Campaign Variants

Source: Necromunda Core Rulebook (2023)

Necromunda is an extremely customisable game system with a host of optional rules and expansions for the Arbitrator to add to their campaigns as desired. In addition to these campaign add-ons, the Necromunda campaigns themselves can be altered to give the Arbitrator and their players a different gaming experience. This can range from campaigns that place restrictions on weapons and wargear, victory conditions and Territory, all the way to those that change the way gangs are constructed or even the core rules of the game themselves.

Presented in this section is a collection of campaign variants designed to work with the standard Necromunda Dominion Campaign rules, though the Arbitrator can adapt these rules further to suit any campaign (though they may encounter some unusual situations during the campaign, and should be prepared to make some adjustments if required).

Old Kingdoms

Some parts of the underhive have been under the control of the same gangs since before anyone alive can remember. Every now and then something changes, a gang collapses or wants more, and then the gangs go to war, re-soaking the same old ground with fresh blood. In the Old Kingdoms variant, players each start with two random Territories out of those drawn for the campaign. The remainder are discarded. There is no Occupation phase in this variant. Instead there are two three-week Takeover phases, separated by one week of Downtime.

Into The Unknown

In this variant, the gangs are exploring an area where everything is unknown – perhaps a pass into an inaccessible part of the underhive has opened up, or the gangs are prospecting deep in Hive Bottom or out in the Ash Wastes. This variant works like the Dominion Campaign, but rather than revealing the Territories at the start of the campaign, they are kept secret (the cards are drawn but not turned over). A Territory is still chosen as the stake for each battle in the Occupation phase, but that Territory is chosen from the unrevealed Territories before being revealed. Simply, Territories are only revealed to players when they are fought over. In the Takeover phase, battles are fought over either revealed Territories held by a gang, or over a Territory that has not yet been revealed.

Escalation Campaign

Sometimes on Necromunda, things get bad, and then they just keep on getting worse. In an Escalation Campaign gangs continue to increase in size and power regardless of the outcome of the battles they play. To defeat their opponents, players cannot simply win their battles, but must utterly crush their enemies, or seek victory in other ways, as even a weakened opponent will soon return to fighting strength.

An Escalation Campaign uses the following rules:

• In an Escalation Campaign, Territories and similar mechanics do not grant any credit rewards – though they may still provide other benefits (such as free Juves or increased Reputation).
• Gangs do not gain credits as rewards from scenarios, regardless of the outcome.
• Gangs cannot earn credits from selling equipment or fighters.
• After each battle a gang takes part in, add 250 credits to its Stash. The most a gang can earn in this way during each Campaign Week is 500 credits, though they may still earn extra Reputation, Experience and other rewards from fighting more battles.
• In an Escalation Campaign, Triumphs relating to the acquiring of credits and wealth are not used.

Classic Campaign

A Classic Necromunda Campaign captures some of the low-tech simplicity and savage randomness of the original Necromunda game. Gangs are less well-armed and armoured, must rely upon chance to see what they find at the Trading Post and must really smash their opponents if they hope to capture their turf. Classic Campaigns also use some older game rules, making weapons less reliable, rapid fire even deadlier and grenades more unpredictable!

A Classic Necromunda Campaign uses the following rules:

• When a player is creating their gang, they can only equip their fighters with Common items from the Trading Post, and any items that are unique to their gang’s House Equipment List. Flak armour and mesh armour are Rare (10). All fighters begin the campaign without armour, which does not alter their cost.

• Gangs cannot include any Hangers-on or Brutes or use gang tactics.

• All battles take place in the Underhive, this means vehicles and wargear that grant the Mounted condition are not used – note this means that gangs do not gain an extra 400 credits to spend on them.

• A gang can never contain more than two heavy and/or special weapons at any time. When the gang makes a Purchase Equipment action during the Visit the Trading Post step of the post-battle sequence, a player can buy Common items from the Trading Post, or items that are unique to their gang’s House Equipment List for their fighters.

• The Seek Rare Equipment action is changed as follows. The player rolls a D6 for each Leader or Champion that performed a Trade action during the post-battle actions step, and consults the table below to see what item is on offer: The player may then select one item in the category rolled regardless of Rarity (X) or Illegal (X) rules. This item may be purchased as normal.

