kanhead

This is great news, will absolutely be able to get an order in to Australia this year. Thanks guys!

That's interesting, I didn't read it as Destiny must be completed in the set order on my first read of the book. Looking back over the rules it's sort of hinted at I guess. I'd suggest it's pretty difficult to have that as a hard and fast rule, so far I've found it tricky enough getting a players Destiny to fit a particular adventure as it is! My group are treating the complete Destiny as a form of riddle that when complete will see the Fated reach the end of their epic adventure.

I ran this adventure last night and it went down a treat! Having played quite a few of the one-shots they are heading off to Innocence next week.

From my perspective it has been a bit of a problem. See my post here: http://themostexcellentandawesomeforumever-wyrd.com/topic/111657-combat-and-new-fated/ and the player post here: http://themostexcellentandawesomeforumever-wyrd.com/topic/111656-magic-am-i-doing-it-wrong-a-minmaxr-or-just-really-dangerous/ The solution I have had is to fudge the mechanics (play with initiative order or make it easier to remove fire conditions) or create a narrative space that defrays the powerful abilities (risk of explosion making the ability unusable, heavy rain or nearby water reducing the condition & Guild witch hunters nearby). I have an escalating story in the local ragsheet that updates whenever the magic user is spotted using magic in public. It helps that the player is aware of it and tends to pull back a little. In game make it a risk by having the heavy hitters sitting back to counter charge and/or introduce some ranged elements to give other Fated a chance. You can manage it with a bit of careful planning and Fatemaster license. Aside from the above I think it is broken and should either have a cap, an escalating TN (+2 for every additional burning token) or be delayed a little in resolution.

There is a magia that 'enchants' weapons, can you just use that to augment the arrows? Add in the extend duration immuto to get the right in-game life.

Where in Melbourne are you playing Splicer?

I've found the best approach for me to be identifying which player is most aligned to the underlying theme of the adventure. Then I look at their destiny steps and see where I can apply them. Sometimes there are a couple of appropriate spots that you can work the destiny steps into the adventure. As an example, at my session last week we played The Whispering Affair one shot from Chronicle 19, I selected my resser Fated as the focus who had the following destiny steps: Once the silver thread spends like golden promises, he will trust your falsehoods, (potentially Avery depending how how the group interacts with him) but as destiny grows weary of your follies, (either following the wrong lead OR should they fail a lot of challenges) then the Ravens bless your children, (describe/create a flock of ravens coming to watch should the Fated attempt his first summoning) and the arches will crumble. I then just made some notes on each step above and tried to ensure I had a way to trigger one element. If you have a few options it makes it easier to monitor in game, otherwise you might have to get creative and engineer something. In this case it was made easy by the Fated getting two black jokers, the 2nd at the critical moment of trying to talk down the killer! Destiny literally grew tired of her follies. Sometimes I've taken to making them simple, in essence a description of something that occurs as the Fated advances in their career (i.e. resolving And you are a breeze unto the leaves in Smugglers Run one shot C17 by having the drunken toad hurl the particular Fated through the Bayou swamp). Its not as engaging as the above approach but offers a chance to tell the Fated's story particularly in the less RP intensive groups. Many of the pre-generated adventures have destiny steps identified for you however there are so many potential destinies that you may not ever see a Fated with them.

I printed the skills pages on landscape (pg 114 & 115) and the common actions (pg 202 & 203) on the back. It's pretty much the same as what you have there.

It's an interesting point you make Omenbringer on the difficulties of the static NPC resolution. In this instance the Fated were not at all challenged by the fight and therefore without the fear of death for the powerful combat Fated I felt the event lacked weight (or could if we kept having dramatic events that didn't have drama). Not to mention the more balanced Fated were out shone. Will see how I go with it this week taking the approach above.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I'll try adding a few more narrative elements and varying the enemies/enviroments to balance out the melee characters running amok. Some form of occasional de-buff to counter the overwhelming offensive should help manage the two of them and give the others a chance to shine. I might tweak a few of the minions to enforcers to up the difficulty level for the more powerful fated and make the glass cannon Tinker a little more cautious (though I still think he can burning tag a henchman level NPC without too much trouble). Consequences are an interesting balance. I think for the tinker this will work well. I'll have to get a bit more creative with the Guard. As I work my way through the various adventures I'll get a bit more confidence with letting the story run to wherever it needs to go. So far I've been closely following the Penny Dreadful adventures more though lack of GM experience! My big concern was ensuring everyone gets involved in each event so I'll have to key my eye on it!

