Rick Grimes: From another place and time... (v2.0 - Playtest

Rick Grimes: From another place and time...

Read: This is NOT a William Yorick deck, I'm only using William because he's the closest to my custom investigator, Rick Grimes.

His story (on his card back) is: After being shot by the criminal he was attempting to apprehend, Rick awoke in a hospital to learn that the world as he'd known it had come to an end. The dead were rising, and a new world had begun - a world consumed by the walking dead. While searching for his family in Atlanta late in the year 2010, he inadvertently stepped through a portal into 1920's Arkham. Trapped in a world of Mythos and monsters, Rick seeks a way back to his own "dead" world to find his wife and son. So basically, pretty much everything in the comic books after he woke up in the hospital hasn't happened to him, and he only wants to get home to Lori and Carl.

This is version 2.0 after 36 total playtest games and some great feedback on Facebook. See first posted version and feedback here, posted after 16 playtest games.

The very first versions of this 'gator were Guardian / Survivor (V0.1 - 0.4) but after I honed in on the event synergies I swapped him to Survivor / Guardian because that feels (to me) more Survivor than Guardian.

Replace Bury Them Deep with Rick's Colt Python (below)

Replace Graveyard Ghouls with Vision of Lori (below)

ART COMES FROM INTERNET CLIPS OF THE COMIC BOOKS AND FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES. I CLAIM NO COPYRIGHT!

My thoughts after 36 playtest games: Rick Grimes can hold his own as a fighter, and is a decent flex investigator who can pick up a few clues when needed. This particular build has been pretty good in True Solo because he can Investigate and Fight really well.

Rick's ability: This saw MANY iterations over playtesting. I finally settled on the one printed above because it's in line with the Forced ability on Wendy's Amulet. It's more expensive over time than the amulet, so although I'd tested it at 2 resources as well, I feel 1 is "right"! Shuffle abilities can lift these events off the bottom. His weakness shuts the ability off.

Rick's Colt Python: From the show, not the comics. This started as something completely different (an event), and then saw a lot of playtesting after becoming the Colt. It's a blend of .32 Colt (2) and Survival Knife (0), and gets you to 6 on your turn but 4 for a "pot shot" after an enemy hits you.

Vision of Lori: This started as something else and has probably seen the most revision. The vision of Lori is so distracting that he can't react in any way while it's in play. It's worded as is because other investigators at your location can attempt the Parley action, so it's either him yelling at himself, or other investigators yelling at him. Test (X) because it gets shuffled back into your deck when the test is successful. You might test at 0 one time (which I've failed because of the ) and 3 the next time because of Rick's growing Madness.

These off-class events:

I've tested MANY off-class events throughout playtesting Rick, these are just the ones I used in my latest playtest.

• Faustian Bargain is huge money and I always pay the 1 to put it on the bottom the first time, and only on subsequent plays when necessary.
• Practice Makes Perfect can help you grab a skill when needed (one of my first upgrades has always been replacing Unexpected Courage with Unrelenting because the former is Innate and the latter is Practiced) and even if it doesn't it will shuffle your deck afterwards (getting events from the bottom back into the deck). Its symbols are good too and however it's used you can pay 1 when it hits the discard pile to place it on the bottom of your deck.
• Scout Ahead gets me some free movement and has 2 if needed.
• Working a Hunch is obviously great for grabbing a clue without a test when needed, and I'm running two copies for the icons, which can help against his weakness. And of course (again) his can put it back in his deck regardless of how it entered the discard pile.

This particular build: This 19XP build was designed to combo Well-Prepared with Lantern (2) and Jury-Rig to Investigate at (effectively) 7: 2 + 2 (or more) from Jury-Rig + 2 from Well-Maintained and -1 Shroud with Lantern itself. You also have 2 Well-Maintained: 1 for a weapon and 1 for Lantern.

I went with Lantern (2) for two reasons:

• It's 1 cheaper than Lantern (0)
• It has two for Well Prepared