  D6	Rare Equipment
  1-2	Weapon: Roll a D6 – 1-2 Basic Weapon, 3 Pistol, 4 Special Weapon, 5 Heavy Weapon, 6 Close Combat Weapon
  3-4	Wargear: Roll a D6 – 1 Grenades, 2 Gang Equipment, 3 Personal Equipment, 4 Weapon Accessories, 5 Status Items, 6 Exotic Beasts
  5-6	Armour: Roll a D6 – 1-5 Armour, 6 Field Armour

• Each player begins the campaign with three Dominion Campaign Territories. These Territories are chosen by the player from all those available. There is no limit on how many players can choose the same type of Territory.

• During the pre-battle sequence, players ignore the Make a Challenge and Stake Territory step. Instead, players organise battles as they see fit.

• At the end of a battle, if the winning gang takes at least three times as many enemy fighters (minimum 3) Out of Action as the opposing gang did, then it takes over one randomly selected Territory from the opposing gang. If the opposing gang only has a single Territory, then no Territories are taken over.

• There are no Campaign Weeks, phases or Downtime in a Classic Necromunda Campaign – the Arbitrator and the players can decide how long they wish it to run.

• A Classic Necromunda Campaign uses the following optional rules: Unreliable Weapons, Hail of Bullets, Wild Grenades and Shells, and Exploding Weapons (see Optional Special Rules).

Ironman Campaign

In an Ironman Campaign, players create powerful gangs from all of the options available to them. The catch is, once their gangs have been built, they must see if they can go the distance, as they cannot replenish their losses with new fighters, buy new equipment or fall back on allies or gang tactics for extra muscle. An Ironman Campaign is also more lethal than a normal campaign, with death far more common, to reflect its added level of brutality. An Ironman Campaign uses the following rules:

• Each player has 3,000 credits to create their gang. When creating a gang, players can ignore the restrictions for including Hangers-on and Brutes based upon Reputation. Any unspent credits are added to the gang’s Stash, but can only be used to pay for visits to the Doc.

• During gang creation, fighters may be equipped with any item from their House Equipment List, the Trading Post regardless of the Rare (X) or Illegal (X) rules. Fighters can still only be equipped with items available to their fighter type (gangers cannot have special or heavy weapons, etc.).

• Dramatis Personae, Bounty Hunters and Hive Scum can all be added to a gang during its creation. For the purposes of this type of campaign, these fighters ignore the Dead, Not Alive, Claiming Bounties, and “We’ll Get Our Bit…” special rules and are instead permanently added to the gang.

• Leaders begin the campaign with 15 XP, Champions begin the campaign with 10 XP, and each other fighter begins with 6 XP. Leaders and Champions can spend these XP right away or save them for later. Other fighters must spend themright away.

• Dominion Campaign Territories are determined as normal, then are divided up randomly between the players so that all Territories are claimed and all players have the same number of Territories.

• House Agents, House Favours and Alliances are not used.

• During the pre-battle sequence, the Recruit Hired Guns step is not used. During the post-battle sequence, the Collect Income and Visit the Trading Post steps are not used. In effect, players may never add new equipment or fighters to their gangs from any source (this includes fighters gained from Territories or gang tactics and equipment recovered from dead fighters).

• When a fighter (including Hired Guns) suffers a Lasting Injury, instead of rolling on the Lasting Injury table, the opposing player rolls a D6:

  D6	Result
  1-3	Out Cold (see Lasting Injuries).
  4-5	Critical Injury (see Lasting Injuries).
  6	Memorable Death (see Lasting Injuries).

• There are no Campaign Weeks, phases or Downtime in an Ironman Necromunda Campaign, and it continues until either there is only one gang left able to field fighters, or all but one of the players has retired their gang due to losses.

Dome Rush

A hive quake has opened up a new area, and gangs are rushing to be the first to claim the riches there. In a Dome Rush Campaign, Territory is discovered and discarded regularly, and the goal for the gangs is to gain reputation and as many creds as they can muster, bleeding an area dry before moving on to the next. It is a campaign that is rich in credits, and while gangs don’t hold on to great territorial empires, they grow rapidly in wealth.

