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I didn't want to post this in the other character sheet thread, since this is more of a technical issue I've run into...

I was able to download the new versions of the character sheets for S&S, Class Decks, and the new S&S rulebook. Once downloaded, I put a copy of the PDFs onto my home server so any of the laptops/tablets/phones in my house could access them. And I even renamed some of the PDF files so they were easy to find in my file hierarchy.

However, when I downloaded the new Runelords character sheets to my desktop, the zipped folder and PDF files seemed to be locked or something. I could open and look at the PDFs, but I could not move/copy the PDFs anywhere else. And if I moved the actual zipped folder, then I could no longer open the PDF files within it.

Strangeness ensues. Anyone else experiencing a similar problem, or was it just me who failed my check to defeat this barrier?

I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet. On the other hand, I had no idea this existed until I checked Facebook this morning!

My plans for Saturday: Having friends over to watch Gravity on the 70" HDTV. LOL. Oh well, another couple wants to come over as well, so maybe we'll throw some gaming in after the movie is done.

First of all, apologies if this has been covered in detail previously. I looked in the latest rulebook PDF and in the FAQ, but must have missed it. Searching the forums has led to additional confusion.

What I'm trying to determine is what the exact rules are for applying a trait to combat check. For example, the Spectre has the following in his powers: "if the check to defeat does not have the Magic trait, the Spectre is undefeated." We were undecided on which character could best defeat this monster. And this is where the confusion comes in.

Sajan has his amulet of mighty fists. This card has the accessory, magic, and basic traits listed in the upper left corner. It also says in the powers "reveal this card to add 1d4 with the magic trait to your combat check". It's pretty obvious that this combat check is going to have the magic trait, since it plainly says so in the powers.

Harsk has a shock longbow +1. This weapon has the magic trait listed in the upper left as well. However, the powers says "for your combat check, reveal this card to roll your dexterity or ranged die plus 1d8+1", but says nothing about "with the magic trait".

Seoni has force missile, which lists Magic, arcane, attack, force, and basic traits. But in the powers it says "for your combat check, discard this card to roll your arcane die plus 2d4 with the force trait."

So, Sajan could defeat the Spectre without question. But Harsk and Seoni are unclear to me. If the traits listed on the card are applied to the attack check, then why bother spelling it out on some cards but not others? Or in the case of force missile, why list one trait but not another? Because some cards specify that it adds a trait in the powers, I was under the impression that only those cards applied that trait. In other words, only Sajan could defeat the Spectre. But if any card with the magic trait listed in the upper left could be used to defeat this bane, then why the confusion of specifying it in the powers of only some cards?

This discussion could apply to any combat check that requires a specific trait to defeat.

I wanted to share how we set up our play area so that anyone who likes our idea is free to do the same. Note 1: others may already do this, so I don't take credit for thinking of it. Note 2: this works for any tabletop game, not just PACG.

We play on the dining room table. I purchased a piece of black felt from a fabric store that is just larger than my table with the leaves in. The black felt provides a perfect playing surface for rolling dice, and being able to pick up cards without bending them or getting "stuck" to the wooden surface. You could get felt in any color, but I like black because it offers great contrast to the cards and dice. I use large binder clips to clamp the felt to the corners of the table which pulls the felt tight and keeps it from moving.

Added benefits is that I can bring it with me to a friend's house, toss it in the wash, and replace it a lot easier than a scratched and dented table. Plus it's cheap to begin with.

I set the game box on a TV tray next to my chair so I have easy access to getting/returning cards, and it keeps the table clear for play and snacks.

My wife and I consider ourselves experienced PACG players now. And one thing we find ourselves doing more often than we'd care to admit is forgetting to read and apply the rules/powers listed on the Scenario and Location cards! Sometimes these are helpful rules, sometimes they hinder, and sometimes that can completely alter an encounter.

My suggestion is to add some text to the turn overview on the rulebook. Something like "check/read the scenario and location card rules to see what will apply during your turn." before or after the "advance the blessings deck". On one hand, having a reminder may help eliminate the forgetfulness of excited players who want to dig into that next exploration. On the other hand, it adds complexity to the rules... and in all honesty, experienced players won't be reading the turn overview anyway. (Perhaps if it was written down when we learned how to play, it would have been more ingrained into our heads to do this step.)

Which actually leads me to a follow-up suggestion: It would be nice to have a six copies of a card (so each player could have one) that had the turn overview on it. And perhaps some of the other info from the back cover of the book. Say a nice two-sided card as a companion to the character cards. I suppose someone could make these themselves. Or perhaps a PDF file from Paizo we could print out, cut and use. It would be more convenient than passing around the rulebook. And I am often reminding other players what order they can do things in...

I'm writing this from the perspective of a player who has zero experience with Pathfinder prior to picking up the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. So I know none of the back-story from any of the other source materials.

Do you read the flavor text on the Path, Adventure and Scenario cards to the other players prior to beginning a session?

