Brewmaster

In a henchman campaign, I'd lean Francois or Trixie. Francois can just murderize everything and Trixie is the best henchman Gremlins have.

Glad to see you're considering Gremlins Yes Gremlins are comic relief, but one of the cool things about how this game plays is that even the "joke" factions are still able to win. For the question: S'omer, Ophelia, Slop should cover a LOT of what you need. I'd say get a box of piglets so you can see how the gremlin/ pig synergy plays.

My ears are burning Brewie doesn't have a hat, but he has the next best thing: boozahol. To use a surprisingly accurate analogy, he's like the rising merchant class back in the day when knights and nobility determined who was "in charge".

So my obsession with putting hats on Gremlin stuff has me thinking, are there easy locations to find hat sprues? Yes I'm aware of Hats of Malifaux

Let's add it all together for a TL/DR: Da RULZ 1) Does this fight matter? Why are you having this fight? Do the numbers being used in this fight challenge your players enough without being ridiculous? 2) Use Enforcers/ Henchman for an equal number of enemies, use swarms for "Trash Mobs" Back and forth fights between an equivalent number of fighters makes for a good "Normal fight". 3) Use "Awakened" Hazardous Terrain flavored to the boss fight you want to run. Make the solo fight about that solo guy by having dynamic elements that just happen, giving players other options than "Punch this guy" to deal with.

AAAnd a continuation: I dislike having to keep track lots of things. I've actually switched over to having a GM turn in DnD instead of having a Monster A/ Monster B turn. It streamlines combat a little, and you don't have to bump into the occasional issue of "It's the halflings turn, wait the Halfling died two activations ago." If I want to make something more developed or Boss-like, I add an effects phase. When running a "Boss fight" (defined as a singular monster versus multiple players), I think the most ideal mechanics from the game to look at to adapt for use are Hazardous terrain. Here's an example: The players have been chasing a rogue necromancer who's been all "Look at my Zombies", and finally corner him in a graveyard. The guy is all "I'm a boss fight RAWR!", and they flip initiative. You create two sections: Effects Initiative and Necromancer Initiative. During the Effects initiative, the players flip a card, generating 50mm markers of "Ooky Evil." The markers move 4 inches during the Effects Initiative, can be dismissed with a Magic check, and players who start their turns in base contact or move through them must pass a Df12 check or suffer 1/2 Slow/ 3 Immobile. By adding a check to hazardous terrain and giving it BASIC stats, you've created a simple element that changes during a fight, gives players another element to focus on, and creates alternate locations for the players AP to go, meaning your boss man doesn't have to fend off 10 AP, they have to fend off 7-4 AP. There's another element at play in the example I presented before. The fight can be altered through a skill check. If playing the miniatures game has taught me anything, it's that Marching to the center of the table and playing rock-em sock-em robots is not how you win most games. By providing an alternate objective that has effects on the fight, you make things more than just a slap-fest.

I had a blast running demos and running RPG events for Wyrd. My bad for distracting the Saturday TOs I absolutely adore the multi-pose mini. I only got one, but that level of changability is AWESOME. Personal preference: I wouldn't have made the booth demo terrain quite so vertical in order to differentiate it from "Legit" vertical games like Deadzone, but beyond that I didn't notice any issues.

What's this? Someone is about to post in a few hours with real life information to back it up?

