Brewmaster

One thing to note about Stations (sorry if this was posted earlier): The Station is the life you grew up in as a kid. What were your parents doing when you were growing up. This could mean something to you, or it could mean nothing. Alice could always dream of the stage, but the world of corpses she's lived in her whole life is pulling her down.

I'm about to start a Roll20 game, and the system DOES have a deck of cards with a black and red suited joker, so Community Decks are fairly easy. The personal Twist deck is the awkward part.

As for roles, I'm going to argue that Zoraida fills Brewmaster's role, but way better. They're both board control, they're both positioning masters, so you go for them with Squatters rights and... That Joker one that I'm blanking on. They both have Obey (Raida's better), Raida's defenses are arguably better, the mix of models you have can handle more situations.

Heh... The Ht oddity doesn't bug me, but I also know how to adjust the Kin so they're "correct". If it's something you want to worry about, the legs on the Kin glue together like L shaped Tetris pieces. If you just cut the vertical bits off, then glue the feet to the legs, they're the "right" side.

If you're declaring Gremlins, the only thing Silurids bring is the Swampfiend keyword (IMO). You can make more efficient choices.

Seconded on the Trixy comment. When I had all 7 masters' cards, I looked for the top 3 masters that covered the most schemes since learning 3 of the "best" cuts down on choice paralysis, making me play better. Mah does her job, but she's clinical. There's nothing "interesting" about her that I don't get elsewhere in the clan. It's the same reason I don't like Old Cranky. They do their job, but numbers are boring. On a personal note, I had a much cooler vision of her design in my head than what I actually got seeing the renders. Similar reason I'm proxying my Trixy. The almost Hanna Barbara esque look doesn't do it for me.

We have a BINGO! Defenses are derived stats which are totally different. The "Failed a duel" relates to any skill in the category listed.

Given how people are with proxies, it might be hard. I could tell you why Ophelia does the exact same work but better 85% of the time

Geists, Rooster Riders, a Nurse, and Iggy are the choices I dig the most.

I like how the model looks, I've never used him in a grem-raida list. Her go-tos (for me), are geists, a nurse, and Iggy.

Hey everyone! Just posting the start of my new TtB game. I will be putting up ideas on how I run my game, interesting things that make elements of the game unique or cool, and I'm definitely going to be working on how to best implement "Boss Fights". I have 3 new players (Totally fine since the system is scaleable like that.) <Player 1>: "When at last you look upon your beating heart, your deeds will be undone before the 13th step but fear the shadow cast by no man. Pale faced, the innocent will drown in bile and the penny paid is thrice earned." <Player 2>: "When you choose between the quill or the blade, he will trust your falsehoods for new enemies are made from old allies. Step through the looking glass and into the fable and he will be paid his price." <Player 3>: "After the quiet of a thousand nights falls upon your ears, you will not heed the mentor but heed the cripple who speaks for the coin. It is, and it grows and yours is only yours." Hope you guys are looking forward to more learning!... OH and a good story... or uh... something

Mechanically speaking, the above posts have covered all the major stuff. I do want to touch on one important thing though: "Kill Your Darlings". There's 3-5 players, and 1 of you. It's distinctly possible that someone will come up with something that you didn't think of that will result in the Big Bad totally dying. Be prepared for that Red Joker changing your plans. Now, this doesn't mean that your big bad isn't COMPLETELY defenseless, just be prepared to let the players have their victory. Other things to remember: Big Bads with guys around them is where the system balance is. "Solo fights" are swingy, and GREATLY favor the players. Consider multi-stage boss fights. Things rarely stay dead in Malifaux.

Dgraz is on the right track. Fufilling or denying a Destiny step mechanically nets you an Aspect increase or a Manifested Power. The other thing to consider Destiny steps is decision trees. The player gaining a step directed the story to direction 1 or direction 2.

So, now that I've had a bit of time to unwind, here's some things I've figured out that will help me run future games better. 1) Combat versus non-combat is honestly dependent on a few factors. The skills at the end of a session will level up based on what you threw at them in the session, so if you go combat heavy, they'll have combat heavy choices to pick from. You definitely seed what style of game you'll get based on what skills you allow the players to use. Multiple NFCs is still preferred over "Boss" fights when building for a combat. At the end of the campaign, I had a "final boss fight". By that point players had multiple flips (which burns through the deck faster which draws cards faster), so the henchman/ master level defenses aren't a problem. It THEN becomes a matter of raw damage going back which leads to the players having to choose "How little do I want to get hurt". Ideal "Challenging" fight: High minion to Enforcer level mooks with a Henchman Boss in charge of the fight. Idea for High level boss fight: For my "Mayor Carlyle" fight, He was there in three stages. When dealing with crazy Malifaux stuff, consider using the Avatar rules and elements. You give players the sense of scale and "This just got real", but you're using hench level stats, so it's not COMPLETELY overwhelming. 2) Destinies. I liked my idea from the first post, but it needs a LITTLE tweaking. I haven't quite figured out HOW yet, but I want to play around with it. Definitely digging having a thing brought in by the players that gives me a vector to drop a story on.

