Good Games Rockingham Campaign (Perth, Western Australia)

[Drhoz]

We've been at it for the better part of the year now, and it's been a lot of fun. I imagine that our Ratskin player had an especially enjoyable time tonight, since he won his first game in the entire campaign >

The mission was an assassination, but despite an excellent start and every advantage he STILL managed to nearly screw the pooch.

His ranged specialists managed to pick off my leader as she realised something was up and ran to cover - but failed to wound her. He managed to pass the tests to shoot her even as she was surrounded by her gang, but failed to take her out of action. He had the Shaman's astral attack, and would have auto-killed her but failed to get the psychic ability off. His combat monster managed to hack through three of her bodyguards, but got taken out by the fourth. He MANAGED to get the spell off - but I had the Lucky Escape card. In the end it was dumb luck in the recovery phase that took my leader out of action, to his relief and the genuine cheers from all the players that were there tonight.

 

[Drhoz]

The season season campaign at the shop ended yesterday, in a 7 hour game in which all the gangs joined forces to take on the cause of the all the problems we've been having, including the ever-worsening zombie problem - this bastard, his giant undead rat god, and his army of ratskins.

To say we were at a disadvantage was an understatement, given the ratskins had been planting the parasitic Brainleaf all around their encampment, they had endless reinforcement of more Ratskins, as well as zombie hordes, and it was all open ground along the middle of the table, and it was pitch black so our gangs had no long-range support and regularly fell flat on our faces trying to run across no-man’s land in the dark, but the ratskins could ignore all these problems and also had freaking cannons.

The ratskin gang that played in our campaign, the Odonqua Renegades, actually sided with us for the battle - which the rest of us thought naturally proved that Ratskins are treacherous ratfuggers who should never be trusted. After all, they sided with us.

After 7 hours we’d managed to get about halfway across the table, before our assault collapsed through brutal attrition. At least the Ononqua Renegades managed to deal with the Caller and the Old One, decapitating both after one of my Eschers had gummed the rat god’s jaws shut with a Web Pistol. Possibly the mad prophet shouldn’t have come over to deal with the Renegades in person, or tried to fight under the very gaze of on of the God-Emperor’s very own Angels of Death (or a statue thereof, at least).

I’ll close with the Renegades’ post to the Facebook group -

Chief Whuckamuck gripped the bullet wound in his arm, limping away from the darkened battlefield, listening to the explosions and screams as the guilders and their heavy support moved in. In his injured hand, he weakly gripped his trophy, which dragged against the dusty ground.

The skull of an old god.

He smiled. Soon, they would bury these remains, allowing the tortured, corrupted spirit to return to the earth to heal once again.​

 

[Drhoz]

 

[Drhoz]

OK, new campaign is open - Good Games Rockingham - Long Drop, and has its first gang, the Legitimate Businessmen's Social Club (Delaques, of course). By the looks of things we're also going to have Spyrers, Redemptionists, and Enforcers. Fun Times for Long Drop.

Long Drop is a large and prosperous collection of settlements high in the Underhive, just below The Wall. They even have running water that's actually drinkable, sometimes. They cluster at the top of a gigantic access shaft that the Guilders uses to trade up and down the depths of the hive (and kilometers below is the settlement of Arse End).

Caravans and traders are moving through Long Drop constantly, and goods from uphive are in frequent supply. As a result, all Rare Trade phases get an extra roll free. On the other hand, a prosperous area with so much money trading hands, and even has occasional hunting parties from the Upper Hive, is also crawling with Enforcers, who may show up whenever the shooting starts. After anybody uses a heavy weapon or grenade, roll 2d6 each round. On a 12, the pigs show up, to shoot or subdue everybody involved.

Reporting rival gangs to the authorities is encouraged.

 

[Ptrix]

Like how you've used some vegetation pieces of terrain. It's something I've bee discussing with @Llewy at length recently, and am keen to get started on making a few pieces myself.

 

[Drhoz]

The Ozone Press - 4th of Thermidor, M41.016, probably (does anybody even keep track of this anymore? - Inquiring Editors Want To Know)

+++

Times they are a'changing in here in Long Drop, and the township's premier and only newspaper is here to keep you informed! News from Uphive includes the celebrity wedding of Magritte Ulanti to Donold Tawhaki, 4th in line in the Tawhaki Rogue Trader lineage, but none of you gives a rat's arse about that, do you? Down here under the Wall you're more interested in where you next meal is coming from, rather than what colour spider eyes Magritte had sown into her dress (The Guilders are paying a premium for cobalt blue, incidentally).

