Pathfinder Card Game!

Bruce · Post by **Bruce** » Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:01 am

My daughter and I finished the first adventure set playing 2 characters each. We might regret not having a healer at some point but that just means starting again and I don't think that will be a problem.

triggercut · Post by **triggercut** » Tue Jan 21, 2014 8:09 pm

Aaaaaugh! I failed a scenario! Stupid approach to Thistletop with all of it's Wisdom/Survival checks to close locations. No one died in my 3-person party (and they actually came away with some decent stuff), but can folks confirm for me that the only real penalty here is playing the scenario again? Everyone keeps gear, no minuses to deck or hand size or anything crazy like that?

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Jan 21, 2014 8:48 pm

You can keep what you find, but you need to "reset" your character decks to their required min/maxes. So for example, if you looted a magic sword, a long sword and an ax, you have to check the character card to verify you can keep 3 items in your deck. Likely you started off with a bunch of other items, so you need to drop the starter gear to keep what you found. Some characters aren't allowed to keep any card types between adventures (until you level up). Like Valeros can never have a spell card and the Monk can't hold on to weapons, armor or spells. As long as your 15 card character deck otherwise meets those requirements, you're good to go.

triggercut · Post by **triggercut** » Tue Jan 21, 2014 9:17 pm

Smoove_B wrote:You can keep what you find, but you need to "reset" your character decks to their required min/maxes. So for example, if you looted a magic sword, a long sword and an ax, you have to check the character card to verify you can keep 3 items in your deck. Likely you started off with a bunch of other items, so you need to drop the starter gear to keep what you found. Some characters aren't allowed to keep any card types between adventures (until you level up). Like Valeros can never have a spell card and the Monk can't hold on to weapons, armor or spells. As long as your 15 card character deck otherwise meets those requirements, you're good to go.

Right, that I figured.

So with Kyra around to keep everyone alive, and Meri having Father what's his name in her deck as an ally for heals, my merry band of 3 is actually kind of well-served by failing as long as everyone survives. They're able to power up a bit for even tougher encounters coming up.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Wed Jan 22, 2014 12:02 pm

There will come a point in some games where you'll realize that either a) you have little chance of defeating the villian before the blessing deck runs out, or b) further explorations will create a very real risk of a character dying. At that point, it becomes a completely valid strategy to skip exploring on each turn and just let the blessing deck expire. Yes, you "fail", but thematically it's more like admitting that discretion is the better part of valor and retreating to lick your wounds and fight again another day. There are some people on BGG who think this is cheating, I think they're clearly fun-murdering board gamers who have never played RPGs with persistent, invested characters.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed Jan 22, 2014 12:23 pm

When doing that, do you still reset the deck by discarding any items you acquired during this failed attempt? Do you keep the loot you acquired in previous, successful scenarios?

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed Jan 22, 2014 12:32 pm

hepcat wrote:When doing that, do you still reset the deck by discarding any items you acquired during this failed attempt? Do you keep the loot you acquired in previous, successful scenarios?

According redrun and remus, you keep your new loot and try again. To date, we've never failed, so we haven't had to put that question to the test. We have come down to the last blessing on many occasions, though (and tied on the don't let the snake get more allies than you scenario)

I'd way rather run out of blessings than get someone killed. As far as I know it's not cheating to redo the dungeon from running out of time. Losing a character and ignoring the death would feel like cheating. Losing a character and losing all of their feats would make the game too demoralizing (and possibly too difficult) to continue for me.

triggercut · Post by **triggercut** » Wed Jan 22, 2014 12:32 pm

hepcat wrote:When doing that, do you still reset the deck by discarding any items you acquired during this failed attempt? Do you keep the loot you acquired in previous, successful scenarios?

Wouldn't it technically be retreating to a safe spot in the manner Boudreaux mentions, and then as long as everyone's decks are compliant with the component limits on the character card it's fine?

The rules say that characters needn't explore. The rules say that if you fail a scenario, you can't advance until you repeat it and succeed. They don't say you have to cycle loot gathered back into the box, right?

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Wed Jan 22, 2014 12:45 pm

triggercut wrote:
hepcat wrote:When doing that, do you still reset the deck by discarding any items you acquired during this failed attempt? Do you keep the loot you acquired in previous, successful scenarios?
Wouldn't it technically be retreating to a safe spot in the manner Boudreaux mentions, and then as long as everyone's decks are compliant with the component limits on the character card it's fine?

