"Skids" O'toole, the Ex-Con

Some of the Arkham Files investigators are heroes by default. Two of them have been covered in my previous entries. A Librarian easily fits the archetype of an investigator. So does a FBI agent, strong and bold. Some of the characters are just more or less regular people (see: Wendy, Jenny) suddenly confronted with the unnatural threats. Some, however, have an antiheroic feel to them. Skids, the ex-con is clearly one of them. World of Arkham Files is not discriminating, though. If you only have the will and the stomach to face the horrors of the mythos world, you are more than welcome to do so.

Legacy: Skids consistently appears throughout the Arkham Files series, albeit it’s the first time he made his appearance so quickly – in the base set already. It was bit of a disappointment to see his very original ability (basically his signature ability) replaced. In every Arkham Files game so far he was able to re-roll unfavorable results – ‘1’s in Arkham Horror and Eldritch Horror and all dice with a chosen result in Elder Sign. I guess it wasn’t too easy to come up with a similar idea for AH:TCG, yet it still feels bad. To add an insult the injury, Arkham designers come up with a card “Hard Knocks”, a name that was reserved for Skids’ ability. I have to admit, I was a big fan of his ability and enjoyed playing him, particularly in Eldritch Horror (higher sanity made him very reliable at monster-killing and less fragile to random negative effects).

Except for a high strength value (and THE ability), there wasn’t much of a unified idea of Skids. His mental skills and Stamina/Sanity vary a bit between each of the Mythos-themed game. In Arkham he is a Rogue, which seems to make sense, given his… hmm... profession.

You are not the true Hard Knocks!

Skill Values: Let’s start with the positives. A decent Combat of 3 sets him up quite well for fighting the enemies. With a whooping Agility of 4 he can also attempt to run away from them (and avoid some Encounter Deck cards¹). Intellect of 3 does not cause any troubles, neither, allowing for quite a reasonable investigating – just in case he gets stuck with high shroud locations, I’d still pick 2 copies of “Evidence”, though.

His low Will is a substantial issue, though. There are many Encounter Cards just waiting in the deck to hit him straight into his face. Once he’s frozen by fear, he can spend turn after turn terrified, constantly losing actions and failing the test to recover. Cryptic Chill strips him out of his assets… the list goes on and on.

On top of that, his Combat is lacking a bit. Unlike Roland, he needs to keep committing icons/resources (through Hard Knocks or Physical Training) for Fight tests to have a decent shot against medium-strength opponents, even if wielding a weapon. It makes him not very consistent as the party main fighter. Having high Agility puts another question mark next to his role as a killer. He would be much easier to picture and assign a role, if he had more of a clear profile of either a warrior or an elusive guy. It does not make creating an effective deck easy, neither.

Skids can easily succumb to madness, when faced with unnameable horrors

 

What Will exactly represents might be a matter of a debate. Still for an ex-con, after few years of jail time to have Will lower than his Intellect is sort of strange. Otherwise his stats fit the picture of a witty, stealthy and yet sturdy ex-criminal.  

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Special abilities: Upon analyzing both Skids and Jenny I have an impression, that Rogue characters are designed with certain versatility in mind. While the cards themselves seem to slightly favor evading the enemies and attacking them from the shadow (which fits an idea of a Rogue character), the investigators are equipped with abilities, which can be used to fuel different playing styles.²

An extra action at cost of 2 resources allows Skids to do exactly what is needed in a given moment. And a Rogue character has the most chances at having spare resources – Burglary and Hot Streak give him good means to gather resources.

On the other hand, it is an ability, which directly requires paying, and quite a step price. An additional action does not guarantee a result, neither – unlike Roland’s ability, generating free clue without a test. Therefore I consider it slightly subpar.

I also really dislike it from the thematic point of view – I am missing the good old Skids so much. On top of it, ability seems to suit Wilson, the Handyman, much better.

I only have some vague ideas, how to reflect his good old ability. I have an even better idea how to make “School of Hard Knocks” a cool signature card (please see below).

