BloodBowl

Good Friday all!

Before I begin, let me wish you all a Happy New Year. I am aiming to write a post on Tuesday, but that will be in the year 2013.

So if you don't hear from me before then, stay safe and party on!

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Anyway, last night I played my regular gaming partner at a game of BloodBowl thanks to the combined medium of PC gaming and Skype.

I must say, it has been a very long time since I last played BloodBowl, and I knew there must be a reason why.

With hindsight I now get it: I never fully knew the rules before! Tackle zones, dodging, catching! Everything just seemed a jumbled mess of stats and dice rolls.

This is where the computer comes in.

I mentioned in a previous post about Computer Games like Vassel replacing the actual miniature game, and most people have replied saying that they don't think it ever would.
- well let me tell you, with the medium of Skype to chat to my friend, I would gladly play a game if BloodBowl on a weekly basis, maybe even more!

Gone are the calculations of what I need to roll or the negative modifiers!

Gone is the need to try and work out the best route down the pitch!

Now all I need to do is click a player, click where he wants to go and the computer does the rest!

So how did the game go? Well we played two games, his Elves vs my Skaven. Two games and I didn't score a single touch down!

What I did however was get 2 team members killed, but also managed to foul about 3-4 of his players without a single send off!

Oh and Rat Ogres are terrific!
- truth be told, they are the only reason why I play Skaven, them and mutations!

Anyway, that's it from me for now.

So stay safe, and I'll see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Back to the grind

Good Thursday all,

So it's the 27th, we're all back to work (except for First Capital Connect who appear to still be on holiday based on the train service at WGC).

I trust everyone has had a wonderful time off?

I genuinely have, my mother inlaw visited, presents were given and lots of fun was had.

Amazingly my cat even went the entire if yesterday without once trying to pee on my stuff!
- in no way am I chancing fate and saying he is 'fixed' but this is a step in the right direction.

So ultimately we're onto presents. I was given an awesome collection of wargames stuff including the Seamus boxed set, along with aSeamus, the large Sarissa hotel and the coolest of water towers:



Yesterday I got started in assembling my new Dungeon Rise box, and surprisingly it was a lot easier than anticipated. After about 30mins to an hour I built the following:












Of course this is just an example dungeon and my first attempt, there were plenty of components left over for me to use.

I've also come up with an idea that I'm going to try out very soon; using walls only on the North and East walls (where possible). This should make it easier to move models around, allow better view points, but also give more walls for me to use, and that was what seemed to be lacking.

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Last night I also made a pass on the MaliQuest card backs, and created this as my first attempt:



After initial feedback it was agreed that this looked a little too clean and so it was filtered into this:



Rather depressingly, when it prints out (at least on my printer) the pattern is hardly visible. This may be altered, but thankfully the name itself pops!

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And that's where we are. I'm sadly still waiting for a train (I'm sadly going to be late) tonight I should have an game of Blood Bowl over Steam and I am counting down the minutes until I can finish tomorrow and have a lovely 4 day weekend.

Stay safe, and I'll see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Merry MaliXmas!

Good Monday everyone!

Before I get to the point of today's post, a quick update on things.

So yesterday was my first demo day outside of probation. It was a quiet day with little foot traffic at the store.

Luckily however, David who works there had free time and so I showed him how to play a game, as despite owning a crew and books he had never actually played a game before.

I brought out Lady J and let him use my dreamer crew.

Now I should point out that I had only played with the Dreamer, never against. Despite this it was a thoroughly enjoyable game and facing off against Chompy who thanks to Onslaught managed to pull off 6 consecutive Strikes was thoroughly enjoyable!

It's funny really, I've faced off against lots if strong crews before, but few of them were as enjoyable as vs Chompy.

With hindsight I think it was because of how he plays, even with a super long potential melee reach, and being able to pull back away from harm I still knew how to deal with him.

With careful melee placement I was able to take out the Dreamer, leaving Chompy exposed. Then with Chompy and Teddy running riot in the centre of the board I still knew how to deal with him, and that was card removal.

I had to play at card management, I had to find a way to remove Chompy's control hand and Soul Stones, but at the same time, my own hand was expendable.

Playing Guild, I knew that most of my attacks had a higher Cb compared to Chompy's low Df, so as long as Chompy's hand was gone, then there was a better than average chance that my Cb score would be higher than his Df. Throw in a few additional Crits from Rams and I was able to take down his Wds pretty fast.

Then with only a single model on the table (Austringer) and just enough APs to get into place I was able to grab Claim Jump and win the game.

Thankfully with this game going on we got a little bit of attention from passers by, a lot more then we would have gotten had I been sat there twiddling my thumbs.

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Anyway, on that note I'd like to thank all my readers a Merry Christmas from myself and my family.

I hope you have a good festive season and enjoy any time you have off.

I'll probably make a new post in a day or two, but until then; stay safe, and I'll see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Vassel: The End of Non-Painters?

Good Sunday all!

As many of you will know, Wyrd released a module for Vassel http://www.wyrd-games.net/content.php?208-Malifaux-Vassal-Module that allows you to play Malifaux online.

I have yet to try this out, or even have the opportunity to down load it (been trying to down OS25-3D with 3 Lvl90s and 1lvl89 [we succeeded!]), but it seems interesting.

But it got me thinking, for quite a while there seems to be an ongoing debate about painting requirements in the hobby, and I've read some very interesting comments.

- my favourite was a guy who said he sprays the models in a base coat of the faction colour, gives them a suitable wash and drybrushes with said faction colour again to give the illusion of board game pieces rather than 'miniatures'. I think this is an original and unique way of dealing with the limiting and demoralising issues many of us face - I mean seriously, who of us hasn't spent hours on a model, felt really proud of it, taken it to a game and had 'that guy' say it looks like shit. Sure, sticks n stones and all that, but it does cut deep.

This then does pose a question, how do you tackle constructive criticism? I've been there, seen a model or crew where I can see what the owner was aiming for and I've made suggestions on how to improve the look, they've taken those suggestions and in the end are happier, but I can't help but feel I'm giving them a shit sandwich. You know, complement, critique, complement. Doesn't stop the fact that I'm asking them to eat a sandwich containing shit!

But with this Vassel mod, if you don't like painting, or what not, you don't need to! No models are required at all!

So what does this mean for the hobby? Is the 'pure gamer' player, those who do it just for the game and not the modelling/painting side going to become a thing of the past?

I'd welcome your thoughts, and on that note my stop is quickly arriving.

Stay safe, and I'll see you breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Xmas MaliDAZE

Good Friday everyone!

Well what can I say about today?
It's Friday, it's the end of the week, it's the 21st, it's the end of Pay Period 10, it's two days after the first game ever of MaliQuest and it's four days until Christmas!
(I'm sure more people can add other things it is).

You know what it isn't? The end of the world! That's Logical Thinking 1 : David Icke 0!
- seriously, this man is a total nutjob! If you haven't done so yet, read up on him... Anyone who thinks that Chris Christopherson is a Lizardman, while we live in The Matrix with portals to another dimension just waiting to open up today and kill us all... Well he just needs to be left in a padded cell so that he can cry himself to sleep at night.

- aaaanyway!

Last night a few things moved forward. With Mischa my cat still acting like a numpty, while the wife was off having her hair cut I was cleaning up pee puddle after pee puddle.

Yes the stupid animal is still peeing blood over all my stuff.

However! We moved the furniture back to where it started and almost instantly noticed a change in his behaviour.

He is in no way 'fixed' and we're not out of the woods yet, but I have hope!

Last but not least, - and possibly most importantly! This Sunday I am running my latest Malifaux demos at Leisure Games in Finchley North London.

If anyone is in the area and after a game, why not pop along? I've got nothing new I am afraid, however I will be bringing along my MaliQuest stuff should you wish to have a look and I'm more than happy to talk it through with people. I can't say I'll be able to run anyone through a game of MQ, but if you're interested come along and you might be in luck (doubtful).

And now, time to sign off, stay safe and I'll see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest: The Skype Aftermath

Good Thursday everyone!

So it is the day after the very first game of MaliQuest was played and holy wow am I tired.

There were a lot of lessons learned, the main one being: it takes a lot longer to progress through a dungeon than I first thought!

Originally the plan was to provide the party with four maps, the first three becoming increasingly complex as they delved deeper into the dungeon with the final map being an arena style layout where the party did not have to explore the dungeon but instead survive spawning waves of monsters.

