM might have. The art often supports this with huge cityscapes and wasteland vistas as well as scenes of crowds and armies numbering in the thousands. I find that the “bigness” of the setting gives me a certain freedom as a GM, because there are limitless stories that can be told within the scope of the setting without making me feel like I’m bumping my head against any perceived constraints. I can have whole wars and mindless destruction without worrying about breaking the status quo if I don’t want to.

History of the Game

The Waste World core book was quickly followed by 4 supplements: two setting books (The Shogunate and Hydra), a GM screen/adventure/rules supplement (the Force Shield and Campaign Pak), and an introductory booklet with a lite version of the rules, pregenerated characters, and a 3-part adventure (A Fist Full of Credits). All of these are copyrighted 1997, and nothing more was published after that year. So Waste World’s shelf life ended as quickly as it began. The fan site Ranger Firebase Alpha, while containing a good amount of fan-created material for the game, also hosts everything “official” that had been written for the next setting book, Ikarus. There is a full page ad for this unpublished supplement in the back of some of the other books.

Similarities to the Omni System

Waste World’s system has several similarities to the Omni System from Morrigan Press, which itself spawned from the system found in Talislanta. There are some significant differences, though. Since this is a Waste World review, I’m not going to make Omni System comparisons as I come to them, but I think it’s worth acknowledging. In some areas I think the Omni System handles things more elegantly, particularly magic, but I much prefer Waste World’s approach to combat with the concept of successes. My dream game would be a melding of the two. Waste World existed before the Omni System, but Talislanta existed before Waste World. Any similarities between the two games are presumably coincidental.

Similarities to Rifts

Waste World’s setting is sometimes compared to Rifts from Palladium Books. I’m not familiar with Rifts so I can’t make any comparisons myself, but I think any similarity is due mostly to the “all inclusive” or “grab bag” nature of both settings. I believe a core concept of Rifts is the idea of different realities or dimensions crashing together so that all sorts of different elements can exist in one setting. Waste World is not interdimensional in any respect; all the action takes place on one planet, in one time period.

The Letter ‘K’

Waste World makes the stylistic choice of spelling words with a hard ‘k’ sound literally, so you have drakonium, skavenger, krawler, truk, and konvoy. I know this might annoy some readers, but I think it has a certain charm and really once you get past the opening chapters it’s not overly common or obtrusive. Just be aware of this quirk as I will use the game spellings throughout the review.

Fiction

Each chapter of Waste World begins with a page or two of introductory fiction. I can already hear the groans of dismay, and in the case of some games I would join their chorus because gaming fiction is often of questionable quality and value. But the fiction throughout Waste World is extremely well done and overflowing with setting flavor. Where most of the book gives you an eye-in-the-sky view of Avernus, the fiction really brings the setting into focus through the viewpoint of a single character. Maybe it’s a testament to Bill King’s successful career as a fiction author that I consider these short fiction pieces to be highlights both in the core book and in the supplements.

Table of Contents

You’ll note in the contents below that the setting information comes before the game rules. While I think this is a less common approach than introducing character creation rules on page 1, I think it’s a more natural flow; it’s better to understand what type of game you’re going to play before you start making a character for that game. This review will follow the order of things in the book.

One other thing to note is that the table of contents is very detailed and almost serves as an index at the front of the book. I’m only reproducing the top-level items here, but each has many subsections, from a dozen to a few hundred! For example, the Equipment chapter has a TOC entry for every single piece of equipment in that chapter. The book doesn’t have a formal index, which normally is a big problem for me, but this detailed TOC style serves so well that I don’t really miss an index in this case.

Introduction: 6
Prometheus: 22
Hydra: 38
Ikarus: 52
The Shogunate: 62
Janus: 78
Skavengers: 92
Characters: 114
Equipment: 162
Game Rules: 204
The Narrator: 238
Bestiary: 260

Introduction

The first pages of the book give you a crash course in the setting, including the climate, geography, flora and fauna of Avernus and introducing terms such as drakonium, Armageddon Virus, the Ultramundae (the Ultramunda was a planetwide data network housing thousands of virtual intelligences, but it has since fractured into many smaller networks; an ultramancer is someone who is able to hack these networks) , panzers (war robots, ranging from humanoid to giant vehicles), xenogens (alien races trapped on Avernus when it was quarantined) demons, apokalypse legions (hordes of panzers gone mad, roaming the deserts seeking to destroy all organic life), skavengers (hardy souls who live out in the wastes rather than one of the great cities), and much more. Whenever I finish reading this brief section, my mind is awhirl with different campaign possibilities, let alone adventure ideas.

