Setting Up The Campaign
RAW ✔️ The Book of Judgement, p40
Setting up a Law and Misrule Campaign is a task that falls to the Arbitrator, that heroic individual amongst a group of players who has decided to run the campaign or has volunteered to take it on. To set up the campaign, the Arbitrator must set start and end dates, make sure that all of the players have founded their gang, and determine the Rackets that the gangs will be fighting over. This is best done in a single evening or session where everyone playing in the campaign meets, goes through all of the steps of setting up the campaign together and generally gets excited about the fun ahead.
Number of Gangs
A Law and Misrule Campaign is ideally suited to between six and ten gangs. This allows for a good number of battles to be fought during the Expansion phase (see page 44) for control of unclaimed Rackets. Larger campaigns are possible, but the Arbitrator will need to increase the number of Rackets. The easiest way to do this is to double the number of Rackets, from 26 to 52.
Set Start and End Dates
A Law and Misrule Campaign is divided into six campaign weeks split into two phases: the Expansion phase and the Justice phase. A single campaign week of Downtime falls between the Expansion and Justice phases, meaning that the campaign will last a total of seven campaign weeks. The first step in setting up the campaign is for the Arbitrator to determine the start date. They then share this vital information with the players!
It is worth noting that, although the text talks about 'campaign weeks', we don't strictly mean one calendar week of seven days! Real life can interfere and time to play games can be scarce. There is nothing wrong with a campaign week lasting two or three weeks if the Arbitrator and the players wish. So long as everyone taking part knows what is meant by the term 'campaign week', all should be well.
Control of Rackets
At the start of the campaign, each participating player will need to determine the Rackets their gang controls. To do this, the Arbitrator shuffles all 26 of the Racket cards from the pack of Intrigues & Rackets Card Pack together to form a deck. Rackets are allocated as follows:
- Each player draws two Rackets from the deck. These are the Rackets they control at the start of the campaign.
- All remaining cards are kept by the Arbitrator and come into play as a pool of unclaimed Rackets, to be fought over during the Expansion phase.
Making A Racket Deck
The Intrigues & Rackets Card Pack contains cards for each Racket used in the Law and Misrule Campaign. These cards feature all of the Rackets' special rules, and can be used both as gaming aids and when determining the Rackets for the campaign. If you do not have the Intrigues & Rackets Card Pack, you can use half a deck of playing cards to determine the Rackets for a campaign. Remove all Diamonds, Spades and Jokers, leaving just Clubs and Hearts. Each card in these remaining suits corresponds to a Racket, as indicated in the Racket descriptions that follow on page 72.
Readers will notice that these campaign rules bear a striking similarity to the Dominion campaign rules presented in the Necromunda Rulebook. This is entirely deliberate, both to keep the running of the campaign easy by keeping it familiar, and to enable players to combine these two campaign types should they wish.
The Law and Misrule Campaign introduces many new ideas, from Law Abiding and Outlaw gangs, to the Black Market, and the idea of Rackets and Intrigues. It is no accident that these rules arrive accompanying the Palanite Enforcers, for without the Palanite Enforcers, who is to say what is a crime?
All of the rules here are designed to work in conjunction with the Dominion campaign should players wish. It is a simple matter to combine the Territories from the Dominion campaign with these rules, allowing players to carve out large territories in which to run their Rackets.
To do this, the Arbitrator will need to keep track of which gang controls which Territory as well as keeping track of Rackets. Players will be able to battle it out over the control of either Territories or Rackets. During the Expansion phase, players can fight for control of unoccupied Territories, during the Justice phase, players can challenge one another for Territories held by a rival, and so on.
This opens up not just scope for more battles (which is always a good thing!), but for ever greater income and rewards in the form of Territory Boons, as well as the exciting narrative potential. Many Territories link naturally to Rackets, and players and Arbitrators are encouraged to consider the possibilities; if a gang controls the Corpse Guild Racket, it makes sense that they would also want to control a Corpse Farm or Bone Shrine Territory. Whilst there may be no in-game bonus for controlling both, it is easy to imagine that fighting would become quite bitter to secure such a monopoly.
Arbitrators may wish to take this narrative further, and we'd encourage them to reward gangs that can gain control of Rackets and Territories that share a common theme. Perhaps in the form of increased Reputation, or maybe some other, less obvious benefit.
Founding Gangs
Before the campaign begins, each player must found a gang. Each gang has a starting budget of 1,000 credits, and must be created using any of the lists mentioned on page 37. This budget can be spent on fighters (following the restrictions in each Gang List) and equipment from that gang's House Equipment List; any credits that are not spent are added to the gang's Stash and stored away for later use. A Fighter card must be completed for each fighter in the gang, and a gang roster must be completed to record all of the gang's details.
Gang Attributes
In a Law and Misrule Campaign, gangs have a number of attributes, which are tracked on their roster. These attributes, and their starting values, are explained as follows:
Gang Rating
The Gang Rating is an indicator of how powerful the gang is – the proficiency of its fighters, how well equipped it is, and so on. The Gang Rating is the total cost of all of the fighters in the gang, including the cost of all alternative weapon sets a fighter has.
Wealth
In a Law and Misrule Campaign, gangs also have a Wealth value – this is equal to the total cost of all of the fighters in the gang, plus the value of any credits or equipment they have in their Stash.
Reputation
Reputation is the measure of a gang's standing and power in their territory. It is separate from Gang Rating, which is a measure of the gang's size and resources; a small gang can build up quite an impressive reputation. A gang's Reputation starts at 1, and cannot drop below 1.
Reputation Keyword: All gangs have a keyword attached to their reputation to indicate their alignment: Law Abiding or Outlaw. For example a gang's Reputation might be (Law Abiding) 9, and another gang's Reputation might be (Outlaw) 2.
Fighter Campaign Attributes
In a Law and Misrule Campaign, each fighter in a gang has a number of attributes that are tracked in their entry on the gang's roster:
Experience(xp)
Fighters can spend Experience in order to purchase Advancements – when they do so, the Experience total is reduced accordingly.
Advancements
The more Advancements a fighter has, the more expensive any future Advancements will be. Leaders and Champions start with one Advancement (a skill), which should be noted on the gang roster.
In Recovery and Captured By
When a fighter goes Out of Action, there is a chance that they will suffer a Lasting Injury. Many of these will cause them to go Into Recovery and miss the next battle. When this is the case, their In Recovery box is ticked. Similarly, fighters might be Captured by an enemy gang – while this is the case, a note is made in the Lasting Injury/Captured By box of the name of the gang that has Captured them.
Completing A Gang Roster
As well as filling in a Fighter card for each fighter in their gang, players will need to complete a gang roster. This tracks additional Law and Misrule Campaign related information, such as Rackets held, Gang Rating, Reputation, Wealth and so on, as well as each fighter's Experience and Advancements.
The gang roster is made up of a number of elements: the gang's name (1) and House (2), its Gang Rating (3), Reputation (4) and Wealth (5), the Rackets it holds (6) and its Stash (7), containing unspent credits, surplus equipment (both weapons and Wargear), and so on. It also has a line for each fighter in the gang, with space for their names (8), fighter type (9), Cost (10), Experience earned (11), the number of Advancements gained (12), and whether they are currently In Recovery (13) or have suffered any injuries or been Captured (14).
Note that although the number of rows is limited, there is no upper limit on the number of fighters a gang can contain. Should a gang be lucky enough to have more fighters than can be fitted onto one gang roster, simply use a second gang roster for extra space.
