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So, I've just started playing with a group and a couple of things have come up that I was hoping to get clarified.
1. Loot rewards. I am not sure how it is in other adventures, but Burnt Offerings only has a single Sihedron Medallion. Thus only one player can acquire it. Do the other players get some kind of alternate reward, or is it a situation of "Congratulations, you won! Your reward is a handful of nothing!" for those who choose not to or can't take the loot reward?
2. Monster Banes. My group generally dislikes fighting monsters, as there is no real tangible benefit for doing so. Whenever they have the option, they prefer to evade the encounter, saving their offensive ability for the henchmen and villain of the scenario. And when they can't evade the monsters, they cite it as the lamest aspect of the game, since it is almost always better to evade a monster rather than fight it. Am I missing something in the rules that allows some benefit for fighting monsters, or is the only benefit is having the monster removed from the location deck?
Bonus Question. The barriers like Skeleton Horde or Goblin Raid that summon a henchmen for each player to fight, after defeating said summoned henchmen, are we allowed to try to close the location we are at, or is it only the scenario henchmen that allow that? This card has popped up a couple of times and each time it has made the scenario incredibly easy.
Thanks for the help.
Agreed some characters may better evade because they can do it. But most characters actually can't evade unless they are lucky to get the good card in hand.
And evading is somehow just losing one explore, which usually will backfire since you are playing against the Blessing clock.
Maybe you are missing somthing in the rules because in the very vast majority of scenarios, if you just evade, you'll lose on time.
The posts above me already answered your questions but let me follow them up with:
Immerse yourself in the world of Pathfinder. You are playing an adventure game in a form of a card game. What's a fantasy adventure without some monsters to slay? If the game was just strictly boons, it would be like the bonus round in super mario except thats the whole game.
The developers made it so that the monsters aren't something to look forward to. They're meant to be bad. If you were rewarded for every monster slain, you will start to look forward to them. Treat them as obstacles or 'problems'. Nobody likes problems or obstacles, but they exist. You still have to overcome them even knowing you will not get anything out of it. This gives the party some decisions to make. Who should go to the location with most monsters? Paladins, like Seelah, feel it is their duty to purge evil. If there's no monsters or 'evil' then they don't serve any purpose.
With the few scenarios with limited Loot rewards, it is also a thematic feel of an adventure. You have slain the villain, the villain only had one medallion, or one Snakeskin Tunic. It makes more sense that way regardless how many people there are in the party. Why would she carry 6 Snakeskin Tunics?
For the ruling with summoning henchmen, they do not allow you to close the location.
If the summoned card is a villain or henchman, defeating it does not allow you to win the scenario or close a location deck—ignore any such text on those cards. Cards that you summon are not part of any location deck
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Thanks for the replies and help. Talked to a few of the people in my group and it turns out that their complaining about a game is their way of expressing enjoyment. Odd, I know.
With the few scenarios with limited Loot rewards, it is also a thematic feel of an adventure. You have slain the villain, the villain only had one medallion, or one Snakeskin Tunic. It makes more sense that way regardless how many people there are in the party. Why would she carry 6 Snakeskin Tunics?
Yes, but in the adventures that the scenarios are based on, there are more rewards beyond the "minor amulet of plottiness" or the "tunic of chekhov", which allows everyone to get something.
All I have is the RotRL base set, so it might be different in the subsequent adventure decks, but all the scenarios save the last one of Burn Offerings grant rewards to everyone. Then the last one rolls around, and after completing it the game basically says "Everyone that is not this one person, F@#$ off." With only one person getting a reward, I can foresee issues arising. Makes me wonder why the devs designed the game that way.
Anyways, as a possible fix, since regardless of reasoning I can not see that feature as anything other than a problem, would it be unbalancing to let the players who did not get the 1 of a kind loot to take a semi random (basically magic and elite gear only) card of the type of their choice from the box?
There won't always be enough loot for everyone to get one. Indeed, given the varying group sizes there would be no way to orchestrate that. Let whoever it works best for take it. It is a cooperative game, so sometimes you have to do what is best for the group, which might not be what is best for you, but might be what's best for someone else.
When the reward is a random card it is also possible that will be a valuable card for some but not for others.
It happens. I wouldn't change it.
Finishing the last scenario of Burnt Offerings gives all players a huge bonus: a card feat. They get this for finishing the Adventure, all five scenarios. Did you notice that on the Burnt Offerings card?
Even if everyone got a random card, there is a good chance only a few of them are actually worth keeping. There is one particular scenario where the reward is a spell. If your character doesn't ever get to keep spells, that reward is basically useless for you... BUT you could possibly draw one that is better than what your spellcaster party member got, and as a co-op game you would give that card to her. Unless of course you're THAT guy. What you don't get to keep is fair game for anyone in the party anyway.
As Hawkmoon said, sometimes the reward for the scenario won't be useful for everyone. Some Loot are only useful for some characters. Sometimes no one in the party wants to keep them. It's a decision the party has to make when splitting drops. Some games have randomized who gets the drops, some have whoever deals most damage, some have other systems. This game is no different, the party decides who gets to keep the drop(loot).
If your party has problems of who gets to keep what loot, I can't imagine what it'd be like for y'all/yinz/you people/you when only one person gets to add a skill/power/card feat.
Finishing the last scenario of Burnt Offerings gives all players a huge bonus: a card feat.
This was what I was hounding for someone to say as I was reading through the thread. :D
The lack of official loot in the early game can be a bummer, especially when you're playing characters who don't get much out of a Sihedron Medallion (or a second one, or a third one...) but it evens out by the end, and you start getting a couple at a time that leads to a more diverse loot pile.
Of course that doesn't fix the no Dexterity Loot Weapons in RoRL, why am I still using this Returning Throwing Axe in AP6??? problem.
...i'm not bitter... :|
(:D)