Hired Guns - Monster Hunter and Ratling Sniper

[Dimreapa]

Here's two Hired Guns I've come up with.

A year ago my local Gaming Buddies found and really got into Nik Jacos' Underhive Bestiary (Can You Hear That?) and we went nuts with our campaign that flirted incessantly with the Sump and deep underhive areas.  It quickly became apparent that an opportunity was there for a Hired Gun specialised at dealing with some of the nasties you can run into in Necromunda.  The Monster Hunter was born.  I wrote him up as a Monster Hunting version of a Bounty Hunter with a few variances here and there.

I also took it as an excuse to make a new Grenade type, the Web Grenade.  I did try getting this one published, and sent it in to Specialist Games, but unfortunately only about 3 months before the site went down.  (Sorry about the error in the PDF)


I was aware that there is already a Ratling Sniper (I have the Gang War mag with it in - issue 5 I think).  I thought it was a bit out of place however, as it differs from other Hired Guns in that he joins a gang and becomes a gang member.  I wasn't keen on this idea, and a member from a forum I frequent was asking about Ratling rules.  Not knowing (at the time) of a place where the old rules were available on the internet, I chucked out some of my own.

I based the rules on the background in the new Imperial Guard codex, trying to provide some rules that reflected their character a bit more.  Again, I went and added a new weapon - the las-longrifle, as I felt the Needle Rifle was a bit nasty to be easily acquired with a hired gun (I have however made it possible for the sneaky little sod to get one).

Let me know what you think.  This is the first time I've made some PDFs, so I have no idea how to edit these.

[Ant]

Really nice work Dimreapa 

We also sprinkle lots of random monsters through the campaign to keep it more varied so the Monster Hunter could be very useful. I'm not a massive fan of xenos like Ratlings being in the hive but they look better balanced than the old ones and have some very characterful rules. I had a skim through and the only suggestions I can offer are:

Is there a balance reason for the Hunter's Professional Differences rule? Just seemed a bit odd to me, surely there must be some well respected monster hunters knocking about?

I'd personally try and open up the skill advances some more (e.g maybe changing the last 6 to 5-6) just so you get a bit more variety in their starting profile.

If you're using the straight official rules then the Hunter is a little pointless since there's nothing to catch. Maybe you can add some sort of rule allowing beasts to show up if he is in the gang (e.g. by replacing loot with random beasts during a Scavengers fight).

I'd be tempted to switch the to-hit mods on the las-longrifle (long-las?) around here. Maybe start it with hotshots as well just to give it a bit of welly since he doesn't have any useful backup weapons.

Maybe add House Cawdor to the list of gangs that can't hire Ratlings?

[Dimreapa]

Thank you for replying Ant, I've been aware of your work for a long time and it's great to get some feedback from you.

On the 'Professional Differences' it was a balance issue, because I considered how nasty it could be to have a gang with a bounty hunter and a monster hunter in the same gang.  I've ruled out ratskins because mostly I use the old rules (the good ole Hardback) and with Ratskin additional resilience to big beasties and their everyday lives coming across sump creatures, I figured they would sniff at his 'reputation'.  I liked the idea of giving monster hunters a bit of a disreputable reputation, and if you do run a lot of beasties in your campaign, he can earn you an large amount of creds.

Likewise the table is there to balance out the Hunter's special abilities, as he can annihilate most creatures quite easily.

On Ratskins, the main reason for restricting them is I was thinking of doing a Ratskin 'Turok' style Monster Hunter variant for Ratskin gangs.  The only reason I haven't already is because none of my gaming buddies used Ratskins in our campaign.

I've took your advice with the skill tables on both, I think I pretty much followed the typical hired guns style to the letter, so any change isn't a problem imo.

I like the idea of some kind of way of adding monsters into games.  I did think it was troublesome that it relies on players being willing to add monsters/beasts to their games.  I'll do a bit of reading and see what I come up with; I welcome any suggestions.

As for the las-longrifle or 'long-las' it is actually the name of the sniper rifle that Ratlings typically use, the current Imperial Codex mentions it under sniper rifles in the wargear section.  I switched the order round to make the full name sound better.  The range bars are currently 0-24/24-36, and I figured the shorter range made more sense, because that is quite a distance.  I'm open to changing it if you think it makes more sense - I'm just checking you noticed the range sizes.

As to adding Hotshot, I've refrained from doing so because Ratlings have capacity to not only upgrade their long-las, but get their hands on a Needle Rifle.  For that reason (not to mention the high chance of the ratling getting 'marksman') I avoided it.  I could factor it in though and up the strength (I'm fairly sure that's what the hotshot pack does) if you feel what he has isn't enough.

Restricting House Cawdor is an excellent idea, and I've added it to the list of restricted gangs.

I've made some of the changes you suggest but I'll wait a bit for some more feedback before I update the PDFs.