Joshua North's page

Since we're moving over to what works and what doesn't, here's some of my SotR feedback from my players:

When we were using proxy cards, it did get a little confusing sometimes if the typical proxy card was a brimorak, who sometimes we actually have to fight, and now we have to substitute it for something else. There has been many disappointed moments where we forget the henchman is much harder than the actual card. Villians weren't as bad because we could generally remember that Faxon or Kormezaddah was just sitting in for the actual villain. I actually ordered custom cards from Drive Thru RPG that someone made that has the PACG logo and text that explains to proxy the card and that really helped this week.

As for loot, I've been keeping a pretty good list of cards that are available for swapping out. My players haven't used the corrupted blessing option in SotR, but we have all chosen a few select loot cards that always gets passed to the same person each time. Fiendslicer, Blancher, Transmogrify, etc.

On that same note, I do enjoy getting the option to proxy in corrupted blessings into the class deck, so I would like to see that option expanded. Maybe allow characters to sub in a type of card of Adventure Deck X or lower could be a reward at some point, that way the players can use specific cards from the box that aren't in the class deck. Shackles is a perfect example because there aren't many, if any, swashbuckling cards in the class decks, so if we come across something that requires swashbuckling, it feels like the game is taunting us. We're supposed to be pirates and such, why can't we swashbuckle?

Just some thoughts for you.

Getting ready to start up Adventure 5 with my group. I like the difficulty curve of Righteous because while it's not completely impossible, it's a good challenge. You have to think tactically minded on where you're located at, how many explores you do and what's in your hand.

That said, I agree with Eliandra. It really is the bane mixture that is randomly drawn that makes or breaks the scenario. If your banes come out as all temptations, it's a fantastic scenario. If you get the banes that Eliandra pointed out, then just curl up in a ball and cry. I'd also throw in Mythic Glyph and Telekinesis Trap into the mix of banes that make us sigh in displeasure when they're flipped.

We just played this scenario last night and we played it like you explained Keith. I think it ran just fine with not adding the harvester to the new location. I used a brimorak as a proxy for the harvester just in case something made us summon him.

Regardless, this scenario still made us very frustrated and the power curve and banes made us grumble very often and it did feel like a chaotic tumble through the abyss. We now have a least favorite barrier known as the Mythic Glyph. We had 3 characters at that location when that showed up and it almost killed two players.

I am partial to "ripping up into confetti" myself.

Ah yes, the classic Chaos Confetti from MtG. I think we could work with this.

The incorporation of using the card's adventure deck number is something new in Wrath, so it's not a problem when it happens in Shackles. I would make the assumption that the PACG staff will cover their bases and make sure that doesn't happen in Wrath when they publish the Wrath OP Deck.

If we sell 1000 gp worth of items, can we go up a level while we're at it?

Andrew L Klein wrote:

You don't really "GM" the card game. You might help out by watching over a group you aren't part of, or maybe you play, but there's no single person who is really any different than the rest.

I thought that might be the case, but wasn't positive since my only OP play so far has been at GenCon, where we had a GM watching over us and recording our results. Wasn't sure if there was a restriction on being an event recorder and player at the same time.

At GenCon, we wanted to make sure that we have enough places for players, that's why we did it like that. Occasionally, a volunteer would go and join a table to get it closer to four people or to help out someone with a rough scenario.

At my weekly store game, even though I'm the organizer of the event and I use warhorn to track the event, I'm one of the players each session. Since I'm getting ready to try to start up a new store with PACG, I'm going to try and not play at those, but let more people play.

My view of "editions" and "versions" mean that they aren't backwards compatible. For example. D&D has had it's original version, AD&D, 3rd edition, 3.5 edition, 4th edition and now D&D Next. While each one has similarities to it's previous versions, the only one that I know played nice with each other was 3.0 and 3.5.

I imagine PACG will get better over time and new unique rules will be introduced as time goes along as well. If you were to take the Pathfinder RPG for example, starting with just the Core Rulebook, it will look extremely different when comparing it to the Advanced Class Guide., but it's still compatible with each other. Each one will have similar traits to the previous adventure paths, but it's still recognizable as the same game.

