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Bridge say yay!
I was hoping that Mike Selinker & Co. would have made a brief announcement by now. It was mentioned that a Selinker post was forthcoming, but it's been 3 months since the original announcement. So the phrase "striking while the iron is cold" would be in order, assuming he does eventually post. :)
There was a comment on Discord that Mike Selinker has been invited to share his thoughts on the cancellation of PACG. So there's more information to come, hopefully, even if it's just a fond farewell. No timeline was set, but I look forward to the eventual posting.
As we continue winding down our Pathfinder Adventure Card Game programDid I miss a previous announcement or was this just worded strangely? "As we continue winding down our PACG program..." is the strangest, most out-of-the-blue backdoor eulogy that I've ever seen. Business is business, however, and if PACG wasn't as successful as Paizo hoped, then it isn't surprising that its doors were shuttered. Though I'm hoping a designer will eventually post a more fitting epitaph for the official PACG line. But I guess we'll see. :) Regardless, I've truly enjoyed PACG and its friendly community. More personally, my fondest gaming memories began in 2013 with a blind purchase of Rise of the Runelords. Hooked, my family and I played through RotR and every subsequent PACG campaign - eagerly and with great enthusiasm. Fun times. I look forward to continuing the PACG experience, officially or unofficially, in an online format in the near future. Thanks for the ride!
A related question: Will there be any future print runs of the Core and/or Crimson Throne? Or is the current printing the end of the line?
Similar threads have been appearing for a while, both in the Paizo forums and on BGG. I hope this helps: (reposted from BGG, with edits) PACG is still getting love. Just in electronic form, not physical form. The We Be Heroes goblin scenario booklet, with new goblin heroes, was released in June 2019. It's completely free. (The goblin hero role cards can be found here or here.) Fangwood Thieves is a single-adventure, low-level experience that can be added to any campaign. It was released in June 2019. A Night at Bloodthorne Manor, a similar product, was released in early 2020. It can be used for character levels 1-4. Year of Rotting Ruin, a full 24-scenario adventure path, was completed in July 2020 (link). So, for instance, you could take a party of at-home characters through the above products in this order: We Be Heroes (1.5 scenarios), Fangwood Thieves (4 scenarios), the first half of Year of Rotting Ruin (12 scenarios), Bloodthorne Manor (4 scenarios), and then the final half of Rotting Ruin (12 scenarios + capstone). That would be 34.5 scenarios total. And Adventure 3 in the newest campaign, Year of Reborn Strife, was just released (link). At this rate, all 6 adventures in YoRS will be available by July 2021. These are all technically "organized play" products, but OP campaigns used at home are played exactly like any other campaign. Just ignore rewards that don't make sense (e.g., bonus upgrades, since you can always upgrade as many cards as you want). Finally, Thargrap - a new character - was released in August 2020. Overall, 6-7 new PACG products (including 2 full campaigns) have been released/announced since the Core and Crimson Throne became available in May 2019. So PACG is more active than it first appears. P.S. But yeah, we'd all love new cards and other physical products. But covid has affected all aspects of gaming production - development, manufacturing, etc. - so who knows. And like everyone else, I'm hoping that Paizo will break the radio silence and say something about the next physical adventure path. Ideally before summer?
In retrospect, it may have been easier to eliminate location scourges entirely and limit scourges to characters. There are only 7 cards that assign scourges to locations: Stinging Wasps, Brain Mold, Poison Gas, Mine, Madness Mist Trap, Death's Breath Door, and Locked Door. And 6 of them only do it if you fail a check. Brain Mold is the only card that automatically assigns a scourge to a location. The rules overhead may not have been worth the trouble, especially given how rare location scourges actually are. Someone made a funny comment that they went through the entirety of CotCT and didn't know that location scourges existed until someone else happened to mention it. Not a big deal either way, I guess.
<squints and leans in to Almnzarra> "Not sure what hapning over there," Bridge whispers. "But look like smelly drinky human take another thing and break store."
Boring stains canot be evade? Bridge so confuse. But say hullo to AlVal!