The aim of these dungeons was to show case the flexibility of the system - especially when you compare the normal dungeons vs the arena style one.

What happened was very different however, namely from 2100-2400 we had only just managed to clear level one, and on top of that my note taking had turned to pot and my map looked like this:



When you hear this journey into the bowels of New Fairbank, the final 2 rooms were rewrites on my plans. The characters in the last but 1 room were supposed to be bosses who the players met at the end of each of the first 3 levels, but in order to show off boss drops and make things a little harder for the players I dropped all of them at once.

The final room existed with one aim: kill the players, or at least make them think about their actions, and make them crawl their way out.

What happened I am going to keep quiet for now, but once this recording has been edited and uploaded (<3 Jon!) you'll be able to hear the maiden voyage of MaliQuest!

All in all I think it was pretty good though. We seemed to have a good laugh and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, there were no rage quits and we reached the end - something I'm still amazed in.

- By the way, to Tom, Vicky & Jon, if you could do me a massive favour? I'd love it if you could email me your thoughts on the game, any changes you think need to be made etc. if you don't have my email address, you can use my Henchman account of doctorloxley@hotmail.co.uk

Some things were adjusted on the fly, like how the initiative is worked out, and I think the new system works well for that.

There are a number of things that I did, which perhaps I should not have, namely forgetting rules on cards for monsters, and describing the beasties and the dungeon pretty poorly.

But don't worry, I'll be sure to create a monster gallery that you can look through as you listen to the adventure.

I'll also endeavour to ensure that every loot card which appears in the game is also made available - probably in the form of a .pdf so you favoured listeners can see these as well.

Ok I think I've rambled on enough, and the rocking of my train is sending me to sleep.

- oh, quick update on yesterday's cat issue: there is improvement! We're not out of the woods yet, but there is improvement. Stupid freaking cat!

Stay safe, and I'll see you breachside! (God damn! I forgot to say that last night! WhyIOughta!)

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

TtB: Multi Part Sprue & Prep for Tonight

Good Wednesday everyone!

Today is dark, cold and just downright miserable, but when I woke up I popped online and saw this:


A reminder, I have still not pledged, and I will never be able to afford to, so all I can do is hope these become available for regular release at a later point.
- And something I noticed before, the hardback book mentions that it's Kickstarter exclusive, these multi part models do not, which gives me hope that at some point I will be able to pick them up.

For more information please check out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1334239018/through-the-breach-a-malifaux-roleplaying-game/posts

On an unrelated note, tonight is the night when SkypeQuest should be going ahead.

Unfortunately Mike said he may not be able to make it because of Family commitments but I am crossing my fingers that he will be available at a later point to 'drop in' on the game.

I have pulled out their equipment cards, prepped the character cards (have yet to apply stats yet) and tonight just before I'll be printing and laminating the maps - I really should have done that yesterday, but then Geordie Shore started, and nothing makes me miss Charlotte!

Anyway, I'm not sure if I mentioned this yesterday but my stupid cat is currently having 'anxiety issues' and so this morning I chased him around the kitchen while he tried to pee on everything. He's already been to the vet where he was given meds, including an anti anxiety drug and we picked up pheromone diffusers, and yesterday he was doing so much better, having a nose around things, and cheecking furniture and people, but then I wake up this morning and he's back to squatting.

I'm going to stick with the anxiety meds and with hope in a few days he's back to his old over trusting self.

Stay safe and I'll see you breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest: Shared Fate

Hello everyone!

A quick mid day post here where I want to get an idea out there and gauge the reactions to it.

The idea is that of Shared Fates.

Allow me to set the scene:

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You're deep underground, your party have been adventuring for hours and you have slain many monsters.

Before you stands a monstrous Teddy, it has just unleashed 2 out of 3 Flurried attacks and is about to release it's 3rd.

Your Wounds are low, only 1 or 2 remaining, and your hand is all but empty with only a few very low cards left.

The Teddy strikes with a very high card, you know that you will require a high card as well to defend against this strike, and your hand doesn't have it, and the minimal damage will be enough to kill you.

You could Soul Stone your total, or perhaps Soul Stone the damage to reduce it hopefully to 0 or a party member could use a stone to resurrect you if/when you die, but collectively your Stone pool is very low and you still have far to go before your adventure is over.

You decide that there is nothing you can do, and determine the best option to do is to take the hit and try to reduce the damage with one of your last remaining stones, you may even get lucky and the Teddy might Black Joker the damage flip.

As the Teddy's strike is about to land, a party member leaps into the fray with their Peacebringer blade and parrys the strike. The Teddy's flurry is now over, you managed to survive the strikes and now have your own opportunity to reek some revenge...

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What I am talking about here is the idea of party members being unable to cheat on your behalf. You don't have the cards to survive (or perhaps you're trying to land a critical strike yourself) but a party member does, and so they can use one of their own control cards to cheat your score.

Obviously this would be at the agreement of you the player, I think it would be pretty mean to cheat a party member's score down and force them to take a hit - but then maybe that would be something that should be allowed? Something like your party members tripping you up so they can steal the loot for them self?

But most importantly I'd love to hear your thoughts on this? Should this be allowed?

I've already suggested this idea to a few and some concerns have been raised.

Anyway, I look forward to hearing what everyone has to say.

Until then, stay safe and I'll see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest: Time for a Re-Record

Good Tuesday everyone!

It's been a few days since I've posted, and that is largely due to me being off work last Friday and Monday, not bad, a 4 day weekend!

But just what has been going on? And just what is coming?

Well yesterday I spent a large amount of the day chasing one of my cats around while he tried to anxiously pee all over my stuff. You see we've recently moved some furniture around the kitchen, and my daughter is now almost exclusively walking, this is apparently too stressful for my delicate cat...

... I know, what a stupid animal!

But on Sunday evening Malifool Jon and I did a recording. It 'should' be the first of a few little recordings that me and the Malifools are doing and should act as a nice gap between now and the 'release' of MaliQuest. It should also fill the gap between their Xmas episode and their first 2013 episode.

But things are not all rosey and grand, you see when you finally hear the recording we did on Sunday, a large chunk of it will actually have been made on Thursday/Friday.

You see last Sunday the recording was all about how a starting character is MaliQuest is made, but less than 12 hours after the recording, I have had to change two of the starting cards, meaning a good 10-15 minutes of the chat is now completely irrelevant!

The good thing about it however, I am really glad to see the process working. You see one of the problems I am having while working on MaliQuest is that I am finding myself stuck within my one viewpoint and quite often the larger picture is something I am oblivious to. It's much like Zimbardo's infamous prison experiment. It takes someone outside of my head to look at what I've done and to say "that doesn't make any sense!"

Coming up however! Tomorrow we have SkypeQuest! Yup, me, Jon and Mike, and my two friends from outside of the twitter Malifaux world Tom and Vicky will be meeting up on Skype, and playing through 4 levels of a MaliQuest dungeon.

Obviously this is something I am anxious of, I want it to be a big success, but am concerned that it will suck ass. But I know what I'm like, and I am sure it will go fine.

Anywho, for those who didn't know, this time next week will be Christmas Day including some pretty awesome films on TV! And shortly after that will be New Years, and following on from that will be the one year anniversary of New Fairbank News!

For those interested/curious, yes I am planning on tying the 1 year anniversary into the MaliQuest launch.

Think of it as an anniversary present from me to you!

Anyway, time is drawing on and my train is nearing it's destinations.

So stay safe and I'll see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest vs TTB: Do I have a vested interest?

Afternoon all,

I just wanted to write a quick post while on lunch, let you know about an email I received earlier regarding my posts about the TTB Kickstarter and whether or not I have a vested interest in TTB failing.

For fairness sake I won't say who sent me the email, but I would like to publicly apologise if I have given the wrong impression.

You see, I do want MaliQuest to succeed, and before the TTB Kickstarter was announced I was concerned that the two would clash, but looking at what we know about TTB and what I have planned for MaliQuest, I honestly believe that both games can be equally successful and co-exist.

I admit I may have been overly negative about TTB over the past couple of weeks, but these are my own personal feelings towards what I have seen of the game itself and nothing more.

And so we reach the question asked: Do I have a vested interest in TTB failing?

No. Call me cocky, confident or whatever, but I wholeheartedly believe that both games reward different things to different people.