Prometheus

This totalitarian metrozone considers itself the last bastion of the human race, having a distaste for the posthumans of other cities who have used genetic manipulation to move beyond what it means to be human. Prometheus exiles or kills posthumans, xenogens, and mutants in the zone, while psychers (those with psionic powers who are essentially the wizards of Waste World) are mindburned to extinguish their power. Strangely, though, the Prometheans are fascinated by technology and have no qualms about enhancing their bodies with cybernetic implants. It has armies of these cyborgs known as the Cyber Legions. Prometheus is ruled by the Machine Gods, also known as Overminds. Each of these artificial intelligences, such as Angar the Destroyer and Slith the Watcher, lays claim to a section of the metrozone and has a loyal following and their own agenda. Prometheus is also known for gladiatorial games which are broadcast daily and are followed by all classes of people in the metrozone. This is a common disposal method for captured mutants, xenogens, and other enemies of the state.

Hydra

Hydra is a posthuman metazone that has fully embraced genetic engineering, also known as genescaping. It is ruled by the genclans, each of which resides in a massive and unique tower. For example, House Fera specializes in the genetic manipulation of animals and resides in the Tower of Beasts, whereas House Spydra is a clan of assassins ruling from the Tower of the Spider. The metrozone is very organic in nature, such that the walls of a building might feel fleshy to the touch and pulsate from some hidden heartbeat, and a flying vehicle might be a giant insect grafted with technology. Hydran armor is symbiotic in nature, allowing for greater flexibility as the creature providing the protection is partially controlled by the thoughts of its host. The best comparison I can make to Hydra would be the society of Cobra-La from G.I. Joe: The Movie.

Ikarus

Ikarus is an enormous flying city that moves across the skies of Avernus. The iconic feature of this metrozone is the Ikarean Battlesuit, pictured on the cover of the book, which features razor-sharp wings. Ikarean warriors swoop down on the surface dwellers in great raids, sometimes for bounty and sometimes just for sport. The people of Ikarus are like decadent nobles, and their Celestial Court is riddled with intrigue; they are masters of various poisons. Whereas Prometheus bans psychers, the use of psionics in Ikarus is widespread and a source of pride for the megacity.

The Shogunate

This metrozone features an overt Japanese flavor, being ruled by a Shogun and the great clans such as Tora (the Tiger clan), Tatsu (the Dragon clan), and Higuma (the Great Bear clan). The Shogunate is a zone of noble samurai wielding energy blades and cyber-enhanced ninja who skulk in the shadows of the megacity. All citizens of the zone are implanted with karmachips at birth, giving them a chance of resurrection in a new body. Those who are not resurrected join a collective consciousness in the Halls of Karma, so it is possible for a citizen to literally consult with his ancestors.

Janus

Janus is a great trading metrozone and a hodgepodge of cultures. Most of the alien species (collectively known as xenogens) on Avernus can be found in this zone, as it was the main entry and exit point on the planet due to the Startower, a giant space elevator rising from the center of the city. When the planet was quarantined, the spaceport at the top of the elevator was destroyed to prevent escape, stranding many xenogen species on Avernus. Janus is ruled by giant corporations known as Kombines, and it is also known for its great mercenary companies such as the Nine Dozen Ronin Company and the Raptor Legion.

Skavengers

Skavengers are gangs in the deep wastes who survive through raiding each other, hapless konvoys, and the many small wastelander habtowns scattered between the great metrozones. They are brutal and most dangerous when a warlord emerges to unite the gangs into formidable army.

