I can't remember where I read this, but I thought there was something along the lines of "if you fail a scenario, you cannot advance to the next scenario until you replay the failed scenario and succeed." Or maybe I'm misremembering or just making things up in my head.
Normally, I don't see this as an issue. I'll want to complete each scenario in turn not only because I'm a completionist and will want each one checked off on the character sheet, but because I'll want the rewards each completed scenario provides. However, I can think of a couple reasons why this might crop up:
1. Out of our group of players, there may be nights when someone can't make it but everyone else will want to continue. Is the person who missed a scenario able to join back in or must they complete each scenario before progressing?
2. I have more than 6 people interested in the game. That might cause some people rotating in and out, thus their characters not participating in each scenario in order.
I realize you could have two groups/campaigns each with separate characters. Even if some of the players are the same in each group. But that brings up another question: How do people quickly switch between characters on scenarios that are in different adventure deck boxes? The only thing I can think of is if your group is on Adventure Deck 3, and you want to start another group at the beginning, you're going to need to remove all the 1, 2 and 3 cards first, then re-add them and remove them every time you switch groups!
How do people quickly switch between characters on scenarios that are in different adventure deck boxes? The only thing I can think of is if your group is on Adventure Deck 3, and you want to start another group at the beginning, you're going to need to remove all the 1, 2 and 3 cards first, then re-add them and remove them every time you switch groups!
I never take out adventure deck 2 because I have so many games going on that are early on. If I'm playing something pre-ad-2 and I draw a #2 card, I just box it and draw a different card of the same type.
I don't have any trouble with it. I've played this game so much that I have the AD of all the boons and most banes memorized.
._.
You can skip scenarios...you just don't get the rewards for completing them. Remember that you must complete all the scenarios of an adventure in order to complete the adventure and receive its reward, and all adventures in a path in order to receive its reward.
So, a character that misses one scenario of an adventure won't get that adventure's reward when the group completes it. Makes sense.
But does that also mean the character hasn't "completed" the adventure when the group comes to the end of the path, and therefore does not get the path's reward as well?
If so, that gives quite an incentive for someone who's missed a night to do some make-up playing. Either solo or perhaps with a group who doesn't mind repeating the scenario (repeaters would get cards gained during play, but not the rewards again.)
Okay, case in point: my wife and I finally got our character deck so we could start our campaign. (She wanted to play Lini.) She died, primarily because she burned down her deck by discarding to use a d10 in all her combats. I managed to pull off the win on the very last turn of the game and took my random item for completing Brigandoom.
So now she'll need to replay Brigandoom solo (or together) to "check off" that scenario if she wants to claim the Perils of the Lost Coast reward.
I don't disagree with the rule, if we're doing it right. But it does concern me in two ways:
1. It seems a little silly that the scenario happens again. Didn't you already defeat that villain? Kind of my biggest gripe in an MMO where each player that comes along is tasked with doing the same thing over and over again.
2. The penalty seems a little harsh in that there's a pretty good chance nobody will ever be able to claim an adventure or adventure path reward because they'll have missed some scenario due to death or other reasons.
In my old AD&D days, a character who joined us in the middle of the adventure or died and was resurrected later on still got to partake in the dragon's loot pile at the end. We didn't say "no loot for you" simply because they were not present at some point earlier.
On the other hand, that only addresses loot/items. Those characters still missed out on XP when they were not participating. Much like the feats rewards. So... I don't know what point I'm trying to make anymore! :-P
Remember that, at least in my experience, you can avoid death by not exploring any more in the scenario. Maybe you didn't happen to notice (and I'm not judging you or your wife or saying that in any mean way), but if you had noticed that Lini had only a few cards left in her deck, maybe you would have decided to both stop exploring so Lini wouldn't die.
To me, that is why the penalty is so harsh. I don't know that the design team wanted to make sure characters died, they just wanted to make sure you felt the punishment for dying was enough you wouldn't risk letting your character die.
So, count yourself fortunate it was only during Brigandoom. Chalk it up to experience, re-run the scenario and learn from your experience. I had to do that quite a few times in Perils of the Lost Coast before I got a feel for how to play my character with success.
Anyway, good luck as you continue/restart your adventure.
@PixelHunter - death is very rare and usually avoidable. I think the idea is that if you're close to death you should slow down and take the lesser pain of running out of time (re-doing the scenario) instead of the greater loss of dying.
Once you've played a few times you will get a feel for how fast you need to go and how greedy you can be with the boons if you want to survive and finish on time.
Hawkmoon and h4ppy, you both have a point. My wife could have, and should have parked herself on a closed location and played it safe. We probably would have failed, but that whole "live to fight another day" rings true. Luckily there was no real loss as it was only the first scenario, and we did gain some more experience playing the game
My primary concern, and reason for the thread is for the circumstances where this might happen much later in the path. Or, due to an unavoidable reason such as a member of the group not being able to make it for a night of gaming. I suppose I could always impose a house rule that says if you miss a game session due to family or other obligations, your character would not gain that scenario's reward, but you'd still be eligible for any adventure or adventure path rewards you were present for when awarded.
Whoever misses can always play that one later. Lets assume they don't own the game (which seems likely). You could meet them sometime before your next session and play just your character and theirs through what they missed. They would get the scenario rewards, you wouldn't, but you could both keep what you acquire. I've done this with a friend. Or you could let them borrow the game from you and play solo what they missed.
I'd also be fine with a house rule that if someone missed, they could get any feats the group earned. I'd be fine with that because for me, getting together with my group is hard. If someone misses, I don't want to penalize them for it.
If you didn't want to do that you could always just let them designate someone to play their character for them. But then someone would be playing 2 characters and having twice the fun.
But house rules are fine. Make the game fun for you and your players. If that means being flexible with missing scenarios and still getting the "feat" rewards, then by all means do it. The purpose of the game is to have fun, not to provide a bunch of rules to ruin your fun. So if your friend can't make it and there is no time to meet up and let them play what they missed, just let them "level up" anyway. Doing it by the rules isn't very "hard" but if the time to do so doesn't exist just say "well, I think you are a good enough player you could have soloed that scenario, so why don't you just take the skill feat." They are your friend after all.
Anyway, enjoy the game.