@nondeskript - I saw a banner at GenCon for another company using the "Adventure Card Game" wording as well. Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game. I think it's encouraging to see other developers trying out the game style and I think it speaks loudly at how good PACG is of a game.

zeroth_hour wrote:

It takes a while. There are a lot of sessions to enter :)

That being said, having your sessions on the website is mostly irrelevant because your chronicle sheets are the system of record.

While it is true chronicles are the primary system of record, the online system has been invaluable to those whose paper chronicles were destroyed. Have had players hit by a variety of tragedies, including fire, flood and theft. Their records were replaced based on the online sessions reported. So making sure both are accurate is not a bad thing.

I personally like having all my chronicles up to date, that way I can see what levels my characters are at on the RPG side or having an idea of how far along we've played in the ACG side in our group.

Thanks for checking in on us here Tonya.

Hey Timky,

I just sent Tonya, one of the main HQ people a message to see if she could provide us some feedback on those sessions for you. I know I turned in a bunch of reporting sheets numerous times on Saturday, so hopefully they'll get them reported soon.

Thanks!

Good to know that I left a decent enough impression to at least get mentioned.

I'll say the same thing. Thanks everyone for helping out. Even though I didn't play a single game of cards while I was there, I think everything went great and feel like it was a great success. I'm glad I got to put some names together with some faces.

Theryon Stormrune wrote:

After months of conversation and complaints, it was decided that the class decks are better off with 3 characters which will include the iconic character and 2 others.

I'm not into class decks, but just curious - what were the people complaining about?!? I should think they'd rather get more chars for their buck?

Frankly, if I'd purchased the old 4-char decks, I'd feel really shafted with the new ones.

For Organized Play, you have to build your character out of the cards within the class deck, so when there was 4 characters in there (1 Iconic + 3 others), it felt stretched that the class deck didn't give enough cards to support the characters powers. A good example is Meliski from the bard deck who focused on gambling traits, but there was only 2 or 3 gambling cards. Another is Zarlova from the cleric deck that with the right role card, could use both divine and arcane spells, but the class deck restricted her starting deck to just divine spells.

Worst case scenario, you forget, and the official Paizo hitman comes to take you out.

That hitman is public knowledge, right?

Well, Mike Selinker was quoted about what happens if you die in the organized play, so I'm sure the hitman is public knowledge.

I just tried to edit my event to reflect that 6-21 was part of my event, but when I click edit I'm getting this error.

"Sorry, there was a problem handling your request. The system administrator has been notified.

Please contact webmaster@paizo.com if you continue to have difficulties."

Wanted to make sure someone was aware of this issue as well.

Thanks!

Thanks Chris!

I kinda figured as much, but I wanted to at least post it, just in case someone wasn't aware of the situation.

Good evening,

I'm trying to edit my event to report 6-21 Tapestry's Toil and noticed neither 6-20 or 6-21 is in the list of Season 6 scenarios.

Would someone mind looking into this so I can report one of my game sessions? Also, if this isn't the right location to ask this, can you please move my post to the appropriate location?

Thanks!

Good morning,

I'm submitting a request to cancel my Pathfinder Card Game Subscription because as a VL, my VC is supplying me with the game for Wrath of the Righteous.

Thanks,

Here's a dumb question: how am I supposed to print these?

When I go to print them, the cards are single-sided, front and back on a single page. I was under the impression that they were going to be smaller and double-sided, like cue-card size.

I did a test print using Adobe Reader, I selected Multiple per Page, pages per sheet = 2 by 1, horizontal page order and landscape orientation and the look great. I'll trim them up and fold them in half for easy storage in my binder.

Joshua North wrote:

Question on Liberty's Edge Liberator Reward, is that supposed to be 6+ goals completed or was it meant to be 7 like the other cards?

It is meant to be 6+ goals because the Liberty's Edge Faction Journal Card is an exception to the rule that all cards have seven non-GM-related goals. The card does, however, have the same number of checkbox requirements (not including a few special "you can check this box in addition to another box" ones).

Thank you for the clarification. You can see how far I've read on the cards so far. Looking great so far!

