This may be the most ultimately pointless thread ever for PACG, but I was curious.
So, the discussion about playmats at GenCon reminded me. I realized recently that I don't put my cards in front of me the way the rulebook describes.
The rulebook (and the UltraPro playmats) have your space organized, from left to to right, Discard Pile, Character Deck, Character Card.
I arrange mine, from left to right, Character Deck, Character Card, Discard Pile.
I'm not sure why I put mine like that, perhaps I like the symmetry, but whatever it is, it is so ingrained in me now that I can't play the way it is shown in the rulebook. I tired using one of the ultra pro mats and it honestly distracted me (obviously I can use the mat without following their card outlines).
Anyone else like me or is it just me? Or are there other orders you are organizing the 3 "piles" in?
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Hawkmoon, I'm the exact opposite.
Last GenCon, my buddy and I picked up the base set and all the extras including the mats. We've gotten so used to playing on the mats that I find it distracting when I'm not using one. The first time I played at a local store, no mats at all. Bothered me. So I started bring my class playmats with me.
Discard deck, Character deck, Class/Role cards. I tend to tuck cards under the side of the mat to bury.
I put the Character Card in between the Discard Pile and the Character Deck. I play two characters at once (and my husband plays two for a total party of four); so to keep things straight, I put the two character decks in the center where they're handy, then I place their character cards, and then the discard piles go to the outside edges of the table. If I have the deck and the discard pile adjacent, then when I have to shuffle the discard, I can easily get it confused with the Character Deck. (Although now that you're making me think about it, that's probably because the two characters have the pile order flipped compared to each other. Hmmm, might have to try changing that.)
I play along the horizontal side of the table, and always solo to this point, and I always keep the character card centered above (from left to right) the discard pile, character deck and then that character's hand.
Buried cards go sideways next to the character card to the left, basically above the discard pile.
I also don't set up the table in general as described in the rule book... I place the scenario card to the far left, with the blessing deck beside it (all of this about 6 inches above the line at the top of the character cards) with the locations lined up one by one next to the blessing deck. Location cards themselves are set up above the physical locations with the character tokens above the location cards where they currently are.
I don't think that this is a pointless topic at all. It really gives some insight into how people play and how they think.
Sooo, for my wife and I, when we play both of us use the same basic setup. We play with our hands revealed the whole time, so we have our hands against the edge of the table, and I place my deck above my hand, and my discard pile to the right of it, fanned out, so that I can see what I do not have in my deck anymore. We play two characters a piece, so we fold our character sheets into fourths and set them in between our two characters' hands. This way everything is centralized and easily accessible.
As far as our locations go, we place them in a line along one of the remaining edges and the box on the other. The middle of the table is really our play area. I think that the way the rulebook has you set everything up your play areas are on the sides, which doesn't work as well for larger groups in my opinion.
I like to play with my character deck, stat card, and discard pile turned so that the long edge is horizontal (in other words, so that I can read the character card). Al are to the left with the deck in the bottom stack, then the stat card above that, then the discard pile above that. Then I play with the hands revealed to the right of this group, oriented with the short edge horizontal so I can read those cards.
This is my preference, single player or multi-player, but it doesn't work as well when you need to use your character sheets, so I am adjusting until I get around to either designing a character sheet that fits my preference or alternatively printing character cards on card stock so that I can actually mark the cards.
For the location cards, mine are all in a row with the deck above them. We use minis for the characters, so they reside on the location card they are on. Locations go in the order they are listed on the scenario card.
I mentioned in the mat thread that I might consider using the mat for multi-player games if I found a lazy susan big enough. So far, I haven't, and honestly haven't looked that hard. Overall I think (although I am not sure) that I would prefer to invest in a more universal mat like the quiver mats, although they are expensive.
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I put the decks wherever I want, usually without thinking, and then Gaby's OCD takes over, and they get put in the right arrangement.
Just wanted to say I am loving the game and hope to be a part of the growing PACG community. Thank you Mike Selinker for creating such an outstanding game!!
With that being said, I organize the piles as the mats show (even without the mat), with the discard far left, then Character deck, then my avatars card.
Just wanted to say I am loving the game and hope to be a part of the growing PACG community. Thank you Mike Selinker for creating such an outstanding game!!
You're welcome!
Here is my layout for playing 6-character solo:
I have the locations 8 across horizontally, with the location decks sitting above them.
The character tokens go right underneath the location cards.
The Blessings deck is off to the side of the play area.
I use a single stack method for each of the characters to reduce clutter on the table.
I keep the discards faceup, but on top of that stack I place the character deck facedown, and on top of the character deck I place the actual drawn hand faceup. So each character just has a single stack representing discards, deck and hand.
When I have to do a discard, I quickly fan to the back of the character deck and place the discard on top of the discard stack. When I have to recharge, I fan through to the character deck and place the recharge at the back of that stack.
When I have to do a heal or otherwise shuffle cards around, I just separate the stacks, shuffle into the appropriate one and recombine them.
When it is that character's turn, I quickly fan out the character hand, usually placing a card I know I want to use on top so that I don't actually forget to use it, which can be an issue when playing 6 characters solo.
I keep the character sheet cards laid horizontally across the table below the character tokens in the order that I want the characters to take their turn. Buried cards go under these as described in the rulebook. I also keep a die as a token counter on whichever character's turn it is, so that I don't forget when multiple characters are acting on a single turn. Moving the die also helps me to remember to advance the Blessings deck every turn.
For me, this method keeps my play area as compact and tidy as possible even though it does require some manual labor by having to fan my stacks.
The only time this single stack method has ever created a problem is when the entire character deck was in the discard pile. At that point, the whole stack was a faceup pile, including the character's hand. That only happened one time to a single character in the entire adventure path and when it happened, I just went to the conventional format until I had a recharge, giving me a natural (facedown) break between stacks again.
I just finished AP6 this weekend (Epic, btw) and this method served me faithfully the entire time.
ymmv
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My buddy insists - for city-based scenarios at least - in trying to put the locations in order from the centre of the city outwards. This has genuinely led to (brief) debates about where one puts a guard tower in relation to a city gate. We are slightly tragic.
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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My layout is not very much like the "official" one in the book. I tend to place the AP, adventure, and scenario cards from left to right, then the locations in the order they appear on the scenario, all in a line. Location decks go below their locations, the blessings deck sits below the scenario and the blessing discard below the adventure. Special cards like Runeforged Weapons live below the AP card. Character tokens go above the location they are at. If a scenario has a special card sit out it usually goes above the scenario card.
My girlfriend and I play with our hands face up on the table. Generally I have my hand displayed, with my draw deck off to the right and the deck discard pile to the right of that. My character card sits to the left above my hand. If I have cards from Emerald Codex, they sit above my hand. My girlfriend reverses that left-right.
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For my player cards, I keep the decks to my right. Deck is on the left, discard on the right, and character card horizontal above them. It's the old M:TG setup I used, but with a stat card instead of life counter. I haven't actually seen one of the mats unfolded, but that might be a nice addition.
For the game decks setup, I've built and modeled a lazy Susan just for use with this game. It has spots around the outside edge to hold the location decks and current characters visiting. Each location also has room to prop the location card upright so it can be easily read at all times. In the center I have a box that the blessings deck and blessings discard are kept on top of. We also place any scenario rewards inside of the box, and open it when we win. Took a while to put together, but it makes it easier for 5-6 people to reach everything.