TtB GM help!!

[RebeccaJo]

Hello everyone,

Long time Malifaux player looking to get my gaming group into TtB. My husband and I are both henchman and he is planning on taking over the Malifaux aspect and I am stepping up to lead the TtB part. 

Now, I've never GMed before... ever. I've played my fair share of games as a player, but never as the role of the GM. Besides just being completely nervous and a little overwhelmed, I'm wondering if all of you guys would have any advice or anything if able to help out in the coming weeks.

I do have some questions though:
1] What general tips or tricks are there to building a self written adventure?
2] How many times can a person cast a spell? Are there a limit of spells per day like other RPGs?
3] How do you deal with or create manifested powers?
4] At the prologue, how do you handle the "leveling up" process? I know you can pick skills for people to level up or get, but how is that done? Is there any formula you guys use to determine this?
5] When using the one-offs [Penny Dreadfuls] without the pregenterated characters [whether they are provided or not] how do you handle leveling up and progression?
6] I know each session needs to focused towards advancing or defining a Fated's fate[destiny]. How do you go about this?
7] Is initiative flips for dynamic events [combat] used from the central fate deck?
8] How do you go about setting a target number?
9] I've read over the section several times, but I"m still having trouble understanding Margins of Success/Margins of Failure. Any easier way to understand it?

 

I'm sure a lot of these questions are "noobish," and I feel kinda silly asking them, but I want to make sure I have a full grasp of understanding before I start creating and getting this moving forward. The ultimate goal is for everyone to have fun; I just want to make sure I have an understanding so my players can focus on having fun instead of flipping through rulebooks looking for what they can do.

 

Thanks! <3
-RebeccaJo

[zeeblee]

1)  Uhhh... I think that mostly comes down to "how do you like to write stories?" with a bit of "no plan survives contact with the enemy" and finally some "players in TTB are higher powered than most antagonistic forces."

2)  A person can cast as many times per day as they wish.  Or you can view it under the action point system, which is every round of Dramatic Time they generate 2 AP.  Spells usually cost 1 AP to cast, but that can go up or down given the right Immuto.

3)  For manifested powers I've mostly ended up having players create fixed-spells (since normally spellcasting is mutable with every cast) which use different skills/suits.  Though you can really do whatever you like as long as you the Fatemaster are comfortable with it.

4)  The prologue is actually where players choose their pursuit for the coming session.  During the epilogue you generate skill lists.  I pretty much look back on whatever it was that a player did that was significant in any way (did they do something very important, did they do something often, did they epically fail something, is a certain skill a sort of theme for the session/story) and give each player three skills as options from said list.  For example:

The story was heavily focused on hunting down an escaped convict, so Track may be a good choice in general.  David ended up getting very important information from a game of cards, so Gambling would be good for him.  David also nearly died after eating a poisonous mushroom in the wild, so Wilderness or Toughness could be good (or even Carouse if he tried to pretend he was fine).  Based on that I may then offer David Track, Gambling, and Wilderness as his three options.

5)  If a one-off is intended to be a single session, then I would just treat it as such for the purpose of granting one of your players a fate step.  Though it would be best to have it actually match up with their fate in an interesting way.  If it ends up taking longer than one session, my current model is to grant one experience point at the end of every play session, and then to do the epilogue (granting skills and a fate step) at the end of the action pre-generated session arc.

6)  This goes back to my answer to question 1.  Fate steps can mean whatever you want them to mean.  They can be literal, they can be crazy vague, or anything in-between.  You can look to classic Greek myth for examples.  Such as when an oracle said, "A great wall of wood will save you." and Athens ended up defending their city successfully with a fleet of ships.  Go nuts!

7)  Everything is drawn from the central Fate Deck.  Only if a player wants to cheat fate are any other decks involved (or if you change up how you do combat to match the skirmish game...)

