Swung by my LGS on the way back from work, and grabbed my copy of RttPtC. I've had a quick look at the player cards, and thought I'd offer some initial thoughts.

I'm not the most experienced player in the world, so take my thoughts with a pinch of salt - and, of course, YMMV.

Guardian
.32 Colt (XP2)
Same amount of ammo, cheaper cost to play, and a free action return to hand ability. An extra icon if you're burning it as a skill card is nice, but the lack of accuracy on each shot still hurts it. A nice back-up weapon, I think, but not your main.

"Eat lead!" (XP0)
I'm a little confused by seeing the basic version of a card we've already got the XP version of, but there you go. As you'd expect, it is more limited than the XP version (has a cost, only gets one extra token), but being able to have some token manipulation for Mark (or other Guardians who prefer firearms) from the get-go is handy.

Seeker
Logical Reasoning (XP4)
Same cost, extra icon, ability to trigger up to 3 times - I think it is a much better recovery card than the non-XP version, but I'm not sure if the cost is *maybe* 1XP too high. Then again, some Seekers seem to run out of things to spend XP on, which this might be handy on - especially if your party features characters with low sanity or mental trauma.

Archaic Glyphs - Markings of Isis (XP3)
I'll be honest, I've not used any of these upgradable Seeker cards, so the value is tricky for me to estimate. Spending a charge to pick up a clue (as I believe the base Investigate clue is still a thing, given the wording on Guiding Stones) and play another asset for free is pretty handy - especially if you're at the spot the Rogue played the Skeleton Key at, and given you only reveal the asset after you've made the check, so you know what you can afford to play.

Rogue
Stealth (XP3)
Becomes a free action, gains an icon. As with Logical Reasoning, it *might* be 1XP too high, but then 3XP stops it going cross-class so often. Most Rogues I've seen haven't had much issue evading things, but effectively getting an extra action a turn is always nice.

Suggestion (XP1)
Another reduced-XP card, this time losing the reaction that saves you from non-Elites, and having a clause that discards it when it runs out of charges. Another one that I don't think is brilliant for most Rogues, though Sefina might want it before she can afford the XP4 version. Has splash potential, though, for characters who have decent Will but low Speed/Dexterity.

Mystic
Alchemical Transmutation (XP2)
Cheaper, extra charge, lower test difficulty, higher potential gain, extra icon (though different to the main one). Quite a lot of bonuses for two XP - or less, if you're running the card that saves XP on spell upgrades. Can gain you 16 resources now, instead of a net 8, though it'll cost you an action more. Feels OK, but would need to test it to see.

Storm of Spirits (XP3)
Same cost, a decent bonus to hit, extra fight icon, deals more damage to your enemies (but also your allies if it goes wrong). I like normal SoS (still want to combo it with DoN off Zoe at some point), so this looks pretty good. Still need to get my head around how the overflow works, admittedly, but I like it.

Survivor
Lantern (XP2)
Cheaper, extra icon, and a remove from game option for a bigger benefit on the discard action. Decent bonus package for 2XP. Whether it is worth it depends on if you like Lantern, but I certainly wouldn't described this as a *bad* card.

Gravedigger's Shovel (XP2)
See Lantern - the Shovel has the same upgrades, and I have the same opinion of it. Still mildy confused how people are using a shovel with just one hand, though.

Basic Weaknesses
Three different versions of Unspeakable Oath, each with a different way of getting rid of them. They all share the Madness and Pact keywords, which are relevant in some campaigns. They're also Campaign Mode only, as their downside won't be an issue for a one-off scenario.

Which oath is worse is going to vary by character. I've played a lot of Zoe, for example, where Bloodlust wouldn't be a problem - but Cowardice would be.

I do like that the drawback isn't trauma, though - having said that, if I was playing Dunwich I think I'd prefer trauma to losing XP!

I’m so jealous! My game store hasn’t received my preordered copy yet.

Those are the cards that were leaked from the Spanish version. Some look decent. Archaic Glyphs has a great name and not much else, I can’t see buying it.

Agreed on Logical Reasoning. A bit too expensive. And there seems to be so many ways to heal these days

Lantern and Shovel aren’t bad. I would probably use shovel over Lantern, but that is the hand slot thing.

Alchemical Transmutation just seems pricey to me and is too risky. I don’t generally seem to have huge resource issues as a mystic and it takes up a precious spell slot, which I need for more pressing things...like evading or fighting or investigating!! But that is me.

I like both Rogue and Suggestion. And they play to different types of Rogue builds

Agreed on .32 Colt, but I don’t know that Carcosa released any other weapons they could’ve upgraded to huge effect. So their options were limited. Eat Lead I never use, so have no opinion.

Have fun replaying the campaign! We just finished RtD. The encounter set swaps seemed to make a way bigger difference to play, than the new player cards!

Im a little down on this set of cards. the weaknesses are fresh tho.

The seeker stuff is, specific. The glyphs in particular disappoint me. it's just not a mechanic I see myself spending a slot on, let alone XP. At best I see it as a way to get cheap Fieldworks and Rooks, assuming you draw this before those.

Rogues got 2 niche cards, Stealth is very interesting, I'll be taking that for pretty much all the Rogues at some point. Suggestion I can see in Sefina and Wendy.

The guardian stuff is a little more impressive, the gun gives viable access to infinite firearm usage and condition-less 2 damage attacks. The 0 XP Eat lead is something I see myself using. These cards are niche but at least they are kinda good.

For Mystics the new Alchemical slots pretty nice into the full blown caster archetype with Sign magic and all the arcane assets, Ill probably try this once in Akachi. Storm of spirits is very powerful, it has all the hallmarks of what single use attack and evade spells should look like.

Survivors got a weird one, it's specifically an incredible set for Yorick and his recursion, recursing shovel a few times before chucking for 2 clues. A focused investigation Wendy might like lantern alongside Lockpicks. The cards have double icons now right? That makes it another viable point of interest for Scavenger Wendy.

TL:DR, I'll be seeing Shovel, Colt and Stealth a lot. Storm of Spirits, Lantern and Eat lead a little. The rest might get tested for curiosity's sake.

2 hours ago, tsuruki said:

Survivors got a weird one, it's specifically an incredible set for Yorick and his recursion, recursing shovel a few times before chucking for 2 clues. A focused investigation Wendy might like lantern alongside Lockpicks. The cards have double icons now right? That makes it another viable point of interest for Scavenger Wendy.

Yup - double book on Lantern, double fist on the Shovel.