Decorated Skull

Decorated Skull

This card became more useful with the new swarm mechanic introduced in Dream Eaters circle. Now investigators such as Leo and Tony can benefit from killing a lot more than before. Some low enemies like Zoogs and Rats can be killed easily with a weapon with +1 damage, so the charges will stack a lot faster than normaly. Combine it with Haste and you can trigger the action of Decorated skull by free. I am looking forward to test it!

Sotosprotos · 86
I agree that you'll get lots of charges, but i don't think you have enough time to spend them all if you want to complete scenarios. — Django · 5162
I have wanted to love this card with Leo (or Tony) but I just couldn't take the action in the middle to the end of the scenario to use the charges. The Haste combo that you mention might make it possible though. — The Lynx · 993
I used it with Tony to good effect. He already gets plenty of resources, but sometimes you need to take draw actions, and getting even more resources helps pay for the new weapons you need to play, since he tends to burn through ammo fast. — Yenreb · 15

Entombed

Entombed

Something funny happened in a Forgotten Age Campaign. Because Rita Young drew this this card while engaged with Harbinger of Valusia, she was able to repeatedly evade it without re-engaging in order to give it resources and make it go away!

jmmeye3 · 632
Haha! I've done that trick with Unspeakable Oath (Cowardice) before. — Zinjanthropus · 230

Cryptic Grimoire

Cryptic Grimoire

I have a rules question about the second action on this card. The second action does not say to only trigger "If there are 10 [curse] tokens in the chaos bag...". Rather, the first sentence is contingent on "10 [curse] tokens in the chaos bag". Can I trigger the second action without 10 curse tokens and just replace 5 curse with 5 bless tokens?

CrimsonMatt · 2
You cannot. Everything before the colon is the ability's cost; if there are fewer than ten curse tokens in the bag, you cannot satisfy the cost and therefore cannot initiate the ability. I think you're saying you could activate it with fewer than ten curse tokens and avoid discarding the grimoire, but since discarding the grimoire is part of the cost, you can't initiate the ability without ten curse tokens. — SGPrometheus · 847
Can I ignore the cost by "Knowledge is Power"? — king_doragon · 1
@king_doragon Huh. Uh... I don't see why not. Surely that doesn't work? I'd submit that to the devs; that's a good one. — SGPrometheus · 847
Yeah, that’s really awkward and definitely works as written. It should probably have that ‘if’ clause within the effect of the ability to avoid that. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
This will definitely get errata'd and/or FAQ'd real fast cause the wording is so awkward. As its stands, the second action could indeed be activated if there aren't ten curse tokens in the chaos bag. Discarding the grimoire is part of the cost only if there are 10 curse tokens in the bag. You are paying the conditional cost of discarding it and the rules regarding costs do not address this, so no other way to interpret it. — heppu · 2
I disagree and feel Knowledge is Power will not work for this. The only costs on the 2nd action are 1) the actual action cost and 2) the discard of the grimoire ; the "if there are..." line is a Triggering Condition, not an actual cost. It's like if you have a BOGO coupon for something but they only have 1 of that item; you can ignore the cost of the 2nd one, but you don't actually have the 2nd item available to complete the transaction. — Vafruvant · 1
It is not a "Triggering Condition": Triggering Condition A triggering condition indicates the timing point at which an ability may be triggered. Most triggering conditions use the word "when" or "after" to establish their relation to the specified timing point. Each eligible ability that triggers in reference to a specified timing point may be used once each time that timing point occurs. If multiple instances of the same ability are eligible to initiate, each instance may be used once. — Yenreb · 15
The "If" clause is a "prerequisite" of the ability. "If the ability has one or more prerequisites (costs and/or conditions), these are listed in text immediately following the icon. A player must always meet the prerequisites of a triggered ability in order to trigger that ability." But the instruction on Knowledge is Power is "resolve" (not "trigger") "an [action] or [free] ability," so as written I don't think the prerequisite would prevent you from choosing it. Hopefully an FAQ will clarify. — Yenreb · 15
Although the next phrase on Knowledge is Power is "ignoring all costs" -- as card text, not reminder text. The word "resolve" is used throughout the Rules Reference, but nowhere well defined; we might treat it as "do". In which case "resolve, ignoring its costs" could well mean "but still obey conditions," as you argue. No existing Tome or Spell assets have non-cost prerequisites on Action or Free triggered abilities, so it's not a question to have come up before this previewed card. — Yenreb · 15

Bedeviled

Bedeviled

Does that mean that you cannot get rid of this card if you play real solo (since you can't use the action to try to discard it, while in multiplayer, other may take that action for you)? That sounds extremely punishing...

Kisama · 2
Sure you can. You don't control treacheries, so the effect of Bedeviled doesn't apply to itself. — TheNameWasTaken · 3

Chicago Typewriter

Chicago Typewriter

Hmm... I wonder what happens if I combine this with Haste. If you use the trigger ability, it counts as activate action or Fight action? That means, I activate Chicago Typewriter -> Fight and then I spend one action to get +2. Now I can use the free action from Haste or I have to activate it again (2 times) and THEN exhaust it to get the free action. Can anyone answer me because I think this sounds like a sweet combo!

Sotosprotos · 86
I think it doesnt work because the action type for the additional action(s) isn't defined on this card. Haste didnt exist when this card was released so the develper couldnt take this into account. — Django · 5162
Can't find a decent reference to back this up, I thought it was in the faq, but I guess its just in a designer tweet somewhere and I can't find it..... Anyway. Haste is based on the number of Actions you perform, not the number you expend. When you expend multiple actions to perform a single action I am pretty sure it only counts as 1 action for the purposes of haste. So no matter how many actions you expend on the chicago typewriter you have still only performed one fight action — NarkasisBroon · 11
Agreed with @NarkasisBroon; "spending" actions is not the same as "taking" them, and Haste only cares about actions you actually take. — SGPrometheus · 847
So spending 2 actions to resolve a treachery or weakness also counts only as 1 for haste? — Django · 5162
@Django Correct. Searching for Izzy, for instance, costs two actions, but is still one investigate action. — SGPrometheus · 847
Oh, I see. Shame :( — Sotosprotos · 86
Conversely, this means that triggering Haste to trigger this card doesn't actually spend an action, so you wouldn't get the basic +2 (unless you spend additional actions, which negates the benefit of using Haste) — Yenreb · 15
@Yenreb: No that is not true. When you trigger the reaction ability of Haste, it does grant you an additional action; it's just that you must use that action right away. The official FAQ notes this, it states that "if an ability allows you to 'take an action,' it is as though you are gaining an action and immediately spending it to perform that action." — iceysnowman · 164
To be clear, this means that you would get the basic +2 from the action spent (if you're using Haste to trigger Chicago Typewriter). — iceysnowman · 164
With the typewriter that combo only works if you have Leo De Luca which grants you an extra action you get to use haste. 2 actions +4 fight and other 2 actions +4 fight and then you could activate the haste, but niw with only +2 of fight. — Tpedrosa · 1