GenCon, Podcasts & Feeling Rundown

Good Wednesday everyone!

Ok first things first, some info for GenCon has been released!

First we have the v2 book confirmed at $40. This was pretty much expected from me, looking at the v1.5 book (which i understand is smaller in pages than v2?) is $35 on the Wyrd store.

It has also been confirmed that Lady J's crew will be available at GenCon as well, but again we kind of expected this with Lady J's crew being the only boxed set we've seen plastics for.

Last but not least, we have the art for this year's Miss model


I have to say, I like her! She looks like a very fun model and even though I don't play Ramos she looks awesome to put together.
- What I will probably do is (with agreement) paint her up as a gift for my lovely Sarah and let her use this model in v1 with a modified Steamborg Card. I might even look into giving her the Showgirl Characteristic!

Which leads me onto another idea! Everyone remembers the dancing bear from Wyrd chronicles, right? The big spikey 6-armed bear counts as a Showgirl as long as it's modelled with a fez?
A competition (for fun) here! What should be modelled onto this Miss to give her the showgirl characteristic? Once the entry has been done I will be editing the art, creating the custom card and uploading that, with props being given to the winner!

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Ok Podcasts!
This Thursday Andrey and I are looking to record Episode 2 of Hobby Sofa, and I would like to welcome anyone who is interested to join us on the sofa. Recording will begin at 20:00 BST and if you want in just hit me up over twitter @doctorloxley or via email doctorloxley@hotmail.co.uk.

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That's pretty much all from me, as mentioned prior I'm just getting over a nasty tummy bug, and I'm still feeling exhausted by it. With hope the podcast will not be effected tomorrow, but more on that closer to then.

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

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Loxfest is no more

Greetings all!

Not much from me recently as I've been suffering from a nasty tummy bug - some may say it's karma for all the moaning and griping!

Well it is with a sad heart that I have to declare Loxfest, the 2 day gaming fest is cancelled.

After speaking to a few games clubs there was a little interest, but nothing major, and after the massive flop that was my poll on the Wyrd boards: http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?45396-Testing-an-Idea-Loxfest-2014-(Working-Title) I've decided that it's best to instead divert my attention elsewhere.

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Don't worry though, I still have lots of things planned, most of which I am not at liberty to discuss, mainly because I'm assisting rather than organising/running and it's not my place to reveal any of it.

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Anyway, that's all from me today. With hope I'll have more over the next few days once my body has stopped being pap!

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

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

The Future's Bright

Good Saturday everyone!

So by now things on my side have quietened down after my 'rage-quit' yesterday morning, and I would like to take this time to explain how I see things for this blog, my podcast(s) and just me and my hobby time in future.

First, the Blog!

For those of you who are fans of my writing (thank you) this is not stopping.

My blog will continue, and it will remain its usual regularity (daily when I'm busy with something, or maybe s couple of times a week when I'm not). You see my reasons for starting my blog have not changed, even if I as a person have.

As always this will focus on whatever I am currently doing. For a long while now I've been focusing on v2 of Malifaux and the negative effect it has had on me, this has not been healthy.

Next: The Podcasts!

These are also remaining.
Once Will has finished his campaign (without knowing his schedule, but knowing him, I predict the boss encounter to be vs Ramatar) then I will be closing off the campaign I was running.

After this we'll either take a break or will have some filler episodes while I get CRYPTS to a working format. Once done we'll be shifting over and testing out those rules. Should be fun.

Hobby Sofa, despite only having 1 episode out, we're looking to carry on, I'm fact we're looking to record next week.

For this cast we intend to carry on as before. To be honest we're not a Malifaux centric podcast and we never were meant to be, it's just both hosts play v1.5 as our main game.

So think of us as 'pan-hobby' with a heavy Malifaux influence.

And last but not least:Me.

I'm going to keep with 1.5 for the time being, but I have learned that doing so as a crusade to prove its need to survive is just as harmful to me as being negative on v2.

Come GenCon I'll be spending my credit, probably picking up the v2 rule book (as a form of future-proofing my decisions, so once things are ironed out I have the book and able to give it another try post wave 2. But ill also be buying a good number of v1.5 models to try and finish off my collection. Sadly I don't have enough credit to pick up the stuff I want and some large dudes like riders of Nekima, but they'll come I'm time.

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You see, as with my time as a Hench, I've noticed a change in me, one that I'm not happy about. I guess it's all because of me being a passionate person, but I got too emotionally involved in what was going on at Wyrd, the direction the company was taking etc.

What I needed to do was take a step back and rather than trying to be a contributor to the community and hobby in general, I need to be a consumer.

I don't know if that makes sense, especially when I am indirectly contributing to the Maligeist by still making my podcasts and blogs while playing/painting/modelling Malifaux, but it has done something in my head, it's flipped a switch and now everything seems ok.

It's like the red mist has cleared, and while everything seems less colourful and vibrant, it also seems less important in comparison to things that really matter, and that's my wife and daughter, family and friends.

And on that note I bid you all adieu, stay safe and ill see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

I'm done!

I've been thinking long and hard about how to say this, and I was up late last night, unable to sleep trying to find a way of saying this without sounding like a). A child throwing toys out of my pram, b). A rage-quitter, c). A selfish-spoilt little bitch.

The end result? I failed to come up with a single way of not making this sound like any of the above. So if you find yourself disagreeing or raging at what I say, then that's fine, but I'm not going to apologise for my own emotions.

Anyway, on with the whine.

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After last night and this morning, I'm officially declaring myself out of the running in regards to Wyrd and where they are going with Malifaux.

I've seen where they are going, I've seen what they are doing and I want nothing to do with it or them.

So as you know I was told that Leviticus would not be at GenCon, I assumed that this was because the sculpts were not up to standard and that Wyrd didn't want to put out a sub-standard product.

