Wasteland Degenerates: a hardcover TTRPG

Update #21: See Matthew at Gen Con!
19 days ago – Fri, Jul 31, 2026 at 08:49:27 AM

Hey Degenerates,

Hope you are all doing well.  I'm personally still looking for a day job, so my attention is a little split.  I have some strong leads, so hopefully it will be resolved soon.

Big news this month is that Matthew Myslinski, the primary artist and layout maestro for Wasteland Degenerates, is currently at Gen Con!  You can find him at the Creature Curation booth (2245) pitching Wasteland Degenerates and Raptor Ruckus stuff!  Wish I could be there, but until I get a new job and get the Wasteland Degenerates Kicstarter rewards out the door, I can't afford to be distracted by the biggest gaming con in the world.

Go say hi to Matthew while you're there!

Zombies and More Zombies

Speaking of which, I wanted to share a spread from the project. One of my favorite enemy types is the Cluster, fungal zombies that are definitely NOT taken directly from another zombie franchise (these are purple, obviously).  

Progress is Progress!

Progress continues on the zines.  Zac Goins, of Pirate Borg and Raptor Ruckus fame, got me his final pages for Dumpster Drivers.  I'm still talking to Philip Jensen and new contributer Matt DeMino about their pages, which I hope to get this month.

Here's a sample of Zac's contribution!  I find it to be innovative and cool!

Regarding Rad City Music Brawl, I almost finished writing it last year when I ran into some writer's block.  The good news is that I have cracked it open again and have some ideas on how to proceed, and there's still time before Matthew finishes the core book and dig in on art & layout for this.

Extra Credit

Speaking of Matt DeMino, a bigtime shout-out to him for getting to 1.0 on Torque Borg!  I was proud to write a solo adventure for him called Waste of Water, and his art & layout on it is stellar!  The adventure itself uses everything I learned writing previous solo adventures, and more, and I'm pretty proud of it.

I mean, look at the art for the bonus class, Jinxed Tribute:

I'm of the opinion that every wastelander's chances are improved by a black cat.

Anyway, that's all I have for you all.  Matthew tells me that he expects the dominoes to fall faster after Gen Con, as preparing for it is always a huge drain on time and attention; we should have a lot more for you soon!

Scott

Update #20: Quit Hogging the Road
about 1 month ago – Wed, Jul 08, 2026 at 10:57:49 AM

Hey Degenerates,

My first month of day-job unemployment has been marked by interviews and furious writing on various projects.  I thought I had a particular job in the bag; I got past the interview and all the way to the reference check, but they decided to go with someone else.  That's life; I'll keep applying to stuff.

In the meantime, work on Wasteland Degenerates proceeds. Matthew and I have been separately dealing with some health issues, so work is not as fast as I'd like, but progress is progress.  I hope to ramp things up more as health returns.

You may remember the Gas Hogs as a featured faction in the Reaver's Rhapsody intro adventure.  They're probably my favorite wasteland-raiding scumbags.  Note that both their personnel and vehicles are outlined.  It has been asked asked why the vehicles don't have things like Edge and Power like PC vehicles and, well, that's because enemies generally don't make tests in Borg systems.  If you steal a Gas Hog Hot Rod or Battle Rig, though, your GM can use the vehicle creation rules to make it PC-worthy.

Matthew is in the thick of creating the core book antagonist spreads, but instead of showing you more, I wanted to turn to Dumpster Drivers since I've fielded questions on its status.  There's a little logistics at the end of this update about it, but I wanted to give you a preview of the new class that will be included in the zine: The Cataclysmic Scion! 

I absolutely look forward to all the shenanigans people will engage in with these young rebels.

Moving on...

Just as a shout-out to a fellow wastelander, Matt DeMino has been kicking ass on finishing Torque Borg.  I envy this man's creativity and work ethic.  I had the honor of putting the finishing touches on my draft of a solo tower-crawler zine called Waste of Water for him this week, and I think it's some of my most interesting writing work.  It's about a game show where contestants engage in deadly challenges to hopefully win water for their communities.  If you're interested, go check out the latest update for that project.

