Pirate Rob |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
As an experiment, I decided to try running the first Wrath OP scenario as a play-by-post here on the Paizo Forums.
Our brave heroes:
Pirate Rob as Merisiel
Hawkmoon as Valeros
Keith Richmond as Agna.
Will they survive the horrible demons that await them? Will they figure out how to play this game efficiently over pbp?
Find out below.
Please leave thoughts/comments/suggestions in this thread rather than posting in there.
Are we crazy, is this awesome, let us know.
Pirate Rob |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
We'll see how nuts this drives me. Turns out managing the box and posting all the info is actually a lot of work.
I wanted to do this first experimental run with just 3 players, seems to be going well so far, other than Merisiel getting kicked in the teeth.
If we do it again I'll almost certainty open it up to new people etc. There's of course nothing to stop you from running your own :)
Keith Richmond Pathfinder ACG Developer |
Hooloovoo |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Are we crazy, is this awesome, let us know.
My answers are 'yes' and 'yes,' respectively.
Watching the early posts in this thread gives me a much better feeling for exactly what the Obsidian gang have to work through in their coding and UI design process for the video game adaptation of PACG. Having a constantly updated game state on display in the thread is a lot of work, but really gives a good feel for what's going on and, like the video game, will allow for more exact strategic decisions down the road (by keeping exact track of counts for each type of card in a location deck, etc.)
I will certainly be checking in on these adventures as they develop!
Tanis O'Connor Adventure Card Game Designer |
Keith Richmond Pathfinder ACG Developer |
Pirate Rob |
Hey, does that mean you get to report this game and get a virtual Chronicle Sheet (win or lose)?
(In addition, I was also thinking about something similar; but with the GM separate from the players, acting as a referee/card distributor so that other players don't accidentally look at stuff.)
That's the plan. We're playing Organized Play.
Hawkmoon269 |
I'm surprised it has gone this fast. I don't think it necessarily has to. But it is nice that it has.
What might work really well for PACG PbP is some scheduled chunks of time. Not so much that you have to be glued to your computer during those times, but that you'll be able to check in and make a few posts during that time frame. Maybe advertise it as "Monday afternoons" or something. Then if everyone could make 10 posts on Monday afternoon, I think you'd progress well enough.
Pirate Rob |
Poking my nose in for a few minutes between things:
FWBard: That's how I've been playing/running it, which is why I was surprised by Keith's comment. Figured I could have been teaching people to do things wrong for almost a year now. (Another advantage of this is we've got lots/different eyes to help us catch potential issues)
As I said though, there's a lot of moving parts, I'm surprised we haven't been messing more stuff up, especially as I get tired of typing up card texts and look for more ways to abbreviate them. (Sometimes the language is very specific for a reason)
Happy to hear peanut gallery comments here.
As a note one of the things I've found most helpful is when the other players telegraph their intent. Lets me pop up their card early in a spoiler, so we don't have to go back and forth and wait for an extra transaction.
Of course it means I see things a little early sometimes, but so far it hasn't been an issue.
Keith Richmond Pathfinder ACG Developer |
Phillip Goettsch |
Looks like a really intensive copy paste setup, but I'm sure it would be a blast.
I have one recommendation that you may have already incorporated to make things a bit easier to read. I noticed that you were including card text on some posts; putting that text in a quote would certainly highlight it as card text. Good use of OOC for thoughts on tactics and such.
This really has me thinking about putting together a group.
Keith Richmond Pathfinder ACG Developer |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'll be starting up the next scenario (1-1B Instant Inquisition) soon, "DMing" it for Hawkmoon, isaic16, and zeroth_hour. Unfortunately, deadlines loomed last night and it's a ton of work to do the initial setup / post, so I didn't quite manage it last night, but I have confidence I can get it started at some point today.
isaic16 |
Really excited for this!
I've got my character choices down to two, but I'm having an issue in that the card list only shows one copy of each card, so I'm not sure what duplicates are available (ie does the Cleric have 2 cures in the base set, or just 1, I can't remember). I'm between Heggal and Meliski for my character.
zeroth_hour |
Cleric Class Deck has 3 Cures (B). Bard CD has 2 Cures (B and 1).
