4 hours ago, Donel said:

Where are you seeing that you can add zero level permanent cards to your deck at the start of the game in that email?

Sorry, answer seemed the same so I had assumed your comment was excerpted from this. Posted to the FB group:

Also, I'm not sure if FFG is finally lifting their awful "We won't comment on rules for unreleased products" rule or if Matt's just cool enough to help us out anyway, but either way it's nice to actually get a response to something new without having to stew over it for 6 months.

5 hours ago, Buhallin said:

Also, I'm not sure if FFG is finally lifting their awful "We won't comment on rules for unreleased products" rule or if Matt's just cool enough to help us out anyway, but either way it's nice to actually get a response to something new without having to stew over it for 6 months.

Especially cool is that, due to the nature of Permanents, we can start experimenting with both of these immediately.

Thanks for posting the full email. I'm still miffed at the word choice (just say "When you add"!) but I'm kind of fascinated by the card itself. It introduces some interesting choices. I wonder if the other classes will also get cards that encourage more gradual advancement.

So some maths:

No Arcane Research

• cost for Shriv x2, RoS x2, Shriv X2: 18 xp
• cost for Shriv X2, RoS X2: 14xp
• cost for Shriv X2, RoS X2, Scrying X2: 20xp

One Arcane Research:

• cost for Shriv x2, RoS x2, Shriv X2: 12 xp (6 extra xp)
• cost for Shriv X2, RoS X2: 10 xp (4 extra xp)
• cost for Shriv X2, RoS X2, Scrying X2: 14 xp (6 extra xp)

Two Arcane Research:

• cost for Shriv x2, RoS x2, Shriv X2: 8 xp (10 extra xp)
• cost for Shriv X2, RoS X2: 6 xp (8 extra xp)
• cost for Shriv X2, RoS X2, Scrying X2: 8 xp (12 extra xp)

You can figure out if one or two trauma is to much based on the rewards. Like I said its highly dependent on the spells that you are planning on buying.

Shriveling 5 is a dubious buy most of the time. Scrying 3 for 1 XP is steal, unless you don't have any plans for for using it. Plus unless you have at least 3 spells that you 100% want to upgrade (Shriveling can count as 2 if want l5) its value starts to decrease.

My take:

• Akachi: Probably worth it to take the 2 copies. I can't imagine building her without RoS and Shriveling.
• Jim: I go very light on spells for Jim, I would probably skip.
• Agnes: I am on the fence here, depends on the build but since it interferes with her basic ability, I would probably not go higher than 1 if that.
• Marie: I haven't played her, don't have her or an opinion here.
• Other characters who can take Mystic: just not worth it. you need to upgrade one spell per scenario to make it worthwhile.

Also on Shrewd Analysis, what are peoples take on this?

An extra 3 or 4 xp is nice. However, based on my deck and the rest of my groups decks, I generally have a solid opinion of which upgrade I need. If my group really needs healing, I don't want an evade card. Archaic Glyphs is a lot more forgiving since it just has 4 upgrades, but if you are in a solo game, you kinda want the one that helps you evade. Maybe you just need to build your deck to be able to be flexible enough around what you drew.

Also, is each card at random (example, draw one of 6 at random, then draw one of 5 at random) or is it draw one at random and get two copies of that? I assume its the first one based on the wording.

These level zero permanents make you make decisions around deck design well in advance and go from there. I am expecting to see similar items for the other classes and am interested in what they may be. I could see Survivor doing interesting things with Exile card cost/repurchase, Guardian could be around physical trauma/weapons xp and Rogues could do something around starting resources.

If you get both strange solution and archaic glyph it could save you 7 exp. I think it is worth it in that case even though i will not be able to choose the upgrade. At least now i will get to use the ones i would never normally choose otherwise.

I think when you upgrade you just randomly pick 2 out of the available upgrades .

I am really interested in seeing the other classes level 0 permanents as well. These cards are really going to dictate what upgrades the players are going to prioritise.

48 minutes ago, Jobu said:

Also, is each card at random (example, draw one of 6 at random, then draw one of 5 at random) or is it draw one at random and get two copies of that? I assume its the first one based on the wording.

1

I would also assume it is the first one. I don't really have a reason to assume this, I just think that if the 'randomness' is the 'cost' of including the card in your deck from the get-go, it seems a little too non-random to have 2 of the same card. Shrewed analysis looks like it may make you build around your unidentified cards once they're revealed, whereas arcane research appears to have the opposite effect (you want to know exactly what the other cards in your deck will be before you decide to incorporate the card).

I must say i am a bit dissapointed we are going back to Arkham again...I really hope the story in the next packs will pick up from where the expedition was left.

Nvm, ruling was made.

2 hours ago, player1631906 said:

I must say i am a bit dissapointed we are going back to Arkham again...I really hope the story in the next packs will pick up from where the expedition was left.

Well... the game IS called Arkham Horror. I expect most of the campaigns will tie back to Arkham in one way or another. Standalones can be set wherever.

I will include Shrewd Analysis in every Seeker deck. As far is I see there is no drawback (just) including it as you still can choose to trigger the effect when you upgrade.

For real: I don‘ use either of the current Untranslated/Unidentified cards very often, therefore I can‘t say if it‘s worth triggering.