The single worst card to take to an Arkham event, esp if you don't know the people in your table.
Can you imagine crafting a wonderful standalone deck for an event that relies on one or two key cards, only for someone you've never met to draw this card to and nerf your deck?
This card is pretty scenario and player count dependent. Evidence on your own enemy can be hard to collect without getting attacked. You want treacheries that stay in play, or enemies not engaged with you. See this thread:
So with the latest reprints over at Gamezenter, i bought my copy of novella investigators as i was missing Gloria and just kinda like the replacement signatures of most other investigators, so finally in the last couple of months my group was able to have Gloria at our table. Oh boy, where do i begin?
This has got to be THE most broken investigator in the entire game, by far. When SK campaign got out, Darrell Simmons was showing signs of absurd combos with dropping clues or 0-difficulty tests, as any of those 2 decks was soooo powereful that it reminded us how Rex Murphy was back in the day with Dr. Milan Christopher and Higher Education. But our grandma over here takes the word "broken" to a whole different level. So the only way that you loose in this game is through the encounter deck throwing things at you, and you try to race the agenda and finish your act sooner. Kinda neat concept, but it all breaks down if you remove the encounter deck from the game. That is what Gloria does basically. With only a couple of cards like Scrying, Alyssa Graham, Scroll of Secrets, Parallel Fates etc. you are able to completely nullify the only threat to your group. There's a reason why cards that mess with the encounter deck get either taboo or the designers overprice them, like Hallow is very pricey but A Watchful Peace was so broken that it removes itself from the game now. With Gloria, you basically have that every single turn if you just do your job. If you take seeker offclass and put Practice Makes Perfect into your deck, you will refill your Scrying 4 times in the game with hitting Enraptured, and just put in all the good seeker stuff like Deduction and Crack the Case and that is basically it.
She takes the game to another level, and i mean it as if you look what every investigator gets every single round, you naturally give them things that they can easily pass or just don't harm them, and that way you neutralise the entire game. I even took her solo through Dunwich and TCU, and she was so absurd that after i won Dunwich, i retired her after half of TCU as i was just not having fun. That is the worst part of this pretty cool character i think, she just makes the game not fun. I hope her signature weakness is completely brutal, otherwise if she gets released with a couple of cards to support her in her cycle, she will probably get banned at my table.
This card shines best in a Charlie Kane deck in my opinion. For him, with 1 in every stat, it's just an unexpected courage with an extra icon on it (and you can collect it with a resourceful later). The game is almost entirely composed of tests that are (3) or more difficulty.
Finally randomized into this card after getting it from repackaged TFA Investigator Expansion. I still take draw action as required and play draw cards like Stand Together as normal to see how it plays out.
The excitement of the deck thinning down but not yet hit the card is great, as some scenarios offer a way to Resign and I have to think more than usual how could I resign a round or two before others, yet the remaining investigators can still finish the job. I also can take AoO to kill myself on my favorable side of health / horror to avoid drawing it, if the deck is down to < 10 cards.
I only start thinking of tech-ing the weakness this way if the scenario is nearing the end (e.g. Completed all objectives, just some extra VP remaining), otherwise the team would be inefficient because I'm too selfish about avoiding the weakness.
I am also fine with bringing new investigators in mid-campaign, it make deckbuilding idea and investigator choice quite different. You can choose someone with starting XP, someone with 5 stat ready for basic work, deck with some testless damage / clue, or coming in with cards specifically to support those that are still alive and don't require any test, like Contraband, "I'll see you in hell!", Dodge, Thermos, Obsidian Bracelet, True Grit, Old Book of Lore, Scrying, Premonition, Teamwork, ... This investigator's deck likely be an unpublishable, party-specific deck, or even "tech" the campaign's quirk. I would not get to build a deck like this starting the campaign at the first scenario. It's time to go wild.
Having The Bell Tolls in the deck in the final scenario can be quite a bummer, as if I hit it early I would became just a ghost-coach / doom token manager in that final scenario watching my friends play with no next investigator to come in. But I understand the impact wouldn't be there if the kill is not immediate, and tension will be unmatched if I seemingly not getting it halfway through the final scenario. There is also still some sense of strategy of trying to leave as much legacy for the team as I can before I dies, so they can continue to finish the campaign. One thing I did is to pass on resources and items with Teamwork earlier than usual as it give away control and they won't get removed when the owner is eliminated.
The upgrade process placing the new version "live" on the bottom of deck is, at first, I think is unnecessarily harsh. I thought they might not want the final scenario to be free if you are not yet at The Bell Tolls. It would still have the same effect if the upgraded version is placed in the discard pile and get shuffled after deck reset. But I finally understand that this design is actually kinda cool! I was at Scenario 7 with 2nd Accursed Fate and didn't think this would be my final scenario, after all I know there is one more step. However I got it when deck is very thin and The Bell Tolls coming in and you can see it is clearly there is quite spooky and... strategic! I count actions I am required to run to Resign, AoO I am required to take to kill myself before drawing that final card, or how many ammo could I unload my gun or locations I could help reveal before I go. I think this struggle is a unique experience for what mostly is a "you randomly dies" weakness. For twice a campaign its location is not random...