AuroraZ

Malifaux Players! On Saturday, October 1, we'll be having a demo/ open play day at Blakfyre Games in Pleasant Grove, UT. This will be an event open to all players, so whether you're a new player looking to learn the game or a seasoned player just wanting to get a game in, all are welcome! The address is: Blakfyre Games 391 S Main Street Pleasant Grove, UT 84062

bump We've had quote a few new players get in to the game recently, so come on in to learn the game and meet new people! Every Saturday evening, and I'm free most weeknights to run a demo, so feel free to message me as well! Most of our players are gearing up for a Henchman Hardcore tournament coming up, but our players are willing to play any sized game you'd like!

On Saturday, March 12, we will be holding a Henchman Hardcore tournament starting at 2 pm at Blakfyre Games. We've had an influx of new players in the area, so this will be a great chance to meet everyone in the same setting and play with some new people! For further information, message me or swing by/ contact Blakfyre Games at 391 S Main Street, Pleasant Grove, UT 84062. Their phone number is (801) 785-9713

Come on down to Blakfyre Games (391 S Main Street, Pleasant Grove, Ut 84062) on Saturdays starting at 4 pm and going to close for demos or to get a game of Malifaux in. We have a solid group of players that are always willing to get a game in, and if you're interested in setting up a demo or a game on any other day of the week, message me and I'll be happy to help!

Hey citizens of Malifaux! This upcoming Saturday, October 31st (Halloween!) I'll be holding a demo/hobby day for anyone interested in learning the game, meeting new people, or getting some color on their models. I'll be at Blakfyre Games starting at 4 pm. The address is: Blakfyre Games 391 S Maian St, Pleasant Grove, UT 84062 (801) 785-9713

Starting this Friday, September 4th, I'll be holding a 12-week Campaign at Blakfyre Games. We will be using the Shifting Loyalties campaign rules and there will be no entry fee, so anyone interested may join in. Blakfyre Games is located at 391 S Main Street, Pleasant Grove, Ut 84062

I prefer to run TV shows on either Hulu or Netflix - making sure I take a break every hour or two (even if it's just to stretch my legs) is actually really important, and the length of a tv show is actually a really good timer for that.

This Saturday, July 18th at 2 pm, I'll be holding a hobby day at Blakfyre Games in Pleasant Grove, Ut. We'll have lots of stuff available for any projects you need to get caught up on - paints, basing materials, and (most importantly!) moral support. If you're not interested in getting hobby stuff done and more interested in playing the game, we'll also be running enforcer brawls throughout the afternoon. Blakfyre Games is located at: 391 S Main Street Pleasant Grove, Ut 84062 (801) 785-9713

This upcoming Tuesday, July 14th, I'll be running demo games starting at 3 pm at Blakfyre Games in Pleasant Grove. Come on in if you're interested in learning or if you're interested in getting a game in! Blakfyre Games is located at: 391 S Main Street Pleasant Grove, UT 84062 (801) 785-9713

I have to agree with everything that everyone else has already said, and just want to pitch in my two cents: When I started playing with Lynch and co. I was getting really frustrated with how quick both he and Hungering Darkness were dying - it felt like it was taking me way longer to get the hang of playing with him than I had with any other master. I realized that I was playing him as a much more combat-oriented master than he actually is. It's not to say that he can't output a lot of damage (see: pretty much everything everyone in this thread has already said regarding his damage output), but as soon as I allowed him to do a bit more support, I started REALLY enjoying my games with him. For me it was getting into the mentality of, "Don't spend all three AP shooting at other models!"

I use black Krylon for the same reason that many have already stated - it's cheap and black doesn't stick out as much if you miss a spot. Also, I've found that if you're ever going to use metallic paints on your model, black gives them a bit more pop on the model. I use white primer when I have a model that is going to have a lot of light or bright colors - my ice gamin and golem are all going to be primed in white so I can get that icy look to them without putting on a ton of layers. There are some local painters I hobby with that will actually do both on their models - black primer first, then a light spray of white to bring out the details. Mostly it's for their own convenience, but a couple of them have sworn that it makes shading their models look a lot more natural. I haven't tried it myself, but it's something I'm gonna give a go with my next project.

