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Category Archives: Deck Building

Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: Crow Bait (story)

While Seoni and Seelah had been dealing with the mess at Habe’s Sanatorium, Sandpoint developed a ghoul problem. On top of that, it seemed the guard tower was besieged by bandits. Seelah went to help the city guard, while Seoni headed to where the first ghoul was sighted: the farmhouse.

Seelah quickly lost track of how many bandits she’d fought. One had damaged her chain mail, which she had discarded during a lull in the battle. There had also been an ogre, and she recalled the troubadour showing up briefly after that battle. Between two of the bandit skirmishes, Seelah had met a guide, who could prove useful if she needed to explore the woods again. The woman waited patiently inside the guard tower, while Seelah continued to battle with her longsword and her newly acquired quarterstaff, wondering if there would ever be an end to these bandits.

Seoni had heard of Shalelu Andosana, but she hadn’t expected such a strange encounter. Shalelu had told her she would soon find tools she may or may not find useful, then she’d left. Shortly after that, Seoni had found two sets of thieves’ tools. She’d discarded the first set as it didn’t look well cared for, but the second set had been in much better condition, so she’d tucked those away for later. She’d also left the crossbow behind since she was not trained in such weapons.

That was when the zombie showed up. Glad to be versed in ranged spells instead of relying on hand to hand combat, Seoni quickly incinerated the undead creature. Then froze the mercenary who tried to get the jump on her.

The farmhouse was certainly turning out to be an interested place, but she still hadn’t seen any signs of a ghoul.

She looked down at her toad. “I don’t suppose you can sense ghouls, now can you?”

The toad croaked, and Seoni took that to be a negative response.

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Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: Undead Uprising

This is the play-by-play version of the previously posted story mode.

When you defeat a Zombie Minion Henchman, randomly select an open location and shuffle the Zombie Minion into that deck.

  • Seoni – Rin figurine
  • Seelah – Saber figurine

Locations:

  • Mill – Seoni start
  • Village House
  • General Store – Seelah Start
  • Habe’s Sanitorium

Seelah opening hand:

  1. Greatsword
  2. Chain Mail (favored card type)
  3. Troubadour
  4. Blessing of the Gods

Seoni starting hand:

  1. Blessing of the Gods
  2. Frost Ray (favored card type)
  3. Blessing of Pharasma
  4. Blessing of Irori
  5. Toad
  6. Force Missile

Seoni 1st turn

Encountered Locked Stone Door – Dexterity 13

d6, discarded Blessing of the Gods for another d6, Seelah discarded Blessing of the Gods for another d6, rolled 12 (one 2, one 4, one 6)

Locked Stone Door shuffled back into location deck

Drew Sage

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Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: Undead Uprising (story)

Not long after they returned to Sandpoint, the local sheriff asked Seoni and Seelah to look into another strange matter. People were reporting zombie sightings at an alarming rate. Other townsfolk had seen patients of Dr. Habe lurking about as well. Worried that the two might be connected, the sheriff asked that they help with the investigation. After so much turmoil, the local guard was spread a bit thin, so Seoni and Seelah agreed to help.

Seoni decided to start with the mill since the most recent sightings had been there, which Seelah and her troubadour headed for the general store. There had been reports of trouble in that area, and she wanted to see if any new weapons had been shipped in.

Seoni was a little surprised to find a stone door at the mill and even more surprised when it turned out to be locked. She attempted to unlock it, but had no success. She asked her toad for suggestions, but as usual he didn’t have much to contribute to the conversation.

“Perhaps we should simply search for another way in,” the Sage suggested as she joined them.

They began to search for another entry point. Seoni saw a discarded short sword, but left it where it was along with an elven chain shirt. She needed to focus.

