Lone Shark Games. Organized Play Member. 1,622 posts (2,387 including aliases). 1 review. No lists. No wishlists. 13 Organized Play characters. 5 aliases.
Cat to explore: Flanking Attack
I'm starting to think that someone has it out for the Baron. Or at least wants other people to blame him for why they keep getting brawled and attacked.
Who?:1d4 ⇒ 2 Of course it's Eliandra. Zombie Minion for you at +2 DC.
Cat in effect: This exploration, on checks that invoke the Magic trait, add 1d4.
Favored Card: Attack spell
Hand Size: 6 ☐ 7 Proficiencies: Arcane POWERS:
While there is at least 1 card in your blood magic pile, gain the skill Arcane: Constitution +3.
When you play a spell on your combat check, you may banish the top card from your blood magic pile to add 1d8 (☐ 1d10).
When you are dealt combat damage that is not reduced to 0, banish the top card from your blood magic pile; then reduce the damage by 2 (☐ 4).
When you exceed a combat check to defeat by 5 or more, you may choose a spell (or any card) from your discard pile to shuffle into your blood magic pile.
Baron steps forward while perusing a spell book. He waves his hand and blasts acid over the trap.
Disable 7:1d10 + 3 + 2d4 + 1d4 ⇒ (4) + 3 + (3, 4) + (4) = 18
Then with somewhat more difficulty, he attempts to close the Plaza. Apparently if there are no boons for him, there are no boons for anyone.
Bury Benefaction from Augustille. Cha 6:1d8 + 1d8 ⇒ (5) + (8) = 13
Favored Card: Attack spell
Hand Size: 6 ☐ 7 Proficiencies: Arcane POWERS:
While there is at least 1 card in your blood magic pile, gain the skill Arcane: Constitution +3.
When you play a spell on your combat check, you may banish the top card from your blood magic pile to add 1d8 (☐ 1d10).
When you are dealt combat damage that is not reduced to 0, banish the top card from your blood magic pile; then reduce the damage by 2 (☐ 4).
When you exceed a combat check to defeat by 5 or more, you may choose a spell (☐ or any card) from your discard pile to shuffle into your blood magic pile.
Favored Card: Attack spell
Hand Size: 6 ☐ 7 Proficiencies: Arcane POWERS:
While there is at least 1 card in your blood magic pile, gain the skill Arcane: Constitution +3.
When you play a spell on your combat check, you may banish the top card from your blood magic pile to add 1d8 (☐ 1d10).
When you are dealt combat damage that is not reduced to 0, banish the top card from your blood magic pile; then reduce the damage by 2 (☐ 4).
When you exceed a combat check to defeat by 5 or more, you may choose a spell (☐ or any card) from your discard pile to shuffle into your blood magic pile.
Baron heads to the Plaza, to buy his way out of this Impoverishment. And steps into a Brawl. That someone else clearly started. Because it couldn't have been him.
Sure, I'll start at the Shrine in case there's any card handing about that's needed.
I object to the "Impoverished" wildcard. As a Baron, I refuse to believe that is a possible state of affairs, and will instead assume you layabouts have been pilfering my goods. I've got an eye on you.
Favored Card: Attack spell
Hand Size: 6 ☐ 7 Proficiencies: Arcane POWERS:
While there is at least 1 card in your blood magic pile, gain the skill Arcane: Constitution +3.
When you play a spell on your combat check, you may banish the top card from your blood magic pile to add 1d8 (☐ 1d10).
When you are dealt combat damage that is not reduced to 0, banish the top card from your blood magic pile; then reduce the damage by 2 (☐ 4).
When you exceed a combat check to defeat by 5 or more, you may choose a spell (☐ or any card) from your discard pile to shuffle into your blood magic pile.
It's honestly a pretty complex topic. I don't feel comfortable speaking for Paizo in general, and in particular don't feel that I have the information I'd need to do so.
Indeed, I barely feel comfortable speaking for PACG for Lone Shark Games. I only started working on it midway through Wrath, and I'm not really a PR and speeches kinda person.
