Adventure Deck locations and box management


Pathfinder Adventure Card Game General Discussion


Is there any sort of guide or list of which location cards from the Adventure Decks are never re-used after the appropriate adventure, for the purpose of setting aside and clearing up space?

Or are only the base set locations re-used and I just haven't noticed?

This is more for RotL but an S&S guide couldn't hurt either.


Only base set locations are reused in RotR. Locations from adventure decks (even AD1) are never used again after their adventure, although they may be used in several scenarios within the adventure.

Can't speak for S&S as I'm only halfway through AD1. Of course with decks 3-6 yet to release, the only way you'll get an answer is if Vic decides to give an official answer, or you can wait four more months...


Thanks. My group is only just now reaching the halfway point on RotL (we don't get to play as often as we'd like). My comment about a similar list for S&S was just for future reference and in case anyone else is wondering.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Designer

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Other than those in adventure 1 (which is in the box set), all locations introduced inside an adventure are not reused later in the adventure path. This is because of a paradigm we call "the Afghanistan principle."

At Lone Shark, we're big fans of sending games overseas to our troops. But given where they're deployed, our troops often don't have a friendly local game store wherever they are stationed. So I would not be surprised to discover that one of our fans in Afghanistan had a base set and adventure 4, but not adventure 2 or 3. So asking her to use a card from adventure 3 when the closest copy of that card is several countries away would be unfair. So we don't do it.

The Afghanistan principle guides decisions like "all role cards are in the base set, even though they're not gained until adventure 3" and "if a henchman appears in two adventures, he shows up in the base set."

These are things we think about when designing games. Hope that helps.

Shadow Lodge

Mike Selinker wrote:

Other than those in adventure 1 (which is in the box set), all locations introduced inside an adventure are not reused later in the adventure path. This is because of a paradigm we call "the Afghanistan principle."

At Lone Shark, we're big fans of sending games overseas to our troops. But given where they're deployed, our troops often don't have a friendly local game store wherever they are stationed. So I would not be surprised to discover that one of our fans in Afghanistan had a base set and adventure 4, but not adventure 2 or 3. So asking her to use a card from adventure 3 when the closest copy of that card is several countries away would be unfair. So we don't do it.

The Afghanistan principle guide decisions like "all role cards are in the base set, even though they're not gained until adventure 3" and "if a henchman appears in two adventures, he shows up in the base set."

These are things we think about when designing games. Hope that helps.

Mike... This ranks as the most awesome post that I've read in a long time. You guys rock!

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Designer

Eric Clingenpeel wrote:
Mike... This ranks as the most awesome post that I've read in a long time. You guys rock!

Thanks. I've been enforcing the Afghanistan principle on games for a couple decades now, though it took until the invasion of Afghanistan for it to get a name.


Very interesting and cool, Mike. So what you're basically implying is that, while not optimal, you technically are only required to have the base set to play Adventure Decks 3, 4, 5, or 6? You'll be missing out on a lot of powerful boons if you jump ahead too far and you would need to advance the feats on your character, but it would still be playable?

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Designer

pluvia33 wrote:
Very interesting and cool, Mike. So what you're basically implying is that, while not optimal, you technically are only required to have the base set to play Adventure Decks 3, 4, 5, or 6? You'll be missing out on a lot of powerful boons if you jump ahead too far and you would need to advance the feats on your character, but it would still be playable?

Yeah, that's the logic. If there's one thing I'm confident in, it's that the people whom the Afghanistan principle is designed for are more than capable of adapting in a non-optimal situation, if you give them the tools to do so.

Another decision influenced by this principle is the one to put the class deck characters online as PDFs. The Iconic Heroes cards could not exist if they didn't have all their characters available somewhere.

FYI, our technical definition for this principle is "No interconnectivity without availability."

Sovereign Court

Mike, especially growing up in an Army family, that has to be the most awesome explanation for anything game related that I've seen.


Hi Mike,

What are the Iconic Heroes cards? I've been using Flenta P&P (I'm so happy they're up online on that note!) for the time being, and unfortunately since I don't have organized play anywhere near where I live, I'm not sure if the class deckd are worth the full investment. I've been using a Blessing to stand in for her character card for the time being. Are you releasing just the character cards at some point? I'd snatch them up right away!

Pathfinder ACG Designer

chaicube wrote:

Hi Mike,

What are the Iconic Heroes cards? I've been using Flenta P&P (I'm so happy they're up online on that note!) for the time being, and unfortunately since I don't have organized play anywhere near where I live, I'm not sure if the class deckd are worth the full investment. I've been using a Blessing to stand in for her character card for the time being. Are you releasing just the character cards at some point? I'd snatch them up right away!

They're the promo cards that come with the new minis line.


Oh boo. Still cool, thanks! I'll put more thought into picking up those class decks then, to ease my ocd issues with having a Blessing exploring the docks

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