7 hours ago, Freeman said:

At first, I loved the cat, too. Then, the more and more I think about Foolishness, the less I like it: +1 to every stat is bonkers, but... 4 resources is not trivial, then it depends on your ability to heal him, so it's still circumstantial at best. The biggest drawback, however, is that he's occupying the ally slot (unlike certain doggy we all love). That makes charisma a must anyway, cause you want Brother Xavier (if Peter is too Timmy play for you). And overall, at the end of the day, +1 to combat and agility will not make a big difference, so essentially the cat is giving you +1 to willpower and intellect, and considered that way, is not that impressive.

Ursula Downs will have the same dilemma Jake Williams. As for Duke, he holds part of Ashcan's total health and sanity. Plus he's just the most interesting character mechanic yet, and by far the best realization of Duke in the Arkham Files.

It'll be interesting to see how Jake Williams and Foolishness actually fair with their investigators' deck building options.

1 hour ago, Duciris said:

Ursula Downs will have the same dilemma Jake Williams. As for Duke, he holds part of Ashcan's total health and sanity. Plus he's just the most interesting character mechanic yet, and by far the best realization of Duke in the Arkham Files.

It'll be interesting to see how Jake Williams and Foolishness actually fair with their investigators' deck building options.

Jack is at least useful right away. He has one of the biggest bodies for his cost and can draw you multiple cards, while also dodging attacks of oppurtunities.

I just realised that Carolyn’s 4 stats only add up to 11, which is the same as Pete, who gets Duke to improve either his investigate or fight each round. As her signature item here conditionally boosts all stats by one, I wonder if her standard signature item will do something similar. Otherwise, she’s behind on the stat race vs other investigators already. I know that’s not as important in a co-op game, but it would give me pause when considering using her.

Yeah, I'm definitely waiting for the proper Carolyn Fern. First off, we don't have nearly enough sanity healing to make her consistent yet. Second, those signatures do not appeal to me. Four resources and an Ally slot is a heavy price to pay, and I don't think Carolyn is well-rounded enough to appreciate a what she gets out of it (with that statline, she's probably better off with Xavier, Alyssa, or Milan). And, is it just me, or is that weakness kind of insane? If you draw it during upkeep, that's basically an unavoidable doom added directly to the agenda. Plus, Carolyn is a support character, and it gets exponentially harsher with each added player (more chances to trigger it and more effective actions lost when it triggers).

Basically, her signature weakness is on par with Dark Memory as one of the harshest weaknesses in the game, her signature asset is on par with Heirloom of Hyperborea for being at best situational (and, more often, commit fodder), and her ability and statline are nowhere near as good as Agnes's. The last point might change as we get more horror healing and more non-fighty Guardian cards, but I can't see the others changing.

Are we really that light on Sanity healing?

We have Clarity of Mind, Fearless, First Aid, Inspiring Presence and Logical Reasoning. That's 10 cards out of 30.

We also have Moment of Respite, If it Bleeds, Liquid Courage and Smoking Pipe which are less than ideal or most likely not able to be added. (I didn't count Jims Trumpet)

I can see space for additional sanity healing cards and its not at a level that we see for cards that help you get clues or kill or evade enemies, but its not exactly empty.

Dark Memory isn't the worst. If you are crafty enough, you can use it to trigger Agnes a few times. The harshest weakness so far is The King in Yellow.

As for deck design, I think she will be able to take high level Science cards, so that she can take the good first aid kit.

King in Yellow isn't that bad. I find I can often ignore it for a bit, or I can use 2 doubles and one of my scavenging items. I barely lose handsize

On 2/23/2018 at 1:48 PM, Assussanni said:

Another Guardian! I did not see that coming.

I had, I was just expecting it to be ROLAND and not Carolyn. Ah well, I'll read it either way.

1 hour ago, ProfessorDetective said:

I had, I was just expecting it to be ROLAND and not Carolyn. Ah well, I'll read it either way.

I meant another Guardian besides Roland. Roland's book, The Dirge of Reason, came out six days ago. https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/2/22/the-dirge-of-reason/

Unless you wanted another Roland book. It would have been intriguing to see the response if two of the five books featured the same investigator (with two sets of different alternative art and replacement signature cards). I don't think it would have been received particularly positively!

