Salvage Union: A Comprehensive Overview

Salvage Union is a post-apocalyptic tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) centered around mech salvage and exploration,
accessible via a freely available quickstart PDF. This system features detailed mech customization,
crafting, and a unique d20 resolution mechanic, offering a compelling narrative experience for players.

What is Salvage Union?

Salvage Union is a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) published by Leyline Press, immersing players in a dangerous, post-apocalyptic world. The core of the game revolves around piloting and maintaining a “Union Crawler,” a mobile base and haven for salvagers. The freely available Quickstart PDF provides a fantastic entry point, showcasing the game’s unique mechanics and setting.

Unlike many mech games focused on direct combat, Salvage Union emphasizes resourcefulness, exploration, and the challenges of survival. Players aren’t elite soldiers, but rather pragmatic salvagers, scavenging for valuable technology and resources in a shattered landscape. The PDF demonstrates this through premade mech options and tables for extensive modification, highlighting the importance of adaptation and ingenuity. It’s a game about building a life amidst the ruins, defending your community, and uncovering the secrets of the past.

Core Gameplay Mechanics

Salvage Union utilizes a streamlined d20-based resolution mechanic, making it accessible while still allowing for narrative depth. The Quickstart PDF clearly outlines this system, emphasizing variable results that go beyond simple success or failure. A successful roll doesn’t guarantee a perfect outcome; complications and unexpected consequences are common.

A key element is the “Stress” system. Characters accumulate Stress through dangerous situations and traumatic events, potentially leading to negative effects like panic or poor decision-making. The PDF details how Stress builds, and its consequences, adding a layer of psychological realism. Furthermore, the game features robust crafting and modification systems, allowing players to customize their mechs and equipment using salvaged components. This is showcased through numerous tables within the PDF, offering a wealth of options.

The Union Crawler: A Mobile Base

The Union Crawler is central to Salvage Union gameplay – a massive, vulnerable mobile base and transport for the salvager crew. Unlike combat mechs, the Crawler prioritizes carrying personnel and salvaged materials. The Quickstart PDF emphasizes this distinction; it’s not designed for direct confrontation, but rather relies on the players’ piloting skills and defensive capabilities to protect it.

Space within the Crawler is limited, filled with numerous bays and living quarters. This constraint influences player choices regarding equipment and salvaged goods. The PDF details the Crawler’s layout and capacity, highlighting the strategic importance of resource management. Players must carefully balance the need for firepower with the necessity of transporting their team and their hard-won salvage, making it a crucial element of the game’s dynamic.

Mech Customization and Crafting

Salvage Union places significant emphasis on mech customization and a robust crafting system, extensively detailed within the Quickstart PDF. Players aren’t limited to pre-built mechs; they can modify existing ones or construct entirely new designs using salvaged components. The PDF includes numerous tables facilitating this process, offering a wide array of modification options.

The crafting system allows players to create new weapons, armor, and utility items, enhancing their mechs’ capabilities. This isn’t simply about stat boosts; customization impacts gameplay, allowing for specialized builds tailored to different salvage operations. The PDF provides a sample of the downtime and crafting system, showcasing the depth and complexity available to players, fostering creativity and strategic thinking in their pursuit of the ultimate salvage mech.

Downtime Activities & Character Progression

Salvage Union doesn’t solely focus on active salvage runs; downtime activities are crucial for character and mech progression, as outlined in the Quickstart PDF. Between expeditions, players can engage in crafting, repair, and research, utilizing salvaged materials to improve their equipment and abilities.

Character progression isn’t limited to traditional leveling. Instead, pilots develop skills through experience gained during salvage operations and downtime activities. The PDF details how these activities contribute to character growth, allowing for specialization and unique builds. This system encourages players to invest in their downtime, fostering a sense of ownership and attachment to their characters and their mobile base, the Union Crawler.

The Salvage Union System: Rules & Resolution

Salvage Union employs a streamlined d20-based resolution system, detailed in the PDF, with variable results and a focus on Stress management impacting narrative outcomes.

