Steven Marsh's page

Our household enjoys the PACG, but we find it at times a bit too tough for our liking. This has been exasperated as we've started Wrath of the Righteous. Our group doesn't mind having an easier time, since we view the Card Game as being a surrogate for the RPG experience, where we get to see how cards interact, have fun playing characters, etc. In most RPGs I've been part of, the assumption is that the players are going to win . . . or, at least, will have a really good shot at emerging triumphant. (This is similar to movies in our mind; you know the Hero is gonna win . . . the fun comes in seeing how he's going to end.)

The trouble has been how to house-rule the PACG to maintain a level of tension, while not making it either too easy or keeping it too hard for us.

For the past couple of games, we've had a house rule that has been working well for us to maintain this feel we're looking for, so I thought I'd share.

• House Rule: All characters get a bonus — to all checks — equal to the number of open locations, minus 1.
  

We've been playing with a three-player game, so this has traditionally meant five locations, which means a +4 bonus at the beginning, which becomes +3, +2, and +1 as locations are closed . . . ending at no bonus at all when there's just one location left.

This has had the effect that the opening rounds of the game are a bit of a romp, with the heroes getting stuff easier, having an easier time with traps and monsters, and having an easier time closing locations. It's also reduced the number of wasted turns; so often in previous games a large percentage of players' turns are essentially pointless: "Oh, the difficulty to get this boon is 7, I have a d6. Even if someone uses a blessing, I still only have 50/50 odds. I guess this turn is moot." Conversely, with a +4 (at the beginning), that same d6 check now has a 4-in-6 chance of getting it . . . and if it's something someone really wants, then spending a blessing becomes a much more logical proposition.

However, as locations close, the bonus decreases . . . until the last location, when you're basically playing without training wheels (not counting whatever goodies you've acquired in the rest of the game, of course).

Oh, and "closed = closed" . . . even temporarily closed. So the only way to win (in most scenarios) is to face the final villain with no fiat bonus.

I haven't played this with a larger group; it might need to be toned down, perhaps capped at +4. Or maybe not; in theory, in a larger group, a few locations are going to get closed pretty quickly. But we've only playtested this with three players, so YMMV.

Anyway, we haven't playtested this to the ends of the earth yet, but — so far — it seems to be making a more-relaxing experience for us. If anyone's done anything similar, or can think of any immediate pitfalls or problems, feel free to share.

My wife and son recently played through the Pathfinder Beginner Box (with me serving as GM). It was our first time playing, and we all had a good time. Of course, the heroes found themselves somewhat hampered by the lack of character types, but they were surprisingly balanced (my wife played a cleric and my son played a thief).

We all had enough fun that we want to move to the "big leagues" of full Pathfinder RPG (core rules), ideally running through one of the Adventure Paths. (I'm considering Legacy of Fire, Mummy's Mask, or Kingmaker, since those all seemed like they would be appropriate for a nine-year-old.)

However, I still fear that they'll be hampered by the fact that there are only two players, one of whom is a nine-year-old (albeit a fairly smart one). They were already knocked to the ropes a few times during the Beginner Box adventures, and I don't want to make things too challenging for them. I don't want to adjust the adventures too much (since I don't have enough experience with the system to know how to appropriately scale something for two heroes); I'd rather, if possible, beef up the heroes a bit.

I'm currently considering the following:

• Assume each hero rolls the maximum HP when leveling up.
  
• Start with Epic Fantasy point-buy attributes.
  

Again, the goal is to beef them up enough that I don't need to radically alter adventures, but not so great that there's no challenge (although if it's a smidge easy they'll probably be happy). I don't want to add an NPC party member or have any players run multiple characters (since I think they have enough on their plate to think about already).

Does anyone have any insight, or see any problems or pitfalls with my plan? Has anyone tried anything similar? Is there anything cool or different I should be doing instead to achieve the same goals? (Ideally something easy, since we're all still learning the system?) :-)

Thanks in advance!