IronGiant's page

Hey.

I've been creating my own solo adventures in RPG's for... well decades I guess. Started with DnD and Traveller in the (late!) 70's. But they seldom would "stick". Well this one seems to have "stuck" and I'm going to see if I can actually finish it.

This particular story will bring 2 characters up to level 3. I hope to get them all the way to 20 at some point.

Just for fun, I played around with ChatGPT to help me write part of the story and come up with some of the challenges, but that isn't the main focus. Though, at some point, once I get ChatGPT to understand what I want, I will try and make an entire AP that way if possible...

Feedback is appreciated, thanks!

Into the Nebula

I'm playing through Season of the Runelords with 3 different groups of 2 characters. When I'm done, I'll play through Season of Plundered Tombs and then Year of Rotting Ruin. Strictly solo, since I live kind of far away and just like to play at my own pace.... I've got about 1,000 hours of play into PACG with no end in sight...

Hi guys,

1. Do you find that the seasons add content that is good enough to invest time in?

2. If it is worth it, does it matter if I simply use the base set characters rather than the class decks?

Thanks

In addition to the other good advice given, I will add that though I like some of the class decks, a better deal is the "Character Add On" decks available with the base sets, since they give more characters to play with and some are really good with their "assigned" box. If you get all the 4 original base sets and their Character Add On decks you'll have enough characters to swap around all 4 of the original base sets. But! I still mix and match characters between boxes and have a great time doing so.

And on the Seasons: totally and completely worth it. You get to reuse your entire box set with new stories and some new banes too. Save a tree, buy a season!

Are the Soul Shard Cards available for print out at DriveThruCards?

Clearly the decision has been made and really, it must be mostly economic or else the product line would continue come what may. But yea, it feels like a real let down to not just get a "we would like to thank the fans for their support over the years! Due to the world economic situation, and with heavy hearts, we have been forced to discontinue our beloved PACG line"

I've spent well over $800 total, finished 3 of the base games multiple times each, am working on the "Adventure card society" paths for 2 of them, played this game while traveling around the world, bought the Japanese version of this game in Japan and had to track down parts of the game at various times to keep playing where ever I was living. PACG hasn't been just some game I played, it has easily been the game I've most invested in financially and emotionally and I didn't have plans to stop.

To have the product line be unceremoniously dropped kind of flies in the face of the goodwill that Paizo and Mike have worked hard to build up over the years and really can sour any future purchases from either. It's not like they owe us anything, because they really don't, but I'd only buy fully packaged games from either in the future, just in case.

sigh. I looked up Mikes name to spell it correctly and found some political posts he made on Twitter less than 24 hours ago. I guess he's moved on from game design to politics. Maybe he'll make a run for an office and make the world a better place?

Sad news, glad I got in on the ground floor. I've got 4 complete sets to play and I'm sure the alternate adventure paths will keep me entertained for a while, but I'm sad it didn't grow.

Starfinder Adventure Card Game.... really hoped for that one....

I started watching these but I'm kind of not getting what is going on. This is your own homebrew idea? How does it work? On the plus side, seeing the Mummy's Mask cards played made me miss that AP again, good times...

I'll also put them up on my YouTube channel afterward: Cartmanbeck's YouTube Channel

I would love to see the Starfinder Adventure Card game, any timeline for uploading it?

Starfinder Adventure Card game please. Wanted this from Starfinder Day #1 :)

I am also a new player and I'm almost done with book 2 in the Dead Suns AP and have basically only used the Beginner box as well.

I have found most of the books from Dead Suns (and a couple of other older AP's) on Amazon for about $10 each including shipping. The whole AP might run about $70 total if you keep an eye out for "used - like new" and other deals, which have worked out well for me.

Having finished 1 and (almost) 2 and being new to Starfinder, I would say the encounters can be fun though not intuitive, especially with only the beginner box. I found I could answer questions quickly with a web search and some common sense.

Warning about the final encounter in Book 1: If done... "wrong" or unlucky, it can wipe out the party.

Sorry I'm late to this party but the setup for this encounter confused me a little.

The front door guards to the nightclub:
"the guards attack anyone... if they find any weapons in a search" after searching them for weapons.

So, this seems an automatic trigger for a fight, but then there are instructions for talking to bar patrons after getting in the club.

So, the characters could be astute and check out the front door first, noticing that they would be searched for weapons and put them back at their hotel, but then once inside be defenseless.

So, is this simply the same content as the hardcover book, only updated and in a softcover and less than half price?

Also, if someone bought the pdf, can they download the updated .pdf version for free later on?

"Repeat for adventures until the end", so each character should end with 6 of each, not 5.

Additionally, you gain an extra power feat when you earn your role card (same as in base set adventure paths), and it's probably worth getting an extra Card and Skill feat around AD5 or so, as most seasons provide a bonus Skill and Card feat at some point.

Thanks Yewstance, my math was bad... :)

To simply play the "Seasons" without it being organized, start the scenarios (from the "Seasons" rules):

After completing the first scenario, give the character a skill feat.
After completing the second scenario, give the character a power feat.
After completing the fourth scenario, give the character a card feat.

Repeat for adventures until the end, so each character will end with 5 of each.

Note: the new rules for organized play, as I understand them, may change the above, but it's a good starting point.

Class decks add some nice options and new characters but are not needed to simply play, just mix in all cards you want to use and play.

Anyway, thanks for renewing the game and community. But I have a question: what happens to the old sets?

Another great option, which requires NO overseas shipping:

Buy the Seasons for the "old" box sets here

Each "Season" costs about $30 and allows you to use the entire box set again with about 30 scenarios. 1$ per scenario and you get to reuse the box set! A total steal, in my opinion.

