Item Tables instead of Decks

Fallout Wasteland Warfare
1

Most of the narrative-mode scenarios do not include a specific list of item cards to with which to create the item deck during set up, so you’ll need to create your own if you want to use searchables.

I’ve found that sifting through my giant set of wave 1 item cards that are sorted according to type, and trying to put together an item deck that isn’t too swingy is fairly time consuming and requires a lot of table space for me to go through all my cards.

I decided that not only would be useful to save a list of different item search decks for different purposes, but if I didn’t have to sort through all the cards during set up to create the deck, and just make a table to roll dice against, set-up would go faster.

So to start, I’ve made this first table of 39 items, mean for you to use 2d20’s to roll on. I use 2d20’s to normalize the results a little bit so they skew toward the middle numbers. This let’s me make certain items more common to find, and others more rare, which I like. The more separate dice you use, the more normalized the results will be.

Here is my first table of what I’m considering a “standard” search deck for narrative mode:

  1. Psycho
  2. Mutant Hound Meat
  3. Institute Laser Rifle
  4. Camera
  5. Alien Blaster
  6. Damaged Hazmat Suit
  7. Admin Password
  8. Reflex Sights
  9. Military Grade Circuit Board
  10. Rum
  11. Molotov Cocktail
  12. Day Tripper
  13. Pack of Duct Tape
  14. Cryo Grenade
  15. Eyeglasses
  16. Bourbon
  17. Fragmentation Grenade
  18. Stealth Boy
  19. Alarm Clock
  20. Whiskey
  21. Skeleton Key
  22. Machete
  23. Caps Stash (53)
  24. Fragmentation Mine
  25. .44 Revolver
  26. Baseball Grenade
  27. Comfort Grip
  28. Fire Extinguisher
  29. Molotov Cocktail
  30. Mentats
  31. Combat Armor
  32. Spiked
  33. Headlamp
  34. Molerat Meat
  35. Economy Wonderglue
  36. Camoflauge
  37. Jet
  38. Nuka Cola
  39. Caps Stash (112)

Roll 2d20 of two different colors, and call out one of the colors beforehand. If the result on the table is something that has already been picked up, look at the colored die that you called before the roll. If it’s even, select the next available item in ascending numerical order on the table, if it’s odd: descending.

This is just a first run of a list to use for Settlement Mode missions, hence the inclusion of a lot of caps. The items I consider more average and less swingy are toward the middle of the list, but on either end, more valuable/rare/powerful items can be found which you are less likely to roll.

I like to include utility items like the Admin Password, Skeleton Key, and Fire Extinguisher so that if you are playing a faction that has really bad abilities in a scenario where that is a detriment, they have a small chance of finding something to help. So if you are playing Super Mutants and there is a big benefit of hacking a computer, there is always a chance they could find the Admin Password.

I try to stay away from things like Heavy Weapons where there are a lot of models that can’t make good use of them. I find that thrown weapons are really good because they are interesting in the scenarios, not too overly-powerful, and most models can chuck them around.

Food and Chems are very powerful, so I only put a few in on the edge results.

I’ll probably end up creating more tables for different purposes. Once I do, I plan to put up a PDF so you can print out all these tables, and cut them out as cards that you can just put next to your game table and get going.

4 Likes
2

I’ve been thinking about doing something like this as well. I’ll be watching this with interest.

My thinking has been that I’d do multiple search decks. One for each container type. You’d have your Food, Chem, Alcohol, Ranged Weapon, Melee Weapon Armor, Power Armor, Junk, etc decks. Also decks could be designed for more specific things as well, like Mutant Hounds, Deathclaws, Nuka Cola Machines, etc.

So a trash can may draw from the Junk deck and roll off of that item table. A refrigerator would draw from the food deck which would include your food and beverage items. A Nuka Cola machine would draw from the Nuka Cola Machine deck, trash can would draw from the Junk deck, etc, etc. For the cap stash, I was actually thinking of just using a D100 to roll it.

Nuka Cola Machine:
1-6: Nuka Cola
7-9: Nuka Cherry
10: Nuka Cola Quantum

2 Likes
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Gotta keep it realistic…1-11: empty, then cola/cherry/quantum. lol I keed.

4

I got all my cards stored in a box sorted by type. Before the game I randomly draw the needed amount of items without looking… Therefore I can best sure that every item I own does get a chance to be part of the Wasteland deck. 40 items is quite limited…

5

Heh, more like:
1-3: Empty
4-10: Empty Bottle
11-16: Nuka Cola
17-19: Nuka Cherry
20: Nuka Cola Quantum

I actually have most of my cards (Its a work in progress still) stored in binders. There’s already enough cards that it would make it difficult to do a traditional deck for play, so I figure by having some form of roll table that means you can pull cards as you need them rather than having a deck that’s as thick as the starter box. :wink:

6

Olli,

I did this a few times as well, but I really didn’t care for drawing items that are specific to certain units. I think in one game we drew a Radscorpion Stinger and the Behemoth Fire Hydrant. Of course nothing on the table could use them, and they were worth zero caps. And I just don’t care to sort those kinds of cards out every time I set up the deck.

7

Just draw another card, don’t see the problem. Or draw a few more before the game to help with the equipped items. I have had roundabout 100 games so far and this is by far the easiest way to get a kinda random Wasteland deck …

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Yeah, I gotcha. It’s not that big of a deal to create decks on the fly. I do like having lists of decks for different purposes though.

9

I am totally interested in doing this. There are far too many cards once you get everything, and this is only Wave 1! At some point I am going to design item tables in excel when I get time. I’ll have all the cards organized in a binder by type and alphabetized, and then roll on a table and go grab what the roll is. This will also make it super simple to just make all kinds of different “decks” depending on the scenario.

The only thing I’m going to leave as a “deck” to randomly draw against is the stash cards. So if you roll “stash”, draw a random card from that deck.