Necromunda: 4th Edition

Writer’s Disclaimer:

I’ve written this document as a means of some sort of compromise. I love Games Workshop’s line of products, and fervently wish the Specialist Games had not had its support… reduced by GW. In fact, I really think that with a little bit of updating, Necromunda, Epic, and other Specialist Games could be very popular again.

I’m also a huge fan of D&D. It was my first real encounter with Role-Playing, as my Dad introduced me to it when I was 11 or so. He had played 1^st Ed. D&D ‘back in the day’, and in the 15 or so years since then, I’ve enjoyed following D&D from 1^st Ed, to getting 2^nd Ed. Books for my birthday, buying 3^rd Ed. Books with my work money in High School, and now, I’m jumping into 4^th Edition with both feet. Wizards of the Coast continues to improve upon what TSR did before them, and D&D isn’t >quite< as nerdy as it once was. J

I think the system itself does an excellent job of getting the players back into ‘Role Playing’, not ‘Stat-Crunching’, which is a fairly common criticism of 3^rd and 3.5 Ed. D&D. 4^th, however really brings the action back to the table, and becomes less of an exercise in Math Plus d20 = Do I hit?

Back to GW again. Recently, GW took a major step forward with Black Library and Black Industries, and released Dark Heresy, an RPG set in the Warhammer 40K universe for the first time. (It has since been taken over by Fantasy Flight Games). MAJOR Breakthrough. But… to me, it fell a little flat when the characters were such… Incompetents in the early levels Were these characters really the best the Inquisition could find??? It seemed as though nobody could do anything with any kind of reliability – A character with an associated skill of 30% (average) plus an Easy rating (+30%) meant you could accomplish the task 3 times in 5? No wonder Humanity’s getting pounded by Witches, Xenos, and Daemons…

So I had a thought. What if I converted 4^th Edition D&D, which looked PERFECT for ‘Re-skinning’, as I hear it’s called. By re-skinning the classes, feats, creating different races (but with a similar structure), I could have a workable basis. Then came… The New Rules.

D&D doesn’t have Guns. It doesn’t have Terminator Armor. It doesn’t have Grenades. And it certainly doesn’t have anything able to ignore armor like a Plasma Cannon, Multi-Melta, or Power Sword. So thus, New Rules.

Firearms quickly got much more complex than I’d anticipated. I wanted there to be a reason for all the guns to be there; they all have their uses somewhere! Some guns are fantastically effective (Bolters, for example). But part of the Necromunda game is Jamming, running out of Ammo, and scavenging for resources. So Bolters become Very Expensive, just as they describe them in the rules books for Necromunda and Dark Heresy. Ammo is scarce and unreliable, and many gangers opt for more reliable Lasguns and Autoguns, just so they don’t get the ‘dead man’s click’ when they run out of ammo.

Grenades were another thing to deal with. I, personally, have served in the military and know a thing or two about guns and grenades. It bothered me to no end that ‘Scatter’ dice are so random, and there were never any rules for bouncing them off walls – useful for digging out enemies between a barricade (in front), and a wall behind. Why would it be so difficult to accurately throw the grenade if all you have to do is bounce it off the back wall? Quite literally, you only need to throw well enough to hit the broad side of a barn. After all, close only counts in Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, right?

Armour Piercing. How do we reflect the S7-AP2 glory that is Plasma? You’ll have to read over the section on Weapons & Armor to find out. And there are some pre-emptive rules on Armored Vehicles as well that I haven’t written yet. Oh, and just in case your GM decides you DO have a Refractor Field to give you a 5+ Invulnerable Save, there’s a way to account for that, too.

Lastly, there are a gazillion sites for figs & such, and I highly recommend Reaper’s Chronoscope line. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like GW is advertising any of their old ‘Scum’, ‘Bounty Hunter’ and other non-gang lines. Chronoscape has a bunch of Sci-Fi, Necromunda-ish figs that are scaled and fit in perfectly.

If you like what you read, please post on the forums at http://warcraftgames.ca/forum/ under the Role Playing Games section. And if you’re a representative from GW or Wizards of the Coast, please realize: I’m doing this because I love your games and want to support them. Ideally, players who want to play this will need to buy Necromunda figs from GW, and a Player’s Handbook (at least) from Wizards. And yes, I have plans to expand these rules once I’ve bought a PHB2 and a few other choice books. And if you’re SO happy that you want to run with it, you can email me, I’m very interested!

PS: Yes, you need a PHB to make sense of the material here. The exploits listed fall in the same order they appear in the book, and the powers port over exactly. Thus far, all classes are represented except the Warlock, and all the abilities go up to level 6.

Cheers, keep gaming,

Jamie Ibz

Ch. 1 – Characters

Sample Pre-Generated Characters

Race/Background

Class

Ability Scores

Ch.2 – Races & Backgrounds

Printer-Friendly Chapter 2

Arbitrator

Merc

Delacque