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Introducing the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society

Friday, March 15, 2019

I'm currently in Reno attending the GAMA trade show. It is our chance to meet with many retailers and present seminars on all things Paizo. We also have a booth on the exhibition floor where attendees can try out the new Starfinder Beginner Box, talk with the team about Pathfinder Second Edition and try a demo of the revised Adventure Card Game. So far, feedback from the floor is highly receptive on all fronts.

Last week, the teaser at the end of the blog said we would be doing a preview of Starfinder Society this week. We had a minor hiccup in getting a few things processed before I left town, so instead of doing a partial writeup, I decided to swap things around and present our plans for the Adventure Card Game this week and wait on the Starfinder Society story blog until we could announce all the information.

In looking at the revamp of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game and the new Core Set, we re-evaluated our presentation of the Adventure Card Guild. Over the past few years, we tried using the Pathfinder Society as an umbrella for both the Roleplay Guild and Card Guild. Our evaluation of our methods showed that lumping the two together wasn't helping either program—the cross-pollination of players we hoped for hadn't quite taken off. We decide that since we have a dedicated community of card game players and a dedicated community of roleplayers we should support communities on their own.

Going forward, we are renaming the Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild (PACG) to the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society (PACS), with a new logo based on the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game logo. We tapped developer Linda Zayas-Palmer, familiar to many for her work on Pathfinder Society, to oversee the playable content. And she has plans!

Speaking of storylines, the Year of Tapestry's Tides ends at PaizoCon (May 23-26). To support the new Core Set, we plan four short adventures to highlight gameplay and bring people to the table. The planned release schedule is two at PaizoCon and two at Origins (June 12-16). We will launch a new storyline at Gen Con (Aug 1-4). Since the Core Set is a revised product, not a new game, we are continuing our numbering cycle, so the Gen Con launch will be Year 6. I'm not going to spoil the name or plot, though, as I think that is Linda's prerogative. So, you'll have to keep an eye out for her blog for more card game news.

In regard to Gen Con, I'm busy entering event submission data. One change to our usual structure. Besides having regularly scheduled sessions of the new Year and demos of the Core Set, we will have older sets and scenarios available for check out for any available tables. These events will accept generic tickets, so if you find yourself with an extra hour between events, pop on by and have a quick game.

Next week, join the developers for a sneak peek into March's scenarios!

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

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Grand Lodge 4/5
Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

HUZZAH!
Liberty's Edge 3/5 5/5 **** Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Omaha

Cool!
4/5 *
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber

Excellent!
< air guitar >

Awesome!

Cool. Thanks for the info. Glad to hear PACG organized play is getting more resources.
Looking forward to the new scenarios
1/5 * RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16

Good to hear. Hopefully the new set and reorganization will make organized play less of a hassle!
****

Very cool, thank you!!
Grand Lodge 4/5 Venture-Agent, Texas—Houston

Does this mean the card game will get its own special/exclusive scenarios? (As opposed to being lumped in with PFS tables for The Cosmic Captive for example.)
Scarab Sages 3/5 **** Venture-Lieutenant, Nebraska—Bellevue
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Quote:
In looking at the revamp of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game and the new Core Set, we re-evaluated our presentation of the Adventure Card Guild. Over the past few years, we tried using the Pathfinder Society as an umbrella for both the Roleplay Guild and Card Guild. Our evaluation of our methods showed that lumping the two together wasn't helping either program—the cross-pollination of players we hoped for hadn't quite taken off. We decide that since we have a dedicated community of card game players and a dedicated community of roleplayers we should support communities on their own.

Of the group I play with, half aren't playing the RPG. So I get the concern. But I have really enjoyed the fact that Factions Favor ties into the RPG plotlines. Story-wise, I'd like to continue to see some tie ins.

That said, I agree the ACG needs dedicated support. And I'm glad to see some convention boons specific to the card game start to appear. Probably my number one request would be to reinvent the cert sheet for the card game. It hasn't changed since day one and still feels clunky.

A couple of options:
- Pre-print scenario rewards on the cert sheet for an adventure. That'd save a lot of writing. It'd feel more complete. You could provide check boxes for replays, since replays don't need as much note taking.
- Pre-print character advancement. I spend a lot of time reminding new players when they get a card feat, power feat or skill feat. This might be hard to combine with the above idea, but a generic advancement sheet in the guide would be nice.

