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I'd say yes due to Multiple Combat Skills sidebar (p 119 Fated Almanac). You need to have both the pneumatic skill and the weapon skill within one of each other to use the higher of the two. Otherwise you must use the lowest skill rating, note not AV but rating. Regarding the one customization per weapon. Yeah we get most other groups won't use it and we don't need people to agree with us. We just feel that some of the combinations that are attainable can then make items the focus of a character rather than the character. We have also made a houserule that if you take the pneumatic weapon customization that as well as a you get to benefit from a single duel at Might or Speed 5. Basically that is all the 'pneumatics' kicking into overdrive for a single challenge. we came to this conclusion based on the fact folded steel and pneumatic gives the exact same bonus except if you take pneumatic you are paying more AND you require a second skill levelled up to within one of your primary combat skill for it to be effective. wave ad

Just wanted to check I've not missed an errata. Doesn't the Mastered magia Talent allow you to 'master (learn)' a spell from a grimoire that you remember even without being attuned to the grimoire? I know some FM's have houseruled they let grimoires 'gain' new spells over time but RAW indicate that this isn't how things usually work. Regarding choices you also need to talk to your FM about being able to learn a Magical School and get access to a grimoire when you are ready to change to the Graverobber pursuit since you won't get to start with either of these items using RAW. Of course usual disclaimer that your FM can wave it through and say you do have one or both for whatever reason. I believe we had a character come through the Breach already knowing a school but just not strong enough to cast magic and not owning a grimoire. wave ad

We only did it the once and have had no problems. That's ranging from players who planned a lot of their character out in advance through to those who had no idea of their development and left it all up to roleplay and the different prologues to make decisions on Pursuit based on what the game 'suggested' would be a suitable role. To be honest it has even worked out better that way for one of our players who didn't know and just let the story develop their character. As a wastrel now they can 'drop' cards that are of great use (number and suit) to other Fated in our group. We also have a tinkerer/overseer who has been great in offering up alternate/addiotional suits for our active cards. We haven't had anyone feel their early choice turned out 'wrong' or of detriment to their character. EDIT: we're also playing long games Grahama, weekly and been going since release. We're at 22 (I think) destiny steps in but we have a 'role play session' every second week and Step session alternate earning 1 xp for each session but pursuit steps every second. Although you can only buy a skill when we play a 'step' session. So we earn 2xp and 1 step every two games. We get an individual Fate/Destiny step done once every 8 or 9 weeks. We found the advantage of doing it this way is we have enough XP to buy up 'roleplay skills' that kind of round our characters out a bit more. It also means our more social characters get an opportunity to shine in the RP weeks and we can do crafting and other investigation/exploring of the game world. We've found the cheat deck to not be overly important once you get a few games in. By that time you have a suit added to a skill from general talents or an extra flip or two. Steady something talent that gives an additional focus is a great general. Non-combat characters become very functional with that talent if it's available to them. Great for int based rifle combat as our Doctor/Wastrel uses. wave ad

I have something special coming. I'll get a pic of the mini conversion up when it's done. Our steamfitter guy made a mechanical horse and he has three little armoured spider things with sharp pointy bits that hit stuff. wave ad

