Josiah

Normally coercion is not even necessary. Unfortunately today I'm stuck with 1500 pages of discovery and no support from paralegals (grumble grumble), so I'll have to take a very non-literal rain check.

The post-apocalyptic campaign style is a neat idea, and it feels like a baby-step towards us playing full-on Blanchitsu. (Which I am all for...)

We've never addressed this, but I think it's totally fine to swap that stuff around.

Hey Carl. If you want to talk about this stuff in person, I'll be at WOW tomorrow night for the final throwdown of the current Necromunda campaign. Any input will be much appreciated, and our next campaign will be all the better for it.

I think I saw that transaction happening yesterday. Glad you got a good deal, man.

Hey Carl, The Familiar gives the magical willpower armor to my Psyker leader actually. I was excited about rolling that willpower save, but you shot my familiar to death first before you took any shots at my psyker. You accidentally did the absolute best thing, and it worked like a charm.

Sounds awesome. That Command Roster thing on Warhammer Community has a name generator for Chaos dudes that's pretty good if you want fast and easy results. However, I remember thinking that your Tyrannid names for Kill Team were quirky and awesome, so I'd love to see what you come up with for the cult gang.

Sure thing man. I just sent you an invite.

This is a really neat idea for a gang, and those models are rad, Carl. You should totally go for it. Even if you don't get them before the campaign ends in two weeks, Ninefinger and I have been talking about running another one sometime in the not-so-distant future. These models would also be great for Kill Team cultists too

Alright, gangers. The Goliaths defeated the Enforcers to secure the riches of the Reaper Ghast harvest. The next scenario will take place on Tuesday (10/8) at 6:00 PM at WOW. All gangs present will battle each other using the Gang Moot multiplayer scenario on page 182 of the Rulebook. As arbitrator, I am only making the following modification to the scenario. Otherwise, gangs should play the scenario exactly as written in the book. IMPORTANT RULE FOR TERRITORY ALLOCATION: If a player wins the Gang Moot, then that player may choose any single available territory to control. Any other player may choose territories drawn at random, just for taking part in the battle. If the game is a draw with no winner, then all players draw territories at random. As always, let me know if you have any questions, and I'll see you in the Underhive!

I just finished writing the rules for the first scenario of Deathcap Junction 2.0. It's a modified version of the Ghast Harvest scenario from page 170 of the Necromunda Rulebook. Here is the narrative hook for the scenario: The Escher civil war is finally over. Deathcap Junction has been released from its state of martial law. The Necromundan 8th Infantry have left town, and the Junction’s valuable territories are up for grabs. The uphive gangs have recently arrived at the settlement. They hear news about a vein of Reaper Ghast that is located somewhere in the Junction. A rockcrete building caved in during the civil war, and the debris is finally being cleared up. Servitor-assisted work crews have discovered a vein of Reaper Ghast that was growing amidst the wreckage. Reaper Ghast is a mutant strain of Ghast that has been infected by toxic Deathcap spores. Reaper Ghast is a rare and valuable substance that can imbue its users with temporary psychic powers. Furthermore, anybody who uses Reaper Ghast sees an overwhelming vision of his own death. Some people are empowered by this knowledge, but others are irreparably shattered by the horrifying vision. The gangs will play this scenario tomorrow (October 5th) at WOW, starting around 3:00 PM. I am attaching the Word file for the Battle Report sheet to this post as well. Players can download and print that sheet and fill it out to let me know the results of their battle, so I can keep track of them to determine the campaign winners in three weeks. Let me know if you have any questions, and I'll see you in the Underhive. Scenario Reaper Ghast Harvest.docx Necromunda Report Sheet.docx