Quick Start

Although oddly not represented in the table of contents, there is a full-color section in the middle of the book which gives a 2-page summary of the rules and then two pre-generated characters from each metrozone as well as a Panzer, a self-aware man-sized war robot. There is a full page piece of art representing each metrozone; two of these became the covers for the Shogunate and Hydra supplements, and presumably the others would have been used as covers as well if their metrozone supplements had made it to publication. This section is perfectly serviceable, but later an introductory booklet would be released (A Fist Full of Credits) with a much better lite version of the rules and a complete adventure.

Character Creation

Waste World is a point-based, skill-based system, so there are no classes or archetypes to select and no character levels. You are given one pool of points to spread among all the different aspects of character creation; typically this pool is 100 points, plus points earned through disadvantages equal to half your starting points; so a typical character would be built on 150 points; 100 base plus 50 from disadvantages.

A character is defined by 4 attributes: Dexterity (DX), Strength (ST), Intelligence (IN), and Power (PW). Power is vital to the use of psionic powers, and also resisting those powers. The attributes default to 0 but you can spend points to increase them to +1, +2, etc., or you can earn extra points by lowering them to -1, -2, etc. These values are on an escalating scale, so +1 costs 10 points, +2, costs 30 points, and +3 costs 60 points. I’m a big fan of systems like this, in which the attribute and its modifier are the same value, as opposed to having one value which you map on a table to determine its modifier, which is a different value.

Secondary attributes such as movement speed, carrying capacity, and Life Force (LF), the latter being a standard hit point concept, are calculated based on the primary attributes and then you can spend points to improve them beyond their calculated values. It’s nice that you can customize these aspects instead of being locked into the result of a formula.

Skills

Some skills can only be bought at level 0, but many of them can be increased up to a maximum of +5. For normal skills, the cost to raise the skill is the value of the new level. So to increase from +1 to +2, costs 2 points, and from +2 to +3 costs 3 points. You can’t skip levels, so going from +1 to +3 costs 5 points (2 for level 2, and 3 for level 3). An easy skill costs 50% less to increase, and a hard skill costs 50% more. So to raise an easy skill from 2 to 3 would cost 2 points (3 – 50% = 1.5, rounded up), and to raise a hard skill from 2 to 3 would cost 5 points (3 + 50% = 4.5, rounded up).

There is a table so that you can quickly look up these costs rather than run the math, which ordinarily would be great. However, while making characters I discovered that there are 2 math errors in this table which cascade down to subsequent values, so several of the costs are slightly off. The adding or subtracting of 50% is easy enough that I just run the formula each time, but you could also re-calculate the incorrect values on the table and then pencil in the correct costs.

Some skills are subdivided into proficiencies; for example, the Driving skill has these proficiencies: bike, car, truk, hauler. Buying the skill gives you all of the proficiencies at level 0, plus you can choose, for free, one proficiency to specialize in. Specializing means you can use the skill’s actual value. For example, if I have Driving (car) at +3, then I get a +3 when driving cars, but I don’t get any bonus when driving a bike. But I still avoid the -8 non-proficiency penalty on the bike which I would suffer if I didn’t have Driving at all. You can buy additional proficiencies for 2 points each.

Advantages

Special Powers

Psi Powers

Becoming a psycher is fairly expensive in terms of character points. First you have to buy the “psycher” mutation for 20 points, and then you need a PW of at least +1. Each power comes with a multiplier from x1 to x5. To purchase a level in a power, multiply the level you’re buying by the multiplier. For example, Animate Dead has a x5 multiplier. That means it costs (1x5) 5 points for level 1, (2x5) 10 points for level 2, and so on. But before you can buy levels, you first have to buy the power at level 0, with a cost equal to the multiplier…so Animate Dead costs 5 points to get at level 0.

The power levels range from 0 to 9, and are classified according to the table below. These rankings are important for two reasons: the cost of using a power, and what you can do with a power.

0: Dormant – you can’t actually use it yet 1-3: Acolyte 4-6: Initiate 7-9: Magister

Each phase, you generate psychic energy points equal to your PW attribute. So if you have PW +3, then each turn you can spend up to 3 points activating various psychic powers. An acolyte-level power costs 1 point to activate, initiates cost 2, and magister-level powers cost 3. You can mix and match as you please, so you could activate 3 acolyte-level powers in one turn, or any other combination.

