Sarah Bull's page

Everyone get ready for another online Convention!!!! PACS is at CannotCon this year with scenarios from the newly out 7-3 as well as We Be Heroes, Fangwood Thieves, A Night at Bloodthorne Manor, and the everplayable Dragons Demand - Wandering Way. You can check out more about the convention at the Warhorn Site. The games will be played real-time on Tabletop Simulator. The convention runs from Jan 22-26.

CannotCon Warhorn page

However, the hope that the developers will try to make all the thousands of previous cards with new wording available somewhere, is probably completely in vain. They said somewhere on the forum that they don't have the bandwidth to update all the old characters and roles. That is comparable in complexity to updating all the old boons and banes, don't you think?

Yes I agree as well. That is why I said it was difficult to ask for. Badly worded, but I meant I knew it would be difficult to do. Just figured I'd let them know my opinion. =)

The local group I play with is just about to start 5-6 and we are using the old rules to hopefully finish the adventure path. As Gencon (and the time limit to convert) draws closer, I've begun thinking of how the conversion rules will affect our group. To be clear, I am thoroughly enjoying playing PbP with the new rules and the new sets.

Our group has several people that are on the spectrum, have learning disabilities, etc. Our Venture Captain has tried to be as open, supportive, and inclusive as possible and these people are awesome fun to play with and enjoy playing with us every week. We do help these players with their characters and play though they do as much as they can without help. This usually means that the table helps them collect the dice they need and help them choose a card to use if they can't do it themselves. (Usually this takes the form of something like "you can use this weapon or this weapon for this combat check. Which would you like to use?" Player points. "Ok, that means you can roll these dice." Player rolls. Table helps them determine if they win or not.)

PACG is a complicated game, with complicated card interactions (which makes it fun imo). Because of this, the game naturally creates a natural barrier of entry to those unable to follow the complications. Our group has decided to help these individuals so that they too can enjoy the game. Up until now it has worked out well.

With 6.0 and the conversion rules though, I'm afraid things may change. Folks will no longer be able to just lean over, look at the cards, and help one of the players. Since it isn't my deck for instance, I would need to pul up the conversion rules, check them for the cards in the players hands, then if anything is changed, read the changes, THEN try to help the player. This puts more strain on the table as a whole and creates a less fun atmosphere.

In addition, the conversion rules with the current class decks make it more difficult to teach someone new the game with a pregen. "Yes I know the card says that but the conversion says we do this instead with it" is not a conversation conducive towards gaining new players.

Lone Shark/Paizo would you please keep the above issues in mind as you continue to work on the conversion rules? It would help if updated wording cards were available via drivethru cards or at least via pdf to print.I know that's difficult to ask as new card interactions and unforeseen consequences of conversion keep coming to light but it would REALLY help imo.

Thank you very much for your time and for making a great game that we all love to play. :)

P.S. If you decide to make new class decks (which would be awesome and help the most with the above issues) and need ideas, I think the Pathfinder Player Companion line has some great ideas. For instance there's the Dungeoneer's Handbook, the Animal Archive, the Faiths of line, the People of line, etc. These could be good fun. Just sayin. ;)

Frencois wrote:

Ranzak sad. Ranzak never be iconic.

Probably my favorite character to play. Ranzak was my main character for Skull & Shackles and I have played him other times at pick up games. One of my favorite memories of playing him was when Tanis O'Connor let me play him in her all-goblin ACG game at PaizoCon one year!

-Lisa

My favorite memory from any Paizocon was playing Skull & Shackles with Lisa as Ranzak. Lisa/Ranzak is just too funny for words! :)

Speaking of which, have any of you used core set substitutions (as outlined in this post)? Do you have any feedback on the policy? Or feedback about other things, for that matter. It's been a very busy couple of months for PACS, and I welcome suggestions as well as information about what people are happy with.