The Deathcap 2.0 campaign will use a highly modified version of the Intrigue rules from Book of Judgement. The deck will only consist of the following thirteen cards, which all correspond to a different card in the Spades suit of a standard playing card deck. Corrupt the Machine (2 of Spades) Make them Bleed! (3 of Spades) Burn it Down! (4 of Spades) Keep the Trade Flowing (5 of Spades) Reveal the Imposter (6 of Spades) Retrieve the Informer (7 of Spades) Cut off the Head (8 of Spades) Minimum Force (9 of Spades) Show of Force (10 of Spades) Wreck the Place (Jack of Spades) Collect a Debt (Queen of Spades) Seed the Rebellion (King of Spades) Watch from the Shadows (Ace of Spades) During any two-player battle, both players will draw two intrigue cards from the same deck. Players will draw their cards immediately before the first player deploys his first gang member. Our campaign is ignoring the classifications of Law-Abiding and Outlaw, so any gang may use any Intrigue card without having to worry about alignment tests. Players may attempt to achieve either, neither, or both of their drawn Intrigues. However, once a player successfully achieves an Intrigue, they are disallowed from achieving the second Intrigue. In the event that a player manages to achieve two Intrigues at once with a single fighter action, that player must choose which Intrigue they would like to achieve, and they may not gain benefits from the other Intrigue.

What kind of books does she like to read?

Ha ha ha! Everyone's a critic!

Deathcap Junction 2.0 will be using the Dominion Campaign rules from Gangs of the Underhive. Players will battle for control of territories in the Junction. Each territory will give the controlling player bonuses that include bonus credits, reputation points, or special abilities. As the campaign arbitrator, I determined the available territories by using the official Campaign Territory Cards. Throughout the campaign, we'll track ownership of the territories by using both Yaktribe and the magnetized board at WOW that was built by the ever-talented Ninefinger. Without further ado, here is a map displaying the territories at stake in the Battle for Deathcap Junction: (Shout out to the Echoes of Imperium blogger who built the template I used for that map.) And here is a less stylish but easier-to-read list of those territories: Sludge Sea Bone Shrine Old Ruins Rogue Doc Shop Fighting Pit Needle Ways Tech Bazaar Gambling Den Collapsed Dome Tunnels Mine Workings Narco Den Promethium Cache Corpse Farm Archaeotech Device Okay, that's all for now. Tomorrow, I'll post the modified deck of Intrigue cards that we'll be using in the Deathcap 2.0 campaign. See you in the Underhive!

Since we're rebooting the Deathcap Junction campaign, each gang should be created using the rules listed in Gangs of the Underhive or the Book of Judgement (for Enforcer gangs). Each gang will also receive a set of bonuses so the players can approximate the progress their gang made during the previous phase of the campaign. During phase two of the Battle for Deathcap Junction, each starting gang will receive the following bonuses: I. Each gang receives an extra three Reputation points to show that the gangs are a little more seasoned. (Every gang should start with 4 reputation points.) II. Each player can give one extra skill to any Leader, Champion, or Juve. This skill can be chosen from either the gang's Primary or Secondary skill sets. The fighter's Rating must be adjusted to reflect the increase in value from the new skill. The fighter's Rating goes up +20 credits if you give him a Primary skill and + 35 credits if you give him a Secondary skill. Furthermore, none of the skills in your beginning gang can be duplicates; i.e., all four starting skills should be different from each other. III. Each gang receives an extra 200 credits. These credits are in addition to the 1000 you normally receive for starting a gang. Players must spend these credits before their first battle, or they will lose them. These additional 200 credits may be used to purchase any combination of the following: New gangers or juves, as long as the player doesn't violate gang composition rules. One hanger-on. Players may use any of the hangers-on from Gangs of the Underhive. The only hangers-on that players may use from the Book of Judgement are the Propagandist and the Narker. Any amount of equipment from the player's gang house list. One single purchase from the Trading Post with a Rarity value of 10 or less. Okay, that's it for now. If anyone has questions, feel free to message me, and have a great weekend!

Deathcap Junction is dead . . . . Long live Deathcap Junction!!! The Necromunda campaign has been going for the past couple of weeks. Many battles were fought, and much fun was had. As the campaign Arbitrator, I elected to use the new Law and Misrule Campaign system from the newest book. At first, the system worked well, but the longer we played the more unbalanced things became. Recently, I felt the need to orchestrate a soft reboot for the campaign. As a result, we will be playing a mini-campaign for the the next three weeks using the simpler and more battle-tested Dominion Campaign system. The first battle will occur on Sunday, October 6th at 3:00 PM. The second will occur on Tuesday, October 8th at 6:00 PM. Officially sanctioned games will be played at WOW, but players are encouraged to issue challenges for side games and keep track of the battle results for scoring purposes. The final battle will be on Tuesday, October 22nd at 6:00 PM, and one player will be crowned the new king of Deathcap Junction. For the new campaign, players will set up gangs using the standard rules in Gangs of the Underhive, but each gang will receive a starting bonus of Reputation points, skills, and credits in order to approximate the advances each gang earned during the previous phase of the Deathcap Junction campaign. If you haven't played a Necromunda campaign before, this is the perfect opportunity to try it out for a short-yet-eventful and fun campaign. New players welcome! Very soon, I'll make a brief Ordo post to outline the modified rules for gang setup.