Each box set has at least 1 "Season" and some have two.

Save the Earth, buy a Season!

(and then buy the new core set later when you are done with the "season"...).. :)

USA*. To be specific, I'm in Massachusetts.

*Possibly this was apparent by the fact that I'm so provincial I assumed everyone would know what country I'm in without bothering to mention it...

A shout out to a fellow Massachusetteser: Yo. I don't live there anymore, but I was born and raised and lived for 45 years in and around Boston. A classy town....

The changes all look very good to me, and I'm especially happy to see permadeath no longer as a default rule (I will keep one "hero point" at all times....) so I can want to win and hate to lose, without thinking that I must throw away 1+ year of gaming if I get really unlucky. I can stop using my custom "death" cards that go on top of my characters card piles with a big skull and crossbones once this comes out... And the changeable difficulty looks great. Heck, basically every rule change and option looks good to me.

On this subject, will the updated rule book be backwards compatible with the old AP's? If it is not a new game, can we use the new rules with the old box sets? The existing seasons?

On the subject of scaling the game to personal preference, it has always seemed to me that the biggest difference between game difficulty happens when we all chose which characters to play, not how we play or the game settings:

If the game seems too easy, take a bunch of characters who do not compliment each other. If the game seems too hard, take a bunch of characters who do. It seems to me that this changes the difficulty more than anything in game.

I like a challenge but don't want to beat myself up, so I play 2 groups of 2 through each AP: one is a "dream team" optimized for the AP and one is my "special" group that I play for a challenge. The "dream team" breezes through and helps me learn the scenario, the "special" team takes longer to get through.

I couldn't find the common PSA thread, so there you have it - all the old PACG Seasons are on sale right here!.

You've saved $9.90 off suggested retail—that's a 30% discount!

thanks Longshot! I've wanted to buy some of these for a while, I grabbed a bunch I didn't have that were on sale!

Moving this question from where it is currently buried, because it seems to me that it is kind of a big question on its own:

Question about Muminofrah's Amusement here

If I have a character that has won a scenario, can that character replay that scenario again or no?

The rules don't actually provide for replaying scenarios you won—only the ones you lose

But there have been other threads which talk about characters replaying scenarios they won, for example to get a new player up to speed with the group and help them out or if a character dies and needs to be replaced, or to get some better boons to help with a difficult scenario or just because you want to.

I'm pulling this question out so the rule can be clarified, it seems like a big rule to me...

Thanks...

Here's a 2015 post (from Hawkmoon) stating that you can repeat scenarios:

https://boardgamegeek.com/article/18749066#18749066

And here's an old-timey (2013) post from Mike Selinker implying that scenarios can be replayed, but that the rewards can only be taken once:

https://boardgamegeek.com/article/12933563#12933563

But the PACG rules have changed since then. Just pointing out that it may have been accepted at one time that scenarios could be replayed even if won.

In addition, the rules state:

Which seems redundant if you aren't allowed to replay won scenarios anyway.

Also, not allowing characters to replay past (won) scenarios can lead to players getting stuck. Sometimes your characters are not optimized for a particular scenario's requirements and you need to change out some of your boons. If you can replay the current scenario that isn't too, too bad, as long as there are some locations you can focus on to find the loot you need and not worry too much about getting past the scenario. But there are some scenarios where all the boons are put in a pile or stash and the players don't get them unless they win.

Also, also, the Adventure Card Guild rules state:

"You can replay any Adventure Card Guild scenario as many times as you like, as long as your character is of the appropriate tier (see Appendix 1: Tier Advancement). When you replay a scenario, you do not gain the scenario, adventure, Adventure Path, or tier rewards, but you can upgrade your deck."

Just a few reasons why this seems like not such a good change, but since I will be out of MM in a few months and start the Guild Scenarios, it won't effect me much...

MM rulebook p.18 wrote:

If you successfully completed the scenario, you may proceed to the next scenario listed on the adventure card.

So, it's there, but damn subtle. As Vic said, "The rules don't provide for replaying scenario you won." The rules don't say you *can't* replay a won scenario - but then again, they don't say you *can*. And by default for board games, if the rules don't say you can do it, you can't do it.

Hmmm, I would love to dispute this and get Vic's input, but he already gave it :)

I guess I will house rule this away, mostly because it sucks for my play style: because I always have 2 groups go through an Adventure Path

1. The Dream Team - They play the scenario and I make notes and its not too stressful, just fun. They are optimized for the adventure path, take the best / most optimized upgrades and cards. A nice casual game night...

2. The "special" team - They are a more challenging group and they can be more fun (sometimes) if I already practiced the scenario and have it down. They are not optimized, just a couple of thematic characters who need more thought and are a challenge.

Unfortunately, as you, yourself know (!) sometimes my "special" team gets stuck and I can't get them past a scenario. So, I use someone from the Dream Team who already passed it, to go back and help them through. I did this alot in SnS...

I feel like this is a new rule.... I remember lots of players redoing old scenarios while waiting for an Adventure Deck to be released or to get some extra boons....

The rules don't actually provide for replaying scenarios you won—only the ones you lose.

I'm finally on this scenario and here to get clarification but I'm confused by this statement. We can't replay scenarios we win? I've never seen this rule. I know we can't go back and get the reward for a scenario twice, but I've never seen a rule that says you can't replay scenarios you won again and I always thought that was one point of getting rewards for the final scenario in the final Adventure Deck of each AP...

