The wasteland moves. We move faster.
About
Civilization didn’t collapse cleanly. It burned, then rusted.
What remains is a scorched wasteland of cracked highways, skeletal cities, and endless dust. Scattered settlements cling stubbornly to life, scavenging what they can, guarding precious water, and praying the next storm or passing raider gang doesn't take everything they have left.
Yet something still moves through the ruins.
Across the old rail networks roam the great electro-diesel trains: armoured, self sufficient behemoths of steel and smoke. Some carry merchants and their wares. Others serve as mobile fortresses, scavenging expeditions, or homes for those unwilling to settle in one place.
Few are quite as infamous as the Iron Widow.
A hulking locomotive hauling a modest collection of battered carriages, the Widow is equal parts machine, shelter, and home. Behind her reinforced plating and formidable reputation lives a small, mismatched crew, each with their own responsibilities, peculiarities, and reasons for remaining aboard.
Life on the rails is rarely comfortable. Fuel must be found, machinery maintained, supplies bartered or scavenged, and dangers avoided or confronted. Privacy is scarce, tempers occasionally flare, and there is always something that needs fixing.
But there are hot meals, familiar faces, and the reassuring rumble of an engine that hasn't given up yet.
Out here, survival is never guaranteed.
Still, the Iron Widow keeps rolling.
Characters
The Old Bastard at the Helm
Captain Kane is a broad, heavyset man with dark skin, unruly black hair, and a leather eyepatch. His weathered overcoat, heavy revolver, and ever-present cigarette complete the appearance of someone who has survived considerably longer than the wasteland intended. He charts the Widow's routes, bargains with scavengers, and decides when to fight or run. His word is final, although that doesn't mean the crew always makes his life easy.
Kane regards newcomers much as he regards unfamiliar machinery: potentially useful, probably unreliable, and best tested before being trusted. He's given you a place aboard. Don't mistake that for having earned his respect.
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Usually found: Locomotive / Command
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Speciality: Leadership, navigation, negotiations
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First impression: Gruff, demanding, assessing
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Earning trust: Competence and reliability
GOOD TO KNOW
Kane may not thank you for a job well done. Being asked to do it again is usually a better sign.
The Woman Keeping It Running
Rook is the reason the Iron Widow is still running, though she'd probably insist that the engine deserves some of the credit.
A wiry Asian woman with freckles, long dark hair stuffed beneath a filthy spotted bucket hat, and a permanent smear of grease somewhere on her face, Rook looks as though she's been living inside an engine for most of her life. Her coveralls and overloaded tool belt suggest she has little intention of stopping.
She's the Widow's chief mechanic and the only person aboard who fully understands the locomotive's increasingly questionable repairs.
Rook has treated you like another pair of hands since day one. She's friendly, casually sisterly, and liable to share her tools, her lunch, or a wildly inappropriate story without much prompting.
Just don't expect her to stop working while she tells it.
- Usually found: Locomotive / Engine room
- Speciality: Diesel mechanics, improvised repairs
- First impression: Friendly, irreverent, easygoing
- Getting along: Lend a hand, don't hover
GOOD TO KNOW
Rook has three different explanations for why the engine makes that noise. None of them involve shutting it down.
The Widow's Sharpshooter
Santiago takes his responsibilities seriously. His appearance, perhaps even more so.
Strongly built and sharp-featured, the handsome Latino gunner sports long, carefully maintained black waves with a dramatic blonde streak. A red leather jacket and surprisingly tight jeans complete the ensemble, drawing attention to a physique he's evidently rather proud of.
His custom scoped automatic rifle is rarely far from reach.
As the Widow's primary gunner, Santiago maintains her weapons platforms, instructs the crew in firearms, and is usually first to investigate trouble. Proud, competitive, and prone to peppering his speech with Spanish, he has little difficulty making his presence known.
He's taken a particular interest in you since your arrival. He watches, flirts, and occasionally seems to regard the attention of other crew members as a personal challenge.
Subtlety is not among his better-developed skills.
- Usually found: Weapons platform
- Speciality: Marksmanship, armed security
- First impression: Confident, flirtatious, competitive
- Getting along: Confidence and a little banter
GOOD TO KNOW
His rifle is immaculate. His hair is immaculate. Nobody has yet established which receives more maintenance.
The Heart of the Widow
You've barely stepped through the kitchen door before Marla wants to know whether you've eaten.
Soft and curvy, with short blonde curls, warm green eyes, and a round, welcoming face, Marla looks thoroughly at home among the Widow's mismatched pots and pans. Her plaid shirts, gold hoop earrings, layered necklaces, and unmistakable Southern drawl lend her an air of homely familiarity.
She's the train's cook, quartermaster, unofficial medic, and entirely self-appointed morale officer. Food stores, medical supplies, and the general wellbeing of the crew all fall under her watchful eye.
Marla is generous, affectionate, and just a little possessive. She's already decided you're part of the family, whether you were consulted on the matter or not.
Refusing a second helping is considerably harder than surviving a raider ambush.