That said, silence is awful, so I'll say what I can. I've had the thoughts rattling around in my head because of PaizoCon anyways. Like all my posts here on the forums, this is unofficial, unprepared and I may be corrected by Mike or Paizo.
I don't believe anyone has yet declared 100% that we're not making any more product, hence the lack of an announcement. None of us want this game to be dead. At the end of the day, that uncertainty and sheer unwillingness to let it die has paralyzed all of our ability to talk on the topic.
That said, there are a number of factors that have conspired to make it incredibly difficult or unlikely.
First is raw financials. Factory cost increases have meant that we'd need to be able to print and sell more copies of the game than is realistic to ensure that it's a good decision for either company. Both companies were willing to cut costs to levels that absolutely don't make sense, and even then we'd have risks involved with things like cardback coloration and quality control.
Second, let's talk some about Covid. PACG is absolutely a game meant to be played by folks huddled around a table together, everyone chipping in on shuffling locations and such and really, well, exposing each other to a few too many viruses. It was positively depressing to not be able to see people playing at PaizoCon, to see some of the great friends I've made over this game. I really missed our post-PaizoCon brunch this year.
I know it feels like we're on the way to a new normal, and that there are absolutely families who have played the hell out of PACG during the pandemic. That things like Tabletop Simulator have really kept the flame alive. But, it hasn't been a good couple years to forecast growth of our game. Speaking just for me, I can say that Covid has caused my other job (helping the internet continue to function at scale felt suddenly much more essential) to devour more of my life. I also spent months effectively home-schooling children. An experience that was amazingly rewarding, but one of the most brain-consuming I can imagine.
Lastly, let's just talk people. Vic and Lisa were instrumental to the success and development of the game, and they've stepped away from the business. I don't think any of us begrudge them the ability to retire (or at least step back) after their monumental contributions to our hobby. I don't know who can pick up that torch, but I'm pretty sure that everyone at Paizo is already juggling at least two other torches for Paizo, on top of however many family/Covid torches are in the mix.
So, I'll talk a little about me personally. I'm not really comfortable doing so, but I think it might help understanding. I am positive I could have done more to keep pushing on the game. More blogs, more timely turn-ins, more pushing on coworkers and business partners. Except, well, I'm not sure I haven't been doing as much as I could endure. Without going into too many details, I've been having the toughest few years of my life _before factoring in any corporate, national, or global concerns, like financials, politics, or Covid_.
PACG has actually been an incredible escape during that time. I distinctly remember working on PACG scenarios between my dad's death and funeral, even while Mike told me to log off and be with family, because PACG was absolutely what my brain needed then. Some of the most active members of this community have really buoyed me through these trying times. I have closer family than folks like Tyler, Elizabeth, Mark, Ray, and Andrew (in random order), but not as many as I'd care to admit in public :)
So, believe me when I say that we're grieving the loss of this game, too. Folks can keep playing it, but we all wanted more cards, more boxes.
We made Core + Curse with an assumption that we were making the best version of the game we could, both for now and for ongoing growth of the game. We had some crazy cool ideas for a branching-legacy experience with Kingmaker and a radical multi-box experience scoped for a Rise of the Runelords refresh that could work with Curse to deliver Return of the Runelords, with maybe a little finagling to sneak in Shattered Star into the mix. There was no intent to stop producing PACG!
I am incredibly proud to have worked on this amazing game these past several years. I appreciate that you've invested money, time, and life into this game that made it a vital part of your life.
Even if the stewardship of the game is likely over from Paizo and Lone Shark, please keep on playing it your way. Your cards don't need to go anywhere. Give some time to the fine folks still volunteering on PACG and you will still have a near infinite number of PACG games you can play.
Great gaming with you. 'til we next game again!
Keith Richmond
Lone Shark Games
PACG Designer
In theory, Skizza's power feat "(☐ If you would bury or banish it, you may discard it instead.)" provides the functionality you're looking for. Certainly, it made the consideration of proficiency less necessary / clear cut.
