wrabbit37

My gaming circle and I have been talking this issue back and forth all week now, and I think I've finally distilled my feelings on the matter down pretty well. I don't know how often intolerance or harassment happens in the gaming community. It might be more often than the public at large. It might be less often than the public at large. But I don't think anyone can say it does not happen at all, and if the amount of intolerance and harassment is not at zero, it means we still have some work to do. No one should be subject to that. We might be doing better than the world at large (again, I honestly don't know), but that's not a reason to stop making strides to make things even better still. I think the point of articles and discussions like this isn't to make huge, grand changes, but rather to shine a light on something that isn't always lit up. Right now because of these articles, I am hyper-aware of harassment. I went to the game store this week and on the drive my mind wandered to how I would react if I saw it. It's impossible to say until it happens, but I can say that I am more likely to speak up now than I was last week because these conversations forced me to consider my reactions. If having these conversations helps a handful (or better still, a lot) of people consider those situations and be ready to not play the silent partner next time they see it happen, they will have done a good job. I think we are moving the needle, but it's not something that happens overnight. It requires people who are on the fence to get off the fence and offer some help. That help could be in the form of preparing yourself so you know how to react if you see situations of intolerance and harassment. It could be in determining a set of words you want to work out of your vocabulary because there are plenty of others that aren't harassment that convey the same message. These conversations are important to have, because each time they come up, I believe there's a small subset of people who are at the right time in their lives to listen to them and will make positive change in themselves, and that just keeps making a better place to game.

I go high on stones, trying to hit 6-7 on almost everyone. As Math says, they're an incredibly versatile resource, making my best models on the board that much better. Each one is essentially an additional 1-3 wounds on a Master or Henchman, and I like to play aggressive with them. Or it's a better hand, or a shot at initiative. I actually rarely stone for suit, though I don't play a lot of summoning masters right now. I have never regretted taking lots of stones, even if I end the game with 2-3 remaining. I have, however, regretted taking few stones in a game.

Thanks for the tips - having played 10 Thunders a lot, I know which upgrades I like to reach for there. Good to get some perspective on the Neverborn options. Yeah, I'm getting back into the game a bit more heavily. I'm actually not in Northern VA anymore, which is part of why I've been gone for a bit. Last year was a wasteland for Malifaux for me - new kid in April, and then house-hunting and moved to Pennsylvania at the beginning of the Fall. Took me a while to get things into a routine, but I think I found a decent store down in Bel Air, MD that I can get more games in.

For the new year, I think I am planning to move into Neverborn. I used to play them heavily back in the day, but with M2E, I have been exploring other factions. Hard to stay away forever though. I was wondering what people felt about the Neverborn generic upgrades, though. Looking through them I am having a hard time being wow-ed by many of them. Fears Given Form is fantastic, and the Mimic's Blessing seems like a decent investment, but what about the others? Aether Connection, Depression, Fears Given Form, Hexed Among You, Nexus of Power, Obsidian Talons, On Dreaming Wings, On Wings of Darkness, Pact, Rapid Growth, Retribution's Eye, Stone of Tyrant Echoes, The Mimic's Blessing, Useless Duplications?

Good choice. All the best tactical writers choose Ten Thunders.

I ran into a similar problem with my Ten Thunders - in v1 I used other factions primarily, but when I came to M2E, I found that Ten Thunders was the faction I liked most. Unfortunately none of my crews matched at that point. Mei Feng was in a junkyard, Jakob was in a city, Misaki was out in the grass, etc. What I ended up doing was using snow to make all the bases uniform. So Mei Feng's crew is still in the junkyard, but it's covered with a layer of snow. Misaki's out in a snowed-over field. Jakob is on partially-covered snow bases (part of the city streets have been uncovered). It makes putting all the models together work fine as the snow draws them all together. I have had to touch up the paint on some of them - bring the colors more into line with each other. And one of the crews in particular - McCabe - needs a complete rework. His crew is on desert bases, and I like the way they look too much to make changes, so I'm just going to have to get a second set of that crew to work with. But everything else looks solid.

Holy cow, you're not wrong about that! That stuff is amazing!

If you're looking for article suggestions, one I wouldn't mind seeing is someone give a short tutorial on how to sculpt with green stuff. I see some people do some great things to add to their models (add a coat to someone, or give someone a hat, or something like that) but I have no idea how to even begin doing that. Other than, you know, buying green stuff.

What do you do with this information after you collect it? Do you ever act on it? What could you foresee yourself using it for?

I dunno, sometimes the complaints are the most interesting part.

Hey, Mike here. I just sent you a PM.

My tracking number never worked either, but I got my book a couple days ago. Awesome book - great idea with the ribbons. I hope this catches on and more RPG books start including them.

Aaron, you are a beautiful man. Let no one tell you otherwise.

Hmm... that makes sense. If it comes up in tonight's session, I'll give it a try and see how it goes. Thanks!