Confused About Progression

[Sines314]

So, I've picked up this game, and after going through the first 3 adventures, I find it to be pretty fun. However, I also noticed I'm making only very small amounts of gold, to the point where this feels more like a "Free to Demo" game. Now that's fine by me, it's not like anyone owes me a free game, although I would add that it took me some effort to realize that the Rise of the Runelords bundle is essentially what you want if you just want to buy the game itself. At $25 it's looking a bit pricey, but potentially worth it. I'm also kind of bugged that I realized this after I purchased the second adventure, since it's part of that bundle. Ah well, at least it wasn't too expensive.

However, what is confusing me is progression. There doesn't seem to be much to be explained here. As I understand it, Story mode allows you to make a party out of up to 6 characters. You have a great deal of options for selecting their starting gear, but after this, you never really get such a wide selection again. There is no storage between adventures, and cards you discard from your collection after an individual quest just go away. Further, the story mode is THE WHOLE story mode. You don't get to add or remove characters, or return to the "Select your gear" screen again, that's basically just part of the story setup, equivalent to character creation in a CRPG. However, what about those cards I got from that treasure chest? Where the heck do they show up?

 

Also, what is Quest Mode like? Is it just an endless story-mode? Do you engage in the same character creation process with Quest Mode, never returning to the 'assemble a party' or 'choose your cards' screen again, unless you start from scratch?

 

I like the game, and the basic mechanics of each session are understood easily enough, but the meta parts are confusing, as it feels more like I'm playing a traditional lengthy RPG than a game with short 1/2 to 2 hour play sessions. However, quest mode sounds like it's different from a card-based RPG, in some way, but I'm not sure. 

Lastly, am I wrong on the small amounts of gold? Is it at all reasonable to get new party members and quests through just gold, or is this more "Free to Demo" than "Free to Play"? This is a bit of sticker, since if I only get to choose my party at the start of the story, that means I'd feel compelled to start over every time I got a new character just to use them. I'd rather pay upfront in that case.

Sorry for my rambling, I just find myself a bit lost with regards to what kind of a game this is, and $25 is a bit too expensive for me to purchase on a whim. Sure I could buy individual parts of the game, but it really looks like the intention is to make a single $25 purchase to get the whole kit and kaboodle, and I want to judge the game on that basis. I very much like the idea of a lengthy RPG I can play on my cellphone, but it's such an odd format I'm not really sure what to expect.

[StormbringerGT]

Sines314,

Heading off to bed and I saw this so I had to pop in and give you a brief answer.

You can change characters in between scenarios. At the map screen (where you select the next scenario) tap the manage party button. This will bring you to your party screen where you can add or remove characters to your party.

Also at the scenario select screen you can tap manage decks though you can only really edit your decks during the first few scenarios. The deck creation process is done at the end of each scenario. Where you decide what new cards to keep and which to get rid of in favor of. You will eventually be able to select feats to allow large decks.

Cards you find in chests are added to that specific adventure deck number and can show up from that adventure deck onward.

The game is free to play. A lot of people have unlocked everything and haven't paid us a dime, so it is totally doable. It can't be too convenient because I'd like this game to be profitable enough so I keep playing. It definitely takes some work however. As far as value goes, that can be pretty subjective. If you were to buy everything in the physical game, that retails for $120 r so I believe.

Finally Quest Mode is in a state of limbo currently as we tighten up the core game and figure out what are next steps are. We are a very small team (10 people and that includes our QA!) and doing Quest Mode and Story mode at the same time was more work than our team could handle.

If other people don't hop in and explain more I'll check back after Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

[Nerevarine]

As mentioned by Strormbringer, you can re-make party in between scenarios at any time, as well as move cards around from one character to another, if you wish, so that should cover most of your confusions straight-up. The "progression" is certainly noticeable, as, again mentioned by Stormbringer, you can choose which cards to keep and which to discard after each scenario (where you can choose to keep the new cards you obtained in the scenario or throw them away if they aren't good enough). If you get your party to somewhere around AD5 or AD6 and then decide to replay some scenarios in early adventures, you will notice how both your skills and your more powerful cards you've acquire before (whether they are based or treasure loot) make it easier - having a straight up +15 on a 10 check, with a bunch of d12s and d8s because why the hell not?

