Introduction and Themes
This guide is a largely spoiler-free guide that talks about the general mechanics of the Jumanji custom campaign made by The Beard. 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!
Based on the 1995 film, in the Jumanji campaign the investigators get pulled into playing the cursed board game, causing the chaotic and dangerous jungle to emerge in Arkham.
General Mechanics
Combat Alternatives
Jumanji contains a wide variety of enemies with weird stats and strange abilities - and it's never certain which you'll have to contend with. Ways to evade enemies, move them around, or just take them out of the fight in other ways can be useful, especially as a lot of the trickier ones can have a lot of health.
Investigate (and Act) Remotely
Movement can sometimes be hampered, either through location effects or encounter cards - to make sure you don't waste a turn, the ability to investigate or act on nearby locations can be valuable, especially if the rest of your group can't handle the types of threats you do. Of course, just taking thsose turns to set up with more assets or draw cards can be a boon, too - but getting too bogged down is risky. You can also bring ways to get around these encounter cards, but most only last for one turn, making cards like Alter Fate overkill.
Melee Weapons or Big Damage
There's benefit to having melee weapons in the campaign with attacks that don't run out, as well as benefit to having single attacks that deal a lot of damage at once. The second is usually seen on guns, so if you do go for melee weapons be sure to bring ways to increase damage on command with cards like Vicious Blow.
Symbol Tokens
The Cultist, Tablet, and Elder Thing symbol tokens never reach worse than -2 (or -3 on Hard/Expert). These are low enough that it's easy to take advantage of, and even small bonuses can help characters with medium stats fight or investigate reliably - although enough encounter cards are difficulty 4 that you'll still need bonuses or commits to do so.
Victory Locations and Elite Enemies
There are lots of victory points in a small number of scenarios - and they need to be earned. Make sure you have ways to defeat enemies with Victory on them, as well as Elite enemies. Likewise, packing extra clue gathering will almost always directly translate into XP - more locations have Victory than not.
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 who 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
Nathaniel Cho: Nathaniel's high damage events can help deal with enemies in a small number of blows, and many of the damage + effect events have useful effects on the variety of enemies.
Wilson Richards: Wilson likes running around with a melee weapon tool and can help gather clues - thanks to the gentler chaos bag, he's very capable of handling threats through the campaign wherever needed.
Kate Winthrop: Kate is one of the best Seeker evaders, giving her the independence to be able to avoid many enemies that might otherwise be a problem - and to help cover if others in the party can't evade well.
Vincent Lee: The weaker symbol tokens make it easy for Vincent to be able to pass both Fight and Investigate tests reliably, and if he gets stuck in a location for a turn, he can simply patch himself or others up.
Alessandra Zorzi: Having Alessandra go Dr. Dolittle on the jungle solves a lot of problems - her Beguile lets you investigate remotely if you can't move for a turn, and also lets you move enemies without Hunter away from the rest of the group effectively defeating them.
Trish Scarborough:Keeping a quick way to get clues onhand will allow Trish to cover evasions for the group, and she'll be especially useful in larger parties as someone able to exhaust enemies without needing to spend actions to engage them - or even to stop what she's doing.
Jacqueline Fine: The symbol tokens are numerous enough and weak enough that Jacqueline can consistently pull them for Sixth Sense or Azure Flame safely - fully opening up these spells without the need to take any stat boosters at all.
Jim Culver: Any campaign that features 3 skull tokens from the get-go is going to give Jim a shout-out, but the weakness of the other symbol tokens really helps him out. He doesn't have as big of a hill to climb to get his other stats to passing most of the chaos bag.
Silas Marsh: Fighting and evading gives Silas a lot of versatility here - and his ability to run Survivor skill cards alongside weapons means he isn't totally useless when there are no enemies to fight. His power is also great with the way the chaos bag is set up, as he doesn't have to worry about "wasting" skills to ensure he can pass the soft symbol tokens.
Wendy Adams: It's not hard for Wendy to ensure she's only two up on a test and to use her character power to dance around a -3 or -4 token, and her ability to evade lets her cover that weakness for a more traditional combat character.
Notable Player Cards
"Get Over Here!": If you're kept from reaching enemies, being able to grab them off of allies remotely can be a huge lifesaver. This is especially important in two player guardian + seeker combos, but less of a deal in larger groups.
Bestow Resolve: With the symbols tokens being so low, getting a success on a -2 token can nearly gaurentee success - and Bestow Resolve lets you commit any spare cards you have to help ensure that.
Gray's Anatomy: There's enough bigger enemies that it can help to soften them up first. While you can bring your own damage cards, Gray's Anatomy just making a future attack stronger has good synergy with some of the mechanics you'll find.
Orphic Theory: Many of the encounter cards stick around - and while they often only last for one turn or can be played around, being able to blank them when they're actually a problem gives a amssive amount of flexibility.
Disguise: There's enough enemies who are just a pain to fight that sometimes you'll want to buy some time and just leave them behind. Disguise gives you a good bonus to your evade check and time to finish your current location and get away.
Stealth: Rogues actually just have a lot of options for not dealing with enemies. If you're more likely to split off from your team, Stealth serves a similiar role - and the leveled one doesn't even take an action to use!
Crystal Pendulum: The chaos bag is going to have a lot of -2 tokens, thanks to the symbol tokens all being -2s. It gives an easy, reliable call for Crystal Pendulum's draw effect.
Sword Cane: A reliable evasion option, Sword Cane can help mystics protect against a lot of enemies that it's easier to run away from. There's even some places you'll want to use it for its attack.
Sledgehammer: If there was ever a campaign for Sledgehammer, it was this one. Its single action use is a reliable weapon, but its double (or triple) action use can be a lifesaver later in the campaign.
Waylay: if you're a character who prefers to evade enemies than fight them, there's enough 4 and 5 health enemies that makes packing a Waylay or two a good bet - especially as a number of these enemies have lower evade values.