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Malifaux tokens and markers


Ray

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Been playing this game for a bit and have been using some tokens that I secured online. I have played other games like wmh and x wing. Just the other day I was looking at a table with a game of Malifaux going on and I had to stop to understand what was going on. They used a different brand of tokens. It occurred to me that Malifaux would be easier to understand if wyrd actually stipulated or created standardized tokens aka x wing. 

For the longest time wmh didn't have official tokens but when they came out, it made battle reports and tournaments a smoother experience. Less time was spent explaining to your opponent what was this and that token representing. 

I was wondering if you felt the same? Could wyrd made tokens be a good step for the game? 

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What do you mean by tokens?

Are you referring to Burning, Poisons and that sort of thing? Because I find using tokens  to represent those is not actually helpful to me in the game. I've played Guildball, where I think Tokens are very very helpful, but I find that their use in Malifaux adds more confusion to me than helps me. 

If you are referring to Markers, such as corpse, scheme, and Scrap, then its pretty important that people can tell what your markers are, but I don't think that making an official set that people have to use would be a good idea. (My Corpse Markers generally are body parts, and have pink bases, my Scrap markers are metallic scrap with a metallic base. My scheme markers are which ever set I happen to grab for that game, unless I'm needing to use a different type of marker for the Strategy, in which case, I normally use a marker that is written on for that (head, or Claim or Squat for example). They might be a set that say they are scheme markers, or they might be a themed set of markers I've made to fit a crew (such as molehill burrowing markers, or Rail markers). 

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The problem with making tokens for Conditions and other persistent effects (e.g. Steam Cloud) is that there is a staggering amount of them. It's been a while since I looked at this but as I recall Arcanists alone have over 40 conditions and effects, many of which are unique to a single model. I haven't looked much at other factions but even if they average fewer than Arcanists we are still probably looking at 200+ in total, and new ones are added with every book. So it's not really feasible to make a standard set for all effects. If a standard set is made for the common ones (e.g. Slow, Fast, Burning, etc) you'll still end up with custom tracking of all the other ones.

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1 hour ago, Ray said:

Been playing this game for a bit and have been using some tokens that I secured online. I have played other games like wmh and x wing. Just the other day I was looking at a table with a game of Malifaux going on and I had to stop to understand what was going on. They used a different brand of tokens. It occurred to me that Malifaux would be easier to understand if wyrd actually stipulated or created standardized tokens aka x wing. 

There are people who refuse to play the game specifically for those reasons--the stipulated tokens and the packaging of mandatory pieces with arbitrary models. 

Do keep in mind that you don't need Wyrd produced cards or Wyrd produced models to play Malifaux.  A new player could buy the PDF version of the core rulebook, print out all of their cards, put together sprue spiders, sprue arachnids, and a stick-figure-in-a-coat and call it Ramos, submit their scratch built models for approval, and then enter an official Gaining Grounds tournament.  That's not the sort of environment which is going to tolerate mandatory standardized tokens.

1 hour ago, Ray said:

For the longest time wmh didn't have official tokens but when they came out, it made battle reports and tournaments a smoother experience. Less time was spent explaining to your opponent what was this and that token representing. 

On the subject of official tokens, Privateer Press released a set of damage tracking tokens in various sizes.  My local sample size is probably biased, but they've essentially been dismissed out of hand as "just more clutter which has to be moved along with the model" and I don't remember seeing anyone use them in the coverage of Lock'n'Load this year.

If you look at a game like Infinity, Corvus Belli actually designs custom icons and artwork for all of their status effects, and you can see the dynamic tension between the people that buy custom token sets for everything, the people that print out their own custom tokens, and the people that have their 'one dozen commonly used types of token' set, and their bag of dry erase tokens.

The advantage of company produced markers is that they're a convenient avenue of least resistance, if enough people think they're useful.  On the other hand, some of us remember the original GF9 official Warmachine/Hordes tokens.  :mellow: 

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I'm just getting into Malifaux. I've got some 30mm size bases to use for the markers (scheme, scrape and corpse). As for the Blast i need to get or make the 50mm ones.

For the conditions I'm planning on using a heavy paper (card stock) and writing out the specific conditions on them. As for the individual models conditions I'm working on that to. I would be nice if the individual ones came with the models but I don't think that would be cost effective for Wyrd or us as purchasers. 