Also, many players go back and retry some past, won scenarios to get better boons, especially if they are in need of some loot changes to get past a difficult scenario.

Am I missing some rule?

My advice: if you want an easy time of the game, take Alahazra and Damiel and Lirianne. Alahazra can pretty much find everything by scouting ahead and Damiel can kill anything with potions. Lirianne has Survival and Swashbuckling to defeat the ships. Make sure you get some armors (you WILL need them for AD5...).

Oloch I liked a bit, but he died partway through my game and then I found I didn't miss him much.

The bugs are kind of annoyingly simple, like a monster with a Wisdom roll to use attack spells or weapons and the Wisdom roll is just used as the To Defeat roll instead.

For a fan of the card game, it seems to be worth the $25 to get the base AP and just ignore the other purchases. There are some slightly modified characters you can purchase for $25. Wow, is someone paying these prices? I can't imagine what a new player (never saw the card game before) is thinking... Who would pay that much money for... a slightly different character in the game? For $25 you can get two or three excellent IOS games, or one slightly different character in a card game?!?

I had big hopes for the digital game but I'm kind of glad that some AP's can only be played physically. I got Mummies Mask and a Caseling portable card holder ($12 on Amazon) and I packed AD 0, 1 and 2 inside and made it portable for vacations. It takes up space to play, but it's more fun than the digital version (though, obviously, can't be played on a bus / train / etc...).

I've finished RotR and SnS and I'm now almost done with Mummies Mask deck #1. I played Wrath but only a couple of scenarios and then the cards got damaged in a move and I'm not going to replace it (too much to do in other AP's...)

If you already "finished" RotR in the app and you're looking for the next one, I'd recommend Mummies Mask as well.

And I will give a +1 to Hannibal's recommendation as well:

Once you buy a box set and complete it (see you in a year or so...) You also could then buy and play the "Pathfinder Society Guild" adventure path for that box set when you've completed the path set that comes in the box.

Mummies Mask has 2:

Mummies Mask Seasons of the Plundered Tombs

and

Mummies Mask Seasons of Factions Favor

These are completely new adventure paths which use the Mummies Mask box set.

Then, when done (see you in... 2021 or so...), You could then get Skull and Shackles, which was also good, but didn't feel as polished to me as Mummy's Mask does.

Wow. Gave it a look over. Lots of good stuff in there. Thank you!

I'm going to go against the grain and say I'm not interested in more story unless the story becomes a meaningful part of the gameplay. As it stands, the story bits is just background info that doesn't have any effect on the game; if the story demands the villain we defeat in a scenario gets away then the villain will get away no matter how the scenario plays out. It's like being railroaded in an RPG and it makes me completely tune out.

I would love to see a branching storyline. It doesn't have to branch very far, but a certain flavor of "you didn't save the princess (which was an optional side quest in a scenario) so the king will not help you here" or "you chose to kill the baron and replace him so now you need to defeat his brother (as an additional henchmen in a later scenario)". At the final AD, the game could branch more completely to a "light side / dark side" finale and that would be a great ending that we could feel a part of.

One bit of advice (which I believe Mike gave before) that really helped me with the story bit was: Let the cards tell the story. It doesn't help the overall story (which I still would like to be better written out) but I keep a little journal for each Adventure Path and when something kooky happens (where DID that undead Great White Shark come from?!? or when an ally EXACTLY fits a need, etc.) I write it down as a little story.

My SnS characters, for example, had to grapple with the chaotic nature of the adventure path and it wore heavily on their collective consciousness...

It might have been with the site redesign. If the adventure card game wasn't previously under Pathfinder and you had Pathfinder minimized, then it was moved there, that would explain it. I'm not sure if they got reorganized or not though.

That seems to have done it, thanks!

Character Name: Damiel
Role Card: Grenadier
Skill Feats: Dexterity +2, Intelligence +4
Power Feats: Hand Size 7, Proficient with Weapons, 1d6 (+1), (add an additional 1d12)
Card Feats: Spell +2, Armor +1, Item +3, Blessing +1
Weapons: Blasting Pistol +2
Spells: Scrying, Righteousness, Dimension Leap, Safe Harbor.
Armors: Eel Skin Armor, Howling Skull Armor
Items: Bottled Lightning, Potion of Healing, Potion of Heroism, Impossible Bottle (Loot), Liquid Ice, Spyglass (Wizard Class Deck), Alkali Flask (x2), Ring of the Iron Skull,
Allies: Lady Agasta Smythee
Blessings: Blessing of Achaekek, Blessing of Erastil, Blessing of Gozreh, Blessing of Sivanah, Blessing of Abadar.
Your Ship: Abrogail's Fury

Character Name: Lirianne
Role Card: Deadeye
Skill Feats: Dexterity +4, Wisdom +2
Power Feats: Hand Size 6, Shuffle for D4+2, When you encounter a bane..., move during move step and examine top card (and shuffle it into the deck).
Card Feats: Weapon+3, Armour +1, Item +1, Blessing +2
Weapons: Saltbox, Flaming Musket +2, Crossbow of Retribution, Dagger Pistol + 1, Doubleshot Pepperbox, Navigator Musket +1, Pistol +1.
Spells: -
Armors: Brine Dragonhide Breastplate, Wilderness Studded Leather, Snipers Studded Leather.
Items: Ring of the Sea Strider, Farglass, Sniper Goggles.
Allies: Rickety Hake, Old Salt, Pterandon.
Blessings: Milani, Achaekek, Gozreh, Erastil (x2), Cayden Cailean.
Your Ship: Abrogail's Fury

