Live and Learn

This is an extraordinarily good card. It definitely ranks in the top 3 for the Forgotten Age cycle, if not being the very best level 0 card in the cycle. It is good for 3 simple reasons:

A: It plays somewhat similarly to Lucky! in that it lets you play fast and loose with your card and resource commitment to tests. Say for example you can beat a -3 with minimal effort (Agnes Baker Rite of Seeking investigating a Shroud 2 location for example) but there's a -5 in the bag, Live and Learn will help you beat that check with assurity.

B: It protects against tokens and very large negatives (more common in harder modes). Giving you a retry on that test.

C: It recovers lost time and resources! Namely the action spent to attempt that test and whatever charges, ammo, secrets, supplies, whatever you used on the original test. (In the example above, lets say Agnes Baker drew a -5, with Live and Learn she can try that test again, without spending an extra Rite of Seeking charge, and the +2 from Live and Learn will cover against another -5).

All in all, Live and Learn is the card to pick if you play through some key assets or events, the bigger the gun, spell or event, (or if you just got a good pupper) the better Live and Learn is.

Tsuruki23 · 2568
Why would Deduction or Double or Nothing (ie, skill cards) still be present in the second test? The first test has completely ended, so they are no longer committed and are instead in the discard. Is that not right? — duke_loves_biscuits · 1278
@duke_loves_biscuits: Yeah, I think all that stuff is gone, which means this card probably falls short of greatness (but it still pretty decent.) — CaiusDrewart · 3183
Basically this card grants another action and +2 to that test. Not sure if it's worth a deck slot over Unexpected Courage, for example. — Django · 5148
This is pretty fantastic for Silas, who will often commit a skill card to a test, and then if if comes up as a fail, pull the card back, and then try again. This card saves him an action in that process, and grants him +2 on the second attempt. — Greatsageishere · 141
Yeah, I don't see why this needs an errata. It says after the test ends, so there's no case to be made for keeping your committed cards active. Still, a card that's almost as good as Lucky!, costs 1 less resource, and can actually deal with the tentacle, is pretty amazing. — Indog · 1
It is also much easier to work with Dark Horse than Lucky. The two best red cards don't play well together. — duke_loves_biscuits · 1278
I agree with Django--I don't see how this card is better than Unexpected Courage, even in a Preston deck — Malgox · 20
Unless you can chain it with "Look what I've found" and Take Heart... — Malgox · 20
This deck is far better than Unexpected Courage... It is bizarre that anyone would think otherwise. Analyze it from this perspective: How much does the card increase the likelihood that I succeed when I use it: — FBones · 19390
Sorry, was hoping that Shift + Return would let me put a line break. Okay, just do a simple analysis of how much this card will increase the likelihood of a success when you use it: Unexpected Courage increases your chance of success by 25-30% in typical cases on Hard. The key point is that you do not know beforehand that you will fail. Live and Learn gives you a completely second chance after you fail to succeed, and gives you +2 on top of that. In most cases on Hard that will give you a 85% - 90% chance to succeed when you otherwise would have failed. So Live and Learn is about 3 times better in positive skill tests (i.e., no Retaliate and not during mythos). I admit, there are nuances to take into consideration (taking a second pull from the chaos bag), but there are also nuances going the other way: the investigators who have access to Live and Learn tend to have higher will-power and lower fight/intellect, so they are less likely to be needing boosts on mythos and more likely to need them on bread-and-butter positive skill tests. The real question is not "why not use Unexpected Courage," but rather "why not use Lucky!?" Except for Dark horse decks, Lucky is generally superior. (note that Live and Learn does NOT synergize with Fire Axe because all your money is already spent.) — FBones · 19390
Another way to think of it is that Live and Learn is ROUGHLY equal to Unexpected Courage + 1 Action---as you get a second chance to succeed on the skill test you just failed, but is not useful during Mythos. — FBones · 19390
It's also worth mentioning that you can take both Unexpected Courage, Live and Learn, and Lucky, and you'll probably succeed on more tests than if you omit Live and Learn. I don't think it belongs in every deck, but it's definitely a good card. — Zinjanthropus · 229
I agree it doesn't belong in every deck. However I also agree there is NEVER a reason to include Unexpected Courage if you don't already have Live and Learn. The ONLY case where this isn't vastly superior is for Mythos protection. And in that case you want Guts, not Unexpected Courage. — Kitsunin · 1
What is the interaction between L+L and SWEEPING KICK? Can I get all the effects in the second test (+1 foot, +1 damage, + evasion)? Thanks — yuna1979 · 1
@yuna: Yes. These are the base effects of what you are attempting. Think of it like that: With L+L you get to try again what you were initially attempting and you lose everything that you modified your first attempt with (e.g.: pumps/reactions for the duration of a test, commited cards, etc.). — rxfisl · 1
High Roller