The d20 Resolution Mechanic

Salvage Union’s core mechanic, thoroughly explained within the PDF, revolves around a simple yet versatile d20 roll. Players aim to meet or exceed a target number determined by the Game Master (GM), modified by relevant character skills and situational factors. However, the system doesn’t stop at simple success or failure.

The PDF details how results are categorized, offering variable outcomes based on the degree of success or failure. A roll significantly exceeding the target might yield exceptional results, while a narrow success could come with complications. Conversely, failures aren’t always absolute; they can introduce setbacks or narrative twists.

This variable result system, a key feature highlighted in the PDF, encourages dynamic storytelling and ensures that even unsuccessful actions contribute to the unfolding narrative. The d20 roll isn’t just about winning or losing; it’s about shaping the story.

Stress and its Consequences

The Salvage Union PDF introduces a crucial element impacting characters: Stress. This isn’t merely a hit point reduction, but a psychological and emotional burden accumulated through harrowing experiences within the post-apocalyptic world. Witnessing horrific events, like a Mech explosion, or facing overwhelming odds, generates Stress.

The PDF details how unchecked Stress manifests in tangible consequences. A failed Stress check, as outlined in the rules, can lead to characters freezing up, fleeing from danger, or making rash, ill-advised decisions. This adds a layer of realism and vulnerability to the gameplay.

Furthermore, Stress can build narratively, compounding the psychological toll on the salvage crew. Managing Stress becomes as vital as maintaining the Union Crawler, influencing character actions and the overall campaign’s direction.

Variable Results and Narrative Impact

The Salvage Union PDF emphasizes a dynamic gameplay experience through its d20 core resolution mechanic and variable results. Unlike systems with fixed outcomes, success isn’t binary; the degree of success or failure significantly alters the narrative.

A successful roll might yield not just completion of a task, but also uncover additional information, resources, or complications. Conversely, failure isn’t always a dead end, potentially leading to unexpected opportunities or escalating challenges.

This system, detailed within the PDF, empowers the Game Master to weave a responsive story shaped by player choices and dice rolls. The variable results ensure that each salvage operation feels unique and contributes to a richer, more immersive narrative within the post-apocalyptic setting.

Key Components of the Salvage Union PDF

Salvage Union’s PDF contains premade mech options, extensive tables for mech modification, and a detailed crafting system, enabling deep customization and player agency.

Premade Mech Options

Salvage Union provides players with a selection of premade mechs within the quickstart PDF, offering immediate entry into gameplay without extensive initial setup. These aren’t combat-focused war machines; instead, they function primarily as mobile bases and people carriers – the Union Crawler itself being a prime example.

These initial mech designs emphasize utility and transport, reflecting the core gameplay loop of salvaging and supporting a crew. Players will quickly discover that defending their Crawler falls to the salvager pilots themselves, as the mechs are inherently vulnerable. The PDF’s premade options serve as excellent starting points for understanding the customization system, allowing players to modify and upgrade these base models to suit their specific needs and playstyles. They are designed to be a foundation, not a final product.

Tables for Mech Modification

The Salvage Union PDF boasts extensive tables for mech modification, forming a cornerstone of the game’s customization system. These tables aren’t simply lists of upgrades; they provide a structured, randomized approach to finding and integrating salvaged components. Players can utilize these tables during downtime activities to enhance their premade mechs or construct entirely new designs.

The system allows for a wide range of alterations, impacting everything from armor and weaponry to internal systems and utility functions. The PDF details numerous options, encouraging creative problem-solving and adaptation to the harsh post-apocalyptic environment. These tables are integral to the crafting system, offering a tangible reward for successful salvage operations and fostering a sense of progression as players refine their mechanical companions.

Crafting System Details

The Salvage Union PDF presents a robust crafting system deeply intertwined with the core gameplay loop of scavenging and adaptation. Players utilize salvaged components and resources to modify existing mechs or construct entirely new ones, leveraging detailed tables for parts and modifications. This isn’t a simple “build list”; it involves resource management, skill checks, and potential setbacks.