Character Name: Alahazra
Role Card: Stargazer
Skill Feats: Intelligence +2, Charisma +4
Power Feats: Hand Size 7, Proficient with Light Armors (or the blessings deck or any character deck), When you use the above power to examine a card from a location deck...), that character may recharge it, You gain the skill perception (and survival): charisma +2
Card Feats: Spell +3, Armour +1, Ally +1, Blessing +2
Weapons: -
Spells: Geyser (x2), Holy Feast, Raise Dead, Cure, Wall of Fire, Aqueous Orb, Quickened Ray.
Armors: Robe of Vision (Wizard Class Deck)
Items: Conch of the Tritons, Wand of Flame, Hurricane Crown (she did far more than any character to earn this....)
Allies:Master of the Gales, Baby Triceratops, Lizard (Wizard Class Deck).
Blessings: Abadar, Achaekek, Sivanah, Gozreh, Pharasma, Erastil, Cayden Cailean.
Your Ship: Abrogail's Fury

Other information:

Deaths:
Oloch at "Spies Among Us" (I should have paid attention and not pushed his luck that night...)
Jirelle at "Islands of the Damned". Discarded 5 cards from her draw pile... yikes...

Total scenarios played in S&S to date: (includes dead characters, retired characters (Lini and Lem) and Ezren and Feiya who have not yet completed the game) = 112 (approx 224 hours of game time. WOW. Based on the total cost of the game $135 this is about $.60 per hour.... an excellent investment in RPG time and money...)

Time frame from beginning Adventure Path to completion: 16 months. Average times played each week = 1.75

So, I come here regularly and check this page:

Main PACG forum page

It seems to me, that if I go to that page, some threads show and others don't. My guess has been that the threads that show are one's with reply's that I haven't seen, so if there is nothing there, I just assumed there is no new content.

However, I did a search on a subject and found thread on this page that I haven't seen:

PACG rules page

And those threads don't show up as unread on the main page, so I have to click inside each subcategory.

I also just assumed (!) that there was no new content on the Homebrew page because no new threads showed up on the main page, but now I checked and there is a little content there, but few, if any responses, such as this guy:

Player posting up some new characters

...who put up a few notes with no feedback from anyone. Is it possible that something is broken here? Did something break with the new website redesign? How does this page work and why do I see some posts but not others?

If I saw no posts on the main page that would tell me that I have to check each page separately (not best but logically acceptable) but since I see some threads on the main page and not others that makes no sense to me.

Its all OK, I'm not complaining, just trying to understand and help the online community keep alive....

I'm currently playing through some homebrew SnS scenarios with a party of MM Yoon, Siwar and Lesath, and I've realized that Yoon is a big factor why it's not feeling challenging at all lately.

It seems that some characters are more powerful than others (Alahazra in SnS for example) and more powerful in certain party sizes.

In my opinion, now, this is OK. If a character seems too powerful, there are things we can do to keep a challenge. First, we could not use that character in our game, or not in the party size it excels at. Maybe that is more of a character for a player who isn't a grognard (like a single mom with a couple of teenagers who just wants to play, not have to calculate statistics in her head :) ).

Also, when a character starts to shine too much (which, I agree, MM Yoon does) and I want to continue playing them, I will make more thematic choices to their feats. For example, just don't take any Blessing card feats for Yoon and this will diminish her power without needing to house rule anything.

All very exciting news. Thanks for sharing the design ideas and taking feedback from the fans.

Because Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild players who play at multiple locations may not always be able to play scenarios in the order they would prefer, PFSACG scenarios can sort of be played in any order... as long as you're conforming to the rules about which scenarios your character can play, which are provided in the Adventure Card Guild Guide, part of which are quoted below:

Perfect explanation, thanks!

The Season Of the Runelords adventure path says:

"Complete These Adventures in any Order"

Then all 6 adventures are listed.

Is this correct? You could start at adventure 6 and... work your way back? Is it balanced for that?

i have the character decks and other stuff for my subscription i was jw if an yting was ever brought up about another ap for the cardgame?

and, Paizocon is going on right now.... We should have more information in a few days...

While we wait, have you seen the excellent Pathfinder Society Adventure Card guild?

Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild stories

There are completely different Adventure Paths using the existing box sets, almost doubling your investment in the game.

You can also get the few unique cards in most of those different AP's here (if you don't want to proxy the few unique cards):

Season of the Runelords cards

So, if you have the Rise of the Runelords set, you can buy the:

Season of the Runelords AP - $29

and the

Unique cards to the Season of the Runelords - $12

So, for $29 (or $41) you can use that entire base set again and preserve your investment... Something to do while we wait. Also, if you complete that Season of the Runelords, your characters get a special card to add to their class deck box.

Consider the Seaweed Siren in SnS AD6; nothing in WotR comes even close to the punishment you'll face with any character that doesn't focus on wisdom (and even if you focus on wisdom you'll need to spend several resources!).

When I mixed in the banes and boons for AD6 I saw that monster. Monsters like that are the reason I try to never, ever allow a character to go below their hand size... Most characters would have their hand wiped out I think. Better to end the game when the characters are weak rather than take a chance and have a character die so far into the game.

Glad you finally got there!

IronGiant wrote:

Just for kicks, I roll a d4 to see how many blessings Barnabas would have discarded: 4, which would have failed the scenario.

I get it now, pistols have the swashbuckling trait so you only discard 1 blessing. But when I first read this, my heart absolutely sank as I thought about having to be the one to you that you can still lose (and possibly had lost)

Thanks for keeping me honest! Yes, that one particular pistol has the swashbuckling trait, so only one blessing was discarded. And yes, I was not so clear: there were 3 blessings remaining after the turn started.

