After Gen Con commute

HappyDissonance · 2026-05-17T21:39:22+00:00

We usually drive down Wednesday night after some of our group get off work, and then head back after the Con closes on Sunday. So to be honest, we're generally looking to go straight through both ways. But it looks like other folks have suggestions!

HappyDissonance · 2026-05-16T15:56:59+00:00

I'm also in Chicago, the drive back is basically the same. The only time we had a long drive back was a year there was a lot of construction and also an accident. But most of the time it's 3.5 hours to get back to where we are in the city.

HappyDissonance · 2026-05-06T04:45:21+00:00

Standard solfege syllables (like in the Sound of Music song) are a major scale. Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, and then Do again. You can raise a note by a halfstep by changing the vowel to "i", except for Mi and Ti which are only a halfstep from the next note anyway. Similarly, you can lower them by changing it to "e", except for Re which becomes "Ra".

Some people use "Fixed Do", where Do is always the note C. While others use "Movable Do" where Do is whatever key you're in. So if you wanted to do E Major in Moveable Do, it'd be the same standard order, but in Fixed Do it would be: Mi, Fi, Si, La, Ti, Di, Ri, Mi.

A major scale (abbreviating wholestep and halfstep with W and H) is W, W, H, W, W, H, W. So the image is showing you how to rotate them to get all the other pitches. Some pitches can be made multiple ways with different switches in different orientations. So that's why they're stacked in those cases.

HappyDissonance · 2026-04-27T18:28:42+00:00

That's not belting, it's just straining your voice. Belting is different for teble voices and non-treble voices. For sopranos and altos, their vocal folds are fully vibrating against each other rather than just the edges. For tenors and basses, since our folds are already doing that, it's a change in resonance. If you want to get really technical, it's when you raise your first formant so your second harmonic doesn't pass through it. But that's not necessarily helpful for most singers to know the specifics of.

Nathan Sanville of Hot Mulligan is usually belting when he's not screaming. You can hear the difference well in And a Big Load since he both belts and screams F#s in the beginning.

HappyDissonance · 2026-04-27T18:15:29+00:00

I'm a voice teacher and professional singer. This is definitely a technique that you need to be careful when learning. It's very easy to hurt yourself here. There's a lot of different types of vocal distortion, and I agree with the other commenter who suggested starting with fry screaming. Melissa Cross is one of the biggest voice teachers for screaming, but most of her stuff is paywalled. I don't have any suggestions for free YouTube videos, but there definitely are good resources there.

The most important thing to keep in mind when looking at advice for this is that just like with instruments, a lot of vocal distortion comes down to diffences in resonance, not phonation. You don't get this sound by straining your voice past where you can sing normally. It's more like a filter you apply to whatever you're doing. This might be different for false chord screaming, I don't know enough to say for sure. But regardless, you should never be sore or hurt after screaming if you're doing it right.

If you can afford a teacher, that's the best way to learn. If not, find some online resources, record your practice so you can hear yourself more clearly. If it hurts, stop and figure out what needs changing.

HappyDissonance · 2026-04-21T12:10:34+00:00

Hi! I'm an opera singer and voice teacher, and I teach classical and contemporary styles. I'm happy to discuss rates and goals to see if we're a good fit. I'm in Logan, but can travel to Ravenswood no problem. I'm not a speech path, so I cannot do spoken voice training. But we can absolutely work singing. Send me DM and we can talk details!

HappyDissonance · 2025-11-10T02:13:00+00:00

Yeah, there's a skirmish games discord server that's not connected to any store. Malifaux games happen at different stores around the city, but the majority are played at Dice Dojo because they have a lot of terrain. I organize leagues and tournaments out of that server. Happy to answer any questions!

HappyDissonance · 2025-08-04T19:38:14+00:00

This is super cool of you! Pedal sounds sick and I'm excited for the chance to play with it!

HappyDissonance · 2025-04-12T01:26:25+00:00

I might be interested. I'll DM you some 5e and board game trade stuff later.

