I bought the Character Add-On Deck for more character options rather than playing with 5 or 6 players. Page 2 of the rulebook says:
If you own the Character Add-On Deck, go ahead and combine that set with the cards in the base set...
Most of the time I will be playing the game with two or maybe three players. I have some concerns about the impact of adding the Character Add-On Deck cards to the Base Set cards.
It will thin out the Adventure Deck cards. If you increase the "B" and "C" cards available in the box, you will be less likely to see the numbered cards from the Adventure Decks, so you will be less likely to face the tougher banes and less likely to find the better boons.
The downside to this is missing out on Character Add-On Deck-specific cards (ones that don't have copies in the Base Set). (Honestly I don't have the game in front of me right now, so I'm not sure if there actually are any unique cards in the Character Add-On Deck, but I wanted to bring this up in case there was.) I suppose you could swap out some duplicate boons/banes for their new counterparts in the Character Add-On Deck on a one-to-one basis if you wanted to keep your ratios the same as in the Base Set.
What are your thoughts on playing with/without the Character Add-On Deck cards when playing with small groups?
|
my friend and I play with the paladin and the barbarian (2 player game)and we haven't had any problems. Also during book three and beyond all basic boons and banes begin to be removed as they come up so it keeps it fresh.
And besides there have been some encounters where we didn't think we could make it through, so if your worried about difficulty I wouldn't it ramps up hard in places but not so much you can't keep up even with more cards.
...if your worried about difficulty I wouldn't it ramps up hard in places but not so much you can't keep up even with more cards.
I'm not so worried that it would be too hard or too easy (if you add both more boons and more banes it should stay balanced), just that we wouldn't see as many of the Adventure Deck-specific cards if we add in extra "basic" cards. For instance, when you get scenario rewards where each character draws a random Weapon from the box, it's a lot less satisfying to get a "B"/"C" Quarterstaff than a "1" Shock Bow +1. Likewise, fighting the same monsters you have seen since Brigandoom! is a lot less interesting than the adventure-specific monsters from your current Adventure Deck.
My wife and I always play with all of the cards from the base and character sets. This doesn't really have a downside in my opinion. There are certainly a number of boons that are not in the base set, which will help you along. I also think the game is designed to be designed to be enjoyed with the base and character sets.
Also, if you are playing any of the character expansion characters, you will most certainly want to use these cards, since they are specifically tailored to those characters. For instance, compare Dog to Night Watch. They are identical, except for the animal and human traits. This helps Lini, obviously.
Again, as Pyris points out, you start removing the basics in HMM, so it isn't that big of a deal. I also think that some of the boons from the base and character sets are better than some in 1 for certain characters, so why not have more of them?
The Character Add-on serves three purposes:
1. To let you play with 5 or 6 players.
2. To let you have 4 new choices of characters.
3. To give you some additional boons and banes, some of which are unique.
If you are going to be any of the 4 characters from that deck (Sajan, Lini, Seelah, or Amiri) definitely add it. There are cards in there that are geared towards their Powers (Amulet or Mighty Fists and Sabertooth Tiger for example).
It also has some unique boons that most people really like. Crown of Charisma and Deathbane Light Crossbow +1 probably being chief among them.
So I'd add it in no matter who or how many characters you were playing.
Deathbane Light Crossbow +1
This. :)
Also handy: Allying Dart +1, Icy Longspear +1, additional copies of Cure, Augury, Spyglass & Masterwork Tools, and ever so slightly improving the odds of a blessing not being a BotG.
It does very slightly dilute the pool, but it is of far more benefit than this very minor drawback.
I think that the two boons that Hawk mentioned are a big reason to add it in. The Deathbane Light Crossbow on its own is worth it, since you can take it all the way to adventure 4 and not feel bad about it at all. Ranzak loves it as well. The extra copy of Masterwork Tools also helps a lot for all of the brutish characters that can't roll a dex check to save their lives.
|
The presence of awesome boons is alone good reason to purchase the character add-on deck. The other big reason is to have the extra characters. The extra couple characters, at least in Runelords, were great (and some of peoples' favorites). I'm sure the same will be said of Skull & Shackles, too - some of the coolest characters will likely be reserved for the add-on to make it extra worthwhile.
The presence of awesome boons is alone good reason to purchase the character add-on deck. The other big reason is to have the extra characters. The extra couple characters, at least in Runelords, were great (and some of peoples' favorites). I'm sure the same will be said of Skull & Shackles, too - some of the coolest characters will likely be reserved for the add-on to make it extra worthwhile.
+1 to that. During the playtest for S&S, my two favorites were the Witch (Feiya) and the Warpriest (now named Oloch), both in the S&S Character Add-on Deck. No idea how they ended up being in the final version, but if even one of them is sort of like what they were in the playtest, they'll make that whole deck worth it.
(I liked Feiya so much, I started a new RotR group of Harsk, Lini, Seelah and S&S Playtest Feiya after the playtest was over.)
|
The presence of awesome boons is alone good reason to purchase the character add-on deck. The other big reason is to have the extra characters. The extra couple characters, at least in Runelords, were great (and some of peoples' favorites). I'm sure the same will be said of Skull & Shackles, too - some of the coolest characters will likely be reserved for the add-on to make it extra worthwhile.+1 to that. During the playtest for S&S, my two favorites were the Witch (Feiya) and the Warpriest (now named Oloch). No idea how they ended up being in the final version, but if even one of them is sort of like what they were in the playtest, they'll make that whole deck worth it.
(I liked Feiya so much, I started a new RotR group of Harsk, Lini, Seelah and S&S Playtest Feiya after the playtest was over.)
I've wired you $100, no specific reason. On a completely separate note, I wouldn't be UNhappy if you lost all your playlist material. Maybe you accidentally misplaced it at the post office. In a durable box. With a label addressed to me.
|
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
|
I've wired you $100, no specific reason. On a completely separate note, I wouldn't be UNhappy if you lost all your playlist material. Maybe you accidentally misplaced it at the post office. In a durable box. With a label addressed to me.
C'mon, it's only 44 days away. I expect to have Skull&Shackles in my hands in a mere 1056 hours or so. Less than 64,000 minutes. But who's counting? Heh. Hrm.