Event

Illicit. Fated.

Cost: 0. XP: 1.

Rogue

Gain 1 resource for each action you performed this turn (including this one). If it is your turn, end your turn.

Dual Brush Studios
The City of Archives #233.

Latest Taboo

This card’s ability now reads: “Gain 1 resource for each action you spent this turn…”

Pay Day

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Q: With Fence, can I play an Illicit asset (or appropriate event) in the after my last action? This seems a bit more prickly as I need to initiate a play action before I can give fast to the card... But then also fast cards don't use the play Action to enter play? A: Yes, you can. Fast assets can be played in any player window during your turn, including the one after your last action is taken. Fence gives the card fast before it is actually played, so this is taken into account during its initiation sequence.

  • Q: Double, Double vs Pay Day. Can the of Double, Double be initiated despite the end of the turn [from Pay Day]? If the turn immediately ends, does this mean even if Pay Day is played again, no actions were performed and the second pay day will grant no resources? A: Technically, you can use Double, Double to play a card that ends your turn twice, even though it ends your turn. Ending your turn doesn’t mean that you can’t trigger effects, it just means that you can no longer take actions. Since the second playing of the card doesn’t cost an action in this case, you can go ahead and resolve it even though your turn has ended. HOWEVER, due to the specific text on Pay Day, doing so would essentially do nothing. It says that you gain 1 resource for each action you performed this turn. Since you are playing it outside of your turn, you would gain 0 resources from the second copy of Pay Day (since the first copy ended your turn.)

  • Q: Per FAQ 2.0 entry 2.19 "Take an action" vs "Perform/resolve an action"] we are told to distinguish between effects that instruct a player to perform an action and ones that instruct a player to take an action. The implication appears to be that only the former are intended to "count" for effects that count how many actions have been taken so far in a turn. However, the most commonly played card that counts actions taken, Pay Day, actually counts how many actions have been "performed". Is that simply imprecise templating? Similarly Frozen in Fear triggers when actions are "performed" despite the common understanding that only abilities that cost actions in the first place can be taxed by FiF. Finally, and in the same vein, bold action designators on free triggered abilities or reactions also "perform" actions. Am I correct that they are not intended to be taxed by FiF or count towards Pay Day? A: Frozen in Fear requires 1 additional action to be spent when performing basic actions, granted actions, or Free Triggered Ability actions of the specified types. We have decided on the following clarifications for Pay Day:

    • Pay Day will grant 1 resource for each basic action taken, any effect that states “perform an X action”, any effect that states “take an X action”, and Free Triggered Abilities with a bold action trigger.
    • Pay Day will NOT grant resources for Fast cards played or “action triggered abilities” that require multiple player actions to be spent on a single action performed (ex. the second ability on Sledgehammer that only counts as one Fight action).
  • Follow-up Q: To be completely clear, does Frozen in Fear make the move granted from Shortcut cost an action or not? A: Yes, the move on Shortcut (2) would then cost an action.

Last updated

Reviews

This is practically an auto-buy for Finn Edwards, who can manage five actions right out of the starting gate using his free evade and Quick Thinking, and potentially boost it to truly absurd extremes later on with upgraded .41 Derringer and Ace in the Hole - plus he's the only Rogue who can't get his hands on a Level-4 Hot Streak.

The "end your turn" effect is mostly academic, since you want this to be your last action anyway. It's sad that Pay Day is based on the number of actions you performed "this turn" instead of "this phase," because otherwise you could get 16 resources from playing Pay Day at the end of your turn, and 17 from playing a second one on another player's turn using Quick Thinking, for a total of 33 resources! (Exactly how you'd get 17 actions on one turn is left as a fairly silly exercise for the reader.) More interestingly, the "end your turn" effect suggests that other cards with a "for each action you performed this turn" effect may eventually turn up, and they wanted to nip game-breaking combos in the bud.

So Finn definitely wants it. Does anybody else? That's a tougher call. If you've built your Rogue with decent access to extra actions (mainly using the abovementioned cards), Pay Day is a decent replacement for Emergency Cache - you get better efficiency, but it has more playing restrictions. In that way, it's analogous to Uncage the Soul.

The main problem there is that the Rogue class has lots of ways to accumulate resources, and some of them are 0-level cards, like Lone Wolf, "Watch this!", and Decorated Skull, and Pay Day doesn't distinguish itself that well. It's not bad for most Rogues, but it's not amazing either. If you're running Ace in the Hole or the upcoming Borrowed Time, though, then of course that analysis goes right out the window.

