N18 Evolving Weapons/Wargear (combine Whispering weapons and Spyrer suits)

[Baffo]

Since we were introduced to the concept of Whispering weapons in the last Apocropha, I've been thinking of alternative ways to represent 'cursed/possessed' weapons/objects of Chaos/Xenos origin in Necromunda campaigns. I like the idea, but the execution is a bit 'hit-or-miss' for me (2 of the 6 official Whispering weapons are decent, while 4 are massively overpriced liabilities), but with the introduction of Spyre hunter suits and their 'upgrade' mechanic, I feel we have something interesting brewing...

As far as I understand Spyrer suits, for every 4 kills, the suit gets either to remove all Glitches (=lasting injuries) or roll once on the 'Upgrade table' (D6 roll):
1-4: Stat upgrade for the Spyrer
5-6: Wargear upgrade
Wargear upgrades seem to be divided into Armor, Melee weapon and Ranged weapon upgrade tracks, each with essentially 3 strictly predetermined upgrade levels.
The detail I am not quite clear on yet, is weather Spyrers gain any 'normal XPs', or if they are focused exclusively in Kill-count for their advancements (which would make the Spyrer suit more of an actual 'protagonist' than its bearer).

Anyway, if we take some of these mechanics and just transfer them to Whispering weapons, we can create 'possessed' weapons that grow in power the more kills they accumulate.
Now, these would be used by fighter types that can gain XPs normally (which effectively covers the 1-4 stat advancements in the Spyrer rules), meaning we would need to increase the 'Kills threshold' for weapon upgrades to something like 8-10 kills per level-up and probably increase the number of possible levels or go for 2-3 upgrade tracks (1. Weapon stat upgrades, 2. Weapon trait upgrades and maybe 3. Skills conferred by the weapon).

Now, this whole idea thematically works best for Chaos corrupted melee weapons (especially the overall rules of Whispering weapons), where you could start with an 'average' weapon profile and just the Whispering trait added (no extra special rules like the cumulative Cool buff from the Gleeful judgement, for example) and have it gain upgrades with kills to evolve into a properly impressive weapon.
Granted, this would have to be carefully vetted/managed by the Arbitrator, likely in a custom campaign, where each gang starts chaos corrupted and with 1 such weapon on their leader and they battle it out to prove they are the mightiest ascending champion of chaos in the making, or something along those lines.

What do you think? What possessed weapons/items would you associate with each Chaos god, or alternatively what Imperial loyalist/Xenos artefacts could also fit into this concept (evolving weapon that influences its bearer)?

 

[Baffo]

As an example, lets go with something easy to theme: Khorne's Posessed weapon.
Now, since it is Khorne in 40k it has to be some sort of Chain axe: either 2 paired axes or one big Executioner-style axe... Lets do one of each:

1. Wrath & Ruin (Paired Chain axes)
Base weapon profile like Paired Pulverisers (+1 Str, D1, Ap-1, Melee, Paired, Whispering) = 100 Creds vaule/rating (+15 per Advancement)
- Weapon Stat Advancements:
1. Gain +1 to hit in Engagement rng
2. AP becomes -2
3. Damage becomes 2
- Weapon Trait Advancements:
1. Gain Parry
2. Gain Shred
3. Gain Rending
- Conferred Skill 'Advancements':
1. Bull charge (Ferocity) - +1 Str and Knockback on Charge
2. Frenzy (Savagery) - +D3A -1 to hit on Charge
3. First to the Fray (Butcher's Special rule) - Charge = M+D6''

2. Skulltaker (Chain Glaive)
Base weapon profile like 'shortened' Chain glaive (+2 Str, D2, AP-2, Melee, Unwieldy, Whispering) = 100 Creds vaule/rating (+15 per Advancement)
- Weapon Stat Advancements:
1. Gain +1 to hit in Engagement rng (will cancel-out the -1 to hit when weapon gains Versatile trait)
2. AP becomes -3
3. Damage becomes 3
- Weapon Trait Advancements:
1. Gain Versatile 2'' and -1 to hit in Engagement rng (like a normal Chain glaive)
2. Gain Entangle
3. Gain Sever
- Conferred Skill 'Advancements':
1. Crushing Blow (Ferocity) - +1 Str and +1D on 1 attack/fight
2. Killing Blow (Savagery) - Make only 1 attack at double Str, D and no Armor saves allowed.
3. Bloodthirst (Custom) - For each enemy taken OoA, Bearer removes a Flesh wound or recovers a lost Wound.

Things to keep in mind:
- Whispering traits drawbacks for Bearer's 'deaths' will add Reckless after the first 'death', +1 Str after 2nd, normally Insanity at 3rd (which would be pointless, if we consider any character using these weapons would be in a Chaos corrupted gang and therefore Immune to Insanity, so we might have to rework this 'drawback' to actually do something) and 'perma death' at the 4th OoA (or alternatively turn into a Chaos Spawn, since these are Chaos cursed weapons).
- Yes, once these weapons gain all their advancements they become quite terrifying, but each level-up requires 8-10 enemy kills, so between 72-90 kills... Even if we award extra 'points' for taking OoA enemy Champions/Leaders/Brutes (as more worthy sacrifices to awaken the weapon), getting that many kills done by one single fighter will require lots of games per cycle, lots of Multiplayer games or multiple connected campaigns or a perpetual campaign to actually achieve.
- Randomise which Advancement 'branch' you gain when levelling-up the weapon (just roll a D3; if you roll a branch you maxed, you can chose which other branch advances).

Now, Khorne is pretty simple to work with, since it is MELEE to the extreme and we even have Savagery skill tables to draw from, but things get a bit wacky with the other the other gods or when trying to make interesting Ranged Whispering/Demonic weapons (will write some more examples later).

 

[Baffo]

Ok, making Khornate Melee weapons was pretty straightforward, but how do we approach the other gods and particularly in regards of Ranged Whispering weapons, you would actually want to use; keep in mind these custom Whispering weapons are meant to be used in a campaign/scenario where each player will either choose or randomly acquire one of them, so they should all be an equally interesting/tempting choice and that is where we run into one major stumbling block of the Whispering trait on guns: Reckless after 1st 'death'. Add to it the fact that the main benefit of a Whispering weapon is its 'free Fight action' after taking enemies OoA in melee (even when the Whispering weapon is a gun).
Now we could simply 'house rule' the Whispering trait to work on Ranged attacks, but then again that might be truly over the top without proper restrictions, so lets stick to the 'melee cleave' benefit as written.