Question on Liberty's Edge Liberator Reward, is that supposed to be 6+ goals completed or was it meant to be 7 like the other cards?

The other thing that GM stars allow on the RP side of things is a bonus on rerolls equal to the number of GM Stars and also you can use your GM stars to replay a scenario or module since there is a no replay rule. Also, there's a chronicle sheet that you can add to a character to gain bonuses as well based on your GM Star count.

Since the ACG allows replays as you can't exactly use out of character knowledge to gain an advantage and adding your star total to a reroll in ACG would be very powerful, I don't think we need those rewards. In my opinion, if there was a reward for "ACG Stars", it would have to be something specific for ACG and not just a copy/paste of the RPG rewards. Mainly, I'd just like them as bragging rights.

I fully agree with Andrew. There's two different levels of prep work that goes into each facet of the game. I'm a ACG VL as well and I try and support both the RP and ACG side. I'm currently running Plunder & Peril for our area and I can easily put in 5 to 6 hours of prep work for each part. That includes printing and putting together maps, paper minis, printing stat blocks, reading and re-reading the scenario and then sitting down for 4 to 8 hours (depending on the scenario/mod) running the whole thing.

For the ACG side, I just prepped my game box for adventure 5. That took me maybe 30 minutes and I'm ready to go. I haven't read the "red text" for any of the adventure 5 scenarios, but I have read the special rules for each scenario in adventure 5 and that's all the prep work I need to do for at least two or three sessions. That's why I'm thinking if there is an "ACG Stars" system that is set up, even though I know Vic Wertz is against the idea, the rate in which you gain stars should be set at two different paces and should be easily distinguished between RPG and ACG stars.

I agree with Paladin in Citadel. I would like to see some recognition for sessions ran, but it would need to be separate from RPG stars. I don't know if you want to call it "ACG Stars" or any other name someone can think of, but if we were to have stars linked to the number of games organized, I think it would need to be double or triple compared to the RPG side of things.

For our weekly group, I normally schedule a 4 hour window like we would normally for PFS, but I also run two or three scenarios in a night. Not only that, but I think with giving out "ACG Stars", it would help promote people running more games in my opinion, similar to the RPG side. Of course, some people still wouldn't want to organize the game, but it would be a nice reward.

I've ran this scenario twice. Once at our game day and once to get my wife caught up.

The weekly game had Kyra (me), Zarlova and Tontelizi. The removal of the basic and elite cards ramped up the difficulty greatly, but we moved through the locations one by one. Luckily between the three of us, we could handle any of the 22 difficulty combats that was thrown at us. Only Zarlova was able to handle the cryptic runes and of course if he was the one that encountered them. Armor became a great friend to us during this scenario. We ended up encountering the henchmen first followed by the villains. We had to save the bridge for last as none of us could handle the dex/ranged check to close the location. We were just hoping to push a villian there to close it automatically. We did beat it, but it was a rough scenario for us.

As for catching my wife up, she's playing Siwar, so there was quite a few times where we would both get hand wiped because she couldn't handle the 22 combats as well as Kyra. I used lots of cure spells and Kyra's special ability to keep us both going. This one was a lot worse than the first play through due to party composition.

I haven't played around with form-fillable PDFs before. Sounds like a fun challenge to me.

Matt, did you like the format of the google sheets form that I created or is there something that you would like changed?

Fair enough. I'm just used to making my own sheets. Thanks for pointing out the official one.

Ok, I just updated my original form. It closely resembles the reporting page on paizo.com, it's printable and I got it down to 3 tables per page. I printed a copy to see how it looks and it looks like you should have enough room to write whatever information you need.

Please let me know if there's any other features you'd like to see on this sheet.

Google Spreadsheet PFSACG Reporting Sheet

As I've ran 40 ACG tables now, I think I'll go through and take a second look at that reporting sheet I put together way back when and make some touch ups.

Matt, I'll try and get it into a printable format with multiple sheets on one page to help save paper. I'll let you know once I'm done.

