"Necromunda on a campaign map?" Topic

I still play the original 1st edition rules occasionally, but one the few things I don't like is the abstract territory system where you just roll on a table to generate a piece of territory.

I've been thinking for a while of doing a kind of map (split into levels) of the underhive, similar to the ones used in RTS games on computer, and have gangs fight to command the most ground.

Those same pieces of territory from the table could exist as physical places on the map that you could control, generate income from or recruit new members. I guess it'd also lend a bit of an RPG element to the game, with the more territory you control the higher you can move up the ranks within your own House.

Has anyone ever done anything similar?

No but is sounds like a fun idea.

Twisted,

We ran a campaign years ago that had some fun elements that may lend to your efforts.

Between gaming sessions the players would provide narratives of what their key peoples were doing based on the previous games leading into the next game. The other members of the house were the other players, conspiring against the narrator using politics, poisons, dependants, false orders/leads, etc..

Only the players who turned in narratives could receive and respond to other narrators.

So everyone had an idea of what was going on…if the narrator was not misleading the readers….

The false leads led to traps which were in turn traps.

And certain portions of the other players zones were setup by other players…hazzards, etc..

I remember seeing an article in White Dwarf, where a gaming group did something along those lines – drew out a map on a hex map, and fought over that.

The simplest solution would be to generate the gangs' starting territories as standard, then draw up a map with a load of pre-generated territories in between.

To keep the game similar to normal, you'd wantr all the starting 'zones' of 5 territories abutting each other. It's quite uncommon for a gang to get more than 5 territories, so if you have a system where gangs fight for neutral territories and gain additional ones, that might unbalance things. In particular, it makes regular gangers quite useful, since it's easier to work more and more territories; I'd expect Van Saar gangers to have a slight advantage, since they can all get Techno skills (they have a reasoanble chance of getting a couple of Gangers with the Specialist skill, menaing they can have special weapons, meaning they don't need to hire a Heavy to tote that flamer or plasma gun around).

You'd need to consider Outlaws and Outlanders, too. They only get one territory, to balance out the fact their ongoing costs are usually lower than a 'law-abiding' gang. I'd suggest making them 'migrate' around the map – a new territory replaces the old.

There was a website by The Dursley Games Club for their Necromunda Theta 462 Campaign. They used a hex based map to track territories. I was thinking of using a similar method myself. The bad news is the link appears to be dead. : (

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I found it by accessing the i-Necro siet, which has a lot of useful links.

link

I may have a printout at home. I can look for it if you are interested.

I was thinking of something similar. I was thinking of having a major GM have certain events happen that the gangs could invest interest in.

For instance a call for a hunt on a bunch of scavies or a monster in a sewer etc… Or a cop raid on a sector, etc…

I would also suggest that hostages be held a round so that the gang can perform a rescue mission to retrieve them in their next action.

My local gaming group disintigrated before Necromunda came out (tho we did play 1 Confrontation game with Citadel Space Pirates vs Beaky Marines). If we'd gotten to play NM, I'd have mapped out an Underhive settlement with bars, shops, hovels, guild office & warehouse, House hang-outs, etc., for the gangs' base & then developed & expanded the surrounding area as per the territory rules. I would have had Npcs for Bounty Hunters, Guildsmen, House Reps & locals as needed; It would of been a mutant of a mating between BootHill & Gamma World. Scenarios could have taken place in the settlement or out in the territories.

The general idea around the Theta 462 campaign (from memory) was the section of the underhive where the campaign was located was serviced by a working set of transport tubes. Each gang started with influence (but not control) over one tube station (hex). The hexes that surrounded that station were the initial starting terrain for the gang. There were sections of the map set aside for the Arbites, Guilders, and something else which is eluding me. The remaining hexes were open territory for the gangs to explore (roll on the territory table). The gangs could also try to steal each others territories (picking a disputed hex on the map) and then use the standard scenarios to resolve the dispute.

link

This may help with details…the types of places found within a necromunda undercity.

28mmMan I have that issue and it is pretty good.

One more post on Theta 462 – I found a site that has the text but not the images from the defunct site. The write-up is here.

link

Thanks for the input!

@ 28mmMan: I really like that idea of using a narrative and the political infighting, it'd make things more interesting in between skirmishes.

@ Captain Apathy: Thanks a lot for those links, the campaign rules especially – just what I was looking for!