Scott, this is too awesome. You are crazy good at summing up several rounds of a game in organic and enjoyable prose. This kind of writing is really hard to do. You should submit something next time Black Library posts another contest. They could use you.

So [big bad swear word]ing rad, man. I'm glad you rescued Stanis on Sunday!

I've seen people writing about how OP those two cards are, but I think they're from sets I never bought, so I was unfamiliar with them. Until just now I was like, "They can't be that bad, right?" Two quick google searches later, and OMFG. I definitely think we should ban those two cards. Thanks for the suggestion.

Freaking excellent man! This is the best battle report format ever, and you've got some dope writing skills. Glad you could make it to the game last night, and I hope that getting called in to work wasn't too big of a headache.

Nice! That's a really cool idea. I'll look into implementing that. A weekly rankings post is a rad idea.

I've been thinking a lot about how unbalanced the standard tactic card rules are for Necromunda. I've talked to Ninefinger a lot about this. The problem is that there is a HUGE disparity in power between the best cards (i.e. "...click") and the worst cards ("Frag Trap"). As a result, players tend to over-rely on the most powerful cards in any scenario that allows them to choose their starting hand. In my opinion this is bad for the game. Player strategies become repetitive, and battles start feeling too samey. This problem is further compounded by gangs like Delaque, who have a handful of House-specific cards that are arguably overpowered. Ninefinger and I wanted to make it so that players weren't using the same cards every single battle, but we also wanted to give players access to enough cards to build a winning strategy. As a result, Ninefinger and I developed the following rules, and we're gonna try them out in the Deathcap Junction campaign. House Rules about Tactics Cards: Every player will need a set of 12 tactics cards. Players will be allowed to change out two tactics cards per week (starting the second week) as their strategies evolve throughout the course of the campaign. If the scenario says there is a random draw of cards, then players will simply draw the proscribed number of cards at random. (No rules change here.) However, if the scenario says that players can choose a number of cards, then the player will draw TWICE that number. The player will then discard unwanted cards until they are left with only the proscribed number of cards in their hand. For example, if a scenario says to choose three cards, the player will draw six cards, and they will choose three cards from that pool of six to comprise their hand for the duration of the battle. Feel free to let me know if you have any thoughts about these rules. I look forward to starting our campaign tomorrow.

