Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Skull & Shackles Character Add-On Deck

Three new classes including Warpriest, interesting!

Is the Skulls and Shackles Character Add on deck part of the ongoing subscription or do you have to purchase it seperately?

It will be a part of the subscription.

Does my current subscription to the Rise of the Runes lords auto convert to a subscription for Skulls and Shackles, or will I have to setup a new subscription?

Does my current subscription to the Rise of the Runes lords auto convert to a subscription for Skulls and Shackles, or will I have to setup a new subscription?

It will automatically roll over into the new set.

This is interesting to me. There are only 3 new characters, as opposed to getting 4 new ones in the RotR character expansion. Is this because there is a starter 5 Scenarios, instead of 3, like in RotR? I am assuming that this is the case, but I was wondering if there was anything official. Thanks!

The Skull & Shackles Character Add-On Deck does contain 4 characters; 3 are all-new, and 1 is returning from Rise of the Runelords.

vic, thank you for clearing that up. It would help if i took a little more time to read everything completely, but it is pretty clearly there.

Can I ask who the returning character is, or is that off limits right now?

All of the classes in the new set were revealed in this blog post, so it's free knowledge. The returning character for the add-on pack is the Druid while the returning characters in the base set include the Bard, Fighter, and Rogue.

See what I am saying about reading. I am so bad at it. I have definitely read that post, but have just forgotten about it. Interesting. I am excited for a new Lem and Lini, and I am pretty sure that my wife is looking forward to a new Merisiel.

It is interesting that there will be reworkings of the characters. I am wondering the reworked character differ from the previous versions and how they will work in different APs.

Also, I wonder if they will work through the characters from RotR and S&S in future APs, so that we will eventually be able to have 2 or 3 different choices of the same character.

One more question about reworked characters before I go. Is the base card different between the two, or is it just the roles that are reworked? not really a big deal to me, just wondering.

For returning characters, the base cards have small differences, and the role cards are very different.

Interesting. I am excited to hear that the roles are very different. I have been wondering what kind of new ideas that the design team have for characters that they have already made.

So is it possible to use any of the role cards for a returning character, or would you need to use the corresponding base character and role cards? Thanks!

You should use the role card that comes from the same set as your character card. Remember that role cards are placed over character cards, and they include the powers from those character cards, so if you were to mix-and-match, you would have issues with those powers not matching. Which is to say the S&S role cards are designed to advance S&S characters, and the RotR role cards are designed to advance RotR characters.

Right, but if the bottom text on the base character cards was the same, then the role cards could be use. That is really what I was getting at. It seems that will not be the case. It is not a big deal to me, because I will just like experimenting with new characters.

Also, while we are on the topic, how well would S&S characters play in RotR, and vice versa, because the characters are currently on;y balanced to the AP that they come from, correct?

Characters are intended to be compatible with any set. That said, some characters may have advantages in one set that they lack in another. For example, the gunslinger Lirianne from Skull & Shackles would not be as useful in Rise of the Runelords unless you *also* add in some firearms for her to use. And many Skull & Shackles characters have ship-themed powers that would not be useful in an Adventure Path that lacks ships, though most of their powers will be useful. On the other hand, we have laid some groundwork for the future—you might have noticed that some cards in Rise of the Runelords refer to the Craft skill, which no RotR characters actually have—but some S&S characters do!

Yeah, I have seen that little detail in a lot of the posts. That seems to come up the most. It is interesting to think about how a character might choose completely different power feats based on the AP that they are in. I am still pretty curious about these ship mechanics. I have been trying to figure out how all of that would work in my head, but I think coming into it fresh in August will be a lot of fun.

I did notice that little detail about the Craft skill. We actually just noticed that over the weekend, because we were going through all of the characters, so that we could figure out what to play next. I didn't notice it when I picked my fist few characters, but now that I have played a lot more, it was one of the things that I noticed.

Runelords also has a few weapons with the Finesse trait, which means nothing to any RotR characters but is very valuable to a few S&S characters.

Runelords also has a few weapons with the Finesse trait, which means nothing to any RotR characters but is very valuable to a few S&S characters.

I think I read that somewhere. I think that Mike said it. I am glad to see that you guys are adding things into the sets that don't necessarily have an impact on the characters that come with it. That really us the replay value to me. Well played. Guess after S&S comes out, I will have to run back through RotR with new characters and see how it plays. I am betting that my group will just chain as many Scenarios as we can in a weekend when it comes out, so during our normal play time, we will need something to do. Hehe.

Can we have a confirmation that this will be part of the subscription? Because the Subscription listing says
"early June Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Spires of Xin-Shalast (Rise of the Runelords Adventure Deck 6)
early September Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Raiders of the Fever Sea (Skull & Shackles Deck 2)
"
So August will be the add on deck?

The Skull & Shackles Add-On Deck and the Base Set are releasing at the same time, this August.

