After a few varied deck ideas, I ended up a little tired of seeing a few common combos in numerous decks. In order to challenge myself, I decided to create a set of decks under some restrictions. While more complex challenges were possible, I decided to try to create a set of decks such that a new player could have all of the appropriate investigators pre-made and ready to go when starting a stand-alone game.

Minimalist Restrictions

The following restrictions apply to these Minimalist decks:

• An investigator of every class in the set must be buildable with a single copy of the Core Set and the set containing the investigator.
• This deck can use up to 9 XP. (Without this rule, there aren't enough cards to create five full decks.)

With that in mind, allow me to present:

Minimalist Jenny Barnes

Ruduen's Minimalist Dunwich Set

Primary Role: Combat

Secondary Role: Clue Hunting/Independent Action

Summary

In the core set and Dunwich, Rogues don't have as many reliable options. While Leo de Luca is as strong as ever, it's harder to find cards which help them with non-combat specialties. As such, Jenny's focus is more towards versatility, and towards whatever bonuses she can get from her high resource income. She packs three 'resource-for-boost' assets, and also packs Lone Wolf for a bit more income. She can therefore brute force for successes, using high successes to help boost .41 Derringer or Switchblade, or forcing through Flashlight in order to grab an important couple of clues.

Mulligan Strategy:

• Always Keep
  • Switchblade (2) x1 / Jenny's Twin .45s x1 / .41 Derringer x1
  • Leo De Luca
• Sometimes Keep
  • Physical Training x1/Hard Knocks x1 (If weapon is available)
  • Flashlight x1 (If weapon is available)
  • Hyperawareness x1 (If no weapon is available)
  • Lone Wolf x1 (At 1/2 player counts)

General Strategy:

Given her weapon selection, Jenny will likely be a monster hunter first and foremost. Try to get a weapon out first and foremost, using Prepared for the Worst if need be. Work on getting Leo de Luca out second, since he remains a very good and versatile boost.

If someone else needs help with a monster, Jenny should act as a secondary hunter, rather than the first to jump on it. That way, she can throw her extra actions on easier investigations. Her 3 base means she's capable of taking a few failures, though if you have harder checks or are worried about consequences, Flashlight or Hyperawareness will be important.

Out of everybody, Jenny is the best at straying a little from the pack in order to deal with whatever comes out. Think on Your Feet and Elusive can help get her away in case of an awkward monster spawn, and "I'm outta here!" can be used in worst case scenarios. She might hold cards that she has difficulty using, due to the restrictive Rogue card set. Don't be afraid to commit these for icons as necessary.

Notable Inclusions:

• Dynamite Blast: This is one of the priciest cards around, and as a result, Jenny is the most likely character to get use out of it.

• Prepared for the Worst: Jenny really wants her weapons to be a reasonable fighter, since weaker out-of-class weapons won't give her the hand slot availability or impact she wants. Other characters have more in-class weapon options, so Jenny ends up with the weapon tutors.

• Backstab/Contraband/Pickpocketing/["I'm outta here!"]: I'll admit it - these cards were added for 'filler', since there were precious few good card options after accounting for what other characters need. This was done with Jenny since Rogues have the smallest card pool to begin with, and the Taboo list left even fewer options than most. She didn't need the skills as badly as "Ashcan" Pete did, and has the most opportunity to adjust with Adaptable once other characters start cutting cards. Unless you see a specific purpose for these cards, they are best used for their icons.

Recommended Upgrades:

• Streetwise: As usual for these cards, I wish I could afford the XP cost for this early on. However, there are too many holes that need filling before I could afford to spend that much XP on the single card. Once you get this, it's worth dropping Hyperawareness for something else.

• Adaptable: As previously mentioned, Jenny's deck has the most 'filler' cards, and she's the best candidate to start picking up more valuable cards once others start replacing them.

Thanks

Thanks for sticking through this entire write-up. While the other Minimalist decks in this set are prepared, I'm still working on the write-up for them, so keep an eye out if you're interested.

The currently available Minimalist decks for Dunwich are as follows:

• Minimalist Zoey Samaras
• Minimalist Rex Murphy

In the meantime, feel free to check out my other decks:

• Testless Infinite Wendy
• Myriad Mandy
• Everywhere and Nowhere (Luke Robinson)
• Shallow Gravedigger William

Thoughts and comments are appreciated!