4th Cycle - The Circle Undone

[Soakman 987]

Oh boy... Preston looks so hard to play, haha. Joe looks very fun actually, but I've never been a fan of Joe. Hmm... Decisions, decisions...

[Assussanni 528]

Quote

When four people disappear from an estate in French Hill

That looks rather ominous for our prologue investigators. I’m really intrigued to see what effect the prologue will have on the rest of the campaign, especially if it is impossible to “win”.

I wonder if we will see resource skill tests elsewhere in the campaign? Would be interesting, but I’m not sure we need another reason to love Dr. Milan!

[Eldan985 360]

Told you Joe Diamond would be the seeker.

[Duciris 1,347]

I'm slow!

 

[C2K 246]

On 12/13/2018 at 11:54 PM, C2K said:

I kind of hope the Seeker is Joe Diamond.  I think he could balance out the grouping since the Guardian is a support instead of the muscle. 

 

I guess a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while.  🤣

[Allonym 954]

OK so not too surprising, Preston (YA BOI) and Joe were pretty popular bets though not top of the running. That investigator design though!

One thing that annoys me about the design of Preston and Calvin is that the gimmick takes me out of the game somewhat. I mean, sure, Calvin needs to power up and Preston needs to use his resources to solve problems, but it annoys me that in their base state they are, respectively, less capable in combat and as capable in combat as an orphan child. Calvin and Preston are both pretty capable in other incarnations and it feels a bit too...game-y, I guess?

Having said that, I'm willing to forgive in Preston's case, and not just because he's my favourite in Eldritch. He looks absolutely fantastic and loads of fun. Looking forward to trying a Dark Horse build with him. The only issue I see is that he'll really, really struggle without any exp (even more than other Rogues), and he'll find it hard to actually have an area he contributes in (cluever with Lola and Dario, evading with Dark Horse/Running Cleats/that tarot card/Lola?).

But man oh man Joe looks fun. I wondered how they'd make him different to Roland Banks and they have completely knocked it out of the park. The hunch deck is just the coolest idea.

This expansion can't arrive quickly enough!

[Duciris 1,347]

4 minutes ago, Allonym said:

This expansion can't arrive quickly enough!

Exactly

Update the "Upcoming" page so we know what's trying to arrive after New Year's already!

[987654321 232]

I just love the flavor of Money Talks.

The criminal attacks you, a knife in his hand. You bribe him and he lets you go.

The insane cultist draws nearer. You bribe him and he stabs himself.

The snake hisses as it bites you. You bribe the poison and are unaffected.

The old house is in darkness and you can't discern anything. You bribe the darkness and it's light.

You slip off a slope, but you bribe gravity and stay where you are.

An otherwordly being of inmense and inconmensurable power and intellect stands before you. It's nature is so literally alien to the rules of this reality or any sane reality or any insane reality which tries really hard to be sane once in a while hey it's the intention that counts that the mere act of trying to make any sense of it will cause any of us puny humans drooling insane while playing with fidget spinners and listening to Lil Pump. It is the nightmare of a nightmarish dimension, the anathema to all which is sane and jovial and agrees [work of fiction everyone likes except me] is overrated. It stands looking down to you like you would look down not to an ant, not to a bacteria, but to a mere supporter of an opposed political party. You bribe it and it dies.

[CSerpent 520]

Well, maybe think of him like Batman, walking around with a utility belt of inventions he funded to get him out of any situation.

[Eldan985 360]

"You walk into the catacombs. They are completely pitch black. Your companion switches on a flashlight and looks around, revealing stacks and stacks of skulls."

"Okay. I call out "Come on in boys!"

"Right. Your four workmen set up the diesel generator and the floodlights. While your team of hired museum curators explains the floor plan of the catacombs to you. You find the clue."

Edited December 21, 2018 by Eldan985

[Mep 2,291]

I like the new weakness/event cards. You have to play those cards or else. Good way to mix it up.

[Buhallin 4,563]

2 hours ago, Allonym said:

One thing that annoys me about the design of Preston and Calvin is that the gimmick takes me out of the game somewhat. I mean, sure, Calvin needs to power up and Preston needs to use his resources to solve problems, but it annoys me that in their base state they are, respectively, less capable in combat and as capable in combat as an orphan child. Calvin and Preston are both pretty capable in other incarnations and it feels a bit too...game-y, I guess?

This seems backwards to me.  Making them more capable in combat than their character suggests they should be, just because they need to function in the game, feels more game-y to me.  Within the typical bounds of what does and doesn't make sense in Arkham and what you use resources for, Preston being someone who relies on his money rather than his own skills makes perfect sense.

