Unscrupulous Loan

Unscrupulous Loan

This seems to be an absolute no-brainer for standalone play. 10 free resources, and who cares if it's exiled?

Almost seems like it should say "Campaign Play Only".

One does sometimes wonder if the play-testers remember about standalone play at all...

duke_loves_biscuits · 1278
That's just the nature of exile in standalone. Worse with this since it doesn't really turn into RFG, but cheaper exile cards like Flare are also very good in standalone play too. — SSW · 216
It's not actually that much better than, say, buying it for the last scenario of a campaign would be -- either way, you're paying 3 xp for an effect you get to use once. Same goes for any other exile. — Thatwasademo · 58
(naturally, that's still really good, as people have known about other exile cards like A Test of Will since the start, but it's not broken) — Thatwasademo · 58

Directive

Directive

This directive can be cheated using Bob Jenkins free action to play item assets from your hand. Since Bob's ability is a free action for himself Roland isn't playing the card. I think that's pretty neat and synchronizes pretty well between Bob and Roland.

marmaid · 10
You're technically wrong, I think, but right in effect. Bob is taking a Play action, but to play your card. You are not the one playing the card, Bob is. It's not actually a free action; people can punch Bob during it, etc. But for Directive purposes it should free you up. — Lailah · 1

Rod of Animalism

Rod of Animalism

Ok, i saw a lot of people doing this mistake, so: This card is unique, you cant have two of them! Relic hunter won't work, nothing can help you! You can't have 4 dogs in 2 accesory slots. Stop publishing reviews/decks with 2 RoAs. Thanks

Pawiu14 · 196
Unique means you can't have two rods out at the same time, but you certainly can have two in a deck. Also, Rod gives you two extra ally slots for creatures and two dogs take up a single slot, so one rod is enough to have 4 dogs out and you still keep your original ally slot free for a human. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
There are four distinct keyword to limit cards in deck or play: 1) Exceptional cards cost double XP and you can have only one in the deck. 2) "Limit 1 per deck" is the same without the added XP cost. 3) Unique means, that there can never be two copies by name at the same time in play, even among investigators. For example, it is not possible, that one player plays Roland, and another player parallel Roland in the same campaign. Two players might have the same unique ally in the deck, but this is generally not wise, because only one cn play it. You can't even play your second copy to replace the first, because the play action will be aborted in the "Check play restrictions" of Apendix I of the Rules Reference. 4) "Limit 1 per Investigator" cards, like "Dark Horse" or "Lone Wolf" can be twice in any deck, that can take them. And several investigators can play them. They are just restricted, that anybody can have them only once in play. — Susumu · 381
From the RR for Unique: "A card with the (star) symbol before its card title is a unique card. There can be no more than one instance of each unique card, by title, in play at any given time. A player cannot bring into play a unique card if a copy of that card (by title) is already in play. If a unique encounter card that shares a title with a unique player card would enter play, discard the player card simultaneously as the encounter card enters play." "Enter play" and "in play" is independent of how many copies of that card you can have in your deck. You're the one making the mistake here. — toastsushi · 74
I know that you can have 2 RoAs in deck, but you cant have 2 in play. — Pawiu14 · 196
Okay, so why does your review tell people to stop publishing reviews/decks with 2 RoAs? It's still legal to have 1 in play and to commit the other copy to a skill test. — toastsushi · 74
I meant based on 2 RoAs in play — Pawiu14 · 196
There had been one review (of HanoverFist on "Sled Dogs") where this fact was missed, and it's been long corrected. Other than that, I agree with TheNameWasTaken: you likely missed the fact, that "Sled Dog" only takes up half an ally slot, because no other review, I've seen claimed to put two Rods into play. — Susumu · 381
You CAN have 4 sled dog on 1 RoA — ProfS · 1

Jenny Barnes

Jenny Barnes

Jenny is in my top 3 list of Investigators to hand people to get them hooked on Arkham.

Jenny has a ton going for her. Firstly, her theme is awesome: there is a reason she is the 'face' of the Arkham Files universe: she isn't some rich snob, she isn't some femme fatal, she is a woman out to Do What It Takes and is fairly open about it.

