The Necronomicon

The Necronomicon

Amazing for Daisy, awful for everyone else

You know how Dr. Milan Christopher is an amazing card, one that you essentially want to get out IMMEDIATELY in any seeker deck? Well, if you're Daisy Walker, this is basically another copy of Dr. Milan Christopher in your deck, except it counts as a tome and thereby improves your eldritch sign ability instead of taking up an ally slot. The Necronomicon shouldn't be thought of as a replacement for the good doctor so much as as an additional copy. If you hard-mulligan for Dr. Christopher, you have a 55% chance of drawing him in your opening hand in a 31 card deck. Adding in The Necronomicon vaults the chances of drawing one of those three cards in your now 32-card deck up to 69%! {nice} The card pays for itself first turn, costing you 1 action and a hand slot for a permanent assurance of never running out of resources.

Given the utility of Higher Education, having some sort of resource-drawing engine in play is critical for Daisy. While it's no replacement for Dr. Milan Christopher, it dramatically increases your chance of survival. And if you have both out, you can pull a whopping 6 resources/turn for the cost of...a free action. Encourage your partners to run Teamwork so you can share the bounty, and watch as resource intensive cards like Streetwise and Keen Eye suddenly become a lot more valuable.

If you're not Daisy, then this card becomes terrible. Obviously, this is a story asset, so taking it for plot reasons is always an option, but if you're asking if you want it in your deck, the answer is a pretty clear no. It takes an action to put in play, and an action to use. The first use just covers its cost to play, so you're down 2 actions for no gain. The second use gets you two resources, but you could have just gained two resources instead of playing & using it, so you're still down a net one resource. You have to use five actions to have more resources than someone who just used the last four actions to gather resources! Alternatively, it's an action and 2 resources for a +1 into boost, which is pretty crap compared to just playing a Magnifying Glass.

Compare: Player using the Necronomicon

  • Character starts with 2 resources
  • Action 1: Plays Necronomicon, down to 0
  • Action 2: uses Necronomicon, back to 2 resources
  • Action 3: uses Necronomicon, up to 4 resources
  • Action 4: uses Necronomicon, up to 6
  • Action 5: uses Necronomicon, up to 8

Player without the Necronomicon

  • Character starts with 2 resources
  • Action 1: gains 1 resource, up to 3
  • Action 2: gains 1 resource, up to 4
  • Action 3: gains 1 resource, up to 5
  • Action 4: gains 1 resource, up to 6
  • Action 5: gains 1 resource, up to 7
dharladay · 75
surely the +1 int compensates for how long it takes to pay for itself? — fistofyogsothoth · 44
Errr, ok, fine, this review makes sense, but please don't forget that this necronomicon also comes with a pretty severe drawback - adding an Elder Thing to the Chaos bag, usually the worst one on the Dunwich Legacy (sometimes even worse than Tentacles - U&U, I'm looking at you!) — Lettucefolk · 1
That's a good point, but unlike the mag glass, this +1 will also help you with False Leads or some parlay actions. Compare to Hawk-eye folding camera, which costs the same, but you won't get the int boost until you've cleared two locations of clues. It also gives you a wp boost with the first location, and +1 sanity with the 3rd, but seems like the necronomicon is at least comparable in power — Zinjanthropus · 230
Also if Daisy takes this (which she should IMO), she can upgrade into Protective Incantation to seal the new token, using the Necronomicon to cover the upkeep cost! — MiskatonicFrosh · 344
It actually gets worse than that - remember that Necronomicon costs you a card to play (this is a card game, cards are resources too), so you actually need to spend 5 actions _and_ a card to get 1 more resource over the player without necronomicon. If you instead compare the necronomicon user with someone who played emergency cache instead (a more fair comparison since now both players are down a card), the necronomicon user needs to spend a total of 7 actions before they are up 1 resource over the emergency cache user — EthnicSmoke · 1
Can you have can have "The Necronomicon Petrus de Dacia Translation" and "The Necronomicon: Olaus Wormius Translation" in one deck? I think "no", because "The Necronomicon Petrus de Dacia Translation" say: Limit 1 per deck. — CarolusRex · 1

Mr. "Rook"

Mr. "Rook"

Five cool things about Mr. Rook:

His downside is secretly an upside. You draw your weaknesses for free alongside other cards rather than having to draw them later in place of another card. He grants you a significant amount of control over when you draw your weaknesses.

He is expendable. Unlike a certain professor of entomology, Mr. Rook works quickly. He is two health and sanity worth of soak, and if you spend a secret every turn you are happy to use up that soak two turns after you play him. He doesn't stop you putting other allies in your deck or force you to run Charisma. Which lead on to...

He is great with Calling in Favors. I had a game where I put Mr Rook into play four times and still had Mr Rook in my hand.

When you have nine or fewer cards left in your deck he lets you search the whole thing. It's like he hands you a No Stone Unturned (5) that costs zero at the start of the round.

