New rules for House Escher gangs
Unleash Wyld Hunts and Chem-Wytches with the new Underhive Journal.
N18 New Rules Incoming
- Thread starter MusingWarboss
- Start date
Ok, so exploding toxin clearly kills the character outright, yes? Yes??
Like, proper removed from roster and gone right??
Not a Wile E Coyote “they survived with only an minor injury” style thing…
So this is set after the Succession Campaign.
I’m not sure why people like this “must move the story along” thing. It’s clearly just an excuse to shoehorn in new stuff without any grognards complaining that that didn’t exist before. Or remove it.
Well this groggy nard is complaining about why we even need a designer driven linier progressing storyline in a skirmish game at all. That’s what we, the players, are supposed to be doing in our fun campaigns.
Grumble grumble…
Like, proper removed from roster and gone right??
Not a Wile E Coyote “they survived with only an minor injury” style thing…
So this is set after the Succession Campaign.
I’m not sure why people like this “must move the story along” thing. It’s clearly just an excuse to shoehorn in new stuff without any grognards complaining that that didn’t exist before. Or remove it.
Well this groggy nard is complaining about why we even need a designer driven linier progressing storyline in a skirmish game at all. That’s what we, the players, are supposed to be doing in our fun campaigns.
Grumble grumble…
So, we have three options per gang: one average option and two specializations?
Well, the "average" option also gets to pull rules out of the Journal, so before long there are going to be power spikes among the average versions of each gang. It could be as soon as the end of the week, when we see the new Genesmithing rules!
Have you tried cheesecake factory corruption? Their menu is so vast it makes you immune to insanity.
New rules for House Goliath gangs
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Will you also require one positive for each negative taken?
I quite like the pure storytelling aspect of what Genesmithing offered - being able to tailor characters to themes or individual backstories on conversions etc.
Sure step in if you’ve got an overly power hungry player that abusing things but I don’t see a need to penalise someone for taking a thematic upgrade the rules say they can.
If you really need to control them why not try an escalating cost strategy? Have additional +mods as a multiplier. E.g. the second one costing x2 its base cost, the third x3 and so on. Then do likewise for the -mods, the second dropping the models cost by x2 the GS base cost etc??
Of course you’d have to do similar to all the other gangs fancy features too no matter what you’re trying else you’re just picking on Goliath players.
(I’m not a fan of overly enthusiastic Arbitrators clamping down on fun either.)
Another bit of flawed lore that for some reason made Goliaths bigger than Space Marines 
Gene-smithing was particularly bad for 1) repeatability and 2) tailoring
1) being able to max out on the really good traits and spam them across the gang
2) being able to combine effects to further boost the effectiveness "ooh poor dear ganger you get toughness 5 but only strength 3"
Here it seems that you can only have one so at least there are fewer chances of combos (just leaving us to face spam mods as soon as someone figures out what's the best min-max option).
Gene-smithing was particularly bad for 1) repeatability and 2) tailoring
1) being able to max out on the really good traits and spam them across the gang
2) being able to combine effects to further boost the effectiveness "ooh poor dear ganger you get toughness 5 but only strength 3"
Here it seems that you can only have one so at least there are fewer chances of combos (just leaving us to face spam mods as soon as someone figures out what's the best min-max option).
Can you choose them, or are they random?
Personally, I prefer not to enforce a negative trait for every positive trait, or vice versa. I prioritize the story, so if there is a background reason that explains the choice, I’m fine with it. If it is purely for competition outside of an actual competitive setting, I don’t want it.
I much prefer some randomness to avoid clones of clones of clones created through min-maxing.
As a comparison, in BattleTech there are quirks, both positive and negative, but you are not forced to use them or to take a negative quirk for every positive one.
For example, I made a ’Mech for Periphery forces and mercenaries that has the Bad Reputation quirk. The reason is that the less favorably it is viewed, the less likely the Great Houses are to want to purchase it.
So the bad reputation is spread on purpose. I don’t know any system that enforces having a disadvantage for every advantage. But to each their own.
Personally, I prefer not to enforce a negative trait for every positive trait, or vice versa. I prioritize the story, so if there is a background reason that explains the choice, I’m fine with it. If it is purely for competition outside of an actual competitive setting, I don’t want it.
I much prefer some randomness to avoid clones of clones of clones created through min-maxing.
