By Evie Moriarty
Art by Ariel Orea
Welcome back to Factions Focus. To coincide with the preorder of the brand-new Wasteland Raider set I thought we’d take an opportunity to talk about that most important, vital, and vigorous of things in the wasteland: chems. Wasteland Raiders absolutely love chems, with several special rules concerning them and being able to source them much more easily than other gangs.
If you’ve not managed to get too many games of Fallout: Factions under your belt just yet, you may overlook this aspect of the crew, instead focusing on all that lovely scrappy power armor and heavy weapons. That’s understandable, but it’s a mistake - chems are a hugely impactful part of the game and learning to use them well can be the difference between victory and defeat.
But you don’t just want to hear about the fact that chems are good for you, you want to know why they’re good for you. And of course, you indulgent types would like some Wild Wasteland rules for chems to throw into your casual games and really get the party started.
Chems in Fallout: Factions work quite differently from how they do in Fallout: Wasteland Warfare in one really significant way: they’re not tied to one specific model, and instead “float” across the whole crew. No matter who finds a dose of Psycho wedged into a nuclear-powered toaster (happens all the time in the wasteland), anyone in your crew can use it, and you don’t have to track who’s carrying it at any one time.
There are lots of reasons for that (it’s much easier to track for one), but a big one is to make chems better as a whole without making each individual chem too potent. Chems are a really essential part of the Fallout setting, having been a part of it from the beginning, and being incredibly iconic. It would be a shame if they didn’t turn up in a Fallout game, and equally a shame if they did without feeling worthwhile. That means that they need to have a significant impact on play.
Broadly when you’re thinking about the impact a mechanic has on play, especially one tied to an object a character will acquire and use in the game, then you can think about it in terms of access and effectiveness. Access is how easy it is to get a hold of and use. If you find stimpaks everywhere and you can use them without spending an action at any time, then they’re very accessible - they don’t need to do much in order to have a significant impact on the game. Effectiveness is what they actually do. If you instead made Stimpaks hard to find and require an action to use but they completely healed your character (all injuries and harm) then they’d also have a significant impact on the game.
Tuning those dials of access and effectiveness is a key part of game design. And where you put those dials depends on a number of factors, from how prominent you want the mechanic to be, how often you want it to come up, and how impactful it should feel compared to other mechanics (note that how it feels isn’t always the same as how it is).
In Fallout: Factions, we want chems to be an ongoing minor presence, something that crops up a lot, feels accessible and common, but each one individually isn’t enormously impactful. The overall mechanic of chems needs to feel significant, but not each individual chem. That doesn’t detract from the core of the game (your models on the table and what they can personally do) but does add to it. Therefore our access dial needs to be turned quite high, and our effectiveness dial needs to be turned quite low.
And that’s why chems can be shared by anyone in your crew - by making them more accessible, we can keep that effectiveness turned down. They only make a minor difference, but you have a lot of control over where that minor difference is made. And that in turn has a big impact.
But what if you wanted those dials in a different place? What if you wanted them to be rarer but more impactful? What if you wanted them to be a carefully considered and planned commitment, rather than that easy access for all? Well here’s a set of Wild Wasteland rules that you can have a go with - these aren’t for all your games as usual, and should only be used with the express permission of your opponent. They’re likely to change things up quite a bit!
Wild Wasteland: Alternative Chem AbuseWhen you choose to make the Rummage Action to Find a Chem, if one die is a 9 or 10 then you can choose one dose of a common chem. If both dice are a 9 or 10 then you can instead choose one dose of a rare chem. Each chem you have in your crew is associated with a specific model. Make a note of which model has which chems. Only models carrying a chem can use that chem. If a model picks up a chem with a Rummage Action then they are considered to now have that chem. A model can give a chem they are carrying to another model if they are within 2” of them at any time during their activation. Change the Sticky Fingers perk the new rules presented below: Sticky FingersWhen this model makes a Rummage Action to Find a Chem, they find a dose of a common chem when one die is an 8, 9 or 10, and a dose of a rare chem if both dice are a 8, 9 or 10. The effects of chems are now as follows: Rad-X: You can spend a dose of Rad-X at any time during a model’s activation. Until the end of the game it has the Rad Resistant perk. Psycho: When selecting the Active Model for the turn, you may spend a dose of Psycho. For the rest of the Round it is considered to have the Four Leaf Clover perk but only when rolling an Attack. Nuka-Cola: When selecting the Active Model for the turn, you may spend a dose of Nuka-Cola to increase that model’s Control Area by 3” until the end of the game. Stimpak: When selecting the Active Model for the turn, you may spend a Stimpak to Recover all Harm and one Injury on that model. Steady: When selecting the Active Model for the turn, you may spend a dose of Steady. For the rest of the Round its Luck is increased by 1 when making a Ranged Attack. Jet: Before choosing an Active model on your Turn, you may spend a dose of Jet to Recover 2 Fatigue on this model. Psycho Jet: When selecting the Active Model for the turn, you may spend a dose of Psycho Jet. For the rest of the Round it is considered to have the Four Leaf Clover perk but only when rolling an Attack. It does not take Fatigue for Actions it makes this turn. Whiskey: You can spend a dose of Whiskey at any time during a model’s activation. Until the end of the game it increases its Strength by 2. Med-X: When selecting the Active Model for the turn, you may spend a Med-X to Recover all Harm and all Injuries on that model. Nuka-Cola Dark: When selecting the Active Model for the turn, you may spend a dose of Nuka-Cola Dark to increase that model’s Control Area by 3” until the end of the game, and its Luck by 1 until the end of the Round. Day Tripper: When selecting the Active Model for the turn, you may spend a dose of Day Tripper. For the rest of the Round its Luck is increased by 2. Buffout: You can spend a dose of Buffout at any time during a model’s activation. Until the end of the game it increases its Endurance by 2. Mentats: You can spend a dose of Mentats at any time during a model’s activation. Until the end of the game it automatically Passes Confusion Tests. Hydra: During the Story Phase, when rolling on the Serious Injury Table for this model, you may spend a dose of Hydra to select the result you wish. Calmex: Before making a Rummage action, you may spend a dose of Calmex to automatically gain two common chems instead of rolling. Daddy-O: When selecting the Active Model for the turn, you may spend a dose of Daddy-O to double that model’s Control Area until the end of the game. |
Let us know how you get on with these chemmed up alternatives. Do you have a good time doing the good stuff? Let us know on our Discord or via email and stay in school…