EnternalVoid

Wyrd has really broken up a lot of its story across the board. To really get the big picture you almost have to read everything and put together the puzzle yourself. Now if you just want a current state of things Above the Law does give a pretty good look at how the city as a whole is doing, and how the Guild came to be, but does not give much else. Not a ton of the mythology has been revealed yet. Simply put the history Breachside has been buried for ages to the point that even the natives have forgotten great chunks of it. Most of the stuff that people have gotten are a tidbit here, a tidbit there, and from there readers have managed to put together a rough outline of some things. You will not find something that reads like a player guide explaining all the tyrants, who they were, where they are, and what they are attempting. Nor will you get an exact account of what transpired in what manner. The closest we have gotten has been the 2e TTB core book. Other than that it is largely what you draw away from the hero centered stories and clues. That said in those stories it does not help that the few people that can answer a lot in the fluff in that world are highly opinionated and secretive *Titania is a prime example*.

1) If we are talking about the four suits in the deck, like Crow, Ram, Tome, and Mask, those are important for potential triggers. So if your defining suit is a crow, your highest card in your twist deck is the 13 of crow. 2) Just the toolkits, the weapons just the next section after them. 3) That is what skill to make your own. So if a Fated wanted to make a toolkit they need to have a 4 in the crafting skill to do make it. You can find it on page 224 in the craft these items section. It says to use the Homesteading skill for crafting Skill Toolkits in that section.

I really like the scales of that fountain. Blood is also well done

The company is called Army Painter https://admin.thearmypainter.com/files/products/ProductImages_2015/Brushes/BR7014_ThePsycho_1280x1280_14.png I personally do the actual black part of the eye with a Pigma Micron 005 art pen currently myself. Really small tip and I don't have to worry about paint. It is not perfect but it has worked for me for the moment.

Honestly they have not given a ton on Reva and actually what is going on with her or in her head. Her story bit is not from her point of view so we are not getting insight into her thoughts or motivations. Everything in that story is from her St. Clair's point of view and how he sees things. She clearly has some connection to the Necromantic forces in Malifaux as she has no formal magical training. So it is either instinctual, the Grave Whispering, or some other source of power she has access to. But without access to her actual thoughts or more stories we can only guess what might be behind her or her motivations. That said it is pretty clear she has some sort of unnatural unseen charismatic aura, it seems to draw people to believe in her even if they are not even sure exactly what she is standing for. They just believe in her thus follow her direction without being sure where she is leading them. It seems even undead can fall under this charm even though many no longer have any sort of individual will.

There is also a General Talent called Sturdy that gives you +2 Wounds, you can even take it multiple times though each time after the first only gives +1 wounds. Also the Drudge have a Step 1 Pursuit called Long Suffering that gives the character +2 Wounds as well. I actually have a player running around with like 11wds as the party's tanker individual.

A deeper write up of the Bureaucrat Bureaucrat is a largely Social based pursuit that uses the Bureaucracy Skill a lot. Their starting equipment is a “Favor” owed by a powerful fatemaster character. It says to discuss with the Fatemaster as to the identity of this individual. This Favor can be called on once for something pretty large. Examples it gives is having criminal records of the character and their associates expunged or temporary access to a powerful weapon. But once used it is gone. Its Step 0 Talent lets the player discard a card when making a Bewitch, Intimidate, or Barter challenge to use Bureaucracy instead. If using it for Bartering you need time to contact your people to uphold your end of any deal but basically it means having favors done perhaps in leau of paying the full price. The next Talent you get is Web of Allies. This lets you gain an “Ally” *subject to Fatemaster approval*, that the character can call upon once per session for aid. This means a Bureaucracy Challenge with the TN based on what you are asking your Ally to do for you. Obviously if it is something easy for the Ally the TN is quite low but if it is risky or have considerable backlash it can get up to a TN18. Also each time you get a General Talent you can gain another “Ally” isntead. So this is the talent that can get a Bureacrat its many resources it can call on. The next step gives you a choice of two talents. The first is Long Winded Speech and the second is Do you Know Who I Am?. The Speech is similar to other pursuit talents we have seen in that it makes the character stand out but Notice tests for noticing other characters are at a negative. Also if your speech goes at least 5 minutes and you finish you can make a Leadership test to get a positive to social challenges for those that listened, with a margin you can adjust their opinions by one degree. Do you Know Who I Am? gives you an manifiested power that goes off Intimidation and Tenacity. It gives the target till end of Dramatic time a negative to attacks against the character. It requires a Ram and has a Ram Mask trigger to make them slow and dazed as well. Next is Information Network and Favors Owed. Information Network basically lets you take a Bureaucracy test to gather information in the area about a person, the time it takes based on the size of the settlement you are in. Favored Owed lets you add your Charm to your Web of Allies Bureaucracy test. It also lets you call on your allies more but they require additional margins of success for each time you called on that one. Next two is Administrative Initiative and Plausible Deniability. Administrative Initiative lets you discard a card at the beginning of Dramatic Time and manipulate a number of characters’, based on the value of the card, initiatives. Either lower or raising it by your Bureaucracy rank. Plausible Deniability lets you once per Session discard a card to avoid any sort of repercussions of being accursed of a crime save for some scandalous rumors for a few weeks. Bureaucratic Meddling and The System is Rigged are the next two talents. Meddling lets you at the start of your turn in Dramatic time look at the top card of a character’s twist deck. Then they can either discard it or return it to the top of that deck. The System is Rigged lets you treat all Ram and Mask cards that are flipped, cheated, or revealed as if they had both suits. The last Talent is “Synergy”. Whenever a friendly model in 10 yards Cheat Fate, another character in range may draw a card after resolving the action. Ya this one pretty much means when one player cheats fate another one gets to draw a card, effectively making it nearly impossible to run players out of cards unless they discard them for things.

