DefectiveDice

He's responsible for some really great stories! It was awesome to get to chat with him about them

If you haven't heard, myself and the guys at The Danger Planet have been running a narrative league for Malifaux. The community plays games and reports their results, and then the story advances based on how the factions do. If you want to get involved then check out our discords, but episode 3 is up now https://discord.gg/EXNuQUBnZm Hope to see you getting involved!

I got a chance to chat with Dave McGuire who used to write for wyrd! He wrote some real bangers including puzzle box, the story that introduced English Ivan, and the one where Zoraida goes time traveling! I'm really proud of it so I hope you'll check it out.

We are going to start playing through the many prewritten adventures Wyrd has put out. I have organized the campaign so that it can be drop in drop out, and every week can be a new group of fated, but regulars will still have a sense of progression. It is open to anyone who is interested, so if you want to join, head to my Discord and check the announcements channel https://discord.gg/kmE8bK84gu

I know some folks have problems with her, but I enjoy her story and I'm looking forward to learning more about her.

Thank you! Super glad you find them helpful :)

Overshadowed even by the other DMH master in the faction. RIP

Agreed with all of the points made above. I'll just add that as far as the bult and the Burning man, we don't really know what they are up to. The burning man gets these cult members indoctrinated, and they do wild stuff, but it's not clear why or to what end. The last book, Malifaux Burns, sort of started the story about how the BM is affecting several of the main characters, but it is mostly exposition, we don't get many answers. I will be waiting with bated breath to sink my teeth into the new book this October. I agree that most people get into the game for the setting and lore, I also think a big park is the look and feel. The art and the design of the characters is what makes people want to know more. That's why lowering the barrier to learning about those things, I hop, will be a good way to get more people into the game.

But here is a summary of the times she has shown up

I put together a video on all of the upcoming stuff from Wyrd in anticipation of Gencon. Ive been super hyped for the Kimon and Three Kingdoms since the first book came out. I did some digging to try to find art for all of the stuff that has been shown, but im fairly sure I'm missing some. If anyone is aware of more, let me know! In the meantime, I wanna get a convo going about what else we might see for the new factions, or potentially even the old ones. I think if they do a new KE adjunct, they will probably also do one for the other 3 factions at least. Any ideas for a Three Kingdoms Titan?

So Ive been making these videos about Malifaux lore for a while, but they kind of all presume that the viewer knows a bit about the setting. Knowing that, I started making a few videos on introducing folks to the lore, that do not require any preexisting knowledge. I also did a video on what to buy when you're trying to get in. These are all the types of resources I wish I had when I was getting into the game, and the types of things I want as tools to show potential new players. My question is, what other types of content do you think would be helpful to recruit new players, or help ease the process for people who are just getting in? There are a few other channels who do some excellent stuff from a rules perspective (ill link some below), so that's not really the kind of answer I'm curious about. Though if there's a rule type issue you think would be super helpful, let me know and Ill pass it on to some of the other folks who make videos. This is the video I just released, it briefly covers all of the lore that has taken place during the events of the game, 1901 through the present. I think it is a great way to catch someone up if they are new to the universe, and just want the highlights to understand what is going on. Check out a few of these other channels. There's a ton more, but these are some of my favorites for this type of stuff. Rules explanations: Malifaux University - YouTube Master analysis: The Danger Planet - YouTube General info and tips on how to get started playing: Corner Case - YouTube

Oh okay interesting. I would love to give him a go, but my primary opponent always takes a ton of anti armor so its tricky lol

Marcus is the first one who stands out to me. I have not gotten to play Hoffman 2 yet but ive heard he is better.

Yeah I agree here. I think having bad characters, or at least complicated characters, is only a bad thing. I think where it becomes a problem (and this is I think why some people have a problem with Levi in particular) is when it seems like the writers/designers are asking us to "like" the bad people, or at least be okay with the bad things that they do. I don't think that this is the case with Levi, but I guess I see why other people do. For the most part I think Wyrd does a good job making sure there are no pure "heroes" or "villains" and leave it up to the player to decide who to like or agree with. Except for Sonnia. She pure evil.

