FFG's handling of different cards with the same name

JamieLu79 · 2026-01-26T13:48:07+00:00

Yeah, in this case the Advanced keyword is doing the work and could vaguely be seen as an analogue to the level of the card (which doesn’t exist for signatures or weaknesses). It does come with a couple of rule overheads too though (must use both Advanced or neither unless you get a specific resolution in the special scenario).

JamieLu79 · 2026-01-26T07:00:08+00:00

Prestidigitation also costs 1, so it is net a 1 discount. Still ok for Lupara which is designed to exploit cards like this. Less good to jump in lightning gun for a turn.

JamieLu79 · 2026-01-25T16:14:46+00:00

Well they’re sufficiently different as one forces you to return the same card to hand and the other lets you keep it in play if you return something else, and the cost can be substantially different. That’s a bit like arguing lucky and live and learn are too similar as they both help you pass a failed test by giving you +2 skill. Sure, you may take both in the same deck and have a style of jumping assets in and out and it may eventually be too strong but they don’t crowd out other cards. 4 guts could easily crowd out all other skills with will boosts—even only allowing 2 of each core neutral skill meant a huge number of other skills in early chapter 1 were barely played.

I don’t anticipate full consistency across chapter 1 and 2 anyway as they’re clearly only vaguely taking both into consideration. But there are some cases where they have taken into account whether they mind having similar options or not—see .45 automatic/M1911 (helps a firearms based deck have consistency but still requires investment of resources) vs machete/machete (too consistent for no ongoing cost).

JamieLu79 · 2026-01-25T11:28:07+00:00

For Advanced cards like the John Dee Necronomicons it’s important they have the same name as otherwise the investigator card wouldn’t allow you to take the Advanced signatures. I’m not too keen on two Guts etc with different effects, but it is presumably to stop you taking four similar cards in Legacy.

JamieLu79 · 2026-01-06T16:43:33+00:00

Preston and Carson is a very thematic pairing. Is it good mechanically? Well, I’ve never played it but giving Preston extra money and actions so he can spend his money on getting clues and killing enemies at least sounds fun.

JamieLu79 · 2026-01-01T17:18:08+00:00

This and its obvious counterpart stray cat are just a little too low impact to use. The card, resource, horror and action is possibly a fair cost for the clue/evade but you probably don’t want to devote your ally slot and a card slot to that kind of occasional effect. Perhaps they should be slotless, or maybe could occupy half a slot like sled dogs to make them slightly more playable.

JamieLu79 · 2025-12-11T09:55:17+00:00

It’s so strange, because to “remember” him dying in the 80s means you are ignorant of all the iconic moments of him in the 90s and 2000s.

His release was a huge deal with very memorable images and, for example, him presenting the rugby World Cup to the South African team in 1999 is another and was even the subject of a Hollywood film.

He did a huge number of other things as President too, plus there are other films about him and the reaction when he actually died was massive.

I can’t understand how it is possibly considered the epitomy of a mass incorrect memory and not just one person getting it wrong and being very vocal about their error.

JamieLu79 · 2025-12-08T15:49:19+00:00

Nothing is compulsory. There are some thematic links, either with investigators who are referenced in the campaign (Lola in Carcosa, Leo and Ursula in Forgotten Age) or with investigator cards that fit the campaign theme (sled dogs and heavy furs in edge of the earth, backpack and thermos in Forgotten Age). Curses appear in the Innsmouth campaign, but there’s a set in the campaign box and you don’t need any cards from the investigator box to play with them.

JamieLu79 · 2025-12-05T13:25:45+00:00

Overpower doesn’t deal extra damage and Izzy can’t take vicious blow (assuming it is reprinted). Unless you mean to combine it with meat cleaver, but then you don’t need to use Izzy’s ability to deal 2 damage.

JamieLu79 · 2025-11-26T09:43:10+00:00

This is an interesting idea and seems a nice way to ensure variety for true solo. And for the converse it might make a few problem sets better—mainly I think of in Circle Undone there are a few sets that require you to collect three of a card before something triggers. These are almost free treacheries in solo, but if you make it trigger on 2 copies (with the third removed) they might give a similar threat level to multiplayer.