Fantastic! Congratulations.

I am thinking, though -- AD5 is pretty late in S&S to be having trouble giving the Swashbuckling trait to checks. We usually are pretty adept at that by that point. (Obviously, this varies quite significantly by character, though.)

I stopped thinking about swashbuckling when Jirelle died and none of my other characters use melee. I should have been paying closer attention to see that some pistols have swashbuckling, but the first few times I tried this scenario I was with 3 characters with exactly one weapon card between them....

Part of the experience of playing solo means that sometimes my head gets stuck on something and can't pull back and see the bigger picture... thanks for all your help.

Because I had so much time invested in Ezren and Feiya, I decided I wanted to get them past this too.... But they also lack armor and swashbuckling... so I setup 5 characters and did the scenario again...

Attempt#8
With 5 characters and Alahazra scouting ahead, we got a few of the 8 (!) locations closed, but in the end, we were just unlucky: Barnabas was on the bottom of the Torture Pit and we ran out of time.

Attempt #9
OK.

We found Barnabas late in the game but we got quite a few locations closed by then.

Ezren is ready to finish his turn. 5 blessings remain.

We are all spread out at different locations and ready for Damiel to encounter Barnabas but he can't do it alone.

Damiel uses Teleport at the end of Ezren's turn to move Lirianne to Barnabas at the Torture Pit (why does he keep ending up there?!?).

On Damiel's turn, he moves to the Torture Pit, 4 blessings remain.

Damiel encounters Barnabas but has no armor = discard ... 3.

Each character has to encounter a henchmen, fortunately Kipper and Luccaria are in location decks that are about to get temp closed...

Feiya encounters an Erinye Devil, Ezren plays Blizzard to add 2d6 to her (and everyone's) rolls. Feiya has no attack spells, but recharges a card to use her power to lower the difficulty. With the Blizzard, it's enough.

Alahazra encounters an henchmen (I forget exactly who met which henchmen...) and uses the Conch of the Tritons = all done.

Ezren encounters a henchmen and uses Dehydrating Touch, with Blizzard this is enough = all done.

On to Barnabas:

Damiel has 2 cards left: Alkali Flask and Blasting Pistol. He uses the flask, and discards the pistol to add his craft skill. Success.

Lirianne Buries her Musket +1. With Blizzard and one remaining Blessing, its a wrap...

Between all those rolls, the characters also had 4 blessings to discard, so it was mostly a done deal, though it could have failed.

I should have noticed earlier that swashbuckling could have come from a pistol too, but before I got Lirianne up to this scenario, no one was using one.

I also wonder if I could have skipped my "first explore" and then use an ally that allows an explore? Many of those allies add the swashbuckling trait to the explore; that would have solved the problem too..

Thanks everyone....

Attempt #7
Got lucky. Very lucky.
Scouted Barnabas early and he was at the Torture Pit so I don't need to worry about closing that location.

Found and acquired 3 armors. Found and acquired 2 blessings. Found and acquired 2 good pistols. All 3 characters were at Gannet Island when it was closed and got another armor.

Very lucky: found and acquired a Dagger Pistol, which, despite it not being a solid weapon for Lirianne at this point, has the crucial (to this scenario) Swashbuckling trait so, if used, will stop Barnabas from discarding d4 blessings cards and just discard 1.

Bad luck
Took a chance on a non-scouted explore though and hit Luccaria who caused a bit of damage to Alahazra. But then I knew where she was and decided it was best to just try and temp-close her location without trying to find her again.

Final setup:

4 blessings remain.

Alahazra is at the Shrine to Norgorber ready to temp close with a Blessing of Norgorber.

Damiel is at the Docks ready to bury an ally that Alahazra passed off to him on her last turn.

Lirianne is at the Torture Pit ready to take on Barnabas with 2x pistols (one is the Dagger pistol) and 3 x armors to recharge for Barnabas.

I decide to use a blessing to try and get her to pass the difficult Perception roll and not have to add 6 to the difficulty: fails.

Alahazra encounters a random henchmen and does poorly against it (Eryiene Devil) but she also has armor and simply discards it for the damage.

Damiel encounters Kip, also Kip randomly does damage to... Damiel. Damiel also has an armor so no real damage done. Damiel wins his fight.

Now, Damiel and Alahazra have 3 blessings between them, one is the Blessing of Achakek so both of Liriannes attacks will get +2d8 rolls.

She buries both weapons: Success

Just for kicks, I roll a d4 to see how many blessings Barnabas would have discarded: 4, which would have failed the scenario.

I want to say I've enjoyed this scenario but cannot. Just too random, too much punishment and if you don't get everything exactly just right and get real lucky, forget it. If Lirianne hadn't gotten that Dagger Pistol during the scenario, it would have failed.

I really like this game, but all this randomness kind of kills it for me. The Swashbuckling trait and armor requirements just feel like a punishment, they don't feel like they add anything to the game, like they are saying: You didn't take Oloch and a swashbuckler, shame on you!

Now, I've got 3 characters past this scenario and 2 (Ezren and Feiya) that have not completed it. Most likely they will not. I will continue on with Damiel / Alahazra / Lirianne and finish the game and then decide what to do. If AD6 seems like something Ezren and Feiya could handle with some help, I will come back with the Hurricane crown and then have a reason to do this scenario again so I can finish with Ezren and Feiya, or just move on to something else.

Thanks for your help guys...

Don't ever wait on Augury. It's the most valuable resource you have, and the sooner you use it the sooner you cycle back to use it again (this is the most important reason). It's also bad to hold onto it - it's a dead card, you risk having to discard it, and it slows your whole card-cycle down.