Quickie thing I'm throwing up here. I'll develop it later. Comments and wild flailings appreciated One of the things I've been pondering since I got my grubby normal-sized hands on Kickstarter copies of the first two books is combat encounter design. I've been GMing/DMing/GDDMing for many years now, and my wheelhouse is usually with games where I can eyeball "this is a challenge rating system". TtB technically has such a system, but I think we can really make it pop, helping FMs gauge levels in a much quicker fashion. This gauge is intended for combat design and comes from my personal enjoyment of the game, so this MIGHT not be for some people. With that, let's go over a couple of questions to begin making a gauge. 1) what is a "good" encounter? There's a few things in play here, but the basic premise is "How do I push my players just the right amount?" If you're trying to create memorable combat, the two things you'll want to know are how efficient your players are in the fight and 'does this fight matter?' Let's start with the second one. I've never been a fan of random encounters. I get throwing in some bumper work to get that Exp up a little higher, but Frodo dying during the Orc Mobs in the first movie would have been a complete bummer of a story change. I feel that the chance of character death should hold "meaning"; players want to feel like their character that they invested energy into died for a reason beyond "1d6 Drow appeared from the trapped box". So ideally the fight (if a fight actually happens) should push Fated resources. Now let's talk about efficiency of Fated. Page 120 of the Fatemasters Guide has an incredibly useful set of questions you can ask your player to see how combat effective they are. This list is a good starting point, but it could be tailored more to help with specific construction. An element to look at is "favored attacks". Every player has their "cool thing". One player was drawn in to the game cause guns are cool, one likes katanas, one wants to be a magical girl samurai. How the FM sets up a session determines how things will level up (sessions with mystery and talking probably won't have combat skill level ups and sessions where you're stabbing Gremlins probably won't have social skill level ups). Ask your players what their most likely used or "favored" attack skill is and keep up on when they choose to level it. This gives you bonus knowledge in that you can tell which players are more interested in punching stuff in the face by who chooses to level up their skills based on Pursuit over the skill choices you offered them. Once you have an idea of what your players are capable of and how this fight "Matters", then you can take the next step. 2) What numbers should a challenging encounter use? One of the gotchas you'll bump into in this system is the fact that action economy is a powerful force. When you have 5 Fated with 2 AP a piece, I have to come up with different plans for my 2 AP total boss who's trying to juggle all these resources coming to bear at them only. The quick answer is use a higher card value for them, but ultimately that makes it a matter of finding the lucky cards which is boring. Mobs suffer a different problem. By having a huge collection of mooks, you can get that cinematic feel of fighting the army before the boss, but ultimately the Fated will have defenses that just aren't challenged unless they flip aces. Finding that sweet spot is a dance that takes time, a thing that this guide is trying to save. So without further ado, The Guide: 1) Enforcers to Henchman are the sweet spot for combat You should assume that Fated will start with a 3 skill that ties to a 2 aspect. That means 11-12 rated defenses will get hit about half the time. Rather than try to figure out detailed bands, just figure the sweet spot. In a normal game where Exp is spent between non-combat and combat, you can assume they'll have their cool skill up to 4/5 and at least one aspect bump will tie to their cool skill, so that 11-12 will go to a 14-16 average. Enforcers to Henchmen keep the fight close without completely blowing it out. Want the game tougher or easier? Start at Enforcers and go from there. 2) you want piles of mooks? Think swarms. I found an idea that I'm shamelessly stealing from somewhere else and using it here. Let's say I want a mob of Piglets. The first thing is to set their card value (let's call them Minions). Drop 1 or 2 AV from that, Then give them a larger size base and apply the following abilities: "Mob Mentalities: this model may move through and end it's turn on an opposing model", "Losing Interest: this model deals half damage when at half wounds or fewer."and "Strength in Mobs: {blahblah non stackable Incorporeal}". This gives you a few things. First, if you're just grabbing cards or stats from the books, the creatures that are gaining the Mob abilities have already been tested meaning less work for you. Second the only big changes are the fact that the mob has better defenses, balanced out by reduced attack values and a drop in damage. Third, you still get the cinematic fight you want without having to flip 12 cards that MIGHT matter. To be continued with a boss discussion...

Well THIS isn't going to be a hard question to answer There's a couple ways to look at where to go with your game: 1) Prepackaged adventures (Say, isn't Wyrd offering things that can be easily used?) 2) Making your own adventures. There's no wrong answer for this, it's really dependent on what you're comfortable doing, and what your players dig. I almost exclusively build games from scratch, but that's the game style I'm most comfortable with (and I have enough time to build like that). I definitely recommend having players make their own characters. One of the useful elements of TtB is the fact that the Tarot reading gives you plot hooks to work with to help tailor the game. Prepackaged adventures are totally fine to run, and if you're feeling adventurous, you can plan several adventures ahead, taking NFCs from the later games and making them characters that carry through multiple adventures. Making settings from scratch can be daunting, but you have highly detailed control over all the elements. Because of how "Leveling up" works, you also have a unique advantage in that you know exactly how many sessions the game's going to have. The quickie guide for "Build from scratch": 1) Figure out what you and your players want to play 2) Divide the number of total number of Destiny Steps by 3 (3 players have 15 total steps for example) 3) Make a 3 part story (Learn the thing, Raise the stakes, And then they fight!). Instead of making this huge arcing thing, you build in smaller chunks, making it easier. 4) Make a HUUUUUGE list of People names and Building names.

[Joke] I believe the Daleks best described what the Guild are better at to the Cybermen: "you are superior at dying!" [/joke]

Obviously you need some Gremlin stuff Waldegeists are a great option, followed by McTavish.

What is the general Gremlin strategy?: "Don't play by the rules" Generally, approaches to gaining VP are fairly straight forward. Where Gremlins excel is by approaching the problem sideways. S'omer makes your opponent more reliant on luck than you, Ophelia keeps the Alpha Strike style of crew still running strong, Zoraida lets you bend crew construction rules and really make things outside the box. For Gremlins, it's all about finding creative ways to get to what you want.