I said at the time, speaking objectively that was a good move and what I wouldn't want would be for sub par sculpts being sent to the manufacturer and sold to Joe Public.

I have since found out: http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?45561-Leveticus-at-Gen-Con-2013 that my assumption was completely wrong. It turns out it has nothing to do with the sculpts and everything to do with the rules. This means that he's not even in the book.

Yup, it means that there are book 2 models (Von Schill, Ophelia) who are going to be in Book 1 of v2, there are whole new masters like the Brewmaster in book 1 of v2, but an original master (Levi) will not, and instead will be treated as Wave 2 alongside masters like The Dreamer and Kirai.

But what else do we know? We know that Tara is going to be there in Nightmare Edition form, now she is not going to be there sans stat cards. No she will be there with full rules.

Let me just reiterate that. Leviticus, a master that went through the Open Beta phase and a LOT of people were very happy with is not in Wave 1, but Tara, a master who did not go through the Open Beta phase, so has not had the mass play testing as the other wave 1 models, she will be there.

Seriously, WTF?

Now I have to get my tin-foil hat on, for me this stinks of more than just quality control, this reeks in fact of marketing, and poor marketing at that.

You see, removing Leviticus from the table leaves wave 1 at 4 masters per side (when you include Tara), is that a coincidence? Maybe.

If you look around the Internet at people's opinions to the snippets of art for Tara's NE Art the reactions are very interesting, unlike previous releases there appears to be to me a LOT more who are anti Tara's look. Sure there are some who seem to be goo-ing at the stuff, but so many more going "really? That's it?"

So keeping my hat on, I'm left thinking that Wyrd do not think they are going to get as many sales of their limited run Tara, and they are thinking that they can counter this by artificially boost Nightmare Edition sales by removing competition.

And yes Tara and Levi are competition for each other, both are Outcast Masters with Resurrectionist ties and both have 'monster' style minions.

It's funny almost, it seems that the tactic is already working, I've already seen one or two people saying the equivalent of "I was going to pick up Leviticus, but if I can't now I might as well get Tara". That's a person who was NOT going to buy Tara and was going to get Levi, but now their purchase has been funnelled in a different direction.

Coincidence?

Possibly/Probably.

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It also came to light yesterday that the released this week pack University of Transmortis is not shipping with v1.5 rules, instead they are only shipping with v2 rules.

Why is this a big deal? It's a big deal because we were told, we were promised that it would come with both rule sets.

It is of my opinion that when Justin & Mack made this pledge they knew that there were no v1.5 rules for these models. They knew this and they also knew that there was either no intention of there ever being 1.5 rules, or it would be very unlikely.

But despite this, they still said those rules would be there.

Again, why is this a reason for concern? Credibility.

When people are caught out loosing credibility in one area, then by default they start losing credibility in other areas.

I've never hidden away the fact that there are certain people who I have a personal issue with at Wyrd because of attitude and behaviour, but now I'm left wondering if ANY of the statements made by this person can be trusted? In short this has made me loose the little amount of respect I had for these people.

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Last but not least, Eric has essentially issued the equivalent of a cease and desist to the Malifaux Classic project. Before this was a project being spear headed by Bill "Nix" Anderson to try and push and organise a v1.5 Malifaux community.

This was an interesting idea and one I was behind, but Wyrd have made it clear that 'we' are not welcome doing this.

Eric has also mentioned that in a couple of weeks Wyrd will be making an announcement that relates to this sort of thing.

Right or wrong, it is my assumption that it will be their announcement that they are officially removing v1.5 from their support, that models and stat cards are being discontinued, and the forums will be v2 focused and v1.5 posts will not be welcome.

I hope I'm wrong, I hope I am wrong about all of this, but I don't think I am.

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So that's it.

Like I said earlier, I'm out!

I've tried to stay positive, I've tried to give Wyrd the benefit of the doubt every single time, and I'm tired of doing so.

So I'm throwing my toys put of the pram, but I'm also picking up those toys and taking them elsewhere. I don't know where and I don't know for how long.

I saw a post a while ago about how when changing editions players go through the many stages of the grieving process. If this is true then I've gone through them all and then bounced too and fro between anger and depression.

Now I'm feeling them all at once, and I just can't do this any more.

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If you're enjoying what you're doing, then that's great! More power to you and I wish you luck in future endeavours. But I'm out.

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

You know what? Things aren't that different after all!

Good evening everyone!

So today's had quite a few ups and downs with lots of negative reactions to my earlier blog post.

First I would like to say that no feelings have been hurt on my side and I respect everyone enough to disagree with whatever I say.

Let's just say I was butt-hurt, but amazingly, writing that essay on being butt-hurt made me feel a whole lot better.

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Anyway, I was just thinking and I realised something. I mentioned before that I hated the v1 Raspy crew sculpts, and that I love the art for Levi v2, right?

This is something that interests me a lot when I look at it from a quasi analytical angle.

Let's have a look at the crews I own:


First up was my Gremlins, I loved their models but really struggled with the rules and could not get them to work.



Next up was my undead Guild made up of the Dead Justice crew and a converted Executioner, Austringer and Hounds.



Next came my Dreamer crew, this was something that really clicked with me, I loved the visual style, the game mechanics and went on to buy every nightmare characteristic model available.



It was around this time last year that I became a Hench, and to go with that some demo crews, the first was Perdita.


Followed shortly after by Lilith.



Finishing off my Neverborn came Lynch from GenCon last year


And last but not least, Seamus!

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So what is the point of this thread other than just showcasing my models?

Well I asked myself, why don't I own v1 Levi? Or Marcus? Or McMourning? Or the Viks?

The answer is simple. I don't like them!

That's right, there are models in v1 I do not like!

