Mason

On 12/30/2018 at 9:59 AM, ezramantis said:

If a soulstone works more like a computer than a "stone", what's the deal with soulstone dust? I get that it can't be recharged but it must retain some charge if it can power limbs and constructs.

You're correct in that Soulstone dust does hold some sort of charge.

However, unlike Soulstones, the dust can't be recharged; once the charge is spent, it's just dust.

1 hour ago, ezramantis said:

I'm really surprised that the rules state that "no matter the lade, a soulstone can only hold a single charge".  So since the lade of a soulstone has no effect on its relative power, neither how many charges it can hold nor it's overall effect, what's to stop a group from breaking up the soulstones they have to increase their number of equally powered soulstones?

Breaking a Soulstone in half doesn't create two Soulstones, anymore than breaking a computer in half creates two computers.

You just end up with two halves of a non-functioning and broken Soulstone.

5 hours ago, TheCSpider said:

Big 'Un makes a reference to a gremlin character gaining Wall of Muscle, but gives no additional advice beyond how the talent interacts with gremlins.  Does this mean you can have a height 3 gremlin?

Yup!

See also: Lenny.

5 hours ago, TheCSpider said:

Can an invested in a Lightweight or standard chassis take it and be height 3, but otherwise count as their chassis choice?  So have a super spindly height 3 lightweight chassis?

Yup.

41 minutes ago, Mike Wallace said:

The best way for a totalitarian state to deal with rebellion is to co-opt it. Lucius writes up the draft notes of a meeting discussing the creation of an "Arcanist Special Division," dusts them up to make them look old, and leaves them somewhere an enterprising muckraker would find them.

The Guild owns the two legal newspapers in town.

Just have Nellie push through an article about Arcanists doing terrible things and skip to the end result without having to deal with all the logistics of a false flag operation.  

31 minutes ago, Primate said:

Yeah, maybe if the average people were more scared of them it could work, pushing fearful people into the arms of the guild. But people aren't really scared of the M&SU in quite that way, and it's too fundamental to their bottom line to be something they'd plausibly mess with. Your average malifaux conspiracy theorist would probably have a better time saying that the guild created the Ressers. They're obviously scary and have a lot of ties to the guild.

That's more plausible, though with the high profile of the Death Marshals (and the existence of necromancy prior to the Guild's arrival in Malifaux), it's still not a particularly great conspiracy theory, as far as they go.

Conspiracy theories about the Guild would work better if it was a relatively benign organization, but they're tyrants and have (or rather, had) the world pretty tightly clenched in their iron fist. I mean, this is an organization that, in Malifaux at least, rips people out of their homes in the middle of the night and burns away their souls to turn them into walking claymore mines.

You really don't need conspiracy theories about the Guild, because the semi-public truth is already pretty grim.

15 hours ago, Mike Wallace said:

But if I were part of the Guild trying to divide the M&SU and its Arcanist members, I'd start planting the rumors that the Guild created the Union. Then I could just sit back and watch them paranoid themselves to death. 

All things serve the Guild.

The Union was created less than a decade before the current game time. I don't think that anyone in the Union or Arcanists would believe such a rumor, nor would it really matter if they did. Not a whole lot of organizations are down with creating their own political opponents / terrorist organizations because they felt like they just had too much control over stuff.

20 hours ago, solkan said:

I thought I read somewhere that the MS&U was supposed to be a tool for the Guild to keep the miners under control, and that's probably what it looks like.

Nope, the M&SU formed independently from (and in spite of) the Guild, and currently exist as their primary political opponent in Malifaux. The Arcanists are the third "secret" branch of the M&SU (after the Miners and the Steamfitters).

11 hours ago, TheCSpider said:

While trying to figure out my options for creating a character I notice that (at the very least) the Body Card physical aspects vary at least minorly between the different tarots. 

Yup, some of the stat card values vary between Tarots. This is intentional. Use the stat spreads for whatever Tarot spread you're using.

11 hours ago, TheCSpider said:

And while I'm asking about character creation.  Does a starting character only receive the Step 0 Talent of their starting Pursuit?  I think yes, but wanted to make sure.

Correct.

5 hours ago, PetitDalek said:

In that case the base size will probably shrink too.

I don't think I've changed any base sizes going from M2E to M3E.

2 hours ago, Reynastus said:

How does counter-spelling work? I get the shielding aspect and the ongoing effects aspect, but can you use it as a reaction to interrupt someone from casting a spell?