A final request, please flesh out the XP to character advancement text. This is unique to Society play right now. Some things to clarify ..
-- If I play down a Tier (to help a friend) and have not played the scenario, does that scenario count as XP for advancement within my tier?
-- If I play with a group and we complete a season (like Factions Favor) but I missed a Tier 2 session, do I get credit for the season reward? In our weekly group, playing one scenario a week, it's hard for everyone to get every scenario.
Grand Lodge 5/5 *
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Aw yeah.....PACS!

All ready to get my cool new Adventure Card badges to add to my Paizo.com title.

*wink*

Yeahhhhh!!!

Curious to see what tier these short adventures will be placed at.
1/5 *

Doesn't sound like too much is actually changing. As someone who played both over the years I'll miss the crossover Specials. I haven't used the RPG rewards I've earned in the Card Game, and I don't remember playing any regular RPG scenarios that gave Card Game rewards (if there were any).

The Card Game itself hasn't been super popular at the nearby conventions. Locally there's been some following, but farther away there's either nothing scheduled or the tables have been empty when I was there. Perhaps things will change with the new set and a renewed effort on the part of the team; if not, then I hope there's enough popularity for you keep making the Seasons anyway as they are decent value for those of us who are enjoying the game. :)

John Brinkman wrote:
Pre-print scenario rewards on the cert sheet for an adventure. That'd save a lot of writing. It'd feel more complete.

I'd started to play with the sheets myself (you can see an old WIP version here) but as I only own all of the Scenarios for Season 0 I didn't go too far with it. At the time we were in the middle of doing Season 3.

One potential problem I had with it was how things would get all out of order if you had to replay something, but maybe that isn't too big a deal for most people? Personally, I'm surprised they kept putting the Adventure names on the Chronicle sheets instead of going completely generic.

John Brinkman wrote:
If I play down a Tier (to help a friend) and have not played the scenario, does that scenario count as XP for advancement within my tier?

It's the Level confusion all over again! You should advance regardless of whether the Scenario's Tier is below, the same, or above your Character's Tier as long as it's not a Scenario you're replaying and you win the Scenario.

John Brinkman wrote:
If I play with a group and we complete a season (like Factions Favor) but I missed a Tier 2 session, do I get credit for the season reward?

This one's easy enough: the Adventure Paths require you to complete all the Adventures; the Adventures require you to complete all the Scenarios. If you miss a Scenario, you miss one Adventure's reward and the Adventure Path reward.

John Brinkman wrote:
In our weekly group, playing one scenario a week, it's hard for everyone to get every scenario.

We play one every other week so it takes us even longer in real-life time. :(

We have been choosing to go back and replay to catch folks up (or play something else when everyone isn't there) rather than stick to a rigid schedule of Scenarios. If earning the rewards and reporting is important to your group, go back and replay them. If not, then do whatever you want and skip the reporting. There's nothing wrong with that as long as you're enjoying the game. :)
Grand Lodge 4/5 **** Developer

Thanks for your questions and feedback, everyone. We've kicked off the process of revising the Guide, so knowing what we can do better is super-useful.
Grand Lodge 4/5 **** Developer
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Morph147 Korundo wrote:
Curious to see what tier these short adventures will be placed at.

They will be Tier 1.

Also, as a point of clarity, "short adventures" means scenarios, rather than "adventures" in the Card Game mechanics sense. This means four ~1-hour games, rather than four packs of scenarios. Together, the four scenarios will comprise one full Tier 1 adventure.
Linda Zayas-Palmer wrote:

Thanks for your questions and feedback, everyone. We've kicked off the process of revising the Guide, so knowing what we can do better is super-useful.

There is a thread somewhere talking about scenario rewards when you are playing up or down a tier....

Can't remember where it is, but please please change scenario rewards that allow getting a card from your game box to be your characters tier, not the scenario tier!!
Allows people playing down to still get a benefit from a scenario occasionally
Thanks!

My personal note-taking process rejoices that the organized play will get to have a different abbreviation (PACS) from the game itself (PACG). It also never made sense to me that on the website I had to click through the Pathfinder Society and then another page to get to either the card game or the RPG, so as someone who plays both, having them further differentiated sounds good to me. I get excited about acronyms and website navigation, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

I do like the potential of the ACG/PFS crossover specials that we've had, so I hope you might still consider those for the future. But a dedicated ACG special that uses card game mechanics well would also be cool, so I wouldn't mind that if it's the direction you go.

