Salvage Union – GMs Review

I recently gave the RPG Salvage Union my new First Read treatment. This game of stomping mechs around the post-apocalyptic wasteland intrigued. I found it to have an intricate mecha creation system, but was light on the world-building and system. I was intrigued how my group would take to it. We suited up and worked our way through the introductory scenario at the back of the book Downing of the Atychos. This will be a GMs review of the game.

The game is designed by Aled Lawler & Panayiotis Lines with art from Alex Connolly, Hamish Fraser, Francesco Silva, and Aled Lawler. 

A GM review means that I have experienced the game from the Game Masters chair but haven’t been on the player character side of the table. RPGs can feel different depending on the role you are adopting so I think it is useful to you, the reader, to know where my perspective is coming from.

The core of the game is an easy sell, and good setup. Your home is a moving base called a Union Crawler. The players set out from this on a regular basis to scavenge the world for scrap. This can be used to improve the crawler and their own mechs.

These mechs come in a dizzying, and creative, array of designs. Everything from tiny hovercraft to giant robot worms. The starting patterns are limited to just 6. This is a design choice that gives the players freedom to dabble without feeling overwhelmed by choice. There are even beginner loadouts for each pattern. I was a little disappointed not to find these beginner mechs written up and ready to go as downloads on the site. There are some on the site, but they seem to be for an early version. A forthcoming starter set may go some way to helping with this. 

The introductory scenario ‘Downing of the Atychos’ gives the players a key objective: get to a downed corporate transport and retrieve the cargo and any salvage. An area map shows the players a couple of routes to go. I really loved the old school computer graphic vibe to these maps. 

After a little exploration, a brief glimpse of a bio-titan (a very large monster), my players got embroiled in their first combat. They chose to protect a caravan of travellers from some Raiders, hoping that in doing so they would be rewarded with a bit of extra scrap along the way.

Now of course Raiders and Caravans in this setting have their own mechs. Combat abstracts range so there is no need for miniatures and maps. The core system is light, being just roll a d20 on a table. A table something like this

There is some room here for a bit of narrative flexibility on part of the GM and players in interpreting results. I prefer a system that has more levers for the players to pull on when things go south. It doesn’t feel like Salvage Union has that. Character elements that can be drawn on for a re-roll, and you can push your mech (taking heat) to do the same. You have to take the second result though, which just has a bit of a bad feel to it. 

Of course the characters don’t matter so much as their mechs when it comes to the fight. On a hit you do structural damage and can inflict status effects. The range of mechs meant my players all had access to different weapons. Variety is good, to a point. We found it meant that some of my players felt ineffectual. While the player in the chainsaw wielding mech was doing a good amount of damage, the person in the ‘basically a truck’ mech was only plinking bits of damage off. 

The intro scenario features a lot of combat, and that is kind of what you want from a game that gives you each a personal mech. The problem is that there is little in the way of niche protection: no real way to give each player something that is mechanically only for them. If the expression of success in a lot of these encounters is the damage you have dealt, then less effective weapons feel bad for the players that have them. 

Now it could be argued that the primary motivation for characters in Salvage Union is the salvage itself. That is certainly the thrust of the book. The player with the puny weapons could haul more salvage back to the Crawler than anyone else, and stuff other folks’ mechs to the brim. That’s neat, but not very motivating. No one wants to be the mule as their special ability. 

Salvaging itself feels a little fiddly for something you are doing all the time. The characters can search any area they end up in for Salvage. You get to do this a certain number of times for each area. Each roll may get you salvage, but always reduces the number of chances left to search. I found this made players drag their feet in an area until it was definitely empty. 

In our playthrough characters felt like they were secondary to the mechs. This is likely deliberate, but it means that it is hard for players to get into their characters. The complete absence of stats for the people piloting the mechs leaves you pondering what they are ‘good at. Coupling this with the lack of any real background details, means you are mostly going off their class, a trinket, and a phrase they have. It feels like there are motivations to improve your mech, but nothing really narrative for the characters. XP and abilities yes, but little in the way of personal motivation. 

Despite being given individual mechs to stomp around in, I and my players found Salvage Union unexciting. Yes you can build mechs, upgrade them, and fiddle around with new gear, but the motivation for the characters to be doing that feels missing. Keeping you crawler going is an overall goal but I want more from an RPG. My family is on board, I am looking for my lost sister in the wastelands, etc. 

As I said in my First Read, there is almost a complete lack of setting detail. This made me unmotivated to explore the world of Salvage Union. I thought the lure of upgrading mechs might be enough to carry us through a short campaign, but there was a lack of enthusiasm on both sides of the table. Corps are mentioned almost in passing, with no detail as to what they might be up to. You know there are Arcologies that the ‘corporate drones’ work in. What do these look like? What about other Crawlers who might be a danger to you? Give me something to build my games on. 

Salvage Union is an odd beast. It has an intricate mech creation system, but little in the way of motivation to get in them, or places to pilot them through. If you wanted to put in a lot of work as the GM world building, you will likely get more from the game than we did. As it is, Salvage Union felt like a reference for someone’s game that they’ve been running for a white. Maybe that’s how you will use it, slotting the mech creation into the setting of your choice. For me, and my players, it wasn’t enough. 

I want to feel the intent of the designer behind the games I play. What stories do they want their game to tell? How do the characters fit into the world and what do they want? Are there mechanisms in the game to help them achieve those goals? I felt that part was missing from Salvage Union, and it isn’t the only RPG where I have found that to be the case.

A copy of Salvage Union and the PDF were provided by the publisher for review.

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