Now I could easily imagine a Template weapon for each remaining God (Bile spewer for Nurgle, Doom sren for Slaanesh and Warpflame thrower for Tzeench) and that would still work well for melee focused characters, but 'spamming flamers' feels rather repetitive/lazy, so lets put a bit more thought into it.

Starting with Tzeench, if we skip flamers (you can't beat the Balefire thrower for 120 creds anyway) we could go with a 'Thousand sons-inspired' Boltgun (except we already have Cursed boltguns and Warp rounds in the game) or something weird, like a gun that causes Warp anomalies/holes in reality, that slow down and debuff anyone caught up in them, potentially even spawning eldritch tentacles from its victims...

1. Veil Piercer (Tzeench Warp-gun)
Base weapon profile like a toned-down Gravgun (6'' Short, 12'' Long, +1 to hit at Short rng, *Str, D2, Ap*, Ammo 5+, Blast (3''), Graviton Pulse, Whispering) = 150 Creds vaule/rating (+15 per Advancement)
- Weapon Stat Advancements:
1. 9'' Short 18'' Long rng
2. +2 to hit at Short rng
3. Increase to Blast (5'')
- Weapon Trait Advancements:
1. Gain Cursed
2. Gain Radphage
3. Gain Shock
- Conferred Skill 'Advancements':
1. Psi-touched (Obfuscation) – Bearer can re-roll any Will checks to manifest/negate Wyrd powers.
2. Weakening (Custom) - -1 to any Stat checks while within the Blast.
3. Warp Tendrils (Custom) - Anyone going OoA whitin the Blast leaves behind a Beast Lure, and when manifesting Wyrd powers (while in the Blast) any doubles cause Perils in the Warp.


Next for Slaanesh, we got to go with some sort of Noise-based weapon; as mentioned before a Doom siren as a flamer-like template weapon could work, but what if made it a Sidearm, so it can be used in Melee (think of those ’loud-speaker’ mouth implants you always see in Noise marines art)?

2. Rapture’s Wail (Slaanesh Noise-pistol):
Base weapon profile of a mini-Boltgun (6'' Short, 12'' Long, +1 to hit at Short, -1 to hit at Long, Str 4, D1, AP-2, Ammo 6+, Sidearm, Knockback, Whispering) = 100 Creds vaule/rating (+15 per Advancement)
- Weapon Stat Advancements:
1. Strength becomes 5
2. AP becomes -3
3. Damage becomes 2
- Weapon Trait Advancements:
1. Gain Concussion
2. Gain Siesmic
3. Gain Rapid Fire (1)
- Conferred Skill 'Advancements':
1. Fearsome (Ferocity) – Enemies must pass a Will check to target bearer with CC attacks.
2. Got your 6 (Palanite drills) - Pseudo Overwatch against Charges
3. Cacophony (Custom) – While within 6’’ of Bearer enemies suffer -2 to all Mental checks (Ld, Cl, Will, Int).


Lastly, for Nurgle we have to go with a Plague-themed weapon and if we are not making ’flemers’, it has to be some sort of toxic grenade launcher.

3. Bile Spewer (Nurgle Plague-launcher):
Base weapon profile of a pseudo Grenade launcher (7'' Short, 14'' Long, -1 to hit at Short, Str 3, D1, Ammo 6+, Blast (3’’), Toxin, Whispering) = 130 Creds vaule/rating (+15 per Advancement)
- Weapon Stat Advancements:
1. 21'' Long rng
2. Remove the -1 to hit at Short rng
3. Increase to Blast (5'')
- Weapon Trait Advancements:
1. Gain Radphage
2. Gain Gunk
3. Gain Scattershot
- Conferred Skill 'Advancements':
1. Iron Man (Muscle) – Bearer’s T is not reduced by Flesh wounds.
2. Unstoppable (Ferocity) – 4+ to remove Flesh wounds or roll an additional Recovery die.
3. Cloud of Flies (Custom) – While within 3’’ of Bearer enemies suffer a -1 on all ’to hit’ rolls and everyone within 3’’ counts as being in at least ’soft cover’ (Bearer included).


Ok if we make up one more Melee weapon for these 3 Gods (a Sacrificial dagger or Force staff for Tzeench, a Sword, Spear or Whip for Slaanesh and a Scythe or Plague flail for Nurgle) along the 2 Khornate ones we made earlier we'd have a list of 8 demonic weapons for the players of our campaign to pick from; now if we wanted more choices (let say each weapon is unique and can't be chose by more than 1 player/gang, in which case the 1st game of the campaign would be a multiplayer to determine the order in which the players/gangs get to chose or randomly draw their Chaos whispering weapon), we could add all those Flamer style whispering weapons we purposefully avoided making this time around and one additional melee weapon for each God, meaning 4 weapon choices for each god (2 melee and 2 ranged for everyone except Khorne, who's all in on melee) and if we want more, we could throw in 4 Chaos undivided options for a grand total of 16-20 evolving Posessed weapons!

What do you think? Would you use these Whispering weapons on your gang leaders, in spite of the drawbacks and risks of the Whispering trait, or are they too 'weak'?

 

[Baffo]

I have finally gotten my copy of Hive Secundus and after spending some time rummaging trough its rule-book, I haven't found any rule/paragraph saying Spyrers don't gain normal XPs, rather the Spyrer suit Glitch table (their unique Lastinh Injuries table) on result 11 has the same 'Lesson learned = Spyrer gains D3 XPs', meaning Spyrers essentially have 2 Advancement tracks: Kill-count for suit upgrades and XPs like everyone else for stat/skill upgrades.
Normally that would mean as a Spyrer you don't want to spend XPs on upgrading stats that the suit can upgrade as well (like Ws, Bs, Initiative...), but the suit advances are random and if you roll a stat that is already maxed, the upgrade becomes automatically a weapon upgrade, so it might actually be sensible to use XPs to max out Ws/Bs 'early' to increase the likelihood of the suit upgrades (based exclusively on kill count) going into its weapon upgrades.
Setting aside 'spyrer levelling-up strategies' for now, if the Book of Desolation confirms that all Spyrers gain both XPs and kill count, since my 'evolving Demon weapons' mechanic is somewhat meant to mirror Spyrer suits in terms of 'official game balance', maybe having the weapon advances require 8-10 kills per level up is a bit too harsh/unattainable, so lets drop it to 5 OoA per level-up, no bonuses for champs/leaders (they'll get the extra XPs for that). This should still be challenging enough to require 2-3 games per level up, unless they're involved in multiplayer games or scenarios fighting hordes of NPCs, which feels a little bit more rewarding.

