When playing a boon (for example a weapon attack) do you discard the card into the discard pile or keep it somehow like reloading or recharging? Thank you!!
JOHNATHAN FINFINIS wrote: When playing a boon (for example a weapon attack) do you discard the card into the discard pile or keep it somehow like reloading or recharging? Thank you!! The card itself will always tell you what to do with it.
If it says "Recharge this card to..." then you recharge it. If it says Reload, reload it. If it says "Reveal" (as most weapons do) then all you need to do is show it from your hand, and then it goes right back into your hand and you can continue using it on the next combat.
Thank you so much for your help!!
Another question------how are discards used?
If you fight a monster with an 11 on the card and only roll 3 do I subtract and lose 8 cards from my character's personal deck?
JOHNATHAN FINFINIS wrote: If you fight a monster with an 11 on the card and only roll 3 do I subtract and lose 8 cards from my character's personal deck? Discards are always from hand, unless something specifies otherwise.
So in the case of your example, you would need to discard 8 cards from your hand. If you only had 4 cards in your hand at the time, that's okay. Just discard your entire hand (you don't need to discard extra cards from deck to make up the difference, or anything like that).
This is how Fighters are more resilient than other classes, with a very small hand size (often starting at just 4) they can take several "killing blows" before they actually die. Compare to Wizards who might start with 6 (and end up with 8 or more by late game) cards in hand, where taking that much damage more than once will basically end them. So it's a constant trade-off, having a bigger hand gives you more options during your turn, but also makes you more vulnerable to damage (because you can lose more cards at once, and make it harder to reset your hand at the end of your turn; and not being able to reset your hand by drawing to your hand size means you die)
When do I get cards back from the discards?
A Craft check is a check using the Craft skill. If your character card doesn't have the Craft skill, then you would have to roll 1d4 (the standard die for any "unskilled" checks)
You get cards back from the discards when something tells you to. It may say "shuffle X cards from your discard pile into your deck" or "recharge an ally from your discard pile" or "heal 1 card" or something like that. Also, if you complete one scenario you can pick up your discards and use them to rebuild your deck for the next scenario.
What is "discard to bless"?
What is the difference to deleting a card from the game or putting it in the vault? And what exactly is the vault?
JOHNATHAN FINFINIS wrote: What is "discard to bless"? "Bless" means add an additional die of whatever is the main die you're using to make the check. So if you're doing a Combat check using Melee + 1d8, and your Melee is Strength +2, and your Strength is 1d10, then you would be rolling 1d10+2+1d8. If you "Bless" the check, you're now rolling 2d10+2+1d8 instead (because you get to add an extra 1d10, your Strength/Melee die).
And a combat check is showing a weapon?
If you aqquire a new card and your hand is already full do you put it in your deck and shuffle?
JOHNATHAN FINFINIS wrote: And a combat check is showing a weapon? A Combat check can be a lot of things. Most monsters have a check to defeat of "Combat X" (where X is a number). When you encounter those, you can play any card that says "For your combat check, ...". Those might be weapons, or spells, or even occasionally an item or armor. The card that you play will tell you what to do with it and what skill to use (a weapon might say "For your combat check, reveal to use Strength or Melee...", a spell might say "For your combat check, banish to use Arcane or Divine...", etc).
Most of the questions that you've been asking are answered pretty directly in the rulebook. Have you had a chance to read through it yet, or are you just trying to learn the game by looking at the cards? If you haven't read through the rulebook yet, I'd recommend doing that at least once. There's a lot of terms that are specifically defined there, that should help to figure out the game a lot faster, and make sure that you're playing it correctly.
JOHNATHAN FINFINIS wrote: If you aqquire a new card and your hand is already full do you put it in your deck and shuffle? You only check your hand size at the end of your turn. So if you acquire a new card, it goes in your hand. Then at the end of your turn when you reset your hand if you still have too many cards in hand, you need to discard down to your hand size. If you have too few, you need to draw up to your handsize.
No I have read them but I have trouble understanding it. If a blessing hour card says"on another character's check to defeat-discard to add d12" does that mean the card goes to your fellow character on the other character's turn?
JOHNATHAN FINFINIS wrote: No I have read them but I have trouble understanding it. If a blessing hour card says"on another character's check to defeat-discard to add d12" does that mean the card goes to your fellow character on the other character's turn? If you're referring to the top blessing of the hourglass, then you ignore most of the text on that card. When a blessing is atop the hourglass the only thing that matters is the "When this is the hour:" text.
If you have a blessing in your hand that says that, then you can discard that card (into your own discard pile) at any time that another character is making a check, to give them +1d12 bonus on their check. Normally that will indeed be during the other character's turn, though there are some situations where somebody else might be making a check to defeat on your turn.
