Lithaine

It sounds like you're trying to balance the character's ability to outpace the economy (item and action, if construct). The ability to spend 1/4 the cost of things is powerful. I think TtB is less of a 'kill the monster, get better gear, rinse, repeat" kind of game, but crafting could allow you to quickly outfit yourself pretty well (given time!) compared to your party. Not sure if it helps, but I try to shift my thinking towards "when will it be available to that character, given what they are currently and will be doing?" So it may take 2 days to make something, but that could be a couple of sessions: the character is adventuring, has to sleep, maybe has a day job (or at least has to spend the time to pay for food/lodging). They probably don't have 48hrs straight to dedicated to constructing things, maybe just a couple hours per day. They may have to choose between working on their items or completing a timely activity: you have to find the real killer before sunset, or the wrongfully accused is going to be executed! Instead of having to spend the effort to create a formula or determine build times for everything, just use the game's breakpoints as reference: 1 session, before they set off to track the bad guy in the morning, when they get back from Ridley, etc. This allows you to set the pace you feel comfortable with in terms of the players becoming economically or mechanically powerful too fast, without it feeling like you are taking away the value of their skills and talents (as someone who tried to craft, this is the worst). It also may allow you to adjust for their skill level, if they are particularly skilled it might take less time, without having to do modifiers to calculating. You could also consider whether they have the tools, space, and access to materials (not just the 1/4 cost) to do this - they probably will need a workshop space to craft most things. If they are spending a couple days in the bayou, they probably don't have access to the best materials for example and can't carry much beyond hand tools - no lathes for gun barrels! Obviously, it's a fantasy game and magic/skill let them fudge a lot via mad science, but there still should be some limits. Hope this helps!

As far as I know, the hard copy is already in stores. They also released the PDF on Drivethrurpg a couple weeks ago, which they usually wait to do until after the hard copy has been in stores for a bit. :Edit: My online go-to says they have several copies in stock. I would check with the place you ordered from if you can, maybe they just didn't stock it right away and are now waiting for a batch?

I had forgotten about that one, it did look pretty neat!

I thought that might be the case, but I hadn't kept up with them. Looks like it was only the second one that just released. Not being super familiar with the penny dreadfuls, I would just say go with ones that have either a story you like or maybe interesting challenges/opponents you want to throw at your fated. It may also depend on your Fated and what they are effective at, as you could find scenarios that might be more of a challenge for their particular skillsets. I looked at Madman Interrupted at one point since it was the complete opposite of the kinds of adventures my group tends to see (swords and sorcery). I tried to find one-shots and penny dreadfuls that provided an experience unique to the TtB/Malifaux setting: horror, close calls, hard choices, unique monsters/characters (I would include undead, even though they are not unique, they are definitely important) to really get them engaged. Unfortunately, I was only able to run Recruitment Drive and 2 one-shots from Chronicles thus far, but I did look through a number of the available adventures.

I started by running a few free one-shots in the monthly Wyrd Chronicles, which the players enjoyed, and started to plan running one of the $5 PDFs one-shots before our group switched games (we rotate what we play frequently). I found them to be helpful in our group since we have trouble with some folks showing up consistently and allowed me to run them as almost monster-of-the-week episodes (and for a good price of $0). I have A Night in Rottenburg and Northern Aggression Penny Dreadfuls and I will say that they do provide a lot more detail that could help you Fatemaster than the free ones, so you do get what you pay for. Northern Aggression has information for the major NPC's personalities, such as attitude and mannerisms, which I can see it helping the FM roleplay and improvise interactions the Fated have with them (no campaign survives contact with the players!). The Northern [x] books tie together, so you could go that route and get the three of them to provide a decent length campaign/part of one.

I've seen it posted on some game store websites recently. It was also just posted to Drivethrurpg yesterday if you're looking for the PDF!

Additionally, the game assumes the characters are paying for their living expenses (or at least I remember reading it somewhere) either through adventuring money or by doing a 'day job' and thus not adventuring during that time. As much as the players would like the characters to sleep in the gutter so as to not incur costs, it's probably a good idea to remind them that the characters will not want to sleep in the gutter (would you no matter what you're saving up for?). After all, it is about roleplaying that character, right?

