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Yeah, the pursuits don't natively get rid of requirements.  Though Dabbler does remove a requirement and Graverobber removes a .  I don't remember off the top of my head if any other caster pursuit helps with suits, but as said, Specialized Skill is a talent available to everyone for any skill.

Another note:  if you're using a spell which is an attack, then your TN flip to see if the spell works is also your attack flip.  So not only do you need to fill all of the spell's casting requirements, but you also have to defeat your opponent's defenses with the same card.

Emissary upgrades are in response to the meta surrounding each master. Since the new masters don't have established metas, designing upgrades for them would be difficult/dangerous. I believe Justin has said something akin to that somewhere on the forums.

The box also comes with three bases, so unless you want something besides the default black, they come with everything you need no matter how many you put on a base.

It ranges from being used as P.F. and PF in the Fated Almanac timeline fluff.  I just tried doing a quick skim, and couldn't find an actual definition.

55 minutes ago, Rob Lo said:

You'll probably be able to tell the true gremlin players because they'll fly him around making odd whoop-zip-ping noises every time they move him.

I've been found out!

Critical injuries can accomplish that. There's likely at least one magia which could (away from my book at the moment), and there are likely talents which could do it as well.

Yeah, part of the proper execution is also using two-to-four activations to test the waters and see if you need to kick it into gear.  Even if you trigger it early there's nothing requiring you to complete the full chain, and thus you can maintain padding for the following turns.

That said I think for most of the Outcast masters is registers as simply a strong (and boring for certain populations) technique.  It becomes the possibly overpowered technique that everyone is discussing when paired with a master who can cause mass destruction (Viks and Levi) in addition to a standard beater investment (thus two killing machines for the price of one).

I haven't seen anyone bring it up, but I'm curious how the rat engine works with Misaki.  Is she like Tara in that she could appreciate the boost, but doesn't go over the top, or does her assassin nature let her take advantage of the engine in a fashion similar to Levi and the Viks?

I view them as seasonal shakeups to the tournament scene rather than full on replacements  for the original material.

A currently active discussion is also happening over here:

How many of the proposed solutions to fighting against the rat engine won't cripple your ability to accomplish schemes/strats and also still prepare for non-rat engine crews? Does preparing for the engine create problems if your opponent ends up fielding something else?

In one year Wyrd will be selling models that are five feet tall.

Oh, I'll use pursuits if they fit what I want the NPC to do. I may or may not do the tarot. I may just pick a number set from the list that fits what I want.

Talents can be ones from the book or crazy ones you make up.

The enforcer level is a great start. From there I've just built "fated" characters and given them as many destiny steps as I felt appropriate. Talents and powers are whatever fun you want.

My one worry with more and more books coming out is that the rule system will turn into something like Hackmaster (the far end of the rules heavy spectrum that I've dealt with).  It doesn't need to remain as light as Dogs in the Vineyard or other narrative-first games, but I really hate rules bloat.

Draw a card from their Twist Deck into their Twist Hand. The communal Fate Deck is just for flipping cards, and any time flipping additional cards is mentioned it will be with the symbol.

My girlfriend is into the team of ladies who kick ass aesthetic (and cats), and we've found Arcanists to be the best for it. 

You have masters: Colette, Ironsudes, Rasputina, Karris, and Mei Feng.

Then for your actual list you have December Acolytes, Silent Ones, Snow Storm, Myranda, all of the showgirls, the lady Gunsmith, the Mechanical Rider, Johanna (limited edition), and a whole host of gender neutral beasts and machines. I probably missed a few ladies as well.

I'm not sure any other faction can really pull off a complete lady list very easily without conversions.

I let them know every time at the very beginning. When I first ran TTB I tried hidden target numbers, but none of my players would use cards from their hands. After I gave away TNs I found card use grew to where it should be.

Grimm Fairytales of Malifaux seems like a fitting and fun way to go.  Hell, Mother Goose would probably make a fun model.

It will be Envy on a jet-powered penny farthing as a counterpoint to his giant spider.  Wild Wild West!

