The Pathfinder
Adventure Card Game attempts to simulate an rpg-lite experience of killing
monsters and taking their stuff within the world of Golarion, the setting for
Paizo publishing's hugely successful pen-and-paper rpg named, err, Pathfinder.
As an rpg, Pathfinder
has been incredibly successful, if industry sources are to be believed, now
eclipsing sales of the daddy of rpgs, Dungeons & Dragons (though if you
were being pedantic, you could call this claim into question, given that Pathfinder is a rebranding of an
earlier iteration of D&D). Pathfinder's success has partially built on the
fact of Wizards of the Coast - an offshoot of Hasbro who currently have the
D&D IP - having dropped the ball somewhat with their recent (4th) edition
of the game. Indeed, WotC seem to have fallen into the skewed mentality of
their predecessor (TSR) by assuming that anything with the D&D brand is an
instant sell. As a consequence - and in what some consider to be a cynical
cash-grab - WotC appeared to abandon support of (the highly successful) 3rd
edition of D&D (upon which Pathfinder is based), believing that existing players
would do likewise and slavishly buy into a 4th edition of the game. In addition, WotC radically
reformulated the system with a view to reflecting the mechanics and playstyle
of MMORPGs (World of Warcraft in particular), presumably with a view to
attracting that audience. To consolidate this attempt at forcibly getting
players to shift to the new addition, WotC suddenly withdrew from sale of all
their pdfs of previous (as well as 4th) edition rulebooks, scenarios and
supplements. The inference here being that if people wanted to play D&D,
the would only be allowed to play 4th Edition D&D and no other. At this
point, enter Paizo, who published an updated and rebranded 3rd edition ruleset
under the Open Game License that WotC created in 2000 (which allows publishers
to make use the D&D ruleset in their publications), and the rest, as they
say, is history.
Whilst I don't actually play the Pathfinder rpg (or at least
haven't had the opportunity to do so yet), it is a game whose setting and
background intrigues me: in part because it incorporates something of an old
school sword and sorcery feel , and because the Pathfinder content creators
appear to be massive fans of H.P. Lovecraft, incorporating many elements of his
universe into the world of Golarion. As a consequence, Lovecraftian themes and beasties
are not an uncommon sight in Pathfinder setting books and scenarios - indeed, PCs
get the opportunity to visit the dread Plateau of Leng in one of the the recent
Pathfinder campaigns/adventure paths. Readers of one of my other blogs will
know, I am a hugh HPL fan. Thus I am somewhat endeared to the Pathfinder world.
The cover of volume 4 of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary - anything look familiar here?
As an aside, what is it about the Tolkeinesque
cod-medievalism that permeates so much of the rpg scene? This is something of a
major gripe for me, especially when I hear roleplayers declaiming how creative
they are. Why is it, then, that in many gaming fantasy settings we find exactly
the same tropes (elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs and elves in an early
mediieval-styled setting), and consistently depolyed in exactly the same way? Despite
its more S&S stylings, Pathfinder is equally guilty of this. In this
respect, the 'creativity' of the rpg scene has, to some extent, been subsumed
into a culture industry where what is being presented as new and innovatiove is
really the same old same old. Anything that bucks the trend tends to end up in
obscurity: M.A.R. Barker's Tekumel, for example and, to a lesser extent, Greg
Stafford's Glorantha. That said, I do absolutely
and unconditionally love the Warhammer World in both its fantasy and sci-fi
iterations (elves, orcs and dwarves in spaaace! Except we don't talk about the
dwarves anymore), so perhaps I shouldn't complain too much...
In any case, onto the Pathfinder
Adventure Card game proper. This attempts to replicate in card game format
the first published Pathfinder rpg campaign (or adventure path), Rise of the Rune Lords. It is also a
fully co-operative game ideal for solitaire shennanigans. The basic premise of
the game is fairly straightforward: players undertake a number of scenarios,
during which they explore various locations (each represented by a card along
with a corresponding deck of randomly determined location cards) with a view to
locating the villain of the piece and taking him or her down. Whilst doing so,
they will encounter various traps, pitfalls and monsters, as well as having the
opportunity to acquire various items and spells and, in proper D&D fashion,
level-up to become unbeatable combat monsters in the process.
Each player's character is represented by a card which is
effectively their character sheet, detailing various abilities and special
powers. Each of these is allocated a die type (from d4 to d12) along with
various bonuses, which forms the basis for the game's core mechanic (see below).
Each character also has a deck of 15 cards from which they draw each turn. These
contain weapons, armour, spells, blessings, allies and items, each of which has
the potential to help the character in some way. The construction of each deck
is dependent on character class - so a fighter will have more weapon cards in
their deck, whilst a wizard will have more spells. As with many other
co-operative/solitaire games, Pathfinder has a timing mechanism against which
the players are pitched. This consists of a deck of 30 cards, one of which is
flipped at the start of each player's turn. If the deck is exhausted before the
players have fulfilled the goal of a given scenario, they collectively lose the
game.
Setup of a Game of Pathfinder - pinched from Boardgamegeek as my attempts at taking photos proved to be crap...
