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I guess this is just for posterity. We had some great years playing PACG, and Crimson Throne was a major part of my gaming this past year.
I think we made it out without any deaths, but we saw several scenarios that took two tries. Here's our group after 6D

Character Name: Hakon
Role Card: Herald of the Horn
Skill Feats: Strength+2, Charisma+4
Power Feats: +1 hand size, (added proficiencies), On a local strength check or a local check against a monster, you may bury a card from your hand or discards, Reduce damage you suffer by 2, When you would suffer a scourge, you may roll d12
Card Feats: Weapon+2, Item+2, Ally+2
Unspent Hero Points: 0
Weapons: Wyrmsmite, Dragonbane Greatsword, Commander's Falchion, Banudor, Keen Spiked Chain
Spells: Divine Insight, Twisted Space, Good Omen
Armors: Mithral Chain Shirt, Lion's Helm
Items: Belt of Physical Might, Lyre of Storms, Ring of Immolation, Staff of Greater Healing
Allies: Formian Mymidon, Jasan Adriel, Hellknight of the Nail, Sklar-Quah Thundercaller, Hippogriff.
Blessings: Gorum's Iron, The Avalanche

Character Name: Varian
Role Card: Scion of Cheliax
Skill Feats: Dexterity +3, Intelligence+3.
Power Feats: +1 hand size, One a local check at an urban location add 1d4+1 if you recharge a diplomacy or finesse card add its level, at the start of your turn you may draw up to # cards then recharge, on your checks to acquire a finesse of magic boon or your check that invokes finesse or poison add 1d4
Card Feats: weapon+1, spell+3, ally+1, blessing+1
Unspent Hero Points: 0
Weapons: Shocking Sawtooth Saber, Serithtial
Spells: Meteor Swarm, Scrying, Disintegrate, Quickened Ray, Enervation, Major Harrowing, Embiggen, Boneshatter
Armors: none
Items: Ring of Energy Resistance, Wand of Enervation, Brooch of Protection
Allies: Djinn, Salvator Scream, Ausio Carowyn, Eries Yelloweyes.
Blessings: The Locksmith, The Rabbit Prince, The Rakshasa, The Twin

Character Name: Kyra
Role Card: Dawnseeker
Skill Feats: strength+3, Wisdom+3
Power Feats: +1 hand size, weapon, At end of turn may recharge a divine card to heal a local character 1d4 cards, Gain skills Fortitude Constitution+2 and Perception+2, on your check to recharge a Divine non-Attack spell, you automatically succeed.
Card Feats: Spell+2, Item+1, Ally+1, Blessing+7
Unspent Hero Points: 0
Weapons: Frost Longspear, Fury's Trident
Spells: Enchant Weapon, Restorative Touch, Aid, Enhance, Fool's Gold, Divine Blaze
Armors: Hellnight Plate
Items: Wand of Restorative Touch, Staff of Greater Necromancy, Third Eye
Allies: Lyrune-Quah Moon Maiden, Lyrune-Quah Truthspeaker
Blessings: The Survivor, The Carnival, Achaekek's Claws, The Sickness, The Healing Light, Abadar's Law, Lady of Valor

Character Name: Seelah
Role Card: Justice Warrior
Skill Feats: Strength+3, Constitution+1, Charisma+2
Power Feats: +1 hand size, On local check discard armor or top card to add 1d8, if you would discard an armor or a blessing you may recharge instead, you may do this if you would discard a spell, on your check against aberration, outsider or undead, when you would discard an armor or weapon for its power you may recharge it instead
Card Feats: Weapon+2, Armor+1, Blessing+3
Unspent Hero Points: 0
Weapons: Verminbane Warhammer, Ashbringer, Horrorbane Heavy Pick, Speed Battleaxe, Thundering Earthbreaker
Spells: Giant Form, Cure,
Armors: Magic Spiked Full Plate, Dread Helm, Totem Klar, Kazavon's Shield
Items: Banner of the Ancient Kings,
Allies: Ruan Mirukova, Priest of Pharasma
Blessings: The Inquisitor, The Eclipse, The Mountain Man, Iomedae's Justice, Torag's Power, The Lucky Drunk, Our Lord in Iron

Character Name: Harsk
Role Card: Warden
Skill Feats: Dexterity+4, Wisdom+2
Power Feats: +1 hand size, on any combat check recharge a card to add 1d6, one your check that invokes axe or bow add 1d8, at the end of your turn you may examine the top card of your location then shuffle your location, when you would discard an axe or bow for its power you may recharge it, gain the skill divine wisdom+2
Card Feats: (type)+(X), (type)+(X), etc.
Unspent Hero Points: (X)
Weapons: Vindicator, Deathbane Light Crossbow, Frost Longbow, Giantbane Greateaxe, Guardian Bow, Deathbane Throwing Axe
Spells: Harrowing,
Armors: Shoanti Barbarian Hide,
Items: Ring of Splendid Security, Gem of Physical Prowess, Freat-Reader Lenses, Blamberry
Allies: Zellara, Firepelt Cougar, Hippogriff Fledgling, Skoan-Quah Boneslayer,
Blessings: Irori's Mastery, The Desert, The Publican, Iomedae's Justice, Old Deadeye

Character Name: Sajan/Blackjack
Role Card: Hero of Korvosa
Skill Feats: Strength+1, Dexterity+2, Constitution+1, Wisdom+1
Power Feats: +1 hand size, Recharge a card to use acrobatics or melee+!d10, when you would recharge, shuffle, discard or bury a boon you may reload a blackjack boon instead, on your acrobatics or stealth check you may discard a card to reroll 1 die, you may avenge an encounter with a bane at any location by discarding a card, gain the skills acrobatics dexterity+3, stealth dexterity+3, diplomacy charisma+3
Card Feats: Item+2, Ally+1, Blessing+3
Unspent Hero Points: 0
Weapons: Blackjack's daggers, Blackjack's rapier, Keen Rapier, Returning Totem Spear
Spells: none
Armors: none
Items: Blackjack's Gear,
Allies: Nightspear, Wolverine, Bodyguard, Noble, Staff of Minor Healing, Wand of Flame, Headband of Mental Superiority, Cape of Escape, Spiked Gauntlet,
Blessings: The Vision, Prayer, Shelyn's Song, The Cricket, Desna's Freedom, Nethy's Duality, Nethy's Duality, Grandmother Nightmare, The Marriage, Lady Luck,

By my count, there are 21 level 4-6 weapons in the Curse of the Crimson Throne box - remember that Loot cards are shuffled into the vault with other cards of their level now (however, you consistently earn then 'before' they would normally get shuffled in).

So if 4 players had 11 weapons (and lets assume 0 of which were from lower levels), that means there should be 10 remaining in the vault.

For 6B, the locations in that scenario, for a 4 player game using Medium locations (Library/Mountain.Cliff/Cell/Castle/Arsenal) require 0+1+1+1+1+3 == 7 weapons.

Six character party, with the ones I named carrying 15 weapons, the other three having 6 between them (Varian, Kyra, and Sajan, who has the Blackjack weapons), so it's 21 cards in character decks. And six characters adds the Repository, needing another 2 weapons, and I don't recall the last location. Weapons have been a priority, so we've worked at upgrading those, wiping out most of the lower cards as we advance (except I think Kyra still has deck 1 weapons).

The other solution we came across was building for small locations, as we found the rules for this one particularly annoying (exacerbated by some truly atrocious die rolling)

As we've progressed through Curse of the Crimson Throne, we've seen the number of weapons diminish. We've removed weapons as instructed as we hit each new quest. Our group has been pretty successful at finding upgrades, so almost all the 1-3 weapons are removed from the game. We have Hakon, Selah, and Harsk all carrying 5 weapons, while our other three characters each have 2.

Tonight, setting up 6B, we finally ran out. Using the middle card row, almost every location required a weapon, and I think the cliffs needed two, and the arsenal three. There just weren't enough in the vault. We ended up putting one weapon in each location, then making up for the shortfall with blessings (after making sure we'd have enough for the hourglass if we did this). But, is there an official ruling?

In my group, Sajan became Blackjack, which seemed the best fit. But, we have a question with the extra skills.

Sajan took the power feat giving him Acrobatics, Stealth, and Diplomacy at Dex/Dex/Cha+3. But, Sajan already had Acrobatics at Dex+2.