I'm going to head off tangent for a bit. My wife loves Call of Cthulu, absolutely loves playing and running the classic Victorian era games up to about World War I. Like me she loves her games to have a reasonable amount of detail and realism and so she bought herself an old Sears Catalogue from the period. It's absolutely amazing. You could buy everything from cars to underwear to garden tools to 20lbs of exotic tea. Do an internet search in your preferred search engine using "goods catalogue <insert year>" and you will be amazed at what comes up. If you check the images of your search you will see front covers of some catalogues which will then allow you to narrow your search further, using specific company names and year dates. Here's a link to a 1200+ page 1897 Sears Catalogue including 3 cars! If what you want to buy isn't in here it's useless to you (EDIT: Just rechecked dates, while this catalogue is listed under a 1897 search it looks to be from 1912-1915. But with a search you could still find the relevant year catalogue. https://archive.org/stream/catalogno12400sear#page/1230/mode/2up A link to Sears own Archive site, specifically the page talking about gaining Sear's permission to reproducing catalogues or reuse images from them. http://www.searsarchives.com/catalogs/questions/reproducingcatalogs.htm Also on this site you will find a page "Where can I find old Sears catalogues?" If you go to that page it will list some public libraries in the US which have copies on microfiche. It's like the internet that takes forever to connect to because you have to travel to the library to use it and then once there it has really slow loading times because you have to get up and go looking through boxes of stuff until you find the 'file' you want and then manually 'load' it into the computer monitor looking thing that is on the desk in front of you while you manually cycle through pages of information looking for the thing you want. Thank God for smart phones though, once upon a time it was hard to get a copy and took ages. Now you can just snap a selfie of you, fingers raised in the V victory sign, the screen and some antique technology (microfiche reader) behind you to get a record to take away. Don't let a librarian see you though, they might get upset at you yukking it up. Research iz srs bizness! (Okay sorry I enjoyed that far too much and am amazed at how much time I once wasted at a reader doing research.) As far as Malifaux goes I don't know if Sears would still deliver there, I don't see why not it's just your Freight Handler would be the Guild and they may have some pretty stiff surcharges. read the catalogue carefully, they did indicate they delivered 'anywhere' their catalogues went. Anyway have fun and hopefully this helps someone. EDIT: Sears don't sell water either and one interesting looking catalogue was titled, "Iver Johnson's Bicycles, Motor cycles, Firearms." wave ad ps, I am not American so spell catalogue the same as most other English speakers. Those in the US may prefer catalog in their searches. Same result either way though

This would be a very prudent step to take. Fatemasters Almanac has a lot of information on this kind of discussions. Another option is that instead of making the NPC's harder you make it easier. I ran a game once where I just did away with mechanics after a while. Instead of running mechanics since the outcome is already pretty much known give them a brief narrative and end it with the fated winning the fight. A mix of all the advice above with reactions of the NPC 'background' being the crowd or local denizens or the guard giving them a 'talking to' about their behaviour. take away the mechanical 'fun' of showing how powerful their PC's are and reduce it to 'You win'. Eventually they'll get bored of that and look for other challenges in your game or a FM that enjoys telling the kinds of stories they want to be involved in. In any game everyone at the table should be having fun including the GM/FM/DM/ST. if you're not having fun tell the players why and try to find a solution that works for everyone. Failing that play two games one hack and slash and another more to your liking or alternate sessions or get someone else to FM the game. Anyway good luck with it. regards, Ad

I think it's also a case of ideas being difficult to kill. Where there is disquiet there will always be youth ready to rally to any and all causes. If there is anything our own history has taught us it only takes one charismatic old man to lead a people/nation to war. We do have a very old Fated in our group who was about during the war as a younger man. I think it's all part of his fate we're seeing unwind and the majority of the 'confederates' were younger men but we have faced one older 'officer' so far. Dogged there are some interesting things happening Earthside. Our group has even discussed what it might be like to be involved in an Earthside game and coming to Malifaux later in the story (after a few destiny steps) looking for answers that arise from our Earthside games. It's an interesting alternate history Wyrd have produced. Regards, Ad

There are a few mercenary groups active in the city of Malifaux that exist alongside the other dominant factions. Although Catalan has been used here the FM book mentions the Castalan company (p. 74) so I assume that is who the OP is referring too. Waiting to see if more information is forthcoming. Our FM has also included a revised 'Confederate' group active outside the city of Malifaux, we're waiting to see where the story involving this group takes us. Thanks for the extra information, appreciated. Kind regards, Ad

Thanks for the quick response and the caveat Supplementary question based on above, could a fated use Telekinetic Movement to control a shield for defense using same weight/movement restrictions and apply any relevant talents/equipment bonuses? FM call is fine as an answer Either way some interesting Manifest Powers and character concepts have just been born regards, Ad

Our FM throws duels at us that require the evade skill besides just normal combat. He tries to ensure most skills get at least a mention every few games even if he changes up the aspect used to calculate the acting value. Remember if a skill is used to derive a Target Number then you need to have the skill to cheat fate.