Skids’ Elder sign effect, on the other hand, is very strong, allowing to both pass the test and gain 2 resources! It brings even more flavor if you draw it when using Burglary (“Five resources at once! Score!”) or when dealing with encounter deck (“Ha-ha, I turned Cryptic Chill into a profit!”).

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Signature cards: At this point you probably are quite convinced I am not a big fan of Skids. Moreover, you’re wondering if it’s only due to his character not fitting my playing style or is it more related to him losing his signature ability along with general design I consider not thematic enough. To be honest with you, I am not sure myself.

His signature card doesn’t help to improve my sentiment, neither. On paper it seems to have some real potential. You can play it and go do things requiring Skids’ attention, despite being engaged with enemies, or even engaging them on the way. You can meanwhile also equip yourself with weapons/resources to fight them next turn.

In practice, however, you rarely benefit from it much more than from Dodge. And it seems to me, even the designers have noticed it’s not strong enough, as the card has 4 skill icons, including two Wild ones. I guess they had seen it committed to a skill test a lot during play-testing. And this is how I usually spend this card – sometimes as an extra Unexpected Courage, sometimes for a whopping 3 skill icons.

I have come with an alternative of my own to On the Lam. Yeah, you guessed it – “School of Hard Knocks”.

Event, cost 0. Play when you’re about to lose a skill check by 2 or more. Pass that skill check, instead. Shuffle “School of Hard Knocks” back to your deck.

Isn’t it nice? Heroic feel of succeeding against all odds, Rogue-ish versatility, appropriate strength… Please let me know your thoughts about it, I am very eager to read your comments!

Skids' story is sad and still his mother's sickness is haunting him even after she died.

  I’ve been bashing Skids’ design for quite a while, so it’s time for a break. I very much like his weakness. The story behind Skids’ life of crime is with us since Arkham Horror. Hence the card directly translating it into game totally makes me feel like I’m playing Skids. Moreover, the card represents the idea of debt perfectly³. Since many of his traits relate to resources (Special ability, and Elder Sign effect), it also adds up to an uniform vision of the character (Just like Roland’s clues and Daisy’s Tomes). 

 

From the game play perspective it is fairly average. Not too crippling, yet definitely not something one can ignore or deal with too easily.

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Class/Deckbuilding options: When it comes to the deckbuilding, I have the same reservations as with Skids’ stats. There seems to be slight disconnection between Rogue options (evading, attacking exhausted – hence evaded – enemies) and Guardian brute force approach. However it’s definitely not as prominent as with the skill values, since you can simply make him a very efficient killing machine (using weapons from both classes, Vicious Blows etc.), while also pulling some neat tricks, available for Rogues. You can use Burglary (or, later on Hot Streak) to pay for your weapons, deal huge damage with Backstab (without even needing a weapon!) or use services of Leo to gain great action advantage⁴. His fellow fighters from the Guardian team do not have this option available for them. He can use most of the Guardian upgraded cards (with an exception for of Shotgun), as well.    

The choice of class for Skids is very logical and consistent. There is no question, he fits the Rogue profile. And as he’s been a fighting character in each of the Arkham Files games, a Guardian sub-class was a natural choice.

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I have to make a confession. I went through a lot of effort to try to like Skids. I played the base game campaign multiple times last week to find some bright sides of him. I managed to slightly improve my opinion of him, I still, see him as a subpar character, and possibly a wasted design opportunity.

With his sub-par investigating abilities, Skids is not suited too well for a solo play. In a team it’s good to pair him with someone, who handles most of the investigation. Therefore his natural partners are Seekers.

Skids I miss the most.

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

1 Will seems to be the most tested skill by the encounter deck, with the second being Agility. It makes sense – one can easily go through the game without casting  any spells and evading enemies, so game mechanism should force testing these skills to keep them relevant. Great design choice!

2 Further to this – it seems that each of the four classes has “their” skills, with Rogue being more of a jack-of-all-trades class. Even their special skill card has a Wild symbol (Opportunist; other classes have Vicious Blow, Deduction, Fearless and Survival Instinct).

