Unless you are living under a rock you have seen or at least heard of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game by now. This review will help you get a better understanding of just what you're getting into if you plan on picking up a copy of the Pathfinder ACG. Lets start by answering your first question, what is an Adventure Card Game? Well I am not entirely sure anyone can easily describe that, the description I liked best reading board game geek was a "deck leveling game" that does pretty well, but in my head it reminds me of deck building games where you are free to acquire cards and construct your deck as you please, this is not the case with Pathfinder ACG. Think of it as an Dungeon Crawl in a card game format, sort of a mashup of Descent and Arkham Horror, but borrows a fair amount from the Living Card Games. The essence of the game is that you and your groups' decks (characters) will level up and get stronger (better / more cards and bonus feats / traits) as you successfully complete scenarios. Your deck will serve as your hit points as well as your means to success. In each Scenario your party's goal is to defeat a Villain, the trouble is you are not quite sure which Location he is hiding at, and to make things worse he will just run away from a fight as long as he has somewhere (a Location) to escape to. That means it is your job to lock down these Locations so you can corner the Villain, to accomplish this you will need to defeat his Henchmen at each Location and then pass a Check corresponding with said location. But it isn't that easy, your adventure is only blessed for so long, and after 30 turns (tracked via the Blessings Deck) your party will fail and your adventure will come to an end.
To view the review with full sized images and an easier to read format go to http://toddsboardgames.blogspot.ca/2013/11/pathfinder.html
The gameplay in Pathfinder ACG revolves around 2 key mechanics, Exploring and Checks. Even though they go hand in hand, to properly understand Exploring it is important that you understand how Checks work.
Objective/Goal: Your goal is to defeat the Villain before the blessing deck runs out or your entire party is dead. 884
In order to defeat the <PERSON> he must have no Location left to escape to.
Making a Check:
When you 'encounter' a card via exploring, regardless of what it is you will be required to make a check. Succeeding will result in defeating the monster, acquiring the item, bypassing a trap, meeting allies etc. The card you 'encounter' will decide what type of check you will have to make. When making a check you will refer to your character card to tell you which dice to roll then use any cards in your hand to add additional dice or manipulate the check in other ways. If the traits from the Check are not listed on your character card you can always roll 1D4.
Type of Check: For a lot of people starting out, determining the type of check is the hardest part. I think the fact that this section on the cards has very small print and lists 2 different types of words. It lists Primary stats such as strength, dexterity and wisdom but then they also list other words such as melee, perception and survival this can get confusing because these are secondary traits that are not listed on every character's card and they show up in smaller text on your character card, when a secondary is listed, you roll the primary stat die and then add your bonus listed next to the corresponding secondary stat to the result of your roll.
These are examples of a combat check.
Regardless of the type of check it will always be found along the right hand side of the card.
Here is an example of a check to acquire a boon in progress:
To ensure success a Blessing of the Gods was played to roll an additional die, and a good thing too because if you fail a check to acquire a boon it is discarded back into the box!
Exploring:
Exploring is your bread and butter, this is your primary action and where most of the gameplay takes place. On a player's turn they are given 1 free explore action, after that they must meet conditions or spend cards to explore again. Exploring multiple times is not always necessary but remember that you are racing against the blessings deck, so if you have bad luck encountering henchmen, or passing the tests required to close down a location then you will not be victorious with only 1 exploration per turn. It is a good idea to have 1 member of your party keep and eye on the blessings deck and let everyone know when it is under half and then close to running out. 884