The Ash Wastes

The world forged in Ten Earth Shattering Blows is cruel, unforgiving, and scorched beneath an incinerating sun. You are not legendary heroes or untouchable mages; you are hungry scavengers scraping through ruins of an obliterated civilization, armed with salvaged iron and stubborn grit.

What You Need to Play

To venture forth, you need 1 Character Sheet per player, pencils, and scrap paper. Most importantly, you will need multiple full sets of polyhedral dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20). Greed will tempt you to roll often—keep them within arm's reach.

Referee Philosophy

The players are the driving force. The Referee describes the harsh environment, adjudicates intent, and enforces consequences, but the players roll all the dice. The wasteland is completely indifferent to survival: brazen ingenuity is rewarded, while hesitation invites disaster.

Everything is Combat

Passive skill checks do not exist. Any barrier—a rusted bulkhead door, a boiling toxic geyser, a hostile sentry line, a high-stakes bribe, or a ravenous wasteland beast—is treated as an active adversary with Hit Points (HP). Overcome it by breaking its HP before its lethal Counterattacks break you.

The Escalation Clock

Every turn spent without reducing an obstacle's HP allows the environment to sour. The sun rises higher, the mud thickens, and survival narrows.

Player Attributes

Each recruit possesses 6 Attributes split into two domains. Physical: Strength (STR), Agility (AGI), Constitution (CON). Mental: Wits (WIT), Knowledge (KNO), Presence (PRE).

Each attribute is tied to a polyhedral die. In Blast or Bust, die size is inverse to competence:

Conflict Resolution Sequence

When acting against an obstacle, players execute this sequence:

1. Declare Approach: Select an allowed Physical or Mental attribute matching your tactic.
2. Chain Rolls: Roll your Attribute Die. Record the sum. Continue rolling additional dice of that type until you meet or exceed the Difficulty Threshold.
3. Push or Hold: Once the threshold is met, you may choose to stop and strike, or risk rolling more dice to accumulate heavier damage—until you bust (> 21).

Damage & Support

On a successful strike, gather all dice rolled in that turn's chain and reroll them together: their sum is subtracted directly from the obstacle's HP pool.

Smaller dice grant granular control, allowing players to stack 4 or 5 dice safely before nearing 21. When rerolled for damage, these multiple dice yield crushing totals!

Health, Stress & Death

Recruits track two survival pools:

• Physical Points (HP): Flesh, bones, armor. At 0 HP, you become Incapacitated. Forbidden from actions using STR, AGI, or CON.
• Mental Points (MP): Sanity, nerve, morale. At 0 MP, you become Broken. Forbidden from actions using WIT, KNO, or PRE.
• True Death: Occurs strictly when both HP and MP reach 0 simultaneously. So long as one pool remains, a recruit clings to life!

Tactical Recovery

Breathing dust in a moment of calm restores 1d4 points to the pool of your choice. True healing requires sanctuary, boiled water, and intact bone needles.