DiePingu's page

Perhaps I should have been clearer

A stash would be severely limited in maximum size and only for that party not across different ganmes / run throughs - and mainly there to aid experimental play and let people try out different strategies as the adventure path develops.

On the rpg side I disagree that it does not fit, it is completely consistent, hell in Skull and Shackles you have a ship to ride around on.

If I had to add my 2 (or more) cents)

1) Permadeath - drop it as a main rule and have it as one of a bunch of Iron Man type rules (if you want penalties for failing scenarios you can stick them into this as well). For my group, we would probably not use them as they are a buzzkill, and we do not play regularly enough for this to be anything other than an arse - but for others it could add new layers to a game they play a lot.

2) Stash - this is one of the single best changes in the app version of the game and something my group practically does already (we keep loot cards gaained in a sort of stash)

3) Building decks between games - currently there is a weird dynamic around not wanting to acquire crap cards just before you get a card slot. You coudl fix this by giving you the chance to pick Adventure Dexk - X or a particular type of card from the box as a reward for a particular adventure or scenario or closing a certain type of location (note not random)

4) Side missions - there are sveral types of these, character specific, team missions, adventure / scenario specific ones. These should be baked into character / scenario / adventure design by default (e.g. Character X is looking for their lost brother, certain cards that can be acquired over the course of the game may provide clues...)

5) Quests - slightly different from the above, a new type of card which asks you to do a particular thing (like get X number cards of a certain type for a cool reward) - these would be a card you can encounter in a location, but would probably need to be something you could carry over from one adventure / scenario to another

6) Location cards - make these a bit bigger (maybe of a stiffer material) and easier to read?

7) Location traits - midway through Wrath as my group currently are I suddenly noticed that these have very little impact on how we play. I don't know if it is the type of characters we pick, or we are missing something...

8) Include a camp location card? Something you can go back to to drop things off and do side actions rather than always be at a location?

9) More story, not quite sure how to do this - but the app does a good job of working this in

10) More killer hedgehogs, you always need more killer hedgehogs

So

Just want to check my reading of the Toxicologist power right:

When you would banish a card that has the Alchemical trait for its power, you may discard it instead (□ then you may draw a card) (□ or you may search your deck for a boon that has the Alchemical trait and put it on top of your deck).

I'm assuming that the 'or' chains in this, i.e. you 'discard instead' or 'you may search your deck', not both

I could also read it as you may discard instead, and then 'you may draw a card' or 'search your deck'

Okay, so we started out on Wrath last weeked with a five person group (Enora, Kyra, Adowyn, Seeoni, Crowe).

Although we finished the basic set with only one retry (ran out of time on mission four) I noticed we were definitely getting hit for a fair bit of damage, and in the last scenario we got our arses kicked about as hard as is humanly possible without anyone dying and still manage to win (most people had only one or two cards left in their decks, Enora had zero).

We have already got all the cure spells out plus the sacred prism and Kyra's healing power is pretty neat, but it definitely felt like we were light on healing.

Is this just a case of the basic adventure being hard / or is it that more healing options open up later on (I assume it does, but didn't see that many healing style cards knocking around in the deck list)?

I just wondering mainly because we play fairly aggressive which tends to burn though decks fairly fast, so do we need to dial it back a bit?

So this came up last night

If you defeat the Owlbeartross, you go through your location until you find a non villain monster and then banish it. It does not specify what you do after that - shuffle the location deck, or put the cards back down in the order you found them?

If I recall it just the d4 - though the card is a bit ambiguous

DiePingu wrote:

On the plus side it is a testament to how well the game is designed that the guy who plays Damiel has not found any massive exploits / holes in the system (his ability to break board / computer / roleplaying game systems us legendary).

Really?

Damiel starts out WAY ahead of everyone else. With a Noxious Bomb, his average damage is 22 while everyone else is about 12.

My group that played through this was Pirate Queen Jirelle, Grenadier Damiel, and Stargazer Alahazra. Damiel stole the spotlight until we picked up our role cards and the playing field leveled out.

*note: We played with 4 house rules that could have affected my perception.
** spoiler omitted **

Oddly no, he definitely kicks arse in fights when built that way, but feels like like he is having to cycle a lot of cards to maintain it. Whereas say Lirianne is killing most things without me having to particular expend cards to do so - though as you say it may be the house rules you are running with.

Personally I find Ranzak in a large group with a combat character he can mooch off incredibly effective (our Ranzak has not cleared an entire location in his first turn...yet, but not far off it and that is with his almost superhuman bad luck on all kown forms of dice rolls)

We're playing two players and at least for the middle scenarios seriously regretted picking one character who's excessively focused on combat to the exclusion of any other useful abilities (Seltyiel), and then supporting him with a character who's best ability... is to help other players with their combat checks (Lirianne)!

The role cards are really turning that around though. Seltyiel's ability to throw attack spells at barriers and ships turns him right around from super-narrow to truly versatile, and Lirianne's deadeye scouting is pretty awesome with two players.

I can see where you're coming from, Lirianne's powers are pretty solid but none just say "omg I must have that" the way some other characters do. Which is better in a way though, I kind of feel sorry for some of the other powers that might be interesting but I'd never take them because there's another choice that gets all the attention.

Know that feeling, our group is fairly combat heavy (Lirianne, Seltyiel, Damiel, Oloch and some ninja dude from one of the other packs with glowing eyes) plus Ranzak. I have a running competition with the guy playing the ninja over who kills more sharks at shark island.

On the plus side it is a testament to how well the game is designed that the guy who plays Damiel has not found any massive exploits / holes in the system (his ability to break board / computer / roleplaying game systems us legendary).

DiePingu wrote:

Then again I originally picked Lirianne because Sweet Hat + Guns = Cool

You can't really argue with that.

Sadly when Besmara's Tricone came up, my irrefutable logic that I was the only character pictured wearing a cool pirate hat so I should get it, was denied.

Ah, well, its my first time playing through a full adventure series and we have a decent sized group (6) and are already noticing the turn pressure at the mid point through the the series - so the examine when you move power on Deadeye looked like a bit of a luxury.

On the "When you play a weapon that has the Firearm trait on your combat check, you may immediately shuffle another such weapon into your deck to draw a card."

This actually felt like the weakest of the set to me - I find myself shuffling in cards using the help people at other locations pretty routinely, so I currently don't generally need another way to get rid of spare weapons. Again may be a large group thing.

By lacking 'wow factor' I was mainly referring to the fact that Liranne's Musketeer powers don't seem to expand or change how she plays - and for a large group the explore powers come with a non trivial 'lost turn' cost.

Then again I originally picked Lirianne because Sweet Hat + Guns = Cool

This FAQ addresses when you would use such a power. And as Vic specifies here there is a strict limit on cards you can play after you roll the check.

That being said, it is still an very good power and one worth taking.

Good, but not amazing. It does leave me feeling the Musketeer and Deadeye powers lack a little in the wow factor compared to other characters. The most effective build I see is investing heavily in your ability to help combat checks at other locations plus of couple of side powers. Pity

I've got a quick question / clarification about Liranne's Musketeer power to do with barriers:

"You may discard a weapon to defeat a barrier that has the Cache, Lock, or Skirmish trait."

When I first looked at it I thought 'pretty cool' however on a second look I realised the power description is more important for what it doesn't say what what it does:

1) Not restricted to barriers I am encountering, or indeed barriers at my location

2) Does not specify when I have to play the card (i.e. on encountering, when making your check etc.)
Does that imply I can try to open a lock for example, fail the check and then just go blam and blow it open with this power?