A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Creatures of the Wastelands: Random Encounters

Creatures of the Wastelands: Random Encounters is a role playing game supplement published by Skirmisher Publishing for use with Mutant Future. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.

The supplement is available as a 14 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. Two pages are the front and rear covers, three the front matter, one the Table of Contents, one the Open Game License and one is an ad.

The Introduction explains that the supplement has 15 random encounter tables for use with Mutant Future. The primary source of monsters for the tables is Creatures of the Wastelands, along with some from Creatures of the Wastelands: Mutational Evolution and a few from the core book. Three of the types of terrain are described in Creatures of the Wastelands, with a couple having less monsters, and two from the core book, Radioactive and Mountain/Hills, are not included as most of the monsters from Creatures of the Wastelands do not live in such environs.

The remainder of the book is taken up by the tables. All bar two terrains have 20 results; those two, as mentioned, only have 10. The various monsters are marked as to which of the three supplements they come from.

Creatures of the Wastelands: Random Encounters in Review

The PDF is bookmarked with the various sections linked. The Table of Contents is to a similar level of depth and is hyperlinked. Navigation is decent. The text is single column for the Introduction and three columns for the rest, and there was one error noticed in the Table of Contents. There are a number of pieces of black and white stock. Presentation is okay.

This supplement is just a collection of random encounter tables and won’t work without the three supplements the creatures are drawn from. In addition, the tables are not weighted in any way; the chance of encountering any monster in a terrain is the same, no matter what the creature is. This greatly reduces the supplement’s utility, as there should be variations in how common creatures are. Creatures of the Wastelands: Random Encounters is an okay supplement with some flaws and it can be found by clicking here.