Manual Dexterity

After so many years, let's discuss a very important point :-)

Is Trish Scarborough being pictured here?

I would say so: in which case we waited for almost 5 years before finding her! I really love the interconnections and contextual references of this game. It really adds to the narrative and immersive experience.

Lord Phrank · 76
The Arkham Horror files universe existed and was pretty fleshed out before this game even started. I think the only investigators in this game that didn't already exist when the core set first released were Stella, Nathaniel, and Wini IIRC??? Im pretty certain that every investigator released before the starter decks already existed before this game was even announced. — NarkasisBroon · 11
Nope, Sefina was new to the game at her release. She was later added to Eldritch Horror. — bricklebrite · 533
Noice. TIL — NarkasisBroon · 11
Also - and someone please correct me if I'm wrong - I believe that Calvin and Daniela had not yet been featured in an Arkham files game at the time of the Core Set release. — bricklebrite · 533
Preston Fairmont, Agatha Crane, Carson Sinclair, and Daniela Reyes were also released specific to Eldritch Horror. I'm really hoping we see Carson Sinclair in AH:LCG at some point. — Pinchers · 132
Calvin was the only promo investigator for 2nd Edition Arkham Horror. He had existed for years in the Arkham Files, but basically nobody actually had a copy. Also, at least some of the post 2nd Ed. AH new investigators actually first showed up in the Investigators of Arkham Horror book of short stories, including Agatha Crane and Father Mateo iirc. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
Calvin was an Ally card in Elder Sign* I believe (*probably not the base game). When they added his investigator card in the last expansion they instructed you to take out the Ally. — Yenreb · 15
Eldritch Inspiration

Mystic investigator cards are cards. So when you resolve the Elder Sign effect on your Mystic investigator card, Eldritch Inspiration can double its effect (or In Jacqueline's case, ignore it to draw a card, though that seems a waste).

Edit: probably doesn't work.

suika · 9511
I literally do not understand this card at all. Or rather, what differentiates it from it's lvl 0 version. I guess you can use it on your investigator card? Father Mateo could make great use of it, but he can only use his ability once per game. — LaRoix · 1646
@LaRoix The difference is that the upgraded version can react to any token; I can't think of any effects that would react to the number tokens, but it can get elder sign, bless and curse reactions, all of which the level 0 version would miss. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
It seems like it pretty much extends the card to Jacqueline's starter decks's "if you reveal a nice token cards", the In Too Deep suite of spells that key off blessings and curses and elder sign effects? Plus maybe Recall the Future? That would work, I think. So I think , leaving aside the weird corner cases, if you're building around Jacqueline's spell suite or the In Too Deep curse suite then it's a meaningful upgrade. But it's hard to really evaluate it without knowing what bless/curse mystic cards turn up in the future. It seems like a card that will either see more use as more and more compatible cards get released or disappear if they don't .... — bee123 · 31
With Favor of the Sun/Moon just spoiled, enabling guaranteed bless/curse draws, respectively, this gets pretty strong with the curse spells. — SGPrometheus · 847
Father Mateo can chuck Seal of the Elder Sign and this to get two extra actions and a guaranteed success on demand, though it's more situational for other investigators: Akachi won't say no to an emergency recharge in a pinch, nor Diana to playing more cancels, or Luke to more Gate Box charges. — suika · 9511
Teachings of the Order

Yes, the fact that it's a permanent tome that doesn't take up a hand slot is good for regular Daisy, and awesome for parallel Daisy. I also have a question for the community about how this works in the Daisy one-off "Read or Die."

The set-up instructions for "Read or Die" have you "Remove each non-weakness tome asset from Daisy Walker's deck" -- which would include Teachings of the Order. Then you are supposed to put those tomes under locations. In the scenario, you can pay clues to shuffle these assets (without looking at them) into your deck. The goal is to draw and play as many as you can in order to defeat the Namer of the Dead and earn xp. But what happens when you draw Teachings of the Order? The possibility of drawing a "Permanent" card is something we have not seen in Arkham. Obviously you can't play the dern thing -- it has no cost, not even a zero. Would the "Permanent" keyword that normally makes the card "start each game in play" leap into effect belatedly, putting the Teachings into play as soon as you draw it? I don't think so... My reading is that the Teachings would simply be stranded in your hand -- unplayable, undiscardable -- though I suppose you could trigger one of its abilities from your hand with Knowledge is Power... Technically the rules don't forbid drawing a permanent asset, having it in your hand, or shuffling it into your deck (you just can't shuffle it into the deck "during setup"). The conditions for doing any of those things just haven't existed until now.

Anyone else want to weigh in on this fascinating conundrum?

Hang on! I edit my review to suggest a solution. If Daisy were to take Versatile and Sleight of Hand, she could sling the Teachings into play for a single turn, no? Long enough to Parley the Namer and finish the scenario! Problem solved...? Although, dangit, the taboo'd Sleight of Hand requires the item to be level 0-3, and the Teachings have no level at all...