Final Wrap-up. And it's a two-parter! Part 1: The first fight with the Aspect of December was interesting. The big mechanic I used for this one was placing Warren on the board. The players had access to 4 blanket abilities that Warren caused (2 + a bonus 2 from Victor's choice). At the end of that fight, the weather in the town reached a fever pitch, and Warren told the group to run. Part 2: This part started out with a final discussion between the lady of the swamp and Victor. She told him that Malifaux was lost... for the moment. Everything that happened this night would determine if humanity got a second chance once Malifaux cleansed itself. There was a 3 stage fight as the group dealt with Mayor Carlyle, the final rememnants of his retinue, and whatnot. After winning, the group watched as the full form of December beared down on them. In a brief flash, Warren stopped them from getting killed, said "Thank you" and the group found itself outside the first rift into Malifaux. I'll post up more later, but this is my first wrapped TtB game, and of the games I've run, this has been one of my favorites

Well I've already waited two years for the thing that got me super psyched about second edition, what's another couple months?

Almost there! Almost there! This session was a little short, but it was me introducing the final elements of the final fight. It's currently midnight in Pleasance, and the Fated are pushing themselves to the limit. Davis finally showed up and the group dealt with another collection of monsters, one of which was the Wendigo returned for Aaron. Hardcore fight (Using slightly modified Gallery of Nightmare rules), and the group managed to push the Wendigo all the way down. Aaron's decision: Because he was chosen WAAAAAY back in character creation, Aaron was offered the power of the Wendigo. Aaron chose to deny the power. Natalie showed up with Warren who officially tapped into the power of Cherufe (Since Victor bought her enough time DECISION TIME IN!!!), and said the final fight was on. The group is healed and going into the fight against December. Outstanding Choice Decisions: Davis got the Wagon family out of town Aaron did not accept the power of the Wendigo

He picked helping out the family.... WHIIIIICH leads us to tonights session! The group was still split with Amelia and Davis heading Uptown to do some work, and Aaron heading downtown to help. While Aaron helped out Sadie Reed with some fighty-fighting going on (I had Davis' player play a proxied Sadie since Davis is off doing stuff), Amelia and Victor bumped into Arlan... you know... that guy with the robots they met WAAAAAY back when dealing with the magic gorilla? SO, Victor found out that Arlan was under contract to ex-mayor Carlyle "to find Warren's location" and with some clever talking, bought them some time (since mercenaries can be bought ) . After resolving, the group met up in the markets, and dealt with a caster summoning in some heavy support pieces. Big Notes: This was Victor's decision session. I got a LIIIITTLE heavy-handed with a flashback to obviously not Zoraida telling Victor that his decision would swing the battle dramatically, but hey, paid off the idea I knew I was going to use since the beginning of the game, and from a meta standpoint, I did JUST enough to get the player paranoid, so I'm happy. I'll throw up some prep of the next session a bit later, but I'm thinking this one is going to be Aaron's where he gets the offer to become the new Wendigo. 2-3 sessions till I wrap my first TtB campaign. 2 fulfills the destiny steps, MAAAAAYBE do a 3rd one as the dramatic ending.

I would like in please. I'm about 3 sessions away from having a group that can playtest, and helping the game stay awesome is ALWAYS fun.

So close to the end! The players split up to help cut down on the amount of chaos currently happening in the city. Amelia and Davis got a fairly simple "Take out peoples who were holed up in a building", and Davis (and a proxied Victor given the player's absence) got a more interesting "Protect a guy as he tried to play supply wagon around a group of ice zombies. Big notes from this game: This was Davis' game. WAAAAAY back at the beginning, I said I wanted to tie destinies into one big decision. After having some solid RP, I told Davis that this guy trying to get his wagon with his family to safety, wanted Davis' help to get out of the city. Davis had to make a choice: "Guarentee the life of one man and risk the lives of a lot of people, or focus on the good of the city". Neither answer was WRONG, there would just be consequences.