But any of you new gangs that have come up from Arse End are going to be much more interested in the goings-on out at E Pipe, where our GOOD friends from House Cawdor had a run in with some kind of giant mutant spider with laser eyes, and discovered that the light of faith isn't much good when the actual lights are out. This paper is reliably informed that Bishop Fryorov is now to be known as Bishop Stumpy, assuming he even gets to maintain this position after whatever religious schism gets up the Redemptionist's arse this week (Any complaints from the cult or House Cawdor may be directed to this office - you'll find us between the Guilder's Hall and the Enforcer's Barracks on the Haem Arterial).

We are further informed that some of the cultists managed to blow themselves up, after they went to proselytise at the Legitimate Businessmen's Social Club. It's almost as if somebody sold them dodgy ammo. We wonder who that could have been? Or maybe they should just stop using promethium as hair gel.

+++

Sponsored Ad : Cheap Ammo, All Stock Must Go - This Week Only! - Discounts for the Faithful! See Nervous Rex Behind The Bucket Shop

+++

(Campaign Event - Discontentment continues. Take on the Legitimate Businessmen, for example, for a stab at all their Archeotech Hordes or Guild Contacts)

 

[Strobe]

Ah, this sounds like a lovely campaign. Pity I live on the east coast... way past Arse End.

 

[Drhoz]

Two tables going last night - three quick games of Spyrers vs. Delaque, and one three-way battle between rival Redemptionists and Ogryns. Long Drop has plenty of Ogryns to operate the cranes that lower trade caravans down the shaft. The amount of carnage so far has been incredible, and the added trouble one of the Event Cards caused on the big table didn't help - as Muskie put it

One day, the Iron Martyrs decided to raid a work camp where some dirty dirty mutant scum lived, to purge them from the hive.

Alas, the Crusade of the Holy Smite, who were heretic sinners who did not cleanse their impure hair with the blessed Prometheum, thought the same.

While Brothers Alexei and Vladislav were tasked with slaying the heretics, Our exalted Deacon Nikulin slew one of the mutant beasts with his blessed Eviscerator!

Then along came a Genestealer.

The End.
​

Questions did arise regarding what happens when a Bishop gets Captured by a genestealer, but either way this was not the kind of campaign I had in mind when I set it in one of the semi-civilised areas of the Underhive.

 

[Drhoz]

Crator and the rest of his squad were ready for a fight, when they got to the ruined hab-blocks. What they found was a dozen young, shaven-headed men and women, armed and tense, standing around a bound woman, who was swearing bloody vengeance on them and their entire line if they didn't untie her right now.

Crator holstered his gun, and the rest of the enforcers did the same. "Evening, Jimi. What have you got here?"

The Delaque businessman nodded to the enforcer, and at the captive. "Trouble. Big trouble."

Crator took in the slick bodysuit, the mirror-bright buckler, and the gleaming sword with an edge like polished glass. His eyes narrowed and a tremor of something like fear trickled down his spine.

"Frak. Spyrers."

"Yeah."

The gangers and enforcers stood silent for a long while, glancing thoughtfully at each other, as the woman continued her tirade. The noble accent was obvious, when you paused to listen. "How'd you get her?"

"We got lucky - Herc spotted a ratfucker getting ready to bushwhack Ames and the kids. But it wasn't just him - he'd helped the nobs find us. They got Dmitri."

Crator winced. "Damn shame."

"Yeah. I think one of them got messed up by a rat. Sounded like a rat, anyway."

"Yeah? Lucky."

"Yeah. Lucky."

There was another long pause.

"So, ransom her back to her House or let the cits lynch her outside the Guild Hall?"

The killer from up-hive went silent. Maybe it was dawning on her that the scum of the Underhive had no reason to think kindly of her or her kin. And no reason not to exact a bloody retribution on her and all her kind.

"Killed her with a lucky shot. Can you get her back to that block behind the Bucket Shop, without anybody knowing she's alive? Let Maven know I sent you."

