Bakuriel

On 11/6/2019 at 1:33 PM, TheJoyInGaming said:

I just realized that the top of his cape that is split is something’s FACE.
 

Must ...resist.

I'm just waiting for the cape to come alive and say Edward 

Recently, due to a rather busy daily schedule that mostly involves chasing a very active toddler, I realized that I've been having a lot of quick but simple ideas that I've been throwing into my personal rp sessions, and it got me thinking, why not make a thread for quick, quirky ideas for ttb?

The concept is simple; any idea posted here shouldn't be too fleshed out, just a what if question that can lead a fatemaster in strange and engaging directions in their personal campaigns. I'll start us off with one I've been toying with to hilarious effect. 

What if the voice of the whisper sounded like the narrator from Naughty Bear?

And that's as far as the suggestion goes. Obviously feel free to post the more entertaining results from this thread, but for any ideas submitted, they should just be a very basic jumping off point for whoever intends to use it. Look forward to seeing some interesting thoughts!

Apologies for the lack of updates, life has been quite busy of late. I'll try to get back to this as soon as possible. 

After some deliberation I've decided on my adaptation, The Shack in the Bayou.

Five friends decide to take a trip into the bayou and spend the night in a mysterious abandoned shack. Little do they know the shack actually belongs to the Swamp Hag, Zoraida. The night quickly devolves into a parade of nightmarish monsters as Zoraida attempts to sacrifice the five friends in order to keep her most frightening and uncontrollable creation, The Worst Juju, slumbering beneath her swampy home. 

On 9/13/2019 at 8:06 AM, Kimberly said:

Heya Breachers!

I've written up a swell piece on what I love about In Defense of Innocence, but when I checked my calendar I just couldn't post it. It's just asking for a gift from Waldo to post anything like that on Friday the 13th, and I'm not one to tempt Fate (even if it's just Waldo claiming to be Fate's will.) So instead, I'm going with something a little more appropriate. 

Friday the 13th is upon us, and October is just around the corner. Even though the temperature here isn't feeling very autumnal, the spookiest time of year looms ahead. And well, we love us some spooky here at Wyrd! Personally, I feel that Through the Breach is a wonderful way to get in the Halloween mood, but I'm also a sucker for a good horror movie. So I thought, why not combine the two! 

From now until Halloween, hit me with your best horror movie translated for Through the Breach! It doesn't need to be a full one-shot or scenario write-up. Think more the plot hook or overview. Here's one I'd love to run as an example:

A small frontier town's children have been disappearing, and it's whispered among the frightened children that something slinks through the town taking the form of their greatest fears. 

Submit your horror movie re-imagining in this thread through October 31st, and a lucky winner will receive a spooky prize! I can't wait to see your submissions!

Are we limited to one entry? Cause I have several ideas that could all work. 

Act I Prologue

----------------------

Act I begins with a series of rumors. None of these directly refer to Alexander Barrows or his location, due to Alexander's growing paranoia over his current condition. Fated characters will only know two things for certain: somebody is sick, and whoever it is has a lot of money to spend on curing themselves. Rumors suggest there's a general call for anyone with medical knowledge to attempt to help Alexander, but if the party lacks a doctor, there are some in the city willing to risk the trip so long as they have sufficient protection for the journey.

(This post will be periodically updated whenever I am able to continue working on the module)

Player Motivations

For most Fated there will only be one major motivation for helping Alexander Barrows: the money. Whether they plan to cure him and take the sizable reward, or attempt to rob him blind, Alexander has the majority of the Barrows fortune stashed away somewhere in his mansion. 

Fated attached to certain factions might find themselves with other reasons to infiltrate the Barrows manor. 

The Guild: For the longest time, the Guild barely patrolled the Quarantine Zones, mostly enforcing the border and rarely venturing beyond the barricades and regularly accepting bribes from folk wanting to pass by with less than legal intentions 

That all changed with the arrival of Governor General Marlow. Equipment quality and wages increased, and patrols became regular through much of the city, including the quarantine zone. While a few groups evacuated due to the increased patrols, the well equipped mercenaries in the Barrows have allowed them to resist occupation. Without Alexander, or at least without his fortune, the mercenaries would leave for better prospects and break the back of the Barrows' resistance. 