 

[TopsyKretts]

Yeah I couldn't find anything stating that Kill Count replaces XP. Good find on the new injuries table (which do explicitly replace standard injury table). Spyrer also starts with a skill, and can't get skills from Kill Count, so would be weird/new to be able to get a skill but no more.

 

[Baffo]

To help me ’contrast and compare’ the various Evolving weapons I am working on, I ended up formatting them as ’reference cards’ I would use for the related campaign (print these out, sleeve them as Magic cards and mark the kill/death counts and evolution with a pencil/marker).
Having them side-by-side allows me to work-out which stat/rule buffs to apply, while keeping them thematically distict and somewhat consistent in ’power-level’, especially as I try to think-up additional ones, attempting to avoid them being repetitive or an ’excessive power-creep’ as I keep going...

So far I made only chaos related Evolving weapons, but we also have Gene-stealer and Malstrain corruption available in the game, so it would be ’fair’ to show them some love (for now I’m thinking some sort of Tyranid symbiote/parasite living weapons, that link the weilder to the Brood-mind and therefore lead to GSC corruption of the gang using them), as well as something for ’vanilla’ Outlaws and Lawful gangs (Necron, Tau and Eldar ’intelligent’ weapons and Imperial ’holy/saintly’ relics that may influence their users), but I am still working-out the ’fluff/logic’ to justify most of these, since that will inform their rules design and flavour.

As you may notice, trough this process all of the god-specific whispering weapons I described previously have changed to varying degrees (mostly in the traits/skills they unlock levelling-up) and I’ve defined some design patterns and upper/lower limits, in the name of ’balance’. For example, I decided to limit myself to making-up one ’unique’ rule/skill per weapon for their 3rd ’skill advancement’ and use only existing traits/skills/rules for all other advancements. Aditionally since these weapons are meant to corrupt the gangs using them, any character weilding any of these will have ’Inured to insanity’, making Insanity (the drawback for the 3rd OoA of the user) pointless, so for all Chaos weapons I instead changed it to gaining the Starved condition from the Dark uprising campaign and rather than just dying after the 4th OoA, the owner will turn into a Chaos spawn, as we often hear how the path of any aspiring champion of chaos will always end either becoming Exalted or devolving into a Spawn.

Khorne is ’Melee only’, so it has the only god-specific weapons that take up 2 hands/slots to weild, while all other gods have a one-handed melee weapon and a special ranged weapon as their options; besides those, there will also be a bunch of ’undivided’ weapons, that can be weilded by followers of any chaos god, mainly to generate more options, for larger gaming groups and to avoid pigeon-holing players into picking a chaos god/weapon because other choices ’ran-out’ or gangs that may mount-up multiple Underhells expedition to search for more such weapons...

Anyway, for now lets do an overview of the Evolving weapons and their Unique rules so far:

Khorne
Melee focused entirely on enhancing offensive damage output. For their ’unique’ Skills I gave each a passive ’always-active’ benefit and a secondary buff that ’activates’ only after they ’kill’ an appropriate enemy target in melee (the Skull Taker will accept only worthy offerings like champs/leaders).

1. Gore Twins (Paired Chain Axes)
It is all about charging, doing an obscene number of attacks and fishing for 6s ’to-wound’ to trigger Shred and Rending for maximum carnage.
- Blood Thirst: When performing a Charge move, this fighter advances an extra D3’’ (on top of the normal Movement+D3’’). Additionally, after taking OoA one or more enemy fighters with a Melee attack or Coup-de-Grace, until the end of the battle this fighter treats the Charge (Double) action as a (Basic) action instead.

2. Skull Taker (Chain Glaive)
This is the opposite approach: you can trade all your attacks for just one ’super-juiced’ attack and you want to go after enemy Champions/Leaders in particular, to assert dominance on the battlefield (aka Terrify anyone left). From a modelling perspective, I would go with one of the various 2-handed Chain axes/swords/glaives from World-eater Berserkers, Eightbound or Night lord kill team kits).
- Head Hunter: When resolving Melee attacks against fighters with the Gang Hierarchy (X) rule, this fighter may re-roll any 1s to-Hit and 1s to-Wound. Additionally, after taking OoA one or more enemy fighters with the Gang Hierarchy (X) rule, this fighter gains Terrifing until the end of the battle; if this fighter already had Fearsome or Terrifing, before triggering this effect, enemies suffer an additional penalty to Willpower checks triggered by Terrifing (-1 for pre-existing Fearsome and -2 for Terrifing).


Nurgle
Nurgle has always been about resilience and spreading plagues and poisons, so the unique skills for both weapons provide passive debilitating auras. Also, since the Bile Spewer is a Toxin weapon, instead of the normal +1 Str for the 2nd OoA of the weilder, it has a +1 to its Toxin to-Wound rolls (which will apply to both the Blasts and hits from the Poison Blood skill).

3. Frothing Sermon (Plague Censer Flail)
This weapon is mainly inspired by OG fantasy Skaven Plague censer bearers (ideally you would model it using some of the AoS Skaven censers with smoke, maybe some Dark angel smoky backpack censers or even the ’skull-filled’ flail from the Jackal’s kit), but its theme is all about being ultra resilient and ’self-healing’ by spreading Plague mist.
- Plague Mist: In the End phase of each round, before Recovery rolls, any enemy fighters within 3’’ of this model suffer an automatic Radphage hit (roll for the weilder as well): on 4+ they suffer a Flesh wound (roll separately for each affected model).