Hi Linda! *waves* I got a chance to try out the core set substitutions for Free RPG day last weekend. It definitely helped with the power curve problems we were seeing. Now take this with a grain of salt as we had a table of four goblins and we know how they are. But we had some difficulty with the "only one boon of each type" rule. Other than the core cards and blessings we didn't have a lot of ways to help each other out with the old class decks. This caused a change in our gameplay (which may be a good thing) where instead of using blessings and a healer to steamroll everything, we had to think strategically (not easy with goblins!) and really pay attention to the scenario mechanics. And we definitely needed more healing as we failed more checks lol. =)

My only complaint about the core set substitutions (and it's more a whine due to collecting too much card game) is that I now have up to three different sources that my cards are coming from and it makes it difficult to a) make sure i leave the game with all of my original cards and b) makes it a pain because i HAVE to rebuild/break down the decks every time now so i can use the ultimate decks for different characters and the core for home game or store use. Obviously if I bought more cards this would alleviate the matter but my husband already looks at my card collection with an incredulous look on his face. For at least my little weird brain, I'd love a generic sheet I can use to easily keep track of the cards for each of my characters. Maybe I'll make my own though I'm not very good at making pretty sheets like other folks. :)

Just signed up. Excited to try out the card game with play by post. When it says to prove you have the class deck, how does one do that? I keep my class decks in those BCW cardboard boxes and did not keep the packaging the deck came in. Do I just take a photo of the stack of cards that is the class deck I will be playing with or .... ?

Thanks!

Well, I've been a Venture Agent for over 3 years now. At least, I've been able to report for that long. I moved from Boise, ID 3 years ago and they have a great group with a VC that's into both sides of things.

Off topic but hi from Boise! :)

Mine was delivered today. Sadly I'm traveling right now so I can't check it out. :( I will live vicariously through the rest of you!

I can't wait to see what the conversion rules are like for the old sets. And to unwrap and sleeve the new cards. And to check out the new updates to rules. And to play....

Ok yeah I'm excited!

so if you let me know when you're planning to be in the area and want to drive down to the South Bay I'm happy to get a few people together.

Hi Zach, thank you very much. I ended up having to head out to the Lake Hughes area much sooner than anticipated and I am here now. My grandmother took a turn for the worse so the whole family is out here right now. Due to the circumstances I am unable to game this trip but hopefully I will be able to take you up on your kind offer next time. =)

What about something like this:
Display this card. On your turn, recharge a random card from your discard pile and draw a card. You may only do this once per turn.

I'm in the middle of packing to move so pardon me as I can't check my cards. if I remember correctly, the staff of minor healing is low level (adv 1 I think?).

I think thematically it fits the clear spindle ioun stone from the rpg. A free single card random heal is nifty but not OP in my opinion. I'd happily fight off anyone for a card that did that but it also isn't a game breaker. It allows you to draw a card which fits in better with your no hunger requirement without decreasing the size of your deck. It also has the joy of simplicity on its side. ;)

Long Beach Warhorn

Also has links to all the other games in that region.

Thanks! I looked at the link (and the links on it) but I'm not seeing any Pathfinder card game on there. Am I missing something?

Sarah Bull wrote:

redeux wrote:

I'm moving during the shipping period so had to freeze my subscription until end of May. I'll be a week or two behind the rest of you but I'm super excited! I already have all my sleeves for both Core+Curse!

I'm moving too. Thankfully my friend is letting me ship it to her house instead. =)

Yeah, I considered that option, but figured one less thing to move! Got to keep my priorities straight until we're moved and mostly unpacked LOL! Best of luck with your move!

You as well!

So I will be flying into LAX and staying in the Lake Hughes area for about a week 4-5 times this year. The current trip takes me out there during free rpg day. Does anyone know of any PACG or PACS games out there that I can join? Any games on free RPG day out there? I'm willing to drive up to 2 hours each way for gaming. It would make a depressing trip (visiting sick grandparents) a little happier if I had some gaming to look forward to. =) Crossing my fingers there is a group out there. Thanks!

I'm moving during the shipping period so had to freeze my subscription until end of May. I'll be a week or two behind the rest of you but I'm super excited! I already have all my sleeves for both Core+Curse!

I'm moving too. Thankfully my friend is letting me ship it to her house instead. =)

Sarah Bull wrote:

First World Bard wrote:

This sounds great. I'm hoping I get some time to play PACS at Gen Con this year!

I'm sad that I won't get to play with you this year as I once again won't be able to make Paizocon. My Venture Captain Elizabeth Roper will be there though! Look her up to play as she is a blast to play the card game with. =)

Oh sad :(

I'll miss you guys. I'm hoping I can make it again next year to either Paizocon or Gencon. I've got a lot going on right now that's preventing me from going to anything but local cons.

This sounds great. I'm hoping I get some time to play PACS at Gen Con this year!

