Tuesday 28 May 2013

MaliQuest: Extract from Dr Loxley's Manual of Monsters - The Spawn





According to most at New Fairbank, The Spawn are nothing more than a myth, tales of horrifying tentacled beasts capable of taking on human forms.

Most claim that The Spawn dwell in the deepest reaches of the Crypts and use these creatures as warnings against venturing too far too quickly.

But I know the truth, The Spawn are real, as is the threat they pose to New Fairbank and it's people.

Spawn of note: The Demon Seed, a Spawn that appears in the form of a human child, and is always accompanied by a guardian. If this creature was to ever reach the surface, there is no telling what havoc it would bring.

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Saturday 25 May 2013

MaliQuest: Extract From Dr Loxley's Manual of Monsters - Shifters

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

I remember the first time I ever saw a Shifter. It was a creature that looked part human, part beast, but unlike both the intelligence behind it's eyes was pure evil, with only blood lust on it's mind.

It was hunched over, with thick shaggy fur covering it's body, however despite this dishevelled appearance, it was still roughly six foot tall.

The creature's head appeared to be almost wolf like in appearance, but it was clearly humanoid, and based on this the rest of my party began to call it a Werewolf, but to do so was to detract from it's true being.

A Shifter is not a Werewolf, but a Werewolf is a Shifter. A human born of inhuman parentage with an ability to take on the characteristics of any beast in the wild, they often appear as many different types of animals; wolves, bears, sometimes even lizards or bats, but they all share the same weakness:

A silver bullet to the brain...

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

Good morning everyone!

Today I bring you a sneaky peak of an extract from the Monster Manual, oh yes in deed, we will have Were-Creatures, but they will all be listed as 'Shifters' short of course for Shape Shifters.

You see, one thing that I want to do for the Manual of Monsters is move away from the strict names and definitions of beasties you find in Malifaux, but also add to the fluff and feel of living in New Fairbank.

An example of this will be found in the Nephilum, the 'correct' term for the first stage is of course, Terror Tots, but in New Fairbank they will be known as Imps. Of course you also have Mindless Zombies, these will be called Shamblers.

There are a couple of reasons behind this, the names themselves are standard monster tropes and by their almost generic use means that they will translate over to any independent work I may do.

The second reason, I see the people of a town who encounter monsters on a daily basis having their own words for these creatures. All types of Zombies will become Rots for example.

This might sound almost pointless, but if you look over history at any war, every time us humans always come up with 'nicknames' for the enemy, I see no reason why the same wouldn't happen here.

Anyway, I have a train to catch, stay safe and I'll see you breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Thursday 23 May 2013

NFR: Episode 10 - Double Figures

Good Thursday everyone!

A quick post from me today as I update you all with the news that Episode 10 of New Fairbank Radio is now available.

The cards for this episode are available here.

The show can be downloaded from Newfairbank.podbean.com, iTunes subscription, and as always through the blog stream.

Our music selection this week was on request from the birthday boy Will:

Intro: Kid Rock - Cowboy
Intermission: Neil Hannon - My Lovely Horse
Outro: Nena - 99 Red Balloons

Stay safe, and I'll see you breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Tuesday 21 May 2013

MaliQuest: Trinity

Good Wednesday everyone!

Before I begin today I'd like to wish a happy birthday to Podcast Crew Member Will, hope you have a good day today dude!

Secondly, this week we are recording Episode 10 of New Fairbank Radio, and to celebrate reaching double figures I thought it would be time to 'release' the first MaliQuest expansion.

I say release, what I really mean is show off the cards. There will be a short rule book and some fluff, but for now the cards will suffice.

And so without further ado:

MaliQuest: Trinity

For those interested, Trinity is all about introducing something called "Aspects".

Aspects are the game's equivalent of classes, and currently have a single card for each Aspect.

And so I would like to introduce you to the first Aspect:

The Tank


As you can see the Tank's first Aspect Card is to provide an ability called Taunt, which essentially forces a model to target the Tank.

Next as have:
The Healer


As you can see, nice and easy, the Healer has an ability to give a friendly model Armour +1.

Last but not least we have:
The DPS


The DPS has an ability called Defiance, which increases your damage if your character is close to death.

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

These are the first pass on these cards, and already I can see a few changes that I need to make, all abilities need a range added, the Taunt needs a choice of ranged or Melee AOE added, and Defiance needs editing so that you only get the bonus against the targeted model, so you can't target a Weak 4 monster, get the bonus, and then go on to kill a Weak 1 monster.

*****************
The Rules

Ok, so how do you use these cards?

If you want to use Aspects, before you start a game you declare an Aspect, which at the moment is just the MMO Holy Trinity: Tank, Healer & DPS (hence the name of the expansion) and then you get access to any of the cards relating to that Aspect.

At the time of writing there is only one card per Aspect, and when this goes live there will still only be one card per Aspect, however I am allowing for other cards to belong to Aspects for the future.

In between Encounters, if you have multiple cards available for your Aspect you can as a Free Action you can choose what card you want for that Encounter.

This is mainly to allow you to swap and change in order to try out new combos.

And that is essentially it!

