keybounce

(Bump) So on the assumption that this is still the case -- that you want to continue making more for this if it is worth doing, even almost a decade later -- here is something to consider. On the assumption (that seems to be the case) that $25 is a "full game" of 6 adventure decks plus a base set, how about something like the following (taking advantage of Steam's bundle discount system): 1, the "base game" is a free demo. It is clearly marked in the ads / product page, not as "free to play/in-game purchases", but as "Free demo, purchasable full game". 2, the game clearly states that a campaign is 6 adventure decks/chapters, each having 5 scenarios. Each adventure deck is $6 (or just over $1 per scenario -- and even state that each scenario is about 1-3 hours of play, depending on replay with different parties and difficulty, success rate, etc). 3, The campaign is in a steam bundle at a 18% discount -- so instead of $30 for the whole campaign, you can spend $25. The benefit of the steam bundle is that your price drops as you have already purchased chapters -- so instead of having to buy everything, you get a discount for having bought the pieces ahead of time. I'm not sure that any other store has this -- being able to only buy a portion of a bundle if you already own parts of the bundle. 4, this in turn lets you have sales/specials (or bundle participation), by discounting the bundle or the individual pieces. 5, Oh look at what is new a decade later. Kickstarter. Kickstart pre-pledges for either 1 initial chapter, or the full campaign, can fund development. 6. **Absolutely** make sure that the game is playable without spending gold on bonuses (charms/runes) [should be automatic if you have the same challenge level as the physical game]. Real life money should only need to be spent on content (adventure locations), not on one-time improvements. For too many people, that "pay to win" balancing is a turn-off. (NB: *Having* it lets people who want to, spend more; *requiring it*, or even the *hint of needing to* destroys things.) Gameplay-earned gold for optional unlocks ... I know that runs both ways. Some like it, some hate it. The worst example in the industry was almost certainly the star wars "You have to unlock jedi to play them, or spend an additional $x". One issue with the game right now is just "what am I purchasing"? This was especially true with a recent steam sale, where the base game was cheap enough that I figured it was well worth getting -- but the DLC wasn't clear what it was/what it offered. So something to make "what the game is" more obvious will be a big gain. As for "pay for characters" -- I am really going to say that's a bad idea. Consider that I will have no idea if I like a character or not until after I've had a chance to try it, paying for something that is a good chance of "not being fun" just for the 100% completion of content is a turn-off, not a turn-on. Knowing that there's X characters, and I'm expected to like some, not others, and different people like different things, that feels like it's just how the game is. From what I understand, PACG went from having "this is the rules as of our first set/campaign", to "These are now the coreset rules, and here are changes to the early campaigns to fit the new common rules". So you could have (just an example) a kickstart for the new coreset and the start of one of the newer campaigns. If you really want to incentivize, the base/demo has 4 characters, deck 1 unlocks all the base characters, deck 2 unlocks the alt characters -- and keep that in all campaigns. It's not a case of "I already purchased the characters, I'm having to purchase them again" (a turn-off), but more "this is an effect of any campaign" to get you playing.

Ohh, turns out the designer of the card game (physical) even has guidelines for homebrew: https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2r6ax?Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-How-to-Make-PACG-Cards

Ok, Lem is also a healer. It took me a while to understand -- once per turn, he can trade a spell in hand for the discarded cure spell, and then cast it to get cards back. So as long as he does not lose all of his spells, he can heal his own spells. Beyond that, he seems to be all about having others do better at things; so he would be paired with teamwork guy (Valeros).

(Bump) Ok, I need help on solo running anyone without cures. Merisiel was the first I tried, and despite the free attack, I was running out of cards with no way to heal anything back. Also, only a few of them have cure in their deck -- and if you don't have two, or a way to cycle cards of your choice, how do you manage?

So *THAT*'s what it's for. I love it, now that I know it.

It occurs to me that this is a game that could really benefit from a modding community; is there one? From "fixing useless powers", to "community-made campaigns", this just has the feel of a really good RPG core.

(Bump) So do you have a list of all the "useless" skills and features / powers and roles that wound up being near useless? And, do you have a list of "These are things that fit the character that could replace those and be useful"?

Some of my characters have "repair" markers on every card. Some do not. What determines this?

I just managed to (barely) complete B-1 with 6 people, and 2 blessings left. I'm now 22 cards over my character's limit, and I've already got 5 cards in stash. How do I get out of deck management? Game wants me to get everyone "happy".

I want to know what I did wrong / what I misunderstood. I encountered a sneak, with Mistriel. I had Caltrops. Caltrops says I can discard to defeat an opponent up to 9, and the sneak fits that. Game asked if I wanted to evade or encounter. The "evade" button was lit and flashing, as was the green arrow to the right. I hit the arrow. Instead of defeating the sneak, it was shuffled back into the location What did I do wrong?

I am trying to understand what, or if, I understand or not. Gold, as I understand, can be spent on treasure chests (unlocks cards), on a few specific treasure cards (instead of random chance, but very expensive), or on runes (time-sensitive bonuses) or charms (scrolls -- like one-time use of cards; others -- looks like ptw bonuses for a scenario that is too tough/characters too weak). Runes -- one set of runes claims it increases the likelyness of unlocking better treasure, but does not indicate how much it improves. Other than that? Increasing gold payout for a time period sounds good, but if you're learning the game / the scenario, you're going slow, especially if you need to read text and plan; you're not getting the full benefit. Which would mean you either need to rush (and make mistakes, and increase stress), or you're doing legendary runs. Neither of those sound fun to me -- the stress effect makes one a non-starter. For me. Is there anything I missed? === Treasure: So buying a chest unlocks cards, adds them to the active cards, and gives you some to work with. In the physical game, how were these represented? Were there "locked cards" that had to be unlocked to use, or is this entire mechanism new to the digital game? Also: Now that I understand how to use the card examination, I see that about half of the treasure cards are already unlocked; I did NOT buy any chests yet, and have a fresh install of the game from the steam sale last week. So what determines if a treasure card starts unlocked, and what makes a card treasure or not? Sample of what I mean:

This was not clear in the tutorial. If you have open locations, the villain of the scenario is going to escape even if you defeat them. But if you do not defeat them, blessings are taken from the blessing deck. Even if you do, the size of each open location gets bigger.

Ok, I found the answer. This is not obvious, but if you go to Options -> Glossary, you can find the actual game rules. Favored card type: You will have at least one card of that type in your starting hand.

Location question: "apothecary" has an effect if you do not explore. How can you *not* explore? Equally, at "General store", when you close it, you add random items, and then get the top card -- so why add 1-6 items -- what does adding more than 1 item do? EDIT: So exploration is *Voluntary!*. You can actually skip it, especially useful if you know what's on top and want to leave it there for later. As for adding items to the closed place -- closing does not mean the place is empty. It just means that (unless you have something else as a location rule) you remove what was there. More things can be added, or only *some* of what is there can be removed (location rule). So closed locations can still have things to find by exploring.

So I thought these character creation screens were supposed to have the character's background, and an explanation of why sometimes skills are attached to a different characteristic than normal