[Allonym 954]

26 minutes ago, Buhallin said:

This seems backwards to me.  Making them more capable in combat than their character suggests they should be, just because they need to function in the game, feels more game-y to me.  Within the typical bounds of what does and doesn't make sense in Arkham and what you use resources for, Preston being someone who relies on his money rather than his own skills makes perfect sense.

I can see that to a certain extent, but it seems a bit extreme - Calvin notwithstanding, he is no better at fighting than a little orphan girl (and worse than a librarian, an astronomer, and a painter), the slowest on his feet alongside the expedition leader and the astronomer, has less intellect (or at the very least is less observant) than anyone else in the game, and has pitiful willpower but frankly that makes perfect sense. On reflection though, I suppose I am happy to think of it more that his skills are not applicable to the situations involved in an investigation, rather than that he is objectively incredibly stupid, frail, clumsy and weak-minded; he's charming and witty and probably a dab hand behind the wheel of his staggeringly expensive motorcar but he never played sports at his private school and those classes in Latin didn't really help when it comes to dusting for fingerprints. I also re-read his backstory in Eldritch Horror and he really is formerly idle rich, so it kinda works.

2 hours ago, Eldan985 said:

"You walk into the catacombs. They are completely pitch black. Your companion switches on a flashlight and looks around, revealing stacks and stacks of skulls."

"Okay. I call out "Come on in boys!"

"Right. Your four workmen set up the diesel generator and the floodlights. While your team of hired museum curators explains the floor plan of the catacombs to you. You find the clue."

Yes this is exactly how I picture Money Talks! Funny story, several years ago I made a Call of Cthulhu campaign set in the FFG Card Game version of the Order of the Silver Twilight, with several of the characters in the card game as NPCs. In the stat-block for Lord Jeffrey Farrington, under "weapons", I simply wrote "People for that".

 

 

[Buhallin 4,563]

4 minutes ago, Allonym said:

he is no better at fighting than a little orphan girl

In any given fight between a pampered rich dude and a streat-smart orphan girl, I'd take the orphan any day.  Wendy would totally stab him in the kidney and spit on his bleeding corpse

[Allonym 954]

15 minutes ago, Buhallin said:

In any given fight between a pampered rich dude and a streat-smart orphan girl, I'd take the orphan any day.  Wendy would totally stab him in the kidney and spit on his bleeding corpse

Hahah fair enough, though I guess that's more Backstab rather than pure Combat - though then again, assuming that Preston's deckbuilding is purely what the article states (Rogue 0-5, Survivor 0-2, no Illicit cards) then that orphan girl also has access to loads of firearms (Colt Vest Pocket, .41 Derringer (0) and (2), Old Hunting Rifle), none of which Preston can use. I guess he didn't take up shooting as a hobby.

Though having said all the above, isn't it just perfect that Preston has access to Survivor 0-2? Survivors can get a lot of mileage out of using Look What I Found! on shroud 2 locations, and even Dumb Luck or Oops (2) on enemies with Agility of 2 or less/Fight of 3 or less - it really appeals to me that Daisy can be spending 15 minutes going over the room with a magnifying glass, examining the scratches on the floor, only for Preston to say, "Oh, that candleholder isn't even real gold! How tawdry!" and accidentally find the secret passage. With his huge amount of resources he can easily afford the events as well.

Yeah OK I feel significantly better about Preston now; it's by far easier to suspend disbelief for his statline than for Supplies in TFA, say. One of the people in my regular group is incredibly happy with this version of Preston. I also love how between Streetwise and Fire Axe he can pump resources into every skill except Willpower with a high rate of return (and he has You Handle This One! for willpower tests anyway)

Edited December 21, 2018 by Allonym

[Soakman 987]

Also note that, interestingly, with Fire Axe, technically the resources on Family Inheritance are not in his resource pool, so the damage bonus will kick in more reliably.

Edited December 21, 2018 by Soakman

[Allonym 954]

1 minute ago, Soakman said:

Also note that, interestingly, with Fire Axe, technically the resources on Family Inheritance are not in his resource pool, so the damage bonus will kick in more reliably.

While the article talks about Dario El-Amin, I think that Fire Axe/Dark Horse is by far the more interesting way to go, for precisely this reason (and the synergy between Family Inheritance, Dark Horse and High Roller).

His crappy base stats also mean that he benefits from all the same cards as Calvin (Rise to the Occasion, Against All Odds)...