All Aspect cards will consist of (0) Actions, this makes it a lot harder for crazy combos to be made, and as mentioned before, we may see multiple cards for Aspects be released, and of course there is no reason why other Aspects can't be released, perhaps Death Marshall, Performer, Mercenary or anything else you can think of.

On that note, I hope you like this addition, over the next few weeks I'll be making more passes over these three cards, and will be writing up a properly written version of the rules.

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

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Saturday 18 May 2013

A Change in Direction

Good Saturday,

Ok so last night and this morning I slept for what came to just under 14 hours, and it is amazing just how much better I feel for it.

This has actually put a whole new spin on my outlook for MaliQuest.

***********

So yesterday I was talking about how adjusting the stat profile would be a good thing, merging Cb in with the other stats, and altering Casting to be an opposed duel just like Cb duels, only using Ca instead.

I still think that this might be the right way to go, however getting the balance of stats right is something that would take a lot of work.

It would also require re-printing all of the weapons and artifacts and quite a few of the other cards.

In short it would not be very fun at all, and that my friends is where I'm going wrong!

***********

These past few months I have been so obsessed with trying to make a balanced fun game, that I have forgotten something:

Making the game is supposed to be fun as well!

**********

So yesterday I was talking with my podcast crew, and was acting like a dick.

They were telling me that they've been really enjoying the game and having fun, but I've been so obsessed that there were imbalances that I was convinced that they were wrong, and instead were blindsided to what I was trying to correct.

What I should have instead been doing was thanking them for helping me and for enjoying the game and instead focussing on making more content that was fun to produce.

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

You see, I've had problems recently playing the game, it hasn't been very fun for me, and largely that has been because I've been trying to create 'the perfect play experience' where the creatures the party encounter are just difficult enough to pose a threat, but not to difficult that there is no hope.

I think it is safe to say however that when you have a game with so many variables as MaliQuest has, creating the perfect balance is in fact impossible, and when my party had been telling me they were enjoying themselves, I should have listened.

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

So what's next? Am I going to make the changes to the stat line?

Not yet.

Maybe in the future, but for now I'm sticking with how things currently are.

Instead I'm going to get started on the Trinity system.

You see, on Thursday when I was making my Raid Card, I had loads of fun. It wasn't doing something for the sake of doing it because I 'had' to, it was doing something because I wanted to.

I hope that makes sense, and I hope that I haven't alienated my podcast crew so much as to stop us bringing you next week's show.

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Friday 17 May 2013

Not So Much An Overhaul

Good evening everyone,

So an idea came to me earlier today, an idea that I believe may solve my balance issues I've been noticing over the past few test plays.

This idea is simple in concept, it's just implementing it that would be laborious.

What I'm talking about is generally changing stats but also smoothing things out to work in a nicer way.

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

So at the moment the default Df is 4, this though the +2-1 rule can be raised to 6.

As I have made painfully obvious, I don't like this, I don't like it one bit.

What I am proposing is that baseline Df is dropped to 3, so it can still be added to, but in doing so will only reach 5 as a max.

Next up, I want to remove Cb from weapons, and make that a baseline stat, also of 3.

You can see where I'm going with this right?

You want a high Df, then you must sacrifice Cb, you want a high Cb, then you can't add to your Df.

Of course you can be Jack of All and add +1 to both, but what about your Ca or your Wd? Yes Ca is also getting dropped to 3, but Wds are staying at 6 for now.

But that's not all!

With a Ca of only 3 you're unlikely to get many spells off.

What if Casting was an opposed duel much like Combat?

The way I see it, for a caster, casting a fire spell is no different to firing a pistol, but for some reason Malifaux requires that you play it differently.

**********

So what do you think?

Am I going a bridge too far?

Should I just reduce baseline Df by 1 and leave it at that?

Is there an idea that I haven't even thought of?

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest: The Lair of Luth'Nak

Good Friday everyone!

So I've been talking for months now about a secret third expansion for MaliQuest that is in development.

I would like to take the opportunity to reveal with that expansion will be:

MaliQuest: The Lair of Luth'Nak - A Raid Encounter

Yes, the final expansion for this game will be creating a Raid style experience for party members to play through.

For those unfamiliar with the term, a Raid is a fight in an MMO when a number of players are pitted against an "über boss".

In this situation the players are against Luth'Nak the Horror Below.

In order to enforce that these encounters feel different to regular ones, a Raid Encounter consists of a Raid Deck; 60 cards of Boss Actions.

So whenever it is time for the boss to activate, the GM flips over a Raid Card and does whatever the card says, an example of this was created last night by myself:


This is the Constricted card, when it is flipped the GM must determine a random player target (flip a card for every player, lowest is the target) and that target must win a Df 15 duel or be paralysed and suffer damage, in addition, if they fail they must win a Df 12 duel (I think I left off the 12 on the card) or remain paralysed and suffer more damage. This continues every turn until either the player is dead or they resist the tentacle.

There will be plenty of other cards, some more scary, some less so.
- one that I most certainly will be using is a suggestion from my friend David, where a random player is grabbed and dragged to a designated spot in a separate room on the map. This is less about hurting the player, but breaking them away from the party, forcing them to fight back to their friends and hoping the party can live through that change.

