Existential Riddle

Existential Riddle

For the F.A.Q.: How does it interact with cards like "Serpent Guardian" which have a condition that loses aloof? We used this card on it after it lost aloof, so it gained it back, but the Guardian is worded as a constant effect.

Fovar · 22
Hi, IMO Riddle gives aloof to Serpent but the statement "loses aloof with 3 or more vengeance points in the Victory display" blanks the attachment, so it continues to remain without allof. — Piegura · 1
In simple terms: It gains aloof but it constantly loses it -> it cannot have aloof (grim rule XD) — Piegura · 1
As far as I know this doesn't have an official rules answer. Some card games do have rules about gaining and losing instances of keywords that's are binary but I don't think arkham horror is one of them. In the absence of an official ruling I would refer to "priority of simultaneous resolution" which states "If two or more constant abilities and/or lasting effects cannot be applied simultaneously, the lead investigator determines the order in which they are applied.". As far as I can tell the Serpent Guardian's text, and the text on existential riddle are two constant abilities that cannot be simultaneously applied. — NarkasisBroon · 10
Isn't there a "when an encounter card and a player card contradict, the encounter card effect applies" rule ? — TribulationsSolo · 1
Yep, called the Silver Rule. — AlderSign · 300

Rod of Carnamagos

Rod of Carnamagos

The Rod feels impossible to review, due to the complete disconnect between what the card says it does, and what it really does.

It says you get to apply Rot to non-elite enemies. In practice, it lets you trigger "whenever a symbol is revealed during a skill test" triggers on your cards far more often, and more reliably, than it ought to.

I have a feeling a taboo for this card is inevitable, what do we think it will be? I think the most elegant way to make sure the card is only used for its intended purpose would be to make it require an action to use - no more using it during skill tests.

Marymatician · 114
If the rod cost an action it would go straight into being completely unusable. You'd have to give me xp to put it in the deck. — Spamamdorf · 5
I don’t think taboo is needed so much as a commonsense ruling that only chaos tokens revealed FOR a skill test count as being revealed DURING the skilltest. This situation was specifically referenced by MJ as part of their reasoning for doing away with nested skilltests and the designers should have considered this previous reasoning before issuing their nonsensical ruling on the Rod. If we have liminal space (that doesn’t exist on the table) where cards go while they’re being resolved then surely we can have liminal time (that doesn’t exist during a skilltest) while we’re resolving the Rod. — Pseudo Nymh · 60
"~Not during a skill test, reveal..." — MrGoldbee · 1464
It feels realy bizzare that olive mc bride got an upgrade (and a good one too), and yet she is now the second best card to enable token shenanigans when it's supposed to be her whole thing — aurchen · 1
I don't think they're going to reverse the ruling. In their latest press release, Questions and Ultimatums: "And you heard it right and you heard it here: tokens revealed with Rod of Carnamagos (The Feast of Hemlock Vale IE, 85) while attacking with Armageddon (The Innsmouth Conspiracy Investigator Expansion, 226) can result in some crazy damage." https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2024/10/23/questions-and-ultimatums/ — MindControlMouse · 42

Read the Signs

Read the Signs

How is there no review for this card?!

Absolute banger with the right setup.

The new line "If a symbol was revealed during this investigation, return Read the Signs to your hand at the end of your turn." changes friggin EVERYTHING.

Play it in blurse, play it with Olive, play it as Sister Mary or Jacqueline Fine, and consistently grab 2 clues per turn. Bonus points if the Signs say "TCU" - the haunter becomes the haunted!

Heck, the upgrade also boomerangs back if you fail, letting you say "um, okay, I'll just try again next round".

The only caveat: It costs you 2 resources every time, which can get expensive, so you better put on your Robes of Endless Night, which conveniently also only triggers once per round. Alternatively, checking out Prophetic could be worth it, although personally I don't like these kind of cards.

I battle-tested this in the last two Hemlock Vale scenarios and had a blast :)

Side Note: The same goes for Spectral Razor and Ethereal Form, but I think Read the Signs is the most viable overall. However, if you deck-build around symbols I'd probably run them too.

AlderSign · 300
Why did you include "Ethereal Form" at the end, but not "Spectral Razor"? I think, these upgrades are really strong in a curse-deck with the Rod, which can almost asure, you retrieve them. The biggest ding for the suite is, that they are borderline useless for parallel Agnes, who is curently the best user of Spell events. But when she uses her ability, the level 0 versions are just as good for her. She actually preferes shuffeling them into her deck to avoid seeing "Dark Memory" twice in a game. I guess, Sefina might currently be the best user, if you build her less of a rogue (except for economy and curses), more of a Rod-user, as she is the second best event user with access. But that's not to say, they are coasters for other mystics. They are indeed very good options for anybody, who can make them trigger with a decent chance. — Susumu · 366
I knew I missed something :) I actually prefer them in Sister Mary, since she comes with symbols automatically and has increased chances of success due to the bless tokens. Curses can always backfire. Especially Kohaku could wing it with Paradoxical Covenant, though. — AlderSign · 300
Sister Mary + Olive sure sounds a good way to use these. Personally, I used them in Kohaku, but as late luxury upgrades. The resource cost of 2 was, why it was no priority upgrade for me. But it did work as intended. Did not have any Covenant, but with taboo, two ritual candles (and the Rod in the "Occult Reliquary" slot) the modifier of curses became zero, of blesses +4, so there was no way, that curses were anywere bad. — Susumu · 366
Sounds awesome :) — AlderSign · 300
Currently wrapping a 4P campaign with cursey Double Double Sefina and this worked lovely. Previously ran cursey Luke, he also absolutely loved this; every trip to the Gate Box was effectively 2 clues deleted from any location in play. In both cases, getting a resource engine running is the key prerequisite, but with Rogue/Seeker respectively, this wasn't too much of an issue. — HanoverFist · 729

"Throw the Book at Them!"

"Throw the Book at Them!"

One of thing to note in particular is that this action can be performed on an Elite enemy. The majority of the time you're going to get +2 or +3 to Fist, so it's probably best to have this card in the deck of an investigator w/3+ Fist. I'd consider 1 resource for 1 Damage & Auto-Evade a boss to be a pretty decent bang for your buck. Or inversely, 1 Damage & an action from the book of your choosing. Pretty solid for a Level 0 card in my opinion.

SemiSecretSquirrel · 127

Stir the Pot

Stir the Pot

This card is designed for Alessandra Zorzi and her Parley tricks, but also works well in other high-intellect Rogues/investigators who can take it as a crowd control card a la Storm of Spirits or Dynamite Blast in multiplayer. Most enemies will end up making this a 1-2 intellect test which even without Fine Clothes trivializing the test, shouldn't be too hard to pass with a great return on damage output. Bonus points for being able to take out pesky Aloof enemies and the optional Move effect on +2 succeed is just icing on the cake. (Plus who doesn't love the idea of making Nightgaunts fight amongst themselves?)

c-hung · 12