Finally, some bookkeeping.  Speaking of Mr. DeMino, he agreed to take on Brian Colin's two spreads for the Dumpster Drivers zine, as Brian has had some new obligations pop up.  Absolutely no harm done; Matt will knock the pages out of the park, I'm positive.  Life do be keeping on lifin', though. Phil Jensen and Zac Goins are working on their Dumpster Drivers spreads as we speak.

Keep on truckin', folks.  It's all we can do.

Update #19: Freedom's Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose
3 months ago – Fri, Jun 05, 2026 at 08:46:30 AM

Hey Degenerates,

When I last rapped at ya, I was in the process of quitting my Federal job to escape regulations preventing me from the international shipping and recieving I need to do as an independent game publisher.  

My last day on the job was one week ago, and I'm here to tell you, I'm glad to be done with all that stress.  Having time to sleep and take care of all of my appointments without juggling leave is also nice.  We are gradually getting back up to speed on Wasteland Degenerates core book.  I've discussed moving ahead with some international shipments with my partners, and Matthew estimates that we are over three-quarters complete with the core book.  

Speaking of which, I wanted to highlight a couple of spreads.   We are re-using a fair amount of art and layout from the Jumper Cable Edition released last year, but honestly we simply did not have the pagecount to give full spreads to some of the more interesting concepts and game mechanics.  In particular, we had to squeeze CosmOS Interfaces and Mutations (the Wasteland Degenerates answers to Apps and Nano Powers from Cy_Borg) onto one page each.  The expanded spreads have a lot more going for them:

I love this spread so much.  The retro-futuristic vibe of a GameBoy that can reset time really appeals to me.  And here we have Mutations, now with real art!

Matthew said he chose the spider leg mutation because OF COURSE HE DID.  It is one of the cooler ones, though I sorta want to see his take on the Darkling Twin.  We'll put a pin in that for later.

It's not all refurbishing old spreads, though.  I'm pretty excited to debut the Sidekicks spread!  

This isn't quite the final draft (still trying to fit all of the vicar's info, so ignore that for now), but I wanted to share it anyway because I always loved that weird spread in the Mork Borg core book where you just had four weirdos that could help the party for whatever reason.  Now GMs have an easy source for hitchhikers as the PCs drive those lonesome wasteland roads.

FLAIL TO THE WASTELAND

Finally, I wanted to give a shout-out to my awesome podcast friends over at FLAIL TO THE FACE!  They have been playing my Wasteland Degenerates starter adventure, Reaver's Rhapsody, and it sounds like they're absolutely having a complete blast doing it!  They just released the fourth of their Wasteland Degenerates episodes, Full Yellow Jacket, but if you want to rewind to the first of their wasteland adventures, you can start with Hot Wheels! Check it out!

Well, that's all I have for you today.  I have to thank you again for your patience as I sorted out my job situation.  I want you to know that we are actively working on the final product, and it is my #1 priority.  

Catch you in the Wasteland, folks.

Update #18: Cataclysmic Decisions
4 months ago – Sun, Apr 26, 2026 at 08:28:12 AM

Hey Degenerates,

I've mentioned in the past that the delay in publishing the Wasteland Degenerates hardcover is because of Federal regulations related to my job (that I didn't know about when I took the job nine years ago).  Since learning about it, I've been trying to find a new job, but let's just say that current conditions in the United States are... unfavorable... to people in my field. 

I've come to the difficult decision to go with my passionate love of game design, and leave my official position in the near future.  It's a leap of faith, but I am ready to make it.  Others in the industry have done the same thing, and most of them haven't been eaten by two-headed basilisks.

The long and the short of it is that I don't know exactly when the book will release, but it CAN release, and soon.

That said,

Cataclysms Go!