VoxDargard, I will also second Theryon on the following of the Organized Play rules. As someone who dabbles on both the RP and the ACG side of organized play, Running as Written is a very important aspect to Organized Play.

The idea of Organized play is that if Theryon and I both run a scenario for you, both experiences should mirror each other. This is to ensure that the experience is the same no matter where or who you play with. Yes, each group can have different ideas on how to best accomplish a goal, but the rules should be followed in both groups.

Also agreeing with Theryon, but if you're just running these for fun and not handing out chronicle sheets for the scenarios, then no worries. If you feel there's too many sharks at shark island, then change it up. If you feel the rebuild rules aren't the best, then so be it. Just be aware that the scenario you are playing isn't qualified for organized play.

Human Ranger

(resists using one of the worst lines from the Lord of the Rings movies)

And the 1.5 meter step just doesn't have the same ring.

Frencois: Je suis américaine et je ne comprends pas "le standard américain." Par exemple, papier 8.5" x 11", système impérial, etc. Aussi, désolé pour le mauvais français.

Just because I keep thinking I've seen the answer somewhere and I'm at work at the moment, I do have a question about this. Does Blessing of the Gods stay in the blessing deck even though it's a basic card?

Thanks!

It's the idea of asking Paizo to produce them that we didn't like, Myfly. The added cost for everyone isn't acceptable. On an individual basis, it's a cool idea.

I think we can all agree on etched over sticker.

I, however, would like a blue die with white symbols to match my PACG dice.

I'll agree with Orbis on this matter. I think the way the idea was approached was what my problem with it was. The idea of the plunder dice on an individual basis isn't a bad idea, it's just not something I would like to see included in the base set, especially as an idea of "optimization". The game works great as is and adding the plunder dice isn't going to add any replay value , it would just be an extra dice. If there was a collectors edition published later down the line that had some special stuff included, a plunder dice might be cool, but that's obviously something that people are paying extra for.

I think the major assumption that the fact that you get a role card after adventure 3 comes from a few ideas. In Runelords and Shackles, both campaign modes of the game give you the role card after completing the third adventure. Also, if you look at the Pregens in the Organized Play handbook, it states that the high level pregens that are available for scenarios 4, 5, and 6 all have roll cards attached to them in their stats.

That's where the assumptions are coming from and I have my personal predictions on how we're going to see the roll card brought up, but since I haven't looked at the VO boards this morning, I'll keep my thoughts to myself, just in case it's been discussed there.

Myfly, I'll ask my question again since you consider adding the plunder die as an optimization to the game. Let's look at this from a theoretical viewpoint. What happens when you lose this die? How do people roll for plunder at this point? Do you include a chart like what is included already or do you come up with a different plunder determination system?

The main reason why you see game systems with custom dice is because the whole game is designed around these custom dice, such as Kings of Tokyo, FATE, Betrayal at House on the Hill, etc. These games usually have a significantly higher price point compared to games similar in nature. All Kings of Tokyo includes is a deck of cards, a small board, cardboard figures and 8 custom dice and it's priced at $45 MSRP. I would hate to see what the price of PACG would be with this custom dice included in it.

Also, I want to agree with Andrew Klein. If this was a dice that was required for every set, Runelords, Shackles, Wrath and every game going forward, then I would be more inclined to try and say this dice would be worth the money, but since this is a special rule for Shackles, It's just not feasible of a recommendation.

I'll chime in also. The cost for a custom dice is extremely expensive. Here's a link for Chessex's website: Custom Dice

Even at the biggest bundle of 500-999 dice, the cost is $2.52 per dice. (2.04 EUR)

The biggest problem with getting custom dice is it's just not cost effective. One of the things that I've learned through economics classes is that the cost benefit ratio is too low to justify getting custom dice for a game like this. It's easier to print a chart showing you what number equals what card instead of printing a special dice. Also, what happens when someone loses the special plunder dice? Do they not get plunder or do you end up providing them a chart to roll on anyways?

For some gamers who have been around the block for too long, we're used to charts telling us what to roll on and the special dice are just novelty for the most part. I'd rather just stick to a traditional d6 model, that way the dice is useful for multiple games, not just for one specific game.

