N18 What Kind of Homebrew Lore Do You Have For Your Gangs?

[The_Cragis]

I love to hear other people’s gang lore.

For my Goliath gang I’ve been playing with the idea of making them Imperial Fist poseurs. A ganger was once on a bodyguard gig in the upper hive when he caught a glimpse of a Space Marine. He spreads the tale and begins to emulate their look. Why wouldn’t a Goliath want to pretend to be the biggest thing he’s ever seen?

 

[Scaffer]

My Escher gang in still in progress, but I'm going for more of a goth vibe instead of punk. Working on the "Call of the Void" phenomenon for my inspiration, which I think works well considering the Deathmaiden lore. They're not necessarily suicidal, but they don't fear death because they know they can be brought back.

As a result, they all have the pale skin and dark clothes like the Deathmaidens do. I was thinking of using purple as a colour highlight for hair and cloth to contrast the neutral black of their armour, and the white of their skin. As a result of this, I've called them the 'Void Vipers'.

 

[Aulenback]

My pit slave rebellion are a mining uprising - the Miners and Labourers Union of Treacle Mine Seven. The leader and techno rallied (or in some cases reprogrammed) the others into open rebellion against their Guilder owners. One day their hope is to found a Barter Town, where a bargain is a bargain.

My kroot gang were brought planetside as part of a retinue of a Rogue Trader, and ensconced with the other Xenos. But the Rogue Trader was foolish and died off-screen, leaving them contract-less and, well...

Deep into the bowels of the Underhive posing as "muties," then out into the wastes, and now committing piracy beneath the Quinspire.

 

[daveh]

my cawdor gang are poor and stinky but despite that they........erm.........nope i got nothing

 

[MusingWarboss]

my cawdor gang are poor and stinky but despite that they........erm.........nope i got nothing

“The Gonorrhea Guard are a cult from House Cawdor who are always ready to smite the enemy and give them ‘The Holy Pox’ in close combat.

Feared by most other gangs in the sector, mostly because of their unhygienic practices, the Gonorrhoea Guard obtain most of their weapons from people who drop their equipment and flee at the sheer stench that emanates from them.

HOUSE RULE: Once per game a GG Cawdor fighter may choose to make an attack on an enemy fighter as if they were armed with a stiletto dagger (toxin attack), which represents the enemy catching the pox from them. “

There you go.

 

[Xisor_of_Karak_Izor]

I've been tickled by wee bits and pieces, like my Ash Wastes Nomads being just a little community of Nomads who happen to be trying to (more or less) settle down in the dishevelled area of the Hive that was exposed to the wastes, but who were chased off by an IP Protection team of Ironhead Squats for copyright infringement (the AWN's name was too similar to the Squar's parent group) later in the campaign.

As I'd used a lot of GSC bits in the Nomads kitbashes, I'd also baked in the idea that they aren't Genestealer bits *per se*, or at least not *live* GS bits. Rather it's a wee cultural quirk where they're using hollowed out GS exo-skeleton and whatnot as armour plates and stylish adornments, a sort of GSC-chic, rather than being infected. (Infected with the fashion bug.)

Works well with Malstrain making an appearance, hopefully!

And if you disregard (or temporarily ignore) the existential peril of Genestealers at a planetary scale, makes some degree of good sense too, given the fleas, dunescuttlers, spiders, ambulls, caryatids, etc presence on Necromunda.

 

[Arendal]

My gangs always have a little story behind them.

My Goliath gang "Los Fundidores de Atzlan" have latino (hispanic) nicknames like "Matador", "Chajazo" or "Diablito". They live in hab modules that have "fabelas"-vibes and a hierachy system based on latin gangs.

My Ash Waste Nomdas gang "Ikale Tahi" have polynesian nicknames, meaning the name of the gang "Sea Eagles" itself, which in my opinion is a very strong and meaningful name for a Nomad gang from the Necromunda Ash Wastes.

 

[Aulenback]

Current campaign setting: along the shore deep below the bowels of Quinspirus Hive.

HELLFACTS

The settlement of Hellfacts sprawls across an ancient dockyard deep in the bowels of Quinspirus Hive, where the Worldsump sucks at the pilings and slowly drowns docks and quays in its turgid sludge. Tavern lights perpetually reflect from the oil-slick surface, but do not penetrate far into the thick fogs which inevitably shroud both path and pier.

