How do *you* play this game? / How to enhance the game?


Pathfinder Adventure Card Game General Discussion


I own the S&S base set and all S&S adventures. We are a party of three people and have played the first three of them (B, 1 and 2).

So far we are enjoying it A LOT!
But we are no role players. We have never played something like a tabletop RPG before and the card game was the perfect way for us to sate our thirst for looting and levelling without having to start with something as complex like the Pathfinder RPG.

So we are playing this game rather strategically, without much (or any) roleplaying. Nevertheless I think that even a little bit of roleplaying might enhance the experience a lot.

Does anyone have any advice as to how to spice up the game a little?
It doesn't need to be roleplay advice only. Maybe someone uses some special rules he/she likes a lot...

So how do you play? How do you make the game an even better experience?
I'm really curious for your answers!


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

For roleplaying, I recommend grabbing the excellent (and free!) community-made adventure guide for S&S from boardgamegeek. It delves more into the story behind the Skull & Shackles adventure so that you can get a greater appreciation for it, and know the framework in which you can start exchanging banter as the characters you're playing. If you want, you can also purchase the Skull & Shackles RPG Adventure Path, which gives the complete story, but it's written like a RPG module for players to play, and will run you a tidy $84 to get all 6 books as PDFs (or $75.60 if you use the summer16 promo code), possibly more if you're trying to hunt down a full collection of print books as some are sold out from here.

Also, the Meet the Iconics blog posts gives a lot more background on many of the characters you're using, so you can get more appreciation behind their demeanor and motivations beyond the snippet published on the character card. If you're playing one of those characters, that may help you "get into things" better because you'll have a better idea of how that character would think in a given situation.

Beyond that, the point of roleplaying is to have fun. If any of the pre-published stuff on a character or the storyline is cramping your style, just ignore it and make something else up!


Thanks skizzerz!

Those are some nice ressources.
I'm enjoing the story from boardgamegeek a lot, the game makes much more sense now :-)

Scarab Sages

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The things I've seen most frequently mentioned that people use to enhance the game are (not all RP-related):

  • Card sleeves
  • Miniature figures to replace the card tokens
  • A turntable to rotate the location decks to the current player
  • Adventure guides or the adventure path books, as skizzers mentioned
  • Use five of each promo card*

    *Not used by a lot of people, granted, but it is frequently mentioned by one particular person


  • Since you have Skull & Shackles, another fun accessory would be to pick up on Ebay a little ship figure to use as the active player marker (or to mark where the ship is anchored in those scenarios). There was a constructible ship game a few years back so a lot of those are available.

    Our group doesn't do a lot of RP, but the key thing, I think, is to roll with what the cards give you. And if you're not sure what to do, ask "what would [insert character] do?" Sometimes the less than optimal choice is the more fun choice.

    Good luck!

    Silver Crusade

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    Whenever we do something atypical for our characters, or use a power that seems strange, we describe how we're picturing this.

    In one of our first ever organized play games, Amaryllis had to fight the villain---the Adaro Barbarian---on the last turn of the game, and all she had was a belaying pin. So we all piled blessings on her, and she and her pile of d4s won the day. Forever after we have described the time that the tiny Halfling beat a barbarian to death with a belaying pin.

    We also sometimes call each other by our characters' names, and if we know their personalities, we sometimes make comments about them. In our current OP game, one of the guys is playing Alain, and we have a good time joking about how no one likes Alain.


    Eliandra Giltessan wrote:
    In our current OP game, one of the guys is playing Alain, and we have a good time joking about how no one likes Alain.

    "Wh-what?" --Alain

    Grand Lodge

    Johnny Chronicle wrote:
    Eliandra Giltessan wrote:
    In our current OP game, one of the guys is playing Alain, and we have a good time joking about how no one likes Alain.
    "Wh-what?" --Alain

    (*pat pat*) Don't worry, Alain...

    They're not REALLY joking...


    Thanks for the shout-out Skizzerz!

    I collated the "Meet the Iconics" blog posts into a handy guide for PACG's heroes. There's also my Golarion Deities guide which provides information for the Deities featured in the blessing deck. They're listed here on Paizo's Community Use Registry and the registry links back to boardgamegeek.com where the files are hosted for Rise of the Runelords (although they currently cover all 3 released titles.)


    burgus wrote:

    So far we are enjoying it A LOT!

    Does anyone have any advice as to how to spice up the game a little?

    So how do you play? How do you make the game an even better experience?
    I'm really curious for your answers!

    When we play the card game, we don't roleplay. Oh, maybe a tiny bit, but not much. When I want to roleplay, I play the Pathfinder RPG. If you're interested in the Pathfinder RPG, I recommend searching out a Pathfinder Society game near you. Or try it at a roleplaying convention. Takes 4-5 hours and it's a good introduction to the game.

    I like playing the card game on my iPad now. So the way to enhance that experience would be playing with friends.

    The different APs have a different feel. You can spice it up by playing them.

    Also, the card game society is also a fun way to play the game, with the class decks.

    In general, the game plays differently with more players. 3 players imo is the easiest (but also the most fun since turns don't take very long), 6 players is the hardest. But different # players can make the game very interesting. (I don't advise teaching people in a 6 player game).

    Fun game, good luck!


    It's not 'role playing' per se, but I like to narrate our adventures. I get the basic gist of it from the minimal text provided on scenario and location cards, and I roll with it according to what cards the players draw...

    Fore example, a Skull Ripper in the RotR Wendigo scenario became a malfunctioning mechanical 'mule' of sorts, that the dwarven miners used to transport gear and ore. Also, the Haunt encounters were 'visions' of what happened there that the players experienced.

    In S&S, there was a scenario where you had to beat a Rahadoumi ship - turned out that was a bounty hunter sent to capture our apostate Alahazra. And our Liranne had come to the Shackles in pursuit of a brute monster, which just so happened to be the "Mr. Hyde" form or our Damiel; during the adventures, clues and hints were dropped and in the end she seems to figure the truth, but as Damiel has save the party and her in particular, she decides to turn a *deadeye* to his past mistakes...

    So, even for player that know the basic framework of the adventure, or even have played the module - there's always plenty of surprise of what and how *exactly* happens.

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