I feel no shame in admitting that for the last three years, my free time has been largely filled with the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game ("Pathfinder").  The remaining hours have been spent playing various board games with family and friends.  I have yet to participate in a paper & pencil roleplaying game since moving to St. Albert.

Pathfinder has filled the space normally reserved for roleplaying games.  I play with two groups, one on Wednesdays and the other on Sundays.  One of things I enjoy about the game is that we can complete a five-to-six player Pathfinder adventure in under two hours.

Coming soon, but not soon enough ... Mummy's Mask Base Set, October 2016

With Pathfinder, no on acts as Dungeonmaster.  After someone reads, aloud, a two-minute scenario outline, we collectively build the adventure locations in under 10 minutes.  From there, the game essentially runs itself.

I've been writing about card-based roleplaying games on this blog for the last six years.  One of the earliest card-based games I became interested in was Dungeoneer, a competitive fantasy adventure game from 2003.


Designed and illustrated by Thomas Denmark, each player competed to be the first to finish three quests.  Atlas Games released at least 8 different Dungeoneer adventure decks, but no new content has been published since 2007.  Would I love to see this game resurrected as a cooperative game with new content?  You bet.  If you can still find Dungeoneer in your FLGS, I recommend buying a large 110-card pack and giving Dungeoneer a try.

Pathfinder, by contrast, is a cooperative game, and was first published in 2012.  Although other card-driven fantasy games have since been released, Pathfinder still comes closest to what I imagined a card-driven cooperative RPG would look like.

Of the many advantages of a card-based fantasy adventure game, one of the chief-est is a similar decksize for all characters. Pathfinder starts with a decksize of 15 cards for each character.  That permits characters to be balanced against each other,creating a mechanical way of allowing everyone their moment in the spotlight.

But is Pathfinder a roleplaying game?

I don't take credit for the following definition of a roleplaying game (and you may disagree with it) but here are some characteristics they all seem to have in common:

(1) Freedom: Players have absolute freedom to pursue any activity or attempt any action within the confines of the game world.  That does not mean the pursuit or action will be successful: it just means the player can choose it, and the referee, with or without the participation of the Players, will adjudicate the results.

(2) Immerson: the player defines, develops and breathes life into her character, and inhabits the world that surrounds her, seeing the world through the eyes of her character.

(3) Purpose: the referee and the players determine the purpose of the game, what has brought them together, why are they participating, what goals are they pursuing.

(4) Consequence: there must be some consequence to the results of the players actions.  Perhaps the consequence is simply the gaining of experience, levels,wealth or social standing within the game world.  Perhaps it is an emotional catharsis, or a deeper appreciation for the plight of people inhabiting that imaginary world.  Perhaps failure comes with an game-world cost.

I considered adding avatar persistence to the list, but there are roleplaying games that are played as one-shots, so an avatar's persistence from one session to the next would not be a defining feature of that sort of roleplaying game.

Given the definition above, I doubt that Pathfinder would qualify as a roleplaying game:

(1) Freedom: Pathfinder players do not have total freedom to do what they want within the game world.  The Player cannot send their character to the town square, if that location is not part of the scenario.  The Player cannot try to negotiate with a monster, as the only action the monster card allows is combat.

(2) Immersion: Pathfinder provides predefined, iconic characters for game use.  Other than in specified ways, I cannot develop my character as I see fit.  I direct the character, but I don't become the character.

(3) Purpose: the purpose of the Pathfinder scenarios are pre-defined.  There is no room for the players, individually or collectively to define the purpose to the game, other than what the game has already prescribed. Every adventure completed will lead, inexorably, to the final, pre-determined adventure.

(4) Consequence: there are few consequences, other than those imposed on the final scenarios, to success or failure.  Characters can die, and will restart the next game with a completely fresh deck of cards, but in general, failure to complete a scenario simply results in having to play the scenario again, until success is achieved.  Failure does not have any upstream impact on future scenarios.

I like Pathfinder.  A lot.  For people who are looking for a fantasy adventure game, I can think of few I would recommend more highly.  But if you require your gaming experience to be fully rpg-like, you will probably be disappointed with Pathfinder.

