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Demoing Malifaux: First time nerves


DavidKerrSmith

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So, on Thursday night at the LGS I gave my first proper demo of Malifaux. My willing test subject/guinea pig was Alan but we got a few bystanders as well. The shop owner Frank was paying rather close attention as this game system is one that he plans to start carrying in the near future, so he is keen that it takes off in popularity.

Firstly I have a brief run down of the deck of cards and the suits, explaining that each suit relates to a type of magic. I then explain about stats and action costs. So far, so good… His eyes haven’t glazed over…

I try to set the board up to have a 3×3 area in the centre of the 4×4 board, but this proved to be rather annoying. Unless you have a clearly designated 3×3, use the 4×4 but have nothing in the back 6″ of the 2 usable edges, giving a sort of 4×3 playing area.

Alan took Sonnia & Samael, whilst I had Rasputina and an Ice Golem. Standard deployment and then I began to talk through the steps of how to play and how the card mechanics work for a simple cast and then an opposed cast. Again, no glazing over of the eyes occured. I must be doing something right.

The game itself was a nothing more than a chance to show off the different mechanics, triggers and use of soulstones. Alan is an experienced Warmachine player so similarities are drawn between the two game systems at points in the conversation when explaining some of the more advanced ideas in the game.

The game finished with Rasputina doing a “Next time Gadget” cry, casting Whiteout and then getting the hell out of Dodge in a cinematic moment. There was some key moments where the battle would have gone differently if I had wanted it to, but the purpose was to teach the game and have fun at the same time. I think I managed to achieve this. Part of doing a demo game is letting the other person win, but never in an obvious manner.

Next time, I think that I will make sure that the numbers are stacked in the other person’s favour, where I would take a Gamin with Raspy or a Stalker with Sonnia, but still make sure the other player had a stronger force. This should prevent another moment where the Golem decided to make swiss cheese out of Samael.

A thank you also to Dave (Tattyted on the Wyrd forums) who traveled out to the store for a rather brutal 35ss match after the demo game. I had a brilliant game and earned my first kill with Sonnia against Seamus. I can see myself picking up a Resser crew for demo games as well as a Neverborn crew. Initially leaning towards Nicodem and Lilith but I’ll have to see how much fun these crews would be for demoing with. I wouldn’t want to pick up a crew that isn’t fun to play.

On a related note. I got the go ahead to run an all day demo at the upcoming Skirmish 2011 event in October. I look forward to it as a chance to introduce the game to a wider audience. Better get the banter polished up.

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