Will the new scenarios be using the Crimson Throne box, or simply the new Core Set? I'm trying to decide whether to buy them both at release or start with the core set and play that for a while first. Knowing how they fit into plans for organized play would help me make that decision.
Linda Zayas-Palmer wrote:

Thanks for your questions and feedback, everyone. We've kicked off the process of revising the Guide, so knowing what we can do better is super-useful.

I'd love to see some public playtest or feedback forum thread be made. I know I have quite a lot of things I'd like to see covered in the next Card Guild Guide (though less about the structure or overall ruleset, but rather grey areas, clarifications or corrections). Some topics of note...

Card Guild Guide feedback:
  • The Season 4-P and 4-P2 rewards leave a large quantity of questions that the Card Guild Guide does nothing to answer, or even might contradict the Guide. I had a whole thread on this I can dig up, but various questions included the use of Redemption Cards and banishing cards (since you build their deck list from your "Deck Upgrades", but you don't ever strike deck upgrades off your Chronicle Sheet, so it seems like there's no consequence to a temp character banishing anything, which is a big problem with Hell's Vengeance 1 in particular).

  • Some people are vocally unhappy with the rules about starting characters at a higher tier (which skips all of the feats they would have normally gained). I have no real comment on the matter, but I'm acknowledging it.

  • The Guide makes no statement forbidding players from taking Loot cards from their own class deck. It's clear you're supposed to (because the end-of-season card rewards are Loot), but that also would mean that all Occult Adventures 1 characters can take Honaire, the Loot Ally that's clearly meant exclusively for Estra. In fact, she arguably is a bit worse than the other two characters (notably in spellcasting potential) because she has the awesome Loot Ally Honaire to make up for it. Kind of makes her look less impressive when this mega-ally is actually available to Meligaster, Rivani, or any Ultimate Add-On Deck character that chooses to use Occult Adventures as an easy Ally 0 deck upgrade.

  • The rules about clearing out boons that "remove themselves from the game" for a power are not cohesive - they only prescribe that players should remove them when they are encountered, suggesting it's entirely possible to draw them from the box or from a location deck with a suite of possible cards or character powers (such as Planchette). RAW, players could exploit this and re-play WotR or MM scenarios to gain permanent skill feats from "Remove from the game" cards in this way, with a lot of patience.

  • The Card Guild Guide prescribes no order-of-events for Traders and Loot replacements for Seasons 3 and 4, and so it's haphazard what tables actually do in these situations (I've personally played on tables under VOs box running the game and they've given conflicting rulings). Do you have to pick your trades and loot at once, or can you replace a card with loot then trade that loot for a different card, or can you trade a card for a different card type then replace that new card with loot?

  • The guide makes no mention as to what to do if your character offers a card feat that you cannot legally fill under PFSACG rules (this most frequently comes up in the Monk Class Deck, which doesn't have spells below AD3 but most of its characters can take spell slots).

  • The Guide does not describe what to do if you take a legal deck upgrade that causes you to have an illegal deck.

  • The Guide seems slightly contradictory about removing basic blessings depending on the method of card removal you've selected.

    •
    1 person marked this as a favorite.

    Are there any news about the android game? Can we expect an updated related to core set 2?
    Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ***
    1 person marked this as a favorite.
    Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
    John Brinkman wrote:
    - Pre-print character advancement. I spend a lot of time reminding new players when they get a card feat, power feat or skill feat. This might be hard to combine with the above idea, but a generic advancement sheet in the guide would be nice.

    Hmmmm... this could be an interesting cheat sheet to make...

    Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
    2 people marked this as a favorite.
    Iammars wrote:
    John Brinkman wrote:
    - Pre-print character advancement. I spend a lot of time reminding new players when they get a card feat, power feat or skill feat. This might be hard to combine with the above idea, but a generic advancement sheet in the guide would be nice.
    Hmmmm... this could be an interesting cheat sheet to make...

    No need—we're greatly simplifying this for season 6.

    It'll be unforgettable. (♩...in every way... ♩)
    Vic Wertz wrote:
    Iammars wrote:
    John Brinkman wrote:
    - Pre-print character advancement. I spend a lot of time reminding new players when they get a card feat, power feat or skill feat. This might be hard to combine with the above idea, but a generic advancement sheet in the guide would be nice.
    Hmmmm... this could be an interesting cheat sheet to make...

    No need—we're greatly simplifying this for season 6.

    It'll be unforgettable. (♩...in every way.... ♩)

    Nice! I'm all in favor of simplifying that process.

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