As Wastewalker develops a following and the rules are refined, we’re going to take some time to call out various rules variations and adjustments Wastewalker makes. We hope that doing so showcases some of the different, and fun, elements of the game without making reading through the whole of the new rules text cumbersome!
I have to laugh. Ammo and encumbrance rules are almost always highly contentious topics that don’t see anywhere near the discussion that other elements do. Sure, all of the meme groups are awash in alignment debates, edition wars, “does the paladin fall because…” sort of topics, but never ammo or encumbrance until the rubber meets the road, or rather the dice meets the table.
Survival games, however, are almost always about or feature as a major point limited resources. A part of the whole pressure of that style of play is one of desperation, limited ability, making choices, and making do. Outside of computer games, however, that is almost always a nightmare to track which is why ammo and encumbrance rules in tabletop are met with such reactions. No one really wants to do the math! The occasional player may want the immersion, the game master may want to impose the penalties, but often everyone else will nearly revolt. These are rules players hate or embrace and not much middle ground.
For Wastewalker, I’ve borrowed from various places what feels like some of the best options to split that particular hair. As a post-apocalyptic survival, you shouldn’t be able to really lug around unlimited ammo, unlimited supplies, and the like. Good drama comes in part from stress, such having to kitbash together answers in the moment because bringing it all with you isn’t manageable.
First up, the ammunition rule borrows from previous editions of the world’s most popular game, abstracting the idea of having ammunition or not. With an “Ammunition Marker,” players are considered armed for the encounter and can use their weapon as they see fit. They begin the game with, and able to carry, three of these markers and can find ammunition through play and purchase ammo cannisters that allow them to carry more of these tokens. This is a departure from Starfinder’s beginner box rules, where ammunition is abstracted out almost completely but still different from tracking every single clip, round, or ounce of gun powder. Players get the full joy of unleashing firepower and mayhem without stopping at the end of each of their turns to determine if they still have ammo or not, to reload, and the like. They don’t have to break the action. However. It is still a limited supply item; they could use them for every encounter, but they would soon run out and so they have to make a decision: is this an encounter worth burning ammunition for or not? Restricting the normal character loadout to three tokens puts a cap on their ability to stockpile. There are indeed ways to expand that limit, but that means investing other resources including currency as well as weight.
And with weight, we come to the encumbrance rules! This is honestly one of the most appealing parts of basing the Wastewalker game play on the Starfinder Role Playing Game. The short of it is, each item has a “Bulk” value of none, “Light,” or a numerical value of 1 or greater. A character can carry an amount of Bulk equal to 1/2 their Strength score without penalty; a score of 16 means a Bulk limit of 8. A score of 12 means a Bulk limit of 6. SFRPG’s “Bulk” rules are simple, easy to calculate, but keep that pressure on the character to make decisions about what they can take and what they have to leave behind. It puts the most emphasis on the most useful elements; weapons, armor, stockpiles of supplies such as medkits and the like, and tends to go easy on the negligible items that are mostly flavor or of limited strategic value.
While players will often fight about the inclusion of such “bean counting” rules in their games, it is the hope that the abstract but still present rules in Wastewalker work quickly and easily at your table. Good drama, good adventure, comes from tension and decision making; in a survival setting, what you choose to take with you can mean the difference between life or death. Hopefully, that also means good drama!