 

As far as the gold goes - yes, it is rather slow, but the daily challenges do help a little bit. However, the best way (not sure if this was intended or not) to earn gold is to re-run early adventures (either B-1 or 1-2 because no Villain) for an easy 350 gold with a 6-man party.

[MauGibrin]

It should be mentioned that this is a conversion of a board game - most of the times the developers had to stick to the original design. But I agree with you that they had to give incentives to the players who started to play without paying for the full package to do so later. After you accumulated some gold and bought a couple of adventures and characters, it becomes less and less attractive to pay the US$ 25 - and you don't get the gold you spent back once you do that...

 

To see the cards you got in chests, you must find them on the adventures - to do so, you must enable Treasure Chest cards on the Options Menu. Otherwise, you will only meet the original cards of the board game.

 

Hope you enjoy the game!

 

Mauricio

[Sines314]

So, looking at things, I see that there's a 75% off on 20,000k gold. That on it's own is enough to unlock the remaining 5 adventure paths. Assuming that sale is one per customer, I can then pick up the New Adventurer pack, for 5k gold and Valeros. With my starting gold, that'll give me enough gold to purchase 3-5 characters (depending on which ones I get). That'll mean the Rogue, Cleric, Fighter and 3 of my choice for a full sized party (or a more precisely chosen party should I stick to 3 or 4) able to go through every adventure. Gold earned after that can go to the remaining characters, their alts, and dice. $10 is a starting cost I'm much more comfortable with.

However, is there any part of the bundle I'd be missing? It mentions additional adventure promo cards, or character add on decks. Are these already part of the individual character and adventure purchases? Besides the 6 sets of red dice, would I be missing anything from the RotR bundle if I just purchased every character and adventure individually with gold? And if so, are they exclusive to the RotR bundle, or could I get them elsewhere?

Side Note: When I got an attrtibute point for Merisiel, I thought it would be a good idea to put it into intelligence, for some insane reason. Probably bothered me that a Rogues had Int as a dump stat :D At any rate, that doesn't seem to do much for this game, so I was wondering if you can get stat points from repeating the same adventure over and over, or if she can collect a point only once? I'm going to start over from the beginning once I buy some other characters, so I want to know if I should take her slightly leveled version, or a fresh version.

Edited December 25, 2016 by Sines314

[MauGibrin]

If you are a collectionist, you will miss out on some promos if you don't buy the Bundle - but even if you buy it, I'm not sure you will get every single Promo card. That's all you will miss.

 

But if you buy your characters one-by-one you won't receive the C deck, which contains some great cards (and also some annoying monsters). You can have it, though, if you buy the Character Add-On Deck (so you might want to save to buy Sajan, Amiri, Seelah and Lini together).

 

Each character is marked with a 'check' when he/she completes an adventure - receiving no further benefits from completing it once again. But if you restart the Story Mode with freshly-made characters, they will have a blank checklist. So, you can have multiple 'Kyras', for example, each on a different experience level...

 

Cheers,

 

Mauricio

[Sines314]

I was actually planning on buying the Character Add-On deck once I bought some gold. I like all the characters in it (Particularly Amiri, my favorite bit of artwork from the original tabletop book), and I know I'd be saving some gold from it. The extra deck is just icing on the cake.

 

So all I'd be missing are some promo cards from the RotR bundle. And if they're just 'collectors' items, then I think I'm okay without them. Unless they bring something new and fascinating to the game that isn't otherwise available, then I can do without them, given the extra $15 I'd be spending. I'm guessing they're not any more notable than other cards of similar rarity.

Well, if that's the case, then I guess I'm all set. Thanks for the help in deciding! And thanks to Obsidian for what looks to be another enjoyable game in their long list!

[Hannibal_PJV]

25$ Bundle offers some Paizo promos and not needing to crind the basic content of the game. It gives you all the tabletop characters and scenarios. Then you can use your game gold to other content. Well worth of money in my mind. I personally have not so much time to play games, so getting whole game is very suitable to me.

The best promo you will miss without the Bundle is the Poog of zarongel.

[Pediatron]

I played both free to play and bought the RotR bundle on two different devices. I was able to buy all but 2 characters and all of the adventures without spending a cent. (I's sure I could add the additional characters with a bit more grind). I have to say I enjoy playing more on my RotR deck, though. With all the gold I didn't spend on buying material, I bought a whole bunch of chests so have a lot better cards in my characters' decks in that version. Hope that helps.