"Publish and Be Damned" (The Last King, DttF contest)

This deck is only meant to be played with the Last King as a stand-alone. It's part of the Drawn to The Flame contest :) Spoilers for The Last King abound, and there are a couple of spoilers for Curtain Call too.

"I want some goddamn answers !"

Editor Jeffries was on the warpath again. You didn't need the finely honed senses of a veteran reporter to figure that much out. You just needed to get out of the way fast enough that he didn't turn his wrath on you. He stopped in front of the desk of one of the most harried-looking journalists and brandished a sheaf of papers.

"What the hell is this supposed to be? "Immediately after the intermission a white spider started to sing , and then the theatre burned down at the end of the second act?" In case you didn't notice , Murphy, this is the Arkham Advertiser not Weird goddamned Tales. Remind me again why I pay you for this?"

"On account of my eidetic memory?"

"Yeah, you're the best damn reporter I got at remembering things that didn't happen. Anyway, you got at least one suit that doesn't make you look like you're up on charges?"

"You wound me, boss. I have two good suits. In case -"

"Alright, heard enough. I gotta new assignment for you. One of the swells up on Atlantic Avenue's hosting some kinda ritzy affair to celebrate the opening night of that play that you slept through and I happen to have been granted a coveted invitation. So, I thought to myself , who should I send to cover this , and clearly Rex Murphy with his fancy degree and his two good suits is the man for the job."

"Boss , I-"

"See , I think when you submit your fever dreams fuelled by god knows what instead of a story you don't then get to complain about your next assignment. Go on, eat some classy food, have some fun, don't drink any booze on account of that's illegal and get me 800 words on Arkham's great and the good. That I can actually publish."

As Rex turned to go , Jefferies held up a hand. "One last thing. Call it a friendly warning. A little bird told me an old acquaintance of yours is back in town."

"Oh no. Not her. Of all the luck. Was getting me fired from the job in New York not enough for her. She has to follow me here and-"

"She got you fired from the New York job. Seriously. One little gal reporter convinced the NYPD you were working for Luciano's boys? On the same day as Luciano's boys decided you were with the NYPD?"

"Precisely, boss. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Anyway, thanks for the tip-off. Say, if I know she's coming perhaps I can persuade her to back off. Or, hell, I could take the Initiative for once. Maybe I could even be the one to scoop her on this story. It could happen, right?"

"Keep dreaming, Murphy. Anyway, time for you to get moving. Make with the search for the truth. Leave no stone unturned in your search for society gossip. And if you have to resort to questionable tactics to get the story, then don't expect me to bail you out. Now, what are you waiting for? Go on, get on with it."

Outside the editor's office, Rex took a deep breath. This was an easy assignment. He was a good interviewer, and he was damn good at sorting truth from fiction. He'd done the background research he needed for a good angle on the play, and he even had a new lucky charm that, unlike the previous 27, was actually going to work. Sure something was bound to go wrong but how wrong could things go at a party, anyway? Nobody ever had to run for their life outta a rich gal's soiree, did they?

Yeah, for once in his life, Rex Murphy was certain that things were basically going to be fine.

Things aren't going to be fine, are they? Welcome to the OOC part of my deck write-up :) I want to answer three questions -

1: Why I chose this combination of investigator and scenario.

2: Why I chose the cards I did

3: What advice I'd give for actually playing the deck, based on my play testing

1- Why Rex and Why The Last King?

The answer to that is that the Last King is my absolute no-fooling favourite of the published scenarios and I knew as soon as I heard about the contest that it was the scenario I wanted to work with. See , as much as l love this game, one thing that sometimes disappoints me is the way it deals with NPCs . It's a bit in the nature of the Cthulhu mythos that antagonists are going to be either murderously fanatical cultists or world-eating horrors beyond comprehension, and either way trying to communicate with them is the last mistake you'll ever make. This is very atmospheric and tense, but it does sometimes leave you feeling that the investigators are the only actual people involved in any given scenario. The Last King changes all that- the NPCs are full of variety, complexity and personality, they're front and centre in the story and dealing with them is the mechanical focus of the scenario as well. Fundamentally, it's a scenario about communication in all its myriad forms and I wanted to build a deck that would match that emphasis.

