I love the alternate investigator cards, all of them, even this one. Not necessarily because they're great, but because they're usually rather bizarre and enable some really weird things to be done. This Jenny Barnes is not an exception to the first part, but I can't tell if she's actually an enable of anything.
Dissecting her ability, as a reaction to starting her turn she can play a Talent asset from her hand at a 1 resource discount, exactly like Leo Anderson does with Ally assets. However, unlike Leo Anderson, Jenny can toss her Talents in the trash as a free action in exchange for their printed cost, with an upper limit of gaining 5 resources per round this way. And to facilitate this focus, she gains access to all non-Permanent Talents, though she can only have 10 Talents in her deck that aren't from Rogue 0-3, which is her general restriction on Rogue cards as well.
Definitely strange, but how good is this?
Her first ability saves her a resource and an action each turn, but only if she has a Talent she wants to play in hand at the start of that turn. While this is nice, it's not quite the same powerhouse as Leo Anderson's ability. Allies are generally more useful than Talents, which is why they cost slots and Talents don't. If she crams her deck full of Talents she can amount a lot of small utilities, but how much can we really achieve with that? I'll highlight what I feel are standouts in the department of "simple but effective cards". I'll be skipping Rogue talents but I'll mention any that are relevant to interesting combos or tech.
Every Single "Resource->Skill" Talent: I'm biased, I'll admit it, I never look twice at these cards, they bore me. That being said, Jenny has the capacity to make a lotta cash. There's probably a way to play her so that you have a pile of money you use to just succeed all tests, while pairing them with cards that maximize the value of each test. However, I personally think that original Jenny would be better at this because she can already take those talents with her five level 0 cards, and she has more consistent resource gain. For this reason, these cards will still not receive a second glance. 3/10 arbitrary points.
True Grit/Something Worth Fighting For: Decent soak, and you don't have to feel guilty about discarding it because all it provides is soak. 2 dollars and a reaction now can save you 2 damage/horror and earn you 3 dollars later. Of course you only got 10 slots to work with for off-class Talents, so that's important to keep in mind. I give these 4/10 arbitrary points.
Safeguard/Safeguard: Not the worst, not the best. Free movement is nice, but obviously it only works in multiplayer. Maybe your Jenny is playing bodyguard, or maybe you're too good to walk where you're going and would rather have someone else drive you there. Still, slots are limited. 4/10 arbi's for the level 0 and 5/10 arbi's for the level 2.
Well Prepared: Good card. Pairs well with the higher level "Resource -> Skill" Talents which often have two pairs of matching icons on them. Very good when paired with either of Jenny's signature assets, as well as most story assets you can acquire from scenarios. I'd compare this to High Roller without the chance of getting burned, which makes it better imo (this game loves to burn you). I give it 6/10 arbitrary points.
Artistic Inspiration: This card can turn anything into a tiny baby Lucky!. Despite that, I don't love this card outside decks that have discard tech. Anguishing over what to throw away and not to throw away always sucks. If your deck is full of 1 icon commits with effects you don't care about then sure, maybe, but why is your deck full of 1 icon commits with effects you don't care about? 3/10 arbi's.
Empirical Hypothesis: This card is strange, and I've never been able to unlock its secrets. It feels like its wrapped up in so many chains to contain it, and I can see the makings of an incredibly wack combo. However, I've found using it for straightforward draw is a bit lackluster. If you spend 1 XP you can make it kinda reliable with the Field Research upgrade to proc on entering a shroud 3 location, but this doesn't impress me. Also, Jenny doesn't get access to Ariadne's Twine or other Secret tech, so the most obvious avenues are a wash. I give it ?/10 arbi's because I'm sure somebody already knows a wack combo that I don't.
Fieldwork: Good, clean utility, and for a 3/3/3/3 character that's a deal you can't beat. Its trigger condition makes it less reliable than other stat boosters, but it's 0 XP and boosts any test. Use it to get a clue a room over, evade/fight an enemy before it Hunts into you, pass a tricky test on a scenario card, or even find a way to move during the Mythos phase (there are plenty) and you can use this to help contend with a rough treachery. That's 5/10 arbi's in my book.
Pathfinder: More free movement. Handy, especially if you're solo. 1 XP ain't so bad either. 6/10 arbi's.
Steady-Handed: Steady-Handed is weird to judge. On its own, it's success manipulation sometimes Horror healing, things that mostly aren't useful on their own. However, combine this with other cards Jenny has access to and it could be an extra clue, or it could return something like Breaking and Entering or Opportunist to your hand, or help you proc Empirical Hypothesis. Best that can be said is that it's not worth taking if you don't want to manipulate your success values. If you do though, 10/10 arbi's, I'd call it mandatory.
