Playing Weakness cards in agreement with the rules is no trivial task. There are already some reviews regarding this especially complex card, Cover Up, but none so far that puts all pieces together to one whole image. In my review i will try to explain how this card is played according to the rules.

When a treachery card, like Cover Up, is drawn by an investigator, that investigator must resolve its effects. Please note the wording. Some cards only let you search or look at cards from your deck, in these cases the effect does not resolve!

The effect is initiated by the keyword Revelation, which means "When a weakness card enters an investigator's hand, that investigator must immediately resolve all revelation abilities on the card as if it were just drawn."

So you follow all the steps in the rulebook under "Appendix I: Initiation Sequence".

No play restriction, cost is zero.

Step 1. No modifier applicable.

Step 2. No cost to pay.

Step 3. The card commences being played, or the effects of the ability attempt to initiate. This means the card Cover Up leaves your hand at this point.

Step 4. The effects of the ability (if not canceled in step 3) complete their initiation, and resolve. The card is regarded as played, but not placed in its owner's discard pile, because the text states "Put Cover Up into play in your threat area, with 3 clues on it."

So Cover Up lands in it's bearer's threat area. But unlike other card types there, it is a treachery card, which is a subtype of of an encounter card. And because of that, other players can interact with it. You will find the corresponding rule under "Weaknesses": Weaknesses with an encounter cardtype are, like other encounter cards, not controlled by any player.

The text of the ability states to "When you would discover 1 or more clues at your location: Discard that many clues from Cover Up instead." This should be broken down into two parts. First, the "When"-clause. You can only trigger that reaction if the trigger condition is met, meaning there has to be at least one clue present at that location. (I continue to speak in the singular form, because the rules do not differ if multiple clues are gathered at once.) The way in which you aquired that clue, does not matter. Now the clue remains at the location, because of the keyword "instead", this interrupts the resolving process and the replacement resolves, "a clue from Cover Up is discarded." Second, the "you" keyword is important. As clarified in the FAQ [V1.0, section 2.1], the "you" and "at your location" within this triggered ability, refer to the investigator triggering the ability. And other investigators beside the bearer are allowed to trigger it, as already explained, because the card is not controlled by any player.

Irrespective of the clue count on Cover Up, the card stays in Roland's threat area until the end of the game(=scenario). It can not be discarded and luckily can not be reshuffled into the investigator's deck during the game. Of course it remains being a part of the deck for the rest of the campaign.

If Roland is eliminated (by being defeated or taking a resign action) while Cover Up is in play, Cover Up's Forced effect triggers, as per the FAQ [V1.0, section 'Rulebook errata', topic "Elimination"]: For the purpose of resolving weakness cards, the game has ended for the eliminated investigator. Trigger any “when the game ends” abilities on each weakness the eliminated investigator owns that is in play. Then, remove those weaknesses from the game.”

Recommendations

This weakness makes Roland the most difficult to play character from the Core Set. He has a low base Sanity value and a low Willpower, which makes him vulnerable to horrifying events from the Encounter deck. I would advise new players to put some means to prevent or heal horror from Roland into their deck.

Okay, the Parley bit is interesting ... but - just how many Parley actions are there in the game so far? Not many, so let's ignore that...

1 cost for 1 health and 1 horror. And it's an Item, so Scavenging might work well with it. Also, it's the first body slot card to offer some level of horror protection, which is interesting too.

On balance, it's probably not as good as Leather Coat, but it's not disappointing for the cost, and I find horror is often more of a problem than health. It's also much cheaper than Bulletproof Vest in terms of XP.

I could imagine using this with a Rex Murphy Scavenging build, or perhaps Jim Culver Scavenging with the right ally cards.

One down-side - this has the creepiest card art in the game. Is that a mannequin? Scary.

This Survival Instinct is absolutely awesome. Evade a whole bunch of enemies - and because it's Evade and not Disengage you might stand a chance of getting away from them - and move too!

In particular (Spoiler ahead) in The Devourer Below, it's a fantastic way of getting past the cultists from the Midnight Masks. Walk up, evade one of them - and you're home free, as they're not hunters. You still won't win, but by heck it helps.

Also, 2 icons - excellent.

I'm almost certain this will be an automatic choice for Agility based survivors. It's like Cunning Distraction, only affordable.

Man this guy is a huge jerk. As leader and teacher to all of the little Acolytes he has the same effect they do, but worse.

First of all, he spawns somewhere empty which usually means 'at least one action away from you' and he immediately gains a doom at the end of the mythos phase he spawns in. So far he's just as bad as his little minions. But as extra rank gravy he also has the following:

• at 4 str and with the retaliate keyword he knows how to fight and will punish you if you don't (though with 1 damage, not by much)

• with two health he is not flimsy, requiring either multiple actions or a weapon to down

• one doom is not enough for this bad guy, oh no he adds an extra doom at the beginning of every round. (thankfully, without a threshold check) meaning you can easily lose 2, 3 rounds to him if he spawns in a particularly bad spot and time.

The first two additions make him a difficult kill for non-fighting investigators who aren't packing plans or solutions, but the last effect almost certainly mandates that he is a priority target regardless of whether anyone around is good at fighting.

10/10 on theme and drama though. While I hate seeing him show up, he is a flashy and intimidating villain who presents a threat that is a bit more than just a sturdy body and damage. It makes for great stories (and losses)

Final note: it is especially important that you not misunderstand the grim rule with this guy. While you may have multiple options of where to put him, he doesn't have to go as far away from you as possible. The rules explicitly state that when spawning an enemy if there are multiple valid locations it is player choice on where he goes.

EDIT: Disregard.

After re-reading the timing chart I've noticed there is a player window between Hunter enemies moving and enemies making an attack, which means it is possible to make the enemies move and elude them afterwards. This is useful in some scenarios with out-of-the-way locations.