vagen

I always like to give my players unexpected problems. Dopplegangers are fun. I had them respond when some miners dug into a Nephlim nest. Even a Resser enclave can be tons of fun.

First. Love this thread. All of the response so far have been amazing and I can't wait to see more of them. As a hook, The Fated receive the deed to a house outside of the wall. When they get there they find a large building with glass walls. The walls have been enchanted to make them stronger and more resilient; bulletproof even. After they spend some time in the house they hear a clock begin to chime. From that point forward the walls have begun to move around blocking off any means of escaping from the home. At the same time 13 Ghosts/Undead in increasing levels of power are released one every hour from cells in the basement to fulfill a ritual that could invoke the Grave Spirit giving the man who owned the house amazing amounts of power. The Fated must now work together to solve the mystery of the house, stop the monsters/Resurectionist, and survive the night.

There's things I like to do with any city to show off both the heights and depths of it. Give the players a sense of what the wealthy and powerful do and show them the lower end. In Malifaux I give out theater tickets or a night at a supper club. Then the other way around I'll send them to a gambling den or some other element. I also like to remind them how dangerous and dark the city can be with the passing a random murder investigation. Just a murder scene with the police having cordoned off the area. However, I always note that there's no crowd of onlookers because random death is so prevalent in Malifaux that it no longer draws rubberneckers. One other thing I love about Malifaux is letting the major players have a moment in the game. I like having them interact with the big characters of the world but because they're having a conversation with them the players can forget how powerful some of them are. It's times like this I love to have them come across the aftermath of one or more of the big names. Personal favorites are: finding a brothel in flames with all of the women standing outside in shock and all of the men eviscerated inside after Molly and Kiari have gone through. A Resurrectionists lair that's been wiped out by Lady Justice and her lot. A Guild library with a wall blown out because Lazarus needed a particular book. I love tehse moments because it reminds the players that there are tons of amazing stories going on in Malifaux and they're just one of them. It's one of the reasons I'd love to do a West Marches style of game in Malifaux.

I love these articles. I have so much fun reading all of the comments and seeing what other people are saying. To the question. I ran one campaign where one of the characters gave birth. To give them a way of still adventuring but not having to take the baby with them I introduced Granny. She was an older woman from the small frontier town they all lived in. She'd "always been there." Which I was using as a hint that she hadn't really. I even finger quoted. In the end she was there to help the fated fulfill their destinies. I revealed near the end of the campaign that she was actually Zoraida. She'd foreseen that the fated would be important and was there to help guide their actions. It was fun to roleplay her and have the players realize she was more powerful than they realized but not figure out who she was or what she was truly capable of. After a while I also let her start referring to the game rules in the vague terms of tarot readings. I figured if anyone in malifaux would figure out it was a game, it would be Zoraida.

For me this is easy. I was running a D&D 4th edition adventure I wrote as part of a museum exhibit. On the other side of a wall where my game was exhibited they were showing Conan the Barbarian, the original with Arnold. At one point I called for initiative. Just as the players finished rolling the dice the scene where Conan and his group broke into the tower began and the music started. Half way through the fight something huge happened and that's when Conan and company were discovered and the fighting started along with the ramped up music. This continued until my players struck down the last monster in the fight. As they rolled damage, killing the monster; the arrow struck the Valkyrie and the scene ended. The music stopped and it was done. It was far to perfect, and there is no way I could have planned it. Another really great one for me that's a little more down to earth is at the end of a session of Through the Breach. We'd just had a session where the town sheriff, one of my players, helped introduce some marshals to another of my players who was working a front for the Ten Thunders. The marshals were looking into some stage coach robberies and trying to figure out if anyone in the area had lost anything. Most of what had been stolen was general supplies, flour, nails, bolts of cloths.; those sort of things. the only specific thing taken was an ornate grandfather clock. A clock that now sat in the one characters living room. Part of the session revolved around the one character trying to hide the grandfather clock before the marshals arrived. After we finished for the evening the player who ran the sheriff said, "I think this campaign is going to end with a bunch of people in a room pointing guns at one another and I'm pretty sure we'll be the only people in the room." He meant it in the best way possible. I'd never had a moment like that in a campaign before. It was so much fun to have my players that into the idea they may have to kill one another. In the end they had managed to work it out. It helped that someone released a titan in the mines near the town. But that moment where everyone was on the edge of their seats waiting to see if the marshals would find the clock was awesome.