You cannot.

Per pg. 182 of the Core Rules, right column, last paragraph, you can use Counter-Spelling to end an ongoing spell before its normal duration would cause it to expire.

19 minutes ago, hippopacalypse said:

Is that a relic hammer?

Just an average, everyday sort of hammer.

1 hour ago, Durza said:

Or Mason was supposed to type "isn't"

A typo on my part. I meant to say "Obliteration is a Tyrant" and got my brain-wires crossed.

Apologies for the confusion!

2 hours ago, katadder said:

To throw a spanner in the works, mason has just said the grave spirit is a tyrant

Nope, just a typo on my part.

11 hours ago, Mike Wallace said:

Oh I know. I'm referring to Obliteration's relationship with the Grave Spirit. It *feels* like him having similar goals and powers is hinting at something. Maybe I'm just paranoid. 

Obliteration a Tyrant. Titania used its power to murder all the physical forms of the Tyrants (including Obliteration).

Obliteration is not fond of the Grave Spirit.

32 minutes ago, Cursed25 said:

If I remembered well, Sonnia is suppose to summon too?

She does, though it's more of a secondary focus (sort of like Leveticus and his Abominations).

3 minutes ago, Mike Wallace said:

That feels like a spoiler.

That not every Resurrectionist uses the Whisper been said in multiple places, especially TTB. You can choose whatever Magical Theory you want, and while the Whisper is a strong one, you can still use Necromancy with other Magical Theories.

5 minutes ago, Mike Wallace said:

And other Earth-based forms of Necromancy?

Humanity first learned about Necromancy in the days of the first Breach, so most of what's floating around on Earth likely draws its point of origin back to those days and the First Necromancer.

1 hour ago, Seadhna said:

Basically all Ressers gain their powers from this thing called “the Whisper” (it’s the Grave Spirit whispering in their ears), arguably even Tara because she was raised by Necromancer Karina.

Well, not all Ressers, but certainly a lot of them.

Tara's powers come from Obliteration, not the Whisper.

8 minutes ago, Mike Wallace said:

The Speed Loading Trigger (Core Rulebook, pg. 221) doesn't specify if the character's Attack action must be a success or failure in order to perform. Does that mean that any time the character attempts the action, they can declare that trigger as long as they have the appropriate suit? 

Correct.

I can say this much: there aren't a lot of British people in TOS's Canada.

8 hours ago, diki said:

How do you use engineering (make an engineering flip) on a friendly construct in a fight to use this trigger?

During a fight? Probably difficult.

Before the fight? Probably less difficult. 

3 hours ago, Weaker Ink said:

So I was recently looking to build a Tinkerer and saw that the Engineering skill has a trigger on Rams to give a friendly construct the Power Loop condition. But Power Loop is only useful if there are other characters with Power Loop on them as well. 

The additional Power Loops come from additional uses of the trigger.

Use it on one construct, it has Power Loop until the end of the scene that doesn't do anything.

As soon as you get Power Loop on a second model using the trigger, then they're both benefiting. Hit a third model, now they're all better.

The need for additional uses of the Power Loop trigger is why the Condition lasts until the end of the scene.

There's one in the adventure that he might stumble across, as well.

Instead of being quite so blunt as dropping a copy of the Contiones next to him, I would take some time and play up the sidewalk preachers in San Francisco at the start of the adventure. Maybe have one of them recognize him as being "blessed" by the Burning Man as awe-struck worshipers gather around him to touch his clothing and ask for his blessing. Maybe even have a session focused on the player helping the cult deal with the government, which is trying to clear them out of the town and oppress their religious beliefs.

That way, it gets the player invested with the Burning Man and his cult in a more organic manner.

Plus, it ties into the cult on the mountain rather well, emphasizing that there's really not guiding ethos in place for the cult and that each little pocket of worshipers is making stuff up as they go.

You can see a bit more of the Badlands in the Nythera adventure, which involves a trip through those lands to reach the eponymous ruins, as well as in Madman, Interrupted and In Defense of Innocence.

1 hour ago, Mike Wallace said:

Where can I get some comprehensive details on the state of North America in Malifaux? I've got a few players who are having trouble defining their character's origins. 

"Comprehensive" details don't exist.

North America has thus far been painted in broad strokes: The USA is on the east coast, Guild controls the central-south around the Breach, and Mexico still has control of California and some parts of Texas.

It's your campaign, though, so feel free to make up details as needed.