The rules say that characters needn't explore. The rules say that if you fail a scenario, you can't advance until you repeat it and succeed. They don't say you have to cycle loot gathered back into the box, right?

Exactly.

Also, one of the things they mention you can do if a character dies is to replay that character from the start solo to catch them up to the original group. They also allow you to move characters from group to group or replay adventures after having successfully completed them with the caveat that you do not get the rewards after the first time, only the ability to keep cards you gain.

triggercut · Post by **triggercut** » Wed Jan 22, 2014 2:17 pm

I mean, I can't speak to motives, but I can't imagine a time when there'd be anything more than just a few cards left in the blessings deck when you'd realize "We're not going to get this done". It's not like you'd fudge through 10 cards or more.

Heck, when it happened to me I was hopeful right to the last card that on that last turn I'd come up with the villain and be able to end the game in epic fashion.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Wed Jan 22, 2014 2:24 pm

Yeah, we've always kept all of the new cards we obtained after "failing" a scenario, of course adhering to deck limits. We came, we saw, we kicked a little ass, we got worried and left but not without that sweet new scimitar+1 that I found.

As far as characters "dying", I like the idea - in theory. It's great that they tried to create a more persistent, long-term character development like the Descent campaigns. This is probably the closest a tabletop board/card game has come to an RPG feel that lasts more than a single long game session. In practice, I'm playing this with my kids and we don't have THAT much time to devote to it. We're halfway through the Skinsaw Murders Adventure Pack, and by the time we get through Hook Mountain we'll probably have been playing the game for 3-4 months.

If a character dies at that point, am I going to insist we follow the rules and declare that character permadead? Am I going to insist that one of us solos a new character through 15+ scenarios to level them back up in line with the rest of the group? No way. Maybe that "ruins" the excitement and suspense of the risk of dying, but the alternative would ruin the fun of the game more - at least for us.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Wed Jan 22, 2014 2:28 pm

triggercut wrote:Heck, when it happened to me I was hopeful right to the last card that on that last turn I'd come up with the villain and be able to end the game in epic fashion.

There have been numerous scenarios where we've managed to defeat the villain on the VERY LAST POSSIBLE TURN. If there's even a remote chance, we keep going.

We typically only quit when a character is very close to running out of cards. This usually happens when we're hit with some sort of AOE attack, like explosive runes. The danger of not only exploring, but just having that character at a location with you is too great. I realize that seems incongruous with the post I just made about character dying, but we at least try to keep ourselves alive.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Sat Feb 01, 2014 11:09 pm

Boudreaux wrote:If a character dies at that point, am I going to insist we follow the rules and declare that character permadead? Am I going to insist that one of us solos a new character through 15+ scenarios to level them back up in line with the rest of the group? No way. Maybe that "ruins" the excitement and suspense of the risk of dying, but the alternative would ruin the fun of the game more - at least for us.

So, this has now been put to bed for us. Played "Foul Misgivings" today with my two sons, the third scenario in the Skinsaw Murders adventure pack. We had a fantastic plan set up, which utilized the Haunts, summoning and defeating Iesha Foxglove, then immediately attacking the Skinsaw Man to defeat the scenario. Halfway through this plan - and it was great - my younger son realized he'd burned through his Harsk deck, and even though he was in no danger of combat, he was "dead".

As soon as I saw the look on his face, I knew we were going to house rule this one.

We ended up continuing with the two surviving characters, which worked out really interestingly. Our initial plan blew up, we had to improvise. We still managed to corner the Skinsaw Man in the final open location, then were able to draw him up to the top of the deck using Augury and defeat him with a couple of cards left in the blessing deck. We treated the "death" of Harsk as just a "knockout", as there was no way I was going to make him replay a character through the first 7 scenarios just to get back in line with us, and I certainly wasn't going to make us all start over.

Yeah, we're breaking the rules, but they're having a blast. All that matters to me.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Tue Feb 04, 2014 10:08 am

We had our first "loss" last night on the Approach to Thistletop scenario. Seoni didn't draw a very offensive hand, so she went to the Waterfront to start and used Augury to clear out some monsters. Next card was a monster anyway, and she had to use at least 1 card to defeat it. Valeros was up next, and his first draw was a siren. He had absolutely nothing in his hand to help him with a wisdom check, so he lost his whole hand, and 1 ally from the top of his deck. And in his hand were his best weapons. Ouch.