4. Bile Spewer (Plague Launcher)
Basically a Toxic Grenade launcher, fuelled by the weilder’s own vile bodily fluids (could be modelled with tubes from the gun going into the owner’s bloated belly, for max ’theme/immersion’) that attracts the characteristic Nurgle’s swarms of flies...
- Cloud of Flies: Any fighters within 3’’ of this model (him/her included) count as being Shrouded (-1 to-Hit with ranged attacks); any Rule/Skill that allows attackers to ignore/reduce Cover works on this as well. Additionally Enemy fighters within 3’’ of this model suffer -1 to-Hit on any attack rolls they make.


Tzeench
With Tzeench I wanted to enphasise its scheeming nature, so the weapons are marginally ’less killy’ than others, but they tend to focus on deception and debilitating/controlling the enemy either with free-casting Wyrd powers or turning chuncks of the battlefield into ’hazzardous terrain’ that debuff the enemy and spawn eldrich tentacles. Like with Nurgle’s Toxin weapon, in the case of the Veil Breacher being a Graviton weapon, the +1 Str for the 2nd OoA of the weilder was somewhat pointless, so instead the weapon gains Power (essentially +1 Damage on 6s to-Hit).

5. Slithering Malice (Ritual Dagger)
Essentially this is a Wisperbane Knife, meant for ritualistic blood sacrifices...
- Ritual Offering: This fighter becomes an Unsanctioned Psycher and can choose one Wyrd power from either the Chaos powers table or any discipline from the Book of Outcasts. After taking one or more enemy fighters OoA with a Melee attack or Coup-de-Grace, instead of using the ’free Fight action’ (granted by the Whispering trait), this fighter can choose to manifest one of its Wyrd powers as a free action. If the enemy that triggered this had the Gang Fighter (X) rule, this fighter can manifest a Simple or Basic action power, while if the ’sacrificed’ enemy had the Gang Hierarcy (X) rule, this fighter can manifest even Double action wyrd power for free.

6. Veil Breacher (Warp-gun)
This is basically a Grav-gun, that creates small warp-breaches in reality, to slow-down and generally weaken anyone caught up in them and sometimes even summon warp entities attracted by the anomaly. From a modelling perspective, this could be represented with one of the weirder Van saar/Mechanicus guns (Grav/Rad-guns), a chaos-y energy gun or even an arcane tome (like the ones from Chaos SM Legionares Kill team, Redemptionist or Inquisitorial agents/retinue kits).
- Warp Tendrils: While within the Blast AoE, any fighter suffers a -1 penalty to any Statistic checks they are required to make and any doubles rolled, while manifesting/negating Wyrd powers, will trigger Perils in the warp (not just 11 and 66). Additionally any fighter going OoA whitin the Blast AoE, will leave behind a Beast lure token, when removed from the table.


Slaanesh
Slaanesh is mainly about excess in all fields, but I focused mainly on the ’Noise weapons’ and ’Martial pride/arrogance’ themes, so the unique skills ended up being pretty big auras that influence/control the enemy behaviour, but unlike previous auras, the weilder have to take enemies OoA to activate and empower these auras.

7. Height of Hubris (Hex-Blade)
This is the manifestation of ’Come at me, Bro!’ to the extreme: all its conferred skills revolve around baiting enemies into close combat and punishing them for it.
- Provocateur: After taking one or more enemy fighters OoA with a Melee attack or Coup-de-Grace, instead of using the ’free Fight action’ (granted by the Whispering trait), this fighter can activate their Provocateur aura, which lasts until the start of their next activation and has a range of 6’’+1’’ for each enemy taken OoA by this model this battle (max 6). Any enemy fighters (not Broken or Seriously injured), starting their activation within range, must make a Willpower test; if the enemy that triggered this had the Gang Fighter (X) rule, apply a -1 to this test, while if the ’triggering’ enemy had the Gang Hierarcy (X) rule, apply a -2 penalty to the Will test. If the Willpower check is passed they can activate normally, but if it fails, they must immediately declare a charge toward this model, or stand up and move directly toward him/her, if they were pinned to start with.

8. Rapture’s Wail (Doom-siren)
In the end I opted to make it a Template weapon, since to me it better fits the idea of a sonic weapon. From a modelling perspective, this could be represented by some Loud-speaker-like contraptions on the models backpack/shoulders or mouth (think of the typical Noise marine’s art), leaving their hands free to use some scary melee weapon (preferrably a Versatile weapon, to stay out of enemy engagement/reaction attack range), to take advantage of the Whispering trait’s ’free fight actions after kills’.
- Cacophony: After taking one or more enemy fighters OoA, this fighter activates the Cacophony aura, which lasts until the end of the battle and has a range of 6’’+1’’ for each enemy taken OoA by this model this battle (max 6). While within range enemy fighters suffer a -1 penalty to any Mental (Ld, Cl, Wil, Int) stat checks they are required to make, can’t initiate or be part of group activations, nor can they use or benefit from Lead by example and Leadership skills. In Stealth missions ’activating’ this aura will automatically trigger the alarm and if using Visibility (X), the weilder will always counts as Revealed (due to the constant noise they make).

 

[Baffo]

Ok, since the last post I’ve been brainstorming more Evolving weapons for all ’alignments/factions’ and ended up settling on having 6 options per ’faction’, but since Chaos effectively has 4 ’sub-factions’ I decided to add 4 Undivided weapons that combine with the existing 2 God-themed choices, to provide a set of 6 for each dark power to choose or radomly select from.

Anyway, let us delve into the new batch of Evolving weapons for each ’faction’ and the Unique rules I made-up for them...

Chaos Undivided
Since these weapons are meant to thematically fit-in with any of the 4 chaos powers, they may seem a bit ’Vanilla’, but I tried to design them as decent complementary choices to the God-specific weapons, for a well rounded pool of options.

1. Thunderiser (Great Deamon Hammer)
The HEAVY melee option: a beefed-up reinterpretation of the Gleeful Judgement (from the Apocropha where Whispering weapons were officially introduced), when you really want to turn your enemies into smears on the scenery.
- Shock & Awe: After taking an enemy fighter OoA with a Fight or Coup-de-grace actions, any enemies within 3’’+1’’ for each enemy taken OoA by this model this battle (max 5), must take a Nerve check with a -1 penalty, if the ’downed fighter’ had the Gang Fighter (X) rule, -2 if it had the Gang Hierarchy (Champion) rule and -3 if it was the enemy Leader.