Here is the current status of your characters.  If there are any scenarios that you have not completed, I am happy to organize a session to allow you to complete it and obtain the related reward.  That is particularly relevant in the case of any unplayed Brine Dragon and Lone Shark scenarios, since those provide coveted skill and power feat upgrades.  I can be contacted via my Paladin email if a Christmas break PACG game is desired.

Otherwise, see you in 2015!

While I help organize the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game sessions in St. Albert, there is another PACG organizer, Jason, who takes care of the Edmonton sessions.

 He and I both have inserts for the Pathfinder Base Set. He is using the insert from Broken Token (seen below), which has 4 complete rows for cards, and a fifth, smaller row, for dice, pencils and other paraphernalia.


My Base Set contains the Go7 Gaming insert, which has 5 complete card rows, and also uses clear acrylic dividers rather than the wooden dividers included with the Broken Token box insert.

While I prefer the Go7 Gaming insert, it is slightly more expensive, at $31, compared to the cheaper Broken Token insert that sets you back $27.


I appreciate the design of the Go7 insert, having 5 full rows, which allows me to store additional cards, including the new class decks.

We ran two tables of PACG organized play today, with both tables completing scenario 5, Nature's Wrath.  Here is the current status of your characters.


Our final PACG session for 2014 will be scenario 6, The Treasure of Jemma Redclaw, next Sunday, December 7, 2014 from 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. at my place in Pineview.  I will email you all tonight with the address particulars. 

We will reconvene after Christmas for PACG, at Mission Fun and Games at 1 p.m. on the second Sunday in January 2015 (that would be the 11th).

See you at my place on December 7.

The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game allows you to build your characters as decks of cards, representing your significant possessions, weapons, armor, spells, divine favour, and key allies.  The deck of cards, above, is for my Skull & Shackles Bard character.

Each player is limited to a certain number of cards (in the above instance, I and my fellow players currently have a deck limit of 16 cards).  This deck limit balances the characters, ensuring rough equivalence in powers and abilities between characters at the table, and is also used as a resource management tool. 

As you participate in PACG adventures, you attempt to complete certain objectives, while collecting additional cards representing better equipment, spells, divine favour and allies, from which you draw to replace inferior cards. 

During certain game events, players may choose or be required to discard cards from their decks: those cards represent both the character's available activities and the health of the character.  When a player runs out of cards, their character dies.

Join us on Sunday, November 30, 2014 for an introductory session of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, Skull & Shackles Organized Play program.

All existing participants are new to the PACG system, so no experience is necessary and newcomers are welcome!

The game session begins at 1 pm and ends at 3 pm: games are no longer than two hours.

New players should purchase a class deck (available at Mission Fun & Games), colored sleeves and bring a set of color-matched polyhedral dice. Game Rules can be downloaded for free from the Paizo website, but PACG is a cooperative game so you can learn as you play.

Contact me or Mission for more details.

We ran two PACG Skull and Shackles tables on Sunday; Salvage Operations for the more advanced group, and an earlier adventure, The Lone Shark, to accommodate newcomers.  The Lone Shark is a good adventure to play with newcomers as the reward is a skill feat, bumping one of the character statistics, rather than simply being a card upgrade, which can be hit or miss.


For those playing in the two sessions, here is a chart with the current status of your characters.  Mark has already identified and corrected a mistake, so if something in your advancement chart is wrong please let me know.

Engaging in some Salvage Operations...

You've defeated the dreaded Brine Dragon. Now its time to search for treasure, by picking through the flotsam of ships destroyed by the Dragon.

Join us on Sunday, November 23, 2014 for an introductory session of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, Skull & Shackles Organized Play program.

All existing participants are new to the PACG system, so no experience is necessary and newcomers are welcome!

The game session begins at 1 pm and ends at 3 pm: games are no longer than two hours.

New players should purchase a class deck (available at Mission Fun & Games), colored sleeves and bring a set of color-matched polyhedral dice.

Game Rules can be downloaded for free from the Paizo website, but PACG is a cooperative game so you can learn as you play.

Contact me (the game organizer) or Mission for more details.

