Grisly Totem is a funky card, it's good, but funky. Not an autoinclude even in the relevant decks but an interesting pick still.

Buffing instances of skill blips is a flexible but intermittent bonus, sometimes you just don't have the relevant icon or cannot spare a particular card on tests, however it's unlikely that you cannot muster cards for skill tests at all for rounds on end. The trick is to have a good set of expendable cards and skill cards to go with a Grisly Totem. It's very much like Minh's ability except you need to draw, play and pay for it.

Skill cards, while not required with Grisly Totem, really make it shine. Getting 3 skill pips for a Perception, Manual Dexterity, Overpower or Guts is really cool, more meaningful though are the 1-pip cards that are flexible, you can play Rabbit's Foot alongside Grisly Totem and essentially use it like an Unexpected Courage, an interesting prospect if you also have access to Scavenging and routinely chase clues (it gets real good when you get Relic Hunter). Even more usefully though all the variety skill cards like Resourceful, Eureka!, Inspiring Presence, Quick Thinking and so on, all of these become MUCH more interesting and effective when you can treat their icons as 2's instead of 1's.

While characters tend to have skill cards all over the place in terms of , , and , and therefore might flexibly use the bonus on what's needed, characters tend to have an overabundance of cards and a strong inclination to chuck them at tests rather then play them, this means that a might have less flexible things to do with a Grisly Totem but they can often get more use from it, which is great because unlike dudes there is very little competition for the accessory slot.

When you do trigger the bonus, you often trigger it on top of some pretty clutch tests, a Guts versus a Rotting Remains, any play of Deduction or Vicious Blow, Stunning Blow, you get the picture, it's pretty good.

If you have lots of skill mechanics in your deck that's really when Grisly Totem becomes a priority. Silas Marsh and Minh Thi Phan should take note, they are the perennial "ALL THE SKILLS!" characters with 50% percent of their decks being skill cards, so should "Ashcan" Pete, Roland Banks and Joe Diamond, all of whom tend to bulk up on cool skill mechanics like Deduction, Vicious Blow, Eureka!, Resourceful and/or Inspiring Presence.

Get Your Lola runnin’

Break her out of Broadway!

Looking for adventure

And a masked man from our play.

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Yeah, Lola's gonna make it happen

Take all of Arkham in a love embrace

Play all the factions all at once

And, transcend time and space!

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Whoa, those roles look frightening

They really make me wonder

What if theyre restrictive

That’s some pressure i`ll be under!

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Lola, we’re gonna make it happen

Take bits of Arkham in a love embrace

Play those factions but sort of one at a time then

And, transcend time and space!

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She’s a true nature's child

She was born, born to be wild

She can climb so high

You’ve just got to try

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Born to be wild

Born to be wild

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Got my Lola runnin’

Broke her out of Broadway!

Was set up for adventure

Then she threw it all away!

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Hey Lola, why`d make that happen?

What happened to our “love embrace”

We had loads of cool stuff in play at once,

Then, you threw it back in my face

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Like a true nature's child

She was born, born way too wild

She could climb so high

But now im gonna cry.

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Born a bit too wild

Born a bit too wild

I really underestimated this card. Winging It is one of the best clue gathering tools around for Survivors. -1 Shroud may not seem like a lot, but it makes any 3 Shroud location "Look what I found!"-able: when played from the discard pile, you can guarantee you'll net 2 clues from a 3 or less shroud location. Even better- this shuffles back into your deck after being played from the discard pile, so you can simply Drawing Thin yourself into it over and over again.

This is especially nice for people who don't have hand slots to spare for Flashlight or Lantern. Rita Young for example likes using both hands for Baseball Bat and Ornate Bow. Similarly, William Yorick builds sometimes rely on the bat and Old Hunting Rifle. Survivor versions of Tony Morgan should probably consider this card as well since Tony will likely have his hands full with a pair of Colts.

Both Wendy Adams and "Ashcan" Pete can use their special abilities to throw it in the discard and get the better activation of the card earlier. Calvin Wright can use it to help delay Voice of the Messenger slightly (along with Impromptu Barrier and Improvised Weapon). If trying to keep Calvin as trauma light as possible for future campaigns, this seems like a pretty necessary way to go about it.

Q: With "The Shadow Befind You," can you "discard all of your resources" if you have no resources?

A: No-- whenever you are presented a choice with the word 'must' and only one of the options will affect the board state, you have to chose that option. (see rules reference: 'Must')

If the word 'must' was not there, you could choose an option that does not do anything.

And in the instance where you have no resources or cards, you won't have satisified either of the first parts, which means you won't do the 'then' part, discarding Shadow Behind You. (see rules reference: 'Then')

Basically, there's no way you get out of this without discarding a card or a resource at somepoint, unless you just stay at nothing forever.

-- Thanks to user 'legrac' on the ArkhamHorrorLCG for the above clarification!

Leo Anderson has friends in high places.

• A touch cheaper (same prices as the other Leo) and actionless if played with Leo's special ability.
• Or pay in installments, with somebody else Leo hired cheap.
• Leo's got the bankroll to afford them, thanks to dubious life choices, and a fondness for guns that shoot money.
• Non-unique, so you can second them to your intern.
• Versatile. Actionless AND Testless dmg & clues... clues in particular a nice add for Leo's meh booklearnin'.
• After which they love to be Inspired, which Leo has a habit of doing with his other friends in medium places.

Obviously not showing up early in a campaign, and likely not among your first upgrades.

I roleplay Leo as a cross between Zap Brannigan & L. Ron Hubbard given his employment practices, so I like to think the feds aren't so much showing up as "backup" but rather because they'd "like to ask him a few questions."