Baba Yaga has always been one of my favorite folk lore characters, so I used her for my inspiration for my Zoraida crew. I'd point you first to the wikipedia article, then an amazon search for kids books that have russian tales in them... and if you're looking for something more grown-up, Enchantment by Orson Scott Card and Egg and Spoon by Gregory Maguire both feature Baba Yaga as a main character. I had just finished reading The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern when I first obtained my Colette crew, so all my showgirls are painted in black and white with a splash of red. For a general feel for Malifaux, I'd recommend Boneshaker by Cherie Priest for the steampunk/zombie vibe, and Perdido Street Station by China Mieville for a steampunk/ WHAT IS GOING ON WHAT EVEN IS THAT THING vibe.

This is gonna be a long one, and I apologize for the wall of text in advance. First of all, I want to make one thing very clear: I freaking love Malifaux. The flavor of the setting attracted me to it, painting the models got me invested, and the card-based gameplay cemented my love for the game. I am proud to be a henchman and I love the involvement in the community I feel when I run demos or other events. I have never, ever felt like Wyrd, as a company, was wasting my time by actively trying to make females feel excluded, with the excuse, “well they’re not our target market,” or, “why pander to SJWs and females when they don’t buy into the game in the first place?” (which, speaking as a female, I do feel happens with certain game companies.) That being said, OF COURSE I experience sexism in the gaming community. I hate that it is a given, and I hope one day it won’t be, but the gaming community as a whole still has a long way to go. Whether it be the snide comment from onlookers when I’m teaching a guy how to play, “so are you letting her win?” (had that happen more than once…), or if it’s the design of certain models from my favorite gaming company. The root of a lot of the reactions coming from women concerning model design comes from representation. Curious as to how females and males are represented in the game as a whole, I went to the pull my finger wiki to whip up a really quick (I mean REALLY quick) spreadsheet to see what the spread of representation is. Here’s a summary of what I found: (Quick note before I get too much into it: like I said, this was a really quick project, and a lot of the organization is done on a fairly subjective basis. I can almost guarantee that at some point I miscounted or mischaracterized models. I tried to organize the clearly female and clearly male models separate from the constructs/monster/unknown gender or genderless models as best I could. This project also only included models up through wave 2. I’m also not including alternate models in the count, such as the Miss series - I want to only count models that customers will see on the shelves of their LGS.) MASTERS This, of course, is where Malifaux shines compared to other miniatures companies. Of all the masters available, 21 are male and 18 are female. Not a perfect 50/50, but pretty darn close. I’m not going to argue sexism here, especially when, for the most part, females are dressed appropriately for their station. Colette is dressed like a showgirl, Mei Feng is dressed like a woman that works in high-temperature environments, Sonnia dresses like a law enforcement officer, etc. (Aurora’s side thoughts: SO glad Lilith found a pair of pants and that Lady J got breast reduction surgery upon entering 2e. Seriously, boobs of that size cause major back problems, which can be a problem when wielding a sword around the way she does.) HENCHMEN This is where there starts to be a noticeable gap. Not including Snowstorm, Bad Juju, and Huggy as their genders can be argued (though I almost always hear people defaulting to male), I counted 26 male and 19 female henchmen. This is also where body types tend to be more widely varied among the males, and less so among the females. Captain Dashel, Sebastian, and Mortimer don’t fit the “ideal” or “average” male body type, and that’s a good thing! Kang is a really big guy, while The Firestarter looks like he’d be really slippery and quick on his feet in a fight. Awesome! This gives all male gamers a chance to identify with a character and experience the power fantasy that so many gamers are looking for when approaching a game like this. When you look at the female henchmen… it’s a bit disappointing. Myranda, Cassandra, Hannah, Alyce, Taelor… they all look the same. All the other female henchman have body types that match their flavor: Candy is a little girl (PLEASE don’t sexualize her!), Sybelle is DEAD and boy howdy, death has not been kind to her, Ama No Zako is a straight up demon, etc. It’s really, REALLY cool that Wyrd has worked so hard to match the model design to the flavor, but what about the female power fantasy? Are young to middle-aged women who are 5’10” and 185 pounds not allowed to have one? This is what Ferrosa is talking about when mentioning being more inclusive in the design of female models - not every woman is going to relate to Cassandra, or Hannah, or the others mentioned, and NO woman is going to relate to Madame Sybelle. Not unless they’re dead. ENFORCERS (aka, where Aurora goes “YIKES”) Imma keep it short: there are more male enforcers than there are female enforcers and constructs/beasts combined. There’s a handful