Rex seemed like a perfect fit for that. As a journalist , he should be good at operating within an unfamiliar social environment, finding common ground with a broad range of people, convincing them to open up to him, figuring out their motives and avoiding giving away too much of his own. So thematically my goal was build a deck that represented Rex's ability to use his ready wit and social intelligence to get the down-low, get out of danger and get home safely.

Mechanically , Rex as the lone investigator in The Last King also seemed like a challenging, interesting match-up. I think the free-form structure of the scenario lends itself very well to standalone play, as it supports a lot of different approaches, it can differ wildly from playthrough to playthrough, and the resolutions aren't all or nothing- even if you only interview one VIP you still feel like you accomplished something. Rex investigates like no-one else, but there's very little investigation to be done in The Last King. So my hope is that he'll feel a little bit out of his element, and not just there to simply hoover up clues and charge through acts in record time.

2- Why these cards?

My basic goal with this deck was to simulate the feel of a witty, highly-charged conversation and to avoid including anything that would be wildly out of place at a fancy party. To that end there are no allies (the invitation was for one, and the doorman isn't letting anyone in unless they're on the guest list) and the only items are the ones that make up Rex's outfit. The fine clothes are super thematic and super helpful both, but the disc, while it does wonders for Rex's survivability, is a bit more of a stretch thematically. I figure Rex can get away with one piece of tasteful antique jewellery at a theatre party, and you know he'd be all over a protective amulet. The obvious implication of this, though, is that Rex's depending on events to fight and 7 health is his absolute maximum. There are a lot of ways for damage to stack up in this scenario and so I'd be fairly aggressive about playing and using the disc. Maniacs make excellent targets, as do the weakness enemies.

So what the deck lacks in allies and items, I think it makes up for in skills, talents and especially events. As far as the talents go, hyperawareness seems like an understandable attitude for an experienced journalist to cultivate in an unfamiliar situation, and it gives you a few more options for significant evade checks when the lunatics enter play. Higher education is a terrifically powerful card in general , and in this scenario in particular it covers both the stats used in parley checks. And an academic background might come in handy when interviewing the cast and crew of an obscure play. And in the know is very thematic for a muckraking journalist, although of extremely marginal practical use. Maybe you can investigate a clue you left from a safer location?

Skills-wise, perception is the foundation of any good interview technique and you shouldn't be short of intellect tests to use it on. At a nice party with pleasant company and interesting drinks, you might find yourself being a little more socially daring than normal. Unexpected courage, in other words. It is a very versatile card that can be used to bolster less certain agility and will tests. Sometimes though an interviewer has to seize control of the conversation, and boldly demand answers to his questions and that is where take the initiative comes in. Between parleying, fighting and evading most turns should start with a skill check , and as the only investigator you should be able to use it to its fullest potential. Run For Your Life is mostly a thematic bit of fun, as Rex might be more likely than most to anticipate danger around every corner, but as most of the evasion is likely to come towards the end it's not impossible that it might get used.

The events are the meat of the deck though. I wanted to focus on events for this deck, because the one-off dramatic nature of most of them is the best mechanical match for my thematic concept of using clever quips and witty one-liners to get through. My hope is that when you get a few of them in hand, it should feel like having the perfect comeback for every possible situation. Since most of the events are designed to control potential threats , I also hope that players will swing from feeling in control on their turn to feeling vulnerable as they draw an encounter card to back in control when they have an effective answer to whatever nasty thing they drew. Like the give and take of a lively conversation :)

"I've got a plan!" is the major combat card in the deck. If something's getting hurt, this is probably how. It has several big advantages - it does a lot of damage in one action, it fights with intellect, at which this deck is vastly more likely to succeed and it gets better when you have clues. Since forewarned and search for the truth also want you to have clues , there's some synergy there. Thematically , I think it represents Rex's ability to adapt to the chaos around him and exploit it to his benefit.