Ran my second game last night, first with Fated characters generated by the players. I ran the one shot adventure from Chronicle 15: "Train of Thoughts". All went well though I noticed a few interesting quirks in the dramatic events. We have just come off a pathfinder season so are probably still in a table top combat (min/max) frame of mind. This is my first time GMing though I've played NOTE: Some spoilers below!! Firstly, one of the Fated is a Guard with Might 3 and Heavy Melee 3 for an opening AV of 6. Combined with a custom bludgeon with Enlarged (1/1/2 increase damage) & Extended (3" reach). With a Def of 6 and a sprint of 14" he rushed past the Hunters at Faraday as he was loading the train with the intent of arresting him. In hindsight I should have had the fated further from the train however to pin him down I had to rush two hunters into melee range and give him a negative twist to disengaging so we could get to the final train battle. In combat he very quickly crushed the hunters needing only a 4 to hit, doing min damage of 3 (-1 for armor). The Fated should probably have been more concerned for his new friends battling hunters behind him too! Secondly, one of the Fated is a Tinker with Elemental Strike, combined with Fire, Focus object -4 and Reduce AP Immuto. Using Traditional Magic Theory and the Specialized Skill Talent on Intellect 3 and Sorcery 3. For those playing at home that's 6AV with a positive twist to hit and the Tomes TN removed. 1 AP at TN11 does nominal 1/2/3 damage but stacks 6 burning tokens on the target. He will also have a TN12 to land 4 burning tokens on a (0) action. He murdered about 5 hunters comfortably by tapping them once each. He was only really challenged by me throwing a stack of Hunters at him to drain his hand and threaten his wounds (needing an 8 to avoid a hit in return)! See here. So the combats felt a little one sided with the two above out shining the more balanced Fated (a paired pistol gunslinger and Graverobber with rifle). I found it a little difficult to get the balance of minions right. Too few and they simply smashed them apart which is a little out of the ordinary given the fluff on Hunters. Too many and they eventually flipped a few low cards for Def, had no cheat cards and took as much as 1/3 of their health per swipe. Between the two above they cleared 8 hunters in the first dramatic section. So I was thinking of a few potential changes: Bump the Def/Wp stats of combat NPCs by 2 to reduce the chance of hits landing (and not have to rush as many minions)?Increase the TN of elemental strike by 4 to reduce the number of burning tokens applied (or make it +3TN)?Make disengaging strikes harder?Get the Fated to soften their combat scores?Just GM it harder and give the Fated more consequences? Can any Fatemasters offer advice for me here?

Hi guys, looking to trade/sell a few items: 1E Ortega family (inc Abuela + totem) & guild guard. NiB 2E plastic Transparent green Kirai stuff - Kirai, Lost Love, 4 x Onryo, Ikryo untouched on sprue (no seshin) Would be keen to swap for unpainted/NiB: 2E Von Schill box Any 2E 10T stuff (other than Lynch/Yan Lo/Oiran) Any 2E gremlin stuff Based in Australia.

If you find the time Kriltic a write up of the games and what you actually took would be awesome.

You've thought it out quite well, I like the ideas. You should also consider how you are going to deny opponent VPs, having a handy fast minion to deny areas and a hard hitter to take out key threats have always been necessities for me. Personally I find Nico needs to be getting upfield fast to start spamming paralyse. This has the advantage of both protecting your crew as well as shutting down the opponents ability to control his own VPs. The dead rider and grave spiriti combo make this happen so well that I struggle to not include them in any Nico list I make. Crooligans (and Mortimer for that matter) are considered soft inclusions for a reason. You'll probably find this out yourself as you play more games, just a little lacklustre compared to other choices. That said, your plan for them is simple so stick to it and don't expect much more.

I haven't found any one model to be hugely stronger than an other. Everything in those lists will work well depending on the schemes/strategies. I say buy them all (and a blister of stitched together as well).

Very interesting, I have had mixed results with them. Whilst they can be quite difficult to put down if their opponent is brilliant their limited dmg profile makes them more of a nuisance than anything else. My opponent either hit them hard with a non-brillianced model or just ignored them and kept at his schemes/strategies. I'm not sure I would always take two but you need at least one in a Jacob crew for the ranged brilliance and party never ends ability.

Have you tried Lazarus? He's fairly resilient and can put out decent damage in melee and at range.

Had my first game with him this weekend. I didn't read the tactica as I wanted to figure out some of the tricks myself. Tabled Misaki thoroughly though my opponent made a few mistakes. I wouldn't recomend playing him till they errata him, he is insanely strong.