A Dome Rush Campaign uses the following rules:

• Territory is handled differently in a Dome Rush Campaign – finds are quickly turned into credits and then gangs move on to fresh areas, travelling nomadically from camp to camp rather than establishing a hideout. Gangs do not start with any Territories.
• When a gang would claim a new Territory as a result of winning a battle, they instead add D6x50 credits to their stash, representing the finds in that region being quickly converted into credits.
• At the start of the first Campaign Week, the Arbitrator should generate a single random Territory – this represents the first area the gangs are exploring and it will remain in play for the duration of the first Campaign Week. For the first Campaign Week, all gangs gain the Boons associated with this Territory. This means they will earn credits from it, gain free fighters or enjoy any other Boons, just as if their gang was in control of the Territory.
• At the start of the second Campaign Week, the Arbitrator discards this Territory and generates a new Territory to take its place (representing a new area the gangs have moved on to).
• This process is repeated at the start of each Campaign Week for the duration of the campaign.
• In a Dome Rush, lots of good loot is flowing out of the newly discovered area – to reflect this, and to represent the eagerness of Guilders to capitalise on this new wealth, all gangs add 2 to the Availability Level when seeking Rare or Illegal equipment (see Visiting the Trading Post).
• Victory is determined by Reputation and credits. Triumphs relating to the gaining and holding of Territory are not used.

Last Gang Standing

Trapped in a small settlement or cramped dome, a group of fledgling gangs wage a violent war for supremacy. The Last Gang Standing Campaign is a short campaign that is played out over a few bloody battles. It is both quick and brutal, as all the gangs are fighting over a single Territory or Racket, and every battle results in casualties. This type of campaign adds a number of additional rules that capture the viciousness of this closed-in struggle for the control of a small settlement or zone deep in the underhive.

A Last Gang Standing Campaign uses the following rules:

• This campaign consists of only a single phase, itself lasting between three and six Campaign Weeks, as decided by the Arbitrator.
• At the start of the first Campaign Week, the Arbitrator should generate a single random Territory – this represents the extent of the small settlement the gangs are fighting over. All gangs gain the Boons associated with this Territory. This means they will earn credits from it, gain free fighters or enjoy any other Boons, just as if their gang was in control of the Territory.
• Gangs cannot recruit new fighters (other than those generated as Territory Boons), nor can they make use of Hired Guns, though they can still visit the Trading Post or Black Market and buy new equipment.
• Every battle in this campaign is a multi-player battle. Each time a battle is fought, the Arbitrator chooses the scenario and all gangs participate. Alliances between gangs are encouraged, but players should feel free to betray their alliances at the most opportune moments, representing the ruthlessness of the gangs in their drive for supremacy.
• When a fighter goes Out of Action, no roll on the Lasting Injury table is made – instead it is assumed that the fighter has been killed in the savage war for supremacy – and they are removed from the player’s gang.
• If a gang bottles out (including bottling out voluntarily), the Arbitrator removes D3 fighters at random from their gang, not including their Leader. This represents that the gang is new and inexperienced, and that green fighters may, when faced with the brutal reality of gang warfare, give it up as a bad idea.
• Victory goes to the gang with the highest Gang Rating at the end of the phase. No other Triumphs are used.

Hive Empires

Having risen to control entire zones, mighty gangs then turn their attention to each other, waging inter-House warfare on an epic scale. In a Hive Empires Campaign, the gangs start out rich in Territories and Rackets, commanding a large section of the underhive. However, the size of their gang and their wealth is more tightly tied to their holdings, and a loss to their ‘empire’ means a direct and lasting loss to their gang’s power. A Hive Empires Campaign uses the following rules:

• To play out the kind of macro warfare represented by a Hive Empires Campaign, the Arbitrator will need to create a map depicting the locations of the different gang holdings and the battlefields they are fighting over:
  • On the map, draw a number of zones – there should be three times as many as there are players in the campaign.
  • Then, draw lines linking each zone to one or more other zones (representing the tunnels and domes that connect the zones).
  • The Arbitrator can then give the zones appropriate names (such as the Cogwind Canyons, Sump-river City, or Ash Docks, for example).
  • The players begin the campaign in control of three connected zones (the Arbitrator can either assign these or have the players choose randomly).
• Each player has 3,000 credits to create their gang. When creating a gang, players can ignore the restrictions for including Hangers-on and Brutes based upon Reputation, allowing them to be hired at gang creation.
• At the start of the campaign, each gang has a Territory or Racket for each zone they control (the Arbitrator can assign these Territories or Rackets to zones or allow the players to do so).
• When issuing challenges, players can only attack zones that are connected to a zone they control – unless they make a deal with another player to pass through their zones.
• If the challenger successfully claims a Territory or Racket, they then take control of the zone and the Territory or Racket it contains.
• Victory is determined using all the normal Triumphs.

