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Q: What's the interactions between Carson Sinclair's ability and Plan of Action? Let's say that Carson gives an action to Silas Marsh, and commits Plan of Action on a test Silas is performing, will it gain icons? If so, which ones? Does "your turn" on "as if it was your turn" refers to "the turn you are playing this round"? In that case, it would depend on the number of action that Silas has performed. A: When Carson uses his ability to grant another player an action, he does so during his own turn. The type of icons that Plan of Action would gain in your proposed example depends on how many actions Carson has taken during his turn. (“This turn” = “Carson’s turn.” Though Silas is “taking an action as if it were his turn”, it does not mean he is taking a turn.)
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Q: If Carson Sinclair uses his ability to let another investigator take an action as if it were their turn: 1) What happens if they use that action to activate Rite of Seeking, then draw a symbol token? Both in the case where they haven't taken their turn yet this round, and they have taken their turn this round. 2) What happens if they have access to effects with "limit once per turn" (for example, "Skids" O'Toole's ability, or the effect on .41 Derringer?) Again, both in the case where they've taken their turn this round, and where they haven't taken their turn yet. More specifically, can they trigger the "once per turn" oversuccess effect on .41 Derringer (2) both on their actual turn and with the donated action from Carson? 3) What happens if they have access to effects that trigger at the end of their turn? For example, Frozen in Fear's Forced effect - does it only trigger once at the end of their "actual" turn, or does it trigger both at the end of their turn, and at the end of the action from Carson? 4) What happens if they have access to effects that say "During your turn..." For example, does Leo De Luca give an action during their normal turn, and then another action after Carson donates an action? A: Let me state up front that there is a difference between the player taking their standard turn, and a player “taking an action as if it were their turn” – in the latter case, a turn is not being taken. “Your turn” only occurs once during the investigation phase. Going into specific answers for your questions:
- If Carson Sinclair gives another player an action and they activate Rite of Seeking, if that player then draws a symbol token, they will “lose all remaining actions” for the round. If that player already took their turn, they have no actions to lose. But if they hadn’t taken their turn, they lose all 3 of their standard actions for that round.
- If the only limit on the ability is “once per turn”, the player can activate the ability both during their own turn and during another investigator’s turn where they received an action.
- “Skids” O’Toole’s Free Triggered Ability specifies it must be used “During your turn”, so that cannot be used when it’s not his turn (i.e. when Carson gives him an action).
- .41 Derringer (2)’s “once per turn” could be resolved during any turn if its controller is able to activate it.
- Frozen in Fear’s Forced effect triggers at the end of the player’s turn. Carson’s “donated” action does not count as the player taking a turn.
- Leo De Luca only grants an additional action “during your turn.” He would not give another action if an action was “donated” during someone else’s turn.
Carson Sinclair
The Butler
Investigator
Assistant.
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You may take an additional action during your turn, which can only be used on the below ability.
: Choose another investigator at your location. They immediately take an action as if it were their turn. (Limit once per round for each investigator.)
effect: +0. Draw 1 card. You may resolve this effect anytime another investigator at your location resolves their effect.
Carson Sinclair - Back
Deck Size: 30.
Secondary Class Choice: At deck creation, choose Seeker (), Mystic (), or Survivor ().
Deckbuilding Options: Guardian cards () level 0-5, Neutral cards level 0-5, up to 10 level 0-1 events and/or skills of your chosen secondary class.
Deckbuilding Requirements (do not count toward deck size): 2 copies of "As you wish", Selfless to a Fault, 1 random basic weakness.
Investigator Cards
- "As you wish" (The Scarlet Keys Investigator Expansion #2)
- Selfless to a Fault (The Scarlet Keys Investigator Expansion #3)
Deck Building
Search for cards usable by this investigatorFAQs
(from the official FAQ or responses to the official rules question form)Reviews
Jacqueline Fine is probably one of Carson Sinclair's primary targets to try and butler (butling?) or at the very least, he will want to stick to her location as much as possible.
