My recent re-discovery of my Malifaux 1e collection has reinspired an old project. To be honest, I am not sure exactly what that project was, being at least ten yeasrs ago, but it likely went something like;
Buy the Malifaux figs you like, then work out what to do with them. I did this with a mixed buy of Warhammer Grey Knights and Cygnar from Warmachine (all very visor-ey) that did not end well. I will admit to having often bigger plans that the will or dicipline to carry them through as planned.
I have recently added to my collection, picking up some of the ones I missed, but I still intend to miss others, especially the blatant female stereotypes and more gruesome types. Wins include Lucious and The Dreamer boxed sets and the odd blister.
Found a place that had both Lucious and his boxed set new.
Like many, I got caught up in the cool factor of Malifaux. Like many of those, I fell down at implementing the 1e rules and failed to play it.
Speaking of rules.
I have downloaded both of the bundles from DTRPG for Malifaux 1.5 and 2e for under $20au.
1.5e is a solid game, but tough to teach and hard for the over 50’s to read, especially the cards. I could easily enough increase the card sizes, or re-do them for a simple “training” version of the game.
2e could have been problematic, needing conversion card “Arsenals” that are well gone, but it looks like every character in the game is given a full or half page rundown with card (usually at the bottom, which makes stacking easier), so I could print and laminate if I choose to.
My issues, apart from the edition wars, are play balance and inconsistency, but also the crews themselves. I just want to mix up and harmonise the gangs a little more. They feel off to my eye, a little left of ideal, so I am determined to re-align some, not all, to better suit my interpretation of each figure’s look*. I also want to incorporate the Puppet Wars figs (1e metals). As an example, The Dreamer as a shape changing Demon host fits, but I want Teddy to be his “other” Teddy also.
This means using using another set of rules.
Savage World Adventure edition (SWADE) could do the job. It is a crunchy tactical minis game that turned into a lite role-playing game. It is also a little like Malifaux. The original Savage World systems grew from an alternate Weird West game, which is probably as close to Malifaux as any other minis based system, if a little cleaner and less “adult”. I could tap pretty much the entire core game system into this project either as an alternative of Malifaux or alternative to Malifaux.
SWADE can meld multiple genres into a single gaming system. It is a generic system and well polished these days. It is also devoid of paper work only needing markers for figure status (or simply laying them flat). I must admit, I have never loved it as an RPG, being only drawn to the fringe stuff and the idea of a fast and easy game (an illusion compared to my simpler d100 options), but it has the minis side covered for the most part. I even recently gifted the bulk of my older editions, but held onto SWADE on a hunch. It uses cards for initiative and with a small tweak, swapping out “Bennies” for a reserve card hand to be used for exchanges with intiative cards or even to replace rolls by spending them, it could feel a little like Malifaux in play. These cards could be an easy way of balancing the crews.
Another option is a d100 game, which gives me a variety of systems, all reasonably compadible and adds such niceties as hit locations, sanity, various magical formats. True RPG’s are not always great at table top minis games. Some need minis, but also need role playing, some are more “theatre of the mind”, but amongst the many d100 games I have, I can cobble something together. The pending “Destined” would likely be a good basis, maybe with After the Vampire Wars to fill some gaps (both Mythras). The Big Gold Book is also a possibility. Another option is Wuxia or Bare Bones Fantasy.
It is also possible to do a combat only system with a d100 base, as they are all pretty simple. I would use hit locations, which in one move gives me so many mechanics for “one shots” and unique and comical criticals and allows the models actual armour to be accounted for as shown and wound effects to make total sense. It would use individual character based d% skills and manoeuvres. This means each specific attack and character speciality can be accounted for simply by calling them out rather than a base line with exceptions. Hero characters may have several options, but each is a pick and use or triggerred option. Cards could still be used for init order with a “luck” hand used to swap out init cards or be spent to add to or subtract from die rolls, making some more effective (much less swingy than a smaller dice option adding a maximum of +/- 13% to a roll and the card is spent). SWADE is swingy, so this would be less so.