As a comparison, in BattleTech there are quirks, both positive and negative, but you are not forced to use them or to take a negative quirk for every positive one.
For example, I made a ’Mech for Periphery forces and mercenaries that has the Bad Reputation quirk. The reason is that the less favorably it is viewed, the less likely the Great Houses are to want to purchase it.
So the bad reputation is spread on purpose. I don’t know any system that enforces having a disadvantage for every advantage. But to each their own.
Well, in N95 you used to roll for equipment and then decide whether you wanted to pay for what you got. Since I don’t have the book, I assumed the same kind of logic applied here: the result would be random rather than something you freely choose.
I would say that the only thing that has remained the same between N95 and N26 is the fact that you take Ld checks on 2 dice
I prefer the game to be more dependent on skill or creativity, but I understand Necromunda ment to be fun for teenagers and newcomers too, so luck (in dice) and things that are "OP" are appealing, and make sure that no matter how little tacticl insight you may have, you still have a solid chance of winning. Since Necromunda is mostly a game of positive feedback loops and dice (I realise some poeple will disagree or may even be offended by this remark) and a game of 6-sided dice at that. Each point of difference equals about 17% higher/lower likelood. Goliath's Toughness of 4 is in my opinion already too much (not offset by their cost), and having Gene smithing allowing them another 17% increase is just too powerful. If you could choose to have 17% higher chance to not get wounded, or have 17% higher chance to succees when you make a jump - which one would you choose? No brainer, unless you're in it for the roleplay element, of course. Sure, there are players who play 'fair' and who prefer storytelling, but just like some well known Ferocity (now Brawn) skills, or the Toughness advancement in N23, Gene smithing T or W is going to be so much better than anything else, that it'll be too good to pass up.
I know positive feedback loops are 'cool' and 'fun', but for me, fun is only fun if it's for all players. This is the reson why they (justly so) nerfed Blaze, Web, Corpse Grinder Masks and Insanity - because it was not fun for other players. If Chems for Eschers will be permament (one time cost instead of per battle), then sure, allow Gene smithing, otherwise, it's a fun-breaker in my opinion.
I know positive feedback loops are 'cool' and 'fun', but for me, fun is only fun if it's for all players. This is the reson why they (justly so) nerfed Blaze, Web, Corpse Grinder Masks and Insanity - because it was not fun for other players. If Chems for Eschers will be permament (one time cost instead of per battle), then sure, allow Gene smithing, otherwise, it's a fun-breaker in my opinion.
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Err… even under the older hardback rules you could only have one Genesmithing upgrade at creation, unless it was a champion or leader who could have a maximum of two.Another bit of flawed lore that for some reason made Goliaths bigger than Space Marines
Gene-smithing was particularly bad for 1) repeatability and 2) tailoring
1) being able to max out on the really good traits and spam them across the gang
2) being able to combine effects to further boost the effectiveness "ooh poor dear ganger you get toughness 5 but only strength 3"
Here it seems that you can only have one so at least there are fewer chances of combos (just leaving us to face spam mods as soon as someone figures out what's the best min-max option).
Even then you could only have one leader and Champions were restricted by the amount of fighters in the gang overall so there shouldn’t be too many “combined effects” in most gangs, certainly starting ones, unless the player is being very very abusive of the tools.
So, yeah - while putting Dermal Hardening on everyone is very cheesy, they do pay for it though so it does add up on costs and reduces their ability to buy extra stuff.
Not to mention increased costs for making a fighter Nat or Un born.
The rules even say this is to allow small elite gangs or gangs of cheaper but somehow disadvantaged fighters. So it was always by design.
You could certainly randomise them for fun if you were building your gang however… in THE gang of clones, complaining about clones is a bit silly.
Deciding to have a quartet of Stubcannon guys who have all got reduced cost and reduced toughness so they can be your clear out boys is thematic, they’ve literally been created for that purpose.
You can see from the new lists that GW have even doubled down on that philosophy by creating whole gang lineup variants based around smithed gangs!!
You could in the previous ruleset by just playing them and not buying any extras. Can’t see why that would’ve changed.
Just don’t buy this new Journal and stick with the GotU2 book list.
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Well, yes and no. Even the clones in Star Wars had their own personalities and flavor. I should have said “spam” instead of “clone.”
I’d prefer running naked Escher, but there’s no accounting for taste.
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