A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #3: High-Tech Weapons

Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #3: High-Tech Weapons is a role playing game supplement published by Skirmisher Publishing for use with the Mutant Future game system. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License with some parts being considered Open Game Content as a result. The Wisdom from the Wastelands series of supplements describes new option for the Mutant Future game; this issue introduces new examples of high-tech weaponry.

This is a bookmarked PDF which is available from RPGNow for $0.99 and is also included in the High-Tech Weapons Bundle for $2.99 and the Wisdom from the Wastelands Issues 1-52 Bundle for $27.74. It was actually purchased as part of a special limited bundle for only $0.01. This is a six page PDF of which one page is the Open Game License and front matter.

It starts with an introduction to the supplement in particular and the series in general, before moving on to the weapons.

The flamer is the first weapon. This is an advanced version of the flamethrower, and gives a brief overview of their history before moving on to the high-tech versions, which are much smaller by comparison with their progenitors. These come in pistol, rifle and vehicle mounted versions; the flammable material is kept highly compressed in a small canister, so there are no backpack tanks.

The micro-missile gun is an evolution of the gyrojet, and is a gun that fires a tiny rocket or guided missile. This comes in different versions, from pistol to squad weapon, and a range of ammunition types, most fairly standard variants of current ammunition but also including cryogenic ammunition. The missiles also have different targeting systems available.

Nerve rippers are essentially electric shock weapons which can cause damage to robots as well as normal lifeforms. This comes in a couple of pistol variants and as a rifle.

The rail gun is a projectile weapon that fires projectiles at great speed using a magnetic field. This has three variants; pistol, rifle and support weapon. There are also different projectile types, which have different levels of efficaciousness against different types of protection, and the type also affects projectile range.

Sliver casters are a another magnetic weapon that launches tiny flechettes. These come in a couple of rifle types and as a shotgun, and are generally ineffective against armour, although there are different ammunition types.

Scramblers are a type of weapon that are used to subdue robotic units, and only work on such, which includes androids and replicants. This weapon comes in three types, pistol, rifle and grenade. Unusually, the grenade is reusable; it doesn’t explode like a regular grenade, it simply needs a new power cell after being used.

Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #3: High-Tech Weapons in Review

The PDF is decently bookmarked for its length and there is a hyperlinked Contents as well. Navigation is decent for a short supplement. The text maintains a two column format and no errors were noticed. Each weapon has an illustration, although these would all appear to be free stock images of some type.

With this being an early entrant in the series, it lacks the large number of references to preceding supplements seen in later releases; there are no such references at all. The content is referenced in a later supplement; micro-missile guns and sliver casters are referenced in Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #30: Nanotechnology II, as nannites can be used for ammunition for such.

The new weapons provide a decent number of new ways of killing creatures, although they are generally current weapons that have been increased in technology level. As such, they are not as advanced as many of the weapons seen in the Mutant Future core rulebook, being in-between current weaponry and the really high-tech weapons. Having different variants of each weapon and different ammunition types also increases the amount and flexibility of the weapons.

Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #3: High-Tech Weapons is a good collection of new weapons and it can be found by clicking here.