N18 Linear Gang-based Campaign ideas (or: extra narrative campaigns goals)

[CaptnM]

Taken straight from new Killteam 2.0 's narrative play and Warcry's Campaign paths, I am pondering whether this sort of campaign style would work also well in Necromunda to add some narrative depth to each gang's individual progress.

Granted, Necromunda Campaigns
- are based on the conflicts between the Clan Houses, between Law and Misrule and between Order and Chaos.
- are the most resource-management intensive campaigns to date by GW (manage your Gangs, their sources of income, reputation, manage Gangers, their Xp, their equipment, their allies, hangers-on,...)...

and in fact, thrive on these mechanics, and narratives can easily emerge from these games, mostly developing grudges and enemities between gangs on their way to the top, gaining an alliance or changing it when they're outlawed or pardoned.
In some cases, the narrative would mainly be centred around the conflict between one or two gangs iconic to their respective cause (look at Dark Uprising to see what I mean), and honestly, this might turn out a bit bland.

So as an extra layer in your average Dominion / Law & Misrule / Uprising campaign, there could be a little more for players willing to craft their own story, and which 'd reward players in different ways .

The most basic mission outlines would be
- Bring glory to your house (or House Helmawr in case of Enforcers) by conquering a number of house-themed territories / rackets.
- Fulfil a mission for your patrons (Cults, Venators) by CLASSIFIED
- Capture X gangers of each gang and sell them to the Guilders, sacrifice them to your patrons or return them to their original owners for cheap (Genestealers - of you did infect them first )

Also, I will consider looking into the narrative play Spec Ops from KT 2.0 to see if there are more ideas to harvest for some extra fun downhive.

 

[almic85]

I’m currently running a narrative dominion campaign where I have asked each of the players to come up with their own campaign win condition.

Once the campaign is over I will share some of the narrative books and actual game conditions but I don’t want to put them up while the campaign is still running.

 

[CaptnM]

Good idea, keeping it secret.
E.g. if you play an Inquisition-themed Venator gang, and no other gang is openly heretic (no cults, no corrupted) in the campaign, your goal could be to win one game against each other gang and take an enemy prisoner to interrogate them (bonus pts for leaders & champs).

Such more or less secret goals would allow them to follow the narrative of their story campaign, rather than gunning for the territories or rackets that yield them the most profit. E.g. in a Dominion campaign, instead of going for territories that grant you enhanced boons, you 'd have an incentive to play other games more often - picking fame over gain, so to speak.

And in some cases it can also be possible to combine both goals (gain and fame).

Still thinking about how it could be implemented.

• Spec Ops in KT 2 reward a team after completing 2 operations (1~ winning X games or scoring X VP from certain TacOps, then fulfilling a given TacOp om another game), extending to a minium of 5-6 games to complete it.
• Warcry has the convocations where you need to play and win a certain game to progress.
• Both offer different options but the goal shouldn't be too distracting from the main campaign.

... and what the reward would be.

• One piece of rare wargear (Imperial / Xenos / Corrupted)
• Choose an appropriate skill for free for your leader or champion
• Unlock a new Skill set as secondary?
• Free alliance
• making an existing alliance a strong one`?
• Custom territory
• Allow extra Hangers On?
• For Chaos / Genestealers / Corrupted: Option to add one extra restricted fighter (Psyker, Aberrant or Chaos Spawn - too much?)
• For Venators: Gain a house legacy for free (a house "adopts" your leader for the good job they did.

 

[almic85]

There are a variety of in game/campaign things people can use as a victory condition and they can all have different narrative hooks.

Some are obvious hooks like Genestealers/chaos trying to capture fighters, infect/corrupt them and release them back into gangs for later mischeif. You could even spread this to Cawdor/redemptionists by having them “convert” other gangs fighters.

Others are trying to reclaim a lost house artifact so need to find a specific piece of archeotech in loot crates or at the trading post.

Some are trying to take over a specific industry in the hive so are trying to take all of a specific territory or all of a specific houses territories.

Some are trying to get famous so are purely focussed on increasing their reputation.

There are also some that are trying to keep a specific fighter alive or even have a specific fighter get promoted.

Plenty of options that can be tied narratively back to a gang.

What I would suggest is that if someone has a good narrative idea that you look at how you can represent it being achieved in game and if there is no existing mechanic then create a simple one.

As the arbitrator you don’t need to tell the other players why there is a rule change or everything that is connected to it, so for example if you went down the chaos cult capturing and converting people in secret you could have them do a willpower test for each fighter they capture and each one that fails gets a special trait “acting a bit strange” or “shell shocked” or whatever and it gives them +1 willpower. Then at the end of the campaign the chaos player gets to announce that everyone that is “acting a bit strange” is actually chaos corrupted and joins his gang for a final multiplayer battle.

The fun of having everyone have their own little narrative is that you get to pick the good bits out of your players hard work to make the campaign itself more memorable.

 

[Jacob Dryearth]

I actually did the Genestealer infection thing as a secret agenda for a player. Anyone they captured they could release for free, and they gained the Hardened skill (pass all nerve tests but don't count as friendly model). It was one of my hangers that ended up being infected, and now I need to make a GSC infected splinter gang!