"Sure thing Jimi. Reckon she'll tell us how she got down here, and who she's with?"

The Delaque shrugged. "Maybe. Eventually? Still got the rest of them to deal with, though." He looked out over the cobwebbed ruins - hundreds of buildings, abandoned and polluted with the constant effluent from the Manufactorums. "I think we can track them down - and there's more of us than there are of you."

Crator and Jimi exchanged a long, unhappy, look. They both knew the Spyrers had weapons and gear as good as any archeotech the Underhivers ever dug up. And they had generations of experience in hunting, stalking, and ambushing people like the Delaque and the enforcer.

"You sure about this?"

"No. But we need to find out where they're holed up."

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

"See you around, Jimi."

"Hope so, Mack."


***
Throne, it hurt. The pain was everything, blocking out everything, burning agony consuming everything but the woman's voice as they flayed the skin from Jimi's hands, arms and torso, where he hung between the pillars of the shrine and his captors took him apart, piece by piece.

"You need to learn your place, vermin. And you need to learn that nobody touches the nobles of Necromunda and gets away with it."

 

[Drhoz]

KILLERS IN THE UNDERHIVE

PSYCHO NOBLE BASTARDS HUNTING INNOCENTS FOR SPORT

CURFEWS IN FORCE

REWARDS OFFERED​

Bad news for the people of Long Drop, and worse news for the Legitimate Businessmen's Social Club, who lost their chairman Jimi Bond, and members Ames Aldrich and Dmitri Polyakov to the murderers.

Joe Crator of the Long Drop authorities has urged all citizens to stay indoors at night, and not to travel unarmed, or in groups of less than ten.

A memorial service for the dead will be held this evening at the Louse and Rivet on Crust Street.

***

In probably unrelated news, a number of cultists attempted to burn down the lye plant on Level Four, apparently because they hired ogryns for heavy lifting. We can happily report that the ogryns, as the big-hearted and beloved citizens they are, kicked seven kinds of shit out of the Redemptionists. It probably helped that the Redemptionists in question seemed more interested in setting each other on fire, than the building or our abhuman buddies.

Our local expert on religious affairs, Desmond Snodgrass, was approached for his opinion.

"It's all down to how they use Promethium, you see. Ftang. The Iron Martyrs think that using promethium as hair product is an insult to the God-Emperor, since it can be better used for burning Heretics. Ftang. The Church of the Holy Smite think that setting your own head on fire is a blessed sign of your righteous rage and fury of purpose. Ftang. Or is it the other way around?"

Well, either way we can all hope the cultists spend the next few weeks setting each other on fire instead of anything else, amirite?

***

REWARD OFFERED

Spyrers delivered alive to the Legitimate Businessmen's Club - With Two Broken Legs - Free Drinks For Life. Intact - Nothing.

 

[Drhoz]

 

[Drhoz]

Given that the campaign has two lots of Redemptionists, two Ogryn Brute Squads, Spyrers, Enforcers, a single Delaque gang and a local paper that is openly critical of the god-botherers, it's obvious what the end-of-campaign special event should be - The Redemptionists decide that Long Drop is obviously irredeemably corrupt, and join forces with any Cawdor sympathisers to burn the entire place to the ground.

Scenario idea would be the cultists, and torch-wielding mobs, trying to set every building on the table on fire, while the Enforcers, Ogryns, and Delaques try to stop them (If the Spyrers haven't gone home by then, perhaps the 'innocent visiting nobles' got caught in the crossfire). Possibly the mobs will be unbreakable as long as there is a Bishop within 12 inches. Any further suggestions, especially for victory conditions, and picking a winning gang for the scenario?