Not to start a semantic debate but wouldn't that debate be historical rather than political? Speaking of words and language, Catalan was the language spoken in the Kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia, Castille and Portugal which is where the Christian version of the Almogavars mostly originated from. So at a guess I'd assume that the company was referred to/known by the shared language. Because as was mentioned Spain didn't exist and instead it was multiple Kingdoms who shared religon and language. Not sure if it's ironic that the later version of the Almogavars ransacked and pillaged their way through Muslim lands a few centuries after being on the receiving end at the other end of the Med. If you're really interested have a look at the Ramon Muntaner 'Chronicle' pdf. here Kind Regards, Ad

I'm just curious what the Dreamer has to 'say' about the possibility of Pandora opening a gate to allow the 'things that occupy humanities subconsciousness' into the real world. If the Neverborn have ready access to Earth how will that impact on the Dreamer's ability to impact on Malifaux and his physical safety? So if the Dreamer was against both Pandora and McMourning he might be looking for allies to help stop both. Alice's dream quest, and knowledge of her Fate, could be something that the Dreamer made her aware of. Alice could even learn some Manifest Powers that give her limited ability to cause Malifaux to respond to her dreams. I'm just looking at the Neverborn writeup here and thinking what if for Alice malifaux is kind of a subsconscious space she has entered into physically. So instead of actually entering a dreamstate to continue her dream quest Malifaux is her dream state? She is in the 'subconscious' the Dreamer and humans Earthside can interact with. Could consider Manifest Powers which are different genus versions of Mind Control but using relevant skills and aspects that reflect her 'dream state', or some kinds of Teleportation for quick 'dream movement' or even the Bury Magia with increased duration to remove others from Malifaux's reality but the Dreamer's 'dream reality'. Alice becomes a kind of 'Prophet' or 'Acolyte' of the Dreamer. A small creature who works for the Dreamer turning up at odd times to 'help' Alice. Reward for Alice could be knowledge that dreams can cause a limited breach type event between the dreamer and the denizens of Malifaux. Be interesting if Slugger through his relationship with Alice was to discover this. What might he do with that information and his relationship with Pandora. What might the Guild do if such information could be confirmed. Just throwing some ideas out there. Is a long cry from Malifaux as written but I can see some lines that could be explored and as you said your Malifaux story is free to deviate from the sanctioned version. Jung's archetypes and writings on collective unconsciousness could give you more ideas to build narrative around. Good luck, game sounds like a lot of fun. Kind Regards, Ad.

1) Does taking a manifest power require a character to have a magical theory to support it? Question arises based on the answer to the FAQ question "Q: How do characters that do not start the game as a Dabbler, Tinker, or Graverobber gain a personal Magical Theory?" and the fact the fated book does not imply any theory is required. 2) If a character is using Telekinetic Movement (Fated Almanac p. 231) to attack with a weapon are they permiited to use triggers, talents and equipment customisations applicable when undertaking the duel? eg Scrapper/Guard Pursuit able to draw a twist card on a miss; Trigger critical damage if a rams is in the value; use Skill specialisation to add a suit to the duel total; receive a bonus flip for Skill Mastery - Melee; Bonus damage flips and extra damage for folded steel? Also is a weapon used/controlled in such a manner able to 'engage' targets it is in melee range with and as such permit disengaging strikes? If so would any talents that activate or apply to disengaging strikes also be useable? Thanks in advance. Regards, Ad.

Had a pm discussion with Aaron about it back when the original conversation occurred. We've been playtesting using a form of the Horror check mechanic and it has been working a treat. copied and paste the fix below. However I have also heard that this situation will be dealt with in a future book. It has meant that some of our combats vs Enforcer lvl FM characters and higher don't drag on until we get a critical kill. Also has been used in a few other situations around alchemical sleep potions/gases and other such events. We have also added that this only works on living genus. Our FM has ruled nephilim (and perhaps other magical creatures/elementals) will receive a bonus (+/- 1 to 5) to their test depending on what they are. EDIT: The issue on unconciousness first arose for us due to the Stunning effect on Bludgeoning and martial arts. Pugilism/Whips are easy to work out dropping an action point. But the comparable effect for Stunning didn't work. Making those effects either too powerful, always resulting in unconsciousness or always failing. it made some combat too easy. So in-house we wanted to find a fix for that effect. We also lost characters to significant crit effects after over 10 rounds of combat vs an Enforcer lvl NPC who was suffering neg wounds but was simply was 'immune' to unconsciousness duels so we wanted a reasonable way to manage that. Didn't seem right our protagonsits could be effected but comparable enemies couldn't be. We also have eight players with limited time in a night so that was also a concern for us. Wanting to move onto the next part of our story without relying on FM fiat. Fated Causing Horror duel mechanic seemed like the best way of using applicable stats and an existing mechanic to get the duel we were after. Just wanted to add our FM allows us to make a call on whether or not our intention is to kill. We have some characters who would rather not kill humans they are fighting. So if we are using bludgeoning weapons/pugilism/martial arts of some kind we can make a call not to kill a low rank FM character when they hit 0 wounds. We don't get the chance to grill them for information whether they don't talk or they don't know anything. Just allows us to play up the morality of some Fated as a juxtaposition to the horrors that surrounds them. But yes we have some characters who are the 'life is cheap type' makes for some interesting 0 action statements in combat Kind regards, Ad

