I find it very unsettling that Wilson Richards can't use this card. I guess it would not fit the designers idea for the investigator restrictions; yet I think this would be an awesome card for the Handyman, both flavor and gamewise. It could not only benefit the use of tools but also some synergy cards as Gang Up and Call for Backup.

UPDATE: Upon further play, these replacement/alternate signatures are not really all that much better than the original ones.

The problem, especially at low player counts, is that most scenarios rarely have you walking around with spare clues. Typically you're spending down to 0 clues to advance the Act Deck, so the accompanying weakness is a dead draw AND gets shuffled back into your deck. Again, and again. And suffer a horror each time.

There are upsides though! This generates a clue out of thin air, which can sometimes let you ignore a challenging location.

And it’s fast, so it doesn’t trigger an Attack of Opportunity. Which allows you to hold onto this card until you get attacked at a location without clues, then play it to earn a clue (with Roland’s innate investigator power) when you defeat the enemy.

Prior reviews focus on the goal of using this for extra clues in a multiplayer setting.

I tried this with Roland in a true solo deck that features Steady-Handed in order to help trigger extra damage from the Katana. In true solo most locations have just a single clue. So there’s rarely a benefit to succeed by 4.

So far it’s working great! It hits the table often (because of Ever Vigilant is always handy via Stick to the Plan) and gives free draws and resources. It feels like a flexible alternative to Empirical Hypothesis.

My sole complaint is that Roland gets a fair number of clues testlessly, so it sometimes feels like it’s not worth the slot that could otherwise be used by Hallowed Mirror.

Silas Marsh can take this and completely annihilate the effect of Cursed tokens. He can simply commit it to every test (he doesn't have to add any Cursed token in the bag), draw tokens, and take it back in his hand. The Cursed tokens would still be worth 0. For the whole game. I am not sure there can be a "Cursed Silas" archetype, but this can be very handy in a duet with a Cursed investigator, or in the Innsmouth campaign with a heavily cursed bag, of if Silas has the Dread Curse basic weakness.

Rules Question: if I put this on an item like Magnifying Glass (1), which can pop back into my hand when there are no clues on my location, can I trigger the forced ability and just ditch the Vice and Villainy (and not the Mag Glass)?