So what does that mean for v2?

It means that at the moment there is only Levi I so not like, but come wave 2 we should see Chompy who is my favourite master! And who knows, maybe wave 2 is where I get the V2 bug!

Will I love the core rules? Unlikely, but as long as the models look beautiful, who cares?

This is why I was so upset before over Levi you see. I don't own his v1 models because I'm not a fan if them, and for me the models (and painting them) is MORE important than any other part of the game, so without those models I want to get, there is no game for me.

But if I don't like all the v1 crews, then why should I expect myself to like all the v2s?

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

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Thank you sir, may I have another (kick in the teeth)? - Imagined Slights

Good Wednesday everyone,

As I start writing this I am sat in my dentist's waiting room awaiting having a massive filling, but despite the up coming needle, the drill and the filling, none of that is on my mind, instead it is the general feeling of malaise (I think that's the right word) to how things are progressing with Malifaux v2, Wyrd and GenCon.

Now before I start with my apparent 'bitching' and 'moaning' I need to make it clear, I fully understand that if I declare any personal vendetta that Wyrd may have against me, or some random conspiracy then this is nothing more than a paranoid rambling.

So it came to light in a tweet from Eric last night: https://twitter.com/ericjgames/status/359796575746273280 in this tweet Eric confirms that the Leviticus crew is not yet ready and as such will not be appearing at GenCon.

I assume by this he is referring to the sculpts, either they were low priority or what they have seen has not passed quality control and so won't be 'good enough' to be sold at GenCon.

Being objective, this is a good thing. Last year when I bought my Dark Debts crew, I was left feeling quite underwhelmed by the end result, if this is a problem with the sculpts (which I presume it is) then it is better for them to be held back rather than released at a sub par quality.

But as everyone knows, I am not an objective person. So this is not how I feel.

No, instead I think back to the entire Malifaux v2 process, my involvement within the closed beta and how at virtually every single stage of this game's development I have been left feeling disappointed.

And for me that's one of the main issues. Real life is full of disappointment; not getting the promotion you were after, not passing your exams, pretty much 90% of things not matching up to your expectations, disappointment is everywhere!

And isn't that why we have our hobbies? We read our books, we listen to music, watch films, play video games and wargames to escape reality and for at least a while leave the reoccurring disappointment of real life behind. For a couple of hours you can be Judge Dredd, a USCM Marine, an all powerful sorcerer and forget about your day job serving food, or data processing.

There are occasions when you can bring others, friends, partners, wives and girlfriends into these fictitious worlds and that makes the experience even better! Euphoric even!

So imagine how it must feel to be where I am today, I tried to enjoy Malifaux v2, I really did. In the end after getting head aches and frustration I gave up, I took the advice of others and left the game alone, promising myself that I would wait until GenCon, and then using my store credit I had built up last year from being a Henchman buy the v2 book and a crew of my choice.

Now don't get me wrong, I know I can still do that, but NONE of the art (outside if Leviticus and his crew) appeals to me. I can go through bits and pieces if you want slowly tearing the selection down, but none of it do I like.

You see before the Closed Beta started I had seen the Raspy art, and I thought this was better than the original crew look, but then that's not hard, I hate the original look, as in I REALY hate the original look.

Then a few other crews were show cased either through Eric's blog, as Henchmen exclusives or in the Closed Beta. I saw almost all and was 'meh' to them all at best. Let's not forget McMourning who I actually dislike to a high level as well.

But then something magical happened, I saw the Leviticus art and I fell in love. I told myself "maybe there is hope for me and this game, because if the crew looks anything like the art, this will look amazing!"

Since then we've had Open Beta and the card art was released (all of which is available in my Dropbox, which includes everything from the last update and card art that has since been taken out of circulation - and yes it was put up there before Nix's) :D

I looked at this art, saw Nicodem looking - well, like Nicodem, Ramos looking like Ramos and Seamus looking like a pedophile ( sans moustache) and thought "we'll at least I still have Leviticus to look forward to".

Then I get this news.

Yeah I know, I can wait until after GenCon and pick it all up later, hell I can still use more store credit and make the same purchase as before only without the exclusive Miss model (and considering I don't play Arcanists I'm not so fussed on that) or I could instead spend my credit on other things, but remember I'm still not sold on v2 and with that'll mind I'd rather not 'waste' my money, which buying a tonne of other stuff at GenCon just 'because' would be.

So what does that mean for me?

Ultimately it means, if I want to make the sensible choice, and wait until Leviticus is available on general release and buy him, his crew & extras plus rules, that means that while everyone else is running around with their new books and new crews, I'll be sat with my old books and old models.

Is that of my own choosing? Yes and I acknowledge that, but that doesn't mean it doesn't suck.

It doesn't mean that I don't feel indirectly picked on because I think the rest of the art looks like shit (in my opinion) and stuff that I'd rather use GW or Warmachine models instead of (and I never thought I would say that).

I dunno, I think I've talked myself into a wall here, and I'm sure if you're still reading this you're probably shouting at your screen telling me to grow up or stop acting like a pussy.

But I just have to say one more thing, and that is the final nail in the coffin for me: I have no idea when this crew that I want so badly is going to be released. For all I know Leviticus could become the next Avatar Hoffman, for quality and price reasons I could be waiting two years for this (which would super suck as my store credit only lasts a year) or for all I know it could be out in September.

If I knew then I could wait, I'd have no problem waiting, I just wish I knew "if my friends are running events and talking about new shinies/hotness, how long do I have to wait before I can join in?"

I guess that summarises the whole thing. It feels like there's some sort of exclusive club that everyone else is invited to, but I never got my invite.

I want to say that it's because I'm cutting off my nose to spite my face, but I really don't see how refusing to buy models that I don't like the look of counts as that, or how if I want to get a proper V2 experience it's using the models that were designed for that game.