The PDF outlines the process, from acquiring blueprints and raw materials to the actual assembly and testing phases. Success isn’t guaranteed, and failures can lead to damaged components or unexpected consequences. The system emphasizes player agency and encourages experimentation, allowing for unique and personalized mech builds. Downtime activities are crucial for crafting, providing a strategic layer beyond active salvage missions.

Setting and Lore of Salvage Union

Salvage Union’s PDF details a post-apocalyptic world where players embody salvagers, navigating a dangerous landscape and uncovering remnants of a lost civilization.

Post-Apocalyptic World

The Salvage Union PDF unveils a desolate, yet intriguing, post-apocalyptic setting. This world is scarred by an unspecified cataclysm, leaving behind shattered cities and vast, dangerous wastelands ripe for exploration. Remnants of advanced technology, particularly massive mechs, litter the landscape, becoming crucial resources for survival.

The environment itself is a significant threat, filled with unpredictable weather patterns, mutated creatures, and the lingering effects of the past disaster. Resources are scarce, forcing salvagers to constantly seek out and reclaim valuable materials. The PDF hints at a history shrouded in mystery, with clues scattered throughout the world, inviting players to piece together the events that led to the current state of affairs. It’s a world of both peril and opportunity, where ingenuity and resilience are key to survival.

Role of Salvagers

Within the Salvage Union PDF, players assume the roles of salvagers – individuals who brave the dangers of the post-apocalyptic world to recover valuable technology and resources. These aren’t typically combat-focused mechs; rather, the Union Crawler, a vulnerable people carrier, is central to their operation. Salvagers pilot smaller mechs to defend the Crawler and secure salvage.

Their primary mission is to locate, repair, and repurpose lost technology, contributing to the rebuilding efforts of scattered settlements. The PDF emphasizes that salvaging isn’t just about profit; it’s about survival and potentially uncovering the secrets of the past. They act as explorers, engineers, and defenders, constantly facing moral dilemmas and navigating complex relationships with various factions vying for control of the remaining resources.

Factions and Conflicts

The Salvage Union PDF details a world fractured by conflict, with numerous factions competing for dominance. While specific details aren’t extensively outlined in initial materials, the setting implies a struggle for control over scarce resources and lost technology. Salvagers inevitably become entangled in these power dynamics, forced to make difficult choices that impact their relationships with these groups.

These factions likely range from opportunistic raiders to established settlements attempting to rebuild civilization. The PDF’s focus on narrative impact suggests that interactions with these factions aren’t simply combat encounters, but opportunities for negotiation, betrayal, and complex alliances. The world is dangerous, and even seemingly benign encounters can quickly escalate into conflict, demanding careful consideration from the players.

Resources and Availability

Salvage Union’s quickstart PDF is freely available for download, offering a taste of the game’s mechanics and setting via Leyline Press’s website.

Accessing the Quickstart PDF

Salvage Union’s introductory experience is readily available as a free, downloadable Quickstart PDF. This provides an excellent entry point for prospective players eager to explore the game’s core mechanics and unique setting. Interested individuals can find this resource directly through Leyline Press, the publisher behind Salvage Union.

The Quickstart PDF contains a curated selection of rules, premade character options, and a sample of the mech customization and crafting systems. It’s designed to allow players to jump into a one-shot adventure quickly, experiencing the thrill of salvaging in a post-apocalyptic world.

Furthermore, the PDF showcases the d20 resolution mechanic and provides insight into how Stress impacts gameplay. Accessing this resource is a simple process, requiring only a visit to the Leyline Press website and completing a straightforward registration form.

Leyline Press and Related Materials

Leyline Press is the independent publisher responsible for bringing Salvage Union to life, offering a range of related materials beyond the free Quickstart PDF. They specialize in innovative tabletop role-playing games with a focus on compelling narratives and unique mechanics.

While the Quickstart provides a fantastic introduction, players seeking a more comprehensive experience can explore the full Salvage Union core rulebook, available for purchase through Leyline Press’s official channels. This expanded version delves deeper into the setting’s lore, faction dynamics, and advanced crafting options.

Leyline Press also actively engages with the Salvage Union community, providing updates, support, and additional content. Keep an eye on their website for potential expansions, supplements, and further resources to enhance your salvaging adventures.