Necromunda: Hive Secundus – We Need This As An RPG Setting Now
Have you seen the lore of Necromunda: Hive Secundus yet? How is this not an RPG setting yet? It’s time to make this happen Games Workshop.
Imagine your typical dungeon diving RPG. You’ve got your friends around the table. Maybe you have a map and miniatures. And you’re looking at the quest before you: Go into the deep, dark, and deadly dungeon and get the [insert treasure/prisoner rescue/McGuffin] below. Sure, this is an oversimplification — but it’s also the most basic format for a dungeon dive. Your party is gathered to go into the dungeon to kill things, get rich, or die trying.
Or maybe you’re just looking for food to eat. You do you!
So have you read the lore of Hive Secundus yet? Because if you have I’m sure the dots are going be connecting. Let me sum things up for you: Spyrers are going down in the dungeon Hive Secundus ruins, aka the Underhells, to kill Genestealers as a right of passage. Van Saar (and other gangers) are going down there to get rich off of recovered data (or other lootable tech). In summary: The party is gathered to go into the dungeon to kill things, get rich, or die trying.
Necromunda: Wrath & Glory Edition
And look, I know Necromunda is already an inherently RPG-lite game. It’s a campaign setting for a miniatures combat game. You track stats, get experience, get better loot…you know the drill. I’m sure there are players out there that have been keeping track of their own campaigns since the first edition and probably have a vast wealth of stories to tell. And it would all sound very much like a RPG player recounting tales of adventure.
I’ve written about this very subject before, too. Heck, Games Workshop already has a partnership with Crucible 7 and they already have a game system that would fit PERFECTLY with the setting. So, seriously…why is this not a thing yet?!
The last time I wrote about this it was when the Ash Waste was out. And, to me, that’s still a perfectly viable setting for an RPG as well. It’s the big, open world that your gangers/player characters can travel around all Mad Max style. They’ll encounter settlements and have their Ash Waste (above ground) adventures. Like I said previously, “it’s the Wild West — but Necromunda!” That’s an awesome setting.
Yep, would still be an awesome setting for an RPG.
But maybe that was just too daunting of a scope? I dunno. But now we have what could literally be the most massive Grimdark Dungeon Crawl EVER. The players would travel into the very bowels of the Underhells and face off against deadiler foes. First they’ve got to clear the Dust Wall. Then they’ve got to find a guide down. After that they’ve also got to deal with crazed Cultists of the Malstrain. And eventually they’d have a run in with a Malstrain Genestealer or two. Perhaps the players even come face to face with a Genestealer Patriarch — the ultimate big bad. You cant tell me that’s not a build in RPG campaign. It just FITS.
One Last Thing…
One of the (strange but not entirely wrong) criticisms of the Wrath & Glory system is that allows player characters of very different backgrounds and power levels to team and up and go adventuring. Why would a Space Marine join up with a random Guardsmen and go help a Tech-Priest? And yeah, I get that. Lore-wise it doesn’t always fit. But to put it another way, “Why would the high level Paladin go adventuring with the newly minted Fighter and his Cleric buddy?” But I digress.
You know what would make a lot more sense for a more cohesive party make-up? A bunch of Gangers/Palanite Enforcers/Citizens of Necromunda out for one big score. I’m just throwing that out there because a bunch of (mostly) basic humans might massage some of those “complaints” away.
So once again I’m pitching this idea to Games Workshop, Crucible 7, and anyone out there looking for an awesome time: Do a Necromunda RPG. Look — it’s already got three books lined up! You’ve got the Core Necromunda setting of Hive Primus and the gangland warfare. The second expansion is in the Ash Wastes. And finally the third book is the trip down into the Underhells. After that, what’s next? I dunno…Space!? It’s a Sci-fi setting. Go nuts!
So c’mon GW. You’re sitting on a perfectly viable product line. You know what to do.
