Finally, it seems that Olive McBride has found a home.

This is an interesting card. While, sealing 0 tokens is generally a bad thing to do, this card seems to have some potential. The first thing to notice about this card is that it can go with infinite uses as long as you have the right cards to support it and that's nothing to pass by. The +1 damage per 0 token revealed is also of incredible value. Depending on the chaos bag, if you manage to reveal all 0 tokens in the bag in one test, an attack with this card can go up to +4 damage!! That's nothing to lagh at!! Now, this is pretty unlikely to happen in regular circumstances, but if you use Olive McBride in conjunction with Dark Prophecy and Grotesque Statue, you 're revealing 8 tokens at once and that makes it pretty likely to hit almost if not all of the desired tokens. The question here, is whether chaos tokens that are revealed but not resolved are considered to be "revealed" for the purposes of Shards of the Void. I asked this in the Official Rules Question Form and I'm waiting for an answer.

Now, the cards to support this card are obviously cards that reveal more than 1 chaos token at once. Olive McBride is MVP here, but Grotesque Statue is also of good use and if I get a positive answer to my question, Dark Prophecy is just great. Out-of-class options are pretty limited; The only ones I can think of now are "Eat lead!" and Against All Odds, the former being unobtainable and unusuable and the latter being almost useless, short of some Double or Nothing action and only available for Agnes Baker at the moment. Now, being able to reveal extra tokens often also makes other cards more viable. Recall the Future is of serious consideration here and you could consider cards that work when certain tokens are revealed, like Ritual Candles and Jewel of Aureolus, as viable options.

Apart from the kind of "infinite charges" this card can have, the +2 or more damage is incredibly useful. 3-health enemies show up quite often and being able to finish them off with one shot is really good -it's basically like using a Shrivelling (5) without the danger of getting yourself horror- it saves you actions and skill tests. Now, you can't guarrantee the +2 damage, but given that you can "recharge" this by pulling a 0 every now and then makes this not a big deal. And in boss situations, where the +2 or more damage becomes more relevant, being able to reveal multiple 0s in one check is of incredible value and those 0s will become sealed on Shards of the Void which you may want to keep to get a great Willpower bonus for your next attack. But you will generally want to return those tokens to the bag. Probably not all of them, but most of them. I think that you will generally not want to have more and less than one 0 token on this card. You basically want to have exatcly one. To not lose the Willpower bonus and to have more chances to get the damage boost. So, if you have more than one 0 on this card, you will almost always want to use the 0 token instead of a charge. Besides, you 're sealing zeroes, hello!!

Which brings us to the one major downside this card has: The fact that you seal good tokens. Not the best, but still good. Disired tokens. Tokens that you hope to draw when you 're barely passing a test. Tokens that you definitely want to exist in the bag. And when good tokens get sealed (especially when many of them are sealed), that makes the worst tokens show up more regularly and that's really bad. So how do we overcome this?? One option is to have other sealing cards to go with this card in order to seal those bad tokens. That's actually the best solution to this problem I can think of. Another option is to actually not buy this card until your team has acquired enough XP to become stronger and be able to be passing tests at good rates. If, for example your Guardian has got a Lightning Gun and your seeker has upgraded that Strange Solution into the Freezing Variant, then that probably means your team gets along with enemies well and that's probably a good time to go for the Shards of the Void.

Now, is this card worth adding to your deck if you don't build around it?? It could be. It's basically a second Shrivelling (3). Some Mystics may want to have this in addition to Shrivelling for the same reason a Guardian wants to have 4 weapons in his deck, ie. for consistency. Is it worth instead of Shrivelling? Probably not. It's interesting though, that Father Mateo can start with 1 copy of this and 2 copies of Protective Incantation in his deck.

EDIT: I have received an answer to my question, so I decided to edit this review to include it, as well as my thoughts about the new information.

The question was: "Are chaos tokens that are revealed but not resolved considered to be revealed for the purposes of Shards of the Void? For example: I use Shards of the Void to attack an enemy and then, when I would reveal a chaos token I use Dark Prophecy to reveal 5 chaos tokens instead of 1. If I reveal any 0s from Dark Prophecy, will those 0s count as "revealed" for Shards of the Void?"

The answer was: "If a token is canceled or ignored in its entirety, it does not count as having been revealed. So let’s say you use Shards of the Void to attack an enemy and then played Dark Prophecy. Dark Prophecy reads: Reveal 5 chaos tokens instead of 1. Choose one of those tokens with a (skull), (cultist), (tablet), (elder thing), or (autofail) symbol to resolve, and ignore the rest. (If no such token is revealed, choose any one of those tokens to resolve, and ignore the rest.)” The tokens which are ignored do not count as having been revealed. The one token that you choose to resolve is the only one which is considered to have been revealed.