Test to see if handler notes are working:
Skills and Powers: SKILLS
Strength d6
Dexterity d8 Stealth: Dexterity +1 Constitution d8 Fortitude: Constitution +1 Intelligence d6 Wisdom d8 Survival: Wisdom +3 Charisma d6 Favored Card: Card with Animal trait
When you bury/recharge an animal card for Lini's power, you don't get to use any powers on that card. It's not being played in any way; it's just being recharged for a power. In your example above, you would not get the extra 1d8 from the Porcupine when recharging the card for the combat ability. However, if you were fighting an animal monster, you could recharge/bury a *different* animal ally to use Lini's combat ability. Then recharge the Porcupine to add 1d8. That would be legal.
That not seem fair. Villen had no chance. But Ruin and Bridge say yay!
Bridge stay at Ruin and say hello. Long time Ruin friend share joke. Laugh. Good times. Bridge move, but not fast. Bump into curvy stick with string. Stick prolly not happy.
Bridge not understand Tudll, but follow. Tiny things jump out and dance with many sticks. So angry! Red Mantis Ambush:
Red Mantis Ambush Barrier 4 Traits Skirmish Red Mantis Check
Powers
- Valeros (Bridge like d5, one better than d4)
Redmantassn:
Red Mantis Assassin Story Bane Monster 3 Traits
Check
Powers
Bridge tap human. Fall down. Ruin say yay! Good ruin friend.
Skills and Powers:
SKILLS
Strength d6
Dexterity d6 Constitution d6 Intelligence d10 ☑ +1 ☑ +2 ☑ +3 ☑ +4 Knowledge: Intelligence +2 Disable: Intelligence +1 Wisdom d8 ☑ +1 ☑ +2 Perception: Wisdom +2 Charisma d6 Diplomacy: Charisma +2 Favored Card: Item Hand Size: 6 ☑ 7 ☑ 8 Proficiencies: None POWERS: (Empiricist) For check invoking Finesse, may recharge ([X] or reload) a card to use Knowledge instead of Acrobatics or Stealth, and add the card's level. On local check vs. barrier, may bury an item ([x] or a boon) to add Perception. At ([X] start or) end of turn, may examine top card of your location. [X] You are proficient with alchemical. On your check to recharge an alchemical item with level lower than #, you automatically succeed. [X] When you defeat a barrier, you may heal a card. Mat Reroll Used?: N Supporters: Chronicler (upgraded), Bodyguard, Moise, Boors (upgraded), Ketrik (upgraded), Lemore (upgraded) Lots happen, but Bridge not remember everything. Take nap now.
One recommendation for a 2-player campaign is to play with 2 characters apiece (4 total). That way you have more skills covered, and a lot more support available. E.g., if all four characters are at the same location, you have 3 other characters to provide local support. And if one is Lem, all the better. I'd add that some Core scenarios are rough, particularly if you're lacking in certain skills. And with the new emphasis on different types of scenarios (not all "corner the villain"), it's more important than ever to be able to close a location on the first try. Even then, sometimes you're just out of luck. Reminder: If you have no hope of closing, you can intentionally fail vs. the closing henchman to let another local character avenge (someone who can close, hopefully). And if 2A is challenging, 2C and 3B can be much worse. You'll see. :P Overall, the introductory Core campaign is fine. But I prefer Crimson Throne. Either way, good luck!
Unfortunately, I'm not sure this is a solvable problem at this point. I contacted customer service, and they sent replacements. But I still have a significant amount of color variation. I own many, many card games - including games with tons of expansions (e.g., the DC deck-building game) - and this is the worst issue with mismatched colors that I've ever had. Paizo was smart in moving to a "Core" used in all future expansions, which removes the problem of old sets containing the same low-level cards. But this model only works if measures are taken to keep the colors on the card backs consistent. This didn't happen. There was no controlling for color even within the Core, let alone across sets. I love Paizo and I love PACG, but this will now be an ongoing problem for as long as PACG exists. Paizo can't afford to reprint all cards and give everyone free replacements. Even if they did, it's not clear that the color variation wouldn't appear again. (Another option would be to send everyone a full set of opaque sleeves, but they probably can't afford that either.) So... there are no good options at this point. The problem is too widespread, affecting (as far as I know) every single copy of the game. I'd add that this isn't the only problem with the PACG printers in recent sets: - I've had issues with cards sticking together, and becoming damaged when pulled apart. (Ultimate Decks, Core, Crimson Throne) - I've had splotchy stains on the backs of cards, effectively marking them. (Ultimate Decks, Core, Crimson Throne) In all cases, Paizo sent replacements and fixed the issue. But something funny is clearly going on with the PACG printer - since these problems didn't exist in the older sets. Or weren't as widespread, at least.
