Now this might be a little controversial, but these rules have always been something I've wanted to include in the ruleset. I don't believe in hired guns joining permanently or gaining experience normally upon being hired out by a gang, but I'm certainly not against the possibility. This ruleset is an effort to address this possibility and make it a little balanced. I'm sure we've all been in a campaign where someone fell in love with a random hired gun they hired. As arbitrator I've seen it a few times and even allowed the joining of the odd hired gun to a gang on occasion if the players offered me a good reason.
Anyway here's the rules I sketched up. C&C is welcome as always.
[Just a note, but normally I have these on a lovely word document with nice, ordered tables (it probably shows) but it doesn't look like you can add word documents onto the site (not even .rtf) and I don't have many PDFs left. I really need to find a way to get more.] “My New Best Friendâ€
Rules for Hired Guns joining Gangs
One of the more interesting aspects of Necromunda is the ability to hire all sorts of colourful and interesting hired guns to your gangs. You can often find yourself with an interesting hired gun that you enjoy having around, and you can often end up wishing you could keep them around permanently.
Unfortunately in most cases, Hired Guns have a shelf life, after which they start being outclassed by your experienced gangers. This is another reason why adding a system to improve your mercenary assistants can be useful, but as they are paid help and can leave at any time, you’d only really want to improve them if you want them around with your gang all of the time.
This is what these rules are all about. If you ever wanted to keep a hired gun, this is how you can go about it. There is an element of risk involved, as this can be an easy means of getting vastly improved gang members quickly. Therefore you could end up sending your hired gun packing, but it can be worth the risk to keep your hired gun around.
My New Best Friend: How To Recruit a Hired GunYour gang can find itself fighting alongside a very talented and interesting individual. In some cases, they may even have a manner that doesn’t make your gang members hate them instantly. So, you’re paying them, but perhaps they’d be willing to join you and get a slice of your gang’s connections and income. It can be a difficult endeavour. These guns of fortune probably earn more creds than your entire gang sees in a year. Still, the possibility is always there that they have a yearning to belong to
something, and with the right comrades,
that something might just be your gang.
Attempting to Recruit a Hired GunIn order to recruit a hired gun permanently, you will need to negotiate this with them. This means sending a member of your gang to discuss it with him during the post-battle sequence. Ideally you should send your gang leader, but he can be busy. You can actually send anyone (except your heavies, who are far too busy) in your gang: your leader, a ganger or even a juve.
Whoever you send cannot do anything else during the post-battle sequence. They cannot work a territory, go to the trading post or help another gang member in any way. Their job is solely to try their best to persuade the Hired Gun that they should join them.
If the attempt is unsuccessful, you must pay the Hired Gun’s hire fee to keep him with your gang. You can wait until after negotiations to pay the hire fee (after all, paying him his dues is not going to sway him either way and if you don’t pay he’ll leave anyway), as if you are successful you may have to pay anyway (see
Joining Conditions below).
Negotiation ModifiersWhen making negotiations, a Hired Gun is shrewd, and fully aware of the pros and cons of joining you. Negotiation will be tough. To represent this, negotiation is done by rolling a D6, consulting the modifiers below and determining the result by consulting the
Recruitment Negotiation Chart, below.
Apply the following appropriate modifiers each time you attempt to recruit the Hired Gun to your gang (as the situation will inevitably change each time). As this happens during the post-battle sequence, you will have to consider events that occurred during the battle/scenario you have just played (or even the whole campaign). Add/subtract all of the modifiers together and apply the resulting modifier to your dice roll. Some modifiers are cumulative, these are noted (Per X) where they apply.
+1 Familiarity: The Hired Gun has been with your gang for 5 games or more
+1 Successful: Your Gang won the last played scenario (double this if the gang were underdogs)
+1 Top Dogs: Your Gang has the highest gang rating
+1 Professional: The Negotiator is your Gang Leader
+1 Favourites: The Negotiator is the Hired Gun’s favourite (See rules below)
+1 Interested: Previously getting the “I’ll think about it†result on the negotiation table
-1 Scars: Per serious injury (ignoring full recoveries, captures, impressive scars and survives against the odds) the hired gun suffers whilst working for your gang.
-1 Competition: Per additional hired gun (or character) employed by your gang.
-1 Failure: Your Gang lost or drew the last played scenario
-1 Unstable: The gang has had at least one leadership challenge in the campaign
-1 Annoyed: Previously getting the “Are you serious?†result on the negotiation table
-1 Ill-fated: The gang has suffered 3 or more deaths in the campaign
Note that you must always use this procedure each time to try to recruit a hired gun, as most likely the situation may have changed.
FavouritesYou can roll a D6 before sending a ganger or juve to approach the hired gun. If you roll a 6, this particular gang member is in high esteem with the hired gun. Maybe he’s a charismatic young juve the old hand has taken under his wing or a ganger who has been a pleasant drinking partner away from the fighting. Either way if a Gang Leader notices this relationship, they can be an obvious choice for sending to the negotiating table. Each time you send this gang member to negotiate with the hired gun, you gain an additional +1 in any attempt to recruit them permanently to your gang (this bonus is included in the list of modifiers).
