Michael Klaus's page

I realized this a while ago and sent a ticket to CS but got no response yet.
Most of the time when I want to go for the PACG FAQ I cklick on the Big PACG button and then for the corresponding FAQ hyperlink on the PACG main page but actually there is a permanent hyperlink furtherdown in the menu under the search bar.

While the Rules hyperlink takes you to the product page Rise of the Runelords Base Set and the rulebook pdf can be found on that page, too. But customers who own a different Base Set have to take the detour of ckilicking the additional resources hyperlink. I guess it would be logical to have the Rules hyperlink going there directly.

What is far worse is the FAQ hyperlink takes you to the Rise of the Runelords FAQ and there is no detour there to get to another PACG FAQ from there at all. The only way is to use the search bar, the PACG main page or the related product page.

(Also: will there never be a complete Card List for WOTR on the additional resources page with the others?)

Like many others I am looking forward to delve into my newly acquired Pathfinder Society Scenarios Megapack for Year of the Sky Key.

I can see that most people would simply adapt the scenarios into standard home play but so many other integrate parts of the PFS rules into their home groups. Sadly I do not have a copy of version 6 of the guide on my computer or my backup.

Wouldn't this be a good time to make old versions of the guide available again?

Actually I sent out a ticket with a similar question three weeks ago to the customer service but now I fell that more people might be interested in it.

So obviously the Hide Armor is a little bit better that the Leather Armor but what exactly is up with the Stalking Armor? It recharges for twice the damage the Leather Armos takes and it gets revealed for a +2 bonus to Stealth AND Perception?

So the question is: Should Stalking Armor really have the Basic trait?

Hey I finally got my copy of the WOTR base set and it looks amazing.
Now that I got all the cards sleeved up I was looking for the card list to see if my base set is lacking some cards (ROTRL was missing 2 cards and S&S was missing 1 just in the base sets).
Apparently there is none. I guess that's because you're holding on to that until you got all the cards from base set to adventure deck 6 on a single list, but if I wait till then and for the cards to arrive in Germany I will have played through the entire set without having realized I was missing this monster or that weapon.

Couldn't you add the card list and update the PDF whenever a new deck gets released so we can check the list right away?

Most cards are self explanatory concerning when you can play them since they either determine the skill for a check or they affect a check or they give you an exploration or it relates to a specific check.

For the rest we tried to stick with:

"If a card in your hand does not specify when it can be played, you
can generally play it anytime you can play cards, with the exception
that during an encounter you may only perform specific actions at
specific times."

and:

"During each of these steps, you and the other
players may perform only the specified actions. Players may only play
cards or use powers that relate to each step (or relate to cards played
or powers used in that step). Each player may play no more than 1
card of each type during each step; for example, no one player may
play more than 1 blessing while attempting a check, though multiple
players could each play 1 blessing during that check. Each player may
activate any power no more than once during each step. Players may
not play any cards or activate any powers between those steps."

Now we had a situation the other night that let to some discussion:

Feiya was encountering the Blood Hag (and was really annoyed already since she took a beating before, didn't get much healing and Alahazra did not warn her of that Blood Hag). She did not have any problem beating the check to defeat but the Bood Hag deals 3 Fire damage to each character at the location when defeated and Feiya had just discarded her Resist Ernergy spell.

Now Feiya's player started to wonder if Feiya really had to use her "familiar" power before exploring the next cards (which had worked fine until Alahazra started to keep her examining power for her own turn so she could encounter the boons) or since her character power was related to the card she wanted to play relating to the fire damage, she was maybe allowed to do so.
But then Damiel's player chimed in saying that he was denied to play Tot Flask during an encounter and we settled with Feiya taking the fire damage (I am pretty sure that voting would have gone another way if Alahazra and Damiel would have been at Feiya's location).

I would really like to have some insight on what that rule is sopposed to do: Simply keep you from doing certain things that are totally unrelated from the actions during the steps (like healing in the middle of an encounter?) or keep you from retrieving a single card that you might need for an action (and therefore some kind of balancing?)
How do you distinguish what does and what does not relate to a step?

As many of you might have noticed I ask questiones that can easily be answered by people who play the game. This time I have one concerning the change on the blessing cards.

As all other cards blessings "lost" their recharge box and as the rules say "the necessary information can be found in the power section".

Except for Blessing of the Gods which never had this in the first place. Instead the Blessing of the Gods originally copied the the top card of the blessings discard pile and accidentally copied the recharge information. Therefore the Blessing of the Gods was changed to have the power(?) "You may instead treat this card as if it had the same powers as the top card of the blessings discard pile."

Everyone who played both Adventure Paths of the PACG knows that the last phrase on the blessings (except... or including Blessing of the Gods?) is not meant to be a power as such and the sidebar in the rules can be interpretated in that way.

But on the other hand powers are only defined by the different cards that have powers; (in the setting up section, regarding character cards) as special things you can do before, during, or after the game; (in the playing cards section) by that playing a card means using one of it's powers; (in the boon section) that powers are special rules of boons/[cards]; and (in the bane section) as rules that apply when encountering those banes.

Obviously not everything in a power section is a power since some cards have quotes in their power sections (especially villains and promo cards) but then again how are you supposed to grasp that this "recharge information" is not a power that you can use or get's automatically activated after you played the card?

Couldn't it be possible that this leads again to new(!) players misinterprating that the Blessing of the Gods copies that "recharge power", too?

Is Combat considered a skill or is it not?

The rulebook for Skull and Shackles never state that it is a skill, obviously you will never find it in any character's skill section and you never have to roll a d4 for that reason, but still the rulebook also pretends that you are replacing Combat with another skill.

1. The examples in the paragraph on replacing hold a weapon and an attack spell; not something like Crowbar or Mattock.

2. Only that paragraph explains how to add a cards trait to a check.

3. Only that paragraph forbids you to play more than one "For your combat check..." card on a single check.

Both of the above would not be true if Combat was not considered a skill. For example you would only get the Swashbuckling trait from allies and certain items if you would stick simply to the paragraph on combat checks. Other "replacing" cards like the aforementioned Mattock do not even add any significant traits.

Then again if you replace it, why should you consider the check to be a combat check? If you used a Mattock you should not be able to also add Blessing of Calistria or Blessing of Milani, since you do not make a Dexterity check any more. But if play a Dragon pistol you can only play Blessing of Erastil and none of the above? They are both replacing a skill... or at least something like a skill.

Maybe the rules should pry that more apart? Or could they declare that Combat is kind of a special skill, that can be substituted by Strength or Melee instead of the normal d4(!) and that unlike all other skills it does not actually get replaced when playing such a card as a weapon.

Then its use would still add Combat as a trait to such checks AND all the other traits of the card.