KoalaMonk's page

I think that the combat centric victory conditions can seem a bit of a "rinse and repeat" experience.

I have adapted several of the other adventure paths as well as writing one of my own and it is possible to incorporate "alternative" VCs; usually they are the most challenging and fun ones to play because of it.

Council of Thieves was particularly good for this; the second installment involves getting cast to put on a play - that really tested us when playing it out. Hopefully the re-boot will see an expansion in VCs as we prefer playing our homebrews to the official APs and without evolving properly, the whole thing will probably die which would be tragic.

And I think that was also a problem in PACG v1.0. When you hit those few adventures that weren't combat centric, you were so already over-tooled for combat, everyone suddenly needing Diplomacy or Charisma (Save the town from the flood is one iirc), just left your rolling your eyes and sighing.

That game forced you to be a SWAT team for 7 out of 8 adventures, but now they're like, surprise! Even though you had no real choice, good luck with this goose egg.

These changes have my group at least willing to be interested in PACG 2.0. We found ourselves 'going through the motions' on Mummy's Mask. Everything combat-centric and no reason to ever be anything other than combat-centric with a splash of anti-barrier was just exhausting after the second set. WotR really did a number on our group. No one enjoyed that set. 6 Players at a table made the Armies and "Everyone fights a..." just an absolute grind. So by the time Mummy's Mask got around, and the mechanics just didn't change enough and the story was bland, we played it because we owned it, but it was more of a chore.

I will parrot Hannibal's love for the Arkham LCG. We're currently on that and can't put it down. LOTR LCG wasn't bad in the later sets. The earlier ones were 'okay'. Legacy board games are enjoying a good go lately and they are fun. Charterstone, Arkham Board Game is getting one, the LCGs, Pandemic...

I'll keep an eye PACG 2.0. But I'm definitely turning off my subscription until I see more. I didn't realize the random "Ultimate" boxes were in the subscription until they arrived. (I wasn't keeping up with PACG by then.)

To the point of game exhaustion. There are just no 'interesting' mechanic s in PACG's combat (for the most part). You almost always roll combat. Maybe there's a before / after, or a check to limit something (maybe).. but that's about it. We finished Mummy's Mask and have gone to FFG's Arkham Horror LCG. Not exactly the same but similar. We'll re-evaluate if we return to PACG with whatever changes they make, but as it stands right now, Mummy's Mask was our last play.

So, we've played all 3 and are in the middle of Mummy's Mask as a 6 player extravaganza each time. Some thoughts:

Right now, I'm bored with PACG. The card mechanics for the most part are static and stale. Triggered is cool, except now everyone except the Ectomancer or someone who has a built in evade simply just doesn't scout because, at least that I can remember, there aren't many beneficial (if any) Triggered Triggers. Combat is king. Smash big numbers and don't bring anything else to your deck. Why isn't there Combat Ranged X / Combat Melee X*2? Birds should be far easier to kill with a bow than a blade. Second to damage, Damage is queen. Fail a barrier, combat, shake the wrong lizard's hand and you're discarding / recharging some armor from your hand.

Secondly, spells. Undead Gremlin (made up example) has Combat 14 / Divine 8. Even if I have D10+2 for divine, I'm going to load my deck with Holy Light to roll 2D12+D10+2 because those numbers are more likely to hit 14 than my D10+2 to hit 8. If something is suspectible to magic, maybe have Combat 14 / Spell 10 and have your spells be for a Spell check. That's not the most elegant fix but I just know that for the most part, I've never done the (or) for a monster fight. It's always fire the most dice I have at the Combat check because that's the best odds. The only time I might consider the (or) is if I get caught without an attack spell in my hand.

The above has led to everyone at our table basically having the same decks just with different named cards for the most part. Flip a card with the mentality of making sure you can tank some damage, do the card and repeat.

With that said: Curses are nifty. We need more effects like that. That force you out of the normal do a roll, tank the damage, hunt and move on. Maybe instead of damage, creatures start shuffling other creatures into locations? Or Ogre Name #3 hits you, take 0 damage but place this card next to your character. Your hand size is -2 until healed. Maybe a barrier that if you fail, forces you to explore random locations?

Side note: Armies. Good pumpkins. Please save "ARMY" traits for bosses or at least giant cards meant to scare the life out of you. In Wrath, we were facing Armies what seemed like every 4th card we flipped and it was just unfun. Especially with the numbers they require.

Ban the box unless someone dies. We experimented with box access with cards current adventure #-2. It takes away alot. Play with what you loot and keep.

You guys rock! Thanks. Yea. We've gone through the The first three boxes and we've got a decent handle on the returning mechanics, but we never examined much in the first 3, and Invoked, well.. is new.

P.S. Demon armies can stay in Hell, please. lol

So, just looking for clarification on Invoking first.

To dumb it down, if a card involved in a check has the stated trait, "Invoke Poison", I play a corrosive Dagger for my combat check, I've 'invoked' Poison? Secondly, if an enemy already has that train, like 'Poison' on ..I think Emperor Cobra?.. is it already "Invoked"? The word invoking sounds like an active ability, so we're always thinking we need to do something specific to "invoke" rather than just make sure keyword is somewhere in the cards on the check. That's just clarification.

Estra. Recharge a spell to examine the top 2 cards. Okay, I'm assuming if they trigger, they trigger. That's fine. But what if nothing has the undead and nothing triggers. Do they go back on top in the order revealed? Shuffled in? Go back on top in any order? I'm pretty sure it should be 'as revealed' but again, clarifying.

Just to be sure it is clear: playing cards is extremely restricted during an encounter -- you can only play cards (and use powers) which directly effect the current step (the exceptions are a card or power that says it can be played when a card is encountered, or when a certain thing happens).

Absolutely. Once you flip a card, or do an action, you can only interact with that action specifically until it completely resolves.

Awesome! Thats what we thought. Thanks Skizzerz!

WotR Rulebook. Page 9/10.

"Anyone can play a card whenever the card allows it." "You may not activate or play a card that doesn't apply to your current situation."

Current situation: Player A turns end, refreshes their hand. Player A draws a Cure. Player B starts their turn, but hasn't explored yet. Can Player A play the cure on Player B's turn before they explore?

We're pretty sure you can, but one player is saying he's pretty sure the cure would have to wait for that player's next turn. Thanks!