 

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2 hours ago, Gremlin66 said:

I'm just getting into Malifaux. I've got some 30mm size bases to use for the markers (scheme, scrape and corpse). As for the Blast i need to get or make the 50mm ones.

For the conditions I'm planning on using a heavy paper (card stock) and writing out the specific conditions on them. As for the individual models conditions I'm working on that to. I would be nice if the individual ones came with the models but I don't think that would be cost effective for Wyrd or us as purchasers. 

 

I think this is an excellent idea. I would pay for the tokens. I mean it can be something really quite simple on plastic on the sprue that our minis come in. Costing just a little more but it would look so aesthetically pleasing as wyrd has a very strong design team. 

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If you're looking for a clean and efficient way to track conditions without cluttering the table, making a conditions reference card that slides under the model reference would work well. Then you could use it with dry erase to mark off the value of the standard conditions or write in the more specific conditions as the model accrues them. Made a little picture.. :)

Personally I prefer having tokens on the table, as it helps to show me and my opponent of what's going on at a given time. I usually just write more specific conditions in a blank space on the model reference card as a reminder to myself.

ConditionReferenceCard.png

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  • 1 month later...
On 7/12/2016 at 2:44 AM, lusciousmccabe said:

Tracking conditions with a whiteboard marker is the only way to go (unless you pay Hamelin and need a jotter pad).

If you could get (or make) 30 mm whiteboard disks they could be a cool option for niche markers.

Oooo - that's actually a really good idea!  

I've got a tourny coming up this weekend, so I might be "that guy" who comes along with a whiteboard slate and a dry-erase marker hanging from a lanyard 'round his neck.  I be all about the mad medallions, yo.  ;)

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On 7/12/2016 at 3:01 AM, Ray said:

I think this is an excellent idea. I would pay for the tokens. I mean it can be something really quite simple on plastic on the sprue that our minis come in. Costing just a little more but it would look so aesthetically pleasing as wyrd has a very strong design team. 

One thing the aforementioned Corvus Belli does with their Infinity minis is have a couple of random tokens printed onto the sides and tabs of the cardboard boxes that the minis come in.  So, they're full colour glossy card, and you can just cut them out.  Or, scan them first, etc.  I think that's a nice touch.

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9 minutes ago, Bazlord_Prime said:

One thing the aforementioned Corvus Belli does with their Infinity minis is have a couple of random tokens printed onto the sides and tabs of the cardboard boxes that the minis come in.  So, they're full colour glossy card, and you can just cut them out.  Or, scan them first, etc.  I think that's a nice touch.

This is something you can do with Malifaux at least for scheme markers - the faction icons on the boxes are pretty much exactly 30mm, so you can cut them out and use them for Scheme markers.

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On 7/15/2016 at 4:32 AM, Nutella said:

If you're looking for a clean and efficient way to track conditions without cluttering the table, making a conditions reference card that slides under the model reference would work well. Then you could use it with dry erase to mark off the value of the standard conditions or write in the more specific conditions as the model accrues them. Made a little picture.. :)

Personally I prefer having tokens on the table, as it helps to show me and my opponent of what's going on at a given time. I usually just write more specific conditions in a blank space on the model reference card as a reminder to myself.

Like the idea of having the conditions represented on/next to the cards, myself.  But that's just cause I've got calamitously uncontrollable fingers that tend to destroy scenery whenever I reach for a model or token.

So far I've been putting tokens on the cards, but that becomes an arse whenever you want to flip them to check attacks etc, so this idea of a "status card" underneath the model card is pretty elegant. Thanks!

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10 minutes ago, Dogmantra said:

This is something you can do with Malifaux at least for scheme markers - the faction icons on the boxes are pretty much exactly 30mm, so you can cut them out and use them for Scheme markers.

Yeah, that's true.  One small regret I have is the irony that strikes me here:

I bought a 1" punch (WHOAAAARRRR - Bruce Lee!), to pop out all the Infinity markers that I printed onto cardboard, and this is for a Spanish game (ie, generally Europeans use metric*);

Malifaux, which uses imperial measurements for almost everything else, uses a metric measurement for the marker and base sizes!  Sigh...  :P

 

*I know though that in Spain they do use metric distances for Infinity, but they published the English system in imperial so that Americans & Brits would find it easier to deal with.

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