Mister Shine

I find our players tend to be a bit more casual so you can always just ask "How does your crew work? What should I look out for?"

I'll happily let people know what to do against Collodi/Colette to slow them down and how Im going to probably come at them with my {}{}{MYRIAD OF TRICKS}{}{}

I usually do the following for intro games for people coming from either of the warhammers or warmahordes

Turf War setup for the Strat and instead of the normal scheme pool, a variant of Squatter's rights with two squat markers on the far edges of the board.

It gets through the idea that "KILL EM ALL" doesnt work in Malifaux, because not focusing on objectives gets them losing 2-0 by the second turn, at which point they tend to swap directions and try to do some objective gameplay. 90% of the time, it works every time.

Conveniently, Im another henchman, I just can't do anything but be a rules encyclopedia due to wonky work schedules.

Speaking of; don't tell my work, but so far I can actually go this coming Monday.

So far I can go, pray to my varied pantheon of work Gods that I retain the day off

At some point Im going to drag Collodi to this

I'd say weak and severe respectively for the two situations. Jokers have a value of 14, but thats not what gives them their special traits. Of course thats just opinion

Kirai's name is Hateful Darkblack, hence Hateful's name on this forum

Don't tell him about Weaver Widows

Ain't nothing weird about a Beckoner in any Neverborn crew.

Hadn't thought about Candy, but she does fit in nicely with the plan of grabbing your opponent's wrist and slapping their hand into their face saying "Stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself"

Explodey models or anything that creates a TN Duel; for example the Mechanical Doves create TN 14 DF duels, but dont require any cards to do so. Its basically like getting a 10 for free on an assumed 4 starting value.

<-Pull This

Be aware that a smart Collodi player will bring you to the Death Ball, not smash it into your's using a Beckoner and quite possibly a pile of web markers to lower your WP.

Stalkers are really good/irritating for removing "Personal Puppet" so Collodi can't shunt attacks over to Marionettes, as well they can remove the Effigy buffs from key models

Sidir is an excellent choice to deal with puppets bunching up in Collodi's 6" bubble of doom.

Taelor's my personal Bane as a Collodi player. Relic Hammers hurt and can pretty easily one shot my stuff on a Tome

Its surprisingly good AGAINST ressers actually, giving you the ability to discard corpses; which is particularly good for Masters like Molly who may want to remove the excess crowding them if up against Nicodem or Levi for example. Plus free healing on top

Similar in it's anti resser powers, you can remove poison immunities from McMourning.

I like it in my Collodi crew a lot

Lilith/Pandora/Zoraida = Mother/Maiden/Crone

Collodi = Carlo Collodi wrote Pinocchio

Wyrd itself is aware of the situation as well, we know they like having the wiki around and they could technically fund it for less than they spent on prizing getting it updated.

That or move it to their own servers, although that might be a confusing transition for all the old "check out PMF" posts across the interbutts.

Either way, situation will be resolved. Worry not thy pretty heads Wyrd kids

One of the interesting things about being behind the FM screen is players don't necessarily notice what you've done to cover your own ass. I wanted this thread to basically be a bunch of examples of what other Fatemasters have done to tease more time out of a session, dealt with the Fated going in a new direction or just generally dealing with the unforseen yet still winding up with your players going "Wow, what a good session! HOW DID YOU PLAN ALL THAT?"

For example, in my first session, The Prologue, I did not know if some of my players might drop out last minute or how combat focused they would make their characters. My solution was a trainful of Mindless Zombies. How Many? Well, I started with a low amount then more kept coming up from behind the seats, one fated passed a notice check and found some crawling UNDER the seats towards them and felt like quite the hero after RJing the damage on their hammer and sending the sneak zombie through the floor of the train onto the tracks below. I added enough zombies that everyone got to do something with them, but not so many that the encounter felt like it was dragging.

Plot seeds. Try and know what some of your big bads are going into the game, you can seed their machinations in from the first session. I had a cultist handing out amulets (which zombified the people on the train for reference). If the Fated had tried to stop him it would have been a more social prologue trying to get people to stop wearing them, but either way it'll seem much more interesting when big reveals start happening that theyve actually been dealing with the big bad from the start, and not just a plot reveal that "the dragon is on that mountain; go kill it!"

