• Q: I have a question about effects like Old Keyring, which have lasting effects "for" a skill test rather than "during" a skill test. Are other abilities that resolve during this skill test affected by Old Keyring's change to the shroud, or does it only affect the skill test itself? For a specific example: If I investigate a shroud 2 location using Old Keyring, and during the test I use Lola Santiago's ability, do I need to pay 2 resources or 0 resources? Similarly if I play Crack the Case during this investigation, do the investigators get 2 resources, or 0 resources? A: To answer your question(s):
  • Yes, Old Keyring would give -2 shroud to the location for the duration of the investigation test; any abilities triggered during the test would be affected by this -2 shroud.
  • If you used Lola Santiago’s ability during the player windows of the test, the X on Lola would be 0 in your example.
  • Since clues are gained during Step 7 of an investigation skill test, Crack the Case would still be affected by the modified shroud value, and the X on it would be 0 in your example.

Great card! As a seeker, it rewards you for doing your job! Fast action is cool and it's a card for team players, you can fund your team on a high-shroud location. You could even replay it with Eidetic Memory I could see it very well in a Minh deck, she's always been a team player. But it's cool for a lot of investigators, Roland for exemple would welcome the extra cash. A great card indeed!

Solid card. Have tried it in Joe and would recommend not putting it in the insight deck however. It doesn't benefit from the discount and it doesn't help you clear the clues thenlmselves, much better kept in hand so that he can use his other tricks to clear clues and then follow up with this as soon as possible.

The best thing about the card is that in solo it's always a good play regardless of the Shroud value, even 1 extra credit is an action saved and it scales from there. Since he's able to break Shroud 3-4 without breaking a sweat though this is a definite replacement for Emergency Chache in his decks.

Nice card.

Crack the Case is econ in a faction that until recently didn't really have resource issues (Namely, paying for slightly more expensive assets, that don't immediately pay for themselves like Dr. Milan Christopher does, Fingerprint Kit and Mr. "Rook").

The freedom from needing actions to get the money, the potential for 4 resources, it's a great supplement to Emergency Cache, the requirements to trigger it however don't make it quite effective enough to be a replacement for Emergency Cache unless youre playing a baseline 5 character. Crack the Case is just as easily played round 2 as it is round 20, having methods to quickly turn the extra money into test success, for example via talents, is smart. On the flipside Crack the Case can really speed up the rate at which your friends get stuff like Rite of Seeking or Agency Backup into play.

Space in a deck might be a bit too tight to actually fit Crack the Case, off-class characters however.. Roland Banks loves it! This is actually a good reason (the best reason?) to bring Crack the Case, as a means to fund your team some resources, it's certainly more straightforward then using Charles.

Note that the card can activate even if you aren't the investigator doing the clue deed, a nice bit of flexibility.

Surprising mechanic changes when revealed on Joe Diamond's Hunch Deck, despite not getting any play discount. The effect allow using when anyone in your team discovered the last clue, yet cards on hand are closed information so no one knows you have Crack the Case until you happenened to be standing there and witness a job being done.

Hunch Deck turns it into open information and now it is visibly a clue bounty to everyone on the table, and we can even discuss exact amount of resources to share since Hunch is revealed at start of Investigation Phase but before anyone takes turn. Those who want some of the bounty but can't work on clues may play first and wait at the location to pick the last clue. I like the table talk that results from putting it in the Hunch Deck.

Similar effect when having Cryptic Research on hunch because it is similarly Fast, 0 cost, and with teamplay effect. The card being visible "virtually" adding itself to everyone's hand as long as they are at the same location. Now everyone can hedge their risk better thinking about the possible 3 card draws while looking at what they have now. (But it must be played in Joe's turn, so if they want 3 more cards to take the tests / setup they can ask Joe to go first and give 3 cards.)