Date With a Data Core

 

A few days ago I arbitrated the 2nd round of our current Necromunda Campaign, Timey-Wimey in Vela Mine(y). You can read a bit more about the campaign’s lore and background in my post here. 

For this round, I came up with a custom scenario, called Date with a Data Core, based around the idea of having the Tri-Sun Mining Corporation (TSMC) attempting to knock off their competition indirectly, by having them do it to each other. To complicate things however, I also added new NPCs, the brothers Vallejo (Balthazar, Julius, and Adrius) who are interested in Vela Mine for their own reasons. They had hired the Three Desperadoes to serve as body guards, and then intention was to have 3 1-vs-1 games, where each game would have one of the brothers, escorted by one of the desperadoes, and a frenzon-crazy servitor as bodyguards, moving across the board collecting data cores. 

Players had a choice to simply ignore the brothers and desperadoes, make an alliance, or kill them on behalf of the TSMC. If they didn’t target the NPCs during the game, then basically whichever player won the game would get an attempt to make an alliance with the brothers by passing a leadership test with modifiers. If they were successful, then they would get an alliance with the brothers that would yield both creds and chrono-crystals, but also narrative bonuses later down the line. If the players instead chose to attack the brothers, then if they were successful in taking them out of action, the TSMC would be quite happy, but would earn the bitter enmity of the brothers and the desperadoes. 

As it turns out, life intervened for two of our group, so only 2 1-vs-1 games go to happen, but it was still a blast. One game was the Bore Hole Beasts (Goliath) vs Wyrmhart Industries (Genestealer cult corrupted Orlocks), the other was the Seraphenii (Chaos corrupted Escher) vs the Last Echo of Succor Shore Party (Outcasts led by a Man-Of-Iron). In the Beasts Vs Wyrmhart, the twisted Orlocks clinched a victory which was wild, as they took a lot of damage doing it. The corrupted Orlock, maybe acting out of a perceived kinship with the TSMC, attacked the brother Adrius pretty quickie on in the game, managing to take him out of action and earning the lasting hatred of the Brothers Vallejo. The price was steep though, as Wyrmhart’s own leader got an avenging power pick to the face from a frenzoned out servitor, and in turn was taken out. Wyrmhart Industries may have just handed TSMC a major victory, but will the two groups of xenos worshippers continue to work together, or will the two revert to deadly rivals? 

The other game saw the Seraphenii and Last Echo shore party leaving brother Balthazar and his escorts to wander across the board collecting data cores while the gangers blasted, shot, stabbed, exploded and melted each other viciously. However, in the end, both failed their leadership checks to ally with the Brothers Vallejo, and the Last Echo party saw two of its members permanently dead, so even though they won the scenario, technically speaking, the Seraphenii came out in better shape. 

 

The day was a blast, and I had a lot of fun coming up with this scenario. Creating custom scenarios for my campaigns is one of the most time consuming, but also rewarding parts of Necromunda to me. There really is no other GW game (currently, obviously Mordheim and Inquisitor allowed this too) that gives you the freedom and space to just  make up whatever and have it translate to the table top. It might not be balanced, but then another thing I love about Necromunda is that balance is not prioritized, narrative is. Does this lead to certain gangs/factions being easily exploitable and becoming over powered monsters? Yeah, it does. But that is why the arbitrator is there, to reign that in. 

It’s also the sort of player that Necromunda attracts that acts as a check on that too. 

 

Most Necro players I’ve encountered are not competitive players in other games, or if they are they can turn that competitive mode off and switch gears to being collective story-telling mode when playing Necromunda.

The Three Desperadoes of Vela Mine

 

The Vela Mine’s recent reappearance has attracted the attention of a variety of factions and actors, including the aforementioned Tri-Sun Mining Corporation, as well as a host of independent prospectors and wild cat miners. Vela’s location far from any hive city or even major wasteland settlement worth a name means that it is a lawless place, even by the loose standards of Necromunda. There is no single authority administering justice in Vela’s vast pits, shafts, and refineries. Just the brutal equality of the blade and the bullet.

