Greetings, fellow Yakkers!
With each New Year come new resolutions, desire to start fresh, open up a new leaf and discover new opportunities… only to comfortably slip into the morass of predictability, bad habits and routine just a few weeks later. I assume this will be the fate of my undertaking, and it’s probably not worth doing it at all, but still.
So in December as a mental exercise I started “putting in order” the miniature and board games I play or simply have (having a newborn and moving house to a different country tends to do that). The basic premise is that my games should be “out of the box” ready to play by two people, preferably with a current updated ruleset, with optimal use of space (no ornate battlefields or custom tables) and maximizing dual use of minis (for example using BSF Traitor Guard as Necromunda Chaos Cult).
I want to apply this approach to my beloved Necromunda, which was my entry point into tabletop gaming quite a long time ago. I was elated when the game was rereleased in 2017, and had many wonderful moments both as a player and a campaign manager/arbitrator.
Unfortunately I (and my past group) quite dislike the direction that resurrected game has taken at some point, both from an esthetic point of view (with the introduction of Corpse Grinder Cults, unworldly looking Guild retinues, and bug riding Ash Waste Nomads) and from marketing point of view, with the countless and quickly worthless Books of…/ House of… everything.
So my goal is to compile a more streamlined set of rules for N17, even possibly based on the initial re-release (gasp!), making best use of my personal collection and applying to it the various FAQs and official pdfs that GW has released, like the Marketplace or the post-Ash Waste rules update.
One additional complication that I share the Necromunda collection is shared with my brother, who is also moving countries. We have, perhaps unreasonably, decided to split it into two separate 3D/2D parts, and I will be keeping the 2D part, having no qualms about it, as I quite enjoy ZM games. What I have qualms against, is the “unfair” use of stuff that I don’t own, even though GW thoroughly deserve it with their shameless cash-grab approach.
Here’s the main part of our inventory (excluding various WD articles, Brutes, Hangers-on etc.):
- Underhive rulebook (2017) and Gang War 1-4 (2018);
- Rulebook & GotU (2018) and Book of Peril (2019);
- Orlock, Goliath and Escher gangs + Traitor Guard from BSF as Chaos Cult;
As I have been hopelessly bashing my head as to how to approach this conundrum, I see several approaches:
Option 1. Try to update the outdated N17 rulebook and GW 1-4. This is probably a pointless task, even though I like some of the original rules flavor, like the +1T cap for Van Saar or the 8-card minimum Tactics deck size. Besides, the Orlock lists in GW2 and GotU are at least more or less identical, as are the Chaos Cult rules in the old pdf and the list in Book of Ruin.
Option 2. Same thing with N18 Rulebook. Probably way more sensible.
Option 3. Buy the Hive War Rulebook off ebay or elsewhere (not without reluctance), as it contains compressed rules for all House Gangs without the fancy names, or two kinds of Champs/Juves (like I said, I really dislike the House of… books). Then attempt to apply the above.
Option 4. Wait until the inevitable new starter and new rulebook in 2023, giving me yet another reason to lose my mind.
Of course, when compiling the set of rules itself, I wouldn’t dare do it without the wonderful Necrodamus project and the tireless work of the community and most of all @TopsyKretts to keep this messy bloated Frankenstein of rules up to date.
I honestly don’t know if this whole text makes any sense. As I have re-read it, it still hasn’t made anything more clear. “Exercises in futility” is, after all, one of my favorite metal albums...
With each New Year come new resolutions, desire to start fresh, open up a new leaf and discover new opportunities… only to comfortably slip into the morass of predictability, bad habits and routine just a few weeks later. I assume this will be the fate of my undertaking, and it’s probably not worth doing it at all, but still.
So in December as a mental exercise I started “putting in order” the miniature and board games I play or simply have (having a newborn and moving house to a different country tends to do that). The basic premise is that my games should be “out of the box” ready to play by two people, preferably with a current updated ruleset, with optimal use of space (no ornate battlefields or custom tables) and maximizing dual use of minis (for example using BSF Traitor Guard as Necromunda Chaos Cult).
I want to apply this approach to my beloved Necromunda, which was my entry point into tabletop gaming quite a long time ago. I was elated when the game was rereleased in 2017, and had many wonderful moments both as a player and a campaign manager/arbitrator.
Unfortunately I (and my past group) quite dislike the direction that resurrected game has taken at some point, both from an esthetic point of view (with the introduction of Corpse Grinder Cults, unworldly looking Guild retinues, and bug riding Ash Waste Nomads) and from marketing point of view, with the countless and quickly worthless Books of…/ House of… everything.
So my goal is to compile a more streamlined set of rules for N17, even possibly based on the initial re-release (gasp!), making best use of my personal collection and applying to it the various FAQs and official pdfs that GW has released, like the Marketplace or the post-Ash Waste rules update.
One additional complication that I share the Necromunda collection is shared with my brother, who is also moving countries. We have, perhaps unreasonably, decided to split it into two separate 3D/2D parts, and I will be keeping the 2D part, having no qualms about it, as I quite enjoy ZM games. What I have qualms against, is the “unfair” use of stuff that I don’t own, even though GW thoroughly deserve it with their shameless cash-grab approach.
Here’s the main part of our inventory (excluding various WD articles, Brutes, Hangers-on etc.):
- Underhive rulebook (2017) and Gang War 1-4 (2018);
- Rulebook & GotU (2018) and Book of Peril (2019);
- Orlock, Goliath and Escher gangs + Traitor Guard from BSF as Chaos Cult;
As I have been hopelessly bashing my head as to how to approach this conundrum, I see several approaches:
Option 1. Try to update the outdated N17 rulebook and GW 1-4. This is probably a pointless task, even though I like some of the original rules flavor, like the +1T cap for Van Saar or the 8-card minimum Tactics deck size. Besides, the Orlock lists in GW2 and GotU are at least more or less identical, as are the Chaos Cult rules in the old pdf and the list in Book of Ruin.
Option 2. Same thing with N18 Rulebook. Probably way more sensible.
Option 3. Buy the Hive War Rulebook off ebay or elsewhere (not without reluctance), as it contains compressed rules for all House Gangs without the fancy names, or two kinds of Champs/Juves (like I said, I really dislike the House of… books). Then attempt to apply the above.
Option 4. Wait until the inevitable new starter and new rulebook in 2023, giving me yet another reason to lose my mind.
Of course, when compiling the set of rules itself, I wouldn’t dare do it without the wonderful Necrodamus project and the tireless work of the community and most of all @TopsyKretts to keep this messy bloated Frankenstein of rules up to date.
I honestly don’t know if this whole text makes any sense. As I have re-read it, it still hasn’t made anything more clear. “Exercises in futility” is, after all, one of my favorite metal albums...
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