Thank you----you have helped me incredibly. I am keeping track of all this. I understand your "manner" rather than the book.
If you fail to aqquire a card where does the card go?
I am printing all your answers ------kind of like my own rule book(because you are easier to understand than the book.
JOHNATHAN FINFINIS wrote: If you fail to aqquire a card where does the card go? The card is banished. (Banished means to return to the Vault and the Vault is all the cards you are using to build the decks for scenarios.)
Thank you so much!! I am getting the hang of it! It is no excuse but I have a disability which makes reading comprehension hard! I do better with
you than the rule book.
At this point I think I know enough for now. I appreciate your help and I will contact you if I am stuck again!! Thank you!!
One more please. If I lose a fight with a villain what next? And why is a proxy card shuffled into the location deck instead of the creature it represents(Dire wolf for example)?
I looked up leveling up and read page 4 in the rule book and got nowhere!
If my character gets through a scenario does he/she gain a level?
I have sheets printed for checking advanced feats.
Take your time on getting back to my 2 above questions. I don't want to be a bother
Sorry but I have another question----how do you close a location? Do you have to kill all the monsters or just the bandit and henchman??
So I have 3 questions-1--how do you level up? 2-what if you lose against a villain or henchmen? and 3-how do you close a location? Thank you, Johnathan
JOHNATHAN FINFINIS wrote: One more please. If I lose a fight with a villain what next? And why is a proxy card shuffled into the location deck instead of the creature it represents(Dire wolf for example)? If you lose a fight with a villain, the villain "runs and hides" somewhere. You count the number of open/unguarded locations on the table, and draw one fewer than that number of blessings from the top of the hourglass. Shuffle the villain in with those cards (so now you should a pile with a number of cards equal to the number of unguarded locations). Then randomly deal one card into each location, and shuffle all of the location decks up with the new card in each one. So now you have no idea where the Villain is anymore, and need to start all over finding him. Plus, you have less time to do it in because your hourglass just got smaller.
(if you win a fight with the villain you do something very similar: except this time the blessings come from the vault instead of the hourglass so it doesn't cost you turns; also, you automatically close the location that you defeated the villain at before you do the count, so it's one fewer place to look)
Proxies are generally used when you need to put the same card in multiple places, but only have one copy of it. For example, there's only one copy of each henchman card. But for a lot of scenarios, there'll be one common henchmen that is in most of the locations (everywhere except where the villain is). So you put proxies in all of those locations and then leave the actual henchmen card aside on the table. So anytime you encounter a proxy, you can refer to the real card to see what it does.
Also, there are a couple cases where the scenario rules might change the definition of a proxy mid-game. So it starts off saying "Proxy A is Jimmy the Henchman" and then later there'll be text saying "When {this} happens, Proxy A becomes Billy the Henchman instead".
JOHNATHAN FINFINIS wrote: I looked up leveling up and read page 4 in the rule book and got nowhere!
If my character gets through a scenario does he/she gain a level?
I have sheets printed for checking advanced feats.
Everytime you successfully complete a scenario, you gain a Hero Point. You can use these hero points to enhance one of your feats (Power, Card, or Skill), or save it for a reroll later. You can only have a number of feats of each type less than or equal to the number of the adventure that you're playing. So when you play 1A, you get a hero point and use it on something (maybe a Power feat). Then when you play 1B you get another hero point and use it somewhere else (any feat EXCEPT another Power Feat, because you already have one and you're still on Adventure 1). When you finish 1C you get a third, and can use it wherever you didn't already spend one. When you finish 1D, you'll get a fourth... and now you need to save it for a reroll because you've no legal feats left to take. But then when you "level up" and start adventure 2, after completing 2A you again can use it on your second of any type of feat, and continue that way.
JOHNATHAN FINFINIS wrote: Sorry but I have another question----how do you close a location? Do you have to kill all the monsters or just the bandit and henchman?? When you defeat a "Closing Henchman" (labeled as such in the scenario setup), you can attempt the "To Close or Guard" text. If you succeed at whatever it asks you to do there, the location is closed. Banish anything that was left in it (unless there's a villain there, then put him back under, banish the rest, and the location stays open).
If you defeat a Villain at a location, the location is automatically closed (banish anything that was left there).
If you empty out the all of the cards in the pile without having closed it already (if you failed your check to close after defeating the henchman, or there was no closing henchman there), then once your explorations are complete for the turn you can attempt the "To Close or Guard" text to close the location.
Wow thanks a lot! I printed that whole piece out and will keep it in my folder of stuff you helped me learn!
Are story banes treated like villains if not defeated?