It is my honest opinion that the success of TTB will have a 0 effect on MaliQuest, and likewise MaliQuest will have a 0 effect on TTB.

So please, don't take what I have said the wrong way.

I wish our Wyrd brothers and sisters all the best when it comes to developing their game, and it is with hope they do the same to us - if they even know that MaliQuest exists.

Anyway, stay safe and I'll see you breachside

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest: Character Creation v2

Good Thursday everyone!

I have a massive announcement today, one that I am quite ashamed to have to make:

Character Creation is changing.

Yeah I know, the character pack has only been available a day and already it's getting altered.

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If I may, let me explain why:

So last night I was talking the game over with my wife and she pointed something out - character creation is backwards!

If you go back and read my early posts I talked over and over about how your character is supposed to start off as a nobody, but then in order to get the Skype game up and running with the equivalent of 'demo' characters, I forgot that what I was doing for them is not what a normal character would be like.

You see, for SkypeQuest we are breaking a lot of the rules, we're not using models, we're playing with maps rather than terrain and I wanted the characters to feel like seasoned adventurers rather than newbies.

So you see I got so focused on how to do the final part that I forgot about what a new character is supposed to be like.

And so I present you with my first rules errata:

When creating a starter character, you do not pick the 2 offensive, 1 defensive and 2 mods from the entire card pool.

Instead you pick 2 cards from a small collection of 'starter' weapons.

This will be in the form of 'Starter Pistol', 'Starter Sword', 'Starter Shield' and 'Starter Ranged Spell Artifact', 'Starter Control Spell Artifact'.

There is no starting equipment to be worn and no starting mods.

While this incredibly reduces the customisation available, it reinforces the feeling of being a newbie trying to make your fame and fortune.

- for those who are scheduled to take part in SkypeQuest, if you would rather do this, please let me know and if there is a majority vote in favour, then we can do that.

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We also discussed something else, deck management.

Currently the loot deck is unwieldy. There are so many cards that it's huge and all over the place.

What I am doing is looking at way of limiting it. My initial idea is to work on a 100+ concept.

First the GM goes through the deck and removes anything they want to feature as boss drops. Then they split the cards into the different rarities, they then select at random 50 Common cards, 30 Uncommon cards, 15 Rares and 5 Epics.

This gives a random selection of 100 cards which can be looted throughout the game and means that the player doesn't know exactly what to expect, however as the GM has already specified Boss Drops then they have the opportunity to fix certain drops to get items they want into the game.

- I should probably also explain boss drops.

You see, normally when a room has been cleared, you flip a number of random loot cards, usually it will be something along the lines of 1card for 3 30mm base models, 2 40mm base models or 1 50mm base models. But this is of course at the discretion of the GM, if he feels that the party really struggled with that room and needs a greater reward, they can flip more cards.

Also the party can try to search for loot. This happens by every member of the party flipping a card and the party average needs to be 10. So if there are 3 players in the party, the total needs to be 30. This can only be done once in every room, but if it's successful generates 1 loot flip. - oh and it's an (all) action.

BUT! If there is a designated boss character, placed by the GM at certain points, then the GM can specify it's loot drops as Boss Drops.

In this instance, the loot flips are like corpse counters, 1 for a 30mm boss, 2 for a 40mm and 1 for a 50mm
- in fact I might do that for all loot, thoughts?
But one of these loot drops is one of the cards previously put aside.

And that is basically it. The changes made are pretty sweeping, but it my belief that it creates a more involving and engaging game.

That's it from me today, stay safe and I'll see you all breachside

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest: Character Creation

Good Wednesday all!

So it's halfway through the week, and while I don't know about everyone, here it's freaking cold!

So yesterday's post was not as obvious as I intended, what I meant by Radio Silence was to tell people not to be surprised if things were quiet on my front for a few days while I got some required documents done.

Interestingly, in an hour and a half I managed to write up the Character Creation Document here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ss26e7bd5bx3pd6/CharacterCreation.pdf

I'd be super grateful if you could give it a look over, try to create some characters and post the results.

Obviously the system isn't infallible, I'm not under the delusion that the +3-1 stat distribution will create a guaranteed playable character, if you stack all three points in Hight and deduct the one from Wounds, I'm not saying that will be a great character, but that is where inspiration comes in, and why the first couple of steps are about coming up with a concept and 'character' for your Adventurer. Clearly you're going to have more fun with Thanatos the Steam Powered Juggernaught than you would with Jonny the Completely Random Nubcake.

But what I need is you to create your character, run the stats and let me know what you think. Do you think you'll be overpowered? Underpowered? Not powered in the right way?

You see the +3-1 system seems to work fine by itself, but this does not take into account the extra stats you get from gear, and so we're back to that. Perhaps the +2 stats (Ca, Df, Wk etc) are too powerful, should the common and uncommon cards be reduced to +1?

This is where your help is more valuable than anything, we've come very far in a short amount of time, and soon we'll be hitting the live date.

So please, give it a look, tell me your thoughts and ask any questions - but please note, if it's a game play mechanic question, such as 'how is initiative worked our?' Or 'what role does the Winds of Fate play?' These will all be explained in the actual Rules Document.

Anyway, take care and I'll see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest: Radio Silence

Good Tuesday everyone!

So yesterday was my 29th birthday and an awesome day was had thanks to my wonderful/amazing/fantastic wife!

But sadly all good things come to an end, and today I had to go to work (boo!)

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Over the past few days something occurred to me, while I've been putting off creating the On Pickup cards (largely because they don't interest me, they're boring and have no real challenge) there's something else that I need to do: get started on creating the Supplement Rules Pack!

Part One: Character Creation.

With the recording of the proto Skype game just a week or do away this is something that is needed so that people know how we came up with these characters.

Of course I also need to create the maps for the 4 levels - Eep! There is so much to do! And on top of that there is also regular revision, work time and family time...

...Fuck...

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

1 card sleeved, 249ish to go!

Good Saturday everyone!

It's the first day of my three day weekend, and I thought it might be fun to try and keep up the pace of posting every day of this week!

So where we at? Last night I went to the Christmas Social with the Titans club, was fun! Got to meet some faces who I've never seen before, and likewise some I haven't seen in a while.

Got to run my cards past one of the members who seemed to really like them!

Thankfully I was also able to get to Finchley in time to reach Leisure Games before they shut at 1800, which allowed me to pick up 300 card sleeves for my loot deck.

So what's planned for this weekend? Got a few things, doing some shopping later on today, and then this evening I'll be putting cards into sleeves.

Tomorrow we have some family coming around, and in the evening I'll probably still be putting cards into sleeves.

On Monday I'll be celebrating my 29th birthday, and probably have more cards to sleeve.

At some point I really want to get around to making the Soul Stone, Booby Trap and Elixir cards.

- which reminds me, so I'm going to introduce some Elixir cards which are On Pickup cards, rather than equips.

There's the obvious Healing Flip Elixir, but what else should there be? Perhaps Enhanced Casting? (Makes your next spell cast with +1Ca) but what other types of one off bonuses could be awarded? - Remember, loot is almost always dealt outside of combat, so there needs to be an opportunity to delay the effects.

Oh and for those who missed it:


Character Cards!

Anyway, I'm going to get back to my bath, see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

I have cards coming out of my ears!

Good Friday everyone!

Wow what a time this has been!

In the past few weeks I've generated, printed and cut out roughly 250 Loot cards, I've gone through 5 versions of the character cards which I have now printed out and laminated, had 2 recordings with the Malifools, one of them being 1.5hrs long! Begun work ok the Skype maps, and discussed the rules over and over!

I have still to produce the On Pickup cards (Soul Stones & Booby Traps), I was planning on doing them last night, but printing and laminating took priority (plus Young Apprentice).

I also have yet to finalise death, and what happens in game.

I've spoken to a good few about it, and the current working model is to use Soul Stones. I've had some very good suggestions made, but I'm going to stick with my gut feeling. It's being adjusted however:

When you are reduced to 0Wds you are dead. Any party member Within 6" can perform an (all)? Action to resurrect you at the cost of a Soul Stone, you are then Summoned anywhere Completely Within 6" of the Resurrector.

If you are the only adventurer, then instead you can use your own stones to Rez on the spot, but this is only allowed when you are solo.

In both instances as you are summoned, you gain Slow.

I think this is the easiest way of working it, staying true to that Malifaux world and making it easy to remember.