The Ressurectionists: With the increased Guild presence, territory in the quarantine zone has become much more volatile. The Barrows represents both a bastion for those fleeing patrols as well as the promise of power. Be they refugees looking for sanctuary or marauders hoping to claim new territory, Alexander's illness presents a grand opportunity for the Fated.

The Outcasts: Among those vagrants, mercenaries, and other pariahs is a man by the name of Parker Barrows, a bandit who spends his time robbing others to make his way in life, always sure to announce to his victims who it is taking their money from them. This particular quirk came about after Parker's brother, none other than Alexander himself, stabbed his brother in the back and made off with his inheritance, hiding behind crooked lawyers and obscure laws before fleeing into Malifaux with his prize and, supposedly, Parker's former fiancee. 

Parker would love nothing more than to storm his way into Alexander's life and take everything he owns, not for the money itself so much as the principle, but the money is a nice bonus. Fated belonging to the Outcasts could offer knowledge of Alexander's location, for the right price. 

Alternatively, Fated belonging to Parker's gang of thieves could take it upon themselves to track the man down out of respect for their boss, and a generous cut of the plunder, of course. 

So, I'm putting this here initially as a placeholder post, but I will be updating and adding to it as necessary. 

Like the Dark Carnival module I worked on before, I'm getting the itch to write another one, this time much larger than before. My goal this time is to write an adventure module on a scale similar to Northern Aggression or Fire in the Sky. Lofty goals, I know, but it's been sticking with me for a while now.

The first thing I'd like to ask for help with is a name for the module. I don't have time tonight to start writing down the actual module pieces I've put together so far, but I do have an outline. I just haven't decided on a name for the adventure yet. 

To help with the idea process, this is the basic outline:

Act I: Rumors begin spreading throughout certain circles in malifaux that Alexander Barrows has fallen ill, and is spending large sums of his fortune on doctors seeking to cure himself. Thus far his efforts have failed. The focus will be on finding a doctor, if there isn't one in the party, and getting into the quarantine zone following Governor Marlow's increased patrols and security around those areas. 

Act II: After getting into the quarantine zone, the party will have to find their way to Barrows and convince him to let them help, and try to figure out what's wrong with him. There will be a number of potential setbacks with people in the area trying to capitalize on Alexander's illness. 

Act III: Parker Barrows will eventually hear of the rumors and begin amassing his gang in order to storm the Barrows and get revenge on his brother. Damage to the surrounding area will create an influx of refugees as well as draw the attention of the Guild into the area. Focus will be on preparing for the confrontation. 

Act IV: The actual showdown between the two brothers which will eventually turn into a three way crossfire between both sides of the feud and the Guild. The party will have to survive the bullet riddled altercation, and deal with the aftermath, which might involve discovering the real reason this all started in the first place. Still working on the specifics of that detail, but it'll be a doozy when finished. 

Feel free to post any ideas you have while I'm drawing up the actual posts for this, inspiration comes from all sorts of places after all. Appreciate any help I can get. 

On 4/21/2019 at 9:57 AM, retnab said:

Huh looks like it's changed again since.  It used to actually increase your DZ and had a line about "your DZ can never be in the enemy table half" more or less IIRC, I guess with it only letting the Frontier models deploy outside their DZ they cut that restriction.

It makes sense to me. As I said, most of the time it's just silly to deploy that far in because even your beater will die horribly for doing it. Plus it only happens on wedge deployment. 

Basse has some pretty hilarious potential with wedge deployment. Far from effective most of the time, just hilarious. 

I played a bit of Basse and he's pretty interesting. His crew likes position heavy setups where his ranged units can setup and really dig in. Home on the range is fantastic, and hedges the line between getting ridiculously early attacks in and getting yourself killed, since most of his units don't too amazingly well when swarmed in melee. He's definitely fun to play around with and one of the first boxes I'll be getting once he's out in 3e.

1 hour ago, Jakomo said:

So, I've been playing full Crossroads list. My effigy got his evolution upgrade.