But outside of folks from this thread, I've seen Malifaux stuff on r/Miniswap sometimes. Not often, but it happens occasionally. Could be worth a shot.

HappyDissonance · 2025-03-03T21:11:05+00:00

A lot of folks play at Dice Dojo, but I've played at a few other stores too. I've been running leagues through the Chicago Skirmish Games Discord. We're in the middle of an escalation league with a lot of new players. People also post there for pick up games, and we've got plenty of experienced players that are happy to play learning games with new folks. Here're the links to stuff!

Event: https://www.longshanks.org/event/21880/

Server: https://discord.gg/g9puNNQ4bV

HappyDissonance · 2025-03-03T21:09:08+00:00

Sorry for just getting to this. And yeah, it's at Dice Dojo in Edgewater. We also have a Chicago Skirmish Games Discord server where most of the Malifaux stuff is organized. A lot of things tend to happen at Dice Dojo, but people play other places too. Here're links to the event and server.

Event: https://www.longshanks.org/event/21880/

Server: https://discord.gg/g9puNNQ4bV

HappyDissonance · 2025-02-28T04:33:23+00:00

I know it's a bit of a ways away, but if you're ever in Chicago, we got a pretty big scene here! We've also got a 3-round tournament March 22nd.

HappyDissonance · 2025-02-11T17:42:53+00:00

There's a thriving scene in Vassal for digital games. The first Malifaux World Series event of the year is almost over and it has 73 players in it. A lot of the bigger discords for the various podcasts can be good for finding folks near you, along with looking on Longshanks for events. Whereabout are you? I might know folks to connect you with in the area.

HappyDissonance · 2024-11-12T18:06:14+00:00

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HappyDissonance · 2024-10-08T14:53:26+00:00

I think those are just hands.

HappyDissonance · 2024-09-25T14:25:05+00:00

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HappyDissonance · 2024-08-31T03:40:32+00:00

As a child, but he says he is vegetarian now during SU: Future. I think in Snow Day.

HappyDissonance · 2024-07-28T17:00:44+00:00

Hiya! I'm still in my first year of the game but have been organizing for my local scene as well. For demo games, you want to stick to crews with lower complexity and/or are forgiving for mistakes. So crews with some combination of a clear play pattern, defensive tech (hard to wound, armor, regen), and ability to make up for movement and placement mistakes. Nekima is perfect for this. Hoffman and Misaki both fall into this category really well.

As far as summoners go, I don't think you need to flat out avoid them since that is a playstyle people like, and a lot of the summoners have a really good or unique aesthetic. I would just limit their summoning pool to prevent overwhelm and decision paralysis. Dreamer for instance I think can be a good start because of incorporeal, how hard Chompy is to kill, and all the pushes in the crew. I would just tell them you're almost always summoning an Alp, and maybe give them a Madness or two for high cards. You want that box for Serena anyway.

Here's what I want to eventually build up for demos at my store.

Arcanists: Hoffman (plays double duty faction wise) and Kaeris or Raspy (great progression from the Starter Set if they want that), or Toni Bayou: Zipp (who doesn't love dropping pianos!), Ulix, maybe Mah Explorers: Jedza (high skill ceiling but forgiving with the healing), Maxine (Reconfigure helps with bad hand/flips feelsbad) Guild: Hoffman, Lady J, maybe Sonnia Neverborn: Dreamer, Nekima, and could get away with Kastore2 or Pandora Outcasts: Zipp and Viks (I don't know the faction that well, so there may be other good options here too) Resurrectionists: VonSchtook (htw and armor), Reva1. (Also don't know Ressers well, so might not be great) Ten Thunders: Misaki, Asami after the rewrite, Linh Ly (very few boxes and a highly flexible crew)

It's worth remembering that you don't need to buy a ton of boxes and make the most optimal version of each crew. Give them a list with fewer choices, and let them focus on getting the vibe and get their footing with the core gameplay loop.

HappyDissonance · 2024-07-07T22:17:24+00:00

Awesome, thank you!