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Ok I'm done.

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Hobby Sofa: Planning & Prep

Good Tuesday everyone!

Today I would like to let you all know about the (temporary) new home for Hobby Sofa my mini side project.

After much searching I was able to locate a suitable podcast host in the form of Podcast Garden and as such I would like to welcome you all to: Hobby Sofa's new home!




For those who haven't yet listened to Episode 01, now is the chance to do so, especially as thanks to having a dedicated host I am able to bump the quality back up to 64kbps so the audio quality doesn't sound like nails down a blackboard. Yay!

There are drawbacks to this, mainly that it can't host pictures and I don't think it supports HTML, but it's free and unless someone wants to sponsor, I'm not going to be paying out for hosting for this in addition to New Fairbank Radio.

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Speaking of NFR, there is scheduled to be another week long break this week, I'm not feeling all that great, and could do with a bit if a break. Plus spreading it out a bit longer means I can get a better chance at pushing out more CRYPTS content, as we only have about 2, maybe 3 more episodes and then I'll be looking to close of MaliQuest for good and transfer over to CRYPTS!

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Now back to Hobby Sofa.

I'd like to put out two requests for those interested, first if you have any topics you'd like to see tackled in a no-holes-barred discussion, feel free to let me know.

Also, would you like to join Andrey and me on my sofa? If you'd like to feature on the next episode of Hobby Sofa, please drop us a line and let us know!

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

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Podcast & Other Plans

Good Monday everyone!

So it's still crazy hot here, and according to the news we should expect it continue for another 6 weeks - woo!

So I've been listening to the latest episode of Gamer's Lounge and I noticed a comment from Bill about how I haven't been so up front about my Henching retirement.

So first I'd like to explain why I've been very 'iffy' over going into detail about this: you see as I have said before I am a very passionate person who on many occasions can flip off the handle and start saying things that either I don't really mean, or start getting vicious because I want to hurt people or someone.

This is one of the issues I have with 'going public'. I'm afraid that my passion for v1 Malifaux will take over and rather than providing a valid opposition I'll be a doom-sayer who's frothing at the mouth, attacking anyone and everyone who still likes v2.

Another reason is my concerns about bridge-burning. You see, tying back to what I just said, there are a lot of possible bridges I could burn if I went 'all out', and I'm not just talking about friends.

You see while I've never been such a self involver when it comes Wyrd like some, I'd like to think that my name is one that a couple of Wyrd employers will remember.

I don't know where the future is going with Wyrd and I do not want any bridges I did have to be burnt and in doing so push me out of future involvement.

- I suppose this kind of can be summarised easily as follows: right now I don't want to be a henchman, but for all I know, in 6 months, a year, 2 years or 3, I may want to be a henchman again - I'd LOVE to want to be a henchman again, and I don't want to write myself out of that.

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Ok I'm not sure if many of you have had a chance to listen yet, but a few weeks ago I put out an episode of my new Podcast "Hobby Sofa", a project being worked on between myself and Andrey, a friend from my LGS.

With hope either this week or next we'll be recording a new episode of this, and I'm going to say right now, I do NOT want to do a V2 review just yet.

I know this is the new hotness for a lot of people, but I'd rather wait until after GenCon, after my new crew has arrived, I've painted them up and am playing a proper v2 game.

Once this has been done, THEN I will do a review of the game.

Anyway, I'm looking to make Hobby Sofa semi regular, maybe once a month or something, but one thing I would really like to do is find an actual host for the podcast. As you may have seen, at the moment it's riding on my newfairbank.podbean account, but in doing so that is affecting the quality of my main podcast, which I don't like.

So does anyone know of a free hosting service I can use for this? I really can't justify paying out for a podcast account for this.

Anyway, that's all from me for now, take care and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Breaking News: Eric has plastics!

Good Thursday everyone!

No banter from me today, instead on to two photos put out by EricJ of Wyrd Games:

First up is the Lady Justice crew


Followed quickly by the addition of the Iron Zombies and a Witchling Stalker.

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Well that's the news part, time for the opinion section!

I'll be honest, I've got a mixed bag of emotion over this.

Lady J's crew look very dynamic, perhaps a little too dynamic in the case of the Death Marshals. I'm looking at them and thinking that even my awesome Battlefoam carry case would massively struggle keeping them safe, if they would even fit in the pockets.

The scales look nice, which I kinda expected as I'm not a fan of the original, and I like the look of the Judge.
- Does he look like the Judge? Not really but he looks pretty cool!

If anything I think LJ herself looks the least interesting, which of course is not supposed to be what you think when you see a master with their crew.

Do I want to buy them? Lets put them on the maybe pile. Low down on the maybe pile. The rest will have to really blow for me to buy.

Second picture, so we have a Witchling, ok so I've never used them in games, but I've always liked the look of the sculpts, here we're seeing... What? It's what appears to be a 2d sculpt with next to no movement in it compared to the Death Marshals.
Will this fit in my carry case and be easy to assemble? Yes. Will I buy it OVER other models? No.

Now we have to keep an open mind here, we've already seen a Witchling sculpt as a single piece, and it was confirmed that said model was a promotional item on a magazine. Maybe they did multiple sculpts for this, so we're not actually looking at the crew model but instead a promotional version?

And last we have the Iron Zombies.

I'm not so hot on these. I like the idea, mechanical undead, it's cool and should work nicely with my v2 Levi crew (assuming the sculpts are anywhere near the awesome art).

The snake dude at the back, he's quite fun, the big dude at the front, he's... Alright... The one holding a water tank far right, could either take or leave. The winged one at the back, urgh horrid!