Notably, Pay Day's ability to monetize on large action-counts might induce me to like Leo De Luca again. I don't think Pay Day alone is enough to tip the scales, but perhaps someday soon...

sfarmstrong · 270
I disagree that the end your turn clause is purely academic for two reasons. The first is exactly as you stated - you could play two of them at the end of your once-per-game obscene combo turn. The second reason is that a strong economy card you play last is sometimes worse than a weak economy card earlier that lets you buy and use something immediately. You can’t use the money from payday until NEXT round, which might mean not having that juicy asset out before an enemy lands on your face. — Death by Chocolate · 1447
@Death by Chocolate Good point on your second argument and to elaborate a bit on that, it gets even worse if Paranoia lurks around. — matt88 · 3117
I think this card is more useful for investigators with access to rogue and another class, like skids with expansive guardian assets. I also don't get how can take 17 actions in 1 phase? Finn can get 9 with hiw own ability, leo, derringer and ace in the whole. 2x Quick Thinking and 2x Derringer add 4 more actions outside your own turn. Or did you count Borrowed Time as well? — Django · 5072
@Death by Chocolate, my point is less serious than you think - all I'm saying is that the "end your turn" mechanic is mostly irrelevant because the "for each action you performed this turn" already means you'd almost never play this other than as your last action. That whole paragraph was mainly just musing about why they even bothered with the "end your turn" bit. — sfarmstrong · 270
Yeah, Borrowed Time, plus two uses of Guidance. I also forgot about Police Badge, and you could Double or Nothing on Derringer and Quick Thinking, so technically the maximum is well into the twenties. — sfarmstrong · 270
@sfarmstrong If you’d read my post you’d see two very, VERY important balance reasons why this card would be restricted to the last action of your turn. To elaborate on using economy cards, being able to play Pay Day as your second-to-last card would be a HUGE buff as you could immediately spend the resources - easily worth getting one less resource. — Death by Chocolate · 1447
@Death by Chocolate, I wasn't disagreeing with you, I was just explaining that my paragraph was more a critique of how the card was drafted rather than a serious write-up. — sfarmstrong · 270
If I use Fence to give this Fast and play it after three other actions during my turn, does playing this card count as a fourth action? In general Fast cards don't count as actions, but this card specifically says "including this one." — Runic · 1
Say I am playing Leo Anderson and play an ally using his ability. Does playing an ally count as an action for pay day? Super curious and would love to know. — Gyara2020 · 1
@gyarados No. You played an ally, but you didn’t take the ‘play a card action’ which is important because otherwise it would provoke AoOs. Leo’s ability never mentions the word Action, nor does it take one. However Finn’s ability which gives an extra action for Evading WOULD count because it is explicitly an extra action. (Same for Marie, Daisy, and Ursula - not that any of them can run Pay Day). — Death by Chocolate · 1447
Is it valid to use Quick Thinking in conjunction with Pay Day to give you an extra resource? I thought this would be a killer idea but realized that Quick Thinking specifically states "(this action does not count toward the number of actions you can take each turn)." I wondered if this would imply that you could take the action gained if the conditions of the skill are met, but that it would not count toward the number of resources that investigator could gain by playing Pay Day as his/her last action. Is my thinking correct? I actually hope it is not. — zshoness · 1
@Fence, I would say that it would. My thinking behind this is that Ace In the Hole is a fast card and immediately gives you three more actions. This is because you can play FAST cards during any free trigger window, which there is one following player's end of turn. Playing Pay Day using Fence gives you an opportunity to play Pay Day, which effectively gives you an action since the card specifically states "(including this one)." That is how I would play it anyway. However, I am not sure of the intention or if my logic is sound. — zshoness · 1
@Runic, already doubting my thread of logic (especially pulling in reference to Ace in the Hole). I still think you may receive an additional resource using Pay Day while making it fast with Fence. The logic is more about what is spelled out on the card. However, as you stated, playing something fast does not increase your action count and by giving a card Fast you may have effectively deactivated the text on the card because it is no longer an action. It seems like a lot to go through for 1 resource, but that is a potential action (gaining a resource) & fence does cost 3 to play. Still, Fence has potential to save you resources in the long run. That said, I've been mulling this over in my mind for several days now & I think with cards like Double, Double out there now, this may be even more relevant point to clarify. — zshoness · 1
@zshoness I believe the text on the card referring to (including this one) is because you COULD be playing this card as your third action. If you use Fence to make it fast, you didn't spend an action on it, so you would not get an extra resource. However you would get credit for the final action of your turn before playing the Fast Pay Day, so you'd still get the same amount of resources, but with the ability to do one more thing beforehand. — Time4Tiddy · 245
What about the two actions you take with Eon Chart (4)? Do those count as two actions you performed, even though the ability which lets you perform them is a free action? Or what about .25 Automatic? Does an “ability” you “perform” without spending an action count as an “action” you “perform”? — Runic · 1
@Runic — Serris · 1
@Runic So the 1st question was already answered under the other comment. The .25 Automatic lets you perform an ability, not an action. So it doesnt get payed. — Serris · 1

Not much of a review, but I think, the art features Trish Scarborough, right after she opened the safe on Manual Dexterity. Would you agree? The length of the sleeve is not matching, but she could have rolled it up on her right arm, which she used to crack the safe, while is clearly using her left hand to grab into it.