Obviously there will be monsters being spawned in the form of tentacles that get their own AP and will need to be killed, and the boss himself will have his own Wd stat that will be VERY big, think 30 Wounds, probably with something like Armour 2 and Regen 2.

This is designed to be a hard encounter, one where players will not likely walk away victorious, if they walk away at all.

Because of the nature of the Raid Deck, there is no direct need for the GM to be directly involved, allowing for players to play through the encounter without a GM if they want, or the GM can play a pre created character and join the party as someone to help.

**********

So there we have it, you now have my full plan laid out:
1). Finalise the 'vanilla' version of MaliQuest.
2). MaliQuest: Trinity, allowing Tank, Healer & DPS character types.
3). MaliQuest: Paths of Fate, lowing players to expand their characters in alternative ways to loot acquisition.
4). MaliQuest: Lair of Luth'Nak, Raid Encounters.

I hope you're as excited as I am about this, and I hope you can all join me in this experience.

For now, stay safe and I'll see you breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Thursday 16 May 2013

New Fairbank Radio: Episode 09 - Pirate Cowboy




Good Thursday everyone!

So last night I was up until 01:30 editing this week's show, and we have quite a bit to show for it.

To start off we have a 10 minute interview with Andrey Tatarinov where we discuss his winning entry into Salute's 2013 Fantasy Unit entry:



After that we get started with the show itself and the party come into combat with their first human encounter.

There's death, fighting and even a strange misty woman.

We also have our first loot disagreement and potential rifts forming among the party.

So hope you enjoy the show, and I have something a bit different planned for next week.

Stay safe and we'll see you breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Monday 13 May 2013

Three posts in one day?!? What the hell!?!

Hi again everyone!

So today has been an emotional roller coaster for me of both highs and lows, but that is normal for me when I'm having a creative day.

First I would like to thank everyone for their comments, be them positive, negative or just cautious, your feedback is well received and I value each and every one of the comments.

Secondly, I would like to apologise if it looks like I was over reacting at any point. For those who know me, they know that when I am passionate about something my thoughts and opinions bounce from one extreme to the other before finally settling in a comfortable median.

This is the reason why I've always thought I would not make a very good business man when it comes to something I'm personally passionate about.

Anyway, so at the end of this brain shuffle, where am I currently sat?

Well the good news is that MaliQuest is still go! That was never changing. I'm still going to be completing the Dungeon Companion, and then moving onto the Trinity & Paths of fate before finally moving to the 3rd expansion (seriously, I am so excited about the 3rd, I can't wait to find the right time to unveil it).

I will then spend my hobby time purely working on promoting this bad showcasing all aspects of the game - in fact, depending on the demand, I may even look into organising a MaliQuest weekend where we can play out a full multi floor campaign with prizes and stuff.

Then, once MaliQuest is out there, and those who are going to play it are fully familiar with the game, I will then start work on the beta of the indie version.

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

Now you may be wondering what my plans for the indie version are?

If so let me try and answer your questions here:

Will I be looking to make models?
- No. Models for XQuest (working title) will be obtained from other game franchises. Why try to do something when someone else has already done exactly what you want only better?

Will I be charging for the book(s)?
- Yes and no. The basic rules will be made available for free online. But the XQuest version of the Dungeon Companion will be in limited print version. Just enough that I can give some as prize support, as purchasable by those who want them and (if they are still interested at the time) so a shop I know can sell some copies.

What about the cards?
- These will probably be available online just like MaliQuest, but as with the companion will have a limited print run.

And the expansions?
- these will be charged. Either a very small fee for .pdf copies or as part of a limited print run. Both will be available to those interested.

Do I intend to make any money out of this?
- honestly? No. But I want people to be able to play through my game and do so with ease, and that means paying a small amount of money and getting hard copies for those who want to, or getting .pdf copies to those who want them.

- of course there is only so far a personal drop box will go, and that is where most charges will go.

What about artwork? How are you going to handle that?
- I'll cover that when it is needed, but rest assured everything will be XQuest exclusives, no stealing from the Internet.

What if I still have concerns or comments?
- Please go ahead and make them. Seriously, I welcome all comments and critique.

What if the wheels fall off the bus and this game bombs?
- Interesting question, and that is possibly the most important part.

You see, this might sound a little rude of self centric, but I'm not doing any of this for the audience, I'm doing this because I want to play this game as both a GM and a player, and if I can share that with others at the same time then it's win/win!

So what if it bombs? I'll be left with a game that myself and the select few who do like it can play. It doesn't have to be the next 40k, Malifaux or WWX, it just has to be a game that my friends and I can play and have fun doing so.

I hope that you can all join me in this project, and on that note, here's to the future.

So until next time, stat safe and I'll see you breachside (heh, I'll need to create a new sign off)

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

You may be asking yourself: Why is he doing this?

Hi again,

Another post from me, but this time it is responding to comments both real and imagined.

You see, one thing that I need to know from you all, is would you play any of these games?

Be it MaliQuest or the independent version, are you genuinely interested in playing them?