2. Crimson Fang (Chain Sword)
The ’Balanced/Flexible’ melee choice, since it provides benefits to both offense (Shred, Rending and Devotional Frenzy) and defence (Parry trait & skill and self-healing trough Vampirism), while leaving open options/combos with a Sidearm, a 2nd Melee weapon or even carrying an unweildy Heavy weapon, if desired...
- Vampirism: After taking an enemy fighter OoA with a Fight or Coup-de-grace actions, this fighter can remove a Flesh wound or regain a previously lost Wound, but if this fighter was ’at full health’ when triggering this effect, they instead gain a ’temporary’ +1 Wound on their profile (max +3W over their normal profile) until the end of the battle.

3. Lead Storm (Combi-Boltgun)
This is a re-work of Rage Unending (the Whispering bolter from the Apocropha), but shooting more bullets and less likely to run out of ammo, to compensate for the risks of Reckless and Gunzerker on such a gun. Visually speaking, by Combi-Bolter I mean 2 bolguns strapped together (the precursor to the Storm bolter).
- Gunzerker: After taking an enemy fighter OoA with a Shoot action, if there are any other targets visible (normally this means Enemy fighters, but if you gain Reckless, both enemy and friendly models will count as ’targets’ for this rule), this fighter MUST make a ’free’ Shoot action against one random target in line of sight, unless this fighter passes a Willpower check to stop firing (test before determining who would be the random target) or they ran out of ammo with the previous shoot action.

4. Hell Raiser (Meltagun)
Now this is the 'Punchy' Ranged choice of the lot: a single short-ranged high-powered shot, that can potentially Impale multiple fighters in a row (if you manage to set it up in spite of Reckless) and makes its vitims blood boil to bursting, covering bystanders in gore and gunk, for maximum spectacle/carnage.
- Boiling Blood: After taking a fighter OoA with a Shoot action, any models within D3’’ of the downed fighter are Gunked and suffer an automatic Damage 1, Ap -1 hit with Strength equal to the downed fighter’s base Toughness.

Gene-stealer set coming soon

 

[Baffo]

Next for aspiring Gene stealer corrupted gangs we have a set of Tyranid Bio-weapons, that link their wielders to the ’brood-hive-mind’ of the nearest Patriarch, meaning they can lead to either normal GSC or Malstrain corruption (as the player prefers). Similarly to the Chaos Whispering weapons, after 4 Out-of-Actions, rather than just dying, the owner of these evolving weapons will turn into a Malstrain Coalescence instead.

Gene-Stealer/Malstrain:
As mentioned above, these are meant to be actual Tyranid bio-weapons: let say these are preserved samples, that were meant to be studied by the Inquisition or a priest Biologus (maybe as part of Hermeatus’ intial experiments); from a modelling stand-point some Termagants’ bio-guns’ would work best (especially now that their kit comes with various optional special weapons), while for Melee weapons the GSC Metamorphs kit should provide plenty of appropriate bits...

1. Scissor Hands (Paired Rending Claws)
The ’LOTS of attacks’ melee option: basically turns the weilder into a pseudo Genestealer, by enhancing their mobility and physical abilities beyond their natural limits.
- Inhuman Vigour: After taking an enemy fighter OoA with a Fight or Coup-de-grace actions, until the end of the battle this fighter gains +3’’ on Charge moves, up to half of this movement can be Vertical and gains +1 to Hit and +1 Strength, when resolving Charge attacks.

2. Patriarch’s Kiss (Neuro Tendril/Whip)
Essentially a 3’’ Versatile Whip, that can temporarily ’take-over’ the bodies of enemies taken OoA with it and is particularly deadly to Psykers.
- Puppeteer: After taking an enemy fighter OoA with a Fight or Coup-de-grace actions, instead of using the ’free Fight action’ (granted by the Whispering trait), this fighter can Puppeteer the OoA enemy fighter and activate them immediately after this fighter (as if they Group activated); when ’taken over’ the downed fighter discards any Flesh wounds it had, will remain Puppeteered until the start of this fighter’s next activation and wukk be removed as a normal casualty as soon as the Puppeteer effect ends, however while controlled a fighter counts as Friendly to this fighter’s gang and ’enemy’ to everyone else, for the purpose of Target priority, movement/obstruction and skills, but the Puppeteered fighter will not award any additional XPs or Kill points if attacked/taken OoA again while controlled.

3. Red Riot (Bonesword)
This is the sword for an inspirational rabble-rousing ’folk hero’ of sorts: its weapon traits make it a pretty deadly melee weapon (in particular Sever), but all its conferred skills revolve around bigger group activations and bringing to battle more friendly fighters and even additional Roaming horrors.
- Uprising: After taking an enemy fighter OoA with a Fight or Coup-de-grace actions, instead of using the ’free Fight action’ (granted by the Whispering trait), this fighter can ’summon’ D3 Brood Scum Roaming horrors (D3+1 if the dawned fighter had the Gang Hierarchy(X) rule); these can enter the battle from any Table edge or a Spawn point of this fighter’s choice and will all activate immediately after this fighter ends its activation. In future rounds these ’summoned’ scums will behave like normal Cautious Roaming horrors.

4. Sump Urchin (Spine Burst Mortar)
Basically a Toxic grenade launcher, that eventually mutates it wielder into a spiky scary crustation and can spread Crawling Mines (functionally the same as Bomb Delivery Rats) all over the battlefield. Conversion wise the Barbgant’s gun or something similar to a Biovore/Pyrovore ’back-mounted’ bio-mortar would work best.
- Crawling Mines: If this fighter is part of the starting Crew for the game, they can deploy D3 Crawling Mines anywhere on the board, outside of the enemy’s Deployment zone. Additionally whenever this fighter performs a Shoot action with this weapon, they can declare they’ll deploy a new Crawling Mine, instead of shooting normally; if they do, pick a visible point on the ground that is whitin range of the weapon (same modifiers to-Hit apply as when firning a Blast template at the floor); if the mine lands/scatters into impassable terrain they detonate on impact, otherwise they are ’sucessfully’ deployed and will work exatly the same as Bomb Delivery Rats equipped with ’grenades’ that have the same stats and traits as this weapon. Any enemies Seriously injured or taken OoA by any Crawling Mines will count towards this fighter’s XP gains and this weapon’s Kill count.