Kyra has a fairly ineffectual turn, has to burn through a couple of cards, and took some damage that took our her armor. Seoni is up next, and she draws the bugbear henchman! Woo-hoo! But closing the waterfront causes her to use almost her entire hand of cards (2 cards discarded to defeat the bugbear, one to defeat the bandit to close the location, and discard a 4th card as closing effect.) I'm down to like 4 cards in my draw deck at this point.

Game progresses in a fairly similar fashion. Kyra manages to close out her location on the next turn, so we're 2 locations closed and still have 2/3 of the blessing deck left. Not feeling too bad about it. We head over to help out Valeros (and get some healing), Augury is used to pull the panther henchman to the top of the deck, we all skeedadle to give Valeros the best chance of defeating and closing. He whomps the panther, but forgets that he has to defeat a Goblin Raider to close the location. He used his best (remaining) weapon to defeat the panther, so he has nothing in the tank for the goblin (who was at a 14 because we rolled a 4 on the "goblin boost" die and it was at the Goblin Stronghold which adds another 2.) He misses his roll by 1. We have to go through the rest of the deck to close that location.

Seoni's next pull is an Ogre. She defeats it, but is down to 3 cards left in her draw deck. Valeros has only 2, and Kyra is also down to 2. We take stock of the 3 locations left, and decide that discretion is the better part of valor and turn tail and head back to the inn to nurse our wounds and plan our assault on Thistletop next week.

Man, this scenario seems like a ball breaker.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed Feb 05, 2014 1:37 pm

Amazon revised the release of Adventure pack 4 from February 11th to February 24th.

<harumph>

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed Feb 05, 2014 1:40 pm

Then how is it sitting on my desk right now? Because I preordered it?

triggercut · Post by **triggercut** » Wed Feb 05, 2014 1:44 pm

Smoove_B wrote:Then how is it sitting on my desk right now? Because I preordered it?

From Paizo or the Amazonians?

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed Feb 05, 2014 1:47 pm

Smoove_B wrote:Then how is it sitting on my desk right now? Because I preordered it?

Really? Time to call redrun and remus and block off my weekend. If you're playing with me. You are so not going to be forgiven.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed Feb 05, 2014 1:47 pm

Amazon -- Prime all the way. When Amazon lists them they're usually about $5 off, so I've been instantly preordering them since last year to lock in the price. If it dips lower, you get it for that price but you never pay more than what you pre-order it for. As a matter of fact, I did the same thing for pack 5 and 6 last week.

EDIT: I just checked. Pre-order was placed 10/1/13. Delivered 1/31/14 to my house.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed Feb 05, 2014 1:52 pm

Smoove_B wrote:Amazon -- Prime all the way. When Amazon lists them they're usually about $5 off, so I've been instantly preordering them since last year to lock in the price. If it dips lower, you get it for that price but you never pay more than what you pre-order it for. As a matter of fact, I did the same thing for pack 5 and 6 last week.

Weird. And good for you. They just revised again to the 26th from just a few minutes ago.

http://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Advent ... 1601255640

Redrun is on the Priazo subscription, so hopefully if you have it then he has it.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Wed Feb 05, 2014 2:31 pm

LordMortis wrote:Redrun is on the Priazo subscription, so hopefully if you have it then he has it.

I haven't heard anything from Paizo on the next pack, so I wouldn't count on it.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Thu Feb 06, 2014 8:26 am

coopasonic wrote:
LordMortis wrote:Redrun is on the Priazo subscription, so hopefully if you have it then he has it.
I haven't heard anything from Paizo on the next pack, so I wouldn't count on it.

I shouldn't have checked this thread. Got down to Smoove's post and got excited. Made it another inch down the screen and got my hopes crushed.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Thu Feb 06, 2014 9:22 am

If I thought it could get there by Saturday, I'd send you my deck.

