True Understanding

I'm noticing a discrepancy between the text as printed on the card and as written on this page that significantly affects the efficacy of this card. There is no posted errata so I'm wondering if this is an error.

EDIT. I realize now the text discrepancy would not have an affect on this card's performance.

Pizzagoat · 7
Would this work with Relic of Ages from Forgotten Age or The Man in the Pallid Mask’s Investigate action? — Eviltowe · 1
@Eviltowe No for the Relic, Yes for the MitPM. The relic is a player asset; you play it or take control of it and it is in your play area as one of your assets. The MitPM is an enemy while in play, and is "controlled," more or less, by the scenario. — SGPrometheus · 847
On this topic- MitPM seems like a perfect example of where this skill works... it’s literally an Ability, complete with the Action icon, printed on his card. So- is it an “ability” when the test is part of the Revelation text (like Rotting Remains) or part of a forced effect (like Frozen In Fear’s end of turn effect), neither of which have an Action/Ability icon, and are compulsory? — HanoverFist · 755
Does this work with Rotting Remains? I don‘t think so because Rotting Remains shows no Ability Icob — Gorger · 39
@Gorger You're thinking of triggered abilities. As per the "Ability" section of the rules, there are also constant (simple statement without formatting), forced, and revelation abilities; Rotting Remains' test is called due to revelation. — TheDoc37 · 468
Ursula Downs

Dev response to my rules question about Ursula's interaction with Searching for Izzie:

"Yes, you can use Ursula’s ability to trigger the ability on Searching for Izzie. If you do, you must still spend an additional action, since Searching for Izzie costs two actions, and Ursula’s ability only allows you to take an investigate action (as in, one action)."

ddbrown30 · 3
From a naming/aesthetic standpoint, I really wonder if her name is a nod to scifi author Ursula K Leguin - does anybody know if that's a wink or am I reaching? — rikarus · 1
sorry - meant to post this as a top level comment - sorry for the necropost — rikarus · 1
Intrepid

I think it is extremely specialized, because rarely would you want this instead of guts. Because you can't rely on drawing a willpower treachery, you need to find ways to make tests more frequently. Obviously, you then look to mystics for that.

Checking some deck building restrictions leads us eventually to Zoey and Rite of Seeking or Mists of R'lyeh. That definitely seems like a functional idea to me, depending on campaign and party make up. I particularly like Forgotten Age Zoey using mists (with Intrepid) to escape a vengeance enemy, moving to a new location, popping a Police Badge and then having 4 actions to use these increased stats (the badge gives you a +1 for mists as well, and if you had Xavier in play as well? Mmm-mmm!)

That's probably best case scenario, so depending on how hard it is to pull off that kind of combo probably determines if this card is playable at all. Would really like the power level of skill cards to be pushed in general.

This and Keen Eye lead me to believe that there could be a "power-turn guardian" deck that sets up to do massively effectual turns. Cards like Police Badge, Leo De Luca, and Double or Nothing all seem to fit that mold, so obviously someone like Zoey or Leo Anderson could pull this off. Intrepid becomes the least dependable part of that combo, however, because it has to lead off with a Willpower test, and on-demand willpower tests are hard to come by in-faction.

PureFlight · 783
Remember that in multiplayer you can always chose to act after your Mystic buddy who is pretty likely to make a Willpower test during their turn which you can use to activate Intrepid. — Death by Chocolate · 1489
Yeah, Leo Anderson with Keen Eye, Intrepid, Police Badge, .41 Derringer(2) & Leo De Luca is a fun build. And he can use Liquid Courage to create an on-demand willpower test for Intrepid. — Herumen · 1741
Additionally, Jim Culver can splash Intrepid, if you 're looking for more ways to make those on-demand Willpower tests. He can also splash Leo De Luca or Quick Thinking to extend those Intrepid turns. — matt88 · 3228
Barricade

I've never liked the 0-lvl Barricade, neither have I seen any necessity to add it in any investigator's deck. But this updated version seems to have some potential. Let's try to find out: does it? For a price of a one card draw and an action you:

  • avoid dealing with monsters drawn from encounter deck and enemy weaknesses right now. They still can cause you a lot of troubles should they be hunters;
  • help other investigators from the adjacent locations to run away from the monster they can't deal with right now (for a price of one attack of opportunity);
  • avoid non-Elite hunters lurking outside. The problem is that this effect is temporal since you usually need to move, and once someone leaves the location, the card effect is gone. And you have to cope with all the hunters at once (on practice, it's rarely a real pile of monsters, but nonetheless). You, however, still can try and manage to spread non-hunters so, that they don't prevent your further advance. The card can be useful for solo seeker who tries to avoid fight as much as it is possible, as well as for a group of 4, since it is a good chance someone of them will draw an enemy during a mythos phase, and with this card attached to the location it means that that investigator will have 3 free actions next turn without a need to deal with the enemy. And the more investigators are in the location, the better chance of that to happen, unless I'm really bad in math and odds. All above said seems pretty decent on paper, but there are many other issues with it:
  • there are plenty of other cool cards to buy in seeker's card set and 3 exp is not that cheap;
  • universal card >>> specific card. This card is almost of no use if you don't have a scenario location where you are expected to spend several turns. And it happens not that often;
  • you're still playing with odds: you don't know whether you will draw some monsters or not. It's not a guaranteed escape from them (well, partially it is, when you play it so, that another investigator from the adjacent location can leap to you). So the card is not good from the perspective of 'action economy' either. At the same time, I would probably add it to my deck closer to the scenario end, since it seems pretty fun to play when you can benefit from it. And it still has 3 different icons so you can improve someone's odds slightly (or significantly if you are Mihn).
chrome · 68
I have a doubt regarding the errata. It replaces the whole constant ability? So that enemies can move now into the attached location? Or it just replaces the "Each time..." part? — mborda · 1
the latter, I believe. Otherwise the card is even worse than the 0-lvl version. It looks like they just tried to fix the wrong wording they had initially, making it clear that the 2nd part, as well as the 1st one which is not excluded, also refers to non-Elite enemy. — chrome · 68
Just the latter. Several of the taboo changes have had the same format, where they only include the changed text. — Cityface · 7
Hunted Down

If there are unengaged Criminal enemies in play and they do move to the location of the player who drew the card, do all criminal enemies engage the player who drew the card or can you distribute the enemies between players if there are more of them at the location of the player who drew the card (if the enemies do not have the Prey keyword)?

jurcccy · 2
If there is another investigator at your location when you draw this, and they don't have a prey wording that would force them to only engage you, you can have every single enemy engage the other investigator. This card does not force the enemies who moved to engage you specifically. So, yes. — SGPrometheus · 847
@SGPrometheus : I think you are wrong. The card say "you" twice. So all enemies engage and attack the investigator who drew the card. — Therion · 1