8)  The table at the bottom right of page 248 in the Fated Almanac is a relatively good guide.  Just decide how difficult you want a task to be, and propose the target number.  Though if your players are interacting with a non-player character with fully functional stats, then you will use their AV (generated just like a player character) plus their rank value to generate a target number.  This is both for "defense" and "offense."

9)  Sure!  Margins of success/failure aren't too difficult.  Though they aren't defined as doing anything special outside of combat (so you can either ignore the rule or enact your own fun bits).  I'll separate my full answers below:

• Player decides to perform an action or the Fatemaster asks them to flip for something.
• Inform the player of the Target Number (TN)
• Player flips card and adds their related skill's AV
• If the player's total is less than the TN, then the action fails.  If they fail by 5 or greater, then that is one margin of failure.  If they fail by 10 or greater, then that is two margins of failure (margins are multiples of five).  Combat gives rules for margins of failure, but for other tests you can either ignore this or develop your own special results (one margin of failure on jumping could result in one wound or something)
• If the player's total is equal to or greater than the TN, then the action succeeds.  If they beat the TN by 5 or greater, then that is one margin of success.  If they win by 10 or greater, then that is two margins of success (again, multiples of five).  Once again combat gives rules for what to do with margins of success, and out of combat you will either ignore this rule or add in your own special results (one margin of success on Notice could result in finding more clues)

I hope that helps!  Let me know if anything could be made clearer.

[Brewmaster]

1] What general tips or tricks are there to building a self written adventure?

Take a Bruce Willis movie and Mad Lib the pronouns out for "Malifaux" words ^_^. For a Campaign, the best advice I have is "Keep track of 3 things: Where they're at, where you want to end, and what your players do to get there." 
2] How many times can a person cast a spell? Are there a limit of spells per day like other RPGs?

No limit.
3] How do you deal with or create manifested powers?

Whatever you feel comfortable with in your game honestly. When players start out, they shouldn't have anything above what you can find on a minion card. As they get to the halfway point ish, think Enforcer, then towards the end think Henchman.

4] At the prologue, how do you handle the "leveling up" process? I know you can pick skills for people to level up or get, but how is that done? Is there any formula you guys use to determine this?

You as the FM suggest to the players 3 skills they used the most in that session. The player picks one you suggested, or one their pursuit allows.
5] When using the one-offs [Penny Dreadfuls] without the pregenterated characters [whether they are provided or not] how do you handle leveling up and progression?

Other than the Tarot Readings, progression should be like normal.
6] I know each session needs to focused towards advancing or defining a Fated's fate[destiny]. How do you go about this?

This is a toughie. I honestly look at all 5 of the players Fate Steps, and construct a 5 part plot from that. But beyond that, it's really just having a decision in the story that changes based on that player's actions

7] Is initiative flips for dynamic events [combat] used from the central fate deck?

Yup.
8] How do you go about setting a target number?

Again, this is a fiddly one that's kinda based on your preference. Towards the beginning of the Fatemaster's Guide, they give you suggestions.
9] I've read over the section several times, but I"m still having trouble understanding Margins of Success/Margins of Failure. Any easier way to understand it?

When you determine weak/moderate/severe in Malifaux? It's like that

[Swiglitz]

All of the advice above is awesome so I'm not going to repeat what these guys have already said, but ...

 

In terms of writing your own adventures/scenarios/stories, I could write reams and reams about this but I'll try to boil it down to a couple of, what I think, are key points.

1. TtB is a very player facing game, by that I mean the Fatemaster doesn't engage in any mechanics behind the scenes. You don't make any card flips or engage in any game mechanics beyond setting Target Numbers and interpreting results. As a result of that it can be difficult, at first, to get a feel for what makes a challenging encounter, be it social, combat or whatever. My advice when starting out is to err on the side of caution and set the TN's on the lower end of the scale. An average TN should be somewhere in the 9-11 region, but that doesn't mean your Fated will be able to hit that number with any regularity in all situations. For your first few encounters I'd be looking at lower TN's maybe something like 7-9. If you find the Fated are breezing past these challenges you can start to ramp up the difficulty until you're happy with level of success/failure. This is quite an organic process so don't think you have to have it all figured out before the game begins. Besides, giving players a high success rate early on lets them feel quite empowered and capable of taking on whatever challenges you throw at them later.

