Skull & Shackles - play through A0S1

My first play which will be the start of a solo quest.

I played this solo, but used 2 characters.  I chose to use Lem and Valeros.  Lem was born a slave, but using his wit, was able to escape from bondage.  Valeros was a noble hearted mercenary,  but his desire for adventure has led him to a life fighting for those in need.  These two men's paths crossed some years ago and they have developed a great friendship.  They now fight along side one another seeking noble causes and working to defeat evil wherever they may find it.

Lem and Valeros now find themselves in The Shackles.  This is a string of island spinning off from the western coast of Garund.  These waters are infested with notorious pirates, treacherous scalawags, and vicious sea monsters.  Our heroes have used their savings to purchase a Merchantman sailing ship and will test their skills and wit on the high seas.

Their first test will be the Plunder and Peril adventure that comes in the base set.  The first scenario is Island Hopping.  There is booty to be had in these waters, but there is also an enemy ship who's captain will likely feed you to the sharks if he were to capture you.  The heroes must find the adaro barbarian and remove him from these waters.

I started out by dividing the guys up and sending them to what appeared to be the easiest locations to close.  I got lucky and did manage to close both fairly quickly.  I left them on their own as they moved to the other locations, but I quickly realized they would need to team up to finish the mission.

Things went well, until they ran into a Ghost.  To defeat a ghost you need to have a magical thing.  This posed a challenge, but I eventually was able to pull a magic missile and took care of the ghost.  The villain, the adaro barbarian, is tough, but I had a good mix of spells and a good weapon to help me defeat him.

Summary
Since this was my very first game, I was learning the rules and didn't have much strategy.  The game played well and I picked it up pretty quickly.  Future games will go smooth (mechanically), but I'm sure they will get more challenging as I move through the various scenarios.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game - Skull and Shackles Review

At the end of April, I picked up a copy of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game - Skull & Shackles.  It was a second hand copy, but still in the shrink wrap.

The base game is playable with 1-4 players, but if you buy the character add-on deck you can play up to 6 players.  The character add-on deck isn't just for more players; it also gives you access to additional characters to play.

This game has a heavy pirate theme.  This is seen in the artwork, available items, possible allies, etc.  If you like pirates, then great, but if not, then you might not like the game.

The cards a decent but maybe a little on the thin side.  I choose to sleeve the cards in the game.  FYI... there are A LOT of cards in this game.  The number of cards is a plus as it offers more variety to your games as you play more and more scenarios.

This is a deck building game, but unlike other deck building games you get to improve your deck as you play more games (assuming you are playing a campaign and not just a one off game).  Each hero starts with a deck of cards that must fit certain criteria.  However, during the game, you will find items, weapons, armor, allies, spells, and blessings that can be added to your hand.  These things will help you in completing the tasks set forth in each adventure.

After you complete the adventure you are able to keep some of the things you found in your deck as you prepare for the next adventure.

You deck of cards also serves as your hit points, so you will have to be careful with how you use the resources available to you.

I have played this game once and I really liked it.  It was a fun experience to play an RPG style game without a GM.  Keep in mind that this is a different kind of experience than having a GM sitting there who can adjust things as you play through the adventure.  Having said that, this still fulfills a gaming area for me that I'm not always able to make time for.

I'm not sure this game would be a good one for one-off style games.  The ins and outs of card interactions is something that you will become more familiar with as the game progresses.  The advancement of the characters is also a highlight of the game and if you are only playing one game you will miss out on that aspect of the game.

If you like deck building and pirates and plan to play through the adventure packs, this is a good game.

As far as replayability goes, I think this game will have plenty.  You can mix up the heroes that go on the quests, the location decks get random monsters and the base box has the basic adventure plus it includes the first adventure path deck.  There are also 5 more adventure path decks that you can purchase and play through to follow your heroes through even more exciting quests.

I picked up a couple of models from my FLGS to represent the models at the locations instead of the token cards.  These are not necessary, but I like them.  I'm guessing I will be painting these at some point.