Mason

This is true.

The Badlands are slotted for more development in the upcoming Neverborn sourcebook, which is why they have had a light touch elsewhere.

If you're adding in Height, I assume you mean crafting a Construct? If so, the rules are pretty clear about how long it takes. Core Rules, Building a Construct, pg. 311: "Building a Construct takes one day of construction time."

This is covered by the Core Rules. Character Creation, pg. 79: "Your character may also receive some starting equipment based on her chosen Pursuit, as described by its Starting bonus. If your character's Starting bonus includes a Grimoire, you must select a Magical Theory (pg. 251) as well as the Magia and Immuto included in the Grimoire (see pg. 260)." The expansion books (which lack this explicit step in character creation) are covered by the generic "Gaining a Magical Theory" rule. Core Rules, Magic, pg. 251: "If a character that does not possess a Magical Theory gains a Grimoire (and attempts to use it), she should choose a Magical Theory before she casts any spells from that Grimoire. Similarly, if a character that does not possess a Magical Theory gains a Spell-Like Manifested Power, either from a Pursuit or as a result of completing one of her Destiny Steps (pg. 317), she should choose a Magical Theory before she casts the Spell-Like Manifested Power."

Magewrights don't have a Magical Theory unique to them (nor does any other Pursuit in TTB). As with every magical character, they can use any of the Magical Theories in the Core Rules or one of the expansion books (including the one in Above the Law). Since the majority of Magewrights are involved with the Guild, the most thematically appropriate Magical Theory is the Thalarian Doctrine, which is found in the Core Rules.

It's essentially a "passive" check for NPCs. If a Stitched characters walks into town and a TN 12 Scrutiny check is needed to notice they're undead, most people (Minion 6 or lower) are probably not going to hit that TN, so the character is generally fine. If they come into contact with Enforcers, Henchmen, or Masters, it becomes increasingly more likely that someone important will realize that they're an undead character (which is generally not good for said undead character). Core Rules, pg 288: "Fatemaster Characters vs Fatemaster Characters When a duel involves two Fatemaster characters, just compare the sum totals of their Acting Values plus their Rank Values. The character with the higher final duel total wins the duel. In the event of a tie, the Fatemaster character who is the aggressor is considered to be the winner." After that, the damage flip is based upon the difference of their duel totals, just like normal. Some Penny Dreadful adventures have adjusted rules to make large battles involving lots of NPCs go quicker.

Not at the moment, no.

Really great breakdown of the history! Well done!

That would be my call as well.

Yup, more or less. And Hoffman's not the sort of person who just keep using Ryle after he learned what he learned.

They all have their own Keyword. M&SU is Ironsides only.

No. Versatile models provide a valuable role in that they're standard, baseline models that represent the faction as a whole. For instance, Samurai are versatile for the Ten Thunders. This makes them solid fighting models for any of the Crew. They're not specialized but are just generally good for Ten Thunders as a whole. In Hearthstone terms, they'd be your neutral cards. The opposite, really. The existence of Versatile models allows us to make a "Ten Thunders" model instead of a Foundry or Last Blossom model. For instance, if down the road, the Arcanists look like they need more card draw, we can make a Versatile Arcanist model that provides card draw without having to tie it into a theme. Of course, if Arcanists look like they need more card draw and Ironsides especially needs it, then we can instead make that model M&SU, which gives Ironsides access to it at a bit of a discount.

Nope, each faction has a couple of different Versatile models that they can draw upon.

He is a creature of nightmare and imagination, as well as a Tyrant, so the answer is "as big as he wants to be."

M1E did this, and with the transition to M2E, people were generally in favor of moving the information onto the cards so that they didn't have to play with a rulebook open beside them.

