- I'm going to tell you a secret. If you want to sell me something, magically make it appear when I ask about it. I went to the local game store Friday just to see what was new. I didn't expect to actually buy anything, an issue of White Dwarf at most. But then I made an offhand comment that it looked like the Pathfinder game must be hard to keep on the shelf. She said that it was, but that she'd received another shipment today. She walked over to a cardboard box, cut it opened, and pulled the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game from the packing peanuts. Once I had it in my hands, it was very hard to say no. It was also hard to say no to the Character Add-On Deck, because dumber isn't much different from dumb, right?
- Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is an RPG boiled down into card form. You, as the player, choose a character, build a starting card deck of weapons, armor, and the like (the types and amounts based on the character), and select a scenario to play. The base game allows one to four players, but you can go up to six with the add-on. Each scenario lists the villains and the locations for each quest, and each location lists the amount of each card type in its deck. On your turn, flip the top card of the blessing deck (which acts as a doomsday clock), decide whether to move your character to a new location, and then encounter the top card of the location deck. The goal of most of the scenarios is to corner the main villain by cutting off avenues of escape and defeating them.
- One of the main reasons I bought PACG is that it was supposed to play well as a single player game. So after I cracked open the box, read the rules, and sorted the cards (which I actually did in that order), I started my first adventure. Then the next day I played my second. Then the next day I played the third. And now, like my favorite video games, I can't get it out of my head.
- For such a stripped down system, I love how the card interactions evoke fantasy adventure so well. In the final basic scenario, Black Fang's Dungeon, the three locations are Shrine of Lamashtu, Temple, and Desecrated Vault. The order could have been chosen haphazardly, but I don't think so. In my mind, the Shrine, though some distance away, sits in opposition to the Temple. And through its dark magics, the denizens of the Shrine have desecrated the Vault under the shrine, causing all manor of evil to rise from its bowels.
- And then there are the character powers. Without any amount of description, the basis of the powers is immediately evident. My rogue has two primary powers. First, the ability to evade any encounter is a perfect implementation of a rogue's stealth capability. Second, the ability to add an extra die to combat checks when your character is alone at a location is obviously a sneak attack. I'm all for better story telling in games, but sometimes mechanics tell the best stories on their own.
- Because each character deck is really a resource management system, making decisions about how and when to use your cards is vital. That is why the one thing I really like is the various card use mechanics: Reveal, Recharge, Discard, Bury, and Banish. Reveal just means to show that the card is in your hand. Recharge means to play it face down under your draw pile, so that it may come up again. Discard means to place in the discard pile, though various cards (i.e. healing) allow you access to these. Bury means to discard under your character card, putting them out of play for the rest of the game. Banish means to discard to the box, leaving your deck permenantly. Such a wide range of options makes each card play a strategic choice.
- Here is my rogue. She fought off the bandits, she saved the city from a mad alchemist, and she slew the dragon, Black Fang. And yet, the most difficult choice of the game to make: which skill do I chose for her new feat? It has been a couple days now and I still don't know!
© 2013 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- We drove up to my parents' house for Thanksgiving this year. That night, after the feast was put away, after the football was over, after everyone else had gone to bed, my brother and I broke out the Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Games from Fantasy Flight Games to relive some of the Star Wars battle from our youth.
- Game 1 - For our first game, we played with the Quick Start rules. I took the Rookie Pilot and he played the Academy Pilot and Obsidian Squadron Pilot. The rules call for a 2x2 play area. I didn't bother to measure. We just set the ships up closer to one another. The Quick Start rules are pretty stripped down. There are no actions, no upgrades. Just turning and shooting. There is one other difference between these and the real rules: if your ship can complete a move, it doesn't move at all. My brother misjudged his third move with the Academy Pilot, put him in front of his superior, and locked out his move for the round. My brother does not handle frustration well. This was not the last time Academy Pilot would do something stupid during the night. The match ended with TIEs gunned down and the X-Wing limping away with three hits.
