A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Dwellers of the Waste

Dwellers of the Waste is a role playing game supplement written and published by A.M. Jackson for use with Vaults of Vaarn.

The supplement is available as a 16 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. Two pages are the front and rear covers and a quarter the Credits and License.

The first part has new monsters. There are six in total, each taking up a full page, most of which is an illustration with Vaults of Vaarn stats. These are of a variety of types with different abilities and all are on the strange side.

Statblock Array is a single page containing all six stat blocks from the monsters for easy reference.

New Ancestries has two new ancestries for the game, though there are tips on using them with similar games to Vaults of Vaarn. With that system, they are technically sub-ancestries of the true-kin. Notes explain that tinkering adds a wholly new ability and ley lines a new concept. The two ancestries, Monger and Ley-Liner, are then described with, for Monger, description, tables for determining name, attire, demeanour and jewellery, their mongerhouse (with abilities specific to such covered later), why they were banished, their decadence and motto and finally their special abilities. Ley-Liner has description, name, attire, demeanour, leycap, livelihood, superstition, believes leylines are, about their ancestors and their special abilities.

Bonus Table: Rulers has d20 tables for determining their title, what they rule over and two aspects of such.

Dwellers of the Waste in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and, though short, has enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation is okay. The text is either single or two column and appeared to be free of errors. There are a lot of black and white illustrations. Presentation is good.

This is a useful expansion to Vaults of Vaarn, with the new monsters and ancestries. Though it is stated they could be used with similar types of games, there would need to be some significant conversions in order to accomplish this, which in truth makes this less than useful for other games. Dwellers of the Waste can be found by clicking here.