On the Lam

The fact that this signature hasn't been reviewed in nearly ten years says quite a lot about it, I think. First, I'll highlight the good: It has some good icons. +2 to Will or Fight, +3 to Book or Foot, you can definitely use this card to help pass some important tests, or even to increase the odds of oversuccess, a Rogue staple.

But it's not a skill card, it's an event card. It's a cheap one, and it's fast, but its power is... not great. Compared to Trish's signature, Skids does not automatically disengage from anything, nor can he stop enemies from engaging with him. This means that if Skids is getting overwhelmed by enemies for some reason, this signature only delays being hit by them a round. That's still not without value (you could play this to cancel the Retaliate/Alert keyword, for example... but only in non-Elite enemies), but it makes the signature very conditional in its use. Furthermore, where Trish can proceed to move through a Monster-infested room, Skids will continue to engage anything in any new room he enters. This card's effect has some value, but it's just too situational. You could easily go a whole campaign without needing it, but rarely will you get through a scenario without ever thinking to yourself, "I wish I had just a couple more icons for this test".

So you basically might as well treat this as a slightly better Unexpected Courage. That's a fine concept in a lot of cases, but not for a signature card. Unless for some reason the various Rogue economy cards are unavailable to you, Skids will play much better with the advanced versions of his signatures instead.

Ravenson · 1
Although Trish's signature is way better I also often found myself committing it, treating it as a weaker version of Winnie's signature. I dunno, somehow On the Lam screams "tank build" at me: If you have enough actions of are already crowded you can collect enemies without taking attacks of opportunity and them blow them up with dynamite. *shrug* Why not? — AlderSign · 375
Library Pass

This card seems a bit too strong with The Necronomicon and Scroll of Secrets. Since you can easily search both tomes with Research Librarian, the combo seems too easy to get going for how strong it is.

If you throw in some secret recovery like Truth from Fiction or Eldritch Sophist you can easily recharge Scroll of Secrets.

You could also add Knowledge is Power and Library Docent if you want even more necronomicon action. Library Docent also works as a nice way to recharge Scroll of Secrets.

Pyrgbh · 3
Ariadne's Twine + Dr Milan Christopher make this combo infinite assuming you use at least one action to investigate every turn. Essentially turning your additional resource from Christopher into a secret for Scroll of Secrets. — Sengy · 2
Spectral Shield

Can't believe it took me this long to notice and correct me if I'm wrong, but this card seems fully Diana Stanley jank-enabled similar to Delay the Inevitable and "Fool me once...". With the Twilight Blade out, she can play this card from underneath her every round and then cancel damage or horror and place it back underneath her to recur the resource while drawing a card. Even better, Diana can take some of the Guardian allies that deal themselves damage or horror like Beat Cop or Field Agent to create a nice self sufficient card draw engine while testlessly getting clues and/or damage pings. On top of that, as these are all actions, they can very easily be done outside of the phases where you have played your other cancel cards since Diana's ability is a limit once per phase . Of course you'll need a charge battery that can help you keep enough charges in play to do this every turn but there are some useful options for that like the Runic Axe or the new Drowned City card Lost Arcana.

edit I think since these allies take damage/horror as a cost, the combo can't use them for their actions and would only end up generating card draw, which while nice is probably not worth heavily building around.

soiDF8 · 8
Would you need charges to do this? It always cancels the damage, it would just discard itself afterwards if it cant remove a charge, but if you're sticking it under Diana anyways that shouldn't be an issue. — Spamamdorf · 5
Correct me if I'm wrong but due to the ruling of Galvanize, your original idea with Beat Cop / Field Agent should be perfectly fine: Q: Can Galvanize be used even if you do not control an exhausted Guardian asset (or no Guardian asset at all), simply to gain a bonus fight action? A: It sure can! Generally speaking, in the absence of the word “then” or any other text that would infer that one effect is conditional on another effect functioning, you do as much as you can in all instances. In this case, there’s no text that says that the additional action is dependent on the asset being readied, so you can absolutely do one without doing the other. Enjoy, MJ Newman — Slippin_Jimmy · 1
@Slippin_Jimmy: No. The mentioned abilites of Beat Cop and Field Agent have taking damage/horror as a cost, whereas the effect of Galvanize is not a cost. — AlderSign · 375
Offer You Cannot Refuse

So Wendy Adams only benefits from this weakness? With her Amulet, she can cycle her new event sub-deck and never draw Fine Print back. It feels like those fairy tales where ordinary people deceive the devils

exin · 46
Oh, my mistake, it's a permenant change, whoops. In this case not that good. — exin · 46
Talisman of Protection

This card is also a good asset for William Yorick as he can recycle the card in and out of his graveyard into rebirth loops and replay the necklace again after an elder sign or ability to grab it from the discard pile like Resourceful or Scavenging. My group didn't have this when I first played Yorick and will consider it next time!

Palacer · 1
True of any 2 health/sanity item tho, right? — MrGoldbee · 1483
I think Palacer is about it being fast(?) — AlderSign · 375
True that it's fast off an Elder Sign. I think MrGoldbee's point is that all other health/sanity items are effectively fast for Yorick off of an enemy kill, which tends to be much easier for Yorick to plan around. — HanoverFist · 743
Almost. The reason this stands out for Yorick is because he can attach this health/sanity item into an easily accessible arcane slot and recycle it constantly while not occupying an important accessory slot to survive better with cherished keepsake for example. I'd rather use police badge or bangle of jinxes for him (another underdog card btw). You can have the best of both worlds with the talisman keeping you alive, coming back again, and freeing up your accessory slot to use other great items. Other investigators are forced to make harder choices to stay alive longer and sacrifice slots. — Palacer · 1
The fact that this item is also fast is $$ — Palacer · 1