Hero System 4e is a contender (had 5-6e, but 4e sits better). This is a mathy system when character building, but once done, it plays well and can handle all sorts of powers and abilites in a unified system (character building is also a game in itself). It uses table inches and d6’s only, but cards could possibly be inserted somehow. My old book would likely fall apart with much more handling, but again, once the characters are built, the book is largely redundant (and I have pdf’s somewhere). Powers such as shape changing, presence attacks, control and manipulation, high speed actions and differing attack types are all handled well in a balanced and logical way and combat is detailed and gritty. The squeaky clean, four-colour supers vibe of the game goes away with some thematic terminology and character sheets.
A battered but still solid old system.
One of the main draws of HERO is the “concept first, character second” style it uses. I could concievably and quite easily just mimic Malifaux with this one. It is all there, but I still want to change some crews out.
One of the Osprey minis games like “In Her Majesty’s Name”, of which there are many and I have a few. My only concern here is a lack of depth for the full range of games I intend to run. Faux-Malifaux has many facetts, which is hard for some games to do.
Finally, a system of my own, but from scratch. Playing around the other day I came up with a simple characteristics as combat abilites system. These are easy to do if you make tha charcaters to fit the game, nit try to do a comprehesive design system. By basing all rolls and damage (reducing chrs) around Boby-Mind-Spirit, with each attack an ability specifically aligned to one of these or more, the game sits between a RPG combat system and minis game. Loss of any chr totally, results in unconsciousness-madness-loss of will.
My gut feeling is to do SWADE to start, with HERO and my own d% games up my sleeve.
Regardless of the rules, the crews and figures will be my vision, which is fine for a set of 10+ year old figs from a redundant and unsupported line.
*My crews will be;
The Ortegas, Latigos and Marcus as the noble “Outlander” bandits.
Zoraida, McTavish and the Gremlins as the Marsh Folk alliance.
Kirai, Ten Thunders and Punk Zombies as Oriental themed spirits trapped between here and “there” by a shared curse.
Pandora, Criid, The Dreamer/Lord Chompy Bits/Teddy, anything “devilish” or demon like, like the Terror Tots, Night Terrors etc as “The Possessed”.
Leviticus (box), McMourning (alt), Ryle and Coppelius as “The Twisted Ones”.
Ramos, an assistant?, anything mechanical horror-like, Arachnids, Necropunks etc and the two Rattlers from Puppet Wars, proving there is more than one way to skin the “augment” cat (and then re-animate it).
Seamus (Slasher of Kroy), Copycat, Witchling hunters and all the urchin types (Crooligans, Student of Conflict) as a nasty, lethal, Fagin like gang.
The Rat King (Hamlin alt), other Hamlin, Rat Catchers, Dire rats and lots of Warhammer Skaven rats.
Cassandra, Molly, Wicked Dolls, Stitched Together and the Puppet Wars figs as “mockeries” of actual players with special abilities if facing off against “themselves”. Would love the Coryphee also, but none to be found.
Nicodem, Mortimer, Pandoras “Sorrows” as Grave Ghouls, The Grave Spirit, Jack Daw, Vulture are “The Haunting”.
McMourning (reg), Sebastian, all the zombie types, The Impaired, Killjoy as the recently departed.
Hoffman, Kaeris, the Guardian and Watcher constructs, Witchlng Handler and Johan (+) as mechanics as The Guardians, Von Schill and crew as the “Exterminators”. Lots of goggles, tools and such.
Lucious, the Lawyer, Guild Guards, Gunsmiths and a few other sas the Witch hunting Grey Wardens.
The rest, a lot of extra characters, will be either lone hired guns, another band (Seven Sisters?), or may be added to the above crews for depth and variety.
Many are as bought, but many more are not.