Do these stack, so Blackjack Sajan now has Acrobatics of Dex+5? Or does just the highest value get considered, so Blackjack Sajan has Acrobatics Dex+3?

I'm midway through Adventure 2 of CotCT and share a lot of the OP's views.

I play with a friend, each of us using 3 characters, so we're able to play in a smaller space and don't have problems with the text size. I can see more bodies around the table would make it more difficult.

I love the idea of base, but, with six characters, it's rough giving up a turn to heal a card and get a supporter.

The hour hasn't been bad for us- I'll usually flip the new card and read the effect. Typically we can tell if it's something that will apply or not (Varian's probably not going to use that +2 on strength checks, but if it's Kyra's turn, we'll keep it in mind). Our issue has been remembering the Harrow effect. Lots of "Wait, that was a dex check, I should have rolled another d4."

Hero points are very nice, and enough to get our feats and have some rerolls. Although we did have a five dice re-roll come up all 1s...

I played four scenarios before I read the BGG review. I thought "Ha, I guess I lucked out," then actually looked at my cards and realized I had some red and some brown backs. It does seem spread out over the card types, so there's not any definite "Oh, this must be a weapon."

My Crimson Throne cards do seem uniform in color.

Thanks. I'm looking at playing Varian in CotCT and noticed this when sleeving. It'll work for him, but sounds like there are better weapon options.

The Elven Curve Blade is a Weapon 1 in CotCT and has Finesse as a trait. However, it only lists Strength and Melee under chance to acquire and for skills it works with in combat. Although this would work with older characters ("If the check invokes Finesse, gain Melee: Dex+2"), all the other Finesse weapons I've seen in Core and CotCT have included Acrobatics or Stealth as usable skills.

So, Valeros has always been my Pathfinder connection- I got to play him at GenCon when Pathfinder debuted. When I bought PACG, he was my first character. So with the new set, I decided to grab him again. He was a useful character, but also slow as my hand would get cluttered up with weapons. I didn't want to throw them away since I could recharge them in combat, but if I didn't find any monsters...

This new Valeros has a little wider skill use, gaining Fortitude in addition to Melee and Diplomacy.

For powers, RotR Valeros could add 1d4 to another character's combat check- useful if you were grouped up, but since I played in a team of 6 we were usually spread out. That ability now is recharging/reloading a weapon or armor, to add 1d4 to a local combat check. So Valeros can both cycle through his hand AND improve his combat check. Additionally, Valeros can recharge a weapon or armor from hand or discard at the end of each turn- so again, cycling through the cards instead of all the weapons just staying in your hand.

For the boons, armors have largely followed the Ultimate deck armors, where they're displayed instead of staying in your hand. The long sword, a staple of fighters, let's you reload for an additional d4 instead of discarding for the same.

I'm not totally sure, but I think the Finesse keyword has been altered. Previously, Finesse was a power a character would have, usually granting Melee of Dex+X when using a Finesse weapon. Instead, Finesse weapons look like they allow a character to fight with Strength, Melee, or Acrobatics- so Merisiel with Acrobatics can fight effectively with a Finesse weapon.

The core set covers the 12 iconic characters. Curse of the Crimson Throne adds four more: Hakon the skald, Kess the brawler, Quinn the investigator, and Varian the wizard. I've given these just a quick glance, but I'm looking forward to trying them out. I think skald is a combination bard/barbarian in the RPG, and aspects that we've seen in Amiri and Lem show up in Hakon. Kess gets no weapons, no spells, but can still make a decent combat roll. Varian, I'm very intrigued with- he's a wizard who's terrible at memorizing spells, so fails every Recharge roll, but gets to recharge a spell from his Discards each turn.

"in adventure 1 of Dragon's Demand you play with the 0-1 banes, but all of the boons (not cards)."

Right, I meant we had the 0-1 banes, then everything else that wasn't a higher level bane.

I'd missed the rule about not keeping cards higher than the current adventure #- it's never been an issue before. I think the only boon we gained higher than 1 was a level 3 blessing.

I guess, as Longshot points out, it may be to try out some of the higher level boons that the shortened campaign might not allow; without looking, I think Dragon's Demand is 3 adventures of 3 scenarios each.

Having looked in Crimson Throne now, the Vault there matches my expectation- all 0-1 cards to start. Though Dragon's Demand does have the option of serving as the prequel to an adventure, adding in 0-3 cards right from the start and treating the adventure # as 3.

Checked for mail today, and there was a box from Paizo on my step. Welp, I had a couple hours before my regular PACG session (another trip through Skull & Shackles, using the Ultimate decks), so I started sleeving. Finished just in time... or so I thought.

Meeting with my friend, I suggested we put our current campaign on hold and try this out. I chose Valeros and Seoni, he went with Mersiel and Lini (there's a quick-start in the box, sealed separate from the rest of cards, but we're of the jump in the deep end mindset). I've been following the previews and skimmed the rules, so I realized I needed to watch my preconceptions. There's a lot that looks like the game I've been playing, but a little different.

One change I appreciated was that so many boons had wider applications. The Sleep spell was one I never cared for, preferring to remove a monster to just evading. Now, Sleep can aid a check on a monster or ally.

Various banes have also changed. Ambush now has the Trigger keyword, with the result being it's easier if examined (you knew it was coming). The Bandit can now be bought off with a boon.

The storybanes and proxies are very nice- something I liked the sound of, but, when putting cards away and there's just a single Bandit and just a single Ancient Skeleton- I appreciate the more efficient use of cards.

One change that almost tripped me up- I was expecting that the Vault of available cards was going to be the level 0 and level 1 cards. I was half right- the banes were pulled from 0 and 1, but the Dragon's Demand set up said to use ALL the rest of the core cards. So, more hurried sleeving. But leave out the Loot cards, right? Nope (although I was in a hurry and might have misread), it looked like those got shuffled right into their categories, to be pulled out later on.

We made it through the first two scenarios, mostly successful (first scenario almost ran out of time, but we pulled it out). I noticed some playstyle changes when we couldn't just pile blessings on a check. The blessings were still getting used, but we were watching for other ways to assist.

I think our only real mistake was when we encountered a card that had us summon a Random Undead Story Bane. I recalled seeing a chart in a preview, but could not find it in the Rules or Story book. I thought maybe it was left out, maybe things had changed since the preview was written- but no, it's just on the back of the Wildcard (maybe the only non-character card that is double sided).

My only complaint, I did like the plastic insets of the previous sets. I knew where everything went. The new box has foam blocks and dividers, which work, but it's a little annoying flopping dividers back and forth to access card groups. So, not a big deal, just different from what I've grown used to.

Overall, I'm happy with the way the game has been updated. I haven't opened Crimson Throne yet, but think it will be equally good.

There are a lot of changes that I really like. The frost spear giving +1d4 and cold automatically, but you can turn those off, instead of all the elemental weapons that required a discard to invoke the trait. Harsk being able to support anyone anywhere or himself (I remember some RotRL scenarios where we ended up clustered in one spot and Harsk couldn't help- though I was Valeros in a party of 6, so that was one of the few times where I could help out). I'm hoping the many Display this Armor cards from the Ultimate sets were a preview.

It can be fun to crush an encounter. I remember when support from my group let me roll more dice against Black Fang than it's difficulty. Playing Zova in Skull & Shackles, she's crushing Survival checks. Lini was such a powerful character in Runelords because she could add 1d4+4 to all of her checks. But it also takes away some of the tension (Not completely- we've had a few times where "I can only fail on all 1s" and 3 dice come back as 1).

So, I'm looking forward to trying out the new core set. Might be we lose a bit more often, but it looks like there are ways to adjust difficulty if we need it.

Good article! Some of these I've picked up, some I'm still trying to learn.

Armor, it feels like you should use something you're proficient in- but then in Skull & Shackles, there was a really nice heavy armor loot card. Sure, give it to the magus, as long as he doesn't use the banish power he's fine. My non-proficient druid in RotRL is wearing basic heavy armor- if I have to banish, no big whoop.

Cards that you banish for their power- I get in the same mindset I'll have in JRPGs with rare items. "I could use this now, but what if I need it later? Better hold on to it." Three adventures later, I'm still waiting for the perfect time to play it, when I could have used it long ago and found something I'll actually use.