On turn 2 Effigy (surprisingly) buried opponent's minion, that already activated. Then, on turn 3 he was replaced. The confusion is: the buried model doesn't has to unbury due to replace, does it? Furthermore, will it use Pine Box rules to unbury?

Okay, took a moment but I think I've got it figured out. 

1) Because the effigy wasn't buried or killed, the model buried by pine box unburies using the base rules for pine box when it activates. 

2) With step 4 of replace, lasting game effects treat the new model as the old model, so when the target unburies, it would be in base contact with the emissary as if it were the effigy. 

2 hours ago, 4thstringer said:

It's almost like his attacks are stat 5.  If you are spending master actions doing stat 5 attacks, especially ones as lame as Lucius's, you are losing.

I think you did leave out walking to push a bunch of friendly models up as possible actions for him though.

Beyond the first turn of the game I barely ever do that. His range of control with chain obey makes it pointless if you have the engine going. My point was more that he has one optimal job on the table and straying from it is almost never worth the effort. He could have stat 6 attacks, and I still probably wouldn't do anything but chain obey. It's just not worth losing the card tech. 

I brought up his old What Lackeys Are For because it gives him something else to do beyond that, and Subterfuge is a different reason to discard cards for his crew. I might actually be happy if Lucius had 0 attacks and went full control, but that's a bit exclusive to me, I think. I'd be perfectly happy losing hidden sniper to get back lackeys for the sake of diversity and interesting gameplay.

On 2/21/2019 at 2:24 AM, trikk said:

While we often disagree, you make a few very good points here.

HOWEVER...

 

I think the suggestion for change comes less from a power level/balance issue and more from a fun/chain-obey-snooze-fest issue. 

This I agree with. Lucius is my main master and as much as I love him, he's often doing too much in a single activation to be fun to play with or against. The card draw is okayish, I'm not terribly concerned with where that itself is right now, but if I had to equate him to anything right now it's m2e Colette prompt spamming. My activations with Lucius tend to feel very samey, it's most often command chain, command chain, command chain, maybe use misinformation. Once in a blue moon there's a sniper somewhere. 

The current design space is built around keywords having their niche, and Lucius certainly has his own locked down. But if I understand the intent correctly the goal is to create a diverse niche, not a restrictive one. I enjoy the option to issue a chain of bureaucratic tape to move a model halfway across the table, that's very thematic and flavorful. What I don't enjoy is the necessity of those chains. If I'm not wasting cards and time during my activations, then the crew barely functions, as others have hinted at. 

I prefer options. I want to be able to What Lackeys are For across the table to harass my opponent with the risk of Subterfuge, fancy cane or sniper an annoying scheme runner, then obey an ally to come support me or finish out a necessary scheme elsewhere. I certainly do not want to turn every single master action into 3 actions and slow the game down so much that it gives me a headache. Which has happened several times already. 

My main use out of legalese was politely refusing large quantities of moonshine from the brewmaster. Was quite worth it in that particular game, but it was a very niche ability if your opponent didn't have auras. 

There any reason we can't bring back x or y for range? Seems shorter and clearer than having an entire ability dedicated to the concept. And it's not totally out of the design space, we're still using Def or Wp resist for certain actions after all. 

Edit: at least I think we are

5 minutes ago, retnab said:

Being able to use projectiles while engaged would also let them shoot out of combat unless it specified they can use those actions while engaged only if shooting something engaging them

It specifically states that engagement is only ignored for the shooter and the target, other models still trigger friendly fire. But the discussion about this ability still points out that there are issues with clarity in how it operates. 

If it's that concerning it could instead say "this model may make  actions targeting models engaging it." That prevents abuse of the ability, but it also removes bandidos engagement range, and I'm not sure how that would impact the crew. 

Given that there a rules now for using  during engagement, it might be best to change Gunfighter to simply allow the model to use  while engaged. This allows bandidos to shoot into engagement with bandit raid, ignoring engagement with the target for friendly fire, keeps tara's defensive trigger.

I would like to point out that in all my discussions about Jack, I keep forgetting that the dead outlaws even exist because they're so inconsequential to the outcasts in general. Definitely needs a fix. 

If anyone pushes for a new model in the crew I'm still voting for the fumigator dude in above the law. 

