NEW YEAR, NEW CAMPAIGN

One thing Underworlds has been lacking in the entirety of its existence is a narrative play mode of any kind. Several people over the years have attempted to make some narrative battleplans, maybe hold an in-store narrative event, etc, but these have all been isolated events and the documents on ‘how to run your own narrative’ are nigh impossible to find. Glenn is still on a huge custom rules kick, and has cooked up his greatest contribution yet: Underworlds Unlimited – a Narrative Campaign System.

Today’s special article is part of the Custom Rules series. Click here to see other custom rules we’ve put together!

Here’s what Glenn had to say:

Warhammer: Underworlds was my introduction to constructed, as opposed to pre-built, miniatures games and to the Games Workshop ecosystem.  Back in late Nightvault, I was introducing my cousin to the game, and after giving a brief explanation he said “That sounds like Mordheim!” Well, I didn’t know what Mordheim was, but after doing a little research I saw how they could be similar — and it became obvious what Underworlds was missing: a campaign system!

Having been raised on D&D, I could see the appeal for customizing your own warband and having it evolve over time for a campaign, so I wrote a campaign system for the game that I called CLASH IN THE GLASS. It not only had warband building and a campaign system but also allowed the Underworlds warbands to move off the hex grid and use 3D terrain. GW then released WarCry about a year later filling the gap with something that at least you could use Underworlds models for, so I stopped evolving CLASH. It sat as a free download on my website (now defunct, thanks Google) for many years without much attention.

When Embergard released it offered the opportunity to revisit CLASH and provide something still missing for the Underworlds game. I decided to keep it purely Underworlds-focused and lean into the new boards and updated rules, so that someone who picked up Embergard could just take this new system and use it with what they already had. Along the way I decided to expand the original campaign with more things to do between clashes, and provide some additional examples of narrative campaigns and some scenarios that would allow the campaign system to be used in a tournament setting. Now that Spitewood has provided another board there’s enough for reasonable length campaigns with decent variety.

The 32-page expansion I’ve named UNDERWORLDS UNLIMITED still includes a modified version of the original CLASH IN THE GLASS campaign (“Reliquary of the Katophranes”) for those of us who yearn to return to the Mirrored City.

I hope the Underworlds community gets some enjoyment from it, and may all their rolls be crits!

Sincerely,

Glenn

Phenomenal. A Magnum Opus.

Thank you again, Glenn, for everything you’ve done to make this game approachable to so many different types of players.

Today’s special article was part of the Custom Rules series. Click here to see other custom rules we’ve put together! If you have a custom game mode or a set of expansion rules you’d like to share with the world, I am always willing to help spread the word.

I hope you give this game mode a try, forge some kickass narratives, and spend that campaign glory in the Underworlds.