| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
For anyone interested, Save Against Fear is next month in Harrisburg, PA. I know a few us (me included) are planning on attending. Theryon Stormrune is running PACG Card Guild for pretty much the whole weekend. And Saturday night you can take part in the SPECIAL RPG + ACG Scenario: The Cosmic Captive.
I'll be there all day Saturday (couldn't miss out on the special!). If you are in the area or can make plans to be, come by and play a game or two (or twenty or whatever) with us. I plan to be there all day Saturday personally.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Protip: If you didn't get a chance to be in the Cosmic Captive, it's a real hoot.
|
I'm going to see if I can muster early for the Special.
Please remember that for the Special, there are two tier ranges: 1-3 and 4-6. Any character that has played through a season is ineligible as they would be Tier 7. Any character that has played through the Special at Gen Con (or other cons) also gained a tier.
I'd recommend bringing at least two chars, one in each of the two ranges. Pregens are available to be used according to pregen rules.
Thanks!
Also, I'm bringing RotR, S&S and WotR sets as well as a Goblified RotR box so all seasons will be available to be played.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Man, was this fun. Calthaer and I went up for the day yesterday (Saturday). We played PACG most of the day, from 9 a.m. to midnight. There were breaks for lunch and dinner and we got to check out some of the rest of the goings on, but it was just awesome.
The Cosmic Captive special was awesome. One of, if not they most fun adventures I've ever played. The design itself was fantastic, but the fact we got to enjoy it with 9 other people (2 tables of 4, plus to "game masters" running each table) definitely amplified the fun.) There were some hilarious moments, like when Heggal made it rain allies. Or when Ak told us how awesome he was at closing locations that had only one card, then proceeded to fail to close such a location 3 times in a row. (Though, the phrase "It's Ak o'clock" upon seeing a 1 card location was one of the best catchphrases ever uttered.)
We got to play with a couple of guys from Pittsburgh, including Kolasi (or at least I'm reasonably sure it was Kolasi based on our conversation.) And a bunch of other awesome people, mostly from the Maryland/D.C./Pennsylvania area (I mostly got real world names and so won't share in case they want some anonymity). But it was great.
Some of us made a pact to save these same characters for a future special, hoping to get to use them for 3 more years. And I'm really looking forward to that opportunity.
If you even remotely like PACG and ever have a chance to play The Cosmic Captive, do so. You won't regret it.
And super big thanks to all those people that organized the convention and ran it and the pathfinder society room. And especially to Theryon Storm and Cartmanbeck for running the card game tables during the special.
|
Yeah, the Cosmic Captive / Interactive Special was very cool. I think running it with the number of card players we had was great. I could see maybe having another table or two of four, but not that much more. Not sure how the experience was at the RPG tables. But we had a blast. I'm not really sure what we're allowed to say about it; I get the impression it's kind of a secret or something and we're not supposed to talk about it? But that was never really stated. Even the reward you get for doing it; is that a secret? It is kind of a good incentive for card game players.
Many thanks to Theryon Stormrune and Cartmanbeck for making this such a rocking event!
I'm also hoping that there will be another event like this at some point. I'll keep my Heggal locked-and-loaded for it.
|
I'm glad you guys had a good time! :)
I didn't play it at this con (the PFS folks up here run a little charity convention which is where I played the ACG side), but I'd like to comment on the Special:
The Cosmic Captive (ACG side) was OK. The Scenarios were decent, but it needed more interaction with the group at large. It felt like every other time we were playing the card game in a room with folks playing the RPG. Notably:
I'm also not sure why we weren't being affected by the elemental manifestations in some way like the RPG tables, which would have at least added to the feeling that we're all in this together.
Otherwise we were ahead of the group on completing scenarios, so which paths were open and which weren't didn't affect us. Hopefully the RPG folks found our successes useful.