I agree that it's good to balance for both competitive and casual play, but then it also pretty much turns into two different balance tiers rather than one cohesive balance structure.  Now, I admittedly have been out of the loop on League of Legends balance for a couple of years now, but their official doctrine "back in the day" was to balance top tier play first in order to prevent tournament stagnation.  The next balance level was "pub-stompers."  Characters that were pretty much crap in competitive play, but still caused a toxic environment in low-level play because new players didn't have the knowledge/skill to deal with them properly.  Pubstompers would get n-erfed to nigh-unplayability in order to protect new players and had the known caveat "this will never see competitive play."

The discussions around Belles often sounds like how people would discuss pubstompers in LoL.  They're a pain in the ass to deal with, but once you know what you're doing, they're just another factor in the game.

The discussions around Ratjoy (or ratctivation for killey Outcast masters) sounds more like the global-range ultimate problem LoL had a long time ago.  It's a problem that competitive play often capitalized on, and made it so champions with global-range would frequently get banned or picked first in drafts.  Now, they didn't win every game, but they had absurdly high influence in dictating the game's pacing.

There isn't really a defined list like that.  For the most part "immunities" are more defined by what abilities say the can/cannot target rather than a blanket immunity to effects.  Since there are Genus Immutos which can adjust what can be targeted by spells/manifested powers the whole situation is insanely mutable.

I just stick with the factions I find the most interesting/fun and then within that stick with aesthetic preferences.  I have too many other hobbies and not enough funds to buy absolutely everything (which especially counts for the things I don't like the looks of).

25 minutes ago, ABoyNamedSue said:

I have to disagree completely.

The Resurrectionists are probably the most chaos-aligned faction after Gremlins. There is no sort of organization among with each necromancer doing their own thing. At least half of the faction is crazy people who hear a voice in their head.

Nor do I think the Neverborn could really fit "Lawful Evil" label. Maybe the Nephilim can be considered Lawful, but generally, the Neverborn themselves are described as chaotic. I believe that was the reasoning that Lucius "true nature" couldn't be painted.

Outcasts.... well, sure. They're a bit of everything and as I have said individuals don't necessarily follow their "faction's alignment" like Nicodem.

I was aiming for more aesthetic tropes.  Nephilim look like devils, which in DnD are lawful evil (or demons which are chaotic evil).  Similarly necromancers are often painted as lawful evil in DnD tropes, and Resurrectionists share the visual theme. 

Narratively you are absolutely correct that they don't fit.  But I've also never actually liked the DnD alignment system.  It's always felt too simplified to me.

For DnD alignments I've found Lawful Evil to be interesting when defined as Machiavellian.  A character who believes in an established order (or building one) and possessing no limits for how to obtain said order.  Given that setup I would likely look to the following:

• Lucius - Probably the most obvious.  A faceless bureaucrat who will sacrifice everyone else to reach his unknown goal.
• Ramos - A man of the people who thinks of them as nothing more than parts in his machine.
• Nicodem - A knowledge-seeker who hasn't gone [as openly] mad as his academic peers.
• I don't know enough about the Ten Thunders, but I'm sure at least one of their masters fits the bill.

I'm in agreement with many comments above about good vs evil classifications not being as clear-cut as usual here.  The Neverborn for example are themed in a traditionally evil way, but Zoraida, Lilith, and Pandora seem to be seeking ways to actually save [their] citizens of Malifaux.  Dreamer commits some of the greatest acts of death and destruction, but he seems ignorant of the truth of his actions (Lord Chompy/Nytemare on the other hand is classically evil).  The other faction modeled on traditionally evil tropes, the Resurrectionists, also contains some good/sympathetic characters.  Now, I personally find Seamus to be an awful/evil character, but Kirai and Molly are both seem to be fighting to survive (with a bit of vengeance gone too far mixed in).

I think a better way to define what you're aiming for alignment-wise could be, "Which faction best fits a lawful evil aesthetic?"  For that I would say: Neverborn, Resurrectionists, and a few Outcasts.  Then again, maybe you are looking to play evil for story; in which case you're likely stuck with the "depends" answers both here and above.

You could always use money to hire them instead.