The problem I have with the Transmortis lot is that Wyrd have gone down the 'mad scientist' route again, but done so in a way that I don't think is all that super scary or creepy.
- I guess their theme sort of reminds me of the whole 'human centipede' thing. It's not scary, it's just gross.

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Well that ended on a bum note, it wasn't meant to...

Anyway, that's all from me for now.

Stat safe and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Loot Decks & Odds n Ends

Good Wednesday everyone!
- can you believe we're already halfway through the week?

While I wait for my Loxfest poll to fill up: http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?45396-Testing-an-Idea-Loxfest-2014-(Working-Title) and thanks to those who have voted, and if you haven't I'd super-massively appreciate it if you would.

Last night I got started on the first basic deck for CRYPTS!

Before I begin card crafting, I want to make sure that I can do the 60 card deck with remote ease.

Currently I have allocated 5 Epic Cards and 10 Rare cards, so that's 15/60 done.

At this stage I have nothing to show for it other than a small list which I'm not ready to reveal 'just' yet.

What I can tell you is the initial names and basic description of the 5 Epic Loot items:

1). Energy Explosion: A long ranged Spell that does AOE damage.
2). Energy Nova: A Melee Spell that does AOE damage radiating from the caster.
3). Displacement Aura: An AOE that buffs stats of your choice for anyone within the AOE including the caster.
4). Gatling Gun: A 2 handed ranged weapon that does moderate damage but rolls a LOT of dice.
5). Infernis Axe: A 2 handed melee weapon that deals very high damage.

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After much discussion with Sarah last night we both came to the conclusion that the 'basic' deck should be made up of neutral weapons and magic, none of them are attached to any of the factions, be them Law, Elemental, Bones or Blood.

While this reduces the initial flavour from that deck it means that the later paths cards to be released will not have their toes trodden on. It also allows me to release themed deck boosters in future.

Anyway, that's all from me, take care and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Loxfest 2014 (Working Title) Developments

Good Monday everyone!

So yesterday I announced my plans on holding a two day 'free-gaming' day where attendees would not have a strict time limit to play games over and instead be able to play whatever they wanted whenever they wanted.

Since then it was brought to my attention that while its a nice idea in principle, the very nature of people alone would mean that without direction nothing actually happens and people either drop out for fear of not being able to play the games they want to or instead rather than turning up and getting stuck in, instead mill around and spend all day doing nothing.

I don't know how true this is, but I'm thinking it's probably right.

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One thing I don't want to do is declare this a Malifaux v2 event, as I know a good few people who would rather play V1, and something tells me, if I said it was a v1 event (with potentially modified rules here and there) then the turnout probably wouldn't even cover the hall rental (I'm still waiting to see how that is, and of course everything hinges on how realistic that rental is).

So this leaves me in a pickle, it's not major as I have roughly a year (maybe more, maybe less) to organise this, but I would like to hear from you beloved reader!

What would you want? A Free Associated Gaming Event?
A Malifaux v1.5 Weekend?
A Malifaux v2 Weekend?
Maybe 1 game for the first day with Free-Gaming on the second?

Remember, this is not supposed to be a tournament, this is supposed to be an opportunity for some people to get together, play some games and have fun with a few prizes thrown in for a bit of a 'fun' edge.

Let me know!

*Note: By Free Gaming I mean "Play what you want, when you want", there will always be an attendance fee :)

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Something's Brewing

Good Sunday everyone!

Just a quick post to put an idea out there.

So as many of you know this weekend is the Malifools Midsummer Madness event of 4M for short. From what updates I've seen it is currently a raging success with lots of people having lots of fun!

I also understand that there is not due to be another one next year and instead @oldmanmyke is encouraging others to pick up the mantle.

This is what I would like to try.

So this is what I'm thinking for next summer: a 2 day event held in the beautiful town of Welwyn Garden City (my home) where food and accommodation is readily available within 10 mins walk of my local town hall.

What I am considering is the event being a multi game event, where players build a number of achievement points based on what games they play, for for example: winning a game of Magic: The Gathering would net you 3 Achievement Points (AP) winning a game of Malifaux would grant 5AP and Winning a game of 40k would rack up 8AP.

The aim would be for fun, possibly there would not even be time tables or anything like that, just people play as much or as little as they want, and there are lots of different prizes and trophies, from Best Costume, to Model most appreciated by a 3 year old girl.

Extra bonus points can be given for buying pizza (12" for only £3.50 with a 15 min walk) or for bringing along and encouraging fun games to be played etc.

So what do you think? Is this something that people may be interested in or not?


- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

It's Raining! A general chat about nonsense

Good Friday everyone!

I have just finished my 20 min walk from home to my train station where I then begin my 40 min train ride into London, followed by another train down one stop and then another 10 min walk to work.

Yup my daily commute to work totals 1hr 10 mins each way. That's 2 hrs 20 spent with other people and in this case, kids. And as everyone knows, Dr Loxley hates pother people, especially kids.

Of course it's funny, with those I work with, it's always those who spend less time travelling who get to work later than me.

But today I do this commute with a smile on my face, for things could be much worse today.

Why so happy? You ask? Well while others have been loving this recent heat wave we've been having here, I have not.

It's a problem both my wife and I suffer from, we can't stand the heat.

In my case, I can only put it down to the amount of heat I put out through my skin - seriously, ask anyone who's ever shared a bed with me and they will tell you that I'm like a human sized hot water bottle.

What this means is that in the winter I am more than comfortable, it's awesome! But come summer I can't cope, and this week I really struggled, to the extent I think I may have come down with heat exhaustion on Wednesday when I had to go home early from work and spent (essentially) 3pm to 7am the next morning asleep, waking pretty much only to drink to try and get myself rehydrated.

This is why I am so happy to see that it is ever so slightly raining, the feel of that against skin, it's like a physical ambrosia that I just can't explain.

