The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (ACG?) that deserves its own thread

I expect nothing less from Tom “the backstabber” Chick.

Speaking of “backstabber” Mr. Prankster, shuddup and ‘Git in mah timezone’ already.

I’ve only played this once, a full run through the starter scenario, and I’m at a loss as to what it is people enjoy about this game. I’m a long-time RPGer (ran a long Golarion D&D campaign), boardgamer, and computer gamer and felt this game was nothing more than an exercise. There are little to no meaningful decisions to make. You move to a location, flip a card and do what is says, which is always roll a die to beat a number. That’s the game. I was extremely bored. I was hoping there would be a deck building element, far beyond the simple level-up system.

Yes, it kind of felt like our party was on an adventure. But I didn’t do anything to deserve a win. I flipped a card, rolled a die, beat or failed number, … next player! No interesting choices, no decisions. The boss is going to always run off to a different deck. No events, no intrigue, no variability.

I really REALLY wanted to like this game more. :(

Prankster thanks you.

I feel you are selling it short on the “flip a card and do what it says” description. In a one player game, maybe. Maybe. However there is a lot of choice in looking over who is good at what and send him, her, or them to the location that they can best exploit. Do you really want to send the Paladin to the arcane temple that needs intelligence to close? Should the Wizard mine spells at the library, or go blast the shadows (immune to non-magic) in the dungeon? Blessings are running out but too many locations are open, do you split the party to hope for a temporary close lock or group up to get some much needed cards back through healing? Who do you want to heal when (as it not only brings back discarded cards, but the shuffle element brings back recharged cards faster)?

Also hand control and deck composition is interesting as I often need to burn a few cards to get the nice balanced hand, but this leaves me “hurt” and in deeper trouble when something nasty hits forcing me to dump said hand in “damage.” Also deck control can play into the odds of some nice abilities (knowing that blessing is probably in my draw deck, but is it worth the risk of a discard if it isn’t to get the Paladin’s extra d6 on a check).

The more players (or character classes) on the board means the more locations too. This often forces a lot more decision making about who goes where and when to burn blessing and ally’s to keep up with the clock.

For my folks anyway it seems to work and there is often a lot of discussion about who thinks they can take which location.

Making deck lists is too much work? Seriously?

Just to quickly jump on Chaplin’s bandwagon, as the player count increases it seems to me that who teams up where becomes the big decision point of the game. For instance, the wizard dude only gets extra explores when he finds a spell since he has no blessings (or maybe it’s arcane boon, can’t remember). The paladin can tear through decks full of boons to find the henchmen / villain with her ability that lets her put the top card on the bottom of the deck if it’s a boon. Both characters want boon heavy locations, but both don’t work well together at the same location (since the paladin will lower the chance the wizard will get an extra explore). That’s a fun tension.

The ranger looks at the top card of his location deck, so he’s going to know if he’s got a card coming up he can’t deal with. But he doesn’t know that till the end of his turn, so if someone wants to come help him, he’ll already be at the location and can’t provide combat support. I generally love the ranger’s tension. He’s pretty good at combat, but not great, so pairing him with the bard or the warrior is fantastic to give him a little boost on rolls. However, he can’t support anyone you pair him with, and some people, like the bard, really need his combat support.

I find those decisions to be the most fun ones. On our game last week, we played our first 5 player game and won on the last blessing draw. It was extremely tense. At first, I was annoyed that in a 5 player game it’s basically a given that you have to use every blessing and ally you have to explore. Ultimately, however, we had a location with a close check no one was good at. We ended up having to save a few blessings for that final temporary close check there when we fought the villain. So that tension between when to use a blessing to explore vs. when to use one to buff still hit us hard in the end.

The game’s had pretty mixed response in my group. So far, people who like rolling lots of dice and people who like cooperative strategerizing have come up positive on it. The people who haven’t enjoyed it have been people who don’t get joy from rolling dice (I include myself in that group) and people who end up getting drowned out in the cooperative strategic discussions. I probably need to do a better job in the next game trying to open every one up for discussions. Some players who I usually play competitive euros with are not so into the open discussion of strategy. They focus on how to maximize their character alone, and from that perspective, they find the game lacking. One complaint I have in this regard is most character abilities are “passive”. You either would choose to ALWAYS use them, or they automatically trigger. As a consequence, from an individual character’s perspective, the game seems extremely simple. There is also an ENORMOUS amount of luck in the game. I’m sure I’ll end a game pissed off pretty soon where I felt like we did everything right and lost anyways. I usually hate dice heavy games, but I think the coop stuff here is just fun and interesting enough to keep me enjoying it so far.

There’s a level of abstraction in your summation that can probably be applied to every single game in existence in order to make it sound horrible. Not trying to be a jerk, but I just wanted to be a counterpoint to that statement.

And the villain doesn’t always run off. You need to find and trap him. Thus the location closing mechanic.

But at the end of the day, if you don’t like it, then I wouldn’t expend any effort to attempt to and just move on. There’s a wealth of games out there that are probably more suited to your gaming sensibilities.

Between this thread and reading a very limited number of other things throughout the internets, I used my Amazon Giftcard to get this and the Character Add-on pack. I pretty much plan only playing solo and then getting the 12 year old and MAYBE 7 year old girls in on it once I am comfortable with it. It just SOUNDS awesome. But that’s how they all start. We’ll see on Thursday when it show up!

Then, once McMaster gets rid of his infectious diseases, I might let him play.

After posting that last night, I instead had a dream that Tom travelled to Alabama to hang out. My house was such a mess but my kids liked him. Then there was some sort of murderer lurking around and the dream got weird.

Your kids are awesome! And don’t worry, me and them banded together and drove off the murderer lurking outside the house. He was a jerk. Also – TRUE STORY – my sorceress died this weekend just before getting to Thistletop Delve. Nooooooooo!

 -Tom

Woohoo! They are pretty resourceful. Plus, you watch enough movies with murderers that you know how to handle your biz.

Also, mine is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Woohoo a second time!

And thanks to the magic of the internets, I can read instructions now!

Do the adventures and the expansions that are to be released roughly map to the RPG Rise of the Runelords adventure path?

Make sure you read the rule book multiple times, because it’s easy to confuse or overlook things, especially when making a skill check. Also, read the online FAQ and keep it nearby. It also lists rule book and card errors.

The bottom line, though, is, when you play a card from your hand, do exactly as the card says–no more, no less. Keep that in mind, and the game will flow more easily.

Done. Thanks!

I am more excited about this than I have been for any game (video or board) in a while. Way to keep your hopes in check, Tyler.

Out for delivery. Shipped yesterday. PRime membership is magic as is our shipping system in the US.

Saw the Skinsaw expansion in action at the FLGS the other day. The designer was down there with a few friends playing through it, and it looked pretty sweet. They were super nice and took the time to walk me through how the game works.

What did they say about when Skinsaw will be available? Or did they?

 -Tom

It sounds like Seattle is treating you pretty well!

At my local game shop today they said they were expecting to have Skinsaw on Oct. 30, but looks like some Amazon sellers are starting to have it in stock now.

I am going to go to the Mace 2013 convention at Charlotte Hilton University Place in North Carolina the week end of the 11/15 - 11/17.

How hard is it to learn this game - I am hoping to find the game at the convention to try out?

It’s a pretty simple game, GeeWhiz. Basically, on your turn, you flip over the top card from your choice among a variety of decks, each representing a location. Then you roll dice to resolve the card. Easy peasy! It’s mostly that simple, but it’ll take a few sessions to get comfortable with the flow.

It’s a shame Skinsaw Murders is taking so long to come out. It’s prime Halloween adventuring.

-Tom