Calvin Wright on the Road

Here is my first effort at playing a survivor. It is a multi player version and hasn't been tried solo. He was paired with Dr. Fern for the Dunwich Legacy and they made ,it successfully to the end, albeit losing the final battle with Yog Sothoth.

Right, first things first, a successful Calvin is a protected Calvin. At the end of the first four scenarios, you should try and have Calvin at a break even 3/3 Stamina/Sanity, so it isn't so important, but you have to be on the look out. If you deal an opening hand without any protection at all, Mulligan it. Spend your first turn (where possible) playing Accessories, Allies and Clothing. If his signature card pops out, play it immediately. If you're lucky enough to get Cherished Keepsake, Leather Coat and Until the End of Time, it will cost you a big fat 1 resource. Calvin isn't good at being a Dark Horse as he needs resources to shore up his protection.

Cards: Some are self explainatory, others not so. "Look what I found!" is useful for about 4 games, then it should become difficult to fail investigate skill tests. So it can be expendable for updates. Kukri to start with is basically just to have more chance of pulling a weapon early on. Once his Stamina starts to rise, this can be discarded for either baseball bat or if you're working with a Guardian, it will be more than useful if they have Teamwork to hand him a better weapon (Carolyn used this to great effect with Machete and .45 Automatic. Peter Sylvestre goes without saying, and Madame Labranche is a good soak in a pinch and will give an extra resource should things get on the low side. Ward of Protection gives two advantages. It can avoid nasty Encounter Cards and Calvin can benefit from taking one Horror. It's cheap.

Upgrades..

First and foremost, Charisma or Two copies of Devil's Luck. Two copies of Charisma is preferable.

Once Calvin hits 2 Sanity, think about upgrading the innate and practiced skills as 4 icons are much better than two. Ok you don't get the card, but it's a trade off against virtually assuring a skill test pass.

Bulletproof Vest and Elder Sign Amulet are an option, but Cherished Keepsake and Leather Coat cost nothing and can be recuperated with Resourceful if necessary. I found two Charisma to be sufficient. Of course, upgrade Peter Sylvestre and Lucky! (gives you that extra card you're missing from the skills).

Late on, if you're still fairly zen with Sanity and Stamina (2/2 or 3/3) a good option is "I'll see you in hell!" as it can be a time saver if there are a lot of monsters on the table with the clock running down, and it has two Combat icons.

Sometimes, I found myself with an xp to spare. A good option is Flare. Grabbing Brother Xavier out of a discard pile or taking out a pesky monster with an odd number health is always useful.

I did research the Key of Ys but it's expensive for a survivor. Maybe in my runthrough of Carcosa with him I'll see how it goes.

Calvin finished the game with 2 Stamina and 3 Sanity.