Why? Because her Elder Sign ability will activate far more often than any other investigator due to its unique ability to resolve even when cancelled or ignored which Jacquline will want to do 90% of the time. And regardless of whether she plays her Elder Sign or chooses to draw a card, Carson will still draw a card.
She's a fine lady who treats her servants very well.
As the one who is currently playing Carson with Seeker sub-class... Don't make my mistakes, Survivor is a correct choice.
At a Crossroads is crazy good for him. Playing it on demand with Resourceful? Yes, please. Nature of the Beast should also work just fine. All of these along with other survivor staples like Take Heart create a good card draw engine which Carson really needs.
To those who have not looked at Carson closely yet, his ability has 1 free quota each turn, but you can use your actual action to do it too as long as it is not to the same investigator. Therefore if you play 4 players, you can use your free , then 2 actual for the remaining 2 players, then you still have 1 action for yourself.
Even if you have just 1 action left per turn, others using 4 actions per round is liberating. Even when I use my remaining action to just Move or play Obsidian Bracelet / Emergency Cache I still feel that Carson makes the team successful. He still has Skill cards to "help" in other's turn, as incentivized by Selfless to a Fault. (Though to actually get through this card, it has to be other's action inside your turn. Regardless, your deck will likely have some Skill cards.)
I have played limited Core + TSK Carson once choosing , while initially looked like suicide since he has nothing new other than Guidance (1) (which is good) and old Working a Hunch, just being a "2x Vicious Blow + 2x Deduction guy" hasten the team's tempo greatly when combined with his giving ability. (And it also save other's deck space to include more non-Skill cards.) You can basically order someone to deal 2~3 damages or pick 2 clues.
Therefore, in high player count there is no need to try hard and boost 2/2/2/2 to usable range (such as trying to build around Runic Axe / Sledgehammer / Lightning Gun) as you have many different players to give actions and they can cover fighting and clue gathering. It is possible to focus on a card that is immediately effective in one action and share benefit to others instead, like Obsidian Bracelet / Dynamite Blast. You can fill in support role with these cards that actual fighter has no time / resource / equipment slot / deck space to waste. TSK gave a lot of cards like this : Guard Dog (2) to fix engagement and deal auto damage, Girish Kadakia to tank and give boost, Motivational Speech for other's Ally, or Ever Vigilant (4) / Prepared for the Worst (2) for quick setup even while they are engaging. You skill cards and soaks should cover your own protection to / tests, or fix it without involving tests like Second Wind / "I've had worse…".
Perhaps more worrying to those who have not played him yet is that, is this any fun? It is!
- You have to be tactical with your ending location the previous round if you want to to many different teammates without moving. You can also rally the team to come to your location to prepare for your command. A card like Fighting Lessons or Bestow Resolve that allows remote commit makes movement planning even more fun.
- You will always be in the conversation when Mythos Phase is over regardless of cards in your hand. Either they will explicitly request your actions before/after they play because they have good solutions on hand but not enough actions, or you be the commander and volunteer to go first and order/push others around if you have some sort of solution on your hand. (Both ways, there is a sort of "trust me" energy that is addictive!)
- If you get an enemy engagement, there is an incentive for others to go first and kill / take engagement because they could get an action back from you. Or you can go first and do it yourself (using boosts, some test-less cards, or 0 difficulty techs) or even take some AoO to still have others help you in one action.
- Have fun eyeing all of your team's token draw at the same location, because you get to copy any pulls. (This one is easy to forget sometimes, maybe have other players remind you too so they can get more skill commits if you can draw a lot.)
What a dud of a gator. The only time I'd consider playing him is two-handing to reduce mind-melt. It's hard to feel excited about playing with a flat 2 stat line whose special ability is to hand off his actions to better investigators.
Compare him to the other support-leaning gators: Bob can get into all kinds of wacky combos while handing out resources and actions. Daisy has a selection of supporting tomes. Minh can crush the most brutal skill tests and ward off treacheries.
It baffles me that they gave Kymani 5 bonus xp when this doddering old man can hardly fend off a ghoul without help.
Someone, please convince me he's worth playing. Not that he's strong, I'm sure he has a good build somewhere. I want to know if you had fun!