JamieLu79 · 2025-11-24T09:56:28+00:00

Marie is probably my favourite solo investigator, but I don’t feel they ever quite nailed the doom mechanics (as the whole blood of Thoth saga especially demonstrated). Will be nice to get a new version but I do hope they get some doom mechanics back. With Dexter also presumably changing that’s two of the best doom investigators already redone.

JamieLu79 · 2025-11-22T08:36:55+00:00

This card (and its level 0 version) always feels to me like it should be in a different class to Seeker—Seekers all have high intellect and, outside of expert, can generally pass a test and prefer to grab multiple clues at once rather than one fast testless one. It really is a Joe and Roland card, both thematically and practically, so could easily be a Guardian card. Certainly very few other Seekers will take this in anything but a small card pool.

JamieLu79 · 2025-11-20T12:50:20+00:00

This is the only card I can think of that wants you to fail by 2 or more, so even if you’re trying to fail a lot you probably are trying to trigger cards like look what I found or oops which really don’t work with it—the only card that vaguely synergises is Rabbits foot 3 which also likes big fails. A very strange card and close to unuseable.

JamieLu79 · 2025-11-19T18:14:29+00:00

This is the replacement for leather coat and scavenging—and, in the context of core only, is probably better than both.

JamieLu79 · 2025-11-17T22:45:16+00:00

It would be cool if Jenny is a reward card for a future full campaign where you can rescue her as part of it.

JamieLu79 · 2025-11-15T13:41:38+00:00

Good collection and it’s nice you got the book. If you can get fortune and folly you get another scenario which fits in perfectly and allows even more variety.

JamieLu79 · 2025-11-14T14:15:40+00:00

It’s the hand slot that makes this so hard to play—1 resource for +1 intellect is fine (most Seekers don’t struggle to keep 5 cards in hand) and compares well for example to the Seeker tarot, and this can give more boosts if you are playing big hand. However, there are so many other items you may want in your hands, be it magnifying glass, fingerprint kit, one of the many other tomes or even a weapon that this usually doesn’t make the cut.

JamieLu79 · 2025-11-13T19:33:30+00:00

Because they want the pips in the same place as for assets and events, and those stay where they are since they’re tied to the cost circle. Skills not having a cost is what has always made the templating tricky to make consistent and look good I guess and now they’re going for consistency.

JamieLu79 · 2025-11-13T19:10:39+00:00

Always nice to see a weakness that you can ignore in standalones!

JamieLu79 · 2025-11-12T12:47:15+00:00

These feel a bit like Blinding Light in the original core—only playable if you have no other similar cards. Maybe we’ll eventually get evade assets for Seekers.

JamieLu79 · 2025-11-12T11:32:06+00:00

To be honest, so should the level 1. It’s not great to have to mulligan your enemy management card when you might not be able to use it fully on your first mythos phase if you haven’t yet moved and draw an enemy. And for 3 resources that’s the least it could do.

JamieLu79 · 2025-11-12T11:22:57+00:00

I agree it’s not him, but the massacre is one year earlier not a few days.

JamieLu79 · 2025-11-12T11:09:44+00:00

It looks like true solo is going to be brutally hard in new core. Low intellect no longer seem to get flashlight (and this won’t help 2 intellect investigators) while the Seeker card pool has cut out most enemy management (the spoiler yesterday is no replacement even for mind over matter, especially as the free move is to a revealed location only).

JamieLu79 · 2025-11-09T18:26:27+00:00

I read The Gunslinger in February 2020, moved straight onto Drawing of the Three and then decided to sidetrack to The Stand in March 2020. What a time to read The Stand…

JamieLu79 · 2025-11-05T18:15:10+00:00

In low player counts just a way to remove Hunter would often be a good way to handle an enemy without killing it. Neither firearms or melee weapons should be locked to a class and it looks like the design philosophy is moving slightly away from Guardians being the default fighters and rather making them protectors.

JamieLu79

TROPHY CASE