As noted, it's great, and it doubles down on what Dexter wants to be doing every round- putting assets into play. Bursty guns & swords become very appealing, giving Dex something to do with his hands.

The problem, as with many signatures, is reliability. You can't really plan on it showing up, as to my knowledge, Dexter has no native way to tutor it... except for ... his OTHER signature option.

Intentional? Encouraging "Not only are you allowed to use both sets of signatures on an investigator: in this case, you should!"?

...eh, likely not. Sure, this is a nice card- and so is Molly- and Molly herself CAN be tutored with limited reliability- but Renfield Probably -> Calling In Favors -> Molly -> Showmanship seems like a long road that's interesting but inefficient.

Something of a tangent: it really feels like taking an additional sig + weakness is a trap. For 1 card, you're thickening your deck AND adding an additional weakness you didn't have to take, and even mild weaknesses like Dexter's are a major tempo loss at best. If you think about it, many would leap at the reliability of forfeiting their sig in exchange for losing the accompanying weakness. Not just the Rolands & Mandys of the world who's bad decisions are so strong you have to build your deck around them. (In fairness, this is sometimes to balance the char's inherent skills- this seems the case with Mandy's weakness.) An optional card has to pull a LOT of weight to be worth "Add a weakness to your deck".

Back to Showmanship itself, it's fine. Either it or Molly are solid; Molly adds consistency, Showmanship leaves your Ally slot open for more asset-cycling. I like the limited-synergy they have together. It would be neat to see this go further on a future 'gator who had replacement sigs explicitly designed to make the option of taking ALL sigs at once a genuine temptation.

I have a question about how this card interacts with setup for City of Archives.

You're instructed to remove all unique item cards from your deck during setup, but the Obol is permanent.

Does it get removed or not? I know the RR states that permanent cards cannot leave play, but is the Obol already in play by the time you work through setup? I have a feeling it is...

“ugh, THIS Guy.” Learn this phrase well! You will be using it any time Sean Connery here shows up to throw your priorities out the window.

Forgotten Age is known as The Campaign Where Evading Matters; its only slightly less well known as The Campaign Where 3 Dmg Is The New 2 Dmg, and THIS Guy is a big reason. For such an avuncular looking 2-3-2, he can snowball into a game ender -fast-.

He’s straightforward- Kill him early, and in as few hits as possible. Don’t underestimate him. Think of it like this: got a straightforward machete guardian with 3 actions handy, figuring “Easy least, 2 chops and he’s gone, and I can afford a miss”. Yeah, well, bear in mind if you do miss either the 1st or 2nd swing, your final hit will be vs. a 5 Fight target, and not the slam dunk I’d anticipated. Miss that 3rd and now you’ve got 3 doom walking around the table.

For my 50th review, I’d like to review a card it’s still super valuable at its new taboo cost (three experience points).

Pathfinder is Ursula’s best friend, turning one free action into two. It works extremely well with safeguard, so if guardians are doing their job, you can both move for free. This card may become less useful as we see additional movement as part of the and Smith conspiracy, but a free action to turn without a slot, that ignores frozen in fear, is an extremely useful tool.

Now that Mr. Rook isn’t an automatic pick, it’ll be harder to get this out. But paired with a copy or two of fieldwork, The seeker has a chance to pass tests they normally wouldn’t have a chance at.

So if you’re ever dealing with the mythos, keep moving. Deal with cosmic horror at a sprint.

This came out in the same pack as Trish, but it’s a Dexter card. Or more broadly, it’s a “someone who is on a team with Trish“ card. You should pack a brace of these if you’re doing a multiple rogue run.

For agent Scarborough, this isn’t going to do any favors. Anytime that you’re plugging away at an enemy is time that you’re not getting clues. This deck spot could be used on an occult lexicon, or knowledge is power to use blood rite again. Or throw in a sneak attack, to damage without having to use your fist stat.