So here's the thing! The Three Kingdoms are a loose affiliation of Japan, China, and Vietnam that all more or less worth together as a unified front. The Little Kingdom - the neighborhood in Malifaux City that is primarily home to natives of the Three Kingdoms - is similarly unified, with Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese buildings and people living right next to each other. The Ten Thunders, meanwhile, are a criminal syndicate run entirely by the Katanaka family, which is, itself, a Japanese family. They more or less run the Little Kingdom, so they have holdings that belong to people hailing from all three nations of the Three Kingdoms (as well as holdings that are distinctly Western, such as the Honeypot casino, which is run by a southern American). The Qi and Gong has a Chinese name, sure, but it's one of the oldest and most important holdings of the Ten Thunders, right next to the Katanaka Trading House. When the proprietor of the Qi and Gong was no longer able to perform their duties, the Ten Thunders put someone they trust in control of it. That person ended up being someone the Japanese Katanaka family trusted, a Japanese woman (not too much of a stretch, that). So what this comes down to is basically, the Ten Thunders don't believe that someone has to be Chinese in order to run a brothel with a Chinese name. As for the Obsidian Gate, the Japanese names used in that adventure were actual Japanese names, and a lot of research was done to ensure that Japan was portrayed in a manner befitting the time period, so I'm not sure what your complaint is about that adventure in particular.

Not really. I played the L5R CCG for a long while and was a rules team member / alpha playtester for the L5R RPG for a number of years, so I learned a fair amount about Asian culture over those years. I'm not obsessed with it, though, just relatively informed. I didn't take it that way! It seemed like a good spot to jump in and clarify some things. I don't disagree! There's a tendency in playtest towards something I call "Arcanist Ratchet," which happens in every faction and every miniatures game. It just tends to happen to Arcanists first, since they usually have the most (or at least, most active) players. Basically, someone says that all the Arcanist masters are fine, except for Rasputina, who could use a little boost. Rasputina gets a boost, and then someone says that she's great, but now Colette seems a bit underpowered and probably needs a boost. She gets a little boost, and everyone cheers... but also points out that now Kaeris needs a little love. And that cycle just keeps repeating itself as the goal post gets ratcheted ever-upwards. I think that the Keyword system will go a long ways towards softening "objective best" picks. For instance, to use a random model as an example, the Blessed of December might be amazing for Rasputina at 7ss, but for other Masters who have to pay 8ss, she's less impressive and doesn't quite click with everything their Crew is doing, so there's less of an incentive to just auto-add her to lists. Now, if you want whatever the Blessed of December is doing because it's something you otherwise don't get in your Crew, then that could still be a good hire, but I think we'll have less faction-wide auto-hire models like Francisco in M3E.

Just the discard pile to form a new deck.

The goal is to make every model good because every model should be good. Dead options don't bring anything to a game, and it sucks to pick up a really cool model only to learn that they're just not worth putting on the table (or worse, an active hindrance to winning). If a model is an "autopick," it doesn't get attention to "shake things up," it gets attention because it's probably too good at what it does, which is why it gets added to lists without any sort of thought or evaluation. I think there's a certain amount of room for that sort of thing - taking Sebastian with McMourning, for example - but when that spills over to the entire faction - when every Resurrectionist list includes Sebastian because he's just the best model, regardless of Crew or Strategy or Scheme - that's because Sebastian is just too good at what he does for his price. I would be perfectly happy if someone who ran a Lady Justice Crew ended up bringing the same models to their M3E games as their M2E games. My goal isn't to shake things up and force them to change, it's to ensure that those models are more streamlined, easier to understand, and still providing plenty of options and tactical depth.

Effigies are 4ss, but... well, there's some other factors in play that we'll talk about in the future-time.

Incorporeal does not allow a model to use the Walk Action to leave an enemy model's engagement range.

The Walk Action cannot be used to leave an enemy model's engagement range.

Samael isn't exactly an expert on Tyrants, and given the power levels involved, it's no wonder that he grouped it together with the other godlike entity that possesses people with which he is familiar. TTB Core Rules, Grave Servant, pg. 162. That's what's going on there.

Leaving combat is done via the Disengage Action. Flight doesn't give you a place on Disengage Actions, only Walk and Charge Actions. Remember, Charge is only a 1 AP action now, so models can maneuver a bit with 1 AP and then Charge with their second AP, giving them movement and a free melee attack. They balance each other out.

The Grave Spirit is not a Tyrant. It's more akin to "eldritch death god" and is a good magnitude stronger than the Tyrants.