There have been quite a few threads and discussions here about the difficulty of the introductory scenarios in Wrath of the Righteous. In some cases, folks have expressed frustration in their team's inability to get through one of the early scenarios or in the feeling that their failures/character deaths were due primarily to luck rather than anything they had control over.
I believe that many players' experience with Wrath of the Righteous would be improved with some 'strategy ideas' or something similarly tutorial-esque built in to the instruction booklet itself to help groups either get started (if they are brand new to the PACG) or get oriented to some of the nuances in the adventure path or with specific characters (if they are PACG veterans). For instance, I would propose something like the following (expanded, cleaned up, and nicely written) for the Wrath instruction book:
Strategy Hints & Tips
- Scouting and Evasion are vital: There will be a lot of unpleasantness in your Worldwound adventures -- more than you may have seen if you played Rise of the Runelords or Skull & Shackles. In those worlds, your team may have been able to boisterously knock down every door and destroy everything in your path; that strategy may not work as well here in Wrath of the Righteous. Don't feel like you must fight every bane in each location -- scouting and evasion tools can help you prudently fight when you have the edge and avoid trouble that you (or your team) are not yet prepared for.
- Your deck is your life: Since there is a lot of unpleasantness around, you will want to be judicious in using your cards from your deck in Wrath of the Righteous, especially if that use will discard, bury, or banish the card. Choosing to discard a card at the end of your turn may help you cycle through your deck to get a desired card sooner, but it comes at a cost -- you will be at death's door sooner as well. Discarding a blessing or ally to explore again moves you one step closer to death as well. In a small party, there won't be much time pressure from the blessings deck, so it will be important to keep your deck well-stocked as you take your turns. In a large party, there will be more pressure to move quickly through your location on your turn, but think about your health carefully as you weigh out your choices.
- You may not have to permanently close every location to succeed: In many scenarios, defeating a henchman will give you the opportunity to permanently close a location, which usually moves your team one step closer to a successfully cornered villain (and a scenario victory!) Keep an eye out for scenarios where this is not the case such as The Elven Entanglement. When most of the henchmen do not give an opportunity to close a location, your path to victory may be quite different. Remember that in most scenarios you only need to defeat and corner the villain for success, and with a spread out team to temporarily close locations, you often only need to permanently close 2 locations before fanning out and seeking the villain for a scenario victory.
- Remember to use your character's powers whenever you can: When starting out, it is easy to get caught up in the heat of battle and forget about using your character's powers. Whether it's Imrijka's ability to potentially explore again after taking out a monster on her turn, Enora's recharging of a spell from her discard pile after she plays a spell, Seelah's use of Charisma instead of any listed skill on a check before she acts, or Kyra's ability to heal herself or a friend at her location when using a non-corrupted blessing on anyone's check to defeat, each ability is essential to your character's (and your team's) success and survival, so be sure you are using them whenever they are available!
- Don't be afraid to try out different characters at the start if things aren't working out: In the beginning scenarios, you and your character are feeling each other out. If you are playing a character and your character keeps dying, your team isn't winning scenarios, or it just doesn't feel fun, don't be afraid to switch out to a new character and start again. Success requires that you and your character are in sync throughout your adventures, but the sooner you decide that you are not happy with your character the easier it will be to get a new character tested out and up to speed for your team.
What do y'all think? I know that for many, part of the fun of the game is figuring out things like this, but for others, they may not be able to hit up the fun until they have found their way to the information in some of these tips, so making the tips available directly in the instruction book may help more groups enjoy the game.