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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
It looks like you’re having a hard time understanding the fundamental rules of PACG. While we’re more than willing to help you out here, I strongly recommend looking up examples of play (e.g. on YouTube) so you can see how others do it. That may help the rules “click” a bit better.
Also there is a tutorial scenario that you can run which I’d recommend running as well. It walks you through things step by step.
Don’t worry about knowing 100% of the rules from the beginning. Take things as they come up and gradually increase your understanding of the game. The rulebook needs to cover a lot of weird corner cases that rarely happen, but can make things seem more confusing than they actually are until you have some play experience under your belt.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
JOHNATHAN FINFINIS wrote: Are story banes treated like villains if not defeated? Villains are story banes but not every story bane is a villain. The storybook will specify which story bane is what for the current scenario.
Yeah but I have learned so much from you just today and I have watched like 8 reviews and walk throughs on you tube! It is like you said-learn as I go!!
I learned mofrom you today than any review on you tube!!
I have questions on leveling up and what you can choose to aquire but I will wait until I get to that point to ask you.
SKIZZERZ, HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING?
I bought rise of the runelords years ago and quit because I couldn't understand the rules and I had no computer.
Oh Skizzerz, to help a fellow character with a blessing spell should they be on the same location? Or to trade cards?
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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
I started playing with Skull & Shackles.
Unless the blessing specifies otherwise, it can be played on a character at any location.
Open your rulebook to page 28 and 29. Read both of those pages very carefully, they tell you the most important thing about the game: read every card and take it as literally as possible. The card tells you exactly what it does. If it doesn't add some restriction like "local character" or "distant character", then that thing isn't restricted.
After that, grab the Quick-Start Guide, read that and follow along with it to play the tutorial game. During that game, only consult the rulebook when the quick-start guide tells you to, and only read the section it specifies. Ignore the rest of the rulebook. You might do things wrong and make mistakes, that's fine. The important bit is actually playing with a simplified set of cards and a smaller subset of the rules.
If that still doesn't help you, maybe try grabbing the Pathfinder Adventures game on Steam or Android. That is a video game version of Rise of the Runelords. You may find it more understandable, maybe.
If you really can't understand it even after all of that, look around to see if any gaming venues in your area offer Pathfinder Adventure Card Society organized play games. Show up, say that you're unsure of the rules, and the other people playing there can probably help you get up to speed.
If there aren't any PACS games in your area, try to rope some friends into playing the game with you, and get one of them to be the "keeper of the rulebook" and responsible for adjudicating questions as they come up. Again, your friend will probably be wrong and make mistakes the first 10 or so times playing (I've played well over 200 games and I still make mistakes). This is fine. Having fun is more important than following the rules to 100% accuracy. You'll all learn as a group as you go further along.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
JOHNATHAN FINFINIS wrote: I have questions on leveling up and what you can choose to aquire but I will wait until I get to that point to ask you. You upgrade your character in two ways:
- Earning Hero Points
- Rebuilding your deck
A character earns one Hero Point each time they successfully complete a scenario for the first time (aka you can't replay a scenario with the same character to grind Hero Points, but you can replay the scenario with a new character and they will earn a Hero Point -- in other words it's tied to the character, not the player). When you earn a Hero Point, you can do one of four things with it:
1. Immediately spend it to check off a Skill Feat on the front of character card.
2. Immediately spend it to check off a Card Feat on the back of your character card.
3. Immediately spend it to check off a Power Feat on the front of your character card or on your role card. You earn your role card immediately before you would check off your 3rd Power Feat. So your first two Power Feats must be on your character card, and your 3rd-6th Power Feats would be on your role card.
4. Bank it for a reroll or to resurrect yourself should you die.
Every scenario has a #. You can't check off more feats of any one type than the # of the scenario you just played. In other words, you need to spread your feats around rather than piling them all into the same area.
If you bank a hero point, you can spend one hero point to reroll all of the dice on a check, or all of your hero points to come back from the dead at the end of a scenario. Banked hero points cannot later be spent on feats.
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During the game, you'll encounter boons. Each boon has a check to acquire or some other task you'll need to accomplish in order to acquire it. When you acquire a boon, it goes into your hand.
At the end of the scenario, collect all of the cards in your hand, displayed cards, discards, buried cards, and deck into a big pile. This will likely be more cards than you started the scenario with.
