So I think we can all agree that Calvin Wright is pretty bad. Terrible stats until he is near to death and no power beyond that does not make a good investigator. However, there is one thing that he might actually do well - carry over from a Night of the Zealot campaign. If you were to play him through a multiplayer Night of the Zealot and manage between the party to defeat Unmhordoth he would have quite a nice pile of XP for upgraded cards, along with at least 2 in every stat due to the trauma gained from fighting the Ancient One. Hopefully you would be able to take another trauma of each type along the way (making him the lead and burning down the house is good for a mental trauma and he can get a physical trauma from his weakness or ‘I’ll see you in ****’) so he starts the new campaign with okay stats in everything and a bunch of powerful cards which would hopefully make up for the fact that he is spending the whole of the new campaign almost dead. Then his power would be ‘you are almost dead but have great cards and okay stats’, allowing him to actually contribute quite well to a group but with the caveat that he needs to be protected from damage and horror. Of course, you could do this with any investigator but Calvin does at least have something of an advantage in that his signature asset is a cheap way of keeping him alive (and can soak direct damage and horror) and it is a way to actually make him useful for a group just starting out on a campaign.

Would be interested to hear what people think. Is this a good idea? Is Calvin just hopeless? Or is he secretly amazing and I just don’t realise it?

> So I think we can all agree that Calvin Wright is pretty bad

Almost no one who has played him will agree with that.

What people miss is that when his health and sanity are just starting to get scary, his stat line buries every other investigator's and he almost can't fail a test, especially with his typical deck of Desperates and multi-icon cards. Add a few soaks and he's untouchable in the second half of a scenario. Carry over some trauma and he's doing that the entire scenario.

From what I've read, everyone who hasn't played Calvin can't understand how he can possibly be good and most people who have played him think he's amazing. I'm in the haven't played him camp, and while he looks fun I wonder if I would find him too stressful to play!

I can imagine that he'd really appreciate Father Mateo being around and asking very nicely if he'll save his ability for when Calvin finally draws tentacles on a critical test with only one health and sanity remaining!

For his deck, as CSerpent said, Desperate cards and some good soaks (Peter Sylvestre ["No Agnes, he's mine!"], Leather Coat + Cherished Keepsake + Scavenging + Resourceful). Since you could well be failing tests early in the game, getting Rabbit's Foot out quickly could help make sure that your hand is set up for when you're near defeat. And if your deck is mostly zero-cost soaks and skill cards, why not add Dark Horse as well for another +1 across the board?

Once you accrue some trauma then I guess the upgraded soaks of Bulletproof Vest and Elder Sign Amulet become rather appealing, although they don't work with Resourceful (or Dark Horse necessarily).

Edit: for Spirit cards, Ward of Protection and Fight or Flight both look good. I also really like Stand Together, although I don't know if there are better things for Calvin to be spending his XP on.

The benefit of Calvin is that he is almost solely a survivor and survivors thrive off of failing. Nobody is better suited to fail than Calvin. I haven't played him yet, but he is my next deck, and I'm terrified. He sounds horrible on paper, but I imagine he'll be at least average. The issue I am having is that I'll be comparing him to Ursula and Finn and somehow trying to find a place among investigators that are going to dodge everything and hoover clues at the same time. I'll probably end up being the clean-up guy, which is fine except they most likely won't need me to clean up due to their massive evasion and extra actions (Finn gets a free evade, Ursula gets a free investigate).

I think the key to Calvin is being able to adapt him to the role you need. If you struggle to find a role that works for the group, he's going to feel like more of a dead weight, but time will tell.

My advice without playing him yet is to rely on skills, events that pay off for failing, and cards that don't require you to pass test to succeed (a la Stray Cat, Gravedigger Shovel, possibly even Mano e Mono). The actual trick is going to be adapting his deck so that once he's had enough trauma, his fail-to-succeed skills aren't sitting in your deck as useless cards. It's a weird balancing act. But keep in mind that many of the events you'll have can double as good options for committing to tests. "I'll see you in ****" can also be used as 2 combat pips (basically another overpower minus the draw). Adding True Survivor later as you level may have massive benefits.

It's going to be interesting. I don't see him as useless, but boy is he a challenge.

Calvin is the one investigator I would try those Desperation skill cards with. Taking 3 horror helps him and unlocks those cards.

I'm not saying he's easy to play, but he's nowhere near "bad". It's a different mindset, being perfectly happy to take damage and horror early. It's like Popeye getting his butt kicked for ten minutes, and then the spinach accidentally falls into his mouth.

1 minute ago, C2K said:

Calvin is the one investigator I would try those Desperation skill cards with. Taking 3 horror helps him and unlocks those cards.

Ashcan with St Hubert's Key and the Desperates is a lot of fun.

During my playthroughs with Calvin I find that buying Devil's Luck early helps alot against the inevitable bad draw you're going to get.

You will suffer some XP-loss due to exiling it, but it's usually worth it to keep Calvin in the game once he's become a monster.

Thanks for that. I haven't used many exile cards, so it's good to know what ones might be worth it.

Give it a try and see how that works out.

I am skeptical about it. Even if you are not eliminated, Rex gets about .75 trauma a scenario (my estimate). For 7 scenarios, that number is 5, which is manageable. For 10 that number is 7-8 plus another 4 from night of the zealot. While you will come through NotZ okay and start the next campaign strong, the chances of making it to the end of that campaign seems small to me. Now in my mind an investigator doesn't need to make it to the end of a campaign to be successful. The investigator just needs to carry his weight enough so the rest of the group is in a good place when they expire. Now there are some scenarios that if you are eliminated early during (Where Doom Awaits, for example) you will really disadvantage the group.

Can Calvin always Rise to the Occasion for any skill check with a difficulty of 3 or greater? Or do his wounds and horror get in the way? I'm thinking the former, which means he's got a skill that puts Unexpected Courage in the shade.

40 minutes ago, Carthoris said:

Can Calvin always Rise to the Occasion for any skill check with a difficulty of 3 or greater? Or do his wounds and horror get in the way? I'm thinking the former, which means he's got a skill that puts Unexpected Courage in the shade.

Yep, that works. His ‘base’ skill value is always 0, so unless he’s attempting a test with difficulty 1 or less, he meets the criteria. His ability gives him +X to his stats based on the damage/Horror he’s taken, which operates the same way as Magnifying Glass or Holy Rosary bonuses for example.

The only time it wouldn’t work is if he is using something that sets his base value to a different number (like Duke, which would be cheating, but I can’t think of an actually applicable example off the top of my head), but then you’d still be adding your damage/Horror to that new base value, so you’d probably be fine anyway!

27 minutes ago, General Zodd said:

Yep, that works. His ‘base’ skill value is always 0, so unless he’s attempting a test with difficulty 1 or less, he meets the criteria. His ability gives him +X to his stats based on the damage/Horror he’s taken, which operates the same way as Magnifying Glass or Holy Rosary bonuses for example.

The only time it wouldn’t work is if he is using something that sets his base value to a different number (like Duke, which would be cheating, but I can’t think of an actually applicable example off the top of my head), but then you’d still be adding your damage/Horror to that new base value, so you’d probably be fine anyway!

^ For example the Red Gloved Man.

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So I think we can all agree that Calvin Wright is pretty bad.

well that's both an awfully presumptuous, as well as incorrect statement.

i think everything else in your post can be easily disregarded by strong deck builders out there.