Excellent advice, thanks. I also hadn't been thinking about needing so much armor to get through this one scenario in particular, so I had been banishing all the easy to get armors to have a better chance of upgrading their armor, so now there are very few armors to get easily. It seems a better tactic would be to only banish things like shields and keep the easy to get armors in the game that allow you to banish them to ignore all damage one time.

I tried using the Letter of Marquis to get some armor, but none of the characters have a high constitution so it doesn't work out so well and the characters don't have a lot of time in this scenario for extra explores anyway because:

1. Barnabas takes blessings "just because".
2. There is one extra location.
3. One location takes 1d4 blessings just to close.

Attempt #6
They were able to setup an end game but Damiel was not able to close the torture pit despite throwing the only available blessing at it, leaving the location open with no henchmen.

We found Barnabas, but then Lirianne failed a check at a barrier, which moved her and the barrier to a random location (where Barnabas was...) and then he got shuffled back into the location. Fortunately they were lucky enough to scout him again and the best we could do was:

Lirianne ready to fight Barnabas alone at the Beach.
Damiel at the Torture Pit ready to temp close.
Alahazra at Gannet Island ready to temp close.
2 blessings remain in the blessing deck.

Now, to win:
Damiel and Alahazra would have to survive defeating 2 henchmen (again) and still be able to help Lirianne.

Hopefully Kip doesn't come out and wipe someone's hand, "just because".

Hopefully Damiel can temp close that location (which WILL require one blessing and some luck)

And then, Lirianne would have to defeat Barnabas twice on her own and she did have one armor to recharge and then she could get lucky and defeat him the first time and then get lucky again and NOT have to discard her only weapon when he has her discard cards ("just because") and then get lucky again and defeat him the second time.

But none of those long odds matter, because Barnabas discarded 2 blessings from the blessing deck ("just because") and then Alahazra can't temp close Gannet Island anyway.

Scenario failed.

OK. I'm finally back to this and it still goes poorly.

Thanks for all your input. A note about my play style: I will not knowingly or easily risk character death. Having a character get down to less than their hand size is an EVENT in my games. I cannot play a game for a year + and then have it all thrown away to start all over. I put paper cutouts into each draw pile with the hand size written on them above the card where they would be below their hand size in the deck, to warn me when that happens. I may go very slightly into the hand size IF it seems the scenario can be won with not too much risk. BUT I lost Jirelle by taking risks one time and she got just a horrible set of rolls, then had to bury 1D6 from her draw pile, rolled a 5 and DIED. If I was not cautious, I'd be restarting this game every few months and never finish it...

So, rather than try and get this team of 3 through, I had brought Damiel and Lirianne up through AD2 at the same time as the other team and had left them there. So, I brought them up to "Best Served Cold" to see if they could help out...

Damiel:
Skill feats: dexterity x1 ,intelligence x4
Card Feats: Spell x1, Item x 3, Blessing x1
Grenadier role card
Powers:
x hand size 7
x weapons
x You may discard a card to add 1d6 (+1)... x add an additional 1d12.
x when you acquire a boon that has the alchemical or liquid (x or firearm) trait you may immediately explore again.

Lirianne
Skill feats: dexterity x 4, wisdom x1
Card feats: weapon x2, item x1, blessing x2
Deadeye role card
Powers:
Hand size: 5
You may shuffle a card from you hand into your deck to add 1d4: x +1, x +2
x When you encounter a bane, you may attempt a Perception check with a difficulty of 5... to evade it.
x When you move to a different location during your move step, you may examine the top card of that location deck (x and shuffle it into the deck).

Attempt #4:

First, I attempted just Damiel and Lirianne together since they came all this way alone...

Turn #1: Lirianne uses her scout ahead ability in a safe location, finds a monster and dispatches it.

Turn #2: Damiel has an Augury in his hand but I don't like to use it right away, I want to get the deck down a bit to make it worth it. He takes a chance and meets Barnabas. He has no armor in his hand and rolls a 4, has to recharge 4 cards. Now he can't beat Barnabas. Because he failed to defeat, he also has to discard d4 cards from the blessings pile... just because. Rolls a 4. Then has to discard 4 more blessings cards because he didn't defeat the villain. Excellent, this is super fun. Turn 2 and I'm down 1/3 of the blessings deck in a scenario that already has one more location than normal.

Threw the match: closed down this location and used the Letter of Marquis to see if they could at least get some good boons. They got a blessing of Norgorber (good to save for this scenario the next time) and were able to banish some basic / elite weapons.

One week later, I have time to play again

Attempt #5
This time I got out Alahazra and made a team of 3.

Turn #1 - Lirianne uses her scout ahead to a safe location which she could close. Encounters a monster and dispatches it.

Turn #2 - Alahzara uses her power to examine some locations and get some boons eliminated. Also, gets SUPER lucky and finds Barnabas at the Shrine of Norgorboer and an Eriyene Devil at another location.

Middle game: Leave Barnabas alone, got an armor but had to banish to close a location. Played tactically and got it down to 3 locations with each character at one and a good number of blessings left. But then, Damiel failed in his roll to close the Torture Pit. Lirianne defeated Barnabas, but he escaped to the Torture Pit and discarded 2 more cards from the blessing deck (d4 = 2). Now down about 13 cards left.

Now I know where he is and after a few more, found Kipper and closed the Torture pit, emptying it but for Barnabas. But one location had forced Damiel to bury an armor and no one has one in hand now.

