Scott Beattie

Thanks, it's great to have feedback. Time is a real killer, I remember David Lynch talking about how long it took to make Eraserhead with everyone's real life commitments and joked that it would be faster to do it as stop motion animation. I feel that way about my campaign, especially with other systems vying for attention.

Magic probably needs a primer too as it works very differently from other games, but is not always overt about stating those differences, nor about suggesting which talents are really really useful.

Interesting - would create a very different flavoured game. Much more lethal. Have you looked at the 'Trail of Cthulhu' system as well?

How about these ideas to kick it off... Academic Dissertation: One topic of specialisation that you always get a positive flip in, on the downside you can't ever shut up about it Perfomer For my public: The performer has a fan base and once per session that can call upon them for a vital clue, concealment from guild patrols etc (think Mel from Flight of the Conchords) Drudge You do it for her: There is something that makes the toil worthwhile - maybe a baby daughter, an unrequited love for a guardsman or just sweet sweet liquor. The drudge gets a bonus to resist hardship, torture, exhaustion where the special objective benefits from the suffering Gunslinger Squint: challenge to size up the room, determine relative strengths and experience, see who is armed Dabbler Air of the Rum and Uncanny: The dabbler may not actually be able to do magic yet, but they can appear mysterious, make seemingly wise pronouncements and scare off weak willed bullies.

I'm sure we could figure out some house rules on the forums, crowd source ideas for level 0 abilities...

Hi all, I'd like to share this adventure with you fine folks. The Leaves of Alithia This is the story of a very bad book. The Gaunt Bible, a lost grimoire of legendary First Breach arch villain Professor Mondragone has re-awoken and is set upon making trouble, more than a century after its author’s equivocal death. https://docs.google.com/document/d/14E2wpoc9W0uOQMgSltf-eiNlcgf8Q9-hDsfHQ7RxBdU/edit?usp=sharing

I had a look at Chronicles 14 and there wasn't a guide there and Recruitment Drive just has the scenario (at least in my version). It might be a good community project to work on, or at least develop some specs for what a guide would need to have in it. Top of my list is "how TTB magic is different to other other games you might have played" - which seems to create a lot of traffic on the forums.

I wonder if there isn't a space for a quickstart guide, something like the Star Wars roleplaying games have or like the Malifaux one? One of the biggest barriers I've found to introducing players is the need for a short snappy guide to using skills, combat and magic, and a reference guide so they don't have to keep asking questions. All the character generation stuff, equipment lists, spell lists are fine where they are, but something short, maybe 20 pages or so, would be a great help. The rules are quite straightforward once you grasp them but the explanations in the Fated book are ... obtuse and very very wordy. If this was an update-able pdf it could also be a spot for an index of skills, pursuits, etc as more books come out.

The destiny concept was the real clincher for me. You could probably use it with other systems if you wanted to but it gives the game a very distinctive flavour.

Although you do really need to know the Malifaux setting to make the most of it.

I'm not arguing the Guild are religious, just that the terminology and iconography that they use is one of the few traces of religious imagery in the rulebooks. As powerful as the Guild is, I doubt that religion or churches are just going to vanish from the world. If they have, there is going to be an interesting story in that.

The corporate version of the humanist dream of the enlightenment gone sour.

Yes, more 'criminal' than 'heretic'. And to be fair to the fascists, with Soulstones being a thing, there are going to be a few despicable sorcerers around.

Excellent. I guess you could always get some from the Gremlins - if you were really stupid and tired of living

Except that magic was real, albeit something that was draining out of the world (except the Three Kingdoms). I've mentioned Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell before, I think it is a good source of inspiration.

The status of religion in the TtB/Malifaux world is pretty ambiguous, which I'm guessing is a deliberate design decision. While there are witch-hunters they don't seem particularly religious and, unlike the real world, there are actually dangerous spellcasters around not just a bunch of pagans and elderly women to persecute. I think Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is an interesting example of a world where magic is real and the church seems to co-exist with it - maybe not happily but in a way that is different to actual history. I'm interested to see how other FM's are dealing with religions and churches...

The city that no one speaks of was built along occult geometries so my bet is on Canberra in Australia - which would explain a lot (it's where our politicians all are) http://www.davesact.com/2010/07/symbolism-in-canberra-plan.html

I'm using the shadow of Professor Mondragone, the fated are getting entangled in his schemes. I haven't decided if he's still alive, a ghost, or just someone whose plans are still in motion long after his death. He's a great Moriarty/Fantomas/Joker style villain.

Hopefully the Quarantine book will have some more stuff on spirits.

Remember - we're werewolves - not swearwolves.

The weather is pretty crazy and the seasons are inconstant. I imagine rain, when it comes would be quite heavy although the sewers have been built to deal with deluges far greater than those that have been experienced recently. The water table was contaminated in the Event, which has meant that water has to be shipped in via rail

Remember a tinkerer will have to switch pursuits to master spells - but at least changing pursuits is very flexible in TtB

This means that the element of surprise becomes very important for stories. If the tinkerer knows conflict is coming, they have time to light up the construct, but if they are ambushed it puts them on the back foot.

Magic works quite differently to other RPGs which can take a bit of getting used to. Casters are a lot more focused on a smaller number of abilities. It can feel a bit emasculating at first, especially comparing a sorcerer's damage output to a gunslinger. Works more as a horror game than as a fantasy game.

It's a massive improvement on the basic rules which were a little bit bland, lots more flavour and more Malifaux-y