Playtest the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

Friday, October 12, 2012

Paizo is pleased to report that in just a few short weeks, we're expecting to begin the playtest for next year's Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (known to some of you by the code name "Project Swallowtail"). Because playtesting a card game isn't quite as simple as letting everybody download a PDF, it's not going to be quite as open as our RPG playtests have been, but if you'd like to get involved, read on to find out how that might be possible!

First, let me tell you a bit about the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.

The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is a cooperative game for 1 to 6 players designed by Mike Selinker and his team at Lone Shark Games, which Paizo intends to release at Gen Con 2013 (if not PaizoCon 2013).

Each player has a unique character comprised of a deck of cards and a set of stats. Roleplayers will find the stats very familiar—characters have classes such as fighter, wizard, and rogue; they have numbers that define their Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, etc.; they have skills and proficiencies.

As your player adventures, you'll improve your deck by acquiring new items, allies, spells, and weapons as you explore and overcome challenges; over time, you'll be customizing your deck to suit your own individual vision of your character.

The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game product offerings will begin with the Rise of the Runelords Base Set, a big box containing more than 400 cards including the "Burnt Offerings" Adventure Deck. Your party will explore locations such as the Sandpoint Cathedral, the Rusty Dragon, and the Glassworks; you'll meet helpful NPCs like Ameiko Kaijitsu or friendly Aldern Foxglove; you'll visit the Swallowtail Festival, delve into the Catacombs of Wrath, and invade Thistletop. You'll fight goblins, sinspawn, Warchief Ripnugget, and maybe even face the Sandpoint devil, and eventually, become the heroes of Sandpoint! The Base Set supports 1 to 4 players; a 110-card add-on deck will expand the number of players to 5 or 6, as well as adding more character options for any number of players.

We'll follow the Base Set with bimonthly 110-card Adventure Decks presenting the subsequent five chapters of Rise of the Runelords and, if all goes well, we'll adapt other Adventure Paths after that!

The Pathfinder Adventure Game plays in an hour to an hour-and-a-half; it's easy to learn, yet offers a lot of variety in play. Mike Selinker and his team did a stunning job capturing the feel of the Pathfinder Roleplaying game, the Pathfinder campaign setting, and the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path in a fun card game.

But to make this game is as fun and exciting as possible we're going to need playtesters—lots of playtesters. If you're interested in being one of them, find out how on our messageboards!

Vic Wertz
Chief Technical Officer

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Tags: Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Playtest Rise of the Runelords
Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

This looks interesting. I was hoping for Mythic rules today, but this Playtest could be fun too. Would the first deck set spoil Burnt Offerings? And other than APs, will you adapt Modules to this format too?

Contributor

Stratagemini wrote:
This looks interesting. I was hoping for Mythic rules today...

Patience. We haven't said when that's going live and it's still going to be a little bit. Should be by month's end barring any catastrophes.


One player can play the card game - like, solitaire?
That would be great!

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Stratagemini wrote:
Would the first deck set spoil Burnt Offerings?

It introduces you to locations, characters, monsters, and items, and follows the storyline (albeit in a general sense), so yes... spoilers.

Stratagemini wrote:
And other than APs, will you adapt Modules to this format too?

Time will tell. It's going to take a year to get through Runelords, and that means that we'll be able to get customer feedback well before we actually have to make real decisions on the future, so we've only thought about what comes next in a very noncommittal sense.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Marcus Ewert wrote:

One player can play the card game - like, solitaire?

That would be great!

Yep. And so far, I don't have any 1-person playtesters signed up... (I'm only looking for a few.)


Shut up and take my money! :p


So if our area has a Venture Captain this has to be done through them? I'm not involved in PFS at all ... but I do GM for two weekly groups of 6 (including myself).

Liberty's Edge

This sounds interesting and might be a way to introduce card players to some role playing game concepts.


William Ronald wrote:
This sounds interesting and might be a way to introduce card players to some role playing game concepts.

That's true ... I've been trying to get a bunch of new people to try Pathfinder. They've all played Magic before and this could be the trick!


This sounds really good, very excited about this since my lame ass gaming group can barely stomach pathfinder or 3.5 DnD.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

MJinthePitt wrote:
So if our area has a Venture Captain this has to be done through them? I'm not involved in PFS at all ... but I do GM for two weekly groups of 6 (including myself).

No matter *where* you are, the route to get into the playtest is to contact a VC.

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Is there supposed to be a broken link instead of a Picture in this post?

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Nope... it's the cover of the Rise of the Runelords hardcover. You might want to refresh your browser's caches.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
Vic Wertz wrote:
Nope... it's the cover of the Rise of the Runelords hardcover. You might want to refresh your browser's caches.