Set up the end game: Damiel and Lirianne at the Torture Pit, Alahazra at Docks with an ally ready to bury and temp close (again).

5 blessings left, ready to try again to defeat Barnabas:

Lirianne's turn:

So, scenario rule says to encounter a henchman: Alahazra draws Kipper, Kipper gets to shoot someone... just because, he rolls a 4 + 1 = 5 and now rolls to shoot.... Lirianne... just because. Hand wipe, scenario failed again.

Irgy wrote:

Ready

Hahahha!! Kudos, the cheese wheel and glass of wine are great touch!! :D

Indeed...

Amazing! I will check this out in detail later, unfortunately my busy season starts now so my play time will be severely limited. But your detailed session is greatly appreciated.....

I sent you a 20$ gift certificate from Paizo.com and please accept it with my thanks! It may take a day, it was purchased but I couldn't see a way to send it to you, so I sent an email to store@paizo.com, they would probably get the email on Monday.

Thanks again!

Ok, it's done.

Finished (first attempt) with 16 blessings still in the blessings deck. Not interested in $20, especially since I could easily have cheated (I didn't, but just saying it would have been trivial to), just enjoyed the exercise/challenge

Excellent work! I am humbled by your achievement and look forward to the details.

You are most kind to refuse the reward but, honestly, I would love to send it to you! It would feel right. Thanks again! I will wait for your details, setup my game and get ready to plow through (knowing, as you said, that I shouldn't expect to get through on the first try...).

Is there a reason you're all short a power feat? Just checked and you should have 6 total (three from the initial set of four and three from the role card).

I think they each have 6 (edit: I see, I missed some - here is the complete list):

Alahazra:
Stargazer role card
Powers:
1. hand size 7
2. light armors,
3. (or the blessings deck or any character deck)
4. When you use the above power to examine a card from a location deck on your turn and it is a boon, you may encounter it.
5. When you use the above power to examine a card from a character deck, that character may recharge it,
6. You gain the skill Perception: charisma +2

Feiya:
Sea Witch Role card
Powers:
1. hand size 7
2. (or barrier)
3. 2 plus the adventure deck number of the recharged card, if any.
4. You may recharge a card to add 2d4 to your Fortitude
5. (or survival) check.
6. When you play Blessing of Hshurha, or you play any blessing on any check to defeat a bane that has the Aquatic trait, you may recharge it instead of discarding it.

Wizard Class Deck Ezren
Hedge Wizard role card.
Powers:
1. hand size 7
2. (or put it in your hand)
3. (or you may do both)
4. When another character at your location attempts a combat check that has the Arcane trait, add 2 to it.
4. When another character at your location acquires a card that has the Magic trait, that character may immediately recharge it
5. You may discard a card that has the Arcane trait to add 1 die to any check by another character.

It's definitely the climax of the whole adventure path. Deck 6 felt like an epilogue afterwards.

This is actually good news. I worry that even if I could get past this, I would be up against a wall for all 5 scenarios in AP6...

Excellent, thanks all:

The Wizard deck is shuffled into the box.

Alahazra:
4 skills in Charisma, 1 in Intelligence.
3 cards in spells, 1 in armor, 1 in blessings.
Stargazer role card
Powers: hand size 7, light armors, (or the blessings deck or any character deck), When you use the above power to examine a card from a character deck, that character may recharge it, ,You gain the skill Perception: charisma +2

Cards: Aqueous Orb (x2), Dehydrating touch (x2), Raise Dead, Blazing servant, Resist Energy, Holy Feast, Old Salt, Rotgut, Rickety Hake, Conch of the Tritons, Blessing of: Achaekek / Abadar / Norgorber / Gozreh / Milani / Sivanah, Immortal Dreamstone, Reflecting buckler.

Feiya:
4 skills in Intelligence, 1 skill in Wisdom.
2 cards in spells, one card in items, 2 cards in blessings.
Sea Witch Role card
Powers: hand size 7, (or barrier) 2 plus the adventure deck number of the recharged card, if any.
You may recharge a card to add 2d4 to your Fortitude (or survival) check.
When you play Blessing of Hshurha, or you play any blessing on any check to defeat a bane that has the Aquatic trait, you may recharge it instead of discarding it.

Cards: Safe Harbor, Life Leech, Hydraulic Push, Wall of Fire, Icy Prison, Resist Energy, Displacement, Geyser. Blessing of Hshurha (x5), Blessing of Milani, Headband of Epic Intelligence, Impossible Bottle, Farglass, Lady Cerise Bloodmoon, Alise Grogblud, Lizard.

Wizard Class Deck Ezren
4 skills in Intelligence, 2 in Dexterity.
3 cards in spells, one in armor, 4 in items.
Hedge Wizard role card.
Powers: hand size 7, (or put it in your hand), (or you may do both), When another character at your location acquires a card that has the Magic trait, that character may immediately recharge it, You may discard a card that has the Arcane trait to add 1 die to any check by another character.
Cards: Scrying, Augury (x2), Freezing Sphere (x2), Animated Weapon, Control Weather, Safe Harbor, Dehydrating Touch, Quickened Ray, Blizzard, Parrot, Pyromaniac Mage, Haneilius Fitch, Wizard's Hook, Force Sling +3, Letter off Marque, Sapphire of Intelligence, Ring of Regeneration, Magic Studded Leather Armor.

History:
I finished RotR with 6 characters: 2 groups of 3 and all well balanced. By the end of the game I was just plowing through, so I wanted to control the difficulty a bit. I hate permadeath, but can't turn it off mentally (I wish I could) so it stays on. So, for SnS I needed a way to control the difficulty to get more challenge, but not get too upset if someone dies along the way.

