Fallout: Power Play Card Game Review

Fallout: Power Play puts 2 to 4 players successful bid of 4 imaginable factions, each with their ain unsocial decks and peculiar ability. These are the Brotherhood of Steel (good astatine completing missions to gain power and hunkering down successful a location), Super Mutants (lots of large and almighty portion cards to deploy astatine locations), the Enclave (excellent astatine disrupting different players' turns), and Raiders (thieves, each past 1 of them).

On their turn, players deploy agents to locations, implicit quests to gain rewards, and usage their faction-specific ability, each successful a bid to gain the astir power successful the antithetic places, netting you triumph points. Whichever subordinate has their cause holding a determination astatine the extremity of the crook gains power implicit the spot, with the apical play considered to beryllium “dominating” and earning a triumph point. The archetypal subordinate to scope 10 points triggers the extremity crippled and scoring, with whoever has the astir points winning astatine the extremity of that round.

Things get shaken up a spot acknowledgment to the random Wasteland Encounter cards you gully astatine the commencement of each round, and unsocial Power Play cards that each subordinate has successful their deck. These events tin scope from spawning ghouls that onslaught everyone’s agents to adjacent detonating an Atom Bomb Baby and destroying everything astatine the location(s) wherever players person the astir influence. That 1 is simply a peculiarly amusive paper to spot safely from the sidelines, arsenic each of your friends’ units are blasted retired of beingness each astatine erstwhile successful the portion they were warring truthful fiercely over.

If the brushwood cards are the close manus of chaos successful Power Play, past the titular Power Play cards successful your platform are the near manus of chaos. These cards person the imaginable to beryllium played not lone connected your turn, but besides successful effect to different players’ actions. Think an Instant spell successful Magic: The Gathering. This resulted successful immoderate tense back-and-forth, play-and-counterplay moments with my friends, and I often recovered myself holding my enactment whenever I would enactment down 1 of my much almighty cards successful hopes they wouldn’t get countered oregon worse.

While astatine archetypal glace, Power Play whitethorn look to beryllium much of a elemental “bigger fig better” warfare game, the much I played, the much nuance and strategy I recovered successful it. Each determination lone has spots for 4 agents, and successful games with less players, this allows for you to allocate aggregate cause resources to a location. But careless of however overmuch you are overpowering the different players successful a spot, you volition inactive lone summation a azygous triumph constituent astatine the extremity of the round. On the flip side, each circular wherever you don’t person an cause astatine a determination volition effect successful your losing an power astatine that determination (to a minimum of 1), truthful it pays to dispersed retired your forces.

This absorption astir makes Power Play into much of a idiosyncratic placement game, and I often recovered myself opting to person 1 stronghold arsenic my main “VP generator” and past spreading retired and mounting up astatine the different locations to propulsion disconnected large power summation turns by completing quest cards that would nett maine a boost successful power for a spot. Whenever I managed to propulsion disconnected these well-laid plans, it tickled that bully spot successful my encephalon and ne'er got old.

Resurrectionist Games, Power Play’s designer, has enactment unneurotic a paper crippled with coagulated bones, and its absorption connected capturing and holding locations reminds maine of the blistery caller TCG Riftbound. That said, issues surrounding the transportation and presumption of the crippled blemish and sound Power Play down immoderate notches. The astir disappointing of which is that the full merchandise feels little similar a Fallout paper crippled and much similar thing with the beloved spot slapped connected the broadside of it.

Despite the 4 factions and different nods to the Fallout universe, I ne'er felt arsenic though Power Play did overmuch with the property. Instead of decks featuring notable characters from the games that fans would recognize, the designers opted for bland and generic fill-ins instead. Taking the Brotherhood of Steel deck, for instance, a radical whose Power Armor is arguably conscionable arsenic synonymous with the bid arsenic the signature blue-and-yellow vault suits, your forces are composed of no-name cards similar “Knight” oregon “Elder.” Instead of a generic Elder, wherefore not person the pb cause beryllium a quality similar Arthur Maxson oregon Sarah Lyons?

The location basal locations of each of the factions consciousness alternatively soulless and are identical to 1 different from a gameplay standpoint. While “activate a location” is an enactment you tin instrumentality connected your turn, determination are lone 2 locations that person thing to activate, with the others being the starting strongholds of each faction. They are “War Camp” oregon “Raider Fortress” alternatively of thing memorable from the series, similar Nuka-World oregon adjacent a Vault. I would person appreciated these spots to beryllium two-sided, with a generic, ability-less broadside and the different having an enactment associated with it and pulled from determination players would admit if you were successful the temper for a much precocious crippled mode. Alas, nary specified luck.

This much uninspired attack extends into the creation and adjacent the paper descriptions. Keeping connected the Brotherhood train, the Initiate and Field Scribe cause cards diagnostic astir identical quality faces, and cards similar their “Knight” work arsenic “Each clip Knight kills an Enemy…” which feels generic. Do these things interaction however the crippled plays? No. But if you're going to accommodate a well-known property, you privation it to consciousness meaningful, and considering the attraction to item I’ve travel to expect from Modiphius, particularly with Fallout, acknowledgment to the Fallout TTRPG they besides publish, Power Play conscionable doesn’t get there.

My different main gripe with Power Play has to bash with immoderate of the prime power and decisions progressive with however the crippled is packaged. Now, I’m each for a crippled being bully and compact; heck, 1 of the astir prestigious awards I tin springiness (in my caput anyway) is the Glovebox Award, fixed to games that are tiny and amusive capable that I ever privation them with maine wherever I spell (Flip 7 is an example). It’s uncommon that I’ve recovered a crippled that feels excessively tiny – but Power Play does. Inside its container are spots for 2 decks of cards, with a tiny spread successful between. Now, these 2 spots aren’t rather heavy capable to incorporate each of the standard-sized cards included, causing immoderate annoying shifting, and unfortunately, you tin conscionable hide sleeving your cards.

Fallout: Power Play besides uses tokens to people each faction’s power successful the regions and different small reminders. Unfortunately, these tokens are incredibly tiny. And portion the faction tokens are astatine slightest color-coded, immoderate of the reminder tokens, each of which are astir 3/4 the size of a dime and incorporate text, are hardly legible from thing much than possibly six inches from your face, fto unsocial from crossed a table. Power Play whitethorn besides beryllium the archetypal committee crippled I person that uses tokens but doesn’t travel with a tiny container to support them in. And to marque matters much annoying, they easy gaffe into the tiny spread betwixt the 2 decks. Thankfully, my cardboard hobby has granted maine other baggies that I was capable to enactment them in, but beforehand, much than a mates of times, I spent much clip than I attraction to admit trying to get immoderate of these damn cardboard pieces retired of the box.

Fallout: Power Play is simply a large illustration of however a clump of small missed opportunities and annoyances tin adhd up, and it’s a shame. This is 1 of those products that I tin spot imaginable and committedness if Resurrectionist Games takes a spot much attraction into immoderate aboriginal properties they adapt. The underlying crippled is fun, and I tin ideate a time down the roadworthy wherever Power Play becomes the system, and you tin bargain further sets, akin to, say, Smash Up!, and you tin person the Brotherhood of Steel facing disconnected against the forces of the Borg from Star Trek, oregon the demons of Hell from Doom pushing backmost Super Mutants. That's a crippled I would emotion to play, and if they enactment a spot much attraction into those sets, you tin number maine successful time one. It whitethorn adjacent marque it into the glovebox.

Originally posted:

Jan 21, 2026 7:10 pm

Verdict

Despite immoderate amusive mechanics, Fallout: Power Play doesn't bash work to the spot connected its box.