OH HO?....... WHATS THIS?......5 INTELLECT?....... IN MY SURVIVOR POOL?.....
Edit (Post-Scarlet Keys)
Darrell Simmons is quite frankly our first survivor with a 5 in intellect. (Also the only investigator outside seekers with 5 Int.) Thankfully he also has some access to seekers, so he will have ways to increase intellect and drawing some cards. Survivors are not good when it comes to investigating, or at least when it come to high shrouds. They mitigate this with cards like old key ring, and "look what I found", or the usual flashlight. He is actually the survivor we been wanting to use scavenging on, since he has such an nice intellect score. And his unique ability and strange interaction with 'evidence' is gonna take him to the top.
Stats- 2 Will, 5 INT , 2 STR , 3 AGI
2 will is pretty awkward in survivors, they have support with this Stat, but I can't say that it will effect him to much, most treachery like the common play frozen in fear, and rotting remains, Will in fact be a problem. But he can use his ability to negate some of this issues.
edit- just completed dunwich with him... stick plucky(3) and hawk-eye folding cameras, and get +2 Will! Combined with his ability.... easy peezy:)
5 intellect is no joke. He can't put it through his paces like Daisy or Mandy can. But with his access, he can use cards like Dr. Milan, mag glass,death, and deduction to clean up clues. He can also use his survivor access to to insure passes on difficult test, and provides his protection from damage and santy.
2 Strength makes him no fighter, but the thing about survivors is they can always fight, you just have to be a little creative.
3 Agility is a flex Stat. Not much to say, he can take both track shoes and hiking boots(1). Although he might want hiking boots.
His ability.
Darrell Simmons has my favorite texts in all of this game... " You begin the game with X in play" not having to worry about getting your asset in play is always ACE (see Ashcan Pete for an example) this also means he may lose it. But this would of course be tragic if there where no way to get ITEMS back from the discard. ( looks at scavenging menacingly)
EVIDENCE.....
there is 5 cards in the current pool that actually use evidence. Micheal Leigh(5) and damning evidence, which he has no access. This leaves Hawk-eye folding cameras ,Empirical Hypothesis,Research Notes and dissection tools... so many directions, I don't think you should take all of them, but with tool belt, you definitely could. I definitely see people using dissection tools at a guardians location to pick evidences off from enemies defeated,then swapping to something useful,or vice versa, if he put an evidence on that enemy with his Kodak. It is surprising though, I would have never thought how useful Hawk-eye camera is untill I played it in Darrel.I've had many games using it where it would definitely get 5+ evidence on it, so we finally have a use for the extra. The more evidences, the least threatening his weakness is, and the more powerful you are!
-2 to any skill test is NO JOKE. this is a solid ability, with good card combination, he can make test trivial, you can also of shore your 2 Will by using this ability, putting you in easy card committing range. icing on the cake is it's versatile use with other players, people trying to kill a boss? Show evidence of its weakness! People trying the parley with cultists? Show evidence that forces them to squeal!
They have also added a host of cards, like Shed the light, and old key ring(3) that interact with decreasing the difficulty to 0, which Darrel is extremely good at.you can be quite the formidable clue getter.
His elder sign is solid! Simply puts an evidence on an asset, simply good!
Signature asset - Darrell's Kodak.
It Starts in play, it is already terrific for that. This will be your main way of gathering evidence. It does exhaust for everytime 1 evidence is place, so having alternative ways of gather evidence will be needed. But anyways.
"After an enemy or treachery enters play, exhaust Darrell's Kodak: Place 1 resource (from the token pool) on that enemy or treachery, as evidence."
The wording suggests that any enemy or any treachery that enters play is targets, even including cards like - cover up, Roland's weakness. Or say Silver Twlight Acolyte. It will of course only work with treachery that enter play, rotting remains, or crypt chill won't work for example. This is pretty simple to understand. Putting evidence on treachery will be your best bet, of the only one that wouldn't really work would be locked doors :( , but you can bypass that with working a hunch, but I'm not sure he would want that in his deck.
"After you discover any number of clues: Move that many evidence on enemies or treacheries at that location (or not any location) to Darrell's Kodak."
Simple ability. Your main way of gathering evidence. I'm not 100% on the whole (or not at any location) this makes me believe you can gather evidence from treacherys that you set next to the agenda deck. But can't be to sure.
edit- I proxy cards to test the waters a little bit, and you may fine yourself wanting to leave clues around, or use cards that place clues on locations to have a chance at getting evidence, while playing I found I was finding too many clues fast! So beware.
Signature Weakness- Ruined Film.
"Remove 4 evidence from cards you control. For each evidence you cannot remove in this way, take 1 horror."
A really awful card. Really gut punches you.First it takes your precious evidence, then it does horror. I don't care much about losing sanity in a 8 sanity SURVIVOR. they are born to resist both damage and horror. The evidence is my most concern, it's better to draw this early and deal with the horror.
There is a big downside to playing Darrell, is without evidence cards, or evidence for that matter, Darrell will only be good at investigating. He still is a survivor, so you can thrive, even without evidence. But that is his main ability, and with his weakness to tear evidence from you, you have to tread carefully.
I'm honestly super Excited to try a short supply build with him, he starts with his asset in play, so no fear of losing it, it gives him targets for scavenging and allows use for the impro cards, winging it, impromptu barrier, and improvise weapon. You can use your evidences to change these from a -1 to a -3, this can enable him the fight, Evade and get good clues with these cards. Cards like fortuitous discovery will preform really well with him. I can see dark horse builds enable him to fight with fire axe and evidence to help. Just remember that his job is investigating, above all else. But being a full access survivor allows him to provide support, and test security. I've had many times I've committed cards with minh like deduction(2) and pull an auto fail. Darrell has access to the survivor grisly totem(3) to help with this.
Many people will compare him in access to minh. But minh has quite a jarring weakness, and her card draw insures you constantly drawing this. His weakness is pretty bad. But you may not draw it multiple times, depending on your card draw.
I'm super excited to see him in action.