Nomads Of The Underhive

In the deepest and darkest depths of the underhive there are very few resources to go around, and gangs must struggle over the scraps cast down from above. A Nomads of the Underhive Campaign is a campaign that is very sparse in terms of credits and Territories, where the gangs must scratch out a living from among the lowest levels of the underhive. It can present an interesting challenge and change of pace from the other, more cred-rich types of campaign available, as gangs must truly struggle to survive.

A Nomads of the Underhive Campaign uses the following rules:

• Each player has only 700 credits to create their starting gang, rather than the usual 1,000 credits. If fighting in the ash wastes, each player only adds 300 credits to spend on vehicles and wargear that grant the Mounted condition instead of the usual 400 credits.
• At the beginning of this type of campaign, the Arbitrator should generate as many Territories as there are gangs involved and randomly assign one Territory to each gang.
• Gangs cannot earn more than 100 credits in each Campaign Week, regardless of the source, though other rewards from scenarios and Territories can be gained as normal.
• The scarcity of goods in this type of campaign means that gangs are limited in the equipment they can have:
  • Gangs may not begin with any equipment that, in the Trading Post, has a Rare (X) or Illegal (X) trait with the value of X being greater than 10, even if included on their House list.
  • Gangs may not purchase during any post-battle sequence any equipment that, in the Trading Post, has a Rare (X) or Illegal (X) trait where X is greater than 10.
  • Gangs may purchase any other equipment from either their House or the Trading Post as normal.
• At the end of each Campaign Week, after gaining any Boons from them, each gang must discard all but one of its Territories. They may choose which Territories to discard.
• If a gang no longer controls any Territories, they remain in the campaign and may capture Territory as usual.
• Victory is determined by the last gang to hold a Territory.

Helmawr’s War

Sometimes inter-House warfare becomes so widespread that it disrupts hive production levels and Lord Helmawr orders a gang purge. In a Helmawr’s War Campaign, the gangs are divided into two sides and war is declared! These divisions can be based on almost anything, from outlaws versus lawmen to heretics versus servants of the Ministorum, but only one side can emerge victorious from the bloodshed.

A Helmawr’s War Campaign uses the following rules:

• At the start of the campaign, the Arbitrator should divide the players’ gangs evenly into those deputised by the Guilders and supporting the purge, and those declared as renegades and fighting against the purge.
• If there are an uneven number of players, then the odd gang joins the outlaws.
• Only outlaw gangs start controlling any Territory or Rackets:
  • Create a pool of Territories or Rackets equal to the number of outlaw gangs taking part in the campaign.
  • For the purposes of the campaign, all outlaw gangs benefit from these Territories or Rackets just as if their gang was in sole control of them.
• Deputised gangs begin the campaign with no Territories or Rackets, but may spend an additional 250 credits when creating their gangs.
• As there are no unclaimed Territories or Rackets, gangs may challenge other gangs for Territories or Rackets from the beginning of the campaign.
• Whenever a deputised gang would gain a Territory or Racket from an outlaw gang, this Territory or Racket is discarded from the campaign, as it is considered to now be ‘under control’.
• There is no restriction on which gangs can fight each other (after all, it can be imagined that deputised gangs mistake each other for outlaws while outlaws are struggling over their shrinking turf). In these kinds of battles, no Territories or Rackets change hands, but gangs may earn credits, Experience and Reputation as normal.
• Victory is dependent on remaining Rackets or Territories. If all of these have been captured by the deputised gangs, then their side is victorious, otherwise the purge has failed and the outlaw gangs stand victorious. Other Triumphs may be used to determine secondary victory conditions as usual.