Deathcap Junction is a settlement located in the depths of Hive Primus. It is the only place where Necromundan deathcap mushrooms grow in large quantities. Deathcaps are among the most deadly poisons in the galaxy. A single spore will cause nearly instant death, but the victim feels like the agonizing process lasts for millennia. (A few psykers have learned this horrifying secret the hard way.) Two standard years ago, the Corpse Guild outlawed any use of deathcap spores as a poison. The Corpse Guild feeds reconstituted human flesh to the hungry masses, and deathcap poison lingers in dead bodies for a long time. Even worse, human tissue absorbs deathcap spores so completely that they are nearly impossible to trace after a victim dies from seemingly natural causes. And the problem is one of scale: a single polluted body will toxify an entire batch of valuable corpse starch. Put simply, deathcap poison is bad for the Guild’s bottom line. As a result, the Guild lobbied Lord Helmawr for decades until he finally delivered an edict outlawing deathcap poison. Nearly a century ago, House Escher established a monopoly on the trade and cultivation of deathcaps, in keeping with that House’s disturbing fascination with toxins. Until recently, Deathcap Junction was ruled by the Hot Knives, a large and powerful Escher gang. To a woman, the Hot Knives were murderers and drug peddlers, but they were staunchly loyal to the Noble Houses and the Guilds. After the Corpse Guild outlawed deathcap poison, the Hot Knives were quick to wash their blades, and they immediately stopped peddling deathcap spores to wealthy spies and assassins. From that point on, the Hot Knives would only sell deathcap harvests to uphive nobles who buy the potent spores for medicinal purposes. Deathcap mushrooms are a powerful catalyst in the rejuvenat treatments that keep many spire nobles—including Lord Helmawr himself—alive and healthy for hundreds of years. The process of refining the deathcap spores to make them safe for consumption—a process known as “quickening” by noble apothecaries—is prohibitively expensive for most people living downhive. Recently, the Corpse Guild succeeded in criminalizing the use of deathcap medicine throughout the Underhive. The Guild did this to prevent even the rare wealthy downhiver from polluting the next big yield of corpse starch. The Hot Knives lost vast sums of credits due to the outright ban on deathcap poison and the downhive ban on deathcap medicine. This economic downturn sowed discontent among the ranks of the Hot Knives. Their second-in-command was a charismatic swordswoman named Epitomie. Epitomie believed that House Escher was strong enough to defy the Corpse Guild, and she convinced many of her sisters to join a rebellion against any Hot Knives who remained loyal to the Guilds. Before long, Epitomie found powerful allies among the Narco Lords, a recidivist organization that—until recently—had taken in large profits by selling deathcap medicine on the black market. Epitomie’s rebel faction called themselves the Devil Cats, and they fought a brutal guerilla war against the Hot Knives. The Devil Cats took heavy casualties, but they ultimately won the war, seizing control of the deathcap trade throughout the Junction. Epitomie is deadlier than ever—she took over a dozen brightly colored scalps during the war—but she doesn’t have enough battle-ready soldiers to ward off the many House gangs that come pouring into the Junction everyday, seeking to take advantage of the new power vacuum. She has also heard disturbing news that the Corpse Guild has sent down squads of Enforcers to make sure that she pays dearly for defying their sacred laws. "Oh well," Epitomie has been known to say, while drawing her power sword: "I asked for an interesting life, not a long one."

THE CAMPAIGN: Battle for Deathcap Junction is a narrative campaign for Necromunda that will be played at W.O.W. this fall. I just posted a narrative preview of the backstory. The TL:DR version is that a bloody civil war has destroyed the gang leadership of Deathcap Junction, an underhive settlement where a valuable resource is located. (Yeah, kind of ripping off Dune, I know, I know.) The player gangs will battle for fun & profit in the chaotic aftermath of that war. Initially, the campaign will use Dominion rules (e.g., Territory cards), but the new Law and Misrule elements will be phased in after the first week. Games will be played using both Sector Mechanicus and Zone Mortalis formats. Acting as arbitrator, Josiah will keep track of player victories and losses, and those outcomes will influence the ongoing narrative. START DATE: First game will be on Tuesday, September 17th, starting around 6:00 P.M. END DATE: The campaign will last for seven weeks, including a one-week break after the first three weeks. The final week will begin on Sunday, October 27th. LOCATION: Western Oregon Wargamers 717 SE Main Street Portland, Oregon, United States The campaign will be hosted on Tuesday evenings at W.O.W. Players are welcome to make plans with each other to play at homes or game shops or anywhere else they like. After each game, players will send the results to me, Josiah, for bookkeeping and narrative development. STARTING GANG COMPOSITION: Starting gang lists will be made with a 1000 credit limit. Players should adhere to all the guidelines laid out in Gangs of the Underhive (for House gangs). The Book of Peril (for Venator gangs). The Book of Judgment (for Enforcer gangs). Players can also use Genestealer Cult & Chaos Cult rules from the GW website. The website Yaktribe has lots of nifty tools for building gangs, printing character cards, and tracking progress. Highly recommended. Painted models are encouraged for the most immersive and fun experience possible. WYSIWYG is a goal that we strive for, within reason. (Meaning, nobody will get salty if a grenade isn’t modeled on the miniature’s belt.) Kitbashes or counts-as models are great as long as the new model is not confusing for your opponent. IN CLOSING (FOR NOW): This is gonna be an exciting campaign with lots of fun new rules to play with. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, Josiah. Likewise, if you're curious about the game and would like to try it before you buy models, I’d be happy to set up a learning game at W.O.W. some time. See you in the Underhive, gangers!