Five Sessions into Fallout: Wasteland Wanderer
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| Image by Modiphius |
[15 min read]
One of the goals of The Dash Action is to make tabletop games easier to learn and easier to get to the table. Sometimes the best way to understand a system isn't another rules explanation—it's watching someone learn it.
After around five hours with Fallout: Wasteland Wanderer, I've collected my first impressions alongside my complete play notes. You'll see the mistakes I made, the rules I misunderstood, the stories that emerged unexpectedly, and how the system feels in actual play.
Initial Impressions
The biggest strength of Wasteland Wanderer is the structure. It has a really clean solo gameplay loop: travel → encounter → take action, with a defined list of actions plus enough flexibility to improvise narratively when needed. Character creation is quick, the 5x5 map system is excellent, and gradually sketching out the wasteland as you explore feels very Fallout.
It’s also much more streamlined than the full Fallout 2D20 RPG, which honestly works in its favour for solo play. Combat is fast and abstracted, and while enemies can feel mechanically similar, the trade-off is that you spend far less time bogged down in crunchy systems. It captures the “open world wandering into emergent side quests” feel of Fallout decently well.
That said, usability is rough in places. You do a lot of flipping between the rules and the tables section. I understand why the tables are grouped together — it’ll probably feel great once the game is internalised — but early on it’s clunky. The included turn flow reference sheet also isn’t complete, which caused me to completely miss actions like Endure for multiple sessions.
I’ve also spotted a surprising number of typos, ambiguities, and what look like outright errors (including Oracle odds that seem inverted). None of them are game-destroying, but together they create friction in a game that otherwise wants to flow quickly. It feels a bit like the book needed one more proofreading pass before print.
Still, there’s a strong core here. The scope is intentionally small, the format is table-friendly, the artwork and production quality are great, and the system does a good job scaffolding solo narrative play without overcomplicating things.
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| My minimal setup as it started |
Prologue & Character Creation
Mechanical Log
Character creation:
Name: Elias
Level: 1 (Vault Dweller)
Attributes (relative): High Strength, High Charisma, Moderate Perception, Some Luck, Lower Intelligence, Lower Agility
Tagged skill: Speech
Background:
Role: Enforcer (Vault 19, Blue faction)
Reputation: Neutral
Vault generation:
Vault: 19
Experiment: Forced division into Red vs Blue factions
Current state: <10 inhabitants remaining after prolonged internal conflict
Quest generation:
Main Quest: Broker peace with Vault 21
Constraint: Vault 21 demands unaffordable tribute
Starting resources:
HP: 10
Supply: 2
Equipment: Vault suit, baseball bat, laser pistol, Pip-Boy
Exit condition:
Assistance from Nova (Red faction enforcer) grants access to vault exit
Outcome Summary
Elias is established as a physically capable but intellectually limited vault enforcer with strong social instincts. Vault 19 is revealed to be a failed social experiment, now reduced to a handful of survivors locked in a paranoid stalemate. Elias chooses to leave rather than participate in the ongoing decline. With Nova’s help, he exits the vault with a self-imposed mission: seek out Vault 21 and attempt to resolve the growing external threat.
Vault 19 was never meant to heal. It was built to divide. Red and Blue, painted on walls, stitched into clothes, whispered into every argument until no one remembered why it mattered. Years later, the shouting had turned to silence. Doors stayed shut. Eyes lingered too long. Fewer voices filled the halls with each passing month.
Elias never fit the shape the vault tried to press him into. Too soft for hatred, too simple for politics, but strong enough to survive it. When Nova opens the door for him, it isn’t ceremony—it’s relief. The vault seals behind him, not with finality, but with distance. For the first time in his life, the world is wide, and whatever comes next won’t be decided by the colour on a wall.
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| Character sheet provided by Modiphius |
Turn 1 - Foggy Caves
Mechanical Log
Travel: Move to unexplored Location 11 (East); -1 Supply (2 → 1)
Location generation:
Type: Wasteland
Icon: Cave
Truth: Choked with fog
Scavenge:
Found: Laser pistol (well-worn, condition roll 13) → salvaged +1 energy cell
Found: NCR leather armour (equipped)
Supplies search: Failed
Combat (Mole Rat):
Attack 1 (baseball bat): Miss
Incoming damage: -1 HP (torso)
Attack 2: 2 successes → Mole rat killed
Action Points: +1 banked
Healing attempt:
Medicine test (difficulty 2, no resources): 1 success → Failed
End state:
HP: 9/10
Supply: 1
Gear: Baseball bat, laser pistol (+2 cells total), NCR leather armour
Outcome Summary
Elias leaves Vault 19 and travels east into a fog-filled cave system. He discovers the remains of a strange alien creature and salvages an energy cell, along with NCR-marked leather armour from nearby wreckage. The caves appear abandoned but contain traces of prior activity. He is attacked by a mole rat, takes a minor wound, and kills it. He fails to locate additional supplies and cannot treat his injury. He exits the caves and continues east.