Finish up a few months back, just haven't gotten around to posting. Ahmotep used a cenopath to gain an extra skill feat
Character Name: Drelm
Role Card: Keymaster
Skill Feats: strength+4, wisdom+3
Power Feats: +1 hand size, Add divine skill on traps, when discarding a blessing of Abadar to add dice or explore you may recharge it and add 1 additional die, after you defeat a barrier with the obstacle or trap trait on exploration you may explore
Card Feats: Weapon+, Spell+2, Armor+1, Ally+1, Blessing+2
Weapons: Great Club +1, Shattertouch Shotel +2, Spellsword +2, Rod of the Devoured Dawn
Spells: Cure, Find Traps, Boneshatter, Symbol of Fortune, Jolting Portent
Armors: Rhino Hide Armor, Bronze Sentinel, Elemental Brass Mail
Items: Hand of the Honest Man, Life Lantern
Allies: Clockwork Menial, Hearth Elemental
Blessings: Blessing of Anubis, Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Wadjet

Character Name: Ahmotep
Role Card: Staff Magus
Skill Feats: Strength+3, Intelligence+4, Charisma+1
Power Feats: +2 hand size, On your check or a check by another character at your location after the roll you may discard or recharge to add or subtract 2, you may recharge a card that has the staff trait or a spell to add 1d12 to combat check, when you attempt a deplomacy or knowledge check you may recharge a card to add its adventure number
Card Feats: Spell+2, Armor+1, Item+2, Ally+1, Blessing+1
Weapons: Staff of Uraeus, Crook and Flail of Kings
Spells: Chain Lightning, Knock, Ice Storm, Safety Bubble, Eruption, Monstrous Physique
Armors: Elemental Brass Mail, Gravewatcher Chain Mail
Items: Tablet of Languages Lost, Sun Falcon Pectoral, Golden Serpent Armband, Mythopoeic Sphinx, Bird Feather Tokens
Allies: Bal Themm, Pakesket, Sophronia
Blessings: Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Ra, Blessing of Isis

Character Name: Simoun
Role Card: Bladewind
Skill Feats: Dexterity+4, Intelligence+3
Power Feats: +2 hand size, Reduce electricity and combat damage by 4, Add perception on obstacles, On combat check that has a knife trait add 2 for each die rolled, you recharge a weapon with knife and ranged traits to add 1d4 plus its adventure deck number to a combat check
Card Feats: Weapon+2, Item+1, Ally+2, Blessing+2
Weapons: Dagger of Doubling, Dagger of Doubling, Galvanic Kopis+2, Glavanic Kopis +2, Chakram of Ruin, Chakram of Ruin, Fate Blade
Spells:
Armors: Aegis of Recovery
Items: Deliquescent gloves, Djinn Favor Amulet, Scarab of Mummy Defense, Ushabti of the Willing Servant
Allies: Sehela, Khai-Utef, Tetisurah, Black Kiss, Khelru
Blessings: Blessing of Maat, Blessing of Horus, Blessing of ra, Blessing of Wadjet, Blessing of Horus

Character Name: Zadim
Role Card: Outrider
Skill Feats: Strength+4, Dexterity+2, Intelligence+1
Power Feats: +1 hand size, You may recharge to add your intelligence skill +2 to a check that invokes acid or undead, recharge or shuffle into your deck a weapon without the two-handed trait to add stealth skill to combat check, when you defeat a monster you may examine the top card of your location, when another character encounters a bane that has the poison or trigger trait you may move to that location
Card Feats: Weapon+2, Armor+2, Ally+1, Blessing+2
Weapons: Ooze falchion +1, blowgun, Scorpion Whip, Icy Longspear +1, Flaming Ranseur +3, Shocking Scimitar +2, Thousand Stings Whip
Spells:
Armors: Akhentepi's Armor, Clawhand Shield, Steel Ibis Lamellar, Silken Ceremonial Armor
Items: Pharaoh's Key, Scarab Brooch, Feather of Maat
Allies: Druid of the Hive, Idorii, Reta Bigbad
Blessings: Blessing of Maat, Blessing of Ra, Blessing of Wadjet, Blessing of the Lady of Graves, Blessing of Horus

Character Name: Yoon
Role Card: Pan-Elementalist
Skill Feats: Dexterity+3, Constitution+3, Charisma+1
Power Feats: +2 hand size, weapons, you may shuffle a blessing to add fortitude and acid cold or electricity, reveal a card with acid cold electricity or fire to reduce damage by 5, add 1d4 to your check for each trait it invokes
Card Feats: +1 weapon, +1 armor, +2 ally, +3 blessings
Weapons: Returning throwing axe+1, venomous heavy crossbow+2, frost sling+1
Spells:
Armors: Mistmail, Steel Ibis Lamellar
Items: Brilliance of Ra, Compass,
Allies: pard, Neferekhu, Ubashki, porcupine, apprentice, Mahga Threefingers
Blessings: Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Ra, Blessing of Thoth, Blessing of Wadjet, Blessing of Maat, Blessing of Horus, Blessing of the Lady of Graves, Blessing of Isis, Blessing of Abadar

Character Name: Ezren
Role Card: Spellsage
Skill Feats: +4 intelligence, +3 wisdom
Power Feats: +1 hand size, light armors, on your turn you may recharge a spell to explore, when you encounter a bane with undead traits ignore its immunities, recharge a spell to add 1 die to your check against a bane that invokes cold, fire, or poison, While you play or when you would banish a spell you may recharge a spell to gain the divine skill equal to your intelligence skill+2.
Card Feats: Spell+3, Item+3, Ally +1
Weapons: Spear of the watchful guardian
Spells: Disable mechanism, Stone Skin, Clinging Venom, Chain lightning, volcanic storm, safety bubble, sirocco, canopic conversion, ice storm
Armors: Scarab buckler,
Items: Mask of the Forgotten Pharaoh, ring of the godless, Osirion History, Staff of Minor Healing (see blessings)
Allies: Erayu, Cloud Elemental, Scribe, Sand elemental
Blessings: Blessing of the elements, Blessing of the elements, Blessing of the elements

Haven't played it, but the Kikko Armor sounds great. With fighters having limited hand size, it's hard to justify armor taking up a spot- but later adventure paths have increased the importance of armor. Armor that I can display until I need it is armor I'll actually use, and not end up recharging to make room.

Hayato looks like a good fit for Skull & Shackles, but it may be a while before I get the chance- my Pathfinder ACG group transformed into my Gloomhaven group, but these new packs may bring us back.

Nearing the end of Mummy's Mask, I've been very fond of Drelm. Solid in combat, support from divine spells, but just amazing with barriers. Obstacle or trap, I just laugh at as I'm adding in Divine- with most of them allowing disable, points into wisdom count double. And my Blessings of Abadar are rechargeable, and give 2 dice, or 3 against barriers. After playing plenty of characters frustrated by barriers, it's been a dream playing one who isn't bothered (actually two, as I've also got Simoun in this game).

S&S Oloch might have a spot, but the game I was playing him ground to a halt. After Valeros in my RotRL game, I was looking forward to playing someone who was more support. And I figured he'd pair well with a friend's Ranzak- let Ranzak run ahead, any monsters he evades I could tackle with my d12 strength.

+1 Irgy & Hannibal.

Bringing the rulebook quote to this thread so viewers don't have to chase it:

MM rulebook p.12 Rolling Dice sicebar wrote:

If a card calls for a die roll that affects multiple characters or situations (for example, if it says that each character at a location is dealt 1d4 damage), roll separately for each.

Argh! I just looked over the rules before I posted, but skipped the sidebars.

At least we've been doing it right. Thanks for the quick responses!

With two scenarios left in Mummy's Mask, I've almost made a complete run of the box sets and am getting ready to start a new round of them. But before that, I want to get something clarified that I've just punted on before.

Mummy's Mask has a lot of banes that will do something like All Characters at this Location take 1d4 damage.

Now, I've played that as each character rolls the damage. Drelm and Zadim are both hit with an effect- Drelm rolls the d4 and ends up taking 3 damage which he can figure out how to resist. Then Zadim rolls a 1 and that's all the day damage he's taking.

But I wonder if it should be Drelm rolls the damage, and his 3 is applied to everyone affected.

Rolling once means everyone is affected the same way. Each character rolling, there's a chance that someone ends up luckier than the other.

I want to play Wrath of the Righteous with these characters.

No deaths, more than a few failed scenarios. First three are the characters I play, last three are the same friend I ran S&S and Wrath with. This time we started with four, but added Ahmotep and Yoon because we had no diplomacy and low charisma.

