Going Out With a Bang!
RAW ✔️ Source: White Dwarf 459, Going Out With A Bang! (12/2020)
Battle-scarred and bloodied, your gangs have fought a long and bitter war in the depths of the underhive. But now their campaign of violence and destruction has come to a head, and the strong must prove their mettle in the crucible of war. A legacy awaits!
End Game Narrative
Whichever kind of End Game you settle upon, it should feel like the conclusion of the campaign, as the most powerful gang or gangs make their final play for everlasting glory. This is a great opportunity for the Arbitrator to wrap up any plots or storylines they might have going on in their campaign, perhaps even working these into the scenario they want to run. Whatever the outcome, this is a chance for the gang or gangs to go out in a blaze of glory – and either win big or earn a one-way trip to the Corpse Grinders…
It's been a wild ride punctuated with the thunder of guns, the screams of dying gangers and the occasional sump horror rampaging around eating everything in sight. The last bullets have been fired, the final creds spent and the dead fighters put to rest. Your Necromunda campaign is coming to an end. So what now? You could tally up the kills, victories and Gang Ratings, hand out the Triumphs and retire your battle-hardened fighters … or you could give them a send-off worthy of Necromunda, and go out with stub guns blazing!
In this article, we explore the idea of the End Game scenario as a means to retire a gang. In Necromunda, how a gang goes out is, in many ways, more important than how it first enters the campaign, as this will be its legacy for years to come. It provides a satisfying finale for all involved and can be a chance to finally settle scores, take out those persistent rivals or silence those underhive horrors that may have been haunting the players. Perhaps, most importantly, it gives the most powerful gang a chance to prove once and for all just how tough they are and show off all that hard-won skill and firepower.
The End Is Nigh
Eventually, one or more gangs are going to get ridiculously powerful (typically around sometime when their Gang Rating hits the 4,000 credits mark) – and this is when everyone knows it's probably time to give them a chance to go out with a bang by giving them their very own retirement scenario. For more guidance on when to retire a gang and how to go about it, refer to the Perpetual Campaigns article in White Dwarf from May 2019.
There are many ways to play out a gang's departure from a Necromunda campaign: bloody free-for-alls between gangs, pit fights between chosen champions, races to secure a treasure, an attempt to bring down a powerful monster or simply being the last gang standing as the hive falls apart around them. Presented here are some ideas for End Game situations, as well as guidelines on how they might be played out in your campaign, while on the following pages you will find three purpose-built End Game scenarios: The Last Round, Gateway to Hell and The Long Night. Will your gang emerge bloodied and triumphant, or will they go out with a bang?
Survival Of The Fittest
The classic End Game pits the strongest gang (or gangs) against everyone else in the campaign. This only works if the gang(s) in question is very powerful, though not so much so that an alliance of all their enemies would not pose a significant challenge. This can be a fun ending to a campaign, as it gives the other players a chance to take on their friend's gang on an equal footing, while the player with the stronger gang can enjoy the power they have achieved without the need to hold back. Any scenario is suitable for this kind of End Game, but ones such as Last Stand or Ambush are particularly appropriate.
Super Cyborg Assassins
A twist on the Murder Cyborg scenario from the Necromunda Rulebook, this kind of End Game has the powers-that-be sending a host of cybernetic killers down into the underhive to restore law and order (or simply just kill everyone). The players can work together or against each other, but there will be a Murder Cyborg for each gang on the loose, and the game only comes to a conclusion when all the Cyborgs are killed … or the gangs are. Alternatively, the Murder Cyborgs might be chronogladiators turned assassins, and if they are not killed by the end of a set round, they explode!
Darkness Falls
The environment itself is a great way to make a final battle memorable. This can mean using things like the Pitch Black rules from the Necromunda Rulebook or the various environmental effects from Necromunda: The Book of Peril. These kinds of hazards work best if they are progressive – perhaps the chamber the fight is taking place in is filling with water (or something a little nastier) and fighters must climb up or drown, or maybe the air is getting increasingly toxic and each round fighters must make Toughness checks or take Flesh Wounds. Either way, the battle is against the clock, and the gangs must try to kill each other before the underhive kills them all.
Final Sanction
Similar to the Hive Riot, Final Sanction has a steady stream of Enforcers showing up to put down the gang violence. The Arbitrator could have all the gangs working together (or at least in a loose alliance until the danger has passed), while they control an equal number of Enforcer patrols in a massed gang battle. Alternatively, the scenario could focus on the gangs trying to destroy the last vestige of law and order in their section of the underhive, with the gangs gathering together to destroy a Precinct-fortress, with victory going to the gang which can take out the Enforcer Captain. The White Dwarf scenario Assault on Precinct-fortress 17 is a great example of this kind of End Game.
Crawling Critters
Monsters, sump horrors and underhive critters are all staples of Necromunda. In Crawling Critters, the final battle takes place in the Badzones with the local fauna complicating matters. The Arbitrator could use the profile for Carrion Creatures from the Fighter Down scenario in the Necromunda Rulebook, or they could make up their own horrors. Perhaps the fight takes place in the lair of a gigantic monster, and the gangs must either try to be the first to take it out or conclude their battle without waking it from its slumber.
Hive Riot
An expansion of the Downtown Dust-up scenario found in the Necromunda Rulebook, a Hive Riot sees the final fight break out in a crowded underhive market, active factorum or other teeming environment. In addition to dealing with each other, the gangs must contend with hordes of bystanders (some of which might not be too happy that the gangs are starting a fight). The Arbitrator can use the rules for Hive Dwellers found in that scenario, but instead of them being activated as individuals they could be activated as groups – roll once for each group of fighters, using the Hive Dweller reaction table.
Multi-player Games
End Game scenarios work best when they are multi-player games. While it might be appropriate for a single powerful gang to see if they can break free of the underhive, take down the local warlord or escape into the wastes, these games will be more memorable and more exciting if all the players have a stake in the outcome rather than watching from the sidelines. Fortunately, Necromunda is a game that lends itself well to multi-player games, and guidelines for running Necromunda with more than two players can be found in the Necromunda Rulebook, covering such things as determining Priority when there is more than two players and limiting the number of fighters each player can field in especially large games in order to keep the action moving. The End Game scenarios presented in this article are all designed with multiplayer gaming in mind.