N18 Bookromunda (complete house rules)

[TopsyKretts]

TOPIC: Improved house ruled Necromunda.

All content is available here:

Necrodamus

An unofficial abrided ruleset for Necromunda.

necrodamus.org

NECRODAMUS (OLD)
The original project was focused on official rules (RAW). This version is now named "Necrodamus" and is planned to become dead. I was sacrificing game time by maintaining it. At the same time, the official rules was not playable for me. It will not be supported in the future, however so far it has been difficult to let it go, so it might get some updates for the time being.

The related cards are available in yaktribe vault:

• Complete Trading Post Pdf
• Tactics (Deck of Doom)
• Sub-plots (side objectives)
• Open Hive War (generate scenario)
• Badzone Environments & Events (battlefield effects)
• Resources (Territories/Rackets)
• Special Characters (static fighters)

BOOKROMUNDA (NEW)
The only solution for me to be invested in this game is to have rules that work, and that's not compatible with official rules, RAW or some times even RAI.

Solution: New Bookromunda. Still complete with all gangs, scenarios, trading post, skills etc. But heavily modified to rebalance, streamline and fix this game. Unfortunately I'm not a game designer so several changes are imported from previous editions.

• Rebalance costs (most stuff is more expensive). Top tier weapons like boltgun, plasmagun, nade launcher got extra expensive. Some less valuable weapons like wyld bow and rad gun got a lower cost increase.
• Skills are reworked in an attempt to rebalance. Particularly Shooting skills are nerfed.
• Shooting (ranged attacks) are nerfed.
• Stats are nerfed (only leader start with BS 3+, no gang can start with WS/BS 2+. Fighters start with a single wound.

Gangs should be dirtier, cheaper, poorer. Struggle to survive, not to flourish!

Campaign is fixed:

• Income tax.
• Underdog bonus (XP & Giant killer)
• Gangs grow in strength by development (not earning large amount of money and buying already developed fighters)

Finally, if you find this useful, please consider giving it your stamp of approval with a thumbs up to this discussion post!

 

[Casualty]

PM sent....

 

[Hengwulf]

I wonder, are you talking about the same document you linked me before, the one titled:

Necromunda: Underhive
N17/N18/N19
Latest update: October 2019

Or is it something entirely different?

 

[TopsyKretts]

I wonder, are you talking about the same document you linked me before, the one titled:

Or is it something entirely different?

Yes that's the one

 

[Casualty]

Thank you!

 

[kiratdeluxe]

hello, page 6 in the house rule :
"Unless otherwise stated, all rolls succeed when all dice are
natural 1s and succeed when all dice are natural 6."

failed ;o).

 

[TopsyKretts]

Thank you! Fixed.

 

[JayTee]

Thanks for sight of this (I picked up links to this from somewhere on here a few days ago), I'm midway through organising my own houserules for a semi-narrative campaign I'm hoping to run in the New Year, so it's good to see some other thoughts.

Couple of things, more out of curiosity around reasoning than anything else:

Rules pg 23: What's the reasoning behind making Reload a Double Action rather than Simple? Have you encountered reloading being a bit too easy?
Rules pg 34: I think you're missing some mention in here regarding your rules about Blast weapons and target priority as you mention in the Campaign rules how Blast now (somewhat) abides by priority, but that isn't in the rules unless I'm reading this too late at night and it's staring me in the face...
Rules pg 66: Is the intention that the -1 to-hit on Shoot (Simple) applies even if you only use a single Shoot Action? I assume it's more if you choose to complete two Shoot (Simple) Actions you apply a -1 to both shots, otherwise you permanently nerf your shooting ability even if you aren't actually using your skill.

I'll take a look at the campaign rules in a bit more detail some other time, I'm not planning on running a perpetual campaign but initial look tells me there are some nice ideas in here I'd potentially want to look at.

 

[TopsyKretts]

Thanks, that's solid feedback! I have conflicting interests when making this. First, I would like to make it more in the spirit of the other version, more true to RAW and the original texts. But I gradually changed course because either RAW didn't make sense or didn't play out as I wanted. The stuff you mention is mainly about not working as I would prefer. It's nothing wrong with those original rules mechanically.

1. I am going to look over the blast rules, might be an oversight (old rules not updated).

2. Reload as double action. Problem here is guns dominate and close combat rarely succeeds. In previous editions, all weapons basically had 'Scarce', meaning once you run out, you could never reload or fire that gun again during that battle. Which means that it was valuable to carry a second gun. Let's say grenade launcher as primary and a cheap lasgun as backup. I liked the idea of having a backup gun. The new ruled allow for 2 reload attempts so you don't need much backup guns anymore. Also, after a few rounds of shooting, some guns would likely go out of ammo, which means that more fighters could move around, not getting shot and even charge into close combat. That doesn't happen much anymore because Ranged weapons dominate too much. The reason for making it double action is to motivate backup guns and facilitate more close combat. If your weapon takes a double action to try to reload, maybe carry a close combat weapon as backup and start charging enemies axe to face instead?

3. Fast shot. That was not my intention. I thought using the skill was voluntary, so you could opt to shoot normal without the penalty. The motivation for penalty was to reduce Ranged deadliness (also described above) while also balancing skills. Fast shot is possibly the best skill in the whole game, or at least top tier. If making it a little worse, it would motivate diversity, trying different skills instead of spamming the same one. I'll have a look to rewrite for clarity.

4. Custom campaign rules should work as a solid foundation for all types of campaigns. So perpetual or shorter, time-limited should benefit equally. If you have an arbitrator making cool scenarios and background or play without, the campaign should work regardless.

 

[Kodoskang]

Would someone mind PM’ing May the consolidated rules. I’m considering buying a new box as a plunge into necromunda, but would like to check out the rules first.

 

[TopsyKretts]

The document is under construction and will be messy. Hopefully I'll be done adding new content and cleaning up in 1-2 weeks. Stay tuned!

 

[JawRippa]

The document is under construction and will be messy. Hopefully I'll be done adding new content and cleaning up in 1-2 weeks. Stay tuned!

Isn't it better to have a separate document then? Your rule compilation is extremely valuable, as it allows for usage of GW multiple book content

 

[TopsyKretts]

Thanks! Definitly something to consider, but it is too late now, so gonna have to be next update.

 

[JawRippa]

Regarding shooting, we’ve been thinking about making it more reload intensive rather than making reload harder to do.

We tried using this houserule for a few test games: reload is triggered by any 1 hit on firepower dice, not just ammo symbol, essentially making it so every shot has a 50% chance to trigger ammo check. This created moments of respite, when it was possible to contest objective or assist wounded friendly fighter without getting shot up, so it made scenarios more mission oriented.

One thing that I personally dislike about this is that using a firepower dice in a “wrong” way feels very weird. I wanted every weapon to roll 2 firepower dice instead of 1 for every shot, but it makes rapid fire weapons very confusing.

 

[TopsyKretts]

It's an interesting alternative to the previously ammo check on hit rolls of 6. I very much like your reload house rule, but how you do handle Scare/Limited and stuff like that?

 

[Darian Shurville]

Hello, were is the link to actually see this document?

 

[TopsyKretts]

Check out the original post. Read closely before contacting me!

 

[TopsyKretts]

100% cards updated (all 389).

 

[TopsyKretts]

Everything updated 100%.

 

[Casualty]

So Book of Ruin and Dark Uprising are both included now?