Character Name: Drelm
Role Card: Keymaster
Skill Feats: strength+2, wisdom+2
Power Feats: +1 hand size, Add divine skill on traps, when discarding a blessing of Abadar to add dice recharge it and add 1 additional die
Card Feats: Spell+2, Blessing+2
Weapons: Disrupting Rapier +1, Shock Glaive +1, Great Club +1
Spells: Commune, Cure, Good Omen, Find Traps, Holy Light
Armors: Armor of the Sands, Tooled Crocodile Skin
Items: Muninofrah's Favor, Scarab of Mummy Defense
Allies: Reta Bigbad,
Blessings: Blessing of Thoth, Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Wadjet

Character Name: Ahmotep
Role Card: Staff Magus
Skill Feats: Strength+1, Intelligence+2, Charisma+1
Power Feats: +1 hand size, On your check or a check by another character at your location after the roll you may discard or recharge to add or subtract 2, you may recharge a card that has the staff trait or a spell to add 1d8 to combat check
Card Feats: Spell+2, Item+1, Ally+1
Weapons: Staff of Uraeus, Staff of Dark Flame
Spells: Chain Lightning, Elemental Mastery, Volcanic Storm, Deathgrip, Sands of Time, Knock
Armors: Advocate's Armor
Items: Hand of the Honest Man, Tablet of Languages Lost, Sun Falcon Pectoral, Anubis Staff,
Allies: Sebti the Crocodile, Marianix Karn, Mahga Threefingers
Blessings: Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Ra

Character Name: Simoun
Role Card: Bladewind
Skill Feats: Dexterity+3, Intelligence+1
Power Feats: +1 hand size, Reduce electricity damage by 4, Add perception on obstacles, On combat check that has a knife trait add 1 for each die rolled
Card Feats: Item+1, Ally+1, Blessing+2
Weapons: Dagger of Doubling, Dagger of Doubling, Corrosive Dagger+1, Galvanic Chakram +1, Glavanic Chakram +1
Spells:
Armors: Shield Cloak
Items: Deliquescent gloves, Djinn Favor Amulet, Key of the Second Vault, Ushabti of the Willing Servant
Allies: Stained glass elemental, Terhk Fourwinds, Black Kiss, Khelru
Blessings: Blessing of Maat, Blessing of Thoth, Blessing of ra, Blessing of Wadjet, Blessing of Horus

Character Name: Zadim
Role Card: Outrider
Skill Feats: Strength+2, Dexterity+1, Intelligence+1
Power Feats: +1 hand size, You may recharge to add your intelligence skill to a check that invokes acid or undead, recharge a weapon without the two-handed trait to add stealth skill to combat check, when another character encounters a bane that has the poison or trigger trait you may move to that location
Card Feats: Weapon+2, Blessing+2
Weapons: Ooze falchion +1, Khopesh, blowgun, blowgun, Shocking Scimitar +2, Scorpion Whip, Icy Longspear +1,
Spells:
Armors: Akhentepi's Armor, Burglar's Buckler
Items: Wing of Horus, Scarab Brooch, Feather of Maat
Allies: Druid of the Hive, Idorii
Blessings: Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Ra, Blessing of Wadjet, Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Horus

Character Name: Yoon
Role Card: Pan-Elementalist
Skill Feats: Dexterity+2, Constitution+1, Charisma+1
Power Feats: +1 hand size, weapons, you may shuffle a blessing to add fortitude, add 1d4 to your check for each trait it invokes
Card Feats: +1 weapon, +3 blessings
Weapons: Returning throwing axe+1, flaming spear+1, frost sling+1
Spells:
Armors: Mistmail,
Items: Brilliance of Ra, Compass,
Allies: Dhabba, pard, Neferekhu, Ubashki
Blessings: Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Ra, Blessing of Thoth, Blessing of Nethys, Blessing of Maat, Blessing of Horus, Blessing of Ra, Blessing of Isis, Blessing of Abadar

Character Name: Ezren
Role Card: Spellsage
Skill Feats: +4 intelligence
Power Feats: +1 hand size, light armors, recharge a spell to add 1 die to your check against a bane that invokes cold, fire, or poison, While you play or when you would banish a spell, you may recharge a spell to gain the divine skill equal to your intelligence skill.
Card Feats: Spell+2, Item+2
Weapons: Spear of the watchful guardian
Spells: Disable mechanism, Stone Skin, Clinging Venom, Fiery glare, Chain lightning, lightning bolt, unspeakable chill, elemental treaty,
Armors: Scarab buckler,
Items: Mask of the Forgotten Pharaoh, ring of the godless, (see blessings)
Allies: Pahmet Clansman, Neb-at, Tetisurah,
Blessings: Blessing of the elements, Blessing of the elements, Blessing of the elements, Blessing of the elements

Irgy wrote:

... other things I always pay attention to when building a party:

1. Balancing skills so there's always someone who can close each location.

^This.

We always consider our ability to close, especially when picking the last 1-2 characters in a party.

Oh yeah. We ended up with a rough go early in MM because we had no one with diplomacy or a charisma above d6.

I'm another who misread and thought we had to get Muminofrah's Favor to win- a case of expectation keeping me from reading what was actually there.

We did have a group of 6 that won on the first try. Simoun was third and the first to miss a check to acquire, so she was designated as back up. Zadim was up next, and we decided to also have him skip exploring and be on hand to boost combat rolls. Ahmotep was the eventual winner, although her ability to +/-2 a roll never came up.

"But it's important to recognize that these big changes we're talking about are primarily about presentation, not game mechanics. We're not talking "PACG: Second Edition" here; we don't need to change the rules and mechanics much more than we usually change them for a new Base Set. Let's be explicit: we're not going to invalidate your old cards. The things we've made so far will play just fine with things from the next base set, and we'll give you easy fixes for anything that doesn't, like when we changed "before the encounter" to "before you act" between Rise of the Runelords and Skull & Shackles."

That's exactly what I wanted to hear. I do love seeing new core sets, but I can wait (one group stalled out in S&S, with my other friend we're chugging through MM, but maybe we'll try one of the Seasons after).

Oh, and I'd love to see Starfinder ACG, in part because the card game is a lot easier for my group to get into than the RPG (although playing the cards did bring us back to the RPG...) but yeah, totally reasonable that you'll need more art to make a product.

I remember playing a session of "Burnt Offerings" under Wes at Gen Con long ago. I don't remember much of the session itself, but I did feel much less beat down than when Jason Bulmahn had a shambling mound maul my fighter at the Paizo booth earlier in the weekend.

I do recall Wes being genuinely touched when I asked him to sign my copy of the last print issue of Dragon. Good luck!

Unlike previous sets, none of the characters demanded I play them. Drelm was the closest, because I'm naturally drawn to heavy armor and weapon users (perhaps enhanced because my second play of Skull & Shackles has stalled while I was playing Oloch).

For my second, I considered both the elementalist and slayer, but opted for Simoun (having Valeros as my original RotRL character has me predisposed toward anyone who can recharge a weapon). Two characters with disabled sounded good for tomb raiding, and after my first power feat, each can add a skill to barriers that are traps and obstacles (right now one can do it for each, which keeps having me double check the their powers).

My friend went with Zadim and Ezren, who seem pretty potent in their field.

Having seen more staffs, I'm curious about Ahmotep (her staff power didn't sound that neat when I'd only seen weapon staves and had only Seltyiel to compare to. But, also working against her was my friend taking Ezren, and me coming off of Enora, so wanting to try something non-arcane.

Turned out the big problem with our party, no one with diplomacy and no one with charisma higher than a d6. After beating our heads against the location that has you do any 2 of wisdom, intelligence, and charisma checks, and a henchman needing a diplomacy check, we decided to expand to 6. I took Ahmotep, he took Yoon (who I'd considered at the start of the campaign). My friend has played Seltyiel in S&S, but Ahmotep looks to play a bit different. Yoon gives us a lot more blessings, but we also had a period where she couldn't do anything with her hand.

Don't get me started on casters and the Pig From Hell.

That thing nearly lost us the final WotR scenario. Not too bad normally, but godawful when you're treating the deck like it's 10. Worse, it kept getting shuffled back in over the villain.

I started with Ekkie and Enora, while my friend had Seelah and Kyra. I quickly swapped Ekkie out for Harsk. When we acquired Arushalae, I added her to my group and my friend added Shardra.

