I’ve started playing coop FOWW with one of my buddy, but I’m not really satisfied with the game. For reference, I tend to prefer simpler skirmish games such as Rangers of Shadow Deep and 5 Parsecs from Home.
Main reasons I don’t fully appreciate FOWW:
The game is kind of a ripoff; they charge you separately for unit cards, and charge you again in the app for stuff you bought physically, plus the minis themselves are quite expensive.
The base rules are simple, but I don’t like the hundreds of bits & pieces you need to use to play the game
The campaign kind of lacks character persistence; I’d like my characters to level up and improve, and be able to keep their gear and such
Now, I was wondering how well would Fallout 2d20 work as a system for playing a narrative-based skirmish game. It has a huge advantage of costing ~60-70 CAD$ to get everything I’d need (don’t need to buy card expansion for items and perks and such), I’d be able to use simpler NPC stats for sidekicks and normal PC rules for heroes, wouldn’t need 6-7 types of fancy dice, no need for cards and tokens (got everything on a sheet of paper), etc. I think the only thing that’d be missing is the settlement building rules (which are more than probably coming in a near future).
In your opinion, what would need to be adjusted/hacked in order for it to work?
I’d probably have to ditch survival rules (although I could have specific scenario conditions where the PCs start as hungry/thirsty/fatigued)
How would you handle GM’s AP pool?
Maybe a bit of work on enemy AI, although so far in our FOWW we were already mostly just deciding the action of each enemy based on common sense
Honestly I do not think the FOWW minis are that expensive.
The app is not published by Modiphius, that is why physical purchase does not give you the pack in the app. On the plus side the app subscription is cheap and get access to all card decks.
There is a FOWW RPG supplement that allows more customizable characters and an experience system for leveling. Probably a better choice since you already have an investment in FOWW. Converting the 2D20 into a skirmish game would be a lot of work.
As someone who plays both games weekly, the 2d20 zone system would be the biggest thing for me when it comes to a work around as a skirmish game. Ranges work very differently in FWW, so that might take some tweaking.
Action points seem pretty straight forward - the GM / AI start with a certain amount and replenish when needs (or maybe a certain number every round?)
“Leveling up” in FWW is achievable in the RPG add-on or Settlement Mode, but you can also achieve the same thing through new perks, items, heroic cards, etc. in between missions. Only imagination that’s limiting progression!
One thing to note on the “rip off” side of things, all the unit and item cards are available for free PDF download from Modiphius so I’ll have to disagree with you there: Fallout: Wasteland Warfare - Downloads - Modiphius
Anything is possible when it comes to homebrew, but feels a bit like reinventing the wheel (not always a bad thing!). Curious to see what you come up with!
In Coop mode, the enemy side can add reinforcement of additional units whose XP value is a maximum of 4x the number of AP spent.
Initiative (optional if you don’t want to track turn order)
The figure with the highest initiative goes first
Then hand the turn to the opposing side, who chooses which figure to play
Players can spend 1 AP to play another figure before handing the turn
Range & Movement
Close = yellow (4’’)
Medium = green (8’’)
Long = black (12’’)
Extreme = > 12’’
Take a Chem takes 1 Minor action (no need to take 1 Minor action to hold it first)
Carry weight (optional, used for PCs only)
You can carry a number of normal items (<10 lbs) equal to your STR+4.
Heavy items (10+ lbs) count as 2
Small items (1 or less lbs) don’t count
The Small Frame Trait lowers your carry weight by 1
For each extra 2 normal items you carry over your maximum, apply another step of encumbrance as per normal rules (p.87)
Character Advancement
A PC gains a level at the end of a scenario if they survives.
Downtime
Between each scenario, 1d6 days pass. Use this downtime to recuperate, craft/upgrade items, or other activities.
It might be a good idea to have a few backup characters to use from time to time to allow other characters to fully recover from injuries, disease or other ailments if time between two missions is limited.
Unit Cost
The players’ side can have heroes (PCs created with normal character creation rules) and NPCs (use the NPC stats)
Sum the XP value of all the units on the players’ side.
Refer to p.334 for the XP value of PCs who are treated as Major NPC.
Use this XP value as a budget to “buy” units for the opposing side.
Example: The player side has two lvl 2 PCs (51 xp each), one dog (24 xp) and 2 wastelanders (17 xp each), for a total of 160.
The players decide to build an opposing force of Super Mutants. They choose 2 Mutant Hounds (31 xp each), a basic Super Mutant (38 xp) and a Super Mutant Brute (52 xp). The remaining 8 XP are lost.
Upgrades
You can “buy” equipment with XP to boost some of the NPCs. Simply use the Caps value of an item.