At it's core, every RPG is collaborative story-telling. You as the person in charge are offering the group the beginning of a story, the group responds to the story, and it grows from there. The big thing to remember is at the end of the day, you and the players are sitting around a table for however long having fun. Make it interesting, keep the players interested, and you've done 80% of the work. For some Through the Breach specific information: 1) Pages 11-21, 28, 30 in the Fatemaster's Almanac is a great place to start for learning about RPGs, specific things you as the Fatemaster should be expected to do, and thing's you'll want to think about. 2)Every once in a while (say 5 sessions), ask the players the questions on page 120. By having a list of who's "Combat effective", you can better design sessions and tailor how dangerous things are. It's okay to keep track of this information because it helps both you and the players, thus fulfilling the number 1 rule: are you guys having fun. 3) pages 7 and 10 will be important from a mechanics point of view. When you HAVE stats to work from (Say on the card of that cool mini you purchased), you'll pick a number on page 7 to add to those stats. When you need to freestyle it, pick a number on page 10. 4) No plan ever survives first contact with the players. There are 3-5 players and 1 of you. SOMEone is bound to come up with something you didn't think of . Roll with it! Unless they're being disruptive, that player has found something interesting to them. It doesn't necessarily NEED to pan out, but exploring the direction is only going to make it more memorable because the player put that element in. 5) establish at the beginning that this is Malifaux. Players who have RPGd before might have gotten the seed that these encounters are "Level Appropriate" (if you have DnD players, this is a thing you'll want to note). The world of Malifaux is bigger than 3-5 folk just starting out. They'll want to be smart instead of just punching things till they fall down. 6) HAVE FUN! Can't state this enough.

When I think "Voodoo" the big thing I think is "jinxing peoples". Sammy Lacroix's Jinx is interesting, but I wanted something to better represent "Things going wrong". Sooooo... I shamelessly stole Candy's "Self Loathing" and ran with it, reflavoring it as "Causing bad things to happen, making someone get hit with their own weapon".

The Siege Part 1: I wrapped up a couple of loose ends with an opening fight between the players and the catatonic form of Winifred who turned into an Aspect (Think Banshees from Mass Effect). She summoned a rather large golem to help her out. Just when the players thought they would have an easy time of it, a rather irritated Voodoo Gremlin looking to get some payback showed up and started picking a fight as well. All types of shenaniganry hit, I messed around with an Attack Action I'm calling "Murphy's Law", and fun was had by all. After resolving that fight, I gave the players the option of raising the control of the district they were in, or gaining a small bump in all the districts (they went with a single bump), then decided to split into two groups to work on the slums and markets districts seperately... should be interesting Warehouse district: LOCKED Uptown: 45% Downtown: 80% Markets: 5% Slums: 5%

Alright, it's been WAAAAAY too long since I've written here, so let's get things filled in: The group has reached... the final story! In their exploration of the bayou, they came across an interesting lady (YAAAAH I KNOW, but I made this before it was a cliche, so THERE ). This lady talked with em and let them know that Natalie's messing with the seals was only a stop-gap measure. If they followed her instructions, the nice lady would tell them how to win. She only needed one thing in return: a year of someone's life. Victor graciously offered this (giving me the PERFECT way of connecting to his final destiny steps). This was also a perfect story break to allow me to jump to the final story year. The nice lady told the gathered group that the final fight over Pleasence would determine the fate of Malifaux itself. They would need to prepare the city, and the first thing THAT meant was gaining control of the mayorship. While Victor was helping the lady resolve some nagging swap issues in the Bayou, the group was campaigning for the new mayor (cue ongoing challenge where success or failure determines how much resources the group gets at the end). This session wrapped with Victor becoming the Mayor. So, the mechanical way I'm handling the final fight is I split the city into 5 abstract sections. The players got tokens based on how the ongoing challenge went, and the final result was changed based on the person they backed. Each token represented 10% control, they could place the tokens where they wanted. If an area was at 100%, they completely controlled it, that area was locked, NOTHING to worry about. If an area reached 0%, complete anarchy, and it would take a MAJOR fight to get points back (ie: someone will probably die to make it happen). The generic things the group can do to raise a % in an abstract section of town: Fighty Fight: Shoot-out = 10% Dust-up = 20% Scrap = 30% Arcane Ritual: Escourt: Supply Wagon I will also generate specific events that occur. The final sessions are going to be "Real time" as the Siege of Pleasance, part 1 begins.

Justin's avatar on the boards... Since the plastics are cool, I can kitbash the metals for other things.