Although I have few complaints about the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game itself, the tracking system Paizo has devised is less than adequate.  So while I continue to dutifully record the game sessions online, I have decided to keep a separate log of our sessions on this blog.  The tracking tool I have devised is not perfect, but at least I have a greater measure of control over its presentation. 

Click to embiggen.  If you are one of the participants, and notice something amiss, please make a note for yourself and we can correct this table next Sunday.


If there are any others who are interested in participating in our PACG sessions, there is still plenty of room available.  The sessions are every Sunday, from 1 pm to 3 pm, at Mission Games in St. Albert. 

In addition to our regular contingent, we have had five others who have dropped in to try out PACG.  New players are welcome, whether as a one-shot experience or if you are interested in playing PACG more frequently!

Time to hunt the Brine Dragon!

Join us on Sunday, November 16, 2014 for an introductory session of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, Skull & Shackles Organized Play program.

All existing participants are new to the PACG system, so no experience is necessary and newcomers are welcome.

The game session begins at 1 pm and ends at 3 pm: games are no longer than two hours.

New players should purchase a class deck (available at Mission Fun & Games), colored sleeves and bring a set of color-matched polyhedral dice. Game Rules can be downloaded for free from the Paizo website, but PACG is a cooperative game so you can also learn as you play.

Contact me or Mission Fun & Games for more details.

The Lone Shark has developed an interest in you...

Join us on Sunday, November 9, 2014 for another session of the Pathfinder Adventure Card ("PACG") Game, Skull & Shackles Organized Play program.

All existing participants are new to the PACG system, so no experience is necessary and newcomers are welcome.  We have already added several new players, and additional tables to accommodate even more.

The game session begins at 1 pm and ends promptly at 3 pm: games are no longer than two hours.

New players should purchase a class deck (available at Mission Fun & Games), colored sleeves and bring a set of color-matched polyhedral dice. Game Rules can be downloaded for free from the Paizo website.  PACG is a cooperative game so you can also learn as you play.

Contact the game organizer or Mission for more details.

Haunted by Ghosts of the Deep!

Join us at 1 pm on Sunday, November 2, 2014 for a nightmarish session of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, Skull & Shackles Organized Play program.

All existing participants are new to the PACG system, so no experience is necessary and newcomers are welcome.

The game session begins at 1 pm and ends at 3 pm: games are no longer than two hours.

New players should purchase a class deck (available at Mission Fun & Games), colored sleeves and bring a set of color-matched polyhedral dice.

Game Rules can be downloaded for free from the Paizo website, but PACG is a cooperative game so you can also learn as you play.

Contact me or Mission for more details.
  

The next set of Paizo pre-painted Pathfinder miniatures, designated The Lost Coast, are being released in November 2014. 

I don't expect I will purchase an entire case, as I have done in the past, as the number of unique figures in each case recently dropped from 55 to 45, but there are several figures in this set that are sufficiently useful and well designed that I intend to buy them individually. 

Alahazra, above, is one of my favorite iconic characters, and despite another, perhaps superior Alahazra sculpt being released in early 2015, is on my list of Lost Coast Gems.


Damiel is the other iconic character that makes an appearance in The Lost Coast pre-painted miniatures set.  I think I would have preferred Jirelle over Damiel, but this character is still worth having a miniature for.

Several archers are included in this miniatures set, like the City Watch Sniper, the Forest Shadow, and the Elf Archer (all three displayed below).  These are decent sculpts and can stand in for player characters.




Several worthy Giant sculpts make an appearance in this miniatures set, included a Stone Giant (Conna the Wise), the Fire Giant King, and an Ogre (Malugus Kreeg).  The renditions of giants in Pathfinder have started to grow on me, although I still loathe the Pathfinder versions of trolls.




The last three miniatures to be featured in this post are Pazuzu, Lamashtu and the Mother Of Monsters, three creatures presumably unique to the Pathfinder universe, but interesting enough that I will be including them in my individual Pathfinder pre-painted miniatures purchase.

Even though I'm heavily invested in the Pathfinder miniatures, having purchased every complete set except the most recent, I still found it worthwhile to pick up the Pathfinder Pawns NPC Codex Box.  The cost per cardboard pawn is roughly 10 cents, which compares quite favourably to the $3-4 per miniature.

