Curse of the Crimson Throne Comes to the Pathfinder ACG

Awesometastic! And congradudolences on the new job title!

I am pleased to pass the torch to Keith, especially when it's on fire down to the handle.

Mike

Congratulations Keith! And excellent write up!

I can't wait!

Congratulations, Keith!

I was excited for the Curse AP simply because, but all of the new niftiness, especially the Harrow Deck, has me even more excited.

"At the start of the adventure, each character will draw an appropriate Harrow and get to use it throughout the entire adventure, getting a special benefit each time they play it."

Does "appropriate harrow" mean one of the 9 harrow blessing whose suit corresponds to the suit of the adventure? Is that extra blessing then added to the character's deck? Does it count against the number of blessings the character can have? And then, they return the blessing at the end of the last scenario of the adventure, and then draw a new one when they start the first scenario of the next adventure?

I suppose all of this will make sense when I have the instruction book in my hot little hands.

Congratulations Keith!

Hopefully you can still find time to play PbP with us mortals from time to time, though!

On the other hand, I really, really like the idea of supporter feats and making Korvosa better as the game progresses. I know I echo the sentiments of at least a few players when I say that I would really like to see this concept expanded into a full-blown, legacy-style adventure. I think Kingmaker would be perfect for this!

Does "appropriate harrow" mean one of the 9 harrow blessing whose suit corresponds to the suit of the adventure?

Yep.

Is that extra blessing then added to the character's deck? Does it count against the number of blessings the character can have?

After you draw your starting hand, you add your harrow to it. It doesn't count against your deck list. So it works a lot like a cohort, except that it's a blessing.

And then, they return the blessing at the end of the last scenario of the adventure, and then draw a new one when they start the first scenario of the next adventure?

Yep.

The level of a P1 card is 1, correct?

(I've mentioned it elsewhere, but Keith's new title is definitely well deserved.)

The level of a P1 card is 1, correct?

Yep.

Congrats Keith!

Great blog as usual, and congratulations to Keith for the new title!

Congrats, Keith! May Shelyn smile on all your new endeavours!

(Also, no offense to Chad, but lacking the context you two share - in my head-canon that Rabbit Prince there is you :D

Gratz Keith... and Mike for all the job done up to now. And Vic for all the "Yep"s that keep the spirit on this game from day one.

So I guess now Mike has time to travel... what about a little trip to Europe one day?

Blackjack looks really cool. The Tarot-like Harrows intrigue me. I'm excited to play this set.

+1 to all Keith's accolades in this thread. I've had the honor to play with Keith via PBP and in person, and I've been impressed by his professionalism, his thoroughness, his keen eye for good game design, and his courtesy for his fellow players. Lone Shark is in good hands.

PS Keith, does this mean you'll be deserting the East Coast for the Rainy City? (Say it ain't so!)

Congratulations, Keith!

I love the variety of the new blessings (particularly their "Hour" powers), I love the theming of the Harrow Suit and I love - LOVE - the Blackjack Role card (I love alternative-Role cards, and always hoped there'd be an Organized Play reward that rewarded specific characters all-new Role cards to play with, much like there are rewards to allow specific characters to play with different Class Decks).

I also like the nifty Supporter idea - spend some time to recuperate and prepare, or even delve out some extra boons (which rewards players for having time to spare if they're fast at winning the game). Providing players without an actual 'healer' in the party methods of spending time to heal or even overcome death seems exceptionally useful, too.

More importantly, I note that the existence of the Base completely solves a common complaint about the 'locations being banished' rules change (which, at least once you're down to the last location or 2, completely prevents players near-death from hiding out at a 'safe' closed location to avoid collateral damage from effects killing them). I would imagine tables who feel strongly about the location-banishing rule could just houserule in the base (without supporters) into any AP. Doesn't solve it for people who don't like being vulnerable to damage at all times in Organized Play, but maybe most APs moving forward will have some variant of the Base or other "safe space" to while away your time if you think exploring or standing beside possible banes is a real threat to your character life.

And congratulations to Keith!

I do, however, note that the Base is probably technically vulnerable to some infinite-combos - IF you're allowed to explore when there's no cards left in it. (I know once there's no cards left in it and you move you will be unable to explore, but I wonder if you can take the non-standard exploration power if there's 0 cards in the location and it's still open? You're allowed to 'explore' an empty location in Defensive Stance scenarios, after all, according to what I've been told has been played on tables with a designer present.)