Gambling could have a trigger as an expertise skill. As such for a criminal it is worth considering to trigger competitive edge (Criminal Rank 1). Allows the Fated to draw a twist card after resolving the gambling duel. Would need to be in dramatic time/extended challenge for it to happen but it may be of use if you're gambling for your life or the life of friends

Didn't get around to asking our group since the FM has been away with work and we missed a game the week prior to that with him having the flu. Will ask when we meet for our weekly session tonight if anyone is interested. If so will make a note for next round of playtesting.

Just wanted to confirm the bit in brackets, "anything they have naturally." Are you saying if a Fated has a Specialised skill then the FM character gets to use that as well? Because the rules in the Fatemaster's Almanac don't state that but rather just mention the active card, be it flip or cheat. Reason why we realised this is because we originally used all suits in the result not just the active card but came up with situations where taking a specialised skill becomes a significant disadvantage against some mobs. It didn't seem right so we went looking and found out where we were doing it wrong. As above FM Almanac only lists the active card as the place the FM draws their triggers from. I've played some games where a card points could be burnt for the trigger and other's where we played it straight. Although playing it straight means some mobs need some trigger requirements readjusted. Witchling Stalker as an example since it doesn't have rams or tomes included in its pistol skill. Just looking at removing the ram requirement from the cataclysm trigger which allows them to get Burn +2 condition. Thanks, ad

Custom enhancements allow for some silly modifiers to be created if they can stack. Right now the two TtB games I play in both FM's have stated only one custom upgrade can be added to a custom weapon. Embellishments are not restricted and can be added to any piece of equipment/weapon. In our weekly game I assume the FM would do the following. Custom Armaments can only be attached to a custom weapon. A limb is not listed on the custom weapon chart and so can't be upgraded with a custom armament, however, Custom Embellishments could be added. To make a limb for combat like you've mentioned he'd let me go with a Pneumatic Limb (Full) which would add 1 armour and 2 Augments. I'd ask for Piston Driver allowing me to have Might 5 for one Duel and negotiate to get a Military brace that instead of a firearm carried a Knuckleduster giving on my damage flip. I know the FM would make me have Pneumatic and Pugilism Skill within 1 of each other otherwise he'd make me use the lowest of the two skills to calculate my Acting Values as per Multiple Combat Skills sidebar (p 119 Fated Almanac). But I would be allowed to use any and all pugilism/combat talents that could apply. So I'd get to use Pugilism damage table and snare with it as per pugilism and could get critical damage talent, etc. Having said all that you should houserule whatever works for your group and your FM is happy with. Under Augments for Limbs it does talk about space being limited in the fluff section so FM would need to make a call on what could be added. Folded steel enhancement we allow onto all custom weapon types. As has been written here we permit Damascus steel and even dense metal excuses to 'fluff' the reasoning out. We recently had a discussion about the pneumatic customisation because it costs twice as much as folded steel for less of a benefit. So we've changed pneumatic custom weapons to allow them to get a free use of Pneumatic (Aspect) per Dramatic time as the 'steam/mechanical driven upgrade' goes into overdrive on the weapon. Our FM also added in that a pneumatic weapon upgrade requires maintenance as per pneumatic limbs, so 10s every 3 months. Kind regards, Ad

