Necromunda – Rules changes in the new edition

A new edition of Necromunda is on the way, and it brings with it a host of rules changes. Today, we’re looking at some of the biggest, and how they’ll affect your underhive gang warfare.

The release of Necromunda: Skirmish brings together over nine years of updates and enhancements into a cleaner and more intuitive system that smoothes out the gameplay experience while losing none of the narrative excitement and campaign content that you love. The core of the game is the same foundation that you’ll recognise from the get-go, but with a host of tweaks and quality of life improvements that make the moment-to-moment action faster and easier to play on the fly.

In short – more options for your gang, more time for your games, and less flipping through books to find that one rule you always forget. 

Gang Up

Take your average ganger, for instance. Before, they lurked in the shadows of your leaders and champions – who were undoubtedly the cool guys who got all the attention – but now each one gets to choose a specialisation when added to the gang roster. Pick from one of eight different options like Gunner, Scout, or Medic to get a free starting skill so they can earn their reputation and narrow the power gap between your heroes and lackeys.

You can also pick up as many Brutes and Hangers-on as you want (as long as they don’t outnumber the non-Brutes and Hangers-on in your gang), so go wild and recruit the weird and wonderful cast of characters that make up Necromunda. Sure, they won’t pitch in to do post-cycle actions, but that’s not what you’re paying them for.

This flexibility extends to your other Fighters as well. With a few notable exceptions (like a Death Maiden’s venom claw), Leaders, Champions, Gangers and Prospects can be equipped with any weapons and equipment available to their gang or purchased from the Trading Post.

After Action

Speaking of after-action activities, new sequences at the end of battles and campaign cycles give everyone in your gang something to do, be it recovering from injuries, working owned territories, or training for a bit of bonus experience. This helps to keep the upkeep between games quick and streamlined so you can jump from one game to another in the course of an afternoon, while expanding the narrative and gameplay options your gang has available at milestone points between cycles.

Combat Changes

Combat itself is full of little updates here and there that keep the action flowing and open up new tactical opportunities for your gang. Close combat, now fought in initiative order, only allows fighters to make one attack if it isn’t their activation, so powerful brutes can succumb to weight of numbers if you’re not careful. Only guns that shoot a ton of rounds or are prone to malfunction need a Firepower dice roll, while bottle checks test against the highest Leadership on the field rather than making Cool checks for every individual ganger.

Taking a burst of lasgun fire and wondering what kind of armour you have on? No worries, everyone has a Save characteristic as part of their profile now, which is modified up and down by factors like cover and extra equipment. You lose none of the flavour of your fighter’s individual equipment choices, but it’s quicker and easier to reference.

Choose Your Battles

Scenarios are generated with a deck of cards or equivalent tables in the core rulebook, giving you an easy way to whip up interesting game objectives in moments, while new territory rules mean the location of your skirmish will have lasting gameplay effects that could swing a decisive engagement in your favour. Imagine trying to take over an Escher chem vat when all of their toxic weapons are suddenly more virulent than normal – a daunting prospect for anyone.

These are only a few of the changes you can expect when the Necromunda: Skirmish core set goes on pre-order from Saturday. Come back all this week as we delve into the new lore, miniatures, and more from your favourite underhive hellscape.