After earning rewards and maybe spending your hero point on a feat, flip your character card over and look at how many cards of each type you're allowed to have. You get to keep that many cards for the next scenario, and return the rest to the vault. Which cards you keep is totally up to you, it can be the cards you originally started with or it can be one of the cards you picked up during the scenario. There are only two restrictions on that: 1) you can't grab cards from the vault (even if you started the scenario with them but banished them during play) unless the pile of cards doesn't have enough of that type for you to build your deck. 2) you can't grab cards with a level higher than the # of the scenario you just finished, even if you somehow acquired them
Once you've trimmed down your deck to the correct size, put the rest of the cards in the pile back into the vault. The only way to get them into your deck in the future is to encounter them in a location and successfully acquire them again.
SKIZZERS, can you use a hero point to raise your card level(the checks behind the different boons (the deck list)?
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
You can only use hero points for what I mentioned in my above post. Feats are the check boxes on your character card. Card feats are the check boxes in your deck list.
The deck list isn’t the level of cards in your deck. It’s the number of them. So if you spend a hero point on a weapon card feat, your character card might look like “ Weapon 4 ☑5 ☐6”
This means that you can have 5 weapons in your deck instead of 4. That 5 weapon card limit comes into play when rebuilding your deck at the end of the scenario as well as when building your starting deck. The limits don’t matter during play and you can acquire more cards than what your deck list allows you to have—you just need to trim your deck back down to the deck list afterwards.
A brand new character has a 15 card deck. If you add up all the numbers on the back of the character you’ll notice they add to 15. Once you take your first card feat, you’ll have a 16 card deck instead.
The level of cards you can keep depends entirely on the # of the scenario you just played and has nothing to do with the feat boxes on the back of your character.
See Rulebook p.17
You can use a hero point to do one of 5 things:
- At the end of the scenario where you just won that Hero Point you can spend it to add a +1 to one of your SKILL. Usually, you can't have more checkboxes checked in SKILL than the level of the scenario you just won though. And if 2 checkboxes follow each other, you have to check them in order (or move from +1 to +2, and so on).
- At the end of the scenario where you just won that Hero Point you can spend it to check one new power. Usually, you can't have more checkboxes checked in POWERS than the level of the scenario you just won though. And if 2 checkboxes follow each other, you have to check them in order. Usually one of these powers allow you you add to your hand size.
- At the end of the scenario where you just won that Hero Point you can spend it to check one new card in your card list. Usually, you can't have more checkboxes checked in CARDS than the level of the scenario you just won though. And if 2 checkboxes follow each other, you have to check them in order (usually adding one new card of a certain type each time).
- During a scenario, you can spend a Hero point to reroll all dice together once.
- At the end of the scenario where you died, you can spend ALL your remaining Hero Points (you must have at least 1) to come back from death. Note that you have to do so BEFORE getting the reward for that scenario, so you need to have kept at least one Hero Point from a previous scenario to be able to select that option. And if your party won the scenario while you were dead, you get the reward after coming back from death (so you can actually get a Hero Point back, depending on the scenario reward).
Hoping that that helps.
Thanks Frencois! I have to say that I am a lone wolf. I have played D&D and other games but preferred solo play.
I noticed that once you check al your boxes in the first row you have 20 cards.
What if after playing 4 scenarios your character has survived and you have gotten attached to it and he dies? Do you trash your sheet(I printed out color character sheets)???????
Well it's YOUR game so utilimately you can do whatever you want to have fun.
This said, "by the book", if when the character dies he has 0 Hero Point, then indeed you are supposed to trash the sheet and start a new one, with two options 1) start back from the first scenario or 2) "level" the new character (by giving him as many feats in each of the categories SKILLS/POWERS/FEATS that the previous one had, so you can restart at the scenario where you died.
This said (again), especially if you are like me an RPG fan, I strongly recommend starting back from scratch, just for the fun or rebuilding you character feats/deck through all of his history.
This said (again and again), as soon as you finished your FIRST scenario awarding a Hero Point you should always keep it! This way the you can always come back from the dead unless you fail many times the same scenario (expanding all your Hero Points reserve). If you are cautious, that should never happen (unless you play some kind of legendary-heroic-munchkin mode in which case you asked for it :-).
Exactly what I plan!! If I only have 1 hero point I will SAVE IT to resurrect the character!! If I have 2 or 5 I will spend ALL but one!! Or maybe save 2 just in case you die twice!!
I am going to trace the circle of the hero points on my character sheet and scratch them off as I use them!!
Frencois, If you fail a scenario is the character dead?
JOHNATHAN FINFINIS wrote: Frencois, If you fail a scenario is the character dead? If you can't reset your hand at the end of your turn (because you don't have enough cards left in your deck), then your character is dead.
If you fail the scenario because you've run out of cards in the hourglass, or some other reason built into the scenario rules then your character is not dead. You don't earn a hero point, but you can still do your deck upgrades (using any cards acquired during the scenario). And then you can reattempt the same scenario with your upgraded deck, and keep trying until you complete it.
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