Basic Information
Number of Players: 2-5
Age: 12+
Time: 45 minutes – 60 minutes
Price: High
Introduction to Pathfinder Adventure card game 2nd Edition
Have you ever wanted to experience a condensed card game version of dungeons and dragons? Well now you can with the recently released second edition of the Pathfinder adventure card game. The base game comes with 8 classes to choose from as well as a short introductory campaign. Round up your rag-tag team of adventures and begin your quest!
How to Play Pathfinder Adventure card game 2nd Edition
Pathfinder is somewhat of a legacy style game where you progress the story and upgrade your characters as you play. In the first session each player choses a character to play for the duration of the campaign. Each character has a number of unique abilities and bonuses that are used throughout the game.
The play area is set up by grabbing out the appropriate location cards and randomly allocating the items/allies/monsters/blessings/etc that are listed on those location cards. For most games, each deck also is given a minion or villain cards which get shuffled along with the other cards in the location decks. Once the locations are all sorted, players chose which location they wish their characters to start at.
The goal of each game is (usually) to find and defeat the villain. The only way to do so is to close (or temporarily close) all the locations except for the one where the villain is located to force a confrontation. If any other location remains open, the villain is randomly put into one of the other open locations.
On a players turn, they can either move to a new location, use a pre turn action (some location cards will list these, eg the tower), or they can chose to immediately explore that location. A player will draw the top card of the deck and resolve the card. If the card if an ally for example, that player must succeed on the check listed on the card to acquire the ally. Barriers and Monsters typically have harder checks that players must attempt in order to defeat them. After they have resolved this first card, they can chose to explore again if a card in their hand allows them to do so. Players need to try and manage their time and decks as they only have a limited amount of turns to complete each game scenario.
When a scenario is won, the story progresses and the characters will all get to upgrade one of their abilities.
Notes on Pathfinder Adventure card game 2nd Edition
The base game of Pathfinder acts more as a foundation for future adventures which are sold separately. The introductory adventure takes around 15-20 hours to complete. The game expansions which come out every year are projected to add a good 40-60 hours of game play per addition. While these may seem like somewhat of a money sink, it’s actually really good value for money/hour of gameplay compared to some other big priced games. In terms of game complexity I’ll admit it’s more suited for hardcore gamers, however with a little patience and practice even a more casual gamer would be able to enjoy this game. I highly recommend this to any players who like role playing games like Gloomhaven or table top games like Dungeons and Dragons.
