When your gang is killed off / upgrading gang size (Chopper)

Hey all,

My Chopper's small gang was just obliterated (widespread serious injuries, many fatalities) by our Gunlugger.  During the session, the Chopper took the upgrade that allows him to move from a Small to a Medium gang.

Thoughts on how to negotiate this?  I feel like we've got to have some story to justify this in the fiction, though I feel bad telling him he can't take an upgrade or he has to wait for it to take effect or whatever.

Here's one idea: so many of the locals were freaked out by the Gunlugger's heinous display of lethal violence that they have flocked to the Chopper's banner, if for no other reason than out of a keen sense of self-preservation/safety-in-numbers. There's no reason not to use the occasion of the Chopper's player increasing the size of his gang as a way to replace some casualties at the same time. Seems legit to me.

I would approach the player and ask which he or she prefers:

* We work together to come up with a fictionally plausible way for a medium gang to come under his control. These will be new people, untested. (Potentially bringing with them a whole new set of problems; they would act quite differently from the original gang.)

* The upgrade in size applies to the remnants of his gang: basically a non-existent gang, and this would bring it back to small. However, the "identity" of the gang remains this way (if there was some earned loyalty, connections, experience, skills, or similar). Key members holding it together, perhaps.

* Redo: choose a different advancement option instead, if you prefer.

My goal would be to give the player a wide scope of (meaningful) options, while still preserving the impact of the Gunlugger's actions. (If the Chopper just comes back with a bigger gang, it invalidates the Gunlugger's choices or accomplishment, making her actions moot.)

I'm pretty sure most people don't do this, but I just told my players that the advance raises the gang's size cap. They still gotta go find / get / or narratively explain any increase to up that point.

Or, if you are ready to go freaky maelstrom, the ghostly revenants of his gang returned to his side, and by virtue of their nature are bad-ass enough that they count as medium-sized.

Here's one idea: so many of the locals were freaked out by the Gunlugger's heinous display of lethal violence that they have flocked to the Chopper's banner, if for no other reason than out of a keen sense of self-preservation/safety-in-numbers. There's no reason not to use the occasion of the Chopper's player increasing the size of his gang as a way to replace some casualties at the same time. Seems legit to me.

Love this