2. Plot and pacing trump mechanics. Never let the game rules get in the way of a good scene or story. Feel free to bend or ignore the rules occasionally if it leads to a more fun experience. Most players won't call you on this if they have a good time or get to do something cool in game.

3. Players will surprise you, fact. They'll think of things to do that you never considered. They'll ignore your carefully scripted clues and run off pursuing their own red herrings. This is going to happen. There's no way around it. To get the most of this, be prepared to think on your feet a little. The good news is, you are omniscient, you know what every other character in the scenario is thinking and doing when your players start blazing their own trail. It's up to you to steer the Fated back towards the plot by using whatever tools you have available. NPC's might take different actions due to the Fated's interference or lack thereof, so be prepared to fudge it a little. Or you could fully embrace the Fated's whims and decide their ideas are better and more interesting than the story you have written. This requires a lot of by-the-seat-your-pants, sandbox style playing but can lead to some really memorable stories, particularly as the players get to think they're really smart for figuring it all out.

4. Destiny steps are a tough call in my opinion. There's a lot of really great advice on these forums about interpreting and writing for Destinies. I'm currently trying a different tack. My scenario's are written ahead of time with a view to tying all together to form a larger campaign, very much like a TV series. Rather than trying to cram in 15-20 destiny steps into this already complex arrangement we resolve Destiny Steps during the Epilogue of each Story. I'm firmly in the camp of involving the players in every aspect of the game, so when we complete a scenario we talk about the skill progression as a group, rather than me dictating what skills they can choose from. Once this is done we talk about if anyone feels like a scene or event in the scenario resolved a destiny step. I've found it helps draw the players into their character's and destinies as they feel like they're having an input in the future of their character. It often ends up much like someone reading their horoscope after the fact with players finding reasons to attach significance to otherwise mundane events. This may not work for everybody as it requires a pretty open dialogue between all the players and the Fatemaster, but if you're struggling to find ways to fit things in it's worth a shot. I should probably mention that sometimes no one feels like they resolved a destiny and that's fine, not everything in life is a portentous symbol of your fate. Also, if more than one player feels they've touched upon their destiny that's also fine.

5. Finally if this is your first time GMing I'd suggest reading as many of the pre-written Penny Dreadfuls and One-shots as you can. Even if you don't use them they'll help give you an idea about structure and pacing, and you can always steal any particularly cool scenes or characters for your own scenarios.

 

Have fun, and please pop back on and let us know how you got on.

 

[Sunspotter]

Hey! as a long time GM, I hope I can give some good advice for a fun system!

1] What general tips or tricks are there to building a self written adventure?
Generally, the one tip I give to new GMs is to think of the story as a skeleton, with key points, and allowing the players to fill in the rest! I've always described RPGs in general as colaberative world-building and storytelling to people who aren't into the hobby. think of it this way: you, as the GM, are the plot, and your players are the characters. give them tips, and do your best to help guide them, but also try your best not to force them into the direction you'd want them to go, drop a few hints in the right direction, and they're sure to find it!

the other great thing in TTB is that the character's destiny is built right in, so my suggestion would be to think of where your characters are, think of a direction you'd want them to go, and use a part of a character's reading as either a plot twist, or a subtle nod over the course of the session.

ultimately, the greatest skill a DM, GM, FM,  or Storyteller (or gods help you MM) is to be able to think on the fly, even when it comes to pre-built adventures. let your characters run wild, build the world up a bit, and the story lines practically produce themselves! 

2] How many times can a person cast a spell? Are there a limit of spells per day like other RPGs?

As said above, there's no limit of number, generally the target number is the thing limiting a spell (so as a word of warning, gear that reduces TNs is generally extremely powerful)

3] How do you deal with or create manifested powers?