My channel started when I was preparing for FM my first TTB campaign, so I figure that some of my reading and research could be beneficial to other people. I wish I had a video like this to show to all of my players, who were almost all brand new to the setting. The plan is to do a few more that touch on the Malifaux side of things, and going over the tyrants rise and fall... and rise... etc. Let me know if there are any other topics that you think could be helpful to have a video on.

It also seems to be at least implied that he's often the one responsible for their deaths. He's not a nice man.

Yeah, it had a really interesting dynamic. Ramos being so confident that he is untouchable, and slowly realizing its not what he thinks. Really well done. Glad you're enjoying the videos!

The stated reason for the waifs being women is 1. That Leveticus likes looking at them but also 2. because he finds that people are less likely to be aggressive toward them as pretty girls (Source: Crossroads- "Sacrifice") There is definitely a romantic relationship between Levy and Alyce. On many occasions Levy has internal thoughts about all of the things he likes about Alyce, and he she makes a sarcastic comment when someone refers to her as his daughter. In Broken Promises- "Horizon's end" Levy specifically asks Hannah if the Freicorp will be okay with their "May-December relationship (meaning large age gap). That is not to say that he does not have any other intentions for her, but he has explicitly told her that he wouldn't and likely can't use her as a waif since her soul is too strong (Twisting Fates- "Because I Could Not Stop for Death"). I would say overall that he is portrayed as a dirty old man, but not necessarily in a rapey way. Murdery though... definitely murdery. Coincidentally I just finished doing a summary of all of Levys lore, if you're interested. https://youtu.be/VBRXo1mOXGc

Great points. To your point, I was going to mention that a lot of these problems could be a result of spreading too thin. It is hard to represent any one group really well when you're trying to represent all groups. And I'm really glad you brought up the other side. The Boxer has a lot of potential to become a really interesting character. He is Mei Fengs brother who started the rebellion against the Guild in China. We only really see him in one story, and he doesn't get into any romance, but he is characterized as very charismatic and likeable. I could easily see him turning out to be a ladies man.

