Fed-Ex. Roland goes postal

I put together something similar, but I was still struggling with the cards that needed to get cut to make room later on in the campaign for the Shotgun. What card(s) would you sack to make room for your Shotgun (s)? And do you plan to put some Extra Ammunition into the deck later on to fuel your Shotguns low ammo? If so, what card(s) would you cut for the Extra Ammunition?

Yes I think ammo is going to be essential. In honesty I'm not sure what I`d cut until I try the deck out, but first impressions would be 1x Magnifying Glass, Manual Dexterity, 1x Machete and probably 1x Flashlight. though I'm not sure in what order. I think balancing the resource requirements of the deck and not taking on considerably higher cost items in place of cheaper cards will be key so maybe Machete for Shotgun, maybe Flashlight for Extra Ammunition etc. matching on cost. but as I say this is all theory just now I'm afraid

Happy to hear suggestions.

@StartWithTheNameSwapping 1x Magnifying Glass and 1x Flashlight for 2x Extra Ammunition seems logical from a "resource management" point of view. Looks like a good choice also due to the fact Shotgun is an asset requiring all your hand slots, so there's less use for other 1 handed assets like Magnifying Glass and Flashlight. And if you're playing this deck co-op with a clue hound like Daisy Walker, ditching both becomes even more logical.

As for the cards that have to go to make room for your Shotguns, I'd consider Machete and/or .45 Automatic to keep the increase in resource costs to a minimum.

I wrote a little review btw on Shotgun yesterday.

@StartWithTheName I just started a campaign and played the first scenario with this deck. Won it, taking 4 damage and 3 horror and gained 7xp. Had some bad luck with a nasty curse that kept lingering in play and a weakness that took all my saved resources. Clue gathering and combat are a breeze, but I ran into trouble with the willpower and agility test that the encounter deck threw at me.

Yeah I agree with pretty much everything you said there. cheers for trying out the deck - good to hear it works! I think your right about keeping the hands slots free. Certainly when I wrote the deck I had it in mind to keep hand slots to a minimum, at least on utility items. No reason to break from that logic longer term. Looking at it and considering xp requirement I don't think 2x Shotgun looks that achievable at least within short campaigns. assuming 2 x Extra Ammunition you've spent 12 xp leaving little flexibility elsewhere. Bare in mind that Elder Sign Amulet costs 3 and might be enough to turn this build into a damage soaker where needed. I think when I said to swap the Machete out I had in mind that the .45 Automatic can make use of the Extra Ammunition as well (as can his Roland's .38 Special) giving a bit more consistency by taking 2x ammo before 2x shotgun. I know at first glance the Machete looks very strong but I found that the restricton of needing the mob engaged with you (and more so than being just 1 mob engaged) often cost an extra action to engage. at which point with high Str you may as well have just attacked normally twice. In terms of sustainability planning (ie you ran out of bullets in the deck), that last Machete will turn up eventually afterall.

Some thoughts to compensate for the off spec skill checks: Perhaps the 2x Knife might not be necessary. you have a lot of + str, so the +1 isn't as important as damage you get on other weapons. Even more so given that you aim to keep at least 1 weapon in play at a given time. Its also another hand slot freed up. only real loss is the cheap weapon deployment. 1x Knife and 1x Machete should be enough to guarantee at least 1 none disposable weapon turns up at some point so in hindsight 4x might be overkill. Could swap these for a couple of skill cards, or just assets with nice icons but nothing specific comes to mind. The Unexpected Courage were intended as compensation cards for these checks, but its hard to say without playing the deck whether there are enough. The other alternative is to just accept these limitations and soak any damage via Elder Sign Amulets and base 9 hp I guess, but that might not account for non damage penalties - lost card from hand/assets/resources etc

sorry ammo is 1 xp a card, not two but I think the problem is still about the same. its not shot gun focussed build per se. it just wants to maintain +1 damage (minimum) up with high accuracy as long as possible.

Just played the second scenario with this deck. With my +7xp from scenario 1 I bought 1 Shotgun and 1 Extra Ammunition, cutting 1 Machete and 1 Magnifying Glass.

I gained +6 xp in the second scenario (cleared 2 locations and had 3 enemies in victory display), took 5 damage and 1 horror.

With the 2 unspent xp I had left from scenario 1, I'll start the last scenario with +8 xp and no physical- or mental trauma.

Any suggestions on how to optimise my current deck for scenario 3 are very welcome.

Elder Sign Amulet looks to be a safe call for Roland. going an 8/9 char is quite differnt to a 5/9. He doesnt really make use of that accessory slot anyway unless you want the Police Badge, but im not sure he needs that quite as much as the extra sanity really. Ofc in this build a second Extra Ammunition will go a long way with 3 possible targets, 4 with Shotgun in there. you should be able to get at least one gun down early.