Do you think these games have legs and if so how far can those legs carry it?

***********

You see, I'm currently filled with doubt and anxiety about breaking away from Wyrd and trying this completely by myself without the Malifaux framework to bounce off, and there are lots of reasons behind this.

Firstly, I know people love the game Malifaux, and so out of those interested, who would really still be interested in playing "generic Steampunk horror game?"

Secondly, Malifaux has a much broader audience than I could possibly even dream of reaching myself. By calling it a Malifaux supplement, I am certain to get a higher interest than without.

Finally, there's me.

As many will tell you, I don't have the highest opinion in my own 'talent'. So when I think about moving away from a Malifaux Mod, it's just me, my game and my not-all-that-original game mechanics left blowing in the wind, and in all honesty, be it insecurity, lacking in confidence or just pure honesty, I don't know who would be interested in that or why, when instead they can dig out a copy of Warhammer Quest or Descent and play a 'real' game with a budget behind it that I couldn't even dream of.

But at the same time there is the counter to this.

Where I currently stand, I don't feel supported by Wyrd, I feel suffocated. This is not because of them, they haven't put any restrictions on me, quite the opposite, they've said that I'm free to run with this.

No, the reason for suffocation is that I know I can't ever take any money from this, at all. And once the game is 'finished' if I want to see anything professionally made, like the loot deck or book(s) then each and every copy will need to come out of my pocket, and I don't even know if legally I'll be allowed to sell these for cost price.

And even after that, copyright law will still if I'm right actually stop me from using said publishers because they will be making a profit from Intellectual Property that they have not been given permission to use.

So that leaves things as they kind of are now, if people want to play this game, then they need to download and cut out the cards before playing.

Seriously, who's going to do that? Sure I have, but it's my game.

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

So this is where I currently stand.

Honestly I don't know where to go or what to do. Doubt is flowing in on all sides, and it does every time I think about going independent, and it did the very first time someone suggested it, but being stuck in the middle of it, I have no way of seeing if it is reasonable or irrational doubt.

***********

This is why I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm spit balling ideas, seeing what if anything sticks and rolling with that.

Maybe it'll all prove to be a waste of time and energy - not to mention money, but if I actually let my feet stop running, I'm afraid I'll abandon the whole thing prematurely.

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Continuing from yesterday

Good Monday everyone,

So I thought some more about what I proposed yesterday, and I think more than anything, if I was to go independent then the first thing I would need in a rule set, the rest would come later.

Taking the suggestion made yesterday, this would be based on a D10 system.

Now, last night I was playing Diablo3, and a few things jumped out at me, most of these were points that i already knew such as how fast combat is, something that the Malifaux duel system doesn't allow.
Next I noticed that the game has an extremely interesting way of allowing the player to mitigate damage or increase survivability, much like in an MMO, you can do this by either using abilities in advance of being hit, or you can drink a health potion shortly after being hit, there is no opportunity for me, the player to say "No! You don't hit me", quite often instead the only reaction was "WTF! Where did that insta kill attack come from?" while being ressed by my party.

Now how could I translate this over to RichiQuest (I so need a better name for it, but I'll leave that for now)?

My first thought is going back to the Zombies!! ruleset as mentioned yesterday only instead of D6 it's D10.
Ok so it's been a little while since I've played that game, but from what I remember, the player targets a Z, rolls a die and on a 4+ the Z is dead.

So that's a little simple for my tastes, but I think it works for hitting.

Ie: you roll a d10, on a 5+ as standard you hit.

But now I'm left wondering, where does this 5+ come from? Why is it a 5+?
So let's introduce a Defence stat, which for all points we'll call D.

What if every character in the game had a D stat ranging from 2 to 9, and in order to Hit the target, you need to roll higher than the target's D?

What about weapons, equipment and mods? Well they can make you either +1 or -1 to your D roll.

So Joe the Treasure Hunter is trying to shoot a demon called Imp with a sawn off shotgun.

The Imp has a D of 3 meaning a 4+ will hit.
Joe is wearing Gunslinger Gloves which increased his D roll by +1, essentially making it a 3+ to hit.
As mentioned, Joe's shotgun has the sawn off mod, reducing it's range and accuracy but increasing it's damage, applying a -2 to the D roll, meaning Joe needs to roll a 5+ on a d10 to hit Imp.

I think having an available number of General Actions still works, we'll say it's 2 plus a Tactical Action, so 2 GA and 1 TA, much like the 2AP + 0AP we're used to. This can be changed as required.

So Joe wants to spend both his 2GA on shooting the Imp, he does so and rolls a 1 and a 6.

The 1 misses because it is below the D requirement, but also is a 1, which will always miss. The 6 hits. This allows Joe 1 roll against the damage profile, his rolls a 10, which for damage is a critical, does 8 points of damage and kills Imp.

This damage would be shown on a Damage Chart shown on the weapon card where 1=0 damage, 2-3=2, 4-5=3, 6-7=4, 8-9=5 and 10 = 8.

Notice that Imp didn't get a chance to do anything.

Behind Imp is a Skeleton Archer, who responds to Joe's killing of Imp by also using 2GAs to fire off two Bow shots.

Joe's standard D is 4, meaning a 5+ will hit, however Joe is wearing Leather Armour which increases his D by +1, meaning Skele needs a 6+ on 2 D10 to hit.

Skele rolls a 6 and an 8, both hits.

Skele's Damage profile is 0/1/2/3/3/5, and Skele rolls a 3 and a 7, meaning he does a total of (1+3) 4 damage.

Joe has been buffed however by a Holy Shield from his good friend's healer TA, this acts like Armour and reduces his incoming damage by 1 to a minimum of 1, so that means the incoming damage becomes (1+2) so he takes 3 Wounds.

Again, Joe was not able to prevent the attack in any form, but because he was buffed by the shield, he took 1 less point of damage.

Outside of the combat exchange, Joe downs a health potion, this can be done once per turn and doesn't require any Actions to do so, he therefore heals based on the Health Potion's healing chart which grants him 2 HP back.

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

What are your thoughts?

Too complicated? Not complicated enough?

Does this feel like Malifaux with dice, or like something entirely different?

Comments and critique welcome.


- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Sunday 12 May 2013

If I was a game designer...

Good Sunday everyone!

I have just had a conversation with my wife where she hammered home that right now, all the work I am doing on MaliQuest is a waste of time and space.

This might sound a little harsh, but that's because I have left out the content/context.

You see, at the moment I am tied by legal issues. As much as I may want to, I am unable to push this game any further than a completely free, completely armature Malifaux supplement.

What was suggested was that I put this time and attention into making my own game, using my own IP, my own ruleset which I can send to printers and publishers and have sold in stores.

This would never be a big seller, I would never be able to retire early, but a few £ in my pocket and the ability to have other people be able to play a professional quality version of the game would be a great thing for me and the game.

So here comes the ideas:

The placing, that would stay the same, New Fairbank is just a frontier town, there is nothing particularly 'Malifaux' about it.

The theme: Old West-Steampunk-Horror, despite how apparently tied to Malifaux this is, I would argue it is still open enough. In the miniature market, we have Wild West Exodus, and in the film/comic/anime worlds we have stories like PRIEST which are just this.

Gameplay: I feel that in order to set this game apart it needs to loose the card duel mechanic. This is for many reasons, largely because it's too tied into Malifaux's IP, but also because the duelling system makes each encounter longer than would be ideal.

I think the standard d6 system could work for this, maybe making combat more like the game ZOMBIES!! only with special powers (I mention Zombies!! because its the fastest combat system I've ever seen).

The Loot Deck: this is the IP of MaliQuest. This is what sets this game apart from its existing peers like Descent and D&D.

So what do you think?

Should I stick with MaliQuest and get the 3 expansions out, or should I start focusing on my own version, currently called RichiQuest - Loxley's Lament (joke title)?

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Friday 10 May 2013

New Fairbank Radio: Episode 08 - Less than average height + Painting & Rules adjustment

Good Friday everyone!

As you may (or may not) know, Episode 08 is now available from http://newfairbank.podbean.com/, iTunes subscription and inbuilt blog stream.

**********

I've also been very busy with my painting as was mentioned yesterday and now I can bring you (please excuse the poor photos)


Bête Noir


Punk Zombie #1


Punk Zombie #2


Punk Zombie #3


Toshiro


Izamu


And a Desperate Merc.

Honestly I'm not so hot on the painting, especially the plastics, but one thing I do like are the bases, and I'd just like to point out that the only 'bought-ready-to-go' part of them are the tomb stones, everything else is done myself using miliput and static grass (I use the 'dead grass' type because it's easy to die it a variety of colours). In particular I am quite happy with Izamu's graveyard path, and with hope it captures the feel I was going for.

You'll notice that the Desperate Merc has both cobblestones and grass, this is in order to try and keep him in theme as he will be used alongside my Nephilum and Undead (my Neverborn are on home made cobblestones).

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

Last up we have some rules adjustment, now I noticed that currently mods are split into 4 types:
1). Melee Weapon Mods
2). Ranged Weapon Mods
3). Equipment Mods
4). Engravings

Today I would like to discuss engravings (mods which add suits to your stuff).

So I've got 2 thoughts, either:

a). When slotted into weapons, they are added to your Cb when using that weapon, your gloves add it to your Ca, Chest adds to Df and Head to Wp.
Or
b). When slotted into gloves, you have a choice of adding to your Cb or Ca, and the rest being the same.

What do you think? Obviously nearly all the required suit casting requirements have been removed in order to keep casting balanced with weapon use, but I do want to enable auto triggers much like you can with weapons.

I'd very much like to hear your thoughts on this.

***********

On that note, stay safe and I'll see you breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Thursday 9 May 2013

Recording = Done & Oh wow! GenCon!

Good Thursday everyone!

So last night we recorded Episode 08 of NFR, this will be edited tonight and uploaded shortly after.

Finally we're back to our 30 minute timing (yay!) and we spent the session preparing for next week when we officially start our updated rules MaliQuest campaign.

I could go on more but I don't want to spoil the show for you all.