Truth be told, there are several cardboard pawns in the NPC Codex Box with artwork matching the characters in the new Pathfinder ACG Character Decks, and I wanted to have pawns available to represent those characters, rather than using the included playing-card tokens that otherwise are placed at PACG adventure locations to indicate which location a character is visiting.

Most of the artwork on the pawns in the NPC Codex Box is acceptable or better, but there are several pawns that include artwork that is smaller than it should be.  Rather than complain about the undersized art to Paizo on their website [an arguably futile endeavour], I printed slightly larger character artwork and produced my own replacement pawns.  Here are several of those original pawns, with their replacements.


The Areelu Vorlesh pawn [from Wrath Of The Righteous] was an especially egregious example of undersized art [please excuse the blurriness of the photos, the art on the original pawns and the replacements is actually crisper than the photo suggests].  My replacement pawns for Areelu cut off the mini-dragon and wing-tips respectively, but I don't think you need the entire image on the pawns.


Arueshalae [another pawn from Wrath of the Righteous] was also slightly undersized, so I increased the artwork by a couple of millimeters and produced a new pawn for her.  I suppose I could have adjusted the artwork so she was "higher" on the pawn, but I am, nonetheless, relatively happy with the way this replacement pawn turned out.

While I was printing out replacement pawns for those pawns that Paizo undersized, I created several pawns for the characters included in the Skull and Shackles Base Set and Character Add-On Deck.  It would have been nice if Paizo had better coordinated the release of PACG adventures and the related, prepainted miniature and cardboard pawn.  For example, they produced a prepainted miniature for Lirianne the Gunslinger,

but not one for Jirelle the Swashbuckler [the custom-made cardboard pawn in the center, below].

I will be running the inaugural session of the St. Albert Mission Pathfinder Adventure Card Game ("PACG") Organized Play program on Sunday, October 19, 2014, at Mission Fun And Games in St. Albert, Alberta.


Participants will partake in the introductory session of Skull And Shackles PACG Season 0, as their characters cooperate to jointly face the villains and monsters of the Pathfinder universe's pirate-infested seas.  And after all, who doesn't like battling were-sharks while brandishing cutlasses and pistols?

Game sessions are no more than 2 hours long.

A demo game for first-time PACG players will be run from Noon to 1:00 pm on Sunday, October 19, 2014.

The first adventure, "On The Horizon", will commence thereafter at 1:00 pm and will end no later than 3:00 pm.

Participants will benefit from reading both the Skull And Shackles Adventure Card Game rules and the Organized Play rules (both available as free downloads from the Paizo website).


A Pathfinder ACG Class Deck (a $20-$25 investment), colored card sleeves, and matching colored polyhedral dice are necessary for participation, all of which are available at Mission Fun And Games.

Anyone interested in participating can leave a comment here, or can register their interest with Mission Fun And Games.


Thanks!

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game organized play program participants received some not altogether unexpected bad news yesterday ... the organized play program launch has been delayed until October 1, due to difficulties with the printing and distribution of the character class decks and OP materials to retailers.

I say the news is not unexpected.  It's been obvious, from official announcements and rumblings within the fanbase, that Paizo has been encountering difficulties with the printing and distribution of the new Skull and Shackles materials for several weeks now.  In my opinion, their difficulties have been compounded by a, frankly, too aggressive adventure release schedule, with planned monthly adventure releases.  

While their fans remain in a holding pattern, Paizo has thrown them a bone by way of an advance peek at the new Alahazra digital miniature sculpt (see above) and a promotional item card for the Skull and Shackles game.


I'm impressed with the new digital character render previews for the Pathfinder iconic characters.  The first set of six minis didn't impress me as much as the second set of six though.

I'm planning to participate in the organized play program at the local game store, and I'm not all disappointed by the delay, as it buys me some time to get better acquainted with the PACG system.

If you decide to purchase the new Paizo Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (PACG), Skull And Shackles Base Set, I highly recommend you include Alahazra in any adventuring party your organize.

In PACG, each player takes turns sending their character to an adventure location and attempting an encounter.  An encounter consists of turning over the top card in the adventure location deck, and following the instructions on the card.