Drinking holes are full of scum and villainy, and a steady flow of credits. Pirates find Hellfacts a convenient harbour, deep and well sheltered against the storms out in the Wastes. Caravans also often find Hellfacts convenient, only a full day’s journey by slipway to the Great Lift, and the Overland beyond it. And treasure hunters are here in plenty, pillaging wrecks and plumbing the Sunken Levels in search of archaeotech.

Between black markets, taverns, gambling houses, and fighting pits, Hellfacts can relieve you of whatever credits you may have managed to acquire. Sometimes you will even get something in exchange.

DARK MOUTH

Not far from Hellfacts, Dark Mouth is a ramshackle shanty-town which depends upon the Spider trade. Two hundred years ago, three families set up shop here, hunting Sump Spiders and other ancient and terrible beasts that prowl the Worldsump. These expeditions of “Wailers” strike out into the fogs, and when they are successful, briefly live like kings. When they are not successful, they only live briefly.

BADFORD

A millennia-old typographical mishap, Badford should have been Bad Fjord, named for the long finger of the Worldsump which points deep into the heart of this industrial Chemtown. Cut by centuries of industrial waste runoff, the Scar bites deep into the core of the work-shantys, and today provides much of the resources used by the chemical factoria built on its shoreline. Respirators here are a must, and full hazard suits preferred, as the fogs here are usually acidically toxic. Servitor crews mine the semi-liquid Scar around the clock, and numerous slave uprisings have been harshly put down by the Imperial Enforcers over the centuries.

 

[Punktaku]

I haven't really done much with gang-specific lore past thematic choices. My Escher gang "Sugar Rush" is based off the racers from Wreck-it Ralph. They have a slopper named Candi Applebalm who runs the local sweet shop "The Sugar Bowl" which the gang uses as a hang-out. They also have a shivver named Juju Liquorwish who advises the gang leader, Venellope Von Schweetz (of course). I hope to eventually score an ambot that will be called R4lph.

My chaos cult "11th Hour" is dedicated to the little-known fifth chaos god of anarchy Malal (GW later changed their name to Malice). They have no obvious mutations, and spend their time sneaking about and causing problems. They're all laborers who wear their uniforms under their cult gear (the helmets and aprons) and their armor is fashioned out of repurposed safety equipment (like signage). They like to gear up, cause some mayhem, then shove their gear back into dufflebags and blend into the local workforce and disappear.

 

[SirFrog]

I've got a few, actually. More so my old gangs, amusingly enough, as my newer tend to be played for shorter campaigns and accrue a little less notoriety.

The Black Oaks:
Formed around the Black Oak settlement, the gang is quite a typically-organized, tight-knit brotherhood. The Orlock gangers run a protection racket around the shantytown of the Black Oak, laid out in an old fancy park. The centerpiece of this park is a large, burnt-looking tree of uncertain type which, despite being mostly bare, blackened and stinking of chems and ash, still miraculously grows blotchy, pale leaves, blooms and produces fully edible fruit sporadically. Nobody knows how or why (botanists being rare in the Underhive), and the fruit is far from enough to sustain barely even a single household, it is still seen as almost sacred by the inhabitants.

The Chem Divers:
Originally a deep-cover op by House Van Saar, the most healthy-looking and normal-seeming members of several settlements were gathered, given mining and chemical protection gear and sent out to secure a particularly valuable and nauseous source of solvents and etching chems. Their gear being bright white-and-red was to make them easy to see in the fumes and dark, and their weapons were deliberately styled to resemble standard Imperial equipment rather than bespoke Van Saar artistry. Ultimately, they adopted the moniker of Alonzo Petrochem Expeditionary Force, to throw the other houses off their trail. They did, however, ultimately break free of this enterprise either through neglect from central command, rebellion or just time, and now operates like any other gang.

Red-Rock Crushers:
Their name comes from their origin, a ferrite ore crushing facility. They were a hodge-podge of vat-born. nat-born and unborn fighters who had the unusual trait of being... spooky. They managed and dealt in dark secrets and lore beside the usual rackets of a Goliath gang, like protectionism, foundry-work and such, and supplemented it with smuggling money. Basically, muscling into both Orlock and Escher territory, simply because their leader was unusually clever and mentally flexible for a Goliath, and didn't see why they shouldn't go for maximum profit.

 

[Beebopalulla]

my cawdor gang are poor and stinky but despite that they........erm.........nope i got nothing

It's a start. Who knows maybe they are unpaid garbage men.