Hey guys! I recently bought the S&S set, and my friends and I are loving it!
But we are having trouble understanding some of the basic rules properly.
1) When can you actually help out your companions? Do you need to be at the same location? Also, what kind of card can you use to help your companions? We are aware that you cannot use the same card type.
2) On one of the first scenarios (I think it was the third one, where everyone in the party had to summon and fight a pirate), can you attempt to close the location, where you fighting the pirate, even if he was summoned by another player drawing the bosscard?
3) What cards can we keep after a finished a scenario? Only our deck cards + the reward for finishing the scenario?
4) lastly, does one roll for the plunder on our ship at the start of a scenario, or does that only occur when you aquire a new ship (during a scenario)?
We are so sorry if these questions seems very basic, or even have obvious answers.
Welcome to PACG.
1) When can you actually help out your companions? Do you need to be at the same location? Also, what kind of card can you use to help your companions? We are aware that you cannot use the same card type.
The cards will tell you who they can be played for.
For instance, Aid (Spell) says "Discard this card to add 1d6 to any check." That is literally any check. Your check, your friend's check, any check at all.
Lookout (Ally) says "Reveal this card to add 1d6 to any Perception check." So that can help any perception check. Your perception check, your friend's perception check, it doesn't matter, as long as it is "any perception check."
Carver (Ally) says "Discard this card to add 1d8 to your Craft check." So you can only play that to help yourself, since it has to be your Craft check.
Some cards might say "another character at your location" which means it can help anyone at the same location as you, but not you.
Some cards might say "a character at your location" which means it can help you (you are a character at your location after all) or anyone else at your location.
Some cards might say "a character at another location" which means any character at any other location except the one you are at. (Which by definition means not you.)
Let the cards be your guide. The rules are simply that, during any step of an encounter or a check, each player can play 1 card of each type. And that only 1 card can be played to "determine which skill you are using." That means, for a Combat check for example, you can only play 1 card that says "For your combat check..." And you can't play a card that succeeds, fails, defeats, or evades something for another player. (i.e. you can't play Masterwork Tools to defeat a barrier that someone else encounters."
I made this guide for RotR, I'm working on an update for S&S, but it should still generally apply. (Just ignore the part about only being able to attempt a recharge check if you have the skill.)
2) On one of the first scenarios (I think it was the third one, where everyone in the party had to summon and fight a pirate), can you attempt to close the location, where you fighting the pirate, even if he was summoned by another player drawing the bosscard?
No. Notice the summoned henchmen say "the location this henchman came from." If they are summoned henchmen, they didn't come from a location. They came from the box. Plus this:
If the summoned card is a villain or henchman, defeating it does not allow you to win the scenario or close a location deck—ignore any such text on those cards. Cards that you summon are not part of any location deck.
3) What cards can we keep after a finished a scenario? Only our deck cards + the reward for finishing the scenario?
You have to rebuild your decks back the the requirements on your deck list. You can use any cards in your hand, deck, discard pile or buried, plus any you get as a reward. You can trade with other players. If, as a group, you don't have enough of a certain card type for everyone to rebuild, you can get a Basic card from the box. See "Between Games" on page 19.
4) lastly, does one roll for the plunder on our ship at the start of a scenario, or does that only occur when you aquire a new ship (during a scenario)?
Roll for it. Stashing plunder means rolling for it and putting it under your ship.
After you place your ship, stash 1 plunder card (see Plunder Cards on page 18), placing it facedown under the ship.
When you stash a plunder card, roll 1d6 on the table below, draw 1 card of the corresponding type from the box without looking at the card, and unless otherwise instructed, put the plunder card facedown under your ship.
We are so sorry if these questions seems very basic, or even have obvious answers.
No need to be sorry. There are no stupid questions, only people that play PACG wrong because they wouldn't ask questions. Good luck on your adventure.
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To answer a question that you may now be asking: Hawkmoon is a rules guru, and is fantastically helpful to folks on these boards. I have never seen him answer a rules question incorrectly (and certainly is correct on all of the above), but rarely his interpretations of how certain combinations of cards interact may get over-ridden by the Powers That Be.
Like twice in 8 million posts ;)
(exaggeration, but his percentage correct is impressive)
Thank you very much the detailed reply Hawkmoon! My friends and I now feel more confident to try the game out again!
Hawkmoon's got it right, as always. There's just one thing I'd like to clarify:
1) When can you actually help out your companions? Do you need to be at the same location? Also, what kind of card can you use to help your companions? We are aware that you cannot use the same card type.
You can use the same card type as your friend, actually. For example, you could play a blessing on your combat check, and another friend could add their own blessing, or you can play the Black Spot spell to help a friend making a combat check with their own spell. The rule is any given player can't double up on a card type: they all have to be from different characters. So you can play a blessing and use Black Spot to help someone out, but you can't play 2 blessings or 2 Black Spots.