Bad_Badger

...and the Death Marshal turns to his horse and asks, "why the long face?" Durrrrrruumm TISHH!! Thank you! Thank you very much - you're wonderful! I'm here all week...

Yep - that sounds like a very good approach.

I've not got to book 3 yet, so all of this is new to me. The point I was making is that there is always an exception to the rule. If you've got a Witch Hunter in the same team as a Nephilim, it might be difficult in justifying exactly why they are drinking buddies but its not impossible. What I'm wondering is, whether the game will take a relatively lax view of affiliations and allow the players to construct whichever motley crew takes their individual fancies, or whether they will have to follow a more structured approach and have to justify alliances or perhaps not be allowed certain choices.

I think alignment is mostly specific to D&D - I'm not sure that all rpgs conform to such a rigid classification system. I suppose that ultimately anything can be justified by the GM, but I can't think of a scenario where characters from diametrically opposite factions would work together for a 'common goal' - not unless the plan all along was to brutally slaughter the other as soon as victory was within their grasp. Might be fun once around the block, but if every adventure ends in violent in-party mayhem you're going to find that only a particular sort of person would want to play again (namely player-killers). I've always preferred cooperation to confrontation in rpgs.

I was thinking something similar, which is why I asked the original question. It is clear that the Gorgon's Tear is no ordinary soul stone and its being unique could have had a similarly singular effect on Molly. Wasn't she coughing up blood all the time after her first reanimation, right up until she was brought back by the Tear?

I've got a question about resurrection. There seems to be an entire gamut of levels of resurrection in the fluff that I've read so far. At one end there are the shambling zombies with barely enough instinct to maintain motor function and respond to the will of their masters. Then there are more sophisticated reanimates like Seamus's Rotten Belles that are still a long way from being human, but retain enough faculties to be formidable in battle. At the other end of the spectrum there are individuals like Molly Squidpiddge who is virtually indistinguishable from the living in terms of articulation and ability (although she's still technically dead). So, is it down to the skill of the reanimator that dictates the abilities of the reanimated? Or is it the source of power that brings them back to a corresponding level of un-life?

I wonder how the game will be organised - whether the players will be able to pick whichever faction they want, or whether they will need to agree on a common cause. It would be difficult to justify Guild and, say, Resurrectionist allies fighting side by side.

There's also Call of Cthulu or perhaps Cthulu by Gaslight which is I think a Victorian derivative of the rpg. The atmosphere and character templates would be well-suited for some Malifaux character types, however there's no game mechanic I'm aware of that would allow for more unnatural character traits such as spells and soulstone effects. I've also played an rpg called Chill in the past which is a bit more gung-ho and less investigative than Cthulu, and some characters have access to the Arts (supernatural abilities) which with only a moderate amount of tweaking could be Mali-fied.

I can't even remember what Boney sounded like. Wasn't Bert from cornwall, or something?

That's what threw me, actually. There's mention of the aethervox being used by the Guild when they are closing in on Kyratha, but there's also the story of that chap you mentioned that listened to the static on his aethervox and went insane. So...is it a receiver like an old valve radio? Or is it a transmitter, like a cb?

I've got a fluff question - namely the nature of the Aethervox. I think it is some sort of radio or wireless, but is it a commonplace device that many Malifaux residents have access to? Os is some sort of arcane device that only a few Arcanists have been able to operate? (sorry if this has been addressed already, but wading through 33 pages of discussion seemed a bit daunting)

Agreed - the skirmish level of the combat lends itself to small crews of individuals, which is perfect for an RPG group. There's also more than enough commonality through the victorian, western and steampunk flavours of the fluff to bring a game setting to life, even for new players that know nothing about Malifaux.

Is this a bad time to point out that I've met Sholto and his rack is nowhere near as impressive as his avatar's?

I agree. Writers on forums put in a lot of man-hours on their craft and to be recognised for it is often the best part of the whole process. If you've read someone's effort, it only takes a couple of seconds to make a comment: even a few words can validate all the effort the writer has gone to.

It does indeed sound very interesting - I've never played a specific zombie survival rpg before (only the Zombies board game). I'd be a bit concerned about the longevity of the characters, however, with the survivability of an infected bite sounding so unlikely.