Malifaux’s Factions Get Their Own Books For 3rd Edition
March 22, 2019 by dracs
Wyrd Games are wrapping up the beta for Malifaux Third Edition and have made the announcement that they are taking things in an interesting new direction with the release of a series of faction specific books.
Each book delves into one of the seven factions of Malifaux, featuring new characters, art, bios, and stories that move the plot of the world further along.
These, along with the main rule book, bring the total up to eight books. At present, I don't know if these faction books are simple background books, or will work like army books with the rules for their specific faction included. Wyrd have said though that all the information needed to play will be available at launch.
There are both positives and negatives to Wyrd taking the faction-specific book approach. I, for one, will always love this format as it lets me dig even deeper into a faction and just gives me more to read. However, it does raise the cost for those wishing to play more than one faction, and effectively spreads the game out over multiple volumes.
It's easy to see why Wyrd would take this approach, as the factions have grown a lot since the release of first edition. It does raise the question of what happens to those leaders with duel loyalties though.
The main rulebook itself will be available this summer, either as a physical copy in stores, or as a free to download from Wyrd's website.
Do you prefer individual army books, or do you like everything contained within the one book?
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The thing to remember with this change is that there are now over 500 individual model profiles in Malifaux. Thats far too many to try and put into one book, especially if you want background fluff too. I also think these books are just for the launch. Get all the factions up to the same starting point, with a substantial amount of story for each, and then future release waves following the standard Wyrd approach of releasing a book that advances the story and has a couple of new profiles for each faction, allowing each faction to grow at a… Read more »
Those Ten Thunders players 😮
A lot of Masters have changed allegiance in M3E, so each faction only has 2-3 Dual-Faction Masters to worry about (for now, till the 8th Faction gets released.. ). The only Dual-Faction Masters in Ten Thunders are Mei Feng and Yan Lo (and Lucas McCabe, but his second faction won’t really exist at launch)
But each faction book will have every Master for that faction in it, meaning Dual-Faction Masters will be in two books.
Thanks man that’s fascinating. I’d not been keeping up. Will have a nosey and see which side my collection play for these days
Basically, the main changes (not counting the faction that doesn’t exist yet!) are: Guild: – Lucas McCabe has left and is now Ten Thunders only – Hoffman is Dual-Faction Guild/Arcanist – Dashel is now a Master, not a Henchman – They get a new Master, Cornelius Basse Arcanist: – Ramos is no longer officially tournament legal (but still has rules, so it’s really up to the TO) – Marcus is Dual-Faction Arcanist/Never born Bayou (formerly Gremlins): – Zipp is now Bayou/Outcast – Brewmaster is no longer Ten Thunders, just Bayou Resurrectionists: – McMourning is no longer Guild, just Reader Outcasts:… Read more »
If I ever needed a kick up the jacksy to paint Ramos’s crew, this is it. Cheers for the summary.
the information on my enemy is my friend.
It does splinter the already splintered narrative even further. I don’t understand how you can have a plot-driven game and not offer some sort of omnibus with at least the really old lore that’s been OOP for years.
I imagine the core rulebook will have general “state of the world” fiction, with each of these books having the fiction for the respective faction. Which is why its annoying for fiction afficionados having to buy them all. But overall I think its a good step.
Maybe, but it hasn’t really been the case with 2nd edition, which just happily continued the story from 1st ed with very little attempt to get you up to speed. It assumed you are an existing player.
The core rulebook for M2E had a general overview of the state of the world at that point, and the events that had led to it. It didn’t go into details, but it was enough to get an overview of how things were at that point. I can’t see M3E being different. There’s no reason for a new player to know about the lore behind Avatars when Avatars aren’t part of the game anymore. Just a general ‘some stuff happened, now this is where we are’ is all that’s required.
I can’t really agree, in any other game it’d be the case, but Malifaux sells itself on the idea of being a continued narrative rather than setting, so knowing where Ramos came from and was, or why Sonia getting a weird mask was important is kinda big deal. Maybe It’s just me.
Its easy enough to write a character bio that includes all that information. In fact, its actually easier to devote space to that level of history in a faction book than in their old model.
Besides, as far as M3E is concerned: Ramos is locked up Earthside and isn’t a Master, and Sonnia has been freed from the mask so, aside form a quick update in the bio, there’s no reason to focus on it for M3E.
There’s always the Wyrd Chronicles and Beyond the Breach podcast… but a ‘the story so far’ compendioum would be interesting.
While nice idea I do wonder how many will need to have one. Doesn’t Malifaux use cards for units? If that’s the case then these will be there just to offer lore of that faction just like WM/H ones do so unlike with faction specific books like codices in 40k players won’t need these to play they faction.
I expect it’ll continue to be playable with the cards as you say. It’s the fluff-junkies will love these. I’m rusty with Malifaux but expect I’ll pick up at least the Arcanists for a read.
Yes, this change is a move to a Warmachine book model, not a 40K Codex model.
Uh oh, Malifaux codex.
More Warmachine than 40K
Interesting change. Not going to knock it before I’ve seen it but some thoughts… The previous M2E model were wave books, with a set of stories and model info (stats) for each faction; you didn’t need them as you could obtain all the faction arsenal decks (unit and upgrade cards) for info about each opponent faction and get fluff and stories from the Breach podcast or Wyrd Chronicles newsletter.. The Crew Builder tool also provided basic info, but you needed the cards or books for details of the specific unit rules/stats. There were still some units found in various wave… Read more »
They have already said, on multiple occasions, including the original M3E announcement, that all rules and cards will be available for free online when M3E launches. The faction books seem to be simply to get all 500+ profiles released in books at launch, avoiding the M2E launch problem where only a few Masters and their crews were playable, with the majority of the models being unusable until the Wave 2 book came out. After launch, I can easily see them sticking to their standard Wave book model.
Just followed Paul’s link to the forum…
“That being said, the rules, and cards, in multiple languages, are going to be available 100% free. You don’t need to spend a dime in the least if you don’t wish in order to transition to M3E”
Like my Tumble dryer, I am a collector of fluff.
I will most likely pick up all of these.
I think there is something very cool about a company getting to a stage where they have so much stuff they need army books. Call it the collector in me, loving a hardcopy or liking what GW have with all their books, but damn, I like this.
Same here. The fact those covers are stunning really helps too!
GAH! No more Ramos!?! I got hooked on the game for the fluff and stuff with the chance to play a mad scientist. On top of that the Brewmaster can’t have his Moonshinobi doing drunken kungfu with the tanuki and Monks of Fermented River? Well there goes my reason to play anymore with this system. I like the models so I’ll probably pick up figures here and there for collecting but not as much as if I were using them for lists.
Ramos is gone for official tournament purposes (and there’s a good chance not forever). He still has rules and his own Keyword crew though, so he’s still completely playable, both casually and for any tournament where the TO says he can be used.
Brewmaster can still use Tanuki and the Monks of Fermented River. If a Master or Henchman leads a crew, they can hire any model with their Keyword. In Brewmasters case, this is TRI-CHI, and both the Monks and Tanuki share it, so there’s no problems there.
I have been busier than a on legged man in an @rse kicking contest over the last few days and totally missed this …. Bloody fantastic!!!11 I like faction books and by the end of 2nd edition there was information on each army spread across far too many books, I likev the concept and the covers are the duck’s nut$….. Great stuff …… I am in.