5. Hungering Swarm (Fleshborer)
This ’gun’ starts off with the unimpressive profile of a Scattershot combat shotgun, but it can evolve into proper ’nightmare fuel’, by spewing swarms of flesh-burrowing parasites (Deflagrate is meant to represent the living ammunition digging deeper into the target), that can temporarily turn their victims into roaming Zombies.
- Mind Worm: Any fighter (that isn’t a Roaming Horror or NPC) taken OoA with this weapon, must take a Willpower check: if they pass, they are removed from the table as normal, but if they fail, turn them into ’Brain Leaf zombies’ (from the Book of Peril), give them an activation token and use them as Aggressive Roaming horrors (this fighter gets the XPs and Kill count for the OoAs before zombification, but these Zombies will not award any additional XPs or Kill points to anyone, if attacked/taken OoA while zombified); these Zombies will activate immediately after this fighter ends their activation, when first ’turned into zombies’; in future rounds they will behave like normal Aggressive Roaming horrors. After the battle all Zombified fighters ’regain their witts’ and roll on the injury table as normal.

6. Spyre Fall (Bio-Cannon)
The first actual Heavy gun (it has Unwieldy) in our list is effectively an Autocannon, dedicated to blowing away enemies, like they were bouling pins, thanks to Heavy Impact special and especially when targeting bigh Tough brutes, since the bigger they are the harder they fall (on other people).
Note: The ’Bring it Down’ skill (from the Ash Nomads’ skill table), allows the user to designate an enemy target as the Priority (as a Basic action) and is intended to override the Reckless trait the Whispering gun will gain after one OoA of its owner – in this case it is comparable to ’Aiming’ to single out a specific target, rather than randomising (don’t forget this weapon will unlock the Third arm GSC mutation, so the owner can Shoot the Unwieldy Bio-Cannon as a Basic action, rather than Double, leaving 1 action to designate the priority target, if they stand still).
- Heavy Impact: Any Fighter hit by one or more ’shots’ from this weapon is pushed D3’’ (D3+1’’ if the Knockback trait was triggered) directly away from the attacker. If the pushed fighter impacts terrain or another fighter increase the damage of the ’shot’ by 1; other models colliding with the pushed fighter are pinned and suffer an automatic Hit with no AP, Strenght equal to the Toughness of the pushed fighter and Damage equal to the base Wound characteristic of the pushed fighter.

 

[Heart of Storm]

So id be inclined to suggest that allowing weapon xp growth/power and character xp is double dipping in a game where exponential power growth is a problem, fortunately Chaos itself provides the answer.

Chaos touched weapons tend to be Faustian in nature, and wielding them grants immediate power at the cost of the wielders soul, or worse, so bake that into the rules.

If you equip a whispering weapon with the rules above so, your character no longer gains XP, rather the weapon now consumes all the learning the character might have gained to fuel it's own daemonic purpose. You then follow the kills mechanic for the weapon.

Add in a rule that the weapon can never be discarded and has to be included on all the models weapon loadouts and you have a trade-off mechanic.

 

[Baffo]

So id be inclined to suggest that allowing weapon xp growth/power and character xp is double dipping in a game where exponential power growth is a problem, fortunately Chaos itself provides the answer.

Chaos touched weapons tend to be Faustian in nature, and wielding them grants immediate power at the cost of the wielders soul, or worse, so bake that into the rules.

If you equip a whispering weapon with the rules above so, your character no longer gains XP, rather the weapon now consumes all the learning the character might have gained to fuel it's own daemonic purpose. You then follow the kills mechanic for the weapon.

Add in a rule that the weapon can never be discarded and has to be included on all the models weapon loadouts and you have a trade-off mechanic.

I can see your concerns about 'fast power growth', but I feel like the current drawbacks of the Whispering trait are already severe enough to justify it.

The 'can't ever discard/unequip' the weapon (can't even be Disarmed by enemies) and it 'must be included on all equipment sets of the fighter' is already part of the Whispering trait, as presented in the Apocrypha: The Coveted Chache.
The main Risk/Draw-back of Whispering is that for every Out-Of-Action the weapon wielder suffers, they gain a 'handicap': Reckless on all weapons carried after 1st OoA, +1 Str of the weapon for 2nd OoA, Insanity after 3rd OoA and they permanently DIE after going OoAs 4 times (or in the case of my Chaos/GSC weapons, they devolve into Spawn/Coalescence, changing their stat-lines and losing all their XP progress) - to me that seems like a pretty major drawback, especially when imposed on the Leader of the gang.

My idea was to have these Evolving weapons be the 'final Prize' for gang leaders successfully completing an Underhells incursion/mini campaign, leading to their Chaos/GSC corruption, so they should feel special/interesting enough to go trough the hassle/risk of getting and using them. To be honest I expect the majority of Evolving weapon users to permanently die or devolve into spawns during the next phase of the campaign and if any of them were to survive long enough to fully evolve their Whispering weapon, I'd freeze their advancements (they'd probably be at the upper limit of stat profiles by then anyway), turn them into a 'Drammatis personae/gang Agent' in our living setting and retire them from normal campaign games (keep them for special narrative games).

 

[Baffo]

So far we have focused on Chaos and Gene-Stealer themed Whispering weapons, since they are the easiest to justify in lore and we ’conveniently’ have in-game mechanics for Chaos/GSC corruption, but the Vaults of Temenos expansion brought us imperial/sanctic ’corruption’, in the form of Crusading gangs dedicated to one of the 6 Saints of Necromunda, so lets work with that...

Imperial Creed:
As you might expect for ’holy/blessed weapons’ I used Sisters of Battle and Cawdor/Redemption as my main reference/inspiration for this set of Evolving Whispering weapons, but I also tried keeping in mind how they might interact with the Saints’ benefits (some have very obvious synergy with specific saints).

Note: Once the gang obtains one of these weapons, they automatically become a Crusading gang (must choose one of the 6 Saints to follow) and the leader (weilder of the ’holy weapon’) becomes the Conduit (meaning they become an Unsationed Psyker and can choose one power from the Manifestation table on p.53 of Arantian Succession – Vaults of Temenos).