Cryptic research and No Stone Unturned serve a similar purpose to each other as card-draw cards. You'll use one or the other, depending on whether you have a specific card you need or you just want to stock your hand. I think they fit in thematically too- after all you need background for a story- no matter how esoteric- and you need to make sure no relevant information gets left out.

I also think Rex would like to be forewarned of any potential disasters in the making and forewarned can be used to deal with any one of several different treacheries, depending on whether enemy build up, damage, doom, wasted actions or losing your suit/disc is the biggest current threat. And then there's eidetic memory, which can be forewarned, "I've got a plan!", cryptic research or No Stone Unturned depending on what you need most (I'm happy to report that I managed to play it as all four in my various playlists). And if Rex isn't carrying a notebook or a Dictaphone for these interviews, then in my book he must have an eidetic memory to reckoned with.

Think on Your Feet can be used effectively to escape maniacs and their terrible on-engage effect (don't stay in the same location as a maniac for a whole turn if you can possibly avoid it) or to move on when a bystander at your location goes lunatic. And given how much chaos Rex attracts , he must have some practice at thinking on his feet just to still be here. Persuasion fits into the same broad category of escape route in card form, as does elusive. Persuasionis a bit more complex though. It can remove both maniacs and young psychopaths from play, but bear in mind that as a parley action it interacts with both fine clothes and tough crowd. And I think to get people to trust him, Rex would need to be both likeable and slippery by turns :)

Seeking answers, truth from fiction and Waylay are all thematically super (although waylaying your interview subjects isn't very ethical, Rex) and mechanically marginal. You could plausibly waylay an evade 1 maniac, I guess, and you could use seeking answers to scoop up clues left behind by forewarned from safety. Truth from fiction really is just 2 intellect and oodles of theme, though :)

Lastly, the weaknesses. To match the theme of communication and character, I thought the weaknesses for this deck really should be peoplepeople. And people with relatively mundane, straightforward motives at that. When I looked at the stubborn detective and the mob enforcer together, that suggested a backstory involving a gang war of some sort. With Dianne Devine in the middle, making mischief for poor hapless Rex. They're not the easiest basic weaknesses to deal with, but hopefully they test your ability to find common ground with even the most unreasonable people. (Or failing that, to give them the shock of their lives)

3- How can you use this deck effectively ?

The basic idea of this deck is to locate your fine clothes with the various card draw options or a mulligan, then use them and higher education to trivialise parleying with the NPCs. That leaves you free to use whatever else comes to hand to deal with any encounter deck nonsense or enemies show up.

OK, that was the tl;dr version.

The long-form version goes something like this. One of the more interesting features of the Last King is that it has a quite a slow start and turns against the investigators as time goes on. So , IMO, the key to doing well with this deck and scenario is to get as much done with the calm beginning as you can. In a ideal world you will have got the fine clothes you need out on turn 1 or turn 2 , interviewed at least one bystander by the end of agenda 1 so Dianne Devine can be sent their way, and got a nice solid hand of anti-monster, anti-treachery, combat and evasion cards ready so you can be proactive rather than reactive when the VIP!lunatics start filtering in.

Hopefully by that point , you should have a decent sized hand with several different ways to react depending on what specific threats show up and you can keep some of the more versatile cards like forewarned and eidetic memory in hand to deal with nasty surprises. As more and more enemies show up though, the threat on the board will probably outstrip your ability to evade them, and then it is time to make your farewells. Believe or it or not, that was the part of the game where I had the biggest difficulty in my initial playlists. Too many enemies were all over the map, leaving no safe route to the foyer and it was a festival of courtyard maniac spawns, attacks of opportunity and all sorts of other bad times. That was why my one change after playtesting was to swap a copy of waylay for a copy of elusive. Waylay is a thematic card with useful icons, but realistically you don't need two of them and elusive should go a long way to getting you out safely. One thing to be aware of, though, is that if you're planning to get out with elusive avoid putting The Man in the Pallid Mask in the foyer if you can because he cuts off your escape.