Wow im really enjoying reading this topic, and thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts so far. A few thoughts i wanted to add: In my view, what Wyrd does when writing most of their characters is start with a well known trope, and then twist it to make it their own thing. In this way, they make unique and interesting characters, who still feel familiar enough that we recognize and understand certain aspects of the character. Much of fantasy writing is just a copy and paste of Tolkien or other popular works. Some people like that, some people don't. On the other hand, a writer could try to make everything brand new and different, but that might alienate a more casual reader/player who has to do more "work" to understand what is going on. By way of example, Seamus is a mad hatter, fairly well known trope. Wyrd took that trope and added a "bad things happen" twist to it, by making him a serial killer, whoremonger, necromancer who is trying to bring about the apocalypse. Unfortunately, many well known tropes come with a lot of negative stereotypes. In some cases, Wyrd has done (in my opinion) a pretty good job of countering those stereotypes by making the characters more nuanced. A good example is Marcus. The feral black man, beast master, noble savage trope. Obviously not a good look. However, for Marcus they added the detail that he is a scientist and was a college professor. His stories are both about resisting imperialist expansion (see High Noone) but also about the pursuit of knowledge (See: Eat of be eaten). The point here is not that a few positive characteristics make up for the writers playing into stereotypes. The problem with stereotypes is not that they are false, the problem is that they only show one potential element of that group. For example, the oversexualization of female characters is not an issue because no women want to every be sexualized, its a problem when that's the only defining characteristic of all of the women in a story. The solution is not to pretend that women don't have any sexuality, it is to make sure that you have enough female characters to show a wide diversity of female experiences. Going back to the Marcus example, some other prominent black men in the story are Basse- Dedicated father and Niel Henry- Hardworking craftsman. (Quick note, governor general Marlow is described as having brown skin, but they don't give him a specific race). I think it would be fair to say that this is not enough different characters for my point to be fully water tight, but I do think it shows that effort has been made in a meaningful way, and we should also consider that the total amount of lore that has been written for Malifaux would probably fit in 1 novel, maybe 2. Now to address the specific point brought up in the topic. As a few people have pointed out, I think that sexuality is a topic that the lore does not cover very much., perhaps to its detriment. While we do see interracial couples, which I consider positive representation (though I would like to see a white male/black female couple since its less tropey), we definitely do not see any non-heterosexual characters, at least not explicitly. I think that is a missed opportunity. But I think I largely disagree with how a few people have been characterizing the Asian female characters here. To start, let's talk about Mei Feng (Im actually working on a video about her right now). Ruthless, unruly, charismatic leader of working people. None of these things are typical Asian female stereotypes. As far as her relationship with Ivan goes, I think their situation is even less clear than what folks have been discussing. To catch folks up, Mei Feng fights the Govenor General, and Ivan shows up to take care of her after the battle (impliedly on order from Ramos to learn more about Meis allegiance to the Thunders). They spend time together while she is recovering, and grow "close". But in "Ten Thunders Vignettes" from Ripples of Fate, it explicitly states that this was not a romance. I think at most it could be read to imply they may have slept together, but even that is unclear (Again, Wyrd seems to avoid romance/sex in the stories). Now, this may not be enough to alleviate concerns about the Asian women all going work non-asian men, and the implication that Asian men are unappealing. For the record, I am not sure I disagree with OP's main point, just interested in furthering the discussion. But I do want to look at the other example of Asian female representation. Misaki is largely non-sexualized and is portrayed as a cunning leader with a conflicted morality (parents were likely both Japanese, though we never meet her mother). While Youko is sexualized, she is empowered by her sexuality and uses it to broker information (she's also the only person discussed so far who isn't a criminal). Yamaziko plays the traditional male role as the wise mentor. And as stated above, Asami is an aspiring mother who is manipulated into doing bad things. Overall I think there are enough different Asian women in the lore to give a fair amount of different perspectives without falling too far into stereotypes. That said, it would be nice to see more relationships between Asian women and Asian men. All that said, lets apply this to the Asian man stereotype. I think the original post brings up the important point that there are not many examples of Asian men to look at. Nearly all of them are the stoic martial arts master type (Shenlong, Sensei Yu, Ototo, to some extent Kang) and don't have much characterization at all. I did a whole video on Shenlong, and for how important he should be to the overall story (he has a Tyrant living in his head) there is basically one story that gives us any real insight into his character. And that insight is almost entirely his thoughts about the Dragon, and them arguing with each other, but very little of him interacting with other characters. I think the point has been made that Shenlong is one of the least dressed characters in the game, and his rippling muscles are sexualized in the way that many female characters are sexualized, but I think this is missing the point of the post. Shenlong has no sexual agency. He does not interact with any female characters, nor is he described as having a family or girlfriend/wife, nor a desire to do so. What this implicitly says, is that while he may be physically attractive, he has no desire to be sexual, nor does any woman in the story have a desire for him. I might be willing to chalk that up to a lack of romance/sex in the story at large, but I think the problem is exacerbated by the lack of interesting and nuanced Asian males in the story in general. In conclusion, I think I largely agree that this is an area that Wyrd could do better in, with the caveat that they do not get too into the subject of sexuality in general, and perhaps do not want to. On the other hand, I would go further than OP and say that I think the representation of Asian Males in general needs to be fleshed out, as the few examples we have right now are very samey underdeveloped. I do want to add that one of the main things that drew me to this game is the great job Wyrd does with representation in general compared to almost anything else, and the fact that we can even have this discussion is a great thing. However, they are not perfect and I think it is fair to levy criticism where it is due. I am confident that they will not only read this thread, but seriously consider the concerns that have been raised. Two last things: It is confirmed that Levi and Alyce are in a relationship, im not sure what one of the other posters meant about him being a r@pist (I know Alyce is young, but I dont think shes underage) Not only do they not play into the hypersexual Latina stereotype with Perdita, but when Hoffman accidentally thinks she is hitting on him, she laughs at him. Just a fun thing to note.