Nexian Galley

Troymk1's page

Organized Play Member. 574 posts (1,397 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 3 aliases.



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I'm a tad embarrassed and frustrated by what I've been seeing from Obsidian in the Tablet game.

I was very forgiving and hopeful at first, but as someone who works in Software dev I'm professionally embarrassed by the fundamental errors I've seen creeping in.

Patches seem to be based off different software builds, errors that were fixed in one patch are back again after another. Core game system terms like display and reveal don't seem to be hard-coded in and the game confused the two as display.

I've lost numerous parties to saving errors/corruptions and I'm going to leave story mode alone for I'm guessing a very long time.

I've stopped adding bug reports to their support page as it seems to be a dog's breakfast over there.

As usual with computer/video games a lot of time and effort was made to make it look nice and add cool chrome. Seemingly Fundamentals were not a massive priority.

(I even looked if they had a job posted along The Senior PM and/or Release manager lines so I could back my words with some action, but no go. Nor could I afford to move to SoCal I daresay)


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You guys are getting good at this ;)


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And not for the last time in this campaign, Alahazra grimaces and says "Now why didn't I see that coming"


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Malcolm_Reynolds wrote:
Troymk1 wrote:
The Party as a whole now has 6/36 Mythic charges (amusing as we gained 6 for defeating the one Abyssal Army)
I think defeating a Mythic bane only gives the character who encountered it a charge (page 22).

I would put it to you Malcolm that they all encounter it. (Otherwise how can they be rolling checks to defeat)

If your interpretation is correct they might wish to change the wording to initially encounter.

There's no harm done either way for this outing, see below.


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This Aristocratic Demon Wizardress has the following text. "Before you act, if there are any other open locations, Vellexia is undefeated"

So my question, since temporary closes occur before the phasing player encounters the card, do temp closes count as closing locations for the above?

PS. this scenario is really brutal in 6 player! I thought I was doing quite well and then realized I was down to the last turn for everyone with three locations still open !


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I'm sure that the subscription model is to blame for some of this blowback, But the thought that an auto manufacturer would hold back producing their latest model because I am not ready to part with my older model just seems bizarre (and entitled) to me

I hope this move works for you all. It remains to be seen if such a delay will lose the game the momentum it has built up with its faithful gaming groups.

The industry is becoming more and more saturated. Hard to tell if the same people telling you guys to hold off will be exactly the same ones that have moved onto other systems by the time you do actually release.


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Thanks Dave!


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Myfly, I have worked with Germans in the past. ( Your Navy actually) Love them as generous and honestly forthright people.

I have to tell you that you are coming across as boorish way too often. It's a second language thing to a degree, but Americans are much more literal and less inclined to find this sort of humour funny than a Brit or Aussie would. I've lived and worked in the states for a total of 12 years of my life, trust me on this.

I know you're joking, but you're rubbing people the wrong way sir!


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ThreeEyedSloth wrote:
Yeah, we didn't include all the leftover cards in the final location because the wording seemed pretty clear that it's only henchmen and a villain. I think we finished the scenario in five turns due to hitting the henchmen in the first locations almost immediately, then "closing" the last to funnel the villain.

Oh my gosh. What a different experience

This has been the most difficult scenario yet for my group AND I was playing with a houserule that there was an extra Combat 18 on the armies in Question!

I got through it last night in a mammoth session. The last three locations before the citadel all had the army as the last card, I really did have to do 60 odd explores to get there ( although an earlier defeat had driven off 3 boons)

Memorable moment was finding two carrion golems in a row in the cemetery :/ apropos at least

This was the first time ever that Seelah drew her last card. I've never seen her get even close to death before

Seoni actually took care of the three headedVillian on her own in the very last turn of the game. I was down to one blessing in the rest of the party and one composite bow

She had to not recharge her spells on purpose just so she could pick them up to use again from her discards!


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Playing some board games asynchronously is problematic

In essence this is a cooperative game and the inability to talk about the game state with your friends while you do your turn is a major problem

I severely doubt I would use a multiplayer option if there was one, unless we could have a call open for all of us to play simultaneously

Which as a man in a relationship with job and children responsibilities I realize is a complete pipe dream :)

Having said that the ability to play a game by myself without all the shuffling...oh my that sounds worth a few $


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Donny, in an RPG typically a melee character can intervene on your behalf, in PACG not so

A d6 strength caster will take 3 blessings to be at a 50-50 shot. Your definition of not that hard seems to differ to most people's

We are discussing the set in general, this bane is a stand out in terms of frustration.

As a sidebar we could also discuss the lack of stand out boons. None of the temptation barriers have tempted me in the least. This has more to say about the strength of the boons in the set rather than my intrinsic will power

This factors into the challenge level of the set as a whole. Harder monsters, harder barriers, less effective boons, and Nasty Scenario rules create a situation that is much more difficult than the sum of its parts might indicate


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Adding my 2c

I enjoyed the B scenarios as I found most of them quite challenging for my erstwhile heroes. All but one of the B scenarios had to be played 3-4 times to get through and the one scenario I did get past first try, I felt was more luck based than deserving.

However I recognize that I am an outlier in your customer base. I've been played conflict sims (wargames to most of you) since I was 8. I revel in complexity and challenge.

