Through the Breach Initial Impressions

My copy of Through the Breach arrived today. Included were two rule books, a deck of cards, two female multi-part models, two male multi-part models, three independent models, a Fatemaster screen, and a big stack of character sheets. They also threw in a Ramos (Claw and Fang) box set for Malifaux due to the wait for the release.

I read the beta pdfs and created characters for gits and shiggles. I have yet to actually play the game however. I can not really comment on the rules beyond initial impressions. I don't consider my initial impressions valuable in any way, shape, or form as they are based on how the rules work in my head with no actual experience. I can however talk about the production values.

The books are rather nice. The two rulebooks I received are soft cover. Each has a retail value of $40 US printed on the back cover. I believe there is a hard cover version as well. The Fated Almanac is 252 pages while the Fatemaster's Almanac clocks in at 224 pages. Both books are full colour and of a similar quality to the Malifaux second edition main book. The index in both books looks useful, but I would need to play some games to see what comes up to see how helpful they really are.

The Fated Almanac is analogous to the traditional Player's Handbook from other games. This will be the main book players are likely to pick up. A group will probably be well served by having two or more copies on hand. I have found that with other games with similar books three or more copies is a safe number as that gives the Fatemaster one book and two or more for the rest of the group to reference. This book contains the rules for character creation, task resolution, magic, and equipment. Pretty much all of the basics of the game. You could probably get away with just this one book in your group if on a budget.

The Fatemaster's Almanac essentially combines a Game Master's Guide with a Monster Manual. It is filled with advice for running a game and has stats for many denizens in the setting. I have not actually read this book yet so can not speak on how useful the Fatemaster information is. Even if the advice is not any good a group will likely want one copy for the denizen stats. This book also has some additional background information, random tables, and some advanced pursuits (sort of like classes).

The card deck is really nice. The cards are flexible and feel like they can hold up to some wear and tear. Only minor quibble is they do not have weak/moderate/severe printed on the cards. Again, minor. The Fatemaster's screen is solid with nice artwork including a map that faces the players. It folds up to the same height and width as the books. The inside information looks good, but as I have yet to play I can not speak to how well it works for quick reference. With the game using a card random number generator in place of a dice mechanic I feel the screen is not needed except possibly as a quick reference resource. The same information is split between the back of the two rulebooks.

The character sheets are printed on nice semi-gloss paper. They are folded in half as a full character sheet is either four pages, or two pages printed on both sides. The paper the stack of character sheets is printed on is thick. My only concern is that they are somewhat slick so I am concerned about how well recoding details on them with pencil will go over time as people try to erase and rewrite on the sheets. The Fated Almanac has a copy of the pages for print and Wyrd has a form fillable pdf available for download on their website.

The miniatures are of great quality plastic. I have not assembled any of the models yet, but they appear to be of the same quality of the newer Malifaux plastic models. The only other company producing fictional models of a similar scale and quality is Games Workshop. Counting parts, I believe it is possible to get ten females and ten males off of their respective sprue where they were advertised more as a single model with a bunch of optional parts. In my copy I got two packs with one female and one male sprue and twelve bases per pack. The three individual models were Hannah, Miss Terious, and Santana Ortega. Santana is actually two models (male and female) with a single base included. She has the exact same rules and Santiago Ortega. I believe I can only run one of either in regular Malifaux 2E, but it does give me some model options over there and they are all still usable at the same time in Through the Breach.

Overall, I am happy with what I have received. The way the company handled the kickstarter since it closed until now would give me serious pause about contributing to another one should they decide to do so. Looking at what I received is a strong case for me to back them again if they set up another however.