Mason

This question is addressed in the FAQ that I just posted to this forum.

Hey everyone! Here's the FAQ and Errata Document for Through the Breach. TTB FAQ and Errata Document (10-4-17) If you have any questions that aren't covered in this document, please post them here and I'll take a look at them when it's time to update the FAQ. Thanks!

Thanks everyone! That should be all the people we need at this juncture.

The bestiary trick is one that I've used to very good effect with DnD. It can lead to some really memorable encounters just by getting you to think outside the box when it comes to monster combinations and themes.

The Mind Control Magia doesn't have a duration to increase. Text: "The caster forces the target (which cannot be herself) to take a 1 AP Action of her choice. The Action cannot force the target to attack itself or to divulge any sort of information, but it can cause her to take actions that are against her own nature or actions which are incredibly foolish (such as walking off a cliff)" There's no mention of rounds or minutes or hours anywhere in the Magia, so while you can certainly apply the Increased Duration Immuto to it, there's no time value for the Immuto to increase (which makes it a pointless addition).

There's nothing specific for most of them. The full Penny Dreadful books have some suggestions on which fates could be tied to each Act, and most of the Chronicles adventures have a few entries at the start to give the Fatemaster ideas.

I like green text.

Nicodem's Avatar fluff, Twisting Fates, pg. 66. Or at least, that's what he's referencing there.

It's on my list for From Nightmares.

Zoraida is mentioned and talked about in Into the Bayou, but she doesn't have a stat block there (primarily because she's a Master, and very strong). However, her stat block does appear in the "No Strings Attached" and "The Hand That Feeds" Penny Dreadfuls.

A Stitch in Time had a Fatemaster character who tried to create a portable Breach machine by researching the Cult of the Burning Man (who can open up portals like whoa).

Are you an avid Through the Breach player? Do you have a local gaming group that is willing to try out weird and possibly broken mechanics? Are you a sentient peacock who has learned how to use the internet? Do you enjoy pulling on rules or throwing math at them to see if they break? If so, you should sign up for this latest round of Through the Breach playtesting! Playtesting generally amounts to looking over rules and monster stats, testing them out in your games, and running through adventures on a regular basis to make sure that they're fun and balanced. If you're interested, please leave a post in this threat with a few of your favorite RPG systems and what sort of RPG group you have.

The character sheet, Empty forms like mournful ghosts, Haunts the Resource page.

Yes, that's true. It's a pretty handy Immuto for someone with Elemental spells.

Yup. Essentially, it bypasses the variable Pugilism/Martial Arts damage formula and functions like a normal weapon.

Unless Earl is only ten years old, he's been to Earth. The Breach reopened in 1897. The current year is 1907.

Commercial refrigerators were invented in 1854, 53 years before the setting of the story. The mass production of cream cheese began in 1873, 37 years before the setting of the story. BOOM! VULTURED!

One way to look at it is that the character knows Immuto that allows her to manipulate the energy of the spell. Your average spell requires a certain amount of magical power, but a character with Alter Range can either add more power to the spell (represented by a higher TN) to increase its effective range, or she can dial that power down (represented by a lower TN) from a bolt of power into something more akin to a knife-like stab.

That's just a bit of personification is all. "Monday is really kicking my ass today..."

Powerful enough to catch Zoraida off guard with a spell the swamp witch didn't expect her to know. She's not anywhere near the height of her power when she shattered the physical forms of the Tyrants, but she's still a very, very powerful lady.

Fated characters (the PCs) still flip cards, which adds plenty of variation and randomness to combat. If they're attacking, they flip cards against a set TN determined by the NPC's defense. If they're being attacked, they flip cards against a set TN determined by the NPC's attack. It has the same amount of randomness that most RPG systems do. For instance, in DnD, L5R, and most other RPG systems: If they're attacking, PCs roll dice against a set TN determined by the NPC's defense (AC). If they're being attacked, the enemy rolls dice against a set TN determined by the PC's defense. The only difference is that it's moving the "generate random result" into the hands of the players, instead of leaving it in the hands of the GM.

There are a bunch of reasons, but the main one is that having the Fatemaster use cards evens the playing field too much. In a game of Malifaux, three or four models attacking a Henchman or Master can usually bring them down through sheer weight of AP. How many PCs are in your group? The only way to give powerful NPCs like Henchmen or Masters the staying power that they deserve to have is to either give them inflated stats (Defense 9! Willpower 11!) or to make up additional rules as to why they can't be killed in a turn of combat (Reduce all damage suffered to 1! Auto-riposte!). Having them flip fixed values solves that problem in a more elegant manner, allowing mooks to get knocked out relatively easy while keeping the boss encounters appropriately tough and scary. I've played about a half-dozen games of TTB with the Fatemaster flipping cards, all for the purpose of seeing if it would work, and all it really does is make the game more random, with unsatisfying combats (Minions blowing away PCs when they hit a string of high cards while the PCs are low, Henchmen flipping poorly and getting dropped in two activations) and longer fights (every time the Fatemaster flips a card, it adds a few seconds to the game's length, and that quickly starts to add up). It also devalues the cards in the hands of the PCs: cheating fate is usually a viable option against Minions that flip 5s and 6s or even Enforcers that flip 7s and 8s, but when those Minions have a chance to flip 10s or 11s, a lot of the "good" cards in a Twist Deck, the 7+ cards, become pretty underwhelming. The Rank Value system might seem clunky at a glance, but if you haven't seen it in action, I'd give it a few tries to see how you feel about it. In my experience, it actually ends up playing pretty smooth on the table (and it makes it much easier for a Fatemaster to set up appropriate encounters for the group, once she's got a sense for the Fated and their combat parameters).

It's... really not. Bagels were created by the Jewish people in Poland, and it became a staple of Polish diets long before it came to America. When it did show up in America, it was brought there by Polish immigrants... the same sort of immigrants who would travel to Malifaux, in fact. Around 1900, bagels became a very popular breakfast/lunch meal in New York, but they had already been popular in London for half a century... during the time period when the Guild had its headquarters in London. It's safe to assume that the Guild is relatively pro-bagel.

Yup. Their enchanting and prestidigitation counterparts are in the pipeline, but that's still a little bit further down the road.

You could also take the Sycophant Talent from Into the Steam, if you just want a friendly puppet to hang out with.