I'm iffy on summoning stolen again. If that's allowed we'd need to rebalance Agony to account for that, as well as the demise power on the stolen themselves. The rat engine can go off the rails pretty quick if we aren't careful. 

That said, I wouldn't be against it if it's balanced out correctly, as long as it's attached to a bonus action. Either on its own, and we lose pustulent tumors, or as a trigger to unclean influence after making it into a bonus. Exercising hamelin's will sounds like something that could have a stolen summon trigger to me. 

2 hours ago, Zebo said:

Rat Emperor, made of three Rat Kings. A 9' monster made of thousands tiny rats that devours everything in range and may spit rats at range. 

That sounds like a unit that would really hate nutcrackers. 

1 hour ago, Alerteddonkey42 said:

That's crazy good. You opponent loses so much of the control over dealing with them. You just force a non-minion to kill them, you get to select which model gets the curse, and then assure that you get another guilty for free. It has been stated in this thread that the guilty feel like they have a good power level, I don't know why they would require the ability to do something that strong. They are only 5ss minions. 

 

As @Saduhem said, I'm making suggestions so they can be discussed in regards to balance and diversity. I get that the Guilty are fundamentally good models, but as they are now, are they good for Jack, or just good for 5 stones? Most of the complaints I've been hearing involve mobility and scheming. 

While I'm not against masters that do the scheming themselves, Jack has other things he needs to do most of the time, so it's apparently been falling to the Hanged, which seems grossly inefficient at the best of times. Nobody wants to change crooked men, drowned have improved recently, and the rest of the crew feel like they're mostly where they need to be. 

Guilty are the only models that feel unusual. They aren't bad, but they go in some weird directions. You want them to die, but they're not especially fast, and they have an attack action that can heal themselves, which is counterintuitive to being sacrificed. I've seen plenty of suggestions that it's so easy to prevent the resummon that it may as well not be there.

Since you bring up the issue of balance, the models can be adjusted if my idea comes around at all. You could add a stone and completely remove the resummon aspect of their demise and I'd still take them for the value they'd offer to my rather immobile crew. But that action isn't as straightforward as it sounds, as I'm pretty sure people forget you can cheat a low card out of your hand to fail the resulting attack on purpose. I'm just trying to foster discussion about where the guilty are currently, and whether they need something different to help the crew, or if we should just continue ham fistedly trying to fix an awkward mechanic. 

1 minute ago, Saduhem said:

Ooohhh, that's interesting! Love your thinking!

I like to think about problems from a mechanical and thematic angle. Tormented models tend to whisper unpleasant truths about their targets, which to me would make someone run to shut them up. Initially I'd been thinking of some way for guilty to hurt themselves to get their demise power, but in the process of looking at Lucius for entourage remembered the looking at me ability in Basse's crew. Feels like it would solve a lot of problems with one update. 

Just a small insight into the chaos that drives my thoughts. 

3 minutes ago, Saduhem said:

Anything to get that crew moving is welcome. It's a good crew, but there's a bit too much redundancy in what the minions do and it has a hard time scoring/denying mobility based schemes, and a lot of the other points rest on the shloulders of the Hanged and out of keyword hire.

Perhaps if flinging minions didn't force upgrade removal (which would also save stones as flinging Hanged is more efficient than stoning for masks all day, and guilty really want their target to have an upgrade) and we got any for of movement aid we'd be set.

Ligeia is pretty.. meh. Maybe she could help with that?

I'm pretty iffy on the existence of that discard trigger myself. Maybe kill that and add entourage, and see how it plays out. 

Also considering how the guilty might work with You lookin' at me? instead of Feed on Grief. 

6 hours ago, I'm a Teapot! said:

Just limit the tn from bacon bomb to +2 or +3 by glowy tokens... 

I'm not convinced that's necessary, but that's not a bad suggestion given the caps elsewhere. Sure, you can load a single piglet up, but anyone who plays wong that knows what to expect won't be standing close enough to get hit by more than one model, and it still takes more than a casual amount of setup for the payout. I'd need to see some battle reports to think this is anything beyond a "stars align" tactic or anything that could hit hard on anyone who doesn't know wong very well.