Susumu · 366
Seems so. — MrGoldbee · 1451
What about the two actions you take with Eon Chart (4)? Do those count as two actions you performed, even though the ability which lets you perform them is a free action? — Runic · 1
I would say, yes. Everything, that is called an action, counts as an action. — Susumu · 366

I'm thinking Tony Morgan should strongly consider this card as an early upgrade. First off, he's already motivated to fight enemies with Bounties on them with an upgraded .41 Derringer. With his native 5 you can already see that, just by doing what Tony already wants to do, you can easily achieve 5+ action turns. Then you factor in all the ways you'd normally try to get big action turns with Rogues: Leo De Luca, Ace in the Hole, Borrowed Time, an easily activated Quick Thinking on, say, a Derringer Fight test, and maybe couple that with Double or Nothing if you're feeling extra cheeky.

Also I think this was overlooked in the other review, but I think it's interesting that Borrowed Time lets you defer actions by spending actions. This means technically if you have 3 charges on Borrowed Time, you can continually defer those actions all game and you'd technically be taking 6 action turns. This means that, if you choose to defer those actions over and over again, you can play Pay Day for 6 resources whenever it comes up. Not bad.

Now it's unrealistic to say you'd be able to achieve the maximum number of potential actions in one turn because it's so heavily dependent on oversuccess and having the right cards all at once, but just for fun let's see what's possible. Start with your default 3. You gain +1 from doing at least one Bounty Fight and +1 from Leo. Use Quick Thinking and Double or Nothing on a Derringer test (without Taboo you could commit 2 Quick Thinking) to net +4 actions (or +6 without Taboo). Gain +3 from Borrowed Time and another +3 from Ace in the Hole. You're looking at 15 or 17 actions depending on Taboo. Will you ever get that many? Probably not, but you can easily get 5 or so between Tony's ability and Leo, and 6 or 7 won't be hard to pull off thanks to Quick Thinking and Derringer. If you have the Borrowed Time loop happening, you can bump all those numbers up by 3 easily.

StyxTBeuford · 12987
Is the Borrowed Time loop worth it though ? Sounds like spending an action for a resource to me. — LeFricC'estChic · 86
It's not one resource, it's 3. — StyxTBeuford · 12987
I know, but Borrowed Time cost 1 card, 1 action, 1 resource to play. So even if you got 3 resources from the DELAYED action (you'll have a starting blank turn - at least 3 "dead" actions over a few turns), you've had spent more or less the "value" of 3 actions (card+action+resource) to earn 3 resources. — LeFricC'estChic · 86
Monterey Jack with Leo, pathfinder, quick thinking and Eon Chart would love to be able to take this card.....oh well. — tasman · 1
This card is trash. It takes a lot of work to make it decent for a 1XP economy card that is overshadowed by the likes of Easy Mark or Faustian Bargain. — CHA · 7
Does it? Easy Mark, by itself, is equal to E Cache, granting +1 tempo. Playing all 3 easy marks at once adds 1 more tempo to the second two, so Easy Mark maxes out at +2. And Faustian Bargain is +3 tempo, at the price of 2 curse tokens. For Pay Day, Finn, Tony, and Bob each have a built in free action, so Pay Day is a reliable +2 tempo minimum, matching Easy Mark. Get a single extra action from any number of Rogue sources- Quick Thinking, .41 Derringer, Leo De Luca, Haste, Blur, Eon Chart- and they've hit +3, same as Faustian, without the curses. Sure, pulling off the absurd 15-action turns is unfeasible, but it's also unnecessary; several Rogues can match Faustian's efficiency just by doing what they were gonna do anyway, and without generating curses, and with the potential to do more if they can eek out more actions within a turn. — HanoverFist · 719
Can someone clarify whether "Call for backup" synergy card in neutral would grant multiple triggers in pay day. As in reading it, and the rules write up above, and it seems should work, as there's a bunch of different actions taken or being performed. Thanks for any and all help to the community. — Quantallar · 7