This is a fun asset to analyze. I think of all of the Boundary Beyond 'boost 2 assets' this one ties with Well Prepared for second place behind Cornered for general strength.

What's neat about this card is that if you succeed you lose nothing and can take another test with the same boost, but failing heavily penalizes you. This means 3r initially spent buys you not only the initial +2, but another +2 if you succeed that first test, another +2 if you succeed the third etc. This means we can easily analyze how much the 3r cost gains you through application of the Geometric Series! so a single commit of 3r will give us 2* (1-r^n)/1-r value, where r = our chances of success (assuming all tests are the same chance of success, a big assumption but it only gives us a general guideline)

If you take lets say 8 tests at 0.5 chances of success you're getting roughly +4 boost out of it. That is nearly streetwise levels of efficiency, but without the intellect or agility test restriction! not bad, but then again not great.

if we increase to r = 0.75 however (which is a roughly good approximation for what most investigators want to test at) you're getting +7.2 value spread out / 3r which is more value than Higher Education.

Now there are nuances involved. Not the least of which is that if you're running a 'succeed by two' deck this is a massive enabler, turning your would-be successes into success by 2s. Additionally this card has significant swing, even if you have a good chance of passing losing 3r if you only have 5 can be brutally punishing. Fortunately Rogue's are masters of hoarding up big piles of cash very quickly.

I think the biggest downside though is that this card is very very poor at getting you back from behind. It needs to sit atop a powerful engine of cards already getting you to the 0.5-0.75 success range before it can start to contribute real value. Again though, using the first half of a scenario to set up and the second half to sprint full-speed through the scenario is a valid Rogue archetype so purchase this accordingly.

Difrakt · 1313
Your analysis misses the fact that the card exhausts when you use it, meaning youcan only use it for 1 test per round. Still semi-decent for one test, especially when paired with other rogue cards (see: Double or Nothing), but not at the level of Higher Education. — SGPrometheus · 841
It does not miss that point, I merely didn’t address it. There’s a reason I referred to 8 tests (accounting for roughly 8 turns) and not 12 or 16 which would be more appropriate for an unrestricted booster. — Difrakt · 1313
I'm very disappointed by this card and think I won't run it for few reasons. First, when you want to sprint through a scenario, you need to take 2-3 times the same test per turn as rogue. (Finding clues, hitting monsters...) If you need that +2 for that, you are only allowed to have it once, and so, you have to also rely on something else. Second, you can't rely on this as you can rely on permanent streetwise, and it does cost an extra action and 2r to come into play. Means, 5r to start dring something. Third, this is a high gain but high risk gamble. If you want to rely on this often, there is a slight chance you might loose 2 times in a row and never recover from such a blow. But, if you don't heavily rely on this, it is not efficient at what it does, statistically. In the end, I think this is unreliable and I would prefer building a deck and strategy without it. — Palefang · 72
Well chances of failing a 75% chance test twice in a row is 1/16, roughly as bad as tentacles already ruining your day. Furthermore if you fail and bring yourself to too low a resource pool you have the option to hold off using the card until you recover, it's not a case of uncontrollable losses. That being said if you're not a big fan of gambling and fat stacks of cash maybe Rogue isn't your ideal faction (: — Difrakt · 1313
Dexter Drake could use this together with #Scrying Mirror to earn quite some cash. — jcdenton · 10
Kukri

Kukri seems cool. It sounds cool. But it falls in a very narrow window of usefulness. The main strikes against it:

  1. Anyone focused on dealing damage won't enjoy the (lack of) action economy; Primary monster hunters shouldn't take this.
  2. Gators with access can choose from a swath of blue weapons that consistently out-perform the Kukri.
  3. Solo characters probably don't have the actions to afford dealing 1 damage at a time.
  4. Gators with 1-2 likely can't hit something with this; They should be avoiding fights anyway and are probably better off throwing a Knife the few times they have to fight.