Alahazra's special ability is to look at any card on the top of any adventure location deck.  She can do this multiple times during her, and any other player's turn, as long as she has the spell cards necessary to power her ability.

This ability allows her to see what the encounter will be, before a character is sent to any location.  As a result, the active player can send their character to the encounter they are best equipped to deal with, rather than blindly flipping  a card and discovering you are unsuited for that encounter.

A super-powerful ability, and one that every PACG adventure party should take complete advantage of.

For several years, from 2010-2012, I'd been searching for a card-based fantasy roleplaying game resource.  As a busy family man, it was difficult finding time to prepare for role-playing game sessions, and do all of the between-game record-keeping.  A card-based fantasy RPG resource system, I reasoned, would save time by allowing DMs and players to participate in adventures without the necessity for a lot of pre- or post-game preparation and record-keeping.

As nothing suitable was on the market, I'd gone so far as to develop a structure and color-coding of cards and a method of maintaining character decks from game to game (essentially having 18 card-slot tri-fold vinyl binders, within each of which a player's character resource cards would be stored).


In August 2013, Paizo published their Pathfinder Adventure Card Game ("PACG"): Rise Of The Runelords ("ROTR") Base Set.  As I've mentioned in the past, although I'm a big fan of Paizo, and have purchased their many resource card and miniatures sets, I'm not a Pathfinder RPG player.  I had heard the PACG system was similar, mechanically, to the Pathfinder RPG game, and was initially leery of purchasing ROTR, as I had little interest in playing DnD 3.75.


However, my disinclination towards complicated RPG systems was mitigated by my love of resource cards, and this game was reportedly bursting with them ... to the tune of 1,100.  I purchased the initial ROTR Base Set and all of the adventure expansions, intending to see whether this was my resource-card Holy Grail, but due to a transfer to another position and city, I never had an opportunity to open the box and play the game.


This summer, the squire and I attended Gencon 2014.  Paizo released the Skulls and Shackles Base Set and hosted a booth and gaming tables at Gencon, but the Paizo traffic was so heavy we never did obtain access to either (though we attempted a dozen times).  It was just as well, I suppose: I'd have bought the new Skull and Shackles ("SAS") Base Set, sight unseen, even though I really had no way of carrying it back to Canada, with my luggage already overstuffed with other, smaller games.


Returning to St. Albert from Gencon, I eventually dropped by my FLGS, Mission Fun and Games and purchased a copy of SAS.  But until this week, we had no opportunity to play the game.


The Skull and Shackles Base Set has an MSRP of $60 and comes in a big box.  A really big box.  In fact, other than those heavy gamer "coffin-box" games (event games that take all day to play) this may be the biggest game box on the market.  The box is big because it is designed to hold all of the planned adventure supplement decks. 

This is not the original insert for the SAS Base Set. This custom insert is from Go7 Gaming.

The SAS Base Set includes roughly 500 cards, a set of rules and five polyhedral dice.  You will need more dice to play, since this is a multi-player game and you will routinely need to roll two, three or even more of one particular die.  The boxed set only contains one of each of four, six, eight, ten and twelve sided dice, but most role-players already have an extensive dice collection.  If you are not a role-player, presumably you will buy additional sets of polyhedral dice when you purchase this game.


The game includes all sorts of cards representing scenarios, adventure locations, ships, villains, monsters, henchmen, obstacles, allies, weapons, spells, items and other cards; enough content to easily provide several months or more worth of weekly gaming sessions.  The SAS Base Set comes with five built-in scenarios, and the first Adventure Path (included as a deck within the Base Set box) provides you with an additional five.  That's ten weeks (two and a half months) of weekly adventures in the box, with more Adventure Paths on the way.  Because the encounters of any adventure path are semi-randomly generated using the provided cards, you can play the same scenarios multiple times and they stay fresh.


The SAS Base Set also includes cards for seven iconic Paizo characters: Valeros the Fighter, Lem the Bard, Seltyiel the Magus, Jirelle the Swashbucker, Merisel the Rogue, Lirianne the Gunslinger, and Alahazra the Oracle.  Although some may be displeased, I'm happy that four of the seven included characters are female.  That gives the ladies of the house lots of character choices.