I do. I want to give the other players, many of whom have no RPG experience, an idea of what they are doing, and why they are there. I try to read the cards as dramatically as possible. But I leave it up to each player to read their character cards and determine how "into" they want to get into their persona.

I'll also add an RPG spin on explaining things that happen with encounters and checks. So Lem doesn't just recharge a card to add a d4. He pulls out his lute and sings a rousing song to bolster your confidence. Etc.

I think I already know the answer to this, but let's get it clarified since there was some disagreement (with my wife!) about this one! (And we know how I CAN'T be right in that circumstance...) ;-)

My wife and I started another new campaign with a friend. Picked our characters and built the recommended decks from the book and started Brigandoom! (I swear, the Perils of the Lost Coast scenarios are the most difficult in the game!) Anyway, due to some misadventures (and crap die rolls) we are on the very last turn of the game. There are no more cards in the blessings deck. The only card in Lem's location is the villain. Amiri was covering the only other location to temp close it. So it's all or nothing... defeat the villain or bust.

Lem's character deck is empty. He explores and encounters the villain. Amiri succeeds at temp closing the other location. The villain forces Lem to recharge two cards before the encounter. Lem throws a hail marry and discards his sling and a blessing for the best possible roll. And misses by three and must discard his remaining two cards from his hand.

The villain "escapes" back to the same location and is still the only card. But with no way to explore again, we're done. We lost. Here's where the disagreement comes in:

I say Lem needs to finish his turn, resetting his hand, and consequently dying in the process. My wife things we've lost then and there since there's no possible way to continue, and Lem doesn't need to reset... and die.

In this circumstance, it didn't really matter in the end, as we failed on the very first scenario and decided to just rebuild our decks anyway picking our own (basic) cards instead of using the suggested lists from the book. But this could make a huge difference for anyone playing a much later scenario when things get down to the last turn and players are tempted to play those all-or-nothing hail marry passes.

BTW: I don't know why everyone says the game is too easy. All but one of our games has come down to the wire with a nail-biting victory or simply running out of time. Maybe there's a curse over our house, or all our dice are weighted to roll ones...

We encountered a Monster in the Closet, and my wife and friends seem to think the card is "backwards". I tend to agree, so I wanted to get some clarification.

Logic would say that if you FAIL the barrier's check, you'd have to fight a monster. And it seems counter-intuitive to have to fight a monster when you succeed at the barrier's check.

Confusion aside; based on the card's wording, I think these are the possible outcomes. Please correct me if I have this wrong:

1. You fail the barrier's check. Nothing happens. Shuffle the barrier back into the location deck.

2. You succeed the barrier's check. Evade or fail to defeat the summoned monster. Shuffle the barrier into the location deck.

3. You succeed the barrier's check. The summoned monster is defeated. Banish the summoned monster AND the barrier.

Option one seems like the least risky outcome, where you might actually want to fail on a bane's check. The worst that happens on failing is you don't clear a card from the deck.

The scenario card's rule of "The difficulty to defeat monsters with the Goblin trait is increased by 1d4." threw us for a loop when we encountered the villain Gogmurt. He has two combat checks to defeat (10 then 12). Do you roll the 1d4 once and add the result to each check, or do you roll separately for each check?

Place any cards in your deck, hand, and discard pile under your character card. You cannot take turns, play cards, move, or do anything else for the rest of this scenario. Certain powerful cards allow you to return from death; if this doesn’t happen before the end of the scenario, your death is permanent.

During the heat of a close game with a group of 7 other friends (two of whom were "helping", I'm pretty sure I made a bad call regarding death. My brother-in-law, playing Seelah, burned through his deck too quickly and carelessly and died when he didn't have cards to reset his hand. My wife, as Lini, trekked to his location and used a Cure to bring him back. Now that I've taken more time to read the rules, I'm sure that was a breach!

Based on what the rules say, it sounds like all his cards should have been buried. With cards buried and him no longer having a discard pile, the Cure would have had nothing to... cure. But why don't the rules just come out and say "Bury any cards in y our deck, hand and discard pile"? That would have been much clearer to me. Or is there some reason I'm not picking up on as to why it is worded as it is?

That all said, if some search results are correct, there's actually no way at this time to resurrect someone. Correct?

I guess in the end, the fallout of the bad call is minimal. This group was only on Black Fang's Dungeon, so my brother-in-law's character only had a couple different cards in the deck from how he started, and to rebuild his character, it would have been 99% the same anyway.

Does anyone play the scenarios in an order other than what's listed on the Adventure card? I'm not quite sure doing so would be considered a house rule, as long as you still meet the requirements of playing each scenario of an adventure, and each adventure of a path to get all the related rewards.

The reason I ask is due to a discussion we had this past weekend, and deciding to start a new group with The Poison Pill instead of Brigandoom! Reading the story text, it made more sense to us on the Perils of the Lost Coast that the new adventurers would search around town for an alchemist gone bad prior to heading out of town to hunt down a bandit leader. And then to even more dangerous locales to confront a dragon!