Here's a preview of a spread that you'll probably see a lot of during the game.  Like the 'Borgs, each day that dawns in the infested wasteland requires a die roll, and on a "1," something happens.  UNLIKE the other 'Borgs, what transpires is not so much a herald of destruction, but apocalypse playing out in real-time... the world is already dead, after all; these are just the throes of mortification.

There are a total of six cataclysms, and any one of them could end life on earth.  Some are slow and painful... like starvation, but other ends are mercifully swift, if not painless. 

Each cataclysm has six stages, with the early events being fairly innocuous but the final event being, well, final.  I imagine that some campaigns will have multiple cataclysms racing to see which will be the one to punch the Earth's ticket.

I look forward to hearing how your campaigns end!

You Want Lore?  I've Got Your Lore Right Here!

Note that this is not a final page, but it's pretty close.  Engel Eisen is the asshole billionare whose narcissistic pursuit of power beyond what is permissible by physics started the planet on its downward trajectory.  He isn't a figure that shows up in adventures to taunt adventurers or who has a stat block; he's just a guy who has more money, ego, and technology than sense.

The sidebar is related to Radiological Algorithm-Deterministic Boolean Organisms... or RADBORGs for those that like acronyms.  These are android laborers that come in a variety of specializations.  Most are mindless servants, but some, like the new PC class, Unleashed Sapience, have cracked their deterministic programing and become people in their own right.  They start with RAD-Implants (as seen in the Jumper Cable Edition) and could explode in radioactive flames if destroyed.

Anyway, that's all I have for today.  Thanks to everyone who is still with me after all the delays.  I promise that I will make this worth your time!

Scott C. McDonald

Update #17: The Wasteland that was my Expectation
6 months ago – Tue, Mar 03, 2026 at 06:50:43 PM

Hey Degenerates.

I know my updates have been few and far between lately, and that's on me.  I meant to get this out on Sunday, but I got sick enough that all I could do was sleep and play Mewgenics (aka the Mork Borg of cat breeding simulators) for like two days.

Real talk for a second: Living in Minneapolis as a civil servant during the last few months has been... difficult to say the least.  It is hard to concentrate on creative endeavors when the entire community is on edge due to a massive influx of Federal "law enforcement."  I did what I could for people and avoided getting shot.

I'm not going to lie; between that, trying to find a new job, and family obligations, Wasteland Degenerates suffered.  Since I am not an artist, I also have to abide by the availability of my art and layout person, and, judging by his last CHAINSAW update, I can't blame him for wanting to prioritize his sick kid a bit.

That said, I got some of my responsibilities resolved, and Matthew and I talked over the weekend: we will be cranking out more content more quickly now; we owe it to you.  

It's pretty clear we aren't releasing "First quarter, 2026), but I will not give a new expected date, because I now realize I simply do not control when this gets done. When I announced the original date of August 2025, it was under the expectation that work would proceed at the same rate that it would for the Jumper Cable Edition; clearly 2025 laughed at my naive planning.

All that said, I won't be caught slipping again. I'll keep you in the loop, and stay on my artists to get things resolved once and for all.

The heavy stuff aside, here's some more art.

Going Postal

Consistently one of people's favorite aspects of Wasteland Degenerates has been the Postalist religion.  What started as a joke about a terrible Kevin Costner movie made from an excellent David Brin novel became a fundamental aspect of the Wasteland's precarious political balance: the Post Office betrayed the Federal Remnant and now they war over the last remaining resources.  

True to its Borg roots, there are no good guys in the Wasteland, but few icons fill degenerates with more mixed feelings than a Postalist Deliverance Truck; they could rip your arm off seconds after selling you stamps. 

Next update will include the Gas Hogs faction, which is featured in Reaver's Rhapsody, which you all SHOULD have in your email boxes.  If you don't, reach out (or just download it for free from my Itch page).

And again, I just wanted to thank you all for your patience.  I promise you we will get there.  

Scott