We added in the Ranger, Wizard, Cleric, and Paladin decks.

Harsk used the tome of Physical Might- I think Enora did also, and was able to make the check to return it to the box.

Seelah was the workhorse, almost unstoppable with Holy Radiance in her hands.

Enora was the only death in 0-5. She sometimes seemed like a weak link- yes a d12 in intelligence, but only Arcane +1 felt much smaller than it really is. But, she also did some major butt kicking, including taking on the chimera solo.

Character Name: Harsk
Role Card: Demonslayer
Skill Feats: Strength+1, Dexterity+4, Constitution+1, Intelligence+1, Wisdom+3, Charisma+1
Power Feats: +3 hand size, May evade Demons and may put it on top of its location deck otherwise add2d6 on checks, May use SUrvival instead of Knowledge against a monster, May reroll 1 dice in a failed check against a Demon, May explore again if defeat a demon on first exploration, May recharge a card to add 1d4+1 to another character's check to defeat a demon
Card Feats: Weapon+3, Armor+1, Item+1, Ally+2, Blessing+2
Weapons: Stalker's Crossbow, Skirmishing Spear, Flaming Spear +1, Deathbane Light Crossbow +1, Spirit Blade, Infinite Rod, Marksman's Bow, Deskari's Tooth
Spells:
Armors: Spiritwalk Armor, Sniper's Studded Leather, Celestial Armor
Items: Ring of Reflection, Sacred Prism, Knight's Pennon
Allies: Jesker Helton, Lann, Mountaineer, Dire Griffon
Blessings: Blessing of Shax, Blessing of Deskari, Blessing of Abraxas, Blessing of Baphomet, Blessing of Shelyn, Blessing of Nocticula
Mythic Path: Mythic Champion

Character Name: Enora
Role Card: Occularium Scholar
Skill Feats: Strength+1, Dexterity+1, Intelligence+4, Wisdom+1, Charisma+3
Power Feats: +2 hand size, May use knowledge when attempting to acquire an item or defeat a barrier, Discard a Spell or Book to reduce Cold, Fire, Acid, Electricity, or Force damage dealt to you other another character at your location to 0, Reveal a Boon with the Book trait to add 1d4+2 to your check, At start of turn may recharge a Book to examine top 3 cards of location deck or a spell to examine top 3 cards of your deck and put them back in any order
Card Feats: Spell+3, Item+3, Ally+1, Blessing+2
Weapons:
Spells: Hellmouth Lash, Fire Shield, Scrying, Ice Strike, Transmogrify, Form of the Dragon, Dragon's Breath, Life Drain, Scorching Ray
Armors:
Items: Robe of the Rifts, Demon Hunter's Handbook, Fasciculus Labyrinthum, Spellbottle, Black Robe, Ring of Forcefangs
Allies: Druid of the Flame, Celestial Unicorn, Pyromaniac Mage,
Blessings: Blessing of the Starsong, Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Abraxas, Blessing of Gozreh, Blessing of Norgorber, Blessing of Nocticula
Mythic Path: Mythic Archmage

Character Name: Arueshalae
Role Card: Redeemed
Skill Feats: Strength+1, Dexterity+4, Constitution+1 Intelligence+1, Wisdom+1, Charisma+3
Power Feats: +2 hand size, Reduce electricity, fire, and poison damage by 5, May evade encounters and move, When Arueshalae's Gift is displayed add 1d4+2 and may add to hand at the start of any turn, Instead of first exploration may reveal a card with Desna or Blessing to shuffle 1d4+2 cards into a characters deck and that character may draw a card, At start of turn may examine top card of location deck, if it's a boon, may put on bottom of deck.
Card Feats: Weapon+1, Armor+1, Item+2, Ally+2, Blessing+3
Weapons: Mournful Razor, Firebow, Marksman's Bow, Star Bow, Demonbane Light Crossbow +1
Spells:
Armors: Mantle of Faith, Celestial Armor
Items: Amulet of the Abyss, Ring of Reflection, Torc of the Heavens, Fortune's Arrow, Swallowtail Bracers
Allies: Clockwork Librarian, Varisian Illusionist, Wolf, Fortune Teller
Blessings: Blessing of the Starsong, Blessing of Nocticula, Blessing of Terendelev, Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Gozreh, Blessing of Shelyn, Blessing of Iomedae, Blessing of Abadar
Mythic Path: Mythic Trickster

Character Name: Kyra
Role Card: Dawnflower's Flare
Skill Feats: Strength+1, Dexterity+1, Intelligence+1, Wisdom+4, Charisma+3
Power Feats: +1hand size, Weapon proficiency, When facing a bane with the demon or undead trait, you may recharge of shuffle into your deck a spell or blessing to add 2d8 to you divine skill and may add an additional 1d8 and the fire trait, after using the above power or playing a blessing on your or another character's chance to defeat may shuffle 1 card from a discard pile, may recharge blessing when you play them on your check to defeat a demon or undead, may add 1d4+2 to check to recharge card with the attack trait, when another character plays a blessing of sarenre on your check they may recharge it and another random card from their discard pile
Card Feats: Spell +2, Armor +1, Item +1, Ally +2, Blessing +3
Weapons: Grayflame Mace+2
Spells: Cure, Ice Strike, Brilliance, Frigid Blast, Terraform, Scrying, Holy Feast
Armors: Armor of the Pious, Adamantine Plate Armor
Items: Boomcrown, Banner of Valor
Allies: Apprentice, Druid of the Leaf, Evangelist, Riftwarden
Blessings: Blessing of Ascension, Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Pulura, Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Iomedae, Blessing of Shelyn, Blessing of Nethys, Blessing of Sarenrae
Mythic Path: Mythic Hierophant

Character Name: Shardra
Role Card: Spirit Guide
Skill Feats: Strength+1, Dexterity+1, Constitution+1 Intelligence+2, Wisdom+4, Charisma+1
Power Feats: +1 hand size, Heavy Armor Proficiency, Weapons proficiency, When succeed at knowledge check may examine top 2 cards of any location deck, gain Arcane: Wisdom+1, Discard a card to add 1d6+4 and mental to combat checks to defeat a monster, When you defeat a bane you may recharge a spell from your discard pile and draw a card, when you play a blessing on a check to defeat a monster by another character at your location add a d12
Card Feats: Weapon+1, Spell+3, Armor+1, Item+1, Ally+1, Blessing+2
Weapons: Rod of the Viper
Spells: Fiery Glare, Breath of Life, Mass Cure, Divine Blaze, Divine Fortune, Cure, Venomous Bolt, Frigid Blast
Armors: Spiritwalk Armor, Stole of the Inheritor
Items: Boomcrown, Talisman of True Faith, Chalice of Ozem
Allies: Scribe, Exalted, Eliandra
Blessings: Blessing of Sarenrae, Blessing of Shax, Blessing of Cayden Cailean, Blessing of Achaekek, Blessing of Baphomet, Blessing of Sarenrae, Blessing of Pharasma
Mythic Path: Mythic Hierophant

Character Name: Seelah
Role Card: Wardstone Sentry
Skill Feats: Strength+4, Dexterity+1, Intelligence+1, Wisdom+1, Charisma+4
Power Feats: +2 hand size, When you attempt a check before you act may use your charisma+4 instead of the skill, May discard top card to add 1d6+3 to any character at your location and if the character defeats a monster they may draw a card, When you acquire a boon with the corrupted trait bury it and may explore again, May add 1d8 and magic trait to check to defeat bane with demon or undead trait, when another character encounters a monster with the cultist or demon trait you may move there.
Card Feats: Weapon+2, Spell +2, Ally +2, Blessing +3
Weapons: Dancing Scimitar+2, Noriznigath, Blancher, Soulshear, Dawnflower's Kiss, Holy Radiance
Spells: Weapon of Awe, Cure, Wisdom
Armors: Fortress Shield, Demon Armor, Ebon Thorn,
Items: Knight's Pennon
Allies: Kamilo Dann, Mendevian Crusader, Grizzled Mercenary, Mountaineer
Blessings: Blessing of Pulura, Blessing of Iomedae, Blessing of Sarenrae, Blessing of Baphomet, Blessing of Shelyn, Blessing of Norgorber, Blessing of Cayden Cailean
Mythic Path: Sword of Iomedae

Cards Redeemed: Soulshear, Stalker's Crossbow, Black Robe, fascicalus Labyrinthum, Amulet of the Abyss, Rod of the Viper

No idea when I'd get around to playing them, but I'm buying the Hell's Vengeance decks!