I started the game by mixing in the Character deck and 3 class decks: Wizard, Fighter and Sorcerer. I bought a blank notebook and made a 2 page spreadsheet with all 35 scenarios listed and 9 columns to track characters and take notes:

Oloch, Flenta, Amaryllis, Seltyiel, Lirianne, Damiel, Class Deck Ezren, Lini and Lem.

By the time they all reached Dangerous Waters, it was clear that most didn’t have the skills needed for SnS and I reset to:

Oloch, Jirelle, Lirianne, Alahazra, Feiya, Damiel and CD Ezren.

The others were retired. I removed the Sorcerer and Fighter class decks.

These 7 I took through in groups of 2 – 4. Mostly 3 at a time. I tracked when they passed the scenario and how many failed attempts they had. Things were ok, but obviously Wisdom/Survival and swashbuckling are huge in this box set. Alahazara’s power is very helpful, as is Ezren’s CD Scrying and Augury. All 7 got through AP2 and finished The Secret of Man Catcher Cove.

After that, I culled a bit and left Lirianne and Damiel behind. They didn’t add much to the flavor I wanted in the game so I retired them so I could finish this in my lifetime...

Then, one late evening after work, I was not paying attention closely and Oloch died. That was totally on me, I should have read the cards better to know his danger. Still don’t like permadeath, but that one was avoidable, I should have thrown the match...

So, it was still ok. I had 2 teams to get through: Alahazra and Jirelle (the dream team: they plowed through 11 consecutive scenarios with not one failure) and Ezren and Feiya, (my “special” team…).

Alahazra and Jirelle would complete a scenario and then Ezren and Feiya would try it now that I had experience with it (those same 11 scenarios took Ezren and Feiya 23 attempts to pass and Free Captains Regatta finally required Jirelle to help).

Then, AP5 happened….

An Unforgivable Act: Alahazra and Jirelle got SUPER lucky and passed it on the first try with some very good dice rolls and circumstances beyond their control. Ezren and Feiya failed 3 attempts, and came close to dying… Finally I started using Alahazra along with them and then they got through on attempt 6 (12+ hours in this one scenario = not so much fun).

Islands of the Damned: Jirelle died. I was being super cautious, but she got totally miserable rolls one time, then again, then the henchmen steals d6 cards from her deck after a hand wipe: rolled a 4. Just enough to kill her by one card. Dead and out of the game permanently. Not. Happy.

Now, I have a team of 3. Lets see if I can finish this game I started on February 12, 2017…
They got through the next 3 scenarios but it takes at least 2 attempts each scenario. Not too bad, if that could continue…
So there I am “Best Served Cold” On top of a mountain I started climbing very, very carefully almost exactly one year ago….

.Help.

OK. This is not fun. All of AP5 was far too hard and punishing in my opinion, now it just feels like the game is laughing at me.

I will give $20 to the first person who can win this scenario with the following:

Alahazra
Feiya
Class Deck Ezren

I've tried 4 times. I've tried them together, I've tried them alone. This is just too punishing. I've had to play other scenarios more than 4 times but I can just see the math on this one, it is simply not possible.

1. Banishing cards with the divine trait? Well that just banishes all your spells too, since most have the divine trait as well.

2. A roll on a d4 to see if, after all that work, you lose the scenario by having the villain steal cards from the blessing deck... just "because"? Wow.

3. One location that damages you at the beginning of each turn.

4. One location that damages before and after.

5. Your ship is anchored.

6. Any other characters encounter the henchmen more than once because the villain says to, oh and by the way, its BEFORE the villain fight, so if they do poorly, they can't help you.

7. Henchmen that do random damage before the encounter.

8. A Henchman that damages you if there are more than 3 cards in her deck, then evades and you need to deal with her again.

9. A villain that steals your armor or 1d4 other cards... TWICE.

Something went wrong with game balance and design here. Players should not get 75 hours into a game and then be told there is NO chance of winning unless you have specific characters with specific skills and cards (and even then this scenario is not fair or fun).

Here are the rules to get the $20:

+1 to black rabbit’s permadeath threat/reality gap. IDK the solution.

I just sat down to play this game. Played SnS "Islands of the Damned". I am, damned careful (pun intended) with my characters and play style. I even made little cards with death heads on them to warn me when a character is down to their hand size in their deck. I literally could not play this game any slower and more cautiously.

Jirelle, a key character to advance in SnS met a Vrykolakas. Horribly unlucky rolls despite throwing everything available.

Whoops, Vrykolakas doesn't just damage you, it BURY'S the top 1d6 cards.

Welcome to permadeath for a key character, 75 hours and one year into playing this game. This really, really pisses me off and makes me not enjoy the game.

"So what?" some say. "Just house rule that you don't perma-die". Ok, so why don't I just house rule that I beat the whole game? There, I won! Weeeee...

I really, really don't get why perma-death is not an option and something less punishing is the default rule.

What am I meant to do now? Alahazra going to finish the game alone? With no Survival skill?

I started WotR, got frustrated and put it aside. I started MM and am enjoying it mush more. I think you would find universal consensus here that MM is much more suited to a 10 year old.

Have 2 of these and I like them:

Caseling large for 1400 cards

I also got a 650 card case to make Mummy's Mask portable.

They sell a larger case that will hold 1700 cards too.

HOWEVER, I don't sleeve and sleeved cards will not fit. Stupid question: Why would you sleeve class deck cards? Don't they never get shuffled into the set? Or, you sleeve your base sets so sleeve ALL your class decks so they are... ready to go?