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Anyway, what's in store? Not much I am afraid! Tonight I am meeting up with the guys from the Titans club for their Xmas Social (I've brought some cards along to ask for opinions in person), this weekend should be nice, my sister is coming over to spend some time with my Mini Moo, and on Monday I'll be turning 29!

So bring on the birthday weekend I say!

Oh and before I forget, I've penciled in a day for my next demo! Sunday 23rd! It'll be a Christmas Demo!

Stay safe and I'll see you breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

The Reason I Have An Issue...

Good Thursday all!

Last night I took a break from working on MaliQuest, and as a quick notice, my next working will be on 'on pickup' cards, things like "Bag of Soul Stones" "add X number of Soul Stones to your cache" where X is equal to the rarity (something like Common=1, Uncommon=2 etc).

Anyway, in the absence of anything MaliQuest, I'd like to tell you about a thought I had yesterday while at work and was busy decorating the office's Christmas tree:

Why I have a bug up my arse about the Through The Breach(TTB) Kickstarter

It's strange, every year Wyrd produce many things that despite my fan status, I just don't like. Either it's a sculpt I don't like, or a style if crew, even games like Evil Baby - not that I've played EBO, I just have no interest in playing it.

Whenever I see something I don't like I normally feel the urge to share my dislike, in the same way that I share my liking for something, so saying I'm not happy with the rewards of the TTB Kickstarter for the price is to me the same as saying I don't like the sculpt of Alt Perdita, or how I loved the fluff in book 4.

But something occurred to me, I've been compelled to share my dislike and the reasons for at great length, and I now know the reasons behind this compelling need.

I'm sorry to say, that the reason is because of the general attitude of those who have backed the Kickstarter.

Apologies if you have backed it, and if so, and you believe what I am going to say now is aimed at you, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

The issue is the assumption that as a Wyrd/Malifaux fan I am automatically going to pledge hundreds of dollars into this game.

I'm sorry, but despite loving most of Wyrd's work and adoring Malifaux, what I have seen of TTB makes it appear to be a game that I have no interest in playing, despite really enjoying RPGs.

On top of this, the Wyrd opinion I find slightly insulting, this is based off a comment made by (Eric?) on the main boards in response for value for money. I can't find the post right now, but in short he said that he didn't understand why people were saying they didn't think the Kickstart was good value for money, as stretch goals included on the $125 pledge we are getting stuff at well beyond a 50% discount.

Perhaps reading this you don't see why that is insulting, why I may feel the need to get aggrieved by that comment? Sure, I'm not surprised, my set up to explain this was terrible.

The thing is, I'm sure on a financial level it is good value for money, but from a personal level, I have no interest in nearly everything included in the Kickstart.

Sure I'd like the hardback book (I only buy hardback rule books as I've explained in a previous blog post) and the custom assembled miniatures are very appealing, but that is not enough for me to cough up the money they are asking for and this is including the extra stuff being thrown to us through the stretch goals.

This you see is my issue.

I personally do not feel, out of everything I can walk away with that out of everything I actually want, it's worth $125(+P&P), and throwing 20 fate decks and PDFs at me is not going to change that.

I get it, both Wyrd and the backers are enthusiastic about this, just like I am about MaliQuest. That makes sense to me, and I love seeing a company and it's community so enthused about a product, but not all of us feel like that, and I personally don't appreciate the assumption that we automatically are going to but into this.

I have to bring this back to MaliQuest, you see I would like to think that I have no assumptions at all about this game. It's a game I want to play, and yes I admit, I spam twitter and my blog with info about it, but do I expect anyone to play it? Of course not!

So there we have it.

If your enthusiastic about the TTB Kickstart I am genuinely happy for you, but please, when I state that in my opinion it is not good value for money or something I want to buy into, don't react like I've just said that Up is Down.

Stay safe and I'll see you breachside.

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest: Character Cards - Factions

Good Wednesday all!

With only a few more days until my birthday weekend (I turn the youthful 29 years old on Monday) I'm kicking back and having some relaxed days, be it at home or work.

In order to facilitate this, last night I finished* the MaliQuest Character Cards.

*By finished, I mean provisionally, I am allowing for the fact that I may want/need to make changes at some point soon.

So let's get this show on the way:


First up, we have the card everyone is familiar with, the Guild Card.



Closely followed behind the Guild Card is the Arcanist Card.



Resurrectionist's Card



Neverborn Card



And last but not least, Outcast Card.

It was then last night that I realised I had not even touched the Ten Thunder's faction. To them I say "Screw you Ten Thunders!"

Nah not really, I'll probably be making a TT themed deck in the near future full of Pan Asian weapons and Artifacts, I'll sort it out then.

Anyway, I hope you like, please feel free to print and laminate and give a go!
- well at least do so once the character creation system has been finalised. I'm pretty sure the +3-1 system will work, but need to confirm.

See you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest: A (Near Final) Character Card Update/Greedy Gamer Gits

Good Tuesday everyone!

A couple of things today:

First, if you saw the discussion yesterday in my comments, a lot of things were suggested regarding the character cards, so I went home, did some rearranging and came up with:


This is still A5 in size, but allows plenty of space for any notes the player may want to make.

The only issue that was raised to me just prior to going to bed was the optical illusion caused by putting the Boots Cog between the larger Artifact and Weapon Cogs. It makes the smaller cog look a lot smaller than it is, even smaller than the other equipment cogs.

I will be getting around this by either making the equipment cogs bigger, or the offensive cogs smaller.

Not sure which to do, any preferences? Answers on a postcard or in the comments please :)

*********************

Next up was something I was made aware of last night over Twitter.

As most of you know, I do my Malifaux demos at Leisure Games in North London.

Now these guys are a great bunch, they are very accommodating and always looking to encourage games being played in their store. This is because they understand that such activity keeps the holy-trinity of retail happy (Manufactorer-Retailer-Customer).

So I was quite shocked when I was pointed to a thread on the official FFG website about the game XWing and a tournament they were holding in their store.

In short, Leisure Games featured the following comment on their events page:

FFG’s Kessel Run preview event is an exclusive X-Wing tournament taking place December 14 – 16, and a limited number of retailers will have a chance to participate. This exclusive event will provide players their first opportunity to see some of their favorite new starships in action!

This event is free to enter.

PLEASE NOTE: This event is scheduled in anticipation that the tournament kits reach us in time. Further information to follow when available. The Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) web site states that the ships used in this event will be given as prizes, however we want to give more people a chance to see and play with these fantastic miniatures so we will be using them for other events. In order to run the "Kessel Run" event we have to purchase a kit from FFG, they are NOT given to us free of charge, and each retailer can only purchase one kit, so we have to re-use the one kit. We expect to run another event at "Conception" games convention at the end of January. Models will be given to event winners when we have finished running events with this kit.

So what's the problem here? The store has changed the rules (slightly) to mean that prizes will be given out in January rather than straight after the December event.

(I suppose I should give you a link to it) http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=254&efcid=6&efidt=752608&efpag=0

For those who haven't dredged through multiple pages of teenage drivel, that thread is full of people asking for Leisure Games to be blacklisted because they're committing fraud.

Now I don't know about you, but I was under the impression that fraud is when something is given when it should not, or the reverse, when something is supposed to be given, but denied.

In this instance Leisure Games have clearly advertised their stance and internal rules change on their website well in advance of the event. There is no misinformation, no false advertising and the event is a free to enter event on top of that.

To me this is yet another example of Generation Y and it's requirement to be given everything right now with minimal effort on their behalf.

It sickens me!

Why can't these 'people' get a job if their own, move out of their parent's home and realise what responsibilities there really are in life beyond 'I want'?

Damn I feel old.

And on that note before my gears get truly ground, stay safe and ill see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest: Character Cards

Good Monday everyone (damn I'm tired).

This weekend my MaliQuest focus has been two fold.

First: Finish cutting out my Loot Deck: Essentials cards.


As you can see, it's big! By my count in fact I make it roughly 250 cards.

But this is everything in the deck, my aim is to encourage people to play with only the cards they want.

For example: when it comes to SkypeQuest, I'll probably remove everything below rare quality (other than mods) which will drastically reduce the deck size and increase the chances of good draws.

But my main focus has been on designing the character cards.

So on Friday I came up with the following:


The aim is to allow for the players to laminate and write in their character name and stats and then mark off when they equip gear.