So we're left with support/investigating characters in multiplayer campaigns with 3+ and limited-to-no access to weapons. That list (as of Forgotten Age) is:

Although each of these investigators has other options, of course. But maybe you're a clue-and-evade Jenny who has Lockpicks(1) in one hand and doesn't fight enough to spend xp on Switchblade(2). Or your Akachi has Decorated Skull and you want a way to conserve Shrivelling charges. Maybe your Silas doesn't want the Baseball Bat because of a hand slot or Fire Axe because you don't want to be poor.

Overall, you've got to want to fight juuuust a little bit to use the Kukri - otherwise you should use the Knife for its one-time effect or just run the from bad guys until your slayer shows up.

PureFlight · 782
+2 to +3 Fight would be suffecient to competitive with another weapon. Also it would be great for Tony Morgan, the Bounty Hunter — AquaDrehz · 204
I think maybe Kukri falls into the same camp as First Aid. It's not great but sometimes it's the best option you've got. — oothooly · 1
The Secret Must Be Kept

I was playing Treads of Fate as Finn Edwards. I drew this with with two "You handle this one!" in hand. We had completed 5 acts. Threw as much as I could at it, and drew the Tentacle. What a terrible card.

This card really needs to be non-peril or max out at 3 Dmg/Horror. Truly feels poorly templated.

0/10 Newman.

Mcpunchababy · 34
You misread the card, it's per each completed act *deck*. There are only 3 of these, and once you've finished all 3 you've won the scenario. — cfmcdonald · 7
D'oh! I deserved that damage/horror. — Mcpunchababy · 34
I also misread it. Completed DECK not CARDS. — LEKO · 6
Enraptured

By my estimation, this is a very powerful card for any / deck. Spell charges are precious, and this allows you to replenish them safely (as opposed to Recharge) and almost assuredly. This translates to 2-3 damage (Shrivelling and its upgrades) or 2-3 clues (Rite of Seeking and its upgrades) per Enraptured when they are most desperately needed. Many investigators, such as Norman Withers, Carolyn Fern, and Agnes Baker rely on Shrivelling charges for defense and reliable damage output, and this card allows you to spend those charges more freely by extending the life of the targeted spell.

asgorka · 1
It seems like a hard card for Agnes to use due to the Intellect symbol. — Chobabot · 1
She doesn't need to be the one performing the test. In particular she could toss this into her seeker's check and still reap the rewards. — madhatter152 · 8
Can also toss this on a Flashlight investigation of a low-shroud location (your own Flashlight or someone else's) for a ~95% chance at the extra charge. — CaiusDrewart · 3183
I do think I prefer Recharge once enough extra XP comes in--I think a ~70% chance at 3 charges is superior to a 95% chance at 1 charge, even if Recharge costs an action. That's simply a lot more raw power from the card. Especially since you could, if necessary, help Recharge out with something like Premonition, Time Warp, or a Grotesque Statue card. (Now, obviously it isn't fair to Enraptured to compare it to an XP card; I agree that Enraptured is pretty good.) — CaiusDrewart · 3183
*a Grotesque Statue charge. — CaiusDrewart · 3183
The more cards are release, the more "value" each deck slot has. I'm not sure 1 charge for a spell justifies a whole card. — Django · 5148
That depends Django, for characters that depend wholly on charged spells the one extra charge can mean the difference between being able to garb 2 clues off of a major high-difficulty location, or not at all. Agnes and Akachi can definitely put this to use in combination with Flashlight — Tsuruki23 · 2568