Custom Heralds

[Julia 2,809]

Veet,

thank you for your feed-back. I'm glad to see that some of my hopes and some of my doubts were confirmed by your playtesting. The double Dark Young movement should stop as soon as I apply Avi's suggestion to avoid enhancing cultists. I know in a Shub game, 7-toughness Dark Young (when in aerial locations) are a little too heavy, in case they appear too often. About restricting some areas for them to move in, I was thinking about the chance to restrict Asylum and Hospital too. I should update the Herald probably tomorrow (this week was pretty terrible), with some modifications about Dark Youngs.

Again, thanks a lot!

[Veet 3]

Yeah I think the only reason I stood a chance against them was that I was playing with Luke who was able to close the Abyss gate quickly.

[Avi_dreader 64]

Veet said:

 

Yeah I think the only reason I stood a chance against them was that I was playing with Luke who was able to close the Abyss gate quickly.

 

 

"I entered this world from the earth, and now I am leaving it from the sky...  ...  Am I still dreaming?"

[Veet 3]

OK here are a couple rough drafts I want to play with. The Deep One herald is kind of a twist on a concept I want to explore more where a herald can act as a location. And crap I just realized I forgot to include clauses for needing certain boards.

[Julia 2,809]

Hi Veet,

it's a pleasure discovering new ways of enhancing some nightmarish aspects of Innsmouth :-) I like very much the idea of linking the power of the Deep Ones with the DOR track. Just a couple of things: what about making Deep Ones endless? Just to give the idea of an inarrestable tide. Second thing: what about making the Deep One moving towards the nearest aquatic location, a la Tulzscha Cultists? Or do you think it'll boost the DOR too much?

But I like the idea of the Herald as a location! It's an interesting concept to explore

As for Wizard Whately... I don't know. It's definitely tough. You'll start the game with 2 DH tokens on the DH track (in 2 out of 3 cases). If you have bad luck with Mythos card drawing, the game can be over in quite a short time. Maybe without "fast" it'd work. Did you playtest it?

[Veet 3]

Yeah the deep ones were supposed to be spawn monsters that return to the sheet when defeated, forgot to include that. Also making them fast when not moving aquatic and moving towards an aquatic location when able was supposed to funnel them towards the aquatic vortex, of course all you have to do to stop them is have an investigator stand in any aquatic location and they will jump him instead.

As for Whateley yes he could be tough but he will fall prey to dilution just as easily as the dunwitch board would. Most games he's going to have a strong opening then peter out as players figure out they only need to lure him to arkham proper and let him run around in circles. You will get the odd game where he will end up back in Dunwitch or even Innsmouth, it may be prudent to remove his fast ability and perhaps just make him always go towards a vortex if it is in range, but then I'd want to add something to make him more of a threat while on the base board....perhaps a stalker that gains a spell whenever an investigator loses against him?

I have not yet play tested these, they are rough drafts.

[Avi_dreader 64]

 I thought the Deep Ones herald was interesting. I'll try to comment on both of these a bit more on Monday if I have time.  I don't quite get the Whatley herald.  It doesn't seem like it does enough.  What's the motivation to play it? Perhaps if you had him place two spells on the herald sheet every time he appears, and had the spell drawn be randomly taken from that sheet.  That way he'd become really threatening after a few times (and he'd be quite a bit harder at the beginning of the game).

I also don't really understand how he's placed back on the board.  Does he get placed back on the board every turn if he's off it?  And it causes a gate burst?  You're going to have to clarify that bit.

[Veet 3]

Yes Whateley is always placed on the board during mythos if he isn't already there. I think you may be right about him not doing enough, he only really threatens the investigators when he is in Dunwitch or Innsmouth other than that he may occasionally serve as a roadblock but at that point he doesn't even take up space in the monster limit I need to add a little something more that either forces players to face him occasionally or makes it desirable to when he is on the main board or in Kingsport. I'm trying to capture the feeling of having a Whateley poking suspiciously around town trying to speed the coming of an ancient one like in the story......(though has anyone else noticed that in that story the Whateleys never technically did anything wrong until that attempt to steal a book?)

[Avi_dreader 64]

Veet said:

Yes Whateley is always placed on the board during mythos if he isn't already there. I think you may be right about him not doing enough, he only really threatens the investigators when he is in Dunwitch or Innsmouth other than that he may occasionally serve as a roadblock but at that point he doesn't even take up space in the monster limit I need to add a little something more that either forces players to face him occasionally or makes it desirable to when he is on the main board or in Kingsport. I'm trying to capture the feeling of having a Whateley poking suspiciously around town trying to speed the coming of an ancient one like in the story......(though has anyone else noticed that in that story the Whateleys never technically did anything wrong until that attempt to steal a book?)

