Project Nemesis is a fan driven website for games that use the One-Roll Engine (like Nemesis, Wild Talents, Reign and Monsters) or Chaosium's Basic Roleplay System (BRP) (like Call of Cthulhu) and the Delta Green setting.
I've had some theories for how you could use the Company and Unworthy Opponents rules in REIGN for Orks in the Warhammer 40,000 setting. Anyone
can feel free to correct me for Correct Orky Feel, and Actual Facts, as
I have mainly by-proxy experience of Warhammer generally.
ORK COMPANIES.
I've shifted the way Qualities interact for Orks slightly, in an attempt to reflect how they work.
First of all, Influence: Orks don't use Influence. This is a raft of options that is not available to them.
Might: Ork companies start with a minimum of Might 1.
Sovereignty:
Sovereignty also works a little differently. For Orks, it is an average
of Might and Territory. Against other Ork bands, the Sovereignty
average has at least one subtracted from it unless your Company's
Sovereignty is 3 or Higher.
This is intended to reflect the
internal divisions within the Orks, and how deeply tied they are to
their numbers. At a particular tipping point of arms and/or territory,
it's presumed that a Boss is now involved and that things are a little
more organised.
Territory: As normal.
Treasure:
This is a little bit different. Initially, Orks get 1 Treasure for
every *2* that is stolen in raiding or other actions against their
neighbours. This doesn't have to be in one action, so if last month you
got 1 Treasure, and this month you get another 1, then yours goes up.
Why
is this? Firstly, because an Ork company's Might cannot be lower than
its Treasure. If they're tied and Treasure goes up, Might follows. My
reasoning for this is that Treasure is representative of the resources
looted and stolen from other nations, and which is being retrofitted
into Toyz and Gubbins. Initially, the Orks bust as much as they steal,
which is why it's a 2 for 1 ratio.
If the Sovereignty of an Ork
company ever hits 3, then the focus provided by having a Boss means
they're more focused in their looting. Treasure from raiding goes back
to a 1 for 1 increase. The parity with Might continues.
It's
also worth considering that the higher a Company's Treasure, the more
advanced the Company is going to be on the field. You can expect to see
more magic, more Meks, and other such developments the higher the
Treasure is.
You Do Not Want An Ork Company To Hit This Threshold.
If
the Sovereignty of an Ork Company ever hits 5, then you have a whole
new problem. At that point, it is large enough that other Orks nearby
are going to begin gravitating towards it, let alone fighting the boss.
Roll Sovereignty + Territory with Difficulty equal to Might.
If two Ork Companies of
equal Sovereignty go head to head, their effective Sovereignty is
reduced by at least 1, perhaps 2. This would flow over into any other
Company conflicts that month. That way, once a
Boss is established within a Company, the typical Orkish infighting is
reduced - and yet if another Boss of equal stature turns up, then all
bets are off.
A reduction in Sovereignty past 3 would mimic the
rest of the Orks deciding that their Boss isn't doing them much good
anymore, and POW back to scrabbly infighting. Much the same result as
assassinating him would be.
Possibly some kind of botch on that
Sovereignty + Territory roll, so no successes at all, reduces effective
Sovereignty for an extra 1 that month as new Orks challenge the
leadership, even as Might goes up another 1.
"Our campaign against the Orks has thinned out their numbers, commander!"
*pause*
"Well shit, they're back again."
Notes:
Orks do not have access to any of the temporary raises for Qualities
that normal companies do. The entire wierd Orky machine is running
full-blast the whole time. Tactical variants like Fight from
Entrenchments can apply, but only once Sovereignty has hit 3 and a Boss
is on the field to persuade the boyz not to run out and start choppin.
Additionally,
Orks are vulnerable to successful Head Hunting attacks once they do hit
Sovereignty 3. It should be a game session in itself for feel, but if
you do successfully kill the Boss then along with other consequences,
the Company's Sovereignty falls by one. The Company loses any benefits
it had of being over one of the thresholds if the number falls past
that point.
Eradicating an Ork Company
Reducing Ork Sovereignty to 0 will certainly splinter the company, but will not eradicate the scourge.
In
practice, since Ork Sovereignty is largely derived from Might and
Territory, assaulting those directly will yield the best results.
Tactically, Orks are also vulnerable to having their Treasure (and thus
tech level) damaged.
Should you eradicate the Company on paper,
then a new game begins. Take the Territory held by the Orks at the
height of their power, and subtract 1 (or 2, if they rose very rapidly
and didn't have much time at that level.)
From the Ork
perspective, after 5 - (Territory - 1 or 2) Months, their Might will
pop back up to 1 and the whole saga will begin again. This represents
the Ork infestation producing wild Orks, as reinforcements for whoever
escaped the last battle.
This number (which I will refer to as
Infestation Score for the sake of argument) is reduced by 1 for each
month (or relevant timeperiod) you attack it as normal, essentially to
represent going through conquered territory and burning chunks of it
and putting any Orky wildlife to the sword. This also stops the clock
for re-infestation.
If there is a whole month in which you do
NOT attack the Infestation Score, then the clock begins again with
5-Infestation Score months until more Orks appear and the Company
revives at its most basic level of Might 1.
After that month,
the first time you attack the Infestation Score does not reduce the
number, but instead resets the clock to 0. The next month after that, you can reduce the score again.
Metadiscussion
The theory I was going for here was to make Orks a nuisance.
They're hard to eradicate, unless you have nothing else to focus on but
cleansing their territories of wild growth, and have a tendency to pop
back up again if you turn your back. And they have a potential to
become exponentially more dangerous once they hit certain thresholds,
to attempt to emulate an "Orkish pests, Orkish pests, filthy
greenskins, OH GODS THEY'RE AT THE GATES AUGH!" vibe.
If anyone has better or more elegant suggestions for this, I would be very happy to hear them.
Orkish Unworthy Opponents:
The minimum Threat of an Ork Mob is 2, as even the most disorganised mob is at least as dangerous as wolves.
Ork
Mobs are immune to magic-based Morale Attacks at any level less than or
equal to their Threat, to represent how Orks gain confidence in numbers.
Ork
Mobs are immune to Morale Attacks from individual humans as if their
Threat were 1 point higher than they are, so a Threat 2 Mob of Orks is
going to be immune to Morale Attacks lower than 4 using the Threaten
manouvre, for example, because Orks just aren't scared by much.
However,
little provides a Motivation boost to Ork mobs. They're already running
on full bore, so unless the Warboss is physically there (a whole new
problem in itself) what you see is what you get.
I believe WH40K Orks are part vegetable and their corpses regrow and regenerate in the soil after being killed. So, at any ork battlefield, ork fatalities re-emerge out of the ground hungry for conquest.