Not sure if you saw, but a new rulebook was posted. I haven't looked at it yet, but based on the threads at BGG, there seems to be a significant group of people that need every single possible scenario spelled out for them in great detail. I honestly never had a problem with the rules for this game nor did I think the cards were "full of problems" as some people on BGG seem to believe. Maybe it's my RPG background, but the game makes sense to me as written. Following the cards (play versus play on self, combat damage vs fire or acid damage, etc...) was never an issue.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Thu Feb 06, 2014 10:56 am

Smoove_B wrote:If I thought it could get there by Saturday, I'd send you my deck.

Not sure if you saw, but a new rulebook was posted. I haven't looked at it yet, but based on the threads at BGG, there seems to be a significant group of people that need every single possible scenario spelled out for them in great detail. I honestly never had a problem with the rules for this game nor did I think the cards were "full of problems" as some people on BGG seem to believe. Maybe it's my RPG background, but the game makes sense to me as written. Following the cards (play versus play on self, combat damage vs fire or acid damage, etc...) was never an issue.

FedEx over night delivery.

Actually, I'm not even sure red run is back in town yet.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Thu Feb 06, 2014 12:30 pm

It's possible it came without any notification from Paizo. It would be unusual. I am out of town this week, so I don't know.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu Feb 06, 2014 12:46 pm

Smoove_B wrote:If I thought it could get there by Saturday, I'd send you my deck.

Not sure if you saw, but a new rulebook was posted. I haven't looked at it yet, but based on the threads at BGG, there seems to be a significant group of people that need every single possible scenario spelled out for them in great detail. I honestly never had a problem with the rules for this game nor did I think the cards were "full of problems" as some people on BGG seem to believe. Maybe it's my RPG background, but the game makes sense to me as written. Following the cards (play versus play on self, combat damage vs fire or acid damage, etc...) was never an issue.

Redrun looks up a lot of rules clarifications (usually one or two things per session) for the sake of knowing and the rules are usually exactly what we'd think they'd be. My thought is usually "the wording may be ambiguous but this makes the most playable sense" and that's usually the right answer.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Thu Feb 06, 2014 2:09 pm

I'll definitely take a look at the new rulebook. I know there have been multiple occasions where a very slight uncertainty in the wording of a card made for a very big difference in how we could have played it, and I looked in the rules for an answer without being able to find anything.

redrun · Post by **redrun** » Thu Feb 06, 2014 2:21 pm

Remus West wrote:
Smoove_B wrote:If I thought it could get there by Saturday, I'd send you my deck.
FedEx over night delivery.
Actually, I'm not even sure red run is back in town yet.

Redrun is back in town.

(I'd rather still be at Whistler.)
Redrun doesn't have the latest adventure, is on the Paizo preorder list, hasn't heard anything from Paizo about when the game will ship.
Redrun just searched Amazon and Amazon shows Deck 4 (Fortress of the Stone Giants) as shipping on Feb 26th, 2014.
Redrun is wondering just what Smoove_B is holding in his hot little hands...
Redrun is talking about himself in the third person far too much.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Thu Feb 06, 2014 7:53 pm

Mortis, Remus West, Chaosraven and Redrun devour game rules for breakfast. I actively fight my rules lawyer tendencies by house ruling to keep the game rolling, but I enjoy watching the Detroit crew play games at Octocon for their dissection of rules. It's sublime, really.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu Feb 06, 2014 8:08 pm

Zarathud wrote:Mortis, Remus West, Chaosraven and Redrun devour game rules for breakfast. I actively fight my rules lawyer tendencies by house ruling to keep the game rolling, but I enjoy watching the Detroit crew play games at Octocon for their dissection of rules. It's sublime, really.

Not me. I have no memory. I rely on the others for all my rules needs... And when we play competitively they rely on the fact that I don't remember things.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Fri Feb 07, 2014 9:08 am

redrun wrote:Redrun doesn't have the latest adventure, is on the Paizo preorder list, hasn't heard anything from Paizo about when the game will ship.

The "we will ship your order soon" email came from Paizo last night.

Screw Smoove.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Feb 07, 2014 10:18 am

coopasonic wrote:Screw Smoove.

Apparently Amazon sent it out almost a month early due to an error in their release day communications. But since you were mean about it, I'll have you know it's sitting in my basement - unopened just like decks two and three.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri Feb 07, 2014 10:21 am

Smoove_B wrote:
coopasonic wrote:Screw Smoove.
Apparently Amazon sent it out almost a month early due to an error in their release day communications. But since you were mean about it, I'll have you know it's sitting in my basement - unopened just like decks two and three.