The various powers have increasing effects as you gain ranks. For example, if you have Pyrokinesis at acolyte-level, then you can wreathe your body in damaging fire and you can lob fireballs a certain distance and with a certain damage rating. When you gain initiate level, your fireballs gain range and do more damage. At magister level, you can lob three fireballs at once and they do even more damage.

Psychers have a danger of going mad. Each time you gain a new power, you make a roll using your IN rating as a positive modifier and the number of psionic powers you posess as a negative modifier; if you fail, you gain an insanity, which is a disadvantage. The insanity increases in magnitude with each such failure, until eventually the character becomes an NPC and it’s time to roll up someone new.

Disadvantages

Experience

Equipment

This chapter details all the melee weapons, ranged weapons, armor, vehicles, and various other equipment you might find in the game. There’s lots of crazy gear in here, including a variety of cybernetic implants and drugs which can enhance your performance in various areas but come with the danger of addiction. Most of the equipment is given an availability rating from 0 to 9; to find out if a shopkeeper has a piece of gear, the GM can roll d20 and add the availability rating; on an 11 or higher, the gear is in stock.

One interesting thing to note is the damage ratings of the various weapons. Instead of a static value or a number of dice to roll, each weapon has a multiple. For instance, a chainsword does 1M+4 damage and a railgun does 2M. The value you’re multiplying is the number of successes you got on your attack. I’ll talk more about successes in the next section, but using the two weapons above as an example, if I got 3 successes on my attack roll then I would do 7 (3 x 1 + 4) damage with a chainsword and 6 (3 x 2) damage with a railgun. This multiplier system eliminates the need for making a separate damage roll, which is fantastic.

When it comes to weapon ammunition, Waste World chooses a cinematic approach rather than a realistic one. If you roll a 1 on your attack roll, then you’re out of ammo and need to spend a round reloading. Otherwise you can keep shooting forever. The book recognizes that this isn’t realistic, but then says, ‘So what?’

Rules

As I’ve already hinted at, Waste World requires only 20-sided dice (except, oddly, for autofire weapons which also require a d6 to determine how many shots have hit the target). It’s a fixed target system where 1-10 is always failure and 11-20 is always success. Bonuses and penalties affect the result of the die roll, not the target number. I like this approach a lot better than one with a floating target number. Although mathematically it’s identical to a floating system, as a GM I find it a lot more intuitive to think in terms of bonuses and penalties than I do trying to come up with a reasonable target number on the fly.

An important concept in Waste World is the number of successes you made on your roll. When you succeed at a task, your number of successes is the amount by which you surpassed 10. So if you roll 13, that’s 3 successes; 17 gives you 7 successes. In some cases, such as some skill use, the number of successes might not be that important, but successes are vital when it comes to combat.

Attacking someone is identical to a skill check; you roll d20 and add your level in the appropriate skill (such as Handgun or Sword) and also the related attribute (usually DX); if you roll 11 or higher, then you’ve succeeded. The defender then gets to make a defense roll, adding their skill level in the applicable defense and also their relevant attribute. This is where successes come into play. Assuming that the defender succeeded at his roll, then his number of successes is subtracted from yours, For example, let’s say you attack and roll 15 – you have 5 successes. If the defender rolls a 9, then he has failed his defense roll and all 5 of your successes are used to calculate damage. If he rolled a 12, then he got 2 successes. Subtracting them from your successes, you have 3 successess remaining with which to calculate damage. If he rolled a 17 for defense, then his 7 successes completely negate your successes, meaning he has successfully defended and takes no damage. If there are successes remaining, you then apply them to the multiplier for your weapon to calculate damage. So with the aforementioned chainsword, a 1M+4 weapon, I would deal 9 points if he failed to defend against any of my successes, 7 if he reduced my successes to 3, and no damage at all if he negated all of my successes. Armor in Waste World reduces damage, so if I deal 7 damage to a target and he is wearing 3 points of armor, then he ends up taking only 4 points of damage.