- Game 2 - It was an easy choice to move up the standard Rules for our next game. We set up the default scenario again, my Luke Skywalker versus his Night Beast and Obsidian Squadron Pilot. I decided to see if the superior shields and firepower of the X-Wing would allow me to fly headlong into the TIEs and pulverize them. The dice told me know. I came away with my shields down and a hull hit without inflicting any appreciable damage on my brother's team. I tried to put up a fight afterward, but it was a forgone conclusion at that point.
- Game 3 - It was getting late at this point, but there so much in the rules and in the box he did hadn't played with, we had one last go. This time with the Advanced Rules. We set up four asteroids to make the flying more interesting, though they ended up in a straight diagonal across the field. And built our own squads. The rules suggest 31 points if you are playing out of the box. But my brother wanted to take Luke Skywalker and R2-D2, so we bumped it to 32. I went for Mauler Mithel with Marksmanship and an Academy Pilot. I should have known he would be my undoing. To surprise the X-Wing, I turned the Academy Pilot across an asteroid and opened fire. It was sure a surprise and put my brother on the defensive, but I was trying maneuver Mauler more carefully and the Academy Pilot got chewed up before I could get him in position. It was a tight battle at the end. R2 got the chance to restore shields twice as I continued to pour fire into the X-Wing, which I think saved him. Scratch off two TIEs.
- I didn't end victorious, but it was fun. I don't know when I'll next have a chance to play, but I'm definitely putting more ships on my Christmas wish list.
© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- When it comes to games, any kind of game, I came become strangely fixated on something new. I read about it, download documents, seek out descriptions of play, things like that. Since I don't have the opportunity to do a lot of gaming that doesn't involve a computer, it's a way for me to partake in that culture without actually playing anything. One such game that I recently obsessed over was Tales Of The Arabian Nights.
- I first learned about the game on BoardGameGeek, which is a deadly labyrinth that has trapped many a board gamer. The goal of the game is simple: you roam the known world to seek fame and fortune, denoted by story and destiny points. As you wander, you run into various personages, visit foreign cities, and discover wondrous locales like the City of Brass or the Jeweled Fortress. But where the game diverges from the norm is because of the Book of Tales. Much like a choose your own adventure book, each encounter in the game directs you to a paragraph in the book to determine the outcome of your actions.
- It is not a game in the traditional sense. There are victory conditions and decisions you can make attempt to achieve your goals. But decisions are entirely arbitrary as there is little indication for what a potential outcome might be before you choose what to do. The real joy in the game comes from the group storytelling that happens. You aren't reading these sections to yourself. Instead, another player reads the sections describing how the encounter unfolds. How much the reader gets into the performance is directly responsible for how much fun you have with the game. And there are lots of laughs to be had as any number of unfortunately circumstances can befall the players.
- I played the game with my parents and my brother while I was visiting for Christmas last year. My father is very competitive player, so I wasn't sure how well he would take to the game. My mother enjoys trying new things (she even has her own Guild Wars account because she likes how the game looks) so I wasn't too worried about her. And my brother is a little like my father, but he's a gamer at heart. We each took a token and set out to explore the world. I had to lead a way, really trying to get into the storytelling role, and the others picked up on it pretty well. Amazingly enough, although my father had the worst things all happen to him, he was still able to win the game. I guess the moral of the story is that adversity really does build character. Best of all, we had a good time, even if it ran long on our first try.
- Tales Of The Arabian Nights was a very different experience, and one I'm really happy that I got to try. Even though the book is huge, I worry that could become predictable and repeatative after too many plays. And everyone has to be in the mood for a chaotic, story oriented experience. So it will remain a when-the-fancy-strikes game, instead of an every-game-night game.
- For those of you who like to peek behind the curtain, I started writing this post in January 2010 almost a month after I played the game. I haven't had the chance to play it since. And although it took seven months to finish, this is only the third oldest post in my queue. Have fun, everyone!
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
