Machinations of the MIgo - Any interest?

[Airborne XO 0]

Hi all,

Been working on a fan supplement for some time now on and off. It is basically a new board and some new mechanics to add a prequel to the AH game (before the GOO stirs and Mythos cards start turning over).

Is there any interest in it? I can share what I have done as it is all work in progress but my playtest group seem to have dropped off the face of the planet.

Cheers, Hal

[Guest Not In Sample]

Do please.                        

[Airborne XO 0]

Okay I'll package everything up but to keep you going here is the rules:

 

The Machinations of the Mi-go

Introduction
The letter from Akeley is still clenched in your hand as you stare out of you window
across Arkham; something needed to be done urgently…

Tuesday
I think I am going crazy. It may be that all I have ever written you is a dream
or madness. It was bad enough before, but this time it is too much. They
talked to me last night - talked in that cursed buzzing voice and told me
things that I dare not repeat to you. I heard them plainly above the barking
of the dogs, and once when they were drowned out a human voice helped
them. Keep out of this - it is worse than either you or I ever suspected. They
don't mean to let me get to California now - they want to take me off alive, or
what theoretically and mentally amounts to alive - not only to Yuggoth, but
beyond that - away outside the galaxy and possibly beyond the last curved
rim of space. Six more dogs killed, and I felt presences all along the wooded
parts of the road when I drove to town today. I can slip out to Brattleboro,
where I ought to be safe, but I feel just as much a prisoner there as at the
house. And I seem to know that I couldn't get much farther even if I dropped
everything and tried. It is horrible - don't get mixed up in this.
Yrs - Akeley

What This Expansion contains:
1 New board section to add to the existing board [Done]
1 Herald card – Mi-go Mining Colony [Needs redraft]
26 Mi-go monsters [Needs redraft]
32 Location Encounter card [Done]
25 Prequel Event cards [Done]
20 Yuggoth Mine Other World encounter cards [Done]
20 Mi-go technology item cards [Done]
1 Mining Track marker [Done]
3 Prequel Time cards [Done]
4 New Ally cards [Needs redraft]
6 New Investigators [Not done]

The Herald Variant
Design Notes
This variant will:
a) Advance the doom track more rapidly because of the Herald.
b) Provide new locations to explore and items to find.

The Herald – Machinations of the Mi-go
This sheet represents powerful alien entities that are preparing the way for the Ancient
One, through consequence of their actions rather than by design. This sheet is used in
both the “The Herald” and “Prequel” variant described later in these rules.

The Mining track
The Mining track has five spaces and represents the efforts of the Mi-go to extract
valuable minerals from parallel planes underneath the earth. Whilst digging down to
these inter-dimensional portals the Mi-go are inadvertently disturbing ancient seals
buried deep in the ground. These eons old seals are holding the Great Old Ones at bay
and as they become disturbed it increases the chances of the Old One stirring from its
slumber.

The Mining track is activated at the end of the Mythos phase after the effects of the
Mythos (or Prequel event card) has been resolved. The Mining track moves up one
space, plus it moves up one additional space for each Mi-go technician that is at the
Mining colony. Each time the track reaches its fifth space, reset it to zero and resolve
the special effect on the Mi-go herald card. Any additional counters beyond those
needed to take the track to five are saved and added to the track after it has been reset
to zero. With multiple technicians, Prequel events and special effects in play it is
possible that the Mining track may reach its fifth space more than once in a turn,
thereby creating multiple herald special effects.

Example: The Mining track is on 2 and there are 3 Mi-go technicians at the mine. In
the Mythos phase the track will therefore move up by four. Because this takes the
track to its fifth space the Herald effects are resolved (a roll is made to see if doom
tokens are added and a new Mi-go creature is spawned from the Mi-go cup). Note –
as it only took 3 of the 4 Mining counters, the last counter is added after the track has
been reset leaving it on 1 for next turn.

Note: As the Mining track is activated at the end of the Mythos phase, any creatures
spawned from the Mi-go cup do not move in the turn they come into play.

The Mi-go cup
The Mi-go monster cup is unique to this expansion and contains specific thematic
monsters that are generated by Location encounters, Prequel events and the Herald’s
special ability. The Mi-go cup starts the game containing: 9 Mi-go technicians, 5 Migo
scouts, 5 Mi-go researchers and 5 Mi-go agents. Each monster spawns in a specific
location as defined below:

• Technicians are placed at the Mining Colony and as a yellow-bordered monster,
they do not move.
• Mi-go scouts are placed in the sky and as a blue-bordered monster they move as a
regular flyer.
• Mi-go agents are placed equally between the Dark Mountain, Round Hills,
Townshend and Bellows Falls streets with the final decision resting on the first
player, if the players cannot decide where the agent should be placed.
• Mi-go researchers all have a specific location where they start as indicated by the
text on their cards.