Is this we can take solace in the fact that you too are also taunted? It's...

not working.

redrun · Post by **redrun** » Fri Feb 07, 2014 10:33 am

coopasonic wrote:
redrun wrote:Redrun doesn't have the latest adventure, is on the Paizo preorder list, hasn't heard anything from Paizo about when the game will ship.
The "we will ship your order soon" email came from Paizo last night.

Screw Smoove.

Same here... will ship "in the next week or so".

I'm not sure Smoove is my type, so I'll just be satisfied that when my copy does arrive I'll be using it quickly (or Remus will be robbing my house to use it...).

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Fri Feb 07, 2014 11:42 am

redrun wrote:
coopasonic wrote:
redrun wrote:Redrun doesn't have the latest adventure, is on the Paizo preorder list, hasn't heard anything from Paizo about when the game will ship.
The "we will ship your order soon" email came from Paizo last night.

Screw Smoove.
Same here... will ship "in the next week or so".

I'm not sure Smoove is my type, so I'll just be satisfied that when my copy does arrive I'll be using it quickly (or Remus will be robbing my house to use it...).

I do have a key......

SlapBone · Post by **SlapBone** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 4:31 pm

My son and I ran a test scenario last week so now we've pulled back to roll a couple of characters a piece and start from scratch. I also ordered a Pathfinder beginner box. That one may actually take over.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 2:35 pm

Completed the next-to-last scenario in The Skinsaw Murders adventure pack over the weekend. As far as Pathfinder scenarios go, it was surprisingly easy. Found the villian on the second exploration of the game, were able to close another of the 5 locations. Two more locations were shut down within a few turns, and we found the villian again pretty quickly. I think we burned through barely half the blessings deck. Either we're getting better or that was a calm spot before the storm.

I have a completely separate game group that I'll be teaching this to on Saturday. I'll be curious to see how it goes over as they're not typically the fantasy/adventure/RPG types. We have been looking for a game we can get repeat plays of rather than flitting from game to game, and this will fit that bill nicely.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 3:03 pm

We have found the 2nd to last scenario in each pack to be a loot grabbing scenario. So much so we joke about failing it so we can grab more loot.

Boudreaux · Post by **Boudreaux** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 1:12 pm

Played through the final Skinsaw scenario yesterday (Angel in the Tower) and emerged victorious on the very last turn of the game. This one's interesting - the Clock Tower location causes another blessing card to be discarded from the Blessings deck if a character is not at that location each turn, and if you start your turn at that location, you must recharge your entire hand and draw a new one. In order to close it you must banish an ally, which basically means the location has to be empty, then someone has to move there and immediately close the location. Closing it any other way means you need to get really lucky.

I had to use my Holy Candle to give us more turns, and was able to get the max of 6 cards shuffled back into the Blessings deck. We cornered the villian alone at the final location with a few Blessing cards left, so we thought we were good. We positioned ourselves as best we could (Kyra and Valeros at the villian's location, Harsk at a separate location to support) and had Valeros explore to face Xanesha. The first check is much easier if you check Wisdom instead of Combat, and with Kyra's d12+1 wisdom skill I thought it would be easy. I even threw in an extra blessing to be sure, but only rolled a 7 on 2d12. Doh! Failure, and that forced Harsk to come running over on the last turn of the game to try again. We were all down to only a couple of cards in our draw piles, but we threw everything we had at her and managed the win. Spoils for all!

So now we're on to Hook Mountain. I'm still looking for the interesting spells for Kyra - everything I find always seems to be Arcane-oriented - and there are a few in Pack 3 that might be worth it. The variety in each Adventure seems to be coming more from the locations than the villains/objectives, so we'll see how this one works out. Pathfinder is still holding out as the most-played game in a long time.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 12:34 pm

Finished adventure pack 4 last night. The final scenario came down to 1 final chance and Amiri pulled it off. It was a bit rough as the boss wiped her entire hand (which was holding three weapons and I had already discarded a couple weapons looking for blessings). Luckily my very last weapon was in my reset. When Amiri has a weapon, there isn't much fear.