If you have a large quantity of either healing effects or recharge-to-explore effects (say, you're a character who recharges the allies or blessings they use to explore with), you can usually chain "Explore -> Draw a card -> Explore -> Draw a card" infinitely once your deck is just comprised of recharge-to-explore cards or enough healing + exploration cards.

Plus, there's allies out there - like Swift Sharpshooter and Ukobach - that even let you explore whilst drawing more cards, and cards like Advocate's Armor, Forensic Physician and Blessing of Qi Zhong that let you 'heal' whilst also potentially exploring more. (Almost all of the cards I just mentioned are available in Ultimate Add-On Decks, and so could be made available to any character in OP trivially.)

By combining such effects infinitely, combined with the occasional "recharge any number of cards", you can easily empty the deck of Supporters and possibly clear all of your scourges and custom-craft a perfect hand for some characters in a single turn. Some characters can certainly pull this off much easier than others, though I note that the Recovery phase largely limits the "infinite healing cycle" that would make this easier to accomplish. I'm sure there's probably at least one character who can combine enough repeatable draw effects like this along with movement effects to even pop in and out of the Base to keep exploiting draw effects whilst also digging into other locations (again, allies like Ukobach and Swift Sharpshooter are partially at fault here for allowing you to draw more cards than you're spending, and cards like Advocate's Armor that let you re-use them without even giving up cards in hand).

More importantly, I note that the existence of the Base completely solves a common complaint about the 'locations being banished' rules change (which, at least once you're down to the last location or 2, completely prevents players near-death from hiding out at a 'safe' closed location to avoid collateral damage from effects killing them). I would imagine tables who feel strongly about the location-banishing rule could just houserule in the base (without supporters) into any AP. Doesn't solve it for people who don't like being vulnerable to damage at all times in Organized Play, but maybe most APs moving forward will have some variant of the Base or other "safe space" to while away your time if you think exploring or standing beside possible banes is a real threat to your character life.

I was actually about to mention this, but you said it better than I would have, so I don't mind getting preempted :)

I do, however, note that the Base is probably technically vulnerable to some infinite-combos - IF you're allowed to explore when there's no cards left in it.

Seems like an easy loophole to close, if it's open in the first place.

More importantly, I note that the existence of the Base completely solves a common complaint about the 'locations being banished' rules change (which, at least once you're down to the last location or 2, completely prevents players near-death from hiding out at a 'safe' closed location to avoid collateral damage from effects killing them).

I admit that that's probably how we're going to use the Base, but will point out two things:

- first, you always need to keep at least 1 unexplored Supporter (or else always have at least 1 character stay at Base)

- second, while not counting for Villain escape, this location still seems vulnerable to "random location" or "all locations" bane effects (whereas such effects previously specifically targeted "open location" - hence the relative "safety" of a closed location pre-Core)

Can't wait to pick up my set!!
Counting down to PaizoCon!
Congratulations on the hot potato Keith! :-)
Looking forward to seeing you at PaizoCon again

So I guess now Mike has time to travel... what about a little trip to Europe one day?

Definitely in the plans.

I do, however, note that the Base is probably technically vulnerable to some infinite-combos - IF you're allowed to explore when there's no cards left in it. (I know once there's no cards left in it and you move you will be unable to explore, but I wonder if you can take the non-standard exploration power if there's 0 cards in the location and it's still open? You're allowed to 'explore' an empty location in Defensive Stance scenarios, after all, according to what I've been told has been played on tables with a designer present.)

We are happy to distract you from the actual requirements to win the scenario.

If anything gets out of control, we'll seal it up by FAQing the expanded Base rules that are in the Curse storybook.

If anyone missed the announcement about Keith becoming the new president of Lone Shark Games after I stepped aside to focus on being chief creative officer, here it is.

---

Some welcome changes for me and Lone Shark, part 1

This month marks the completion of some things I’ve been planning to do for a while. If you want to hear what’s up with me and Lone Shark (spoiler: all good), read on. I’m pretty excited about it. I’m writing it in a few parts, with a complex story arc, exciting new characters, and deeply immersive… dammit. Don’t make it a project, Mike. Just write.

Part the First: I’m no longer the president of the company

James Ernest and I started Lone Shark in 2003. I’ve been running the company for twice as long as I spent at Wizards, even though some people think I still work there. For me, “president” is part of my identity; I run things.

