Oh man i’ve given this some thoughts but never really wrote these down. The reason I hadn’t pounced on this is because I already play Necromunda, and Warcry is a nice simple diversion for me. That being said, i’ve given this some thought already.

Leaders and Champions: In order to determine which models should be able to spend experience deliberately on advancements, we’d need to determine which characters in each war-band would be considered a leader or champion. Leaders are easy, they have their own keyrune. For champions though, I think it would be a faction-by-faction basis which keyrunes denote someone who can gain advancements however they’d like vs someone who rolls on a table on a fixed xp value.

Experience: there is already something of an experience system in the current campaign, but with some tweaks. Basically I’d implement an advancement table similar to necromunda where experience is spent, except ignoring all of the weapon traits. Yeah that wouldn’t leave much (move, toughness, wounds) however that’s not where I’d want most of the character customization/development to be. One that I’d be interested in tossing around with would be a Gifts of Chaos deck, either a random advancement would cause you to pull one of these cards, and leaders/champions can buy single pulls, pulling 2 and choosing 1, or pulling 3 and choosing 1.

Lasting Injuries: I think a more complex injury table would be good. I imagine it would be simpler, 2D6 added together with 7 and below being only temporary injuries if any at all. However, Permanant injuries would have 2 effects. One would be an injury reminder card that you’d slide under your character card (poking out to the left) showing what the debuffs of the injury are. In addition, each injury would have a Blood value. Each time a fighter gets taken out, you add the Blood value of their injury to your 2D6 roll. If the new injury you roll is worse than the one you have, you replace it with the new one. A good chunk of these injuries forfeit the loot cards carried by the fighter for the scavenging step in a post-battle game. This happens every time your new injury causes you to forfeit loot, even if your new injury is not as severe as your current one and would be ignored.

Equipment: I would NOT want to include some kind of crazy list of weapons and armor that can be bought. No house lists, no trading post, nothing like that because it is impossible to parse the strength/attacks/toughness characteristics from the model and their starting gear. Instead, I’d implement “loot” decks of equipment and currency. Equipment cards would be standard sized cards with their name at the top, prerequisites in the middle, and the rules/stats at the bottom with their points cost at the very center-bottom and types and limits if-any near its cost. You’d slide the equipment card under the character card so that the name and prerequisites of the equipment are covered up, leaving the stats and points cost.

• Name: Self explanatory
• Prerequisites: keyrunes or minimum stats required to actually use the equipment. This can be anything from a faction or leader keyrune, to generic keyrunes that appear on several fighters (like berserker, or beast), to toughness or move, and can even require minimum stats from their weapon(s) such as Strength or Attacks. Why? Because we wouldn’t want a goblin shoota using a Strength 7 hammer meant for an ogre. Some prerequisites can require a fighter NOT have something, such as NOT the mount keyrune.
• Stats: Either this is a weapon stat line similar to the ones that appear at a bottom of a character card, a description of what the item does when used as an action (yes, I would think drinking a potion mid-match would be an action), an ability requiring a double or triple (or quad if its crazy), or some combination of the three, like a Weapon (harpoon) with an associated ability (drag).
• Points cost: The points value of the weapon, which modifies the characters points cost. Not sure if a campaign would force you to match points with your opponent, but these wouldn’t be free… That is unless they are found mid-battle which I’ll cover later.
• Type and limit: Equipment sometimes would come with a type, such as Boots, Helm, Armor, Bulky, etc. Each type usually has a limit associated with it to show how many of that type of equipment a fighter can have. Most items only allow you to carry 1 of its type (can’t wear 2 helms). Bulky items are also limited to 1 per fighter and they represent something that you’d have to carry in at least one hand, like most weapons and shields, daggers being the exception by not having a type. Rings have a limit of 2.

There is a kind of loot card that would appear in the loot deck that is not equipment, and that would be treasure. Treasure usually is not equippable and doesn’t do anything, however it has a points value. Generic treasure values are also given to players on occasion as a result of a scenario or challenge, and are added to a warband’s tracker without a card. The value exists only for bartering which I’ll get to later. 

Getting Equipment: There would be 3 main ways of getting equipment, from Treasure Chests, from Scavenging, and from Bartering.

• Treasure Chests: Campaigns would include a step into your typical scenario where a semi-random number of treasure chests get placed on the field, including instructions for how they are to be placed. In my mind players would take turns placing them in or on structures, not within 6″ of any player’s deployment zones, not within 6″ of each other or something. Then you deal a number of loot cards to each chest. A fighter within 1″ of a chest can open it, allowing the player to look at the loot cards and add one of the cards either face down to their fighter (stowing it) or face up (equipping it, if they have the space). Each “open” action basically allows you to take 1 object of your choice from the chest, so conceivably one character can empty a chest in a couple of turns. Your opponent doesn’t get to see the remaining cards until they themselves open the chest. A character can drop equipment in the same way that they would drop a treasure token from a scenario. Infact you’d place the equipment face up or face down (depending on how the character got it) with a special treasure marker on it to show where that item can be picked up from. From that point on, the loot card can be “picked up” just like a treasure token would, without the caveat that you can’t carry more than one.
• Scavenging: To the winner goes the spoils. At the end of a game, take all of the loot cards from fighters who got a lasting injury that would cause them to forfeit their loot cards and shuffle them face down. Then the winner of the battle draws one card at random for each of their fighters that was not taken out to represent their characters grabbing whatever gear they can before moving on. In the event of a tie, each player takes turns drawing one card at random for each of their fighters that was not taken out starting with the player who had priority on the final turn.
• Bartering: When players visit a town or are visited by a wandering merchant, they can choose to barter. There is a small selection of services that can be bought in towns (called common services) like replacing lasting injuries with lesser ones, or hiring mercenaries. You also deal a number of loot cards to a town or wandering merchant to barter with. You can sell off your unwanted loot cards for half of their points value, rounded up to the nearest 5, or treasures for their full value in-exchange-for items that are in the random pool of loot cards presented by the vendor. When a town or merchant visit is generated, it will specify how many non-treasure cards should be dealt. Shuffle the loot deck, and deal cards until you deal that many non-treasures (setting the treasures aside). When the encounter is finished, shuffle the dealt treasures, unpurchased equipment, and any loot cards that were bartered-in back to the loot deck.

Special note - Loot cards are always carried by fighters, even when you are not in battle and even when they can’t equip the item. You can rearrange who is carrying what cards after each post-battle action, but make a note of who is carrying what. When fighters are forced to battle and are carrying loot cards you risk losing them to your opponent. That’s part of campaigning.

Hiring Mercenaries: Another step when visiting a town or with another suitable encounter (like a slaver or beast-trainer) is the Hiring Mercenaries step. To hire mercenaries, they must have a faction in-common with your warband (order, destruction, death, or chaos) or they must be unaligned (beasts). Apart from the Fly, Mount, or Colossal key-runes, they cannot have any key-rune that appears on your main faction’s card. Should they meet that criteria, they can be hired for their point value as if you were Bartering for them. I’d consider working some more rules into this, but I’m starting to come dry.

Maps, territories, and story: To be determined. I haven’t tried the quest system in the core book yet and I’m eager to do so before I decide to continue this project. I will get around to this though, it just may be some time after this winter.