StormLordXIII

Hi and welcome to the community! I've been playing Malifaux since the first edition and you are not the first person to raise the question of representation in the Malifaux universe on this forum. These discussions are important and I'm sorry to hear that this was your initial reaction to the lore. This suggests perhaps how the game is pitched and marketed could do with an update. I validate your feelings and think they are important. However, I think you are missing some key context as a new player who hasn't yet read through all of the lore in the faction books (especially the Ten Thunders). There are a couple points that I think might be relevant to addressing the questions you asked. Check out the stories "From the Ashes" and "Three Riddles and a Traitor" especially from the M2E Shifting Loyalties and M3E Ten Thunders Faction Book in particular. You can find "From the Ashes" in audio recorded form via the Breachside Broadcast (episodes 83 and 84), but the faction book is still new-ish so you'll have to buy it; story hasn't been recorded yet. These pieces tell a pretty definitive story about the Ten Thunders and many of the characters you have identified. First, much, although not all, of the fluff about the Ten Thunders is written by a third-culture Asian-American author who grew up in East Asia, studies International Relations, can read and write Chinese, and did actual fieldwork in Beijing, Taiwan, Japan, and Vietnam when drafting his stories. He is an academic researcher but writes sci-fi as a hobby. The main issue he has tried to tackle is cultural stereotypes that result from the blending of Chinese and Japanese cultures. His mission has been to turn the Thunders into a vehicle for addressing migration, organized crime, and colonial and anticolonial movements in Malifaux's alternate timeline because those are historical issues that he studies and thinks are interesting. Wyrd has been extremely supportive of his efforts (he has worked with them for almost a decade) and if you read between the lines in all of his stories he breaks the fourth wall occasionally and makes fun of stereotyping. He did an interview with Third Floor Wars where he outlines all of this. Admittedly he has never written explicitly about the sexuality of Wyrd's characters for the Thunders but I imagine that's because relationships really don't take foreground in the stories - for any character, of any gender or heritage - as said. Second, about Mei and Ivan: It's mentioned once in a paragraph summary of her in the rules section (each character or model has a bio) but NEVER in any of the stories about her, and I know for a fact that the Ten Thunders author actually disliked that plot point which is why he never referenced it in the main stories. That same author wrote the single big story for the latest expansion book, Malifaux Burns. Ivan appears but there is nothing about Mei in his section. I suspect this was deliberate. Third, regarding some of the other characters. I too was not thrilled about Youko's art, but I thought her written representation in the story Three Riddles and a Traitor was pretty powerful. A central plotline of the piece is Youko's ability to understand cognitive shortcomings that are based on the Nobel-prize winning science of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky (this was in the author interview, he was inspired by the book "Thinking Fast and Slow). She's basically smarter than pretty much anyone else in the faction, and her ability to understand how people process information, rather than her sexuality (which isn't really discussed), is her defining trait. Anyway, for the record, I think we should be able to discuss these issues respectfully regardless of our own backgrounds, but for what it's worth I am an East Asian male, and I play Malifaux and play the Ten Thunders as my faction precisely because they made me feel represented. You asked in your original post for someone to "prove you wrong." I don't think that should be the goal, but rather it's to move the discussion forward. Structural issues, especially concerning representation of culture, heritage, and identity are important. If the nuance of these characters doesn't come out from their initial descriptions to any new player checking out the website, that is food for thought. But I think the charge that the designers at Wyrd are unaware of these issues may be too severe. Thanks for starting the discussion, and for reading this. I hope that after you read more about the Thunders, they may become your favorite faction too!

This is a really cool idea! I wonder if they could put a story or two in the PDF or at least publish some kind of official companion piece in Chronicles as I imagine they want to keep the PDFs short for reference during competitive play?

