Cryptographic Cipher

Cryptographic Cipher

This card feels similar to fingerprint kit though a good bit worse. It slightly accelerates your clue gathering at the expense of a hand slot and a fairly pricey asset. This makes you take more tests and increases the difficulty of one of those tests instead of making it easier. I already don't use fingerprint kit much because of the high cost, though I think it can be good especially if reloaded with Emergency Cache (3). Will be curious to see if this receives any upgraded versions because as is it's quite lackluster. I'm very unsure why the second ability even exists if not for an upgraded version to make it much better (like setting the shroud to 0).

dubcity566 · 111
Fingerprint Kit can also be Contrabanded — Zinjanthropus · 229
This exists because the free action combines with Trish Scarborough's ability, allowing her to evade a monster engaged with her in a free action. If you're looking at this as basically another way to increase your clue-get by 1 each turn, it's cheaper fingerprint kit (side note, there are plenty of ways to reload secrets as well as supplies). If you're getting more value out of a free investigate action, this is probably better. — SGPrometheus · 828
The second ability is there to ensure you can still get clues the sub optimal way if necessary. If you're suffering a debuff or something, you can use it like a flashlight and not have to slow down so hard. The first ability is amazing though! It does make the test harder, but if you succeed, that's a clue and an action you didn't have before. And as people have mentioned, it's great with Trish to get the auto evade, thereby bypassing the AoO. — LaRoix · 1645
First ability would also allow Alice Luxley to do a damage as a free action, which might clear the location for further investigates. — Time4Tiddy · 247
The second ability can also combo nicely with Lola Santiago, as you can buy another extra clue at a 2 resources discount. — jamalix · 1

Carolyn Fern

Carolyn Fern

I have a question about the card slots during upgrading. Carolyn Fern is permitted 15 Seeker/Mystic cards that are non-healing. At the start of a campaign, let's say you choose 15 cards.

After Scenario 1, you spend 2 XP to buy two copies of Ancient Stone. The unidentified version does not say "heal horror", so am I correct that we need to remove 2 of our 15 non-healing Seeker/Mystics cards to add the stones to our deck?

If yes, then once we identify the Ancient Stone, and we then upgrade them to the Ancient Stone, since these have "heal horror" text, then we are now have only 13 of our 15 Seeker/Mystic card slots filled. We have 2 slots available again, yes?

If that's the case, what 1xp Seeker/Mystic card do you recommend to fill that space? Since 0xp cards still cost 1xp when you add them to a deck during a campaign, it feels bad to spend xp on a level 0 card. I'm curious to hear what the community has to say.

VanyelAshke · 180
The Seeker or Mystic tarot card is an option, depending on whether you have a clue-gathering Intel build (Seeker tarot) or a spell-slinging Willpower build (Mystic tarot) — VanyelAshke · 180
Forewarned seems appealing if you want extra copies of "Ward of Protection"-like effect. Or maybe "Pathfinder" for extra movement. Even with the Taboo list, Pathfinder is still a level 1 card. — VanyelAshke · 180
Hmm... 2x copies of "Protective Incantation" might be an option. If she has one Arcane slots open, then she can seal either the negative token that will cause a failure (-5, -8) or the worst BS token of that scenario. With Ancient Stones, her economy is strong so she can afford to pay 1 resource per turn. Is this worth it? — VanyelAshke · 180
My interpretation would be the same as how exile cards work. If you exile a card and don't repurchase it, then you replace it with a free level 0 card because your deck is short the required number of cards if not. So if your case, the higher level ancient stones causes your deck to be short the required number of cards, this you fill the void with free level 0 cards. — jdk5143 · 98
@jdk5143 What required number of cards? Carolyn doesn't have a minimum number of seeker cards, and all levels of Ancient Stone count towards your deck size. I don't think the exile analogy applies here. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
Merp. Good point. Basic counting is important. — jdk5143 · 98

Lita Chantler

Lita Chantler

Spoilers for the core campaign below: After scouring both here and on FFG's site, I've made a bizarre discovery that seems to have gone unnoticed: nowhere in the rules are you instructed to remove Lita from your deck in Resolution 3 of the last scenario. You know, the one where you literally throw her into the maw of a dimension-eating god. There's even a bullet that instructs you to write down that you sacrificed her, which seems like the perfect place to have something like, "Remove Lita Chantler from each investigator's deck; you have no longer earned that card, shame on you."

