James McKendrew's page

When Lone Shark Games developed Apocrypha, they partnered with TinkerHouse Games to create the ℵ1 companion app, which is amazingly useful for tracking character decks and fragments, and even which scenarios had been completed.

Would there be a market for something like this for PACG?

*I* would love one. I found the Apocrypha App fun to play with, and it will prove useful when I start running a second game out of the same box. Running multiple games out of single boxes has been a sticking point for many players on the forums, and will become even MORE relevant in the near future, when all APs use a common Core Set (rather than having a dedicated box for each AP).

Furthermore, another user pointed out that, with the release of the Ultimate Decks and their application with the OP Seasons, players who run multiple characters are somewhat likely to be using the same Ultimate Deck for more than one character.

Assuming that others would enjoy/use such an app, what features would you like?

I'd enjoy:

1) Character tracking, both for AP and OP, that would track decks, feats, and scenarios completed. (And for OP, which, if any, Ultimate deck was applied.)
2) A way to track cards removed from the box for the Path/Season.
2a) A way to track which supplemental decks or cards (Promos, etc) that have been added to a box.
3) Once you've specified which Box/AP/supplements are being used, maybe links to FAQs/Errata for those products (probably too much work to work it on a card-by-card basis, but, bonus points).
4) Maybe "Party" tracking where everyone in a party has read-only access to other folks' characters/decks.
5) For OP, maybe have a Reporting option for the organizer? I seem to recall the fine folks at Paizo begging folks to report games so they can properly measure the success of the OP initiative. Making it easier would only improve the amount of data returned.

Thoughts?

I can't be there this year, so if anyone has any awesome PFSACG-related (or, honestly, ANY) fun stories to share, I'd love to live vicariously through you.

(Apologies to anyone who leapt into this thread hoping I already had stories to share...)

To win the scenario, close all locations while a number of boons equal to the number of characters multiplied by 2 are displayed next to the scenario.

Should that say "...equal to at least the number..."?

Reward: Adventure Card Guild characters may choose a bonus deck upgrade. If the party acquired the allies Kafar or Nefti the Bard, record the acquired allies on your Chronicle sheet.For the rest of the Adventure Path, 1 character who has Kafar on his Chronicle sheet may temporarily replace 1 ally in his deck with Kafar and 1 character who has Nefti the Bard may temporarily replace 1 ally in her deck with Nefti. At the end of each scenario, return the allies to the game box.

Do we get the boons next to the scenario? Or just what we get outside of acquiring (caches, etc) and/or the one-per-player from the chart in the guild guide?

So, since this came up with Mavaro, I'm curious what peoples' opinions are on Zadim using the Inquisitor deck.

The relative lack of melee weapons concerns me. I also don't like it because of the relatively large number of B spells for a character who can't use them, ever.

On the other hand, if you focused him on non-two-handed ranged weapons, then skill feats in Dexterity could be double-bonus for when he adds his stealth to his OWN combat checks. So I'm not saying this is the worst choice. I just wanna talk about it.

My ideal for Zadim is lots of melee weapons (most of which are one-handed), few or no spells, and light armor.

What are the other options? Fighter deck has a better melee selection, but it actually has one MORE spell than the Inquisitor deck and is kinda heavy on the heavy armor. Rogue has relatively few spells and plenty of light armor, but it also focuses on ranged/dex-based combat. Barbarian has zero spells, lots of light armor, but most of the weapons are two-handed.

Monk would be interesting, except for the complete lack of armor...

What are other people's thoughts?

Subject says it all... If Mavaro were unlocked for OP in Season of the Mummy (I know they're not gonna call it that, but it's much more convenient for my poor brain to associated the season with the set), and they were taking votes for which class deck to use, which would you choose?

Obviously, it couldn't be one of the recent ones that have had absolutely none of a given card (no armor in Monk's, no weapons OR armor in Witch, no spells in Barbarian, etc). I'd also eliminate Alchemist, for its weight towards folk who don't banish cards with the Alchemical trait... Cleric and Paladin focus too much on heavy armors for my taste... Oracle, druid, bard, and inquisitor leap to my mind first.

Or would you have the player pick their deck from any available, to be written on their first chronicle sheet?

In the Card List section of Gronk's character sheet (I BELIEVE it's the latest version), it says he starts with 5 Blessings. For one card Feat he gets 6, and for a second feat he gets... 6. On the character card, he starts with 4 blessings, and the progression makes more sense...

