A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Ray Guns & Ruins

Ray Guns & Ruins is a role playing game supplement published by Skirmisher Publishing for use with OGL systems, in particular Labyrinth Lord or 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 26-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $2.99 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. Two pages are the front and rear covers, three the front matter, one the Open Game License and one is an ad.

The opening paragraphs explain what systems the supplement is aimed at and that it includes descriptions and stats for ray guns of many different kinds as ell ways to develop ruins in the wastelands.

Ray Guns starts with a table giving all their stats and then explains that the Ancients created many weapons and tools that incorporated a beam or ray effect. The ray guns are then described, and there are 30 all told. The guns cover a wide range of types, not all of them technically guns and not all of them lethal or damaging. There are also a couple of unique weapons.

Ruins explains that this section contains a number of things to make ruins and the wasteland more interesting. This starts with Hazards, which are various dangers to encounter, primarily in ruins. These range from structural problems through to superscience issues. One notable thing is goo pools, with many described. These are immobile hazards where Ancient pollution, radiation and other weirdness has accumulated, and these pools can be found anywhere, including on walls and ceilings. They have a wide range of effects.

Spontaneously-Generated Technology is created in a similar manner to goo pools and these are items that are created anywhere from anything.

Rooms has a d20 table of room results to roll on, followed by some room types described in detail.

Finally, Drowning & Suffocation gives some rules for this.

Ray Guns & Ruins in Review

The PDF is bookmarked, with all sections linked. Navigation is good. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be almost free of errors. There are a number of colour illustrations up to full page in size, most of them being tweaked photographs. Presentation is okay.

This is a useful little supplement with a host of new weapons, and not exactly weapons, that could be found in the wastelands, as well as the material on ruins, which can help describe such in more detail with a variety of new options. Ray Guns & Ruins can be found by clicking here.