In practice, this system of rolling and comparing successes goes very quickly and keeps everyone involved in the action. When I ran the introductory adventure for my group, this system brought them over from skeptics who weren’t much interested in the game due to the over-the-top genre (I had to lobby for a while before they would agree to try the intro adventure) to being really excited about the game and wanting to bypass the rest of the introductory adventure to begin a full campaign. One of the highlights for all of us was the fact that defense wasn’t all-or-nothing but could also be partially successful. It avoids the frustration I’ve experienced with other defense-roll systems where the opponent just keeps negating your attack so that it feels like it takes forever for something to actually happen, while still giving the defender a chance to actively respond to attacks.

Damage in Waste World follows a typical hit point scheme, but when you are reduced to 0 Life Points, you are still able to act normally. Your LF can never fall below 0. However, when you get to 0, any additional damage results in a roll on one of the critical hit tables. Any damage you take beyond reducing you to 0 is used as a positive modifier on the critical hit table, and higher numbers are bad. For example, say that I have 3 LF remaining and I take 5 damage. I’m reduced to 0 LF and there are 2 damage points remaining, so a critical hit needs to be rolled. First you roll on a table to find out which body part takes the critical hit (legs, torso, arms, or head), and then you roll a d20 on the appropriate table. The 2 remaining damage points are added to this d20 roll, meaning that I might suffer a worse critical hit. The entries on these tables range from fairly trivial things such as scratches or losing a tooth all the way up to instant death. If you survive the critical hit roll and are still able to act, then you can continue to take normal actions and your LF is considered to be 0 still. So, in essence, the only way to be killed via combat damage is through a nasty roll on the critical hit tables. Note that in the example above, now that my LF is at 0, if I take another 5-point hit, then all 5 of those points will be added to the critical hit roll.

Narrator

This section includes a few special rules such as making panic tests and reaction rolls, but it mostly consists of GM advice such as how much and when to award experience points and it features a lengthy step-by-step guide to creating an adventure. It also has suggestions for many different campaign themes. While not necessarily unique, it’s a well-done section with lots of good ideas.

Bestiary

A number of post-apocalyptic creatures are presented here, including cybernetic great cats, demons, Apokalypse Legions (armies of rogue panzers seeking to wipe out organic life), nekrovores (zombies), and even giant sandworms. Of special note is The Swarm, a hive-like race from the stars that resemble giant insects and for all intents and purposes are the aliens from the Alien series of films. Despite the fairly obvious root of these creatures, they make for an interesting aspect of the setting as there is always a new hive popping up somewhere in the wastes. The section ends with some notes about environmental hazards including red rain, which soaks into the skin and causes an uncontrollable berserker rage, and shatterstorms, which are massive and deadly sandstorms.

A Word about the Art

The art varies in quality quite a bit, but for the most part it works well to relay the sheer size of the setting and also its intentionally over-the-top feel when it comes to big guns and big armor. Of particular note are the gorgeous full-page pictures which open each chapter. These all show an enormous scale and are worth staring at for a few minutes to soak in…at first glance you just see the enormous structures in the pictures, such as towers or battleship-sized land krawlers, but then you start to notice all the small details which really serve to convey just how huge those bigger objects really are. One picture shows several ruined skyscrapers out in the wastes…it didn’t seem all that special to me at first glance, until I noticed all the dust plumes rising from the sand around the buildings and I realized that an entire army of skavenger vehicles was passing through the area. Then I was really able to appreciate the massive size of the ruins in the picture.

Waste World: The Movie?

Ok, so there is no Waste World movie. However, there is an incredible amount of Waste World-like imagery in the film Judge Dredd starring Sylvester Stallone. It may not be award-winning cinema, but it features metrozones, wastelands, cybernetic mutants, panzers...in many ways it almost feels like an unofficial Waste World movie.

Conclusion

As I said at the top of the review, I love Waste World. The setting is full of interesting elements such that you could run a variety of campaigns that would all be fairly unique from each other. The system is fast and intuitive and it just clicks with my way of thinking. Problems with the game would be some of the art pieces, and the cost calculation for skills and psionic powers could probably be simplified a bit. There are no maps in the game except for a very general one showing the continent described in the book, but to me this is a strength because it grants the freedom to drop your own setting elements anywhere without having to worry about conflicts with the canon material. Overall, I think Waste World is a fantastic RPG which faded way before its time.

In 4 reviews, average style rating is 3.75 and average substance rating is 4.25.