Adaptable

Adaptable

Question: in The Feast of Hemlock Vale Campaign, Adaptable triggers between the end of a prelude and the next scenario, right? (since it's considered a new game, with setup and everything, except some steps skipped)

Losty · 1
I don’t think so. — Eudaimonea · 6
Yes, technically it's new game (hence the setup). If it was supposed to be the same game, they would use interludes. — Rotzi · 1
This is not correct. The devs have asked us to treat preludes as agenda 0.5 of the following scenario. We leave blesses and curses in the chaos bag, and "once per game" effects used during the preludes do not refresh. We don’t have an opportunity to change our decks and so can’t take advantage of Adaptable. — Eudaimonea · 6
Where is the official errata or FAQ about this? It's very hard to believe since it's clearly not an agenda 0.5 (you lose resources, cards and assets). In the meantime, the only rules available define preludes as separate games. See for instance this rule : "When setting up the next scenario, skip steps 1-8 of ‘Setting Up the Game” on page 27 of the Rules Reference." If it was the same game, it would not be called "the next scenario" and there won't be a setup for a new game... (your remark about the chaos bag is covered by the skip of step 6) — Polar · 1
This might be a case of unlucky wording, since at the time Adaptable was printed the only "game" that existed was a scenario. But yeah, needs a clear ruling. — AlderSign · 436
There is not an official errata or FAQ about how to treat the preludes, which are admittedly a mess. It’s unfortunate that so many rulings trickle out from the devs’ Discord conversations rather than official channels, but that’s where it comes from. In defense of their interpretation, I’ll say I find it strange to imagine you’re forced to keep the same hand but not the same deck from prelude to scenario. What would you assume happens to the player who changes, say, 3 of the cards that are in his or her opening hand? Likewise it seems exploitative for a player who drew into all his resource cards for opening hand to adjust the cost curve for the remaining deck, or vice versa for, say, a fighter who didn’t draw his weapon in opening hand but did draw his ally to remove duplicates of the ally and add additional weapons. In short, both by the letter of the developers’ (inefficiently communicated) intent and by principles of fairness, we shouldn’t be adjusting our decks between preludes and scenarios. Nevertheless, my initial response of “I don’t think so” is probably best because it allows those players who understandably don’t live on Discord to make their own interpretations based on the wording of the actual rules in the FAQ and campaign guide, which are admittedly ambiguous. — Eudaimonea · 6
You're telling me that this card can give its owner some advantages? Yeah, that's the point of a card ;) (and for me, you can replace cards in your hand, like you can replace permanents) — Polar · 1
Wow! So for your table, each copy of Adaptable allows a player to, after building an opening hand, swap out the two worst cards for any level zero cards of his or her choice in the entire collection. Well, I would advise anyone with Rogue level 1 access to spend an XP on this card in such an environment. Sounds like a good time! — Eudaimonea · 6
You know, this occurs only 3 times in the campaign, and after a prelude where one of the goals is specifically to build your hand. So... nothing exceptional here! — Polar · 1
I agree with Eudaimonea, that this does not work. In fact, I find the reasoning of Polar et al nonsensical. As he said himself, steps 1-8 of "Setting up the game" is skipped. Step 4 is "Assemble and shuffle the investigator decks." This is, when Adaptable could trigger, during "step 4a", assembling. — Susumu · 383
And by nonsensical, I meant mostly the reason, that you can change cards in your hand with Adaptable. If that should be possible, it would need to be written on the card. Like in the case of Tetsuo or "Council's Coffer", which specify, that you can search your deck or discard pile. Besides: "[...] like you can replace permanents" You can NEVER voluntarily replace a Permanent, only when a scenario specific instruction forces you to, you have to remove it. (E.g. in "City of Archives" with Charon's Obol, or on failing a task in "Drowned City".) — Susumu · 383
No. Adaptable triggers between games. Not during a step of setup. About cards in hand : between games, there are no cards in hand. Just a deck, with some cards tagged as "your opening hand for the next scenario". So swapping them is valid. — Polar · 1
Do what you want in your games. It's your game, and Arkham Police won't come and arrest you. But this is a clown's rules layering. — Susumu · 383
From the resolution of all three preludes, we speak here about: "Discard down to your opening hand size. Shuffle your discard pile into your deck. (Your current hand is your opening hand for the next scenario; you will not draw a new opening hand or take a mulligan.)" But you tell us, you can change what you got in your opening hand by other means? This makes no sense. — Susumu · 383
This makes perfect sence when you follow the rules, especially the golden ones. — Polar · 1
The Golden Rule says, that card text takes precedence over the Rules Referen. It does not cover the Campaign Guide, which is quite a different thing and specific to the scenario you play. In fact, the Silver Rule says, that the text on an encounter card takes precedence over what is written on a player card. The campaign guide is not an encounter card, but like one, it instructs you, how the scenario is to be played. — Susumu · 383
If you chose to apply the Silver Rule here, there is no contradiction: it just means that Adaptable can't affect cards in your "opening hand". Everything else works as intended. — Polar · 1
An example of correctly applying the Golden Rule: playing any card with "This action does not provoke attacks of opportunity" without taking an AoO. (Although, by the RR it would definitly provoke an AoO.) — Susumu · 383
NOT an example of correctly applying the Golden Rule: "Written in Rocks" campaign guide says about the Mine Cart: "Investigators cannot move independently of the Mine Cart." But woh cares, my "Join the Caravan" card says, I can move anywhere to a revealed location. And card text precedence over what's written in the campaign guide! — Susumu · 383
Rule : "Cannot" The word "cannot" is absolute, and cannot be countermanded by other abilities. (No Golden/Silver rules involved) — Polar · 1
Thank you for those answers. Reading them, it seems to me that according to the rules, indeed Adaptable triggers, but can't change cards from future hands (or, maybe, you could change some of them, but won't have the new ones in the starting hand). But I understand that some players don't want to follow complicated rules and prefere to house rule "let's play this as an agenda 0.5, closing our eyes on all issues this could bring" : as said, "Arkham Police won't come and arrest you" — Losty · 1