If you're only playing with friends, you don't need any of the above - just the Core and Crimson Throne sets. Initially, at least. You might purchase them later if you want more character and boon variety. Class and Ultimate decks are primarily for organized play (OP). Importantly, they contain old-style (pre-Core) cards. So if you want to use the latest cards with the latest rules, you probably don't want to use the Class/Ultimate decks. More detail: Class Decks come with 3-4 new characters and a bunch of boons. But the vast majority of boons are repeats from old sets: Runelords, Mummy's Mask, etc. Each Ultimate Deck comes with a single character and a pile of unusual/helpful boons tied to a specific theme (combat, intrigue, etc.). The boons are not duplicates from old sets, but they're still pre-Core cards. They can be used in OP, or can be thrown into the box to supplement any PACG game. I'm not sure what you mean by Adventure decks. Do you mean Adventure Packs? Those are subsets of the Core/Crimson Throne cards that are only useful in organized play. Good luck...
Mine is: Kess, Merisiel, Seoni and Quinn, chosen for no other reason than I wanted to play them. (Yes, Seoni without a dedicated healer, but how bad could that be?) If Quinn goes the Alchemical route, he can provide plenty of healing. Anyway, have fun!
No Paizo reps have posted in my last 4-5 rules threads, so my guess is that people are busy elsewhere during covid-19.
For what it's worth, here are a few other 3B clarifications: If you fail the check to defeat a Dragon henchman/villain proxy, the wildcard that you marked *stays* marked until you encounter the next proxy. Beating the dragon is a good thing. The instructions say, "if there are 3 or more cards in the location, the Dragon is undefeated". (I.e., You must defeat the Dragon with 2 or fewer cards in the location to win.) The Dragon itself is counted when determining whether it is ultimately defeated, so you only vanquish the Dragon when there is either (a) the Dragon and one other card remaining or (b) only the Dragon remaining. The Dragon card that you ultimately defeat to win can be either a henchman or villain proxy. It doesn't have to be the villain. E.g., If there are two cards left and a henchman proxy is on top of the villain proxy, defeating the henchman proxy will win the scenario.
Her webbed environs behind her, Kess shoves her way into a mausoleum and grins at the spectacle. Undead warriors click and clatter as they prepare for battle. Ancient Skeleton:
Monster Story Bane 1 Traits: Undead Skeleton Veteran To Defeat:
Immune to Cold, Mental, and Poison. Vulnerable to Bludgeoning.
Imagining a pleasant musical score, Kess releases a forceful, rhythmic chant to accompany her assault on the unwelcome invaders. Not only does this unnerve her opponents, but it makes death and destruction more enjoyable for everyone. The proud, loud poetry of Kess the Bull: Arms are swinging, skulls are caving
- henchman defeated, not healing
- henchman defeated, healing Sands of the Hour Dungeons is closed. Per closing effect, each local character may draw a card. Kess moves back to Spider Nest. Kess winds down the blitzkrieg by holding the skulls of two skeleton leaders in her outstretched hands. Smashing them together, Kess shatters the bones into fragmented dust - then puts her sights on the giant spider rumored to be at the heart of the sticky pest nest.