I want to close out this section by discussing tactics for dealing with the NPCs in detail (I did say they were the point after all).

Ashleigh

Bystander!Ashleigh is , I think, the default starting point if you don't get fine clothes on turn 1. Because her parley effect can't fail, you can chill with her while you accumulate the resources, cards or clothes you need for the other NPCs. Lunatic!Ashleigh is similarly not a big deal- her special effect can be managed and her attack can be taken on the chin if needs be. She does have a big evade value though, so trying to stay ahead of her is usually a better bet. The one thing to be aware of Ashleigh is that, later on, when the board is flooded with monsters it can be risky to spend 2 consecutive actions on her parley effect, rather than evading or fighting, in which case you may have to leave her behind.

Haruko

Bystander!Haruko's parley check is difficulty 0 if you have fine clothes , which is a nice thematic bit of design and her 6-cards-in-hand requirement synergises well with the requirement for Higher Education, so she's usually a relatively safe bet to leave to late in the evening as her checks are unlikely to suddenly get harder. The two situations in which I would beeline for her are if Dianne Devine is about to arrive and you want to quickly set-up a bystander with no clues for her or if she's in the living room and you want to build resources for Jordan. Her easy checks work well for both purposes. Lunatic!Haruko has a relatively manageable attack and evade value to go with that huge combat value, so she's one to evade and flee. That said, she does only have 4 health so if you're feeling bold why not pit your plan against that 6 combat? Let me know if it works :)

Constance

Bystander!Constance's parley checks are trivial with fine clothes and still do-able without them, so like Haruko she can be fairly easily left until the end of the scenario without much risk. As with Haruko though, if Constance is in a location that rewards you for parleying , you may want to visit her sooner. I adore the intersection of theme and mechanics that went into Lunatic!Constance's special ability, but 4/7 combat and 6 health is a bit beyond this deck. She only has 1 evade though. I think you know what to do here :)

Sebastien

Bystander!Sebastien checks an awkward stat, but fine clothes make it a lot easier. If your clothes are looking a bit corroded, you may have to fall back on your liberal arts education and if you don't have the wherewithal for that you may have to leave Sebastien to his ranting. For that reason , I'd suggest heading for him as soon as you get fine clothes and getting his interview squared away before the situation escalates. Lunatic!Sebastien is a giant pain in the neck. He has a nasty nasty attack and a high-ish evade value so he can cause you a lot of trouble. He does only have three combat though , so if you have both a plan and a back-up plan killing him can do you a lot of good. (Sebastien was the first bystander to flip in every single one of my playtests. Go figure :) )

Jordan

Bystander!Jordan's parley checks are very easy, fine clothes or no fine clothes but that 10 resource requirement is quite a obstacle. Most of the resource economy cards available to Rex are a bit counterthematic so you may be forced to rely on the ballroom and the passage of time. But when you get the resources I'd probably suggest going to Jordan fairly fast , simply because that lets you stop planning your resource use around him and use that resource stockpile for other things. Lunatic!Jordanis not so dangerous that he is worth 8+ damage of time and effort and his evade value is low enough that he shouldn't catch up to you very fast, so he should rank fairly low on the doom hierarchy.

OK, I lied. There is one last thing. If you want to fine-tune the difficulty of the deck, there are two obvious changes. To make the scenario easier, trade the weakness enemies for gentler treacheries. To make it harder, leave out higher education. Now, this really is the end of the section.

And that about wraps it up. Thank-you for reading my super ultra detailed deck description. I hope it inspired you to give my favourite scenario a play or at least gave you some food for thought. If so, for all your adventures in the future, I wish you the very best of luck ;) xD