Cornered: Same thing I said about Artistic Inspiration inspiration applies here, as this is a sort of "1 in the hand is worth 2 in the bush" type deal. Difference being that this costs XP, and can't be used to manipulate the result of your test in a precise manner. 1/10 arbi.
Drawing Thin: Drawing Thin is a good card, but it's not a good card for every deck, primarily because it costs 3 XP. With that much value hinging on it you need to be in a position where you can use it constantly, which means you want to be able to take a test you really don't care about failing, typically as some sort of free action. Rogue gets a few of those, but most of them cost XP and I would say it's not worth cobbling together an expensive economy engine around Drawing Thin. If anything, it's better on original Jenny because she gets access to Track Shoes as well as Drawing Thin, which is about as reliable and safe as it gets.
Scavenging/Scavenging: Ah, Scavenging. If not for that pesky "item" requirement, you'd immediately break parallel Jenny. Still a good card, and honestly a better alternative to something like Mob Connections. Get your Lockpicks back, reload your Jenny's Twin .45s (assuming you find a way to dump em). Pair this with Breaking and Entering and Fine Tuning so you can get a clue, evade an enemy, heal a horror OR keep Breaking and Entering, revive an item from the discard, and even maybe play it if you have the level 2 version of Scavenging. I'd definitely spring for the level 2 version if playing parallel Jenny as that's value that the other Jenny can't get. 8/10 arbi's, held back only by its XP cost of 2/4.
Speak to the Dead: I only play multiplayer, so I never play with curse tech, just blurse tech. That being said, rogues get plenty of it, and returning a dead card to your hand is nice. However, if you don't draw the Curse/Skull then you've wasted your action, which means you're pretty much gonna need Favor of the Moon before this can be used reliably. After that setup you could maybe do some Riastrad + Dawn Star shenanigans? Manipulate Destiny for some testless damage? Dunno really, but there's some potential here. 4/10 arbi's, for now.
Sign Magick: This card is a lot, and also nothing. I don't care about the level 0 version, it's trash, it's garbage, get it outta here, at least for the sake of discussing Parallel Jenny's potential. We don't care about the slots (yet), what we care about is the ability to double (or triple) the value of an action, because Parallel Jenny can take level 3 Sign Magick and Borrowed Time, something that I believe only 2 other investigators (Lola Hayes and Subject 5U-21) can do. Quick and simple, this combo lets you turn 1 usage of a spell/ritual asset into 1 extra action on your next turn for each Sign Magick you have in play. This is cool, but it's also kind of useless because it requires 3/4 cards, 10/13XP, and currently only procs off of Suggestion and Blur (both of which are XP cards, thus the extra cost in the XP totals), for what amounts to just playing Leo de Luca. But hey, you free up your ally slot. Being reasonable though, this card has no applications as of now, but it's like a live wire next to a fuel tank; one connection, one spark, and this could become a very wacky card for Parallel Jenny. With that assessment of its value, it gets no arbi's, because why rate what doesn't exist yet?
In conclusion: Parallel Jenny is odd, though unfortunately not in the same way as others. Her oddities require that she rely purely on her card selection for power, and her card selection here amounts to little more than untapped potential and "succeed by" tech that could probably be utilized better by Trish Scarborough or Lucius Galloway, with her primary appeal being access to Fine Tuning + Breaking and Entering + Scavenging. The problem though is that all of that comes from the BACK of her card. The front of the card amounts to very little. Sure, the reaction-play and the discount are nice, but I think I'd rather just have the free extra resource each turn. If her discard ability did something besides give resources, I think there'd be something here, but as it is I just don't see it getting used. Rogue gets better ways to make money, and Talents only benefit you while they're on the board. I don't think she's worthless though, they just need to start printing some WEIRD talents that you'd WANT to discard, like perhaps a Rogue talent that generates resources at turn end but also makes you pull a token, and if you draw a symbol you take damage, and it could be based on cheating during high stakes gambling or something, or a Seeker talent that lets you gain an extra clue after your first successful Investigate but then forces you to take a test to avoid spawning an enemy at your location, based on the idea of asking dangerous questions about dangerous people. Seeing as they're releasing Izzy as an investigator, I can only hope someone out there is invested in the Jenny Barnes character enough to have this in mind as new releases come out, otherwise Parallel Jenny may never get a chance to reunite with her :(
