dvunkannon's page

Has anyone worked on rules for playing multiple cards together? I'm thinking of combos where the name of the card suggests a linkage, things like Sage and Sage's Journal. By itself, Sage's Journal adds 1d4, together they might add 1d4+2.

The mechanic is similar to multiple pieces of armor. It seems there are several Ally/Item combinations that should reinforce each other, such as Burglar/Masterwork Tools. These are already additive on the Disable check, but playing both could give the item another die, or make the die d6 instead of d4.

And if anyone can think of a way to make Shopkeeper's Daughter and Large Chest work together, please let me know.

dvunkannon wrote:

Similarly, Meri is in the Warrens. The location text says "When you encounter a monster put a random monster from the box on top of another random open location deck." Meri explores, draws a monster and says "I evade the monster." Does a random monster get put out or not? 'Encounter' is both a verb and a noun, and Meri is stamping her foot saying "I didn't encounter the monster, I evaded the encounter."

You did encounter it, you just evaded it. The only reason you could even evade it is because you can evade things you encounter. Which means you must have encountered it.

If I understand you correctly (and using programming style syntax)

evade( Encounter) OR have( Encounter)

is wrong.

Encounter(
Evade(optional)
...
)

is right.

I suppose this would be clearer if Meri's card said "If you encounter a monster you may evade it." But it doesn't.

BTW, I've never doubted that Meri would have to deal with before encounter conditions. It would seem that you are saying she also has to deal with after encounter effects, even if she evaded.

dvunkannon wrote:

Harsk has (for example) Dex d12 (+2) Ranged: +2

I thought I understood the difference between 'die' and 'skill' in checks, but now that I see the phrase 'unmodified die' I'm not so sure. When the Light Crossbow said to add the Dexterity or Ranged die, am I adding d12, d12+2, or d12+4? It seemed obvious when I started playing that the 1d8 of the Light Crossbow would just stack on top of Ranged.

Similarly for Amiri, that a 1d8 sword would add to Melee. But if Strength or Melee die + 1d8 means just the raw d12 and not the +4, I have to start making a calculation of whether the additional die from the weapon is worth losing the +4. Is that right? It doesn't sound right.

If I'm not mistaken, this is an old wording, that is now obsolete by current rules. Basically, there are some weapons and spells in the first RotR edition that will say "use your Dexterity/Melee/Arcane die", as opposed to 'unmodified die'. By current rules , all these cards should be read as "use your Dexterity/Melee/Arcane SKILL".

Also, by current rules, as Frencois noted, there is no distinction between 'die' and 'unmodified die'

Thank you. I am playing RotR but I have no idea which edition. I did try to look at the FAQ before posting.

And since no good deed should go unpunished, here are some new questions!

Merisiel has a power "You may evade your encounter."
The Guard Tower location says "At the start of your turn, summon and encounter a Bandit henchman."
Meri is at the Guard Tower, starts her turn, and says "I evade the Bandit." Does the bandit go into the location deck or back in the box?

Similarly, Meri is in the Warrens. The location text says "When you encounter a monster put a random monster from the box on top of another random open location deck." Meri explores, draws a monster and says "I evade the monster." Does a random monster get put out or not? 'Encounter' is both a verb and a noun, and Meri is stamping her foot saying "I didn't encounter the monster, I evaded the encounter."

Harsk, at another location (obviously), draws Skeleton Horde. Meri is at an open location, so she has to summon and encounter and Ancient Skeleton. Meri says "I evade the Ancient Skeleton." Can she? If she can, does the Ancient Skeleton go in the location deck or back in the box? I've been playing that she can evade and the monster goes back in the box.

Meri's playing strategy is to camp out at locations that have Dexterity/Acrobatics/Stealth/Disable checks to close. She explores, evading all monsters, taking what she can of the boons, and only fights the henchman or villain.

Harsk has (for example) Dex d12 (+2) Ranged: +2

I thought I understood the difference between 'die' and 'skill' in checks, but now that I see the phrase 'unmodified die' I'm not so sure. When the Light Crossbow said to add the Dexterity or Ranged die, am I adding d12, d12+2, or d12+4? It seemed obvious when I started playing that the 1d8 of the Light Crossbow would just stack on top of Ranged.