I have an alternate character planned in case you want to play a Cleric. (most of my current characters are clerics). Like I said, I play Clerics a lot in OP already since when I play in Cons I have to support a lot of different groups.
zeroth_hour |
isaic16, if you pick Meliski, I'm definitely picking Arabundi (since he gets really good healing but it comes online later). If you pick Heggal, I'd probably pick Merisiel (S&S) instead (intending to go into Shadow, since Shadow Merisiel gets auto-Knowledge successes and also is immune to before you act/after you act damage).
isaic16 |
Thanks! I think I'm leaning Heggal, since I'm worried about Meliski's ability to hold his own in combat (Has anyone here played Meliski? How did you fight with him?). Also, I mostly play 6-character groups, any recommendations about strategy changes in smaller games (obviously I can use blessings and allies to help others more, but anything else I need to know?)
Dave Riley |
In no way do I want to dissuade you from secret-best-character Merisiel, but do note that there's a bunch of "Before you act, discard the top card of your deck," effects that dilute the efficacy of that power. D:
Then again, there's plenty of Pitborn Rogues and Minotaurs causing pains in our patoot, so who knows. Given it's on a role, have to see what AP4-6 will be.
Keith Richmond Pathfinder ACG Developer |
Okay, scenario post is up. When you're ready, go ahead and post your character and where you'd like to start.
I expect today to be slow, as folks figure out their characters and/or decks. Once we get the beginning worked out, I hope to get through a couple rounds a day, so we wrap up by the 26th. It's a good goal anyways. :)
zeroth_hour |
My group had a Meliski; we had a scout tailing him telling him that places were safe to go. Otherwise, he would have to wait a lot of times for spells to come into his hand, since he only has 1 weapon, and he can't wield most of the Bard weapons. He can also encounter the bottom of a deck, so the best pair is a scout that can look at the top and the bottom :) the other best pair is someone like Valeros that can add to your combat check.
It's worse in WotR since his best Attack spells, Lightning Bolt and Poison Blast, has a lot of things immune to it.
That being said, the reroll is super duper and it has saved us more than once. If you use it enough times, you may not have to explore because your hand would be depleted anyway :)
In a 3 player game, you don't have to rush. You also shouldn't rush because you have less support.
isaic16 |
My group had a Meliski; we had a scout tailing him telling him that places were safe to go. Otherwise, he would have to wait a lot of times for spells to come into his hand, since he only has 1 weapon, and he can't wield most of the Bard weapons. He can also encounter the bottom of a deck, so the best pair is a scout that can look at the top and the bottom :) the other best pair is someone like Valeros that can add to your combat check.
I imagine he'd also be good with RotR Seelah, since if she ever scouts a really good boon and has to send it to the bottom, he can swoop in and snatch it.
elcoderdude |
A friend played Meliski in our successful Season of the Shackles campaign.
In deck 1 my Arabundi would give him a Melee weapon I didn't want.
In later decks, Meliski exclusively used the d8 + 2 weapon, so along with his +2 Strength, he was rolling 2d8 + 4 + d4 (from Arabundi). With his 2-dice reroll, and eventually his ability to bury a card to succeed any check failed by 2, he handled basic fights, with a blessing for the harder ones.
He lost a few fights, but in general held up surprisingly well.
First World Bard |
A friend played Meliski in our successful Season of the Shackles campaign.
In deck 1 my Arabundi would give him a Melee weapon I didn't want.
In later decks, Meliski exclusively used the d8 + 2 weapon, so along with his +2 Strength, he was rolling 2d8 + 4 + d4 (from Arabundi). With his 2-dice reroll, and eventually his ability to bury a card to succeed any check failed by 2, he handled basic fights, with a blessing for the harder ones.
He lost a few fights, but in general held up surprisingly well.
Having *also* played a Meliski with elcoderdude's Arabundi, I will say that the repeated loan of a melee weapon was very appreciated in Deck 1. Adventures in which we found a Boarding Pike were especially fortuitous.
Iammars |
Geez. Nice job on that win guys.
Hopefully I'll be in the position soon to GM a game. I need to finish copying rules text so that I have access to it all on the go. I had trouble with the time commitment of RPG PbP, but for a couple days I think I can do an ACG one.
Keith Richmond Pathfinder ACG Developer |
Iammars |
Yeah, I was really worried for them on that, but they pulled it off.
Hopefully the two runs will inspire others to pick up the torch :)
I'm very close to being able to run an entire game in Excel - I just need to finish getting the rest of the AD1 cards in Excel. Should make it a lot easier to GM. The problem is getting the time to do that.