Event

Favor. Gambit.

Cost: 0.

Rogue

Fast. Play when you initiate a skill test.

Instead of the skill type indicated for this test (, , , or ), this is a resource skill test. Your base skill value for this test is equal to half the number of resources in your resource pool (rounded down).

You can't buy happiness, but you can buy pretty much everything else.
Robert Laskey
The Circle Undone #29.
Money Talks

FAQs

(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)
  • Q: Can skill icons be committed to a resource skill test as triggered by Money Talks? A: It appears that icons can be committed to any skill test, regardless of which skill is being tested, and regardless of whether or not a skill is even being tested whatsoever. From the RR, Skill Test Timing, ST2: "An appropriate skill icon is either one that matches the skill being tested, or a wild icon. The investigator performing this test gets +1 to his or her skill value during this test for each appropriate skill icon that is committed to this test." This sentence makes it clear to me that icons can still be committed to a "resource" skill test, even though "resource" is not a skill type.

  • Q: Money Talks is played when you initiate a skill test. If you are being required to test something due to a revelation effect, is that not considered "you initiate a skill test" so that you aren't allowed to play Money Talks? A: You are still initiating a skill test in such an event; the fact that you are being forced to do so doesn't change that. So you could still play Money Talks when that happens.

Last updated

Reviews

Excellent for any character build that stacks resources.

Well Connected builds with several resource cards to support it, based on Preston Fairmont's and Jenny Barnes's extra resource generation can routinely hit 20+ resources. While the resource mountains are primarily collected to channel bonuses on Well Connected, Money Talks is an excellent support card to slot in this archetype. It's just an extra lever for Preston Fairmont to pull to channel his vast wealth into test success.

This is a great card to beat key tests such as scenario specific ones (Talking to Lita Chantler(/card/05005)) or against key treacheries (Ridding yourself of [Frozen in Fear](/card/01164 or not dying to Rotting Remains).

Money Talks is terrific in the right deck, TERRIBLE outside it.

Tsuruki23 · 2469
Another Investigator that can aim for a big money build would be Sefina. — Mataza · 18

I don't like this card.

Whenever I tried to play a big money rogue, I put two of these in without thought. Not anymore.

1) It is a dead draw in early game. Without your resource engine going on, this is worthless. You can't even commit it for skill icons.

2) It is mostly dead in early scenarios. Big money engines needs some xp to fire on all cylinders. Before that, you won't find yourself sitting on a lot of resources. Don't forget big money decks loves to spend resources as much as they love to amass them.

3) If you struggled through the worst, congratulations: This is now a very strong card, almost an auto success barring tentacles, against any type of test. But was it worth to carry it all along the early scenarios? Maybe pay the 1 xp tax and bring this into your deck later? You'd probably pay 2 xp for the improved version at that point. But since you upped the budget, is going even further to buy Sure Gamble better(I for one would rather have Sure Gamble)? If you are going to pay xp for these, when would you do it? After the third scenario? Sixth?

Therefore I think this card is a semi-trap. Don't get me wrong, payoff is there, but I just think this is another one of Rogue luxuries instead of a big money archetype cornerstone. A weird one that is, at 0 xp. Obviously you can choose to struggle with these early, and reap the rewards later (kinda similar to Delve Too Deep). I just want to point out that it's not all roses.

Amazing Adaptable target though.

Aesyn · 231

Not very impressed with this card for Preston right now. It does not count the resources on Family Inheritance and requires taking an action to get them in his legit resource pool and I just don't want to spend the extra actions when I could use those resources on a stat pump or use skill cards instead.

