Puppeteer Materials Explanation

[Weaker Ink]

I was reading over the Puppeteer Advanced Pursuit in the new book and I noticed that under the A New Player Talent it mentions different costs for the different material used in constructing a new puppet subordinate character.

My question is twofold:

1. Is there any mechanical benefit on the materials used in the construction? Because I can't seem to find any mention of that anywhere if it exists.

2. The Talent does mention that you may need additional materials (such as a corpse when making a Stitched Together). Does this mean that the materials listed are purely based on the type of doll being constructed? And if so, what's the best way to determine what kinds of materials a specific doll needs? Does a Songster require cloth or wood, for example.

 

Follow up question: The Red Cap and Stuffed Knight are both described and depicted as being "small" which I would take to mean Height 1, but their stats list them as Height 2. Is that a typo or am I overthinking things?

[MattM]

The materials used in construction are mostly there to provide Fatemasters and Fated with some idea of what things would cost in Malifaux. For example, creating one of the legendary Coryphee or Mannequins is going to be much more expensive than making a Marionette. A bit of cloth and some sticks, however, is going to let a Fated make a much cheaper (and usually weaker) Doll. 

The same goes for which materials go with which Doll. This is mostly just based on visual cues. A vast majority of puppets are cloth with some wood. More complex ones, like Stitched Together and any mechanical Doll, are going to need those rarer materials like mechanical components. If ever in doubt, you and the Fatemaster/player can work together and find a compromise. Maybe a Songster gets a positive flip on some Checks if it has a nicer instrument, or if you decide to make it out of metal instead of wood and cloth. Ultimately, it's a guide: players shouldn't feel too bogged down trying to get every single bit and bob when making a puppet, so we clumped the most common ingredients together.

And the Red Caps and Stuffed Knights are bigger than normal puppets but a bit smaller than your average human, so they just hit that Height 2 threshold!

[Weaker Ink]

Thank you. That was actually very informative.

I do like the idea of allowing a player to construct a Doll out of higher quality parts than is otherwise necessary to give that Doll a buff. It's a good way of incentivizing players to invest more in their puppets and reward them for saving their money to buy higher quality parts.

And thank you for the clarification on the height. The images in the book obviously don't have a relative scale to compare their height so I had trouble visualizing it. It makes sense that a puppet just about your size, covered in blood and wielding a scythe would be Terrifying!