When you draw a treachery with a skill test he can instantly search your deck for relevant icons. There is a player window in every skill test just before cards are committed.

Here's a bonus sixth thing: If your random weakness is Doomed you will live fast, die young, and start earning experience with your replacement investigator much sooner than you would otherwise.

Spritz · 69
Great review! What's funny is the entire time I was reading it, I was thinking "except if you have Doomed" after just about every point you made. But your bonus sixth thing really made me think... if you drew Doomed, you could burn through the entire cycle quick, and possibly be ready with a new investigator for the second scenario! — cb42 · 38
... when you promptly get doomed for your second 'gator as well. D'oh! — SGPrometheus · 847
@SGPrometheus - You know, I was thinking about that yesterday. If you ended up with it a second time, there'd already be two entries in your campaign log! Do you think it would then only take three draws to bump you off instead of five? — cb42 · 38
Since the campaign log entries for Doomed are recorded in the "Earned Story Assets/Weaknesses" section, I believe they reset when you change investigators. — Thatwasademo · 58
The Calling in Favors combo is especially good when you realize that Seekers actually have a lot of cheap L0 allies that give you one-time goodies like Lab Assistant (draw 2 cards) and Art Student (discover a clue). Well... maybe it's just those two, but still! — Zinjanthropus · 230
Yeah, it turns out, Mr. Rook is really good. It took months for him to finally end up on the taboo list after much rioting, but here we are. 4 XP. Is he still worth it? Yeah, almost certainly, at least if you're Mandy Thompson. Otherwise, Lab Assistant isn't a terrible alternative. — StyxTBeuford · 13049
Assume I search 3 card: What about if I only have 2 cards in my deck? Can I only these 2 cards? Or i search 2 cards and shuffle my discard pile back then search the one top card on the shuffled deck? — BoomEzreal · 8
@henry51 I would search only 2 cards without reshuffling. There was an FAQ entry regarding some treachery card which required you to discard a top card of the encounter deck until you discard a monster which you then should play. It specifically said that you shuffle the encounter deck discard pile when you need to take a card during the mythos phase and it is empty, but not in that event, so you keep discarding card until the encounter deck is empty and then you stop if you've happened to find no monster there . The analogy here is pretty similar: per rules, you shuffle your discard pile when you need to "draw" a card and it is empty, but not during a search. — chrome · 62

Back Alley

Back Alley

This location card is somewhat misleading. The resign ability causes the player to conclude the game as if they are eliminated. When that happens they would drop remaining clues from their investigator and not get the printed Victory point.

Glasshound · 9
Yeah; might be an early design oversight. I double-checked the act/agenda cards as well, and they don't mention clues behaving differently than normal either. — SGPrometheus · 847
Even if the devs didn't admit it, I believe this is an oversight too. For example they refuted that the connections in Blood on the Altar were bugged, but then corrected them for Return. — jd9000 · 76
I am not so certain it is an oversight, since it is unique to see such an easily-cleared location (Shroud 1; Clues 1-per-investigator) with a Victory 1 on it. The fact that it's actually somewhat tricky to *keep* clear justifies this. — Cluny · 52
The way it works is so counterintuitive that I am convinced most of the players won't catch that they should not get the victory point. And, considering how VP are scarce in Dunwich, it is a welcome small bonus. — Alleria · 114
But I do get the VP if I investigate before I resign, right? — Vortilion · 1
@vortilion, RAW - if you have any clues during resign, no, since you should place all your clues during your resign — Yury1975 · 1
It is clearly an ovesight. How on earth are new and even old players gonna remember these kind rules. I'm getting the VP and certainly not gonna feel bad about it. — NotSure · 22
seem there is some mention that. this is intention. so, you have 2 option 1. i'm, outta here 2. Dr. William T. Maleson — natartnat · 1

Interrogate

Interrogate

I'd love to see this combo with Wither. The mystic player withers the enemy to reduce it's fight value. And then your 'gator comes in, exposes its weakness while wearing Fine Clothes to make this a doozy test to pass for 2 clues.

Sure, Scene of the Crime might be more efficient and reliable, but this combo's more FUN, right? :-)

acotgreave · 887
Wither and Expose Weakness don't interact with Interrogate in any way. The Interrogate test difficulty depends on the enemy's damage value, not fight value. So you'd need the upgraded Mind Wipe for this. Fine Clothes do work though. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
D'oh. You're absolutely right. I'm seeing "enemy's damage value" and my brain is telling me "fight value". Oops. — acotgreave · 887
That's okay because the real combo (Mind Wipe 3 to reduce damage) is even funnier: Erase his memories, so we can ask him what he knows!! — Death by Chocolate · 1489
I feel almost redeemed by enabling the discovery of that comedy thematic combo ;-) — acotgreave · 887

The Organist

The Organist

Not a review, but rather a notice of error and I don't know where elsewhere to put this - both cards versions depicted above are the same. One should be replaced with a proper one (Hopeless I defied him -> Draped in Mistery)

ratnip · 68