Any Other World or Location Encounter that states a monster appears from the Mi-go
cup overrules these location placements.

Other Expansion Monsters
The other monsters in the expansion are handled separately. The Mi-go commander
starts on the board at the Mining colony. Mister Noyes starts on the board at Akeley’s
house. The five Mi-go soldiers are placed on the Herald card and are spawned by the
‘Defend the Colony!’ special effect or by a Mi-go technician winning a round of
combat against an investigator.

Abduction Ability
Some monsters in the expansion have the Abduction ability. Normally this comes with
a caveat such as ‘If the investigator fails a combat check against [Monster] they are
Abducted’. When investigators are abducted they are immediately placed in the first
space of the ‘Yuggoth Mine’ Other World location. There are also a number of
location encounters that cause an investigator to be Abducted, the same rules apply. If
investigators are Abducted whilst in the Yuggoth mine due to an encounter or a
monster they are moved to the first area of the mine and are Delayed.

Yuggoth Mine
The Yuggoth Mine is a new Other World and operates slightly differently from
normal Other World areas. The principal difference is that gates never open to the
Yuggoth Mine, so the only way to get there is by means of the Abduction ability of
monsters or specific Location encounters. Instead of using the Other World Encounter
deck the Yuggoth Mine has its own deck of encounters thematically specific to it.
Each Yuggoth Mine encounter card is divided into the first area and the second area
with encounters representing the Investigator’s journey out of the mine, ensure you
read the correct encounter.

As there are no gates back to Arkham, the only way to escape from the Yuggoth Mine
is to be ‘Lost in time and space’. An investigator starts movement in the first area of
the mine, they then move to the second area of the mine, finally they move to lost in
time and space where they are delayed as usual but do not lose Clue tokens or items.
This special mechanic to return to Arkham via LiTaS is not affected in anyway by
anything! Including encounter cards and Great Old One effects or Investigators
special abilities (such as Sister Mary’s inability to be LiTaS), as the delay for LiTaS
represents the space-mead fuelled journey home.

Note: If an encounter or combat in the Yuggoth mine causes an investigator to be
reduced to 0 Stamina or 0 Sanity they are devoured and the investigator’s brain is
encased in a metallic cylinder for all of time. The player must choose another
investigator to continue the game with.

Example: Whilst in combat with the Mi-go commander in the Movement phase, Bob
Jenkins loses a round of combat and after taking combat damage, is Abducted. He is
placed in the first area of the Yuggoth mine and has an encounter there in the Other
World encounters phase. The subsequent turn Bob moves to the second area of the
mine and has a second encounter. The next turn Bob moves to Lost in time and space
and is delayed for the rest of the turn. Finally in his next movement phase Bob can
return to Arkham.

The Prequel Variant
Prequel setup
The Arkham board is set up in exactly the same way as it is normally with Clue
tokens placed on unstable locations. There is no initial gate and monster; instead the
first gate appears at the end of the Prequel game. The Great Old One card is kept a
secret and is placed face down next to the Mi-go Mining Colony Herald card. Place
the five Mi-go soldier counters on the herald.

The Prequel Event deck
Because this Prequel variant is set before the Great Old One begins to stir in it’s
slumber, there is initially no Mythos cards to be drawn from the Mythos deck. Instead
in the Mythos phase where you would normally draw a Mythos card, draw a special
Prequel Event card. These cards operate in much the same way as the Mythos deck
with the exception that they do not generate gate openings in Arkham.

They do add Clue tokens and monsters (from the standard monster cup) into Arkham
and have a variety of special effects described individually on the Prequel Event
cards. This represents the gradual increase of strange activity in Arkham prior to the
stirring of the Great Old One and contains thematic elements to give the atmosphere
of the Mi-go operations in the mountains.

Some Prequel Event cards require you to turn over the next Prequel Time card, see
‘Ending the Prequel’ for more information.

Open Gates in Arkham
Because there is no Mythos deck in play during the Prequel variant it is unlikely that
gates to the Other World are opened. This may occur however because of Location
encounters, e.g. ‘A Gate and monster appear’. As the Investigators are unaware of
threat of the Great Old One no gates may be sealed in the Prequel variant.
The investigators are able to deal with the short-term threat by closing the gate but
they are not aware of the significance of sealing gates until the Great Old One reveals
itself. It is highly likely that investigators will want to close gates though, as these
gates will inevitably add to the number of open gates on the board when the Prequel
ends and will hasten the end of the game with too many gates open (see main
rulebook – too many open gates).