In broad terms these ’saintly weapons’ mirror the Chaos/GSC themed sets, but I tried giving them enough of a twist to still have a distict ’character’...

1. Emperor’s Mercy (Great Sword/Eviscerator)
For our Heavy 2-handed melee weapon ’archetype’ I went with the iconic sister Repentias’ Eviscerator, with a slightly ’less killy’ set of aquired skills than Khorne’s Skulltaker (which is probably overkill, to be honest), but a bit more resilience/counter-punch (Unshakeable conviction) and general hatred of all Mutants, Chaos followers and GSC, with Purge the Unclean...
- Purge the Unclean: When resolving Melee attacks against fighters with any Mutations, Wyrd powers or devoted to either Chaos or Gene Stealer cults, this fighter may re-roll any 1s to-Hit and 1s to-Wound. Additionally, for each enemy fighter taken OoA, this fighter gains a bonus +1 to their Willpower rolls (max to Will 3+, so double 1s still fail) until the end of the battle.

2. Shame & Guilt (Paired Archo-Flails/Whips)
Now as the Paired melee weapon of this set I had to go with the Archo-Flagellant power flails/whips and focused on the ’self-flagellation for salvation’ theme with Repentance (Iron man and Unstoppable are there partly to represent the Resilience/Pain-tolerance of a fanatic that self harms on a regular basis and partly to make the risky Repentance mechanic work without killing the wielder).
- Repentance: At the start of their activation, before declaring any actions, this fighter can choose to suffer one Flesh wound to gain a bonus +D3 to their Movement, Strength and Willpower stats (roll separately for each stat); this bonus lasts until the start of their next activation.

3. Last Rite (Ceremonial Knife)
So, one of the 6 saints is Shanks, saint of Knives, so obviously this Whispering Knife would work best for a Crusading gang devoted to Shanks (I was tempted to name it Shanks’ Last Rite); that said this is the most Psyker focused entry in this set (deadly to enemy Wyrds, while buffing the owner’s ability to manifest their own ’holy’ powers).
- Epitaph: After taking an enemy fighter OoA with a Melee attack or Coup-de-Grace, instead of using the ’free Fight action’ (granted by the Whispering trait), this fighter can choose to manifest any one of its Wyrd powers as a free action; if the dawned enemy was a Psyker, you can choose to manifest one of their Wyrd powers as a free action instead.

4. Light Bringer (Relic Meltagun)
Like for the Chaos undivided set, the heavy duty ranged weapon is a Meltagun, but rather than Impaling multiple targets in a row and ’exploding’ them to Gunk bystanders, the Light bringer can evolve to have Rapid fire (1) and turns the enemy’s smouldering bodies into ’Flares’ that reveal and dazzle any fighters caught in the Afterglow. Since this is one of the few Scarce Evolving weapons, it would work best with Calibre, lord of Bullets, for the ’remove Scarce/gain Plentiful’ benefit on the Conduit (especially until you gain the Weaponsmith skill advancement on the evolution track).
- Afterglow: After taking an enemy fighter OoA with this weapon, center a 5’’ Blast template with the Flare trait on them, before removing them from the table; this Flare remains on the table until the start of the next round (so it might affect Rally tests). In addition to becoming Revealed, while within the Afterglow blast any enemy models suffer a -1 penalty to all their to-Hit rolls, Cool and Willpower checks, while friendly models gain a bonus +1 to all their to-Hit rolls, Cool and Willpower checks, while within the Afterglow.

5. Witches’ Pyre (Firepike)
Essentially a ’Napalm thrower’ (Gunk and Deflagrate) with a ’long history’ of being used to burn Wyrds at the stake and quickly spreading its purifying flames on anything nearby (due to Flame Burst), to cleanse any lingering taint and corruption. Since this is the Flamethrower of the set it synergises best with the Fire-based saint Glurg, for the Blaze immunity the Conduit gains and even the ’+1 Str Blaze, but Unstable’ benefit, once you gain the Dependable like Kin skill (I wouldn’t dare having Unstable on a leader without it).
- Flame Burst: Whenever this fighter takes an enemy OoA (either at range or in melee), take a Willpower check and if passed, this fighter can choose to have the dawned enemy burst into flames, before being removed from the table; when that happens, any models within D3’’ of the ’bursting fighter’ are Pinned (as if from a ranged attack) and suffer an automatic Str 3, D1, AP- hit with the Blaze trait. If the dawned fighter was a Psyker, the resulting Flame Burst becomes range 2+D3’’, Str 5, D1, AP-1 hit with the Gunk and Blaze traits instead.

6. Hard Bargain (Shotgun)
This is a rather impressive Scattershot shotgun, but its theme/conferred skills focus more on trade/income (Savvy Trader and Asset Aquisition) and is therefore meant to synergise best with the ’economy themed’ saints: Cognus, saint of Quotas and Gelt, saint of Coins.
- Asset Aquisition: Whenever this fighter takes an enemy OoA (either at range or in melee), take an Intelligence check and if passed, this fighter can choose to have the dawned enemy drop a Loot casket in base contact with them, before being removed from the table. Additionally, whenever this fighter is testing to open a Loot casket or determinating its contents, they gain a +2 bonus to all die rolls related to it (including rolls for credit generation).


Finally I have some ideas for Evolving weapons of Xenos origin (Eldar, Tau, Necron, Votann, maybe even Ork?), that are very much Illegal, but don’t necessarily corrupt the gang, just make them into Outlaws (if they weren’t already); that said I haven’t really nailed these down yet, so we’ll leave them for a future update.

 

[Baffo]

So, as I mentioned at the end of the last post, I’ve been brainstorming Whispering weapons of Xenos origin, other than Gene stealer/Tyrannid, but I found it challenging to come up with weapon ideas, that weren’t just re-skinned copies of earlier whispering weapons... Now, that may be fine from a ’game balance’ point of view, but we all know Necromunda isn’t really about ’balance’, rather it is more about ’flavour’ and ’narrative’. With that in mind I decided to go a bit more wacky/cartoony with this batch, meaning Ork weapons!!!

