Hey all
Quick Q on adding CDs to a core set box for adventuring with friends.
I may end up playing with a full group of 6 next week and was wondering, if they wanted to all play characters from separate CDs would that seriously effect the game by watering down the other adventure based cards? Is there anything I could do to keep the watering down to a minimum, like adding only certain cards etc?
Also, the weapon Sinderbos says 'if you previously played this weapon during this encounter; add an additional 1d10+1'.
I was wondering how it would be possible to already have used it in an encounter?
Thanks all.
No reason you couldn't just have the players add the cards from the CDs that they actually want to add, rather than throwing in the whole decks.
As to the weapon, some monsters have multiple checks (X then Y) to defeat, so if you used Sinderbos on the first check, you'd get that bonus on the second (or third, or however many there are).
No reason you couldn't just have the players add the cards from the CDs that they actually want to add, rather than throwing in the whole decks.
As to the weapon, some monsters have multiple checks (X then Y) to defeat, so if you used Sinderbos on the first check, you'd get that bonus on the second (or third, or however many there are).
Ah yes! Sorry, I had forgotten about multiple checks to defeat! Thank You!
There are also a few cards that allow rerolling. Such as the parrot or rotgut allies and a few other cards.
As for the class decks, if you're adding more than one CD then I generally would limit the number of AD-B cards you're throwing in there. Maybe only use half or a third of the AD-B cards from each CD, and then for the rest of the AD cards you can add them all in or just the ones you want. I just try to limit the number of AD-B cards from CD's because there are a lot in each CD and it gets repetitive and dilutes the box decks IMO.
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There are also a few cards that allow rerolling. Such as the parrot or rotgut allies and a few other cards.
That rerolling would not trigger the power. When you reroll, you reroll the same dice, there's no opportunity to play additional powers. And yes the Stalker's Crossbow from WotR does manage to add a dice but that's as part of the reroll power itself.
No reason you couldn't just have the players add the cards from the CDs that they actually want to add, rather than throwing in the whole decks.
Obviously it's your game you can do what you want, but to me selecting which cards to add would feel like cheating. I'd compare it to going through and taking the bad cards out of the box. There's meant to be a certain proportion of worthless cards in the pool, and however finely tuned that may or may not be, selecting the cards you like is changing that proportion compared to other people's experience.
One thing I'd say in favour of just adding them all in, with a 6-player party you see a lot more of the boons overall. So compared to, say, a 2-player party adding 2 character decks, you would still see more of the box boons overall. Another question to ask is why you need to see the box cards? A lot of them are just there to support the box characters, which you're not using anyway. You'll still get the loot. It does make the experience a bit samey between boxes but using all non-box characters is the main thing responsible for that.
Anyway, all that said, if you want suggestions for what to do in a way that doesn't feel like cheating even to people like me, here's a couple:
* Decide, based partly on what's in the box, whether each class deck character really needs/wants their character deck cards for the character to function, and leave out the decks that you don't need. For instance if they're a gunslinger in S&S, they're probably well enough supported already.
* If there's still too many for your liking, shuffle all the class deck cards together and randomly exclude a proportion of them such that you're happy with with the box/deck ratio. You could do this separately for each adventure deck number or each character deck (or both), or you could just shuffle them all in one big pile.
There are also a few cards that allow rerolling. Such as the parrot or rotgut allies and a few other cards.That rerolling would not trigger the power. When you reroll, you reroll the same dice, there's no opportunity to play additional powers. And yes the Stalker's Crossbow from WotR does manage to add a dice but that's as part of the reroll power itself.
It *would* help you though with some RotR henchmen/villains, that in fact make you *encounter* them a second (third, etc..) time.
I’d be hesitant to add more than 2-3 CDs to the box. A lot of the box boons are tuned to overcome the unique foibles of that AP, and too many generic boons can therefore make things harder for you. Not every CD character needs their CD to function, so if everyone does pick a different CD character, perhaps see if they really need their CD cards or not.
I was never too sure - is there a particular reason why people in home-play don't just use the OP rules for CD characters? I.e. - you don't mix in the CD boons, but you use them to replace (if desired) the box boons you managed to acquire during the scenario? I mean, if we *accept* that this system in NOT unbalanced for OP - looks to me it should be acceptable enough for homeplay too...
I was never too sure - is there a particular reason why people in home-play don't just use the OP rules for CD characters?
In my case, it was because I had no idea such a rule existed, as I've literally zero experience with organized play.