Hi all! Now that it's been a few weeks since Gen Con and hopefully more people have had an opportunity to pick up and read through Malifaux Burns, I thought I would try and re-initiate this thread and encourage others to share story updates for those who are interested in the lore and are still waiting on their copies. Admittedly the lore (and speculating about it!) has always been my favorite part of Malifaux and I'm curious to hear what others think. Thought I'd kick us off! In a nutshell, Malifaux Burns is a single lengthy story (it's LONG, 46 pages) that covers how eight masters are influenced by the Burning Man and transformed into their new titles, although a few others masters (Ivan, Dashel, Ironsides, Lucius, Nexus, Titania) make non-trivial appearances in the narrative. Although the piece reads like several lengthy vignettes bound around a central narrative featuring the Governor-General, most of them are all connected to one another through explicit allusion. Highlights: * Euripides: Seer-sight blinded by the arrival of the Burning Man, Euripides hastens his journey to reunify with Titania, who teaches him an even deeper and more sinister form of blood magic which helps him transcend the arcane suppression of the Burning Man. * Maxine: Given a dose of mad inspiration by her copy of the Contiones, Maxine adjusts her theory of interdimensional travel to successfully predict the arrival of the Burning Man in Malifaux, but loses more of herself in a monomaniacal pursuit of metaphysical science in the process. * Reva: Reva, who is suffering from suffocating nightmares and the scars of her childhood trauma, is on the run with her loyal supporters but finds that the water supply in her latest hideout has been infected with a strange algae. The Burning Man provides her with spiritual guidance to overcome the torment in her soul and helps her cleanse her camp. * Ulix: Ulix isn't driven mad - he's still our favorite pig rancher. But, as if by chance, the Burning Man's corrupting energy turns his prized golden piglet into a massive engine of destruction. The bond formed by riding on his precious pig fills Ulix with a mobility and purpose that he had not enjoyed since losing one of his legs. * Nellie: While investigating a Cult crime scene (they're in Malifaux now!), Nellie pilfers a copy of the Contiones despite Dashel's best efforts to keep her from it - not to mention the unexpected arrival of a massive breachling that nearly consumes them both. * Parker: Parker is about to be hung by the Guild for his attempted theft of the Hanging Tree with Zipp, but he is saved by the timely arrival of the Burning Man. After a narrow escape from an executioner and the lawyer who condemned him to die, Barrows believes he has been saved for a higher purpose. * Kaeris: Kaeris is led into a trap as part of an elaborate Guild sting despite Ironsides' good-faith efforts to save her. Right when all seems lost and her Firebranded are swarmed with witchlings, the Burning Man ignites magic Kaeris never knew she possessed and pushes her abilities far beyond what Ramos ever taught her. * Misaki: Corrupted by the Burning Man, Misaki has a dialogue with a mysterious interlocutor who reveals a forgotten memory, causing her to question all that Youko has taught her since "Three Riddles and a Traitor." To say any more would spoil the gimmick in this vignette. Some cool stuff: * Governor-General Marlow fighting a massive Breachling with powerful defensive magic and saving his most loyal supporters when all hell breaks loose upon the Burning Man's arrival. * Ivan and Mr. Moordrake secretly passing messages to each other through shadow magic. * Gretchen being Gretchen... who exactly is this woman!? * Orville and Ivan joking about the brutality of peer review * Parker Barrows fighting for his life against an Executioner without a weapon and winning by playing dirty * Lucius quoting Tacitus on the Great Fire of Rome as he watches Malifaux city burn from afar * Anasalea Kaeris... being Kaeris and burning two witchling thralls to literal ash in a massive supernova * Lots of Easter eggs. References to the author's other stories (Birmingham, Nicolo, Hermann, Monastas, and the butterflies from "The Portrait" make a brief appearance or are mentioned, as does the character of Soory Brydon from "The Grass Menagerie" in Chronicles). Misaki's vision draws heavily from the M1E story "World in Chaos" (almost 10 years ago!) and Kaeris' memories of Ramos are pulled directly from Tim Akers' story about Ironsides and Kaeris in the Arcanist Faction Book. Some surprising stuff: * Seems odd that Misaki was the one Thunders master most affected by the Burning Man... Mei Feng would have seemed the more obvious candidate in my view after she was humbled by Misaki. But certainly not complaining. * Titania preparing for war * No news about Lilith. Seems like she's still in the pit. So what did people like? What surprised them? Where do we head from here?

Every GenCon when a new Malifaux book drops there's always a thread dedicated to discussing the new fluff reveals for those who don't mind spoilers and are still waiting to get their hands on copies. Malifaux Burns contains one lengthy story (it's almost fifty pages long) - along with lots of short description paragraphs for all of the new characters that were introduced. What did people think of the arrival of the Burning Man in Malifaux? Whose arcs surprised you? What moments were exciting? Who didn't appear that you wish had, and any wild speculations for what might come next?

