• Q: I'm considering a Mandy Thompson deck, and I wondered about her reaction ability and cards like Old Book of Lore and Guided by the Unseen, where the find has a cost. Do you pay the cost to activate the card you find once (effectively replacing "Pay XX to ... that card" with "Pay XX to ... those cards")? Or do you have to pay the cost for each instance, "Pay XX to ... that card" becoming "Pay XX for each card that you want to ..."? A: Mandy’s ability to “resolve 1 additional target of the search” can be thought of as treating the additional target just like the original target. To be more specific:

  • With Old Book of Lore, the investigator searches the top 3 cards of their deck for two total cards, draws them, and shuffles their deck; then, for each card, they can spend one secret to immediately play it at a reduced cost. (They would not have to play both cards.)
  • For Guided by the Unseen, the investigator may search the top 3 cards of their deck for two total cards to commit, then, for each card, they can spend one secret to commit the card. (They would not have to commit both.)

• Q: Knowledge is Power reads: "Resolve an or on that asset, ignoring all costs." Old Book of Lore reads: " ... may spend 1 secret to have that investigator immediately play that card". If I use Knowledge is Power on Old Book of Lore, do I need to spend a secret to use the "immediately play that card" part of the ability? Clearly Knowledge is Power does not allow me to ignore any costs of the card I'm about to play (c.f. ruling on De Vermis Mysteriis), but does the "may X to Y" templating here mean spending a secret here a cost? A: Knowledge is Power allows you to ignore ability costs on the chosen asset, which includes costs printed in its text box; this means you are able to immediately play the card you fetched with Old Book of Lore without spending 1 secret.

TL:DR. Very good even if your name is'nt Daisy Walker.

3 XP for a 1 resource discount and 2 instances of a 2 resource discount + a bonus action. Obviously the card is great, but it competes with other upgrade cards (you know, the crappy cards that stay crappy until upgraded...).

Obviously a Daisy Walker will be doing this upgrade at some point, uniquely though the limited nature of the discount brings Old Book of Lore into the limelight for non-Daisy people as a straight-up useful support mechanic. That said, the reason Old Book of Lore looks so worn is because Daisy just outright refuses to stop reading it.

Cool tricks:

• The investigator getting the free play isnt performing an action, so no attack of opportunity. You can help a friend replace an empty weapon under pressure or play a key event, especially useful is said events are dramatically useful like Cunning Distraction, Backstab or Elusive.
• Enraptured and Truth from Fiction get great value on this thing.
• Put into play a skill pump or persistent boost that can then be used on every action in the players's turn.

The card is good enough for any to use (especially Mandy Thompson), it just feels bad to spend those actions when you could just be playing Daisy. So. Dont feel bad?

This card is even better now that the Eldritch Sophist has been released.

Pack a Forbidden Tome and you can refill your Old Book of Lore each turn. In 5 turns, you can potentially get all the Secrets out of it to have it translated.

Now you can finally use other allies and the latest Taboo List without feeling like you've been robbed of all those resources on your turns with 3 successful investigations, and you do not only get a bargain, you also get a significant increase of tempo.

Use a Library Docent with Calling in Favors on your Forbidden Tome, replacing it with Encyclopedia (0) and you can potentially use the Old Book of Lore once a turn as you will often find cards that do not need to be played immediately such as Skill cards or Events that wouldn't apply to the situation.