I checked the action that sacrifices her, the resolution, the FAQ and errata, and found nothing. Obviously she's dead... but she's still in my deck? It's a weird oversight for something so old.

SGPrometheus · 828
Or YOU are Umôrdhoth. — MrGoldbee · 1483
It's not that weird an oversight when the rules had no intention of your deck ever being used again after reaching the end of the campaign. End of campaign trauma and campaign log recordings is just intended to modify the campaign log that you can have for posterity as a souvenir from your adventure. — Death by Chocolate · 1488
Maybe Umôrdhoth lets her participate in a work release program from its ghastly innards? I don't heear of many people playing a second campaign with the same investigators, and it's probably less for the trauma (you could do TFA second and make use of the trauma healing in one of the interludes, as a) there are a lot of investigators who are fun to play, so at the end of a campaign I'm usually looking for the next deck, but also, even if Dunwich was the first campaign, by halfway through the second you will be well and truly out of upgrade options in most cases. — LivefromBenefitSt · 1075
Work release program! That's priceless. It's as you say, though: we're probably going to be out of upgrades by the end of Dunwich. Or maybe not; one of us is a Mystic and one is a Guardian, so there's a million things to buy. In any case, if one 'gator dies/goes insane, we'll probably just swap out and continue on for as long as possible. — SGPrometheus · 828

Déjà Vu

Déjà Vu

Not a review, but a question. If you exile 3x 1XP cards during scenario 2, and then purchase this between scenario 2 and 3, are you allowed to immediately buy back those cards without paying the XP cost?

EDIT: Another question - if you have two of these, will they reduce the cost of 6 cards by 1XP each, or also 3 cards by 2XP each?

I do feel that this card is possibly 1XP too expensive as it really relies on you having to go all-in with exile cards to get enough value from it, and you still have to pay 1XP for Fortune or Fate and Stroke of Luck.

ilksvorbern · 75
I see no reason why not. There is no timing restriction on refilling your deck before buying cards - it just needs to be a legal deck by the time you start the next scenario. — Death by Chocolate · 1488
I vaguely recall an FAQ entry for adaptable indicating that this was not legal, i.e., you couldn't swap two cards at the same time that you buy it, which would seem to be relevant here. But now I can't find the FAQ entry. — SGPrometheus · 828
You can definitely swap two cards after buying Adaptable while still between scenarios. You are probably thinking about the FAQ for Arcane Research (or Charon's Obol) since they have a timing condition at the end of a scenario and thus only give a benefit if you have them when the previous scenario ends. Déjà Vu, like Adaptable, has no such condition. — Death by Chocolate · 1488
Thank you! — ilksvorbern · 75
If you have two Deja Vu, you can distribute the cost reduction any way you like, nothing stops them from working on the same card (or on different cards). — suika · 9497

Shroud of Shadows

Shroud of Shadows

It is very interesting that if a curse token is revealed (and the enemy isn't hunter) you would effectively "evade" him anyway, even failing the test. I am still not sure if a Mystic should change a investigate or fight slot for a evade one, since I never tried Mists of Rlyeh, but is a interesting alternative.

Venti · 1
The enemy would move with you, so the curse token doesn't really evade it unless you succeed. — davilimap · 283
Yeah, if you move while an enemy is in your threat area it remains in your threat area and thus moves to your new location with you. That said, you could use this to get away from Massive enemies. — Thatwasademo · 58
Or closer to your Fighter friend who hasn't taken his turn yet so he can engage and kill it. — benevolentgamemaster · 1