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

Now I know there are people who disagree with me, they say that we never have a sun and Winter goes on forever, and this is why they have SAD or a vitamin D deficiency. Frankly, I don't care. What I do care about is my body being unable to sleep because of the heat at night, despite the lack of bedsheets, the open windows and the fan pumping out air. What I care about is my skin getting so hot it feels like I'm about to burn - while say inside away from the sun.

Bring on the winter I say!

And on that note I'll leave you with a picture of my daughter during last winter playing in the snow.


Seriously, if it was viable for many reasons, I'd move to Alaska!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

CRYPTS: Extract from Dr Loxley's Manual of Monsters - The Skittering Shadow

Every town has it's fair share if vermin; roaches, rats, even bats in some places.

New Fairbank is no different, but the Crypts? Now they are different.

Down in the Dark Below, things are always different. The vermin always appears larger, and rarely do they come in to conflict with each other.

If someone had told me before that I would see giant rats and spiders working together to bring down a posse of six men, I'd have laughed in their faces. But things down there are not as they should be.

Frank calls it 'The Skittering Shadow', claims there's some sort of overriding force that drives all Crypt Vermin towards a common goal. I want to disagree with him, to tell him that it's all nonsense, but I've seen too many things not to agree.

There's definitely something down there, something separate from the undead and the demons. The Skittering Shadow.



***********
Good Thursday everyone!

Just a quick one today, I hope you liked this entry into the manual, it is in fact an into into non other than one of my first NPC factions.

The Skittering Shadow is all things vermin, spiders, rats, flies etc and will with hope combine with the other factions to give you all a deeper understanding.

You see while there is turmoil above ground between The Law and the different schools, below ground there is equal conflict between the beasties themselves.

So until next time, stay safe and I'll see you Cryptside!

PS. I hate spiders - I can't believe I'm actually going to be writing rules about these things...

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Weekend Catchup: Terrain Plans, Miniature Block & Monster Hunting

Good Monday everyone!

So it's the start of a new working week, and boy what a weekend. You see my family and I don't do so well in the heat, and this weekend being at an almost constant 26-30oC means that we spent the whole time struggling to sleep, or actually do anything at all.

Not fun.

But that's not to say I haven't been busy!

So on Friday I decided to acknowledge my creeping wants to give Infinity a go.

A large part of this is because of my plans for a gaming table: think a flyover, with a large skyway road or two intercrossing and high rise buildings filling up the space with walkways and ramps connecting everything.

I spent a good few hours looking for choices, finding websites with options and throwing things in baskets just to see the prices; £105 here, £68 there, all in all, a lot of expense.

It was then that I remembered Papercraft!

Those who remember this time last year I was busy building a Malifaux Streets board with Papercraft:




There was a lot about this board that I loved, and so I quickly took to the same websites I bought these templates for, £10 here, £3 there, the WHOLE thing came to about £20 and not including paper, ink etc will have enough to make what should be the entire board!

Sweet!

*********

Then we have my issue of Miniature Block.

If you're thinking, this is what I mean when you try to decide on which models to collect and ate stuck.

For me almost every faction has models I like.

I love things like this one from PanO:


The thing is, PanO in general doesn't appeal to me.

Next we have the ALEPH:









There's something about these augmented humans that really appeals to me.

But there's also the Nomads, who have such a wide variety if looks from very cool looking humans, massive mechs and even anthropomorphic characters:









But then ALEPH do have acces to:



So yeah... Kinda stuck as is...

*********

So what else have I been doing? Well let's not forget The Secret World:


I recently reinstalled this game about a month ago and have been loving it!

If you have yet to play this game and you like MMOs I seriously suggest trying it out. It's super fun!

So what have we been doing on this over the weekend? Well we hunted down a Wraith that was hunting down a quest giver, we also went to a fairground that is channelling occult energy, travelled into the dream world and released the spirits of trapped children.

There is so much more, like taking on a massive Cthulhu Beasty and releasing a haunted house from it's curse etc that we've been doing over the past few weeks, but it's all awesome!

*********

Anyway, that's all from me today, so on that note, stay safe and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

The Other Side

Good Friday everyone!

So last night me and the rest of the Radio crew recorded Episode 15 (can you believe it's been 15 already? CRAZY! Especially as so many of the recent episodes have been a good hour+)

Anyway, this week there was a twist, rather than carrying on the game as we normally would Will GM'd and I took the roll of player.

There's not much to say here that won't be covered in the cast itself that'll be going up tonight, but it was very interesting to see the different view you get when playing compared to GMing.

For starters there appears to be less problems with the game. Speed is still an issue, and something I think GM Will learned was how you can set up a situation for the players to do, and it will be obvious what they have to do, so super obvious you'd think they'd have to be crazy to do anything else...

... The thing is, the moment you hand over the reins to the players, they WILL find something unexpected to do. And this is something that I've really struggled to deal with when I GM.

It's trying to find the balance with giving players enough of a challenge while also not taking hours and hours to complete and allowing for players to do things and take tangents that you never ever expected.

It's next to impossible!

So what do you do?

I'm not sure if there is an actual answer, but what do I do? I design a whole new game!

And on that note, please find the first ever Beasty Card for CRYPTS!


Now if you read this through with hope it will make the rules of the QuickStart make a little more sense.

Anyway, that's it from me today, so take care and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

Paths Entwine: A CRYPTS short story

If someone had told Thomas about Magic this time last year he would have assumed they were talking about pulling rabbits out of hats and sawing women in half, not the power to raise the dead. Now looking down at the mal-shapen form crawling across the floor towards him, he knew that Necromancy was all too real.

