software

Building things makes me happy, which is one of the top reasons I’m still in this hobby so many years down the line.

Professionally I’m a software developer, which also allows me to build things. Then, when I have spare time, I get to loop back and build software for my model hobby.

CheatedFates radio asked me today on Twitter if I was going to update my web crew builder and model reference. (side note: Twitter is not the best place to grab me, but it works) So I spent a half hour and updated, greatly assisted by having a PDF copy of the book. Previously I’d write hand-write notes from the book on the bus (I do a lot of stuff on the bus/Skytrain), then translate those (occasionally poorly done) notes to computer form on my lunch break at work. The PDF let me skip that horrible middle step.

Here’s a link: http://geeksong.com/Malifaux/

And for any software developers who use this tool and who might feel inclined to make it cooler, I accept pull requests on GitHub: https://github.com/rythos42/MalifauxModels-Web

When I picked up Malifaux, I got really excited about the possibilities of it, but also recognized that there were a few things about it that required a little extra mental processing than my usual games. Here’s some non-model things I’ve made for the game.

Looking at my Google Analytics today, I noticed that of the 170 visits I’ve had in the last 30 days, 22 of them were from the Wyrd forums, so maybe this will interest you!

Scheme Pools

It’s amazing. A random, limited (1.5 “all of the Schemes” would be impossible to think about!), set of goals for each player to worry about. Care about your own, figure out your opponents, try to stop them, try to make yours happen. But my memory isn’t as good as it needs to be for this, so I needed a gaming aid to help remember what on earth I was doing, let alone what my opponent could be doing. I wrote out some cards. After I made them, Mark (a local Henchman) said I might pretty them up. So I found an awesome backing, an awesome front, the Malifaux fonts and designed some cards. (All art resources used with permission!)

Malifaux Scheme Cards

I did a print run of 20 of them. I’ve sold about half to friends at cost, and then sold the other half to Mark and he gave them away at Malifood last weekend. Coming out of this, there’s a ton more interest in my cards! I’m pretty excited and pleased with how they turned out. There are a small handful of things I want to change about it, but in general they are great!

Crew Creation

Sometimes you just want to daydream about making crews. Sometimes you don’t have your book on hand! I love thinking about the cross-faction possibilities…is that model a Mercenary? What are the Foundry models that Mei Feng can take? What if I took Mei as a 10 Thunders Master? (I’ve been running her Arcanist) Did you know that the Brewmaster is dual-faction 10 Thunders/Gremlin?!

I love the exploration of it all. Where Warhammer is simple – pick up your army book, that’s what you can take – Malifaux is complex, there are hidden gems on every page. There are things you can take and there are things you should take and things you should not take, and optimizing that is delicious.

I wrote a crew creator web app (I write financial web apps professionally – this stuff is pretty easy in comparison!). It has the entire list of models and upgrades from book 1, and should format itself nicely if you want to use it from your mobile phone!

Cross-Reference/Crew Creator App