Our particular run was brought to a stop when almost everyone at the ACG tables got distracted by a puzzle and wandered over to the HQ desk to get clarifications. At one point it was me at my table and a friend at her table alternately sitting there talking and trying to get folks to at least come back and play their turns. Due to that none of our tables actually finished the Adventure, so we didn't get a reward. :(
It was still fun to try and I hope they try again next year, but I wouldn't prioritize the ACG version of a Special over the RPG version if you play both.
|
I think a lot of our fun at SAFe was due to everyone at both tables fully embracing the experience. We got into a pattern where some people were good at acquiring boons (Alahazra, Heggal, Ramexes, Sajan thanks to a PaizoCon boon) and some people were more into picking up the straggler locations (Ak and Raheli). I didn't play with Ezren long enough to see his strategy, and I forget who the last character was. Our table split the puzzle so that half were working on the puzzle (mostly Hawkmoon), and half were focused on the scenario. We won in the nick of time!
The rest of the con was great too! I played a lot of Grazzle, Raheli, REDACTED the summoner, and even got to try out Drelm from Mummy. Drelm seems to work okay with the cleric class deck, and Grazzle is best goblin.
There was some talk that one thing that made the special works so well for us was how much we all knew each other. Everyone knew at least one other person with Eliandra knowing I think 7 of the other people playing. And we all seemed to have personalities that really meshed well.
The fact we knew each other or meshed so well helped here too. When we got jumped, we knew the other table just as well. Someone mentioned playing at GenCon and not knowing anyone else at the tables they moved to.
Humorously, Kolasi got "jumped" the first 4 times. He came to our table, went back to his table, came back to ours, and went back to his. And I think I was the only one who didn't move at all.
At our table, I took the brunt of the puzzle. Sajan wasn't built for closing the locations in the final setup, except maybe the one where you had to acquire a weapon. So I just camped out there, told people to use my blessings and smack me on my turn. I'd explore once, end my turn, then go back to the puzzle. We (as in they) actually finished the scenario before I finished the puzzled by a minute or two.
Best part was, our puzzle was what pushed the room as a whole over the success point.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Humorous moments from the special (spoilered for your protection):
We also ran into Mayor Kendra Deverin, apparently having come to find the Shopkeeper's Daughter and take her home.
Ally: Thank the gods you saved me fellow Pathfinder.
Ramexes: You are welcome. I'm going to need your entrails now.
Ally: My what? (Sound of knife going into stomach.)
Just as nice was when Raheli tried to throw an ally with her hair and then remembered it only worked with items. I wonder what that ally was thinking.
1 card in location.
Ak explores.
Ak rolls badly.
Ak recharges his whole hand to add to the result and succeed.
Location is empty.
Ak closes location by taking combat damage on empty hand.
Except, after Ak jumped next to me, he proceeded to fail at doing this about 4 turns in a row. At one point Raheli said she'd show him how it was done, then failed at closing 2 turns in a row.
We surmised the laws of physics applied at my table but not Ak's.
Combined they probably closed at least half of the locations, which will be recorded in the history of the Pathfinder Society I'm sure. But their hilariously timed cold streak will be the stuff of legends.
|
|
First, it's an asteroid ...
I want to thank everyone that participated in this weekend's events whether on the Pathfinder Society RPG or ACG side. It was a success and we cleared more sessions that were anticipated. (Of course that was due to the ACG side!!! Of the 42-46 sessions run, 28-32 sessions were ACG. There's still some mixup with reporting the special.) Thanks to Joe, our VL out of the Harrisburg area, who did all of the reporting and Bobby, our VC, that helps the Bodhana Group that organizes this charity event. There are vendors and stores that set up stands and support this. Save Against Fear is a success because of all the people that come out and help support the cause.
We had sessions running from late Friday morning until the end of each day. The Special (#8-00 Cosmic Captive) was run Saturday night from 7pm until after midnight. We had two full tables of 4 (the table limit). (Not sure how many RPG tables we had ... I think 4.) Thanks to Adam and Mike for coming out from Pittsburgh area. Hawkmoon and Calthaer from Delaware. Eliandra, Randy, Heather and Win from Maryland. And cartmanbeck who helped run the special with me. (And an extra thank you to Eliandra and cartmanbeck for all their extra help as well!)