To most players, such abject failure to progress would be highly discouraging.

Further, I call to question the blog post above. If AD1 was meant to be overwhelming for your characters, why were the B scenarios that much harder than them?

With a sense of relief I found that the ultra scary demons of the Fall of Kenebrae needed to only be faced, not defeated. I thanked all the gods whom would listen that the AD1 cards had lessened the chance of pulling Arboreal Blight, or that the servitor Demon summoned by Demonic Hordes for this set was easier to deal with for most of my characters than what we had faced earlier.

I don't believe for an instant that this was the design intent. A sense of relief while playing scenarios representing infernal hordes overrunning the world?

So as an avid gamer and someone whom has helped design and play test a myriad of systems some constructive comments to soften my negativity

There is nothing wrong with banes that will push the party to the edge. But the frequency of such challenges must be carefully considered. Something you can consider for the future is a phased deployment of such banes. If Arboreal Blight (for example) had one copy in each of sets 1, 2, & 3 I don't believe you would be seeing such a level of dismay.

Carrion Golems 3 appearances in the base set + add on also makes life 'interesting' for spell casters. My party may well be less effected than most, with only Kyra and Seoni vulnerable to such depredations, while Balazar fares quite well against it. But when it does come up for them it's either a hand wipe or a bunch of party blessings used up. I think the latter is the intent, the former not so much. The trouble with such a bane is that the immunities are so arbitrary that there is no feeling of challenge. If force for example worked, canny casters might be able to hold something back for this guy. But there is nothing in their arsenal to take this thing on. So while Alain charges this thing down with gleeful abandon, other 'equal' characters are quaking in their boots (or sandals)

I realize that the design space is limited by the RPG's adventure path material, But simple "Got Ya"s such as this seem arbitrary and forced. The escape route would seemingly be to evade such a bane, but Got Ya! Create Pit is specifically designed to not be able to deal with this bane. While the designers may have cackled gleefully at such a moment, I believe that was a poor decision, as this would have at least given game theory decisions to those playing vulnerable casters. As it is, I am maxing out on attack spells, why evade monsters I can deal with if the only ones I fear cannot be evaded?

The next problem to be addressed is balancing large groups versus those whom play a character solo. A hard task for sure, but there have been murmurs that this set punishes groups of six mercilessly.

Having played another cooperative fantasy card game that forgot to balance for large groups in its third iteration I hope this is not the case! I really haven't went back to that game since then as such a glaring design error really leaves a bad taste. ( Much worse than anything we are speaking about here. There was one scenario in particular that your game would be over with death by turn 2-4 no matter what you did if you played with max characters)

So, to excuse my wall of text, I really do like this game. I have been a vocal proponent locally and have hosted many new players into this game. I hope you take my criticisms as they are intended, constructively.


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Very surprised to see this hasn't been asked yet

If a mongrel type monster draws a random monster to define its difficulty to defeat, what happens if the difficulty on the card drawn reads 'See Below'


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I REALLY miss Alahazra

She made things so simple in terms of selecting where to explore. This whole blundering into the unknown thing is just so...so...barbaric!


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I guess Chris is saying such opinions don't carry a lot of weight.


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And what a finish it was. Last possible explore turns up the Hurricane King with all his evil minions taken care of

Seltyiel is able to deal with both checks, his 3d6 for a spell on top of his Adamantine trident being up to the task ( with a little bit of help from his friends of course)

Congrats to the design team and to everyone involved. That was pure awesome


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MyFly, I don't think you even understand what an outlier you are sir :)


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I think the Afghanistan rule is making a rod for their own back. (to use an old expression)

I find it highly unlikely that someone will buy S&S Base set and then crack open adventure deck 4 directly

The adventures are intimately connected. Limiting your design space on the off chance someone is playing them out of sequence seems to affect the game more than is warranted.

^opinion font


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Tanis O'Connor wrote:
Ranzak and Ekkie. What do I win?

Treasures that would please any Magpie!


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I have never ever heard anyone use the word 'Yinz', nor do I wish to.

However I can confirm that People in Philly refer to the rest of the state as Penntucky and this Yinz thing seemingly confirms that stance ;)


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Just wanted to Thank Jeff Alvarez from Paizo and all the team from Lone Shark Games for being supportive of Shawn Storie and myself running a Skulls and Shackles marathon on the Friday of BGGCON here in Dallas.

Of course we didn't know the full details well beforehand so advertising was a problem, and thus we ran out of stream after a 5 hour session (players leaving to attend the Texas Hold'em annual event as it turns out)

I would happily do the same again next year and perhaps with more lead time we'll get a larger response.


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Dave were you aware your post came off as rather insulting?

I deleted a snarky reply of my own in case you didn't intend it so.

May I point out you admit in your very own post that you upped the difficulty level so that the game was no longer trivial? In that light, I am unsure what your point was.


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I said disappointed, because it 'feels like' my order got pushed back so that some GenCon attendee could just roll up and purchase a copy.

I realize that's a small disappointment in the grand scheme of things. But I rather would not have known I was scheduled for order fulfillment and that then Paizo realized they didn't have enough copies to take to GENCON and decided to treat my order as a bird in the hand :/