GG1: Is the intention that Nellie's powers just don't work?

[Armour]

I was very surprised by the March 2020 FAQ on Interacts to remove scheme markers.

Quote

3. Can a model take the Interact Action to remove all Scheme Markers in base contact if there are no Scheme Markers in base contact with it?

a) Yes. The Interact would resolve with no Markers being removed.

So it now seems like the intention for the Journalist keyword's Headline: Secrets Exposed! trigger be effectively worthless?  The entire keyword revolves around manipulation of enemy models around scheme markers, and with this FAQ, they simply can't do that.  

Malifaux is a game of schemes, so in theory enemies will sometimes be forced to place scheme markers if they want to get VP.  But his entirely leaves the ball in the opponent's court; they can pick schemes which don't require markers, or only place them with separated runners so the rest of the crew can ignore them.

If the result that Nellie's crew not be able to use a large number of their thematic abilities is on purpose, that is fine but it feels very bad, especially as its completely non-intuitive.  I foresee a lot of newer players especially getting this wrong.

[Maniacal_cackle]

Note this ruling:

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Exclusive Interview – If a model takes the Interact Action while within 2” of a friendly model with Exclusive Interview, does 
it still count as an enemy model for the purposes of that model’s Chasing a Story Ability, if any?
a) Yes. Exclusive Interview makes the alignment of the model both friendly and enemy for the duration of the Interact Action, 
thus effects that resolve exclusively for enemies and for friendlies would both resolve (though the Action is still only considered 
enemy-controlled). If the model drops a Marker, it is friendly to the player controlling it.

So forcing an interact means you can still gain control of the interact, gain your bonuses from them interacting (like gaining focus), etc.

[Adran]

3 minutes ago, Armour said:

I was very surprised by the March 2020 FAQ on Interacts to remove scheme markers.

So it now seems like the intention for the Journalist keyword's Headline: Secrets Exposed! trigger be effectively worthless?  The entire keyword revolves around manipulation of enemy models around scheme markers, and with this FAQ, they simply can't do that.  

Malifaux is a game of schemes, so in theory enemies will sometimes be forced to place scheme markers if they want to get VP.  But his entirely leaves the ball in the opponent's court; they can pick schemes which don't require markers, or only place them with separated runners so the rest of the crew can ignore them.

If the result that Nellie's crew not be able to use a large number of their thematic abilities is on purpose, that is fine but it feels very bad, especially as its completely non-intuitive.  I foresee a lot of newer players especially getting this wrong.

For what it is worth, this is how I have always seen it done (and played it), and I am fairly sure that this was how it was intended to be done during the beta testing of the models, so their power levels were based on this.

So the trigger still works as I expected. It still sets off abilities like Breakign news and chasing a story. It also works with exclusive interview.