Of late, the thing I’ve been running most is myself into the ground. Like, constantly. Lone Shark is healthy, but it’s healthy at the cost of me not being so. And that’s been because I’ve been doing three jobs: president (the guy who runs the company), chief creative officer (the guy who makes sure we make cool things), and lead designer (the guy who invents the cool things we make). I love the last of those, like the second, and have complex feels about the first. Regardless, I’ve come to dislike all three of them happening at the same time. I’ve become something of a bottleneck with everything direction-wise and creative-wise going through me, so that had to get changed.

So, okay, what to do about it. When talking to my amazingly talented and tolerant team, they could imagine a different president. (Whether they could imagine me accepting one was the subject of some question.) They could imagine someone else (say, one of them) coordinating the design, possibly even a lot better than I do. What they could not imagine was a Lone Shark where I stopped walking through the door saying “I think we can do this and to prove it I just spent 48 straight hours in a cave making it work.” For reasons I’ve never completely gotten, I write things that encourage other people to become wildly creative. I spark things. I’m a sparkler.

For me to keep doing that without keeling over, something had to go. But it couldn’t just go to anyone. I’d spent the last year forging a new Lone Shark back-of-house with chief business officer Sean Molley, who completely changed how we deal with the business side of the company. We empowered our long-suffering events and operations manager Shane Steed to figure out everything we needed to make it work. And we hired a marketing dude in Trevor Kidd who could write our Kickstarters and our social media and the like. But none of those people could be the company president.

Lone Shark is a creative endeavor. We get asked by everyone to help them dream out loud. That’s because our creative team is second to none. For someone to lead Lone Shark better than I could, they’d have to get that. They’d have to be a part of it. So I asked designer Keith Richmond if he wanted to take more of a leadership role. Some of you don’t know Keith. That’s cool. Keith has been quietly helming most things Pathfinder for us for a while. When we needed to write a new Core Set and a sprawling Adventure Path in Curse of the Crimson Throne (out next month!), Keith was the center of that universe.

Keith also has two other features that make him qualified for this job. The first is that is steeped deep in the well of project coordination. At Akamai—you know, the folks that hold the internet together—Keith’s title is Principal Release Engineer. I won’t pretend I know what that means. But see that word “Release”? One thing I have been wildly less good at than everyone would like is releasing things on time. Keith is a principal at that. Our train is about run a lot smoother, I think. Freeing up my time, allowing me forbidden things like weekends and vacations, will make me better. And rebuilding things so Liz, Skylar, Chad, Aviva, Gaby, Tanis, Paul, Rodney, and every other creative force here feels comfortable taking an evening off has to be good. We’re not there yet. But we’ll get there.

The second is that Keith is a family-oriented person. He values work-life balance. He puts his family first, and he transfers that commitment into the deeply supportive family at Lone Shark. I … well, my track record is mixed here. I used the word “tolerant” before, and no one has been more tolerant than my wife Evon. I’m tough on myself, I’m tough on the team at Lone Shark, and I’m collaterally tough on Evon. That’s gotta change. As Lone Shark has expanded, I’ve spent a lot of my team just dealing with our people’s internal issues. Not always well, mind you. I’m not an empath and everyone knows it. I’m a problem solver. Keith’s pretty good at that too, but he’s also an empath. We’re creative people. We can get complicated. Keith’ll figure it out.

So I’m delighted to officially announce that I’ve transferred the responsibility to run both our staff and schedules to Keith Richmond, Lone Shark’s new company president. Me, I’m gonna make you some more cool stuff.

Thanks for reading. Part the Second comes soon.

Congratulations on the promotion Keith.

Frencois wrote:

So I guess now Mike has time to travel... what about a little trip to Europe one day?

Definitely in the plans.

I guess the worst thing that can happen when taking some well deserved vacations is being attacked my a mob of fans.

Noted and appreciated.

Each of those suits has 9 cards that correspond to the classic 9 alignments that describe the struggle between Good and Evil, Law and Chaos.

I would be nice to have these alignments indicated on the cards in some way.

Keith Richmond wrote:

Each of those suits has 9 cards that correspond to the classic 9 alignments that describe the struggle between Good and Evil, Law and Chaos.

I would be nice to have these alignments indicated on the cards in some way.

When I read about harrows Decktet came to mind.
https://bgg.cc/boardgame/37301/decktet
So I thought about using Harrows as a deck. Perhaps for a game designed around 54 card combinations= 6(house /character ability) * 3(moral alighment) * 3(law alignement)
Or as an ad hoc GM tool to choose randomly NPC's main attribute and alignement.
But currents card design doesn't show card's alignment.

