Not Half Bad Indeed: Hell's Vengeance Makes Its PACG Debut

Thursday, October 5, 2017

Finally! I get to tell you about the most fun I've had designing the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. It's time to talk about the Hell's Vengeance Character Deck 1, the first half of the two-part evil block in the PACG line.

When we first thought of adapting the Hell's Vengeance Adventure Path, we knew we couldn't resist some of our darker impulses. These guys work well in groups, but not in a way that benefits everyone equally. Playing them takes some selfishness.

The first trio of these rotters is the more martial half of the team; we saved the sneakier folks for the next deck. First up, the interrogator extraordinaire, Linxia the Hellknight.

So many spikes!

I don't think we've made a character more lawful than Linxia. She demands order, and not the for-the-good-of-all kind. Take a look at that last power on Knight of the Rack. It sounds good, right? A character can banish a boon to add a turn to the scenario—but wait, it's a boon of the character's favored card type. The stuff you like. Linxia is going to be saying "You don't really need that" a lot, and you will find yourself agreeing with her.

And that second checkbox on the Knight of the Rack's second power! It's totally like healing. When James Ernest and I went to a Vegas time-share presentation, we had a sleazy agent who said things like "It's like taking money from this pocket and putting it into that pocket! Except this pocket is in my pants." Linxia's like that. She's the first character I can remember who heals you for your own bad.

I think he sharpens his beard.

The Antipaladin Urgraz has a phrase we've used exactly once on a character before: "increase the damage." When we gave it to the Goblins Burn! Class Deck's Zibini, we didn't expect our playtesters to take it. They took it. A lot. But that was on a checkboxed power on a role. This is on the main power on the character card. Along with a handy ability to discard cards from other players' decks.

Then when Urgraz gets into his roles, it gets even more colorful. You can redirect that damage you'd suffer from failing a check to someone else. You can take cards other people bury and put them in your hand. Now, of course, you should really give those back afterward.

At least the hat is nice.

The Cleric Lazzero has his own painful sort of healing. And he does some magnificent things with blessings of a particular evil type. Good news: Quite a few of the blessings in here are Corrupted. But the even better news is that power which says "You may ignore the Corrupted trait on a blessing you play on your (□ or any) check." That sounds great, right?

Hey, let's just check the rules on that. The Golden Rule says "If a card tells you to ignore something, the thing you're ignoring never has any effect on you." Those last two words are really important. Because Lazzero's happy to give you that d12 on whatever you're doing. But you sadly don't have his ability to ignore the Corrupted trait. And so this stuff happens.

Does Mephistopheles really "bless" people?

That doesn't sound so fun if you're the beneficiary of Lazzero's largesse, but to Lazzero it sounds great! All the major devils get new Corrupted blessings. Some of them do great things at a price. If you're Urgraz, it might be a price other people pay.

The spells in this deck do some things we haven't had spells do before; that theme is followed through in a big way in the next deck. The allies have a nice evil feel too: some imps and devils, a few hellknights, and even a Redeemer Blacksmith to temper what I'm about to show you.

I feel dirty already.

Here's my favorite thing about this deck: It comes with its own redemption card, similar to the one in the Wrath of the Righteous Base Set. If you have it, you can redeem the boons when you play Wrath, or via methods such as banishing that Asmodean Disciplines. (You can even banish that book to redeem itself.)

And oh, the things you get to do. Banish allies you encounter to heal yourself. Grab monsters and turn them into fireballs. Deal damage to other characters to reduce damage dealt to you. All the things an evil person would want to do, and feel good doing it.

Sound like fun? Trust me, it is. And wait till you see Deck 2!

Mike Selinker
Adventure Card Game Lead Designer