By Evie Moriarty, Lead Game Designer
Photography: Fatima Martín Pérez

 

When developing the new edition of Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, we didn’t want to take everything forward uncritically. Instead, we wanted to go back to the heart of what we wanted the game to be. That meant reviewing everything from a solo-first experience and tweaking elements that didn’t fit what we were aiming for. We were also aware of years of player feedback, the challenges of developing and updating the rules in-studio, and the broader changes in the miniature gaming market. 

 

With all this in mind, some of the components, the things you’ll find most familiar about the game, have changed. Most haven’t – it’s still at its heart the same game – but there are quite a few areas we’ve had to look at.

 

How Do You Measure Range And Movement In Fallout: Wasteland Warfare?

 

There are no range rulers in the game in this edition; instead, you’ll need a standard ruler or tape measure. We’ve tried to keep things relatively simple, with all measurements in inches and using standard distances (the most common being 4”, 8”, 12”, and 16”). This gives us a lot more flexibility when we need it, but it also means you don’t need to track down a specific set of rulers to play; you can simply jump in with whatever tape measure you have to hand.

 

Are There Cards In The New Edition Of Fallout: Wasteland Warfare?

 

Nope! Another big change is that there are no more cards. Cards are a huge part of the first edition, but we found things got out of hand pretty quickly. The catalogue of cards is absolutely huge, and one of the major comments we have seen from newer players is that the number of available cards is confusing and overwhelming. We’re aiming to keep the best of the cards with extensive reference sheets, but not force you to use them. We want to ensure that all the information you need is available and readable. We don’t want to make you rely on an app or on cards you struggle to get hold of.

 

 

Does The New Edition Of Fallout: Wasteland Warfare Use The Same Dice?

 

The dice will be very familiar to players of the first edition, though we’ve even made a few changes here too. First of all, a couple of the dice no longer feature: the Armor dice and the Special Effect dice have disappeared completely. The Armor dice and the Armor system caused a lot of confusion, so we wanted to find a way forward without them, using the core systems where possible. While the Special Effect dice is fun, it added a lot of additional symbols that showed up nowhere else in the game, which many often found difficult to parse.

 

The rest of the effect dice (Accuracy, Damage, and Armor Penetration) remain the same as they did, and you’ll be able to keep using your existing dice if you’ve got them. The Skill dice, however, has been replaced with the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. dice, which looks very similar but has some key changes.

 

The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. dice have smoothed out the probability to make it less punishing. The Skill dice tended to cluster results at the higher end, and with this being a roll-under system, it meant that you’d fail a lot when it didn’t feel like you should. In addition, the number of automatic misses and automatic hit results meant that dice rolls often felt very binary; you would always have hit, no matter the model acting, or you would always have missed. The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. dice reduces the number of those special results on the dice and adds a more even range of numbered results, so that what statistics your model has matters an awful lot more on the table.

 

For the visual learners out there, we popped the probability curves below:

 

 

Next up, we’ll run through an overview of the juicy kinds of weapons your hero can get their grubby little hands on in Fallout: Wasteland Warfare. See you then!