Congrats Jake! As the VL for PFSACG in KCMO, I've had the opportunity to play a few games of ACG with him at the KC Game Fair recently and I know that Jake will be a great addition to the team.

Not the sender either, but very jealous that I didn't think of it first. As everyone else has said, very well deserved gift.

Good morning Customer Service team!

I was just reviewing my upcoming subscriptions shipment and noticed that two flip mats that I ordered are still in my side cart. Is it possible to get those shipped with the order number in the subject line?

Thanks!

Theryon Stormrune wrote:

Vic, does that mean that the set following will be coming after GenCon?

We are hoping to be on an April/October cycle now. The impact on the OP schedule is yet to be determined (but I will say, as I'm important as Gen Con is, keep in mind that, ultimately, it's just one weekend out of 52 each year).

As a thought I just had based on your statement, I think that this might work out a bit better in the long run for OP. I would like to see a season special, very similar to PFS, but how I imagine a season closer is that it would require a full set of cards (all 6 adventures in one box) to pull off properly.

If there's another goblin for a promo card, which would be a lot of fun, it should be a goblin who thinks he's a paladin. Borrowing ideas from Munchkin, but he should be wearing his "helm of courage."

Helm of Courage

I'd even give him a power similar to Ranzak where after he defeats a monster, he rolls a d6 and on 4-6, he immediately explores again.

Fully agreed Theryon and that's why I'm electing to keep the Add-On Deck in my game box for OP and even home games. I like the addition of the cards and for OP, I'd rather be ready for no matter the circumstances. The original reason why I brought this up has been resolved, so it's all good.

They tell you different things. Number crunching can't tell you how your individual game or die roll will truly go, but it can tell you what an amalgam of 10,000 games will look like pretty darn well. On average a 1 in a million thing happens to 7000 people in the world every day. Also on average about 200 people a year die due to the collapse of human civilization from a catastrophic asteroid impact. Statistics is a funny beast.

Still, it's nice to be able to tell a player "You have a better than 50% chance to make that roll without a blessing," or the like when deciding strategy. It doesn't always follow the odds but it can help.

Fully agree with you there. That's the point I was trying to make with the comparison of leaving the class deck in or taking it out. There may only be a 3 percent difference, but sometimes your luck at drawing and acquiring cards deem that you're only going to get B cards during a scenario. Next time, it may be nothing but 1 cards. It's like gamer superstitions. You never say "I only need to roll X" because it seems like you always roll X-1, no matter how against the odds it is. That's what makes games like this game great!

Joshua North wrote:

ryric wrote:

One other thing I note about leaving out the C cards. Leaving out the character add-on slightly increases you chances of getting better boons, but similarly increases your chances of getting tougher banes.

Ryric, you make me want to make another spreadsheet about the banes and average difficulty and how much it changes things. That sounds like more of a weekend project in all reality though.

Or instead of working on a spreadsheet, you could play it with 4 or less players without the Add-On deck and see what you think.

Just sayin ...

Yeah... Fair enough... I'm a bit of an excel junkie, so I love putting things like this together and crunching numbers. Just one of my personality quirks I guess.

One other thing I note about leaving out the C cards. Leaving out the character add-on slightly increases you chances of getting better boons, but similarly increases your chances of getting tougher banes.

Ryric, you make me want to make another spreadsheet about the banes and average difficulty and how much it changes things. That sounds like more of a weekend project in all reality though.

ThreeEyedSloth wrote:

Guide to PFSACG Organized Play wrote:

If you are

rewarded with a card from the box, you will instead
take a random card of the same type from your Class
Deck box. The card you take cannot have an adventure
deck number higher than that of the scenario you
completed. For example, if you just completed a scenario
in adventure 2, and the scenario reward was a random
item from the box, you would instead take an item with
an adventure deck number no higher than 2 from your
Class Deck. If you do not have an appropriate item, you
do not gain that reward.

Totally my mistake, sorry about that, ThreeEyedSloth! Good to know for the future! :)

Thanks for the reminder of this rule as well!

That would be awesome! As someone who has a convention coming up in a month, I wonder if this idea could get implemented in time.