My precious Power!? - A review on Mhar of Leng


Homebrew and House Rules


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If you are like me, you probably enjoyed Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. Hell, if you are like me, you probably own everything that PACG has brought up until now and are waiting eagerly for Wrath of the Righteous to release. What am I saying? I mean, you are waiting in tension for the next blog, because what the hell is a cohort? Is it an ally? Is it a support? Is it BOTH? Who knows. But for know, we have to suffice with the complete Adventure Paths. One of which being Rise of the Runelords. Now I, myself, love to make and finetune homebrew stuff and so does this wonderful community. And what is better than PACG? More PACG! So a user on this forum, Ron Lundeen, made a new Adventure 7 for the original Adventure Path. In case you are unfamiliar with his work:

http://www.welbybumpus.com/

Go check it out, he even made a WHOLE NEW adventure (which I might just as well review).

But now to get to the good stuff:

Product

Mhar of Leng, as it has been titled, is a 5-scenario long adventure in which you can test your new card feats and that shining loot you got for bringing down Karzoug. Now, I won't go in to the details of these items, but I, as a Melee Fighter, loved the Glaive and my partner really enjoyed the Robe on her spellcaster. Ron made an excellent looking pdf-file with one scenario per page and makes everything easy to read. Everything you need, is already in your possession. Except for 2 Henchmen and 2 Villains for the endgame battle. There is a website where you can order these, or, if you're like me, you can just use placeholders like Black Fang and Ancient Skeleton (which Ron also pointed out himself in the Adventure). With 5 scenarios, come some new rewards and it's pretty decent, it's nothing overly powerful or out of balance. Some weapons here, some spells there, oh and look a power feat! What makes this product shine is probably the difficulty that got ramped up. Don't think that just because it's old cards it's just as easy. No. You're wrong. Some combinations of Scenario-rules and Locations can be dreadfully annoying and hard. I think I've never died in RotR, but I've been on the verge of death in THREE of the five scenarios. We even got a wipe and decided to just try again. One of my favorite parts is where a Guard Tower is summoned, but the Scenario tells you to not use Bandit Henchmen but his own created henchman. And trust me: To fight a monster at the start of your turn with 30 in Combat, that is pretty hard.

My second favorite factor might be the setup. Before you start your game, you need to remove EVERY Basic and Elite card from the box. Making sure you never encounter a Long Sword when you don't need it. It's just good items and strong monsters. Nice twist!

So, it looks nice, it plays nice, it's harder it got loot. So should you get? Why: Yes, Yes ofcourse! It's free after all. It's the fruits of labor of a fan who obviously put much thought in to the locations, scenarios and even the theme of monsters is rich. Just, trust me, don't get too attached to your allies. Consider them as friends all you like, but when the Tremor comes, run!

The Good:
- Great difficulty ramp up. It made me sweat!
- Theme is very rich. It's not just another adventure, it really combines well after Karzoug.
- Rewards feel great, not out of place.
- User-friendly lay-out. Not hard to get started. No more Long Swords!

The Bad:
- The Villains might just be too powerful. The combination of locations are great, but these might be too strong. I could also stop being a kid, and stop crying over my first death.

Endpoint:
9 out of 10. Great. Did you complete RotR? Go. Go now! Stop reading! Unless you like reading, then continue reading. I'm not your boss.

So, why not a 10? Well, I believe that nothing is perfect.. So, that's why. This did gave me some good vibes for the future. Ron made an 7th Adventure that's solid and perhaps even a Solid Adventure Path. So who is to tell what's more to come? Man, do I love this game and community.

I also didn't gave a 10 for 2 reasons, but these were minor oddities that I will put down here. Warning: these are Spoilers!
I hope Ron reads these and might attend to the problems at hand.

1. In "Across the Crawling Plains": Do I need to discard an Ally too if I defeat Bhole Jaws, or does the location where he came from close automatically? The rule book say that this always happens automatically, so we played it like that (also, we had no more allies). I assume it's without discarding. Since, if you have a party without Allies and some bad rolls, then you're out of luck.

2. In "Mhar's Quickening": The check to defeat Junk Beach is still a Poision Trap. Maybe change this to a stronger version of it self or a Titanic Bulk. Just like you did in "Ambush at the Thinning".

Thanks for reading!

And Ron, thanks for your contribution!

Contributor

Thanks very much for the positive review! It makes my work in putting these alternate adventures together worthwhile to know that people are playing and enjoying them.

As to your specific questions:

1) Yep, you'd need to discard an ally when defeating the Bhole Jaws to have its location permanently closed. Defeating a villain means you don't need to make the "When Closing" check, but the scenario power still triggers: when you would permanently close a location, you must discard an ally or it isn't closed. So you'd need to have an ally in hand to do that.

That's difficult, sure, but note that the locations are all packed with allies, and the scenario contains an intentionally difficult choice: do I put acquired allies in my hand because I need them to close locations, or do I set them aside in order to better defeat the monstrously difficult Bhole Jaws?

2) Yes, Junk Beach is easy to close because Poison Traps are pretty easy at this level (don't tell that to Kyra, though!). Note that the Temple is even easier (it's automatic!) and so is the Dam (also automatic, but at cost!)--part of the design in including an extra location was to be sure a lot of the locations were fairly easy to close.

Glad you liked it, and happy to answer any other questions!

Ron

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