I'm sad that I won't get to play with you this year as I once again won't be able to make Paizocon. My Venture Captain Elizabeth Roper will be there though! Look her up to play as she is a blast to play the card game with. =)

I got a chance to play 2-3 at Paizocon and it caused me to walk into the bar, get a beer, and then complain to Tanis "These scenarios are making me drink". I think Tanis was pleased by this.... lol

I am happy to help record any seminar I attend.

Braiiiiinnnnsss Please!

Badge name is Sarah Bull. I arrive Thursday evening around 7pmish.

Was a blast! Ginger (Droogami renamed) and I were enjoying showing the goblins our claws (I played Lini). Sadly Ostog was standing right next to me and I was unable to help him in time. (Only 1 heal to start with in the druid deck? sad face) Didn't help that Ostog was wearing goblin perfume either. He was attracting the chieftans (he got +10 goblins three times). After Ginger and I limped away a few times unable to defeat Gogmurt, Tarlin came to the rescue and showed us how it was done.

I am currently overseer gm for the very first conventiion special in Boise, ID. :). Everyone is having a fabulous time! It is so cool to be able to see players out here playing in their first special. Just had to share my hapiness and excitement with you all.

For the first part:

You are correct on the feats. When you complete four scenarios, you gain a card feat and have the option to move to the next tier. If you do and you didn't complete all the adventures, you don't get a die bump. If you instead choose to stay the same tier and complete the adventure, you gain a die bump and automatically advance a tier. A die bump is gained only when you complete an adventure.

For the second part:

You are correct You are tier 2 with 2 skill feats, 2 power feats, 1 card feat and 1 die bump for completing an adventure. If you got any deck 3 card upgrades, you will have to remove them.

Also, keep in mind that if you "play down" by playing a lower tier, you won't be able to gain upgrades that are good for your current tier.

I played my tier 2 char at paizocon for a tier 1 scenario. We won but i didnt get a single upgrade as there werent any 2 cards at all. Obvious i know but keep in mind that if you play down alot you are handicapping yourself a bit by slowing down your upgrades. ;)

On page 17 of the new guide it says:

Appendix III: Converting a Character to the T ier System

If you began a character during Season 0, and you wish to play that character outside Season of the Shackles, you'll need to convert that character to the tier system.

So if you are finishing out a season 0 character with only season 0 scenarios, you don't have to convert. :)

If I can find a ride there. My carpool is playing a PFS scenario at the hotel I think so I'm rideless.

So my carpool is planning to arrive in Seattle around 3 or 4pm ish on Thursday. Anyone interested in a pickup game Thursday evening? I will be bringing Skull and Shackles with me since my Wrath hasn't arrived yet. Can't wait to see you all! I don't leave until Tuesday morning so if anyone wants to play pickup games on Monday that would be awesome too. =)

Ticket bought and hotel room confirmed! Now to find a roommate...

OK so this is probably a stupid question... This is gonna be my first paizocon and my wife will be coming too... She enjoys the adventure card game more while I prefer the RPG more. She is interested in trying out PFS for the RPG though. So the stupid question is, are there going to be a bunch of low level PFS Sessions going on? I've finally created a character that I'm interested in really playing with and advancing, and I'm helping her work on one she likes as well. Would like to go from 1 as far as I can while at the con.

I look forward to playing ACG with your wife at Paizocon. :)

I was getting the same problem with the night of the 25th both online and with reservations. Due to my "irritation" i was told to call the hotel directly. 3 minutes later, the hotel fixed my reservation. I highly recommend calling the hotel itself if you are having issues with the 25th.

So does this mean my prayers have been answered? Are we getting a druid class deck? That would the BEST XMAS GIFT EVER!!! Confirm? Please? ;)

We found this to be one of the easiest scenarios. Helps when you have Radillo the intelligence check and go againer extraordinaire and bekah the awesome bard. I think we beat this one along with Olenjack last night in 8 turns. :).

We ended up with the Hirgenzosk/Krelloort combo the second time we tried. Didn't have it in us to try a third time that night. I hope Tanis has a fix out soon as it is pretty demoralizing to think you can win and then end up with an unwinable scenario.

Hey all. So I came up with a death house rule to use with class decks. This is NOT PFS legal. Do NOT use this for anything except home games. Just posting in case anyone else wants to try it. ;)

If your character dies, you are removed from play during this scenario. Return any cards you acquired to the box. Reform your deck according to your character card and shuffle. Draw d4 (or a higher die to make this worse) cards from your deck. These cards are banished back into your class deck. Replace them with cards from the B set with the basic trait.