Conflict of InterestsCertain Hired Guns may be faced with a conflict of interests. Bounty Hunters for instance, are charged with hunting outlaws, monster hunters live for hunting creatures of various descriptions and Ratskin Scouts highly value sacred sites and although ostracised from Ratskin society still have an affinity for their kin.
There may be other considerations that prevent a Hired Gun from joining (or even staying with) a gang. So it is worth considering other factors before finally deciding whether a Hired Gun stays or even joins a gang. For instance, a Bounty Hunter should have to leave an Outlaw Gang, but they certainly wouldn’t join one. A Monster Hunter who hasn’t killed a monster may want to move on. If a gang has an Archeotech Hoard, that could be a –1 or even a +1 for the Ratskin to join the gang. In these cases it is best to discuss it with your fellow players or the game’s arbitrator.
Recruitment Negotiation ChartAfter determining the modifying result, roll a D6 and consult the chart below. If the Hired Gun does not leave or has not already joined your gang, you can attempt to recruit them again during the next post-battle sequence.
D6 Result
0 (or less)
Professional Differences: There are sounds of loud voices and banging coming from the negotiations. The Hired Gun storms off, never to return. Remove the Hired Gun from your roster.
1
“Are you serious?†The Hired Gun feels personally slighted at the suggestion. He turns it down fairly vehemently. Further attempts to recruit the hired gun are done at an additional –1 modifier.
2-3
“No, thanks†The Hired gun turns the offer down, but at least respects the offer. He does not join, but you can attempt again after the next scenario.
4
“Not just yet†The Hired Gun has fondness for your gang, but isn’t overly convinced you are ready enough for him to join you. You may attempt again, however from now on you can ignore the negative modifier from the “Are you serious?†result, and treat it as “No, thanks†instead.
5
“I’ll think about it…†The Hired Gun seems tempted but needs some time to think. Further attempts to recruit the hired gun are done at an additional +1 modifier.
6+
“Sure, I’ll join you…†The Hired Gun is won over and joins your gang immediately. Consult the rules detailed below for adding them to your gang.
Joining ConditionsHired Guns are shrewd, so even if they are willing to join your gang, old habits die hard. Many Hired Guns will feel they are taking a pay cut by joining you. If the individual gang rating of your negotiator is less than that of the hired gun, roll a D6 and consult the chart below:
D6 Result
1
Second Thoughts: The Hired Gun is having some second thoughts. He demands you pay the equivalent of his gang rating before he will join your gang. This can be done in instalments, but he will not count as joined until you have paid this completely, and until then he will demand his hire fee as well.
2-5
Compensation: The Hired Gun is a little annoyed that he accepted so eagerly. To sweeten the deal your negotiator offers his usual salary in addition to a cut of the action. You must pay the hire fee for D3 games. You can pay this all at once. He joins you immediately, but will leave after 3 games if his fees are not paid.
6
Won Over: The Hired Gun is completely won over and happy with his slice. He joins your gang immediately and you do not need to pay any extra credits.
My New Best FriendA Hired Gun who joins your gang becomes a fully-fledged gang member in all respects. They now count towards the number of members of your gang (as a mouth to feed or when generating income) and can do the work any other ganger can do (working territories, and going to the trading post with the leader). The Hired Gun also starts gaining experience. In your roster, write the Hired Gun’s total rating in both his cost and total experience points. Update your gang rating accordingly.
From now on the Hired Gun is a ganger and will use their experience level to determine experience advancements (so they start from the level equal to their rating, like any new recruit with a set experience value would). You may purchase new equipment for him, however you may not sell or distribute their equipment amongst the gang. A Hired Gun will always keep their equipment unless they lose it through being captured or killed etc. The Hired Gun is also just as subject to the maximum characteristics as any other ganger, and as a fully-fledged gang member, this may lead to a leadership challenge. This should be resolved as soon as possible.
If the Hired Gun loses their equipment you will need to buy (or otherwise provide) new equipment for them, or they will leave your gang, muttering about how much of a stupid idea it was to join you in the first place. You no longer pay their hire fee, but you will need to provide for them as you would for a ganger (such as feeding them if you are outlawed, but they will also be able to forage).
They keep all of their equipment and special rules from when they were a hired gun. In some cases you may deem the special rules inappropriate, but they will usually still have the same connections and abilities. Naturally these abilities are lost if the new gang member is killed or is captured.
ClosingWell that’s all, folks. I hope these rules add some additional colour to your games. As mentioned in the “Conflict of Interests†rules, there may be certain issues with joining (aside of usual Hired Gun hiring restrictions) Hired Guns to gangs. Feel free to add your own modifiers (such as ‘Mentoring’ House Agents for instance) if you and your fellow players agree upon them.
Depending on the results of these I may expand this ruleset to include a few other articles concerning Special Characters (who
cannot use these rules) and Hired Gun gang and scenario rules. I also have a set of Monster Hunter and Ratling Sniper Hired Guns rules knocking about, so please check them out also.
