Hello everyone. Long time lurker here, first time posting. I'd like to thank this amazing community and it's many discussions around everything necromunda. I particularly enjoy posts by the likes of Thorgor and TopsyKretts (and many others) as they have helped my wrap my head around some of the wonk in our latest edition(s?) of Necromunda.
WARNING: LONG POST!
Here's a TL;DR:
I'm a disgruntled n17-18 player/arbitrator, with a bunch of casual friends.
Having grown tired of the unstable, unclear ruleset that seems to fall apart from its own weight in my experience, I've tried to do my personal best to have a list of books/mechanics that together make for a smooth campaign for players that:
- Don't necessarily customize their models
- Will never buy/read more than 2 books
- An arbitrator who's had enough of "it''ll be fixed later in another book"isms
My ideas and house rules might not be of interest to most people here, as my needs may be specific.
I am looking for feedback for those with more experience and who might care however, in case I have made erroneous assumptions on what is in what book!
TL;DR/end
My little story:
I got the N17 box on launch, and tried to play with a friend. We couldn't stand the rules after a while, so many things made no sense, and many inconsistencies were peppered through the book and the cards. (pistol or sidearm? which one?
it still haunts me) I have been on and off since then, and with that same friend we've played 8 games over the last 3 years, and have enjoyed maybe 3 of them.
I abolutely love the models and the setting of the game, and these are the main things that've pulled me back into it, despite my bad experiences playing. (I would've dropped any other game at this point)
I've played other complex games (40k, early 30k, First martians, Twilight Imperium and other big FFG games) so complex games aren't a problem for me as long as they are stable and consistent (and coherent)
I have a better grasp of the rules now, but I have a sinking feeling that it is because I've spent so much time and headaches going through it. I don't see the n18 rulebook to be any clearer for a new player to jump in from, for example, despite personnally understanding the rules much better now. It's like I've learned something I'm afraid to recommend, as if the time I've spent ultimately wasn't worth the effort, compared to the playtime I've gotten out of it so far. I want to rectify that through this campaign I'd like to launch.
MY CAMPAIGN:
Here's what I'm looking to use/not use and house rule. I would love feedback as to whether any of these decisions makes no sense according to you.
The only books I'd like to use:
Uprising Rulebook
House of Chains
Any House of... book that's coming out
Books I'm on the fence about:
Book of Ruin (it has the cult lists, but otherwise useless to me)
n18 rulebook (I'm afraid it's gonna get replaced)
Books I will not use:
Book of Judgement (too much of a mess)
Book of Peril (book of cool bloat to me)
Gangs of the underhive (no TP for me, and replaced by the House books)
House rules:
Charge distance is M+2d6 (I'm going for it).
If after this charge(double) action, the active fighter is not in base contact with an enemy model, the closest enemy fighter can do an initiative test. if they succeed the test, they can do a free basic shoot action with a -1 BS modifier against the active fighter.
Table size is going to be 44'x30 dense in ruins
WYSIWYG on weapons, except any sidearm weapons in addition to any weapon visible on the model.
no WYSIWYG on wargear whatsoever
I am lending models to some of my friends.
Fighters are recruited from a pool of already built models. Inother words, I would have a Goliath built with a rivet cannon on a silver platter, with many other models. If a Goliath player wants to hire a fighter, they pick a model from this pool, and create a card for them. The fighter in this example thus must have a rivet cannon, but the wargear can be anything they wish (see wysiwyg above).
Goliath gene smithing is limited to 1 instance of each different gene enhancement (no spam, but still lots of genesmithing)
Uprising campaign, instead of Dominion campaign, as I see the uprising campaign as more straightforward than the dominion one.
Rules removed:
No tactics cards (too much of a headache. Expensive collectibles OR huge tables to keep track of (defeats the purpose of cards to me))
Replacing tactic cards with 40k-like CP rerolls. (instead of a tactic card, the player gets a point that they can spend during the game to re-roll a die of their choice, no more than once per fighter activation)
No Trading post or BM (a controversial decision. I believe this allows the gangs to be fluffier with their loadouts, even it is by limiting their options this way. More importantly: I like the look of the out-of-box models, and I dont see my casual friends doing conversions.)
