Mini-Musings
-The November FAQ came out. There aren’t a ton of
overwhelming things here, but a few things were clarified. First of all, the
so-called “Schrodinger’s Hungering Darkness” question that arises with the
Death Contract upgrade, wherein Death Contract could potentially be triggered
repeatedly when paired with Rising Sun. Specifically, you Huggy doesn’t die, so
it doesn’t trigger Death Contract. Additionally, Trixiebelle can’t redirect
attacks from charges or flurries to other models, as she is the only legal
target for them, you can’t butterfly jump into melee to block a ranged attack,
and moving “up to” a certain difference can choose to move 0”. There are a few
others. Go read it yourself. What am I, your secretary?
-The Get Gourd contest winner was Rene Luthje (I don’t know
how to put accents and/or oomlots on with my English keyboard, so apologies for
their absence.) Here’s a link to the images. Congrats to the winner and those
who get carvers. Sadly my strategy of “Run out of time and don’t carve a
pumpkin” failed me yet again.
-Round three of iron painter started Monday. The topic this
time is Stranger Things. So, good luck to those who are still participating. We’re
all counting on you.
-The winner of October’s Malifaux Musings raffle is Moritz
Hampel. I’ll be putting your stuff in the mail shortly. Next week I’ll let you
know what’s up to be won in November. How does one with this raffle, you ask?
Well, I’m glad you asked, because the answer is by becoming a Patron on our
Patreon page. Just head over to patreon.com/MalifauxMusings, become a
subscriber on any level, and you’re entered into the drawing!
-Finally, I'm writing Shadow and Void to full novel length for NaNoWriMo. Come join me on my page, and maybe throw me some support. Cuz god knows, I'll need it...
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Through the Breach-Nythera: Or The Political Ramifications of the Discovery of Neverborn Ruins for the City of Malifaux.
Writing & Design: Mason Crawford
Additional Design: Aaron Darland
Editing: Brandi Edgmon
Art: Harry Fowler, Jorge Gomez, and Bram ‘Boco’ Sels
Released
some time back, this book contains the material published during the worldwide
event two years ago. It features the story of Malifaux’s discovery of a second
ancient Neverborn ruin, Nythera, and the subsequent scramble by its players to
claim it for its own. I played through this during the event itself, but the
individual chapters have been collected and pooled together in a Penny Dreadful
that is available on DriveThruRpg. Let’s take a look at how it all turned out.
Also, if you’re a player, some spoilers may come out here.
The Nythera adventure consists of
four acts and does an interesting job of taking characters from relative nobodies
up to major players in the city of Malifaux. It literally begins with the
misfit band being led to their execution on the Hanging Tree, just prior to
their rescue by a pair of Wastrels with one foot in the Guild and the other in
the Ten Thunders to do a job for them. The Fated are engaged to track down
information on the newly discovered Nythera ruins and the efforts that people
are taking to claim it for themselves. Along the way, they’ll have to retrieve
Phillip Tombers from the middle of a firefight (literally) between two of
Malifaux’s Masters, navigate between your saviors’ two factions as they try to
pull you in separate directions, coerce a Brilliance addicted Friekorpsman to
escort them into the badlands to Nythera itself, and eventually join a
Friekorps assault alongside Von Schill while the winter witch Rasputina rallies
her forces against you. In the end, it will come down to them to decide whether
to release what is contained within or make sure it stays sealed forever.
Either choice has consequences for the future of Malifaux…
The real highlight of this module
is the amount of hobnobbing with major figures from the miniature game that
occurs. Over the course of this adventure, the characters will come into
contact with no less than 8 (and possibly 9) masters. Additionally, they plan a
heist with Phillip’s Head (as an aside I, no joke, only got that joke when I
played through this the first time,) enter an underground boxing ring, and
encounter a wide swathe of the various creatures and nasties from the Badlands.
Probably the most dangerous combat encounter comes at the end of Act 3, mostly
due to the protracted combat against monsters with Black Blood (passive damage
is very harsh in TTB), unless of course the players release [XXX Redacted by
Order of the Guild XXX], in which case death is almost certainly assured. The
investigation and journey through the wilderness makes up the brunt of the
non-combat events. The module also includes stat blocks for 30 opponents in the
“People” chapter, which greatly adds to the repertoire of what Fatemasters can
bring to their games.
I liked this publication overall,
but I have a few quibbles. For the most part, TTB goes to lengths to have the
Fated have their own adventures without interacting with some of the more
important Fatemaster characters. This serves a dual purpose, both by giving the
Fated more agency and to avoid the feeling some players used to get when
playing in established settings like the DC Universe or the Forgotten Realms
where players know that, if things get too out of hand, Superman or Elminster
can always show up to save the day. Additionally, if you keep the cameos down
to a minimum, it helps to ensure that it feels special and cool when a
character your players recognize pops up in the story. This module runs
completely in the other direction. I thought it was fun, but I would understand
why some people would feel otherwise. Also, to be honest, the second act of the
story drags a little and likely is unnecessary to the overall story, as it
mostly involves the players realizing and then confronting the Wastrels’
attempts to kill them at the demands of the Ten Thunders, but the rest are very
interesting. Still, overall, I feel the plusses very much outweigh the
negatives.
As an extra bonus, the module
includes pre-generated characters which new players can use in the story. They’re
a diverse group representing members of each of the factions, including an
Ortega relative, a cyborg Doctor, and a human who was raised by pigs. One of my
favorite parts of the Nythera event, unfortunately, isn’t included here, as the
pre-gen characters had their own personal goals to complete every chapter when
we were playing it live. Some of these were straightforward enough, but many
were rather unorthodox like “make someone call you ‘Arizona’ during the game’
or ‘Squeal like a pig at someone until they demand that you speak English.’”
Unfortunately, players will need to do a bit of adjustment to correct them for
M2E, but they’re a good starting point.
So, in summation, I recommend this
module for most Fatemasters. If you want your characters to go through the
Malifaux equivalent of starting at the bottom and pulling themselves up through
its tangled web of intrigues. It makes for a great self-contained story, and I
honestly recommend cutting the campaign off after finishing the last Act and moving
on to new Fated and a new storyline. So, check it out!
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