Ha! Mike is correct—we do have something very much like that coming in Season of the Shackles Adventure 3... but we don't use the scenario number, we just use the name.

Good to know. I've just been writing down the scenario numbers on chronicles sheets as its way faster than writing down names. guess i will have to write the names down.

In memory of those who have fallen...

Heggal in Heaven's Wrath:

Heggal the Affable was a kind soul. Alway willing to share a pint or two with friends, he was always willing to lend a hand and his divine power to those in need. Ever the friendly halfling, he tried to talk his way out of difficulties rather than take up arms and fight. Sadly Heggal perished today when attempting to convince a Siren that his friends were not food. Heggal followed that sweet siren call down to Davey Jones' locker. Heggal will surely be missed. Please raise a pint to this pint sized cleric!

A gift card and a PACG game mat are what I am asking my husband to get me for Christmas. :)

We were lucky tonight to have a total of 7. Split 3 and 4. But if I had 6, I probably would have split it as well.

I am splitting up 6 into two tables for the reasons listed above as well as eanting space to encourage walk ins. :)

Tanis answered this for me elsewhere.

Sarah Bull wrote:

This sounds awesome! A couple quick questions:

1. Are the mini chronicles only good for the week before OP launches or can they be used later? (I love the idea of a "hook" i can give out after i run new players through a demo or intro scenario at a convention for instance.)

2. Are mini chronicles limited to one per player? I assume this is true but i already know i will be questioned on this. ;)

Great questions. They can be used any time during Season of the Shackles, and yes, one per player. :)

Hey guys, one of our FLGS out here is running a second life charity event. I will be bringing PACG with me to run both marathon and PFS events. Feel free to stop on by and play! Also, please feel free to donate for charity with the link below:

Donate now!

Event details

I'm already planing out our strategy for the bizarre love triangle with some friends. Can't wait Thanks for another great blog Gaby! Also, you fly has relocated and is now being hunted by my cat. Ginger the cat says "Mow" which translates to "Your welcome strange no claw being".

Being a visual person, it would be great if somebody would do a series of videos for PFSACG stuff. I would love to see videos of the following:

How to build a deck
How to apply your upgrades
How to fill out a Tracking Sheet

I would offer to do it, but I'm not sure I have all of the fine points down yet.

I only have an ipad or phone for video but if i can convince a friend to hold my ipad or phone for me, I might be able to whip something up. No promises and hopefully someone beats me to it. ;P

I love this card in organized play alot as it almost guarantees an ally upgrade. I say almost cuz you may end up banishing that ally for some reason down the line, :)

There was an email with instructions sent to the VOs and the stores. You can ask your local VO for help in getting your store their free copy. The store does need to order the base set, it doesn't come automatically (that I know of).

NOG the Demoralizer wrote:

Brought up this issue in another thread, awaiting a response on what is actually to be reported. We have been doing ours exactly as you ran yours if it helps.

On two sessions of 0-1A I had to check "took reward" and only checked one box (spell) as both players took a double spell.

I have suggested that if they want both rewards and upgrades reported they need to add a second line of boon check boxes specifically to address what happened in GotD and could happen again in later scenarios.

Similar deal here, FWIW. I've checked off both where I could (e.g.: if they picked up a spell for the reward and a blessing for the upgrade), but only one if they picked up two weapons. It seems as though your second boon checkbox line idea would work, if they want all the details.

I've been doing it this way as well. =)

That's easy - 108 Restorations and two Hastes (I don't want it thought that I cater only to those who love Resto).

...

I kid, of course.

Definitly kidding there as you forgot twenty different Linis. ;)

Yes the numbers will still be valid.

Joshua North wrote:

As for having to track the cards obtained, it looks like we will have to. Here's the reporting page in case anyone hasn't seen it yet.

Totenpfuhl wrote:

You don't mean upgrades, right? Looking at the reporting, there is only a check box and I figured that was for rewards and not deck upgrades.

Nope, you're right. I meant upgrades. The morning coffee wasn't fully active yet apparently at the time I wrote that.

Oh man, maybe I am reporting this all wrong? I thought we were reporting the deck upgrades as well as any scenario rewards.....

I took Joshua's tracking sheet and made a few tweaks. Here is my modified version. Still very bare bones. I just wanted to have check boxes. =)

Reporting Sheet

Oh right. Was looking straight at the card and missed that. Sorry about that. Nothing to see here, move along.