So to continue the example, if you revealed the following 5 tokens (Skull, Skull, Tablet, 0, and –1), you would choose one symbol to resolve and ignore the rest. If you chose to resolve the Tablet, for example, then the Tablet is considered to have been revealed and the rest are not, because they were ignored in their entirety. If you chose to resolve one of the Skulls, that Skull would be revealed but the other Skull would not."

That means that Dark Prophecy is completely useless for Shards of the Void and Grotesque Statue loses some of its value because you can't reveal and resolve two 0s with it. That also means that you can't hunt down for 0s using multiple effects that reveal multiple chaos tokens at once because not all of those chaos tokens can be resolved. The only way to actually reveal and resolve more than one 0 is through Olive McBride and that's only if you get lucky. Damage cap for this card also becomes up to +3. Which is still good but a lot less possible to achieve.

After receiving this new information, I think this card loses a lot of its value. You can still recharge it by pulling 0s, you can still achieve the +2 damage at times (+3 if you get lucky), but since you can't hunt down for 0s in a time of need by using multiple effects that reveal multiple chaos tokens at once, I think it becomes a lot less of an insurance. Anyway, I think it's still playable, just less effective.

Ah, the core set asset skill-boosters. there was a time spending two resources to play something to pay more resources to boost your skills seemed... well, okay. It was never really great. Then the permanent skill-boosters came out and the people that still used the core set cards probably dropped them quite quickly.

This card is unfortunately stuck in the same class as Higher Education, a card that is bonkers good and only 3XP. This means that most with access to Higher Education will skip this card. However, there is a use for it.

In , the card Well Prepared gets a major boost from assets with two or more matching icons. The in-class asset, Physical Training is good, but provides and , so you'll need a way to boost and . In addition, the permanent asset, Keen Eye has had mixed results. Perhaps this is good... though keep in mind that you are still paying 2 XP per copy of this, 2 XP per copy of Physical Training and 2 XP per copy of Well Prepared...

Roland Banks would be the investigator to take this setup, but some part of me wonders if there's nothing better to do with the XP, especially since you have to exhaust the Well Prepared.

The cost in the description is wrong guys (4 instead of 5) ;) Keep up the good work! These are the "Your review must be at least 200 characters," so ignore it :D These are the "Your review must be at least 200 characters," so ignore it :D These are the "Your review must be at least 200 characters," so ignore it :D These are the "Your review must be at least 200 characters," so ignore it :D

This is what I like to call "an OK card."

It's not great when compared to the many ways to collect resources these days, but I don't think it's bad. As with most cards, this really only shines in two circumstances.

Quick recap for those of you who haven't scrolled down to CaiusDrewart's excellent review: this card is not as efficient as it seems. While it might seem like 3 resources for 1 action, you gotta do a little more math to break down the cost. The first action of playing actually nets you nothing. Strict loss for 1 action. You lose 1 action, 1 resource, and 1 card. After that, you spend 1 action for what I'd hope is a decent shot at 3 resources.

Scenario 1: Play Burglary: -1 action, -1 resource, -1 card Successfully Burgle: -1 action, +3 resources (if you are lucky enough) Net change: -2 actions, +2 resources, -1 card

Scenario 2: Get a resource: -1 action, +1 resource (guaranteed) Get a resource: -1 action, +1 resource (guaranteed) Net change: -2 actions, +2 resources

Obviously, this is a bad deal. In the first turn you've played it, you've only lost one card IF YOU ARE LUCKY and passed the investigate. However, this does recoup it's investment the more you use it. One more action (and successful investigation) and you've hit the same efficiency as getting two resources and playing emergency cache level 0. After that, it starts improving, but you're always hit with the possibility of failure. It's valuable if you can dedicate many actions to earning resources and you have an efficient outlet for those resources.

So, in most cases, it's bad.

But when is it good?

As has been discussed before, Rex is the gold standard. While in many situations, Rex needs to be a clue hoover spending each action getting as many clues as possible, there are a number of situations where Rex only has 1 clue at a location, whether you're playing solo or not. In these situations, it could be more efficient to burgle, get the resources and the clue in one fell swoop. In addition, with the ability of certain cards to move Rex between locations DURING an investigate (Shortcut level 2 and Pathfinder,) he can burgle a low shroud location with no clues, move to another location, succeed on the investigation, and collect his bonus clue from a new location (one that may be at much high shroud value.) There is math that could be done on the likelihood in each scenario you'll run into location with only 1 clue. The short answer is "it's pretty likely."