Thus, we're playing the Perils adventure in this order:
- The Poison Pill
- Brigandoom!
- Black Fang's

I don't see any reason why this would break anything. And it makes more sense to me in a traditional RPG story sort of way. I don't yet have any other adventure decks, so I'm not sure if this type of circumstance occurs again.

It took me a little while to get the gist of this, and I'm still seeing confusion amongst my friends. The check to acquire/defeat displays the skills in a list, but there is no differentiation between a primary skill (Str, Dex, Int, etc.) and the skill subcategories (Melee, Ranged, Arcane, etc.)

My suggestion is that there is some visual cue between skills and subcategories. Perhaps make the primary skills slightly bolder, or the subs indented or bulleted. I think this would allow a card to be scanned and understood a little more quickly, and alleviate some confusion for players who may not have all the skills and sub-skills memorized.

Then again, perhaps there's a perfectly legitimate reason for the way it is now, and I'm just not aware of it.

Sorry if someone has done this before. After an epic fail yesterday while playing Black Fang's Dungeon with my wife and friend, I wanted to share my misery and see if anyone can top it.

I explored and ran into a Hill Giant with Sajan. I didn't have a good hand and lost the combat, clobbering myself and Harsk who was on my location at the time. The Hill Giant got shuffled back in and at the end of Harsk's turn, he peaked and found the Hill Giant sitting at the top of the deck again.

On my next turn, I had four blessings in my hand and decided to get some payback on Mr. HG! Explore, hello Giant, use Dex for my attack and recharged all four blessings for a 5d10 combat check. Can't lose, right? I roll each die individually...

1, 1, 2, 1, 1

Given the combat check of 15, not only did I fail miserably, but the giant's damage also hit Harsk (again) and nearly killed him.

Needless to say, luck of the draw had a lot of tough monsters in the location decks. Coupled with crap rolls all afternoon like the one above, we never even found Black Fang, let alone succeed at the scenario.

The character cards that come with the game are great. They are small and tidy, contain the artwork, and are easy to reference and play with. But I can't bring myself to mark them up as I play, and even if I could, that doesn't help with multiple campaigns.

The character sheets available for download directly from Paizo are also well done. Very complete and professional looking. However, having a full 8.5x11 sheet makes them a little cumbersome during play. Particularly when a bulk of the form is used up by the deck checklists which only really matter between games. (Will the PDFs be updated to reflect the FAQ/second printing?)

I've Googled and found a few other examples of various quality, but nothing that meets my needs. If I had the software and talent to create my own sheets, I'd certainly do so. But I'm lacking in both of those requirements.

I think my ideal character sheet would be something like a 5x7 (give or take... smaller is better, as long as everything is clear) with only the details from the character and roll cards from the deck. A separate 8.5x11 sheet with checklists for the scenarios completed and deck lists would allow for complete character management but would not get in the way during gameplay.

Has anyone come across something like this that I've missed? Or does anyone have the talent, time and willingness to put something like this together?

My wife is playing Lini. She loves the power to recharge an animal instead of discarding it when you play the animal. However, she's wondering if she uses the other power of discarding a card to roll a d10, if the card discarded is an animal, can she recharge it?

I have a feeling she cannot. She'd have to play the animal, using the animal's card effects to get to recharge it. But I could be wrong, hence the request for clarification.

I can't remember where I read this, but I thought there was something along the lines of "if you fail a scenario, you cannot advance to the next scenario until you replay the failed scenario and succeed." Or maybe I'm misremembering or just making things up in my head.

Normally, I don't see this as an issue. I'll want to complete each scenario in turn not only because I'm a completionist and will want each one checked off on the character sheet, but because I'll want the rewards each completed scenario provides. However, I can think of a couple reasons why this might crop up:

1. Out of our group of players, there may be nights when someone can't make it but everyone else will want to continue. Is the person who missed a scenario able to join back in or must they complete each scenario before progressing?

2. I have more than 6 people interested in the game. That might cause some people rotating in and out, thus their characters not participating in each scenario in order.

I realize you could have two groups/campaigns each with separate characters. Even if some of the players are the same in each group. But that brings up another question: How do people quickly switch between characters on scenarios that are in different adventure deck boxes? The only thing I can think of is if your group is on Adventure Deck 3, and you want to start another group at the beginning, you're going to need to remove all the 1, 2 and 3 cards first, then re-add them and remove them every time you switch groups!

We were down to 3 cards in the blessing deck, but had a strategy that could let us win if, and only if Ezren could close the location he was on (no cards in deck) and then move to another open location to temporarily close it when the last person/turn defeated the villain.

Ezren was on Wooden Bridge and needed a Dex/Stealth check of 6. So he cast Invisibility to pass the Stealth check. Then to position himself to be able to block the villain from escaping, he used Levitate to move to another location.

My wife argued that you can't use two spells in a turn. My thought was you can't use two spells on a single check. Since the check to close the location, and the act of moving to another location were different events, it was a legal use of two spells. So who was right?

BTW, we lost anyway because while the villain was defeated, and the other two players temporarily closed their locations, Ezren failed to close his! Doh!