Introduction and Themes
This guide is a largely spoiler-free guide that talks about the general mechanics of the Call of the Plaguebearer custom campaign made by Dr. Jack Science. If you're interested in learning what the campaign's unique mechanics are, and hearing suggestions for investigators and cards that are particularly well suited to the campaign, read on!
In Call of the Plaguebearer, the investigators wake up in a morgue to find a dark plague is spreading across Arkham, turning those afflicted into violent monsters - and one Doctor West might be involved...
General Mechanics
Agility Treacheries
Call of the Plaguebearer has lots of treacheries that target Agility. While there are still many that target Willpower too, investigators with strong Agility stats can feel a little more confident in their defense. Cards that can boost both Agility and Willpower, like Tooth of Eztli and Sparrow Mask will have plenty of chances to use both, and the ability to evade may prove useful against the larger boss monsters, especially in higher player counts.
Aloof Runaway Threats
Reoccuring fragile aloof enemies will be able to gather doom - and seek to run away from the investigators, often in dangerous locations. While not required, niche cards that can help engage, chase, or just kill these enemies without engaging them will be useful.
Big, Nasty Bosses
There are lots and lots of enemies in this campaign, including some scenarios with really nasty elite boss ones. Bringing plenty of fighting, and having everyone able to help fighting when needed can really help - especially bringing big, bursty events that can take down the toughest boss monsters.
Damage and Horror
There's a lot of damage and horror to go around - and while the campaign does give you some tools to help with it, doing so is sometimes at the cost of the other stat. Consider a bit of extra soak or healing - it might also be good to plan for higher level cards to help with soak, once you see how the campaign is going and what you might be lacking.
Deckbuilding Niche
There are several scenarios and mechanics that reward having a specific deckbuilding niche. Making sure your investigator can meet one of these niches will help a lot - and it will help even more so if you can meet multiple of them! There are some natural synergies - hoarding resources and oversuccess generally go together, for example - and there's benefit in both trying to cover lots of them between investigators and covering a small number with multiple investigators. The list is:
- A single expensive ally
- A single expensive non-ally asset
- Holding many cards in hand
- Oversucceeding on tests
- Lots of assets
- Lots of events
- Lots of skills
- Having lots of resources
Forced Movement and Harmful Locations
Forced movement is a recurring thing from treacheries. As its on both Agility and Willpower ones, everyone is going to have to deal with it. It's not just an action tax either - many locations will have negative effects to be in, and enemy positioning is often key. Having ways to deal with suddenly being where you don't want to be can really help, and you should prepare to move around a lot.
Token Selection
Throughout the campaign, there's one token type that often has a large negative modifier, but a strong beneficial effect if you pass. If you have token selection, being able to reach high skill values will help - as well as just testing at high values to begin with. Likewise, many story assets have beneficial effects based on pulling specific tokens - rewarding you for digging for specific ones.
Deckbuilding Advice
The suggestions below aren't by any means required, or even characters I've necessarily played the campaign through. Rather, these are just observations of characters and cards which might be particularly well suited to the campaign, including things that might not be top tier, but have a very strong synergy with the campaign mechanics.
Suggested Investigators
Tommy Muldoon: Not only are you getting that Resident Evil 2 flavor, Tommy's desire to run a lot of extra soak will be greatly appreciated. He can also justify running expensive allies, which tends to be one of the rarer conditions to meet.
Nathaniel Cho: While Nathaniel will have to be careful with what counts as "killing" in some scenarios, there's few fighter focused character who load up on events like he does. If you want to lean into events, he's a good choice.
Ursula Downs: Usula's strong defensive stats and balaned health and sanity make her tough enough to survive most of what the campaign will throw at her, and her investigator ability helps negate many of the forced movement effects. While she's worse at meeting the deckbuilding niches compared to a lot of other seekers, she can bring in evasion capabilities for a team that's otherwise lacking.
Vincent Lee: Being able to both fight and investigate is a great boon, and among Survivors, Vincent is one of the best at it. Healing other investigators can help stop the massive damage in the campaign, and Vincent is great at making very asset and skill heavy decks.
Sefina Rousseau: Sefina seriously has to watch her health, but few characters are as event focused as she is, filling a deckbuilding niche few will - she's also great at hoarding resources. Her high Agility and Willpower can both be put to use - just be sure to bring soak or encounter card cancelation effects.
Winifred Habbamock: With balanced health and sanity, Winifred is safer than most rogues even if Willpower treacheries threaten her. She's well adapted to meeting many of the deckbuilding niches - especially skills and oversucceeding! - and her evasion tricks will help make the biggest enemies safe for the entire party to beat on.
Agnes Baker: While she'll have to be careful to not have her horror soak to be overwhelmed, there's a lot of enemies who her investigator ability will help defeat easily.
Luke Robinson: Luke's Gate Box will help him dealing with forced movement effects, and his ability to use events in adjacent locations allows him to snag clues from dangerous locations as well as hit enemies who are running away.
"Ashcan" Pete: Pete doesn't need to set up, which is helpful for some of the scenarios that like to throw things in your face fast. Duke can help fight against boss enemies, and his move + investigate combo helps negate the penalty of forced movement.
Bob Jenkins: Great at playing lots of items, Bob will find no problem meeting those requirements - he's also great at pulling out a weapon near the end of a scenario to help with the fighting.
Notable Player Cards
Butterfly Swords: If you can pump up your attack bonuses high enough, being able to make multiple attacks, and thus more likely to trigger useful token effects, can be a real boon. There are even some places where making multiple, small attacks can pay off.
Girish Kadakia: There's a lot of damage flying around in this campaign, and being able to take the heat off your allies will help a lot - and Girish, unlike sources of healing, only takes a single action to play.
Pocket Telescope: While not needed in every scenario, being able to investigate connected locations can be a huge help for a number of them where nasty effects can hurt you on certain locations.
Shortcut (1): Many of the encounter card sets push investigators in a specific direction, away from the the scenario goal. Shortcut (1), if well placed, can help anyone recover from these and keep moving forward without a lot of loss.
Fake Credentials: There are plenty of Aloof enemies who make good targets, and taking clues from connecting locations can have plenty of uses with how dangerous some locations can be.
Think on Your Feet: You know how in zombie media, the heroes usually have to outrun the undead at some point? Enemy movement is a big enough deal in this campaign that just being able to run away is surprisingly useful.
Dowsing Rod: The mystic move and investigate combo, Dowsing Rod lets you play around locations with nasty effects.
Stargazing: Later in the campaign, there are a lot of encounter cards with Surge in the encounter deck. Given that, Stargazing is a lot more likely to pay off in the short term, as the top 10 cards of the encounter deck can be gotten through faster.
Elaborate Distraction: There's a lot of potential for a large number of enemies to build up in a few of the scenarios - Elaborate Distraction's damage will help deal with a lot of them, and when it can't, evading them gives your fighters a chance to deal with them.
Take Heart: While it's always a good card, Take Heart is normally a bit tricky on characters with 3 in their defensive stats. However, a number of encounter cards are of difficulty 4 and have varied effects based on how much you fail by - giving plenty of uses for Take Heart even if you normally wouldn't reach for it.
More on Call of the Plaguebearer:
Call of the Plaguebearer: Spoiler-Light Review