During their turn, a player can (amongst other things) move their
character to a new location, explore a location, discard cards, and refresh
their hand. Each scenario is made up of a number of locations, scaled to the
number of characters in play (using two characters means you usually have 4
locations in play), and each location has its own dedicated (and randomly
determined) location deck. Exploration actions are at the heart of the game,
and involve revealing the top card of the location deck at which your character
is currently placed, and resolving the
card effect. Cards are either banes or boons. Boons are items which players can
add to their hand; banes are monsters and traps which characters have to
overcome. When a character encounters a monster or item, they roll the dice linked
to an ability relevant to the encounter (so for example, if you are fighting a
monster, you may end up rolling the die type associated with your strength),
add bonuses and play cards from their hand (which may add additional bonuses or
allow them to roll more dice). If the total of their die roll equals or beats a
specified number on the card of the monster or item they are encountering, they
win the encounter (i.e. beat the monster, or acquire the item). If they fail,
items are returned to the game box, and monsters deal damage equal to the
difference between the player's roll and the monster's combat number, forcing
them to discard that number of cards from their hand (so, if a character is
fighting a monster with a combat strength of 10, and rolls a 6, he or she will
need to discard 4 cards from their hand). This is where hand size comes into play.
Different characters have different had sizes, such that a fighter has a hand size
of 4, and a sorcerer has a hand size of 6. A larger hand size means having more
cards to draw upon during actions, but it also means that there is a greater
potential for taking damage (a character with only 2 cards in hand who takes 6
damage from a monster only loses what they have in their hand, so the larger
the hand size the potential of taking more damage).At the end of your turn, you
must draw cards from your deck equal to your hand size. Without going into a
detailed analysis of the mechanics, what this means is that the lower your hand
size, the slower you are to cycle through your deck. This is important, because
at any time you are required to draw a card from your deck and have no cards
remaining, your character is killed and is out of the scenario. So, for
example, fighters who are generally able to withstand greater combat damage
than, say, a wizard, will have a relatively small hand size reflecting the
greater difficulty to kill them. Playing
cards from your had also potentially depletes your deck, as you are sometimes
required to discard cards in order to trigger their effects. Some cards only
require that you reveal them to take effect, after which they return to your
hand, whilst others others are recharged, meaning they go to the bottom of your
deck, potentially being made available for reuse later on in the game. A note
of warning, though: I have been working through the entire Rise of the
Runelords campaign that comprises the core of this game using two characters:
One for the ladies, the mighty Valeros
Plus a dash of gentlemen's relish with the delectable Seoni (soon to become Goblin feed, unfortunately)
As I advanced my characters in power, I also identified what I
thought was a loophole in the rules which effectively allows you neverto have to
let one of your character die. In brief, during a character's turn, they do not have
to do anything other than ensure that they retain their hand to the rquired
level. Thus if you are running low on cards, you can choose to do
nothing throughout the rest of the scenario, including avoiding potentially lethal combat. You, will, as a consequence, almost certainly lose the scenario, but your character will survive (thus retaining any advances gained through experience, which you lose if you die). You can then reformulate your
strategy and re-attempt the failed scenario. However, during my last game, I
decided to allow Seoni to search a new location, despite the fact that
she had already cycled through most of her deck. My hope being that perhaps a useful item might be acquired. Even in her weakened state, I anticipated that Seoni would still be able to fend off most
monsters. Unfortunately, the card I flipped turned out to be the villain of the
piece (a goblin warlord). What I had also failed to take into account
were various special rules in place due to the scenario and location card that raised this particular goblin's combat check number by 6,
which suddenly made defeating him look improbable. Added to that the fact that all of the combat dice I rolled came up 1s, I was faced with a situation whee not only
did Seoni have to discard here entire hand of 7 cards, but she did not have
enough cards left in her deck to redraw up to her full complement, and thus became the goblin warlord's dinner. Oh fuck...a
loss, I can tell you, that I felt keenly.
After about 8 plays of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, I can say that this currently
stands quite high in my list of favourite solitaire games. Once you have the
rules down pat, a typical game takes between 45 mins - 1 hour. The fantasy
theme is also something that appeals, as is the ability to typical rpg ability
to improve your characters between scenarios (each scenario successfully
completed allows the surviving characters to upgrade one of their abilities, or
to draw new items). Speed and theme aside, I did feel the game was lacking a little
in terms of its narrative engagement - a big plus for me where solitaire games
are concerned. The game is rather abstract, and scenarios tend to be very
similar (i.e. find and kill the villain). This is definitely a case where I
didn't quite feel that the mechanics managed to supported the idea of the game
as an light rpg experience. For example, the character deck represents items
and abilities that you possess, as well as being a measure of 'hit points';
however, you might have a great axe (a particularly effective weapon for
fighters) in your deck, but unless it is in your hand, you cannot play it. In
this respect, it seems odd that a character going off adventuring would not
have their favoured weapon to hand, and instead await the whims of fortune to
be able to use it. To have one's possessions as a marker of hit points also
seems a little odd, although i do like how this mechanic is implemented. Also,
for an rpg marked by such amazing art - particularly that of Wayne Reynolds - the
visual impact of the game felt a little weak. Compare, for instance, a card from Fantasy Flight Games'
The Lord of the Rings card game:
...as opposed to the rather bland
production values of a card from the Pathfinder
Adventure Card Game:
Even so, the speed of play, its solitaire
playability, and the general theme (even if not ideally implemented) go quite
some way to making this a cracking little time waster and, if, like me, you're
prone to indulging in occasional power-gaming fantasies, the ability to raise
your lowly character from the ranks of the base and undeserving to
mighty-thewed hero who treads kingdoms beneath his sandalled feet, then this
does hit the spot. Whilst not a deeply immersive rpg-like experience, as noted
above I did end up investing in my characters over the duration of the
campaign. As with last week's offering, the Pathfinder
Adventure Card Game will definitely be hitting my gaming table again in the
near future.
On the Gaming Self Abuse Scale (tm), this is quicker and more immersive than
last week's Witch of Salem. Though retaining some of that game's abstraction and not quite there as a card-based rpg, this is still highly
recommended for a quick session of dungeon-crawl self-pleasuring. 8/10.
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