The vault door closes behind him with a final, echoing weight, and the silence outside feels wider than anything he has ever known. The desert gives way to a low ravine, and then to shadow. Fog creeps between the rocks, thick and unnatural, dulling sound until even his own footsteps feel distant. Elias grips the bat tighter than he means to.
Something has already died here—something wrong. The smell lingers, sharp and metallic, clinging to the back of his throat. He takes what he can, avoids what he cannot understand, and presses on. When the mole rat bursts from the ground, it feels almost like relief—something simple, something he knows how to hit. When it’s over, he wipes the bat clean, adjusts the unfamiliar armour on his shoulders, and leaves the caves behind without looking back.
Turn 2 - Ruined Hospital
Mechanical Log
Travel: Move to unexplored Location 12 (East); -1 Supply (1 → 0)
Location generation:
Type: Wasteland
Icon: Hospital
Truth: Bone dry
Supplies search: Failed (location scavenged clean)
Encounter:
Event: Conflict between NPC (Caesar’s Legion scout “Joseph”) and creature (Red Scorpion)
Combat:
Attack (laser pistol): Miss (including 1 AP reroll → miss)
Enemy action: Red Scorpion burrows (cannot be attacked)
Outcome: Combat disengages
Social:
De-escalate (Speech, tagged): Critical success (3 successes)
Result: NPC stands down and engages peacefully
Quest generation:
Goal: Create distraction
Method: Fake battle and injury
Time: Next morning
Reward: Avoid being hunted by Caesar’s Legion
End state:
HP: 9/10
Supply: 0
Status: Conditional freedom under threat
Outcome Summary
Elias enters a ruined, exposed hospital that has been completely scavenged. He encounters a Caesar’s Legion scout under attack by a rad scorpion and attempts to assist, but fails to hit the creature before it retreats. The scout lures Elias into a trap but is persuaded through negotiation to stand down. Instead of escalating, the scout offers a conditional deal: Elias must help stage a fake battle the following morning in exchange for not being reported or hunted by the Legion.
The hospital stands open to the sky, its bones picked clean by sun and scavengers alike. Wind moves through broken walls, carrying dust instead of life. Elias searches anyway, because he has to—but there is nothing here. Not even hope, not even scraps.
The sound of struggle pulls him forward, and instinct takes over before thought can catch up. By the time the dust settles, he finds himself not a hero, but a fool in a locked room. It is only his voice—steady, open, unguarded—that gets him out again. When Joseph speaks of the Legion, of trackers and consequences, Elias listens. He doesn’t fully understand the danger yet. But he understands enough to agree. Tomorrow, he bleeds on purpose.
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| Image by Modiphius |
Turn 3 - Exploring the Wasteland
Mechanical Log
Perception test (spot valuables on Joseph): 1 success → identifies caps
Attack (laser pistol, aimed shot):
Roll: 1 success + 1 complication (natural 20)
Hit location: Head
Outcome: Target killed (side quest failed)
Loot:
Caps: 3 stacks + 1 limited-edition stack
Weapon: Pipe bolt-action rifle + ammo
Supplies: +1 Supply
Travel:
Move to Location 8 (East/North-East intent); -1 Supply (1 → 0)
Location generation (8):
Type: Wasteland
Icon: Business park
Truth: Eerie (watched, unnatural silence)
Faction presence: Enclave (observing influence)
Encounter:
Result: Become lost → forced movement to random adjacent location
Direction roll: Location 3
Location generation (3):
Type: Wasteland
Icon: Radio tower
Truth: Windswept / eerie signals
Encounter (3):
Foes: 3 Raiders, 2 Scavengers (captives)
Social/Action:
Speech test (incite conflict): 1 success + 1 AP → 2 successes (success)
Athletics test (open cage): 1 success (success)
Outcome:
Scavengers released, attack Raiders
Supplies gained: +1 Supply
End state:
HP: 9/10
Supply: 1
Gear: Baseball bat, laser pistol, pipe bolt-action rifle, NCR leather armour
Wealth: Multiple caps (including limited edition)
Outcome Summary
Elias attempts to complete Joseph’s request but accidentally kills him with a headshot due to a complication. The side quest fails. Elias loots the body, gaining caps, a rifle, and supplies. He travels toward New Vegas but becomes disoriented in an eerie business park, possibly influenced by unseen Enclave activity, and ends up in a windswept radio tower location at night. There, he encounters raiders forcing scavengers to fight. Using deception and strength, Elias incites chaos, frees the captives, and steals supplies before escaping. He rests nearby and prepares to continue toward New Vegas.
Morning comes hard and empty. Hunger gnaws, and the plan sits between them like something fragile. Elias nods, raises the pistol, and pulls the trigger. The shot is clean—too clean. Joseph drops without a word. For a long moment, Elias just stands there, the weight of it settling in slow and heavy. This wasn’t how it was meant to go.
By nightfall, the world feels different. The business park watches him in silence, and something unseen nudges him off course. He follows lights that lead nowhere, climbing instead toward a lonely tower singing broken songs into the wind. Violence finds him again, but this time he bends it—turns it sideways, lets others carry it. When he slips away into the dark with stolen supplies, he tells himself it’s survival. Sleep doesn’t quite agree.