Similarly for Amiri, that a 1d8 sword would add to Melee. But if Strength or Melee die + 1d8 means just the raw d12 and not the +4, I have to start making a calculation of whether the additional die from the weapon is worth losing the +4. Is that right? It doesn't sound right.

How well does this metric handle role cards and character progression? Is Lini still off the scale in the late game?

Thanks! I will try to quote more precisely in the future.

But in the spirit of that precision, does it really matter if Bruthazmus has the Gobin trait for this scenario? Both the scenario card text for Approach to Thistletop and the Goblin Fortress location text only refer to Goblin 'monsters'. As henchmen, it would seem that Bruthazmus and the Goblin Raiders don't get these buffs. Really?

Two questions for today!

1 - Is Bruthazmus a Goblin? The Approach to Thistletop scenario gives Goblin monsters an extra 1d4 and the Goblin Fortress also buffs them. The Bugbear monster has the Goblin trait, but Bruthazmus has the Bugbear trait. Also, Bruthazmus and the Goblin Raiders are henchmen, not monsters. In doubt, I gave him all the buffs, but Amiri still beat him bare handed. That girl is scary.

2 -

Before encountering Erylium, a character at your location must summon and encounter a Wrathful Sinspawn henchman. If undefeated, succeed at a ... check or move to a random other location.

Seoni encounters Erylium, Harsk summons and encounters the WS and loses. Does the "If undefeated..." apply to Harsk? Or does he just take some damage, the WS goes back in the box, and the "If undefeated..." applies to the outcome of the combat between Seoni and Erylium?

Extra question!

3 - Approach to Thistletop, last turn is Seoni's. She can beat the villain, but she won't be able to refill her hand to finish her turn. Does beating the villain end the game, or do we have to watch Seoni burn out in a tragic sacrifice? The alternative is to have Seoni intentionally lose which will also probably kill her. I'm leaving the game set up until I get some advice.

If every scenario gave you a huge benefit you would progress too fast. You need to spend some time at each level to appreciate the difference. It's no different to the whole of the B adventure in that regard.

Flavour wise, yes the goal is to gather lots of allies. But from a design perspective, the goal of the mission is to be challenging in a different way to other scenarios, allow characters with the diplomacy skill (and survival to a lesser extent) to have their moment in the sun, and to create an enjoyable adventure regardless of whether it's ultimately rewarding.

You absolutely could skip it in terms of your character's power progression, but you'd be missing out on a fun, unique and interesting scenario.

I agree there is a certain charm to watching Harsk make a Charisma check. But you only 'gather' allies for the duration of the scenario, then they all go back in the box. The scenario gives your party a chance to buff their allies, and that's it. For PCs that don't care much about allies, big whoop. In contrast, giving everyone a skill feat is rewarding to each in their own way.

The concern is really that the newly available allies from the Adventure 1 deck were less useful than the B and C deck allies the PCs already had.

Thank you for the answers! I can see that my characters will have to be more careful about reading the location conditions for closing or be ready to buff each other's closing checks. Being forced to do (on average) 5 more encounters to empty the location deck is time my party does not have. They usually win on the last card of the blessings deck.

If I can ask a newbie question or two:

1. Where are characters before their first turn? Does everyone start at a location when the first turn is made or are they 'off the board' somehow?

Here's where it makes a difference: say there are six PCs and eight locations. On the very first turn, the first card is the villain! Now if all the other characters are off the board, they can't close locations. If they were evenly distributed across locations, they could try to temporarily close them. But they might suffer effects before their first turn ever arrived. Which is it?

2. A character defeats a henchman and tries to close a location, but fails the 'on close'. The henchman is back in the box. To close the location, does a character have to move there and have an encounter with the top card, or is it sufficient to go straight to the 'on close' criteria? This has happened twice at Sandpoint Cathedral for me.

I realize this is an old discussion, but I sympathize with the OP. The scenario adds almost nothing to the progression of the PCs.

I play solo with 6 characters, Lini, Amiri, Seoni, Merisiel, Kyra, and Harsk - Girls Night Out. They have a variety of uses for Allies, ranging from key (Lini) to next to none.

The group came into the scenario having played 4 previous scenarios. The PCs had encountered and traded allies to get the most out of the B and C decks.