Sorry! Just saw this - I haven't logged into the forum in a while! I'm so flattered that you want to read this and I'm delighted you enjoyed the PodCast. Unfortunately I've lost the original file, but I wonder if that's for the best haha... I wrote it almost ten years ago as a high schooler before I received proper editing advice from the Wyrd team! However, you can find some of my other earlier work in Chronicles if you'd like to read more. "Ram in the Thicket" (Issue 19), "Boozed in the Bayou" (Issue 13) and "The Grass Menagerie" (22) have some of my earlier stories that were published shortly after I transitioned to writing "officially." And of course stay tuned for more from me soon

Honestly glad to hear this. I always found it off-putting that Mei had a sort of romantic thread with English Ivan; given her portrayal since she was first introduced in M1E Storm of Shadows, and how she is portrayed in "From the Ashes" and "Three Riddles," she just seems too tough for that in my view. Not super sure why they went this direction at the end of Shifting Loyalties. Also when you mention Mei's injuries - do you mean the ones she sustained from fighting Avatar Kitchener or from her duel with Misaki? Or did she get hurt again? Thanks for the updates. Even more eager to get my ES book now!

Oooh... what do they discuss? I don't mind spoilers so long as others don't.

Hi all, Haven't gotten a copy of ES Faction Book yet; for those of you who have read the stories, do any of the four episodes offer further insight into who Gretchen Janus really is following the reveal at the end of the McCabe Story "Lost and Found?" Looking at the cards released on the M3E app, I figured she might be Nexus or Jedza, but I know nothing about their backstories so it's purely a guess based on appearance. Also, do Jessie, Ludwig, and McCabe make cameos? Thanks! Been very curious about this for a while...

I suspect Jessie will become either a master or a henchman as well. It seems to me like Ludvig and Gretchen are important players in the MES but I think they are there to add flavor to the mystique of the society - not sure how they would play on the table top, although with the reveal at the end, Gretchen might make an interesting cross-faction character. I liked the opening of the story and the joke about Lady J. Jessie was first introduced years ago in a Chronicles short story called "Boozed in the Bayou" by the same author (it's about a drunken silurid who saves the day from a few pesky Gremlins that build a whisky golem). The encounter is actually mentioned in the McCabe piece as well, although her names seems to have changed from "Jesse" to "Jessie." Would be exciting to see her represented on the table top. Anybody have interesting theories about who Gretchen really is?

What did people make of this?

Just had the chance to read the three new stories in the Ten Thunders M3E faction book. All three of them move the narrative forward in different ways. The third piece, which focuses on Misaki and her struggles adjusting to leadership, ties together a lot of lingering questions about the new Oyabun's intentions and beliefs. It is a direct sequel to the M2E-3 Shifting Loyalties piece, "From the Ashes" - the story that polarized the community about whether or not our faction was noble, sinister, or both. I think this new story - in which Misaki makes a difficult decision to spare the life of a traitor - casts the Thunders in a bit of a new light. What do other people think?

Wanted to keep this thread going as more faction books are making their way through the community. Any exciting plot twists or cool stories to keep an eye out for?

Do people have thoughts on the fiction or favorite stories for the other factions besides the Guild? Not sure which books have been released yet but I believe Ten Thunders and Gremlins are due this month, right?

Never mind! This got moved to another thread by @Nathan Caroland. You read my mind sir

Hi all, From a few posts around the forum, it seems that people have gotten some of the new M3E faction books and I just thought I'd start a thread for members of the community to discuss their favorite stories. Fire away! What pieces have people enjoyed the most? What plot twists have taken them by surprise? Warning: *SPOILERS*

