SpiralngCadavr

Yeah... there are some pretty awkward shenanigans regarding conditions. I mean, I totally get stuff like fire and poison not counting, but then there are a ton of things that are effectively abilities that just use the condition system to keep track of them, where it gets kind of awkward where, regardless of whether it's favorable or not, it's completely obvious who's doing the killing, and it's active. Personally, I find the voodoo doll one of the weirdest sources of damage that doesn't count for anything.

Another update, changed stuff above a little.

...if you're going for reliability rather than being able to play something with certainty from your hand. I consider a positive twist valuable for spamming attacks, but it's still not the same as an unbeatable attack with your hand to help that your opponent will want to be stopping.

+1 a low defensive stat on a high priority model paints a bullseye on it for any ability that very effectively counters that. And high stats are where you get those guaranteed successes with a decent to good hand, rather than just better or worse reliability. Being able to force a tie or win is often all you need, with flat damage, nasty conditions, strong triggers, etc.

Gamer input is definitely part of it, but wyrd could have filtered it more, as it's their line. I think there are three reasons why one buys a model: -it's cool/thematic/other stuff I'd call personal -it's power creeping and better than something else -it does something unique well, or does something uniquely well (i.e. has a fairly particular role it does better than anyone else) The third category (basically, substance) is what I think a few pieces hit- changelings, ice dancers, the forgotten marshal, anna, big jake. But a lot fall short of this, like the scion of the void is certainly unique but not a piece I like; the emissaries all offer their master something special but not necessarily something worth a 10ss model. Also regarding responsibility, the other approach could have been changing older pieces until the power differential was smaller. I get that some of this was done indirectly via additions, but I guess that goes against my design philosophy as the way to approach things.

Rules that are enough that I've actively converted for, have, or plan to get them: Changelings, , Big Jake, Forgotten Marshal Interesting enough that I'll maybe get/convert them down the line: Dancers (and yeah, iceman or whoever, though skaters were obvious theme), crossroads, some starter models Things I already have something to represent (conversion/avatar), so might as well play it, but have no great love for them Emissaries (some are better than others), scion

IDK, tough, WP shenanigans, scheme shenanigans is a fair bit to go on.

Not particularly. I think Wyrd's a bit better than most gaming fiction, but still nothing I'd go out of my way to get. Twisting Fates and whatever the Ten Thunders book was called had probably their best fiction in it, so I'd recommend those if you care. I don't really understand buying RPG material for reading, though- it's a loose campaign that needs to be generic enough for any reasonably intelligent player to be guided through by people who aren't expected to know how to write (GMs), so it needs to be pretty basic/linear with some contingencies, or at least that's what I've always encountered. Which isn't to say they're not fun to play, but I wouldn't call them reading material.

There could certainly be overlap, guild have a few that like guardsmen; ressers have multiple horrors interactions; arcanists have multiple M&SU's, neverborn have mimic overlapping with others, etc. Looks more like a duelist to me, with the cape,hat, and pistol.

Personally, I think Malifaux is probably too complex before around 15 unless they're already well-versed in board/miniature games. While a kid might pick up concepts faster, the objective structure is something I expect would be very difficult.

Guild and outcasts both have the most reliable shooting (I feel like outcasts are more generalists while guild bring the best guns), but not much in the way of synergy. If he likes synergy and is okay with his guys dying, gremlins... but it looks like you have that covered? I'd probably go Guild, simply because outcasts have so many choices from other factions, so they're less practical especially if you don't also have a decent resser collection.

Karolicker, that's pretty fun. I'm all for those patches that are effectively customization rather than the really obvious "here's some more rules" style. Also, that's a lot of fun flavor/I think you did a nice job incorporating the themes/aesthetic. One game I like to play with things I don't think quite work is, changing one thing as little as possible, to try to efficiently change everything it interacts with. For Lucius, I think there are two directions I could see 1- make some sort of buff interacting with Mimics/Guardsmen, make it really easy to get those extra AP so you're taking some serious boosts to some lower-quality models. 2- make a rare 1 upgrade that allows one Mimic or Guardsman to count as a minion, for purposes of friendly Guardsmen/Mimic actions/abilities. (Needed those restrictions for collodi/dreamer/etc., and it would potentially give the whole guardsmen section a minor buff) Either chance is essentially about resource efficiency- the first means it requires less investment for your low-quality return; the second would allow access to a higher-quality return.

I think both halves there are worth considering as hypotheticals: If guardsmen are underpowered in the context of the faction (i.e. factoring in the benefits and costs of support, assuming they need it, vs. the raw cost of models without access to said support, I think there's nothing wrong with boosting them to be on par with the rest of the faction, and while it increases the variety of what other masters can work with, I don't think it should horribly affect their power. If Lucius is underpowered, he could be approached after the guardsmen are fixed if he still needs the help, or in that absence, run well enough that they're just mostly useful with him, though I think this is a less elegant solution, since it still makes them poor choices under other masters.

Yeah, I'd picked up an old Terraclips set a few months back, and since we had what we thought was really easy terrain (modular rectangles with some overhangs from porches and the like, designed for malifaux) and were getting back into the game after a bit of a break, we read really closely into the terrain section since it had always been something we skimmed over, and it was horribly confusing. After playing a few games this way, a friend tried the game for the first time, and thought the game was in beta, the elevation LOS rules were so strange. A few games later, we dropped elevation entirely and haven't tried to bring it back. I'd second trying a very height-diverse table before saying that you shouldn't recommend avoiding it.

Nope, it doesn't prevent burning. However, you do get to ignore the damage from Move or Burn IIRC.

Yeah, it's extremely confusing. I'd agree, we cobble together elevation and applying the horizontal LOS rules to the vertical ones, and we mostly just use terrain as height of obstacles and not for elevation.