Having been gettings some games in with Lynch myself I'd be interested in when you use particular minions (i.e. which schemes/strategies), where you place Lynch, preferred role of HD and activation time.

It all comes down to what you are trying to achieve. For me I find that Nico can't leave home without the dead rider, often McMourning is in the same boat. The higher SS models tend to be tougher to kill, hit more reliably and offer greater utility. I've had the dead rider or Bete do incredible things in most games (there are occasions where a black joker on one with the night has hurt), enough to well and truely cover their SS. The smaller models offer good abilities, many corpses and the ability to out activate, you need a good mix for support. Necropunks, belles, night terrors and to a degree punk zombies and crooked men all bring useful abilities to the table on a low cost body. BUT sometimes you positively have to get something done and they won't be able to do it. I find this issue is amplified with the overcosted 6-7ss uniques we get. For Seamus I've had a lot of good use out of Bete Noire. Once you get the hang of her play style she'll love working with a lot of low cost minions - the opponent will never know where she will strike. She adds a lot of punch to the crew and can really help deny the opponent key models. For Nico the Dead Rider has it all. He can tow Nico up the table, fish out enemy models for punk flurrys, hit really hard and tank even harder with a grave spirit. I haven't seen too many games where he hasn't earned his SS back or can't assist with my schemes/strategies.

I always run Nico with the Dead Rider/grave spirit. You want to drag along Nico on the first turn to get him up the board. For the rest of the crew it's up to the strategy. I use belles, punks, desperate mercs/gunslinger. As mention above, don't go too crazy on punks as you'll be summoning those in later - you really want a few utility models that will annoy the opponent and drop a corpse for you to summon from.

I wonder how Chiaki will play out, whilst her buffs seem very handy (movement tricks, counter removal and slow to non-living) she does appear awefully reliant on another supporting model to do some damage and/or control the immediate area. That and she doesn't seem to great at taking a punch with low def and harmless. The thing that gets her across the line seems to be her interaction with Yan Lo through supporting his relics and having the ability to return via his summon.

I don't have a lot of experience against Hoffman but I'd be shooting for a solid way to take the opposing master out - Seamus is great to grant insignificant but I feel he's too slow and doesn't have sufficient resilience to the usual guild tricks. There is a lot of terrain there to slow movement so I'd look for minions that had some speed over terrain. Punks are great but they might easily be avoided by a fast crew (something you would expect an opponent to bring with plant evidence). I'd use McMourning Chihuahua Canine remains (for 8bp) Dead Rider Belle The Drowned Convict gunslinger Desperate Merc The aim would be to use the dead rider to peel any bodyguard type units away from the master for McM to get in with a flesh construct/rogue necromancy hot drop. The Rider then tries to pull opposing models away from terrain and threaten weak units (taking care to hide from the usual nasty ranged Guild models. The convict would cover the more open area, preferably behind/in some cover. The belle/drowned act as movement annoyance and debuff. Desperate Merc to blast something and die. Looking at that crew McM can easily ignore the armour buffs and provided he can catch Hoffman has a very good chance of nuking him. The dead rider can pull the Guardian away then hunt watchers. The merc/gunslinger aim to shoot down watchers and support warden removal. Drowned is a bit weaker vs this list but can help separate the opponent and get in the way. At a pinch I'd say kill protege as McM can easily take down a guardian. I tend to try and avoid schemes that support the strategy - holdout/assassinate really put all your eggs in one basket. That said Hoffman can be tricky to use so if I thought my opponent was good maybe bodyguard to encourage him to engage McM. Against an opponent on a lower table - back McM and go assassinate. Once i saw opponents strategies I'd be focusing on the watchers to slow planting of evidence and cut out the stake a claim. Looking for a late dead rider push into the backfield to deny holdout after pulling the guardian as far from hoffman as possible. Alternatively slide the drowned along a table edge for a late denial (he'll struggle a bit against hoffman). The merc/gunslinger try to pressure Hoffman from range (low wnds and try to burn his SS) while McM and belle push at him. The trick will be to get McM in to finish hoffman quickly and cut off serious retaliation.

He is looking like a very helpful totem for Yan Lo. The free push and link will really help with crew mobility. I'm not as sold on soul-cage, I think I'd rather force my opponent to waste actions killing my models however the relatively short range on recover lost souls may see it getting some use.

I've been working on the above basis too. Basically aSeamus is the way to play Seamus in general!