Necro was always a fun idea for me, the rules were workable.
I ran a gang with a bit of homebrewed rules that allowed for selling back of items that came with basic gangers…tweeked the system to get the end result…

The game started (a big demo game at the local store, 2 day event) with 4 players…all miniatures were WYSIWYG and we had some leeway for start up…basically double points to show an established gang for the event…scavvies, ratskins, goliaths, and mine…I choose to stay hidden and forfit my first turn…in the end I finally had to show my position and my "gang" a vast horde of nearly naked wildmen with pipes/chains/stop signs/etc…because I did not intend to win but rather throw a wrench into the works, stir it up a bit, I sold back everything I could and with double startup I had 28-30 nutjobs to the average 5-7 in the other gangs. They had rocks, bits of metal, etc. but no weapons to speak of…I used the terrain, ran away as much as possible, and hid when I could…but good god was it fun and funny. And no, I did not win…but I did get the crowd approval for entertainment value.

This all led into our Gorka League…which was even more fun.

Best of luck with your maps and game as a whole. I would love to play in a game of Necro or the like…alas everyone around here would rather go fishing.

I was thinking of trying something very similar for GOMC1. Would be really fun to have a set map with very finite resources and the possibility of facing block resistance or Judges showing up when taking over open blocks. Would have to track what gangers you left where to defend your front-line. Would definitely require a GM, but that person would have fun playing as the block militias and Judges!

Wayback machine rules again:

link for the Theta 462 site

I ran a similar underground campaign in a tunnel system way back in the day with tribes of orcs, lizardmen, gnolls, and hobgoblins, and a family of ogres vying for supremacy. I was using D&D rules and even occasionally dropped a group of adventurers from my D&D campaign into the mix.

It was alot of fun. I had rules for gathering food, tunnelling, wound recovery, etc.

The lizard men kept eating their wounded rather than have to hunt. The ogres played Fistful of dollars and kept hiring themselves out to different sides until everyone got fed up with them and wiped them out. We never finished the campaign but as I remember the Orcs were doing very well in the end.

I tried something similar many years back for a mordheim style campaign set in a large city, divided into territories. Got difficult after a while as the players ran out of abutting territories and ended up repeatedly playing the same opponents (yep, bad planning on my part!).

It might be an idea to come up with some reason why the gangs can move around between territories that aren't necessarily next to each other. Possibly the areas could be like spokes off a central access chimney, which gives access between levels but is controlled by one of the major houses.

They might tolerate the activities of the gangs as a source of cannon fodder (should they need it) but make it clear that any trouble in their areas would result in serious reprisals (possibly involving the planetary defence forces and heavy ordnance!).

Sorry, you've clearly inspired me to start thinking about another project, darn it…

Ethics Gradient -

You could have some sort of subway network tht runs through the underhive. Allows access to all sorts of other areas. There is a disney world monorail train set that is about 28mm and the newer ones open and have a detailed interior. Might be good for a repaint for some nice terrain.

That would work, with an uneasy truce existing on the network (as they say, there's always a bigger fish)

PDF link

use the subway tunnels to represent, well tunnels, and fill in some of the water zones with new zones or dangerous zones…a good starting point as you can guage a large packed cities function with food, sewage, water, housing, etc..

link overlap data to start your levels…and some more for fun

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and en infinetium…enjoy

Andrew Beasley – You are the man!!! I tried the wayback machine but the links it provided were all messed up. great work!

My group had a very successful Necromunda campaign like this in college. We didn't have multiple levels though. Our map wasn't hex based, I just drew clumps of adjacent territories. Each gang had a starting area of 5 or 6 territories, and they had to assign their various bits of turf (settlements, distilleries etc) to specific territories on the map. I think empty territories were worth few credits too. The locations were kept secret, until you lost the territory.

During each campaign round, each player would secretly write down an adjacent enemy territory to attack. This meant that everyone ended up fighting usually 2 battles per round, but sometimes more if people had ganged up on them. If you won the battle you had declared, you gained control of the territory.

It was a lot of fun, everyone got into naming their territories in good underhive fashion, and there was a lot of backstabbing. I used some eraseable color pencils to color in the territories to show ownership.

Later we had a Ratskin player join the campaign. No problem, we just drew in a new clump of 5 territories on one side of the map.

Andrew Beasley, thanks for that!

Ivan, that sounds like the sort of thing I was thinking. You could possibly have a random events table, too like swarms of giant spiders or zombies, prevent the gangs becoming too comfortable once they've captured a lot of territory.

I toyed with an idea like that when we were having a bit of "Necro craze" a few years back, but shelved it because it looked like a bit too much effort for the added level or realism. I did consider the effects the turf type fought in would have on the terrain placement and the like too, tho, so I suppose it's no wonder it all started to look complicated instead of just complex.