Sitting on 10/15 is a legit strat for Preston using Well Connected. I don't think I would bother with this card if I wasn't on Well Connected and the new rogue skill. — Myriad · 1201
I was pretty skeptical of this card myself, but my Preston partner in a 2p campaign was at 25 resources for a couple rounds and this made for a laughably easy Double or Nothing. — Death by Chocolate · 1364
I'll have to look into a resource hoarding build and give it a second chance. — cheddargoblin · 86
Has there been an official ruling on this yet in regards to if you can commit still cards to the test? — Myriad · 1201
It seems pretty obvious that you could only commit Wild icons since the test is no longer a will, Int, com, or Agi test, but the rules for commuting says “An appropriate skill icon is either one that matches the skill being tested, or a wild icon.“ so wild icons would still apply since Money Talks makes it a ‘resource skill test’ which is still a skill test. — Death by Chocolate · 1364
I built a Winifred Habbamock deck than pretty regularly ended up getting over 20 resources once the engine got going with "Watch This!" and Pickpocketing [2]. Ended up introducing this card with Adaptible. It helps a lot with Willpower treacheries or if you just want an easy two clues with Double or Nothing. Pretty good stuff. In the early game it was basically a dead draw, though. — Zinjanthropus · 223

EDIT: I was wrong about that, see the comments below. I leave the review still unaltered.

I wonder, if the first bullet point of the FAQs on this site is still relevant, or if it had been ruled otherwise in the mean time. It reads:

Q: Can skill icons be committed to a resource skill test as triggered by Money Talks? A: It appears that icons can be committed to any skill test, regardless of which skill is being tested, and regardless of whether or not a skill is even being tested whatsoever. From the RR, Skill Test Timing, ST2: "An appropriate skill icon is either one that matches the skill being tested, or a wild icon. The investigator performing this test gets +1 to his or her skill value during this test for each appropriate skill icon that is committed to this test."

This reason seems to make RAW sense and the RR has not been altered, however there is a paragraph in recent versions of the FAQ, added in 'Game Play', point 1.9 and quoted in the online version of the RR on ArkhamDB, which in my opinion absolutely contradicts it:
A Wild (?) skill icon on a player card may be used to match any other skill icon for the purposes of both card abilities and counting how many matching icons are committed to a skill test. When using Wild icons for the purpose of resolving a card ability, a player must state which icon the Wild is matching at the time the card is used.

Wild icons committed to a skill test are considered "matching" icons for the purposes of card abilities. (Bold emphasise mine).

How could you state the wild matching a "resource icon", as there clearly is not such a thing in the game? And if you state it to be any other icon, it ceases to be a matching icon. It sounds to me, this paragraph had been added to address the weird situation of wilds "matching" a resource test. But then, the ST2 definition probably should have been reworded as well?

Susumu · 329
My thought is that the skill test is not the purpose of resolving a card ability; thus, a player don't need to state which icon the Wild is matching. During the skill test, the wild icon is just "matching icon" or "appropriate icons" stated in ST2 & ST5. As I know, bold emphasised state is for the ability that requires icons directly, such as Passage Car or Jerome. — elkeinkrad · 468
That might be the reason behind it, but abilities are what make cards interact with the game, so in my understanding an event like "Money Talks" should also have a constant ability, that makes it possible to test resources instead of the tested skill. (While the card is in play, so during the test.) — Susumu · 329
“For the purposes of both card abilities and counting matching icons”. Nothing about Money Talks depends on you committing wilds for its ability. Therefore no declaration is required. — StyxTBeuford · 12917
The quoted sentence is about when a card ability *directly* asks you to count the skill icons on a card (usually one it's making you discard, but not always). Committing cards to a skill test is committing them to a skill test and not using them for a card ability, regardless of whether the test was initiated by a card ability by a basic action (those two things being the only way skill tests can be initiated), or even if the test was modified in some way by another card ability (like Money Talks changing the skill used to "resource"). — Thatwasademo · 52
In short, when you commit cards to a skill test, the thing you are actually using the icons for is *always* the framework steps ST.2 (to show that the card is legal to commit) and ST.5 (to add to your skill value), not the ability initiating the test or any abilities modifying the test in any way. — Thatwasademo · 52
Thank you both. That all makes sense. — Susumu · 329
Does "Grit your teeth" ("You get +1 to each of your skills for the remainder of the round.") count for Money Talks? — Miroque · 23