Skills and Powers:
SKILLS
Strength d10 ☑ +1 ☑ +2 ☑ +3 ☑ +4
Melee: Strength +3 Dexterity d6 Constitution d8 Fortitude: Constitution +1 Intelligence d6 Wisdom d4 Charisma d8 Diplomacy: Charisma +1 Favored Card: Ally Hand Size: 5 ☑ 6 Proficiencies: None POWERS: (Bruiser) For your combat check, you may use Melee +1d8 ([X] or Melee +1d12 and add the magic trait). On your check vs. monster on which you don't play weapon/spell, you may recharge an ally ([X] or an armor or item) to add 1d4 + that card's AD#. When you discard or bury a card as damage, it counts as 2 ([X] or 3) cards. When you defeat a monster, you may heal a card ([] or an ally). Reroll Used?: No Dungeons is closed. Everyone there must move. Choose to eliminate Wearisome wildcard.
Just a quick note that there are still questions as to whether these spells are meant to be played freely. No resolution yet? Bonus comment: Looks like Instrument of Agony cannot be used to enhance attack spells, as the word "freely" isn't used. That's also intended?
The evasion power for Keen Spiked Chain (Crimson Throne level 5) reads: If proficient and you fail this check against a non-villain monster, you may evade it. As written, this lets you evade the monster without needing to do anything else. So fail = auto-evade with no consequences. Should the chain need to be discarded, at least?
Adventure 6-5 says: Will be available for purchase approximately 29 Apr 2020. But it looks like you can purchase it now. Does this mean you can pay now, but it won't be available for download until late April?
This is how hero points are handled in the Transition Guide: (Core rulebook, p. 26) When playing an older Adventure Path, continue to use the feat rewards as listed on the cards; limits on feats don’t apply in those APs. At the end of each adventure, each character gets a hero point that cannot be used to gain a feat. So you'll earn a total of 7 hero points (for completing adventures B and 1-6, respectively), but the final hero point won't matter because the entire campaign (adventure path) will be done after completing AD6.
She tells me that they always do their setups with a box at all ends (BR has a normal box, and the other players have alphabetized boxes for reference). I think this is because the BR has to keep the state zoomed out so there's no way to zoom in on particular cards that need to be read. I'd think that the card wiki could be used instead of a box at each end. It's a quick and easy way to look up cards.
That isn’t a loophole though, just opens up multiple avenues of doing things. I’ve yet to run into a case where the lack of immediately causes an actual issue. I'll take this opportunity to congenially disagree. I think there are definite loopholes, in the sense that characters can do things in Core 2A that were likely not intended. I do agree that the henchman/closing/non-closing possibilities listed in the abovementioned thread are legal RAW, but I can't imagine that many of the possibilities were meant to be allowed by the 2A scenario designer(s). In particular, the RAW options in 2A will never be understood by new players. They were barely understood by me, and I've played a million games of PACG. (Slight exaggeration, but not really.) If there's a "make closing immediate again" petition, I'd be happy to sign.
"Check against" is literally any check against a card (before acting, after acting, check to defeat, etc.), so the answer is yes: Kess can use her power for a Before Acting check. More info can be found on p. 11 in the Core rulebook: If a card refers to a check against another card, that refers to any check required by that card, whether it’s a check to defeat, a check to acquire, a check to recharge, or any other check.
For what it's worth, there are already official scenarios/adventures designed for use with the Core and Crimson Throne boxes. We Be Heroes? (1.5 scenarios) Fangwood Thieves (4 scenarios) Bloodthorne Manor (4 scenarios) So you could take a new party through 9.5 more scenarios, if you wanted. You also have Year of Rotting Ruin, which is a full 24-scenario adventure using Core + Crimson Throne. (Or will be, when it's completely finished.)
As far as support goes, Ahmotep is one of the strongest characters in MM - if not the strongest. The campaign does get more difficult, but whether it'll get crazy enough to challenge your particular 2-character combination I couldn't say. Playing two characters is probably the easiest configuration of the game - with the right 2 characters, anyway. It may only cause problems later on, when the party will be limited to playing 2 blessings total. (I.e., with 4 players you'd be able to play 4 total blessings instead.) Your variant of adding an additional location is fairly common in cases where players are PACG experts. You might also try playing two characters apiece instead of one. That'll definitely change the game's dynamics in terms of support, healing, forcing characters to spread out, etc. When MM is complete, you could quest through the Season of the Plundered Tombs campaign, which uses the same cards (link). That's definitely not trivial - particularly towards the end.
Are you limiting yourself to Core characters? There are plenty of combinations that would work. Valeros, Fumbus, Seoni, and Lem might be effective and entertaining. Character comments: In our group, one player was frustrated with Merisiel because her evasion power only works if she's alone. (She doesn't play well with Valeros, for example.) And in some Core scenarios being alone is difficult or impossible. But she's one of the few characters (Fumbus is the other?) to have the Disable trait. I played Lini in the Core campaign and found her not to be terribly exciting, but others may disagree. Other notes: Without getting all spoilery, be aware that one scenario rewards characters for having decent Charisma, Diplomacy, or Perception skills. If you want to go full wacky, you could do an all-goblin party: Other useful links for new Core players: Good luck!
Sensing an intermission in the gargoyle invasion - when did statues learn to fly, anyway? - Quinn dons an apron and warms up the wood stove to whip up a batch of his grandmother's Snickerdoodles. Quinn snaps open the recipe box and lifts the treasured parchment from its honored position. The ingredient list: Sugar -
Quinn scratches his head. Is that right? "I'll have to milk a lot more cows if we need that much butter." Orders are orders, after all. Procedures: Mix all ingredients together in bowl for seconds. Then let sit for days for the dough to rise. Finally, cook for minutes on a greased baking sheet. Enjoy! Flenta takes the first bite. "Mine is too hard." Quinn sticks out his tongue.
For people who don't subscribe to the Recruitment thread, Outpost III signups have begun:
Would you mind spelling out which ones you think have not been addressed? To get the ball rolling: Mavaro (Mummy's Mask): Can he display cards to get them out of his hand, even though the displayed skills aren't relevant for any checks? This would allow him to easily cycle cards, which may or may not be the intention. Varril (Inquisitor class deck): Does his "use Divine for any check" power work for weapon-based combat? (People are playing both ways in both cases, which is why clarifications would help.)
OK, I swear I searched the FAQ exhaustively for Embiggen, but I guess not. Because I found a FAQ entry for Embiggen dated A Long Time Ago. Embiggen says to exchange all of a character’s dice. Does that include dice added by other players? And does it work for all dice rolls? It should only work on checks, and it should work on all dice on those checks. Resolution: On the spell Embiggen, change "Exchange all of that character’s dice for dice of these sizes" to "On that character’s checks, replace all dice as follows". So yes, all dice are replaced - and it only works on checks. As a comment, I'll add that IMHO Embiggen is a campaign-changing card. It's really fun, and a blast to play. But it is quite powerful. If you're playing Crimson Throne with Embiggen, I do think you're playing a different campaign than those who play without. Particularly if you're running a character like Hakon or Varian who can use it every other turn (and sometimes every turn). And a separate clarification. The We Be Heroes? 2-scenario adventure has the following reward: Each player may add to any of their Class Decks the promo spell Embiggen and/or the promo blessing The Real Rabbit Prince. To be clear, this means you can put Embiggen in every single class deck you own - right? P.S. I'm playing Mother Myrtle in Year 6, and she's quite a doozy with Embiggen - even with post-Core Recovery nerfing her degenerate combos.
This has been a great discussion. Thanks. Cloud Puff previously held the record for the card that the most number of people had played incorrectly, but we may now have a new contender. Taking a simple example, Radovan with a pre-Core rapier rolls 1d8+2d4. Embiggen possibilities: Option 1: Radovan rolls 1d12+2d4. (skill only is affected) Option 2: Radovan rolls 1d12+2d8. (all dice are affected) I've seen a decent number of people play Embiggen (online and IRL), and I've only ever seen Option #2. If Option #1 is the intent, a FAQ entry might be warranted.
An observant player noticed that Embiggen doesn't specify dice on checks. Just dice, period. That's the intention? So Cure + Embiggen = heal 1d8+1 cards? And if you take 1d6+1 ranged damage, you take 1d10+1 instead?
A random update, though most of you probably know this already: 6-4 is already released Bloodthorne Manor is now being released Feb 26 6-5 is being released Mar 18
Her tattoo wanders from cheek to cheek. In some cases she's gazing into her opponent's reflective pool of blood, so you get a mirror image.
Hmm. I've not seen the Base played this way, even with experienced players. Some people on this site, for instance, are notorious on Turn 1 for exploring the Base multiple times, each time healing the card just used to explore. It's the Base doing the healing, right - not the card you used to explore? So this is legal? P.S. I like your way better, as it's too easy to get a bunch of free supporters on Turn 1 at little to no expense - assuming what I describe is allowed.
More detail was provided about the Core->CotCT party transition here: https://paizo.com/threads/rzs42klg?Dragons-Demand-Curse-of-the-Crimson-Thro ne#4
I was wondering if anyone had made a standard printout they use to attract new players for OP sessions. I made a simple sign that I displayed during demos. If you send a PM I can email it. Nothing fancy, though. I also put together an OP quickstart guide: It's a smidge out of date, since it's pre-Core. But it should be easy to update.
Say your augury (monster) a proxy, but its a danger. Danger can be monster or barrier. You can roll to see if it a monster or barrier. Assume its a barrier per the roll, it gets shuffled back in. Next time you encounter it, it is still a danger. Do you roll again?I couldn't actually find a scenario in Curse that uses Proxy for random danger, but if so - that's a new and unique problem in post-Core PACG, introduced by the use of Proxies, where a single *physical* card can actually represent different things. The same issue came up in another thread, as organized play scenario 6-1A has a proxy that represents a random danger. The clarification was that, if examined, the 6-1A proxy represents neither a monster or barrier. It's just a proxy card. This isn't a general rule, however, as 6-1A goes out of its way to specify that encountering the proxy is what triggers the resolution of the danger - and examining isn't encountering.
Options now are probably to go back and play 1A (it has the maximum number of possible weapons and won’t destroy us like some of the 6 scenarios), or just give up trying to make our win at all legitimate and take the sword. Like Longshot, above, I consider the loot sword issue in CotCT to be a pretty serious bug. So it's not your fault if you have to semi-cheat to complete the campaign. The bug won't affect most parties, but those affected are affected dramatically.
Just a quick bump. False Life and Mirror image definitely aren't meant to be played freely if in hand?
Not a big deal, but my power feat was reloading to use knowledge in combat.
I just completed this scenario. I'm not sure that including the story bane devils matters. The villain is a devil story bane, but he shouldn't be in the devil pile. He needs to be set aside to be all villainy. The only other devil story banes are from AD1, and they aren't veterans. So they would have been removed from the vault by AD5. So I believe there are only 3 devil monsters in the devil pile - all standard monsters.
If you examine a card on someone else's turn, and that card has a trigger, that trigger happens as normal. To the person examining the card, of course.
I'm not sure what you're suggesting. Celeste just added the Flame Staff to attempt to help (and it's in her deck list as posted here), and Imrijka has the boots already. I think Keith is suggesting that you might use the Core/Crimson Throne versions of these cards - if you aren't already. Flame Staff can now be used repeatedly, and the Boots help with closing.
I've never really understood how "Taking One For the Team" works - but perhaps you could do that here? Temporarily replace a character with someone else, that is. Another option would be to skip the scenario for now, do most/all of AD2, and then come back to 5-1E with more feats and better cards. Not saying either of these are ideal, but they might be decent options.
If your Class Deck contains a boon that has the same name as a boon in the Core Set or in Curse of the Crimson Throne, you may replace the copy in your deck with the new version. Do not take cards from the vault for this—you must bring your own copies. (Short Sword and Shortsword count as the same name for this purpose. At my "in-person" PACS game night we have three separate tables, and therefore use three boxes. One issue is that the players bringing their boxes can't use the Core/CotCT cards as described above - because the cards are supposed to be available in the vault. Can we make an exception for the PACS box providers and allow them to proxy the Core/CotCT cards instead of using the actual cards? |