Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Playtest at PaizoCon!

I'm going to withhold my speculation or comments until I learn a ton more about where things are going; though I'm generally one to look forward to new things. On top of that, I'm of the opinion that every set has been an improvement over the previous one (though I might still have a soft spot for WotR just baaarely over Mummy's Mask, since I love how over-the-top it is), which is an excellent sign.

I will, however, add my two cents that I think shorthand is a great idea, especially if the chosen shorthand (like 'local') is largely self-explanatory. They make the cards less wordy, less intimidating to new players, and allow for more elegant reading of abilities. Speaking of, it also probably will somewhat decrease misprint/typo/FAQ rulings, of which pretty much every set release, Class Deck or otherwise, has at least one or two of, and many are down to unintended side-effects of specific wording or presumably copy-pasted text (referring to buried cards as having been discarded, etc).

Almost every CCG on the planet has made heavy use of keywords, which is literally just shorthand, because it helps players rapidly take in more information whilst saving on card space. If designers are worried about overwhelming the players, there's an additional solution they could take:

Have Adventure Deck B cards always include reminder text with their shorthand, like "...to a Local (Character at your location's) check...". Drop the reminder text at a later AD#, such as 2 or 3, where cards are consistently more wordy anyway (weapons with long paragraphs explaining the benefits of discarding vs revealing plus potential rerolls plus benefits against specific enemy types, long and complex spells, banes with multiple aspects to them).

Having heard about changes made in the playtest from participants, I find myself extremely optimistic, and looking forward to almost every change that were made during the playtest.

All but one. At the time, I believe that the playtest had closed locations be immediately banished/removed from the table, allowing players at those locations to move freely. Whilst I understand that locations with ongoing "When permanently closed" effects may certainly survive in a myriad of ways (such as displaying them next to the Scenario card), I still feel like this is the only change I have a personally negative response to, at least initially.

Of course, I haven't personally been in the new playtest, and I understand that things are subject to change, and I understand that not all powers will be balanced in the same way with PACG into the future.

However, it seems like removing closed locations from play is shrinking potential design space, as well as...

-Greatly nerfing Movement effects, of which were heavily used to move from closed locations to continue your turn or set yourself up for Temp Closes. Movement effects have been traditionally under-utilized by players, in my experience, for being seen as relatively weak or narrow in usefulness, and this change only cements that significantly. New benefits for teams working together at a location may somewhat allay this, but I suspect an already-borderline mechanic will likely grow only weaker at this change.

-Infinite and semi-infinite exploration combos, or at least ones capable of exploring more than 6 times in a turn, such as one present on OA1 Estra + Ultimate Magic, were previously capped in power in that they stopped once you closed one location unless you had a repeatable movement option. With auto-moves from closed locations, that cap has now been removed.

-A number of powers, and even entire role cards, are entirely neutralized if closed locations cannot remain in play; the greatest example being CD Lini's "Menhir Savant" role card, one of the most interesting role cards in that class deck from my perspective.

On the whole, I'm extremely optimistic about the future of PACG and am looking forward to seeing all of the changes in practice. However, the change to the function of closed locations currently stands as the only change I don't really understand. It seems to slightly increase simplicity, but the design space cost and balancing changes seems unusually great for what amounts to a rather trivial change to gameplay.

Radical changes will always draw some outcry. I encourage folks dismayed by proposed rule changes to try playing with them to have actual data about how a rule changes the game. (Mike Selinker always cautioned us against 'looktesting'; while it is at times useful to comment on one's thoughts about a change, the proof of the pudding is in how it plays.)

I'll take your word for it until I get more information. As I said; everything else looks great. I'm just not sure what that particular change is trying to achieve, I think.

-Infinite and semi-infinite exploration combos, or at least ones capable of exploring more than 6 times in a turn, such as one present on OA1 Estra + Ultimate Magic, were previously capped in power in that they stopped once you closed one location unless you had a repeatable movement option. With auto-moves from closed locations, that cap has now been removed.

Mark Seifter is fond of the Cogsnap/Twitch Tonic combo let him close about 5 locations (with help). Of 6-7 (3p).

I'm okay with henchmen cards (for example) being proxies as long as there are dedicated proxy cards - i.e., the card itself indicates this is "henchman #3" and then you look at the scenario for the stats. This solves the only real issue I've ever had with proxying in the card guild, which is sometimes players forget it's a proxy and encounter whatever's on the physical card. Sometimes this isn't noticed until after the scenario ends, if at all.

I'm okay with henchmen cards (for example) being proxies as long as there are dedicated proxy cards - i.e., the card itself indicates this is "henchman #3" and then you look at the scenario for the stats. This solves the only real issue I've ever had with proxying in the card guild, which is sometimes players forget it's a proxy and encounter whatever's on the physical card. Sometimes this isn't noticed until after the scenario ends, if at all.

Yep.... real card that proxy something else is real pain in the...

I'm okay with henchmen cards (for example) being proxies as long as there are dedicated proxy cards - i.e., the card itself indicates this is "henchman #3" and then you look at the scenario for the stats. This solves the only real issue I've ever had with proxying in the card guild, which is sometimes players forget it's a proxy and encounter whatever's on the physical card. Sometimes this isn't noticed until after the scenario ends, if at all.

I made the mistake a couple times before I bought a pack of generic proxy cards from DriveThruCards.

Is there somewhere we can see a breakdown of all upcoming changes? Or better yet, if there was a presentation at PaizoCon, did someone tape it and is the video available online?

Is there somewhere we can see a breakdown of all upcoming changes? Or better yet, if there was a presentation at PaizoCon, did someone tape it and is the video available online?

Hawkmoon has been keeping track of the major announcements here.