To mess with my group the cursed knife they picked up will not let the Cursed condition drop below +1 as long as they have it. It was a really nice knife so it became a debate how much was having the condition constantly and needing to have it worked back when it got higher to just ditching the knife for a weaker one. It is really up to the Fatemaster if they want to adjust it and how dangerous they want it to be. It is one of those things I am planning on taking a second look next campaign if I want to made them rougher. I personally like making multiple attempt on the same day get harder and have if you fail by a Margin of Failure it actually gets worse.

Well the magic theory is not super wide spread, it mentions in the description that it largely is found in spain, the Catalans area specifically. So likely the vast majority of those that practice the theory are of Spanish origins or learned it from a Spanish spellcaster. As for drawbacks it really depends. Yes it lets you double dip on AP, but it is spell casting and movement. Also as mentioned if you don't move your full distance or retract your steps, the TN of the spell is increased by +2. So really cannot stand in a crowd and use your magic without drawing attention to yourself. Also using it in a confined space like a passenger train, the sewers, or even a small room will prove difficult to not get the penalty. And if you think about it, all the other Theories have some pretty nice bonuses too. It is all about knowing what fits your character and what speaks to the player.

There are a few minor examples of this across several talents but the Big one for calling in favors is the Step 1 Talent called Web of Allies. This lets you gain an “Ally” *subject to Fatemaster approval*, that the character can call upon once per session for aid. This means a Bureaucracy Challenge with the TN based on what you are asking your Ally to do for you. Obviously if it is something easy for the Ally the TN is fairly low but if it is risky or have considerable backlash it can get up to a TN18. Also each time you get a General Talent you can gain another “Ally” instead. What lets it grow is that any time you can take a General Talent you can instead add another Ally. As you determine what each Ally is when you acquire them you can end up with quite the collection. It points out they can even be characters you encountered in a session. There are also other references to using your means to getting stuff done, like the Step 0 letting you replace certain skill challenges with Bureaucracy such as Barter, and using your network to handle it. Or another lets you basically get away with a crime once per session with nothing more than some scandalous rumors for a few weeks.

We get more information about the marshals but not really anything extra on them in regards to origins, magic, or secrets. We do know that apparently part of her deal with the former Governor General for joining up, Lady Justice had her records and history erased. Most of the information we get is how they recruit, what their HQ is like, and how they operate. With the Elite Division we do get some history on how they evolved into what they currently are, a Division that only exists as rumors and in the shadow. No real official Elite Division exists, it is mostly Shadow Op stuff and they have hidden members in the other divisions.

I gave each of my Fated a special bonus based on their back stories. The person that ended up being Neverborn stolen wanted to have spent the time with Candy. So I had his character grow up a bit with the Woe *Was like 9ish* but left them when it was clear she was now to big. Because of Candy's sweets the character had an unnatural reaction to sugar. Once per session if he ingested a sweet *as a (0) action* he could either make a 2/3/4 healing flip or gain an Extra AP. But I gave every one of my players something so this was his. In another game I was a part of my character was Neverborn stolen. I ended up playing something of a sleeper agent for them as I sought out anything that they could find useful. My played the character very quite but also quite ruthless when she did finally weight in *wanted to write a warning to the Rat Catchers in the sewers after having a conflict with them using the blood of the one that we captured*. But because of her task she was very well versed in "humans" thus handled society well. Really I would find out when a player crossed, how long they were with the Neverborn, and either which ones they wanted to be associated with *Nightmares, Woes, Nephilim, or Zoraida* or one that fit with the campaign. After that it becomes building something that works.