3 Per official ruling, if an investigator resigns without completing their task weakness, they do not suffer its consequences. At first I wasn’t satisfied with this idea. It not only gives an easy way out, but also gives additional benefit to multiplayer games. Player haunted with their weakness can resign shortly before the other one successfully finishes the scenario. However, there is a very good thematic explanation for this design choice (regardless if it was the reason for this decision or not). Resigning simply provides the investigator with time and opportunity to deal with their obligations. They can take care of the debt, or search for the missing sister.

16.02 Addendum 

As per official FAQ released yesterday, this is not true anymore. Resigning causes you to trigger the "end of the game" (hence: fail) effect of the missions. Now, this is going to hurt and sort of renders my above explanation obsolete and/or inaccurate. 

4 It seems, Skids is waiting for Charisma to be an officially released card almost as hard as no one else – this way he can use both Leo and Beat Cop.

Daisy Walker: The Librarian

There are many ways one can encounter beings from the Myths. Some are abruptly confronted with a horrific being. Others are plagued by dreadful dreams of eerie places and unimaginable phenomena. Daisy's first confrontation with the unhuman forces occurred through reading of blasphemous volumes. And no wonder, she's a librarian, after all. Books are not only her job, they are her calling.

Legacy: Unlike Roland, Daisy is quite an Arkham Files veteran. Her first appearance in the Arkham Horror already set her up to be a tome- related character, while also crafting her to be a spellcaster. This idea was beautifully continued in Eldritch Horror. One might argue that her ability to cast a spell or read a tome during rest action is almost directly translated into AH:TCG into her free tome action. With her high Intellect value she is also portrayed as a spell-based investigator. This aspect is still preserved in newest installment of Arkham Files, as she has access to all the Mystic spells so far. One might easily say, she's a well-executed idea from the very first Arkham Series game, until now.

Addendum: Daisy has been featured along with Roland in the preview of Omens of the Deep. I don’t like her character there, as she has nothing to do with tomes, at all. On the other hand, Elder Sign is rather a basic game, supposed to be fast-paced and straightforward, hence it has no means of introducing tomes in a consistent, interesting way.

Skill Values: Just as Agnes, Daisy is a very specialized investigator, with one skill at whooping value of 5 (Intellect) and two at merely 2. It clearly defines her area of focus – investigating. And she's extremely proficient at it, with a little help of an asset she can easily clear even high shroud location (so far highest shroud is 4 and I doubt it will ever get much higher, as it would hamper low - Intellect investigators too heavily). With a decent Will of 3 she can also use spells to some degree. Unfortunately she lacks a lot in the body – related skills. With a Combat of 2 she cannot hope to deal with the enemies through usual means and Agility of 2 adds to the trouble, as she cannot evade them too easily, neither. She needs to use some tricks not to let enemies end her mission too quickly.

What is more, she is quite feeble – her Stamina value of 5 points even more towards staying far from combat, whenever possible.

I like the new graphics for Daisy much more than the Arkham Horror one

It goes without saying, that her skills reflect the nature of a librarian – highly intelligent and observant, yet not a trained warrior or rogue of any kind. You really feel like a book worm, when pulling her character card for the game session. It also clearly indicates how to play her. Finally, since she lacks flexibility, she undoubtedly performs best in a pair/team – something I definitely enjoy and cherish.

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Special abilities: One could easily assume, that Daisy's abilities just one of many “extra actions” (see post about Roland). However, through this simple idea, a very strong result has been archived. So far effects of books are quite varied – card draw, healing, boost to skills (and extra spell charges, though this one is not available for Daisy). I expect us to be provided with quite a few interesting and creative book effects in the future.¹ Therefore it creates interesting options and choices for playing Daisy. And since each of the tomes can easily be used on fellow investigators, it adds to her team player role, making her an excellent support character. Not to mention, that this seemingly straightforward ability plays well into her theme.