 

[CaptainDangerous]

wedding of Magritte Ulanti to Donold Tawhaki, 4th in line in the Tawhaki Rogue Trader lineage

Hey! I was at that wedding! And have any of your gangs heard of 'The Captain's Own', prometium hair shampoo and mutant ignition conditioner? I think it'll meet all the zealots needs!
More seriously though, brilliant write up! Really loving all the details, (poor jimi) but the sense of fun you are all having totally comes across! I really can't wait to see the outcome of the coming battle! This is my idea for it:
Set up 6 objective markers, preferably barrels of prometium, preferably in buildings, preferably set up in neutral space, and if the redemptionists get to and hold any of the objective for an entire turn (the defenders turn, not their own), they manage to ignite the building it was in! If they set one, two, or no fires the defenders win and the crusade was a failure, if they manage to get three or four fires ablaze the crusade wins but the town still stands and the townsfolk of Longdrop start rebuilding their lives, if five barrels are taken alight the crusade is a complete success and it'll be along time and a lot of rebuilding before the guilders return (you can only roll on the outlaw trade chart), and if all objectives are expunged in holy flame, then long drop is razed to the ground and the mad men of the redemption claim it in the name of the holy emperor in all his purity! (All gangs, or what will be left of them, scrub out all territories and roll five new ones!)
As they are defending their homes, families and livelihoods, the defenders cannot voluntarily bottle out, the redemptionists, alongside your bishop rule, have been worked up into afrenzy and truly believe that what they are doing is in the emperors name, and so will only bottle once 75% of their number is down, or that all bishops have been taken out of action, or that all holy flames have been lit!

Hope this helps some

And really love the new terrain, Really looks the business!!

 

[Drhoz]

Hey! I was at that wedding! And have any of your gangs heard of 'The Captain's Own', prometium hair shampoo and mutant ignition conditioner? I think it'll meet all the zealots needs!
More seriously though, brilliant write up! Really loving all the details, (poor jimi) but the sense of fun you are all having totally comes across! I really can't wait to see the outcome of the coming battle! This is my idea for it:
Set up 6 objective markers, preferably barrels of prometium, preferably in buildings, preferably set up in neutral space, and if the redemptionists get to and hold any of the objective for an entire turn (the defenders turn, not their own), they manage to ignite the building it was in! If they set one, two, or no fires the defenders win and the crusade was a failure, if they manage to get three or four fires ablaze the crusade wins but the town still stands and the townsfolk of Longdrop start rebuilding their lives, if five barrels are taken alight the crusade is a complete success and it'll be along time and a lot of rebuilding before the guilders return (you can only roll on the outlaw trade chart), and if all objectives are expunged in holy flame, then long drop is razed to the ground and the mad men of the redemption claim it in the name of the holy emperor in all his purity! (All gangs, or what will be left of them, scrub out all territories and roll five new ones!)
As they are defending their homes, families and livelihoods, the defenders cannot voluntarily bottle out, the redemptionists, alongside your bishop rule, have been worked up into afrenzy and truly believe that what they are doing is in the emperors name, and so will only bottle once 75% of their number is down, or that all bishops have been taken out of action, or that all holy flames have been lit!

Hope this helps some

And really love the new terrain, Really looks the business!!

Thanks - the campaign will be running for a few months yet- plenty of time for the cultists to buy more flamers - but I also wanted to include a mechanic for whatever flame weapons the cultists have - obviously, it would be easier for the guy with the heavy flamer to set a building on fire, then it would be even if a bunch of Cawdors run in with flaming torches and Molotovs. So perhaps they'd need to roll a dice for each attempt to ignite the building, and add the strength of the weapon - Molotovs and torches would by S3, Heavy flamers of course higher. And the building goes up if the total is a 9 - so it would best if a half-dozen cultists run in with torches, to increase the odds of the building going up. Whereas the heavy flamer could do it half the time.

 

[spafe]

Sounds like a great campaign so far.

Could I suggest if you want a mid term pause... there is a old campaign linked games, where the gangs are trying to escape a hive or zombie flood or something, so its like 4 linked games where folk who are left behind are dead, no resupply in between etc, and then they get to some new town and get new territory. If you wanted to do your big crusade game sooner, then have that as an option if the town is lsot, that could create some interesting stories.

Either way... keep it up, looks epic! Any chance of some pics of the gangs?

 

[Drhoz]

most of them are unpainted, but I'll start putting together a gallery

 

[Drhoz]

Aramis's write-up of recent events - looks like 'Bishop Stumpy' is going to need a new nickname in the gang gossip.


Fryorov's teeth bore down upon the thick roll of leather, as the settlement medic's las-scalpel cut through the flesh of his leg. He stared at the Bionic leg beside it for a moment, ready to be installed. He was assured it was Mechanicus Standard issue, wholly blessed by the Omnissiah himself. He hardly believed that, but he made sure it did not have any hidden "extras" installed, before blessing the object himself into a holy relic.

