A couple of cool things happened today in my Malifaux saga*.
I discovered the official site has a “classic malifaux” collection, made up of older figures, some with and some without blisters, cards etc. I am fine with that as I do not intend to use it as written anyway. There were some hard to get (Purifying Flame, constructs, Drowned), some filler (Freicorps) and the odd figure I did not know even existed (alternate Criid).
The site had about 100 figures available (some boxed sets). Many were of no interest, but this one fits my “Criid as Demonologist” idea better than the original, so the older one can be a Witch Hunter instead. I may buy more but the freight is fast but expensive (about 50% of the order), so maybe not.
Secondly, after ditching Savage Worlds as my main conversion path (not enough options and it did not capture the feel), I have decided to go with my own supers based miniature combat system.
This is a table top or RPG core system capable of handling large numbers of figures, wide power ranges and is very flexible for the application of effects**. The system has a simple and robust mechanic capable of extra ordinary, even extreme results, but less often than the “exploding” dice of SW and answers that old pearl “how does a Batman or Captain America have any effect in a crew including Superman or Thor”, basically skill matters as much as power.
Can the nice little old lady with an attack of 1d4 (handbag with a brick in it) beat the Hulk to the punch with his 10d8? Sure, if old nan beats all those dice with one d4 roll, and then only one hit is achieved. After the look of shock dissapears from the green guys face, nans luck is likely up. In testing, we actually had an occassion when Thor landed in a group of hapless mooks and managed to miss the lot! “Letting you off with a warning cowardly ones” he said, red faced, then decimated them next turn.
*
*I promised myself no more “sagas”, but Malfaux was a half completed project from years ago, that selling off my massive Warmachine/Hordes collection went a long way to funding.
**The core of the system is the base mechanic.
The “strength” or power of a skill, attack, defence, is expressed by the number of dice rolled.
The “skill” or accuracy/speed of a skill effect or attack is expressed by the type of dice rolled (d4 to d20 including d16).
This pool is rolled either in direct competition with another pool or against a fixed value, sometimes with a number of successes required. It sounds mathy and cumbersome, but the roll only has to decide a winner (higher roller or roller with the most of a tied maximum value) and how many “wins” were rolled (# die over the highest value of the losers pool).
Only the “wins” matter, with an effect multiplier applied such as x2 damage etc.
Characters have a hit point pool for body and mind, and a (usually half way) point where they become “staggerred”, from that point ignoring all following odd rolls. They can also be “stunned” which forces them to ignore even rolls and other conditions that can be applied such as entanglement which reduces strength and/or skill values. Lots of options.
Minions are handled easily by being grouped into teams of 4-8, acting as a single character with their quantity equalling their strength (1 fig = 1 strength).
Swarms are single large bases with strength points, which are like hit points but with no other effects other than equalling strength (again 1=1).
There is a little paperwork tracking hits etc, which I may remove by having a Savage Worlds/Mutants and Masterminds-like damage scale (Stunned, Staggered, down, out etc).
Each character has a series of physical and mental, close or ranged attacks and defences (a base and some special actions), easily modelled using this system. It is something I can get up in a day, then modify over time. Even movement is controlled with the above system meaning pushing your luck has consequences (Antman can fly 2d20”, more at the whim of the elements, Hulk moves with a relentless 8d8”).
If I ever get arond to making a point based character creation version, point costs can be expressed as Str x Skill (3d10 = 30 pts).
If the numbers get too big, smaller pools with multiples applied can also be used.
The one area I will change from my previous rule is to introduce a Savage Worlds-like card based initative system and a luck pool of backup cards for swap outs, maybe allowing the odd card exchange for a bad dice roll-especially useful for a defence roll, where one die can turn an attack.
Where Faux-Malifaux is different though is in the numbers. The supers game could have charatcers like the Hulk with 10d8 fighting, or Thor with 8xd10, where Malifaux will likely top out at 6d12 and average around 2-3d8-10.