Gloria Goldberg: Of Making Many Books There Is No End

Introduction

This deck was designed to go through the Waking side of a Standard TDE campaign paired with Yorick as muscle. I began with the dream of having Gloria beat the test on the Tower of Koth and still get back to the main path of the scenario. Then thngs went in unexpected directions. As usual, comments and suggestions welcome.

Notable Cards

Assets

• Alyssa Graham -- pretty much indispensable for Gloria. The passive boost is nice, and being able to continually weed the Encounter Deck is very useful
• Scroll of Secrets -- very flexible in Gloria, more for digging out useful cards than for triggering her ability on the Encounter Deck, although it can be used that way in a pinch
• Sword Cane -- as for many investigators, the best enemy management tool a writer could dream up
• Randolph Carter -- assuming you get him, he makes Gloria even better with some useful soak and perfect static boosts

Events

• Mind over Matter -- planned for the Tower test, but superseded. It did help her with enemy management in scenario B1, though
• Astral Travel -- a one-of to help with some of the large maps. It hasn't really been needed
• Read the Signs -- clue acceleration that gets to silly levels late in a scenario
• Voice of Ra -- an economy card for gamblers, but Standard TDE tends to have lots of special tokens, so it's a good campaign for it. Outside of that campaign, I might go with Emergency Cache or just rely on Crack the Case

Skills

• Promise of Power -- a good, flexible card; be careful not to "save it for that really special test," or it will still be in your hand at the end of the scenario

Piloting

This is definitely not a solo deck. Its enemy management extends pretty much to evading and killing the occasional Swarm of Rats (Although Gloria did manage to kill a Ghast and save Yorick from too many Ghouls when he was frantically digging for weapons). Her other trick is filtering the Encounter Deck to make sure the really dangerous cards never see the light of day. Do not forget that you can choose the order investigators draw during the Mythos Phase; it's not quite as good as First Watch, but you can do it every turn. Keep in mind that Gloria is fragile; Deny Existence is very useful for keeping her alive.

Gloria is a solid clue-getter (more clue acceleration would be nice, but there isn't really room), and, with Mind's Eye down, capable to making a lot of tests on locations to advance the story. If I had to give her a "role," it would be advancing the game by getting clues, opening up locations, and making sure Encounter cards don't entirely ruin someone's day. Scroll of Secrets can provide a little support if another investigator is struggling to find some part of their plan. If the group needed more support, I might consider swaping the Preposterous Sketches for a Logical Reasoning. Gloria is kind of like the best sort of grandmother -- a little stern and bossy, but looking out for the kids.

Mulligan

Mulligan hard for Alyssa Graham, then as many of Sword Cane, Scroll of Secrets, Mind's Eye, and economy cards as you can manage. St. Hubert's Key is nice, but that is a hell of a resource curve for an opening hand.

Upgrades

In rough order

• 2x Mind over Matter + 1x Shrivelling --> 3x Mind's Eye (2) -- It's potentially 7-9 tests at whatever ridiculous thing you've been able to get Gloria's to, all for 3 resources if you are running poor or can't spare an action. It can fill in for Sword Cane in a pinch
• Charisma (3) -- I'm trying to wean myself off this card, but having Alyssa and Randolph at Gloria's side is pretty sweet. If I can't have Randolf, it will let me play Ruth Westmacott, too
• 2x Scroll of Secrets --> 2x Scroll of Secrets (3) -- it really is better in every way
• 1x Shrivelling + 1x Uncage the Soul --> Arcane Studies (4) -- Gloria starts off a little resource-poor, but usually by halfway through the scenario she has a small pile, and being able to top up tests to the point where only will fail is great. The recurring credits let you do this multiple times per round
• 2x St. Hubert's Key --> 2x Hemispheric Map (3) -- half the cost, no sanity penalty, probably the same benefit most of the time, occasionally an extra boost

TDE is a very XP generous campaign, but without too much victory point hunting, I ran out of XP at this point. It's just as well, since there isn't much more the deck wants or needs. Maybe a Relic Hunter to allow for 2 Hemispheric Maps? That would be silly.. 10 and 10 is overkill in most situations.

Thanks for reading! Gloria will be signing copies in the Miskatonic Book Company until 10pm!