My 4AD setup + 4AD as solo RPG + Unboxing
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- Unboxing 3 new adventure decks for Four Against Darkness, but first, I need to show you how I play the game! And I discuss some plans for making it a solo RPG.
These are the best 4AD player aids: boardgamegeek....
ko-fi.com/jala...
Writer of your three most recent decks here!
The colours of the tiles show either a room, or a corridor. Yellow is Room, White is Corridor. So you should be able to add those Good, Bad & Troll cards into your mega deck (I do this myself!).
There's also another deck now (Undead & Buried) which will mix very well into your mega deck. Its based in a graveyard, but has standard door/corridors.
I hope you like adding Manic Mansions into your deck though; there are lots of dead end rooms, which should increase the flavour.
Excellent intro and break down vid. Wayfarers & Adventurers is my favorite expansion, as it introduces character traits, my favorite add-on mechanic (in fact, I combine Milestones and Character Traits to create the backstory, using the Milestone as the explanation as to why the milestone exists). Two other books that add milestones and worth having would be Twisted Traits and Zealous Zouaves. Another great add-on to give it that AD&D1e would be Digressions of the Devouring Dead. Fortress of the Warlord is a multi-part campaign, the first mission includes a miniature hexcrawl. Also, minimal rules on creating hex maps/overworlds is presented in Tales of the Adventures Guild. And a mini sandbox level 1 campaign is presented in Lantern zine 2, that probably could be combined with the overworld/hexcrawl in Tales. Lantern 3 has a pirate ship dungeon, perhaps you could combine it with the pirate themed deck, Dark Waters is also pirate and water themed, all three loosely combined together could possibly create a kind of sandbox / hex/ shipcrawl feel - the two patrons in Dark Water are expanded as full fledged patrons Greedy Gifts of the Guildmasters for truly expanding the world (and off course adding in Treachery of the Troublesome Towns, TTT, to create the port city the adventure takes place in, would be the complete package on how to generate a "Freeport" type setting for 4ad). You should also look into Crucible of Classic Critters to help expand out your forest tiles and encounters, as it can be easily combined with the forest decks you have. The craig tile's expansion, More Mountainous Meyhem, may also be worth looking into for creating above-world sandbox/hexcrawling.
Again, excellent vid and looking forward to further 4ad vids and implementations.
What about the "Dungeon Card Decks" (Dungeons, Mines, Forest, Sewers, Necropolis... I think) with 3 sets each?
There are also "Loot Card Decks", not sure if there's something with Armor/Weapons/Equipment.
This seems to make the whole RPG a lot better to get into the game, especialy for newcomers like me.
No map-drawing, way less details in whatever tables searching.
Do you need the corresponding PDF of the module you have the cards for, or just the cards? I tried playing 4AD with the PDF only, and I didn't understand the hype. The card system looks much quicker and easier. Also, I didn't have any of the expansions. It seems like that is where the magic lies. Maybe I need to give the system another try.
The only pre-requisite for playing with an adventure deck is the core rule book.
If what bothered you about 4AD was flipping pages constantly looking for the tables, then the cards will definitely fix that. If what bothered you was that you don't make almost any decisions, the cards won't fix that. Now, if you might be okay with that as long as it flows quickly, then again, the cards MIGHT fix that for you. That's kind of where I am. There are a number of crawlers that are WAY too much work for a game that almost plays itself. For me, 4AD plays so smoothly it becomes almost a meditative experience, especially with the cards.
BUT, I did play the base game quite a few times and enjoyed it before getting the cards.
As far as expansions being the key to enjoying the game (the go to excuse everyone makes for the system)... It depends on what your issues are with it.
I have a LOT of the books (probably over half of them). Of the top of the head, the only one that significantly deepens the gameplay, rather than changing the theme or adding variety, is Treacheries of the Troublesome Towns (from what I can tell from reading it (haven't played it yet, plan to soon)). Its town creation and exploration and the methods for making the town seem like a living place make it really impressive. Four Against the Netherworld offers a deeper experience, too, but it's kind of unconnected to everything else as it takes place in the afterlife (it is also much more difficult).
Otherwise, if you feel the game lacks theme, then a themed expansion will help. If you like the game but have seen everything, then an expansion will help. But it's definitely possible to just not like the game.
@@JAlanRykerGames Thanks for the detailed answer! I only have the base PDF. I was having trouble with the gameplay being interrupted by having to scroll through the PDF to look up the results of my roll. Heck, maybe even printing it would help me. The herky-jerky-ness of going between rolling, scrolling, drawing, scrolling, rolling, scrolling, etc took me out of the game, mostly having to put down my pencil to look at my computer screen. I would be in the headspace of exploring while drawing, then have to look up my next move. The cards genuinely seem like they might take care of the issue. I'm going to throw one of the card sets into my wishlist. Then I can say I truly gave the game it's best chance.
@@milesdurkee4549 it sounds like the cards really could help, then. and it's pretty affordable to try out. good luck! I think castle ravenstein is my favorite set that plays exactly like regular 4AD. I also really like roads of peril, which plays almost just the same even though they're roads and towns. To find most of the card sets, you have to search on drivethrucards, btw, not drivethrurpg
@@milesdurkee4549yeah, printing is very helpful. "Flipping" through a pdf repeatedly is just painful.