In addition, the Wound and SoulStone markers work in reverse of those found on Malifaux stat cards. You fill in however many you have, and then as you get hit/use stones, wipe them off the laminate, meaning everyone can have up to 10 Wounds and 8 Stones, but starting with much less.

I've had some feedback and based on that the following v2 was created:


The plan was to de-clutter the card, however as my wife pointed out, now the space for recording stats is drastically reduced.

Something I'll be trying tonight is creating some more cards, the first will have the Head/Gloves cogs moved to be in line with the Torso/Boots cogs.

The second will have all 4 cogs moved to be next to the Wd/SS blocks.

The third version will have the cogs removed all together and replacing them with a manual writing space, thus suggestion came from @Gorbad13, and I am curious to see how it will compare to the others.

I welcome any comments/suggestions. For obvious reasons, my trail of thought is so stuck into wanting there to be cogs, the idea of not having any had not even occurred to me!

Anyway, please excuse me while I take a nap on the way to work.

Stay safe, and I'll see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest: My First MQ Adventurer

Good Friday all!

As painful as getting out of bed, getting dressed, sorting out the morning routine and then walking to the train in the literally freezing weather outside was this morning, I'm now on the train and have something to share with you this morning.

I'd like to introduce to you Daisy Haynes, the Corrupted Gunslinger:





This is a character who originally started as a character that I wanted to play as myself in MaliQuest, but has since turned into a boss who will feature in the upcoming SkypeQuest game with members of the Malifools.

And for some narrative:
Daisy was just a regular fortune seeker when she arrived in New Fairbank in seek of relics and fame.

Together with a party of adventurers Daisy ventured into the crypts below town. Daisy thought that nothing hidden away from daylight could possibly harm her, not the undead that rose from the shadows or the Neverborn that hungered for her blood.

After many of hours spent in the encroaching dark she stumbled on a brightly glowing crystal, long tendrils of brilliant light piercing the very darkness itself.

The crystal itself was being tightly gripped by a long dead corpse, it appeared in the form of a humanoid creature, but misshapen with fossilised tentacles and claws where human hands should be.

Grasping with the corpse, she pried the crystal free and held it in her hand, a wicked smile on her face, a smile that lasted until the crystal shone as bright as the Earthside sun.

Daisy's skin around where she held the crystal began to blister, before twisting and moving of it's own accord, the pain was unimaginable and Daisy fell to the floor screaming in agony.

Daisy Haynes was never heard from again, neither was the party she had travelled with.

There is a rumour however of a monster, a creature who wears the face of a woman that lives under the surface of New Fairbank. It is said that this creature can twist it's form at will and create weapons out of flesh and bone.

There are story tellers who still talk of Daisy Haynes and of the perils of New Fairbank's dark crypts. Some say it was the mysterious crystal she found that turned her into the monster she is today, others say she was a monster already, the crystal only giving form to what she was inside, that the very darkness of the crypts turned her against her fellow adventurers.

Whatever the reason, Daisy is long gone, and should you go exploring into the shadows of the below, beware the what you may find there. For in time you may find, the monster is you.

Stay safe everyone, see you breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Through the Breach Kickstarter: A Second Opinion

Good Thursday everyone!

So just prior to my bed time last night the Through the Breach Kickstarter went live and I think I need to give it a (mad) doctor's second opinion.

So the Kickstarter itself an be found here. And while I welcome you all to each make up your own mind about this, here are my thoughts.

I'm not a happy scientist.

I don't want to bitch and moan, so I'm going to try and avoid that.

What I will say is that I personally believe that the pledge markers are too steep in my opinion for what you get.

The first reward mark is at $60 (+22 for shipping outside the US) so a combined total of $82.

In today's market that is equal to £52.20.

The reward you get for this is two soft cover guides (one for players, one for GMs).

Here is where my issue starts: I used to play a lot of World of Darkness RPGs by White Wolf, each core book would come in a single package, hardback and cost only £20 despite being thick enough to kill someone with a solid hit to the head.

In this situation however, if I want a hardback I have to pledge $125 + $33 for P&P ($158 total) that's £96! Oh yes I also get the soft copy books and a fate deck, but for me that's just too high for my (already stretched) wallet.

The second issue I have, and while it is tied to the first issue I believe it deserves it's own section. And this is an issue I have with Kickstarter in general:
The hard copy book is a Kickstarter exclusive.

Let me just leave that there for a moment.

Unless I put in nearly £100 within the next month I can NEVER get hold of a hard copy unless I buy one off eBay for an even further inflated price.

Ok yes this is a whine, but I believe that as a consumer I should be able to buy the same products as the next person at a later date. Or failing that, I should be able to buy that by itself without having to pay for things I don't want.

This is the attitude that Kickstarter is encouraging, charge a lot of money for stuff that is only available to the exclusive few and if those of us who can't afford to splash £100 during the most expensive time of the year, well we can just suck it .

The hard copy version of the book should be a general release, it is what myself and many other long term RPGers expect as standard now.

I have other issues, mainly that I disagree with a successful company using Kickstarter to find projects, especially when that company already has Capital.

It is my opinion that Kickstarter is designed for up and coming companies who don't have investors and shareholders to use to help them get off the ground, not for companies such as Wyrd and Mantic to use to fund or part-fund a project in advance.

The way I see it, if a project is good, then the end sales will (normally) reflect this, but in this case we are seeing a company receive over $30,000 directly from the consumer before any of these consumer's know if it's any good, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of these backers are doing so because of fear of losing out on the exclusive books and sculpts.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the principles of Capitalism and making money, and I like what Wyrd generally do (I wouldn't be a Henchman who gives up his own time to encourage new players to join in the game if I didn't). I just look at this and I have to wonder if Wyrd are working in the best interest of the community or if they're on the downward slope that lead to Games Workshop becoming the despised company it is now.

I seriously hope that the above is not the case, and I am just being an over reacting nub.

Anyway, stay safe everyone, see you breachside.

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest: Grid Maps/Tiles

Good Wednesday everyone!

As you may or may not know, I have finally braved putting a post up in the form of a blog post on the Wyrd boards to promote MaliQuest: http://www.wyrd-games.net/entry.php?348-MaliQuest why not pop over there and show your support?

Anywho, tonight I am due to be recording again with the Malifools, where we will be discussing the proposed Skype game, as well as character creation.

***********

Today however, I'd like to bring up the topic of printable map tiles.

So it occurred to me, I am looking for this game to be playable, and as part of that it needs to be easily accessible to everyone.

While the ultimate aim is to use Dungeon Rise/World Works to create a dungeon to play, I see no reason why printable tiles would not be usable at the same time.

So I have done some quick research and found a number of printable .pdf files for Warhammer Quest: http://the-lost-and-the-damned.664610.n2.nabble.com/file/n6586581/WHQ_tiles.pdf

The only problem with this set up is the lack of doors.

MaliQuest like many Dungeon Crawlers creates the illusion of an at of monsters with only a few models thanks to only 'spawning' what you can see, ie the room you are in. Doors help accommodate this by acting as an actual barrier to what you can and can not see.

With this in mind I would be grateful for the opinions from others.

Essentially we are saying that any game that allows you to make a dungeon set up should be sufficient, I'm unsure about scale, but I can't see there being problems with the likes of Warhammer Quest, MageKnight, hell, even Space Hulk should work if required.

I'd like to hear what you think, should the GM provide the crawlspace themselves?

Many thanks and I'll see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest: The Loot Deck

Good Monday everyone!

So before I start, I'd just like to check something with some people: I know some of you are familiar with accounting, and as you know I'm studying for my resit for my first exam for year 1 of AAT.

Double entry for the main ledger:
If you take money (sales/purchases return) its
Debit: Control Account
Credit: Relevant account
Credit: VAT account

And if you spend money (sales returns/purchases)
Credit: Control Account
Debit: Relevant account
Credit: VAT account

By relevant I mean, if your talking about sales, then it's the sales account.

And the control account is the Gross figure, Relevant account is NET and VAT is the VAT amount.

Is this right? Just I seriously messed that up in my last exam.

***************

Anyway, on with the show!

So I've been a busy little bee over the past week, and what do I have to show for it?

Well let me show you!

As they say in the movies "say hello to my little friend" https://www.dropbox.com/s/wk3m4p2f25jjh2k/MaliQuestPass1.zip

What you're looking at here is the entirety of Pass One at the Loot Deck Essentials.