Enchanted Armor

Enchanted Armor

After writing this review I remembered about Solemn Vow and want to start from that as this is broken combo that combined with Enchanted Armor makes your team immune to mythos. Moving damage is different and does not involve placing. So playing this card, and Solemn Vow together turns all of your teammates into rougarou or trolls regenerating one point of damage/horror each turn without cost. This alone justifies playing this combo in any multiplayer team. I think this will lead to some rules clarification, but for now I don't find a hole in this tactic. The rest of the review is written before that and I don't have time to change everything, so I post it as it is, because it's still valid.

Most important aspect of this card came unnoticed in other reviews: ability to play it on others. Most of the investigators who can take it basically, either have other cards to play into their arcane or body slots or have low willpower or just generally wouldn't make good use of it.

The only investigator that is perfect for this card and has access to is Holy Muldoony ideally paired with Holy Rosary and Favor of the Sun. However, for some reason there is no decklist like that on the ArkhamDB. As placing damage tokens happens only as a result of damage, his ability means that you can move damage on Enchanted Armor until you decide you need to dump it for cash. You could use Blessing of Isis and some token manipulation like Unrelenting, and the results would be worth it. In the same way Wrong Place, Right Time and Solemn Vow can be used to freely clean yourself from damage without cost and work.

Lets look at the list of investigators that would make good use of this card, but have no access to it. I deliberately didn't include any investigators as if they really want some damage/horror protection they have Lonnie Ritter with Heavy Furs.

  • "Ashcan" Pete and his alternative version: mid willpower; + nothing to put into arcane slot; No combo potential; + access to WPRT; +access to Vow (3+).

  • Calvin Wright: +high willpower if insane; + nothing to put into arcane slot; + Would gladly accept extra protection from other investigators; + Access to WPRT; +access to Vow (5+).

  • Daniela Reyes mid willpower; +nothing to put into arcane slot; ++high combo potential, she needs those damages; +Has access to WPRT; +access to Vow (5+).

  • Warden (but you can consider assistant too) Hank Samson: mid willpower; + nothing to put into arcane slot; + He really needs tanking support when resolute; + His moves damage (or horror); + Access to WPRT; +access to Vow (5+).

  • Minh Thi Phan: mid willpower; + nothing to put into arcane slot; +lot of skills that can bust willpower, +Has access to WPRT (3+).

  • Silas Marsh: -low willpower; +nothing to put into arcane slot; +lot of skills that can bust willpower, +Would gladly accept some horror protection. +Has access to WPRT (3+)

  • Wendy Adams: mid willpower; +nothing to put in to arcane slot; +can replace chaos token; +Has access to WPRT (3+)

Most positive synergy appears to be with Calvin Wright, Daniela Reyes and Hank Samson So if you are in a team with one of those investigators, you should highly consider taking this card if you can and if you play one of those talk with your friends about including it in their deck. Remember about this combo, when playing two handed solo!

Who is perfect as a pair? William Yorick can replay this card from his discard pile making Calvin Wright indestructible god. Most investigators can take it, especially Carson Sinclair. In Carolyn Fern it's a little bit of no-bo, as she cannot heal the horror from it. Support Diana Stanley is also a good choice. I don't see it in "Skids" O'Toole or Joe Diamond, but if your buddy wants to play such pair than why not?

This is certainly niche card fitting only certain decks and sometimes asking for extra support, but for some investigators it can really shine. It has been a while since it came out and it is still unnoticed to this day.

Drostt · 148
Moving damage does involve placing it I'm afraid. It doesnt involve assigning, taking or dealing damage. But it does involve the act of physically placing it. — NarkasisBroon · 13
Yeah, this review is incorrect, please change it so it's clear to others. — AlderSign · 436

Gray's Anatomy

Gray's Anatomy

Cannot wait for this bullshit card to get tabou'd , it's even more powerful in multi player, what are the downsides ? I suppose it doesn't let your browser half your library in one go or pick up 5 clues at once.