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Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: Thistletop Delve

This is the play-by-play version of the previously posted story mode.
The difficulty to acquire items and weapons is increased by 2

  • Seoni – Rin figurine
  • Seelah – Saber figurine

Locations:

  • Thassilonian Dungeon – Seoni start
  • Throne Room
  • Warrens
  • Goblin Fortress – Seelah start

Seelah opening hand:

  1. Greatsword
  2. Magic Half-Plate (favored card type)
  3. Longsword +1
  4. Blessing of the Gods

Seoni starting hand:

  1. Blessing of the Gods
  2. Scorching Ray (favored card type)
  3. Blessing of Pharasma x2
  4. Blessing of Lamashtu
  5. Sage

Seelah 1st turn

Encountering Rat Swarm

Encountered Rat Swarm – Combat 8

If Rat Swarm is not defeated by at least 4, it is shuffled back into location deck.

Greatsword – d8 (+4) and 2d6, used special to discard top card for a d6 (Standard Bearer), rolled 9 (two 1s, one 2, one 5), total 13, Rat Swarm defeated

Seoni 1st turn

Encountered Potion of Glibness – Intelligence 4

Increased to 6 because of Thistletop Delve

d8, rolled 1

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Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: Thistletop Delve (story)

Though they had defeated Gogmurt, the threat had not yet died. They’d sent their allies off to try to find more information, but it seemed Nualia, who was supposed to be dead, was the true source of trouble in Thistletop and Sandpoint. They decided to search the goblin fortress again as well as the Thassilonian dungeon, the warrens, and of course the throne room of the Thistletop fortress.

Seoni and Seelah decided a fresh set of eyes in the goblin fortress would be better, so Seelah headed off in that direction. Seoni, with the Sage by her side, set off for the Thassilonian dungeon.

Seelah was a bit surprised her greatsword had been so effective against the rat swarm she’d encountered upon entering the goblin fortress. She finished cleaning her sword and moved farther in. It wasn’t long before she found a man who looked to be a mercenary.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“Orik Vancaskerkin.”

The name sounded vaguely familiar. “What are you doing here?”

“Being a distraction.”

Seelah raised her sword. “Then you’re working with Nualia.”

That brought an end to the conversation, and they attacked. Seelah quickly dispatched him and turned to leave. If he was a distraction, then Nualia wasn’t in the goblin fortress.

“Wait!”

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Legendary Plus Expansions

This is the fifth in a seven part series on superhero games. In this entry, I’ll discuss Legendary plus a bunch of its expansions.

Legendary is our favorite deck building game, which explains why we have so many expansions:

  1. Captain America 75th Anniversary
  2. Dark City
  3. Fantastic Four
  4. Guardians of the Galaxy
  5. Paint the Town Red
  6. Secret Wars 1

Professor and I play this game quite a bit, so I’ll just explain the 2 player set up. You choose 5 Heroes (each has a 14 card deck) and shuffle them together to create the 70 card Hero Deck. Each Hero has at least one icon on the card indicating the Hero Type. This is important to look at when you’re choosing your Heroes because if Iron Man is the only Tech Type Hero you have, it’s going to be difficult to use some of his special abilities. Also, some Villains and Masterminds attack you unless you have a certain class of Hero or a Hero on a certain team (like Avengers).

You choose your Mastermind and Scheme, which will tell you what has to be in your Villain Deck (Villain Groups, Henchmen Groups, Bystanders, Scheme Twists, and Master Strikes). The Mastermind plus its 4 Mastermind Tactic cards and the Scheme card go in their indicated locations on the board. The rest of the “villain” cards are shuffled together to create the Villain Deck. There’s also places on the board for the rest of the Bystanders, Wounds (30 in the base), and SHIELD Officer Maria Hill (30). Each player gets a 12 card starting deck (8 SHIELD Agents and 4 SHIELD Troopers).

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Heroes of Metro City with Sidekicks and Storylines

This is the fourth in a seven part series on superhero games. This time it’s about Heroes of Metro City and the expansion Sidekicks and Storylines.

We’ve written about this game in a previous post.

This is another deck building game, but it isn’t tied to an existing superhero universe (like DC or Marvel). You’re “creating” your superhero. To start, you get to name your hero. Each player’s board has a place to write this in using a dry erase marker. Sometimes Energy Cards give an extra boost to characters with certain elements to their names (gender, animal, etc.), so you want to pick those before deciding on a name.