If the card is a boon, you may try to acquire it for your deck.

So if you encounter Orengofta, you don't HAVE to burn blessings,right?

Rough game. Both Villains were somewhat brutal. We had a new player playing a Pre-Gen Tier 5 Lini, along with CD-Kyra, CD-Sajan, Meliski, and CD-Valeros. He actually did really well for his first session.

Valeros started off finding a Brimorak right off the bat, which he savaged with no problem. He even had an extra explore handy so he didn't have to deal with the Labyrinth Minotaur's "First Explore" nonsense (though he was alone, so it wasn't such a problem). However the dice let him down, and he ended up in the Middle of Nowhere. (Thankfully, he rolled a 2 on his escape roll...)

Meliski's first turn turned up Ylleshka, for which he was completely unprepared. Fortunately, High Priestess Eliandra came to the rescue with the Evasion.

Sajan had a long history with the Locust Shrine, being able to auto-succeed at a combat with a Derakni (even with the -2 to each die penalty) and ignore any before-you-act damage. However, before nary a Barrier could rear it's ugly ugliness, Belseferek leapt out. He failed the Con/Fort check and had to bury a handful of cards, but that didn't stop him from burying a Blessing of Lamashtu and burning Belseferek with Fire. Locust Shrine (*kung fu noises*) CLOSED, tho Belseferek managed to sneak away.

I could go on like this for a while, but the practical upshot is, Success (after Valeros snuck in with a kill-stealing shot on Belseferek to end the game). Fortunately, most of the Hengies/villains were near the tops of their decks. Unfortunately, Deck Upgrades were a bit sparse.

Display this card. While displayed, reduce Combat damage dealt to you by 1d4; add 1d6 and the Poison trait to combat checks by characters at your location.

So if I'm reading this right, there is no choice. All combat checks at a location where there's a character who has the Cape of Wasps displayed have the Poison trait. Which means, if anyone turns up a bane which has a combat check to defeat and is immune to Poison cannot be defeated, at all.

Is this deliberate, or should there be a "may" in there somewhere? (If it IS deliberate, I find it most amusing that this card first showed up, as near as I can tell, in WotR where a huge percentage of the monsters are immune to poison.)

At the end of your turn, you may move. At the end of the turn (Banish/recharge text)

I assume this means that, if you played this on YOUR turn, you get to move, but if you played it during anyone ELSE'S turn, the Banish/Recharge check condition is triggered, and by the time it gets around to the end of your turn, the card is gone and you don't get to move... Yes?

So, when I banish a card for whatever reason, I put it back in the box at the bottom of the pile of previously shuffled cards of the same type.

As has been mentioned in several discussions, the definition of Banish is to shuffle the card back into the pile of cards of its type.

This strikes me as insanely cumbersome. A lot of cards get banished. Normally, I'd shrug and say, "what's the diff?" But we draw a fair number of random cards from the box, and in theory, a card banished during the game could come back into play if you shuffle it in. It's darned unlikely to if you stick it on the bottom as I do. Even the cheat of "just slipping it in somewhere random" doesn't quite give the (presumably) intended possibility of having end up on top, since nobody I've met will generally insert a card even close to one edge or the other of the pile.

Does anyone actually shuffle every time a card is banished?

I didn't see this one anywhere, so by golly, I created it.

How did we do? CD-Valeros, CD-Kyra, Meliski, and CD-Sajan discovered that Ash Giant Thugs are REALLY bad at hiding.

Kyra wandered by the Befouled Altar and found an Ash Giant Thug trying to hide in behind the podium. She dispatched it and wedged a handy Cultist in the door to keep the Heart from sneaking in.

Valeros and Meliski went to the Rapture of Rupture (together, with the Banner of Valor... I didn't ask) and found an Ash Giant Thug dressed in leather hiding behind a lacy pillow. Valeros dispatched it and spent some quality alone time with Shamira. (Diplomacy is difficult to distinguish from Combat in the RofR...)

Sajan went to the Locust Shrine and found an Ash Giant Thug flapping his papier-mâché locust wings. He dispatched it, and casually ducked the various locust demons on the way out.