We got to show off our new MM boxes to a few people (which actually triggered some sales!) so that was good. Mostly Season of the Runelords was being played with a sprinkling of Season of the Goblin. The warpriest and summoner class decks were broken out and used. (We need some character sheets but I'll ask elsewhere for that.) I think a fun time was had by most.
Some stuff came up during the special but I'll report that back through my VO channels.
On a side note, I was the puzzle person when we played at Gen Con.
|
|
Humorously, Kolasi got "jumped" the first 4 times. He came to our table, went back to his table, came back to ours, and went back to his. And I think I was the only one who didn't move at all.
First four times? We had two jumps total. I moved both times. (Oddly enough, both times I ended up in the box monkey position. :)
As far as allies go, we had neither good Charisma/Diplomacy nor +2d6 boons. What we were good at is rolling poorly enough to wipe out all the boons after one combat at a location. :(
Most of the ACG players were our Tuesday night group, so we knew each other very well. Lots of good-natured griping.
I agree that it felt more like we were helping the RPG side then they were helping us. We even finished the first 3 (I think) scenarios of it quickly enough that we had to wait for the RPG side to catch up before we could start the collective end. The instructions actually say you can start the other path from the one you chose, which one table did, but our table decided to just get things set up for the next part and do some stretching to be physically ready.
|
|
** spoiler omitted **
|
|
Heggal was a healing paragon during this scenario...of course, the boon-composition helped. You don't know what you got 'til it's gone, I guess - but the other table needed him more.
I was a bit surprised not to see more healing going around. I know scouting powers are super-useful, but IMO healing is the 2nd most powerful part of the game. If you know you have a steady stream of healing, even the character who finds it most difficult to cycle their deck can discard to draw up their most useful cards, use the discard powers on weapons rather than drawing on the more-versatile blessings, etc.
This was a heck out of a lot of fun! Thank you Theryon Stormrune and Cartmanbeck. Thank you Hawkmoon, Calthaer and Eliandra. It was great to meet everyone and put a name and a face to the posts. Thanks for being so welcoming and we're looking forward to playing with you guys again hopefully!
As the other Monk, Athnul, at the tables, I was always ready for a fight so long as I had a card in hand to recharge.
Thanks to Bodhana Group for organizing things. It gave me a few ideas for some work that could be done here in the Pittsburgh area.
Heggal was a healing paragon...
Your healing will not be forgotten but always missed!
Cheers!
|
|
I was a bit surprised not to see more healing going around. I know scouting powers are super-useful, but IMO healing is the 2nd most powerful part of the game. If you know you have a steady stream of healing, even the character who finds it most difficult to cycle their deck can discard to draw up their most useful cards, use the discard powers on weapons rather than drawing on the more-versatile blessings, etc.
I actually brought two characters to Gen Con for the special. One that had universal adaptability (Varril) with a sprinkling of healing and the other, Sajan, the destroyer of monsters. I waited until I saw the make-up of the party to decide which. I agree with you, Calthaer, that healing is a powerful part of the game. If your powers don't have the ability to recharge cards and cycle your deck without bleeding too many cards, healing is the most important.
I'd love to see everyone (and more) back again next year. I'm keeping my Sajan set aside to reuse on next year's special (assuming there is one, since this was the first one).
Also: I wish there had been card game "boons" to turn in those tokens / chips for.
They had some at Gen Con... which I didn't realize myself when I made my first cash-in. Second and third times, picked up some nice SotRu stuff.
It's a shame those didn't make it to your con.
The true reward is the experience you share...
Though, getting to unlock a character or some special power for a scenario is pretty cool too.
Organized Play Coordinator
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Good news! The PACG side of #8-00 The Cosmic Captive is now the last block of entries listed under the Season of the Runelord.
Thanks to Chris Lambertz for investigating with me and finding the issue!
Coordinators, please go back and report your tables! This is very important, as it gives us metrics on how many people are participating in Guild play!