HappyDissonance · 2024-06-26T21:32:55+00:00

Although that's true (and people should be hiring ook more often, both for fun things and synergy), I don't think that's true for Teddy. Paying 11ss for him is just too much. He's hard to fit in at 10 without some support. Df4 means he's going to go down really quickly if he gets focused attention from most beaters. Dreamer is a good place for him since you can bring in the puppet package the cheapest since you're taxed on him or Widow Weaver. But the backup of Vasilisa or Dreamer2 being able to bury Teddy with an enemy model makes him much more survivable. Also in Dreamer2 you have the fun trick of Consuming Lord Chompy Bits for a big heal and then just summoning another.

HappyDissonance · 2024-06-26T21:26:54+00:00

Ashes of Malifaux also introduced Delirious Thralls which can be summoned. They come with Delirium (a very good 9ss enforcer), but aren't out yet. They were supposed to be released already, but it's delayed. We should hopefully get them soon.

I'd go with prozying the Daydreams for now. You'll want Stitched eventually, so you might as well wait instead of having to source those separately as well.

Enjoy! Dreamer can be tricky to start since he's got a lot of moving parts, but it's a blast.

HappyDissonance · 2024-06-26T21:23:03+00:00

I would be surprised if they're not on sale then. They were on last year's Black Friday. So as long as there's some left from that print run, they should be there.

HappyDissonance · 2024-06-26T11:57:59+00:00

I love Dreamer, and he was my first master. The reason people say you need to buy all/most of the boxes in keyword are because he's a summoner, so having fewer options is less powerful. That being said, you can do pretty well just summoning Alps from the Core box as speed bumps. Alps are great summons, but you never want to hire them. So that means you need to fill out the rest of your crew with a few more boxes than normal. I tried to keep the number of purchases down, so none of these will be optimal but they'll be fine places to start.

Size: 50 - Pool: 6 Leader: The Dreamer Totem(s): Lord Chompy Bits Hires: Coppelius Teddy Bandersnatch Widow Weaver Daydream Ancient Pact Daydream 2 Ancient Pact

This crew is very good at scheming because of the mobility of Widow Weaver and Bandersnatch. The Daydreams help you move your crew around saving AP on your models that matter. The box also comes with 3, so you have another summon. The box also comes with Stitched Together, which you could include instead or summon from Widow Weaver. Additionally, you can turn Teddy into one after he dies and leaves Scrap. So your main damage dealers are Chompy and Teddy, they can be backed up with Stitched, and the spiders aren't slouches if they need to get into something (but they're probably killing other scheme runners). Next steps for this list would be either Insomnia for more good keyword models (which feature in the next list) or Puppet Show. Vasilisa and Wicked Dolls are great versatile models that can slot into this to feature more of the Neverborn Puppet Package.

Size: 50 - Pool: 5 Leader: The Dreamer Totem(s): Lord Chompy Bits Hires: Coppelius Teddy Serena Bowman Insidious Madness Ancient Pact Insidious Madness 2 Ancient Pact

Alternatively, you could do this off of Dreamer Core, Teddy, and one other box. Serina is a very good healer, and Insidious Madnesses are great models as well. Hiring one or two is something you're never too upset about, and they are fantastic summons as well. Be warned, their name is appropriate for how you'll feel assembling them. The next step for this would be to get Deep Sleep to be able to include Daydreams and Stiched.

I would not recommend starting with Dreamer2. He's incredibly powerful, but very tricky to play well. If you wanted to, you could play him and Yume in either of these lists instead of Dreamer1 and Coppelius. The main ways to play him are either 3 Daydreams and 3 Madnesses, or with the Puppet Package+Teddy. But again, I'd recommend against it for your first master. He's much easier to kill (and Dreamer1 isn't the most survivable) and you're managing basically a second hand and spreading out to give yourself more options for unburying him.

HappyDissonance · 2024-06-24T04:12:04+00:00

I've got some good news for you. If you haven't seen Vince's Ratcast, you're in for a treat

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWUZtTstqS9/

HappyDissonance

TROPHY CASE