@diki Definitely, there are many ways for the players to make money in the game (and having the pricing sheets for goods and sundries besides equipment tells me it was probably anticipated characters will be buying and selling for various reasons). Another example: Cheap is relative to the player's ability to afford it. Characters that can make money easily will find it cheap, characters who cannot find it expensive. Another way to look at it: is the [insert item] cheap or expensive? Equipment is cheap or expensive depending on the character's ability to pay for it. Starting out their first adventure, my players had a hard time buying 'good' gear (there were some complaints about the starting funds), but to your point, it takes very little to get going and being able to afford better stuff - that starting pistol is now cheap in comparison. Not sure if this is a more helpful way to look at it than pure economics: do you as the Fatemaster want the ability to purchase the ticket to be hard or easy for your characters? The assumption that a ticket is cheap signals to me that you would like it to be difficult for your characters to get the tickets, perhaps to prevent them from making the trip? Cheap is also the same as easy until money is no longer an issue, so if it's the case that you want it to be difficult, then finding non-monetary obstacles sounds like the way to go. Some things that spring to mind: Fated are infamous and can't buy tickets normally; travel Earthside is temporarily closed; passengers need special permission from the Guild in addition to the ticket; Fated have their money stolen/jailed/ other direct delays.

The Chronicles #14 introductory adventure "An Easy Mark" also states that it costs 20scrip for a ticket into Malifaux. It may not sound like a lot, but a lot of regular weapons are sub 20scrip for example. If your players are just starting out, that could mean pawning their good(only) equipment for a ticket back Earthside. Also, from what I have read of the one-shots at least (we don't play enough to warrant one of the longer modules/custom adventure), cash rewards are pretty small and often spread amongst the party. It would probably take them some time to save up enough for each person to afford the 30scrip ticket, assuming they aren't spending it on equipment and living expenses.

This is what I plan to do if our group can meet regularly. I started with one chronicles one-shot, but one of the players had to leave after the first session, while our other player was able to join in at that point, and we had only just gotten started with the combat. Someone suggested it was a flashback for the 2 players, which sounded good and allowed them off the hook - they didn't lose the combat but didn't complete the investigation. This made it easy to write the players in and out, where the one Fated would leave the party after the combat, and the new Fated would be hired by the party to help out the next mission. I gave them the option to either pick up the investigation some time later, where I would extrapolate on what was pre-written and where the adventure would be several days later - i.e. where would the bad guy be now and what would they be/have been doing, since the Fated found the hideout but didn't located the bad guy. They opted to start fresh, so I started the next session with them retelling that story to the 'new' party member in the tea house where the new one-shot kicks off. Stringing together one-shots seems to be pretty easy, depending on your game type and characters of course, since it can be like TV shows' 'Monster of the week' type format. Approaching it that way means you can take things or leave them as the Fated move through those one-shots, and you could inject a larger arc almost at any point, either through expanding on something that happens in one of those one-shots or just in between them have a scenario that kicks off the campaign. You could still throw one-shots in there to break things up a bit (or stall while reacting to something that happens in the campaign). Running a few of these until you work out a longer arc is what I plan to do. That said, things are already looking grim for the Fated in the beginning of this 'first' one-shot....

This.

Quickly glancing back at the 1e book, it does seem like the talent would be ineffective unless you manage to get a construct through some other means besides the animate construct spell. This is under the assumption the limit applies only to those animated by the spell, depending on how you interpret the spell text "A caster may only control one construct at a time."p - I only managed a brief time in 1e so I missed any discussions that may have come up about this. @MasonMy Tinkerer player would probably be glad this was changed in 2e had he started under 1e!

The Tinkerer gains the Animate Construct magia when they start the pursuit at level 0. This character always has access to the Animate Construct Magia, no matter her current Grimoire. If this character does not possess a Grimoire, she may act as if she possessed a Grimoire with this Magia. The entry for the Animate Construct magia doesn't specify a limit to the number of animated constructs one can create/be subordinate to the character, only a duration of 1hr of animation for the construct being animated by that casting instance of the spell. Effect: Target inanimate construct comes to life as a subordinate character under the caster’s control for 1 hour. If it does not have a Rank Value, its Rank Value becomes Minion (5). When this Spell ends, the construct becomes inanimate but may be later reanimated. To me, this reads that the Tinkerer can animate as many constructs as they have action points for (assuming the spell is cast successfully), and each success would animate 1 construct for 1hr. They would then have to spend action points to give orders to the construct(s) that are animated, otherwise, the constructs do not act.

Most of the conditions can be found starting on pg. 306. in the Core book. Prone is a callout box on pg. 294 under movement actions: A character who is Prone gains to her Defense flips against Projectile attacks but suffers to her Defense flips against Melee Attacks.

This was what I went as well. It doesn't make sense for one player to be able to turn their 10 scrip into 40 worth of weapons/armor (buying at 1/4 list price) from a game/player balance perspective.