It was after his Awakening that Thomas heard about the Cult of Bones, the secret group of Necromantic magic users in New Fairbank. At the time he would have been lying if he said he wasn't the least bit curious but as time went by he started to wish he had never involved himself with the Cult.

For three months now he had tried to master the arts of Necromancy, but despite spending time with some of the greatest Cultist to ever live in New Fairbank he couldn't summon anything greater then a grabber. This was what they called a creature that burst from the ground and held onto the nearest creature as if it's unlife depended on it. In short it was creepy.

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

Across the street in the School of Elemenalism a young woman by the name of Violet was also failing in her power over magic.

Violet was more than pleased when she was approached by the School of Elementslism, the official training grounds for The Circle within New Fairbank.

Like many of the students there Violet revealed her abilities accidentally while in the Crypts. She knew full well that with the correct tome or artefact anyone could summon a ball of fire to smite their opponent, but Violet had managed this with nothing more than her Blood Shards.

Following on from this encounter it was obvious why The Circle would pay interest in Violet, but that just made everything worse.

From that day on all she had been able to do was summon a ring of fire, a basic Elemental spell to trap opponents. And to make it all the worse Violet knew her annual assessment was due.

************
Josiah was the Order's most recent recruit. He had passed his Awakening but afterwards was left with a feeling if emptiness that he had never known before. This was why he joined the Order of Blood.

It was hard for Josiah to explain, ever since his Awakening he felt like he was part of a greater whole, and his desire to join that whole was all consuming. The Order had told him that what he felt was normal for all Awoken, but that some people were more attuned to it than others.

Josiah wasn't entirely sure if he believed his Order Recruiter at least not until he was shown his first ritual of blood. His trainer called it 'The Binding of Light' but his Posse outside the Order called it 'Sick Tentacle Grab', he didn't understand what they were talking about.

The Binding of Light was the most incredible thing Josiah had ever seen, he would call upon the Unity of Blood, the binding that connected all Awoken and his very body would respond, it would grow shafts of light that wrapped itself around his targets and hold them in a loving embrace.

He had fully mastered the Binding and he was so excited about what was next to come, he had seen his tutors demonstrate the next step, the Righteous Defence, when they summoned holy armour made entirely of light to protect themselves from harm.

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

Across town in the martial training hall next to the Sheriff's office Wicks continued his training. He had been into the Crypts many times, and with many different Posses, and very often he saw things that he never understood but was grateful for the assistance of.

Wicks had seen dead men rise from the very ground, some of them filled full of noxious gas that proceeded to explode when they reached their intended targets. Wicks had seen others conjure sheet lightning within the Crypts themselves, he had even seen his own Posse members transform themselves into monstrous creatures of claws, tentacles and chitinous armour.

Out of all of these sights, Wicks was most disturbed by the latter. It seemed that whenever a member of The Order called on this 'Unity of Blood' this was when they turned into the monsters, and while he had never seen it happen, there was always a moment when Wicks feared his posse member would turn on it's own friends. To make matters worse if you spoke with these Order members, they appeared completely delusional as to their transformation, instead claiming they were beings of light and swords of God.

No, Wicks was having none of that hocus-craziness. He was more than happy to remain faithful to The Law, they provided him with specialist weapons and ammo, with traps to immobilise his opponents and the natural skills to ensure his own survival.

No, Magic was not something for him.


- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

CRYPTS: QuickStart Rules (Extreme Alpha)

Good Wednesday everyone!

So last night I was back at my computer doing some more work on the CRYPTS cards and rules.

First we have the re-done character card:



Now you'll see that Health Points have been removed and replaced with a box, so now rather than filling in blots or points, you now have a box to simply write your 'on the fly' health.

The Blood Shards have been replaced with 'top down' crystals. Still not happy on the Shards, but I do think it looks better than before.

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

Next we have the XA (Extreme Alpha) QuickStart Rules: https://www.dropbox.com/s/546z5y8uy6bu86g/CRYPTS%20Quickstart.pdf

If you could give that a look over, tell me if things make sense.

I've yet to actually create any Beasty Cards, but will try to get some done in the near future.

I would ask however, please keep in mind these are QuickStart rules. It's not supposed to have every rule, just enough to play a basic game.

Also everything is currently up for evaluation including the number of Action Points and Free Actions that are available.

And yes I know some things are still missing, like explaining what actions can be taken etc

***********

Anyway, on that note, stay safe everyone, and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

The Awoken: A CRYPTS short story

Mayor Rush hated The Awakening, it was an event that was held every month and it was a Public Relations nightmare.

Once Rush had tried to stop one of these events, had asked the Sheriff to postpone or cancel. Rush had pointed out the amount of attention the town had gathered after the last Marshall had been killed, but the Sheriff refused to comply and Rush walked away with nothing but a bloody nose.

It was on this night that Rush had the job of protecting The Awakening, ensuring that any visitors the town had were well occupied and there was no trace of what 'might' happen.

Rush didn't actually know what happened at The Awakening, being told by the Sheriff it was the foundations that New Fairbank was built on. Rush feared that the Sheriff was being more literal than figurative.

**********

Deep below New Fairbank Chapel the Awakened gathered, they stood in a grand circular room in a part of the Crypts long cleansed of any Beasties. Many of them were famous among the town, including Frank the owner of Last Light, Dog the town's Blacksmith, and Isaac the town's infamous drunk among them.

Each and every one of them held in their hands a collection of three crystals, some vibrant red, others dull and lacking any particular shine.

In the centre if the room stood the Sheriff, his long duster and wide brimmed hat as ways obscuring his face from view, next to him was an object covered in a black sheet, this object was roughly six foot tall and two foot across, the sheet made this object look almost like a mannequin in storage. Behind both the Sheriff and the object stood five men, all covered in dirt and blood, bruises covering their skin and a dehydrated, hungry look across their faces.