***********

In other news: Wyrd have released their GenCon plans (kinda) http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?42030-Gen-Con-2013-Releases

Now there's a lot there that I'm not going to comment on, mainly because I have little interest in it, we're talking of course about Evil Baby Orphanage and Through the Breach.

But! There is also a good amount of stuff that I am interested in.

So Malifaux 2.0 will be there, yes we knew that already, but it's nice to see it confirmed, they will also have "miniatures", which isn't all that helpful, but it stops the last minute anger caused last year when quality control kicked in and they couldn't produce stock of certain items.

What we do know is that 'most' of Book 1 models should be there in plastic re sculpt form (more on this in a moment).

We also know that a Nightmare Edition of Tara the new Resser/Outcast master will be there. Will she be an entire crew or just her? Not sure at this point, but that certainly is interesting.

Of course we'll be seeing a new 'miss' model, and the new puppet wars, which I had the pleasure of seeing at Salute this year, and it does look very interesting.

All in all, let's just say I'm very happy that I'll have just over $100 worth of Wyrd store credit by the time this rolls around.

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

So I mentioned earlier about the coming re sculpts, and I have to be honest, I'm starting to loose excitement about them. I still can't wait to see what they do with Chompy in the new year, but other than that, I'm feeling a little deflated.

This comes after spending the last couple of weeks slowly painting my Salute models, of which there was a Desperate Merc, 3 Punk Zombies, Toshiro and Izamu (along with Bette Noir but that wasn't from Salute).

It's been great to paint again, but compared to Bette, the Punks and the Merc, Toshiro and Izamu are just unfun to paint. The detail is less pronounced and sharp and they actually feel less interesting. Izamu in particular, seeing his leg armour and what I've come to call "plastic stretch" is just disheartening.

He's still a fun model, I'll admit that, but seeing detail being stretched because of the medium's limitations is just terrible when you know that wouldn't happen with metal.

Sure, there are other bits like his broken arrows that you wouldn't get in metal, but personally id prefer a more simple model that doesn't have plastic stretch.

Anyway, I hate to leave this on a negative note, but leave it I must.

Back tomorrow with Episode 08.

Stay safe and I'll see you breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Tuesday 7 May 2013

A state of game

Good Tuesday everyone!

Well it's the start of a new week, and while I have already spoken this week about how my weekend, you may be wondering about where MaliQuest really is at the moment?

Well currently as of last night I uploaded version 0.4 of the Dungeon Companion: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ou7dtzb1ozxrn3z/Dungeon%20Companion%200.4.pdf

You will find in this version a few changes in the rules, along with the start of the Manual of Monsters.

I will take this opportunity to say, if you're interested in helping, I'm currently in need for narrative for the Monster Manual, and with this in mind I'm looking for as many people as possible who would be willing to help with this.

All I need is a couple of paragraphs for your favourite minion and then I'll format it and find a suitable picture and then you can find it in the next edition!

So what's coming next?

Well after two episodes of fluff, we are now good to go ahead and start the next MaliQuest campaign. More on this later this week.

Well that's all for now, stay safe and I'll see you breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Monday 6 May 2013

Weekend Update

Good Monday everyone!

What a lovely weekend this has been for me and my family, and I trust the same can be said for yourselves.

I'll start off by saying that there seems to be a lot of stuff going on at the moment about Malifaux 2.0. I'm sure some of you (maybe?) want to hear my thoughts about all of this, and personally I'm staying quiet at this stage. As I've been saying to a lot of people over twitter, I still have my v1 models, cards and books, and if the worst happens, then I'll just stick with them, but there is no point in worrying about that until I have a printed copy of the rules in my hand and I know how it plays, after all even after closing the open beta, they can still alter each and every rule if they so choose, so worrying right now seems a little pointless.

No, instead today's post is all about the joys of a bank holiday, playing Diablo3, hobbytime and parenthood.

***********

Let me start at the beginning, it's been a bank holiday weekend this weekend, so the mood has been very interesting.

So Friday: this was sadly a very late night for me, having recorded the latest episode of NFR only on Thursday, I proceeded to edit and upload it Friday night. It wasn't easy, I took a 2 hour Q&A and turned into only just over 1 hour. How's that for cat herding?

Then came Saturday. After a nice 10am lay in, I was joined in the world of Sanctuary (Diablo franchise) by Sarah my wife and our mutual friend, and together we continued to progress through Act II.

Come the afternoon the family, Moo included travelled into town where we picked up a McDonalds and had an extremely relaxed evening involving WoW and some painting, where I got to get started on my Salute haul including 6 Resurrectionist models and a Desperate Merc.

Sunday: a great day! It really was!

The sun was shining, and I had morning duty looking after the Moo. We watched some family films together before her afternoon nap.

Putting her to bed, my wife and I adventured back into Sanctuary knowing that the end of Act II was near, but not quite near enough it appeared.

Come the afternoon, I delved into the back of the shed to pull out my old trusty lawn mower to cut back the grass.

For some this is largely about appearance, but personally I am not fussed about that for the back garden. No. For me it's all about teaching the spiders who grow and live in tall grass that this is not their land, and that I can take their homes away with a simple move.