Another cut, another flash of pain as the las-scalpel tore through his flesh and bone slowly and without any heretical "anesthetics". the pain was pure, the pain was glorious.

He thought of the last week or so. Yet more of these Heretic groups picking off his flock like Fenrisian Wolves. Delaques. Spryers. Even the Hive itself, attacking them with hordes of winged creatures.

But they have survived. many injured, but all having their faith, and power, bolstered by it. He glanced to his left, at the blueprints for their secret holy weapon that would burn this heresy down once and for all..

Soon, now. Soon.

 

[Drhoz]

"And this is where we grow the basic food blocks." said the Delaque, as he gestured over the bubbling vats of virulently green algae.

"How delightfully rustic!" replied the visiting Ulanti noble.

Hari and Hercules exchanged a baffled glance at each other, behind the group. Rustic? RustING, sure. They settled back into character, with some difficulty. It's not that the gaggle of up-hive gits were a problem, per se - they were flinging money around with gay abandon, for one thing - but if their flying baby-thing sprayed them with disinfectant one more time they'd take its thurible and shove it up its cybernetic arse.

"Ah... yessir." said the erstwhile tour leader. "Anyway - after the hunting trip to Carrion Bat Chasm, we've arranged something special for you -"

***

"What did she do, precisely?" asked Mercer Ulanti, as they took they positions on the viewing platform, above the condemned prisoner.

"Murdered three of the workers. Butchered the poor souls." Crator always found it easiest to tell the truth when he was lying to his superiors. The Spyrer had certainly killed people, and the Legitimate Businessmen's Club certainly worked hard in their own field. He wasn't worried that Ulanti would recognise the Spyrer - she was mostly unrecognizable after Maven had finished the interrogation, and the gag, chains, and distance would cover the rest.

"Surely she'd be more useful converted into a servitor?"

Crator shrugged, politely "I'm sure she would be, sir, up-hive. But the cogboys - er, that is, the techpriests - tell me they can't get the parts in this week. And executing the unrepentant like this is justice, you see? Gives them time to consider the weight of their sins."

"I see. And what do the settlements at the other end of the shaft think of it?"

"Well, sir, they keep the open parts clear as a matter of course, in case of accidents when we are lowering caravans and goods, but I believe they've taken to setting up stakes underneath the platform, and take bets on which one the prisoner lands on."

Ulanti raised an eyebrow. "How droll."

***

Hari finished tying the rest of the flares around the spyrer's neck.

"I guess your friends aren't going to come rescue you, then. We thought they might, but then you spyrers don't really have friends, do you? Not like us down here in the underhive. Friends look out for you. Friends watch your back." She lifted the stimpak, and slid the needle into the woman's neck. "You'll enjoy this - the doc said it'll speed up your perception fifty-fold or so. Ain't combat drugs a wonderful thing? Fatal overdose, sure, but that's not going to be a problem, is it?"

Hari paused for a moment, swallowing down her rage, and grief.

"Jimi was my friend. And you spyrers, you fucking nobles, you hunt us like fucking rats. Is that fun, bitch? Coming down here into the Underhive? Then you'll be pleased to know you're going a lot further down."

She lit the fuses on the magnesium flares, and turned and waved a fist to the Ogryns, who swung the crane's tip out over the Drop. The spryer swung at the end of the chain, eyes bulging, convulsing, as the drugs and the flames took hold.

***

Crator handed the hook release remote to Ulanti.

"If you'd care to do the honours, your lordship?"

They watched the blazing figure fall, all three kilometers down.

 

[spafe]

Delightfully cruel. Do I spot references/ideas from the new judge film in there too? I approve of such 'justice' being meted out in truly ironic fashion.

 

[Drhoz]

Delightfully cruel. Do I spot references/ideas from the new judge film in there too? I approve of such 'justice' being meted out in truly ironic fashion.

Yeah, I realised I was cribbing from the more recent DREDD movie after I'd come up with a way to combine the captured Spyrer, the dodgy goings-on in Long Drop, and the Safari! campaign event, but what the hell - it was an excellent adaptation of the comic and it's a shame it wasn't more successful in the box office.