Perpetual Campaigns

Sometimes you just don’t want the fighting to end as gangs continue to grow ever larger and more powerful, or fall from seemingly unassailable heights to become just another cautionary tale. The simplest method for running a perpetual campaign is to just keep playing battles. In this way the campaign has no end, and the end of each campaign phase signals the start of another. For those following a specific campaign system with dedicated phases, such as the Dominion Campaign, a perpetual campaign can be achieved by looping the campaign phases – in this case, the Occupation phase and Takeover phase – separated by Downtime phases.

For example, a perpetual Dominion Campaign would have the following sequence of phases: Occupation > Downtime > Takeover > Cycle Downtime > Occupation > Downtime > Takeover, etc. Each complete block of Occupation > Downtime > Takeover is referred to as a campaign cycle, and each cycle is separated by a Cycle Downtime phase. The Cycle Downtime phase is the perfect time to introduce new gangs to the campaign, to form splinter gangs, or for a player to retire their gang. Players wishing to carry on their gang unchanged into the next campaign cycle do nothing and all rules for a Downtime phase apply as normal to all gangs. This method can easily be used for other types of campaign systems as presented here and in various Necromunda supplements.

Territories

When playing a Dominion Campaign, the end of a campaign cycle will likely see multiple gangs in control of several Territories each. In the case of a perpetual campaign, players may find that all the Territories available are soon controlled, making it difficult for newplayers to join in and make an impact.

To counter this, the Arbitrator may decide that Territories must be refreshed during Cycle Downtime. If Territories are refreshed, players retain a number of Territories limited by their Gang Rating. Each player may retain one Territory of their choice for each full 1,000 credits of their Gang Rating, e.g., a player with a Gang Rating of 2,300 credits would choose up to two Territories they currently control to retain. The rest of the Territories are lost and a new set of Territories is determined as described in the campaign being played.

When determining Territories for a new campaign cycle, the number of Territories generated should be based upon the total number of gangs participating in the campaign as normal. This means there will often be more Territories to fight over in a perpetual campaign than in a standard Dominion Campaign, and many of these may be duplicated. This is deliberate. Not only does it allow new gangs a fair chance to capture uncontrolled Territories, it also means that, should a veteran gang stumble and begin suffering losses, the collapse of its large dominion both looks and feels very significant.

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Semi-Perpetual Dominion Campaigns

A semi-perpetual campaign is a method based upon the idea of splinter gangs. After a campaign has ended, victors have been determined, Triumphs have been awarded and things have settled down, players create new gangs as described in Gang Creation. Any player that was awarded a Triumph at the end of the previous campaign and includes any fighters or Crew from their original gang receives additional benefits based on the Triumphs they were awarded, as described in the table below:

Triumph	Benefit
Dominator	The gang gains an extra starting Territory, chosen at random from all Territories after each player has chosen their starting Territory.
Slaughterer	After the gang has been founded, the gang gains 6 additional XP that can be distributed between fighters recruited from an old gang. Only 2 XP can be given to any single fighter.
Creditor	The gang starts with an extra 100 credits which are added to their starting Stash.
Warmonger	The gang starts the campaign with an additional 3 Reputation and can choose to be the attacker or defender in their first battle, regardless of who issued the challenge.
Powerbroker	The gang can choose to start the campaign with one of the following Hangers-on for free: Ammo-jack, Dome Runner, Gang Look-out, Rogue Doc or Slopper.

These Triumph benefits are only retained for that campaign. At the end of the campaign, Triumphs are assigned as normal and can switch from player to player between campaigns.

Maximum Starting Crewsizes

In a perpetual campaign, as gangs get larger the number of fighters will inevitably increase and this could result in one gang fielding an unmanageable quantity of fighters at once. To combat this, Arbitrators may wish to place a limit on the maximum number of fighters a single player can field in scenarios with unlimited Custom Crew selection.

A maximum fighter limit can be set through the use of a player’s Gang Rating. When a scenario uses the Custom Selection method, a player can choose a maximum number of fighters determined by their Gang Rating, as shown in the table below:

Gang Rating	Maximum Crew Size
Up to 1,000	10
1,001-2,000	15
2,001-3,000	20
3,001+	25

Hired Guns and fighters recruited as part of House Patronage are not included in this limit and may increase the crew size above the maximum shown on the table