The default way of winning described in the rulebook is to close all locations or corner a villain. When unspecified, you just need to do one of those.
The intent is actually each character, though you'd need to really work on that wording since you can't ever explore outside your exploration step; essentially, it'd need to not be an actual exploration, but rather just that each character gets to draw 3/#, display 1, return the rest, and pick one of the benefits.
I'll admit, Hostile was a bit less, well, hostile in its original design due to the later change to require you to roll on boon acquires. You could just opt to not even attempt. In fact, the close/guard language was added to make it more on par with Desperate, since armor was often enough to negate most damage from an acquire you were actually trying for but barely missed on.
That is an unusually high number of weapons for one party. It is perhaps worth note that removal of low level boons is entirely optional ; if you're that low, I'd encourage you to pick your favorite lower level weapons and toss them back into the box, or to take one of the other offered options.
Well, as long as they never need cards except at the end of her turn, she won't die. Though most people do like the ability to reset their hand, all told.
Relevant Example: Seelah has a hand with no weapons and a few explore cards. She can recharge the Teamster and some other non-weapon to free up 2 (of her 4) cards to try to draw up a weapon. Alternatively, she might have _3_ weapons (of 4 cards) and want to toss 1 back in her deck for later. :)
Assume that it is not intended or will be fixed if Fumbus's power means that you'd recharge a discarded/buried card you drew. Perhaps change from if not played to if in hand. That has a negative impact on Reveal weapons, but is still pretty great.
If you look at storybook page 3, there's a chart of the Harrow Suits. Also, this section of rules:
Each has the Harrow trait and a Suit trait that corresponds to a specific skill: Hammers (Strength), Keys (Dexterity),
Shields (Constitution), Books (Intelligence), Stars
(Wisdom), and Crowns (Charisma).
So, if it's a Books (not Book) suit, the relevant trait/skill is actually Intelligence.
So, add 2 to local Intelligence (or Books) checks.
It's not ideal, but you can also just swap the computer back and forth (or really hot seat it) and change colors each turn, so you can have separate hands and playmats. I believe you could do that in a multiplayer game without too much trouble.
admittedly unless you closed your location, during your turn and outside of your explore step (which few characters are capable of doing, let alone with even any frequency).
"You may never explore outside of your explore step."
So, yeah, intent is that this power overrides the prohibition on exploring on close, as it requires the close to work and it can never work outside of closing during your explore step. It's possible that someone may want to change the language on it, but since there's literally no other way for it to function (without opening a rules black hole), it's at least clear what to do in the mean time.
There's a lot of work going into the TTS experience. I'm so pleased by how well it's running and I have no doubt that these minor bumps will be erased well before next Tuesday.
Wait, next Tuesday. This convention is _8 days away_!?!
The slots are spread over all sorts of time slots, clustering a little bit in the middle of the day. I'd love to see and chat with folks, because I won't get to do my usual wandering around chatting with folks this year. So instead I'll try it out on Tabletop Simulator. I apologize in advance for the occasional interruption by kids. ;)
If you're interested in any of those tables, feel free to sign up:
Most of the later seasons are similar to Plundered Tombs.
There are some variations, of course. Plundered Tombs level 6 and Factions Favored level 1 are both a little higher than normal, especially with certain party compositions.
Ultimate decks and Adventurer Packs were also added later, so choosing to use or not use them will have a noticeable impact on your difficulty curve.
Just so it's said: there is a whole lot of super awesome people helping to make these happen, including Tyler, Ray, Mark, Andrew, and likely quite a few people I'm missing (like Yewstance's work on that character sheet), and Lone Shark Games is so damn happy they do. Thank you!
Also, it's really neat being able to hit a single key on the keyboard and shuffle a deck. Or mouseover several decks hitting that key and shuffle several decks in a second.
Looking forward to seeing a lot of you in 3 weeks for PaizoCon.
She doesn't have much need of the weapons, though it's not like Deathbane Light Crossbow or Sling are bad for her. Thankfully, Fumbus is most interested in the weapons from Ranged.
