Nothing too fancy, this is basically a free Working a Hunch with the added option of creating a clue out of thin air, which is a fairly unique ability for a card. It might allow you to avoid a hard-to-access location while still finishing the act. It could also turn back on Fieldwork or Inquiring Mind or any other card that requires a clue on a location. If you are a bad person, it could cancel a VP location for your team. Most interesting, maybe, is that it can serve as a safety net for Roland's "box" set signature weakness if you draw that late enough in the game that there are no locations with clues. This makes Roland the only investigator with a clear synergy between his "box" and "book" signature sets.

So, if you are risk averse, play the "book" set. If you aren't, consider playing both.

On edit, that should read "clear positive synergy." When one weakness helps you with another, that's amore.

This has been updated to match my "Signature Weakness Project." I have done my best to make sure that the original content isn't altered too much, out of respect for any comments.

Everyone seems to think that this is a really bad weakness, and everyone is right. Looking at the two elements, the effect and the discard condition, we get:

The effect: Roland needs to discover 3 extra clues at a location that has clues. This seems fairly easy, since Roland is pretty good at getting clues with his off-class access and special ability, plus cards like Evidence! and Scene of the Crime. So it's handleable, if it goes down early, and the fact that any investigator can trigger the action, and a dedicated clue-getter can clear this tout de suite (as someone more Francophonic than Roland might say), but, if it goes down late or in a scenario where there aren't clues in the normal way or after they've been discovered, Roland is in for a world of trauma. Roland can hedge his bets by reserving a clue until the last moment and using cards like Dr. William T. Maleson and Forewarned to get it back on a location, lessening that late-scenario "clue desert" problem. Remember that, if Roland gets defeated with this thing out, he gets 2 trauma for his pains. And with a low starting Sanity, this weakness can be campaign-ending.

The discard condition: Discover an extra 3 clues from a location with at least 1 clue. At least it stays in your threat area, so it's a once per scenario problem.

All in all, this is a way above average signature weakness.

Box vs book You need to ask yourself if the pretty pistol is worth the pain of this card. If no, consider the "book" signatures, which are less nice but also less awful. If yes, maybe use the "box" set or both for some extra Roland-ness.

I find it hard to believe that no one has written a review of this, but here we are. It's probably best compared to the .45 Automatic, since that's where the game design was when they came out. Same ammo, bonus, and damage, but the .38 is 1 resource cheaper and has a chance at +2. If I am reading the FAQ right, the critical language is "on your location," so clues on enemies, cards attached to the location, the investigator, etc do not count for the boost. Anyway, it's a nice gun, especially in resource-starved Roland. However, nice guns are pretty common, and this one pairs with one of the nastier signature weaknesses, so is it worth it?

The "book" signatures are less good and less bad , so they are probably the choice for the risk averse. People who are willing to gamble with Roland's shaky Sanity might be satisfied with the "box" signatures or go for both sets.

This card, already struggling on release for anyone who wasn't Daisy, seems basically dead now. There are just so many other tomes and actions to take that seem more interesting and/or useful, even for Daisy. In a recent Card of the Day on Reddit over 40 different comments found slightly different ways to state how little they thought of this card. (Apologies to those just getting into the game, to whom probably none of this will apply.)

To me, this calls for an intervention.

My challenge: either legitimately come up for a decent use for the card as-is and make or have made a deck with it, or (more likely?) come up with a redesign.

I'll start with a redesign:

Action: Choose an investigator at your location and test [book (3)]. If you succeed, move 1 damage from that investigator to an enemy at your location. If you fail, move 1 damage from that investigator to an ally at your location. "Physician, heal thyself"

I'm not going to say it's any good, but it's much more interesting! Please critique, but the rule is, if you do, you have to propose your own!

Fancy duelists might kill me, but this is an offhanded blade. Unless multiple people are filling the bag with bless tokens every turn, your odds won’t go above ~40% of getting that extra damage. But if you’re a guardian with a gun or mystic blade, Yorrick with an axe, or have vicious blows...You can finish off an enemy and make the world just a little bit easier to deal with, every turn.

And if you’re rocking ancient covenant somewhere on the team, you make the world even better for yourself. When the bag is good, you can start out with the blade as a first hit, hope for the bonus damage, and strike again to replace the token.

Can’t wait to see the upgraded version.