Cthulhu, Wendy and even The Colour Out of Space want to know which one of these is greatest of the legendary items!

VS.

Similarities...

1. $2
2. Rat-thing's favorite thing
3. Nice to discard when you go insane or KO'd
4. Discarded to random encounters

Differences...

Knife

1. Combat Bonus
2. Helps you pass, "Return to the Old Ways"
3. and there is just something satisfy about stabbing a Cultist to death!

The Light of Reason

1. Nice to have if Tsathoggua is the Ancient One
2. The Dunwich Rumor (?) where you have to discard items to pass it
3. +1 score if finished

In my most humble and correct opinion (opinion = fact) the knife is very clearly the winner of this debate because you can stab things and butter your toast with it.

You kill me.

I think I'd rather have the Knife. At least it would get used :-P

The light of reason. Mostly for the picture.

How often do you get to dissect weird creatures from other places?

Although the arm with the tattoo looks like it might be attached to someone really hot...

Knife, if only because I may actually get a chance to use it. Though to be honest, the bit Tsathoggua and The Light of Reason is something I hadn't thought of. It would have been really nice to have in our (Combat heavy) last game against him.

I hope you wash it between the stabbing and buttering.

Macronx said:

But it's okay to stab someone AFTER you butter your bread.

johnwatersfan said:

Sure, it slides in better that way .

Dam said:

That's what she said.

As a serial killer vegan, I find these comments appalling.

I don't like missions that require me entering one of the other worlds but then again the chance that the knife is going to see some use is pretty small, too. Since the only situation where I'd have to choose between the two would be when discarding items, it will depend on my other items which one I'd keep. If I have two other weapons with a higher bonus (likely, since I tend to trade missions to the investigator that will have the best chance to complete the mission), I'd discard the knife.

As an aside: Pretty much everyone agrees that almost all missions are not worth completing. Imho, they'd become slightly better if it was possible to complete them as a team effort (i.e. if the progress that was made on a mission wasn't wiped after trading). This one is a good example. Having three different investigators with sufficient monster trophies is a lot more likely than collecting them all with the same investigator. I've actually been using that as a house-rule in some of my games.

Thematically, missions are one of my favorite game elements. Similar to rumours they are really telling a short story within the greater story that is a complete game session.

The knife is a much better card.

• Since it's one handed, having it is frequently strictly superior to not having it when your primary weapon is a .45
• Since it's an odd numbered bonus, it ignores Physical Resistance. Against such an enemy it's just as good as a Derringer.
• Since it's a Common Item, whose average cost is $3, I'm only getting mildly screwed when I draw one at random. The standard Common is a Lantern, the standard Unique is an Elder Sign.

There are lots of available house rules that make Missions vaguely OK. I'm fond of the one where you only sacrifice at the final location. But as written, the only ones that are ever worth it are the ones where you sacrifice Sanity or Stamina. And that's just because those are renewable resources.

-Frank

Frank said:

Getting 10 clue markers for 12 points worth of monsters is arguably a better deal than getting 6 for 15 which is what you'd get from sitting on the Science Building for three turns. If I had the trophies and the mission didn't involve an other world, it would be a no-brainer for me. You can never have enough clues and quite recently I lost a game to Hastur because of too few clues (well, actually, I did have enough clues near the end but the environment that prevented sealing gates was active and didn't go away for the final five turns while my investigators were sitting on the open gates with their explored markers... ).

Just about all the missions (other than maybe Walking the Ley Lines, which won me a game vs. Atlach-Nacha the other day) are more or less worthless, so I'd probably rather have the knife.

We had a situation the other day where the Light of Reason looked viable. I had plenty of dead monsters, there was an open gate to the City, and there was no gate on the Science Building. I was going to attempt it, but, as it always seems to be the case, it didn't pan out. The mission is a much better deal than the SB, which is part of the appeal. I still hold out hope that it will be useful someday. I'd probably keep it over the knife, circumstance depending, of course, if that somehow came up.

We drew For the Greater Good early against Hastur once, and thought to try it early. By the time all the right gates had opened and we could get into the abyss to start it, we got hemmed in by monsters and had four seals anyway. We just sealed him. It would be more attractive with CotWS, or convenient gates, but it just doesn't work like that.

Bexarath said:

On the other hand, we often complete Sealing the Beast's Power and Sacrifices to Make. They're easy, and have good effects. And are worth a point, too. Purifying the town is good to remove the threat of double dooms. We typically try our hands at the tasks, as well. They have good rewards if you're staying in Arkham anyway.

For some missions we allow people to collect as they go. For The Light of Reason, for example, the investigator collects 3 clues at each location (for a total of 9 clues). That essentially makes the mission a slightly amped up version of the Science Building, except that you have to move to the different locations to collect and you can't sacrifice gate trophies. It makes the mission worth pursuing, but it doesn't unbalance the game. We also took the mission cards out of the Unique Items deck and use a different mechanic for disseminating them (which involves research at the Library).

We haven't had what we term an achievable mission card show up in play yet and, as a result, we tend to regard them as a wasted draw from the deck. Given a choice, it has to be the knife.

I suspect that this might change if we get a more achievable mission sometime.

We've taken to a house rule for missions also. Instead of removing them from the deck entirely (because there is, presumably, SOME possible scenario where they would be useful) we play like this:

When you draw a mission, if you don't want it you discard it and draw again. Still never bothered to complete one. Have done a few tasks though.

noooooooooooo my series of threads is ruined! ;(

Yes good point the art from Reason is cool!

MrsGamura said:

That man is dissecting a facehugger.

Considering my playgroup has completed "The Light of Reason" mission twice, I'd have to put it far above the knife. This mission isn't easy, but it is doable and the payoff is definitely worth it.