A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #6: Factions

Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #6: Factions 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, though none of it is considered to be Open Game Content. The Wisdom from the Wastelands series introduces new options for Mutant Future and this one has various factions.

The supplement is available as a 7-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $0.99 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. One page is the Open Game License and one is an ad.

The opening paragraphs explain that socio-political groups were a fun element in the original game; not mentioned by name, but Gamma World. This supplement adds several organisations that a Mutant Lord can incorporate into their game, though there are no rules and details regarding membership, location, size, individual members and so forth are up to the ML. There are four different factions, which follow.

Gaians are sentient plants that believe in the primacy of plant life. There are three camps within the Gaians; one thinks all other intelligent life should be destroyed, another wants something similar, but with no technology, and the third wants to turn animals into plants.

Legion are descended form soldiers who survived the war who formed a force modelled on the French Foreign Legion. Legion is a place for warriors and support staff, and they will fight for pay, but not for despots or would-be dictators.

Uplifted are animals that were given human-level or greater intelligence by the Ancients. This group is also divided into factions. Orwellians, who themselves have different factions believe animals are destined to rule. Apes believe apes and humans should be the only ones allowed to survive. Truebloods are intelligent, but otherwise still animals, and prefer to avoid others. Anthromorphs believe their ancestors were humans who took on animal aspects and seek to integrate into human and mutant human society.

Xenophobes believe that aliens incited the Final War and seek to finish the job. This faction intends to stop them. They are better organised and equipped, due to seeking technology, but are so paranoid they have a tendency to kill potential recruits.

Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #6: Factions in Review

The PDF has the major sections bookmarked. There is also a small table of contents with the major sections hyperlinked. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of error. There are a number of tweaked colour images that are generally appropriate. Presentation is okay.

This may be classed as a Mutant Future supplement, but it lacks any game stats and can be used in any post-apocalyptic game, making it generically useful. If there’s a downside, it’s that there aren’t any stats or details on a faction. An alternative idea would have been to devote the supplement to a single faction and describe it in far more detail. Wisdom from the Wastelands Issue #6: Factions is a decent supplement and it can be found by clicking here.