That said, from a game rules perspective, these Whispering weapons are illegal Xenos artefacts and can’t be used by Chaos/GSC corrupted or Crusading gangs: the user gets influenced by ork ’Mob-mentality/spirit of the Waaagh!’, which would interfere with other ’faiths’; in practical terms if your gang is unaligned, picking up and using one of these weapons will at most turn your gang to Outlaws (if they weren’t that already). If we ever get some form of Ork/Tribal alignment/corruption in the game, I will likely link it to these (or if there is any interest, we might write up this new flavour of gang corruption ourselves).

Waaagh!!!:
These are Orky weapons. How did they get on Necromunda and why do they ’influence/infect’ their users and evolve? Well these could be ’samples for study’ by adeptus mechanicus or inquisitorial agents (much like the GSC weapons from before), remains found in a crashed ork/cold trader ship, that made planet fall after being blown from orbit by the planet’s defence systems, or any number of minor variations of the above mentioned ’story-lines’. As to why are they ’whispering/possessed’ items, we can just write it off as ’the power of Imagination’, typical of Ork lore/memes.

1. Red Rokkit (Tankbusta’s Hammer)
This is a Rocket propelled 2-handed hammer, meant to ’Hulk smash’ (think Space Marine 2’s Jump-pack marine with Thunder hammer, if you need a visual) its targets and knock down anyone else in the impact radius.
- Rokkit-Blast: Once per game Round, when resolving a Fight action, this fighter may elect to trade all its ’normal’ attacks for a single Rokkit-Blast attack; if they do, place a 5’’ Blast template touching this fighter’s base, in their front arc and make a ’melee attack’ roll: if failed the attack has no effect (it’s a ’dud’), if successful all models within the template (excluding the wielder of this weapon) suffer an automatic hit from this weapon (basically this fighter gets one ’full’ melee hit on each fighter in the blast); resolve it as if it was a Ranged Blast weapon (in regards of skills/rules to avoid/mitigate ranged damage/pinning).

2. Mob Rulz (Nob’s Choppa)
The ’classic’ Ork Nob’s Choppa is a fairly ’average’ melee Whispering weapon, but its main draw is the ability to call a Waaagh, for the free Out-of-Turn actions and buffs it provides to the rest of the gang’s fighters, making it a prime choice for more hordy gangs like Cawdor and Outcasts.
- Waaagh!!!: Once per game Round, after taking an enemy fighter OoA with a Melee attack or Coup-de-Grace, instead of using the ’free Fight action’ (granted by the Whispering trait), this fighter can choose to call a Waaagh: all friendly fighters (including the wielder of this weapon) within 6’’+1’’ for each enemy taken OoA by this model this battle (max 6), can immediately make a free Stand-up, Move, Shoot or Fight action (the controller chooses the order and each affected fighter can choose different actions); additionally affected fighters gain +2’’ of Movement and +1 to-Hit, while resolving the actions resulting from Waaagh!!!

3. Shoutin Skull (Wyrdboi’ Staff)
Basically an animated Ork skull on top of a crooked staff, that is an anti-Psycher melee weapon as well as unlocking/buffing the user’s wyrd powers with all its conferred skills, especially Extra Wyrd, which allows them to mix-and-match Wyrd powers from multiple disciplines, while keeping the Special ability from their dominant discipline (meaning they are encouraged to be a Wyrd powers hoarder), as well as learning additional wyrd powers from defeted enemy psykers.
- Extra Wyrd: This fighter can maintain up to 2 Continuos wyrd powers or keep maintaing 1 Continuos power, while casting other wyrd powers. This fighter also keeps the Special ability from their dominant discipline (the one they know the most powers from; if tied the user chooses which is the dominant one), even if they have additional powers from other disciplines (doesn’t need to stick to one wyrd discipline). Additionally, if this fighter takes OoA an enemy Psyker with a Melee attack or Coup-de-Grace, instead of using the ’free Fight action’ (granted by the Whispering trait), this fighter can try to ’learn’ a new power: to do so make a Willpower check and if passed, this fighter permanently gains one of the Wyrd powers known by the downed enemy psyker, determined at random (count only powers unknown to this fighter).

4. R.N.Geezus (Bubblechukka)
This is entirely for the gambling maniacs! As the name suggests this weapon fully embraces RNG and requires nerves of steel to weild, since until it unlocks ’Dependable like Kin’, it will be subject to the Unstable trait, which is terrifying, but it should also provide plenty of whacky and memorable situations and anecdotes, especially once it unlocks the ’Surprise!!!’ advancement...
Note: When firing this weapon roll separately for each of its ’random’ stats, after declaring its primary target.
- Surprise!!!: When firing this weapon, before declaring any target, roll a D6 to determinate which additional trait this weapon will gain for the attack: 1-Radphage, 2-Blaze, 3-Cursed, 4-Seismic, 5-Rending, 6-Deflagrate.

5. Littl’ Friend (Shotgun/Blunderbuss)
This ’shotgun’ fires a devastating ’scattershot template’ that will likely obliterate anything in front of it, but needs to be reloaded after every shot.
- Say ’Hello’!: Any Fighter hit by this template must immediately make a Strength check; if failed they are pushed directly away from the shooter by D3’’+1’’ for each Enemy this model took OoA this battle (max +5); if multiple fighters are affected, make the Strength tests and resolve the pushes going from closest to furthest, or if 2 are equidistant, the shooter chooses. Fighters that during this push impact terrain or other fighters suffer +1 on the ’Scattershot roll’ trait from the Template, while other fighters impacted are Pinned and suffer an automatic hit with Strength equal to the distance of the push and Damage equal to the Wound characteristic of the fighter that impacted into them.

6. Ere We Go! (Shokkjump Gun)
This is effectively a Lacannon that teleports its user ’into’ the victim: a very showy/fast ’mode of transportation’ for strong balanced (ranged-melee ability) leaders, that want to constantly jump around the field in style.
- Tellyporta: After taking an enemy fighter OoA with this weapon, but before removing them from the table, make a Willpower check: if passed center a 5’’ Blast with the Flash trait on the downed fighter, then resolve any hits on other fighters caught in the Flash and finally replace the downed enemy with the wielder of this weapon; if the wielder has any action points remaining, they can continue with their activation, but they can’t teleport more than once per Game round.

What do you think? Anyway, so far we've covered Chaos and GSC corrupting weapons, blessed imperial faith weapons and plain illegal xenos weapons, so I guess we need some 'plain Lawful' whispering weapons to round out our 'collection'.