I love the investigators in this expansion - Preston is the perfect throw-money-at-the-problem rogue with interesting problem solving, Carolyn is my favourite investigator in the game as a Guardian with 2 Combat who investigates with the craziest deckbuilding so far, Diana is a fascinating Mystic with base 1 Willpower, Joe is a Seeker with 4 Combat and an awesome secondary gimmick, Rita is the first Survivor to emphasise all their Evade cards and has an unconventional way of solving problems, and Marie is also there.

[tsuruki 197]

Joe diamond looks awesome! I've wanted a fighty Seeker for a while! I just hope he gets Guardian access, becoming Rolands polar opposite.

[Lipm 20]

Due to Joe’s requirement to include at least 11 insight cards, does this mean that this box will come with lots of insight cards? Considering the minimum requirement of only needing one core set (4 level 0 insight events across all classes, I think?) to play the expansion. I know that many people will have more than the minimum requirement, but from a design space, I assume this means the box will be full of new insight events.

 

edit: level 0 insight events.

Edited December 22, 2018 by Lipm

[Cyiel 43]

2 hours ago, Lipm said:

Due to Joe’s requirement to include at least 11 insight cards, does this mean that this box will come with lots of insight cards? Considering the minimum requirement of only needing one core set (4 level 0 insight events across all classes, I think?) to play the expansion. I know that many people will have more than the minimum requirement, but from a design space, I assume this means the box will be full of new insight events.

 

edit: level 0 insight events.

Devs assume you have everything because if they don't they limit their design space. It would be a bad idea. If you have everything you already have 23 different Insight cards level 0.

Edited December 23, 2018 by Cyiel

[Elrod the Albino 6]

I count six insights in the core set. Would only need to supply two pair in the deluxe expansion for a legal deck.

[Goshiu 23]

1 hour ago, Cyiel said:

Devs assume you have everything because if they don't they limit their design space. It would be a bad idea. If you have everything you already have 23 different Insight cards level 0.

Each deluxe is designed so you can play it with a single core. This means that they would need to include the insights. That being said the definitely balance it for the full collection of cards.

[Khudzlin 734]

6 hours ago, Goshiu said:

Each deluxe is designed so you can play it with a single core. This means that they would need to include the insights. That being said the definitely balance it for the full collection of cards.

All true. There are enough Insight cards in Circle Undone to make a legal Joe deck with only a single core and the deluxe itself (this came up during playtest, even though we tested with a full collection, including the cards from the previous cycle that weren't published yet).

[Magnito 37]

I've been focusing on this line of Preston's write up:

While Preston’s base skills are set at one, he can use his immense wealth to easily purchase talents like Streetwise(Blood on the Altar, 189) to boost his skills at a moment’s notice

I wonder if there is a chance he could start with experience, like Mateo does. So he can buy Streetwise off the bat. Probably not, though. He'll probably have to struggle through the first scenario without. 

 

[zooeyglass 327]

What we know so far (updated):

1**       Carolyn Fern
2**       Joe Diamond
3**       Preston Fairmont
4**       Diana Stanley
5**       Rita Young
6**       Marie Lambeau
7**       Hypnotic Therapy
8**       Rational Thought
9**       Detective's Colt 1911s      
10**     Unsolved Case
11**     Family Inheritance - A Windfall? Or a Burden?
12**     Lodge "Debts"
13**     Twilight Blade
14**     Dark Insight
15**     Terrible Secret
16**     “I’m done runnin’!”
17**     Hoods
18**     Mystifying Song
19**     Baron Samedi
20          g1
21          g2
22          g3 [Delay the Inevitable? - if there are 2 assets, 1 event, 1 xp card]
23          g4
24**     Fingerprint Kit
25          seek2
26          seek3
27          seek4
28          r1 [The Moon - XVIII?]
29**     Money Talks
30          r3
31          r4
32          m1
33          m2
34          m3 [Prophesy? - if there are 2 assets, 1 skill, 1 xp card]
35          m4
36**     Track Shoes
37          surv2
38**     Able Bodied
39          surv4
40         neutral/weakness x2
41         neutral/weakness x2
42         neutral/weakness x2
43         1/7
44         2/7
45         3/7
46**    Gavriella Mizrah 4/7
47**    Jeroma Davids 5/7
48        Valentino Rivas 6/7?
49        Penny White 7/7?

If cards 7 to 19 are x1 (13 cards), and 20 to 42 are x2 (23x2=46) = 59 player cards [confirmed by Spanish site]
** = confirmed