Magewrights are kind of like Dabblers and Graverobbers in that they start with a Grimoire. Theirs contain one enchanting magia, one of another type, and three immutos. Also like the Dabbler and Graverobber they have access to Mastered Immuto and Mastered Magia as options during their steps. So a lot of their options are either a new talent or either Mastered Immuto or Mastered Magia. There 0 Step talent is Bolster. When they are casting a spell or manifest power that affects one or more people they can discard a card to pick one of those characters and an aspect to give the target +1 to the aspect *to a max of +3*, for the duration of the spell or power. If the spell does not have a duration then the bonus lasts till the start of the caster’s next turn. Its next talent is Minor Enchantment which is a (0) tactical action. It lets you discard a card to target a weapon within one yard and nominate an Elemental Immuto you have access to. If the card was a 11+ it can be any immuto *well technically any elemental immuto*. Until the start of the caster’s next turn whenever the weapon deals damage the target also suffers one instant of the Elemental Immuto. So basically you are going to want to have access to at least one Elemental Immuto for the most part. Transmutive Comprehension is like the similar Step 3 for Dabbler and Graverobber. It gives the character a Ram to their Enchanting Skill. I don’t see many people skipping this one for the Master Magia which is the other choice unless they somehow already have a Ram for some reason. Enchant Item is going to be a kind of nasty talent. It is the one that lets you when you cast a spell infuse it into an item within one yard. It adds +2 to the TN but should you succeed the spell does not immediately go off. Only spells that do damage can be put into weapons but when you hit you may discharge the spell. The NASTY part is the target may not attempt to resist. It then notes that if you are using a projectile weapon you have to enchant a round, not the gun itself unless you are using it as a club, for this. So I imagine you got to be very sure your bullet is going to hit or you might waste it. For non weapon items the spells are ones that do damage via a pulse, those that affect or summon another character, or that affect the caster. You can discharge the spell as a (1) AP action. At which part the character becomes the target of the spell *or center of the pulse for damage*. If the spell can be resisted it has the same acting value as if it had been cast by the character. Once discharged the spell is gone. They also never produce Margins of Success and any damage flips from them are at a negative. Also items can only be enchanted with one spell at a time. A character can sustain a number equal to their cunning plus half their ranks in the pursuit *Rounded Down* to a minimum of 1. Exceed the limit and you choose one of the infused spells to fizzle. Otherwise stored spells last indefinitely till used or dispelled. Spontaneous Animation gives you a trigger on your Enchanting when you cast casting spells. It is a double ram trigger that turns a scrap pile within 3” of the target into a Clockwork Trap subordinate. It lasts to the end of the scene and you can order up to your cunning in traps for a (1) action. Next is Split Enchantment is a nasty one. It lets the character when they cast an enchanting spell pick a willing target within 3” to gain the full effects of the spell as well. Basically it lets you buff two people with a single spell *as I doubt you will debuff allies*. The Step 10 talent is called Layer Upon Layer. Kind if like Split Enchantment it lets the caster have one spell hit multiple people. When you cast an Enchanting spell you can discard a card to generate a pulse on the target. Every legal target in the pulse is affected. The pulse’s size is based on the value of the card dropped. Weak cards give you a 2” pulse, Moderate a 4”, and Severe a 6”. Potential great party buff or possible a huge enemy Debuff zone.