Each character is represented by a set of skills and powers on a small character card.  The more proficient a character is in a category, the higher the related die they get to roll.  For example, Jirelle the Swashbuckler has a d10 for dexterity-related dice-rolls, but only a d4 for intelligence-related dice rolls.  Character also have several special powers and, in addition, are represented by a deck of 15 cards: those cards are both the abilities, spells, weapon and equipment of the character, and also their health.  Once they run out of cards in their deck, they are dead.  Thus players must balance the benefit of using (and thus discarding) cards from their hand, against the risk of depleting their deck and perishing.  Collecting new cards, healing spells, and other rules allow you to recover cards, but death in SAS is serious business.  When you run out of cards in your deck, your character dies and you have to start a brand-new character.  Severe!


In a four-player game, each scenario is represented by a scenario card, and six adventure locations.  The adventure locations might be as intimate as six chambers in an underground complex, or as broad as six widely-dispersed islands on the high seas.  The scenario card provides overall backstory to the adventure and identifies the villain or objective, while each location card includes a stack of ten randomized cards, some of which are beneficial, while others are harmful or antagonistic.  Some ten-card locations might contain five spells.  Others might contain five treasures.  Still others might contain five antagonists or five allies.  Each location identifies the number of each kind of cards that are waiting to be discovered there, so the players know which location the Fighter might be best at, which the Sorceress should visit, and so on.  But there are other types of cards at each location, so there still some risk involved.


There is no Dungeon Master.  The players take turns sending their characters to various locations, with optional accompaniment from other party-members, and dealing with their resulting encounters.  When a character arrives at a location, they have the option to have an encounter (flipping the top card of the location deck face-up and following the instructions on the card).  Sometimes bringing your party members along is a good thing, while other times characters and the party benefit from someone attempting to face an encounter alone.  But each player has to take their own character's turn using their own abilities and own cards, with help (where permitted by the rules) from other characters.  That is, if it is my turn and I encounter a Troll, another player cannot fight the Troll, only I can fight it, even though other characters may assist.


A count-down timer, represented by a deck of 30 cards, propels the game forward.  During each player's turn, they flip over one of the cards in the count-down timer.  If you run out of timer cards before you complete your objective, the game ends and you fail the scenario.  Oddly, failing a scenario is less disastrous than dying.  If you fail the scenario due to exhausting the timer, you get to keep the beneficial items retrieved and replay the scenario; if you die, you lose all of your items and character upgrades and must start with a completely new character.  Those two outcomes hardly seem proportionate.  Hopefully Paizo fixes this rule before the next Base Set is released.

Successfully completing a scenario provides you with several rewards.  The first is that you get to keep the loot you personally collected during the scenario, with the following caveat: each character has a "deck-limit" size of 15 cards (more as you level up) and if you end up with more cards than your deck-limit, you must discard the remainder, or give them to your fellow players to augment their decks.  This is not as great a problem as it sounds, since much of the loot you acquire is better than your starting equipment, so discarding the obsolete items will be a minor discomfort.  The second reward is the ability to level up your character.  Each player's character card has checkboxes, and as you check a box as your scenario reward, your character becomes more powerful in some way.  The third reward, exclusive to Skull and Shackles, is booty in your ship's hold.  You will collect booty during your adventures on the high seas, and at the end of the scenario, any booty on your ship will be divided between the characters.  You can then take your new and improved character and attempt the next scenario.

If you are finding that you no longer have time to role-play, but still want that role-playing experience, the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is the game for you.  Each scenario takes less than two hours to play, does not need a Dungeon Master to move the story along, and since PACG is a cooperative rather than competitive game, it is easier to entice new players to the table.  The one downside is that in four-player games, the scenarios do follow a standard format of six adventure locations, which risks feeling a little samey.  But each of the ten introductory scenarios have different villains, objectives, monsters and treasure, so the scenarios themselves should help ameliorate that problem.

If you like overcoming obstacles, defeating monsters, collecting treasures, leveling your characters and enjoying a cooperative game, check out the Skull and Shackles Base Set for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.