Scott Hall's page

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?

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.

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.

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.

As the subject says, please cancel my Pathfinder subscription. I wish Paizo the best with line, but my gaming future is on a different path.

Thanks.