Once the lawn was cut, Sarah got started on a bit of weeding, while the Moo and I played in the garden, lots of spinning later and a great amount if feeling dizzy on all sides we retreated for the evening including more WoW and further painting.

Monday: today I was up again looking after the Moo, as Sarah appeared really really tired and I thought could do with the rest.

We had breakfast, and settled down to watch the start of Cartoon Network's Adventure Time marathon. But little did I realise that would mean them playing the same 6 episodes over and over.

So back into Sanctuary we went and finally completed Act II leaving the dreaded desert levels behind.

It was then that I had a brainwave, and combining two of my favourite things created the ultimate in snack food:



Then this afternoon we walked to the local water-park place, not a water park per-say, more a park, that has a river and a lake in it, so they have lots of water birds for the Moo to throw bread too.

So what else is planned? Well currently i am enjoying a well deserved bath, while my printer churns our all 100 basic loot cards (12 pages) and once I am done writing this, I'll then be shortly uploading my updated copy of the MaliQuest Dungeon Companion - more on this tomorrow, followed by more painting.

For those curious, my current major focus is trying to get Bête Noir to look like the spirit of a scorned bride. It's not working so well...

Anyway, I'd better get on with my evening! Stay safe, and I'll see you breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Friday 3 May 2013

MaliQuest: The 100 Card Basic Deck

Good Friday everyone!

So another late night last night, largely for two reasons:

Firstly, Sarah and I spent a total of two hours recording our MaliQuest Q&A. Obviously I didn't edit this last night, which I'll be doing tonight.

Secondly, I formatted the loot cards into the Starter Loot and Basic loot deck.

First we have the Starter Loot pack: https://www.dropbox.com/s/eyba2zme62kr959/Starter%20Cards.pdf just a reminder, these are the starting 6 card pool that you pick your starting equipment.

Next we have the 100 card basic deck: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4cobd6qu5zjwszx/MaliQuest%20Basic%20Deck.pdf and here it finally is! The 100 card basic loot deck.

Just to remind you, the basic loot deck is a pre-created 100 card deck that is ready to go. Just print them out, cut them up and you're ready to go!

A reminder that you can find the (currently out if date) rules in the latest Dungeon Companion: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nf0egb2t3ags68b/Dungeon%20Companion%200.3.pdf

So on that note, stay safe and I'll see you breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Thursday 2 May 2013

Little Sleep & An Updated MaliQuest Deck

Morning everyone!

It's Thursday, roughly 8am, and I'm on a train going to work.

This would be fine if it wasn't for only one thing: I only had 5 1/2 hours sleep.

Because of this it's going to be a short update from me today, but no matter.

The reason for my lack of sleep was because I was up until 0100 last night updating my MaliQuest 100 card basic deck.

Yeah, I went through with a fine tooth comb which cards needed to be updated and rewriting them.

Of course thanks to poor forward planning, this meant the cards needed to be created again from scratch as I had only saved .jpg files, not the WiP .psd files.

The end result? Greatswords, Relic Hammers, Crossbows, Shotguns and Gatling Guns now take up two weapon slots to equip.

Starter weapons have had their damage profile reduced by 1.

All stat buffs have been drastically reduced and providing +1 stat instead of +2.

+1Wk boots now also increase your Cg by +1 too.

Potions are now 'on use' so you can pick them up, store them in your inventory and use them later.

Soulstones and Booby traps are still 'on pickup' so there is actual guaranteed risk vs reward being the one who loots corpses - I'm weighing up if Soulstones should be tradable or not. I think not purely as a game mechanic.

I have now added in Shields. If your lucky enough to find a Common Shield then it rewards you with +2 Armour, if you find an Uncommon Shield, then you have this, plus the Shield Wall ability (+2 Armour for you, giving you +4, and +4 Armour for all friendly units in base to base contact with you). Shields have also been given a damage profile should you wish to hit someone with one.

I have also added a whole new type of card:


The No Loot card!

As you may remember, 50/100 cards in the deck are made up of Common cards, well now 10/50 of these Common cards are the new No Loot cards, so even if you flip the 10+ to do an extra loot flip in the room, you may not actually find anything!

Anyway, I'll be compiling these into a single .pdf file over the next day or two (along with recording and editing Episode 07 of NFR) and then with hope I'll be able to get the rules for MaliQuest updated, but that shouldn't take too long.

I was also hoping to get my new purchases painted in time for my return to Malifaux demos I have planned for the 11th May at Leisure Games, but that's looking doubtful, especially as I need to refresh myself on my Basic Costings AAT book so I can book my next exam.

Anyway, on that note, take care, stay safe, and I'll see you breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Wednesday 1 May 2013

MaliQuest: A Q&A (b)

So where we left off I had just talked about XP.

Q3). What is to stop people getting the best loot and just sticking with it? What about loot degradation?

A3). Loot quality degrading is something that has been raised to me before. It's an idea that I like, but at this stage I believe it over complicates the game.

Already we're looking at a system that can appear over cumbersome at first glance, and I feel adding degrading loot would just add to make it worse.

