Commorragh - Birth of an idea

We may be talking at cross purposes here... I'm thinking of how the way they handle advances in Necromunda as a basis, so wondering whether we're talking about a seperate skills table for every group with everyone rolling on just their own chart, or everyone having their own chart of what skills tables they can roll on... if that made sense.

wanderingblade wrote:

One table for each society? Or the standard x tables open to each type?

This starts to get into gang balance, naturally - but my basic idea was that there should be a special advancement table accessible for each career 'path' as it were. Maybe make the table accessible at a certain experience level, or maybe make it some aspect attached to certain hires. But the idea was one table per path that would be but one of a number of other advancement tables available.

Really like the Influence mechanic Super Dave and the idea of secret missions Grub! I do think that a monetary system is also needed as well as the usual experience gain and skill acquisition. I'm not sure I quite got what you meant wandeirng blade about the two charts (I kinda get it but its late right now!).

I'm not overly familiar with the necromunda system but the Mordheim one had a 'generic' list of 4 or 5 skill tables such as Speed, Strength, Academic, Combat, Shooting and Special. Special meant specific to that warband. Each 'hero' had access to different combinations of the generic skill tables. Some lucky heroes had access to all of them (usually leaders if anyone). Could we have a similar system of generic 'core' tables which different warrior classes in a gang have access to but then specific Special skill table(s) for that particular warband too? Perhaps a Coven Warband would have 2 types: those for Haemonculi/Haemonculi initiates and then those for Servants/Wracks?

Perhaps someone could explain the necromunda system again to me as it has been an age since I played it and I don't have the books with me in this country!

I also like the idea of territories - the larger kabals certainly fight over different areas that control or have influence/attachment or association to and smaller gangs would be the same (where are ya gonna park your Reaver jetbike / modified Raider or Venom when you're not off gun slinging?! How do you maintain your supply of toxins for the splinter rifles and pistols? Where do you steal or sabotage things off a rival gang that has a more powerful warrior lineup than your own? Crippling their supply depot/stash can give you the upper hand in a fight! It also further ties into the narrative element about taking part in a campaign: you're creating your own storyline and history of the rise to power and repute.

For those who would like to reference them, the PDFs for Mordheim and Necromunda are available for download on the GW website here and here.

I think with a strong Infamy mechanic (I prefer Infamy to Influence myself) we wouldn't need an actual currency - it would work in abstract, I think. You can imagine new members to the gang allying themselves to a powerful gang rather than being bought, and traders currying favour. Think of it as a combined wealth and power mechanic.

Yeah, but if it works in abstract why would you ever have lesser gear? As soon as you reached the level to purchase Kabalite Armor or something - everyone would have Kabalite armor.

I like the idea of Infamy (or whatever we wish to call it) serving as a prerequisite for purchase of more potent goods/recruitment, but the barter system makes a lot of sense and also gives a purpose to raids other than just getting a reputation. Even the full Kabals do raids for slaves as a purpose of attaining wealth and influence via the trade of those slaves back in Commoragh - I would think street gangs would be similar on a smaller scale.

simply with regard to armor, although there is not a staggering amount compared with weapons there is still Kabalite armor, Ghostplate, Incubus, Clone fields, shadowfields etc that you could acquire either by purchasing them, stealing them etc?

On the other hand I think this thread is developing nicely and there are a lot of great ideas to try and make this a reality. Perhaps if Sky Serpent could add a poll or two asking about the dynamics of the game- e.g/ how to get better, how to hire people, how to gain infamy, objectives etc we could start streamlining this project to get an overview of what people think would work best. Once we have this sorted I feel we can move away from the theory behind it and start thinking about the gameplay and the details?

I have never played any of the skirmish games, so don't really know anything about them. I do love this idea though.

And yes, I am coming in very late.

I have been a longtime lurker, but this seems awesome. I am joining late, if that is ok, but think it is a great idea.
As a side note I have not played any skirmish games, but this seems to awesome not to be a part of.

I like the idea of using Infamy/Influence as both something you want to hang on to and something you can spend. Something like you need x amount of influence to be able to purchase certain items/hired guns, but some of the more specialized items and the cooler hired guns actually cost some of your hard earned influence to acquire.

i.e to hire an Incubus you need to have at least 35 influence and hiring the incubus costs 30 credits (or what monetary unit that gets used) and 3 influence per game he is used.

@FKaos - I think that sounds pretty logical; I don't exactly see why it couldn't be that way. Also, I'm glad to see someone posting here once more  

FKaos wrote:

I like the idea of using Infamy/Influence as both something you want to hang on to and something you can spend. Something like you need x amount of influence to be able to purchase certain items/hired guns, but some of the more specialized items and the cooler hired guns actually cost some of your hard earned influence to acquire.

i.e to hire an Incubus you need to have at least 35 influence and hiring the incubus costs 30 credits (or what monetary unit that gets used) and 3 influence per game he is used.

I like where your head is.

In my opinion something akin to betting on your group to win or accomplish something in game will give players an incentive, and fits in with the fluff(arena combat). This would encourage a cheating system, perhaps you can think about a certain sports themed specialist game.
Bribe a group of flying gang members to harass your opponent for a round, or drop grenades from the sky, even hide an explosive before the game begins.

Slaves as a form of currency, perhaps backing from a cabal or noble house(endorsements).