Sunday 15 January 2017

Roland Banks: The Fed



Roland is a federal agent, who stumbled upon a strongly unusual investigation. Faced with the unexplainable he decided to re-evaluate his past approach and pus the FBI code of conduct aside. After all, you won’t find appropriate instructions how to deal with Great Old Ones, faceless monsters or entities summoned from other dimensions in the FBI code of conduct.  

Legacy: Unlike most of other Arkham characters, Roland has not been featured in many of the Arkham Files games so far – in fact, he’s been only included in Innsmouth Horror expansion for Arkham Horror.  He’s depicted there as sort of versatile guy, having average stats. He also, sort of surprisingly, starts with an ally.

His original character is still preserved in the newest installment – in both games he’s slightly focused on gathering clues. In Arkham Horror due to his slightly higher Will he can set his Fight to a decent value – there’s just a move towards more of a fighter (or, in game terms, Guardian) in the Card Game. Also his wide choice of cards and capability of covering both intellectual and physical part of the game preserve his versatility, to a degree.

Choosing Guardian class for him bothers me slightly, to be honest. I’d rather imagine Roland as a Seeker, maybe with a Guardian subclass. I understand FFG designers needed a Guardian (and a one that would be part-time Seeker, on top of that), given classes of the other characters from the base set. However this feels bit not thematic to me, FBI agents are mostly investigating, not shooting. I also favor keeping the theme of a character unchanged through the Arkham Files. Finally, primary choice of the class leads to few more bit questionable choices (from the theme point of view) when it comes to Roland’s abilities – necessary to keep up with the overlying idea of him.
First, original Roland - still my favorite

Addendum: A preview has just been published for Elder Sign, introducing Roland and Daisy. Roland has a clue related skill again. So on one hand there’s even more of a consistency with the clue theme. On the other, it makes choice of his class even more questionable.

Stats: To fill the boots of a Guardian, Roland is well equipped with Combat value of 4 – any of the basic weapons, granting +1 bonus to the fight skill check provides him with a fair chance at fighting. This cannot be matched by any other character from the base set – and rightly so, he’s a Guardian (even if it disappoints me)! Moreover, his other skills are quite reasonably spread – with Intellect of 3, providing good investigating abilities and 3 Will to avoid all the horrors, only his Agility is on the lower side. However, since he won’t use it for evading enemies (he’s supposed to dispatch them, not flee from them) it’s not much of an issue. All together it makes him very well suited for solo play, as well as for more of a spread approach for team efforts (meaning, not staying to close to each other) – he will handle both eliminating enemies and picking up the clues. In fact, these are the very areas he excels at. If he only had higher Intellect at cost of Agility, his stats would be perfect.

Hello Ma'am, have you seen any robbed figures lately? How about half-man half-fish?


Unfortunately for Roland, while his health is strong, his psychological stability is not.  Sanity of 5 makes him quite fragile to the mind-shattering experience awaiting him during his investigations. It is bit unfortunate, as enemies tend to attack mind almost as often as body and if he fails to dispatch a strong one, he can succumb to madness surprisingly easily. It strikes me as slightly surprising for Roland’s mental stability to be lower than Skids’ (and not very in-line with their legacy stats), but oh well, instead of complaining, I’d rather stock on Elder Sign Amulets.
Strength

Theme

Special Ability: Surprisingly many special abilities can be seen as extra action per turn1. Roland does not differ too much here – he discovers a clue after killing an enemy (once per turn). It perfectly ties his Guardian side with his Seeker side – he can generate clues while dispatching monsters. And since he’s very proficient at the latter, his ability gets used quite a lot.
Outside of sheer action effectiveness he also can spare himself (and his fellow characters) quite a lot of trouble. Is there a clue on high shroud location? Let’s send Roland, he’ll have a look at the corpse instead. Is investigating of a location hampered by the encounter deck (we all hate sudden and unexpected occurrences of obscuring fog, don’t we? Not to mention locks on doors, which lead to the urgently needed clue on a location also providing Victory Points, appearing seemingly out of nowhere)? - Roland is here for the rescue.  

I slightly dislike how Roland’s ability is exactly the same as effect of the Evidence! card – I just really prefer special abilities to feel unique.2 While I understand the idea of checking dead enemy for evidence, ability itself seems to fit William Yorick, the Grave Digger, nicer (he didn’t get it in Eldritch Horror neither, but it’s a different story, I suppose), it all comes back to Roland being Guardian, though.

The group of the Elder Sign effects, Roland’s belongs to has already been criticized by me here. It’s worth mentioning, though, it seems quite related to his underlying theme of clues.

Strength
Theme

Signature cards: To do his job of a monster killer, Roland is equipped with a pretty strong weapon, as his signature card. Thrilling bonus of +3 (provided there is a clue) and additional damage help him to deal with the enemies. Moreover, they naturally boost his special ability, giving him an extra edge on the locations with clues, he can pick them up while benefiting from strong weapon bonus.
If you’re happy enough to draw it, you might consider luring hunter enemies into location with clues for a double benefit – both an extra clue and additional punch. Same approach works if you have to defeat a particular enemy (like the Ghoul Priest). It also gives you even more reason to use my favorite Roland’s tactic – if you have a spare action, instead of playing a less needed asset or drawing extra card, I prefer to move him to a location with clues – if an enemy spawns there, he might pick some evidence after defeating it.