That's 4 separate .pdf files, a total of roughly 100 unique cards, which when applied to the rarity figures becomes a LOT more.

So for every common card, there's 4 of them, 3 for every uncommon, 2 for every rare and 1 for every epic!

If you would like to have a look at them and let me know, that would be super appreciated, in addition if you want to print them out and have a quick feel, that would also be good too.

Now remember, there are a LOT of cards there, some of them are of only a certain rarity, others range from common to epic.

Initially it might feel like there are too many cards, but this is where the GM comes in, any cards they don't like, they can be excluded.

Does your GM only want to play with Epic cards? No problem!

Perhaps he hates guns and only wants Melee weapons? Just remove all ranged cards!

This is Pass One at the cards, based on your suggestions and feedback, I can make corrections and move onto Pass Two.

Also, please give thought to what I said before about themed deck expansions. Is there a whole range of cards that you think I'm missing and need to include? Please tell me your thoughts!

Ok I've gotta get going, I've got a day off today from working on Saturday and I don't want to spend all of it floundering around the bath.

Stay safe, and I'll see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Christmas Shopping & an Impromptu Announcement

Good Sunday everyone!

Today is a good day, why? Because I'm not at work.

You see, we had the cleaners in our office yesterday doing their bi-annual deep clean, and as the FacilitiesManager for the site it was my responsibility to ensure it when ahead without a hitch.

Normally however this is a 2 day job, and so I was expecting to have to return today, but they pulled their fingers out and instead got everything done, yay!

As I was in London anyway yesterday, I decided to stop by Oxford St and do a bit of shopping for the wife.

Big mistake!

It seems that AMEX had paid to block off the roads creating a VIP (Very Important Pedestrian) day, which in turn meant the whole street was jam full of people.

But I fought my way to my destination and got Mummy Moo some presents that I hope she will like.

I'm trying to stay on the 'budget' side of things this year, what with Mini Moo sapping us for all we have through day care, our budget is a lot lower than last year, but thanks to Groupon I've managed to find some great stuff at a fraction of the price - including something that usually retails for £150+ for only £20!

As my wife reads this, I'm afraid I can't go into more detail, but I hope she likes these things.

************

I mentioned in the title that I have a bit of an announcement:

If you have listened to the entire of Malifools Ep 22, you'll have heard a little discussion right at the end between Mike & Jon, now originally we were going to wait before announcing this, so I assume the inclusion of that chat was either an accident or instead cross communication (no one told Mike to cut it).

But anyway it's out there now, and so I think I should make a proper announcement:

The Malifools Broadcasting Network in partnership with New Fairbank News Presents - Skype-Quest!

(Or whatever we're calling it)

Now this was Jon's idea that he shared with me on Monday, and initially I thought it was an alright idea, but then the more I thought about it, the more awesome it has become!

So the idea is that myself as the GM, Mike, Jon and 1 to 2 more players all Skype together and we play through a game of MaliQuest together using a series of Pre-generated grid maps we can all see where each other's models and the npcs are, how far away they are, who's in combat, etc.

And then depending on the length of the hand we possibly splice it up into manageable chunks to feature in episodes in the buildup to the MaliQuest launch in January, or we feature it in one big go.

Now, in order to help you guys follow along at home, all the materials we use, so maps, loot cards etc will all be made available via this blog, so as someone picks up The Kobald's Dildo of Enlightenment +2 (which despite the name is actually a fantastic book of fiction! It's hilarious! http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1936383055/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1353840180&sr=8-76&pi=SL75) you too can see the cards, mark off the player's wounds and essentially play along at home!

So there we go!

I hope you like the sound of this, and any feedback would be great.

A reminder, I am still looking for a proper logo to feature for this game! If you were holding off because you didn't want to waste your time, let me tell you, this is happening!

This game could be big, but it requires help from the community. So help out a fellow gamer, and put some pencil to paper.

Pwetty pwease?

See you breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

A MaliQuest Thought Splurge

Morning all,

It's 07:18 on Saturday morning. Why am I up and writing? Because my office is getting a deep clean today, and as the London North Area's Facilities Manager (as well as Payroll Support) it's my job to make sure it goes without a hitch.

But regardless of why I am up, I am and I'd like to share with you my idea to further augment MaliQuest:

So one of the issues I currently have is how to allow players to expand/complicate their games without over complicating the core rules.

I mentioned a few days ago about the first expansion: The Paths of Fate. Well now I would like to introduce you to another idea: The (I don't have a name for it yet) Expansion Decks!

So currently I'm working on the basic core game deck, the Essentials so to speak. It has all the basic weapons and gear you would expect plus a few spells here and there to keep things interesting.

I have mentioned before to people that something I want would be for players to suggest ideas for cards, and this is where that is going.

My plans in the months to come is to release further decks, they may be comedy theme decks, horror theme decks, future-Sci Fi decks, high fantasy decks etc.

The idea behind is that (ideally) you could use these decks in place of the Essentials Deck, or if you so wanted you could make your own deck selection by mixing and matching any loot cards you wanted.

To give an idea, currently I am at 81 unique cards for the Essentials, when it goes to print that will work out as much more (currently each card represents x1, but at print each Common will be x4), so as it currently stands GMs will probably want to remove some of the cards already.

Anyway, I think this concept really speaks for itself, and if you have any suggestions please let me know.

By the way, I have it on good faith that my interview 'should' be released today. If so expect my big Card Reveal later!

Stay safe and I'll see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest: The Big Card Unveiling

Greetings all!

If you are reading this, then that means my interview with Malifool Jon is uploaded and available via their host: http://malifools.podbean.com/ and/or iTunes.

It also means you either have already, or will be soon listening to the sound of my annoying voice! Grats!

Well as promised, to coincide with the release of this episode I am also releasing the full details on the MaliQuest loot system.

For those of you interested, you can grab the initial example cards that I discuss on the show from here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1jrb22gxp0xrtht/maliquest.zip

I will also do mini previews here, so here goes nothing:



First up, we have Bob the Merc, Bob is your typical character, his stats are left blank as they can change through character creation and you will notice the cogs on the bottom of his card.

Cogs are important in MaliQuest as they cover 'slots'. For every cog you have in a category you can equip 1 item. So currently that's 1 for each body part, 2 weapons and 2 Artifacts. There is room to expand on that further, but not at the moment.

So Bob has been questing for a while, and his first find is an Uncommon Peacebringer


Notice that the background is green, this represents the rarity of the item (grey for Common, green for Uncommon, blue for Rare and Purple/Pink for Epic). You'll also see that just like in Malifaux core rules, this weapon has a stat profile and triggers.

Just like with Bob's card, this too has cogs. For every cog in a loot card you can equip a mod.

So, being happy with his new gun, Bob wants to enhance it further, so reaching into his pockets he pulls out a pouch of silver bullets he picked up earlier:


This mod takes up one weapon cog, and as you can see from the card itself, it has 10 bullet holes, as each shot is fired, a hole is marked off, once all bullets are spent the mod is discarded.

Other mods have different durations, and many do not expire at all.

Well, equipped with his Uncommon Peacebringer and Silver Bullets, Bob is ready to take down the mindless zombies in the next room, which he does with ease.

Bob finds that the zombies were picking at the body of an adventurer, someone who had come before him but had not been as fortunate as Bob. On his corpse, Bob finds some goggles:


These take up one head cog, give him a boost to his Wp, the Immune to Influence skill and can be further augmented with a single mod.

Wearing these goggles, Bob enters the next room where he is confronted by a Rogue Necromancy, thanks to his goggles he is immune to the Rogue's fear and quickly unloads all remaining Silver Bullets into the beasty killing it.

Strangely enough, on investigation Bob finds that the Rogue was guarding an Artifact:


With this Epic grade artifact, Bob is able to temporarily bury targets, and if he is able to get a Tome Engraving Mod for his equipment, he will be able to turn his enemies into bunnies!

Bob feels like a bad ass, but is he prepared for Killjoy awaiting him in the next room?

***************

Now, in the above looting examples, I mentioned the different grading of gear. Next up, I'd like everyone to download the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dssdxm2jb8q63mk/Peacebringer.zip this contains the different types of rarities available for the Peacebringer.

Initially a deck will contain 4 of every common, 3 uncommon, 2 rare and only 1 epic. This is for each type of weapon/equipment.

Based on this as you can see, obtaining a common weapon is 4 times more likely than the epic variety.

*******************

If you have listened to the podcast, you'll have heard me talking about the importance of community interaction, and I meant every word of that. As such please find in the following link all of the currently available templates for MaliQuest: https://www.dropbox.com/s/f9e2vcnkkf563gn/Templates.zip

As you can see from these, they are .pdf files designed in the same way as Ratty's card creator, so by showing/hiding different layers you can specify rarity, factions etc.

**********

And there we have it!

There is more to come soon, but rest assured, using these templates I have created a total of 81 different cards for equipment, weapons, Mods and Artifacts and I have more coming!

So stay safe and I'll see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Plans & Poorly Babies

Good Wednesday everyone!

It's been a couple of days since my last post, but don't you worry, I have not been slacking.

For starters my poor little Moo has been quite poorly. As I mentioned before, it started over the weekend and is still going on. Last night however was the most dramatic improvement (sleep wise) as she only woke up one, and that was because she would have been super hungry.

You see, last night, just before she was being put to bed around 18:30 she had her last milk bottle of the night, until she knocked the bottle out of my hands and proceeded to spew the entire contents of her stomach across me, her own sleep suit, the sofa and my wife's laptop.

Let me tell you, the smell of 2hr old part digested milk is NOT pleasant.

But everything got cleared up, I went and had a bath and then proceeded to do some more work on MaliQuest.

I'm afraid at this point I am unable to reveal just what I was doing last night. There is a big reveal coming soon, but I need to make sure the ball is rolling first before I promise the world.

What I can say however, on Monday night I spent more time working on my templates!

These are multi layer .pdf files, similar to Ratty's card creator.

The aim with these is simple, have multi layers of card rarities, faction logos, subheaders etc which will allow me to mass produce cards, and other people to make their own cards with minimal effort.

Once the interview we recorded on Sunday is available I'll make sure to include links to these templates as well as the example cards.

So currently I have the following available: an Equipment Template for making Head, Torso, Boot etc slot items, a Weapon Template and an Artifact template.

I have yet to create a functioning template for Mods, and because of the range of different types of mods, may need to do many templates; one for Ammo Mods, One for Stat Mods etc.

I would love to hear your thoughts, but obviously I know you can't give them until you've seen what I've done. But it's Wednesday, just a few more days and it'll be revealed!

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On a related matter, any budding graphic designers/artists? I'm still on the look out for a MaliQuest logo.

In addition to this, I'm looking for suggestions for 2 Demo Characters. Something someone could use to test the game out. I'm looking for one who's a good solid beatstick/tank and someone who's range. If they focus on spells over range, then all the better.

If it sounds like I'm being cryptic, then I'm afraid that is on purpose, but again please have faith and I promise all will be revealed in good time.

Oh! And healers! Any good suggestions for a team healer model? I seem to remember Misaki's mentor from book 4 had a heal she can cast on others, but I can't remember either her base size or her point cost.

************

Anyway, that's it from me today, stay safe and I'll see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest: Weekend Round Up

Good Monday everyone!

I'll be honest, at first today did not look like it was going to be a good morning, my daughter is slightly poorly again, and as such was awake around 22:00, 00:00 and 05:00, so poor sleep for me. It's not like she can help it, and over the weekend she did let us sleep until 0900, so I can hardly complain.

But no, today is a good morning. Largely because of a great weekend.

So on Saturday I had my final demo as an on-probation Henchman, which as per usual was great fun, teaching some people how to play the game from scratch, helping others to understand their newly purchased crews, and I also had a great discussion with one of the staff members at the store.

I won't mention him by name, but it turns out he is a massive RPG fan. I had mentioned MaliQuest to him before, back when it was an extremely fledgling idea. But now I've run by the different ideas past him and he loved it! He also had some great suggestions which I am taking on board and in a couple if cases using outright.

Resisting the urge to spend money that I don't own, I then went home and made arrangements to record my interview for Malifools radio.

Roll on Sunday, a nice lay in, a nice trip into town followed by the before mentioned chat with Jon from the Malifools!

Now I have to be honest here, I was very worried before we spoke, those who know me already know that I'm a massive worrier anyway. I can't go out without worrying that something will happen to myself or my family, throw in a recording session were my promoting of MaliQuest almost entirely relies on myself covering all the bases and doing so in an exciting and engaging way - that's a lot of anxiety right there. Top it off that I was speaking to one of the Malifools! A minor celebrity in the Malifaux scene. Well to say I had butterflies was putting it lightly.

Of course this was all for nought. The words flowed and the recording was made (all be it with a terrible song selection for the Malifaux Minion, and I can not apologise enough about that) and as I knew would be the case, Jon was great. Friendly and approachable - just a normal guy you might say (a normal guy who is 1/3rd of a podcast group with hundreds of hits every week!)

But it went really well I hope, and when it goes up I'll be sure to post my cards that I have discussed somewhere (if anyone can suggest a free file share site, I'd be most grateful). And then I would love it if as the cards are discussed you looked through them yourself. Things make a LOT more sense when you have them in front of you at the time.

Anywho, unfortunately I don't have all that much to look forward to this week. Next weekend I have to work most of Saturday and a few hours on Sunday, so this week will be mostly spent doing revision for my exam which is now being booked for January, creating more cards for MaliQuest and thinking about putting together an initial rules supplement for the game and of course playing some WoW.

I'll be sure to post here when the episode is up along with a link to it, but if you are already subscribed to the Malifools via iTunes (and if not, why not?) then you should find it popping into your list by the weekend at the latest.

Take care and I'll see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest: An Update

Good Friday everyone!

Well it's been roughly a week since my last MaliQuest update, and what do I have to say?

Not much I'm afraid, other than discussing this with a friend little else has been done.

However! I do have a plan for the first expansion:

The Paths of Fate.

This was essentially suggested by a friend of mine who I saw last Friday. The idea would be that you can acquire 'faction' points to direct your character in one way or another, in theory you could have someone who is say, a Guild Guard who experiments with Resser magic.

These points would give certain rewards, extra suits, special abilities etc, however the more I thought about it, the more I knew that this had to be an optional extra.

It's a great idea, but when you're trying to keep the base game as simple as possible while including as much cool stuff as you want, this becomes perfect for the first expansion.

And so my plans are still going ahead, I'm looking for an initial release of at least the demo version in the new year, probably January-December time with full campaign rules following a couple of months after that. Once that is done I'll be looking to ways of expanding this supplement even further, and that is where Paths of Fate come in.

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For those who don't use twitter (and if you don't, why not? It is simply the best place for Malifaux!) you may have missed Wyrd's little announcement: https://twitter.com/wyrdgames/status/269481808255651840

Yeah, so Wyrd are also looking to get the ball rolling on their RPG. This has me worried.

Currently I/we have no idea how their RPG will play out, but I have a feeling that it will deviate in a big way from the core of Malifaux.

This is my hope. As long as it is different enough, then that means there is still a place for MaliQuest, as this game is a Dungeon Crawler with RPG elements. It's like Warhammer Quest, a game I would never describe as an RPG.

While I am sure there will still be some people interested in MaliQuest (after all it's a free supplement for Malifaux that the players can alter and influence directly in the development stages) I have no doubt that if the Wyrd RPG is too similar, it will completely eclipse MaliQuest and make the hours/days/months of work that will be put into it a wasted opportunity.

Here's hoping.

************

Anyway, less doom and gloom!

While I still have some time before the yet-to-be-rescheduled chat with the Malifools, I want to put the time to use, which means making more loot cards, so when I do my big unveiling I have more to show for it.

But I want to know, what do you want to see?

What spells/abilities are your favourite ones? Are there any models that you just love the game mechanics of?

I can't guarantee that I will be able to get it exactly as is into the game, but I will try my best to st least stay true to the spirit of the ability.

An example of this is one I've recently come up with: an artifact that is a pet Steampunk Arachnid, which you as a player can throw at an enemy, activating the Arachnid's Latch On ability and reducing the target's Df.

What about Criid's Cigarette Lighter? An artifact which allows you to cast Flame Burst?

Essentially if there is a spell or ability that you love, then somehow there must be a way to fit it into the loot mechanic and add Common-Epic scalings, but in order to decide between the HUNDREDS of weapons, abilities, triggers and spells I need some help.

Anyway, that's it from me, good night, stay safe, and I'll see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Ooh a girl!

