Blessings are great, but from reading some threads elsewhere I wonder why instead of using the blessings deck as a timer, having a random event deck as a timer. Things like Rain, Angry Mobs or diseases. It seems like a missed opportunity, but its also something that could be a fan created piece of awesome.
Imagine a D20 table of random events for a scenario. when you advance the Blessings deck you get the random event.
Good idea, bad idea?
Chief Technical Officer
|
We certainly considered it, but decided that it added *too much* randomness. (It does already randomly add new options for Blessings of the Gods.)
If you go the homebrew route and actually decide to replace the Blessings deck, you'll need to consider the following:
•Figure out what the copying power of Blessing of the Gods does in your game
•Find a way to make up for the recharge assist that it can add to other blessings
•If an undefeated villain escapes, you need to remove cards from the countdown deck, and add Blessings of the Gods to some of the location decks
•Find another trigger for the Werewolf
•Find something else for the Cultist to do (also the Skinsaw Cultist in a future set).
(There may be a couple more.)
One way to minimize randomness from event cards would be to mix only a handful of them (say 3 to 5) into the blessings deck, so that you're not getting some crazy event effect every single turn.
You could even have some setup procedure where you divide the blessings deck into fifths, shuffle one event into each fifth, and then stack the fifths on top of each other to form the countdown deck(like how Pandemic handles setting up Epidemic cards in the draw pile). This would ensure that event cards aren't too clustered together.
One of our big design goals for the game was to keep setup time as low as we reasonably could while still delivering a full experience. Go nuts with the house rules, though!
His attitude is what makes Paizo so fan-tastic. Keep up the awesome interactions.
One way to minimize randomness from event cards would be to mix only a handful of them (say 3 to 5) into the blessings deck, so that you're not getting some crazy event effect every single turn.
You could even have some setup procedure where you divide the blessings deck into fifths, shuffle one event into each fifth, and then stack the fifths on top of each other to form the countdown deck(like how Pandemic handles setting up Epidemic cards in the draw pile). This would ensure that event cards aren't too clustered together.
I like this. If some blessings trigger events when flipped from the blessings deck the game remains mostly untouched. I can test this out using sleeves and post-its.
My main candidate for the change is Blessing of Lamashtu. I feel like blessings from evil gods should do something terrible when flipped.
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16
|
I have actually been thinking along these lines too. The tact I was taking is that the blessings themselves can have events associated with them based on the god. Since a good portion of blessings are blessings of the gods, it limits the frequency.
Abador - COMMERCE - Add +1 to checks to acquire items.
Clistria - VENGEANCE - +1 on combat checks, but +1 on all damage inflicted by monsters.
Desna - TRAVEL - Each hero may change locations immediately, paying any costs for exiting or entering a location if needed.
Erastil - HUNTING - +1 to defeat monsters with the animal trait
Gorum - BATTLE - +2 to combat checks using a weapon, but +2 damage from human or goblin monsters that go undefeated.
Iomedae - RIGHTEOUSNESS - +2 on combat checks vs undead
Irori - HEALING - Recharge 1 random card from your discard pile
Lamashtu - MONSTER - Immediately summon and combat the top card from the monster deck
Norgorber - THIEVERY - +1 to stealth checks
Pharasma - DEATH - ?
Sarenrae - FLAMES - Weapons gain the magic trait.
Shelyn - LOVE - +1 to charisma tests.
Blessing of the Gods - No effect
Torag - STEELE - +1 to combat checks using a weapon
I'd go with combining your idea with Thrawn's. You have a weather representation for every blessing in the blessing deck and can still recharge the blessing you use on your turn if it coincide with the one on the blessing deck.
So let's say the Blessing of the Gods could be a full moon to make it fit perfectly for it's effect when encountering a werewolf. Erastil could be a clear sunny day where hunters are favored for the perfect projectile trajectory when using ranged weapons. I'll leave the rest to your imaginations!
Well, that's one amazing idea! I'd definitely would want to play a game like that. We have rain or shine or etc. Now this gives me a lot of ideas!
I have actually been thinking along these lines too. The tact I was taking is that the blessings themselves can have events associated with them based on the god. Since a good portion of blessings are blessings of the gods, it limits the frequency.
Abador - COMMERCE - Add +1 to checks to acquire items.
Clistria - VENGEANCE - +1 on combat checks, but +1 on all damage inflicted by monsters.
Desna - TRAVEL - Each hero may change locations immediately, paying any costs for exiting or entering a location if needed.
Erastil - HUNTING - +1 to defeat monsters with the animal trait
Gorum - BATTLE - +2 to combat checks using a weapon, but +2 damage from human or goblin monsters that go undefeated.
Iomedae - RIGHTEOUSNESS - +2 on combat checks vs undead
Irori - HEALING - Recharge 1 random card from your discard pile
Lamashtu - MONSTER - Immediately summon and combat the top card from the monster deck
Norgorber - THIEVERY - +1 to stealth checks
Pharasma - DEATH - ?
Sarenrae - FLAMES - Weapons gain the magic trait.
Shelyn - LOVE - +1 to charisma tests.
Blessing of the Gods - No effect
Torag - STEELE - +1 to combat checks using a weapon
This is a really cool idea, and I think that I will have to try it out in my next single play, and see if one of my groups wants to give it a try. The only thing that I do not like about it is that most of these are helpful. I think that there should be more detrimental effects. I do not think that the game is too easy, but I think that a little more of a challenge would be fun in some cases.
It does make it a little more complicated to track everything that might be happening, but I think that after a while it would become second nature.
That being said, I do like the idea of increasing the double die of the blessing, but what exactly does that affect? Would that just make everything easier, or would there be effects that make the game a little harder?
I am going to think on this a little more and try to come up with a fun and easy way to make the Blessings deck a little more interesting for my group. I know that I have said this in other posts, but I am going to try a lot of house rules with my group once we catch all the way up with the Adventures that are out and re-roll new characters. I might do a little write up of the experience as well. I think I will. Plan...
Right, I know what you were saying about the +2 static. I knew it was not double the dice, because that would be just too good.
I think that if you make the check to acquire then it becomes too easy for characters with the Divine trait. If you must try the non-Divine based check, then it really just helps the characters that have better stats already.
For these reasons, I think that you might need to have a separate little event for each Blessing. It will be more difficult to manage, but I think that it will give a little better experience.
Another thing to factor in - If you're quite a few secnarios in, with 1 or 2 characters, then the Blessings deck might be mostly Blessings of the gods, but if you're playing Brigandoom with 6 characters, almost all of the blessings of the gods will be in player decks.
Another thing to factor in - If you're quite a few secnarios in, with 1 or 2 characters, then the Blessings deck might be mostly Blessings of the gods, but if you're playing Brigandoom with 6 characters, almost all of the blessings of the gods will be in player decks.
This is very true. I think that you might need to do something for Blessing of the Gods. It can be roll a die, on X do Y, kind of thing, but I do not think that Blessing of the Gods should be a no effect, necessarily. It is a little like normal adventuring conditions. I think that I will experiment with that. I think that other blessings might come up enough to warrant Blessing of the Gods having a no effect. I think experimenting will help with this.
Do we have a breakdown of the numbers of the blessings? I could go count tonight, but does anyone have numbers? 5 of the ones from later Adventures, that much I know.