Well to give a quick summary after reading through the majority of it *I have about 25% left of the fluff section* Overall the book is good, IT GIVES A TON of earth lore compared to what we have gotten before. Lots of interesting things that could be used to have interesting backstory elements for characters or for the Fatemaster to pick away at for little nuggets they can put into their campaigns. The gear section is just Melee and Range weapons, no other additions. Melee section is a tad small, only 5, and I can see two of them not being used much. There are 13 new range weapons though. 7 are Heavy Guns, 2 Long Arms, and 4 Thrown Weapons. Of the 7 new Heavy Guns, two are 20 scrip and one is 15 scrip. So people could potentially start with those if they have the right pursuit. The two Long Arm options are a AG Netgun and Rifle Grenades. Rifle Grenades are basically inserted into rifles and fired from the gun for an explosive shot. Of the four thrown weapons, two are types of grenades for more explosive action. Full list if Pursuits are thus; Basic Pursuits are Bureaucrat, Commander, Gunner, Magewright, Marksmen, and Propagandist. There is only 6 so less than the other expansions but they told us fairly up front that there was going to be less when they were previewing them on Mondays or Fridays *cannot remember which days they were*. They said that was partially because with 8 a book it was starting to make quite the list so they started to cut back a bit. It does not hurt this book as much of the stuff to make Guild characters can be done with existing pursuits. There is also only 5 Advance pursuits compared to the 6 in the other expansion books. They are Executioner, Guild Lawyer, Mage Killer, Soulstone Aficionado, and Witchling Handler. The Executioner, Guild Lawyer, and Witchling Handler of course are tied to working for the Guild, but Mage killer and Soulstone Aficionado can be more neutral occupations. I will say right now I am a tad let down by the Marksmen. The reason being is from the original description and discussion on the preview some of us were hoping it would not focus entirely on Long Arms and have more options for other weapons among their talents. Only the 0 Step and one other are really of much use to non-Long Arm users. That said the 0 Step will have most range specialists considering taking at least one step in Marksmen no matter what they use. It gives you a (0) action that increases by +4" until your next activation. So even thrown weapons and bows can profit from this action making it fairly strong. I am actually kind of surprised by the magic sections. There are more Magia then was expecting and a whole new Magic Theory. It is The Eternal Dance, which is basically the Magical Theory of the Domandor De Cadavers. When you use a spell or Manifested power this this theory you move a number of inches equal to your walk for every AP you spent on the spell. It is considered a walk for purposes of disengaging and such. If you fail to do the whole move or retrace your steps the spells TN is increased by +2. So basically it lets you combine walk actions with your spells but you have to do that or it becomes harder to cast. There are 15 new Magia, 3 for each Magical skill and 3 for Counter-spell. Yes they created spells for the Counterspell skill, apparently this is a whole new set of Magia. The Three magia for Counterspelling is Adaptation, Banish, and Nullify Magic. Adaptation lets you become immune a Magia, Elemental Immuto, and magical effects after being hit by it once for 2 rounds. Real useful if the character is stuck with either the same spell or element for their offense. Banish removes a summoned creature from existence, regardless of how long of duration it has left. Also it does not trigger any demise type effects like gamin blowing up. Nullify Magic is a powerful anti magic tool; hit someone with it and they lose any suits associated with their magic skills for a round and any attempts to cast spells is at . Get some extended duration immuto on that and you can really hurt magic users. Players will have a hard time getting around the Double Negatives outside of using Soulstones and Focus and Fatemaster NPC will have a hard time casting without built in Suits as they cannot cheat *they would have to go off the Defense flip of the player which the player is technically at to resist so should not have a hard time avoiding that suit*. Only three new Immutos. The critter section in the back as you can imagine focus mostly on Guild associated characters though their is a surprisingly number of undead entries such as bone piles and undead outlaws. Overall useful for anyone mixing any Guild associated things with their campaign as it is a wide spread with some interesting elements mixed in. Also for the potential future Guild Models they can made as some have not shown up in Malifaux yet. I will do a more detailed break down for the Pursuits later.

Well not to spoil but there is a slight different a Tranq gun's rules in Jurassic Faux One Shot. I am doing this from memory as I don't have one shot or Fatemastered it *our Henchman ran it for Free RPG day*. I believe each time it tagged the target it slowed them and reduced their Movement and Charge by -1. If the target hit 0 charge and movement then it fell asleep or something like that. Might be worse looking into that if you are interested in playing around with Tranquilizer guns.

I just got my book today and I'm still reading through it. Once I am through enough of it *Likely tomorrow or Friday* I was planning to put up a post about it.

Well one thing you have to remember is that Into the Steam originally was made while we were still in the first edition of TTB, so some rules have had some shake ups. My general rule of thumb has been that anything in the 2.0 core book takes priority over Into the Steam, Under Quarantine, and Into the Bayou but if it does not strait out change it then it likely still exists. For example, they removed Carbines and folded them into the Rifles proper and took out Saddlegun because of it. In the Errata in the Into the Bayou section they actually said to take the rule out and replace it for one weapon with a different rule. A. Snaring is in the 2.0 Core book, just not in the weapon section, on page 175 under the Pugilism rules. It says "Snaring: The target gains the Slow Condition in addition to suffering damage". So it seemed to have stayed as such as a Fatemaster I would rule that Disabling is still around as well. B. I would rule one then the other as a Fatemaster, so it would take two shots to paralyze. Disabling says if the Target has slow, and does not give a timing so it would be on hitting. Snaring seems to give Slow at the same time as dealing damage, so you would check for slow for Disabling, continue, and then cause snaring while dealing damage. For the Rifle Special rule I think it is pretty safe to say use the 2.0 Corebook of +10 per Focus. I would also have Shot Study be the same, +10, and if any player questioned me I would claim it was likely either an artifact from 1.0 Shot Study or they mean that X to be a +, and if they question me further I would rule it as a Fatemaster. I would also point out that Mason has a thread call "Through the Breach FAQ and Errata" pin to the top of the this forum. You can post stuff there or errors you think you see to help them address them potentially in the next FAQ. Despite being a possible secret Tyrant, Mason can be fairly open. You will always be surprised what Fated will come up with...