And although I'm just dipping my toes into Mummy's Mask, I'm hoping an upcoming preview shows what the next path will be.

Unlike previous sets, none of the characters demanded I play them. Drelm was the closest, because I'm naturally drawn to heavy armor and weapon users (perhaps enhanced because my second play of Skull & Shackles has stalled while I was playing Oloch).

For my second, I considered both the elementalist and slayer, but opted for Simoun (having Valeros as my original RotRL character has me predisposed toward anyone who can recharge a weapon). Two characters with disabled sounded good for tomb raiding, and after my first power feat, each can add a skill to barriers that are traps and obstacles (right now one can do it for each, which keeps having me double check the their powers).

My friend went with Zadim and Ezren, who seem pretty potent in their field.

Having seen more staffs, I'm curious about Ahmotep (her staff power didn't sound that neat when I'd only seen weapon staves and had only Seltyiel to compare to. But, also working against her was my friend taking Ezren, and me coming off of Enora, so wanting to try something non-arcane.

The Afghanistan Principle is not without its detractors or its problems. And obviously, there's a very popular roleplaying game that doesn't (and basically can't) follow it completely.

I didn't have a name for it, but I recall seeing this principle in FFG's Descent. One expansion introduces sustained orders? Well, only dungeons from that set would use them. Road to Legends would give the Overlord a choice of monsters to use, but would never have monsters from two different expansions in one choice.

At the time, I was annoyed- I'd paid for all the expansions, why didn't they integrate them better? Learning the other side of it, I'm more accepting of the choice.

I ended up with Valeros because of his power to recharge weapons. I'd considered both Amiri and Seelah, but bury cards? Or discard cards unseen? Madness.

Then we added Seelah in half way through Rise of the Runelords, and she proved far better at fighting than I was (I certainly wasn't trying to fight henchmen barehanded, but Seelah did it a number of times). And I've seen how effective Amiri is in the app.

I was also worried about running out of weapons, but I've found with other characters, that's not usually a problem.

I'll also cop to falling into the Reveal trap. Ring of Protection may be my favorite item, but I'd have that, and a belt of strength, and a couple weapons (figuring I'd find a monster and recharge one), and then I'd do one exploration and be done because I didn't have room in my hand.

Finished the campaign months ago, but only now getting around to adding on our finished characters. We kept our only death to Kyra back in Fort Rannick. That player dropped soon after, and we brought in another player who played Seelah (who proceeded to make my Valeros redundant- it wasn't the fighter who was taking out henchmen barehanded). But- that player also left the group just before the end, so final adventure was just the five, succeeding on almost the last card.

Our biggest stumbling block by far was Scaling Mhar Massif. We failed 2 or 3 times before finally splitting the party and doing it in two groups of three.

Character Name: Valeros
Role Card: Weapon Master
Skill Feats: Strength+3, Constitution+1, Charisma+2
Power Feats: +2 hand size, 1d4+1 to another character's combat check, When you play a weapon you may shuffle it into your deck, Add 4 to check to acquire a weapon
Card Feats: Weapons+2, Armor+1, Item+2, Ally+2, Blessing+1
Weapons: Flaming Icy Ace+1, Flaming Ranseur+3, Great Club+3, Great Club+3, Shock Greatsword +2, Fanged Falchion
Spells:
Armors: Breastplate of Fire Resistance, Chainmail of Cold Resistance, Elven Breastplate, Magic Full Plate
Items: Belt of Physical Might, Headband of Alluring Charisma, Ring of Protection
Allies: Shalelu Andosana, Jakardros Sovark, Guide, Vale Temros
Blessings: Blessing of Torag, Blessing of Torag, Blessing of Gozreh, Blessing of Gorum

Character Name: Lini
Role Card: Wild Warden
Skill Feats: Strength+2, Dexterity+1, Intelligence+1, Wisdom+2
Power Feats: +1 Hand Size, Weapon, Reveal ally with Animal trait to add 1d4+4 to check, Add 1d8 with magic to check to defeat bane with Animal trait
Card Feats: Weapon+1, Spell+2, Item+2, Ally+2, Blessing+1
Weapons: Karzoug's Burning Glaive
Spells: Aid, Strength, Augury, Find Trap, Invoke, Mass Cure, Mass Cure, Sign of Wrath
Armors:
Items: Ordikon's Staff, Robe of Runes, Amulet of Fiery Fists, Greater Luckstone
Allies: Saber-toothed Tiger, Velociraptor, Toad, Bear, Giant Badger
Blessings: Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Desna, Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Shelyn, Blessing of Norgorber

Character Name: Merisiel
Role Card: Thief
Skill Feats: Strength+2, Dexterity+3, Wisdom+1
Power Feats: +1 Hand Size, Weapons, May recharge a card to add 1d6+3 to your combat check, Add 2 to your noncombat check to close a location, When you play a blessing to add to your Dexterity check, you may recharge it
Card Feats: Weapon+2, Armor+1, Item+2, Ally+1 , Blessing+2
Weapons: Giantbane Dagger+1, Venomous Dagger+2, Returning Frost Spear+2, Shock Greatsword+2
Spells:
Armors: Magic Studded Leather Armor, Lesser Bolstering Armor
Items: Masterwork Tools, Staff of Minor Healing, Tome of Knowledge, Boots of Teleportation, Headband of Inspired Wisdom, Magic Spyglass, Revelation Quill, Sihedron Medallion, Sihedron Medallion
Allies: Ayruzi, Brodert Quink, Troubadour
Blessings: Blessing of Erastil, Blessing of Erastil, Blessing of Erastil, Blessing of Calistria, Blessing of Calistria, Blessing of Shelyn

Character Name: Harsk
Role Card: Arbalist
Skill Feats: Dexterity+3, Wisdom+3
Power Feats: +1 hand size, At the start of your turn you may examine the top card of your location deck, You may recharge a card to add 1d4+3 to a combat check by a character at another location or your location, At the start of your turn, if you have no weapons in your hand, you may draw 1 card
Card Feats: Weapon+1, Armor+1, Item+2, Ally+3, Blessing+1
Weapons: Acidic Sling +2, Deathbane Light Crossbow +1, Returning Frost Spear+2, Venomous Dagger+2, Venomous Heavy Crossbow, Shock Longbow +1
Spells:
Armors: Hide Armor of Fire Resistance, Magic Studded Leather Armor
Items: Belt of Incredible Dexterity, Holy Candle, Headband of Vast Intelligence, Luckstone, Ring of Protection
Allies: Crow, Black Arror Ranger, Merchant, Mountaineer,
Blessings: Blessing of Irori, Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Lamashtu, Blessing of Erastil, Blessing of Gozreh, Blessing of Sarenrae

Character Name: Seoni
Role Card: Abyssal Sorcerer
Skill Feats: Dexterity+1, Intelligence+1, Charisma+4
Power Feats: May discard a card to roll your Arcane die +1d6+4 for combat with the Fire or Acid trait, Automatically recharge items with the arcane trait, When you play Blessing of Pharasma, add d12
Card Feats: Spell+3, Item+2, Ally+2, Blessing+2
Weapons:
Spells: Blizzard, Incendiary Cloud, Haste, Lightning Bolt, Scorching Ray, Poison Blast
Armors:
Items: Wand of Enervation, Token of Remembrance, Robe of Xin-Shalast, Sihedron Tome, Staff of Hungry Shadows
Allies: Black Arrow Ranger, Father Zantus, Grizzled Mercenary, Monkey
Blessings: Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Lamashtu, Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Pharasma

The character add-on deck gives names and classes, but nothing here. Looking forward to the previews.

I just wanted to play the card game without all the shuffling. This goes above and beyond! Can't wait.

It's also giving me some ideas as I prepare my group to move from the card game to the RPG with Rise of the Runelords.

No deaths in our journey, though various scenarios required a second try, including the final scenario (which ran down to the very last blessing deck, used to ensure the Hurricane King was put down).

Seltyiel served as our heavy, taking down villains (and so, so many sharks at Shark Island). Jirelle did well in survival and fortitude checks. Merisiel was often a lone agent, often focused on barrier heavy areas. Lem was the utility player, providing healing and supporting with his power.

Character Name: Seltyiel
Role Card: Spellblade
Skill Feats: Strength+2, Intelligence+4
Power Feats: +2 hand size, when you play a weapon or a spell that has the Attack trait for a combat check, you may recharge or shuffle the other into your deck and add 3d6 to the check, when you play a weapon that has the Sword trait, you may add your Intelligence skill to your combat check, When you acquire a spell or weapon on your turn, you may explore again.
Card Feats: Weapon+1, Spell+3, Armor+1, Item+1, Ally+1, Blessing+1
Weapons: Brine's Sting, Spellsword +2, Humanbane Gladius +2, Falchion +3, Rapier +2
Spells: Freezing Sphere, Quickened Ray, World Wave, Wall of Fire, Dehydrating Touch, Illuminate, Skeleton Crew
Armors: Fortified Shell Armor, Fortified Breastplate
Items: Hurricane Crown, Ring of the Iron Skull
Allies: Hanelius Fitch, Rosie Cusswell
Blessings: Blessing of Hshurha, Blessing of Gorum, Blessing of Erastil, Blessing of Sivanah, Blessing of Achaekek
Your Ship: Abrogail's Fury

Character Name: Lem
Role Card: Sea Singer
Skill Feats: Dexterity+3, Intelligence+1, Charisma+3
Power Feats: +1 hand size, You may recharge a card to add 1d4+3 to any check by a character at your location, add 2d4 to your noncombat check to defeat a bane or ship
Card Feats: Weapon+1, Spell+1, Armor+1, Item+1, Ally+3, Blessing+1
Weapons: Flaming Longbow +2, Doubleshot Pepperbox, Crossbow of Retribution
Spells: Dimension Leap, Divine Fortune, Cure, Aid,
Armors: Brine Dragonhide Breastplate
Items: Ring of Wave Walking, Pearl of Magic, Crystal of Healing Hands
Allies: Rickety Hake, Lookout, Cabin Boy, Cut-throat Grok, Avimar Sorrinash, Slip, Sefina,
Blessings: Blessing of the Gods, Blessing of Milani, Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Sivanah, Blessing of Kelizandri
Your Ship: Abrogail's Fury

Character Name: Jirelle
Role Card: Pirate Queen
Skill Feats: Dexterity+3, Wisdom+2, Charisma+1
Power Feats: +2 hand size, If you check has the swashbuckling trait or is against a ship, you may reroll 2 dice, You gain the skill Diplomacy Charisma +3, When you acquire a card with the pirate or swashbuckling trait, you may explore again, you may reveal a card that has the swashbuckling trait to add the swashbuckling trait to your check
Card Feats: Weapon+1, Armor+1, Item+2, Ally+3, Blessing+1
Weapons: Aiger's Kiss, Distance Musket +1, Keen Rapier +3, Skyrocket Crossbow, Flaming Musket +2
Spells:
Armors: Wilderness Studded Leather, Eel Skin Armor
Items: Conch of the Tritons, Crown of Swords, Besmara's Tricorne, Svingli's Eye
Allies: Pierce Jerrell, Old Salt, Old Salt, Besmaran Priest, Alise Grogblud, Lady Agasta Smythee
Blessings: Blessing of Norgorber, Blessing of Besmara, Blessing of Milani, Blessing of Besmara, Blessing of Hshurha, Pirate's Favor
Your Ship: Abrogail's Fury

Character Name: Meriseiel
Role Card: Smuggler
Skill Feats: Dexterity+4, Intelligence+2
Power Feats: +1 hand size, Weapons, You may evade your encounter and explore again if the card has the pirate or swashbuckling trait, if the only character present you may recharge a card to add 1d6+2 to your combat check, add 1d4+1 to your non-combat check
Card Feats: Weapon+2, Armor+1, Item+3, Ally+1, Blessing+1
Weapons: Sword Cane Pistol +2, Falcata +1, Humanbane Crossbow +2, Invigorating Kukri +1, Scoundrel's Sword Cane
Spells:
Armors: Howling Skull Armor, Fortified Breastplate
Items: Immortal Dreamstone, Wand of Flame, Emerald of Dexterity, Totem Necklace, Impossible Bottle, Ring of Wave Walking, Magic Spyglass, Jalhazar's Wheel,
Allies: Mase Darimar, Giffer Tibbs, Baby Triceratops
Blessings: Blessing of Gozreh, , Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Kelizandri
Your Ship: Abrogail's Fury

Another for Seelah. I considered her for my first run through RotRL, but decided Valeros was better with the recharging weapons. While my group was starting up, I ran the unpicked characters for a bit, including Seelah, and I don't think I grokked her. Then I read some stuff on here, and set her up for a newcomer to the group.

Gah, paladins are so OP. I've gone from one of the main villain killers to feeling like the party is putting up with me, as Seelah does everything I do, and better. Who is it that keeps punching out henchman? Not Valeros, no sir.

When someone only needs a 2 to pass a check saying "Don't roll a one" out loud.

Do not taunt the dice.

Had that. Had locations not close because of that.

Last session, in fact, Seelah is at the throne room, having just beaten the henchman and tries to close it. I think she discarded a card, so she was looking at 1d10+1d6+2, needing a 6. So she rolls a pair of 1s.

Which was okay, because my Valeros was there, I explored and found the +3 Flaning Ranseur! Awesome, so happy that wasn't banished with closing, and as a weapon master, I only need to roll a 2 on a d10 to get it.

I rolled a 1.

(thankfully, Lini ran into the other one later and acquired it).

How do you do it Hawkmoon? How do you have a link for EVERY post you make? How do you remember all of this? Are you like the Rain Man for PACG? Or are you like Data from Next Gen?

Hawkmoon001-Hawkmoon268 are on constant alert.

Except Hawkmoon117. Hawkmoon117 is "missing".

We let Gaby roll her own dice.

We have a player like that.

Then we let him run a second character when a player couldn't make it. And that's why we had our first character death (who expects the guy that can barely roll a 1 to roll 4 out of 4 on pre-encounter damage?)

Near the end of one frantic session, I was exploring the Blessing deck instead of my location.

Got to play Crowe last night, replacing a fallen Seelah (too much discarding of her deck, and then a bad run in with an Arboreal Blight). At one point I found myself with both spells in my hand, facing down a henchman in the Abattoir. Nasty, nasty location with a full group, and I realized that whichever attack spell I cast, that was only going to come out to 3d4, and even a blessing would only bump that to 4d4- except I could RECHARGE a card for an additional d10. I'm looking forward to getting his first power feat, but this ability has its uses.

Scott Hall wrote:

Made it through the second scenario after chasing down the villain. Had our first encounter with the Arboreal Blight, and that's just awful. I wasn't getting the bit about it doing damage before and after the combat.

We didn't get the true pain of Arobreal Blight until we had to encounter it at the Great Hall, which makes you summon the Servitor Demon before you encounter a villain or henchman, and it doesn't say nothing about only villains or henchman FROM the location deck. Flubbed my Fiendish Tree kill on the first one, so it went back into the deck and we ended up having to deal with it twice. Encountering a Sloth Demon beforehand was fine for Adowyn, she can just recharge a card, but when Kyra came over that was a big expenditure of her resources. Thankfully, she had a shield to deal with the combat damage, but you still gotta use two spells to deal with the Sloth Demon and the Fiendish Tree.

Then, as it turns out, the villain was in that location. And what's the villain do? Oh, is it summon a Sloth Demon? So now Kyra has to encounter Sloth Demon > Sloth Demon > Villain. Each of the Sloth Demons forcing her to discard a card, meaning she needs a perfect hand of 2 sacrificial cards and 3 spells to deal with the encounters (or 1 weapon and 2 spells, but pffft). Suffice to say, she lost.

But there's only one other location open, we can still try!

Villain gets shuffled back into same location, Kyra encounters her again, same plays out, game over. D: D: D: D:

I'm not gonna cry too much, I think the onslaught of bad luck was precipitated by Kyra drawing the Demonbane Light Crossbrow when she closed the Shrine of Imomomedar. Good trade for a failed scenario, I'd say (or Adowyn would, anyway).

Ouch. I've got Seelah and Kyra paired up, and I'm loving Kyra's passive heal, when I can use it. My friend has Bal and Imrijka.