The second case is worth considering is the combo of Burglary with Lola Santiago. If the Rex combo is the gold standard, consider this the bronze minimum qualifications.

Lola's first aspect gives you that nice +1 to intellect and agility, which makes us better investigators. But it's the second aspect that really makes things interesting. Lola's fast exhaust allows us to convert resources to clues at a varying levels of efficiency. What this does is improve the value of a resource.

Suddenly, a single resource can become clue on 1 shroud locations. If a Rogue burgles a 1 shroud location and then uses Lola, they can net 1 clue and 2 resources for 1 action. On a 2 shroud location, the efficiency become 1 clue and 1 resource for 1 action, which is as efficient as Dr. Milan Christopher. That's ignoring the possibilities of burgling from a neighboring location and then moving to acquire a clue.

That said, the only aspect about Lola that makes Burglary directly more efficient is that +1 intellect, which can be accomplished otherwise. However, because resources are now slightly more valuable in terms of action economy, having an efficient way to consistently collect more resources throughout a scenario becomes more valuable.

Does that mean that Burglary is now good?

Nope. But it is adequate. The more and more we use Burglary in a given scenario, the closer our efficiency rating reaches 3 resources/action. It never quite reaches it because our first action cost 1 resource and 1 action, also because there is always a chance of failure. Over a single scenario, over 10 turns, we reach an efficiency of about 2.63, which drops to about 2 if we assume you only succeed 3/4 of the time.

Are there more efficient generators of resources? Absolutely, but few that are as beneficial over the length of a game and nothing is as card efficient. If you can pull off a Double or Nothing + Watch This combo, you get 9 resources for 0/1 actions and 2 cards. Hot Streak level 2 nets you 5 resources for 1 action and 1 card.

This card essentially gives you the fuel to repeatedly rely on Lola throughout a scenario. As you level up, you can supplement it or swap it out with Hot Streak or whatever else is more efficient.

So as of the end of the Forgotten Age cycle there are 6 assets that have Uses (Secrets), though strictly speaking this doesn't actually have to put secrets on a card that can use them I cant think of a reason why you would want to. Of those 6 cards, one of them is a Forbidden Knowledge, which Daisy, Rex, Jim or Norman Withers could play, but spending 2 resources and an action to put two secrets on Forbidden Knowledge to let you spend 2 horror to get 2 resources back seems.... bad. Unfortunately this won't let you refuel it for a friendly Agnes as you have to choose an asset you control.

As for the in faction cards, both versions of upgraded Ancient Stone can be restocked with this. Using two resources and an action to heal two horror, divided amongst investigators and assets, makes Truth from Fiction behave kind of like a better Emergency Aid for horror which is definitely not bad, especially in Carolyn Fern. However, I think a much better use is to combine it with the damage variant, letting you bank two testless damage for a later turn. Just dealt with an enemy on your space that was keeping you from investigating, but used up the last of your ancient stone pings while doing so? Fear not, instead of spending an action investigating right now you can hedge against the encounter deck by reading a children's book. I would say that how good a strategy this is largely depends on how high a number you noted for your ancient stone translation, the greater the number of secrets you start with the less useful a 2 secret recharge will be for you. I dont think this is worth running if you're planning to go for some Double or Nothing 14 secret ancient stone shenanigans, but if you get put in a bad spot and have to note down 5 or so secrets you might look at this as an option.

Feed the Mind also uses secrets. Moving on.

Another interesting use is In the Know, if you set up camp on a low shroud location and leave a clue there, you can keep using it to save your movements and recharge it with Truth from Fiction, provided a teammate can run around revealing locations and keeping monsters off you. Combined with Disc of Itzamna, Scavenging, Hiding Spot and Analytical Mind out of Minh Thi Phan and you could have a fun deck concept.

Finally, and possibly the most powerful use of this card is the new 5xp Seeker card from Shattered Aeons, Pnakotic Manuscripts. It enters play with only 3 secrets so one copy of Truth from Fiction can nearly double the number of uses you can get from it. Given that each use of it is somewhere between a Ward of Protection and a Will to Survive, doubling up on that is extremely powerful and I think we may see a lot of Seekers, especially in 3 and 4 player games, look into combining these two cards. I do think this is worse in solo or in two player, as actions are generally more pressured at lower player counts and its harder to justify taking the action off investigating to play this, though I still think it will be worth it more often than not.

The biggest downside of all of these strategies is that all of the powerful assets that use secrets cost experience, which means either you are spending exp on swapping this in later in the game or you are putting a dead card in your deck for the first few scenarios. The double books on this card help to mitigate its uselessness in the latter situation somewhat but there isn't a shortage of double int cards with useful effects anymore.