Seeker class is ridiculous..

blobe · 5
I agree Seekers are ridiculous, but I wouldn't call this card one of them. This card basically allows you to do 3 damage once a round if you succeed at an Intellect 4 test. Considering this is 5xp, costs 3 resources, and takes up a precious takes hand slot, I'd hardly call that taboo worthy. — Nenananas · 273
Hell, it's not even science traited! what heresy is this to the medical community >:( — Nenananas · 273
I mean, there is a world where you have 2 or 3 ennemies in your area and treat everyone so your fellow seeker can nuke them out from orbit right ? ;) — blobe · 5
If by "in your area" you mean there's 3 enemies in your threat area, you've just taken 9 opportunity attacks :-P even if just one of them is in your threat area you've taken 3 opportunity attacks to do that. — NarkasisBroon · 13
I legitimately thought when I read the first sentence of the review that the player was asking for the card to be buffed to become playable. — Eudaimonea · 6
I think being Daisy is buff enough. — AlderSign · 436
See, you’ve half-jokingly identified why tomes like this are so weak. The devs have to balance them against Daisy. Times that are mediocre in other investigators, like Old Book of Lore, are fantastic in her deck. It’s hard to print a tome that’s strong outside of Daisy without creating a balance problem for her. Yes, it is true that this card and most other overcosted subpar tomes can be utilized well by Daisy. — Eudaimonea · 6
Well, it's not only the action, but also the 5 base intellect versus a difficulty 1 test. — AlderSign · 436
True, but it’s a 5 XP card taking her hand slot that presumably she wants for the damage rather than the healing since there are more efficient healing tools. She still needs to generate another source of damage though, and the book creates an attack of opportunity unless you’re doing tricks to get around that. Even in Daisy, this card asks a lot and doesn’t do anything when there aren’t enemies around, or in the absence of other tools. — Eudaimonea · 6
I disagree, as long as we are talking multiplayer. This is a card for a more or less specific build, not an auto-include. For damage support it's great, while the healing option offers enough flexibility to do something in turns without enemies. — AlderSign · 436
For healing support, Medical Texts (2) is 3 XP cheaper, 1 resource cheaper, gives virtually the same amount of benefit for the same ask, and (most importantly) actually heals rather than requiring another card to do so. For damage, Occult Lexicon (3) is a Seeker tome with all the same advantageous comparisons. Whatever function you want it for, it’s outclassed cry a cheaper Seeker tome. What you’re left with is a sort of “Yes, but this cake frosting is also a passable floor wax” argument that experience with competitive gaming will quickly disabuse you of. You need resource cards to give the best resources they can, damage cards to do a lot of damage, draw cards to grant a lot of draw, skill cards to give a ton of icons. This card costs 5 XP, 3 resources, an action to install, more actions to use, and then needs me to play other healing cards or damage cards in order to heal or do damage. And I’ might have to commit skill cards to make it work. And then I might pull the autofail and it does nothing. The Old Book of Lore does something every time at 0 XP, as does Occult Lexicon. — Eudaimonea · 6

Nautical Charts

Nautical Charts

Over the years many cards released are re-hashes of existing effects. For example, in 2022 Seekers got Grim Memoir, which is really just 4 copies of Perception in hardcover format.

In the same tradition, Survivors now get a book that turns any card into a Deduction. Most players have a very high opinion of Deduction, so this looks to be a promising asset for clue-finders!

Another great feature is that it does something with those duplicates, situational cards, or other cards that aren’t useful. Players like Wendy and Pete have always had this advantage, but now we have another tool to squeeze utility out of dead cards.

An_Undecayed_Whately · 1372
$3, a hand slot, and a card is a big cost for just deduction. — MrGoldbee · 1502
This card actually makes Min and Rex more wonderful. — liwl0115 · 48

Hardboiled

Hardboiled

To add to the other review, testing the whole Limited Environment thing that FFG released in the new FAQ, I recently played a Mark Harrigan Shotgun deck (the pool of cards I used was Carcosa, Forgotten Age, and Drowned City) with this card and it is pretty awesome. I would punch an enemy in the face or play my Shotgun over a fully spent Remington triggering the free attack for when that gun leaves play, then I would shoot my Shotgun and commit this for +4 to hit for spectacular effect.

This card also goes kinda nuclear after a One Two Punch is used since that card makes two attacks, it should also be a bit nuts in a Guardian Tony Morgan that has a Luger and a Robert Castagne and can make two free attacks in a turn with those alone, it can go all the way up to 9 of each icon (using Quick Thinking, Tony's extra action and at least one One Two Punch), granted you'd need a million enemies available or one incredibly beefy enemy to achieve that, but it’s an interesting theoretical potential.

DakonBlackblade · 16