Explorer's Society Keywords

[TheEmptyRoad]

The discussion in Daeva turned more towards Keyword discussion so I thought I'd give that its own thread.

My Keyword related thoughts for the Explorer's Society:

What I expect to see for our Frontier boys and girls will be some more beasties in both ES and Arcanists. Some 'Hunting Hound'-type things like the Guild Hounds and Canine Remains in ES, with either Frontier/Apex or Apex/Versatile, or just plain Versatile, and some more dual-keyword Chimera/Frontier Beasties in Arcanists. Paul would get some more critters to play with in all of his crews, Arcanist and Neverborn Marcus, as well as Guild and Explorer's Society Basse.

Another example I can see Wyrd doing more of is things like the Foundry Keyword. Foundry covers three factions, each with at least three different models. Some of our keywords'll get models in other factions and vice-versa, ES will get factions models of other keywords, likely as secondary keywords.

It's stuff like this I expect to see more of.

Some secondary keywords I can see joining our illustrious bands of adventurers are: Half-Blood, Academic, Kin, Mercenary.

[Jesy Blue]

Man, I miss my old K9 unit I used to run in 2nd:  Von Schill, Nix, 4 Guild Hounds, 4 Corrupted Hounds, and 3 Canine Remains.  If it came back on some form, that would be a surefire way to get me to join the faction.

I can see some Apex bleeding over into Chimera... if they're going into animals as well as people.  If the route is going to be "man is the ultimate Apex predator" then probably not.

Possible a Wastral/Bandit bleed over... possibly a Plunket & McClane gentlemen highwayman schtick.

I am all down for the Half-Blood keyword; I assume aristocrats with an ancient Neverborn bloodline being passed down and they're just better than the normal "riff raff".

In contrast, I cannot see a place for Asylum in any faction as a full keyword, it just seems so limiting.

I'm still holding out for a traveling carnival of Gremins and Dinosaurs [see May 2019 episode of Steam Powered Scoundrels].

[GJ Yan]

On 2/4/2020 at 3:00 PM, Jesy Blue said:

I am all down for the Half-Blood keyword; I assume aristocrats with an ancient Neverborn bloodline being passed down and they're just better than the normal "riff raff".

I love that idea. It would also explain the renaming of the Scion of Black Blood to Maurice - sounds a bit more aristocratic, doesn't it?

[admiralvorkraft]

Re: asylum - it depends on how broad wyrd is getting with the notion of "explorers." If the Umbra master ends up being an Edwardian spirit medium type character (which would be awesome) then I could also see a Jekyll/Hyde psychoanalyst type. 

Aaaaand if those two were to come out I'd end up buying into yet another faction. So I hope they do something boring instead 😛

[SerZaka]

36 minutes ago, zesty said:

Maurice - sounds a bit more aristocratic, doesn't it?

 

In the book they say that Maurice was a bartender in the wastelands xD not very aristocratic at all 

[Jesy Blue]

Anyone else have "The Joker" by The Steve Miller Band stuck in their head now?

[Kharnage]

10 minutes ago, SerZaka said:

In the book they say that Maurice was a bartender in the wastelands xD not very aristocratic at all 

T-posing for dominance is also not very aristocratic... if they do something with the half bloods I hope they get different sculpts 

[Morgan Vening]

2 hours ago, SerZaka said:

In the book they say that Maurice was a bartender in the wastelands xD not very aristocratic at all 

He should be a hireable by Tara and Parker. Cause he's a space cowboy.

And he should be able to summon the Cherub. Cause he's the gangster of love.

And he should also have Rasputina's 2nd Ed "December's Pawn" Upgrade ability.

There, I've said my peace.

[Maniacal_cackle]

So keywords that seem likely so far are:

• Frontier
• Wastrel
• Apex
• Umbra
• Asylum
• Half-blood

Assuming you accept the theory those two keywords are going to be in there.

You usually have 7-9 masters for a faction, right? So I'm betting two new unique keywords, maybe 3. Then they'll probably try to do some keyword bridging (like puppet if they wanted yo get crossover with Neverborn, Zombie to get crossover with Ressers, Elemental to get crossover with Arcanists, etc).

King of the Crossroads could make sense with a Crossroads master, but I doubt it. I suspect that keyword would be overpowered with a master.

Horsemen would be a really cool henchman, but again for power level reasons I'd not bet on that one.

So really it seems like there isn't space for THAT much to happen beyond incorporating asylum and half-blood if that's the direction they go.

[Jesy Blue]

1 hour ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

King of the Crossroads could make sense with a Crossroads master, but I doubt it. I suspect that keyword would be overpowered with a master.

What about a double model henchman of the two people who gave the 7 the deal?  No other models, just the Band and the Kingmakers.

[Maniacal_cackle]

17 minutes ago, Jesy Blue said:

What about a double model henchman of the two people who gave the 7 the deal?  No other models, just the Band and the Kingmakers.

And maybe some henchmen Crossroads minions! That'd be pretty cool!

EDIT: Henchmen minions... Does not make sense. Crossroad minions is what I meant xD

[Bort]

3 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

 

You usually have 7-9 masters for a faction, right?

Just being pedantic, but since I just finished my Master Venn Diagram yesterday I can state that (excluding Explorers since they are growing), and ignoring DMH. Each faction has exactly 8 masters.