These gates operate as in the standard game with two crucial differences: 1) They do
not add Doom tokens to the GOO, only the mining track will do this in the Prequel
game; 2) Investigators cannot win the game during the Prequel by closing all open
gates on the board, though may collect gate trophies as normal.

Ending the Prequel game
The Prequel variant proceeds until, in the Mythos phase, the third Prequel time card is
revealed; ‘The Great Old One Stirs!’ The Prequel deck is only small and there are a
number of cards in the deck that force the turning over of the next Prequel time card.
Therefore the number of Prequel turns is limited to, at most, 18 turns - but normally it
will be less than this.

When the ‘The Great Old One Stirs!’ Prequel time card is turned face up follow
instructions on that card; immediately reveal the Great Old One and place any Doom
tokens that have accumulated on the back of the card onto the Doom track.
After the Great Old One card is turned over, take the first Mythos card and open a
gate and place a monster in the same way as the start of the standard game, do not
resolve any other effects from this Mythos card though. Place the Prequel events deck
back in the box and in each subsequent turn use the Mythos deck instead. Any
environments or effects from the Prequel variant immediately end with the exception
of the rumor card that continues as normal.

In addition Great Old One card special abilities and effects now come into play, i.e.
making cultists tougher etc…

The Mi-go Herald card remains in play as does the Mi-go cup and mining operations
continue, so the threat will still need to be dealt with during the main game.

[Caduceus2 0]

 I really like the concept of a prequel introducing a reason for the Ancient One's awakening. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of this. 

[Guest Not In Sample]

This sounds awesome. When can we get some previews/downloads?

[pittplayer 0]

i am totally down for helping, one thing i will say is it looks a little rules heavy, i would prefer some new mechanics and some gracefull rules, the rules as is are a little overwhelming.

[pittplayer 0]

is there anyway to download the board?

[Airborne XO 0]

Well that's it in terms of rules for this prequel I'm afraid. All the cards are pretty much done (some redrafting here and there should sort that out) so I just need to make the cards look nice. My brotherhood of the Yellow sign is an untested concept as well, it may be crap!

It is a bit rules heavy admittedly but I feel it is about the same amount of new rules as, say, Dunwich or Kingsport and I would like to tidy the rules together into a sexy booklet like the one that comes with the game (graphic designers anywhere?). Unfortunately because there is two variants then that requires the extra rulage. Key Mechanics are Herald with mining track, Abduction, Prequel event deck & Prequel time cards.

Trouble is I don't own KH or BGoTW so don't know if I'm treading on official ground with some of my cards...ah well...

Board peek (I'll make a big one available with the final draft!):

Okay I'll redraft the monsters, herald & ally cards and let you have access to the whole lotta files. If there is anyone who can help me put the polish (graphifically foremost) to my rulebook and 'box art' then let me know!

Cheers, Hal

[Hadanelith 0]

It's not so much that your playtesters have dropped off the face of the Earth - I just have finals. And I can't print your stuff properly - some of your Mythos cards were bugged up, and I'm still waiting on Thelric to fix them (though I think my email got lost at this point).  Plus the board wasn't a .eon, just a JPEG, so I'm having difficulty with that, too. It would be lovely if you'd take all of the cards, and built them into decks for printing, and then gave them to use, along with a .eon for the board. Then I could print it - and since my finals are over tomorrow, I'd actually have time to play it as early as Wednesday.

[Phibby 0]

This definetly has my interest. Once all is posted, I give it a test run for you.

[Airborne XO 0]

Woot I'll work on finishing them drafts this week then and putting them all together as viable .eon files (Hadanelith which files were buggered up? I'll start with them first) Unfortunately I'm not very programmer-savvy so I can't work strange eons properly...I'm an ideas man!

 

Cheers, Hal

[Hadanelith 0]

It was some of the Mythos and Prequel Events cards - when you tried to load them in the deck builder, SE gave an error about a missing resource and totally freaked out and crashed.

[pittplayer 0]

i cant read the board is there a link to it or anything?

[Thelric 4]

Hadanelith said:

(though I think my email got lost at this point).

I definitely didn't get them.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[pittplayer 0]

i really want to try this but cant get any information !!

[DrFaust 0]

Hal, are you still working on this project? I have some questions I wonder if I could ask you off-forum.