of multi-model enforcer boxes: the only female among those models is a single Oxfordian Mage. This is also where a noticeable trend starts to happen: most female enforcers are female because it fits in better with the fluff - and it feels gimmicky. All of Raspy’s themed models are female, so if it fits in with the December theme, sure, make it female. But if it doesn’t fit a theme, it seems to default to male - why are both the desperate mercenaries male? Why do 3 of the 4 Riders look very distinctly male? Why not split it half-and-half? How cool would it have been to have a female lone rifleman - come on, pretty cool, right? But no, also male. MINIONS At this point almost all models that are female are gendered that way because they “have” to be, whether it's part of a master's theme or because of traditional gender roles: Nurses, Ronin, Beckoners, Performers, etc. Most groups of non-construct, non-monstrous or beast minions are all-male, outnumbering females 2:1, and again I have to ask: why? Why, based off of the models already released, or the art we’ve seen so far, are so many boxes all male? Why are all the TT monks male? What was preventing the designers from having one male and one female guild lawyer? Or two female death marshals and one male? And, actually, that last question brings up another interesting observation I had: if there are groups of three minions in a box (such as The Illuminated), if they’re not all female or all male, the mix is 2 males to 1 female. Every. Single. Time. Now, here’s where I will throw this disclaimer out: there are a few minion boxes we haven’t seen yet, and it’s hard to tell what they will look like based off of the art from the arsenal decks because a lot of them are the same art, just zoomed in or mirrored. So we don’t really know if there are going to be female guild autopsies, or drowned, or rat catchers (so I didn’t count them in my spreadsheet), and it looks like the exorcists are going to all be male (hopefully they’re not!) but based off the trends I’ve noticed, they’re very likely going to be all-male. WHY MISS ANN THROPE FEELS LIKE A PROBLEM (Sheesh, this is turning into an essay, isn’t it?) When addressing why Miss Ann Thrope feels so sexist, it’s important to take all of the above into account: what is the overall balance of female to male models, and how much variety with body types, abilities, and interests is there? If a female player enjoys the idea of taming and training a bird of prey, is there a female austringer model out there that she feels represents her interest? Is there a female model out there that shows larger women that they CAN hold positions of power and respect, while still looking attractive? When it comes down to it, the argument (or, at least, my argument) is not about this one single model. In the art shown in the Chronicles, she’s not posed in a way that objectifies her - she looks ready to kick your ass if you look at her the wrong way, and she won’t even think twice about it. As for her outfit - no, most women don’t dress like that. Some do, and they like the way they feel when they dress like that, and to them I say: more power to you! You do you. But a good majority of women, in preparation to go hand out a few black eyes and broken ribs while still looking like a statused member of society, will go for the fitted blouse, sans the movement-restricting corset, and some tailored pants either hemmed so they don’t step on them or tucked into some boots (as Mako mentioned). No, the real argument - the real question - is, “Really? More of this?” When I, as a female gamer, look at a model and the first thing I notice is, “look at the length of that skirt and the size of that chest!” it takes away from the flavor and empowerment I would otherwise feel about said model, and I also know that every male gamer is going to notice the same thing, and will likely be tempted to objectify her as a sex object for it. Personally, I don’t mind the idea of pinup-style models. I’m not going to demand that Wyrd not give her out at Gencon, and I’m not going to ask for models that are dressed like pilgrims. BUT - and this is a big one - pinup-style models are only going to work if the rest of the female representation does NOT always cater to the male gaze. Wyrd’s done a really, REALLY good job of making almost all their female models dressed and posed in ways that are empowering for females, but the fact of the matter is that they’re still all proportioned to the same male ideal - large chest, trim waist, just curvy enough to be distinctly female but not, you know, chubby. They’re also extremely outnumbered by men, and minions are almost all relegated to traditionally female roles. The message, while I know it’s not intentional, is, “this is your place, and this is how you should look. When it’s not conventional - like with the wastrels - you’re unique because you’re sexy.” Whew. This is long. Apologies, and if you’ve read this - congratulations! +3 friend points for you.

For anyone looking for something to do this Memorial Day, I'll be running demo games this Monday, May 25, at Blakfyre Games from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Blakfyre Games 391 S Main Street Pleasant Grove, Ut, 84062 (801) 785-9713 Hope to see you there!

It could just be me, but I'm not finding a link to my shopping cart on the mobile version. I can only seem to access my cart immediately after adding something to it.