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| Elias' journey from Vault 19 to New Vegas Blank map from Modiphius |
Turn 4 - New Vegas Outskirts
Mechanical Log
- Travel:
Move into Location 4 (New Vegas outskirts)
-1 Supply (1 → 0)
Location generation:
Type: Settlement
Truth: Lawless
Encounter:
Suspicious trader offers unusually good deals
NPC generated: Morris, elderly travelling trader
Trade action:
Attribute used: Charisma 8
Supporting skill: Repair 3 (used to identify valuable salvage)
Initial identification roll: 1 success
Item identified: “Giddy Up Buttercup” statuette (scrap collectible)
Bargaining:
Luck point spent (3 → 2)
Luck roll result:
Critical success (2 successes)
Complication triggered
Outcome:
Purchased statuette cheaply
Item has visible scratch reducing resale value
Exploration:
Oracle check: Hidden way into New Vegas exists
Perception + Survival check: Success
Outcome: Elias finds hidden breach through outer wall
End state:
HP: 9/10
Supply: 0
Luck points: 2
Wealth:
Multiple caps remaining
Giddy Up Buttercup collectible acquired
Position:
Inside perimeter wall of New Vegas
Outcome Summary
Elias reaches the outskirts of New Vegas, a dangerous border settlement outside the main city walls. He encounters an eccentric travelling trader named Morris and successfully bargains for a damaged collectible statuette that he believes may have resale value. After avoiding trouble in the settlement, Elias scouts the perimeter and discovers a hidden breach in the wall surrounding New Vegas, allowing him to slip inside unnoticed.
New Vegas rises out of the desert like a dying mirage. Even broken and half-lit, it feels impossibly large to Elias, who has spent his whole life beneath concrete ceilings and propaganda posters. The outskirts are crowded with drifters, scavengers, and hard-eyed people who never made it through the gates. Nobody watches anyone for long unless there’s profit in it.
Morris smells weakness on him immediately, though not unkindly. Her caravan rattles with junk and memories, and somewhere among the scrap Elias sees possibility. He parts with a few caps and walks away clutching a scratched little relic from a world long dead. By nightfall, he finds a narrow break in the outer wall and squeezes through into the city beyond. Neon glows faintly against the dark, and for the first time since leaving the vault, Elias feels close to something bigger than survival.
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| Image from Fallout TV series on Amazon Prime |
Turn 5 - Inside New Vegas
Mechanical Log
- Travel/Position:
- Entered New Vegas proper from hidden breach in outer wall
- Supply reduced by travel: 1 → 0
- Settlement interaction:
- NPC generated:
- Jean Philippe
- Elegant, irresponsible mercenary recruiter
- Social test:
- Speech check (Charisma 8 + Speech 3 = 11)
- Roll: 2 successes
- Outcome:
- Earned Jean Philippe’s interest
- Directed toward local workshop
- Potential work opportunity unlocked
- Workshop interaction:
- Attempted barter with workshop owner
- Offered damaged pipe bolt-action rifle as trade/payment
- Charisma test failed
- Outcome:
- Refused access to forge/workbench
- Side quest generation:
- Reward:
- 1 stack of caps
- Introduction to a collector
- Goal type: Power
- Target item:
- Gauss rifle
- Situation:
- Rifle believed to be held by a synth hiding in the outskirts
- Railroad attempting extraction
- Potential Institute involvement implied
- End state:
- HP: 9/10
- Supply: 0
- Luck points: 2
- Active side quest:
- Recover Gauss rifle from synth in outskirts of New Vegas
Outcome Summary
Elias enters New Vegas proper and experiences a functioning wasteland city for the first time, encountering a mixture of factions, drifters, ghouls, and mercenaries. He meets Jean Philippe, a flamboyant mercenary recruiter who initially dismisses him as an inexperienced vault dweller before being persuaded otherwise. Jean Philippe directs Elias to a workshop, but Elias fails to negotiate access to repair his collectible statuette. Instead, he is offered work: retrieve a powerful Gauss rifle believed to be in the hands of a synth hiding in the outskirts of New Vegas, with ties to the Railroad and possibly the Institute. Elias prepares to head back into danger.
New Vegas overwhelms him immediately. Neon flickers against rusted steel and cracked concrete while every street seems crowded with people who look like they belong to entirely different worlds. Elias stares openly at the ghouls shambling past and the soldiers dressed in strange mockeries of ancient armour. Nobody seems surprised by anything here. That alone unsettles him.
Jean Philippe glides through the city like he owns it, all polished shoes and theatrical gestures, while Elias trails behind in scavenged NCR leathers and dust-stained boots. The workshop smells of oil and hot metal, but the woman there barely looks at him before dismissing his battered rifle as junk. By the time he leaves, Elias has no repairs, no closer path to Vault 21, and a new problem instead: somewhere beyond the walls, a synth is hiding with a weapon powerful enough to change fortunes.
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| Image by Modiphius |
Final Thoughts
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| My time with Fallout Wasteland Wanderer is to be continued... |
This blog is written by me, with a little help from AI editing for clarity and tone. All ideas, feelings, and memories are mine.