Good evening all,

I'm sorry to say that I join you with an issue. Earlier today I read an article talking about "Geek Girls" and the unnecessary hatred they attract.

The article itself can be found here: http://m.io9.com/5960885/the-myth-of-the-fake-geek-girl

Now personally I feel the need to shed my own light on this topic.

I have to warn you, there is a good chance some of you will disagree with potentially everything I say, but I've never once held back on my opinion, and even if I am completely off the mark, I feel it needs to be said.

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Bollocks!

There I've said it. That entire article is complete bollocks. It's feminist propaganda designed to encourage outrage and white knighting.

If someone wants to know why Geeks hate Geek-Girls, it's because Geek-Girls are NOT Geeks.

I have many women friends who partake in geek hobbies, when asked what 'social group' they fall under, they reply "Geek". When asked "are you a Geek Girl?" They reply with "no that title is an insult to Geeks".

On my way home today I was discussing this with my wife, someone who is a true geek while also remaining feminine in herself. I would say that she described the issue quite well:

She compared a Geek/Gamer Girl to akin to women who make a point about being attractive, and so they cover themselves in make up so you can no longer see who they really are, compare this to the quietly confident women who use less make up to accent their features, enhancing their beauty in ways the former cant even come close to.

She said that anyone who describes themselves as a Geek/Gamer Girl has a point to prove, these are the type of people who HAVE to go onto forums and the first thing they do is thrust the fact that they have boobs and a V down everyone's throat. They are an embarrassment to real geeks who happen to be female, and make them look bad.

It was then she went on to make a comparison which brought such joy to my ears, when she drew a comparison between that abhorrent behaviour and Felicia Day.

This you see is my issue with all of this.

I've known a plethora of "Geek Girls" in my time, and they all share the same characteristics. Mainly they are shallow sad women, who more than anything crave attention. They do so by flaunting their femininity infront of basement dwelling men so that they'll be drooled over, all the while going to cosplay dressed as Princess Leia in the Gold Bikini and complaining about men hyper sexualising women in SciFi and Fantasy.

For those who have yet to, please watch Chris Metzen's BluzzCon speech "Geek Is" (a link can be found on my previous post here).

This is what being a geek is all about, it's belonging to a community that pays homage to the great works that came before, it's re-enacting the great military minds of human history over a table top, and it's imagining the wonders of technology yet to come.

Every great inventor who ever lived: Geek!

Every great Sci-Fi/Fantasy writer who ever lived: Geek!

Every great medical mind who ever lived: Geek!

Collectively we have created medicine to cure otherwise lethal diseases, we have established that the world is not only round, but revolves around the Sun, we have even created a device with a touch screen, life planner, inbuilt camera and the ability to rant via the Internet!

No other community can claim to have achieved anywhere near as much as the Geeks, and that includes the women.

So I say a big screw you to Geek Girls. You can take your pathetic attempts to garner attention, your points to prove, and discriminatory attitudes and just EFF off!

The rest of us will be fine, the REAL geeks, both men AND women.

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

The Adventures of Geek Dad: One Year On

Good Tuesday everyone!

I must admit it feels a little strange calling today Tuesday, but that is largely because I've had the last 2 days off, and so it feels more like a Sunday to me.

I'd also like to apologise to everyone who was looking forward to hearing feedback about my chat with the Malifools about my game supplement, because of ill health from one of the co-hosts we've had to reschedule our recording until sometime next week. Don't worry, it will happen. And once it has I'll be able to make my card reveals.

In the meantime I will probably use some of the free time to make some more cards so that the unveiling can be even better.

But I am afraid that none of this is what I'd like to discuss with you today.

On Saturday it was my little girl's first birthday. We had family and friends over and a good time was had by all.

What I can not believe however is just how much has happened between then. It's actually so strange to look at her now, and see the wonderful little girl smiling/babbling/clapping back at you and remember exactly what she was like only 12 months prior.

The funny thing is that she was due on the 1st, so was 10 days late, but despite this she was still so small. I understand that she was normal for a newborn, but as I had never seen a newborn before I didn't know what to expect.

I still remember the very first time I held her, and I hope that no matter what happens I never forget that.

She was still naked, wrapped in a blanket (I had yet to brave putting on a nappy or applying clothing). Her face was covered in flakey skin and she wouldn't stop crying.

So very carefully I took her for a walk around the room, and low and behold, it stopped her crying.

I wanted to talk to her, but I couldn't. My mind was conflicted with 100 different thoughts and feelings. Fear of what was to come, sorrow for the inevitable loss of free time, and happiness and joy for the wonder that had happened.

Perhaps it was just because I'm male and didn't know how to react, but I was so scared that I would hurt her. My wife refers to it as T-Virus handling, like if I was a little too rough/firm she would shatter like glass and release the end of the world.

The next day she came home with her mum, and I remember how that was the start of much to come.

On her first night she vomited up this strange bright green fluid, and I was so scared that she might be ill or something was wrong with her that I called the hospital straight away, only to be told that it was down to her not feeding properly.

I would like to think that in the time that has passed I've learned to worry less. I don't, I just can ignore it now.

Anyway I think I've rambled on for too long now.

So happy birthday Mini Moo, I look forward to looking back in a year's time and seeing how much has changed again.

All my love

- Daddy Moo

MaliQuest: The Winds of Fate

Good Friday everyone!

Well what a weekend it has been, for those who have been keeping up with my MaliQuest posts, thank you very much, and I'm assuming by the lack of comments that you're all happy with the proposed supplements?

Of course I understand you need to have a real go with the system to judge, which is why I'm getting everything down now, I am also already working on loot cards, so once they are all done I can do a budget print job, shove them into MTG card protectors and give them an initial whirl (maybe hijack the club's copy of HeroQuest and use that board as an initial trial).

So far I have created 1 of each rarity loot card, 1 Common, 1 Uncommon, 1 Rare and 1 Epic.

Eventually most weapons and gear items will have some of each, in theory it'll number 1Epic, 2Rare, 3Uncommon and 4Common. I'm theory with all the common and uncommon cards littering the loot deck, getting the Elite and Rare cards will be a lot less likely.

Of course eventually I'll be unveiling just what these cards will look like, and so far I am VERY happy with them, however for now they are staying hush hush.

In fact they will remain hushed until sometime next week, you see on Tuesday morning while I'm on leave from work I'm booked to appear on the Malifools Podcast (SQUEE!!) I'll be emailing them the prototype cards just prior to the recording, and if I can get a confirmation from them, on the day that recording goes live, I'll be sure to upload these cards then.

BUT! This is not what I'm here to discuss today!

No today is all about The Winds of Fate!

You may remember I mentioned prior about a tarot card mechanic that I couldn't quite figure out? Well here it is!

In short: when a character is created, a face card is selected at random, this is from then on in their wind of fate card.

During any game that follows, if for any reason their Wind of Fate card is used, be it a deck flip or hand placement, the owner of that card can discard any number of cards from their hand and redraw up to their full hand. For every card they discard and redraw they 'may' force another player to do the same.

Do you want to steal the treasure all for yourself maybe playing your Wind card from your hand, discarding your own hand and forcing them to redraw is the answer!

Or maybe the GM has some awesome cards and you just need 1 lucky hit to bring down his Steampunk Leviathan? This could be the chance to do it!

Of course there is a gamble here, you might end up with worse cards, or the GM (if he is your target) may end up with better cards, but then since when have the Winds of Fate ever been fair?

However this also works for hand replenishment. Have you managed to hold off the ravages of 3 Punk Zombies, only to have an almost empty hand and 3headed monstrosity lumber it's way towards you? Throw caution into the Wind of Fate and get yourself a full hand!

I was looking for a mechanic that added a level of random complexity to the game, but did not make the game too complicated.

Of course I should also mention, Wind cards have a special use. You can play them with no requirement. Should you have a Wind card in your hand and you wish to get it out there for either yourself or your team mate to use, you can play it as is. When done the card has no effect other then activating it's Wind effect. This is not always the best option, as they are face cards then this is a little but of a waste, but it allows you to use the mechanic if you so wish.

I should also note, the discard/draw occurs after the current action has resolved.

Ok and that's pretty much it from me this week.

Looking ahead I've got a friend coming over tonight for some Malifaux (first proper game I've played in about 2-3 months) and tomorrow is the Moo's birthday!

I can't believe she'll be 1 year old!

Anyway, take care and I'll see you all breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley