RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Since OP launches this week (yay!) I've been pondering some overall strategies that might apply to this style of play. I've also been trying out the OP deck building rules using my class decks from Gen Con and my Runelords set. These are just some thoughts I've been having regarding things like box setup and non-scenario specific strategies. These ideas are a little bit "ruthless" instead of fun and about maximizing your ability to improve your deck over time.
Banishing: This can be super harsh in OP. In a normal game you can banish a card and generally replace it with stuff your group has found during the scenario. In OP, you really want to have something newly acquired to banish. If you banish an actual card from your deck, you've basically stolen one of your own card upgrades, as the banished card is always replaced with a basic B card. Make sure you've found some junk to banish or are banishing a basic B card anyway. This also makes non-Basic, non-B cards that banish themselves kind of not worth it to use. You're throwing away an entire scenario upgrade for a one-shot effect so it had better be amazing.
Promo cards: We are allowed to put up to 12 promo cards in the box. In a normal game promos tend be pretty good to great - who doesn't love getting Poog? But in OP these cards all count as set 0, which means they are terrible for upgrades. Every promo card you put in the box reduces your chance of getting a card with a set number by diluting the stack. Is the chance of getting these cards during use in the scenario really worth the chance that you could have gotten better deck upgrades?
A similar argument could be made about including the character add-on deck with less than 5 players. You're just adding a bunch more set 0 cards in to dilute your treasure. In normal play there are some great cards worth getting in the promos and add-on, but this stuff is often deck building dead weight in OP.
Personally I doubt that I'll be adapting my box to suit these strategies, I care more about fun than efficiency. But I do wonder if I'll need to replay scenario just for some upgrades to be able to handle later adventures. One card per scenario seems super tough, compared to normal play where I've often purged my deck of Basics before finishing the intro adventure. I'm sure once we see the scenarios people will figure out which ones are the best to farm for certain upgrades.
In my Runelords experiments I've already hit several times where I'd rather have kept a great card form the main set rather than the "equivalent" class deck card.
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While Promos count as deck 0, I'm not sure if later (arriving) promos will be so bad. Plus some promos aren't boons, they're banes or support. I wouldn't be so worried.
As far as the character add-on deck, while I understand not adding that in if you have a small crowd, I'm probably going to leave it in just-in-case of more people. If you're playing solo or with a fixed group, I can understand not adding the add-on deck.
I care more about fun and making sure the people that show up have fun.
(That being said, I kinda disagree with the idea of doing OP solo. It is organized play and part of that has always been having the GM sign off on the chronicle sheet. Like a check-and-balances thing. And even if I become a VO, I'd be hard-pressed to do anything solo and sign off on my own scenarios. I might be tempted to do run-throughs with the brand new scenario with a solo party to get the feel of it before I run it for others.)
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Theryon, I would completely agree with you on the OP side of things. I wouldn't give myself credit if I was playing solo, or even if it's just my wife and I playing a scenario. If I was playing at home or a game store with some other PFS friends, then I'd be more likely to give scenario credit out for something like that. It just feels wrong even thinking about just giving myself credit for something by myself and defeats the point of Organized Play.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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I agree it is odd to think of doing solo OP. PFS can't allow it due to needing a normal GM/player group, but the card game can reasonably be played alone or in a pair, etc. Personally my schedule is oddball enough that I'd have a tough time going to any sort of regular game. I guess there is a nagging concern about reporting on the honor system, but if you're cheating at a solitaire game you have deeper problems.
So I fully intend to buy the scenarios as they come out and play through them with my girlfriend.
If you play solo you are only allowed to cronical one character. That single character will be the one you take to other organised play events if you only have occasional access to them.
Also completing adventures sometimes gives you other rewards such as allowing you to play the swashbuckler using the rogue deck.
If you play solo you are only allowed to cronical one character. That single character will be the one you take to other organised play events if you only have occasional access to them.
Also completing adventures sometimes gives you other rewards such as allowing you to play the swashbuckler using the rogue deck.
You can chronicle more than one character but you can only play with one chronicled character at a time. i.e. You can run Lem solo in a 1-character game or with other characters that cannot be registered (but must still use class decks and be otherwise "legal" builds). You can then replay and run Kyra solo, with the same restrictions. But you cannot run Lem & Kyra together if both of them are registered characters.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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I can also say that early upgrades aren't very exciting, at least to me. Slowly trading out basic B cards for other B cards and the occasional 1 isn't that great, especially as there really aren't the "standout" B/1 cards in the class decks. From what I've seen there's nothing like the Deathbane Light Crossbow or Poog. It's especially disheartening to have pulled, say, Augury as treasure then realize I can't use the Runelords B Augury to pick up the cleric deck Augury since it's a 1.
That having been said things pick way up once you start being able to grab 2s. Those feel like real upgrades and not just slight sideways shifts.
I'm pretty sure the Deathbane Crossbow is in the Bard deck.... :P
Yep, and in all those decks it's a set 1 or 2 card, which means it's harder to get at than the base set card from Runelords.
Kinda harder and kinda not harder. In my current RotR game, Len hasn't been able to acquire it because it just hasn't shown up in any of the locations. In OP, add long as we acquire any weapon of the appropriate level, Lem may take his desired weapon. It makes the warhammers we've been passing on more appealing. You'll likely pick it up pretty soon after starting 2.