Yeah.  They weren't very competent minions.  I guess?

[Avi_dreader 64]

Veet said:

 

Yes Whateley is always placed on the board during mythos if he isn't already there. I think you may be right about him not doing enough, he only really threatens the investigators when he is in Dunwitch or Innsmouth other than that he may occasionally serve as a roadblock but at that point he doesn't even take up space in the monster limit I need to add a little something more that either forces players to face him occasionally or makes it desirable to when he is on the main board or in Kingsport. I'm trying to capture the feeling of having a Whateley poking suspiciously around town trying to speed the coming of an ancient one like in the story......(though has anyone else noticed that in that story the Whateleys never technically did anything wrong until that attempt to steal a book?)

 

 

You could make him roll a die whenever he moves in the arkaham board, on a 1 add a doom token, on a 2, add a terror, on a 3 add a dunwich horror token, on a 4 add a DOR token? (Or completely dump the 4).

[Veet 3]

Heh maybe I should make him able to use the train.

[Avi_dreader 64]

Veet said:

Heh maybe I should make him able to use the train.

Maybe ;')

Sick, will be mostly quiet until recovered.  G'night.

[Master Fwiffo 76]

 I've finally gone and corrected the Joker.  I made it a little less easy to get Devoured, and added a nasty penalty (automatic Blight Cards are not fun) so there's less incintive to abuse the mechanic.  Does he sound better?

Add to that, I've got two more Batman themed Investigators coming - and they aren't who you'd expect!

[Throw_Rug 0]

Consider this my first post.

I'm making some low-powered Heralds for a League I'm running for some new players this summer. I re-read the book this guy comes from and picked his abilities accordingly.  What do you think?

[Veet 3]

It works for a low key herald like you mentioned. If you want to streamline it a little you can cut the phrase "never goes to the outskirts and never counts towards the monster limit" since thats all included in what Spawn monsters do. You should phrase it "It is a spawn monster that returns to this sheet  when defeated".

Also you should try uploading higher resolution images, it's kind of hard to read at that size.

[Avi_dreader 64]

@throw rug

The only issue I see potentially arising is if the monster surge occurs when the monster limit is reached.  Where do you place Haunter then?

[amikezor 11]

 I have not posted something here for a while. I was playing a scenario based on the Shadow out of Time and felt the need to boost the Ythians. So here it is. Funny enough, there is a guardian version posted very recently. It was in the air... :-))

as always, all comments welcome.

[Avi_dreader 64]

amikezor said:

 

 I have not posted something here for a while. I was playing a scenario based on the Shadow out of Time and felt the need to boost the Ythians. So here it is. Funny enough, there is a guardian version posted very recently. It was in the air... :-))

as always, all comments welcome.

 

Hmm...  It doesn't seem difficult.  I don't get my investigators knocked out *that* often.  It's possible a few of the Yithians will pop up a game, which is a bit of a nuisance, but nothing too awful.

If I were to use this (and I might on some occasion, because I like how thematic it is), I'd probably use this in addition to a herald, not as an actual herald.

If you want to make this more herald like, make it so that investigators in spaces adjacent to Yithians can be LITAS, either by having to pass a horror check or a die roll or something.  ::Shrug:: I think that'd be kind of neat because even if an investigator was LITAS trying to get to a Yithian, coming back from it, he could land directly on the Yithian (perhaps to be LITASed again).

There are also minor spelling issues, (e.g. Yithian is also spelled Ythian and Ythien) but we can discuss that later ;')

 

[amikezor 11]

Avi_dreader said:

 

 

Hmm...  It doesn't seem difficult.  I don't get my investigators knocked out *that* often.  It's possible a few of the Yithians will pop up a game, which is a bit of a nuisance, but nothing too awful.

If I were to use this (and I might on some occasion, because I like how thematic it is), I'd probably use this in addition to a herald, not as an actual herald.

If you want to make this more herald like, make it so that investigators in spaces adjacent to Yithians can be LITAS, either by having to pass a horror check or a die roll or something.  ::Shrug:: I think that'd be kind of neat because even if an investigator was LITAS trying to get to a Yithian, coming back from it, he could land directly on the Yithian (perhaps to be LITASed again).

