Falloutis a beloved gaming franchise, and its connections to Tabletop Gaming go all the way to its beginnings. The game was originally going to be modeled after an existing TTRPG system, and, when intellectual property issues caused those plans to fall through, the new engine they built was extremely reminiscent of a tabletop RPG.
Since then, Fallout has come full circle, and inspired a TTRPG of its own, and that’s just one of many games out there that are reminiscent of the post-nuclear RPG. If you’re looking for more games with echoes of the wasteland, this list is for you.
Fallout The Board Game
A love letter to the Fallout Franchise
With its multiple decks and well-fleshed-out rules, this tabletop game is an awesome translation of the fallout experience into a board game format. Compete against your friends to explore the wasteland and face its dangers!
Naturally, the Fallout Board Game is likely to appeal to Fallout fans. This game isn’t just superficially Fallout-themed. It’s genuinely an adaptation of the Fallout franchise. This competitive tabletop game casts each player as a resident of the wasteland and tasks them with surviving its dangers while competing against each other for the influence points that will allow them to win.
This game is well-fleshed-out, with RPG mechanics replicating most aspects of the Fallout experience, including ones you wouldn’t expect in a tabletop setting, such as quests, and it really does pull off all of these elements well. It’s a must-have for anyone who is a fan of both tabletop gaming and Fallout.
Fallout Wasteland Warfare: Brotherhood of Steel Core Box
It never does seem to change, now does it?
Fallout Wasteland Warfare is a miniatures wargame that casts players as different factions from the Fallout universe. There are a few different starter kits available. This one lets you play one of the most popular factions from the franchise, the Brotherhood of Steel.
Fallout: Wasteland Warfare is a miniatures wargame in the style of Warhammer 40,000. Each player will take control of a different faction from the Fallout universe, and they will battle with one another for control of the wasteland. There are several different kits for different factions. The one linked here puts you in charge of, arguably, Fallout’s most iconic and beloved faction, the Brotherhood of Steel.
There’s no rulebook with this set of miniatures. That’s because the core rules for the game are available free online. They’re relatively digestible by wargame standards—just sixty pages long. If you’re a Fallout fan, or if you’re an aspiring wargamer who is intimidated by the complexity of larger games, this might be the one for you.
Gloomhaven
Hundreds of hours of unique scenarios
This fantasy dungeon-crawling tabletop game does a better job than just about any other board game at replicating RPG mechanics without just being a Tabletop RPG. There are hundreds of hours of scenarios to play through here, and your character will evolve and grow as you move through them.
We’re going to swerve away from post-apocalyptic wastelands for a moment to highlight a board game that replicates the progression and roleplay elements of a videogame RPG better than any other. Gloomhaven is a fantasy dungeon-crawling tabletop game that you could easily mistake for a standard tabletop RPG, but what makes this game so impressive is how much it accomplishes without any need for a game master.
This cooperative game is designed to be played as part of a long-term campaign, and your characters will evolve and progress as they work through its hundreds of scenarios. Yes, there really are hundreds of scenarios here, with each one representing multiple hours of content. This game is enormous and will give you as many hours of fun as any video game RPG can.
For more Fantasy games similar to Gloomhaven,check out this list!
Fallen Land: A Post-Apocalyptic Board Game 2nd Edition
An enormous pool of resources makes this one different every time
This post-apocalyptic board game puts you in charge of one of several factions in its own version of a post-apocalyptic America. Each faction, and each character, has their own abilities which you must use, on top of other resources you may acquire, to dominate this wasteland.
This intricate and detailed post-apocalyptic game places each player in charge of a different faction—each of which has its own abilities and intriguing lore. You play a series of characters, again, each with their own abilities, and travel around the board, occasionally gathering items, triggering events, and otherwise activating or obtaining cards from this game’s several decks.
It’s the sheer number of different cards in this game that makes it so special. There are so many factions, so many characters, so many items, so many events, that every game will have a totally different combination of elements. This game has so much to offer, and it’ll draw you back to it again and again and again.
This War Of Mine: The Board Game
Absolutely harrowing
Another video game adaptation, This War of Mine takes the gritty survival board game of the same name and translates it to tabletop form. The fact that this war hasn’t ended the world yet might make you think you’re in less danger than Fallout, but you’re no soldier here. Just a civilian trying to survive.
Based on the amazing survival video game by 11 Bit Studios, This War of Mine is an even more straightforward adaptation than the Fallout game above. It places the players in charge of a group of civilians trying to survive an ongoing war. This is a somber and brutal game, often unfairly so. Drawing the wrong cards can cause you to take massive losses through no fault of your own.
However, that’s kind of the point. This game isn’t trying to be fun. Think of it as a distillation of the most brutal and serious elements of the Fallout universe. This is war at its most horrific, and this game exists to engage you in more complicated ways than most.
Frostpunk The Board Game + Frostlander Expansion Bundle
Brave the bitter cold of a ruined world
Likewise adapted from the 11 Bit Studios game of the same name, this brutal post-apocalyptic survival game will have the players struggling to hold their ground against the elements in a world devastated by a new ice age.
Another adaptation of a survival video game by 11 Bit Studios, this one trades out the war-town world of its predecessor for a proper post-apocalyptic wasteland devastated by a new ice age. Within this new setting, the core idea is the same. Scavenge for resources and survive the elements, while making harrowing moral choices and experiencing great hardship.
This is a purely cooperative game. It’s difficult enough already without the need to compete against other players. It’s very complex, with a lot of moving parts to use and keep track of. Inexperienced gamers are likely to be overwhelmed, but those who can handle it are going to have a good time.
Dead Of Winter
You’ll come back to it again and again
This zombie-survival board game mixes survival and social deduction mechanics into a tense and paranoid but still basically cooperative experience where the players control a colony of survivors in a zombie-ravaged frozen wasteland. Odds are, there’s a traitor among you. Can you find them, or will your fear of a phantom enemy tear you apart?
We’ve held back from including too many zombie games on this list for a few reasons. First, part of what sets Fallout apart is its lack of the zombies that dominate many other post-apocalyptic works. Second, we already have awhole ‘nother listof zombie games for you to look over.
However, there is one zombie apocalypse game that’s so stellar it simply has to be here. Dead of Winter is a survival game where the players take care of a colony of survivors in a zombie apocalypse. Players must stave off both their own hunger and that of the ravenous undead as they work to balance their shared goals with the individual objectives each of them have been given, some of which may secretly be contrary to those of the group.
FAQ
Does Fallout have a board game?
We recommended a couple of Fallout-related board games on this list, and there are some others we didn’t include, such as Vault Shelter.
Is There a Fallout TTRPG?
Yep! It’s one of several post-apocalyptic TTRPGs we recommended onthis list. It takes place in the fallout universe and allows players to make their own characters to go on their own adventures in this amazing setting.