Oddly enough, I only need to greenstuff a half-mask, and my Hayreddin proxy is pretty dang-ol close Definitely dig the TtB art choices.

If you use Roll 20, there is a playing card deck in it that has both Jokers (that just happen to be red and black).

Remaining question I have: can Merc Enforcers pick any faction in the Enforcer Brawl?

Personal preference: I allow players to modify decks every destiny step. Means they can change their decks 5 times only. Once I have a group that's comfortable with the system (or a group that this is their first system), I'd say the single deck is fine.

Welcome to the system Graham! The ability to learn new spells, have a cooler spell book, and similar "spell-guy" stuff is really only dependent on how fast or slow you and the Fate Master want this character to progress. You're not limited to " these are the 3rd level spells I picked up"; instead you're limited by "Did I rolEplay enough that the Fate Master will say I can find an ancient tome with that spell I want?" Through the Breach does not use the DND model " you're 4th level, so you should have these 5 things" and instead let's you progress in what makes sense for the story. Make sense?

Thanks Next up: actual construction (AGAIN SPOILERS) Since I know how many sessions my game will be, I can make better plans on how the sessions progress. Since I established that I want to do a Lynch game, I also have a solid list of encounter options. GM Rule 2: By having a terrific foundation, the rest of the game builds out solidly My foundation for this game is "This game chronicles the rise of Jakob Lynch as a power player in Malifaux. The Players will be Guild members who start in opposition of him. What the players find out is that Jakob has a second game going on where he's trying to get out from under the thumb of Huggy, the 10T, and about 11 billion other things". Basic outline for the game: Sessions 1-4 "The mystery of dead Depleted guy who was killed by this new drug called Brilliance" Session 5 "Mr Graves shows up, explains to the Players that if they don't go away, he'll snap their necks" Session 6-about 9ish " Mr Tannen begins manipulating events to deal with the players" Session 10 "Tannen's death trap" Session 11-14 "Jakob's final push" Session 15 "Final fight with Jakob" Session 16 ???? The basic elements I want to manipulate through the game: The players shouldn't find out the name Jakob Lynch till about 4-6 The players should have hints about an internal power struggle that become obvious by session 12ish Lynch should make about 3-5 moves that seem counter-productive to the "10Thunders" plan I kinda have an urge to throw in a couple "Downtime" episodes, but we'll see what happens. My encounter bucket: Mr Graves Mr Tannen Beckoners Illuminated Depleted Stitched Together Hired Mercenaries 10 Thunders "Protecting our monies investment" Splash of Neverborn for unique flavor

I dig the rules as is. Oh, you wanted more writing huh? I'm not sure how the current system can be improved. The amount of time for writing seems fair, there's enough open-ended elements to keep it interesting, people who do a good job of writing get to help shape the next writing challenge. Having definitive cut-off times for voting are kind of important if only for the fact that it keeps things moving. I can see where Mako's coming from though with bragging rights versus actual prize thing. Personal Opinion: Keeping the 'cool' voting to the authors means the people who invested time in crafting stories can reward their fellow writers. Now that there's actual prize support, arguably writers should be held to a higher level of responsibility in meeting deadlines and requirements.

It is listed as "the target" which means everything's legal. If it only hit a certain keyword (Living, Construct, Fated) it would specify that keyword.

So, I had the group vote between two story hooks I was interested in. The overall pacing of the game is: Guild officers working in Malifaux Proper, plenty of mystery, intrigue, and other stuff. I've got one player who was interested in my alternate hook, so fighty fighty is necessary, the second player was super in for the intrigue, and a third player that I don't have much of a read on yet. The following DOES contain spoilery elements, so those of you in my game, stop reading doods! GM Rule 1: What's the most interesting thing you could be doing right now? Are your players interested, and are you the GM interested? I've been hankering for an exploration of Brilliance. A good Miami Vice "Drug caper" is always fertile story-telling ground. There's also a Ten Thunders hook, so I can throw in "East Meets West" elements. Enough variety, so that it doesn't feel like "ANOTHER 1d6 thugs? SIGH", the built in mystery of "There's this new drug called Brilliance on the streets", and a definitive endpoint to work back from (totes fight Jakob and Huggy). Sounds like a solid point to start from. I don't quite know how I want to run Destinies in this game, but I have a SOLID outline of the story, so it's easier to plan. If we look at this from a Daredevil-esque "The Rise of Jakob" point of view, the story lends itself to 1-3 session plots, each one building a bit of story in the background for the bigger plot.

This is a VERY descriptive character, and I enjoy the story you've painted!!!