Hi all, There are a lot of KE players in our meta, so I was hoping to start a thread about lists that work well against them. I have seen this earlier thread here already, but it isn't so focussed on list-building, and it tends to deviate away from direct discussion about Abby. My understanding is that our faction will never out-shoot KE, never out-melee Cult, and never out-attrition GH, but, in a sort of rock-paper-scissors style, we can do at least two of these three core mechanics (shooting, melee, attrition) better than whatever faction we are fighting against. If this assumption is correct (and maybe it isn't), I suppose we can definitely out-melee KE (assuming those pesky Rifle Core aren't in Glory and shooting point blank!) and out-attrition them. Using this logic (and the models I have on hand), one potential list I was thinking of looks something like this, with a focus on melee and attrition: 2 Commanders Kassa Okoye (used as KE Envoy) + 25 Bigger is better - 2 Electric Megaphone - 1 Prince Unathi + 25 Mine Control Device - 1 Mehal Safari w/ Flare Gun Asset - 9 Mehal Safari w/ Experimental Rocket Asset - 9 Engineer - 1 Steel Legion w/ Active Defenses Armor Asset - 12 Dreadnought w/ Chemical Foggers Armor Asset - 7 Gramophone Amplifier - 1 Massive Furnace - 1 Crow Runners - 6 The purpose of this list is just to run everything up the field as quickly as possible; hopefully, the Steel Legion draw fire but both Mehal units rush up the board. All three units are there to protect Unathi as he dishes out reinforcement tokens alongside the Dreadnought. Kassa advances and also dishes out tokens. If I'm correct, at a minimum I'm dishing out 3 reinforcement tokens a turn; 4 if Unathi can get to glory (or even 5 if Unathi is in glory and uses the same morale action twice). Hopefully, that's enough to protect the units as they go up the field and clash with the KE ranks. I don't have the models for this list, but I also thought it might be fun to run: Lord of Steel + 25 Toughness - 1 Prince Unathi + 25 Toughness - Free Mine Control Device - 1 Bosotho Cavalry - 4 Bosotho Cavalry - 4 Mech Infantry w/ Flare Gun - 8 Engineer - 1 Mech Infantry w/ Experimental Rocket - 8 Engineer 1 Electrocutioners w/ Discuss Grenades - 10 Steel Legion w/ Active Defenses Armor Asset - 12 I have no idea whether this would work; maybe it's an awful list. But if KE Rifle Corp move 7", and I deploy far forward enough, perhaps Bosotho Cav can jam up the enemy gunners (with 4 fire teams on 120mm bases, they'll definitely block line of site and engage multiple enemies) on the very first turn so that all the other units can move safely up the field. I chose Mech Infantry because in Glory, the titans make the fireteams ARM 10 within 3". Electrocutioners have high speed and can probably do a second turn Rush order to engage enemy fireteams in melee. Unathi can reinforce as necessary, and LoS can get behind enemy lines and wreck gunner units from behind. What do you guys think? What have you run against KE that has paved the pay to victory?

Excellent! I look forward to trying out this particular slice of cheese haha. Just another reason why I love my faction haha.

Hi all, Just a quick question for clarification about Assets and Combined Arms. My understanding is that Combined Arms teams cannot take additional assets. Does this mean that: 1.) Combined Arms units like Steel Legion and Mech Infantry cannot take Prototypes? 2.) If they cannot take assets, can they still take adjuncts? I ask because I played a fun Abby mirror match last week and my partner got his Mech Infantry up to AV11 by shooting first with a prototype, then an engineer, both fire teams, and the Titan. My first thought was “for 8ss this is amazing, why am I not doing this!” Thoughts? Thanks!

If I remember correctly, yes! The stories started to diversity a bit with M1E3, but M2E really dispersed the stories as the universe got bigger.

I really enjoyed the Court of Two story with Kirai. I felt that the writing was strong and the characters were memorable and compelling. It’s nice to see crossovers as well; very curious to see what’s in store for the Allegiance as a whole.

Any more thoughts now that more books are in circulation?

Likewise! I started here and have been writing for Wyrd as a contractor for the past five years! The community feedback from the old Iron Quill contests was really helpful.

Hi everyone, I noticed that there hasn’t been a thread yet for people to discuss the stories from the Core Rulebook. What do people think of the stories? Does anybody have favorites?

Just played against a crew with Misaki and a Crime Boss. Misaki is largely independent from the rest of her crew - she’s a cruise missile that neglects direct support to other models and instead completes her own objectives (mainly eliminating enemy targets), so crew selection is more flexible - anything you take should work fine. I highly recommend Crime Bosses. Their “Lesson You Won’t Soon Forget” ability leaves enemies with the Fragile condition, making them easier to kill. They’re a good answer to enemy tanks like Guild Peacekeepers, Izamu, etc. that normally take a lot of damage and hold up the enemy due to Armour and larger numbers of wounds. Low river monks are valuable for condition removal and schemerunning. You may only run one of the three but the whole box in my opinion is worth it, unless you proxy.

Heya! No worries! Already part of the group and have had several games. Looking forward to crossing paths! Nick