If you want the GM tool version, see here. It’s a rather nice product, and the cards do indicate alignment on them as well as include a little booklet providing some rules on how to use it as a prop in your RPG games.

Alignment is not a feature in PACG for many reasons, but the most important is that we want you to be able to play all characters with each other without worrying about the details. When we want to go deep into one alignment or another, we do things like we did in the Hell's Vengeance decks.

However, the original Harrow Deck does have the symbols in nine positions (that is, The Forge is a lawful neutral Strength card, so it has a hammer in the center of the left edge). We have played the Harrowing element of the AP with a real Harrow Deck and it's lots of fun.

If anyone missed the announcement about Keith becoming the new president of Lone Shark Games after I stepped aside to focus on being chief creative officer, here it is.

What...

Clearly the most important part of these blog posts is found towards the of part 2:

We made an 8-page Adventure Path for Pathfinder.

Where/when can we get said adventure path?

That’s our Free RPG Day release. (Calling it an “Adventure Path” is a bit of an overstatement—it’s really a single adventure.)

I’ve looked a couple times and not seen it yet. But maybe I’m missing it since PACG Core Set is not listed with the rest of the PACG stuff. But do you guys have a pdf of the rules for Core Set or Curse of the Crimson Thrones yet?

OMG Bunnyman!!! HAHAHA! I can't wait! Congrats to all on what looks to be a spectacular release, and especially to Keith for the end of a long road and the start of a new one! :D

I’ve looked a couple times and not seen it yet. But maybe I’m missing it since PACG Core Set is not listed with the rest of the PACG stuff. But do you guys have a pdf of the rules for Core Set or Curse of the Crimson Thrones yet?

We're planning to release the Core Set Rulebook PDF just before PaizoCon next week. (Curse doesn't have a rulebook—it uses the Core rules.)

OMG Bunnyman!!! HAHAHA! I can't wait! Congrats to all on what looks to be a spectacular release, and especially to Keith for the end of a long road and the start of a new one! :D

Rogue here was a splendid bard turned Blackjack in that game along with Chad and Tanis :)

VitaminP3 wrote:

I’ve looked a couple times and not seen it yet. But maybe I’m missing it since PACG Core Set is not listed with the rest of the PACG stuff. But do you guys have a pdf of the rules for Core Set or Curse of the Crimson Thrones yet?

We're planning to release the Core Set Rulebook PDF just before PaizoCon next week. (Curse doesn't have a rulebook—it uses the Core rules.)

Will the pdf character sheets be released at the same time, or will those come later? And if later, how much later?

Hopefully the same time.

That’s our Free RPG Day release. (Calling it an “Adventure Path” is a bit of an overstatement—it’s really a single adventure.)

While this is good news because my FLGS is doing Free RPG Day, I was hoping for more PACG :D

Whoohoo! Got my boxes sleeved up after arrival last night, and looking forward to starting a new AP tonight!

I have a question about playing The Dragon's Demand before Curse; namely, should we?

I see the reward for TDD is taking the characters into another AP, starting with 1 and treating the # as 3. In the few cases where I've "played down" like that (playing a higher tier character in a lower adventure in PFS), it's always been a bit of a let-down because it isn't as difficult, and the rewards are below the tier of my character. Do you think the modifications from Core and Curse will still make this worthwhile?

As much as I want to jump right into Curse, I also have a thing about doing things in order, so that part of me wants to start with TDD.

Any thoughts on doing one or the other first?

I'd personally suggest playing each with new characters; there are more than enough character options / combinations. The reward is there for those who don't want to do so.

I'd personally suggest playing each with new characters; there are more than enough character options / combinations. The option is there for those who don't want to do so.

Cool, thanks. We'll just jump right into Curse with new characters then!

Can anyone confirm the number of scenarios in Crimson Throne? That number isn't listed above or on the product page, which is why I'm asking.

I was thinking it was 24, but I've seen numbers as low as 16?

24 plus 1 optional scenario

Awesome, thanks.

26 standard scenarios (5 level 1, 4 each of levels 2,3,4,5,6, 1 level 7 ) + 2 more random scenario options (mysteries and double villains).

Great blog as usual, and congratulations to Keith for the new title!

Hey man, just wanted to say I loved your work and passion on your homebrews and I really hope you do adventure paths with the new Core set/Curse of the Crimson Throne and maybe some future expansions. You're creative as hell and it really breathes some new life into the game.