How do the new "titled" masters fit into the lore?

[Ulfhedinn]

Hey all,

I'm trying to get into Malifaux and i'm faced with the task of choosing a master to start. Now, i always try to get something which i find captivating in both lore, looks and gameplay, but I don't understand how the new titles fit into the lore of the game. Are the new titles the "evolution" of the masters (i.e: the direction towards which their lore is heading) or are they a "what if" version of the lore?

I find Jakob Lynch very interesting (even though i have no idea how the honeypot keyword currently fares on the table), but I would not buy his crew if the "dark bet" Lynch is going to be the canonic version in the lore, since I don't really like the idea of Jakob giving in to the brilliance.

[Azahul]

15 minutes ago, Gino Barone said:

Hey all,

I'm trying to get into Malifaux and i'm faced with the task of choosing a master to start. Now, i always try to get something which i find captivating in both lore, looks and gameplay, but I don't understand how the new titles fit into the lore of the game. Are the new titles the "evolution" of the masters (i.e: the direction towards which their lore is heading) or are they a "what if" version of the lore?

I find Jakob Lynch very interesting (even though i have no idea how the honeypot keyword currently fares on the table), but I would not buy his crew if the "dark bet" Lynch is going to be the canonic version in the lore, since I don't really like the idea of Jakob giving in to the brilliance.

It can sort of vary by Master. A couple of titles, such as Lucius or Som'er, are just a way those Masters act when the mood takes them. Others are clear progressions of those characters in the story, such as Jack Daw Ensouled (he has a soul now) or, sadly, Jakob Lynch Dark Bet. The unifying theme is that they are pretty much all representative of how those Masters are behaving at the time of the Burning Man's return to Malifaux, so they can be considered the most "current" versions of the Masters in the timeline, even if in a few cases all it will take is putting on a different outfit in the morning to flip back.

[Spitfire]

1 hour ago, Gino Barone said:

Hey all,

I'm trying to get into Malifaux and i'm faced with the task of choosing a master to start. Now, i always try to get something which i find captivating in both lore, looks and gameplay, but I don't understand how the new titles fit into the lore of the game. Are the new titles the "evolution" of the masters (i.e: the direction towards which their lore is heading) or are they a "what if" version of the lore?

I find Jakob Lynch very interesting (even though i have no idea how the honeypot keyword currently fares on the table), but I would not buy his crew if the "dark bet" Lynch is going to be the canonic version in the lore, since I don't really like the idea of Jakob giving in to the brilliance.

Well it was that or death by mob.
And it is very in character for Lynch to go with what benefits him in the heat of the moment.
Kinda what got him into that position in the first place. "Want to work for me or be eaten right now?" Easiest decision he ever made.

[Ulfhedinn]

6 minutes ago, Spitfire said:

Well it was that or death by mob.
And it is very in character for Lynch to go with what benefits him in the heat of the moment.
Kinda what got him into that position in the first place. "Want to work for me or be eaten right now?" Easiest decision he ever made.

Perhaps, but wasn't his whole shtick being immune to the brilliance? It was the only reason the hungering darkness let him live.
I'll pick up malifaux burns and read into it some more, perhaps it'll make more sense.

Thank you for the answers!

[Spitfire]

His shtick was it couldn't force into him by its usual means which piqued it's curiosity, but it seems this was something entirely else when he welcomed it in (which it maybe found out after he had it's attention?).

[Math Mathonwy]

Let me just say how salty I am about how this approach completely invalidates their previous reasoning for Dead Man's Hand. How you need to shelf Masters because they died in the lore or otherwise the story wouldn't progress. And now we have two different versions of each Master, many of which cannot exist simultaneously, and this was the plan from the start as can be seen from the wording of the rules in the original book.

The other reason for DMH was design space, which now seems even more like a cop out! They ran out of design space because of a couple of Masters but kinda found the space for doubling the Masters through the titles. And the next book, naturally, brings forth more Masters.

This rant brought to you by what could've been best title: Collodi the Fancy Chair.

[Adran]

A quick read of the fluff suggests that most titles are just a different emphasis on what they are doing rather than an irreversible change.

There are certainly a number of titles that are not easily reversible story changes but it is the minority that I can see. Jacob is probably one of those though, now he has allowed brilliance to affect him, he can't easily return to "immune to brilliance". ( story wise he possibly could come down from it, but it's very likely to change him). 

[Brilliance Laced Whiskey]

Jakob Lynch wouldn't be Jakob Lynch if he made short-term gambles that made his life considerably better in the long-term.  Him getting his life run into the ground is probably the single most surefire things in Malifaux.  Or close to it, anyways.

 

While we may have missed out on Collodi the Fancy Chair, the good news is when Collodi does come back instead of the Puppet Master he'll be the Master's Puppet.