Using Your Dominus in Gangs of Rome

As a Gangs of Rome player, your ultimate goal is to ascend to the Senate. This is, of course, a path that encompasses risk and reward. Yes, the rewards are beyond the imagination of your gang fighters, but the risks? They fall very much in your gang's domain...

Our Gangs of Rome Dominus miniatures can be used as a physical representation of you, the players, on your Gangs of Rome tables. As such you will be able to exert a greater influence on your gang and, the gods be willing, guide them to victory. Should the gods be angry with you, however, then you will fall into the hands of your enemies... 

 Nota bene: the following rules are taken from our forthcoming campaign pack and, as such, are very much a work in progress. We have published them here for you to incorporate into your games, and any feedback is very welcome. They are by no means finalised and are subject to change. 

Role

A dominus can be used as a physical representation of you, the player, in the game. As such you will be able to exert an influence on your gang.

Worth

Players are not required to pay for domini assigned to their gang as required by a scenario. Otherwise a player may choose to add a dominus to their gang at a cost of 20 coins.

Deployment

Unless otherwise dictated by a scenario, domini must obey the usual rules of Deployment.

Activations

A dominus is Activated as normal. Any player fielding a dominus must place an extra pebble in the dice bag to reflect this.

Dice Pool

The dominus’ influence—or Authority—is proportional to the amount of PIMs owned by the player. Authority is represented by a pool of dice he brings to the table. The more experienced dominus will be able to bring a larger dice pool to the table: the higher the amount of PIMs possessed by the dominus, the higher the dice pool. The dice in this pool can be assigned to their gang throughout the game. The dice can be assigned to any of the dominus’ gang fighters within an area dictated by their Authority at any time throughout the game, and those dice can be added to the gang fighters’ Attack, Defence or Agility pools at a maximum of one dice per pool per Acivation. Once the dominus has exhausted his dice pool it cannot be replenished until the next game.

PIMs                    Dice Pool            Authority

1 – 6                    4                           12 Gradus

7 – 14                  6                           18 Gradus

15 – 20                8                           24 Gradus

Stats

Domini must be defended by their gang. They have a Defence and Agility of 4, and lack the training—and, in most cases, courage—to merit an Attack stat. They have no Flesh stat, and move at a constant rate of 6G per Action, only being allowed one Action per Activation. A dominus who suffers a wound is immediately considered Incapacitated.

An adjacent fighter may perform a Bind Action on a dominus. Once the recipient of such a Bind action, the dominus is no longer Incapacitated and may move as normal.

An Incapacitated dominus may be carried by a fighter but that fighter will suffer a two gradus penalty whilst carrying said dominus.

Deflecting Damage

A dominus in base-to-base contact with a member of its own gang may Deflect any and all damage it would receive onto that gang fighter. There is no maximum amount of damage that can be Deflected in this way.

Mobs

Domini cannot Blend, and they are also immune to the mob’s Rage. A mob which Stampedes in the direction of a dominus will stop when it reaches base-to-base contact. Once in base-to-base contact, a dominus can choose to Influence a mob. On a roll of IV–VI the dominus can Influence the mob. However, to do this dice must be taken from the dominus’ dice pool.

Once the dominus has gained Influence over the mob, it can make the mob in question perform one of the following actions:

Attack: the mob will move into base-to-base contact with a target fighter within 6 Gradus and attack; roll 1D6 for each wound the fighter has already suffered. That fighter will receive an unavoidable wound for every roll of IV–VI.

Move: the mob will move to any point within 6 Gradus as chosen by the dominus.

Assist: the mob will move into base-to-base contact with one of the dominus’ fighters within 6 Gradus. That fighter can—if the player so chooses—automatically Blends with that mob as a Free, out of Activation Action. Otherwise it will remain in base-to-base contact with this mob until such a time the mob or fighter move or perform any other action.

Kidnap

Incapacitated domini can be Kidnapped by an opposing gang. Any opposing gang fighter which comes into base-to-base with an Incapacitated dominus can spend one Action to grab the dominus. This action is considered as automatic success. From that point on, the dominus must remain in base-to-base contact with his captor as it moves about the field of play. The captor suffers a penalty of -2 Gradus whilst carrying a Kidnapped dominus. A fighter with 2 Flesh is not considered strong enough to carry a dominus. If a captor reaches its own table edge with a captive dominus, that dominus is considered to have been Kidnapped.

A fighter carrying a Kidnapped dominus may only perform one Action (Move, Attack, Bind, Pray) per Activation. A fighter carrying a dominus cannot Charge. A fighter carrying a dominus cannot use a Sling coin.

A fighter who is forced to use its Defence or Agility dice / Reply in Combat at any time must drop a Kidnapped dominus. This dominus is still considered Incapacitated until he is either the recipient of a Bind action, or is Kidnapped once again.

PIMs

A player whose dominus guides its gang to victory on the field of play will receive two PIMs instead of one. Conversely, a player who loses a game whilst its dominus is on the board will lose two PIMs.

A player loses a PIM if his dominus is Incapacitated; the opposing player does not receive these PIMs.

A player loses three PIMs if his dominus is Kidnapped and removed from the board by the opposing player; the opposing player does not receive these PIMs.

A rescue attempt can be made on a Kidnapped dominus using the Rescue! scenario. If this rescue attempt fails, the dominus will be ransomed back to its player. A player ransoms a Kidnapped dominus back to an opposing player at the cost of three PIMS from that player.

A player’s PIMs total cannot be reduced to less than zero by these penalties.