When I relaunched spudWorks into a hobby magazine, I kind of just assumed that anyone who found their way here would already know what Necromunda was. This is probably because of where and to whom I shared links. And if you weren’t already a fan, maybe you already knew why it was so good. And this is kind of important because Necromunda, as a topic, is probably four-fifths of the site content. So if you aren’t already at least a little familiar, coming to this site and finding what you’ve found is probably a bit of a mystery.
“It’s uh… something to do with miniatures… and a game? And there’s a story? Stories? It’s science-fiction but maybe also western? I don’t know I keep seeing cowboy hats.”
So let’s do a quick once-over on what Necromunda even is.
Necromunda is a miniature skirmish game set on one planet, named Necromunda, in the larger Warhammer: 40,000 story universe. Skirmish game is the important phrase here because unlike 40k, which deals with epic battles between human and alien armies, Necromunda is about gang warfare. You need maybe eight miniatures and a paint brush. If you’re really dedicated, you could assemble and have all your figures ready for a game in a month, assuming you have a job like normal people.
But Necromunda, as said, is also a place in the fictional 40k universe. Which means it has people and places that everyone knows and shares when playing a game. This is why it’s fun to tell stories set on the world. People know the Sump Sea, they know the Underhive, they know the Ash Wastes. When someone says they played on the Sump Sea, everyone knows what kind of game they’re talking about. It’s like everyone’s tuned into the same show.
With Necromunda, you’ll find probably a larger crossover of people who played D&D or any role playing game and this, in a large part because the way the games play out, it feels like you’re acting out a story. When you try to shoot someone twice in the head with a plasma pistol, hit both times and then roll a 1 to wound, thus failing, it feels like there’s a story element happening.
I like to say the closest thing to Necromunda is professional wrestling. In wrestling, there’s all the shit talking the wrestlers do between matches. Wives are lured off, vengeance is declared, promises are made. But it’s all just a lead up to what happens in the ring. You can make the story as complex as you want so long as you know every dispute will ultimately be resolved by a wrestling match.
Necromunda is the same.
There are post-game actions and assignments of territories and permanent injuries and all that stuff. Then, based on what happens in other games, the gangs who one, the people who died, the people who killed, players begin forming a shared narrative of what it’s all about and blood oaths get declared for the next game. And then it’s all resolved on the table. And based on what happened, it might inspire more story threads.
It’s really kind of a beautiful system.
One other thing I like to say is that there’s always at least one moment per game where you could imagine it being a Hollywood action sequence. Someone gets a lucky shot in, blows someone off a railing, onto a booby traps that then explodes and take out three other gangers. Maybe not that specifically but it feels like there’s always something.
I’m always enthusiastic about the game, in part because it really is a blast to play but also because the people I’ve met in Hamburg and elsewhere who play it all just seem to be universally nice people. It’s a great community. And I hope I may have convinced at least new person to give it a shot. Ask your local game store guy. It could be secretly his favorite game.
Some art in this piece was generated by GPT Image 2 based on tableaus created by the author, using his own miniatures.