To finish that session, I've had my Fated discuss what they want to do next. I think this might be obvious for people who've run games before, but I wanted to make sure it was out there anyway, because knowing what they want to do actually lets you write it, rather thanfly completely by the seat of your pants next session.

I just dislike precise because you most certainly do not try to pick out points with a katana like you could with a rapier. Rapiers thrust, Katanas still slash.

Came in expecting sand and surf, was pleasantly surprised anyway

1) Beckoner - If you dont see the use in Luring models towards your melee crew... uh, sure buddy

2) Illuminated - Solid Tank Beater with minion for any buff masters

3) Weaver Widow - Drop those Wp stats, great for horror great for Wp attackers

4) Waldgeist - I am Groot

5) Collodi - The Master You Should Have Been Playing

Grow With Nekima sounds like best/worst kids tv show

Also double postal sounds like a description Im going to have to use on a crazed townsfolk in some setting

"He's mad guys. He's gone... double postal"

Yeah the Rail Hammer should have Heavy already on it I think. I wouldnt allow enlargement since its already 2 handed, but either way, could use some clarification. On Katanas, I probably got all ruffled because I think they're way over used and rated. Flavour is necessary for an RPG game, I just dont want to see 4,000 variants of the same weapon with 3,997 of them not being used because mechanically a Longsword is just plain better than a whatever sword. Gate Spears are just javelins so you could absolutely dual wield them. Although I'd apply a [-] flip to social challenges with anyone who saw you fight because you looked like a doof.

On Grappling, maybe a future book could include an advanced pursuit for it? I'd complain a bit if there was yet another melee skill tree to climb. Would also allow for martial art characters to do thematic chi-block type razmatazz.

A general talent for Ht3/StrX characters might be a good source of pushes

Crafting is pretty simple though, have tools (crafting kit or suitable lab/workshop/whatever), 1/4 the listed value in parts, have enough narrative time to build a thing (a quick judgement call isnt too hard here; you could assemble a gun in a day, a peacekeeper in perhaps a bit longer) thing is made. If under pressure run some flips. Still, wouldnt mind it being a bit more codified.

I've made 3 mixes tagged with malifaux for people who are interested. My starter town Earthside (Last Chance Station because I couldnt remember if the last stop Earthside had been named), Malifaux City and the Train being stuck in the Breach itself. Spoilers if you're in my campaign I guess.

1) Empty Handed fighting adds a slow effect at ranks 4+ of pugilism. I would run that as thematically grappling with the person, but if they want "No I want to lock them DOWN" you could make a manifested power, with the Ice immuto based ON pugilism so basically first hit would slow, second hit would be the "grapple" manifested power {The Ice Dragon Hold} and it would paralyze the whatever if it hits

2) Not sure I agree here, I find that too many minor actions makes for stopping the story to look up what sundering values are, how hard is a door, wait no, its banded metal so look it up again. I find it much easier just to ask for a TN (difficulty level of how hard the door should be) might challenge. The challenge levels are on the back of the FM screen, it feels more elegant to gameplay flow IMO

3) Pretty FM decision on this one. Roughly 1/4 the price of whatever is listed in the Guild store in supplies, Crafting rank needs to be a certain level, aproximations give in Players Guide, and then assuming they have the proper tools just an appropriate amount of time (again, up to the FM). Basically I would let the Fated craft the thing they want assuming they had a few days of downtime and then if they needed something RIGHT NOW, you create an Ongoing Challenge based on their crafting skill. Could use some fleshing out, but it DOES allow an FM to fiat canceling any munchkining

4) The "enlarged " customization gives melee weapons the heavy trait, or any two handed weapon if you should be making one up yourself.

5) Kinda smacks of what I said back at 2) but not every weapon on the planet needs rules. There's no reason you couldnt reskin a cavalry sabre for the roll. I really dont want to have a D&D situation with 300 weapons with miniscule differences. Again, opinion, but I dont think the differences between the two kinds of swords necessitate another entry. But there's always expansions to have weird weapons that do 0/1/5 or something.