Rise of the Rune Lords Base Set

[FatBadger]

Hi all

I bought RotRL a number of years ago, with a view to starting a weekly game night with Mrs Badger. But then fate conspired to stop us ever really having a proper look at the game. Now we have the chance to start over and for the last couple of days I’ve been wrapping my brain around the rule book and watching some helpful videos on YouTube, to try and make sure that our first game runs smoothly. During this process I have found myself with one or two questions and I was hoping to pick your brains. :)

1/. When you advance the blessings pile at the start of your turn. Is that purely a timer? Or does the face of the blessing turned over have an actual bearing on the game.

2/ I noticed that while all my pc’s have Token, Character and Role cards, Lem has no Role card. If I understand correctly, I don’t need Role cards for a long time yet, but still. Does Lem not have a Role card due to some rule I have yet to discover? Or have we managed to lose that card in the intervening years between box openings. (It’s all been well taken care of over that time, so I’d be a little surprised.)

3/ I very much like the idea of adding to the games atmosphere by using Pawns and would like particularly to have those for the starting NPCs and enemies we’ll encounter. But various threads here have links leading to products that seem no longer in print. (Unless I’m misreading this.) The NPC codex seems to be the thing I need as far as I can see. Can I still buy this or have I missed the boat.

Many thanks for any advice you can offer folks
Badger

[foxoftheasterisk]

1. The blessing deck is mostly just a timer. However, there are some effects that care what blessing is on top of the discard. Blessing of the Gods is a big one, as well as the other blessings if the top card matches. Also, it's used as an indicator for certain time-based mechanics, like werewolves.
(Note: in the new Core Set, this changes and each blessing has a unique effect when it is on top of the discards. But that probably doesn't matter to you.)

2. All characters should have a matching role card. So either you lost it, or it was missing from manufacturing.

On your last question I'm afraid I can't help, although I will note that the pawns are mostly intended for use with the Pathfinder RPG. You probably could figure out a way to use them with the ACG, but I'm not sure it would improve the experience. (Excepting player character pawns, which are actually a major improvement over character cards.)

I hope this helps :)

[Jenceslav]

Also, there are character sheets available for RotR (and most other) characters on this website, so technically, you don't need the role card at all. Bonus points: most errata are covered in the character sheets.
I usually use only the sheets and both character card and role card remain in the box (character token is used, of course, because I don't have any miniatures or standees for my S&S characters)

[FatBadger]

Thanks for the speedy replies. :)

Badger