The rules under permanent also say permanent cards can't be shuffled into the deck during the scenario , right? So you can't shuffle it in that way. FWIW, I think what happens here is that because investigator set-up happens before scenario set-up (and permanents have to enter play in investigator set-up or Studious , Another Day Another Dollar and Stick to the Plan wouldn't work), the Teachings are already in play when Read or Die set-up tells you to remove them and since permanent cards can't leave play they just stay there. It gives you a lucky break for playing Read or Die in the second half of the Innsmouth conspiracy and doing a good job on In Too Deep, I guess , but there are several ways specific story cards can do that sort of thing. If you're interested in weird rules curiosities, a specific permanent unique item can produce a similar situation in a specific scenario whose set-up interacts with unique items. — bee123 · 31
Is there a source for a blanket ruling that “permanent cards can’t leave play”? From what I’ve seen, Matt has been quite careful to only rule against specific methods by which they might do so. — Tamsk · 1
The FAQ says this under Rulebook errata - (v1.1) Rules Reference page 16, column 2, “Permanent” The fourth bullet point should read: “A card with the permanent keyword cannot leave play (except by elimination).” I think that's pretty unambiguous, right? — bee123 · 31
The official rules only say permanents can't be shuffled into the deck "during setup" -- shuffling. Also, the tomes are explicitly removed dyring the "Investigator setup" phase. But maybe you could still say that the permanents enter play at an earlier point in the investigator phase? them at other times isn't mentioned. And are — Mordenlordgrandison · 463
@bee So it does, my apologies. For some reason, the arkhamdb copy of the RR hasn’t been edited to reflect that erratum, though it has others. — Tamsk · 1
@bee123, I think I've come around to your view. Step 4 of Appendix III (Setting up the Game) is to "Assemble and shuffle the investigator decks." At that point, the permanents would have to enter play, because you can't shuffle them in. And the instruction in "Read or Die" to "Remove all tomes" from your deck obviously can't be done until your deck is assembled. This rule gives no window between the deck being assembled and the deck being shuffled, during which the permanents could potentially be plucked out. — Mordenlordgrandison · 463
Old Hunting Rifle

Rita Young + Old Hunting Rifle + Swift Reload + Stunning Blow = lots of fun and lots of hurt for the other guy...throw in Oops! if you wanna cover your butt!

Did I mention Easy Mark in there too, even to get to 200 characters?

Krysmopompas · 366
You forgot Ace in the Hole! — Zinjanthropus · 230
oh hell yeah:) — Krysmopompas · 366
And True survivor to counter the jam effect, on +3 actions too! — LeFricC'estChic · 86
Strangely enough, I've absolutely loved this on Silas using Defiance (2), and just pulling back Defiance if it's not the skull! Works like a charm :) — MorriMorreu · 1
@MorriMorreu That doesn't work. With Defiance, the skull is only 'partially' ignored (see ruling on Defiance's page), so OHR will still see it being revealed and so get jammed. Something like Third Time's the Charm CAN help, but obviously doesn't work with Silas's ability. — anaphysik · 98
Rita Young

Analyzing Rita, you're naturally going to draw comparisons to the two other Evasion-focused survivors, those being Wendy Adams and Stella Clark. All three have mediocre-to-poor investigate and fight stats, but while Wendy and Stella have powerful abilities to offset their weakness, Rita's ability goes all-in on her strength, evasion. This is...a little strange.

5 agility is the best in the game at the time of writing, and her ability grants a free move action or free damage out of an evasion test once per round. That's great. If you have to evade, you almost always want to move away or inflict damage as well. If her ability was an asset, it would be an auto-include for any high-agility character. Where she falls frustratingly short is how she applies that agility when there's no one around to evade.

Her biggest handicap is that survivors have precious few cards to capitalize on 5 agility. Those are almost exclusively in the rogue pool, which Wendy Adams has vastly broader access to. Rita has better agility, but cannot Backstab. She cannot use Lockpicks to mitigate her poor investigation. She cannot use Pickpocketing for draw economy. She cannot use Suggestion to easily evade anything in the game. She instead has a pool of (currently) 16 cards outside of the survivor role, all of which are rogue, and only two are not also available to Wendy.

So what does she have instead? In terms of card access, Ace in the Hole and the upgraded Pilfer. Ace in the hole is very good (and combos amazingly with Will to Survive), but a single card that you may never draw isn't exactly compelling. Pilfer is useful, but incredibly expensive. Without rogue money economy, she'll be hard pressed to actually use it after bouncing it back to her hand.

In terms of card utility, she has one major advantage over Wendy, and that's her fight value of 3. The survivor pool is a little thin compared to guardian or rogue, but she can make decent use out of a few clutch options. She can even spring for something more substantial if necessary. Evasion is helpful in a pinch, but the ability to remove a threat completely can't be understated, and Rita has a consistency there that Wendy can't match.

As for the Stella comparison, that's a bit more nuanced. Their statlines are nearly identical, with Rita getting a bonus point in agility, but Stella having a whopping 8/8 health/sanity pool. While Rita will stay glued to Peter Sylvestre for dear life, Stella can take whatever is thrown at her. Rita has the (slightly) better card pool, with access to Sleight of Hand if she's using her guns, or to get more keys out of Old Keyring. She can Swift Reload her hunting rifle, and like Wendy can fleece Easy Marks for an economy boost.

Stella on the other hand has the much-lauded combo of Drawing Thin and Track Shoes. While Rita can also use it, her higher agility (much higher if running Pete) means you'll actually have a hard time intentionally failing the test on track shoes, and usually run right past your target. Stella tests flat, and gains a bonus action from failing. Point to Stella; that's some of the best economy in the game. Stella's ability also wrings more efficiency out of the suite of failure-specific survivor cards like "Look what I found!" or Dumb Luck. Stella's signature cards are universally useful, while Rita's is situational at best. At the time of writing, I think they come out about even; Rita has the edge as a multiplayer evader, while Stella excels as an all-rounder.

In summary, if you want to lean 100% into sneaking and tricks, you'll like Wendy. If you want to get your hands dirty sometimes, you'll prefer Rita. It you want to draw autofails all day while singing "ain't nothin' gonna break my stride", go with Stella.

CombStranger · 289