No sub-plots (bloat and only houses have them)
No faction terrain (ditto)
No alliances (model-requiring bloat)
Rules that i am removing, but might re-instate later if my players become underhive veterans:
Psykers
As I've written already, would love some feedback!
Thank you for reading!
WARNING: LONG POST!
Here's a TL;DR:
I'm a disgruntled n17-18 player/arbitrator, with a bunch of casual friends.
Having grown tired of the unstable, unclear ruleset that seems to fall apart from its own weight in my experience, I've tried to do my personal best to have a list of books/mechanics that together make for a smooth campaign for players that:
- Don't necessarily customize their models
- Will never buy/read more than 2 books
- An arbitrator who's had enough of "it''ll be fixed later in another book"isms
My ideas and house rules might not be of interest to most people here, as my needs may be specific.
I am looking for feedback for those with more experience and who might care however, in case I have made erroneous assumptions on what is in what book!
TL;DR/end
My little story:
I got the N17 box on launch, and tried to play with a friend. We couldn't stand the rules after a while, so many things made no sense, and many inconsistencies were peppered through the book and the cards. (pistol or sidearm? which one?
it still haunts me) I have been on and off since then, and with that same friend we've played 8 games over the last 3 years, and have enjoyed maybe 3 of them.I abolutely love the models and the setting of the game, and these are the main things that've pulled me back into it, despite my bad experiences playing. (I would've dropped any other game at this point)
I've played other complex games (40k, early 30k, First martians, Twilight Imperium and other big FFG games) so complex games aren't a problem for me as long as they are stable and consistent (and coherent)
I have a better grasp of the rules now, but I have a sinking feeling that it is because I've spent so much time and headaches going through it. I don't see the n18 rulebook to be any clearer for a new player to jump in from, for example, despite personnally understanding the rules much better now. It's like I've learned something I'm afraid to recommend, as if the time I've spent ultimately wasn't worth the effort, compared to the playtime I've gotten out of it so far. I want to rectify that through this campaign I'd like to launch.
MY CAMPAIGN:
Here's what I'm looking to use/not use and house rule. I would love feedback as to whether any of these decisions makes no sense according to you.
The only books I'd like to use:
Uprising Rulebook
House of Chains
Any House of... book that's coming out
Books I'm on the fence about:
Book of Ruin (it has the cult lists, but otherwise useless to me)
n18 rulebook (I'm afraid it's gonna get replaced)
Books I will not use:
Book of Judgement (too much of a mess)
Book of Peril (book of cool bloat to me)
Gangs of the underhive (no TP for me, and replaced by the House books)
House rules:
Charge distance is M+2d6 (I'm going for it).
If after this charge(double) action, the active fighter is not in base contact with an enemy model, the closest enemy fighter can do an initiative test. if they succeed the test, they can do a free basic shoot action with a -1 BS modifier against the active fighter.
Table size is going to be 44'x30 dense in ruins
WYSIWYG on weapons, except any sidearm weapons in addition to any weapon visible on the model.
no WYSIWYG on wargear whatsoever
I am lending models to some of my friends.
Fighters are recruited from a pool of already built models. Inother words, I would have a Goliath built with a rivet cannon on a silver platter, with many other models. If a Goliath player wants to hire a fighter, they pick a model from this pool, and create a card for them. The fighter in this example thus must have a rivet cannon, but the wargear can be anything they wish (see wysiwyg above).
Goliath gene smithing is limited to 1 instance of each different gene enhancement (no spam, but still lots of genesmithing)
Uprising campaign, instead of Dominion campaign, as I see the uprising campaign as more straightforward than the dominion one.
Rules removed:
No tactics cards (too much of a headache. Expensive collectibles OR huge tables to keep track of (defeats the purpose of cards to me))
Replacing tactic cards with 40k-like CP rerolls. (instead of a tactic card, the player gets a point that they can spend during the game to re-roll a die of their choice, no more than once per fighter activation)
No Trading post or BM (a controversial decision. I believe this allows the gangs to be fluffier with their loadouts, even it is by limiting their options this way. More importantly: I like the look of the out-of-box models, and I dont see my casual friends doing conversions.)
No sub-plots (bloat and only houses have them)
No faction terrain (ditto)
No alliances (model-requiring bloat)
Rules that i am removing, but might re-instate later if my players become underhive veterans:
Psykers
As I've written already, would love some feedback!
Thank you for reading!
