

Mike hard at work demoing the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game at PaizoCon 2013, with developer Chad Brown in the background.

Photo by Ed Healy of Gamerati. Mike hard at work demoing the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game at PaizoCon 2013, with developer Chad Brown in the background.Photo by Ed Healy of Gamerati.

For the greater part of a year, we've had to keep much about the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game under wraps. After a while, all I wanted was to show the game to someone—anyone—outside the walls.

In the last couple weeks, I got my wish. First at the GTS Distribution Come and Play Day, then at PaizoCon, we took the shrinkwrap off our new creation. The first reaction from everyone was, "Wow, that's a big box." As I showed the game with all of its expansions nestled in the tray, everyone started to appreciate the intricacy of the planning on this game. Over 1,150 cards and all of their containers fit nicely in the box.

Which is all very well and good. But the real test would be people's reactions to how it played. At PaizoCon, my developers Chad, Gaby, Tanis, and Paul ran the game alongside a group of Pathfinder Society volunteers, and the tables were always hopping. Folks came away from our demos with a desire to play the real game, one we happily indulged. Reports from the field were highly positive.

But if you weren't at those demos, you're probably wondering how you can find out how the game works. Well, here, at long last, is the rulebook. Now you can flip through it and see what awaits you next month when the game debuts for sale at Gen Con.

There's a lot in this rulebook. We weren't content to just give a sequence and examples of how to play. We loaded it up with strategy sidebars, prebuilt characters, and tips on making your own cards. (More on that last bit in a month or two.) There's also a fairly long list of playtesters, without whom this game would not have half the awesome that it does.

But maybe you don't want to read about it. Maybe you want someone to demo the game for you, just as if you were at PaizoCon. OK, we can handle that. From the GTS event, here are Chad and myself joining Watch It Played's Rodney Smith for a full demo of the game.

It's a pretty stellar video, if I do say so myself. And I hope to run into you at Gen Con and PAX Prime next month, where my team and I can show you the game ourselves. Because, y'know, we finally get to do so.

Mike Selinker

Designer, Pathfinder Adventure Card Game