I have seen two general approaches to Marionettes for the most part; The first is take all 4 because they are pretty solid cheap significant minions. Taking four of them for 12ss gives you 4 activations *5 counting Collodi* before you add anything else. The second is take none of them. Instead take the Primordial Magic and two Effigies instead. So for 10ss you get 3 activations *4 w/Collodi*. You get the Rush of Magic from the totem and both Effigies are significant minions and fairly durable for 4ss. Most don't go the route of taking marionettes and not four unless it is to make room for fitting something else in.

One thing I have considered but not tried yet is to tie it to a fate, whether it is when they resist or accept their fate one of the options will kill them. Then put the barb that potential undead resurrection might be on plate if they choose the one that involves dying. Take that shot for the lovely lady that you are escorting to safety... turns out she was a resser and brings you back to return the favor.

Oh I actually have a good example of this one from one of our group. The character had a background with the 10T, namely the Yakuza like side of it, and he had a rather extensive tattoo which was also his grimoire *started as a dabbler*. He later went into the mage pursuit and wanted to go with summoning. He decided he wanted to summon based off his tattoos. So we made a list of them, figured out roughly what each would be roughly with some modifications *Such as a temple dog using the hunting dog but gained construct and turning a malifaux raptor into a firebird*. After reviewing we struck an agreement he could have a number based on his rank in pursuits *one per 3 ranks rounded up* and add an additional by taking the New Manifiestation talent.

The rulebook says stand there till the player does the order action, which is the way I go. Otherwise you sometimes get players disagreeing with your choices of actions. That way if they disagree you say that is the rules and how you are following it.

Well that is nightmare fuel, well done

You could replace one's claw fingers with syringes all crazy doctor like perhaps. Narrow tube or greenstuff, possible actual small needles for the poky ends. Oh, you could also replace one's arm with a bonesaw like Sebastian's. The other could be Fishhook maybe. Otherwise somehow replacing their heads with ones with surgical masks like Lusciousmccabe suggested

I will say the flip side, don't be afraid to say no either. Sometimes players will find something that just is bad for the game or just don't work. Of course that is where you can compromise but sometimes you have to say "That is not going to work. But how about this...". An Example of this is crafting, if a player wants to made their own weapons and gear that is fine, but I would not let them spit out a Clockwork seeker in 1 hour of narrative time for only a quarter of the base cost. Sure the rules don't give a time frame on how long it would take so nothing is saying you cannot do it, but that is the Fatemaster's job to decide if something is reasonable. Another example, I had a player that wanted to join the 10T and become a Torakage, so I slipped in the chance for him during a session I had one of his fates come up. Later he wanted get the Torakage special weapons with all sorts of modifications. I took a look at the Torakage weapon's and most of them seemed like they were discounted costs. The long bow for the Torakage is 5 scrip to the 10 scrip everyone else pays and the only difference is it does not have indirect and the Spear is basically the Polearm with Precise for way cheaper. So I told him he could not buy them at those costs with modifications as his superiors are not going to hire a specialized smith to make his weapons *Not important enough and weapons like that are more traceable*, so he would have to go find a smith himself if he wanted them and pay more for it. Another example would be when I was working with a player on a Manifested power. They wanted the Teleport but the manner they wanted it I was certain was going to be abused. So I said no to way he had it and then ended up offering him three solutions on how to have the power but what sort of limitations it would have *such as only during Narrative time or making it a manifested ability rather than a spell but be once per session*. Part of my reasoning for this is you have to think about the other players as well. You let someone abuse something in a bad way and it can affect the fun of the other players sometimes.

Funny thing for me is the last couple times I brought out Nico he did not use re-animator much as I took him without most of his corpse generation. He primarily gave Fast to models and topped off a few models. I think I summoned two models for two of the games and three for the others *Mostly replacing my forces as they fell though on at least two games a Canine Remains dug up a bone first turn*. Still I will have to give him a few more whirls now to see just how different he feels as his summoning is not as safe *Needs more planning and less target of opportunity*. I will reserve final judgement till then.