With half the work done, everyone gathered for a nice dip in the Molten Pool where Meliski provided a Holy Kegger (er, Feast). Valeros the Daredevil, as a class feature, carries a lava-proof umbrella which he politely held over everyone ELSE rather than himself. The Ash Giant Thug, smelling lots of Ash Giant blood on the lot of us, was much more effectively hidden (stood behind Valeros the whole time). Sajan turned around to look for a place to relieve himself, spotted the Thug trying to get under the umbrella, set the Ash Giant ablaze with his Four Winds elemental abilities, and proceeded on his initial "quest". Valeros left with the umbrella while Sajan was still relieving himself. (THOSE were some uncomfortable burns...)

The others adjourned to the Grinder because, as ugly as that place sounds, it's still less annoying than the Abyssal Rift. It was there that our party had its first encounter with the Heart of the Fane. (How Valeros spotted it amongst all the other viscera, I have no idea.) Suddenly, there were Vulture Demons EVERYWHERE. Fortunately, the Banner of Valor (with some suspicious stains) flew over the Grinder, and only Sajan had to face his demons without its comforting flapping noise. We decided that being owed a boon from Shax (The Blood Marquis, The Demon Lord of Lies and Murder) was NOT better than nothing, so we sacrificed that boon (much to Shax's electrical displeasure) to conquer the Heart. It slipped away (nobody wanted to really grab onto it too firmly) into the Abyssal Rift. The Ash Giant Thug at the door of the Grinder tossed up his hands, said, "I'm out," and left. The whole place started to shimmer and shake, and everyone dove into the Rift to keep from ceasing to exist.

Sajan joined them there and the Heart was discovered again. (It leaves a bloody trail as it squidges along...) The Banner of Valor had been grabbed and brought along to the Rift when the Grinder went Poof, so everyone was enjoying its presence when the Vulture Demons returned. This time, Nocticula's boon (which she actually owed Gorum, but Gorum pawned that debt off on Sajan) was sacrificed. Nocticula wasn't any better a sport about it than Shax, but as that was the moment that we felt the presence of Queen Galfrey's incursion, we failed to complain and left the Abyss behind.

Ok, so, hurry for the resurrection rule!

I'm guessin' that the pregen character lists are gonna show up in the online character sheets in the near future (inadequate Bothan bodycount, etc).

My first thought is that, in the Death and Dying section, where it says, "If your character is dead at the end of the scenario and is not resurrected by the expenditure of 3 die bumps..." I'd add a parenthetical reference, "(See 'Resurrection', p8)"

Meliski recently found himself facing the Pig From Hell with only his 1d8 Strength and the Black Spot.

The spell text says it lowers the difficulty to defeat a monster by 1 plus the adventure deck number.

The singular "difficulty" implies it only affects one check. However, the definite article "the" implies that the spell assumes there's only one difficulty.

So the question is, does the Black Spot only affect ONE difficulty on a monster with multiple checks to defeat, or all?

Input from the devs would, obviously, be optimal.

So, when you face the Pirate Council after Shore Leave at Port Peril, before acquiring the Scenario Reward, do you still have your hands?

I saw this asked on BGG, and the answer was a resounding "YESNO!" Before I take this as a definitive answer (ahem), I figured I'd see if the Devs were willing to offer an answer...

Looking at the rules, I'd assume everyone still had the hands they had at the moment the Villain was cornered and defeated, since you don't combine your cards until AFTER you have received your reward (Ending A Scenario, Adventure, Or Adventure Path, page 18-19, SnS rules) during the Between Games (page 19).

Both the Greatclub and the Greatclub+1 give you Strength/Melee + 1d10+1. Shouldn't either the Greatclub just be Strength/Melee + 1d10, or the Greatclub+1 be Strength/Melee + 1d10+2?

Ezren starts with 3 Allies in his card list. If he puts one Card Feat in Allies, he gets 4. If he puts in a second, he gets 6. Is that deliberate?

Thanks,
TT

As I have a great fondness for patterns, I tend to get twigged when something breaks a good pattern. I've been looking at all the characters in the RotR, S&S, and Character Deck sets, and Arabundi (Mage Hunter) from the Ranger Character Deck is the first Role I've run across that didn't grant access to 8 new power feats. It only grants 7.

(*twig*)

No matter how many times I count, I keep getting 11 total, including the 4 passed over from the basic character.

Was this deliberate, or did someone miscount?

Thanks,

TT