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.
Role playing Games are storytelling games where a group of people get together and take part in the telling of a tale. One player, called the Narrator, takes on the part of describing the world, and all the people the rest of the players meet. He outlines the basic story. He plays the part of all the minor characters the players encounter, describing their actions and talking with their voices.
All of the other players have a single character whom they control. The players are really the stars of the story. They control their character’s actions within the guidelines laid down by the rules and Narrator. They respond to the situations the Narrator creates whilst acting out the part of their own special character. In A Fistful of Credits you and your friends will take on the role of a group of ace bounty hunters on a dangerous mission across the deadly wastelands.
As Narrator you have a special responsibility. You must be familiar with the rules. You must create the characters and situations the players encounter. You are the player’s eyes and ears in the world, describing what they see and hear and smell and feel. You oversee any combats using the rules given here to do so. You look after the smooth running of the game. You tell the stories that the players will star in. It is your job to see that everyone has a good time and to resolve any arguments that might arise during the course of play. In the end, your decision is final, over riding any of the rules in this game.
As a player you will play only a single role. This alter ego is referred to as your player character or simply PC. You will have one PC who is your alter ego in Waste World and who will live or die, fail or succeed based on your decisions. Even if this character should die, you do not lose. You can simply choose to create another character, using the rules given here.
In play the Narrator takes on the role of many different people, acting out their part in the ongoing drama. Any character controlled by the Narrator is referred to as a Narrator Character (NC) simply to distinguish them from the PCs.
You will need some dice to play WWL. You use special twenty sided dice available from most hobby stores and you use ordinary six sided dice. In the text we abbreviate twenty sided dice to d20, and six sided dice to d6. When you see a number before the d it means roll that number of the appropriate type of dice and add them. For example, 3d6 means roll three six-sided dice and add the results.
A fumble is a particularly poor die roll. When a fumble occurs something bad will most likely happen. When rolling a d20 a fumble occurs when you roll a 1. When you fumble you always fail at whatever you were attempting regardless of how good you are at what you were doing.
Waste World RPG uses the metric system for all weights and measures. Distances are given in meters and kilometers. Weights are given in kilograms.
In Waste World the basic unit of currency is the credit issued by the Universal Trading Bank. It is universally honored across the world. Although many places have their own currencies and trading systems, prices throughout this book are given in credits. Credits are normally written in units between 1 and 1,000. The normal format for prices in credits is 100C or 345C. If the there is no letter at the end of a price you can always assume that it is in credits.
Before you can play you will need a character. Simply choose a character template from the one’s available in Section 6. Study your character's background, characteristics, skills and special powers.
Characteristics are a measure of how good your character is in certain general areas. The higher your characteristics are the better. Zero is an average characteristic. Positive characteristics are good. Negative characteristics are poor. There are the following six characteristics:
Strength (ST): This is a measure of how physically fit, strong and powerful your character is. The greater your strength, the more you can lift and carry and the more damage you will do when using muscle powered weapons such as swords and axes.
Dexterity (DX): This is a measure of how well coordinated, agile and dexterous your character is, as well as how fast your reflexes are.
Intelligence(IN): This is a measure of how smart your character is, how quickly you learn and how perceptive you are.
Power (PW): This is a measure of your basic psychic ability. For most people this is rated at zero.
Movement Rate (MR): This tells you how fast your character walks and runs.
Life Force (LF): This tells you how much damage your character can take before being taken out of action.
Skills tell you how good your character is in one narrow area such as driving, or firing a gun. Sometimes skills have skill levels. These are written after the skill’s name. If you have acrobatics +2, you have two skill levels with acrobatics. The higher your skill levels are, the better you are with a skill. Skills can be either DX skills or IN skills. DX skills are primarily skills involving physical ability such as shooting a gun or picking a pocket. IN skills are those which involve mental ability or knowledge, for example healing or computer programming. The type of a skill has an affect on the way they are used (see below).
This category includes all special abilities that set you apart from normal people. When your character has a special ability or power this will be described in the text.
Your character will have some equipment. This part of your characters description tells you what equipment you are carrying and exactly what it does in game terms.
Most normal actions, such as walking across a room, succeed automatically. Sometimes though, you will need to roll dice. You only do this when there is a dramatic purpose for you doing so, or when there is some doubt about whether you can succeed at whatever task you are attempting. Almost every important die roll in Waste World is made using a twenty sided dice (d20). Almost all rolls follow the same format. You roll the dice and you add any positive modifiers that might apply such as a high characteristic or skill that applies in the situation. You then subtract any negative factors that might apply. If the result is greater than 10 you have succeeded. If the result is 10 or less you have failed. The amount you roll greater than 10 tells you how many successes you have. The amount you get less than ten is the number of failures.
For example, you are driving your skimmerbike over a rough patch of desert during a sandstorm when suddenly a huge boulder looms out of the gloom. You wrench the controls to avoid it: will you succeed? Fortunately, you have a DX of +2 and drive skill of +4. This gives you a big positive modifier. Unfortunately, the weather conditions are extremely bad and you are only reacting at the last second so there is a negative modifier of 4. You roll the dice and get 9. You add 6 for your skill and DX. This gives you a total of 15. Then you subtract 4 for the negative conditions. This gives you a final total of 11. Subtracting 10 from this gives you a total of 1 success. You dodge the rock but only just.
Sometimes the Narrator will ask you to make a characteristic roll. Which characteristic this is will vary depending on the circumstances. If you need to move a heavy boulder, it will be a ST roll. if you need to leap back from a trap door it will be a DX roll. If you need to remember a particular piece of information it will be an IN roll. If you need to resist the psychic attack of a powerful Demon it will be a PW roll. When you make a characteristic roll, roll the dice and add the appropriate characteristic. Subtract any negative modifiers the Narrator tells you to. If the result is 11 or more you have succeeded in what you were attempting. If the result was 10 or less you have failed.
Sometimes it will be important whether you see or hear something. When this is the case the Narrator will ask you to make a perception roll. To this you roll a d20 and add your IN plus any appropriate modifiers. If the result is 11 or more you have succeeded. Sight perception rolls are made when you are trying to see something. Hearing perception rolls are made when you need to hear something.
When you need to use a skill you roll the dice and add your skill levels (if you have any) and either IN or DX depending on the characteristic on which the skill is based. The Narrator applies any negative modifier that may apply. If the result is 11 or more you have succeeded. If the result is 10 or less you have failed. A fumble always means that you have failed no matter how many skill levels you have or how high your characteristics are. Once you have rolled the dice you should subtract 10 from the total. If the result is positive this is the number of successes you have. The more successes the better your result will be. If the result is zero or less you have failed. Your negative score is the number of your failures. The more failures you have the worse the result of your efforts was.
You can attempt to use a skill even if you do not possess it. However, your non proficiency puts you at a disadvantage when attempting this, so there is a 6 penalty to your skill roll, in addition to any other penalties the Narrator may apply. Some difficult skills cannot be used at all if you do not possess them. It is impossible for someone without training to perform brain surgery or advanced nuclear physics research. Your Narrator can disallow any non proficient skill use that he feels falls into this category.
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