"You have all been gathered here as we always do to honour the Awakened and welcome new members into our ranks!" The Sheriff called out, his arms raised high above his head like a preacher.

"We have all faced the Dark Below, and we have all returned..." The Sheriff paused "But others have not been so fortunate".

As one the crowd spoke in solemn tones "Remember the fallen".

The Sheriff continued "Tonight we have five more of the fortunate! These men have survived the Dark Below and are ready to truly awaken!"

Pulling at the black sheet, the Sheriff revealed a large crystalline structure below it it radiated a rich, thick red, the colour of blood.

"Behold the Blood Stone!" Called the Sheriff once again to the crowd "Our vessel to Awakening!"

Leaning against the Blood Stone was a large blade, appearing more like an axe stolen from the pits of Hell itself. With a silent prayer the Sheriff gripped the blade tightly with both hands, raised it high above his head and brought the blade crashing down on the Blood Stone.

With an explosive crack three shards of crystal shattered from the Blood Stone and slid to the floor. The Sheriff paused long enough only to admire his handy work before bringing the blade to bear four more times, with each strike dislodging a further three shards of crystal.

With absolute care the Sheriff knelt down to pick up the shards, and gently handed three to each of the five men stood behind him.

"Two weeks ago you were sent into the Dark Below with little more than your wits and each other for company. Today you have proven your worth and have been rewarded accordingly" The Sheriff paused one more time "Today you awaken!"

It was at that moment the crowd all cheered as one, trusting their own crystal shards in the air.

"Protect these Blood Shards, and they will protect you" the Sheriff continued "but forsake them, and be forsaken".

A man emerged from the crowd, blankets and bottles in hand, it was Frank Hodges of Last Light, the man who always had the honour of tending to the newly Awoken. With a tender hand he escorted the five men out of the ceremony. As he did a further eight were lead out into the room, each one looked both scared and excited, ahead of them walked a hooded figure.

"Fresh meat!" Cried out the Sheriff as the eight came to a halt in the centre of the room. The crowd cheered. "These have yet to brave the Dark Below, but each must prove their worth to truly awaken!".

One by one each of the eight knelt before the Sheriff who raised his arms once more "In two week's time you will all enter the Dark Below, the Crypts! In two weeks time you will all be tested and you will prove your worth!" The Sheriff paused again as the hooded figure lead the eight back out. The crowd cheered with an appreciation rarely seen in New Fairbank outside of the Awakening.

***********

Once the ceremony had concluded and the Awakened had all left to their own lives the chamber was left empty, the Blood Stone covered and carried back to the secret hiding spot only known by the Sheriff himself, and finally once everything was as it should be the Sheriff stood alone in the chamber.

The Law had been followed on that night, not the law of the government or the marshals, but the Law of the town, of the Stone itself and the Law of the Dark Below, but despite all of this, the Sheriff couldn't help but grow concerned.

Every month more people turned up in the town determined to prove themselves worthy of Awakening, and they all went through the same challenge, to survive two weeks in the Crypts with no supplies, no weapons, only each other and what they find therein to aid them.

The latest group had been fortunate, they had found weapons from some old corpses and worked together as a team, if his spies were correct they spent most of their time bunkered down in one corner of the Crypts using almost military strategy and eating raw vermin to survive. Compared to the usual group however where almost everyone dies, often by the hands of their own team members.

But the Law always stood, and should they survive their two weeks in the Crypts, they were given their Blood Shards and accepted as members of the Awakened involving but not restricted to, free, unlimited and unrestricted access to the Crypts and the varied rewards that awaited them within.

Few people truly understood what it meant to be Awoken however, how they were all connected, by strength, by power and by blood. The Sheriff didn't mind this however, it warmed his heart to see the rabble raised, even if they were not fully aware of why they did what they did.

For the Law must always stand.

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

An Alpha CRYPTS card

Good Tuesday everyone!

So what have I been up to recently? Not much, other than finding out that something has gone wrong with NFR Episode 14 and it's bringing up a 404, I'll have to try and fix that tonight.

No, today I want to discuss with you the CRYPTS Character Sheet:



Now I decided the best bet with this would be to start off with MQ's Character Card and re-work it to suit my own needs.

So the logo has been replaced with CRYPTS' the name space remains, the cogs remain (I need to re-do these however in the new font).

The stat panel has also been updated, with line 1 reflecting the Base Stats and Line 2 for the Skill Stats.
- These stats are as follows:

Base Stats
M: Movement
T: Toughness
R: Resiliance
H: Health

Skill Stats
ML: Melee
RG: Ranged
MG: Magic

You will also note that I have updated the Wounds and Stone section, removing them all together and adding 'droplets' and 'bacon' (I'll get to the bacon in a bit).

First we have the droplets. These are supposed to represent droplets of blood, which would be filled in as you take damage corresponding with your Health (H) Stat.
- Yeah, they have not gone down well. I'm going to trial this again with a different mechanic, maybe just an empty box to allow players to record their 'on the fly' health however they like.

Then we have the 'Bacon'. Yeah it's not bacon, it's supposed to be a shard of red crystal, or for those who've been following my lore, Blood Shards. There are three with 1 cog each to allow you to mark them off as you use them.
- These have also been met with critical review, our friend Vicky from NFR asking if they were strips of Bacon (hence why it's being called bacon in its current form). I'll be looking for another way of representing these. I still like the idea of having 3 Crystal Shards on the card, after all, you only ever have up to 3 available to use, so it seems like the perfect thing to show.

*************
I have also started work on a Quick Start rules pack, something I can put out and let people read over and give a quick test.

This is taking longer than I expected, but (hope) to have a first draft ready by the end of the week.

**********

Anyway, that's all from me for now so until next time, stay safe and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley