Steve Townsend's page

I purchased S&S but have canceled for the next one. It's just too expensive to buy two full sets a year.

I will probably resubscribe for digital if/when Obsidian catches up with Paizo's release schedule on WotR, maybe even right away as I have no great love for setting up/tearing down for each play session.

This also means I won't have to worry about card backs being different colors, how to handle multiple parties (all that sorting or ignoring cards? No thanks), errata get fixed instantly, no more storage of huge boxes, and presumably will be cheaper than the hard copy, unless they want to sell zero copies. So far I only play solo, and the digital format is something I am very glad to see coming.

Having story cards as a separate thing would be great for the before and after each Adventure and Scenario. I'd rather them be bigger cards though, like the size of the AP boxes so they could fit them behind the two decks in each pack.

Reading the text for each Adventure and Scenario is fun, but reading a longer version, a prologue to each Adventure and Scenario as well as an epilogue to each to tie the story together better would be fantastic and add a lot to the RPG aspect of it.

I'm not interested in buying the RPG...yet...but I would love to read a story book based on the Adventure Path because the flavor text on the cards is already so good.

There's a hardback edition of Rise of the Runelords AP, I bought that to add color to my own playthrough. Now I find have to not read it to avoid spoilers! I studiously avoid seeing the new cards as far as possible until they come up in the normal sequence of play. Still, I am glad of the purchase, maybe I'll wind up playing the RPG down the line.

this would make me a sad panda.

signed up for the subscription to get them as early as possible, confirmed by anyone else?

Amazon has had this for a couple of days now. I too am subscribing but I guess a little wait isn't going to kill me.

1) 1-3 per Adventure.
2) I'd expect 0-2 deaths per AP, though if progression of difficulty continues that may be low. I have just completed Here Comes the Flood.
3) d.

Some hopefully pertinent observations follow.

Does 50 still count as middle-aged? I've a similar profile if so. British ex-pat, computer systems programmer, avidly play cRPGs and other board games too, mostly solo/co-op (Mage Knight Board Game is my White Whale).

I allow myself some latitude in the "accept the consequences of your decisions" metarule in the interests of not having my soul crushed. During HCTF I almost lost Amiri due to poor card selection, so I took an intra-turn mulligan and scraped though. It's supposed to be fun, after all. If the mulligan needed to extend beyond turn in progress, I tell myself I would probably suck it up and start a new character though.

I did bite the bullet and lose Seoni already due to not realising that a failed gamble on the last turn results in a need to reset one's hand from an empty deck, immediately before the blessing deck draw failure triggers game end. Hence also 3) d. above, rather than (rebuilding the entire card set twice while) playing a new character in catch-up mode.

I estimate I time out the blessings deck once every two or three games, mostly as a win (three failures in 21 scenarios so far). It's uncanny how often the cards allow me to pluck victory from the jaws of defeat. There is some major playtesting and math involved in the design it seems, or maybe a +3 Staff of Game Design somewhere in Mike/Vic's backpack. To me that is the true genius and success of the system. With the rich stock of archived APs waiting to be converted, how can one not be thrilled?

Is the game too easy? well I don't find that. Even if the cards favour you and the villain turns up early, there is challenge in optimizing the loot you gain while still cornering and defeating them closer to the end of the game. And when the cards do not favour you, it's certainly not too easy.

The gamer population covers a broad spectrum of interests: some people want to be stretched to the limit every time, but PnP RPGs don't play like that - you just don't want a near-TPK every time out. I feel PACG so far does a good job of being faithful to that philosophy while offering a fun challenge to a range of gamers.

I like the length of play. I can play a scenario and set up for the next one during a weekday evening. That's a big win.

As I noted elsewhere my only complaint at this point is in the prohibitive card management difficulty of playing multiple parties in parallel. Never happy, right? Not really : I'm very happy, and subscribed despite the moderate extra expense of doing so vs buying from retail. I cannot wait an extra day to get the next Adventure.

Finally, I hope to hook my 11-year-old daughter in the next 12 months, and from that POV it's certainly not too easy. I'd trade endless game time w her for a slightly harder game any day.

In this pack of files at BGG I made a little worksheet that can help you keep track of what you removed (since you probably have to put them all back in the box anyway). It also has a list of what is banished and a few examples of what is not banished. You might find it helpful.

http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/98267/game-accessories-layout-guides-remo ve-from-game-wo

On this topic - if I have a complaint about the game (ahem, complaint follows) it's that the extra work in managing parallel adventures is not worth it. There's already a lot of shuffling and management in the inter-game setup and deck selection/rejection. All works fine but running > 1 game I just cannot face. I have two reasons why I want to do this: 1. to try out all the characters 2. to introduce my daughter to the game.

Looking down the line, once S&S starts to ship this will be less of a concern, since then I can run different APs concurrently without a prohibitive context switch for different groups.

I do think Paizo could have an opportunity here to add a "Digital Party Manager" that eases the task of running multiple groups through the same AP at the same time. I am convinced that a computerized randomizer would do a better job than I do of really shuffling the location decks and player decks, too. This would also simplify the task of rules updates, card text typos and errors, since the rules and assets are codified in the program.

I'd pay a premium on the PACG subscription for something like that. In my dreams, I play my primary group with the physical cards, but I can still run other character groups digitally.

An authoritative ruling will likely follow but typically what I find is that the "cards mean what they say" directive applies equally to the rules. If a player option was desired, it would say 'may discard'. I've therefore played this as 'must redraw'.

My followup question is, if you'll indulge me hijacking the thread, should the original hand be shuffled back in before the redraw. That point is not a huge deal, but I'd like to play correctly.

Thinking some more about this. I think I am in sync with Hawkmoon269's last post, here's my train of thought.

I played this as you gotta evade before you beef up the Goblins based on my reading of Rulebook p.10 which orders Evade the Card before Apply Any Effects That Happen Before The Encounter, If Needed. I viewed the 1d4 roll for Combat Check increase as Effects, as noted there.

Thematically, I think of this as hearing a monster approaching and ducking out of sight before it sees you (and therefore before you see it - so there is no "wow, that's a particularly large and fierce Goblin, I better evade it").

I'd argue to myself that if I want to do this Goblin-enhancing die roll before I decide to evade, I ought to also take any 'Before the Encounter' Damage from monsters that I find in exploration before I decide to evade.

But! In the end, it's having fun that matters, so my advice is to just do whatever works for your group!

Yep. One thing I'm a little curious on though is exactly when the 1d4 roll is supposed to happen during the check.

For example on our last run of that adventure, I had a Sanctuary in my hand near the end. I would have *liked* to have used to to evade after knowing what the roll was - like if it's a 4, evade, and try again. But, since evading happens very early on in the combat, we decided that the 1d4 roll probably is supposed to happen after that, like during the assemble die phase or actually during the check itself somehow.

Anyway would be good to know, and probably best to specify timing on rolls such as those, as it definitely can matter.

Evading is not part of the combat (encounter), it happens before it. Unfortunately, you'd have to decide to evade without knowing the 1d4 roll here.

See also Michael Barnes Top 3

The worst part about it is that these are only the people we know about. I have to believe most players never get on the boards or check the FAQ. This is also the reason why I believe those who think the gMe is too easy are nerfing the game. It is somewhat natural to try to eke out an interpretation that let's you avoid losing.

Isn't that an unsolvable problem though? Paizo cannot make it much easier to find the correct interpretation of the rules without harvesting customer emails and blasting them with every new FAQ or erratum. Google is the gamer's friend.

I got the game for Xmas and I am having a blast, playing solo with the Grrrl Power group of Seoni/Kyra/Amiri/Merisiel. This is EXACTLY what I wanted. I play Mage Knight too, and it rocks, but that's not what I want here.

My pre-gift impression of many of the unfavorable reviews is that taken in isolation each scenario can be too easy (and non-thematic). I am finding that sometimes they come out easy and sometimes they are complete nail-biters, but so long as I think about it, I can win. To me that's not easy, it's just not soul-crushingly difficult. Nobody wants to play an RPG (or surrogate) where one or more of your characters die every session.

I had come to the conclusion that realistically, I am unlikely to play PFRPG or any similar system unless it's technologically automated a whole lot more - just don't have enough time. This game comes pretty darn close to scratching that itch. After making the apparently common error of recharging Seoni's spells too freely, I've now played through the intro Adventure and the first scenario of AP Adventure 1. Heck I am considering buying the Runelords Book just to help fill in the back story, even if I never run it. So to me, yes it has enough theme despite the occasional Bunyip-out-of-water dissonance. I feel 15 years old all over again (50th birthday later this month, sadly).

So at the risk of redundancy, thanks to Mike and team for an awesome game and thanks to these boards (and BGG) for making it a richer experience.

The thing that strikes me most about PACG, as a lapsed Tabletop RPG player looking to scratch the itch without investing THAT much time, is that it's to all appearances so successful and yet so full of potential. The ongoing release schedule allows for any initially sub-optimal areas to be fixed.

Looking forward to tomorrow when (assuming anybody was listening to me for the last few weeks), it will be under the tree.

Amon Amarth - what else?

@Mir - you can use SplashTop or other remoting software to access HeroLab on desktop from a remote tablet (iOS or Android)

The long-term vision is where we expect Realm Works to really transform most games. We expect many publishers to begin releasing their adventures through Realm Works. When that occurs, you would be able to purchase the adventure pre-built into Realm Works. Then you could...

+1

This is really what I am looking for. I am very busy, and also expect to be running games with kids, so want to reduce the 'down-time' in running pre-made adventures. Sounds like Realm Works (long-term, as noted) plus Hero Lab/Tactical Console fit the bill. Glad I found this note before the KS funds!

I also just helped fund Grande Temple of Jing, so this is all synergistic goodness. This also makes me glad all over again that I picked PFRPG as the target for my daughter's baptism into RPG play.