She might like Moon Maiden Armor and many of the items like Ring of Evasion, Brooch of Protection, and Ring of Resistance. Allies like Crow and Raccoon are pretty great for her, and she might even enjoy a Skoan-Quah Boneslayer who adds to Survival checks.
She'd definitely be interested in several of the blessings, though. I'd cheerfully use any of The Cyclone, The Twin, The Uprising, The Vision, The Winged Serpent, and Achaekek's Claws. Old Deadeye and Savored Sting alone might be worthwhile for a 3rd deck consideration, though. Not like she needs much after Nature + Divine.
Though I'd also consider swapping Divine with Hakon for Support. I was trying to change up your list as little as possible though :)
There is one secret trick to making this work: share a pack between two characters who want it for very different things / are willing to make it work, so that they never overlap cards in play.
With a reminder that I do not make the decision as to how Organized Play works and defer to Paizo and Venture Officers, I would very much appreciate a concerted effort to remove any difficulty playing PACS online, at this time. Even if it's just for the duration of the pandemic.
Whether that's updating errant wikis or whatever. :)
We're still very much treating these as a playtest, so I don't expect infrastructure changes for some time. Your patience (and testing) are super appreciated.
Sorry, that's an oversight, and we'll get it addressed. The generic reward for all doesn't quite work in this instance.
For now, I'd encourage you to add the siege "The party gets all boons remaining in locations." and I'll encourage Vic to FAQ in a way that does the same. Perhaps change "To win, empty the siege pile." to "To win, empty the siege pile. If you do, the party acquires all cards remaining in locations."
There are some errors that will likely be fixed soon, but in the meantime:
Alchemy
Level 1 should not have an Items line
All of Level 2 is missing:
Level 2
Ally Flensing Jelly
Armor Grounded Studded Leather
Blessing Rovagug’s Destruction
Items Elixir of Focus, Liquid Courage, Plaguebringer’s Mask, Tangleburn Bag, Twitch Tonic
Spell Full Pouch
Weapon Venomous Hand Crossbow
Divine
Level 2 and 3 should not have Item lines
Finesse
Level 1 allies should be Gang Enforcer, Priest of Abadar
Level 3 ally should be Cerulean Mastermind, armor is Sable Company Leathers
Occult
Level 2 is entirely wrong, should be
Level 2
Ally Fortune-Teller
Blessings Lamashtu’s Madness, Zon-Kuthon’s Pain
Items Wand of Flame, Zellara’s Harrow Deck
Spells Fly, Twisted Space
* -- While Drunken Master Valeros is a lot of fun to play ("Why won't you stay there and guard that location?!?"), I am amused that many of the "liquids" in his deck are things Valeros probably shouldn't be drinking, mostly paints and poisons with the occasional bomb.
Drunken Avenger is a lot more reasonable of a name than Paint-Huffing Toad-Licking Valeros, and in no way would I encourage that behavior, but hypothetically the mechanics are functionally the same...
The card functions just as you read it. If you're using an old pre-Core/Curse Fortune-Teller, it's reveal (and an extraordinarily powerful card in the right hands, easily securing you an additional "explore" 80% of your turns) - it's probably high level in a class deck, or low level in the Wrath box (where things are a bit more high-geared anyways).
If you're using the new Core / Curse Fortune-Teller, then it is much more sedate, able to secure you a recharge to examine (merely ok) and explore occasionally (something that is considered quite useful in many groups). It's much less worth building around, though, as you can't rely on getting an extra explore out of it on most turns.
Have you guys read any of the novels? Varian is a devotee of Desna, not Asmodeus, and Radovan is consistently described as small and overly charming/seductive, not hulking and brutish.
As mentioned, when in Cheliax, one acts like a devotee to Asmodeus. As Chad says: "will recognize that I might have, ahem, stretched the truth a bit in that last paragraph"
Radovan:
Just add Fire. Then he - or at least Norge - can be hulking and brutish.
They got delayed a couple more weeks, but my intent (and I might be overruled) is that you'd be allowed to respec so that existing characters can test with it.
