AMA

[Cocky-Rooster]

Saw this in a comment on Paizo's site:

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_ACG/comments/454g5l/on_wednesday_february_17th_obsidian_entertainment/

[why]

Link isn't working, bud. What does it say?

[Cocky-Rooster]

Link isn't working, bud. What does it say?

huh it works for me. anyways OBS is doing a AMA on the Pathfinder_ACG sub on Reddit. Feb 17th 10:30-2:00

[Cocky-Rooster]

We are excited to welcome three Obsidian Entertainment employees:

• Nathan Davis (Creative Director)
  
• Andre Nguyen (Designer)
  
• Lindsey Laney (Artist)
  

They will be here from 10:30 AM to 2:00 PM PST on Wednesday February 17th to answer all your questions aboutPathfinder Adventures releasing on March 29th for Apple iPad and Android tablets!

We will post the AMA thread on Tuesday February 16th for you to ask and vote on questions for them

[why]

Kind of reinforces the idea that Paizo is the one keeping things close on this one. I'll have to check out the thread.

[Cocky-Rooster]

Hopefully we'll see some assets before the AMA to discuss...?

[PinkRose]

Question 1. Is this game really going to have art or will it just be white text on black background and that's why we don't get any screen shots?

[why]

Pink, you're a tricky one.  I *like* you!  hehe  ...But I'm sure the screen shots with animations aren't completely false.  Still, I completely support your efforts to get them to cough up more stuff.  I can't make it from my home computer on Wednesday of next week.  Bad timing for me, but maybe I can participate by using my phone.  ugh.  I'll probably just have to get the news second hand from my homies (by which I mean *you*).  However, I really do hope they can get the go ahead for a stream of the actual card game.  I know Dowling really does yeoman's work on the Obsidian live streaming site, and he has to put up with a bunch of us drunk bastards.  We'll treat the devs gentle if they just do a little demo of the cards and give a tiny bit of commentary of how the actions will play out in the electronic game.  I, personally, promise I'll handle 'em with kid gloves.  <.<  >,>

[LLaney]

? All the screenshots are legit, if not a little old in some cases.

[PinkRose]

(I was hoping for a few more, not accusing you of making up screenshots. My humour doesn't always roll a 20.)

[MerryHo]

The AMA is live!

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_ACG/comments/4645e0/ama_we_are_obsidian_entertainment_the_developers/

 

Get over there and ask some questions!

[PinkRose]

For those more familiar with reddit and AMAs, is it better form to post multiple questions in multiple posts or combine them all in one post for upvoting?

[why]

Anything noteworthy happen?  I'm hoping that the people on the other ​forum got a little more love that we get in these parts.  Did one of you guys go and come out with a few extraordinary tidbits to share?

[Borissimo]

For those more familiar with reddit and AMAs, is it better form to post multiple questions in multiple posts or combine them all in one post for upvoting?

 

I think it's better to post multiple questions in multiple posts, so that people can vote on each of the questions individually. Evidently, the guy who put 14 questions in one post and all the people who upvoted him disagree.

[PinkRose]

@Why, They just opened the thread. So people can ask questions today and then they can prepare answers for tomorrow.

I'll be sure to update as soon as I can, which won't until later tomorrow night unfortunately.

Edited February 17, 2016 by PinkRose

[Dunesparrow]

Hey there

 

My apologies, that was my first post on Reddit and I was unaware of the proper etiquette.

 

Thanks

[Borissimo]

Thanks to all the devs for doing the AMA! It was amazing.

 

For those who missed it, the most mindblowing thing in it for me was that the game actually WILL have a F2P model, in that adventure decks can be "earned" through gameplay. I don't even wanna bother asking for the details on how that'll work, because as dying as I am to know that, I have 100% confidence such questions will not be answered here. Suffice it to say I'm wildly intrigued.

 

Sadly, the devs did not reveal the exact timeline for adventure deck release dates, but they did say it was "weeks." Whether that's weeks between each AD or weeks for the whole thing, they didn't say -- I'm obviously hoping for the former.

 

One other thing that surprised me is that they did reveal the price point: It's $4.99 per AD. Unlike with the physical game, AD1 is not free, I'm guessing because Perils is free. I can see why they went with a F2P model for this one -- at $5 per adventure, the whole thing's gonna cost $30, which is WAY beyond the pale for iOS board game apps. All in all, I think that Nathan & Co's response to the pricing problem is very, very smart.

 

And finally, Nathan revealed an interest in doing all of the PACG base sets at some point. Of course, this isn't a firm commitment or anything, but I was thrilled to see that this desire is there. Here's hoping the entirety of PACG will be on our tablets 5 years from now.

[why]

Thanks Borissimo! I really appreciate the recap. In all honesty, the lack of forum love here is weird. Not really angry about it so much as confused. Maybe a Paizo thing, in which case they'll never explain it and shouldn't.

[Thornsnag]

Borissimo - total PACG newb here (never played the cardboard).  When they talked about Peril being free, is that a short tutorial type adventure for the RotR cardboard (and now digital game) from your understanding?

[PinkRose]

Peril is the first 3 scenarios. 

Basically .1, .2, .3

They come with the base set. 

Before the first RotR Adventure pack Scenarios.

It just so happens that in the cardboard version, they give you your first Adventure Deck for RotR free as well.

