A lot of people were quick to judge these desperate cards the instant they were teased. For good reason! Running down to 3 sanity is begging for something to go wrong and these cards sit, tauntingly, doing nothing at all until you’re that low. The +4 to a skill test is tempting, but feels like overkill in pretty much every difficulty. And unlike the core skill cards it doesn’t pull to replace itself! +4 when you’re near death seems silly when you can use an early +2 to never end up in that situation.

So why do I still like these cards? (Well, sometimes)

In a game like Netrunner, or L5R, or even Arkham Horror board game winning is a binary state. For these games the rule is simple: when winning decrease variance, and when losing take risks. AHLCG though is none of these games, sometimes having a plan to lose partially is better than getting destroyed. This is why "I'm outta here!" is a situationally fantastic card: you can be within a hair’s breath of death and so long as you can play it you can take the chips (and victory points) you’ve won and cash out without suffering the trauma or negative consequences waiting for you if you lose.

Of course not everyone has the dashing good looks and wits about them to be like our lovable rogues. For everyone else there’s Run For Your Life, it doesn’t guarantee survival but if you have presence of mind to see it coming this card can get you away from that one last enemy who’s stopping you. Since it’s a tech card that you should only need to see late 1 copy is sufficient.

Special note: the desperate suite is almost universally good in Roland Banks because chances are very high that he’ll be at 3 sanity at some point in the scenario anyway. This is more a condemnation of Roland than it is an endorsement of these cards however.