Card Reviews · ArkhamDB

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)

7/21/25

Losty · 1

I don’t think so. — Eudaimonea · 6 7/22/25

Yes, technically it's new game (hence the setup). If it was supposed to be the same game, they would use interludes. — Rotzi · 1 7/22/25

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 7/23/25

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 7/23/25

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 · 437 7/23/25

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 7/23/25

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 7/24/25

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 7/24/25

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 7/24/25

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 7/28/25

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 7/28/25

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 7/28/25

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 7/28/25

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 7/28/25

This makes perfect sence when you follow the rules, especially the golden ones. — Polar · 1 7/29/25

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 7/29/25

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 7/29/25

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 7/29/25

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 7/29/25

Rule : "Cannot" The word "cannot" is absolute, and cannot be countermanded by other abilities. (No Golden/Silver rules involved) — Polar · 1 7/29/25

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 7/29/25

That’s not really a reasonable good faith conclusion to draw from the conversation, but if that’s what you find to be the fairest and funnest way to play the card, I’m here for it. — Eudaimonea · 6 8/2/25

Remington Model 1858

Zoey Samaras is the only one I thought that may make the fire max without Versatile. Cuz she can take Act of Desperation, Sleight of Hand, Well-Maintained. Without taboo, 2xSleight of Hand use it twice, so do Act of Desperation (and Well-Maintained take back), and finally just play them and use other things occupy hand slot to discard them.

7/22/25

Lumina637 · 6

Marion Tavares

I just want to add that "fast" event cards, which can be played under any circumstances, work wonders for Marion. They allow her to combo other events in any flexible timings without spending actions. Notable mentions include "Get behind me!", Tempt Fate, and Trusted (attached to an ally). This strategy lets you chain actions together to achieve meaningful outcomes. I recommend packing some cheap, condition-less "fast" event cards in her deck.

liwl0115 · 51

And especially avoiding attacks of opportunity! — AlderSign · 437 7/21/25

Tempt fate is a good catch. — MrGoldbee · 1506 7/22/25

"Get behind me!" comes with the condition, that other gators want to take an AoO, though. (Unless you want to use your card just for the extra action.) Note, that Marion's ability only work during her turn, even if events could be played out of it. — Susumu · 383 7/28/25

Think on Your Feet

No one has yet mentioned that this pairs very well with Pocket Telescope. You get to avoid the enemy, obviate an evasion, get a free movement, and can still obtain the clue remotely.

This pairing can eliminate a situation where you regret including this awesome event.

An_Undecayed_Whately · 1378

The rules team struggles to answer whether you provoke attacks of opportunity from unengaged enemies at locations you remotely investigate with Pocket Telescope, but I’d allow it. — Eudaimonea · 6 7/22/25

There is an answer for that question under pocket telescope and yes, you get only AoOs from enemies at your location — Tharzax · 1 7/22/25

That’s from 2022. Their most recent responses have contradicted it. You’ll see in the thread shared in the following link that the ruling you reference gets cited at an early point in the conversation, and then FFG makes a new ruling that contradicts it. There has been no answer since, that I’m aware of, although you will see on the Pocket Telescope page that a recent question about Luke is answered by the rules team declaring their “outlook is evolving” on how effects like Pocket Telescope should work. I suppose we should assume that the most recent ruling, which is that you would provoke AoOs from all unengaged enemies at the second location, is part of their new outlook. https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3161568/as-if-and-attacks-of-opportunity — Eudaimonea · 6 7/22/25

Short Rest

Correction: The advanced version of Wendy’s amulet

Outside of an environment where multiple investigators run this, I only see one clever use for this: Wendy.

After her advanced Amulet hits the table each Short Rest (spent earlier on re-drawing chaos tokens) can now be chained. And then they’re lined up in a lump in the draw pile!

I don’t think Wendy’s Amulet allows one Short Rest to look at itself as “another” Short Rest. — Eudaimonea · 6 7/22/25

Yes, the forced effect of the amulet takes precedence, so there is no Short Rest in the discard pile to play after you play it. — AlderSign · 437 7/22/25

I think this person is just saying that you can: Discard all three short rests prior, then use the amulet to play all 3 at once cleanly (And then all three are at a convenient place to recur) — Lailah · 1 8/7/25