The Necronomicon
Olaus Wormius Translation

Asset. Hand

Item. Tome.

Cost: 2.

Neutral

You get +1 .

: Gain 2 resources.

It was Abdul Alhazred’s magnum opus.
Jesse Mead
The Miskatonic Museum #140. The Miskatonic Museum #23.
The Necronomicon

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Question: "Retiring investigators has been the subject of some discussion lately, and you were quoted as ruling you could freely retire investigators by treating yourself as a new 'player' (per the campaign rules on joining and leaving a campaign). Is it legit, then, to 'retire' an investigator with story assets, then 'rejoin' with that investigator later, strictly to avoid risking the story asset (such as on The Essex County Express), and not because that player is sitting out the game? And for that matter, can a 4-player campaign load all the story assets onto one player, and have that player sit Essex County for this purpose?" Answer: "I don’t think there’s anything explicitly preventing players from doing this as far as the rules are concerned, but I think doing so would go against the spirit of the rules. The ability to retire from and/or join an in-progress campaign exists to give players more freedom when playing through a campaign with friends. Schedules can sometimes be hectic, and when it comes to gaming, real life comes first. Sometimes players cannot make it to a play session, and sometimes you'd like to include a friend mid-campaign without having to start over. These rules were written in such a way as to allow players the freedom to have players drop in and out with relative ease, without compromising the integrity of any player’s deck, or the story. I would urge players to not intentionally abuse these rules to try and get around specific story resolution effects."
Last updated

Reviews

Amazing for Daisy, awful for everyone else

You know how Dr. Milan Christopher is an amazing card, one that you essentially want to get out IMMEDIATELY in any seeker deck? Well, if you're Daisy Walker, this is basically another copy of Dr. Milan Christopher in your deck, except it counts as a tome and thereby improves your eldritch sign ability instead of taking up an ally slot. The Necronomicon shouldn't be thought of as a replacement for the good doctor so much as as an additional copy. If you hard-mulligan for Dr. Christopher, you have a 55% chance of drawing him in your opening hand in a 31 card deck. Adding in The Necronomicon vaults the chances of drawing one of those three cards in your now 32-card deck up to 69%! {nice} The card pays for itself first turn, costing you 1 action and a hand slot for a permanent assurance of never running out of resources.

Given the utility of Higher Education, having some sort of resource-drawing engine in play is critical for Daisy. While it's no replacement for Dr. Milan Christopher, it dramatically increases your chance of survival. And if you have both out, you can pull a whopping 6 resources/turn for the cost of...a free action. Encourage your partners to run Teamwork so you can share the bounty, and watch as resource intensive cards like Streetwise and Keen Eye suddenly become a lot more valuable.

If you're not Daisy, then this card becomes terrible. Obviously, this is a story asset, so taking it for plot reasons is always an option, but if you're asking if you want it in your deck, the answer is a pretty clear no. It takes an action to put in play, and an action to use. The first use just covers its cost to play, so you're down 2 actions for no gain. The second use gets you two resources, but you could have just gained two resources instead of playing & using it, so you're still down a net one resource. You have to use five actions to have more resources than someone who just used the last four actions to gather resources! Alternatively, it's an action and 2 resources for a +1 into boost, which is pretty crap compared to just playing a Magnifying Glass.

Compare: Player using the Necronomicon

  • Character starts with 2 resources
  • Action 1: Plays Necronomicon, down to 0
  • Action 2: uses Necronomicon, back to 2 resources
  • Action 3: uses Necronomicon, up to 4 resources
  • Action 4: uses Necronomicon, up to 6
  • Action 5: uses Necronomicon, up to 8

Player without the Necronomicon

  • Character starts with 2 resources
  • Action 1: gains 1 resource, up to 3
  • Action 2: gains 1 resource, up to 4
  • Action 3: gains 1 resource, up to 5
  • Action 4: gains 1 resource, up to 6
  • Action 5: gains 1 resource, up to 7
dharladay · 69
surely the +1 int compensates for how long it takes to pay for itself? — fistofyogsothoth · 37
Errr, ok, fine, this review makes sense, but please don't forget that this necronomicon also comes with a pretty severe drawback - adding an Elder Thing to the Chaos bag, usually the worst one on the Dunwich Legacy (sometimes even worse than Tentacles - U&U, I'm looking at you!) — Lettucefolk · 1
That's a good point, but unlike the mag glass, this +1 will also help you with False Leads or some parlay actions. Compare to Hawk-eye folding camera, which costs the same, but you won't get the int boost until you've cleared two locations of clues. It also gives you a wp boost with the first location, and +1 sanity with the 3rd, but seems like the necronomicon is at least comparable in power — Zinjanthropus · 227
Also if Daisy takes this (which she should IMO), she can upgrade into Protective Incantation to seal the new token, using the Necronomicon to cover the upkeep cost! — MiskatonicFrosh · 342
It actually gets worse than that - remember that Necronomicon costs you a card to play (this is a card game, cards are resources too), so you actually need to spend 5 actions _and_ a card to get 1 more resource over the player without necronomicon. If you instead compare the necronomicon user with someone who played emergency cache instead (a more fair comparison since now both players are down a card), the necronomicon user needs to spend a total of 7 actions before they are up 1 resource over the emergency cache user — EthnicSmoke · 1
Can you have can have "The Necronomicon Petrus de Dacia Translation" and "The Necronomicon: Olaus Wormius Translation" in one deck? I think "no", because "The Necronomicon Petrus de Dacia Translation" say: Limit 1 per deck. — CarolusRex · 1