There are also minor spelling issues, (e.g. Yithian is also spelled Ythian and Ythien) but we can discuss that later ;')

 

 

 

well, you are right. not so difficult. Though, Ythian send you LiTaS if you fail the horror check. Since they chase you on the board pretty efficiently (they are fast and stalker), it may work. Plus if they send you LiTaS, another one will jump in

What about hey are fast and move always to the closest investigator --instead of stalker-- (traveling through train depots) ?

 

If you want to make this more herald like, make it so that investigators in spaces adjacent to Yithians can be LITAS, either by having to pass a horror check or a die roll or something. ::Shrug:: I think that'd be kind of neat because even if an investigator was LITAS trying to get to a Yithian, coming back from it, he could land directly on the Yithian (perhaps to be LITASed again).

I am not sure I got this point...

[Avi_dreader 64]

amikezor said:

 

Avi_dreader said:

 

 

Hmm...  It doesn't seem difficult.  I don't get my investigators knocked out *that* often.  It's possible a few of the Yithians will pop up a game, which is a bit of a nuisance, but nothing too awful.

If I were to use this (and I might on some occasion, because I like how thematic it is), I'd probably use this in addition to a herald, not as an actual herald.

If you want to make this more herald like, make it so that investigators in spaces adjacent to Yithians can be LITAS, either by having to pass a horror check or a die roll or something.  ::Shrug:: I think that'd be kind of neat because even if an investigator was LITAS trying to get to a Yithian, coming back from it, he could land directly on the Yithian (perhaps to be LITASed again).

There are also minor spelling issues, (e.g. Yithian is also spelled Ythian and Ythien) but we can discuss that later ;')

 

 

 

well, you are right. not so difficult. Though, Ythian send you LiTaS if you fail the horror check. Since they chase you on the board pretty efficiently (they are fast and stalker), it may work. Plus if they send you LiTaS, another one will jump in

What about hey are fast and move always to the closest investigator --instead of stalker-- (traveling through train depots) ?

 

If you want to make this more herald like, make it so that investigators in spaces adjacent to Yithians can be LITAS, either by having to pass a horror check or a die roll or something. ::Shrug:: I think that'd be kind of neat because even if an investigator was LITAS trying to get to a Yithian, coming back from it, he could land directly on the Yithian (perhaps to be LITASed again).

I am not sure I got this point...

 

Sorry, I didn't read carefully enough this morning (exhausted and at work).  Didn't get the stalker bit too.  Basically you could do something like what I did with scenario 3, where just passing through adjacent spaces to the witch caused a negative effect.  (I.e. whenever an investigator moves into a space adjacent to the Yithian they need to pass its horror check or be LITAS).  That way their effect is blocking several spaces potentially, but at the same time, you won't have a hound of tindalos from hell on everyone ;'D

If you want to really heraldify it, you can give them weapons immunity too :'D

 

[amikezor 11]

Well, weapon immunity would be very nasty. I'll stick as it is for now but I will add a fun line:

"whenever a yithian enters a vortex, the first player is lost in space and time" (which would in turns make a new yithian pop in, fun isn't it ?)

[Avi_dreader 64]

amikezor said:

 

Well, weapon immunity would be very nasty. I'll stick as it is for now but I will add a fun line:

"whenever a yithian enters a vortex, the first player is lost in space and time" (which would in turns make a new yithian pop in, fun isn't it ?)

 

Ehhhh.  In theory.  Except the Yithians will almost always appear in Arkham, so no vortexes in practice ;'D  Nice try, try again.  (I really did like the basic idea though, but, heh, nope, it needs another mechanic to work).

Yes, weapon immunity would be very nasty :')  But you do remember some of our other dear sweet heralds like Black Goat of the Woods, King in Yellow, and...  I suppose Groth.

 

[amikezor 11]

 "When the terror increases, the first player must pass a Luck(-1) check or is lost in space and time."

what do you think of this one ?

[Avi_dreader 64]

amikezor said:

 

 "When the terror increases, the first player must pass a Luck(-1) check or is lost in space and time."

what do you think of this one ?

 

A)Easy check

 

B)Terror doesn't increase often ;'D

C)How about all players must pass a Luck -2 check or be lost in space and time :'D

[amikezor 11]

that is the point it should not happen more than few times per game... LiTaS is like Jailed, so not too often would be nice...

Or simply: "when the terror increases, the first player roll a die and is LiTaS on a failure"

or "When the terror increases, the first player must pass a Luck(-T) check or is lost in space and time (where T is the Terror level)."