Dead Silence Narrative : The Ctesiphus Expeditions

[ggergnayr]

Has anyone had a chance to check out the narrative rules? I wasn't able to snag the Dead Silence box, and am really wondering how it looks.

[zulu.tango]

I just read through them yesterday! 
Its a departure from the previous edition's RP rules for sure, but I'm interested to try them out. 
The narrative campaign centers around of exploring and performing actions on a hex-based map. There is a pool of supply points used to perform actions on the map (chosen from a common list) and a running total of Victory points (called campaign points). 

The mechanics boil down to: 
1. Movement phase - Move your kill team around the hex map
2. Battle Phase - Play a game of kill team against any opponent and earn campaign or supply points based on the result
3. Action Phase - Spend your supply points on campaign actions
4. Threat Phase - Raise the threat level. Once it reaches its maximum the campaign ends. 

The hexes have a variety of effects ranging from generating points (campaign or supply), to things which directly impact your next game (a scarab swarm that spawn in the middle objective and attacks the closest operative each round for example) with a pretty decent variety. Campaign games can be played against non-participating players so the campaign can advance even if there is an odd player count or people have trouble securing games with campaign participants. 

There are a few different map sizes according to to player count and the duration is easily adjustable, and rules for solo/co-op play as well. 

Overall I'm a fan of the rules. It lacks a lot of the depth/RPG elements from the KT'21 narrative set, but after having played a few of those I think it's a welcome change. Reducing the required player upkeep helps the campaign move along smoothly and keeping the teams "vanilla" means you can run a campaign alongside a league/weekly night without segmenting your player base. GW can release additional hex rules for various seasons/editions (this one is Necron flavored), and the rules enable a narrative tournament to be run MUCH easier than the previous rules-set. 

[ggergnayr]

Cool. I like the hex map idea, that sounds like a really smooth way to handle encounter generation. 
I’m a little bummed that the rpg elements are toned down, but that’s what Necromunda is for, I suppose.