I've always been the fate Master never the player. As such, I don't have a favorite pursuit. However, I do love how the game has gotten my players to create new types of characters with the pursuit system. I've had the more traditional RPG style characters of the sheriff, the mercenary, the doctor, and the mage. I've also had things like a reporter, a shop keeper, and a miner. That the pursuit system allows for people to do these things is just awesome. I don't think I've ever played in a game where someone could be the shop keeper and still take a meaningful part in the story.

I believe it's just once per turn.

Looking forward to this, I'd really love a Nightmare Ortega's, heheeheh

Myself and a couple of friends are thinking about making a road trip out of this, are there any good hotels in the area you could recommend? Are there even still slots open for the event?

For my group, I simply created the major setting and told them that was where they were going to be spending the majority of their time. I then made them new arrivals in Malifaux and set them loose. I based the first week around one characters fate and made it a big enough problem that they could all bond. For me this ended up being great because my people have ended up designing a lot really complex interaction between their characters. I have 2 people who are a Guild sponsored Sheriff and a Shop keeper who is a front for the Ten Thunders, and I'm not certain that there wont be a point where they'll be standing in a room with guns on each other. Part of that is whats really making it fascinating to show up every week and see what happens next. The way I force them to work together is I gave them the shared experience at the beginning where they had to rely on one another and I have been eeking out little bits and pieces that are forcing them to deal with things that threaten the town they're all a part of. If you give your group one thing they are all attached to and is important to them, then they are forced to work together even if they have to keep who they are secret for fear of reprisal. In the end, it's going to rely on your group to play it out. It's entirely possible that your grave robber will announce he animates the dead and your death marshal will go I should hate you because that's wrong but I like your face. So make all the places you want just be ready for the players to go where ever they do.

Well, Justin's article was interesting, I can't wait to see the stats. I'm a little disappointed Wong got the promotion, I was expecting it to go to Burt with Wong becoming a Henchman.

I enjoy V2 and have liked much of the changes, I'm certain some of the changes we saw were still a bit off the mark, but were moving in a positive direction. I will probably favor V2 but still enjoy playing 1.5, and will be more than willing to grab a game of that if one is offered. Though I will not spend time seeking 1.5 games or asking people to play them with me. Right now, I'm just looking to see what will happen when the game comes out in it's final form before making my final decision on what to do next. I am curious and maybe someone can tell me if they have had a similar experience. In my local meta most people are very positive about the changes. The people who are very adamant against V2 fall into 2 categories, and only one of them has remained against the new version all along while the second group has moved to a more on the fence position. Group one, the very much against, are Neverborn players, specifically those that favor Pandora and Zorida, and Group 2 (which is admittedly only 2 people) are Resser players who favor McMorning. To be fair most of the people in my local meta have known each other for a while and this may just be a case of similar personality types having similar opinions. I am curious has anyone else noticed a similar grouping or a running thread in their local meta of how people fall in their opinions?

I tend to look at strategy as to who my master is, but failing that I'll usually go with Perdita, she was my first master and the one I'm personally most familiar with. Having said that, I don't think you can ever go wrong against Outcasts by including Nino, his long range and multiple triggers make him a pretty brutal figure, if you have enough models that you can get him to go after wearing your opponents hand down, it makes head shot a really great possibility.

I love the group at Epic Loot. I try to go out every week and don't regret the time I get to go and just hang out. It's a solid group that's very open to new players.

Nino, I have head shot to death so many more expensive models and ruined so many plans with Nino it actually stopped being funny and then started again.