Edited February 18, 2016 by PinkRose

[Doc Mage]

Thanks to all the devs for doing the AMA! It was amazing.

 

For those who missed it, the most mindblowing thing in it for me was that the game actually WILL have a F2P model, in that adventure decks can be "earned" through gameplay. I don't even wanna bother asking for the details on how that'll work, because as dying as I am to know that, I have 100% confidence such questions will not be answered here. Suffice it to say I'm wildly intrigued.

 

Sadly, the devs did not reveal the exact timeline for adventure deck release dates, but they did say it was "weeks." Whether that's weeks between each AD or weeks for the whole thing, they didn't say -- I'm obviously hoping for the former.

 

One other thing that surprised me is that they did reveal the price point: It's $4.99 per AD. Unlike with the physical game, AD1 is not free, I'm guessing because Perils is free. I can see why they went with a F2P model for this one -- at $5 per adventure, the whole thing's gonna cost $30, which is WAY beyond the pale for iOS board game apps. All in all, I think that Nathan & Co's response to the pricing problem is very, very smart.

 

And finally, Nathan revealed an interest in doing all of the PACG base sets at some point. Of course, this isn't a firm commitment or anything, but I was thrilled to see that this desire is there. Here's hoping the entirety of PACG will be on our tablets 5 years from now.

 

Now one thing they did mention was that there will be a season pass at a discount, which includes all characters and all adventures.  So, if that comes in at 20-25, then that might be more cost effective.  I don't think they did say how much the season pass would be, which would be nice to know, I wish I could have made the AMA myself and asked.  The season pass also comes with all promo cards.  So between the play to unlock and the season pass, you have some options.

[PinkRose]

They did say the probably wouldn't announce season pass price until release.

But I see it coming in at $19.99. Possibly $29.99. Which is a bit much for a tablet game, but the value would be 1 free character add-on deck, all promo cards, AND NO SHUFFLING.

I can spend $20, without any consideration after waiting this long. $30 at once is slightly more difficult. Especially since I've already paid for the cardboard version.

Now $30 and I can play on Android AND Steam. That would get my money.

 

Thanks Developers for the AMA.

Now more Screenshots of boring UI tweaks please. 

[why]

I don't have a lot of money, but I'd be willing to make the purchase at 30 bucks. I don't like throwing my money around pell mell, and I'm a lot cheaper (and poorer) than you'd think by this post, but I'm ultimately being supportive of a friend. I'm waiting on buying the old school version of the game until I can assess if the wife would enjoy it. Speaking of which, if it will work on the kindle, I could eventually pick it up for her. I don't need to know about hardware requirements for that, though, since we'll try it on my S2 before we even need to worry about her kindle. Plus, she's due for an upgrade to a newer kindle and I can't imagine the newest one couldn't handle the game.

 

So my plan for now is to play the release game, which I guess is more or less the tutorial from what you folks are telling me, and then I'll probably, unless I truly detest it, just buy whatever the max pack will be or whatnot. Then, if my friends and I like that then I'll buy the physical copy of the card game too.

[Borissimo]

Borissimo - total PACG newb here (never played the cardboard).  When they talked about Peril being free, is that a short tutorial type adventure for the RotR cardboard (and now digital game) from your understanding?

 

PinkRose answered this above, but if you're curious for more detail --

 

There's a lot of terminology in PACG -- adventure path, adventure deck, base set, scenario, class deck -- that can make it kind of hard to understand exactly what you need to play the game. Here's the best way I can explain it: the Rise of the Runelords card game consists of 6 adventure decks, and each adventure deck is like 1 chapter of a book. If you want to read the whole book, you need to read all 6 chapters. Each chapter has a name:

 

Chapter 1: Burnt Offerings

Chapter 2: The Skinsaw Murders

Chapter 3: The Hook Mountain Massacre

... and so on

 

The book also has a prologue: it's called Perils of the Lost Coast. The prologue consists of 3 scenarios, while each of the chapters consists of 5 scenarios.

 

When you buy the Rise of the Runelords base set in cardboard form, it comes with the prologue (Perils of the Lost Coast) and chapter 1 (Burnt Offerings). If you like the book and want to keep reading, you need to buy chapters 2-6 separately.

 

The digital version of the game will be different. You get the prologue for free, but not chapter 1. You need to buy all 6 chapters separately if you like the prologue and decide you want to read the whole book. But as we learned in the AMA, it will apparently be possible to unlock the chapters for free in some manner -- perhaps by reading the prologue over and over, or reading it really good. Yeah, the book analogy gets kind of tortured here, so let's just drop it.

 

Lastly, I would not call Perils of the Lost Coast a tutorial. It could perhaps be called an introduction, but it does not teach you how to play the game -- only the rulebook does. The first scenario of the prologue follows the exact same rules as the last scenario of adventure 6. If the digital game has a tutorial, and I imagine it will, then that will be something developed specially for the digital game by the wonderful folks at Obsidian.

[PinkRose]

1 more to add to your analogy.

Rise of the Runelords is only the first book in the series.

After that there is Skulls & Shackles, then Wrath of the Righteous.

All 3 are different books (with some different mechanics, S&S has ship combat and WotR has Armies).

You can buy any of the 3 products in cardboard form to start with. You'll only be able to buy RotR digitally to start.

It sounds like Obsidian would like to publish all 3 books and hinted at more as well. Maybe even some of their own Fan Fiction.