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How do?

Not entirely sure what reminded me of him, but this evening thoughts turned toward Bullgorg.

Those new to the game might be wondering who he is...well you can read about him here.

From there, I got to thinking about how one might handle a Slave Rebellion in our own campaigns.

Of course, currently we have no rules for Pit Slaves, either as hires guns or Gangs in their own right. So at the moment, this is all going to be a bit Half-Baked by necessity.

My first thought involved looking up captured fighters. Those rules are pretty straight forward. And my current idea would require Fighter Cards to be completed for each Gang Member, or at least whenever a Ganger is captured.

Should the rescue mission fail, and the poor sod is sold to the Guilders, the card is passed to the GM for ‘safe keeping’. From there, the GM can build up a library of captured fighters. And when they’ve got enough, they can start to introduce different narrative missions building up to a Slave Revolt, or just jumping straight to it.

From that simple narrative overview, various suggestions come to mind. They either form a new NPC Gang. They retain their skills and advancements, but their equipment becomes very basic (pistols, simple close combat weapons). After all, their original kit would’ve been seized at the point of sale.

The GM then has to round up a posse from the Gangs - but without telling them what the mission is. Once it’s underway, it’s for the players to fulfil their Guilder Contract, or attempt to assist the Revolt to reclaim their lost members. How easy or hard that is I’ll leave to you. You know your players best! Though I reckon some kind of comeuppance should be in the offing should the Guilders find out you’re harbouring a fugitive...

Wilder ideas involve devising rules for the old Pit Slave weapons, either lifted wholesale from the past, or inspired by the new profiles and weapon traits. These are then randomly determined for each escapee. And I’d suggest Hatred being gained for the gang that sold them - possibly also for their own Gang for failing or refusing to rescue them.

Of course, my ideas are a bit out there. This is what happens when you’re fanatical about a particular game! You feel free to dial it up or down to suit your local scene. My only truly solid recommendation would be to have this happen fairly late on in a Campaign Season. By that point you’re not simply filling out starting/young Gangs with harder fighters!

That's a great idea. When I first read the subject I thought it would be some kind of black Friday deal gone wrong in the underhive

Your idea is much better.

Form an NPC gang (can be used by GM to get his hands dirty, or as a 'stand in' should a player have to drop out of a session).

Could also make for characterful Hired Guns - maybe charge a lower 'per game' rate if going up against those that sold them last time - discount could be linked to whether or not the opposing Leader is taken out?

If you allow recruitment back to their Parent Gang, should that mean they're then not allowed to sell others into Slavery?

All sorts of ideas still ricocheting around in my bonce.

Regarding those recruited back into their gang. Wouldn't rule out letting them sell in the future. Maybe the returning ganger just wants to get their own back on the universe and gets a kick from seeing others get a taste of his earlier experiences.

True, true.

Also, that's me projecting Dirty Lefty social values of today onto The Underhive. Pretty laughable when you think about it

Heh. In normal life, totally with you. In Necromunda, maybe give the gang a cred boost because they have someone who knows how it works from the inside

Excellent idea. Slavery is one aspect of Necromunda that deserves to be explored further. As to rescuing gangs selling on slaves in the future: Absolutely!

Besides, Spartacus' revolt never was about abolishing slavery as such (what an alien concept in those days), but about getting back at the Roman state for putting him in chains. No coincidence that some captured wealthy Romans were enslaved and forced to fight each other as gladiators to the amusement of Spartacus' men.

True that.

I’d also be tempted to include in the NPC Gang those natty Forgeworld Ogryns...

 Flinty wrote:
Regarding those recruited back into their gang. Wouldn't rule out letting them sell in the future. Maybe the returning ganger just wants to get their own back on the universe and gets a kick from seeing others get a taste of his earlier experiences.

The way I look at it is that in the Underhive, a guild slave's view of slavery is very much like that of a slave in antiquity. They don't have any problem with the institution of slavery - they just object to themselves being a slave.

A fair point well made

Now, can anyone offer their take on the suggestions so far?

 AndrewGPaul wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
Regarding those recruited back into their gang. Wouldn't rule out letting them sell in the future. Maybe the returning ganger just wants to get their own back on the universe and gets a kick from seeing others get a taste of his earlier experiences.

The way I look at it is that in the Underhive, a guild slave's view of slavery is very much like that of a slave in antiquity. They don't have any problem with the institution of slavery - they just object to themselves being a slave.

Further support to the idea that former slaves often don't mind slavery as a concept- both of the commanders in the Siege of Malta in 1565 had been former galley slaves for the other side. They both were accustomed to naval warfare, and controlled fleets largely crewed by galley slaves. Being a galley slave is pretty damn unpleasant too.