Forgive me if this is stated elsewhere. I read that the S&S base game will include some promo cards but will the Character Add on deck also include promo's? thank you.

The sets themselves don't include promo cards, but when we introduce a new set, we send promo cards to retailers and subscribers to the line on paizo.com. So in August, when retailers get their copies of the Base Set and the Character Add-On Deck, they will also get copies of the August promo card. And when PACG subscribers get their August shipment, it will include the same August promo card (and also the Free RPG Day goblin character pack, and at least two other promo cards that haven't been specifically announced yet).

Vic, does this mean that people that go to free RPG day and are subscribers will have two? I guess I didn't realize it was going out with S&S as well.

Yep—all subscribers will be getting a copy of the Free RPG Day set.

Any chance of there being more RPG Day events still? The closest one is 3 whole counties away from me.. couple hour drive :/

FreeRPGday.com says that retailer signups are closed.

The sets themselves don't include promo cards, but when we introduce a new set, we send promo cards to retailers and subscribers to the line on paizo.com. So in August, when retailers get their copies of the Base Set and the Character Add-On Deck, they will also get copies of the August promo card. And when PACG subscribers get their August shipment, it will include the same August promo card (and also the Free RPG Day goblin character pack, and at least two other promo cards that haven't been specifically announced yet).

Vic, why is Ranzak going out with the August shipments of S&S, and not the June shipment of Spires? It is just because he technically belongs to the S&S set, or so that people that attend the Free RPG day event get a little reward before everyone else? Or maybe a little of both?

We're not allowed to distribute our Free RPG Day products via any other method until July 1, so August is the first subscriber shipment they can possibly go into.

Updated product image and description to final!

New packaging looks amazing. Thanks for the update.

Hey Vic, or others, not sure if this was answered in other posts.

If I start a subscription from the Character Add-On pack only (is this possible? It's not an option at the moment) can I get the Ranzek character promo?

It's a hard life in Australia with no places getting the promos.

Or is my only option to buy from Paizo hopefully when the few become available?

Choosing the base set would be too costly on shipping unfortunately.

Check this thread out. Promo cards are based on the month of the subscription, not the contents of the subscription. So I think you would get it still.

To piggyback on Koroboo's question (as I'm also in Australia, and find the shipping on the base set a bit outside my budget, but really want the promos), what would be the best way to go about continuing my subscription, but skipping the base set? Do I need to email anyone in particular and ask them to do that, do I need to start a thread asking the same, or would I be best off cancelling my subscription after Spires of Xin-Shalast ships, then starting it again with the add-on deck?

To piggyback on Koroboo's question (as I'm also in Australia, and find the shipping on the base set a bit outside my budget, but really want the promos), what would be the best way to go about continuing my subscription, but skipping the base set? Do I need to email anyone in particular and ask them to do that, do I need to start a thread asking the same, or would I be best off cancelling my subscription after Spires of Xin-Shalast ships, then starting it again with the add-on deck?

Check the main ACG subscription thread.

Thanks, Nix! =)

I was wondering if Freya (sp?) would show up in one of the decks somewhere... sweet! Needs more badass female characters in games. =)

Its possible to order this now... does not say pre-order. If i order it will it ship right away before gencon??

You can order it now. You can also start a subscription to PACG beginning with the character add-on. Which would net you all the promos each month, including all the August promos.

But I'd guess at this point it probably won't ship before gencon Here is the August release thread. They are in the midst of shipping August orders now and the shipping window runs until the 8/22. I'd guess that an order submitted now would probably not get ahead of all the other items in the shipping queue. (Though I don't work for Paizo and I'm sure it is more complex than "first come first serve", probably designed to get as many orders out the door as quickly as possible.)

I hope that helps.

Post Character Spoilers: Looks so much more interesting than the last Char Add-on. 3 new unique characters and the new druid is actually very different ability-wise. I was already getting this and now I'm glad I am.

No where in the UK seems to have this yet :( apparently another 2 to 3 weeks which is a shame because a group of 6 are waiting to play but can't.

The retail release date was pushed to September 24th, which is why no one in the UK is selling it yet. No one in the US is selling it either. The only people able to get it so far are those that got it at GenCon.

I don´t get it, why do I need the addon deck to be able to play a 5 or 6 player game of S&S game? All the scenarios have fixed amount of locations for up to 6 players. And the base set has 7 characters available.

Is there something obvious I am missing here? :o

The base set does not contain enough henchmen to fill all locations. You could also miss some Blessings of the Gods for the starting decks if you play with 6 characters that use a lot of those.

In play you would see a lot more of the same cards over and over if you ran with just the base set for 6 players. The add-on deck contains (some) banes and boons that are not available in the base set.

Finally you would also miss the extra characters (although that can be circumvented by using the character sheets that are available for free on this site)

Was the release date of sept 24th accurate or did it get pushed back again?

For retailers, the release date is now October 1. Paizo subscribers have already been receiving it this past week.