redfaern's page

If you want first printing, buy directly from Paizo for the ones they have as first printing. Then check your local shops for anything Paizo doesn't have in stock. Someone on board game geek posted that he picked up first printings recently, I think at Barnes and Noble.

The Adventure Pack 2 and Character Add-On Pack I just purchased after my earlier post in this thread just arrived. The Character Add-On Pack is 1st printing, but Adventure Pack 2 is second printing. Razzafrazzasnaz. Now I am really miffed.

Trying to track down a first printing of Adventure Pack 2 in the first printing will be a nightmare and a total time drain. Made even worse by having limited B&M and online stores in Australia. Barnes and Noble is not an option for me.

With the success of the game, we've been able to move card printing to the US instead of China. The US cards are about half a millimeter shorter than the Chinese cards, though they're the same width. The difference in length is slight enough that you can't spot them on a stack unless you're trying really hard—that is, you've squared up the deck and are actively looking for a difference. Since this is a cooperative game, not a competitive one, that should not be an issue in play.

However, the size difference of the cards is not acceptable as it definitely detracts from the game in a non-trivial way. Additionally, my 2nd printing cards are both shorter (by 1 mm) and narrower (by 0.5 mm). Either you are incorrect, or your new printers have quality issues with the size of their cards.

It doesn't end with the cards either. The 2nd printing box is about about 4 mm thicker than the 1st printing box. Whereas the 1st printing fits perfectly in the base set tray, the 2nd printing add-on boxes do not. The more 2nd printing add-on decks that go in there, the worse it will be. Also, there is more air in the second printing box so when I received my 2 adventure decks and character add-on in the mail, the box for the character add-on was badly squashed whereas the first printing adventure decks boxes were just fine.

Another point, the 2nd printing box is about 16 mm higher than the 1st printing so when you put the lid on the game it bends the top of the add-on box a little bit. It takes room away from putting in rules and all those beautiful Paizo supplied downloadable character sheets and rules.

I find it hard to believe that the switch of printers was for quality purposes with all of these quality problems that have been introduced.

As for shuffling, if you square up the cards first and put the squared-up ends together, they should interleave just fine.

Thanks for the advice, but I'd rather have my money back than change my life long shuffling habits.

I have some advice for you. Focus on customer satisfaction rather than on getting an inferior product to shelves as quickly as possible. But hey, don't let me tell you how to run the company. Wizards of the Coast got away with this kind of thing just fine with Magic: the Gathering.

The US printer should hopefully be able to deliver more consistent color as well—there was a fair amount of color variance in the Chinese cards.

I personally don't care where the cards are printed, but I do care about the quality. I can see that the colour of the second printing is definitely better than that of first printing so this is a good thing.

For the Character Add-On Deck, we are shipping the 2nd printing to stores, but we're still shipping the tail end of the 1st printing on paizo.com. For Adventure Deck 3, we are shipping the 2nd printing to all markets. All other PACG products are still on the first printing.

First printings have the text "Printed in China" at the end of the copyright text on the back of the box. Decks printed in the US have the text "Second Printing. Printed in USA." underneath the age warning. The second printings also include all but the most recent corrections from the FAQ.

Luckily I received a 1st printing of Adventure Deck 3, but I'm still annoyed about now having to get my hands on a 1st printing of the character add-on pack. Yes I'd rather live with some incorrect card text than the size difference of these cards. Luckily I'm in a position where I can afford to get another copy.

Just so you know, I will not be getting Pathfinder ACG: Skulls & Shackles. But, I will still get all the Adventure Decks for Rise of the Runelords, damn it! So long as I can be sure that they are all first printing.