Which reminds me of another bad result. Imrijka was in the Wounded Lands, where you can fight a monster instead of the regular check to acquire a boon. First exploration, finds scale armor, decides to fight the monster to trigger his free explore chance. He draws a Mongrel Ranger, which does 1d4-1 damage before combat... and rolls a 4. He does win the fight, then rolls a 1 for his chance to explore.

It's going to be a long time out before my full group gets to Wrath (in deck 4 on Runelords, and planning on S&S after). That's going to be Alain, Crowe, Shardra, Enora, Adowyn, and I'm not sure who are sixth will be. I feel it may take some work to get them going, but they'll be a strong group down the road.

Made it through the second scenario after chasing down the villain. Had our first encounter with the Arboreal Blight, and that's just awful. I wasn't getting the bit about it doing damage before and after the combat.

We moved on to scenario three, did a quick close of the armory- two sickles in the deck, and drew a third to close it :/ Then we got another Arboreal Blight. The one in scenario two we handled okay, this time, we all blew it, including the drawer missing the check by 1. Among other set backs, we decided the deck ran out, reset out decks, and put the box on the shelf for another night.

In those cases they use wording like "for your check against a card with the X trait," which is how Dexterity-based Melee characters were able to get their hands on Finesse weapons.

That makes sense. I'm realizing I would have had Crowe playing wrong (and probably wondering what his marauder power did differently), and then was wondering if I've been playing S&S wrong.

Fair enough. I don't want to weigh in on the scenario itself / rules question because it predates my joining the team so I don't know what's intended.

It sounds like you're coping with the challenge but need to beat the blessing deck.

Consider the following strategy - as soon as you run into a tangle trap in a location, stop exploring that location. Once you locate Fihralaz, use him to close each location in turn by trying to follow his retreat, temporary closing as much as possible to retain control. At a minimum, you'll encounter more blessings.

Other than that, use as many means of scouting and maximizing explores as possible; for example, focusing cures on anyone who has a few allies or blessings in their discard pile, even if they don't need a cure yet.

The Dark Forest is definitely where I'd focus my initial searches for the scouting benefits.

This sounds about like my partner and I came up with, after the fact. Might try again today and see how it goes. I think we just got stuck in the mindset of treating it like a regular scenario, and once we'd found the tangletrap, we just decided, "oh, might as well finish closing out the location."

I picked up Rise of the Runelords at the start of the year and introduced it to my group, who fell in love with it- plans are already made as to what characters we want for Skull and Shackles and Wrath of the Righteous. We made it through deck 3 on Saturday. We've had a few scenarios where we ran out of time (usually because someone missed a check by 1), and Kyra did die in Fort Rannick. Here's where the six of us areas we prepare for deck 4.

Character Name: Valeros
Role Card: Weapon Master
Skill Feats: Strength+2, Charisma+2
Power Feats: +2 hand size, 1d4+1 to another character's combat check, Add 2 to check to acquire a weapon
Card Feats: Ally+2, Blessing+1
Weapons: Impaler of Thorns, Flaming Mace +1, Longsword +1, Warhammer +1, Heavy Pick +1
Spells:
Armors: Hide Armor of Fire Resistance, Elven Chain Shirt, Elven Breastplate
Items: Belt of Giant Strength, Ring of Protection
Allies: Shalelu Andosana, Jakardros Sovark, Sheriff Hemlock, Grizzled Mercenary
Blessings: Blessing of Torag, Blessing of Torag, Blessing of Sarenrae, Blessing of Gorum

Character Name: Lini
Role Card: Wild Warden
Skill Feats: Strength+1, Intelligence+1, Wisdom+2
Power Feats: Weapon, Reveal ally with Animal trait to add 1d4+3 to check
Card Feats: Weapon+1, Ally+1, Blessing+1
Weapons: Scythe+1
Spells: Aid, Strength, Augury, Cure, Major Cure, Detect Magic
Armors:
Items: Masterowrk Tools, Sihedron Medallion
Allies: Saber-toothed Tiger, Giant Badger, Toad, Crow
Blessings: Blessing of Iomedae, Blessing of Desna, Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Shelyn, Blessing of Shelyn

Character Name: Kyra
Role Card: Exorcist
Skill Feats: Strength+1, Wisdom+3
Power Feats: +1 hand size, Weapons, 1d8+1 to check to defeat bane with the Undead trait, When you play Blessing of Sarenrae, you may recharge it
Card Feats: Spell+1, Blessing+2
Weapons: Scimitar, Icy Longspear +1
Spells: Holy Light, Holy Light, Cure, Find Traps
Armors: Magic Half-plate, Elven Breastplate
Items: Staff of Minor Healing
Allies: Toad
Blessings: Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Shelyn, Blessing of Shelyn, Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Gorum, Blessing of Irori, Blessing of Sarenrae, Blessing of Sarenrae

Character Name: Merisiel
Role Card: Thief
Skill Feats: Strength+1, Dexterity+3
Power Feats: Weapons, May recharge a card to add 1d6+2 to your combat check, Add 2 to your noncombat check to close a location
Card Feats: Weapon+1, Item+1, Ally+1
Weapons: Frost Longbow+1, Venomous Dagger+2, returning Throwing Axe+1
Spells:
Armors: Arrow Catching Studded Leather
Items: Eyes of the Eagle, Codex, Luckstone, Headband of Vast Intelligence, Masterwork Tools, Staff of Minor Healing, Tome of Knowledge
Allies: Ilsoari Gandethus, Archer, Soldier
Blessings: Blessing of Irori, Blessing of Erastil, Blessing of Erastil, Blessing of Calistria

Character Name: Harsk
Role Card: Arbalist
Skill Feats: Dexterity+2, Wisdom+2
Power Feats: +1 hand size, At the start of your turn you may examine the top card of your location deck, You may recharge a card to add 1d4+1 to a combat check by a character at another location, At the start of your turn, if you have no weapons in your hand, you may draw 1 card
Card Feats: Ally+2, Blessing+1
Weapons: Deathbane Light Crossbow +1, Heavy Crossbow, Dogslicer +1, Frost Longbow+1, Shock Longbow +1
Spells:
Armors: Snakeskin Tunic
Items: Crown of Charisma, Holy Candle, Sihedron Medallion
Allies: Crow, Yap the Pixie, Vale Temros
Blessings: Blessing of Irori, Blessing of Calistria, Blessing of Lamashtu, Blessing of Lamashtu, Blessing of Torag, Blessing of Sarenrae

Character Name: Seoni
Role Card: Abyssal Sorcerer
Skill Feats: Intelligence+1, Charisma+3
Power Feats: May discard a card to roll your Arcane die +1d6+2 for combat with the Fire or Acid trait, Automatically recharge items with the arcane trait
Card Feats: Spell+2, Blessing+1
Weapons:
Spells: Incendiary Cloud, Haste, Frost Ray, Scorching Ray, Acid Arrow,
Armors:
Items: Sihedron Medallion, Wand of Enervation, Wand of Scorching Ray
Allies: Black Arrow Ranger, Merchant, Troubadour, Father Zantus
Blessings: Blessing of Sarenrae, Blessing of Abadar, Blessing of Irori, Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Pharasma, Blessing of Pharasma

Did have one person guess it: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2sa13?New-PACG-adventure-path-annoucement-will- be#39

I'm looking forward to the new features planned. And maybe the gap between Wrath and this will give my group a chance to catch up (finished deck 3 of RotR tonight, so 3 more decks, then pirates and demons ahead).

My hesitation with that group is you don't have a melee character. Imrijka can do well with her high strength, but she's really looking for ranged weapons. You'll end up tossing a bunch of weapons that you find. So, I'd think about swapping Imrijka or Adowyn for Alain or Crowe.

Shardra is my choice for my wanted teammate- being able to recharge a spell to give someone at her location a reroll sounds too good to pass up.

Tried this one tonight, with a group of four. Kept forgetting to summon the carnivorous stump. We failed, although we had closed two locations- Kyra and Seelah burned through the cemetery, then Kyra got the swarm henchman at... um, don't recall. Place where you get your pick of two cards.

We lost, running out of blessings. Might have done better if we'd focused on the villain- once we found the trap, defeat that, then move on to another location.

Would be nice if the carnivorous stump let you close location. We would have paid more attention to the scenario power affecting animal traits if the stump could have allowed a chance to close the location.

Defeating the Tangle Traps does not allow you to attempt to close the locations.

Thank you, Vic. I think I'll be playing that tomorrow night, so it's good to have any doubt removed. I'm curious how it will play out.