FYI: Just did that, doesn't work.


Would there be a subscription for this one production plans get finalized? I realize this is too soon to officially say anything about this, but I would love to see a subscription.

And yes, I know almost every other Paizo product type has a subscription, I just want to show support for being able to subscribe to these products. :^)

With the exception of the Adventure Paths and the Fiction, I get all of my Pathfinder products from my local game store (The Guard Tower in Columbus, OH). However, I would subscribe to this to ensure I didn't miss any - I suspect these will see very well, especially at first.


Vic Wertz wrote:
Nope... it's the cover of the Rise of the Runelords hardcover. You might want to refresh your browser's caches.

Vic, I don't see a graphic either, and I have reloaded my page multiple times.

However, if I click on the link it does open the correct product page, I just don't see the graphic of the product on this page.

Sczarni

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Vic Wertz wrote:
Marcus Ewert wrote:

One player can play the card game - like, solitaire?

That would be great!
Yep. And so far, I don't have any 1-person playtesters signed up... (I'm only looking for a few.)

I'll playtest for you as a single player.

Grand Lodge

Vic Wertz wrote:
Marcus Ewert wrote:

One player can play the card game - like, solitaire?

That would be great!
Yep. And so far, I don't have any 1-person playtesters signed up... (I'm only looking for a few.)

How do I get signed up for that?!


Does the card game still use dice? I love dice, and it wouldn't feel like an rpg to me without dice.


CaptainTrips wrote:
Vic, I don't see a graphic either, and I have reloaded my page multiple times.

Same here.

Dark Archive

I may have to talk the group into this idea, no need for a dm means everyone can play at the same time meaning no multiple games just so I can play. And a 100 bucks credit too. Hopefully I can swing a invite being far off in Saskatchewan, Canada lol.


I'm really looking forward to this. It seems like something with great potential.

Lone Shark Games

Thanks, folks. My team is really looking forward to hearing what you guys think of the game.

Mike

Liberty's Edge

FYI, one of the guys from Penny Arcade is doing the same idea right now. He's posted a few times about it on their website (in the webcomic editorials).

Same idea, deck-building game with classes with cards for stats (Str, Dex, etc).

Just a heads up :)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

CaptainTrips wrote:
Would there be a subscription for this one production plans get finalized?

Very likely. It won't be available in PDF form, though, so I'm not sure what the subscriber benefit will be... but I'm sure we'll come up with something.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Lukas Klausner wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
Nope... it's the cover of the Rise of the Runelords hardcover. You might want to refresh your browser's caches.
FYI: Just did that, doesn't work.

Oops. Somebody used a bad URL. Fixed...

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Nacona wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
Marcus Ewert wrote:

One player can play the card game - like, solitaire?

That would be great!
Yep. And so far, I don't have any 1-person playtesters signed up... (I'm only looking for a few.)
How do I get signed up for that?!

The info is linked at the bottom of the blog entry:

Blog wrote:
But to make this game is as fun and exciting as possible we're going to need playtesters—lots of playtesters. If you're interested in being one of them, find out how on our messageboards!

I don't need any more testers with groups of 4 or more, but I still have a very few slots for smaller groups.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Lukas Klausner wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
Nope... it's the cover of the Rise of the Runelords hardcover. You might want to refresh your browser's caches.
FYI: Just did that, doesn't work.

Sorry about that. Should be better now.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Lopke wrote:

FYI, one of the guys from Penny Arcade is doing the same idea right now. He's posted a few times about it on their website (in the webcomic editorials).

Same idea, deck-building game with classes with cards for stats (Str, Dex, etc).

Just a heads up :)

I have seen it, and from what I can see, they're really not very similar. They seem to be focusing on translating the mechanics, while we're really focused on the adventuring feel.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

I only have a couple of 2-person slots left, and there are a few people who initially requested larger groups that I've asked to fit into those slots, so unless I post otherwise, the playtest is now full!

Thanks very much for your help!


I sent in for a 2 person slot to my vc on Sunday and heard NOTHING until yesterday so I have no idea if I'm in or not. If not you need to do something to wake up your vcs because this is ridiculous. From the posts on here if it had been sent in I should have had no trouble getting in, and been told by now.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

What on earth is a venture captain and how do you find out what yours is or how to contact them?

This is not user friendly.

Sovereign Court

list of venture captains and lieutenants

Play test is filled at this point though ... :(


So because my vc is incompetent and doesn't check his email I get left out. Nice. One more reason to never join the society.

Liberty's Edge

DeathQuaker wrote:

What on earth is a venture captain and how do you find out what yours is or how to contact them?

This is not user friendly.

This is very user friendly. ALL of that information is PLASTERED on these message boards. With any effort at all you can figure it out...

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