Fickle Fortune is one of those cards that starts off interesting, and only gets better on analysis. At its very basics, Fickle Fortune is a 3 XP card that can either act as a powerful team-wide heal or doom removal - two very useful effects depending on exactly how your team is doing.

If you're choosing the first effect when you draw it, you're adding 1 doom in exchange for up to 6 healing per player. This is incredible action compression in some ways, since it is a rare player card that scales with player count, meaning it only becomes more impressive as you have more investigators. The downside is that it scales this way in exchange for doom, but the second half of Fickle Fortune will help you mitigate that. And, since it adds doom that doesn't advance the agenda, this can end up being free healing at the right time.

If you're choosing the second effect when you draw it, you're effectively removing 1 doom in exchange for some additional time. The damage isn't negligible, but it's also not too severe - it's what I would consider within the buffer of what most investigators try to keep to avoid going down to an unfortunate encounter card. This does remove Fickle Fortune from the game as well, so it shouldn't be picked if the healing portion will be necessary later.

Even before getting Survivor tricks involved, this is a powerful card that lets you choose if your team needs Healing or Doom more at any given moment. Neither of the choices involve costs, and the doom addition/direct damage means both options will always change the game state, so you can always pick the one that will help more or harm less. If you're going all the way and purchasing two copies, the net effect of both copies will still put you to a net of 2 health and 2 sanity per investigators for two cards and no actions - a reasonable exchange rate, even before getting extra value from it.

And, of course, survivor tricks like Resourceful and Shrine of the Moirai will only help to get this back in your hand hand at the exact moment where you can make the most use of it.

Of course, if you really have a lot of XP to spare, you could run this with Soul Sanctification in a 4 player game, draw this early, and grab enough offerings to last for a full scenario. Carolyn Fern and Vincent Lee get to throw a few more gifts around on top.

The longer you look at this card, the better it gets.

Say you're running this as a having option for your bruiser oriented survivor. Ru ln6 0 ok l

A single action 6 heal per investigator is huge and unrivaled by any card. Sure, you have to drop a doom. But I would challenge you and figure out any other way to heal 3 damage/3 horror from your investigator in under 3 actions. The doom also does not auto advance, so you can get lucky and suffer no downsides for this at all if you get a witching hour draw.

Then comes the other use for the card... taking mild damage and horror to push the clock back one. As long as you have another healing ability (like Spirit of Humanity) this is an outrageously overpowered option. Compare it to other cards (like Golden Pocket Watch) which require you to draw, play and pay for it, this only requires a draw, for five less experience.

Overall this is a very powerful card with a great amount of flexibility and very few downsides.

This is the only Dilemma with test icons, though you cannot really hold a Dilemma card in your hand. Regular effects already have a lot of combo potentials and yet it is still waiting for brave investigators to take advantage of this secret commit icons.

Written in the Stars is one card I know can make use of this. (In addition to Darrell Simmons, Vincent Lee also could, since this card heals damage.) Maybe something can commit directly from discard pile after using the 3 + 3 heal option? Maybe something like Astronomical Atlas might come in the future for Survivors?

edit: There is no commit icon on this card!

I just came from a 4 player game where we drew this when all investigators were under 3 damage/3 horror. The investigator who drew this was running Soul Sanctification and was at full health. Taking a step back, I can't imagine a 24 action swing being worth 6 charges + some incidental healing. We chose to remove the doom.

This seemed like a pretty chance situation, so I have a genuine question - is anyone taking the first option voluntarily? Depending on player count, is everyone healing 3 and 3 worth losing a turn vs. gaining a turn and taking 1 and 1?

In the ideal scenario with 4 players at full health all running Soul Sanctification still can't be worth 24 actions, right?