As of now, especially before upgrading her deck, Old Book of Lore is a natural candidate to be used for free every turn. And since it's stronger if drawn early, I tend to strongly consider a mulligan, if I don't get it in my opening hand.

Daisy's Elder Sign effect is easily a top notch one too – while I feel slight disappointment drawing one as Roland or Agnes (you might eventually get tired, if I keep repeating it through all of the posts about investigators, huh?), it's almost always fun to get one when playing Daisy and draw a card or two.

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Signature cards: At the first sight Daisy's Tote Bag does not seem to very useful – after all there only few books so far, so it does not seem to help too often. However, we cannot forget that there are other things Daisy might want (or be forced to! Read further) to hold in her hands – Magnifying Glass or some basic weapon to deal with some easier enemies. The Bag allows for some “hands management” (if you allow me this neologism). And if my dreams come true¹, she might require 4 slots just to handle all the tomes in her deck. It definitely does not always come in handy nor adds a lot of strength, though. Please mind, this card does not deal with any threats by itself and before we see further expansions, it's hard to judge its full value.

Daisy's weakness is partially a task to complete. However it does not penalize for not meeting the goal at the end of scenario – it just comes in the way until we get rid of it. The Necronomicon cripples Daisy in two ways. Firstly, it takes up a hand slot. Secondly, it quite annoyingly turns a very cool Elder Sign token into automatic failure. Obviously, the earlier you draw it, the stronger you should consider getting rid of it. It comes at a cost though – 3 actions AND 3 sanity. Still not the worst (compare with task-related weaknesses, usually costing more and threatening a nasty penalty for not meeting their requirements).

Even a librarian can skip some of the publications, especially from the restricted collection of the library...

All in all, both Daisy's cards are somewhere in the middle – her bag is not too strong and her weakness (unless drawn very early) shouldn't hurt you too much. They are both very nicely tied both with her story (Librarian who stumbled upon the blasphemous Necronomicon) and general theme of the investigator (tomes). On a side note, have you wondered about a thematic explanation of changing Elder Sign into Auto-failure? I believe you can very nicely explain it. Instead of drawing inspiration from her useful tomes, Daisy delves into horrific content of the profane Necronomicon, which siphons her life force. Think about it, when the sacrilegious volume makes you fail an otherwise very successful skill check!

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Class/Deckbuilding options: Daisy has access to all the Seeker cards. They are more versatile, than one would imagine, especially the tomes, which makes her able to pull all sort of tricks. As mentioned before, they also turn her into a very potent support character, even more so through some of the Mystic cards (Scrying, Ward of Protection to an extent).

You can use the Encyclopedia in so many interesting ways

She is not a mere servant of others, though – Miskatonic’s Librarian investigates like no one else and can manage some easier monstrous threats with a help of Shrivelling, Mind over Matter or even a Knife. Mystic cards very nicely provide Daisy with what she might miss from her Seeker cards – fighting capabilities, as well as efficient ways to slightly boost her average Will to cast the spells proficiently (see: Holy Rosary).

Since both classes are heavily mind focused, they greatly preserve the nature of a calm, introvert scholar and not even once you lose the feel of dust and forgotten volumes.

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Daisy is by far the most thematic investigator. Not only because all aspect of her design perfectly align with the archetype of a Librarian, but also all of them nicely add together to form a clear game play idea. On top of that, they guide a player to use her as designed – give them incentives to use the books, keep her out of the heat of combat, play her in a team etc.

And she is also a very effective one. She has a niche of her own - investigating, where she outperforms everyone (well, probably Rex can beat her in this area, but not by much). But she does not limit herself to collect elements of the puzzles. She can arrange for card-draw or healing. Playing her always gives you many options and different paths to choose.

On the flaws side one must note, she is quite ill-suited for solo play (not a disadvantage for me)

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¹Getting more tome cards was on top of my wishlist for future expansions. I can only hope it will eventually be delivered, The Dunwich Legacy was a disappointment in this regard.

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

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.

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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.

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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).

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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!

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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.     

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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