Sure, this scenario rained allies. There was the normal allotment of allies for the locations, the use of allies as 'villains' and the reward of random allies. By the end of the scenario, the PCs had about 12 allies more than they needed or could hold on to.

How many of the new allies were from the '1' deck, and how many were kept? Very few. Perhaps one or two Grizzled Veterans. But most of the new allies used 'banish' instead of 'discard', making them much less attractive. All of the NPC allies were unattractive to Lini, who wanted animal allies.

Because any ally in a location will trigger closing the location, everything moved very quickly. The only interest was in how hard it was for some of the group's more combat-ready members to acquire an ally with Charisma or Diplomacy checks. Quick closes meant very little opportunity to see new boons.

Overall, a disappointing use of a scenario. Some NPCs that might be important to the original tabletop scenario were thrown away as useless. Will that choice be punished? I have no idea. I just feel that I've played through the scenario for the sake of being a completionist - it provided very little of value to the overall adventure path.

Just a heads-up to anyone that has pre-ordered class decks through BN. I just received a message that a part of my order was delayed - Giantslayer Dice. However, I didn't order Giantslayer Dice. The
BN product page shows that the dice set has somehow been confused with the Alchemist Card Deck. The title and image are of the dice, the overview text refers to the cards.
I checked Amazon and they don't have the same mistake. I'm thinking that it must be a confusion of SKUs within BN systems. I've sent in an inquiry to BN.

Since the topic has come around to include intellectual property issues on DTC, I had a question. I made my first character cards based on a couple of homebrew characters I put together as an experiment. (Turns out the experiment worked fairly well, and I wanted to pretty things up.)

The interface currently does not allow you to select any of the Paizo Licensed Images that are on DTC for the front of the card -- the array of portraits to choose from just isn't there. It's there for the back, but of course we want the same portrait on both sides. (I've already contacted them about it.)

I thought I'd read that the Community Use Policy permitted using images that had been published in the blog. Presumably every Iconic image is in that list, along with dozens of other lesser-known folks. We can't make a character based on an as-yet-unreleased Iconic -- fine, just call the character by another name and use a different portrait. Would it be possible to use an image from the blog or CU file on DTC? Or have I missed something?

In this situation, couldn't you download the image and trim it to use on the other side? I assume you're talking about the character cards with a full portrait one side and the above-the-waist version over flavor text on the reverse. Or are you concerned that trimming the image violates the CUP?

I just started with PACG (RotRL). I'm having a lot of fun, so posted reviews on Amazon and on my blog. It's basic and from a newbies perspective, but my aim is to interest others in playing the game.
Check out my blog review of PACG if you have the time. Thanks!

I didnt use DTC yet as I am still waiting for SS update cards to be released.

I think there is no way you could reprint a BLACK LOTUS on DTC and the same applies to the PACG cards. A exact copy is not possible due to the upper left "Community Something" marker. So i wouldnt be so scared that an original FIRE SNEEZE is duplicated ten thousand times and sold on Ebay for 30 bucks each.

In this case, it isn't the cards, it's the concepts. I think there are already at least 100 cards that use Earthdawn concepts or 'indicia'. If the creator's intent is to make an Earthdawn adventure path, that's going to be a lot of cards.

I don't know every image in the PACG Community Use Package, but the card "Journey to Travar" is using a picture of four iconic heroes on a forest path, about to be jumped by some goblins. Is it a legit use?

DTC does have a 'Report this title' link that you can use to flag copyright violations. Maybe the creator thinks this is all fair use, or already cleared it with FASA. That's why I'm trying to contact them.

I suspect a note to the offender would result in them being made private.

I sent in a support request to DTC. They won't tell me the creator's contact info, but they are willing to pass along my info and questions.

Which cards in particular are you referring to?

If you search for Travar, namegiver, ork, windling, etc. you can see that someone is building up all the cards necessary for an adventure. Scenarios, locations, villains, henchmen, allies - I haven't found them all because the DTC interface is very bad. You can't search for cards by the creator, and the publisher field is always 'Paizo'.

Newbie here. Looking at DTC, I see a number of Earthdawn themed cards. Does anyone know more details, such as who is working on them?