My 2 CP on this, copied pretty much word for word from the last time someone brought this up...
I played Heggal in Skull & Shackles without mixing in the Cleric deck because there was plenty of stuff in that box that was already ideally suited to him.
When I ran Darago and Wrathack through Wrath of the Righteous, though, I mixed in the Wizard and Ranger decks (in their entirety). I was treating it as a "Suicide Squad"-style adventure -- send evil to fight evil. I liked the idea of these bad guys "cheating" by bringing along extra 2-handed weapons, healing sticks, blessings from strange foreign gods and whatnot.
When it comes to mixing in CDs, I figure it's all or nothing. Cherry-picking the "good stuff" you might want grinds against my sense of fairness and balance for some reason. If you want the truffle, you have to dig through some dirt. 8>)
That said, adding SIX complete CDs would make for some physically unwieldy stacks of cards to shuffle, no? Maybe just see if people feel they need their CD stuff to succeed (a la the oft-cited Gunslinger outside Skull & Shackles), or if they're fine playing the cards in the box with their CD characters' unique mechanics.
As always, though, this falls under the umbrella of "It's your game, do what you like!"
I was never too sure - is there a particular reason why people in home-play don't just use the OP rules for CD characters? I.e. - you don't mix in the CD boons, but you use them to replace (if desired) the box boons you managed to acquire during the scenario? I mean, if we *accept* that this system in NOT unbalanced for OP - looks to me it should be acceptable enough for homeplay too...
Just my 2c, I see these rules as a necessary evil for OP, due to the mixing of parties and boxes, but I would expect them to be less satisfying on the whole. So not something you'd bring in if you didn't need to. It's not a question of balance but a question of enjoyment. There's something satisfying about actually finding the card you want for your deck in a location and succeeding in acquiring it, and conversely in OP rules something disappointing about not being able to keep the things you find. Plus there's the added flexibility to build decks out of the whole pool of cards rather than the narrow range of options available in OP.
All that said I agree that it is another balanced option to solve the problem of diluting the box. Although it's also a bit awkward if 5/6 players are playing character deck characters. Plus it's not really solving this issue either:
A lot of the box boons are tuned to overcome the unique foibles of that AP, and too many generic boons can therefore make things harder for you.
There are also a few cards that allow rerolling. Such as the parrot or rotgut allies and a few other cards.That rerolling would not trigger the power. When you reroll, you reroll the same dice, there's no opportunity to play additional powers. And yes the Stalker's Crossbow from WotR does manage to add a dice but that's as part of the reroll power itself.
Good catch, I see that now with the wording "if you previously played this weapon during this encounter, add an 1d10+1"
I was thinking of what Vic had said in the past that in certain specific wording of cards you do add die, but that does not seem to be the case here since the wording is "if you previously played this weapon."
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The first full PACG adventure path I played was with Vika, Lem, Ezren, & Kyra through Rise of the Runelords. We added their corresponding class decks + the sorcerer deck (our wizard decided there weren't enough spells in the wizard deck alone, or something like that). We never really had a problem with finding cards we wanted in locations, but when I pulled the CD cards out of the box after we finished the AP, I realized that there were tons of boons we'd never even seen throughout the entire AP, several of which I know would have been better than some of the stuff we finished the AP with in our decks.
Also, the box insert that comes with the base set will not hold the full AP + 6 class decks. We ended up buying the Broken Token insert not because we didn't want to use the box insert, but because it was pretty clear we needed more space than it would give us. By the time we finished the AP, there were multiple boon types that had so many cards I couldn't hold all of them comfortably, let alone attempt to shuffle them without dropping them all over the table.
With that in mind, if you want to add cards from the class decks to the game box, I'd recommend you add them in a "smart" way. Do you need to add 15ish more copies of Blessing of the Gods to RotR? Probably not, but if you're in MM, maybe you'd like to add a few, but take some of the other Basic blessings out to keep it balanced (Blessing of the Ancients gets more powerful the more Basic blessings there are in the blessings deck, but the value of BotG goes down). Remember that the more varied types of blessings in the box, the harder it is to match them for recharges. I'd suggest not adding cards from a class deck that are already in the game box, because you will be sick enough of seeing that *insert non-basic non-elite B boon here* by AD6 that you do not need to add another one (I'm looking at you, Token of Remembrance...). Keep in mind that even if you only add the "good stuff" from your class deck, you still may never see it in the game.