Secondly, she has a clear gimmick and playstyle (Use money to replace a power) that isn't too complicated (if you just hand her the classic Jenny "pump to win" combo of Physical Training and Streetwise). Is Jenny ever going to be the most efficient at a task? No. Is a player ever going to flounder to figure out how to get out of a situation or contribute to the team as Jenny? Also no. She is, in many ways, a perfect flex, because once you upgrade Streetwise (Ideally ignoring taboos for your first game and just conveniently leaving elusive in the binder) she can from turn 1 handle basically any issue sufficiently, meaning your entire table (which may also include 2 other scared newbies) has someone who at the very least can keep the baddies exhausted if the first mythos flop womps ya.

Thirdly, and more importantly, Jenny just instantly creates stories at the table if you hand a newbie a beginner deck filled with evocative cards. Is Enchanted Blade the strongest use of your off class card pool? Haha, no. Are people instantly going to be invested in the campaign and Jenny as a character (and likely anyone else in the location with her) after she cuts a Ghoul's head off using it, standing there fencing monsters to death with a magical god damn sword while wearing a dress with pearls... and Track Shoes while Chain Smoking? The picture just paints itself, and the fact you get to punctuate it with 'and then you draw a card' is just pure icing on the cake that makes the player think 'Wow, I feel awesome' juuuust in time for the Ghoul Priest to show up and make everyone wonder how the heck they are going to do 20 damage to him, especially because her sword ran out...

And then, of course, Jenny often is the best gator to either evade tank the priest to save the day, or run over to pick up a new friend.

Pretty much every Jenny game of The Gathering goes the same way if you make a beginner friendly deck, with a built in three act structure to really get your hooks into them, and once you go on longer campaigns Jenny's access to Streetwise alone means she always has a way to contribute, and is almost never helpless or forced to be passive. She may not be the star of every scenario, but she often will get the chance to shine more often than not, and she never is the punching bag of one.

So even though Jenny is never going to be the wild gamebreaker like some of the other rogues, she is still a super worthy addition to the game, because you can toss her into pretty much any campaign and know the person playing them is gunna have a good time. She is supremely newbie friendly even on standard and lets people hit the ground running feeling awesome but not overpowered or overcomplicated.

dezzmont · 222
Her dual pistols as well. I don't think they are that good, but they feel great :-P — NarkasisBroon · 11
Yeah. Part of why Jenny is so iconic is the juxtoposition of her as this classy lady with the dainty gloves being used to grip two handguns with all the rage of a protective sister. It is absolutely fantastic. — dezzmont · 222
Just curious - who are the other two investigators in your top 3? — snacc · 1008
Stella and Finn. While personally the 'want to fail' archetype isn't my favorite in Survivor (I enjoy my survivors being hyper competent child prodigies myself), its hard to deny how joyous it is for a new player to fail an investigation test and realize they get not just an extra clue but extra action and card for the trouble really encourages people to get into the thick of things and be bold, and her 3 copies of her signature mean by the time Ghoul Priest rolls around she is ready to smash some face with a derringer, and it encourages the survivor player to be flexible and look for situations that can only go well for them. Finn is a bit fiddly but if someone is familiar with cardgames he shows you how exciting it can be for a good turn to happen, as his free evade in an event focused deck lets you really naturally and intuitively chain together extremely high damage turns and it just very naturally flows through how he plays. Obviously they may not always work the best together but they are in my opinion 3 really 'safe' characters to hand to someone and KNOW they will have a good time. It helps that all 3 of these characters are very flexy so you can toss them in with experienced players and totally ignore their effect on your comp, which is another extremely attractive quality in a newbie character. — dezzmont · 222
Also the combined 15 points of health/sanity is nothing to sneeze at. — tasman · 1

Mechanic's Wrench

Mechanic's Wrench

Notably, Mechanic's Wrench does NOT have the Weapon trait, so no finding it with Prepared for the Worst/enchanting it/etc.

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anaphysik · 97
If you're struggling to fill 200 characters, you could try saying something meaningful, or not bothering. — SSW · 216
For instance, "However, as it's still an item you can still make use of the much better searchers Backpack and Tetsuo Mori, or attach something like Reliable to it." — SSW · 216
I think posts like these are a good argument as to why each card page on arkhamdb needs a comment section for the card itself, so that sub-200 reviews can be comments instead. — snacc · 1008
@SSW How exactly do you attach reliable to this? — Magicalwzrd · 8