The Outcasts

Lore & Background

The Outcasts are not a single organized army but a loose collection of individuals and small families who were expelled, abandoned, or simply left behind by the larger factions that consolidated power in the years after the war. They lack the fortifications, stockpiles, or ideological cohesion of groups like the Children of the Atom or the Rats, and their survival depends on scavenging, barter, and mutual aid within their small communities. Their story is one of quiet resilience rather than grand ambition. Where other factions in the Wasteland series pursue control of water, weapons, or territory, the Outcasts primarily seek to keep their members alive through the next season. Their settlements are modest—repurposed structures, makeshift shelters—and their governance is informal, often led by whoever has the most experience or the most to lose. This makes them vulnerable to predation by better-armed groups, a vulnerability the player can either exploit or protect against. Thematically, the Outcasts embody the franchise's recurring question: in a world without law, who decides who belongs and who is expendable? Their presence in the narrative forces the player to confront the cost of inaction, as the Wastelanders' choices about whether to invest time, resources, or military force in their defense ripple outward into the broader political landscape of the region.

In Their Own Story

The wind off the dry lakebed carried grit against the corrugated tin roof. Maren pressed her back against the wall of what had once been a gas station, listening to the silence that meant no one was coming. Three days now since the Rats had taken the water cache. Three days of rationing, of children pressing their lips to the cracked plastic jugs and finding nothing. She looked at the others huddled in the shade—old Tomás with his bad knee, the twins who were too young to remember a world with power grids, Yuki who still sharpened her knife every morning out of habit. None of them had a name for what they were. No flag, no oath, no leader with a title. Just people who had been told, in one way or another, that they didn't fit. That they were surplus. Maren pulled the dented can from her pack and set it in the center of the circle. One meal. Maybe two, if they were careful. "We're still here," she said, not to anyone in particular. Just to the dust, the wind, the empty sky. A small defiance. The Outcasts didn't need a war to fight. They just needed to outlast the ones who'd decided they didn't matter. She broke the can open. The sound was loud in the quiet.

Reader's Guide

The Outcasts function as a mid-tier interactive faction in the Wasteland series. You will typically encounter them in the mid-game portion of a title's campaign, after establishing your squad's base and before the final act's major confrontations. Their settlement is usually accessible from a main road or trade route, making them easy to find if you are exploring the overland areas between major faction territories. In terms of story role, the Outcasts generally present a moral dilemma rather than a straightforward combat encounter. You may be asked to mediate a dispute, supply them with resources, or choose whether to use their location as a forward base. Their requests often conflict with the demands of a more powerful faction, forcing you to weigh a small group's survival against a larger political objective. Dialogue options with their members tend to reflect the squad's alignment and prior choices, so a squad that has shown aggression elsewhere will find a colder reception. Combat relevance is modest. The Outcasts are not a military power, and any conflict with them is typically a short skirmish rather than a sustained siege. However, failing to protect them when you have the option can affect reputation with other neutral parties who view the Wastelanders' treatment of the vulnerable as a character test. Across Wasteland 1, 2, and 3, the specific faction composition shifts with the setting, but the thematic role of a marginalized survivor group the player must choose to engage with or ignore remains a consistent narrative thread. If you encounter a group fitting this profile in any of the titles, the same general principles apply: listen to their full dialogue, check your inventory for tradeable goods, and consider the downstream consequences of your choice before committing to a hostile or purely transactional interaction.

Did You Know?

• The Wasteland franchise, originally released in 1988 by Interplay and later continued by inXile Entertainment, is one of the earliest post-apocalyptic RPGs and is often cited as a precursor to the Fallout series.
• The Wasteland titles are known for their morally complex faction interactions, where aiding one group can directly undermine another, and there is rarely a single 'correct' alignment choice.
• The franchise's settings shift across titles—from the Mojave Desert in the earlier games to the Colorado region in Wasteland 3—reflecting different post-war communities and their unique survival strategies.
• The Wastelanders squad system, where you lead a small team of named characters with individual skills and relationships, has been a consistent mechanical identity across the series since the original 1988 release.