The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Meets the Public

Thursday, July 18, 2013


Mike hard at work demoing the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game at PaizoCon 2013, with developer Chad Brown in the background.
Photo by Ed Healy of Gamerati.

For the greater part of a year, we've had to keep much about the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game under wraps. After a while, all I wanted was to show the game to someone—anyone—outside the walls.

In the last couple weeks, I got my wish. First at the GTS Distribution Come and Play Day, then at PaizoCon, we took the shrinkwrap off our new creation. The first reaction from everyone was, "Wow, that's a big box." As I showed the game with all of its expansions nestled in the tray, everyone started to appreciate the intricacy of the planning on this game. Over 1,150 cards and all of their containers fit nicely in the box.

Which is all very well and good. But the real test would be people's reactions to how it played. At PaizoCon, my developers Chad, Gaby, Tanis, and Paul ran the game alongside a group of Pathfinder Society volunteers, and the tables were always hopping. Folks came away from our demos with a desire to play the real game, one we happily indulged. Reports from the field were highly positive.

But if you weren't at those demos, you're probably wondering how you can find out how the game works. Well, here, at long last, is the rulebook. Now you can flip through it and see what awaits you next month when the game debuts for sale at Gen Con.

There's a lot in this rulebook. We weren't content to just give a sequence and examples of how to play. We loaded it up with strategy sidebars, prebuilt characters, and tips on making your own cards. (More on that last bit in a month or two.) There's also a fairly long list of playtesters, without whom this game would not have half the awesome that it does.

But maybe you don't want to read about it. Maybe you want someone to demo the game for you, just as if you were at PaizoCon. OK, we can handle that. From the GTS event, here are Chad and myself joining Watch It Played's Rodney Smith for a full demo of the game.

It's a pretty stellar video, if I do say so myself. And I hope to run into you at Gen Con and PAX Prime next month, where my team and I can show you the game ourselves. Because, y'know, we finally get to do so.

Mike Selinker
Designer, Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

I'm well amped. I'll have to make a plan though, I don't think I want it to be shipped to South Africa as I do with my normal subscriptions. Too risky.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

This looks totally awesome! The design looks inspired. I am really looking forward to receiving the base set.


Very excited to try this out with my friends. Should be a fun new way to experience Pathfinder.

From what I gather, it looks like it would be pretty easy for players to design their own characters into the game. Since character cards are never shuffled into any of the decks, it would be simple enough to make a character card on construction paper or something.

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Are the cards the same size as Magic cards? If so, it shouldn't be too hard to get opaque sleeves for the cards that get shuffled in and then use Magic cards as backing for custom items and blessings and whatnot.

The Exchange

Iammars wrote:
Are the cards the same size as Magic cards? If so, it shouldn't be too hard to get opaque sleeves for the cards that get shuffled in and then use Magic cards as backing for custom items and blessings and whatnot.

An earlier interview stated that the box is not designed to hold all of the cards if they are sleeved.. this would only be a problem if you collected the whole line I suppose though.


I've just finished reading the rules. Noted that the "suggested starting" builds for each class include the monk - and that Sajan essentially gets more than half of his cards as blessings. I don't know what special abilities he gets that link to the blessings, but I do like that they essentially represent his ability to explore quickly (high perception and fast movement). Clever.

Now I'm more curious than ever to see Sajan's (and all the others) card profile with his skills and powers.

Could we get those? Yes? Please?

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
NOG the Demoralizer wrote:
Iammars wrote:
Are the cards the same size as Magic cards? If so, it shouldn't be too hard to get opaque sleeves for the cards that get shuffled in and then use Magic cards as backing for custom items and blessings and whatnot.
An earlier interview stated that the box is not designed to hold all of the cards if they are sleeved.. this would only be a problem if you collected the whole line I suppose though.

No board/card game's box can ever hold all the cards if they're sleeved. Whenever I get a new board/card game, I just expect that I'll be spending a couple bucks to get a new box and some dividers anyway.

Grand Lodge

I just finished reading the rules and am also very eager to see the character cards. This should be good fun!

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