 

 

 

 

Hmmm... and, if Wyrd sticks to the pattern Explorers should get at most 1 more Dual faction master coming from Bayou, Ressers or Outcasts.  

Thematically Bayou makes most sense.  (Well, in my head Swampfiend makes most sense, because I see crocodile dundee / crocodile hunter in my head when I think of those, and she is already dual)   Although all of them already have their 8 masters.   So if they truly stick to the pattern with 8 masters per faction and max 3 dual masters someone from within one of these factions should become dual master.   

 

And then there should be 5 new masters dedicated to Explorers.

 

 

[TheEmptyRoad]

The reason I say Half-Blood is because of the newly introduced character of Gretchen Janus, I won’t spoil any specifics but she’ll likely have the Half-Blood Keyword, I doubt we’re going to see Asylum in ES, it doesn’t really make mich sense. ES’s ties to the Guild are going to be through Basse. So with: Frontier, Wastrel, Apex, Umbra, and Half-Blood, that leaves 3. One of which I think will be some type of Captain Ahab-esque Sea Captain hunting down Meridion and the Gibbering Hordes.

[TheEmptyRoad]

I highly doubt the Bayou will cross over with Explorer’s Society. Read Ulix’s story to find out why.

[GrumpyGrandpa]

2 hours ago, TheEmptyRoad said:

I highly doubt the Bayou will cross over with Explorer’s Society. Read Ulix’s story to find out why.

There might be some bad-feelings, but I doubt it completely excludes the idea. Did anyone even survive long enough to warn anyone? If not.. Well, bad things happen (In the Bayou )

[SerZaka]

6 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

 

(I had no way to remove the quote , lol)

Plot twist: there will be no double faction new masters

[SerZaka]

I will explain better.

I don't think they are going to add any new double faction master . In that case you will have some faction with 9 character other with 8... Not their style .

But this doesn't exclude an Half Blood keyword . There are other examples of models with a keyword that their faction doesn't actually have . The Mechanized Porkchop is the first one who comes in my mind : it is just Foundry but yet Mei Feng is not Bayou . Probably if the Half Blood keyword comes out the already existing models will simply stay Versatile like the pig. 

[Bort]

1 hour ago, SerZaka said:

I will explain better.

I don't think they are going to add any new double faction master . In that case you will have some faction with 9 character other with 8... Not their style .

 

Yup.  Based on the research I did for the Master / Keyword diagrams it seems that they like the 8 masters per faction, with a max of 3 dual masters format.

That's why I said "someone ... becomes dual".    But I also doubt that they will change a master to be dual halfway through. 

 

So keeping to their pattern of 5/6 faction masters with 3/2 dual masters in that faction I expect to see 6 Explorer only masters with no new dual-faction ones.

But, there is also nothing preventing them from breaking that pattern.   I like that all the inclusions forms a nice pattern... but that's hardly a "rule".   

[Jesy Blue]

7 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

And maybe some henchmen Crossroads minions! That'd be pretty cool!

EDIT: Henchmen minions... Does not make sense. Crossroad minions is what I meant xD

Well a free master and 7 Crossroads is 49 points.... that's why no minions.

Also, Henchmen Minions could lead a crew, spend soul stones, AND get all three powers on an upgrade!  They are too powerful for this world!

[Adran]

Its not been entirely universal that all factions have had the same number of Masters, but it has generally been even, and the only faction that has had less masters was the outcast faction during first edition, and the way the faction played then, it wasn't really 1 faction but a place to put masters that didn't fit in one of the other 4 factions. Each Outcast Master basically was its own unique faction as there was almost no overlap between the models they could use. They did have 2 henchmen when every other faction only had one, but they only had 4 masters while every other faction had 5, so from that point of view all factions had 6 leaders (although the outcasts got to the 6 leaders earlier than the other factions).

5 hours ago, TheEmptyRoad said:

I highly doubt the Bayou will cross over with Explorer’s Society. Read Ulix’s story to find out why.

We've seen more unlikely cross overs in the past. Guild are pretty xenophobic and anti every other faction. They have also had duel faction masters with 5 of the 7 factions (and have certainly had story and rules allowing them to hire outcast leaders in their crew previously, leaving just no link between Guild and Bayou. That's almost as successful as the Ten thunders, who were the initial infiltration kings.  The Duel faction Guild/Resser was a particularly fun story, but then I've always enjoyed the McMorning/Sebastian interaction.  

[yool1981]

I don't think the half-blood keyword will be provided to a master outside of NB. They are really related to Nekima in the fluff.

As to some characters outside the faction here and there perhaps in the fluff but not necesserally in-game.

Characters in the fluff do not always translate to miniature, although they can be cool as hell (English Ivan for example :D).

[Ming]

Ivan could be a very cool model. Versatile Arcanist  with Foundry keyword, I guess.

[SerZaka]

2 hours ago, yool1981 said:

2 hours ago, yool1981 said:

I don't think the half-blood keyword will be provided to a master outside of NB. They are really related to Nekima in the fluff.

 

Half bloods don't have a good relationship with nephilim , they simply don't have any other alternative. In the last book their condition is explained very well. Tuco is particularly upset about it. They are treated like dogs .

[yool1981]

You are correct but they are also under the thrall of Nekima’s tribe. I don’t see them getting emancipated yet.