Arkham absolutely kills Pathfinder in every way, in my opinion. I played through most of the first campaign for Pathfinder:ACG (the first five adventure packs, I believe). Almost every single quest and even interaction in the game was exactly the same. I didn't feel a strong narrative presence at all, and after the third or so pack, I really felt like I was just "going through the motions." Nothing you did really felt like you were progressing your character.
For those who like the game, good on ya. It just wasn't for me. Unfortunately, it took me quite a bit of time and money investment for me to come to that conclusion. I really wanted to like it, since there really wasn't anything else out there like it at the time.
conversely (based on your report), I have been shocked at the options/resolutions you are presented in Arkham. The first time you flip over an agenda card and it reads "Action: Resign" and you're like "....huh??..... why the fuck would we resign????" The variation and themes are SO wonderful in Arkham.. I love how the location cards (scenario to scenario) go from your house.. to the town.. to the woods (and the winding/confusing way the woods are done!!!!!!) Then we see that Dunwich mythos packs will take place in Dunwich, or on trains, or in a museum..
AHLCG just feels so fresh with its focus on storytelling. They've created a game engine that, when combined with the LCG model.. they can pretty much go almost anywhere with. It's like 1 part board game, 1 part CCG/LCG, 1 part choose your own adventure, 1 part RPG..
Cool. Thanks to you and borghe for the replies!
Now my question is how good is it for 2 players? Is it possible to adjust the number of players on a per game basis while within a campaign?
yes, at any time between scenarios players can drop in or out. the game is fully playable on easy with 2 players and one core. 2 players on standard difficulty or higher the general though right now is that past scenario 1 the game is REALLY difficult.
1 copy of the game supports 2 players playing with specific pairings of characters. 2 copies support 4 players working with two sets of those specific pairings, 3 players with slightly less restrictions on characters played, or 2 players with a full play set of the player cards.
in theory the difficulty can/will go down the more players and/or cards (either more core sets.. or more expansions/mythos packs) you add.
to drop in and out, they do recommend sticking characters with players.. so if one player drops out (say playing wendy), for another player to "not" come in with Wendy, but with someone else. I think this is in respect to the CCG model where you are building "your deck" that you are familiar with and know how to play. In theory there isn't a reason someone couldn't play that character. What they recommend instead is that someone come in with zero XP right at that scenario. They also have side adventure rules which I imagine(?) could be used to catch a character up by giving them XP, but the downside is you are then supposed to add X number of weaknesses for every Y amount of XP you allocate (which doesn't happen in the campaign.. you just get XP for finishing various tasks and then spend it between scenarios)
oh, all of the above is because the rules don't allow you to modify a deck once the campaign starts, aside from using XP to buy new cards.
estiny which is awesome. That was a big mistake I made was not getting her into Netrunner from the jump because it would have been really fun. Basically we're alternating decks playing each side to account for any balance issues. For a while there she was stomping me in starters where I was playing with a handicapped one-die Rey (to account for the point difference) and now I beat her Luke/Ackbar with a rush Jango/Veers that was a ton of fun (and way faster than our other matches). Looking forward to trying the other side of that because using Ackbar's focus to deal six damage just with Luke's starting dice is insane. She was able to take out Jango but thankfully Veers and all his upgrades survived.