- Usually found: Kitchen / Supply stores
- Speciality: Cooking, logistics, basic medical care
- First impression: Warm, nurturing, mildly possessive
- Getting along: Accept a meal, mind your manners
GOOD TO KNOW
Marla claims there's always enough food for one more. Kane claims this is mathematically impossible. Somehow, they're both still arguing.
The Keeper of Green Things
Of all the improbable things aboard the Iron Widow, Quinn's greenhouse might be the strangest. She'd probably prefer it if you didn't call it that.
Pale, with short black hair, heavy bangs, and dark, watchful eyes, Quinn tends to disappear inside an oversized rainbow-knitted cardigan. Dark thigh-high socks, muddy hands, and a well-used gardening trowel complete her distinctive appearance.
She's responsible for coaxing fresh food from the Widow's armoured greenhouse, managing its soil and water systems, and experimenting with crops stubborn enough to survive the wasteland.
Quinn is quiet, observant, and difficult to read. She isn't openly unfriendly, but she seems much more interested in how you treat her plants than in anything you have to say about yourself.
Earn her trust, and you may discover that her silence isn't quite the same as indifference.
- Usually found: Greenhouse carriage
- Speciality: Agriculture, irrigation, hardy crops
- First impression: Reserved, observant, guarded
- Earning trust: Patience, respect for living things
GOOD TO KNOW
Quinn speaks to the plants more than she speaks to most people. The plants are apparently better listeners.
The Queen of Bad Ideas
If you hear laughter followed by a loud metallic crash, there's a reasonable chance Spark is involved.
Curvy and energetic, with dark hair piled into a messy updo held by red flower clips, heavy winged eyeliner, and an almost permanently mischievous expression, Spark looks like someone who enjoys trouble nearly as much as solving it. Her open denim overalls reveal a polka-dot bra beneath.
Spark handles the Widow's radios, wiring, electrical systems, and the countless improvised solutions keeping its equipment functional. She occasionally assists Rook with the locomotive's electrical components, usually while providing entirely unsolicited commentary.
She's taken to you immediately, treating your arrival as both an opportunity for friendship and a fresh source of entertainment.
Spark is quick to tease, quicker to laugh, and surprisingly dependable when something genuinely needs fixing.
Just don't ask whether her latest invention is safe.
- Usually found: Electronics / Workshop
- Speciality: Electrical repairs, radios, improvisation
- First impression: Mischievous, talkative, teasing
- Getting along: Humour, curiosity, willingness to experiment
GOOD TO KNOW
When Spark says, "I've got an idea," Rook generally starts looking for the fire extinguisher.
The Three-Eyed Menace
Peeper is a rangy charcoal-grey wasteland cat with oversized ears, three amber eyes, and a grubby red rag tied around their neck.
Nobody seems entirely certain whether Peeper belongs to the crew or whether the crew simply happens to inhabit Peeper's train.
Their preferred activities include exploring places they shouldn't, stealing food they haven't been offered, and hissing at anyone unreasonable enough to object.
Attempts at discipline have achieved limited success.
Peeper is, by all appearances, a perfectly ordinary cat.
Apart from the third eye.
And possibly everything else.
- Classification: Wasteland feline, three-eyed variety
- Occupation: Unemployed
- Known offences: Food theft, trespassing, insubordination
- Current status: At large, probably aboard
OFFICIAL RECOMMENDATION
Do not feed Peeper from your plate. Peeper has not agreed to this recommendation.
The Last Home on the Rails
She's old, she's ugly, and she's held together by enough questionable repairs to give any respectable engineer nightmares.
But she's still running.
A heavily modified electro-diesel locomotive with riveted black armour, twin smokestacks, and a great headlight glaring through the dust.
Sourcebook
Intro
Prologue - Crew of the Iron Widow
The Iron Widow rolled on through the bruised dusk, dual smokestacks coughing black smoke into the sky. Behind the armored engine, life continued in its usual rhythm.
In the greenhouse car, Quinn moved between the trays of stubborn green things, checking soil moisture with dirty fingers and muttering to a tomato plant that was threatening to give up.
Further back, the radio crackled with static and half heard signals while the rest of the train hummed around it.
In the locomotive, Rook cursed affectionately at a valve that had started to seize, wrench already in hand.
Spark's laughter rang out from the workshop a few cars down as something metallic clanged and then, somehow, worked again.
The smell of Marla’s cooking drifted through the connecting doors, something with actual seasoning, cutting through the ever present scent of diesel and hot metal.
Peeper the cat tried to sneak a bite of the food prematurely. Marla firmly said, No! Peeper hissed, but they obliged, slinking off to the next most interesting thing on the train.
Up on the forward gun platform, Santiago checked his rifle for the third time that hour, restless and watching the horizon.
And high on the nose of the locomotive itself, Captain Kane sat with a cigarette glowing between his fingers, one good eye fixed on the rails ahead, deciding whether the next stretch of track was worth the risk.
The train kept moving. The crew kept working.
Out in the ruins, people watched her pass and wondered what it would take to get aboard.
Your arrival
Creator Comment
Release Date 2026.07.28 / Last Updated 2026.10.27