Each player is allotted a certain number of points to spend on cards at the beginning of the game to start building a deck. The fewer the points, the harder the game is going to be, but we’ll get to that. Some cards give you specific powers, some energy, and some give your character a “story” (hence the expansion name).

The goal is to defeat the Archenemy, but there are also Minions and Villains to deal with. Each of these has an attack that can trigger when you roll the dice. If the dice are always trying to kill you, this will be a rough game. If you’re really lucky at rolling dice, you just might save Metro City.

The premise of the game sounds awesome. I get to create my own superhero and fight bad guys.

The execution…
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Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: Approach to Thistletop

This is the play-by-play version of the previously posted story mode.

The difficulty to defeat monsters with the Goblin trait is increased by 1d4

  • Seoni – Rin figurine
  • Seelah – Saber figurine

Locations:

  • Goblin Fortress – Seoni start
  • Nettlemaze
  • Woods
  • Treacherous Cave – Seelah start

Seelah opening hand:

  1. Cure
  2. Chain Mail (favored card type)
  3. Longsword +1
  4. Spiked Chain

Seoni starting hand:

  1. Masterwork Tools
  2. Force Missile (favored card type)
  3. Blessing of Pharasma x2
  4. Amulet of Life
  5. Sage’s Journal

Seoni 1st turn

Encountered Sling – Dexterity 5

d6, rolled 1

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Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: Approach to Thistletop (story)

With rumors of a renewed goblin attack, Seoni and Seelah decided to head towards Thistletop and investigate. They’d been told by reliable sources that the goblin Gogmurt would most likely be the source of any new troubles. Unfortunately, they were only able to narrow down his possible whereabouts to the goblin fortress, the nettlemaze, the woods, or the treacherous cave. Seoni thought the goblin fortress was the best place to begin their search, but Seelah thought that would be too obvious. She wanted to explore the treacherous cave. Instead of arguing about it, they decided to split up.

The goblin fortress was suspiciously quiet as Seoni entered. She noticed a sling on the floor, but was much more interested in the battered chest. She used her masterwork tools to open the chest and found a blast stone and a potion. She wasn’t sure how useful the stone would be, so she stored that in her pack for later. She decided to hold on to the potion for the time being.

She continued on, on alert for danger which appeared in the form of a plague zombie. Thankfully she had her force missile ready, but didn’t put enough power into the spell to defeat the zombie. Her amulet of life absorbed the damage her foe would have dealt, and she was pleased to discover the potion she’d found was able to banish the plague zombie.

She was storing her amulet and spell back in her pack to recharge, when a noise caught her attention. She turned to find Amy and the toad behind her.

“I apologize for the delay,” her acolyte said. “He wouldn’t let me carry him.”

The toad croaked then hopped over to Seoni. She picked him up.

“He does seem a bit picky about people, doesn’t he?”

The toad croaked again.

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DC Deck Building Game, Crisis, and Heroes Unite

This is the second in a seven part series on superhero games. Today’s entry is on the DC deck building game, the expansion Crisis (pack 1), and Heroes Unite.

First the base game.

In this deck building game, you get a Super Hero card. These cards are larger than the other cards and give you a special ability to use during the game. For example, Aquaman lets you put any cards with cost 5 or less you buy or gain during your turn on top of your deck. So Aquaman doesn’t suck.

During your turn, you use the Power indicated on your cards to buy other cards/defeat Super-Villains. In the beginning you don’t have a lot of Power because all you have are Punch cards (+1 Power), but as you build your deck, you become more powerful. Also cards you gain might have special text on them which can allow you to pull off some nice combos. It can be important to have cards with Defense capabilities because some of the attacks can be pretty rough.

This is a semi-co-op game. The goal is to defeat all the villains in the Super-Villain stack, so in that respect you’re working with your fellow players. During the game you can add villains to your deck, and some of these cards attack your fellow players. Also, at the end of the game, each card has a victory point value, and the player with the most victory points is the winner. So in that respect you’re also fighting against each other.

Now the expansions.
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