On 2/28/2018 at 5:04 AM, Assussanni said:

I meant another Guardian besides Roland. Roland's book, The Dirge of Reason, came out six days ago. https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/2/22/the-dirge-of-reason/

Unless you wanted another Roland book. It would have been intriguing to see the response if two of the five books featured the same investigator (with two sets of different alternative art and replacement signature cards). I don't think it would have been received particularly positively!

It did? How did I miss that?

5 hours ago, ProfessorDetective said:

It did? How did I miss that?

It kinda got buried pretty quickly, considering the announcement of this book came the very next day. Easy to miss.

Foolishness was an ally in the Kingsport expansion to the original Arkham Horror.

The missing text:

Quote

• +1 Fight
• +1 Luck
• +1 Sneak
• Discard if you gain Young Zoog as an Ally.

Young Zoog

Quote

• +1 Lore
• +1 Speed
• +1 Will
• Discard if you gain Foolishness as an Ally.

http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Foolishness & http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Young_Zoog

The art is ever so slightly better on the new Foolishness.

On 27/2/2018 at 7:57 AM, rsdockery said:

And, is it just me, or is that weakness kind of insane? If you draw it during upkeep, that's basically an unavoidable doom added directly to the agenda. Plus, Carolyn is a support character, and it gets exponentially harsher with each added player (more chances to trigger it and more effective actions lost when it triggers).

Basically, her signature weakness is on par with Dark Memory as one of the harshest weaknesses in the game, her signature asset is on par with Heirloom of Hyperborea for being at best situational (and, more often, commit fodder), and her ability and statline are nowhere near as good as Agnes's. The last point might change as we get more horror healing and more non-fighty Guardian cards, but I can't see the others changing.

I couldn't disagree more with the evaluation of her weakness. When I first read it, I thought it was so soft it was gonna read "then, shuffle To fight the back wind back into your deck", but to my surprise it didn't. This fact alone makes her weakness not as bad as the ones that keep being shuffled back in.

Although it's true that adding one doom to the agenda is generally something you don't want, in this case I think this will be more circumstantial and harmless than not: first, if this is drawn when the agenda will advance anyway, it's like playing arcane initiate: not a difference at all, since To fight the black wind doesn't read "This may cause the agenda to advance", like Ancient evils. Second, if this is drawn when you are "running against the act deck" and the act is about to advance, you couldn't care less about one more doom on the agenda. Third, this is discarded as soon as the agenda is advanced, so, unlike the weakness that are kept in play until satisfied (a lot of them), you may very well discard the weakness without any impact at all.

Fourth, the triggering condition for the weakness is easily avoided by healing horror, something you'll be doing, want to do anyway and Caroline will be built to (we already have a lot of healing effects), unlike some other weakness that soak up undesired actions.

What about the direct horror Caroline is dealt when this is revealed in the upkeep phase? Well, barring any fast healing horror cards that might get spoiled before Caroline is released, we already have the Smoking pipe, which will instantly nullify the effect in any action window, and playing Caroline I'll be sure to pack them x2.

Fifth, further triggering of the weakness heavily depend on the scenario cards, so I could see it being hardly noticeable in some adventures, barely annoying in other ones and a thorn in the side in some ones. Other weaknesses are a pain in every scenario, so again I see this as an advantage.

Overall, I need to see what cards can she include her deck before judging, and I'm not a big fan of Foolishness, as I stated, but I think her weakness is a piece of cake and she'll be very fun to play, at least to me. I'm considering buying the novella just for her signature. My two cents.

5 minutes ago, Freeman said:

What about the direct horror Caroline is dealt when this is revealed in the upkeep phase? Well, barring any fast healing horror cards that might get spoiled before Caroline is released, we already have the Smoking pipe, which will instantly nullify the effect in any action window, and playing Caroline I'll be sure to pack them x2.

I don't think that will work. There is only 1 player window in the Upkeep Phase and its before you draw your card.

8 minutes ago, Jobu said:

I don't think that will work. There is only 1 player window in the Upkeep Phase and its before you draw your card.

I just verified my rulebook and you're totally right: I thought there was a window after drawing the card, but there's none. I stand corrected and happily admit that this makes Caroline's weakness a bit harsher.