Serpent's Haven

Serpent's Haven

So this card lets me wonder, regarding Read the Signs: up until recently, I firmly believed, you can not ignore the trigger of the damage, because it happens after investigating. Neither could you move from Père Lachaise Cemetery after successfully "reading the signs". But I'm browsing now all the locations for a RtS review, I'm preparing, and I stumbled over the definition for Investigate Action:

If the test is successful, the investigator has succeeded in investigating the location, he or she discovers one clue at the location. (This occurs during step 7 of the skill test, per "ST.7 Apply skill test results" on page 26.)

So apparently cards, like Père Lachaise Cemetery seem to trigger, because there is a timing after succeeding in investigating within the test (which lasts until ST.8). But if "after successfully investigating" is within reach of RtS's ignore ability, this should also apply to "after investigating" in general? Weird! How are the opinions on that one? Or have there been any official ruling? (Probably not, otherwise it would be mentioned in the FAQ paragraph of RtS.)

Susumu · 381
I don't recall an official ruling, but I'd be of the opinion that any forced abilities using the investigation (or any part thereof) to define their timing point are considered to "trigger during" that investigation, regardless of whether they're "when", "if", or "after". — Thatwasademo · 58
(after all, Haunted, the keyword that Read the Signs was primarily printed to interact with, resolves "after applying all results for that skill test" — Thatwasademo · 58
Haunted works after ST.7 and before ST.8 so it's unambiguously still "during" the investigation. — suika · 9511
Agree with suika here. I also posted the question on BGG, and there KillBray reasoned that "after successfully investigating" triggers on the success, not the end of investigating. Seems, this was also somewhere officially confirmed. He agrees with me, that "after investigating" should NOT trigger. I wish, they had found a clearer wording, but that's what I will go now with. — Susumu · 381

Mano a Mano

Mano a Mano

You might not guess it, but the card with the people bareknuckle boxing is super good with the boxer. The joy of this card is that it’s a natural upgrade from Mano(1), and you can earn it by killing victory point monsters that other classes simply can’t do enough damage to.

Three damage guaranteed is enough to build a deck around. Have your allies take Stargazing, take First Watch or On the Hunt...Use "Get over here!" during enemy, upkeep, or mythos. You’re already playing Nathan to punch the crap out of horrid monsters. Make it easier, and recur it with your elder sign. You’ll appreciate cheap damage in guardian.

MrGoldbee · 1492

Read the Signs

Read the Signs

This card is commonly compaired with Drawn to the Flame. Both cards can discover 2 clues with 1 action. Here is pros & cons.

Pros

  • Read the Signs has spell traits. This cards can work with Arcane Initiate, Dayana Esperence, Agnes Baker.
  • Read the Signs initiates investigate test. Enraptured can be committed to get 1 charge/secret.
  • Read the Signs can ignore some effects by investigation or discovering clues.
  • Read the Signs don't cause to draw any encounter cards. Sometimes, a encounter card break your plan.

Cons

  • Read the Signs has 2 costs. Many suffers leaks of the resources, and 2 costs may be critical.
  • Read the Sings cannot detour some penalty of investigation, such as Obscuring Fog, Locked Door, Orne Library.
  • Read the Signs requires the test, and may be drawn. For hard/expert, the effects of some tokens (, -8...) may cause bad effect.
elkeinkrad · 501
Love Read the Signs for Norman (who will frequently just pay 1 for it.) — CaiusDrewart · 3185
You can also discount it to 1 (or Norman even to zero), if you run Robes. — Susumu · 381
Similarly great for bad blood Agnes — SGPrometheus · 847
Note in addition to Enraptured anyone with access to Seeker 0 could also commit Deduction to pull 3 clues with this one action. Deduction 2 plus this card would create a massively high skill test and reliably grab 4 clues at once. — Time4Tiddy · 249

Blessing of Isis

Blessing of Isis

I firstly under-estimated Blessing of Isis, but this has good potential. If you have Favor of the Sun, you may utilize this as Ancient Covenant. Non-permanent 3xp is expensive, but you could gain effects and save your . Also, I found that you could find 2 easily by Olive McBride. In many case, + + any token will be succeed.

(Additional rule note: if you're autometically succeed, you do not reveal additional token as part of the effect of the token. It means that Mateo do not need to reveal one additional token when you reveal two token with Olive's ability and trigger Bless of Isis).

One problem is that you need to keep your bag with lots of . This means that if you plan to seal tokens, such as Rite of Sanctification, Shield of Faith, and Holy Spear, it's hard to trigger Isis.

I add probability table for bless of isis. Row is the number of tokens in bag except tokens with "revealing another token" effect including /, and Column is the number of tokens in bag. I assume that we always choose tokens with "revealing another token", so that the probability is slightly less if we focus on "succeed" instead of "triggering isis".

Normal case (%)

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
10 1.52 3.85 6.59 9.52 12.50 15.44 18.30 21.05 23.68
11 1.28 3.30 5.71 8.33 11.03 13.73 16.37 18.95 21.43
12 1.10 2.86 5.00 7.35 9.80 12.28 14.74 17.14 19.48
13 0.95 2.50 4.41 6.54 8.77 11.05 13.33 15.58 17.79
14 0.83 2.21 3.92 5.85 7.89 10.00 12.12 14.23 16.30
15 0.74 1.96 3.51 5.26 7.14 9.09 11.07 13.04 15.00
16 0.65 1.75 3.16 4.76 6.49 8.30 10.14 12.00 13.85
17 0.58 1.58 2.86 4.33 5.93 7.61 9.33 11.08 12.82
18 0.53 1.43 2.60 3.95 5.43 7.00 8.62 10.26 11.90
19 0.48 1.30 2.37 3.62 5.00 6.46 7.98 9.52 11.08
20 0.43 1.19 2.17 3.33 4.62 5.98 7.41 8.87 10.34


Olive case (%)

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
10 9.09 20.28 31.07 40.66 48.90 55.88 61.76 66.72 70.90
11 7.69 17.58 27.47 36.54 44.54 51.47 57.43 62.54 66.92
12 6.59 15.38 24.45 32.98 40.69 47.50 53.46 58.65 63.16
13 5.71 13.57 21.89 29.90 37.28 43.92 49.82 55.04 59.63
14 5.00 12.06 19.71 27.22 34.26 40.70 46.51 51.70 56.32
15 4.41 10.78 17.83 24.87 31.58 37.80 43.48 48.62 53.24
16 3.92 9.70 16.20 22.81 29.19 35.18 40.71 45.77 50.37
17 3.51 8.77 14.79 20.98 27.05 32.81 38.18 43.14 47.69
18 3.16 7.97 13.55 19.37 25.13 30.66 35.87 40.72 45.20
19 2.86 7.27 12.46 17.93 23.40 28.70 33.74 38.48 42.88
20 2.60 6.66 11.49 16.64 21.84 26.92 31.79 36.40 40.72


(review updated May 30, 2021)

elkeinkrad · 501
Now you gotta retabulate for Olive(2)! — MrGoldbee · 1492
Apologies, my review is rather similar to yours, sorry! — Mystic101 · 25

Administration Office

Administration Office

I'm currently evaluating the usefulness of the ignore effect of Read the Signs throughout the different campaigns (for an upcoming review).

Unfortunately for this card, like it's brother, that checks for cards in hand, this effect whiffs. Because it prevents initiating the sequence, you can not play the card otherwise and therefore cannot ignore the condition.

Susumu · 381