i just wanted to highlight it's not clear if you are assumed to have a toolkit for the skill you select with the improvise talent or it's assumed you actually have a toolkit as per equipment lists. It can be read either way and the two things are quite different and one seems overly powerful for a talent. Regarding crafting, sure you need the raw materials but RAW and interpreted to mean a toolkit as per equipment would allow you to assume to have a kit to craft anything. That's before even taking the into account. Devs obviously meant one or the other, just want them to clarify which. It's off topic but Criminal to 5 is a good buy for anyone who can fit it into their character story and that is playing enough Fate steps to allow it. :masktrigger on Expertise duel, draw a Twist card, 1AP skill actions or Improvise and additional AP for movement only. So it's not a 0AP action which is limited but rather allows you to generate 3 AP's at the start of your turn, 1 limited to move actions only. It's a pretty good buy all round for any character build. I'm just adding questions the FM asks me to, that have come up for discussion in our games that we can't get an answer on talking amongst ourselves. Regards, Ad

Sorry if you felt it was an attack or comments that required defending it was not my intention. I just wanted to point out for other players that there is a mechanic in place. I agree with everything that's been said, as I pointed out in my OP one of the FM's I game with created a magia and offered it to me to support his storyline, but it was done using standard spell mechanics, so TN's, range etc. Happy for people to bend and break rules as their own stories need but I also think we need to try and highlight where rules are, what holes are in them and how they might be clarified a little better. Big hole we've noticed is unconcious checks for NPC's. One of the groups I'm playing with is playtesting a 'fix' for this that seems to be working okay. In private msgs been told a fix will be coming in a future supplement. Firm believer in play with what works for your group. Regards, Ad

Would you be able to make Blighted a condition? If you made it a condition it could also be made an immuto that would then allow the condition to be added to an elemental spell. I'd consider looking at something like Intoxicated but instead of to WP make it: Condition. Blighted: A character with the Blighted condition suffers a to all Df duels. As an Immuto: Elemental Immuto Blighted (TN +1) Any character that suffers damage from the Magia also gains the Blighted condition for 1 turn. This Magia may be taken multiple times, increasing the duration of the Blighted condition by 1 turn each time. Or you could raise the TN to +2 or 3 and allow it to stack to Df duels. It's a copy of blindness immuto. This will make it more likely that a character will suffer damage and with the ability to stack it means once you start down the road of being Blighted it becomes easier and easier to blight and therefore easier to do more damage to the target. You could also give a rat type the ability to use the Elemental Strike spell so they can also add the Blight in melee. You could give the Fated character access to a grimoire with Elemental Engulf and whatever other spells you think appropriate along with Blighted Immuto and maybe poison, to represent disease, so the two immuto could be stacked. As for the Graverobber Pursuit tie it in with something like Arcane Musings for the elemental sorc spells and tweak some of the Pursuit talents to work on a unique Vermin or the Beast genus instead of Undead and you should be gold. You could also look at Shrug Off as a Pursuit Talent (without the pre-reqs) for your new Pursuit to replicate something like Nihilism. Healing could look at Long Days from the Drudge. Looks to be lots of General or Pursuit Talents that will help make what you're looking at. Main issue is just to try and make sure when the pursuits are available doesn't cause too great an unbalance with the other characters. May also be worth considering it as an Advanced Pursuit so you only have to worry about 5 Talents, especially since it's story related and not likely to come up too often in a game. Anyway just a few ideas off the top of my head, sounds like a lot of fun though that's for sure Regards, Ad