However, that is not to say that all who have an interest in Vela are self-interested cutthroats. There are, as everywhere on Necromunda, a few shining beacons of hope and decency. Or at least people who won’t just shoot you on sight, who might even be willing to assist those less fortunate…for a fair price.

Xander Reál, Isaac Bickerstaff, and Imogen Sylence just so happen to fall into that description. These gun slingers have worked together tracking bounties and providing protection for those who need it across the region known as The Salt for last few years. Drawn together by happen-stance and fate, the three have formed a close-knit bond, a family of sorts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Xander’s origin is murky. He will admit to having once been an officer in the Atronos Enforcer Corps, but fled during that dead hive’s dying convulsions. The only detail he provides is that a man named Magnus was instrumental in Xander escaping the atrocities and horror of Atronos’ fall, and Xander now owes the man a great debt, though the specifics on how he will fulfill that debt stay with him.

Isaac hails from the far northern polar region of Necromunda. Having grown up in that icy polluted hell, he was determined to strike out for warmer pastures as soon as he could afford his own gun and a ride. Isaac’s particular skills revolve around stealth and scouting, as well as sinking a blade deep into an unwitting sentry’s throat. He perfected these in the dark and claustrophobic workings of the ice mines and has found these skills to be quite useful in warmer climes too. 

 

Imogen was born into minor nobility, though she refuses to specify which house or family, or even what hive. Nevertheless, she clearly benefits from a privileged upbringing, possessing a wide education in addition to a fearsome intellect. She also has a rebellious streak a kilometer wide, which might explain why she abandoned her noble family for a life of hard drinking and hard fighting amongst the underhives and ash wastes. On certain nights, after more than a few cups of ‘snake, she sinks into a sullen silence, staring wistfully at a point on the western horizon, but never explaining why.

For some time now, these three desperadoes have been traversing The Salt, establishing a reputation for being effective but also honest. Hire them, and they’ll guard your caravan, deal with that nest of neuro-plague zombies, or get rid of that troublesome road bandit, just as long as you deliver the creds. However, with Vela’s most recent manifestation, the three have been inexorably drawn to the place. While none can fully articulate why, all three feel, no, know they will find something very important here. In the meantime, they have to earn some money…

Images also over on my IG @sanguinekane

The First Law Series, and Why You Should Read It!

 

Well, figures that I would start a blog, get two posts done, and then have work and life eat up all my time for more than a week and not get anything written. But, now I’ve got a bit of free time, and I can get some stuff posted, starting with this, a little review of Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law series, or at least the first trilogy. 

If you haven’t read these books and you are in to dark, low-fantasy settings, then I can heartily recommend them. I just finished the last of the first trilogy the other week, and I had been hooked from the first chapter of the first book. Abercrombie is an amazing character writer, and his world is grim while still feeling realistic, and not verging into the eye-rolling levels of over the top violence that overly-dark fantasy and sci-fi can stray into often. In fact, at the end, without giving away too much, I was left with the feeling that the true grimdarkness of it all was the relatively mundane situations that characters were trapped in.

Another thing Abercrombie does (or doesn’t do really) is lay all his cards out on the table for the reader from the very beginning. The First Law series does vagueness and mystery better than a lot of other fantasy I’ve read. There were until recently no official maps of the world, and the history of the setting is often explained through unreliable narrators. Countries, religions, cultures, etc. are often mentioned but not necessarily explained. The way magic works is abstract, and while there are demons and non-human creatures, don’t expect elves, dragons or dwarves. I know that means some folks will be turned off reading them, but if so, hey, at least I warned you!

Anyway, check them out. I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from them, and will definitely be diving into the second trilogy later. But for now, I’m reading Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman, and I’ll definitely be posting about that later.

Cheers y’all!