It’s also worth mentioning, the weapon is incredibly cost-effective – you get 4 uses for 3 resources (compare it with .45 Automatic). All the advantages add up to a very strong card. While you might struggle a bit with explanation, while it suddenly becomes so deadly if there’s evidence lying around, you must agree that it helps to build a very consistent vision of Roland’s character.

Roland is unfortunately kicked in the nuts with his weakness, for multiple reasons. First of all, it simply forces him to waste multiple actions for no benefit. And time, ladies and gentleman, is a scare commodity in the universe of Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Secondly, when attempting to deal with his weakness, he might fail the test(s) and trigger some negative chaos bag token effects on top of the additional action loss (adding doom to enemies, losing sanity, etc). This still is not the main issue, though. After all, personal weaknesses are supposed to be tough. What really makes it easily the worst weakness so far (at least out of the base investigators) is… it might very easily not be doable. You might draw it, once all clues have already been discovered (or due to the progress of agenda you won’t have enough actions to complete it), which is a very pesky random effect you have very small influence on.  To add an insult to the injury, the consequences of failing to cover up the otherworldly interventions are very dire! If Roland leaves some traces behind, he suffers mental trauma – for an investigator with only 5 Sanity to begin with, it’s a very hefty price to pay. Therefore, you should always beware of drawing this card towards end of the scenario (Scrying might come in handy, if a fellow spellcaster is kind enough, you should also consider limiting card draw) as well as seriously consider some damage mitigation, should you draw it. In scenarios with a more scalable success rate (like “The Midnight Masks”) I would even give up on some goals in order to avoid failing the weakness. Even more so if this is the beginning of a campaign.
Burn, baby, burn!

I have to admit, I have mixed feelings about the thematic aspect of the card. I mean, name of the card and its relation with clues make sense. Roland is a federal agent, so might feel compelled to hide the proof of Eldritch Forces’ existence out of public sight. However, the further we delve into detailed card design, the less sense the card makes. Roland does not literally destroy the clue; he just investigates with no result. I understand it is supposed not to make scenario completion impossible (thus having a very good game play justification), but why than is he forced to do it only on location with clues? Seems like a way to get out of the questionable design choice to me. Furthermore, suffering mental trauma due to failing his task seems to be barely linked to the theme – does he suffer permanent damage to his mental stability, because he didn’t cover up the facts? Is his remorse SO STRONG?

I would much rather imagine the weakness as imposing some sort of penalty to investigating that could be dealt with by sacrificing actions/passing a test at the end of the turn (see: “Wrecking Nightmares”). Or maybe each investigation attempt should be tougher and cost extra action (because he’s just as focused at investigating as on cover up, which hampers the progress and makes it more difficult?) until he discovers certain amount of clues (burying some evidence in the process, thematically speaking).

Strength
Theme

Deck-building options/Class: As I have already mentioned, Roland’s class is bit different, than I would imagine. I don’t think there’s a need for me to repeat it again. It is, however, a very effective mix, allowing for quite some customization (even more with upcoming expansions and wider card range).

He obviously has access to all the Guardian cards, so can come to scenarios armed to the teeth. He can also stock on some amount of cards helping with the investigation, depending on your play style. I have tried more of a balanced build as well as a rather “Guardian-ish” approach and both work, if paired with an adequately prepared partner. On top of that, upgraded Magnifying Glass seems almost to be created for investigators, who need free hands for fighting. It can be returned, when needed and re-used later on and it is within his deck-building restrictions – in other words, looks like custom made for Roland (did he order some custom made investigation tools at the office?)!
 He can also use some of the more support type cards (Old Book of Lore, First Aid). Based on the previews we can expect more of a “team-focused” Guardian cards to be released sooner or later, so you can also make him bit of a support character, if needed. Plus, with Physical Training and Hyperawareness he can boost any of the 4 skills by spending resources!

Strength
Theme

All in all, Roland is more than a Guardian. He’s a very versatile character with few “builds” available to specialize him, if desired. He is definitely designed with a leitmotif in mind – clues. Therefore he does have unique “feel” of his own. On top of it, he’s rather easy to play – you don’t need to pull out any complicated schemes nor rely on combos to play him efficiently. Just kill the monsters and gather evidence.

His Achilles’ heel is low sanity combined with his personal weakness, capable of permanently lowering it even more. For me personally, one of his strengths is also a slight disadvantage – he feels sort of too straightforward to play, not leaving too much room for improvisation and finesse – just play him “by the book” (wasn’t he supposed to give up on “the book”?) and expect it to pay off.     

Strength
Theme

1 Skids’ ability is literally an extra action, just as Daisy’s. Wendy’s ability allows her to redo a test, which often simply allows you to “save” the action you spent (more about it in a separate article about her). The trend continues through Dunwich Legacy, too – Zoey, Jenny, Rex, all have abilities, which more or less imitate an extra action. It’s not a bad choice per se, since most of them are still unique enough and not too obviously aimed at being “just an extra action”. Also, some of them clearly have nothing in common with being a free action (see: Pete).
2 It is, while we're on the subject, one of few minor things annoying me in Eldritch Horror – many cards being carbon copies of characters’ abilities.

 All images are courtesy of cardgamedb.com and fantasyflightgames.com

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