Didn't want to derail the original thread so posted a new one. Just wanted to say there is a mechanic for creating manifest powers. Via fluff, a manifest power appears to be the magic in Malifaux 'seeping' into the Fated, or maybe them becoming more attuned to the magic of Malifaux as they move further along their Destiny. At any rate fluff aside the manifest powers are just spell like effects that are created using the spell creation system. details for it are found on p 228 Fated Almanac. Don't have a problem if FM's want to do things differently in their own games but just wanted to point out that a mechanic does exist and it does have rules on how they are created and used by the Fated. Although it is a chance for your players imaginations to run wild. Example from our game, our friendly Tinkerer is considering making my Fated a pneumatic weapon that crackles with lightning. Because that's impossible to create using crafting alone he's going to create a custom bludgeon (mace) with the pneumatic custom upgrade and I'm looking at getting the following manifest power if the FM agrees. Spell: Elemental Strike. (TN 3 ) Dam 1/2/3, 2 Immuto: Alteration Immuto: Focused Object (-3TN) (Commonality: Hammer held in 1 hand (TN -1), Object must be specifically crafted (TN -2)), Ignore Caster (TN +2), Blast 0/ :blast/ (TN +4). Augmentation Immuto: Increase AP +1 (TN -3), Increased Damage 3/4/5 (TN +4), Reduce Severity (-3). Elemental Immuto: Electrical (TN +3) Final result is: Manifest Power: Thunderous Strike (Focus: Custom pneumatic hammer): 2AP TN 7 (Using Might + Melee and can use combat talents), Resist Df, Range 3 (Character has Wall of Muscle General talent increases melee range from 2 to 3 ) Dam 3/4 :blast/4 ignoring armour. Having said all that a FM in another game did devise a magia that allowed my Fated to detect Neverborn with a special sight as a Manifested Power. When activated it does mess up my ability to see things normally as the world appears all hazy or like I'm underwater but he can see an aura around the Neverborn. It was a package deal the FM designed using the same system but with his own starting magia which was offered to me based on where our story was taking the group, while limited in application it has been useful for his stories. Regards, Ad

Criminal Pursuit: Improvise (p. 142) Does this talent assume that the Fated now has a toolkit as per equipment section? That is, it permits a bonus flip to the choosen skill and the Fated is considered to have a toolkit for all other skills in the area. Or is it they are they considered to have a tool kit that allows them to perform the chosen skill if a kit is deemed required by the FM? Example, Fated chooses Lockpick. Do they now get a to Lockpicking and are considered to have a Medical Bag for Doctoring and kit for Explosives? Or are they considered to be able to lockpick even if they are captured and all their equipment taken because they can 'improvise' a lockpick with items like a pin or piece of wire etc? Not completely clear what the bonus should be. First one seems quite powerful in some skill sets like Crafting, Magic and Expertise. Improvise Alchemy, to Alchemy and I can now improvise to craft anything anytime. Improvise Sorcery I get a on all Sorcery checks. Thanks in advance. Regards, Ad

I don't know Zeeblee, I've been playing games with my group for a long time (about 20 years) and all I can tell you is that if I did that on a spell my FM and most the other players would look at me, cock an eyebrow and some would laugh while others would shake their heads. Sure I'd be allowed to do it if I pushed but I wouldn't fancy my character's chances to pick up any more narrative driven grimoires or other fun stuff the FM doesn't 'have' to 'give' me. Basically I bummed out our FM on the social contract part of the FM Almanac. We kind of have an unspoken rule at our table. Just because you can do a thing does not necessarily mean you should. If fatemaster's are having trouble with their groups and RAW I'd suggest the entire group have a good read over the first 25 odd pages of the FM almanac. If everyone at the table is happy with your use of the additional suit immuto there is no problem. If some are unhappy talk it out. If one or two are arguing for it's use as written against the rest maybe it's time for some to find a new game. Roleplaying for the group I play with is largely a collective, cooperative, fun activity not a battle to implement the rules that will serve our c haracter's best. Only real feedback I can offer is if something doesn't work change it. Regards, Ad

Our group is eight Fated. After talking we decided to use two fate decks and we just 4 players 'locked' to each deck. That way it doesn't get shuffled too often meaning we would get an extraordinary amount of cards for our Twist hand. Is an attempt to maintain game balance. Our core group has been gaming together since the Monday Patch night for EQ back in 1999 we just change the system we play and a few players drift in and out. But because we've been together a long time we respect our GM/FM/DM/ST and make sure we are ready to go on our turn and give players room to get involved when we can. We talked about focusing on getting a Destiny step finished each session and to do so our FM uses a basic TV serial framework to do so. Three acts with a brief intro (Our Prologue via email) and do our Epilogue via email as well. We recently added a social game between each Destiny step so we can interact with each other, our environment and local NPC's I believe it comes down to what the FM is willing to write for and the organisation of the group. But then again you asked for "best number of players..." I'd say 4 and 1 FM. Four gives a solid group dynamic, broad range of skills and should get through a fate deck of cards once or twice a night. Enjoy TtB. Regards, Ad