Through the Breach is a tabletop roleplaying game based in the world of Malifaux where outlaws, mages, mad scientists, and unspeakable creatures vie for power. Unfortunately for most, their destinies are already weaved into the great tapestry of fate, and there is only one path they can walk.

There are others, though, who were not weaved in so tightly. Great individuals who are able to embrace - or deny - their destinies. These individuals are known as the Fated, and they are the true shapers of the world. Players will take on the role of one of the Fated. They have a destiny, and the players will get to choose whether to accept the road that lays before them or wander off to forge new paths. In Through the Breach, the players’ destinies are tied integrally into their characters from the very beginning of character creation.

~ Determine Your Destiny ~

Character creation is a simple process that can be completed fairly quickly. The full details can be found in The Fated Almanac, but for now, we can grab a deck of cards and start making a character.

Through the Breach uses a deck of cards known as a Fate Deck to determine everything random in the game, and character creation is a part of this. The Fate Deck is a standard deck of playing cards with the two jokers, and a simple conversion for all the suits. This deck of cards represents exactly what you’d assume by the name: fate.
Because the deck is standing in for fate, every single player will flip from the same deck in the course of the game. There is only one future for all things, and every flip is leading towards it. For now, everyone should use a different deck to speed up the Character generation process.

After the deck is shuffled, we’re going to deal out a tarot reading. This tarot, known as the Cross Roads Tarot, tells us the character’s past and present, and then we’ll step in and start to determine his or her future. This tarot is the most important step in character creation, and it is made up of five different card flips.

Once you’ve completed, you’ll end up with a Tarot that looks like the below, and helps tell the narrative about your character.

The tarot also tells you your character’s destiny. Each card of the Cross Roads Tarot has a phrase that, combined with all the others, is your destiny. Starting with the southern card and making your way back to the Station, you will discover what may lie in store for your character… if you choose to embrace your destiny.

~ Focusing on the Future ~

With the Tarot completed, it is time to looking forward to the future. It’s time to take things out of the hands of fate. The first step is increasing an Aspect or two. Your past may tell you a lot about yourself, but now you’re beginning to break out of your predetermined mold.

Next you’re going to choose your Pursuit. A Pursuit is a bit of a mash-up between mindset and occupation. It tells you a bit of what you’re good at, but it also informs how you approach the world. It is something that you can change about your character every time you sit down to play, and it is one of the core ways your character is able to choose their own fates. This is because the Pursuit, in gameplay, lets you draw cards in certain situations from a personal deck of cards called the Twist Deck. This deck is just for your Fated, unlike the Fate Deck. Your Twist Deck symbolizes your control over your own destiny, the ability to manipulate the very threads of fate to ensure something comes to pass. Whenever you flip a card from the Fate Deck, you can use a card you drew from the Twist Deck to replace it – grabbing a hold of fate and letting it know just who is in charge.

After you have your Pursuit, you’re going to pick a Talent from the list of General Talents. Each Pursuit has some of its own Talents, and coupled with the General Talents this will give your character a lot of flavor as they specialize in different ways. Sometimes Talents open up new actions, sometimes they let you use different Aspects for skills, and sometimes they modify things you can already do. Regardless, it’s in the Talents that you’ll see a lot of your Fated’s individual quirks.

Finally, you’ll need some gear if you’re going to walk the path of fate. You start the game off with some cash that you can use to buy equipment. Maybe you need a pistol or want a musical instrument. Regardless, the final step in creating your character is to fill your pockets by emptying your wallet.

~ Adventures in Malifaux ~

Once you’ve got your character worked up (the full details of which can be found in The Fated Almanac), you’re ready to go gallivanting through Malifaux – fighting with the aforementioned where outlaws, mages, and mad scientists on your journey towards your destiny. Each session you play in, you or one of your fellow Fated will complete one of their destiny steps and move closer to resolving their fate.

You can find more information on this process in The Fatemaster’s Almanac, the guide to running narratives in Malifaux, but the important thing is that every adventure moves one of the Fated closer to their destiny. Character stories, in this way, have a fairly clear beginning, middle, and end. After your character completes all 5 destiny steps, they have finished their journey through the Breach.

Everything in Through the Breach is designed to tie into the core concept of fate. As you saw above, the players all use the same deck, a Fate Deck, to determine the outcome of things. They have the ability to manipulate this by using a hand of cards, which comes from their own Twist Deck. It all gets sewn together to create a single unifying theme that permeates the mechanics and the setting at once.

The Fatemaster, the person running the adventures, also plays into this theme. Unlike in most other roleplaying games, the Fatemaster doesn’t randomize anything. The non-player characters in the game are not the Fated, and therefore they don’t touch the threads of destiny. Instead, the Fatemaster uses simple target numbers to set difficulties. In this way, the game shows that it is the players, and only the players, who have final control over fate. They are the architects of their own futures.

There are always more strands of fate that make up the Malifaux tapestry. You can find a quick-starter adventure, "An Easy Mark," in Wyrd Chronicles 14. You’ll be able to find multi-session story arcs in our Penny Dreadful releases, the first of which is the upcoming "In Defense of Innocence."

Future releases will include books that expand on character options, allowing players to explore more of Malifaux and see it through different lenses. All of our journeys through the Breach are just beginning…