I would like to point out however that we already have Health Potion and Ammo Mods that have a number of charges, if I was to go down the route of degrading, this is probably something I would explore, however I would be more inclined to make loot that degrades into 'super loot' maybe a BFG that does 5/8/10 damage per shot, but only has 2 shots before it's spent, that sort of thing.

Last but not least -

Q4). Will there be ways to gain abilities through means other than loot?

A4). Currently the only implemented means is via loot, for example the following 2 cards give special actions:






But loot is not the only planned manner of ability gaining planned.

As mentioned before, the Trinity system (the first expansion) will feature Class Cards that when selected give you specific (0) Actions, such as the Tank Class Card gives you access to (0) Taunt: The target's next offensive action must use you as a target, and the Healer Class Card gives you (0) Protective Shield: Target friendly model gains Armour +1 against their next incoming damaging attack.
- I am also thinking about something like DPS Class Card (0) Martyr: This model gains The Martyr status effect (+x Dg, reduce Df by 1/2 [no idea what the X Dg would be yet]).

Of course let us not forget about the Paths of Fate:
Lets say you are following the Resurrectionist Path then when you get your first point, you would gain access to the following spell (0) Grasping Hands: Grasping hands reach out from the ground to Immobilise your target for 1 turn.

At Point 2 they may gain Slow To Die, at Point 3 they may gain the Rot trigger on a Melee weapon, at 4 it might be Regen +1 and the 5th Point may reward Arise, a (0) Spell that let's you Rez your team mates without requiring a Soulstone (freeing them up to be used on Damage).

So already there are the steps in place to give more interesting abilities, it's just getting them out there.

- By the way, any suggestions on how Path Points should be awarded would be greatly appreciated (and the Path Powers are purely examples at the moment, these are just off the to p of my head).

Anyway that's all from me today.

Stay safe and I'll see you breachside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

MaliQuest: A Q&A (a)

Good Wednesday everyone!

Well yesterday was a big day wasn't it? We had a major announcement that has set the Malifaux world aflame.

Don't for a second think that your good Doctor has been uninvolved in this, he's been following the announcement, the message boards, the podcasts and twitter, but today this is not what he wants to talk about.

No today I'm here to talk to you about something very different:

So last night we were due to record an episode of New Fairbank Radio covering a beginner's guide to playing MaliQuest, but sadly because of quite a few reasons we had to cancel the recording and are hoping to sort it out on Thursday, which means no episode until Friday at the earliest.

Sorry.

I did have a chat with someone however and some questions were fired at my direction. I'll be honest, these questions did throw me, and I may have reacted in an overly defensive manner.

With hindsight it has occurred to me that if this one person has had these questions, maybe others do too, and so with your permission I'd like to address them publicly.

Q1). So in Malifaux, one of the things that sets the game apart from other Wargames is the ability to win via means other than 'facerolling' the opponent. It seems in MaliQuest the only way to 'win' is to go from room to room killing everything in your way.
A1). Yes, currently the only way to 'win' while playing MaliQuest is to kill everything in the dungeon, but there is a reason behind that.

In Malifaux you can score points by (for example) reaching the opponent's deployment zone, and/or keeping them out of yours. While this works for Malifaux, MaliQuest is a whole different beastie. You see players and monsters don't have deployment zones, or resources like crew points for games like Slaughter. Instead the focus is on the experience itself.

Ok that didn't get explained very well.

You see, when I read that first question, I see the use of the word 'win' and how you should have multiple choices in how to 'win'. The main difference behind the design of Malifaux and MaliQuest, you don't play to 'win' MaliQuest.

In a MaliQuest campaign, the GM sets up a campaign idea, something like "venture down the Cathedral of Death and save Darla the barkeep's daughter from being kidnapped". This campaign would be designed over 6 dungeon levels and each level would be played on a club game day in a week, say each Saturday morning.
- So for 6 weeks, you and 4 friends meet up every Saturday morning and play through another level until the task is either successful or Darla has been sacrificed to the evil Neverborn Lord Doomface.

In Malifaux you have an opponent, it's Player 1 vs Player 2, in MaliQuest it's the party vs the GM, but the GM doesn't want to kill the party (well they do, but only to whittle down their Soulstones, they don't want to perma-kill them) because if they do, then the players won't get to see the delights that the GM has in store for them.

It's less about playing against the opponent, and more playing with them.

Not sure if that answers Q1?

Q2). Are there any plans to introduce Experience Points (XP) into the game?

A1). Short answer: No
Long Answer: Hell No!
Serious Answer: back at the end of the year I had a chat with some people with lots of RPG experience, one thing that became apparent was that the market is already awash with Dungeon Crawling games, however they all follow one core idea, you get XP by killing monsters which you spend on skills and points to increase your stats to make you better at killing monsters. The focus is on the skills and level of the character, not so much the equipment they carry.

As you know by now, MaliQuest is not like that. The focus is on loot acquisition and as you get better loot you improve as a character. This is essentially MaliQuest's USP. To me as a laymen to a lot of these games, this didn't seem like such a big deal, but I now understand that it's actually a big deal.

With all this in mind, this will not be changing.

Ok I was hoping to get more written in this time, but it looks like I will need to draw this to a close sooner than expected.

I will be back with more soon.

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley