EnternalVoid

Yes, which is why I have a mechanical attendant sprue about a foot away from my computer at this very second. The rest of Hoffman's stuff tends to be height 2, not a lot of height 1 parts yet. As for the necrotic machine, sadly the gentleman actually managed to build it regardless *give him props for his determination*.

... Might have to consider getting two boxes and use one for parts/conversions. Might be useful making small constructs for TTB *good old tinker can start with one*.

As a fatemaster I would go with no myself. I would allow you to say you did the crafting and modifying of your starting gear but I would still have you pay the full scrip price for it. The 10 scrip is more what you have as a balancing point in my mind then you actually having bought 10 scrip worth of stuff. That said, you could spend none of your starting scrip and use that once your character has time to build your things, just means you might be unarmed or lightly armed for the first session. A lot of talents don't produce a lot of instant use like combat and social skills right off the bat in the campaign, but they still have a lot of value once you start getting to use them. Afterall, would someone who had Alchemistry, stitching *can make armor with that*, or another crafting skill be in a similar boat?

Two things that spring to mind. First, when using a piece of armor with deflecting it gives you a value of armor based on the level of Defensive but the Armor ability is capped at +3 and for each point lowers your defense. Does that mean going defensive with this sort of armor lowers your Defense while defensive? Second, on the Oxford Method. It says that the character's spells but not manifested powers have their final AP cost increased. But in the second paragraph it says that when a character cast a spell or manifested power they get to add a suit of their choice to the final total. So does this mean that you get the benefit of the Oxford Method but not the weakness of this magic theory when it comes to manifested powers. This seemed kind of off considering the other theories seemed more balanced in the give and take aspect.

This honestly strikes me as the best option and one I would be keen on as a Fatemaster

Do remember they have to go through another company when they do it. Thus it is hard to fix mistakes. Better safe than sorry in my opinion

I don't think this translates as well into TTB because ranks in pursuits do not directly translate into experience. Personally I always saw starting with a more advance set of characters as a mechanism to skip the lower levels of leveling characters up *IE skip the killing rats and punk goblins stage and go to the meatier course*. As TTB is less dungeon crawl/Epic adventure that can drag out and more story telling with an ending in sight, I don't think this works so well. You can compensate as the Fatemaster but it means knowing what will be a challenge and how to challenge the stronger Fated. If you wanted to start with stronger starting Fated I would instead look to Aspects and skills instead as the core with maybe so many ranks to throw into pursuits *2 or 3 that can be concentrated or spread out*. Like starting with +1 or +2 points they can put into their Aspects and a set number of Experience points to spend from the get go. the problem with this is unless you have guidelines people are just going to dumb it into the skills they want the strongest, aiming for high AV on attacks or higher Df and Wp. They are unlikely to be rounded characters unless you put limitations on them.

Well we do not know if the fight will result in a death, just grim consequences. For all we know if Lady J loses she could get a leg rotted off or if Nico lost he might lose an arm. Heck Lady Justice could make it out intact but because of her loses among the Marshals the Governor General takes the command away from her *Puts someone over her*

I use 1/8" x 1/16" *ya non-metric*, I think they would be like 3mm x 1.5mm in metric. I also put them on the center of the base but I put a layer of paper towel across the metal. It lets me pick them up by the model without breaking them. I know another person used thin felt. A friend uses even smaller magnets and uses hot glue to set them on the bottom of the base. Apparently it gets the magnet snug enough to stay and being a smaller rare earth magnet *I think he uses like 1.5mm x 1.5mm, so pretty small*. He has no problem picking them off his tin so far.

Thought I would chime in that I got mine today as well *Caught me by surprise when my roommate told me I had a small package and took me a moment to realize what it was*

If they went the Lawyer route I could see the division of talents being between the "Magical" side of it and the actual lawyer side of it. So when you have a choice of this talent or that, one being more the Guild Lawyer or the Arcanist Amina Naidu abilities while the other is more actual lawyer talents *Or at least non magical ones*. That said I still think you could make a pretty good Lawyer with just the current pursuits if you were willing to hope about a bit

I can see Kaeris looking to break Ramos out, I can also see her possible being able to enlist Marcus and Sandeep as both of them have stakes in the Arcanists. And Ivan, cause English Ivan is great. What I can see as a twist is Sandeep or Marcus bringing Toni into the meeting despite Kaeris's feelings. Toni might have betrayed Ramos, but that does not mean she trusts the Guild. She got what she wanted from them and if she can make sure Ramos does not have her fried when he escapes would likely sit better with her. That leaves her in an interesting position to, as she looks more friendly with the Guild if her part is not exposed which could be a useful tool in the future. Of course she would have to sell up to Ramos that the Guild already knew about his whole trip up north and was going to strike regardless of her actions, she just kept the lose of life down while getting something out of it *Will not make him happy at all but as a wanted criminal he cannot just go back to running the Union himself, he needs someone in that position*. That being said I also would not put it past Wyrd to throw some curve balls in all the stuff that happened in this last book.

Which would be interesting but the umbrella is to thin for those swords. It is a Neverborn henchmen model

I have built a little hazardous terrain though it did not see much use when I brought it out. Personally I would like to use it more, but I think it should be smaller pieces. Like camp fires, small corrupted puddles, or a bug nest. All in all no bigger than a credit card space.

Malifaux is dangerous, even Downtown which is largely safe sees some action *the Guild Enclave has been attacked how many times now?* Lucky for most of the people the number of guild patrols there at least can respond quickly and with force but elsewhere in the city is not quite the same. I imagine anything larger than a pistol and knife would stick out downtown. But at the same time you are unlikely to be to bothered if you have something like a single handed melee weapon unless you look out of place downtown. Dirty cloths and a wild eyed look while carrying a visible machete or meat cleaver at your side? Ya you are going to draw attention faster than a presentable clean individual with a saber or dueling blade. That said you get to the Northern New Construction Zone I imagine stuff like Long Arms and shotguns are less concerning due to the number of mercenaries that operate out of the area not to mention less Guild Patrols period *More likely to run into the local militia then guild guards*. That said a Heavy Weapon is another story as those would still be out of place roaming the street. Then you got the Riverside slum and the eastern edge of the Central slum where the Guild guard presence is slimmer to nothing and you are unlikely to have much problem with real authority *local gangs are another issue but can be handed in a different manner*

There is a Bokur pursuit in Into the Bayou that uses a lot of hex like magic that Zoraida has if that is what you are looking for.

I think your mistaken, he said psychologist not psychomancer or psychopath

I am going to like Hinamatsu though I just noticed something about the art that struck me as odd and now cannot unsee it. The puppet is holding two swords. It has 4 sheaths at its waist, all good so far. But as it draws a third sword you can see it still has two more additional sheathed swords. So a Total of 5 blades but 4 sheaths.

Well I will start by throwing up a list that often shows up when I play Collodi Strum the Thread, Fated, Threads of Fate = 3ss 4x Marionettes = 12ss Brutal Effigy = 4ss Arcane Effigy = 4ss Illuminated = 7ss Beckoner = 7ss Performer = 6ss Mannequin = 4ss At first glance the list lacks teeth but it is pretty good at doing schemes and Strategies *have not looked much into gg18 yet*. I like having Threads of Fate as my third upgrade to prevent anyone from luring or pushing Collodi into a bad position. He can also pass Armor +1 to people if he is willing to fork over an AP which can really help make things a little more durable. With the Beckoner and Performer I can manipulate movement of both my models and enemies and the Marionette can use some low cards of mine to help get my guys into position too. The Performer can also be underestimated as with a good Crow in hand I can paralyze a model. The real offensive work though generally falls to either Collodi himself or a tag team of the Beckoner and the Illuminated. The threat of Weak damage 4 is enough that people are afraid of the Beckoner's Promises and sometimes forget that Collodi can use My Will to have her use the attack too. What the list does better though is have activations, ability to throw scheme markers, blow up scheme markers, and a couple buffs that can shift the tide a little here and there. On top of this Collodi being able to disrupt anyone that is not a master or immune to conditions fairly well making it harder to rely on a single model to do the job. This has worked rather well for me though I think that is partially due to local meta.

Well you could sort of make an Alt Ototo with 10T brothers. Take the one with the two blades and claws Head and hat. Then take the one that has the hammer. But the hammer head off and put the Tetsubo from the back in his hands. Then if you want him to be taller you could cut him at the legs at the top of his leg bracing and use Greenstuff to add just a little more height to him. Not perfect but it would be pretty close and made from all Wyrd parts *and Greenstuff*.

One thing to also keep in mind is the fact that it does take up one of your 3 Immuto spots in a Grimoire. It does have a cost to it. Then you need a Elemental type to go with your Range attack at which point you only have a single slot left in your repository. Sure that means you have a lot of flexibility in range, but not much in damage unless you go for that immuto too but that means you are full. What about your other magia? Sure the Range immuto might help it but a lot of them like Extended Duration. But if you take something else it means your damage is inflexible. So you are trading flexibility to make sure you can use your Range attack for possibly less flexibility elsewhere. The way I see it is as a trade, the dabbler traded the ability to be more diverse to insure their ability to harness their attack spell even up close. Yay you are not going to be caught flat footed if engaged... but if you had an immuto that complimented your other Magia they might never have gotten into close combat with you or you might have been able to avoid the combat all together.

So one of my players had a question for me and I gave him an answer at the time to keep moving along smoothly. That said I like to go back and review such questions to double check them. So the question was this, How do the fighting claws work? At the time I answered that they are melee weapons that normally use the Melee Skill that you can also use as Fistload weapons like brass knuckles *To which case you would use Pugilism or Martial Arts*. My reasoning for this was based on the Into the Steam as that was the rules I remembered. But looking under the new book I can see why the player was questioning it as the fighting Claws are in a section for Pugilism/Martial Arts. As the second core book is the newer item I would imagine its rules are what are intended. But I figured I would throw it here and see what others say. As the new Core book rules stand it seems the Claws damage is locked at 1/3/4, even if your Pugilism/Martial Arts have better damage but you would get the fist loaded rule even when using the weapon.

I was going to throw out a long post crunching numbers and pointing out character progression but spooky_squirrel really hit most of what I was going to say in his posts. So I will hit one set of key points I think every Fatemaster should keep in mind and then try a different approach. A tool at the Fatemaster's disposal that can help in cases like this is the Focus action. If you really want to try and put pressure on a Fated in combat then consider using a Focus action rather than attacking twice. Here is my reasoning. If you attack a player that is not defensive or similar, twice they are going to flip two cards. Both flips can be cheated and each one deals with its own results. So if they flip a 13 and 1, the 13 will dodge the attack and the 1 they can cheat. If you focus, they still flip two cards but they have to use the lower one. This gives you two chances to get those low cards you need and denies them the ability to fix the bad result with their Twist hand. In addition if you do hit you have a better chance of doing better than weak damage and putting that much more pressure on them. With Enforcers or higher this becomes even nastier if you want as they can use Fate Points to get a positive to their flips which using the system means the players get a negative. It can be even worse if the Enforcer also focuses so the player is at Double Negative to their defense. An single Enforcer with several minions can be nasty this way as the Fated suddenly feel like time might be against them *Every turn the enemy is still standing is another chance to flip two cards and see if they take damage*. The NPC can even use things like Impose to limit the Fated's offense. For example a pair of Rank 5 minions are attacking a Df6 Fated while a Rank 7 Enforcer is close by but not in combat. The Enforcer is going to activate before the minions likely and he can Focus and Impose for his activation. Impose is resisted by Centering so if they took high Tenacity or Centering but not both they are going to be at a disadvantage *a 3 or 4 vs a 11 or 12* and with the Focus they are at a negative, likely going to fail. Now unless that character attacks the Enforcer they are at a negative to attack the two minions doing focus attacks at him. So he either has to get to the Enforcer while the minions are being a problem, eating AP and disengaging strikes, or they have to focus themselves and attack the minions. But if they do that, they are only getting 1 attack a turn and even with the focus it might well take 2 hits to take out each minion. Any misses will hurt as that is a whole other turn of being attacked and risking being hit. The Fated could also discard a card and go defensive +1 to counter the Focus but that means he is not able to focus either and is taking attacks at a negative. He also burned a resource *card from the hand to go defensive* that can run out. Now how about a scenario to highlight how you can give 4 Fated characters a memorable session with the sense that they are actually at risk with a handful of minions and a single enforcer. The Fated are at the Ten Peaks needing to go up to a certain cave to perform a ritual to insure a hostile spirit of a defeated foe cannot return. Perhaps the foe was a cannibal that performed a ritual up in that cave and now even if defeated his spirit will keep coming back till the magic is broken. Seeing as none of the Fated are from the region they know just heading up the mountain will be rough as none know the route. So they approach the locals and hire a guide. The guide was hesitant to take up some greenhorns till they offer him scrip and show him they are well armed. Accepting the Guide informs them it will take two day hard march to reach the valley they are looking for. He tells them to get eight days worth of supplies for each person from the store and he would get his own. Gathering what they need the Fated set off. AS they go the Guide looks bothered as they reach a steep but manage slope. Shaking his head the Guide informs the Players "We go around, I am not going up that." Of course they will ask how much time they will lose and the guide will inform them he could do it in half an hour. It does not sound like much so the Fated likely accept it as they can either leave their guide or follow his path. Marching on at the Guide's pace they keep going. Every so often the Guide looks about and shakes his head. He informs the Fated at a little past midday they will not be able to make it to the shack he wanted to use to camp that night as he said they did not make good enough time. Instead he takes them to a cave, which I am sure the Fated check over very carefully but it is all legit and the party hunkers down there for the night. in the morning the Guide sets them off again saying that they should reach the shack before noon and they can have lunch there out of the weather and should be able to light a fire for a while. Reaching the Shack the guide stops as he notices the door is open. He lets the Fated, with all their weapons take a peek in but there is no one inside but with the door open there is a layer of snow in it. The guide says he will get the wood that should be around back and tells the Fated to try and shove as much snow as they can out. At this point the Fatemaster has them all take a Notice challenge as they are shoveling the snow out. Regardless of the Result Dramatic time starts as the snow forms together and solidifies into a trio of Ice Gamin *Rank 5 minions*. Now the Fated are trapped in a close range fight in a shack, likely they did not have their weapons drawn either as they were shoveling snow with their hands. To top it off anyone who failed their Notice challenge does not get to activate on the first turn. The Gamin use Focus attacks and try to team up on a single fated rather than splitting their attack. At which point the Fated have the problem that each one they kill explodes meaning most of them should be hit by at least 2 if they are killed. Disengaging and trying to leave the Shack is an option but that is multiple disengaging attempts and it is not like the Ice Gamin are going to stay in the shack. Any that where hit by the initial attacks of the Ice Gamin have to worry about the explosions even more. Also they might only have 5-7 wds so taking 4-6 is rough. Armor would help but that would reduce their defense making them easier to hit. Now this is also where you give them credit for being creative. For example one Fated might decide he can handle one of the Ice Gamin alone and ask if he can do a test of some sort to grab the Ice Gamin and haul him out of the shack and thus away from the wounded ally. Give them a Athletic test and make it TN 9 (5 for Rank + Def 4), if you want you can even throw a +2 on it if they are engaged with another Gamin as a distraction or interference *so TN 11*. If they succeed they manage to pick up the Gamin and are holding it and have to spend the AP to leave the Shack. AT this point the players will have the memory of the ambush, the threat of attack and possible of a player coming up with a creative solution. In either case the fight will likely not last more than 4 rounds if the players are powerful but you can have the Guide come around on turn 4 armed and ready but hesitate to rush into combat with Gamin *he knows they blow up*. So once the fight is done the guide informs the Fated that this has to be the work of the Cult of December. He believes that they set up the trap to catch anyone intruding on their mountain. He also informs you that the spare firewood is gone. So the Fated have the choice to soldier on after treating their wounds, trying to make a fire with what they have, or so such. In either case the Guide will give them time to do what they want before asking them if they want to continue. He says they will not be able to reach the valley and cave they seek today but he knows of another cave they can use to spend the night if they press on. If not they have to stay in a damaged shack with no extra firewood. Sadly it will take longer than the Guide said to reach this cave and the sun will go down and snow starts falling. He will keep saying they are close and eventually break from the group a bit as he take s a look. At which point his lantern goes dark and he vanishes in the night. If the Fate try to see what happened all they find are tracks rushing off. If they track him they will find he is easily outpacing them as he is unimpeded thus travels faster in the severe terrain and does not need a light to lead him. The Fated will realize they need to hunker down. Ongoing challenge time from Into the Steam for blizzard perhaps as the Fated have to find shelter or make it. There is a cave nearby if they can find it. Rough time if some of them are not experienced and might suffer damage from Frostbite. So the fated managed to survive the night by either making a snow hut or finding that cave the Guide mentioned. Still they are snowed in by the morning and have to dig their way out. Likely did not sleep to well unless they found a way to get warm *or do not care about warmth*. Still morning, time to dig their way out. Upon exiting I am sure they had to use their hands to do it but once out I would not be surprised if some of them draw weapons as... well they are players, they ALWAYS go for their weapons. At which point, Notice checks! What is the TN you say? Well the December Acolytes are Rank 6 minions, Stealth 2 and Cunning 2, so at least TN 10, but they are wearing good camouflage and had time to work themselves in, so add a +2 or +4. Personally I would go with a +4 myself. Partially because there is a Rank 7 Enforcer Acolyte leading the two. Each is 12" away from the Fated so within range of their Harpoons. If no Fated pass then the Acolytes get a whole turn thanks to From the Shadows. If some of the Fated pass those that Fail don't get to act on the first turn. In either case, passing the notice test does not mean they necessarily spot the Acolytes, it merely means they realize they are not alone and there might be danger. The Acolytes also have soft cover till they reveal themselves. Either case the Fated are unlikely to be entirely ready and when the Acolytes go they each Focus and take their shots. Oddly they know quite a bit about the players and which ones are already wounded and which ones are more dangerous *almost like they watched the previous fight or perhaps had someone rat the Fated out*. They will make the best choice and likely concentrate their fire on either the biggest threat or the weakest link. They are unlikely to shoot at anyone that has a positive to defense *such as noticed and went defensive because they could not see the threat*. The Harpoons will not be Tethered so no pulling in the target, they are not feasting yet, this is part of the hunt. The target will likely take some nasty damage as he will have two shooting at 11 and one at 12. More so the Enforcer will use a Fated point to insure the Fated has an additional Negative against his shot. What more, the Enforcer's Harpoon is poisoned using the poison from Under Quarantine. It is the Poison +3 and Neurotoxin condition. Now that Fated is likely slow for a few turns as well thanks to the poison on top of the Harpoon shots and poison damage. Now if things look bad for the three Acolytes, which it might be if the Fated are good fighters and anger, the Enforcer will spend his other Fated Point to gain an Extra AP. Using this AP he will activate the trap they had set outside the Fated's dwelling that summons at least a pair of Ice Gamin right on top or almost right on top of the Fated. He might wait till the second turn depending on where they are on the initiative or how many guns are drawn by the Fated and whether he could summon the gamin in combat. Either case when their turns come around each one turns and flees across the snow. As they are already 12" away, know the terrain, and Unimpeded it will be hard for the Fated to catch them and likely they will be out of range or LOS in a few turns. One of the Fated might have unimpeded and could give chase but that would risk isolating them against the three hunters alone for several turns and the acolytes might be willing to let one of their numbers go down to escape. Either way this leaves the Fated wounded, tired, and possible halfway lost on a hostile mountain with who knows what ambushes still waiting. Of course they likely suspect NOW that the Guide betrayed them, and will question why they did not get to Scrutiny him when he lied to them but you can point out he Never lied or even gave half truths. He said it was two days hard march to reach the valley, he just never said he was taking that pace *went slower on purpose*. He never said he avoided that slope or route because it was dangerous, just that he was going this way instead. The Shack was indeed where he said it was and the wood was suppose to be outback, the Cult really did take it. And the Cave he mentioned really was there, he just left them once he could. Why? Because that is what the Cult pays him to do and he gets pickings from the people's belonging as well. All he has to do is tell them all he got to observe after he breaks away so the Acolytes can know how to handle the Fated. Now that the fatemaster can weave the story further by the Fated's choices. They want to track down the Guide and get him, maybe threaten him to show them the way proper. Sure he is likely lurking nearby waiting for the Cult to get done with you so he can pick his rewards. Want to press on and reach that valley before you are attacked again, ongoing challenge time. Want to turn around go back down the mountain and get a better guide... that is always an option. But no matter what the players likely feel they have took some lickings and felt some level of threat from what ended up being only 5 Ice Gamin, 2 minion Acolytes, one Enforcer Acolyte, and the natural terrain. 8 Total enemy models against 4 Fated. Oh and a mountain and treacherous guide.

I imagine it would be harder to homebrew a normal pursuit then an Advance Pursuit. They are more restrictive who can get access to them, can have more control when people get advancements, and only have 5 steps to build around.

Sadly the Dabbler and Graverobber one only add a Tome to Sorcery and Crow to Necromancy respectfully. So it will not help a lot if you want it for a different skill. And using SS for a suit is only on spells or manifested powers, so no helping getting other triggers on non-magical related stuff. Not to say these are bad, just limiting in scope.