I beleive there's a guide in Into the Steam, otherwise, I say look at the miniatures game! they're based in the same engine, so they translate very well between systems. a fast chracter might get something like Wander the Earth, while an almost unstoppable brick of a human being might gain juggernaut. really, talk to your players about what they want to do, and think of what kind of powers might represent the direction they'd want to go in. past that, making a manifested power for a player can be a collaborative effort

4] At the prologue, how do you handle the "leveling up" process? I know you can pick skills for people to level up or get, but how is that done? Is there any formula you guys use to determine this?

generally, it's based on an action that they perform over the course of the session. just keep in mind the things that happen, and you can probably come up with three things. my favorite trick is offering two they're built into and one "wing nut" skill, because the pursuit more often than not lets them pick a skill they'd want.

For example, In a session defended himself from a neverborn attack with his trusty rail hammer, so that could give him an option for heavy melee. he later ended up staring a a whispering madness down, so he could get a point in centering. finally, he did end up ducking into a breeding pen while hiding from the eldrich abomination that chased the neverborn there, so he could always take that very first point in husbandry...

5] When using the one-offs [Penny Dreadfuls] without the pregenterated characters [whether they are provided or not] how do you handle leveling up and progression?

As you would with any other session! they're basically meant to be sessions that are pre-written for your convenience. if you want to write your own sessions afterwards, pay attention to the general structure and pacing, and you can learn how to control them in your own sessions!

6] I know each session needs to focused towards advancing or defining a Fated's fate[destiny]. How do you go about this?

There are two approaches, one is to have a small sheet with each of the fated's destiny written down, and if they end up coming to a point where you could see an easy hook for a step, at that point, you could use that minor twist to change the directions so that fated has to make some form of crucial action

the other would be planning it beforehand, and altering the theme of the session after the destiny step, making cryptic nods to it.
 

7] Is initiative flips for dynamic events [combat] used from the central fate deck?

Yep

8] How do you go about setting a target number?

The FM guide is a lifesaver, but you'll find over time that as you watch how often certain characters succeed and fail with certain numbers, you can easily start to tweak them yourself

9] I've read over the section several times, but I"m still having trouble understanding Margins of Success/Margins of Failure. Any easier way to understand it?

Brewmaster got this one perfectly

 

Otherwise, my one tip, try to get inside the head of the NPCs, because if you're trying to think like them, the players will be able to respond in turn, and everyone will be more immersed.

otherwise, here's to a long, successful TTB campaign!

 

[Omenbringer]

Mason (one of the stewards of the game) wrote an article about creating adventures for TtB in this months Wyrd Chronicles.

Aside from that and the advice given above (all great btw), all I would add is be prepared for the idiosyncrasies of the non-fated static resolution system. At the low end, the Fated are "action heroes" and  can make a mockery of most combats involving Enforcers and below. It is the opposite at the high end (Henchman or above),where the Fated will really struggle to do anything significant against non-fated.

In short the strength of the system is in the story, not the combat mechanics. Beware the munchkin.

[RebeccaJo]

Thank you guys so much for all the help! I think a lot of it is just my general fear of not having al the right answers. Another thing is having to look something up or getting rules wrong. I'm usually the rules marshal between my husband and I when it comes running our Malifaux tournaments/leauges/etc. I've been listening to a lot of podcasts of other RPGs and trying to soak up all the advice and knowledge I can get on how to keep the players engaged and understanding that it's okay if not everything goes to plan. 

[Brewmaster]

It's an understandable reaction ^_^. One of the cardinal rules I live by as a GM is "The players only know what you tell em". As long as everyone's having fun, you'll be alright. Knowing the minis game means you have 82% of the rules down pat, so it's really just the last tiny bits. The Fatemasters Screen is a useful tool for the tricky bits.

[Sunspotter]

it's okay if not everything goes to plan. 

It's amazing that you realize it, because that's almost the singular "newbie" mistake new GMs make